【正文】 well as a wonderful education”— Howard Zinn56. On the whole, 1491 is a book mainly about America?s _____.A. lifestyles B. population C. history D. agriculture57. Which of the following as NOT TRUE about the ments on the book 1491?A. It is interesting and instructive.B. It is attractive and culturally related.C. It is challenging and revolutionary.D. It is humorous and persuasive.58. From this passage, we can learn _____.A. people settled in the Americas a little earlier than 1942B. North Americans were the tallest in the 18th century in the worldC. Mesoamerican farmers knew genetic engineering 5,000 years agoD. the population in the Americas was smaller than that in Europe in 1492BFor the first time in modern history, less than half of the U. S. adult population now reads literature, according to a recent survey. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America presents a detailed review of the decline of reading?s role in the nation?s culture.Reading at Risk is a survey of national fashion in adult literary reading. The data source for Reading at Risk is as reliable and objective (客觀的) as any such survey can be. The key results of the survey are presented in the “Summary”, but the report can be further explained as: literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has been speeded up, especially among the young. Reading at Risk merely shows a great cultural change that most Americans have already noted — our society?s great turn to electronic media for entertainment and information.Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and devotion. Indeed, reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. On the contrary, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and indeed require no more than passive participation. While oral culture has a rich reality and electronic media offer the considerable advantage of variety, print culture affords irreplaceable forms of focused and thought than make various munications and views possible. The decline in reading, therefore, equals a larger retreat (減少) from participation in public and cultural life.What is to be done? There is surely no single solution to the present problem, just as there is no single cause. The important thing now is to understand that America can no longer take active and devoted reading for granted.Reading is not a timeless, mon ability. As more Americans love thus ability. out nation bees less informed, active, and independent minded. These are not qualities that a free, inventive, or productive society can afford to love.59. The main purpose of the survey is to ____.A. focus on the role of electronic media and readingB. show that American young people read less and lessC. give a report of the national fashion of literary readingD. review that less that half of the population now reads literature60. According to the passage, reading _____.A. requires less attention and devotionB. demands no more than passive participationC. limits various munications and viewsD. means active participation in public and cultural life61. The underlined phrase “cultural change” in Paragraph 2 refers to the change _____.A. from oral culture to electronic mediaB. from print culture to electronic to electronic mediaC. from electronic media to oralD. from electronic media to print culture62. The aut