英语阅读(二)2009年10月真题试题及答案解析（00596）

Paragraph Ten

Active people are much less likely to smoke; they’re thinner and they eat differently than their sedentary peers. They also tend to be more educated, and education is one of the strongest predictors of good health in general and a longer life.

Reasons why active people tend to be h____.

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 life" is really a game of trade-offs. (46. 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 "prime", you still have other prime years to experience in the future. Certain important primes seem to peak later in time.

WHEN ARE YOU SMARTEST? From 18 to 25, according to IQ scores; but you are more experienced with increasing age. You’re sharpest in your 20’s; around 30, memory begins to decline, particularly your ability to perform mathematical computations. "But your IQ for other tasks climbs," says Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen. Your vocabulary at age 45, for example, is three times as great as when you graduated from college. At 60, your brain possesses almost four times as much information as it did at age 21. (47. This trade-off between sharpness and wisdom has led psychologist Dr. Leopold Bellak to suggest that "maturity quotients" (MQs instead of IQs) be adopted for adults.)

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 Timkins. "His muscles are firmest, his resistance to colds and infection is highest, and his body is most efficient in utilizing nutrients." (48. 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 dyingsince birth," says Tomkins, "but in our late 20’s, they start dying faster than they are replaced." Also, muscle is replaced with fat.

WHEN ARE YOU HAPPIEST? You have the best physical sense of yourself from 15 to 24; the best professional sense from 40 to 49. Pessimism peaks between 30 and 39. San Diego State University psychologists Marilyn Borges and Linda Dutton found that before age 24, we believe that our happiest years are yet to come; over 30, we believe that they’ re behind us. (49. The pessimism peak occurs when we realize that talent and determination aren’t enough to guarantee success.)Lady Luck must help.

Also, youth’s good physical sense of self apparently does little to foster happiness. "Parents who tell their teenage children these are the happiest years," says Ligger, "couldn’t be more wrong. Adolescence is very difficult. Only when you are 40 and looking back does youth look blissful."

By viewing life’s various peaks, we can easily get the feeling that we are part of a giant give-and-take plan. (50. Though statistically the plan is there, we must remember that every peak has many exceptions. Says McLeish, "The human life journey cannot be charted by a single curving line.")

Paragraph Seven

Researchers found that of all the forms of inactivity they examined, television-viewing was the worst. It was linked to significantly higher blood pressure in children — the more TV kids watched, the higher their blood pressure — and the effect held true regardless of whether a child was heavy or at a healthy weight.

L ____ were found between TV watching and high blood pressure in children.

Paragraph Eight

The eating habits of American children appear to be shifting. And for a change, the news is good.Burgers, fries and colas remain popular with the under-13 set, of course. But new market research shows that consumption of these foods at restaurants is declining, while soup, yogurt, fruit, grilled chicken and chocolate milk are on the rise.

A s _____ for the better in the eating habits of American children.

Paragraph Nine

Not even the most optimistic greens could have predicted that the federal government’s cash-for-clunkers program would work this well — more than 240,000 Americans have traded in their clunkers so far, and the program has already burned through its first round of funding.

S ____ of a government program.

Paragraph Six

"Alas," said Huntington Willard, the Duke University genome expert, "genetically speaking, if you’ve met one man, you’ve met them all. We are, I hate to say it, predictable. You can’t say that about women. Men and women are farther apart than we ever knew."

Women are genetically more c ____ than men.

Paragraph Five

In recent decades most of North America has been experiencing more unusually hot days and nights, fewer unusually cold days and nights, and fewer frost days. Heavy downpours have become more frequent and intense. Droughts are becoming more severe in some regions.

C ____ in extreme weather patterns.

Paragraph Two

Children who are older by a wider gap tend to teach their younger siblings social and manual skills, almost like a third parent, while rivalry is usually greatest when the age difference is small. It is especially so when siblings are under four — they are easily displeased when gratification of their needs is postponed.

A ____ difference plays a crucial role in sibling rivalry.

Paragraph Three

A hundred years ago the Klondike gold rush drew more than 100,000 people from across the globe towards a wilderness where the average January temperature is-30℃. A handful became fabulously wealthy, but most counted themselves lucky to survive. Scores succumbed to diseases before they could make it back to civilization.

Few people became r ____ in the Klondike gold rush.

Paragraph Four

Just 54 per cent of students entering four-year colleges in 1997 had a degree six years later —and even fewer Hispanics and blacks did, according to some of the latest government figures. After borrowing for school but failing to graduate, many of those students may be worse off than if they had never attended college at all.

College d ____ face difficult financial situations.

Of all the sports that America has to offer, baseball is considered the pastime of this country. Americans did not always regard baseball and other sports in such a benign manner. Rather, sports during the early colonial times were seen as pagan and devilish thing to do. Many elite and wealthy gentry who embodied the Victorian ideals regarded any type of games or sports as ill vices. It was the common people who directly related sports to their religion. On days of religiouscelebration, early Americans joined together to play games. These folk games were unstructured and unruly; however, the unity that these games brought, created a need for professional sporting games. Folk games provided the foundation of sports. They created a sense of companionship and unison among individuals. These unorganized folk games created the threshold for organized sports and led to the transformation of the players’ roles and the role of the audience. Amateurs became professional athletes, and the game an organized business. The game of baseball evolwed from the English game of cricket and rounders. It was not until the time of the Civil War that baseball began to be played frequently.

However with the transformation of the nation, society and technology, folk games too began to evolve into spectator sports. After the Civil War, baseball became a popular sport and no longer an archaic folk games. Structure and organization were introduced gradually into the game and increased public participation. The sport at first excluded the public, but as economic interests infiltrated the game, the need for audiences and spectators arose. The audience of baseball was instrumental in the transformation of baseball. The battling leagues and team rivalries created a sector for the American public to participate in baseball.

26. something that you enjoy doing when not working (Para. 1)

27. favorable or pleasant (Para. 1)

28. the leaders and professionals in the highest levels of a society (Para. 1)

29. difficult to control or manage (Para. 1)

30. the start of a new development (Para. 1)

31. a person who is watching a sports event (Para. 2)

32. to keep out something or someone (Para. 2)

33. to join or enter for a purpose (Para. 2)

34. competition or fighting between people (Para. 2)

35. to get involved in an activity (Para. 2)

What is the main topic of this passage?

Paragraph One

The term "Grit" first appeared on the Canadian political scene in 1849 to describe the more progressive members of the Upper Canada Reform Party. They saw themselves as genuine reformers, "all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through," as David Christie, one of the reformers, put it.

O ___ of the political term "Grit".

Why is the long Spanish lunch followed by the afternoon siesta?

"In an era ... leading to something closer to cultural homogenization." (ParA.5)The word "homogenization" is closest in meaning to____.

What did Murata say about his daughter?

Passage Five

Originally the food of emperors, the cuisine known as kaiseki is the pinnacle of Japanese eating —and few restaurants serve a more refined menu than Kikunoi, in the former imperial capital of Kyoto. Kaiseki dining is the product of centuries of cultural evolution, but though Kikunoi is high-end — as the bill will indicate —its cuisine is meant to be a grand elaboration of the basic Japanese home meal: rice, fish, pickles, vegetables and miso soup, artfully presented in small, healthy portions.

"I believe that Japanese cuisine is something embedded in Japanese people’s DNA," says Kikunoi’s owner, Yoshihiro Murata. That may be true, but it’s a legacy under assault, increasingly crowded out by fast, convenient, westernized food. These days, Murata says sadly, his college-age daughter doesn’t see much difference between cheap restaurant food and the haute cuisine he makes. "I think that in Japan, people should eat good Japanese food," he says. "But they are faraway from it."

Japan is not alone. Food and diet are the cornerstones of any culture, one of the most reliable symbols of national identity. Think of the long Spanish lunch followed by the afternoon siesta, a rhythm of food and rest perfectly suited to the blistering heat of the Iberian Peninsula in summer. Think of the Chinese meal of rice, vegetables and (only recently) meat, usually served in big collective dishes, the better for extended clans to dine together. National diets come to incorporate all aspects of who we are: our religious taboos, class structure, geography, economy, even government.

Even the traditions we learn from others we adopt and adapt in ways that make them our own. Japan received chopsticks from China and tempura from Portugal. Tomatoes, that staple of pasta and pizza, arrived in Southern Europe only as part of the Columbian Exchange. "A lot of what we think of as deeply rooted cultural traditions are really traceable back to global exchange," says Miriam Chaiken, a nutritional anthropologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

In an era of instant communication and accelerated trade, those cultural exchanges have exploded, leading to something closer to cultural homogenization. That’s bad for not only the preservation of national identities but the preservation of health too. Saturated fats and meats are displacing grains and fresh vegetables. Mealtimes are shrinking. McDonald’s is everywhere. From Chile to China, the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease is on the rise. This, in turn, is leading to a minimovement in some countries to hold fast to traditional food culture, even as their menu grows ever more international.

Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.

We can learn from the first paragraph that Kikunoi is ______.

We can infer from the passage that Buonanotte ______.

What did Buonanotte do after contacting National Fallen Firefighters Foundation?

We can learn from the third paragraph that Buonanotte was bothered by the fact that____.

Which statement is true about the charity, 500 for Life?

Passage Four

Frank Buonanotte was going through some junk mail when he came across a postcard advertising a History Channel documentary. "That pile of mail had been sitting there for weeks," he says. "But I noticed the movie was scheduled to air within the hour." For some reason, Buonanotte, a semiretired entrepreneur, tuned in.

Into the Fire was about firefighters, and Buonanotte was fascinated. "One segment was about what it’s like to be in a fire," he recalls. "The smoke makes it impossible to see, you’re crawling along the floor, people are trapped in remote rooms." The film explained how a new technology called thermal imaging could "see" through smoke and walls so firefighters could identify victims, fallen colleagues, and the source of a fire.

But the portable cameras cost more than $10,000 each, and few fire stations could afford them. About 80,000 firefighters are injured every year in the line of duty; last year, 114 died. "But it’s not like cancer," says Buonanotte. "A cure exists. The only reason it’s not used is lack of funds. That bothered me."

The documentary stuck with him. Having recently quit his day-to-day duties as founder and CEO of two companies, Buonanotte had been meeting with a life coach to figure out "what the second half of my life would be about."

According to the last paragraph, why does the argument appeal to some Greenlanders?

According to Planet Earth, the immediate danger polar bears face is .____.

Why does Ajukutoq keep complaining to travelers?

What can be concluded about the Inuit people’s way of life?

What do we learn from the last paragraph?

Passage Three

In the northern part of Greenland, ice caps, permafrost and gullies dominate the landscape and there’s almost no vegetation. Here became the domain of the Thule who came from Canada in 1200.

The onset of the Little Ice Age in the 15th century signaled the end of the Ice Age which started 130,000 years ago. Although the Little Ice Age brought Greenland’s temperatures down by merely 0.8℃, it dealt a lethal blow on the southern regions — vegetation and animals succumbed to cold, famine stroke, and European settlements vanished.

The Inuit people survived. They intermarried with the Europeans who came later and became the forefathers of Greenland’s people today. The Inuit people still live in pretty much the same way as their ancestors. They make Eskimo canoes. They fish with nets. They hunt seals and sea lions. Sometimes they gut the animals and eat them right on the ice. The innards are precious gifts and are taken back to people of high status and guests. 

Planet Earth, a critically acclaimed documentary, tells of the impact climate change is having on the ecosystems of the Arctic from the perspective of a polar bear family. The bears are starved on the seaside since they have no sea lions and seals to hunt as glaciers are cracking.

The Inuit people are meeting the same fate. Like others, Ajukutoq, a hunter, keeps on complaining to travelers that ice is fast thawing and they are losing the "platforms" they can stand on to hunt animals. They have to use modern fast boats to go further north and look for solid ice surfaces. As the whale population decreases and animals move northwards, whether or not the Inuit’s traditional way of life can continue is thrown into question.

According to the passage, Michael Levis and Sam Apple_____.

According to the passage, fathers are better positioned to write parenting books today because ____.

When the author mentions the increased availability of baby gadgets, her tone is____.

Passage Two

My mother used to tell my father that he was a very good mother. This was her way of praising his attendance at every concert and game, his patience and care. In those days, "good mother" was the highest domestic achievement; to have called him a good father, given how low the bar was set, wouldn’t have done him justice.

But that was long, long ago. Now fathers sing to their babies in uteri, come to birthing class, coach mom through delivery (as opposed to the days of the hospital clubs, where fathers smoked and paced while mothers delivered their offspring). They can buy strap-on breasts, so they can share in the bonding. And baby toupees, for those sensitive about hairlessness. I can’t help thinking that the increased engagement of fathers has some direct connection to the increased availability of baby gadgets, since having two fanatically engaged parents offers twice the targetfor retailers.

The typical father spends about seven hours per week in "primary child care," which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize it’s more than twice as much as in 1965.

What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?

What is the message the author intends to convey?

Passage One

Today, there’s scarcely an aspect of our life that isn’t being upended by the torrent of information available on the hundreds of millions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability to keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail. "If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at the same pace as computer and information technology," says Microsoft, "a new car would cost about $ 2 and go 600 miles on a thimbleful of gas. And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of a pizza."

Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollars the Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving for the needs of their customers. Nothing like it has been seen since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when power-driven machines began producing more in a day than men could turn out in nearly a year. "We view the growth of the Internet and e-commerce as a global megatrend," says Merrill Lynch, "along the lines of printing press, the telephone, the computer, and electricity."

You would be hard pressed to name something that isn’t available on the Internet. Consider: books, health care, movie tickets, construction materials, baby clothes, stocks, cattle feed, music, electronics, antiques, tools, real estate, toys, autographs of famous people, wine and airline tickets. And even after you’ve moved on to your final resting place, there’s no reason those you love can’t keep in touch. A company called FinalThoughts.com offers a place for you to store "afterlife e-mails" you can send to Heaven with the help of a "guardian angel".

Kids today are so computer savvy that it virtually ensures the United States will remain the unchallenged leader in cyberspace for the foreseeable future. Nearly all children in families with incomes of more than $75,000 a year have home computers, according to a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Youngsters from ages 2 to 17 at all income levels have computers, with 52% of those connected to the Internet. Most kids use computers to play games (some for 30 hours or more a week), and many teenage girls think nothing of rushing home from school to have e-mail chats with friends they have just left.

What’s clear is that, whether we like it or not, the Internet is an ever growing part of our lives and there is no turning back. "The Internet is just 20% invented," says cyber pioneer Jake Winebaum. "The last 80% is happening now."

Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.

What can we learn from the Microsoft’s remark?

The author gives the example of to make the point that____.

According to the author, the biggest benefit of the Internet is that___.