英语科技文选自考2012年07月真题及答案解析

My View on Energy Crisis

    Silver miners first discovered Mexico’s surreal Cave of Crystals almost a decade ago. The BBC recently took a rare tour of the underground cavern that contains the world’s largest naturally grown crystals, where some selenite structures reach almost 33 feet in length.

     See those little dots climbing the crystals that look like ants? Those are people.

     Casual spclankers can’t enter the cave without risking their lives, unless they have the right breathing mask and cooling suit. Stifling temperatures of 122 degrees F combined with almost 100 percent humidity posed a deadly challenge for early explorers. Such conditions mean that every breath can lead to fluid condensing inside the lungs, which represents a less-than-ideal scenario for continued breathing.

    But the cave’s wonders prove alluring once you get past the dangers. The BBC’s new scries “How the Earth Made Us” accompanies Iain Stewart, a geologist at the University of Plymouth in the UK, on a trip into the Naica silver mine.

   Take a good look at the footage below, because the Cave of Crystals is destined to disappear once the mine owners decide to end operations and pull out their pumps. Then the mines and cave alike will flood once more.

Life is a continuous flow of experience; each act or moment of time is preceded by a previous experience and becomes the threshold for the experience to come. If we acknowledge chat an objective of life is the achievement of a continuous flow of harmonious experiences, then the relationship of spaces to one another, as experienced over time, becomes a major design problem. When viewed in this way, architecture takes its place with the aits of poetry and music, in which no single part can be considered except in relation to what immediately precedes or follows it.

reinforce

untangle

gigantic

given

typify

1、鲸鱼是海洋中一种巨大的哺乳动物。

2、假如有机会，我会整天都看书。

3、汤姆，你整理电线在行吗?

4、他的行为只能让我更讨厌他。

5、他最新的书反映了中国的传统思想，这也代表了他大部分作品的特点。

used    communication      together         especially       leaves           years           opportunities       average      realized      devoted

     Perhaps more imprtant than the lack of family outings is the destruction of family time(31)at home. Social scientists in the 1950s could not have (32) how much television would watch in the 1980s; the (33) American watches 6 hours of TV a day. That (34) little time for the special family characteristics and traditions that(35)to be formed during long evenings together. The time (36) to games, songs, and hobbies—all shared activities—in the(37)before TV is now dominated by the “tube”. And (38) damaging to family relationships is the elimination of the(39)for talking, chatting, arguing, discussing. Without such (40), family life disintegrates.

The trees______in spring.

They’ve been sponswing the World Cup______over a million and a half pounds.

The chef is_______vegetarian diets.

Please_______this collection of money for homeless families.

A writer has to______his imagination and experience.

You should not feel guilty for not helping him; ______you have helped him many times in the past.

My friend sent a______my letter.

The money he had been ordered to pay was minimal______his salary.

Mary______the Senate and won.

Most TV sets don’t have the sound quality to______the music.

in relation to    run for      a wide range of      contribute to     burst forth    to the tune of    response to    after all    cater for      draw on    with  respect to   do justice to

Parents often have little choice_______the way their child is medically treated.

There is______opinions on house shratage.

rhythm 有节奏地

diversify 变化;不同之处

normal 异常的

habit 同居

period 周期的

play 相互作用

variant 不变量

All of the following are what scientists want to know EXCEPT______.

extricabel 无法摆脱的

How was the discovery made?

Which of the following is NOT true about the baby mice when their embryos had been transferred into surrogate mothers?

What is likely to be one of the reasons why some people overeat?

What can be inferred from the figures of deaths in the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan at different times?

Which of the following countries pot an end to the tsunami warning?

(B)

   It could be that certain bacteria cause inflammation that can affect appetite as well as inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s disease and colitis, the researchers reported in the Science. In other words, the germs make you overeat, Andrew Gewirtz of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues reported. “Previous research has suggested that bacteria can influence how well energy is absorbed from food, but these findings demonstrate that intestinal bacteria can actually influence appetite,” Gewiitz said. “The obesity endemic is driven by people eating too much, but why are people eating more?” Gewirtz said. The research suggests that bacteria may play a role—perhaps a population of bacteria that thrive because other competing organisms have been wiped out by antibiotics having access to clean water and ocher factors of modem life. His team stumbled on the findings by accident. “We were studying mice that had colitis,” Gewirtz said in a telephone interview. The team suspected some kind of germ was responsible, so they transferred mouse embryos into surrogate mothers to prevent them from being infected by their own mothers. Babies are colonized by bacteria and other micro-organisms soon after birth and the makeup of these colonies—which persist for life in the skin and bowels—are very similar to those of the mother. The colitis was better but the baby mice became obese and developed metabolic syndrome—a cluster of symptoms that include unhealthy cholesterol levels, too much fat around the midsection, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means the body does not use insulin effectively to break down food and Gewirtz believes this may be the key. The researchers remembered a recent study in which normal, slender mice became obese when fed gut bacteria from fat mice. They worked with that team, including Ruth Ley of Coraell University in New York, to see what role the gut bacteria may be playing. “What we think is that the mice are prone to intestinal inflammation,” Gewirtz said. “If you have a lot of inflammatory signals about, insulin won’t work properly.” Weeks of antibiotic therapy helped, and so did diets. “If we limit their food intake they are mostly OK; they certainly are no longa obese,” he said. “They are, however, insulin-resistant.” Gewirtz’s team is now working to see if they can identify the micro-organisms involved. They are also working to see if obese people have unique patterns of gut bacteria. Scientists know that hundreds of species of bacteria live in the gut and an average person carries about 5 pounds (2 kg) worth. On Wednesday, Chinese scientists reported in the journal Nature that they found 1,000 different species in human intestines. So could you treat obesity by taking an antibiotic to wipe out the offending germs that are making people overeat? “It is very hard to replace the bacteria that you have,” Gewirtz said. Studies have already shown is difficult to treat conditions like Crohn’s disease, even with months of antibiotics.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Which of the following is NOT true in Japan after the officials issued a warning of the tsunami?

According to the passage, all the following are true about Japan EXCEPT______.

(A)

    Hundreds of thousands of residents in Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Russia's Kamchatka were told to evacuate after one of the world’s strongest quakes in a century hit Chile on Saturday, killing more than 300 people. Japanese officials had warned that tsunami waves of 3 meters or more could strike the country’s Pacific coast and ordered or advised around 630,000 households to evacuate. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) put the country’s highest tsunami at 1.2 meters in the port of Kuji, northeast Japan. Smaller waves hit a swathe of the country from the small island of Minaraitori 1,950 km (1,200 piles) south of Tokyo to Hokkaido island in the north. The JMA later downgraded its warning of a “major tsunami”to a tsunami of around 2 meters, but said residents should not let down their guard. “Carelessness could be the biggest enemy,” Preme Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reports earlier in the day. It was Japan’s first major tsunami warning in 17 years and only the fourth since 1952, the JMA said. Train services were halted in many areas along the Pacific coast, many highways were closed and there was minor flooding. Two nuclear plants in the area were operating normally and Japan’s Nippon Oil Corp said its 145,000 barrel-per-day Sendai refinery was also functioning as usual. Police cars and fire trucks patrolled coasul roads and fishing boats, seeking to avoid any tsunami, headed out to sea under gray skies, with snow flurries in some areas. Japan is no stranger to tsunamis. In 1896, a magnitude 8.5 earthquake and tsunami left more than 22,000 dead in northeastern Japan. Another of magnitude 8.1 hit the same region in 1933, killing 3,064. In May 1960, a tsunami struck the coasts of Hokkaido aod other northern Pacific coastal areas after an earthquake in Chile, killing around 140 people. Since then, many harbors have had sea gates installed to try to protect from tsunami and stonns. The first waves to hit New Zealand were reported at the remote Chatham Islands, around 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of New Zealand, with surges of up to 1.5 meters measured, the Civil Defense Ministry said. Authorities in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka region lifted a tsunami alert after a series of small waves appealed to cause do damage, a spokeswoman forthe Emergencies Ministry said. A tsunami hit beaches in eastern Australia but there were no initial reports of damage. Officials issued an alert for most of the east coast and eastern parts of the island state of Tasmania, but said there were no concerns about major inundation. The Philippines canceled a tsunami alert on the eastern seaboard after the threat dissipated. Hawaii dodged serious damage on Saturday when a tsunami merely lapped asbore, although residents were warned to stay away from coastai areas because the ocean could remain unsettled for several more hours.

What is the passage primarily about?