1、考研英语阅读理解-(七)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、BSection Readi(总题数：4，分数：100.00)Music is a mystery. It is unique to the human race: no other species produces elaborate sound for no particular reason. It has been, and remains, part of every known civilization on Earth. Lengths of bone fashioned into flutes w
2、ere in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages peoples attention more comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show that when people listen to music, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active.Yet it serves no obvious adaptive purpose. Charles Darwin, in “The Descent of Man“, noted
3、 that “neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life.“ Then, what is the point of nmsic. Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist, has called music “auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confectio
4、n crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties.“ If it vanished from our species, he said “the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged.“ Others have argued that, on the contrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; its
5、 absence would have a brutalizing effect.Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid music enthusiast, comes down somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in our auditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a language instinct, and could not rid
6、ourselves of it. He goes through each component of music to explain how and why it works, using plentiful examples drawn from a refreshingly wide range of different kinds of music, from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz.His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know m
7、uch more about music than they think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before, by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune or harmony is not quite right and most adults can differentiate between kinds of music even if they have had no
8、 training.Music is completely Usui generis/U. It should not tell a non-musical story; the listener will decode it for himself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush of emotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement or exhilaration, a feel
9、ing of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears, without being able to tell why. Musical analysts have tried hard to find out how this happens, but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.（分数：25.00）(1).It can be inferred from the first paragraph that A. except m
10、ankind species produce sounds with specific purposes. B. the earliest flutes were made of bones 40,000 years ago. C. peoples attention is more attentively attracted by music. D. peoples brains go inactive in an environment with no music.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).To which of the following statements would
11、 Steven Pinker most probably agree? A. Music selves no facility for the formation of peoples habits. B. Music and exquisite dessert share great similarities. C. The absence of music brings little effect to human life. D. Music helps to erase the brutal characteristics in human.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).A
12、ccording to Philip Balls research, which of the following is true? A. Human beings are born to be professional musicians. B. There exist no sharp differences among various types of music. C. People usually learn music by means of hearing around. D. Mankind posses a natural music instinct and cant wi
13、pe it off.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).The saying “sui generis“ (Line 1, Para. 5) is closest in meaning to A. unique. B. touching. C. overwhelming. D. mysterious.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Which of the following would be the best title of the text? A. Sounds Wonderful-The Science of Music B. Mission Impossible-Th
14、e Mystery of Music C. Touching Always-The Power of Music D. Anti-Brutalization-The Effect of Music（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.As people in rich countries know very well, eating too much food and burning too few calories is why a substantial number of us are overweight or obese. Now, however, a remarkable chang
15、e in perspective has come from the discovery that obesity actually provides people with temporary protection from the harmful effects of fat.The insight has come from re-examining the common assumption that fatness itself drives the development of metabolic syndrome, which is what causes so much of
16、the actual damage. The syndrome comes with a mixture of fife-threatening effects, with cardiovascular disease (diseases relating to the heart and blood vessels) and type 2 diabetes being among the most serious. In fact, it now seems that body fat may be a barrier that stops millions of Americans and
17、 fatty citizens elsewhere from going on to develop the syndrome. And the real damage is caused by the inflammatory effect of high levels of fat in the bloodstream. And ironically, its fat cells that protect us from this by serving as toxic dumps, locking away the real villains of the modem diet.The
18、problem is that this protection only lasts so long, until there is simply no more room inside the fat cells. Thats when they start to break down, leading to a toxic spill into the bloodstream. This sets off an inflammatory response that causes various kinds of damage to body tissues. In this way, ev
19、ery excess calorie takes people closer to metabolic syndrome.So what can we do to stop a superabundance of fat triggering the syndrome? Of course theres no substitute for a healthy diet and exercise, but incitation to this effect seem to be of limited use. As with cigarettes and alcohol, a tax on ca
20、lories-pricing foods by their energy content-is increasingly seen as another “lever“ to change behaviour by malting obesity too costly.The new research may even suggest treatments to combat metabolic syndrome, such as antiinflammatory drugs. One promising candidate is salsalate, an arthritis drug re
21、lated to aspirin, and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston is now considering large-scale trials.What might be more helpful, though, is simply a wider recognition that fatty and sugary foods are more directly toxic than we had assumed. Ideally, people should be as well informed about the harmful eff
22、ects of what they eat as, for example, pregnant women are about drinking and smoking.There is a consolation-you have your fat tissue to protect you when you consume that extra burger or sweetened soda. But now you know the perils of pushing your friendly fat cells beyond their natural limits.（分数：25.
23、00）(1).Its implied in the first paragraph that the reasons for obesity include overeating and A. lacking exercise. B. absorbing fats. C. keeping unhealthy diets. D. burning calories.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).From Paragraph 2 we know that the real villain of actual damages is A. fat cells. B. metabolic sy
24、ndrome. C. cardiovascular disease. D. bloodstream fats.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).The protective function of fat cells stop working once A. their capacity reaches a limit. B. toxin spills into the bloodstream. C. an inflammatory response appears. D. metabolic syndrome is developed.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).The
25、 author indicates in the text that obesity can be restricted by A. putting fats protective function to full use. B. unifying peoples diet and exercise habits. C. raising the prices of cigarettes and alcohol. D. manipulating food prices by their calorie content.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).To combat metaboli
26、c syndrome, the authors suggestion is to A. develop more anti-inflammatory drugs. B. ask people to keep away from fatty food. C. strengthen the awareness of the harms of fatty food. D. protect pregnant women from tobacco and wine.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.The technology revolution may be coming to poor count
27、ries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich ones. And just as the Internet encouraged an entrepreneurial philosophy, and with it the creation of a few too many dotcom firms, Africas surge in mobile-phone use may Uunleash/U the same sort of business energy, but tailored to
28、 local needs.One such initiative is about to begin. TradeNet, a software company based in Accra, Ghana, will unveil a simple sort of eBay for agricultural products across a dozen countries in West Africa. It lets buyers and sellers indicate what they are after and their contact information, which is
29、 sent to all relevant subscribers as an SMS text message in one of four languages. Interested parties can then reach others directly to do a deal. Listing offers is free, as is receiving the texts. TradeNet plans to earn revenue by putting advertisements in the messages, though it hopes the service
30、will become so useful that recipients will eventually want to pay. For the moment, though, the company is busy signing up users and swallowing the cost of sending the messages.Mobile-phone use in sub-Saharan Africa is soaring. Whereas only 10% of the population had network coverage in 1999, today mo
31、re than 60% have it, a figure expected to exceed 85% in the coming year, according to the GSM Association, an industry trade group. This provides the infrastructure for businesses like TradeNet to function.TradeNet is the brainchild of Mark Davies, a British dotcom tycoon who gave up the rat race an
32、d went to Africa in 2000. In 2005, he started the prototype for TradeNet using around 600,000 of his own money and about 200,000 from aid agencies. An early set of trials last year generated a surplus of trades, such as a sale of organic fertilizer between a person in Yemen and another in Nigeria.A
33、number of other mobile-phone market-places taking shape also started as aid projects. For example, Trade at Hand, a project funded by the UNs International Trade Centre in Geneva, provides daily price information for fruit and vegetable exports in Burkina Faso and Mali, with plans to add more countr
34、ies. And Manobi, a telecoms firm based in Senegal, providing real-time agricultural and fish prices to fee-paying subscribers, is also backed by aid money. But TradeNets approach is unique so far because it collects valuable economic data-names, locations, business interests and telephone numbers-an
35、d then sells them to advertisers. The price of economic development may be junk mail by mobile phone.（分数：25.00）(1).The word “unleash“ (Line 4, Paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to A. generate. B. intensify. C. create. D. loosen.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Which of the following about TradeNet is true? A.
36、TradeNet is to agricultural products what eBay is to manufactured products. B. The ultimate goal of TradeNet is to let its users pay for the services. C. Users payment for TradeNets services forms TradeNets revenue. D. TradeNet is possible due to high network coverage and cell-phone availability.（分数
37、：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).What do we learn about Mark Davies? A. His dotcom firm had dominated the British market. B. He was the person who benefited most from the African market. C. He had been tired of the fierce competition among British dotcom firms. D. He created and founded the firm TradeNet all by hi
38、mself.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).What can we infer from the last paragraph of the text? A. With the UNs support, Trade at Hand is bound to spread to the whole African continent. B. Aid projects played an important role in fostering mobile-phone market-places in Africa. C. TradeNet is the most successful o
39、ne of all the mobile-phone market-places in Africa. D. The junk mail by mobile phone will ruin the economic development in Africa.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).What is the authors attitude towards mobile-phone market-places? A. Objective. B. Ambiguous. C. Optimistic. D. Skeptical.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.HOW soon yo
40、ur performance will be rated may influence how well you do, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science. In the study, researchers Keri L. Kettle and Gerald Hubl from the University of Alberta set out to determine whether the timing of feedback influences performance. Bec
41、ause earlier feedback means a more proximate possibility of disappointment, the researchers hypothesized that students told they would be learning their grade sooner would be more likely to perform well, compared with those who wouldnt fend out their grade until later.Of 501 students taking a partic
42、ular course, 271 agreed to participate in the study. All students were assigned a four minute oral presentation, which they had to deliver in front of about 10 classmates. Their performance was ranked on a scale of 1-10 by classmates, and the average of those scores made up their grade for the assig
43、nment. Prior to giving their oral presentation, study participants were asked to predict how well they would do, and were also told how soon they would learn their grade.The researchers found that study participants whod been told they would be given their scores earlier performed far better than th
44、ose told theyd receive their scores later. Whats more, despite the fact that, on average, students who anticipated fending out how theyd done earlier significantly outperformed classmates who were given their scores later, they were more likely to predict low marks for themselves. In contrast, those
45、 who were told they wouldnt learn their scores until later were more likely to predict very high marks-which they seldom actually went on to earn. As a control, the researchers also assessed the scores of the 230 students who had declined to participate in the study. While students with the earliest
46、 feedback scored in the 60th percentile on average, and those with the latest feedback scored in the 40th percentile on average, those not included in the study (and whose feedback time hadnt been manipulated) consistently scored in the 50th percentile.The findings suggest that “mere anticipation of
47、 more rapid feedback improves performance,“ the authors conclude, and that, interestingly, proximity of feedback influences predicted performance and actual performance differently. As the authors sum up: “People do best precisely when their predictions about their own performance are least optimist
48、ic.“ The influence of feedback anticipation on performance has implications beyond the classroom as well, the researchers argue-in the way that managers respond to employee work, for example, or maybe even how Mom and Dad size up how clean that room is. The findings, Kettle and Hubl conclude, “have
49、important practical implications for all individuals who are responsible for mentoring and for evaluating the performance of others.“（分数：25.00）(1).According to Paragraph 1, researchers put forward such a hypothesis because A. feedback and performance are related. B. the timing of feedback affects performance. C. feedback may cause disappointment. D. feedback evaluates ones performance.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).In para
