阅读是英语六级考试中的重点，因此小编为大家提供了一篇阅读练习，希望有助于同学们复习英语六级。

　　Does Travel Broaden The Mind?

　　One often hears it said that travel broadens the mind: if you stay in your own country the whole time , your ideas remain narrow; whereas if you travel abroad you see new customs, eat new foods, do new things, and come back home with a broader mind.

　　But does this always — or even usually — happen? An acquaintance2 of mine who lives in England and had never been outside it until last summer, decided to go over3 to France for a trip. When he returned, I asked him how he liked it.“Terrible, ”was his answer.“ I couldn’t get a nice cup of tea anywhere . 4 Thank goodness I’m back. ”I asked him whether he hadn’t had any good food while he was there .“Oh, the dinners were all right, ”he said.“I found a little place where they made quite good fish and chips. Not as good as ours, mind you5, but they were passable. But the breakfasts were terrible: no bacon or kippers. I had fried eggs and chips, but it was quite a 6 business getting them to make them. They expected me to eat rolls. And when I asked for marmalade , they brought strawberry jam. And do you know, they insisted that it was marmalade? The trouble is they don’t know English. ”

　　I thought it useless to explain that we borrowed the word‘marmalade ’from French, and that it means, in that language, any kind of jam. So I said,“But didn’t you eat any of the famous French food?”“What? Me?”he said.“Of course not! Give me good old English food every time! None of these fancy bits for me! ”Obviously travel had not broadened his mind.

　　This does not, of course, happen only to Englishmen in France: all nationalities, in all foreign countries, can be found judging what they see, hear, taste and smell according to their own habits and customs. People who are better educated and who have read a lot about foreign countries tend to be more adaptable7 and tolerant8, but this is because their minds have already been broadened before they start travelling. In fact, it is easier to be broad-minded about foreign habits and customs, if one’s acquaintance with these things is limited to books and films. The American smiles tolerantly over the absence of central heating in most English homes when he is himself comfortably seated in his armchair in his centrally heated house in Chicago; the English man reads about the sanitary arrangements in a certain tropical country, and the inhabitants of the latter read about London fogs, and each side manages to be detached and broad-minded. 9 But actual physical contact with things one is unaccustomed to is much more difficult to bear philosophically.

　　Perhaps the ideal would be if travel could succeed in making people tolerant of the habits and customs of others without abandoning their own. The criterion for judging a foreigner could be: Does he try to be polite and considerate to others? Instead of: Is he like me?

　　阅读自测

　　Ⅰ. True o r Fa lse :

　　1. It is often said that if you travel abroad to see many new things, your mind will be broadened.

　　2. The Englishman had a happy life when he travelled to France .

　　3. The word‘marmalade’is originally a French word, which means any kind of jam.

　　4. In the view of the author, people often judge things according to their own habits and customs.

　　5. The author thinks that people who are better educated and read a lot are easily to be tolerant.

　　6. Tea , bacon, kippers, chips are all typical English food.

　　参考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. T 2. F 3 . T 4 . T 5 . T 6 . T

　　解析

　　1. 题目的字面意思是“旅游能让人心胸开阔吗?”一说到旅游, 大家的反应就是旅游可以使 人心胸开阔。渐渐地, 这似乎成了公认的标准。而这篇文章恰恰唱起了反调, 从一个反 面例子巧妙地论述作者自己的见解: 旅游和心胸开阔不成因果关系。

　　2 - 3. acquaintance 是指“相识的人,熟人”, 如: a nodding acquaintance (点头之交或肤浅的知识,皮毛) ; a speaking acquaintance (见了面谈几句的朋友, 泛泛之交);make the acquaintance of somebody (或make somebody's acquaintance) (结识某人) ; He has a wide acquaintance. (他交游甚广。) go over 在这里指“走过去, 走访, 离家远行, 旅行”, 如: He has gone over to the coast for a few days. (他已去沿海一带, 要过几天才回来。)

　　4. 这句话给了大家一个很好的关于英国饮食文化的暗示: 饮茶。英国的茶分为上午茶和下午茶。一般喝上午茶的时间是10 点到11 点之间;下午3点到5点称下午茶( afternoon tea time) , 5点到6点之间的则称为傍晚茶( high tea)。19世纪, 英国上流社会的绅士名媛开始盛行喝下午茶, 冬天时就在温暖的炉火边, 夏天则是在繁花盛开的花园里。它最重要的功能是让上流社会的人联络感情, 交换信息。下文出现的fried fish and chips (煎鱼和薯条);bacon(熏咸肉);kipper(腌干鱼)都是典型的英式食物。

　　5. mind you, 用作插入语, 意思是“说真的或请注意, 请听清楚”, 如: He is a very nice fellow, mind you, but I wouldn’t want to marry him. (说真的, 他是个很好的人, 但我不想嫁给他。) 和mind 连用的词语还有很多, 如谚语: Many men, many minds. (十个人, 十条心。或译: 人多心不齐。) Out of sight, out of mind. (眼不见, 心不烦。)

　　6. quite a 是个非常有用的搭配用法, 作“异常的,出众的,相当大或多的”解, 如: quite a hero (了不起的英雄);quite a girl (不寻常的姑娘);It was quite a sight. (那是很特别的景象。) 和quite 连用的词语还有: quite a bit (相当数量, 相当程度);quite a few (相当多, 不少);quite another(一个完全不同的); quite other(完全不同的) 。

　　7 - 8. 这个句子中的adaptable 指“能适应新环境的, 适应性强的”, tolerant 则是“宽容的, 容忍的, 忍受的”。

　　9. 这一句比较长, 阅读时要注意断句。分号之前是由when 引导的状语从句, 带有对比的含义;分号后是由and连接的三个简单句。句中的central heating 是指“集中取暖法, 集中供暖法”;sanitary 的意思是“公共卫生的”;detached 在这里是指“不带感情的,公正的,超然的”, 如: a detached air ( 超然的神态);a detached view (不偏不倚的观点)。

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