考博英语—阅读精讲

考博英语—阅读精讲

（初阶）

主讲老师：毕源

初阶（一）

Directions: In this part there are six passages, each of which is followed by five questions. For each question there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark the letter of your choice on the ANSWER SHEET. Passage One

Patients can recall what they hear while under general anesthetic even if they do n’t wake

up, concludes a new study.

Several studies over the past three decades have reported that people can retain conscious or subconscious memories of things that happened while they were being operated on. But failure by other researchers to confirm such findings has led skeptics to speculate that the patients who remembered these events might briefly have regained consciousness in the course of operations.

Gitta Lubke, Peter Sebel and colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta measured the depth

of anesthesia using bispectral analysis, a technique which measures changes in brainwave pattern in the frontal lobes moment by moment during surgery. Before this study, researchers only took an average measurement over the whole operation, says Lubke.

Lubke studied 96 traurna patients undergoing emergency surgery, many of whom were too severely injured to tolerance full anesthesia. During surgery, each patient wore headphones through which a series of 16 words was repeated for 3 minutes each. At the same time, bispectral analysis recorded the depth of anesthesia.

After the operation, Lubke tested the patients by showing them the first three letters of a word such as "lim", and asking them to complete it. Patients who had had a word starting with these letters played during surgery—"limit", for example—chose that word an average of 11 per cent more often than patients who had been played a different word list. None of the patients had any conscious memory of hearing the word lists.

Unconscious priming was strongest for words played when patients were most lightly anaesthetized. But it was statistically significant even when patients were fully anaesthetized when the word was played.

This finding, which will be published in the journal Anesthesiology, could mean that operating theatre staff should be move discreet. What they say during surgery may distress patient afterwards, says Philip Merikle, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.

61. Scientists have found that deep anesthesia .

A. is likely to affect hearing

B. cannot block surgeons’ words

C. can cause serious damages to memory

D. helps retain conscious or subconscious

memories

62. By the new study, the technique of bispectral analysis helps the scientists . A. acquire an average measurement of brainwave changes over the whole surgery

B. decide whether the patient would retain conscious or subconscious memories

C. relate their measurements

and recordings to the verbal sounds during surgery D. assure the depth of anesthesia during surgery

63. To test the patients the scientist s

A. prepared two lists of words

B. used ninety-six headphones for listening

C. conducted the whole experiment for three minutes

D. voiced only the first three letters of sixteen words during surgery

64. The results from the new study indicate that it was possible for the patients .

A. to regain consciousness under the knife

B. to tell one word from another after surgery

C. to recall what had been heard during surgery

D. to overreact to deep anesthesia in the course of operations

65. What we can infer from the finding . A. how surgical

malpractice can be prevented B. why a surgeon cannot be too careful

C. why surgeon should hold their tongues during surgery

D. how the postoperative patients can retain subconscious memories

Passage Two

Scientists used to believe adult brains did not grow any new neurons, but it has emerged that new neurons can sprout in the brains of adult rats, birds and even humans. Understanding the process could be important for finding ways to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s in wh ich neurons are destroyed.

Most neurons sprouting in adulthood seem to be in the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory. But they rarely survive more than a few weeks. "We thought they were possibly dying because they were deprived of some sort of input, " says Elizabeth Gould, a neuroscientist at Princeton. Because of the location, Gould and her colleagues suspect that learning itself might bolster the new neurons’survival, and that only tasks involving the hippocampus would do the trick.

To test this, they injected adult male rats with a substance that labeled newborn neurons so that they could be tracked. Later, they gave some of the rats standard tasks. One involved using visual and spatial cues, such as posters on a well, to learn to find a platform hidden under murky water. In another, the rats learnt to associate a noise with a tiny shock half a second later. Both these tasks use the hippocampus— if this structure is damaged rats ca n’t do them.

Meanwhile, the researchers gave other rats similar tasks that did not require the hippocampus finding a platform that was easily visible in water, for instance. Other members of the control group simply paddled in a tub of water or listened to noises.

The team report in Nature Neuroscience that the animals given the tasks that activate the

hippocampus kept twice as many of their new neurons alive as the others. "Learning opportunities increase the number of neurons, " says Gould.

But Fred Gage and his colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, dispute this In the same issue of Nature Neuroscience, they report that similar water maze experiments on mice did not help new neurons survive.

Gould thinks the difference arose because the groups labeled new neurons at different times. Her gave the animals tasks two weeks after the neurons were labeled, when the new cells would normally be dying, she thinks the Salk group put their mice to work too early for new neurons to benefit "By the time the cells were degenerating, the animals were not learning anything, " she says.

66. Not until recently did scientists find out that _.

A. new neurons could grow in adult brains

B. neurons could be man-made in the laboratory

C. neurons were destroyed in

Alzheimer’s disease D. humans could produce new neurons as animals

67. G ould’s notion was that the short-lived neurons

A. did survive longer than expected

B. would die much sooner than expected could

C. could actually better learning and memory

D. could be kept alive by stimulating the hippocampus

68. Which of the following can clearly tell the two groups of rats from each other in the test?

A. The water used.

B. The noises played

C. The neurons newly born.

D. The hippocampus involved.

69. Gould theorizes that the Salk group’s failure to report the same results was due to

A. the timing of labeling new neurons

B. the frequency of stimulation

C. the wrongly labeled neurons

D. the types of learning tasks

70. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. Use It or Lose It.

B. Learn to Survive.

C. To Be or Not to Be.

D. Stay Mentally Healthy.

Passage Three

Her e’s yet another reason to lose weight. Heavier people are more likely to be killed or seriously injured in ear accidents than lighter people.

That could mean car designers will have to build in new safety features to compensate for the extra hazards facing overweight passengers. In the US, ear manufacturers have already had to redesign air bags so they inflate to lower pressures making them less of a danger to smaller women and children. But no one yet knows what it is that puts overweight passengers at extra

risk.

A study carried out in Seattle, Washington, looked at more than 26, 000people who had been involved in ear crashes, and found that heavier people were at far more risk. People weighing between 100 and 119kilograms are almost two-and-a-half times as likely to die in a crash as people weighing less than 60kilograms.

And importantly: the same trend held up when the researchers looked at body mass index

(BMI) —a measure that takes height as well as weight into account. Someone 1.8 meters tall weighing 126kilograms would have a BMI of 39, but so would a person 1.5 meters tall weighing

88 kilograms. People are said to be obese if their BMI is 30 or over.

The study found that people with a BMI of 35 to 39 are over twice as likely to die in a crash compared with people with BMIs of about 20. It’s not just total weight, but obesity itself that’s d angerous.

While they do not yet know why this is the case, the evidence is worth pursuing, says Charles Mock, a surgeon and epidemiologist at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle, who led the research team. He thinks one answer may be for safety authorities to use heavier crash-test dummies when certifying cars as safe to drive.

Crash tests normally use dummies that represent standard-sized males weighing about 78

kilograms. Recently, smaller crash-test dummies have also been used to represent children inside crashing cars. But larger and heavier dummies a ren’t used, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington, D. C. told New Scientist.

The reasons for the higher injury and death rates are far from clear. Mock speculates that car interiors might not be suitably designed for heavy people. Or obese people, with health problems such as high blood pressure or diabetes, could be finding it tougher to recover from injury.

71. When they redesigned air bags to hold less pressure, the American car manufactures

A. found it hard to set standards without the definition of obesity

B. incidentally brought about extra risks to obese passengers

C. based their job on the information of car accidents

D. actually neglected smaller women and children

72. When they categorized the obese people, the researchers .

A. showed a preference for BMI in measurements

B. achieved almost the same results as previously

C. found the units of kilogram more applicable than BMI

D. were shocked to know the number of obese people killed in car crashes

73. To address the problem, Mock .

A. suggested that the safety authorities use heavier crash-test dummies

B. cried for the standardization of crash-test dummies

C. reduced the weights of crash—test dummies

D. encouraged obese people to lose weight

74. While exploring the reason for the higher injury and death rates, Mock would most probably say that .

A. cars can be made safer to avoid crashes

B. it is wise for obese people not to drive drunk

C. it is not just total weight, but obesity itself that is dangerous

D. the main reason behind the problem is drinkers heavy weight

75. Which of the following questions is closely related to the passage?

A. Are air bags really necessary to be built in cars?

B. Are cars certified as safe to drive?

C. Are crash-test dummies too thin?

D. Are car accidents preventable?

Passage Four

It seems intuitive that going to a specialist physician will result in more thorough and up-to-date care for whatever ails you. In fact, many studies support this idea—but health-care researchers caution that they may not tell the whole story.

The first question is whose patients are sicker? Specialists tend to treat more complicated forms of disease, but generalists —family physicians and general practitioners—are more likely to treat patients with several coexisting diseases.

A second question is what counts as the most valuable treatment? Specialists are more familiar with standards of care for the diseases they treat regularly, says Harlan M. Krumholz of Yale University. On the other hand, a generalist may do a better job of coordinating a patient’s c are and keeping an eye on a perso n’s overall health says Martin T. Domohoe of the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.

To further complicate comparisons, many generalists will consult with specialists on complicated cases, but medical records do not always show that, says Carolyn Clancy of the Agency for health Care policy and Research in Rockville, Md.

That said, stroke patients treated by neurologists are more likely to survive than stroke patients treated by generalists. Among about 38, 000 stroke sufferers nationwide, 16.1% of those treated by a neurologist died within 3 months, compared with 25.3 percent of those treated by family physicians.

Several studies have shown that people with heart disease fare better when they are treated by cardiologists, says S. Nash of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, but it’s h ard to figure out exactly why.

"Physician specialty, in addition to being a measure of formal training in the field, is also a proxy for clinical experience, " he says, "It’s very difficult to separate out the overlapping concepts: one, that practice makes perfect; two, the effect of the educational and time investments in a clinical problem the physician is

simply interested in; and three, the issue of formal training. "

Differences between specialist care and generalist care, however, pale in comparison with the finding that both specialists and generalists often fail to put the latest knowledge into practice, contend both Donohoe and Clancy.

A report by the US. General Accounting Office documented that heart attack survivors who saw cardiologists regularly were more likely to take cholesterol-lowering drugs and beta blockers-- which reduce heart rate and blood pressure-- than those who received care from a generalist. Even so, these life-prolonging drugs were not prescribed to many patients who appeared to be eligible for them, implying that both generalists and specialists could do better.

"Maybe we are focusing too much energy on the differences between generalist and specialist care, "says Donohoe. Perhaps, he adds, "we should focus more intently on improving the quality of communication and cooperation between generalists and specialists and on developing and promoting practice guidelines that might have a much bigger effect on the overall health of Americans. "

76. Which of the following questions can most probably come out of the two questions

raised in the passage?

A. Is specialist care superior?

B. What is specialist care all about?

C. why is one unwilling to be a generalist?

D. Is generalist care the future of medicine?

77. The answers to the two questions suggest that .

A. generalists are more likely to be ignored.

B. a specialist can be a generalist, or vice versa

C. neither of the two groups is better than the other

D. patients have every reason to go to specialist physicians

78. According to the passage, the better treatment of stroke and heart disease on the part of specialists .

A. cannot simply be ascribed to specialty

B. is hard to be justified on the nationwide scale

C. is enough to prove the superiority of specialist care

D. has much to do with the amount of formal education

79. Both specialists and generalists, Donohoe and Clancy contend, could do a better job of

A. taking advantage of the other

B. avoiding as much malpractice as possible

C. putting the latest knowledge into practice

D. educating the public to their consciousness of health

80. Donohoe is trying to shift our attention to .

A. better communication and cooperation between generalists and specialists

B. the real nature of specialist and generalist care respectively

C. the similarities between generalist and specialist care

D. the declining health of Americans

Passage Five

Children are spending an increasing amount of time using computers. Computers are now found is most in classrooms, and in the majority of homes, almost always with internet access. However, many studies of chil dren’s use of computers show that there are possible negative effects. This essay will explain the possible negative effects of computer use on children, focusing on the effects on family and peer relationships and the increased tendency towards violent behavior.

Computer use may negatively affect social relationship between children and their parents. Because children spend so much time on computers, they often know more about advanced computer use than their parents. According to Subrahmanvam and his colleagues (2001) this often leads to a role reversal, where the child becomes a teacher to the parent. In other worlds, it is often the case that a highly computer literate teenager will teach their parents how to use the more complex functions of computer technology. This can lead to a reduction in parental authority. Moreover, with the anonymity of online communication, computer users do not know if they are talking to a child or an adult, so

all users are treated equally (Subrahmanyam et al,

2001). Children may then expect the same equality in real life, further contributing to a breakdown in the parent-children relationship (Subrahmanyam et al, 2001).

Child ren’s peer relationships can also be negatively affected by extensive computer use. Since computers are more likely to be used in isolation by children, they spend little time interacting with their peers (Shields & Behrman, 2001). As a result, children may not develop the social skills they need, or be able to maintain friendships in the real world (Subrahmanyam et al,

2001). With the very extended computer use, this isolation from the real world can lead to loneliness and even depression (Shields &Behrman, 2001).

A disturbing possible effect of computer use on children is the link between computer

games and violence. Current research has already documented a strong link between violent films and television and aggressive behavior in children, so it is reasonable to believe that a similar link will be found between violent behavior in children and violence in computer games (Subrahmanyam et al, 2001). However, as Shields Behrman (2001) points out, it is important to note that although the games may affect all children, children who prefer violent games could be most affected.

In conclusion, using a computer, particularly for extended periods, may affect the parent-children relationship in families. It could also result in children not learning the social skills they need to interact with peers and maintain friendships. Moreover, it seems likely that playing violent computer games is linked to violence in children. Although the research is not conclusive, it appears that extended use of computers could have a negative effect on chil dren’s social development.

81. From the very beginning, the author is trying to draw our attention to .

A. crimes on rise at school

B. a decline in family value

C. the negative effects of chil dren’s ov eruse of computer

D. the increasing number of

investigations on education

82. Which is the best reason for the reduction of parental authority according to the passage?

A. Children become teachers to their parents.

B. Parents are fossilized in new technology.

C. Children expect for an equal status with their parents.

D. Parents’ roles are being shrunk

by the computer.

83. What does Shield & Behrman imply in the passage?

A. Children greatly value the friendship with their peers.

B. Children are doomed to suffer depression by using computer.

C. Children will be doomed to be affected by violent games.

D. Children’s inclination to aggression may derive from violent games.

84. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as the negative result of playing computer games in the passage?

A. A lack of social communication.

B. Increasing violent performance.

C. A decline in intelligence.

D. A breakdown in family relationship.

85. Where might the passage be taken from?

A. A biography.

B. A science fiction

C. A Research periodical.

D. Business newspaper.

Passage Six

Are smart people just naturally attracted to study art or perform music, dance, or drama?

Or does early education in the art actually cause changes in the brain that develop important components of

cognition? Recent findings show that there may be some significant causal relationships between arts training and the brai n’s ability to learn.

The Dana Foundation, an organization with interest in neuroscience, immunology, and arts

education, just released a three-year study that found that early training in the arts is possibly good for your brain. Neuroscientists and psychologists at several universities have now enhanced understanding of just how the arts might improve thinking, memory, and language skills. Music education is linked with the ability to control both short-term and long-term memory, geometric representation, and development of reading skills. Dance training improves thinking though mimicry and acting classes seem to expand language. Visual arts lessons outside the classroom in childhood are linked to improved math calculations, in retrospect, I wish I had more art lessons before I took on that advanced math class in high school.

It’s not a new idea that the arts can make us smarter. The notion caught fire in the 1990s when researchers showed that college students did better on certain math tests after listening to a little bit of Mozart. And while the current report from the Dana Foundation did not provide definitive theories as to how arts make us smart, what it does is end the popular notion that people are either right-or left-brain learners. Apparently artists and scientists are not that fundamentally different and perhaps there is even an underlying connection between the cognitive processes that give rise to both arts and sciences.

86. At the beginning of the passage, two questions are raised to explore the relation between .

A. early education and the future

B. intelligence and emotional quotient

C. art training and cognitive development

D. the human brain and its cognitive components

87. From music education to dance training to visual arts lessons, the researchers found that .

A. early training in the arts improved cognitive skills

B. early education in the arts enhanced the learning by heart

C. art training was widely conducted during childhood

D. the artistic education took many forms for children

88. What can be inferred about the autho r’s art lessons during childhood?

A. They are proficient.

B. They are deficient

C. They are popular

D. They are various

89. According to the passage, the current findings .

A. present the working mechanism of the right and left brains

B. challenge the popular division of right-or left-brain learners

C. reveal the fundamental differences between artists and scientists

D. interpret the different cognitive processes in scientists and artists

90. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. Brainy Art.

B. Learning Art.

C. Arts Training.

D. Cognitive Science.

初阶（二）

Directions: In this part there are six passages, each of which is followed by five questions. For each question there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark the letter of your choice on the ANSWER SHEET. Passage One

As the defining epidemic of a modem age notable for overconsumption and excess, obesity is hard to beat. The increased availability of high-fat, high-sugar foods, along with more sedentary lifestyles, has helped push the number of obese people worldwide to beyond 400 million and the number of overweight to more than 1.6 billion. By 2015, those figures are likely to grow to 700 million and 2. 3 billion respectively, according to the World Health Organization. Given the health implications —increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and

some cancers — anything that helps people avoid piling on the pounds must be a good thing, right?

Those who agree will no doubt welcome the growing success of researchers striving to develop "diet pills" that provide a technical fix for those incapable of losing weight any other way. Last week a study published in The Lancet showed that tesofensine, which works by inducing a sense of fullness, is twice as effective as any other drug at enabling patients to lose weight.

There is no question that advances such as this are good news for those with a strong genetic predisposition to obesity. But for the rest of us it is dangerous to see treatment as a more effective solution than prevention. There are several reasons for this. For a start, the traditional ways of maintaining a safe weight, such as limiting what you eat, increase consumption of fruit and vegetables and taking more exercise, are beneficial for our health in many ways.

Second, overindulgence in fatty foods has implications for the entire planet. Consider the deleterious environmental effects of the rising demand for meat. As demonstrated in our special issue on economic growth, technological fixes will not compensate for excessive consumption. Third, interfering with the brain circuits that control the desire for food can have an impact on other aspects of a perso n’s personality and their mental and physical health.

We need two approaches: more research into the genetics of obesity to understand why some people are more susceptible, and greater efforts to help people avoid eating their way to an early death. Cynics will say we’ve tried education and it has n’t worked. That is defeatist: getting people to change their behavior takes time and effort, held back as we are by our biological tendency to eat more than we need, and by the food industry’s ruthless opportunism in exploiting that.

Drugs will be the saving of a few — as a last resort. But the global obesity problem is one of

lifestyle, and the solution must be too.

61. In the first paragraph all the figures surrounding obesity reflect .

A. a close link between growing obese and developing disease

B. the inevitable diseases of modem

civilization

C. the war against the epidemic we have lost

D. the urgency of the global phenomenon

62. When it comes to the recently reported diet pills, the author would say that

A. drugs are no replacement of prevention

B. the technical advance is not necessarily good news

C. the technical fix does help reverse the obesity epidemic

D. the mechanism of tesofensine still remains to be verified

63. Which of the following can be referred to as the environmental perspective of the author’s argument?

A. Belittling good health behavior .

B. Imposing a heavy burden on our planet.

C. Making trouble for our social environment.

D. Having implications for mental and physical health.

64. The author argues that we make greater efforts to help people fight against

. A. their biological over eating tendency and aggressively marketed foods

B. the development of diet pills as a technical fix for obesity

C. their excuses for their genetic susceptibility to obesity

D. the defeatism prevailing in the general populations

65. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. No Quick Fix

B. Disease of Civilization

C. Pursuing a Technical Fix

D. A War on Global Obesity

Passage Two

An abandoned airfield near a former Nazi concentration tramp may soon feature pagodas and Tai Chi parks. A $700 million project aims to give Germany its own Chinatown 22 miles north of Berlin in the town of Orangeburg, housing 2, 000 residents by 2010.

The investor group behind the scheme hopes the new Chinatown will attract tourists andbusiness to rival the famed Chinatowns of San Francisco and New York by delivering an "authentic Chinese experience. " "You’ll be able to experience China, go out for a Chinese meal, and buy Chinese goods, "says Stefan Kernigan, managing director of Brandenburg-China-Project-Management GmbH.

The project has attracted investors in both Germany and China, reports Christophe Lang of Berli n’s T rade and Industry promotion Office. "Chinese investors have already asked if we have a Chinatown here. " He says. "The cultural environment is very important for them. You cannot build a synthetic Chinatown. "

Germany is home to about 72, 000 Chinese migrants (2002 Federal Statistical Office figures), but the country has not had a Chinatown since the early 1930s in Hamburg, when most of the cit y’s 2, 000Chinese residents fled or were arrested by the Nazis.

German’s more-recent history with anti-foreigner extremism remains a problem even

within the government, reports Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster. DW

notes that National Democratic Party lawmaker Holg er Apfel’s xen ophobic (恐外的) comments about "state-subsidized Oriental mega-families" at first went largely uncriticized.

"Every fourth German harbors anti-foreigner sentiment s,”DW quotes Miriam Gruss, a Free Democratic Party parliamentarian. "Right-wing extremism is clearly rooted in the middle of society. It’s not a minor phenomenon. “The German government initiated a special youth for

Democracy and Tolerance program in January 2007 as part of its tolerance-building efforts.

While it is not clear how-many Chinese migrants will ultimately settle in the new German Chinatown, developers hope the project will increase Germans’ understanding for China and Chinese culture.

66. If set up, according to the passage, the new German Chinatown will probably be

A. a rival to the Chinatowns of San Francisco and New York

B. mainly made of pagodas and Tai Chi parks

C. located in the north suburbs of Berlin

D. the biggest one in Germany

67. When he says that you cannot build a synthetic Chinatown, Lang means .

A. the real imported goods made in China

B. the authoritative permission for the project

C. the importance of the location for a Chinatown

D. the authentic environment to experience Chinese culture

68. By mentioning the population of Chinese migrants in Germany, the author most probably means that .

A. it is too late to build a Chinatown

B. it is their desire to save a Chinatown

C. it is important to create jobs for them

D. it is necessary to have a Chinatown there

69. According to the passage, German anti-foreigner extremism .

A. can see the new community with hatred

B. could be an obstacle to the project

C. will absolutely kill the plan

D. is growing for the scheme

70. The message from the plan is clear: .

A. to build a new community

B. to fight against right-wing extremism

C. to promote more cultural understanding

D. to increase Chin ese’s understanding of

Germany

Passage Three

The American research university is a remarkable institution, long a source of admiration and wonder. The

idyllic ( 田园诗的), wooded campuses, the diversity and energy of the

student populations, and, most of all, the sheer volume of public and private resources available to run them, have made them the envy of the world.

Seen from the inside, however, everything is not quite so rosy. Setting aside the habitual complexity of medical schools, which have separate healthcare and finance issues, the structure of these institutions is straightforward and consistent. The bedrock of each university is a system of discipline-specific departments. The strength of these departments determines the success and prestige of the institution as a whole.

This structure raises a few obvious questions. One is the relevance of the department-based structure to the way scientific research is done. Many argue that in a host of areas —ranging from computational biology and materials science to pharmacology and climate science — much of the most important research is now interdisciplinary in nature. And there is a sense that, notwithstanding years of efforts to adapt to this change by encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, the department-based structure of the university is essentially at odds with such collaboration.

A second set of issues surrounds the almost static nature of the departmental system. In a country where most things are highly fluid, the fields covered by departments, as well as the

pecking order (权势等级)between them, have remained largely unchanged for many years. As

people and money have flowed, particularly over the past twenty years, to the south and the southwest, the strongest US universities and departments remain embedded in the northeast and in California. League tables drawn up by the National Academy of Sciences and others show little movement in this pecking order, even over several decades.

Another, perhaps more contentious, issue concerns the relevance of the modem research university to the community it serves. The established model, whatever else its strengths and weaknesses, reflects the desire of the middle classes for undergraduate training that prepares their offspring for a stable career. But how does it serve a society in which people may have to retrain and recreate their careers throughout their adult lives?

71. The passage begins with the presentation of the American research university

A. in a unique way

B. in a jealous tone

C. in the eyes of outsiders

D. out of personal admiration

72. The traditional model of the US research university .

A. determines the complexity of the single-discipline department

B. is well established with competition among its departments

C. ensures the success and prestige of each single department

D. is characterized by the department-based structure

73. The structure of the US research university, the author contends, needs to be stretched

A. to change the way scientific research is done along the discipline

B. to promote individuality and creativity in doing science

C. to address the current interdisciplinary challenges

D. to advance the discipline-based department

74. In addition to the department-based structure, the pecking order .

A. remains unchallenged as the name of the game

B. fosters unfair competition at the American institution

C. contributes to insufficient interdisciplinary collaboration

D. makes uneven allocations of financial resource among the US universities

75. What can be inferred from the question: But how does it serve a society in which people may have to retrain and recreate their careers throughout their adult lives?

A. The American societal structure has an impact on that of the research university.

B. College students need to be trained to be dedicated to the social value of science.

C. The modern research university ought to change the way it serves the middle class.

D. The established model serves as an obstacle to the best service of the society.

Passage Four

Science and politics make uncomfortable bedfellows. Rarely is this more true than in the case of climate change, where it is now time for emergency counseling. One point repeatedly made at last wee k’s climate change congress in Copenhagen was that formulating an action plan to curb climate change is not a job of scientists.Politicians may be left scratching their heads over what to do, but at this stage climatescientists cannot provide more guidance than they did in the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for two reasons.

First, models will never provide a straightforward prediction of how the climate will change. As one Copenhagen delegate put it: "Tell me what the stock market will do in 100 years and I will tell you what the climate will do. " Second as most climate scientists will agree, their role is not

to formulate policy. They can provide more or less apocalyptic (大灾预测的) scenarios of what

will happen if emissions hit certain thresholds, from burning forests to disappearing islands. But when politicians ask what is the absolute maximum amount of carbon dioxide we should allow to be pumped out, the answer is, invariably, how much risk do you want to take?

There are ways out of the deadlock. As the major climate negotiations in December approach, scientists need to be able to take off their labcoats sometimes and speak as concerned citizens. Some may feel uncomfortable with blurring the line between science and activism, but they should be aware that no one understands the risks better than they do and no one is better placed to give informed opinions.

Politicians, for their part, should stop begging climatologists for easy answers. What they need instead is a new breed of advisers to descend from the ivory towers of academia and join the climate fray — people who are willing and able to weight up the risks, costs and benefits of various degrees of action.

If all else fails, there may still be the safety net of geoengineering. As we have said on several occasions, this option can no longer be dismissed as fantasy. Reputable scientists are discussing options among themselves and with policy-makers, but the fact that we are even considering it should spur governments to cut emissions, cut them deeply and cut them fast. Geoengineering is no get-out-of-jail-free card; it has dangers of its own. The military are already taking an interest, raising the spectre of climate weapons able to divert rainfall and bring drought. That is the last thing we want.

76. In the case global warming, scientists .

A. tend to be more conservative than politicians

B. are in no position to offer a definite answer

C. never trust politicians as in other cases

D. feel incapable more than ever before

77. Speaking of climate change, politicians .

A. do n’t like it when scientists are indirect

B. never see eye to eye with scientists there

C. seldom want to play the game with scientists

D. are left puzzled over the formulation of policy

78. To bridge the gap between the two sides, according to the passage, scientists are supposed to .

A. act with more concern and enthusiasm

B. discard their prejudice towards politicians

C. be definite enough to offer informed opinions

D. do as concerned citizens do in protecting environment

79. For their part, politicians ought to be reasonable and .

A. pick up the right scientists for informed opinions

B. place policy and decision in the hands of scientists

C. receive reeducation in the ivory towers of academia

D. choose those who can provide a straightforward prediction

80. The author reminds those who are talking about geoengineering of .

A. the other alternatives in the matter

B. the climate weapon as a double-edged sword

C. the dangers of the fantasy among the reputable scientists

D. the urgency of emission reduction on the part of governments

Passage Five

You are what you eat notwithstanding, it is only recently that most consumers have become interested in the technical details of their foo d’s composition, production and transport. With obesity and climate change now major concerns, and "localvore" and "food miles" entering the lexicon, shoppers are clamoring for information. And many food companies are happy to supply it, resulting in a dizzying array of multicolored labels and claims.

But not everyone is happy. A proposed law in Indiana is the latest attempt in the United States to ban milk labels proclaiming that the cows from whence the milk came were not treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH, also called recombinant bovine somatotropin or rbST). This hormone, produced by engineered bacteria, is virtually identical to the co w’s own and can increase milk production by 10-15%.

There are two bad arguments for banning such labels. The first- that it is impossible to determine from the milk whether the cow was injected with rBGH — is the reason cited in the bill language. The second —that proliferation of "no rBGH" labels will train consumers to distrust the product— is the real motivation.

The first argument can be disposed of easily: it is already illegal to make false claims about a product. The second argument may seem more convincing. There is no firm scientific evidence that injecting cows with rBGH affects human health in any way, but prevalent labeling touting the absence of rBGH would suggest to consumers that there are some differences. The mandating (颁布) of an additional phrase such as that agreed last month in Pennsylvania — "Nosignificant difference has been shown between milk derived from

rbSY-treated and non-rbST-treated cows" — ameliorates (减轻) this problem.

There are good reasons not to ban accurate labels. More information means that consumers can be more discerning, and not just about their own health. They can vote with their purchases for farming practices they prefer. And if a company wants to use a technology with a bad reputation, it is the firm’s responsibility to educate the consumer about why it is beneficial.If consumers choose irrationally to reject it, that is their prerogative (特权) . Capitalism thrives on the irrationality of consumers, from their noted fear of smelling bad, to their preference for redness in apples, farmed salmon and fast-food signage (标记) .

Indeed, if consumers were suddenly to become rational, an economic cataclysm (大灾难)would result, as households in all the rich nations would cut their consumption to only what they really needed. Such a crash would no doubt make the current economic doldrums (萧条) look like the mildest hiccup (打嗝)。

81. Nowadays, consumers can know more about food .

A. from the internet

B. by means of law weapons

C. from labels and claims

D. with the dictionary

82. According to the proposed law in Indiana, .

A. there will be no milk labels of "No rBGH"

B. cows are banned from being treated with rBGH

C. food products are now allowed to carry labels and claims

D. milk production cannot be increased with growth hormones

83. The real intention behind the ban as we can learn from the passage is .

A. to convince consumers of confusion due to labels and claims

B. to get rid of the milk manufacturer’s bad reputation

C. to prove the safety of rbST-treated cows’ m ilk

D. to safeguard the sale of milk in the market

84. As the author implies, a food label reflects .

A. customers’ preferences and farming practices

B. customers’ rationality and irrationality as well

C. a relationship between capitalism and irrationality

D. both the compan y’s responsibility and the customer’ prerogative

85. The last paragraph suggests .

A. what will happen following an economic cataclysm

B. what consumers’ i rrationality means to capitalism

C. why customers can be irrational in consumption

D. how the market economy runs

Passage Six

There may be a link between creativity and mental disorders, but it is probably not in the way that you think. There is a widespread highly romanticized belief that madness somehow heightens creative genius among artists, writers, and musicians. And that may be because we romanticize the idea of artistic inspiration.

As with mental disorders, there is something mysterious and unexplainable about the creative process. But all significant creative leaps have two very important components: talent and technique. By far the most universal and necessary aspect of technique is dogged persistence, which is anything but romantic.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, best known psychologist for his work on flow, says despite the

carefree air that many creative people effect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not. Even acknowledged creative geniuses find that endurance must follow intuition. Follow-through is critical to the realization of an idea. Robert Root-Bernstein, another observer of the creative process, points out: "If the writer doesn’t sit at the computer every day, the muse is not going to visit. " Even having ideas can take a great deal of discipline. Discipline is not a hallmark of minds in the throes of emotional distress.

Nevertheless, depression strikes artists ten times more often than it does the general population. The link, however, is not creativity. Artists are more likely to be self-reflective and to

think things through. And that thinking style —as opposed to creativity itself—is a hallmark of depression and commonly leads to it.

Evidence that madness does nothing to heighten creative genius comes from a study done

by psychologist Robert Weisberg. He studied in detail Robert Schumann, the great composer, who was known to endure bouts of manic depression that drove him to attempt suicide. Indeed, Schumann wrote a great deal of music during his manic intervals. But quantity is one thing and quality is another. Weisberg found that Schuman n’s compositional output indeed swelled during his manic years, but the average quality of his efforts did not change. Mania "jacks up the energy level, " Weisberg points out, "but it doesn’t give the person access to ideas that he or she wouldn’t have had otherwise. "

It’s entirely possible, Weisberg notes, that the elevated rates of mental disorders among artistic geniuses result from their creative lifestyle, which hardly provides emotional stability. Many artists struggle against poverty and public indifference in their lifetime. And if they do indeed produce works that are acclaimed, they could succumb to the overwhelming pressure to live up to their earlier successes.

86. Based on the first two paragraphs, the author is trying to focus our attention on

A. madness and romance

B. genius and persistence

C. creativity and mental disorders

D. romance and artistic inspiration

87. According to Csikszentmihalyi and Root-Bernstein, endurance .

A. does not necessarily mean discipline

B. has much to do with original output

C. is a label on those depressives

D. actually comes

88. Which of the following statements about depression is true?

A. It never strikes common people.

B. The people who are more self-reflective are more likely to be hit by depression.

C. Creativity has much to do with depression and we have figured out what it is.

D. The thinking style of artists is in line with creativity itself.

89. What does it in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. creativity.

B. depression.

C. self-reflective.

D. population.

90. What is the best tile of this passage?

A. Persistence and creativity

B. Genius and madness

C. Success and madness

D. Artists and general people 试题答案：

初阶（一）

1:BDBCC2: ADDAA3:BAACC4: ACACA5:CDCCC6: CABBD

初阶（二）

1: DBBCD 2: ADDBC 3: CDCDD 4: DDAAB 5: CAADB 6: BBBBB