閱讀理解是英語考試的重要板塊，這在公共英語二級裡，也不例外，下面，小編就為大家送上兩篇公共英語二級閱讀理解文章，希望對大家有所幫助。
If by "suburb" is meant an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Before that period the city was a small highly compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were conveyed by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1830's and 1840's were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities. As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In 1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York. Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status only by incorporating the communities along their borders.
With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding and accompanying social stress —— conditions that began to approach disastrous proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful electric traction line was developed. Within a few years the horse-drawn trolleys were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed and connected every major urban area, fostering a wave of suburbanization that transformed the compact industrial city into a dispersed first phase of mass-scale suburbanization was reinforced by the simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle Class, whose desires for homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging inner city were satisfied by the developers of single-family housing tracts.
如果"郊區"指的是比已建好的城市內部發展更為迅速的城市邊緣地帶，那麼郊區化可以說始於1825 年至1850年工業化城市出現期間。在這之前，城市只是高度密集的小聚居群。在其中，人們步行走動，商品靠馬車來運送。但是建於18 世紀三四十年代的早期工廠位於城邊的航道和鐵路附近，被工作機會吸引到這裡的成千上萬的人們需要住房。漸漸地，在與舊有的主要城區相毗鄰的地方，不斷湧現出由排房和公寓樓組成的工人聚居區，包圍了工廠。作為對這種侵蝕的自衛，也為了擴大它們收稅的地域範圍，城市吞併了工業化的臨近地帶，比如1854 年費城的城區就兼併了費縣的絕大部分地區。相似的城市化也發生在芝加哥和紐約。今天很多美國的大城市其實就是靠吞併它們附近的邊緣地區而變成大都會的。
隨著工業化的加速發展，城市裡出現了嚴重擁擠和相伴而來的社會壓力。當1888 年第一條商業上成功的電氣化鐵軌被製造出來時，壓力開始接近危機的程度。幾年之內，馬車就被廢棄了，電車網相互交織連線著各個重要的城區，從而形成了一種郊區化的潮流，即密集的工業城市轉變成了分散的都市。此時城市中產階級的出現進一步加強了第一波大規模郊區化。這些中產階級希望在遠離老舊城市的地區擁有住宅，單一家庭住宅地區的開發者滿足了他們的'願望。單一家庭住宅地區的開發者滿足了他們的願望。
公共英語二級閱讀理解文章二A painter hangs his or her finished picture on a wall, and everyone can see it. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed. Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for the composer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long and as arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs to become a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for musicians have to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer. Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would be inadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practice moving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow to and fro with the right arm —— two entirely different movements.
Singers and instrumentalists have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune. Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are already there, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner's responsibility to tune the instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties: the hammers that hit the strings have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and each overlapping tone has to sound clear.
This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts student conductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how it should sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds with fanatical but selfless authority.
Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge and understanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in the language of music that they can enjoy performing works written in any century.
畫家將已完成的作品掛在牆上，每個人都可以觀賞到。作曲家寫完了一部作品，得由 演奏者將其演奏出來，其他人才能得以欣賞。因為作曲家是如此完全地依賴於職業歌手和職 業演奏者，所以職業歌手和職業演奏者肩上的擔子可謂不輕。一名學音樂的學生要想成為一名演奏者，需要經受長期的、嚴格的訓練，就象一名醫科的學生要成為一名醫生一樣。絕大多數的訓練是技巧性的。音樂家們控制肌肉的熟練程度，必須達到與運動員或巴蕾舞演員相當的水平。歌手們每天都練習吊嗓子，因為如果不能有效地控制肌肉的話，他們的聲帶將不能滿足演唱的要求。絃樂器的演奏者練習的則是在左手的手指上下滑動的同時，用右手前後拉動琴弓——兩個截然不同的動作。
歌手和樂器演奏者必須使所有的音符完全相同協調。鋼琴家們則不用操這份心，因為每個音符都已在那裡等待著他們了。給鋼琴調音是調 音師的職責。但調音師們也有他們的難處：他們必須耐心地調理敲擊琴絃的音錘，不能讓音錘發出的聲音象是打擊樂器，而且每個交疊的音都必須要清晰。
如何得到樂章清晰的紋理是學生指揮們所面臨的難題：他們必須學會了解音樂中的每一個音及其發音之道。 他們還 必須致力於以熱忱而又客觀的權威去控制這些音符。除非是和音樂方面的知識和悟性結合起來，單純的技巧沒有任何用處。藝術家之所以偉大在於他們對音樂語言駕輕就熟，以致於可以滿懷喜悅地演出寫於任何時代的作品。
音樂方面的知識和悟性結合起來，單純的技巧沒有任何用處。藝術家之所以偉大在於他們對音樂語言駕輕就熟，以致於可以滿懷喜悅地演出寫於任何時代的作品。
