1、大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 23及答案与解析 Section B 0 Ant Intelligence A)When we think of intelligent members of the animal kingdom, the creatures that spring immediately to mind are apes and monkeys. But in fact the social lives of some members of the insect kingdom are sufficiently complex to suggest more than
2、a hint of intelligence. Among these, the world of the ant has come in for considerable scrutiny lately, and the idea that ants demonstrate sparks of cognition has certainly not been rejected by those involved in these investigations. B)Ants store food, repel attackers and use chemical signals to con
3、tact one another in case of attack. Such chemical communication can be compared to the human use of visual and auditory channels(as in religious chants, advertising image sand jingles, political slogans and martial music)to arouse and propagate moods and attitudes. The biologist Lewis Thomas wrote,
4、Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies to war, use chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labour, exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television. C)Howev
5、er, in ants there is no cultural transmission everything must be encoded in the genes whereas in humans the opposite is true. Only basic instincts are carried in the genes of a newborn baby, other skills being learned from others in the community as the child grows up. D)It may seem that this cultur
6、al continuity gives us a huge advantage over ants. They have never mastered fire nor progressed. Their fungus farming and aphid herding crafts are sophisticated when compared to the agricultural skills of humans five thousand years ago but have been totally overtaken by modern human agribusiness. E)
7、Or have they? The farming methods of ants are at least sustainable. They do not ruin environments or use enormous amounts of energy. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that the crop farming of ants may be more sophisticated and adaptable than was thought. F)Ants were farmers fifty million years befo
8、re humans were. Ants cant digest the cellulose in leaves but some fungi can. The ants therefore cultivate these fungi in their nests, bringing them leaves to feed on, and then aphids(small insects of a different species from ants)use them as a source of food. Farmer ants secrete antibiotics to contr
9、ol other fungi that might act as “weeds“, and spread waste to fertilise the crop. G)It was once thought that the fungus that ants cultivate was a single type that they had propagated, essentially unchanged from the distant past. Not so. Ulrich Mueller of Maryland and his colleagues genetically scree
10、ned 862 different types of fungi taken from ants nests. These turned out to be highly diverse: it seems that ants are continually domesticating new species. Even more impressively, DNA analysis of the fungi suggests that the ants improve or modify the fungi by regularly swapping and sharing strains
11、with neighbouring ant colonies. H)Whereas prehistoric man had no exposure to urban lifestyles the forcing house of intelligence the evidence suggests that ants have lived in urban settings for close on a hundred million years, developing and maintaining underground cities of specialised chambers and
12、 tunnels. I)When we survey Mexico City, Tokyo, Los Angeles, we are amazed at what has been accomplished by humans. Yet Hoelldoblerand Wilson s magnificent work for ant lovers, The Ants, describes a super colony of the ant Formica yessensis on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido. This “megalopolis“ was re
13、ported to be composed of 360 million workers and a million queens living in 4,500 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometres. J)Such enduring and intricately meshed levels of technical achievement outstrip by far anything achieved by our distant ancestors. We hail as masterpiec
14、es the cave paintings in southern France and elsewhere, dating back some 20,000 years. Ant societies existed in something like their present form more than seventy million years ago. Beside this, prehistoric man looks technologically primitive. Is this then some kind of intelligence, albeit of a dif
15、ferent kind? K)Research conducted at Oxford, Sussex and Zurich Universities has shown that when desert ants return from a foraging trip, they navigate by integrating bearings and distances, which they continuously update in their heads. They combine the evidence of visual landmarks with a mental lib
16、rary of local directions, all within a framework which is consulted and updated. So ants can learn, too. L)And in a twelve-year programme of work, Ryabko and Reznikova have found evidence that ants can transmit very complex messages. Scouts who had located food in amaze returned to mobilise their fo
17、raging teams. They engaged in contact sessions, at the end of which the scout was removed in order to observe what her team might do. Often the foragers proceeded to the exact spot in the maze where the food had been. Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the foraging team using odour clues. M
18、)Discussion now centres on whether the route through the maze is communicated as a “left-right“ sequence of turns or as a “compass bearing and distance“ message. N)During the course of this exhaustive study, Reznikova has grown so attached to her laboratory ants that she feels she knows them as indi
19、viduals even without the paint spots used to mark them. Its no surprise that Edward Wilson, in his essay, “In the company of ants“, advises readers who ask what to do with the ants in their kitchen to: “Watch where you step. Be careful of little lives.“ 1 The suggestion given to those puzzling reade
20、rs is to protect ants from being killed under your foot. 2 Genetic analysis shows ants constantly upgrade these fungi by developing new species and by exchanging species with neighbouring ant colonies. 3 When we refers to the clever animals, it occurs to us immediately are monkeys and apes. 4 The an
21、ts cultivate a large number of different species of edible fungi which convert cellulose into a form which they can digest. 5 In one experiment, foraging teams were not able to use their sense of smell to find food. 6 Cultural continuity merely exists in human beings while ants are simply depended o
22、n genes. 7 Ancient people have no opportunity to experience city life, which is a factor to encourage the development of intelligence. 8 Chemical signals used by ants are similar to the human beings way of communication through listening and speaking. 9 Some ants can find their way by making calcula
23、tions based on distance and position. 10 Ants have sophisticated methods of farming, including herding livestock and growing crops, which are in many ways similar to those used in human agriculture. 10 Makete Integrated Rural Transport Project A)The disappointing results of many conventional road tr
24、ansport projects in Africa led some experts to rethink the strategy by which rural transport problems were to be tackled at the beginning of the 1980s. A request for help in improving the availability of transport within the remote Makete District of south-western Tanzania presented the opportunity
25、to try a new approach. B)The concept of “integrated rural transport“ was adopted in the task of examining the transport needs of the rural households in the district. The objective was to reduce the time and effort needed to obtain access to essential goods and services through an improved rural tra
26、nsport system. The underlying assumption was that the time saved would be used instead for activities that would improve the social and economic development of the communities. The Makete Integrated Rural Transport Project(MIRTP)started in 1985 with financial support from the Swiss Development Corpo
27、ration and was co-ordinated with the help of the Tanzanian government. C)When the project began, Makete District was virtually totally isolated during the rainy season. The regional road was in such bad shape that access to the main towns was impossible for about three months of the year. Road traff
28、ic was extremely rare within the district, and alternative means of transport were restricted to donkeys in the north of the district. People relied primarily on the paths, which were slippery and dangerous during the rains. D)Before solutions could be proposed, the problems had to be understood. Li
29、ttle was known about the transport demands of the rural households, so Phase I, between December 1985 and December 1987, focused on research. The socio-economic survey of more than 400 households in the district indicated that a household in Makete spent, on average, seven hours a day on transportin
30、g themselves and their goods, a figure which seemed extreme but which has also been obtained in surveys in other rural areas in Africa. Interesting facts regarding transport were found: 95% was on foot; 80% was within the locality; and 70% was related to the collection of water and firewood and trav
31、elling to grinding mills. E)Having determined the main transport needs, possible solutions were identified which might reduce the time and burden. During Phase II, from January to February 1991, a number of approaches were implemented in an effort to improve mobility and access to transport. F)An im
32、provement of the road network was considered necessary to ensure the import and export of goods to the district. These improvements were carried out using methods that were heavily dependent on labour. In addition to the improvement of roads, these methods provided training in the operation of a mec
33、hanical workshop and bus and truck services. However, the difference from the conventional approach was that this time consideration was given to local transport needs outside the road network. G)Most goods were transported along the paths that provide short-cuts up and down the hillsides, but the p
34、aths were a real safety risk and made the journey on foot even more arduous. It made sense to improve the paths by building steps, handrails and footbridges. H)It was uncommon to find means of transport that were more efficient than walking but less technologically advanced than motor vehicles. The
35、use of bicycles was constrained by their high cost and the lack of available spare parts. Oxen were not used at all but donkeys were used by a few households in the northern part of the district. MIRTP focused on what would be most appropriate for the inhabitants of Makete in terms of what was avail
36、able, how much they could afford and what they were willing to accept. After careful consideration, the project chose the promotion of donkeys a donkey costs less than a bicycle and the introduction of a locally manufacturable wheelbarrow. I)At the end of Phase II, it was clear that the selected app
37、roaches to Makete s transport problems had had different degrees of success. Phase III, from March 1991 to March 1993, focused on the refinement and institutionalisation of these activities. J)The road improvements and accompanying maintenance system had helped make the district centre accessible th
38、roughout the year. Essential goods from outside the district had become more readily available at the market, and prices did not fluctuate as much as they had done before. K)Paths and secondary roads were improved only at the request of communities who were willing to participate in construction and
39、 maintenance. However, the improved paths impressed the inhabitants, and requests for assistance greatly increased soon after only a few improvements had been completed. L)The efforts to improve the efficiency of the existing transport services were not very successful because most of the motorised
40、vehicles in the district broke down and there were no resources to repair them. Even the introduction of low-cost means of transport was difficult because of the general poverty of the district. The locally manufactured wheelbarrows were still too expensive for all but a few of the households. Modif
41、ications to the original design by local carpenters cut production time and costs. Other local carpenters have been trained in the new design so that they can respond to requests. Nevertheless, a locally produced wooden wheelbarrow which costs around 5000 Tanzanian shillings(less than $20)in Makete,
42、 and is about one quarter the cost of a metal wheelbarrow, is still too expensive for most people. M)Donkeys, which were imported to the district, have become more common and contribute, in particular, to the transportation of crops and goods to market. Those who have bought donkeys are mainly from
43、richer households but, with an increased supply through local breeding, donkeys should become more affordable. Meanwhile, local initiatives are promoting the renting out of the existing donkeys. N)It should be noted, however, that a donkey, which at 20,000 Tanzanian shillings costs less than a bicyc
44、le, is still an investment equal to an average household s income over half a year. This clearly illustrates the need for supplementary measures if one wants to assist the rural poor. O)It would have been easy to criticise the MIRTP for using in the early phases a “top-down“ approach, in which decis
45、ions were made by experts and officials before being handed down to communities, but it was necessary to start the process from the level of the governmental authorities of the district. It would have been difficult to respond to the requests of villagers and other rural inhabitants without the supp
46、ort and understanding of district authorities. 11 If the project had been planned and completed with the combination of government, authorities and communities, it would have been more likely to achieve success. 12 Due to the unsuccessful results of a number of transport programs, African authoritie
47、s reconsider to deal with the problems in remote areas. 13 Frequent breakdown of buses and trucks hindered attempts to make the existing transport services more efficient. 14 It was to improve efficiency in attaining needed goods and services that was the purpose of newly raised concept. 15 Construc
48、tion of footbridges, steps and handrails improved paths used for transport up and down hillsides. 16 Prior to the start of MIRTP the Makete district was almost inaccessible during the rainy season. 17 The isolation of Makete for part of the year was no longer a problem once the roads had been improv
49、ed. 18 The survey concluded that one-fifth or 20% of the household transport requirement is outside the local area. 19 Donkeys other than oxen were regarded as a tool means for those people living in northern part of the district. 20 The improvement of secondary roads and paths was done merely at the request of local people who were willing to lend a hand. 20 Jeff Bezos Taking the long view A)Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owes much of his success to his ability to look beyond the short-term view of things. B)Inside a remo
