做GRE阅读理解真题时不能一味追求速度与数量，而应细心雕琢。下面无忧小编为大家整理了高质量新GRE阅读机经，希望可以帮助各位考生打开阅读思路，提高新GRE阅读能力。
1. 汽油乙醇老G原文
Although, recent years have seen substantial reductions in noxious pollutants from individual motor vehicles, the number of such vehicles has been steadily increasing consequently, more than 100 cities in the United States still have levels of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and ozone (generated by photochemical reactions with hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust) that exceed legally established limits. There is a growing realization that the only effective way to achieve further reductions in vehicle emissions—short of a massive shift away from the private automobile—is to replace conventional diesel fuel and gasoline with cleaner-burning fuels such as compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, ethanol, or methanol.
All of these alternatives are carbon-based fuels whose molecules are smaller and simpler than those of gasoline. These molecules burn more cleanly than gasoline, in part because they have fewer, if and, carbon-carbon bonds, and the hydrocarbons they do emit are less likely to generate ozone. The combustion of larger molecules, which have multiple carbon-carbon bonds, involves a more complex series of reactions. These reactions increase the probability of incomplete combustion and are more likely to release uncombusted and photochemically active hydrocarbon compounds into the atmosphere. On the other hand, alternative fuels do have drawbacks. Compressed natural gas would require that vehicles have a set of heavy fuel tanks—a serious liability in terms of performance and fuel efficiency—and liquefied petroleum gas faces fundamental limits on supply.
Ethanol and methanol, on the other hand, have important advantages over other carbon-based alternative fuels: they have a higher energy content per volume and would require minimal changes in the existing network for distributing motor fuel. Ethanol is commonly used as a gasoline supplement, but it is currently about twice as expensive as methanol, the low cost of which is one of its attractive features. Methanol’s most attractive feature, however, is that it can reduce by about 90 percent the vehicle emissions that form ozone, the most serious urban air pollutant.
Like any alternative fuel, methanol has its critics. Yet much of the criticism is based on the use of “gasoline clone” vehicles that do not incorporate even the simplest design improvements that are made possible with the use of methanol. It is true, for example, that a given volume of methanol provides only about one-half of the energy that gasoline and diesel fuel do; other things being equal, the fuel tank would have to be somewhat larger and heavier. However, since methanol-fueled vehicles could be designed to be much more efficient than “gasoline clone” vehicles fueled with methanol, they would need comparatively less fuel. Vehicles incorporating only the simplest of the engine improvements that methanol makes feasible would still contribute to an immediate lessening of urban air pollution.
17. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with
(A) countering a flawed argument that dismisses a possible solution to a problem
(B) reconciling contradictory points of view about the nature of a problem
(C) identifying the strengths of possible solutions to a problem
(D) discussing a problem and arguing in favor of one solution to it
(E) outlining a plan of action to solve a problem and discussing the obstacles blocking that plan
18. According to the passage, incomplete combustion is more likely to occur with gasoline than with an alternative fuel because
(A) the combustion of gasoline releases photochemically active hydrocarbons 这是结果，不是原因!
(B) the combustion of gasoline involves an intricate series of reactions
(C) gasoline molecules have a simple molecular structure
(D) gasoline is composed of small molecules.
(E) gasoline is a carbon-based fuel
19. The passage suggests which of the following about air pollution?
(A) Further attempts to reduce emissions from gasoline-fueled vehicles will not help lower urban air-pollution levels.
(B) Attempts to reduce the pollutants that an individual gasoline-fueled vehicle emits have been largely unsuccessful.
(C) Few serious attempts have been made to reduce the amount of pollutants emitted by gasoline-fueled vehicles.
(D) Pollutants emitted by gasoline-fueled vehicles are not the most critical source of urban air pollution.
(E) Reductions in pollutants emitted by individual vehicles have been offset by increases in pollution from sources other than gasoline-fueled vehicles.
20. which of the following most closely parallels the situation described in the first sentence of the passage?
(A) Although a town reduces its public services in order to avoid a tax increase, the town’s tax rate exceeds that of other towns in the surrounding area.
(B) Although a state passes strict laws to limit the type of toxic material that can be disposed of in public landfills, illegal dumping continues to increase.
(C) Although a town’s citizens reduce their individual use of water, the town’s water supplies continue to dwindle because of a steady increase in the total population of the town.
(D) Although a country attempts to increase the sale of domestic goods by adding a tax to the price of imported goods, the sale of imported goods within the country continues to increase.
(E) Although a country reduces the speed limit on its national highways, the number of fatalities caused by automobile accidents continues to increase.
21. The author describes which of the following as the most appealing feature of methanol?
(A) It is substantially less expensive than ethanol.
(B) It could be provided to consumers through the existing motor fuel distribution system.
(C) It has a higher energy content than other alternative fuels.
(D) Its use would make design improvements in individual vehicles feasible.
(E) Its use would substantially reduce ozone levels.
22. It can be inferred from the passage that a vehicle specifically designed to use methanol for fuel would
(A) be somewhat lighter in total body weight than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline
(B) be more expensive to operate than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline
(C) have a larger and more powerful engine than a conventional vehicle fueled with gasoline
(D) have a larger and heavier fuel tank than a “gasoline clone” vehicle fueled with methanol
(E) average more miles per gallon than a “gasoline clone” vehicle fueled with methanol
23. It can be inferred that the author of the passage most likely regards the criticism of methanol in the last paragraph as
(A) flawed because of the assumptions on which it is based
(B) inapplicable because of an inconsistency in the critics’ arguments
(C) misguided because of its exclusively technological focus
(D) inaccurate because it ignores consumers’ concerns
(E) invalid because it reflects the personal bias of the critics
2. 长江水稻，原文
Since the 1970s, archaeological sites in China's Yangtze River region have yielded evidence of sophisticated rice-farming societies that predate signs of rice cultivation elsewhere in East Asia by a thousand years. Before this evidence was discovered, it had generally been assumed that rice farming began farther to the south. This scenario was based both on the geographic range of wild or free-living rice, which was not thought to extend as far north as the Yangtze, and on archaeological records of very early domestic rice from Southeast Asia and India (now known to be not so old as first reported). Proponents of the southern-origin theory point out that early rice-farming societies along the Yangtze were already highly developed and that evidence for the first stage of rice cultivation is missing. They argue that the first hunter-gatherers to develop rice agriculture must have done so in this southern zone, within the apparent present-day geographic range of wild rice.
Yet while most stands of wild rice reported in a 1984 survey were concentrated to the south of the Yangtze drainage, two northern outlier populations were also discovered in provinces along the middle and lower Yangtze, evidence that the Yangtze wetlands may fall within both the present-day and the historical geographic ranges of rice's wild ancestor.
1. Which of the following, if true, would most clearly undermine the conclusion that the author makes based on the 1984 survey?
¡ Areas south of the Yangtze basin currently have less wild-rice habitat than they once did.
¡ Surveys since 1984 have shown wild rice populations along the upper Yangtze as well as along the middle and lower Yangtze.
¡ The populations of wild rice along the Yangtze represent strains of wild rice that migrated to the north relatively recently.
¡ Early rice-farming societies along the Yangtze were not as highly developed as archaeologists once thought.
¡ In East Asia, the historical geographic range of wild rice was more extensive than the present-day geographic range is.
2. Based on the passage, skeptics of the idea that rice cultivation began in the Yangtze River region can point to which of the following for support?
¡ Lack of evidence supporting the existence of rice-farming societies along the Yangtze at an early date
¡ Lack of evidence regarding the initial stages of rice cultivation in the Yangtze region
¡ Recent discoveries pertaining to the historical geographic range of rice's wild ancestor
¡ New information regarding the dates of very early domestic rice from Southeast Asia
¡ New theories pertaining to how hunter-gatherers first developed rice agriculture in East Asia
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the “southern-origin theory”?
¡ The theory is based on an unconventional understanding of how hunter-gatherers first developed rice agriculture.
¡ The theory fails to take into account the apparent fact that evidence for the first stage of rice cultivation in the north is missing.
¡ The theory was developed primarily in response to a 1984 survey of wild rice's geographic range.
¡ Reassessment of the dates of some archaeological evidence has undermined support for the theory.
¡ Evidence of sophisticated rice-farming societies in the Yangtze region provides support for the theory.
答案：CBD
3. the color of purple
长阅读是那篇关于eyes of purple(大概是这个题目)的黑人小说的，我不记得是哪个月的机经了，但那个机经里主要提到了voice，事实上我读出来的意思是新观点中提到的critic通过分析voice得到一些有用结论，即书中对上帝God的通信不属于原来的realism流派，而属于African American的某个流派。但他对voice的focus没有帮助他分析小说的structure，而这个structure是作者关注的重点。有一道题是问了这个critic和旧观点中的critic有什么相同，我选的是他没有分析小说的structrue。还有一题，就是这个长阅读的第一题，是问的作者认为N的letter to C有什么特点，我选了mark a shift to geologically and ..... removed surrondings，但还有一个选项我很想选，大概意思是这个部分比第一眼看上去更符合小说主题/主要动机。我当时看到中机经还挺开心，但事实上这个阅读一点也不简单，机经也没说到重点上，我也没完全读懂它的大意。
4. 英国actress地位
V1有个讲17世纪actress的长阅读，说什么当时女的actress是没什么地位的...(11.11)
4道题目：1个主旨3个细节，好像吧。。。记不得了。
V2是讲actress in England的，包括1660年前后的一些时间发生的事情。(11.11)
V3有一个是讲actress逐渐被接纳的，原因是17世纪初和17世纪末英国政治权利的变化。17世纪初，theater分成court和commercial两种，court的那种是只有男演员的，而且只供贵族等观看，平民商人是无法进入的(court的那种 theater 反对actress的原因有几个：其中一是男演员比较专业，从莎士比亚的喜剧开始，所有的角色包括女性角色都是由男演员担任。另外的两个记不清楚了。)commercial的在当时就已经可以接纳actress了，但actress能演的角色也不多。(具体好像不是这么说的，但意思大致相同)后来到17世纪末，英皇XX 二世掌政，为了稳固地位还是怎样的，就接受了新的attitude，就是actress也能演戏，而且国王还会亲自去commercial 的theater看戏，许多贵族也就跟风一起来了，actress从而渐渐被接受。
V4有一个讲English Actress的长阅读。大致是分析为什么1860(?记不清什么时候了)之后English Actresses were accepted by the audiences. 第一段都是在讲几种解释，然后一一否定掉。第二段就给出了作者支持的解释：好像是...差异来着忘了。第三段就记到说King通过影响aristocrats从而影响了audiences对Actresses的态度。有个题问道King的意义。
V5. 长文共3段，讨论的是16世纪英国女演员artress的地位问题，有个题还考到了第三段提及亨利二世的例子有什么作用吧，还有什么意大利剧院的比较，定位还是比较容易。
In the past, only men could become actors in some societies. In the ancient Greece and Rome and the medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief persisted until the 17th century, when in Venice it was broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were generally played by men or boys.
When an eighteen-year Puritan prohibition of drama was lifted after the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. Margaret Hughes is credited by some as the first professional actress on the English stage. This prohibition ended during the reign of Charles II in part due to the fact that he enjoyed watching actresses on stage. The first occurrence of the term actress was in 1700 according to the OED and is ascribed to Dryden.
In Japan, men (onnagata) took over the female roles in kabuki theatre when women were banned from performing on stage during the Edo period. This convention has continued to the present. However, some forms of Chinese drama have women playing all the roles.
In modern times, women sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys. The stage role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman, as are most principal boys in Britishpantomime. Opera has several "breeches roles" traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.
Women in male roles are uncommon in film with the notable exceptions of the films The Year of Living Dangerously and I'm Not There. In the former film Linda Hunt played the pivotal role of Billy Kwan, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the latter film Cate Blanchett portrayed Jude Quinn, a representation of Bob Dylan in the sixties, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Women playing men in live theatre is particularly common in presentations of older plays, such as those of Shakespeare, that have large numbers of male characters in roles where the gender no longer matters in modern times.
Having an actor dress as the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long-standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of overt cross-dressing, such as Francis Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum stars Jack Gilford dressing as a young bride. Tony Curtisand Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot. Cross-dressing for comic effect was a frequently used device in most of the thirty Carry On films. Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams have each appeared in a hit comedy film (Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, respectively) in which they played most scenes dressed as a woman.
Occasionally, the issue is further complicated, for example, by a woman playing a woman acting as a man pretending to be a woman, like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria, or Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. In It's Pat: The Movie, filmwatchers never learn the gender of the androgynous main characters Pat and Chris (played by Julia Sweeney and Dave Foley).
A few roles in modern films, plays and musicals are played by a member of the opposite sex (rather than a character cross-dressing), such as the character Edna Turnblad in Hairspray—played by Divine in the original film, Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway musical, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie musical. Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously. Felicity Huffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Bree Osbourne (a male-to-female transsexual) in Transamerica.
5. 美洲最早定居的亚洲和非洲人
V1短阅读是关于历史上11000年亚种与非洲来到美洲的早期定居者问题，文章基本是驳论基调，隶属证据证明这个历史学家认为正确的结论缺乏可信，然后举证在13000+年前已经有，以及一些证据可能被后人因素干扰等等。
V2还有一篇文章讲美国和澳大利亚土著人的历史。有个什么四万和两万五千年，里面有的词汇还有coastal，建议去各大数据库锁定这篇原文，关键词the United States, Australia, 25000,40000，coastal(当然我也不确定能不能搜到).这篇也读的不是很懂。
V3讲美国大陆上开始有人大概是什么时间。作者用了澳大利亚来佐证。一开始是说有观点认为可以推到40000-25000年前。而作者认为不可信，因为没有找到很多rite，而澳大利亚有很多rite。后来就开始读不懂了。澳大利亚的干旱、密度低、后冰川时期海平面上升、美国的内流河神马神马的。说真的这篇东西挺打击我的，让我的阅读水平仿佛一夜回到解放前。三道题也不都太懂。没读出来后面的海平面上升跟前面的rite有什么联系，于是“读懂大意就能做题”的方法就不管用了ORZ。
V4还有一篇阅读讲America的移民问题，拿Australia作对比，作为反驳American的移民可能在20，000年就已经出现的说法;
V5还有一篇短阅读讲的是澳大利亚25000年前没有人类活动的痕迹，是因为那之前没有人类在那篇土地上生存。然后比较了一下澳大利亚和美国吧。涉及到coastal area的问题，大家注意一下。这个记得不是很清楚了，大家就当着一看吧。
Recent discoveries in New World archaeology along with new scientific methods for analyzing data have led to new ideas regarding the origin of the first peoples of the Americas and their time of arrival.
The traditional theory held that the first Americans crossed the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska around 11,500 years ago and followed an "ice-free corridor" between two large Canadian ice sheets (the Laurentide and Cordilleran) to reach unglaciated lands to the south. These first inhabitants, whose archaeological sites are scattered across North and South America, were called the Clovis people, named after the town in New Mexico where their fluted spear points used for hunting mammoth were first found in 1932.
There is now convincing evidence of human habitation sites that date earlier than the Clovis culture including sites located in South America. Monte Verde, a well-studied site located along a river near southern central Chile, dates 12,500 years ago. This site contains the buried remnants of dwellings, stone tools including large bifacial projectile points, and preserved medicinal and edible plants. How did people manage to settle this far south at such an early date? A coastal migration route is now gaining more acceptance, rather than the older view of small bands moving on foot across the middle of the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and into the continents. Emerging evidence suggests that people with boats moved along the Pacific coast into Alaska and northwestern Canada and eventually south to Peru and Chile by 12,500 years ago—and perhaps much earlier. Archaeological evidence in Australia, Melanesia, and Japan indicate boats were in use as far back as 25,000 to 40,000 years ago. Sea routes would have provided abundant food resources and easier and faster movement than land routes. Many coastal areas were unglaciated at this time, providing opportunities for landfall along the way. Several early sites along the coast of Canada, California, Peru, Ecuador, and Chile date between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. Many potential coastal sites are now submerged, making investigation difficult.
6. honey bee的fungee(原文)
V1考了一个honey bee 的一个fungee 病毒的 honeybee 的larvae 容易的 这个fungee 而且还是small coloney 的会的 but it requires to lower the temperature of larvae to 30 degree for fungee infection (whereas the temperature of the hive is 33-35) 这个句子问到过 结果scientist discovered that worker bees purposefully keep the temperature of hive high before the manifestation of the fungee infection so this must be a PREVENTATIVE mechanism developed from the honeybees to protect larvae from infection. in addition the temperature of the hive will be lowered after the infection so the 33-35 is not OPTIMAL for the hive.
之后有个选项问 如果 temperature is not lowed after the infection what conclusion can u draw from the passage. 答案是 33-35 degree is an ideal temperature for the hive.
V2关于蜜蜂的巢穴的 larva 温度和疾病的那题。
问题：某个实验结果推翻会有什么结论 答案：直接否定文中结论
Ingestion of food containing spores of the pathogen Ascosphaera apis causes a fatal fungal disease known as chalk brood in honeybee larvae. However, larvae must be chilled to about 30°C(normal brood-comb temperature is 33-36°C)for the disease to develop. Accordingly, chalk brood is most common in spring and in small colonies. A recent study revealed that honeybees responsible for hive-temperature maintenance purposely raised the hives’ temperature when colonies were inoculated with A.apis this “fever,” or up-regulation of temperature, occurred before any larvae died, suggesting that the response is preventative and that either honeybee workers detect the infection before symptoms are visible or larvae communicate the ingestion of the pathogen. Temperature returned to normal by the end of the study, suggesting that increased temperature is not optimal when broods are not infected, as well as that the fever does not result merely from normal colony growth (i.e., an increase in the number of workers available for temperature maintenance).
【文章说了一种病原体,简称A病原体.蜜蜂幼虫吃了含有A的食物之后,体内会长一种致命的菌简称CB.但是CB要在低于幼虫正常体温的情况下才会发作,所以CB主要是在春天侵害小规模的蜜蜂群. 最近一个研究发现.在蜂群感染了A之后,那些负责维持蜂房温度的蜜蜂会有意识地提高蜂房温度. 而这个"发烧现象",或者说温度的提升是在没有一个幼虫(因病)死亡之前发生的.(这个现象)可能说明蜜蜂的这一反应(提高温度)是一个保护性措施.而且(还说明)要么是那些蜜蜂在感染症状出现之前就发现了它们,要么就是幼虫把感染信息告诉了蜜蜂. 实验结束的时候,(蜂房的温度)又恢复正常了,说明升高的温度并不是蜂群的最佳温度,也说明这个"发烧现象"不仅仅是蜂群数量增大的结果.】
24. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) discuss the findings and implications of a particular study
(B) illustrate a process that formerly had been misunderstood
(C) outline the methods used to investigate a problem
(D) provide evidence to support a controversial theory
(E) contrast alternative interpretations of certain date
25. According to the passage, researchers concluded that fever in honeybee coloniesis preventative because their study showed that such fever
(这题多数同学选的C. 问的是为什么研究人员认为"发热"是保护行为)
(A) does not occur when hive temperatures are within normal range 该行为不发生在蜂房温度正常的情况下.(应该非常好排除吧,升温和蜂房原来温度无关,只有感染了才会升)
(B) protests adult bees from contracting chalk brood infection 防止成年蜜蜂接触感染.(升温的作用是防止发作,文章中没有提到是否能隔绝传染. )
(C) occurs prior to the death of any larvae 在任何幼虫死亡之前发生.
(文中原话,虽然直接得有点让人不敢选,但是确实是最佳答案.)
(D) is more likely to occur in spring than in summer 相较于在夏天,更可能在春天发生. (than是GRE阅读中需要引起注意的词.文中没有明确指出,不如C来得更直接,而且有点答非所问.)
(E) does not have an effect on uninfected broods 对于没有感染的蜜蜂没有影响.(答非所问).
26. The passage implies that if hive temperature had not returned to normal by the end of the study in question, a probable conclusion of the researchers would have been that (这题牵涉到对文章最后一句的理解,只要取反就可以了.所以我觉得是B,这题争议比较严重.其实最后一句的意思就是最终的实验结果(温度回归)说明暂时升高的温度不是蜂群的最爱---说明是不得以而为之;而后半句温度升高不仅仅是蜜蜂数量的增多,说明热量不是数量上升累积的结果而是有别的什么因素促成.换而言 之还是说明了温度升高是有意识地保护行为.所以回答这题的时候把这两点的想法取反就OK了)正确答案E
(A) up-regulation of temperature is a preventative measure against chalkbrood 说明升温是保护性措施. (和上述说法取反后不同吧.)
(B) honeybees are incapable of purposely raising hive temperatures 蜜蜂不能有意识地升高蜂房温度. (正确,符合上述第二个说法取反的结果).
(C) A. apis cannot be completely eradicated throughup-regulation of temperature along 说明仅仅通过升温A不能完全被消除. (到底A有没有被消除实验没有说吧.)
(D) honeybee larvae have a mechanism to alert adult honeybees to the presenceof A. apis 幼虫有能力向成年蜜蜂报警. (完全没关系的回答吧.)
(E) honeybee larvae may benefit from increased hive temperature even when there is no A. apis present 即使没有A,幼虫可能从增高的温度中获益.(这个推测过远了吧,如果温度没降下也不能说明幼虫可能获益吧,相较于E,B更加合适吧.)
27. According to the passage, which of the following is true of chalk brood infection among honeybee larvae?(这题争议同样比较严重,我倾向于选D. 问的是下列关于感染的选项中哪个是符合文章意思的.)
(A) Larvae in small colonies are more likely to pass the infection to adult honeybees than are larvae in large ones. 相较于大蜂群,小蜂群中的幼虫更容易把感染传给成年蜂(文章中根本没说病毒传染的问题吧).
(B) Infection with chalk brood induces larvae to raise their hive’s temperature. 感染使得幼虫升高蜂房的温度.(这是成年蜜蜂干的活吧.)
(C) The infection is more likely to affect larvae in winter than in spring. 相比于春天,感染更容易在冬天发生.(虽然冬天看上去温度低,但是文章说是春天,我们不能以自己先入为主的来做题.)
(D) Larvae fail to develop symptoms of the disease when their brood –comb temperature remains within the normal range. 在蜂群温度正常的时候幼虫身上没有任何感染的病症.(文章中说到过在病症出来之前成年蜂就开始增加蜂房的温度了,说明没出病症的时候蜂房温度是正常的.)
(E) Infected larvae exhibit visible symptoms of disease for a significant time before death. 被感染的幼虫在死前会有相当长的一段时间表现出可见的病症. (a significant time 完全臆测).
7. 第十四修正法案
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1868, prohibits state governments from denying citizens the “equal protection of the laws.” Although precisely what the framers of the amendment meant by this equal protection clause remains unclear, all interpreters agree that the framers’ immediate objective was to provide a constitutional warrant for the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed the citizenship of all persons born in the United States and subject to United States jurisdiction. This declaration, which was echoed in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment, was designed primarily to counter the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people in the United States could be denied citizenship. The act was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson, who argued that the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, did not provide Congress with the authority to extend citizenship and equal protection to the freed slaves. Although Congress promptly overrode Johnson’s veto, supporters of the act sought to ensure its constitutional foundations with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The broad language of the amendment strongly suggests that its framers were proposing to write into the Constitution not a laundry list of specific civil rights but a principle of equal citizenship that forbids organized society from treating any individual as a member of an inferior class. Yet for the first eight decades of the amendment’s existence, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the amendment betrayed this ideal of equality. In the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, for example, the Court invented the “state action” limitation, which asserts that “private” decisions by owners of public accommodations and other commercial businesses to segregate their facilities are insulated from the reach of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
After the Second World War, a judicial climate more hospitable to equal protection claims culminated in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racially segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Two doctrines embraced by the Supreme Court during this period extended the amendment’s reach. First, the Court required especially strict scrutiny of legislation that employed a “suspect classification,” meaning discrimination against a group on grounds that could be construed as racial. This doctrine has broadened the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to other, nonracial forms of discrimination, for while some justices have refused to find any legislative classification other than race to be constitutionally disfavored, most have been receptive to arguments that at least some nonracial discriminations, sexual discrimination in particular, are “suspect” and deserve this heightened scrutiny by the courts. Second, the Court relaxed the state action limitation on the Fourteenth Amendment, bringing new forms of private conduct within the amendment’s reach.
17. Which of the following best describes the main idea of the passage?
(A) By presenting a list of specific rights, framers of the Fourteenth Amendment were attempting to provide a constitutional basis for broad judicial protection of the principle of equal citizenship.
(B) Only after the Supreme Court adopted the suspect classification approach to reviewing potentially discriminatory legislation was the applicability of the Fourteenth Amendment extended to include sexual discrimination.
(C) Not until after the Second World War did the Supreme Court begin to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment in a manner consistent with the principle of equal citizenship that it expresses.
(D) Interpreters of the Fourteenth Amendment have yet to reach consensus with regard to what its framers meant by the equal protection clause.
(E) Although the reluctance of judges to extend the reach of the Fourteenth Amendment to nonracial discrimination has betrayed the principle of equal citizenship, the Supreme Court’s use of the state action limitation to insulate private activity from the amendment’s reach has been more harmful.
18. The passage suggests that the principal effect of the state action limitation was to
(A) allow some discriminatory practices to continue unimpeded by the Fourteenth Amendment
(B) influence the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v, Board of Education
(C) provide expanded guidelines describing prohibited actions
(D) prohibit states from enacting laws that violated the intent of the Civil Rights Act of 1866
(E) shift to state governments the responsibility for enforcement of laws prohibiting discriminatory practices
19. The author’s position regarding the intent of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment would be most seriously undermined if which of the following were true?
(A) The framers had anticipated state action limitations as they are described in the passage.
(B) The framers had merely sought to prevent discriminatory acts by federal officials.
(C) The framers were concerned that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would be overturned by the Supreme Court.
(D) The framers were aware that the phrase “equal protection of the laws” had broad implications.
(E) The framers believed that racial as well as non-racial forms of discrimination were unacceptable.
20. According to the passage, the original proponents of the Fourteenth Amendment were primarily concerned with
(A) detailing the rights afforded by the principle of equal citizenship
(B) providing support in the Constitution for equal protection for all citizens of the United States
(C) closing a loophole that could be used to deny individuals the right to sue for enforcement of their civil rights
(D) asserting that the civil rights protected by the Constitution included nonracial discrimination as well as racial discrimination
(E) granting state governments broader discretion in interpreting the Civil Rights Act of 1866
21. The author implies that the Fourteenth Amendment might not have been enacted if
(A) Congress’ authority with regard to legislating civil rights had not been challenged
(B) the framers had anticipated the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
(C) the framers had believed that it would be used in deciding cases of discrimination involving non-racial groups
(D) most state governments had been willing to protect citizens’ civil rights
(E) its essential elements had not been implicit in the Thirteenth Amendment
22. According to the passage, which of the following most accurately indicates the sequence of the events listed below?
I. Civil Rights Act of 1866
II. Dred Scott v. Sandford
III. Fourteenth Amendment
IV. Veto by President Johnson
(A) I, II, III, IV
(B) I, IV, II, III
(C) I, IV, III, II
(D) II, I, IV, III
(E) III, II, I, IV
23. Which of the following can be inferred about the second of the two doctrines referred to in lines 39-41 of the passage?
(A) It caused some justices to rule that all types of discrimination are prohibited by the Constitution.
(B) It shifted the focus of the Supreme Court from racial to nonracial discrimination.
(C) It narrowed the concern of the Supreme Court to legislation that employed a suspect classification.
(D) It caused legislators who were writing new legislation to reject language that could be construed as permitting racial discrimination.
(E) It made it more difficult for commercial businesses to practice racial discrimination.
于1868年批准的美国宪法第十四条修正案禁止州政府剥夺公民享受“平等的
法律保护。”尽管该修正案的制定者制定这一平等保护条款的确切意图是什么现在
仍无人知晓，但所有的解释者一致认为，该修正案制定者的直接目标是要为1868
年的《民权法》提供宪法保障，而1866年的《民权法》则保证，凡是在美国出生
并接受美国司法管辖的人均享有公民权。这一在第十四条修正案的文本中被复述的
宣言，主要是旨在对抗最高法院在“Dred Scott诉Sandford”一案中的判决，此
判决裁定，在美国的黑人可被剥夺公民权。安德罗·约翰逊总统(President Andrew
Johnson)否决了《民权法》，他论辩道，将奴隶制度予以废除的第十三条修正案，
没有能够为国会提供权力，将公民权和平等保护扩展至已获得自由的奴隶。尽管国
会迅速推翻了约翰逊总统的否决，但《民权法》的支持者则力图要以第十四条修正
案的通过来确保其宪法基础。
第十四条修正案的宽泛笼统的语言强烈地暗示，其制定者所意欲载入宪法的不
是一张具体民法的细目清单，而是一种平等公民权的原则，这一原则禁止有组织的
社会将任何一个个人作为劣等阶层的成员来对待。然而，对于此修正案存在的最初
八十年来说，最高法院对这一修正案的解释却背叛了这一平等理想。例如，在1883
年的“民权诉讼案”中，最高法院发明了“州政府行动”限制，这一限制声称，公
共旅馆和其它商业企业的所有者所作出的对其设施实行种族隔离的“私人”决定，
这类“私人”决定不属第十四条修正案中法律所保证的平等保护的适用范围。
在第二次世界大战之后，一种更有利于平等保护主张的法律氛围以最高法院在
“布朗诉教育委员会”(Brown V.Board of Education)一案中的裁决而臻顶点，
最高法院在此案中裁定，实施种族隔离的学校违反了第十四条修正案的适用范围。
第一，最高法院要求，对采用“怀疑分类”的立法进行格外严格的审查。所谓“怀
疑分类”，意指那种在有可能被理解成以种族为基础，针对某一群体进行的歧视这
一信条扩展了第十四条修正案的适用范围，使其同样也适用于其它的、非种族形式
的歧视。因为虽然某些法官拒不将除种族以外的立法分类裁定为非法的，但绝大多
数法官已经接受了这样一个论点，即至少某些非种族性质的歧视，尤其是性别歧视，
是“值得怀疑的”，并理应接受法庭这种更高程度上的审视。第二，最高法院放松
了州政府行动对第十四条修正案的限制，将各种新的形式的个人行为亦纳入到第十
条修正案的适用范围。
