全国各地的考研学子，你们好：
我们已经听到考研临近的脚步声，我想大家一定在紧张地备战吧？！常常有学生来信反应说考研中最大的障碍就是阅读，我想这是大家共同的痛。有一句话叫："得阅读者得天下。"虽然说的有点夸张，但是也如实反映了阅读在考研中的重要地位。其实考研阅读并不可怕，关键是掌握其要领，为了满足大家的要求，今天下午17:00我将在网易现场与大家共同分享阅读之快乐。我将用以下两篇文章（来自2002和2003考研真题）为例来分析考研阅读文章的本质，以及在考试中夺取高分的应对方案。
Text 1（2003年考研阅读第一段）
Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War Ⅱ and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the "great game" of espionage - spying as a "profession." These days the Net, which has already re-made such everyday pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan's vocation as well.
The latest revolution isn't simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen's e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going on for decades. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying. The spooks call it "open-source intelligence", and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995 the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world.
Among the firms making the biggest splash in this new world is Straitford, Inc., a private intelligence-analysis firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying (covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at www.straitford.com.
Straitford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster's dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. "As soon as that report runs, we'll suddenly get 500 new Internet sign-ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we'll hear back from some of them." Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That's where Straitford earns its keep.
Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military-intelligence backgrounds. He sees the firm's outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford's briefs don't sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.
1. The emergence of the Net has
A. received support from fans like Donovan.
B. remolded the intelligence services.
C. restored many common pastimes.
D. revived spying as a profession.
2. Donovan's story is mentioned in the text to
A) introduce the topic of online spying.
B) show how he fought for the U.S.
C) give an episode of the information war.
D) honor his unique services to the CIA.
3. The phrase "making the biggest splash" (line, 1 paragraph 3) most probably means
A) causing the biggest trouble.
B) exerting the greatest effort.
C) achieving the greatest success.
D) enjoying the widest popularity.
4. It can be learned from paragraph 4 that
A) Straitford's prediction about Ukraine has proved true.
B) Straiford guarantees the truthfulness of its information.
C) Straitford's business is characterized by unpredictability.
D) Straitford is able to provide fairly reliable information.
5. Straitford is most proud of its
A) official status.
B) nonconformist image.
C) efficient staff.
D) military background.
Text 2（2002年考研阅读第一段）
If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. "Who is that?" the new arrival asked St. Peter. "Oh, that's God," came the reply, "but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor."
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it'll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn't attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural, include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it's the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote "If at first you don't succeed, give up" or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.
1. To make your humor work, you should
[A] take advantage of different kinds of audience.
[B] make fun of the disorganized people.
[C] address different problems to different people.
[D] show sympathy for your listeners.
2. The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are
[A] impolite to new arrivals.
[B] very conscious of their godlike role.
[C] entitled to some privileges.
[D] very busy even during lunch hours.
3. It can be inferred from the text that public services
[A] have benefited many people.
[B] are the focus of public attention.
[C] are an inappropriate subject for humor.
[D] have often been the laughing stock.
4. To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered
[A] in well-worded language.
[B] as awkwardly as possible.
[C] in exaggerated statements.
[D] as casually as possible.
5. The best title for the text may be
[A] Use Humor Effectively.
[B] Various Kinds of Humor.
[C] Add Humor to Speech.
[D] Different Humor Strategies.
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