1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 48及答案与解析 0 When the Viaduct de Millau opened in the south of France in 2004, this tallest bridge in the world won worldwide compliments. German newspapers described how it“ floated above the clouds“ with “elegance and lightness“ and “breathtaking“ beauty. In France, papers praised the
2、 “immense concrete giant“. Was it mere coincidence that the Germans saw beauty where the French saw heft and power? Lera Boroditsky thinks not. A psychologist at Stanford University, she has long been intrigued by an age-old question whose modern form dates to 1956, when linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf
3、asked whether the language we speak shapes the way we think and see the world. If so, then language is not merely a means of expressing thought, but a constraint on it, too. Although philosophers, anthropologists, and others have weighed in, with most concluding that language does not shape thought
4、in any significant way, the field has been notable for a distressing lack of empiricism as in testable hypotheses and actual data. Thats where Boroditsky comes in. In a series of clever experiments guided by pointed questions, she is amassing evidence that, yes, language shapes thought. The effect i
5、s powerful enough, she says, that “the private mental lives of speakers of different languages may differ dramatically,“ not only when they are thinking in order to speak, “but in all manner of cognitive tasks,“ including basic sensory perception. “Even a small fluke of grammar“ the gender of nouns
6、“can have an effect on how people think about things in the world,“she says. As in that bridge, in German, the noun for bridge, Brucke, is feminine. In French, pont is masculine. German speakers saw female features; French speakers, masculine ones. Similarly, Germans describe keys(Schlussel)with wor
7、ds such as hard, heavy, jagged, and metal, while to Spaniards keys(IIaves)are golden, intricate, little, and lovely. Guess which language interprets key as masculine and which as feminine? Language even shapes what we see. People have a better memory for colors if different shades have distinct name
8、s not Englishs light blue and dark blue, for instance, but Russians goluboy and sinly. Skeptics of the language-shapes-thought claim have argued that thats a trivial finding, showing only that people remember what they saw in both a visual form and a verbal one, but not proving that they actually se
9、e the hues differently. In an ingenious experiment, however, Boroditsky and colleagues showed volunteers three color swatches and asked them which of the bottom two was the same as the top one. Native Russian speakers were faster than English speakers when the colors had distinct names, suggesting t
10、hat having a name for something allows you to perceive it more sharply. Similarly, Korean uses one word for “in“ when one object is in another snugly(a letter in an envelope), and a different one when an object is in something loosely(an apple in a bowl). Sure enough, Korean adults are better than E
11、nglish speakers at distinguishing tight fit from loose fit. In Australia, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every spatial cue rather than right or left, leading to locutions such as “there is an ant on your southeast leg. “ The Kuuk Thaayorre are also much more skillful than E
12、nglish speakers at dead reckoning, even in unfamiliar surroundings or strange buildings. Their language“equips them to perform navigational feats once thought beyond human capabilities,“Boroditsky wrote on Edge.org. Science has only scratched the surface of how language affects thought. In Russian,
13、verb forms indicate whether the action was completed or not as in “she ate(and finished)the pizza. “ In Turkish, verbs indicate whether the action was observed or merely rumored. Boroditsky would love to run an experiment testing whether native Russian speakers are better than others at noticing if
14、an action is completed, and if Turks have a heightened sensitivity to fact versus hearsay. Similarly, while English says “she broke the bowl,“ even if it smashed accidentally(she dropped something on it, say), Spanish and Japanese describe the same event more like“the bowl broke itself.“ When we sho
15、w people video of the same event,“ says Boroditsky, “ English speakers remember who was to blame even in an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers remember it less well than they do intentional actions. It raises questions about whether language affects even something as basic as how we constru
16、ct our ideas of causality.“ 1 In the first paragraph, the author introduces his topic by_. （ A） explaining a phenomenon （ B） justifying an assumption （ C） posing a contrast （ D） making a comparison 2 Lera Boroditsky most probably holds the viewpoint that_. （ A） language expresses thought （ B） langua
17、ge constrains thought （ C） language determines thought （ D） language and thought interact with each other 3 The example of Korean aims to show that language_. （ A） shapes what we see （ B） shapes what we do （ C） is only a verbal form of what we see （ D） affects how we construct our understanding of c
18、ausality 4 Which of the following statements is true about the languages mentioned in the passage? （ A） Both the nouns for bridge and key are feminine in German. （ B） The language of the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre is really helpful for sailing. （ C） Korean has a larger vocabulary than English in desc
19、ribing colors. （ D） Whether an action is completed or not is best shown in Spanish. 5 The author uses the following ways to develop paragraphs EXCEPT_. （ A） cause and effect （ B） deduction and induction （ C） explanation （ D） definition 5 What would the holidays be without lots of tiny twinkling ligh
20、ts? Less colorful and festive but also a lot safer. From living rooms to front porches across the country, homeowners are stringing millions of lights on Christmas trees or eaves and decorating their windowsills with electric, battery-operated or traditional candles. But according to the federal Con
21、sumer Product Safety Commission, too many are doing so with little regard to the hazards. Last holiday season there were about 200 Christmas tree fires in American homes, caused primarily by faulty lights and resulting in 10 deaths and more than $10 million in property loss, the Commission says. Ano
22、ther 14,000 house fires are started yearly by misplaced or mishandled flame candles, causing 170 deaths and $350 million in property loss. And about 10,000 people are treated at emergency rooms for injuries from falls, cuts or shocks while hanging lights or decorations. The biggest causes of holiday
23、 fires are“ candles and live trees“ , said Kim Dulic, a Commission spokeswoman. The agency recommends battery-operated candles instead of real or electric, she said, along with fire-resistant artificial trees or fresh well-watered trees. A cut tree is fresh, she said, if the bottom of its trunk is s
24、ticky with resin and its needles are hard to pull and dont break when bent. It is too dry if it sheds a shower of needles when bounced on the ground. A harvested tree should be cut about a half inch from the bottom and put in water within no more than three to six hours, said Rick Dungey, the public
25、 relations manager of the National Christmas Tree Association, in Chesterfield, Mo. “If you wait any longer, air molecules get in the trunk and they prevent the tree from siphoning water,“Mr. Dungey said, adding that people should water often and never let the water go below the cut end. Once a Chri
26、stmas tree dries out, it is an accident waiting to happen, said Lorraine Carli, the communications vice president of the National Fire Protection Association, in Quincy, Mass. If ignited, it can be engulfed in seconds. The most common cause is electrical either an overused electrical system or fault
27、y wiring. Brett Brenner, the president of the Electrical Safety Foundation International(ESFI), in Rosslyn, Va. , said homeowners should make yearly inspections. “Cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires and loose connections can cause a serious shock or start a fire,“ he said. Use no more than one ext
28、ension cord per socket, and string no more than three sets of lights together. Wires should not run under carpets or through windows or doors. He said outdoor outlets should be protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter a breaker that trips with any interruption or problem with the ground wire.
29、(An interrupter usually needs to be installed when an outlet is near or exposed to water; it generally costs less than $10.) John Drengenberg, the consumer affairs director of Underwriters Laboratories, the testing group in Northbrook, III. , said that if lights are certified for indoors only, they
30、must not be used outside; those certified for outdoors, however, can be used inside. No matter the kind, he said, if the bulbs are the screw-in type, there should be no more than 50 per outlet. Outdoor lights, he said, should be hung with plastic clip-on hangers, not metal nails or staples, which ca
31、n pierce insulation and cause a short. And what about those who dont take down their outdoor lights until the wisteria is in bloom in May? “You should never leave lights up all year round,“ Mr. Drengenberg said. “Theyre not designed for year-round use. “ 6 Which of the following is NOT mentioned in
32、the passage as a cause of the holiday hazards? （ A） Accidents during decoration. （ B） Poor quality of bubbles. （ C） Careless handling of candles. （ D） Problematic management of lights. 7 According to the passage, what is the best choice of Christmas trees? （ A） A real tree that is soaked in water at
33、 the shop. （ B） A real tree whose needles dont break when bent. （ C） An artificial tree with delicate craftsmanship. （ D） An artificial tree that wont be engulfed immediately. 8 It can be inferred from Paragraph Five that_. （ A） the ESFI inspects household electrical system annually （ B） electrical
34、devices for outdoor use are not expensive （ C） homeowners do not have the particular electrical knowledge （ D） an overloaded electrical system or faulty wiring may lead to disasters 9 Which of the following is NOT in accordance with Mr. Drengenbergs suggestion? （ A） Never use outdoor lights that are
35、 certified for indoor use. （ B） Put exactly 50 screw-in type bulbs to each outlet. （ C） Take off the outdoor lights after the Christmas season is over. （ D） Avoid metal nails or staples when putting on the outdoor lights. 10 What is the main idea of this passage? （ A） The possible danger of Christma
36、s decoration. （ B） Necessary information on safety regulations. （ C） The accidents during Christmas season. （ D） The nature of the household hazards at the end of the year. 10 We all know that emotions originate in the brain. But we usually talk about our emotions coming from our hearts. If someone
37、you know doesnt give up easily, you might say, “Hes got a lot of heart. “ Not every culture would agree for instance, when Italians want to say someone has heart, they say instead,“Ha fegato“ :“He has liver. “ But what about bad emotions? When you feel so sad or so angry that your heart “aches“, cou
38、ld it actually be true? Two new studies add support to the theory that, yes, what goes on in your mind can break your heart. In the first study, just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology(JACC), a team of eight researchers looking at more than 63,000 women who were participa
39、nts in the ongoing Nurses Health Study, found that those who reported basic symptoms of depression(like feeling down and incapable of happiness)had a higher-than-normal risk of coronary heart disease. And women who were clinically depressed were more than twice as likely as other women to suffer sud
40、den cardiac death. None of the participants had heart problems at the studys outset, but nearly 8% had symptoms of depression. The researchers theorize that depression might have some direct physiological impact on the heart like causing it to work harder in the face of stress. The study also found
41、that the more depressed women were, the more likely they were to smoke cigarettes or have high blood pressure and diabetes not exactly heart-healthy conditions. Or it may be that the antidepressants prescribed to treat those with mood problems were associated with heart ailments; in the study, sudde
42、n cardiac death was linked more strongly with antidepressant use than with womens symptoms of depression. The antidepressant theory is just that a theory. It could be that the antidepressant takers in the study were simply the most depressed. But if the theory is substantiated by further research, i
43、t would add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that antidepressants carry a high risk(particularly for teenagers)when weighed against the drugs still uncertain benefits. Scientists have already shown that antidepressants are a bad idea for those about to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery.
44、 No one is sure exactly how depression hurts the heart, and one plausible explanation is that the train runs in the opposite direction a damaged heart and its consequent stress on the body might activate, somehow, genes or other physiological changes that contribute to depression. But another new pa
45、per, also published in the JACC, lends credit to the idea that it is our moods that work on our hearts and not the other way around. In this paper, researchers from University College London reviewed the findings of 39 previously published articles and found that men who are angry and hostile are si
46、gnificantly more likely to have a cardiac event than those who arent. That may sound unsurprising we all know that anger can stress your heart. But its important to note the difference between aggression and just being aggressive. Previous studies have found that so-called type As those who are driv
47、en, competitive and obsessed with deadlines are not more likely to experience heart disease. In other words, your type A co-workers who are annoyingly ambitious and dutiful are no more likely to have a heart attack than you are. Rather, its the seething, angry types with underlying hostility who are
48、 the ticking time bombs. Anger, it turns out, is physiologically toxic. The authors of the second paper offer the standard theories about how an angry emotion translates to a physical heart attack: angry people have a harder time sleeping; they take prescribed drugs less often; they eat worse, exerc
49、ise less, smoke more and are fatter. These things add up: compared with the good-humored, those who were angry and hostile but had no signs of heart problems at the outset ended up with a 19% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to the University College London paper. The two studies reify gender stereotypes; women get their hearts broken through sadness; men “break“ their hearts(via heart attack)through anger. But both studies suggest that men and women have a common interest in understanding that so
