专业英语八级（阅读）模拟题2019年(5)
(总分100,考试时间155分钟)
PART II    READING COMPREHENSION
retractableSECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSIn this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked [A] , [B], [C] and [D]. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.
    (1)That is a lesson Scott Spector, 15, learned the hard way, when his phone started blasting his "American Idol Theme" ringtone as he was pretending to talk into it in the hall at school last month.
    (2)"I felt like such a dork," said Scott, of Buffalo Grove, III.
    (3)Dr. Katz of Rutgers said the practice first drew his attention when students in focus gro
ups he had organized to study a wide range of cellphone use began mentioning it, unprompted.
    (4)The habit, Dr. Katz said, is the latest technological twist in a culture that has long embraced various forms of dissembling in the name of image, from designer knockoff handbags to plastic surgery. Some fakers admit to programming their phones to call them at a certain time to show off their ring tones; others wrap up make-believe Hollywood deals in front of people they want to impress.
    (5)And phantom callers are often simply trying to cope with social anxiety by showing that they have someone to call, even if they don't. One of Dr. Katz's students said she pretended to use her cellphone when she was out with a group of other college-age women who were all on theirs. Another did it to escape from a fancy boutique where the prices were beyond her means without speaking to a salesperson.
    (6)In that sense fake callers may not be so different from a lot of real callers, who are always partly performing for others even as they appear to withdraw into their own private
space in public.
    (7)"The cellphone allows people to show strangers that they belong, that they are part of a community somewhere," said Christine Rosen, who studies the social impact of technology at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. "Whether or not it's a fictional call, on some level that's why we're doing it."
    (8)But the surfeit of counterfeit calls underscores the lengths to which people **pelled to go to project an image for others. Sometimes the impulse is almost subconscious.
    (9)Mark Konchar, a network administrator in Canton, Ohio, had just hung up after sitting in his parked car behind a strip mall talking to a friend one afternoon, when he saw people emerging from the employee's entrance to one of the stores. Quickly, he put the phone back up to his ear and pretended to talk.
    (10)"I guess I thought people might wonder why you're sitting out there in your car; it might look strange," said Mr. Konchar, 33. "It's one of those things where after the situation happens you're wondering, 'Why did I do that?'"
    (11)Many women rely on fake cell phone calls when they fear for their physical safety. Yessenia Morales, 21, said she recently called a non-existent friend while being followed by a group of men on a train platform.
    (12)"I'11 see you in a few minutes," she promised the ether.
    (13)But fake calls are often made by people trying to preserve a more psychological remove. Mike Lupi-ani uses his impersonation of someone on the phone to ignore his chatty next-door neighbors. "They ask how your day is going and stuff," said Mr. Lupiani, of Rochester. "I don't really have time for it."
    (14)Christina Rohall, 29, said she pretends to use the phone to avoid getting hit on. "I feel awkward just rejecting people," said Ms. Rohall, of San Francisco.
    (15)How well the fake call works is one of its most appealing qualities, and a testament to how much respect people automatically grant to a cellphone force field. Bartosz Sitarski, 24, said he once pretended to be on a cellphone call for a full 15 minutes when s
omeone he didn't want to speak to was waiting to talk to him at a Milwaukee coffee shop. The other person finally left rather than interrupt the "call."
    (16)Even security guards seem to respect the cellphone buffer, said Michael McEachern, 16, of San Diego, who has found the fake call a useful way to get to the club level at a Padres game when he doesn't have a pass. Some frequent fakers worry that the wireless charade will be harder to pull off once more people begin to suspect it.