1、考研英语阅读理解 A 节(传统题型)分类精讲科学技术类-(二)及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Reading Co(总题数：5，分数：100.00)It doesnt take long to get a good feel for the potential of cloud computing and how it can offer ready access to entirely new business capabilities, less expensive IT resources, and unrivaled flexibility f
2、or businesses of every size. Since becoming a hot topic early 2008 as major vendors, including top firms such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, jumped on the bandwagon with a wide-range of offerings, cloud computing has consistently stayed on the industrys radar.With leading companies still joining
3、the movementincluding IBM, HP, and Salesforcecloud computing has moved from a cottage industry to one of the bigger growth areas in the computing business, just as the industry as a whole begins to take serious lumps from the recession.The onus is now on businesses to take advantage of cloud computi
4、ng to cut costs and become more agile. In the process, they will have some hard choices to makesome intriguing ones tooif they want to access the many advantages that cloud computing platforms can provide.There are also some non-trivial challenges involved in adopting cloud computing that must be wa
5、tched closely as well. These includes a long list of issues such as the security and privacy of business data in remote 3rd party data centers, the dreaded concerns about platform lock-in, worries about reliability and performance, and even fears about making the wrong decision before the industry b
6、egins to mature.However, in a business environment where change is almost mandatory in order to survive, cloud computing appears to offer significant economic benefits if the risks can be offset. Hence, one of the bigger challenges IT departments will face this year is whether they can take the plun
7、ge with cloud computing quickly enough to benefit their organizations as a whole.Phil Wainewright has covered some of the more interesting issues swirling around cloud computing of late including the default lock-out that occurs in the event of the demise of a cloud computing provider as well as the
8、 brewing SLA battles between the major providers. This underscores hew the cloud computing space is where the new platform wars are forming and its sizing up to be as big or bigger than earlier ones. The good news for now: In a wide-open new industry, there is no clear leader today and choice prevai
9、ls.This brings up the side discussion of what actually constitutes cloud computing, since everyone seems to be applying the label to anything that runs on the network. Is it Web hosting of your application code? Is it a software platform as an on-demand service? Do SaaS applications count as cloud c
10、omputing? The answers to all these questions are a qualified yes; the answer hovers roughly around the outsourcing of computing of any kind (CPU, storage, apps, etc.) using a shared cost, commodity utility model. In general, you know if youre involved with cloud computing of some kind if youre recei
11、ving a bill for computing services being done for you somewhere else but which you can access directly.（分数：20.00）(1).What does the phrase “stayed on the industrys radar“ (Para. 1) probably mean?A. Being combined with radar function.B. Being taken as the industrys focus.C. Being outside the industrys
12、 consideration.D. Being too expensive to be accomplished.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(2).According to the passage, cloud computingA. takes serious problems to the computing business.B. is only suitable for the leading computing companies.C. can help the computing business face up to the recession.D. is the mos
13、t profitable area in the computing business.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(3).In order to benefit their organizations, the IT departmentsA. have to keep waiting until the industry is mature.B. should adopt cloud computing as soon as possible.C. must avoid the usage of remote 3rd party data centers.D. need to put
14、 aside the constantly changing business environment.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Phil Wainewright holds the idea thatA. the cloud computing industry needs no leader.B. the major providers provide the best platforms.C. the providers should compete with each other.D. the cloud computing industry is still imma
15、ture.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(5).As to the constitution of cloud computingA. it applies to anything that we can access on the network.B. it does not include the SaaS applications.C. it might be a software platform as a service.D. it costs a lot for your computing services.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.Farmers in the Un
16、ited States and around the world are likely to face serious challenges in the coming decades as new kinds of weather test their ability to bring us the food we all depend on. The weather, of course, has never been exactly dependablefarmers have always been at the mercy of the vagaries of sun and rai
17、n. But general weather patterns have at least been broadly predictable, allowing farmers to know when to sow their seed, when to transplant, when to harvest. As weather patterns become less reliable, growers will be tested to develop new rhythms and systems for growing crops.Climate change is likely
18、 to impact different parts of the world in vastly different ways, climatologists and agronomists say. Scientists at a recent international conference in London reported that warming temperatures could lead to substantial harvest reductions in major food crops such as wheat, soy and rice. And for yea
19、rs the World Bank and others have been warning that climate change will be especially burdensome on poor countries in the tropics, where soil quality is generally inferior. According to a study conducted in the Philippines, for every one degree C increase in temperature, there will be a 10-percent r
20、eduction in yields for rice, a staple crop for billions of people.But here in the U.S., most observers agree, its doubtful that climate change could cause a food security crisis. The U.S. food systemthough highly concentrated in terms of ownership and controlis geographically very diverse, which mea
21、ns that crops could be shifted to other areas if necessary. Also, the U.S. produces so much surplus grains for animal feed and food processing that it would take enormous crop failures to create real food scarcities. At least for residents of the U.S., a climate-change induced famine is unlikely.Far
22、mers are a famously adaptive lot, well accustomed to reacting to forces beyond their control. The worry among scientists is that if the agriculture establishment does not take climate change seriously enough, it will become much more difficult to respond effectively when weather disruptions hit. Eas
23、terling says the window for farmers to successfully adapt to new weather conditions is about six to ten yearsthe time it takes for researchers to breed new seed varieties suited for specific conditions. “What would worry anyone is if climate change starts to exceed the systems built-in adaptive resp
24、onse,“ easterling says.Among farmers and researchers, there is disagreement about which types of growers climate change will impact mostlarge agribusiness growing operations, or smaller, family-run farms. Some agriculture industry observers say that the bigger farmers will have an advantage in copin
25、g with weather changes, as they will have more resources to switch to new crops. Others say that since family farms usually grow a wider range of crops, their biological diversity will make it easier to cope with whatever changes occur.（分数：20.00）(1).The most serious problem confronting the farmers i
26、s thatA. they lack the knowledge about weather forecasts.B. once-dependable weather patterns are shifting.C. the farming pattern is changing in strange ways.D. the farmland is not as productive as it used to be.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(2).It can be inferred that tropical developing countries are more vulne
27、rable toA. global warming.B. dry weather.C. soil erosion.D. too much rain at the wrong time.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(3).The United States is unlikely to suffer from food crisis because of itsA. geographical complexity.B. mechanization in agriculture.C. diversity of crops.D. abundance of food.（分数：4.00）A.B.C
28、.D.(4).According to the text, the scientists seem to worry aboutA. farmers ability to produce food.B. the environments capacity to absorb pollution.C. agricultural systems capacity of innovation.D. humans ability to respond to emergency.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(5).What advice might agricultural experts giv
29、e about crop growing?A. Dont put all your eggs in one basket.B. The first step is the only difficulty.C. Caution is the parent of safety.D. Early start makes easy stages.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.Cheerleaders for renewable energy are fond of pointing out that patches of desert receive enough energy each year
30、 from sunlight to power the entire world. But few could explain how the construction of the millions of solar cells required to convert that energy into electricity would be financed. Public utility bosses and policymakers tend to dismiss wind and solar power as noble but expensive distractions, sus
31、tainable only through huge subsidies. But new studies suggest that renewables might not be as dear as skeptics suspect.In a report that was due out on July 6th, Greenpeace, an environmental group, argues that public utilities would save money by investing in renewables. Windmills may cost more to bu
32、ild, the logic runs, but they do not require the purchase of fuel, unlike coal or gas-fired power plants. Those future fuel costs, Greenpeace says, massively outweigh the extra investment costs of renewables. If nuclear power were phased out and renewables share of electricity generation rose dramat
33、ically, it calculates the average annual savings between 2004 and 2030 would be $180 billion.These figures, of course, rely on all sorts of questionable assumptions. In Greenpeaces picture, the prices of gas and coal will rise, despite stagnating consumption of the former, and a steep drop in demand
34、 for the latter. It also helps that the future as Greenpeace sees it includes a big dose of energy efficiency, although its business-as-usual projections do not. Public utilities, at any rate, must not be making the same assumptions, since they continue to invest in power plants run on fossil fuels.
35、Other studies make a slightly less sweeping claim: that adding wind power to the electricity network can reduce the overall cost of electricity. The cost of producing wind power is almost nothing, since the fuelwindis free. So on a windy day, the cheapest power comes from wind turbines. That power,
36、in turn, displaces electricity generation from sources with higher fuel costs, such as gas-fired plants. So power prices tend to fall when the wind is blowing. Nuon, a Dutch utility, calculates that in 2005 the average power price on the local spot market was over Euro 45 per megawatt hour when ther
37、e was no wind, but under Euro 30 when the average wind-speed topped 13 metres per second.Researchers in Denmark have gone a step further and put a value on this effect. They believe that wind power saved 1 billion kroner ($ 167m) off Danish electricity bills in 2005. On the other hand, Danish consum
38、ers also paid 1.4 billion kroner in subsidies for wind power. But this year, reckons Rune Moesgaard of the Danish Wind Industry Association, wind power will actually save consumers money for the first time, as the benefits resulting from lower power prices outweigh the falling cost of the subsidy.（分
39、数：20.00）(1).According to the author, cheerleaders for renewable energyA. are optimistic about the finance of the solar power construction.B. could hardly explain how solar cells convert sunlight into electricity.C. in general ignore the cost of the solar power construction.D. suspect that solar cell
40、s in desert are expensive.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(2).It can be inferred from Paragraphs 1-2 thatA. windmill costs less than traditional power plants.B. it is expensive to use windmills to generate power.C. nuclear power will be replaced by the renewable.D. public utilities would not invest in wind and sol
41、ar power.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(3).What does the word “stagnating“ (Para. 3) most probably mean?A. Inactive. B. Active.C. Flexible. D. Instable.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(4).According to the passage, wind powerA. could actually cost consumers a lot of money.B. will replace gas-fired power plants on windy days.C.
42、will lower the price of fuel shortly.D. can lower the power prices at any time.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.(5).How will wind power help consumers save money?A. The subsidy cost is lower than consumers electricity bills.B. Money saved in their electricity exceeds their subsidy cost.C. More consumers are using w
43、ind power.D. Wind power does not need subsidy any more.（分数：4.00）A.B.C.D.Biologists have made a lot of progress in understanding ageing. They have not, however, been able to do much about slowing it down. A piece of work reported in this weeks Nature by Darren Baker, though, describes an extraordinar
44、y result that points to a way the process might be improved. Dr Baker has shown in mice, at leastthat ageing body cells not only suffer themselves, but also have adverse effects on otherwise healthy cells around them. If such ageing cells are selectively destroyed, these adverse effects go away.The
45、story starts with an observation that senescent cells often produce a molecule called P16INK4A. Dr Baker genetically engineered a group of mice that were already quite unusual. They had a condition called progeria, meaning that they aged much more rapidly than normal mice. The extra tweak he added t
46、o the DNA of these mice was a way of killing cells that produce P16INK4A. He did this by inserting into the animals DNA, near the gene for P 16INK4A, a second gene that was, because of this proximity, controlled by the same genetic switch. This second gene, activated whenever the gene for P16INK4A w
47、as active, produced a protein that was harmless in itself, but which could kill the senescent cells by the presence of a particular drug.The results were spectacular. Mice given the drug every three days from birth suffered far less age-related body-wasting than those which were not. Their muscles r
48、emained plump and effective. And they did not suffer cataracts of the eye. They did, though, continue to experience age-related problems in tissues that do not produce P16INK4A as they get old. In particular, their hearts and blood vessels aged normally. For that reason, since heart failure is the m
49、ain cause of death in such mice, their lifespans were not extended.Regardless of the biochemical details, the most intriguing thing Dr Bakers result provides is a new way of thinking about how to slow the process of ageingand one that works with the grain of nature, rather than against it. Actually eliminating senescent cells may be a logical extension of the process of shutting them down, and thus may not have adverse consequences. It is not an elixir of life, for eventually the body will run out of cells, as more and more of them reach their Hayflick lim
