[外语类试卷]雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编9及答案与解析.doc

1、雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编 9及答案与解析 0 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Ambergris What is it and where does it come from ? Ambergris was used to perfume cosmetics in the days of ancient Mesopotamia and almost every civilization on the earth has a brus

2、h with ambergris. Before 1,000 AD, the Chinese names ambergris as lung sien hiang, “dragons spittle perfume.“ as they think that it was produced from the drooling of dragons sleeping on rocks at the edge of a sea. The Arabs knew ambergris as anbar, believing that it is produced from springs near sea

3、s. It also gets its name from here. For centuries, this substance has also been used as a flavouring for food. During the Middle Ages, Europeans used ambergris as a remedy for headaches, colds, epilepsy, and other ailments. In the 1851 whaling novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville claimed that ambergris

4、was “largely used in perfumery.“ But nobody ever knew where it really came from. Experts were still guessing its origin thousands of years later, until the long ages of guesswork ended in the 1720s, when Nantucket whalers found gobs of the costly material inside the stomachs of sperm whales. Industr

5、ial whaling quickly burgeoned. By 20th century ambergris is mainly recovered from inside the carcasses of sperm whales. Through countless ages, people have found pieces of ambergris on sandy beaches. It was named grey amber to distinguish it from golden amber, another rare treasure. Both of them wer

6、e among the most sought-after substances in the world, almost as valuable as gold.(Ambergris sells for roughly $20 a gram, slightly less than gold at $30 a gram.)Amber floats in salt water, and in old times the origin of both these substances was mysterious. But it turned out that amber and ambergri

7、s have little in common. Amber is a fossilized resin from trees that was quite familiar to Europeans long before the discovery of the New World, and prized as jewelry. Although considered a gem, amber is a hard, transparent, wholly-organic material derived from the resin of extinct species of trees,

8、 mainly pines. To the earliest Western chroniclers, ambergris was variously thought to come from the same bituminous sea founts as amber, from the sperm of fishes or whales, from the droppings of strange sea birds(probably because of confusion over the included beaks of squid)or from the large hives

9、 of bees living near the sea. Marco Polo was the first Western chronicler who correctly attributed ambergris to sperm whales and its vomit. As sperm whales navigate in the oceans, they often dive down to 2 km or more below the sea level to prey on squid, most famously the Giant Squid. Its commonly a

10、ccepted that ambergris forms in the whales gut or intestines as the creature attempts to “deal“ with squid beaks. Sperm whales are rather partial to squid, but seemingly struggle to digest the hard, sharp, parrot-like beaks. It is thought their stomach juices become hyper-active trying to process th

11、e irritants, and eventually hard, resinous lumps are formed around the beaks, and then expelled from their innards by vomiting. When a whale initially vomits up ambergris, it is soft and has a terrible smell. Some marine biologists compare it to the unpleasant smell of cow dung. But after floating o

12、n the salty ocean for about a decade, the substance hardens with air and sun into a smooth, waxy, usually rounded piece of nostril heaven. The dung smell is gone, replaced by a sweet, smooth, musky and pleasant earthy aroma. Since ambergris is derived from animals, naturally a question of ethics ari

13、ses, and in the case of ambergris, it is very important to consider. Sperm whales are an endangered species, whose populations started to decline as far back as the 19th century due to the high demand for their highly emollient oil, and today their stocks still have not recovered. During the 1970s,

14、the Save the Whales movement brought the plight of whales to international recognition. Many people now believe that whales are “saved“. This couldnt be further from the truth. All around the world, whaling still exists. Many countries continue to hunt whales, in spite of international treaties to p

15、rotect them. Many marine researchers are concerned that even the trade in naturally found ambergris can be harmful by creating further incentives to hunt whales for this valuable substance. One of the forms ambergris is used today is as a valuable fixative in perfumes to enhance and prolong the scen

16、t. But nowadays, since ambergris is rare and expensive, and big fragrance suppliers that make most of the fragrances on the market today do not deal in it for reasons of cost, availability and murky legal issues, most perfumeries prefer to add a chemical derivative which mimics the properties of amb

17、ergris. As a fragrance consumer, you can assume that there is no natural ambergris in your perfume bottle, unless the company advertises this fact and unless you own vintage fragrances created before the 1980s. If you are wondering if you have been wearing a perfume with this legendary ingredient, y

18、ou may want to review your scent collection. Here are a few of some of the top ambergris containing perfumes: Givenchy Amarige, Chanel No. 5, and Gucci Guilty. Questions 1-6 Classify the following information as referring to A ambergris only B amber only C both ambergris and amber D neither ambergri

19、s nor amber Write the correct letter, A, B, C, or D in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. 1 being expensive 2 adds flavor to food 3 used as currency 4 being see-through 5 referred to by Herman Melville 6 produces sweet smell 6 Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage. Wr

20、ite your answers in boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet. 7 Sperm whales cant digest the_of the squids. 8 Sperm whales drive the irritants out of their intestines by_. 9 The vomit of sperm whale gradually_on contact of air before having pleasant smell. 9 Do the following statements agree with the informat

21、ion given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 10 Most ambergris comes from the dead whales today. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given

22、11 Ambergris is becoming more expensive than before. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 12 Ambergris is still a popular ingredient in perfume production today. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 13 New uses of ambergris have been discovered recently. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 13 Tackling Hunger in Msekeni A There

23、are not enough classrooms at the Msekeni primary school, so half the lessons take place in the shade of yellow-blossomed acacia trees. Given this shortage, it might seem odd that one of the schools purpose-built classrooms has been emptied of pupils and turned into a storeroom for sacks of grain. Bu

24、t it makes sense. Food matters more than shelter. B Msekeni is in one of the poorer parte of Malawi, a landlocked southern African country of exceptional beauty and great poverty. No war lays waste Malawi, nor is the land unusually crowded or infertile, but Malawians still have trouble finding enoug

25、h to eat. Half of the children under five are underfed to the point of stunting. Hunger blights most aspects of Malawian life, so the country is as good a place as any to investigate how nutrition affects development, and vice versa. C The headmaster at Msekeni, Bernard Kumanda, has strong views on

26、the subject. He thinks food is a priceless teaching aid. Since 1999, his pupils have received free school lunches. Donors such as the World Food Programme(WFP)provide the food: those sacks of grain(mostly mixed maize and soyabean flour, enriched with vitamin A)in that converted classroom. Local volu

27、nteers do the cooking turning the dry ingredients into a bland but nutritious slop, and spooning it out on to plastic plates. The children line up in large crowds, cheerfully singing a song called “We are getting porridge“. D When the schools feeding programme was introduced, enrolment at Msekeni do

28、ubled. Some of the new pupils had switched from nearby schools that did not give out free porridge, but most were children whose families had previously kept them at home to work. These families were so poor that the long-term benefits of education seemed unattractive when set against the short-term

29、 gain of sending children out to gather firewood or help in the fields. One plate of porridge a day completely altered the calculation. A child fed at school will not howl so plaintively for food at home. Girls, who are more likely than boys to be kept out of school, are given extra snacks to take h

30、ome. E When a school takes in a horde of extra students from the poorest homes, you would expect standards to drop. Anywhere in the world, poor kids tend to perform worse than their better-off classmates. When the influx of new pupils is not accompanied by any increase in the number of teachers, as

31、was the case at Msekeni, you would expect standards to fall even further. But they have not. Pass rates at Msekeni improved dramatically, from 30% to 85%. Although this was an exceptional example, the nationwide results of school feeding programmes were still pretty good. On average, after a Malawia

32、n school started handing out free food it attracted 38% more girls and 24% more boys. The pass rate for boys stayed about the same, while for girls it improved by 9.5%. F Better nutrition makes for brighter children. Most immediately, well-fed children find it easier to concentrate. It is hard to fo

33、cus the mind on long division when your stomach is screaming for food. Mr Kumanda says that it used to be easy to spot the kids who were really undernourished. They were the ones who stared into space and didnt respond when you asked them questions,“ he says. More crucially, though, more and better

34、food helps brains grow and develop. Like any other organ in the body, the brain needs nutrition and exercise. But if it is starved of the necessary calories, proteins and micronutrients, it is stunted, perhaps not as severely as a muscle would be, but stunted nonetheless. That is why feeding childre

35、n at schools works so well. And the fact that the effect of feeding was more pronounced on girls than on boys gives a clue to who eats first in rural Malawian households. It isnt the girls. G On a global scale, the good news is that people are eating better than ever before. Homo sapiens has grown 5

36、0% bigger since the Industrial Revolution. Three centuries ago, chronic malnutrition was more or less universal. Now, it is extremely rare in rich countries. In developing countries, where most people live, plates and rice bowls are also fuller than ever before. The proportion of children under five

37、 in the developing world who are malnourished to the point of stunting fell from 39% in 1990 to 30% in 2000, says the World Health Organisation(WHO). In other places, the battle against hunger is steadily being won. Better nutrition is making people cleverer and more energetic, which will help them

38、grow more prosperous. And when they eventually join the ranks of the well-off, they can start fretting about growing too fat. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Questions 14-20 Reading passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the corre

39、ct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-xi, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i Why better food helps students learning ii Becoming the headmaster of Msekeni iii Surprising use of school premises iv Global perspective v Why stude

40、nts were undernourished vi Surprising academic outcome vii An innovative program to help girls viii How food program is operated ix How food program affects school attendance x None of the usual reasons xi How to maintain academic standard 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D

41、18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F 20 Paragraph G 20 Complete the sentences below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS /OR A NUMBER from the passage. Write your answers in boxes 21-24 on your answer sheet. 21 In Kumandas school_are given to girls after the end of the school day. 22 Many children from poor famili

42、es were sent to collect_from the field. 23 Thanks to the free food program,_of students passed the test. 24 The modern human is_bigger than before after the Industrial Revolution. 24 Choose TWO letters, A-F. Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet. Which TWO of the followin

43、g statements are true? A Some children are taught in the open air. B Bernard Kumanda became the headmaster in 1991. C No new staffs were recruited when attendance rose. D Girls are often treated equally with boys in Malawi. E Scientists have devised ways to detect the most underfed students in schoo

44、l. F WHO is worried about malnutrition among kids in developing countries. 26 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. Placebo EffectThe Power of Nothing Want to devise a new form of alternative medicine? No problem. Heres the recipe. Be warm,

45、sympathetic, reassuring and enthusiastic. Your treatment should involve physical contact, and each session with your patients should last at least half an hour. Encourage your patients to take an active part in their treatment and understand how their disorders relate to the rest of their lives. Tel

46、l them that their own bodies possess the true power to heal. Make them pay you out of their own pockets. Describe your treatment in familiar words, but embroidered with a hint of mysticism: energy fields, energy flows, energy blocks, meridians, forces, auras, rhythms and the like. Refer to the knowl

47、edge of an earlier age: wisdom carelessly swept aside by the rise and rise of blind, mechanistic science. Oh, come off it, youre saying. Something invented off the top of your head couldnt possibly work, could it? Well yes, it couldand often well enough to earn you a living. A good living if you are

48、 sufficiently convincing or, better still, really believe in your therapy. Many illnesses get better on their own, so if you are lucky and administer your treatment at just the right time youll get the credit. But thats only part of it. Some of the improvement really would be down to you. Not necess

49、arily because youd recommended ginseng rather than camomile tea or used this crystal as opposed to that pressure point. Nothing so specific. Your healing power would be the outcome of a paradoxical force that conventional medicine recognises but remains oddly ambivalent about: the placebo effect. Placebos are treatments that have no direct effect on the body, yet still work because the patient has faith in their power to heal. Most often the term refers to a dummy pill, but it applies just as much to any device or procedure, from a stick