1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(二十三)及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、BREADING COMPREH(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、BTEXT A/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)In Don Juan Lord Byron wrote, Sweet is revenge especially to women. But a study released on Wednesday, supported by magnetic resonance imaging, suggests that men may be the more natural avengers.In
2、 the study, when male subjects witnessed people they perceived as bad guys being stroke by a mild electrical shock, their M.R.I. scans lit up in primitive brain areas associated with reward. Their brains empathy centers remained dull. Women watching the punishment, in contrast, showed no response in
3、 centers associated with pleasure. Even though they also said they did not like the bad guys, their empathy centers still quietly glowed.The study seems to show for the first time in physical terms what many people probably assume they already know: that women are generally more empathetic than men,
4、 and that men take great pleasure in seeing revenge exacted. Men expressed more desire for revenge and seemed to feel satisfaction when unfair people were given what they perceived as deserved physical punishment, said Dr.Tania Singer, the lead researcher, of the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuro
5、science at University College London. But far from condemning the male impulse for retribution, Dr.Singer said it had an important social function: This type of behavior has probably been crucial in the evolution of society as the majority of people in a group are motivated to punish those who cheat
6、 on the rest.The study is part of a growing body of research that is attempting to better understand behavior and emotions by observing simultaneous physiological changes in the brain, a technique now attainable through imaging. Imaging is still in its early days but we are transitioning from a desc
7、riptive to a more mechanistic type of study, said Dr.Klaas Enno Stephan, a co-author of the paper.Dr.Singers team was simply trying to see if the study subjects degree of empathy correlated with how much they liked or disliked the person being punished. They had not set out to look into sex differen
8、ces. To cultivate personal likes and dislikes in their 32 volunteers, they asked them to play a complex money strategy game, where both members of a pair would profit if both behaved cooperatively. The ranks of volunteers were infiltrated by actors told to play selfishly. Volunteers came quickly to
9、very much like the partners who were cooperative, while disliking those who hided rewards, Dr.Stephan said. Effectively conditioned to like and dislike their game-playing partners, the 32 subjects were placed in scanners and asked to watch the various partners receive electrical shocks. On scans, bo
10、th men and women seemed to feel the pain of partners they liked. But the real surprise came during scans when the subjects viewed the partners they disliked being shocked. When women saw the shock, they still had an empathetic response, even though it was reduced, Dr.Stephan said.The men had none at
11、 all. Furthermore, researchers found that the brains pleasure centers lit up in males when just punishment was meted out.The researchers cautioned that it was not clear if men and women are born with divergent responses to revenge or if their social experiences generate the responses. Dr.Singer said
12、 larger studies were needed to see if differing responses would be seen in cases involving revenge that did not involve pain. Still, she added, This investigation would seem to indicate there is a predominant role for men in maintaining justice and issuing punishment.（分数：25.00）(1).Lord Byrons words
13、are mentioned to A. demonstrate the cruelty of women. B. show women feet sweeter with revenge than men. C. introduce the different idea about revenge. D. suggest women love to take revenge on the bad guys.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).According to the passage, Dr.Singers attitude to male revenge impulse is A
14、 sympathetic. B. positive. C. negative. D. detached.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).According to the passage, the study is originally aimed to A. show sex differences on revenge. B. better understand humans behavior and emotions. C. cultivate personal likes and dislikes. D. see if the degree of empathy is con
15、nected with personal likes and dislikes.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).The word infiltrated (Line Six, Para. Five) probably means A. acted. B. mixed. C. taught. D. filtrated.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Dr.Singer thinks men are more suitable to maintain justice and issue punishment than women because A. brains empath
16、y centers of men remained dull when punishment was executed. B. womens pleasure centers were lit up with punishment implemented. C. men have no response when seeing punishment executed. D. men had different experiences from women.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.三、BTEXT B/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)It was an autumn morning s
17、hortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. My parents lived nearby, and Dad had visited us several times already. What are you doing out there? I called to
18、 him.He looked up, smiling. Im making you a surprise. Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything. A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends. When we were kids, he once rigged up a jungle gym out of wheels and pulleys. For one of my Halloween parties
19、 he created an electrical pumpkin and mounted it on a broomstick. As guests came to our door, he would light the pumpkin and have it pop out in front of them from a hiding place in the bushes.Today, however, Dad would say no more, and, caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot
20、 about his surprise.Until one raw day the following March when I glanced out the window. Dismal. Overcast. Little piles of dirty snow still stubbornly littering the lawn, would winter ever end?And yet. was it a mirage? 1 strained to see what I thought was something pink, miraculously peeking out of
21、a drift. And was that a dot of blue across the yard, a small note of optimism in this gloomy expanse? I grabbed my coat and headed outside for a closer look.They were crocuses, scattered whimsically throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink little faces bobbing in the bi
22、tter wind.Dad. I smiled, remembering the bulbs he had secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dreariness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timed, more attuned to my needs? How blessed I was, not only for the flowers but for him.My fathers crocuses b
23、loomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing that same assurance every time they arrived: Hard times almost over. Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms. The next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses, but my life was bu
24、sier than ever, and I had never been much of a gardener. I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did.He died suddenly one October day. My family grieved deeply, leaning on our faith. I missed him terribly, though I knew he would always be a part of us.Four years passed, and on
25、a dismal spring afternoon I was running errands and found myself feeling depressed. Youve got the winter blahs again, I told myself. You get them every year.It was Dads birthday, and 1 found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived hi
26、s faith. Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man. Often hed chat with strangers, and if he learned they were poor and hungry, he would invite them home for a meal. But now, in the car, I could not help wondering: How is he now? Where is he? Is there really a heaven?I felt guilty for having do
27、ubts, but sometimes, I thought as I turned into our driveway, faith is so hard.Suddenly I slowed, stopped and stared at the lawn. Muddy grass and small gray mounds of melting snow. And there, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus. How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old
28、 one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day. But it built my faith for a lifetime.（分数：25.00）(1).According to the first three paragraphs,
29、A. the author was unpacking when her father was making the surprise. B. the author knew what the surprise was because she knew her father. C. it was not the first time that the authors father had made a surprise. D. it kept bothering the author not knowing what the surprise was.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).
30、Which of the following can best describe the authors purpose of mentioning the jungle gym and electrical pumpkin? A. To show his father loved building things. B. To show his father was good at handwork. C. To show it is not uncommon for his father to give her surprises. D. To show his father loved h
31、er deeply.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).Which of the following is INCORRECT, according to the passage? A. The authors father planted the crocus to lift the authors low spirit. B. The crocuses bloomed each spring before the authors father died. C. The author often thought about her father since her father die
32、d. D. The authors father probably died 14 years after he planted the crocus.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).The authors father should be best described as A. a full-time gardener with skillful hands. B. a part-time jobber who loved flowers. C. a kind-hearted man who lived with faith. D. an ordinary man with do
33、ubts in his life.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Which of the following sentence is true about the author? A. She is somewhat sentimental. B. She is as determined to her faith as his father. C. She is always negative toward life. D. She has a distant relationship with her mother.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.四、BTEXT C/B(总题
34、数：1，分数：25.00)The advantage of associating the birth of democracy with the Mayflower Compact is that it is easy to do so. The public believes a simple explanation that on November 11, 1620, when the compact was approved, a cornerstone of American democracy was laid. Certainly it makes it easier on sc
35、hoolchildren. Making the start of democracy in 1620 relieves students of the responsibility of knowing what happened in the hundred some years before, from the arrival of the Santa Maria to the landing of the Mayflower.Surely, the compact demonstrated the Englishmans striking capacity for self- gove
36、rnment. And in affirming the principle of majority rule, the Pilgrims showed how far they had come from the days when the kings whim was law and nobody dared say otherwise.But the emphasis on the compact is misplaced. Scholarly research in the last half century indicates that the compact had nothing
37、 to do with the development of the self- government in America. In truth, the Mayflower Compact was no more a cornerstone of American democracy than the Pilgrim hut was the foundation of American architecture. As Samuel Morison so emphatically put it, American democracy was not born in the cabin of
38、the Mayflower.The Pilgrims indeed are miscast as the heroes of American democracy. They spurned democracy and would have been shocked to see themselves help up as its defenders. George Willison, regarded as one of the most careful students of the Pilgrims, states that the merest glance at the histor
39、y of Plymouth shows that they were not democrats.The mythmakers would have us believe that even if the Pilgrims themselves werent democratic, the Mayflower Compact itself was. But in fact tile compact was expressly designed to check freedom, not promote it. The Pilgrim governor and historian, Willia
40、m Bradford, from whom we have gotten nearly all of the information there is about the Pilgrims, frankly conceded as much. Bradford wrote that the purpose of the compact was to control traitors aboard the Mayflower who were threatening to go their own way when the ship reached land. Because the Pilgr
41、ims had decided to settle in an area outside the jurisdiction of their royal patent, some aboard the Mayflower had hinted that upon landing they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them. Under the terms of the compact, they couldnt; the compact required all who lived in the co
42、lony to promise all due submission and obedience to it.Moreover, despite the compacts mention of majority rule, the Pilgrim fathers had no intention of turning over the colonys government to the people. Plymouth was to be ruled by the elite. And the elite wasnt shameful in the least about advancing
43、its claims to superiority. When the Mayflower Compact was signed, the elite signed first. The second rank consisted of the goodmen and the bottom four servants. No women or children signed.（分数：25.00）(1).The public considers the Mayflower Compact as A. the birth of English democracy. B. the birth of
44、American responsibility. C. the birth of American democracy. D. the birth of American freedom.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).In signing the compact, the Pilgrims broke away from A. the self-government. B. the authoritarian rule in Britain. C. the principle of majority rule. D. democratic rule.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D
45、3).The word miscast (Line One, Para. Four) means A. displaced. B. misunderstood. C. unbelieved. D. mismanaged.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).According to Para. Five, which one is correct? A. The compacts real purpose was to keep the Pilgrims freedom under control. B. William Bradford agreed with what mythma
46、kers said. C. The compact allowed Pilgrims to use their own liberty upon landing. D. The Mayflower Compact itself was democratic.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).The details about the signers of the compact are mentioned to emphasize A. the Pilgrims respect for majority rule. B. servants respect for elite. C. t
47、he Pilgrims respect for goodmen. D. the Pilgrims respect for the social hierarchy.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.五、BTEXT D/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Canadians like to think that although they are the junior partner in their trade relations with the United States, the 174 billion barrels of proven reserves in the oil sands of Alberta provide a powerful ace up their sleeve in any dealings with their energy-hungry neighbor. That belief has now been shaken by an American law that appears to prohibit American government agencies from buying crude produced in
