英语阅读(二)2013年1月真题试题及答案解析（00596）

Animal life first appeared on the earth about 400 million years ago. Through the passing millennia, thousands of animal species have come and gone. Until recently, this process was gradual, the result of changes in climate, in habitat, or in the genes of the animals themselves. (46. But the tremendous expansion of modern civilization now threatens to upset this natural balance, putting unprecedented pressure on the survival of our wildlife. )

This imbalance can be traced to many causes. Most arise in the greed and poor planning of man himself. (47. With each increase in man's population the wilderness areas where the animals live get smaller. The use of pesticides to control injurious insects also harms wild birds and animals.) Water pollution kills fish in our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Hunters have almost exterminated many of the larger animals like the bighorn sheep and the grizzly bear. And farmers destroy smaller animals like the prairie dog and the coyote. As a result of this unrelenting pressure, our wildlife is disappearing at the rate of one species or subspecies per year.

(48. Of all the continents. the most drastic reduction in wildlife has occurred in North America. where the transition from a rural to a highly industrialized society has been most rapid.) Among the victims are birds, mammals, and fish. We will never again see the passenger pigeon or the eastern elk. They have been wiped out. Of, many other species, only a few representatives still survive in the wild. The U.S. Department of the Interior has put no fewer than 109 species on the endangered species list. (An endangered species is one with poor prospects for survival and in need of protection.) This list includes everything from the timber wolf to the whooping crane. Even the bald eagle, our national symbol, is threatened.

Animals that kill other game for food are called predators. The predators include the wolf, mountain lion, fox, bobcat, and bear. (49. Attack against these animals began with the arrival of the first European settlers. who wished to protect their livestock. Eventually, a reward was offered to hunters for every predator that was killed.) This reward is called a bounty. Ironically, the Federal government is the chief funder of predator-control programs.

The settlers also brought with them their Old World fears and superstitions concerning predators. Whether preying on livestock or not, predators were shot on sight. This attitude continues to this day for coyotes, eagles, foxes, mountain lions, and bobcats, and is largely responsible for placing the eastern timber wolf, grizzly bear, and bald eagle on the endangered species list.

Yet every animal, including the predator, has its place in nature's grand design. Predators help maintain the health of their prey species by eliminating the diseased, young, old, and injured. Predators like the mountain lion and the wolf help to keep the deer herds healthy. (50 Their kill also provides food for scavengers that feed on carrion. Occasional loss of livestock must be weighed against the good these animals do in maintaining the balance of nature.)

Paragraph Ten

When you wear cap and gown at ceremony of conferring degrees or diplomas, you will be following a custom that is many centuries old. The use of caps and gowns in college and universities goes back to medieval times. Nearly all gowns are made of black cloth.

Some doctoral gowns use other colors, but the vast majorities are black.The dresses at g______.

Paragraph Eight

There is generally a certain proportion between a living creature's length of life and the time it takes to grow to full size. There also exists some relationship between the growing body and the growing brain. The animals with more complicated bodies and brains develop more slowly, and are dependent longer upon their mothers than do creatures with simpler systems.

The c_____ of the growth of animals.

Paragraph Seven

There is one kind of pain for which nobody has yet found a cure — the pain that comes from the ending of a relationship. The relationship could be a marriage, a love affair or a deep friendship; in fact any strong emotional tie between two people. Such a relationship may come to an abrupt but premeditated end.

The g_____ caused by ending of a relationship.

Paragraph Nine

Mark Twain remarked that he could live for two months on one good compliment. How true! Haven't we all repeated someone's admiring words over and over in our minds, without losing the inspiration they give? There are people everywhere in need of a good word, that is, an inspiring compliment to fire their hopes and dreams.

The power of e______.

Paragraph Five

To achieve a favorable outcome from the negotiations, an exporter should draw up a plan of action beforehand, which addresses a few key issues. Experienced negotiators consider that as much as 80% of their overall time devoted to negotiations should go to such preparations.

Preparations are vital to the s____ of negotiations.

Paragraph Six

A good solution to the waste and energy problems would be one which solves them both, according to modern scientists. The possible solution would be to generate energy from wastes. Municipalities with large waste-disposal problems are likely to be attracted to incinerators that convert combustion heat to usable energy.

I______ use of waste for energy production.

Paragraph Four

Healthy families maintain parental authority and flexibility. They listen to their children's wishes, complaints and feelings and make decisions based on what they believe is best for the child. They don't give in when society or children object. Instead, the parents state expectations and explain rules clearly and reasonably. Such parents also tend to allow children a voice in rules and consequences as they mature.

P_____ of good parenting.

Paragraph One

The relationship between a sales person and a client is important as both parties want to feel satisfied with their deal and neither wants to feel cheated. A sales person should believe that his product has certain advantage over the competition. A customer wants to be sure that he is buying a product that is of good value and high quality.

M______ benefit of business deals.

Paragraph Three

Tears have a more complex chemical composition than was imagined and they might act as one of the body's waste disposal system. Evidence from tear research may warrant a drastic change in our thinking about crying. Although there is such a thing as people weeping to excess, crying in response to various emotions is a natural physical process that we should not be ashamed of.

It is not a shame to let the tears f_____.

Paragraph Two

Many people have dreamed of a world in which all people could speak and understand the same language. They feel that many of the difficulties that exist between the nations of the world could be eliminated if people could communicate with each other in a common tongue - the one newly created solely for the purpose of international communication.

Global need of an a_____ language.

Many people believe that taking vitamin supplements is the best safeguard against the dangers of an incomplete diet, but this should be a last resort rather than a way out of a problem. Even if there is a genuine need for extra vitamins, sooner or later the question arises “which ones do I need, how much of them, and how often?” There is really no simple answer to this question. The Food Standards Committee suggest in their recent report to the government that we do not need any extra vitamins. They say that they are not necessary for a healthy individual eating a normal diet. Whilst few of us would challenge their authority on the subject of nutrition, it is, perhaps, pertinent to ask the question “how many of us are healthy, and what is a normal diet?”

There is an element of doubt in many minds about these two aspects and though few people are familiar with the wording of the Food Standards Report, they do wonder instinctively if they are eating the right things. The blame for faulty eating habits is often placed at the door of the ubiquitous junk and convenience foods. As we have seen, some of these are not the criminals they are made out to be. White bread is only slightly less nutritious than brown bread and frozen vegetables can be almost as “fresh” as fresh food. There are very few foods which can really be described as pure rubbish. Many pre-packed foods contain too much sugar and we would all benefit by avoiding these, but most tinned, processed and dried foods contain useful amounts of fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. The addition of a small amount of fruit or a side salad to convenience foods such as pizzas or hamburgers can turn a snack into a well-balanced meal.

“Junk” food is difficult to define. White sugar is probably the nearest contender for the title. It contains plenty of calories for energy but not much else, and is often described as an “empty calorie” food. Alcohol is also high in calories, but beer and wine contain some of the B vitamins and wine is a good source of iron, so even a teetotaler could not describe all alcohol as useless, nutritionally speaking.

26. chemical substance(s) that you need in order to remain healthy (Para.1)

27. not pretended; being authentic, sincerely felt or expressed (Para.1)

28. an expert whose views are taken as definitive (Para.1)

29. the study or science of food and diet requirements of humans (Para.1)

30. to have a wish or desire to know something (Para. 2)

31. being present everywhere, especially at the same time (Para. 2)

32. a light informal meal, esp. being quick to cook and to eat (Para. 2)

33. to set forth the meaning of something (Para. 3)

34. unit of heat that a certain food produces (Para. 3)

35. to tell in words what something is like (Para. 3)

The author thinks that a carbon- storage industry will work only when____.

The underlined it in Paragraph 2 refers to____.

Which of the following questions is answered in Paragraph 3?

The word cap in Paragraph 4 means

How does Gunter Grass revive the memory of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy?

It can be learned from the passage that Germans no longer think that______.

Passage Five

Engineers and scientists are working on several ways to catch the carbon, either before or after coal burns. One technology known as integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, would turn the coal into gas before it's burned for energy; gasifying it releases the carbon for capture, transportation, and sequestration deep underground. Another process, called “oxy-coal” combustion, removes nitrogen from air before combustion; when coal is burned, the waste gas is close to pure CO₂, which can be easily captured.

Scientists and engineers hope to pump this captured carbonation through mile-long straws that reach deep into the Earth's crust, into salt mines, aquifers and oil fields. Underground, the pressure will liquefy it and perhaps eventually turn it to rock. Think of it as “geo-bottling” — except we never want to pop the cap. From Houston to Huainan, scientists are already digging holes and pumping down CO₂by the ton.

Today, the CO₂captured for producing soda is only a very small percentage of the total CO₂ from power plants, but the technology for large-scale carbon capture and storage looks to be just around the corner. Spurring action from industry and governments has proved difficult, however, because the long-term economic, social and environmental costs of CO₂  pollution are not included in the price we pay for energy. That makes CO₂-intensive sources of energy like coal-fired power plants look like a better deal than cleaner technologies. But the truth is, it's a pay me now, or pay me later situation. In the context of climate change, it's more like, “pay me now, or your kids will pay me even more later.”

Fortunately, a combination of efficient markets and smart policy could level the playing field. A carbon-storage industry will be virtually impossible without a national policy that puts a price on CO₂ pollution. One such policy involves the creation of a national cap for greenhouse gas emissions and an accompanying market for tradable carbon emission credits. This summer, the U.S. Senate will likely consider legislation that would set up such a market. By making carbon a pollutant and unleashing market forces to find a price for it, the nation will essentially be revealing fossil fuels true social cost — and giving cleaner technologies, including carbon capture and storage, a fair shot. 

 Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.

21.What is the first paragraph mainly about?

Passage Four

When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Russian submarine in the final winter of World War II, more than 10,000people - mostly women, children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germany — were packed aboard. An ice storm had turned the decks into frozen sheets that sent hundreds of families sliding into the sea as the ship tilted and began to go down. Others desperately tried to put lifeboats down. Some who succeeded fought off those in the water who had the strength to try to claw their way aboard. Most people froze immediately. “I'll never forget the screams,” says Christa Nutzmann, 87, one of the 1,200 survivors. She recalls watching the ship, brightly lit, slipping into its dark grave — and into seeming nothingness, rarely mentioned for more than half a century. 

Now Germany's Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass has revived the memory of the 9,000 dead, including more than 4,000 children — with his latest novel Crab Walk, published last month. The book, which will be out in English next year, doesn't dwell on the sinking; its heroine is a pregnant young woman who survives the catastrophe only to say later: “Nobody wanted to hear about it, no there in the West (of Germany) and not at all in the East.” The reason was obvious. As Grass put it in a recent interview with the weekly Die Woche: “Because the crimes we Germans are responsible for were and are so dominant, we didn’t have the energy left to tell of our own sufferings.”

The long silence about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was probably unavoidable and necessary. By unreservedly admitting to their country’s monstrous crimes in the Second World War, Germans have managed to win acceptance abroad, marginalize the neo-Nazis at home and make peace with their neighbors. Today's unified Germany is more prosperous and stable than at any time in its long, troubled history. For that, a half century of willful forgetting about painful memories like the German Titanic was perhaps a reasonable price to pay. But even the most politically correct Germans believe that they have now earned the right to discuss the full historical record. Not to equate German suffering with that of its victims, but simply to acknowledge a terrible tragedy.

Questions 16- 20 are based on Passage Four.

Why does the author say the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was a terrible tragedy?

Hundreds of families dropped into the sea when__.

The Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy was rarely talked about for more than half a century because Germans____.

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

Why does the author mention a dog's bark?

Regarding retrieving information, we know that__.

Passage Three

Most people can remember a phone number for up to thirty seconds. When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are erased from the memory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area. The brain has a filter which only allows stimuli that are of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.

There is much debate about the capacity and duration of the short term memory. The most accepted theory comes from George A. Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans can remember approximately seven chunks of information. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or name rather than just a letter or number. Modern theorists suggest that one can increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking, or classifying similar information together. By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memory being passed on to long term storage.

When making a conscious effort to memorize something, such as information for an exam, many people engage in “rote rehearsal”. By repeating something over and over again, we are able to keep a memory alive. Unfortunately, this type of memory maintenance only succeeds if there are no interruptions. As soon as a person stops rehearsing the information, it has the tendency to disappear. When a pen and paper are not handy, you might attempt to remember a phone number by repeating it aloud.

If the doorbell rings or the dog barks to come in before you get the opportunity to make your phone call, you will forget the number instantly. Therefore, rote rehearsal is not an efficient way to pass information from the short term to long term memory. A better way is to practice “elaborate rehearsal”. This involves assigning semantic meaning to a piece of information so that it can be filed along with other pre-existing long term memories.

Encoding information semantically also makes it more retrievable. Retrieving information can be done by recognition or recall. Humans can recall memories that are stored in the long term memory and used often. However, if a memory seems to be forgotten, it may eventually be retrieved by prompting. The more cues a person is given (such as pictures), the more likely a memory can be retrieved. This is why multiple choice tests are often used for subjects that require a lot of memorization.

Questions 11-l5 are based on Passage Three.

How can a person remember more information in a short time according to theorists?

What people make our society progress?

According to the passage, the reason why America is so advanced lies in the fact that it ____.

It can be concluded from the passage that ___.

From Paragraph 5 we know that between age 40 and 55 more people_____.

Passage Two

Those who had the pleasure of watching Benny Goodman at work saw a rather ordinary-looking man in rimless glasses and a conservative business suit; but they also saw a human being who could play the clarinet on stage like no one before or since. This made Benny Goodman a unique individual.

Other Americans who have stood out from the flock include Joe DiMaggio, Clarence Darrow, and Jonas Salk. They, like Benny Goodman, were recognized and honored for no other reason than excellence.

It is doing something better than other people that makes us unique. Yet a surprising number of people still see individuality as a surface thing. They wear garish clothes, dye their hair strange colors and decorate their skin with tattoos to make some kind of social statement. But an ordinary guy who has dyed his hair purple or orange is nothing more than the same person with a funny-looking head.

The whole purpose of individuality is excellence. The people who comprehend the simple principle of being unique through performance make our entire political-economic system work. Those who invent, who know more about a subject than other people do, and who take something that doesn’t work and make it work — these people are the very soul of progress.

Fortunately, enough Americans have been inspired to do something with their uniqueness that we have developed in less than three centuries from a frontier outpost onto not only the stronghold of freedom but a country strong enough to protect that freedom. These people prized the notions of individuality and excellence about all things and thus kept the great machine functioning. The ones with the purple hair and the shining jewelry are just along for the ride, trying to be “different” and not knowing how to go about it.

The student who earns A's on his report card has grasped the idea and has found the real meaning of individuality. So has the youngster who has designed his own spaceship, who gives piano recitals, who paints pictures of the world around him, or who can name all the states and their capitals.

Benny Goodman understood it too. This is why he was at his best, blowing his clarinet, in a blue suit and black shoes.

Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.

What made Benny Goodman a unique individual?

If you want to make a difference, you should____.

Which of the following is TRUE about Paragraph 2?

“The game of life is really a game of [trade-offs]”. The underlined part means _____.

It can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that_____.

Passage One

The ups and downs of life may seem to have no predictable plan. But scientists now know there are very definite life patterns that almost all people share. Today, when we live 20 years longer than our great-grandparents, and when women mysteriously outlive men by seven years, it is clearer than ever that the “game of live” is really a game of trade-offs. As we age, we trade strength for ingenuity, speed for thoroughness, and passion for reason. These exchanges may not always seem fair, but at every age, there are some advantages. So it is reassuring to note that even if you’ve passed some of your “primes”, you still have other prime years to experience in the future. Certain important primes seem to peak later in time.

When are you healthiest? For men, from 15 to 25; for women 15 to 30. “A man is in his best shape in the decade before age 25,” says New York internist Dr.Donald Tomkins.“His muscles are firmest, his resistance to colds and infection is highest, and his body is most efficient in utilizing nutrients.” Women, for reasons scientists do not understand, get a five-year bonus. Peak health begins to decline when the body process called anabolism (cell growth) is overtaken by the opposite process, catabolism (cell death). “Cells have been dying since birth,” says Tomkins, “but in our late 20's, they start dying faster than they are replaced.” Also, muscle is replaced with fat.

Women also get an additional bonus of good health later in life. The figures of National Institute of Health show that the onset of such “old age” diseases as arthritis, rheumatism and heart ailments denies the generally greater fitness of women: Life expectancy for men is now 68.3; for women 75.9. U. S. aging authority William Kannel says, “Older women with low blood pressure are practically important.” However, psychologists believe that by entering the competitive job market in increasing numbers, women may eventually give up their statistical advantage.

When are you most likely to develop mental disorder? From 30 to 35. This surprisingly narrow peak is very real. The National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH) reports that more than half of the patients in mental hospitals, male and female, in this age group (men leading women by about 20 %).

But if we are most neurotic between 30 and 35, apparently we recover quickly. Admissions to mental hospitals drop sharply around age 40 and stay down until age65. Yet, say psychologists, between 40 and 55, more people report they “feel” on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Relatively few actually occur. “We become veterans at coping,” says psychologist Marvin Karlins.

Quе?t?оn? 1-5 аrе bа?еd оn Ра??аgе Опе.

“The ups and downs of life may seem to have no predictable plan.”This statement means that____.