接下来的几天给大家整理了历届gre考试阅读真题及解析，下面这篇是1994年10月gre考试阅读真题SECTION A部分。复习gre考试阅读的时候，gre考生应该以往年的真题为复习材料，从真题中总结阅读规律和特点才是制胜法宝。

　　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 (laundry list: n.细目清单) 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 rused 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 fect 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 rerred 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.

　　The Earth’s magnetic field is generated as the molten iron of the Earth’s outer core revolves around its solid inner core. When surges in the molten iron occur, magnetic tempests are created. At the Earth’s surface, these tempests can be detected by changes in the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field. For reasons not fully understood, the field itself reverses periodically every million years or so (or so: 大约). During the past million years, for instance, the magnetic north pole has migrated between the Antarctic and the Arctic.

　　Clearly, geophysicists who seek to explain and forecast changes in the field must understand what happens in the outer core. Unlike meteorologists, however, they cannot rely on observations made in their own lifetimes. Whereas atmospheric storms arise in a matter of hours and last for days, magnetic tempests develop over decades and persist for centuries. Fortunately scientists have been recording changes in the Earth’s magnetic field for more than 300 years.

　　24. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

　　(A) analyzing a complicated scientific phenomenon and its impact on the Earth’s surface features

　　(B) describing a natural phenomenon and the challenges its study presents to researchers

　　(C) discussing a scientific field of research and the gaps in researchers’ methodological approaches to it

　　(D) comparing two distinct fields of physical science and the different research methods employed in each

　　(E) proposing an explanation for a geophysical phenomenon and an experiment that could help confirm that explanation

　　25. The passage suggests which of the following about surges in the Earth’s outer core?

　　(A) They occur cyclically every few decades.

　　(B) They can be predicted by changes in the Earth’s inner core.

　　(C) They are detected through indirect means.

　　(D) They are linked to disturbances in the Earth’s atmosphere.

　　(E) They last for periods of about 1 million years.

　　26. It can be inferred from the passage that geophysicists seeking to explain magnetic tempests ought to conduct research on the Earth’s outer core because the Earth’s outer core

　　(A) is more fully understood than the Earth’s magnetic field

　　(B) is more easily observed than the Earth’s magnetic field

　　(C) has been the subject of extensive scientific observation for 300 years

　　(D) is involved in generating the Earth’s magnetic field

　　(E) rlects changes in the inner core caused by magnetic tempests

　　27. In the second paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with

　　(A) stating a limitation that helps determine a research methodology

　　(B) making a comparative analysis of two different research methodologies

　　(C) assessing the amount of empirical data in the field of physical science

　　(D) suggesting an optimistic way of viewing a widely feared phenomenon

　　(E) describing a fundamental issue and discussing its future impact on society

答案：17-27：CABBADEBCDA

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