1、专业英语八级（阅读）模拟试卷 60及答案与解析 0 The other day, I walked into an airport mens room, which was empty except for one man, who appeared to be having a loud, animated conversation with a urinal. Ten years ago, I would have turned right around and walked briskly back out of there. One rule my parents stressed w
2、hen I was a child was: “ Never stay in a restroom with a man who talks to the plumbing.“ But, of course, as a modern human, I knew that this man was talking on his cell phone, using one of those earpiece thingies, with the little microphone on the wire, the kind that people feel they must shout at,
3、to make sure their vital messages are getting through. Its not clear to me why so many people in airports use the earpiece thingies. Why do they need to keep their hands free? Do they expect some emergency to suddenly arise that will require them to have both hands free while talking? Or maybe theyr
4、e afraid that if they hold the phone next to their head, the radiation will give them brain cancer. If so, an option they might consider is wrapping their heads in aluminum foil. Granted, this would make them look stupid. But not nearly as stupid as they look shouting into their earpiece wires. So a
5、nyway, there I was, in this restroom, standing maybe six feet from this guy, both of us facing the wall, him shouting at his urinal about some business thing involving specifications, and at some point he said “I swear this is a direct quote I am handling it. “This caused me to emit an involuntary s
6、norting sound(not loud; certainly nowhere near as loud as this guy was talking; just a little snortlet),which caused the guy to stop talking and violating the No. 1 Guy Rule of Restroom Etiquette? turn his head and look directly at me, so I could see(using peripheral vision)that he was irritated by
7、my rude interruption of his conversation. Then he went back to shouting at the urinal. The point is that every key element of this scenario the cell phone, the airplane, the zipper is made possible by technology. We know that technology is a wonderful thing. But at what point does technology go too
8、far? Is it fair to say that cell phones, if used thoughtfully and politely, are OK, but that if a person attaches an earpiece thingy and walks around shouting in public, bystanders should be allowed to snatch the wire and sprint off down the airport concourse, with the shouters earphone, and possibl
9、y even the shouters detached ear, bouncing gaily behind on the floor? I think we all agree that the answer is: Yes. When technology goes too far, ordinary citizens must take action. But the question is: How do we define“too far“? I will tell you. We define“too far“ as“when scientists start putting w
10、eapons on cockroaches. “This is actually happening, according to an article in the Sept.6 issue of Science magazine, brought to my attention by alert reader Richard Sweetman. This article states that researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have been “mounting tiny cannons on the back
11、s of cockroaches. “That is correct: These researchers have been outfitting live cockroaches with backpacks containing“plastic tubes filled with explosives. “ Of course, the researchers have a scientific reason for doing this: They are on LSD. No,really, it has something to do with figuring out how c
12、ockroaches have such good balance(You almost never see a cockroach fall off a bicycle.). The researchers have used their findings to construct a working robot roach that is, according to Science,the size of a breadbox. Swell! If theres anything this world needs more than armed cockroaches, its giant
13、, mechanized cockroaches! Newspaper story from the year 2010:“A homeowner in Santa Rosa, California, was found shot to death in his kitchen Friday. Police said the man apparently was felled by 500 rounds of small-bore cannon fire, mostly in his ankles, indicating that this was the work of the gang o
14、f armed research cockroaches that escaped from a Berkeley lab. Police said the motive in the slaying was apparently a Ring Ding. In a related development, an escaped robot cockroach broke into an Oakland Wal-Mart and made off with an estimated 17,000 AA batteries. “Ask yourself: Is that the kind of
15、story you want to read in your newspaper? No, seriously, this is bad. We need somebody in authority to look into this right away. Maybe Dick Cheney could handle it. 1 We can infer from “ Never stay in a restroom with a man who talks to the plumbing“ in Paragraph One that people_. （ A） presumed such
16、a man was more or less insane （ B） were afraid that the man would talk to them （ C） thought there was something wrong with the plumbing （ D） believed that the man had mistaken them for other people 2 Which of the following adjectives describes the authors attitude to using the earpiece thingies? （ A
17、） Surprised. （ B） Considerate. （ C） Contemptuous. （ D） Ambiguous. 3 The mention of a conflict between people with earpiece thingies and bystanders in the sixth paragraph is to_. （ A） support the authors opinion in the previous part （ B） elicit the authors opinion in the following paragraph （ C） veri
18、fy the trueness of the authors statement （ D） refute other peoples sympathy for the man 4 Which of the following is INCORRECT of the story mentioned in the last paragraph? （ A） It is imaginary. （ B） It is a warning. （ C） It is a science fiction. （ D） It is set in California. 5 A suitable title for t
19、he passage might be_. （ A） A Man Talking to Plumbing （ B） Putting Weapons on Cockroaches （ C） Modern Technology （ D） Cannons, Cell Phones and Zippers 5 About two-thirds of the worlds population is expected to live in cities by the year 2020 and, according to the United Nations, approximately 3.7 bil
20、lion people will inhabit urban areas some ten years later. As cities grow, so do the number of buildings that characterize them: office towers, factories, shopping malls and high-rise apartment buildings. These structures depend on artificial ventilation systems to keep clean and cool air flowing to
21、 the people inside. We know these systems by the term“air-conditioning“. Although many of us may feel air-conditioners bring relief from hot, humid or polluted outside air, they pose many potential health hazards. Much research has looked at how the circulation of air inside a closed environment suc
22、h as an office building can spread disease or expose occupants to harmful chemicals. One of the more widely publicised dangers is that of Legionnaires disease, which was first recognised in the 1970s. This was found to have affected people in buildings with air-conditioning systems in which warm air
23、 pumped out of the systems cooling towers was somehow sucked back into the air intake, in most cases due to poor design. This warm air was, needless to say, the perfect environment for the rapid growth of disease-carrying bacteria originating from outside the building, where it existed in harmless q
24、uantities. The warm, bacteria-laden air was combined with cooled, conditioned air and was then circulated around various parts of the building. Studies showed that even people outside such buildings were at risk if they walked past air exhaust ducts. Cases of Legionnaires disease are becoming fewer
25、with newer system designs and modifications to older systems, but many older buildings, particularly in developing countries, require constant monitoring. The ways in which air-conditioners work to “ clean“ the air can inadvertently cause health problems, too. One such way is with the use of an elec
26、trostatic precipitator, which removes dust and smoke particles from the air. What precipitators also do, however, is to emit large quantities of positive air ions into the ventilation system. A growing number of studies show that overexposure to positive air ions can result in headaches, fatigue and
27、 feelings of irritation. Large air-conditioning systems add water to the air they circulate by means of humidifiers. In older systems, the water used for this process is kept in special reservoirs, the bottoms of which provide breeding grounds for bacteria and fungi which can find their way into the
28、 ventilation system. The risk to human health from this situation has been highlighted by the fact that the immune systems of approximately half of workers in air-conditioned office buildings have developed antibodies to fight off the organisms found at the bottom of system reservoirs. Chemical disi
29、nfectants, called “ biocides“, that are added to reservoirs to make them germ-free, are dangerous in their own right in sufficient quantities, as they often contain compounds such as pentachlorophenol, which is strongly linked to abdominal cancers. Finally, it should be pointed out that the artifici
30、al climatic environment created by air-conditioners can also adversely affect us. In a natural environment, whether indoor or outdoor, there are small variations in temperature and humidity. Indeed, the human body has long been accustomed to these normal changes. In an air-conditioned living or work
31、 environment, however, body temperatures remain well under 37 , our normal temperature. This leads to a weakened immune system and thus greater susceptibility to diseases such as colds and flu. 6 Bacteria came into a ventilation system when_. （ A） cool air was sucked into it （ B） warm air was sucked
32、 back （ C） cool air was sucked back （ D） warm air was sucked into it 7 The word “inadvertently“ in the fourth paragraph probably means_. （ A） intentionally （ B） indeliberately （ C） definitely （ D） imminently 8 Which of the following substance can NOT be found directly from an old ventilation system?
33、 （ A） Chemical disinfectants. （ B） Bacteria. （ C） Fungi. （ D） Pentachlorophenol. 9 Air-conditioning may have ill effect on human body in all of the following ways EXCEPT that_. （ A） much exposure may make people feel annoyed （ B） harmful chemicals in the ventilation system may cause cancers （ C） muc
34、h exposure to low temperature may cause immune diseases （ D） people may suffer from headache in an air-conditioned office 10 The main purpose of the passage is to_. （ A） introduce the dangers of air-conditioning （ B） explain the defects of old air-conditioning （ C） illustrate how air-conditioning af
35、fects peoples health （ D） advocate abandoning old air-conditioning 10 Letty the old lady lived in a “Single Room Occupancy“ hotel approved by the New York City welfare department and occupied by old losers, junkies, cockroaches and rats. Whenever she left her room a tiny cubicle with a cot, a chair,
36、 a seven-year-old calendar and a window so filthy it blended with the unspeakable walls she would pack all her valuables in two large shopping bags and carry them with her. If she didnt, everything would disappear when she left the hotel. Her “things“were also a burden. Everything she managed to pos
37、sess was portable and had multiple uses. A shawl is more versatile than a sweater, and hats are no good at all, although she used to have lots of nice hats, she told me. The first day I saw Letty I had left my apartment in search of a “bag lady“. I had seen these women round the city frequently, had
38、 spoken to a few. Sitting around the parks had taught me more about these city vagabonds. As a group, few were eligible for social security. They had always been flotsam and jetsam, floating from place to place and from job to job waitress, short order cook, sales clerk, stock boy, maid, mechanic, p
39、orter all those jobs held by faceless people. The “bag ladies“were a special breed. They looked and acted and dressed strangely in some of the most determinedly conformist areas of the city. They frequented Fourteen Street downtown, and the fancy shopping districts. They seemed to like crowds but re
40、mained alone. They held long conversations with themselves, with telephone poles, with unexpected cracks in the sidewalk. They hung around lunch counters and cafeterias, and could remain impervious to the rudeness of a determined waitress and sit for hours clutching a coffee cup full of cold memorie
41、s. Letty was my representative bag lady. I picked her up on the corner of Fourteenth and Third Avenue. She had the most suspicious face I had encountered; her entire body, in fact, was pulled forward in one large question mark. She was carrying a double plain brown shopping bag and a larger white ba
42、g ordering you to vote for some obscure man for some obscure office and we began talking about whether or not she was an unpaid advertisement. I asked her if she would have lunch with me, and let me treat, as a matter of fact. After some hesitation and a few sharp glances over the top of her glasses
43、, Letty the Bag Lady let me come into her life. We had lunch that day, the next, and later the next week. Being a bag lady was a full-time job. Take the problem of the hotels. You cant stay to long in any one of those welfare hotels, Letty told me, because the junkies figure out your routine, and wh
44、en you get your checks, and youll be robbed, even killed. So you have to move a lot. And every time you move, you have to make three trips to the welfare office to get them to approve the new place, even if its just another cockroach-filled, rat-infested hole in the wall. During the last five years,
45、 Letty tried to move every two or three months. Most of our conversations took place standing in line. New York State had just changed the regulations governing Medicaid cards and Letty had to get a new card. That took two hours in line, one hour sitting in a large dank-smelling room, and two minute
46、s with a social worker who never once looked up. Another time, her case worker at the welfare office sent Letty to try and get food stamps, and after standing in line for three hours she found out she didnt qualify because she didnt have cooking facilities in her room. “This is my social life,“she s
47、aid. “I run around the city and stand in line. You stand in line to see one of them fancy movies and calling it art; I stand in line for medicine, for food, for glasses, for the cards to get pills, for the pills; I stand in line to see people who never see who I am; at the hotel, sometimes I even ha
48、ve to stand in line to go to the John. When I die therell probably be a line to get through the gate, and when I get up to the front of the line, somebody will push it closed and say, Sorry. Come back after lunch. These agencies, I figure they have to make it as hard for you to get help as they can,
49、 so only really strong people or really stubborn people like me can survive. “ Letty would talk and talk; sometimes, she didnt seem to know I was even there. She never remembered my name, and would give a little start of surprise whenever I said hers, as if it had been a long time since anyone had said “Letty. “I dont think she thought of herself as a person, anymore; I think she had accepted the view that she was a welfare case, a Mediaid card, a nuisance in the bus depot in the winter time, a victim to any
