[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷355及答案与解析.doc

1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 355 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 On July 16th at least 23 children in the Indian state of Bihar died after eating a midday meal that was provided for free by their school. Nearly as man

2、y are in critical condition in a local hospital. Tests have revealed that adulterated cooking oil, perhaps containing pesticides, is likely to blame. A government inquiry has determined that the principal of the school, who is in hiding, must be held responsible for the bad ingredients or unsafe met

3、hods used in preparing these meals.This event is horrific, without a doubt. Yet its damage could be even worse, if it raises too many doubts about the value of a largely successful program. The midday-meal scheme, which began on a small scale decades earlier, received the support of Indias Supreme C

4、ourt in 2001. Since then most Indian states have adopted it, offering free meals to children in state-run or state-assisted schools. More than 120m children, including many who would otherwise go hungry, receive these meals every school day.According to a recent analysis by Farzana Afridi of Syracus

5、e University and the Delhi School of Economics, at a cost of three cents per child per school day, the scheme “reduced the daily protein deficiency of a primary-school student by 100% , the calorie deficiency by almost 30% and the daily iron deficiency by nearly 10%. “ Ms Afridi also found that, aft

6、er controlling for all other factors, the meals scheme has boosted the school attendance of girls by 12%. Abhijeet Singh of Oxford University found that, in some parts of India where children were born during a drought, the health of those who had been brought into the meals scheme before the age of

7、 six was compensated for earlier nutritional deficits.What the disaster in Bihar has done, at the very least, is to highlight some of the pitfalls of the scheme. As with any programme of this size in a country rife with corruption, the meals scheme is riddled with problems. The corruptible state is

8、not alone in funding the programme; it is joined by private companies and NGOs. Corruption exists not just among state entities but among the supporting agencies too, as was demonstrated in 2006 when a Delhi NGO was caught dipping into rice that was meant for midday meals. In the states of Bihar and

9、 Uttar Pradesh, where the levels of malnutrition are among the highest in the country, it was found that only three-fourths of the food meant for children reached them. Food is often stolen by the administrators faking their students attendance. Beyond that, reports of adulterationnot only with shod

10、dy or unsafe foodstuffs, but including finding worms, lizards and snakesare common.Next month, the Indian government will be voting on a food security bill which aims to provide food to 60% of the entire population, by means of a public distribution system. This one schools tragedy comes at an espec

11、ially crucial moment, when officials ought to be forced to inspect the leaky pipeline of distribution. At the same time it will be important to bear in mind: This scheme has done a lot more good than harm.1 Which one of the following is least likely to blame for Bihar midday meal tragedy?（A）adultera

12、ted cooking oil.（B） bad ingredients.（C） unsafe cooking methods.（D）poisonous avocado.2 The damage of this event could be even worse because_.（A）Indias Supreme Court will no longer support the midday-meal scheme（B） people may doubt the value of this largely successful midday meal program（C） it will da

13、mage Indias international reputation（D）many children will go hungry because of the ban on this midday-meal scheme3 Which one of the following is not an example to illustrate the problems this midday-meal scheme has?（A）the Ministry of Human Resource Development has confirmed that 95% of meal samples

14、prepared by NGOs in Delhi did not meet nutritional standards in 2010.（B） In the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it was found that only three-fourths of the food meant for children reached them.（C） reports of adulterationnot only with shoddy or unsafe foodstuffs, but including finding worms, lizar

15、ds and snakesare common.（D）in 2006 a Delhi NGO was caught dipping into rice that was meant for midday meals.4 It can be inferred from the last paragraph that（A）the advantages of the food security bill which aims to provide food to 60% of the entire population will outweigh its disadvantages（B） the f

16、ood security bill which aims to provide food to 60% of the entire population will pass by a large majority（C） the distribution system of this food security program which aims to provide food to 60% of the entire population were corrupt（D）the food security bill which aims to provide food to 60% of th

17、e entire population will not pass due to its leaky pipeline of distribution5 The author s attitude toward the midday-meal scheme in India is most accurately described as_.（A）admiration of the good it has done together with skepticism concerning the pitfalls of the scheme（B） acceptance of the success

18、ful scheme accompanied with awareness of its limitations（C） appreciation of the difficulty involved in administrating the food distribution together with admiration of the good this scheme has done（D）respect for private companies and NGOs combined with intolerance of the pitfalls if this scheme5 The

19、 study by researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that even in the absence of moonlight, participants slept less deeply and for shorter periods during the full moon than at other lunar phases. It is a phenomenon already known in other organisms as the “circalunar rhythm“, but has

20、 never before been shown in humans.The brain pattern, eye movements and hormone secretion of volunteers were studied while they slept. Participants were also asked for subjective assessments of their sleep quality. The results, published in Current Biology , showed that around the full moon, subject

21、s brain activity associated with deep sleep decreased by 30%. They took 5 minutes longer to fall asleep, had 20 minutes less sleep overall and lower levels of melatonina hormone known to regulate sleep. These findings correlated with the volunteers own perception that sleep quality was poorer during

22、 the full moon.Previous research has found no association between the phases of the moon and human physiology or behaviour. “I think one issue in the past was that they compared a lot of people by mixing different laboratories, different devices, and including data from patients, so the entire thing

23、 was not standardised,“ Cajochen said. “The advantage here is that we really had a standardised protocol. “ The data was taken from a previous study that was not originally looking at the moon s influence. Participants were kept in a very controlled environment, with artificial lighting, regulated t

24、emperature and no way of checking the time. This ensured that internal body rhythms could be investigated independently of external influences.“The only disadvantage with such a standardised procedure is that we could only investigate 33 people,“ said Cajochen. “What I would like to do in the future

25、 is to increase the number of subjects and then to follow up each person through the entire moon cycle. “ But such a study would have problems of its own, he added. “If youre actually going to tell people youre investigating the influence of the moon, then you may trigger some expectation or sensiti

26、vity in them. Sleep is also a psychological thing, of course. “If true, the mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon are unknown. Malcolm von Schantz, a molecular neurobiologist at Surrey University, said: “Essentially it could be either two things: the moon itself has a gravitational pull which so

27、mehow affects our physiology. I find that very unlikely as the gravitational pull of the moon is fairly weak. It doesnt cause tides in lakes for example, only in large oceans. In fact, if youre sitting within 15 inches of the wall right now then the wall has a stronger gravitational pull on you than

28、 the moon does. So I dont think we have a sort of mini-tide in ourselves. “The alternative is that there is a counter, a mechanism which keeps track somehow of the phases of the moon. “ Marine animals are already known to follow a circalunar rhythm and some believe it is tightly intertwined with the

29、 circadian rhythmthe other internal clock that many organisms, humans included, have which is entrained to the sun. Other researchers have wondered why a human circalunar clock should exist in the first place. Michael Hastings, a neuroscientist studying circadian rhythms at Cambridge University, sai

30、d: “In evolutionary terms, it sounds plausible to me at least. “ If you were a hunter gatherer, youd want to be out there on a full moon, not a new moon. It might be that theres something about suppression of sleep under those circumstances because you should be out hunting.6 The best explanation fo

31、r “circalunar rhythm“ phenomenon would be_.（A）a pattern of musical movement through time（B） a biorhythm that corresponds with the lunar cycle（C） a biorhythm that illustrates the principle that we are influenced by emotional cycles（D）a biorhythm that corresponds with the our intellectual cycles7 Rese

32、archers did not study_while participants slept.（A）the brain pattern（B） eye movements（C） hormone secretion（D）blood pressure8 Compared with research and study in the past, the advantage of the study by researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland is that_.（A）they had a standardised protocol（B

33、） they studied the phases of the moon and human physiology or behaviour（C） they compared a lot of people by mixing different laboratories and different devices（D）participants were asked for subjective assessments of their sleep quality9 According to paragraph 3, which one of the following is not a c

34、haracteristic of the very controlled research environment that participants were kept in?（A）artificial lighting.（B） regulated temperature.（C） psychological intervene.（D）no way of checking the time.10 By illustrating that the wall has a stronger gravitational pull on you than the moon does, the autho

35、r intends to say that_.（A）the moon itself can not have a gravitational pull which somehow affects our physiology（B） the gravitational pull of the wall is fairly strong（C） the gravitational pull of the moon can not cause tides in lakes（D）people should not sit within 15 inches of the wall because of i

36、ts gravitational pull10 Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experiencewhat psychologists call fluid intelligenceis innate and cannot be taught(though people can raise their grades on tests of

37、it by practicing). But in a new study, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works.The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memorythe kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it.

38、This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence, according to background information in the article, and appears to rely on the same brain circuitry. So the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence.First they measured the fluid intelligence

39、 of four groups of volunteers using standard tests. Then they trained each in a complicated memory task, the child s card game, in which they memorized simultaneously presented auditory and visual stimuli that they had to recall later. The game was set up so that as the participants succeeded, the t

40、asks became harder, and as they failed, the tasks became easier. This assured a high level of difficulty, adjusted individually for each participant, but not so high as to destroy motivation to keep working. The four groups underwent a half-hour of training daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectiv

41、ely. At the end of each training, researchers tested the participants fluid intelligence again. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills, the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training. The results, published Monday in The Proceed

42、ings of the National Academy of Sciences, were striking. Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were.

43、All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement.“Intelligence has always been considered principally an immutable inherited trait,“ said Susanne M. Jaeggi, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Michigan and a co-author of the paper. “Our results s

44、how you can increase your intelligence with appropriate training. “Why did the training work? The authors suggest several aspects of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously and connecting related item

45、s to one another in space and time.11 It was generally believed that fluid intelligence_.（A）is a mental ability everyone has（B） permits us to solve any problems（C） is an ability determined by nature（D）is irrelevant to previous experience12 Researchers believe that fluid intelligence_.（A）depends on t

46、he improvement of working memory（B） can be ameliorated by improving working memory（C） relies on uninterrupted training in working memory（D）shares the same brain circuitry with working memory13 A childs card game was used in the experiment as it is_.（A）a standard test to measure fluid intelligence（B）

47、 easy enough for any individual to accomplish（C） an inspiring game with a high level of difficulty（D）a complicated memory task for all the test-takers14 Control groups were used in the experiment so as to_.（A）urge the participants to improve their real fluid intelligence（B） avoid the influence of im

48、proving testing skills on the result（C） prevent the trained groups from improving their testing skills（D）ensure the reliability and objectivity of the scientific research15 According to the new study, appropriate training can increase ones intelligence since_.（A）ones intelligence is nothing but an i

49、mmutable inherited trait（B） all performers showed significant improvement after training（C） managing two tasks simultaneously is relevant to intelligence（D）the ability to solve new problems can be improved by training15 In the drinking study, published on December 5 in Public Health , two researchers analyzed data on 8,236 nonsmokers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which includes direct measurement of body mass index(weight in kilograms divided by height in meters square