1、考博英语（阅读理解）模拟试卷 51及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 “I have great confidence that by the end of the decade well know in vast detail how cancer cells arise,“ says microbiologist Robert Weinberg, an expert on cancer.“But,“ he cautions, “some people have the idea that once one understands the causes, th
2、e cure will rapidly follow.Consider Pasteur, he discovered the causes of many kinds of infections, but it was fifty or sixty years before cures were available.“ This year, 50 percent of the 910,000 people who suffer from cancer will survive at least five years.In the year 2000 , the National Cancer
3、Institute estimates, that figure will be 75 percent. For some skin cancers, the five-year survival rate is as high as 90 percent.But other survival statistics are still discouraging-13 percent for lung cancer, and 2 percent for cancer of the pancreas. With as many as 120 varieties in existence, disc
4、overing how cancer works is not easy.The researchers made great progress in the early 1970s, when they discovered that oncogenes, which are cancer-causing genes, are inactive in normal cells.Anything from cosmic rays to radiation to diet may activate a dormant oncogene, but how remains unknown.If se
5、veral oncogenes are driven into action, the cell, unable to turn them off, becomes cancerous. The exact mechanisms involved are still mysterious, but the likelihood that many cancers are initiated at the level of genes suggests that we will never prevent all cancers.“Changes are a normal part of the
6、 evolutionary process,“ says oncologist William Hayward.Environmental factors can never be totally eliminated; as Hayward points out, “We cant prepare a medicine against cosmic rays.“ The prospects for cure, though still distant, are brighter. “First, we need to understand how the normal cell contro
7、ls itself.Second, we have to determine whether there are a limited number of genes in cells which are always responsible for at least part of the trouble.If we can understand how cancer works, we can counteract its action.“ 1 The example of Pasteur in the passage is used to_. （ A） predict that the s
8、ecret of cancer will be disclosed in a decade （ B） indicate that the prospects for curing cancer are bright （ C） prove that cancer will be cured in fifty to sixty years （ D） warn that there is still a long way to go before cancer can be conquered 2 The author implies that by the year 2000,_. （ A） th
9、ere will be a drastic rise in the five-year survival rate of skin-cancer patients （ B） 90 percent of the skin-cancer patients today will still be living （ C） the survival statistics will be fairly even among patients with various cancers （ D） there wont be a drastic increase of survival rate of all
10、cancer patients 3 Oncogenes are cancer-causing genes_. （ A） that are always in operation in a healthy person （ B） which remain unharmful so long as they are not activated （ C） that can be driven out of normal cells （ D） which normal cells cant turn off 4 The word “dormant“ in the third paragraph mos
11、t probably means_. （ A） dead （ B） ever-present （ C） inactive （ D） potential 4 Discoveries in science and technology are thought by “untaught minds“ to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents.Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold on a piece o
12、f cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then.He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery.Inventions and innovations almost always come out of laborious trial and error.Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have the
13、ir shots blocked much more frequently than they score. The point is that the players who score most are the ones who take most shots at the goal and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity.The prime difference between innovators and others is one of approach.Everybody gets ideas, but inn
14、ovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise.What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities. “Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that theres no particular virtue in doi
15、ng things the way they have always been done,“ wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority, this accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: “How come nobody thought of that before?“ The creative approach
16、begins with the proposition that nothing is as it appears.Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything.Faced with getting from A to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route.The innovators will search for alternate course
17、s, which may prove easier in the long run and are bound to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends.Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer. 5 What does the author probably mean by “untaught mind“ in the first paragraph? （ A） A person ignorant of
18、the hard work involved in experimentation. （ B） A citizen of a society that restricts personal creativity. （ C） A person who has had no education. （ D） An individual who often comes up with new ideas by accident. 6 According to the author, what distinguishes innovators from non-innovators? （ A） The
19、variety of ideas they have. （ B） The intelligence they possess. （ C） The way they deal with problems. （ D） The way they present their findings. 7 The author quotes Rudolph Flesch in Paragraph 3 because_. （ A） Rudolph Flesch is the best-known expert in the study of human creativity （ B） the quotation
20、 strengthens the assertion that creative individuals look for new ways of doing things （ C） the reader is familiar with Rudolph Fleschs point of view （ D） the quotation adds a new idea to the information previously presented 8 The phrase “march to a different drummer“ (the last line of the passage)
21、suggests that highly creative individuals are_. （ A） diligent in pursuing their goals （ B） reluctant to follow common ways of doing things （ C） devoted to the progress of science （ D） concerned about the advance of society 8 Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a criti
22、cal period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the drastic experiment of Frederick II in the thirteenth century, it may be.Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent. All the infants died before the first year.But
23、 clearly there was more than lack of language here.What was missing was good mothering.Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected. Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick.Nevertheless, some children are still back
24、ward in speaking.Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly.If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again.A b
25、ird learns to sing and to fly rapidly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed. Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns ou
26、t to be of high IQ.At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words.At three he knows about 1,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his
27、 language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar. Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak.What special about mans brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a to
28、y-bear with the sound pattern “toy-bear“.And even more incredible is the young brains ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyse, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways. But speech has to be induced, and this depends on interaction
29、 between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the childs babbling, grasping and smiling, and responds to them.Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals.Sensitivity to th
30、e childs non-verbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language. 9 The purpose of Frederick IPs experiment was_. （ A） to prove that children are born with the ability to speak （ B） to discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech （ C） to find out what
31、 role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak （ D） to prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language 10 The reason some children are backward in speaking is most probably that_. （ A） they are incapable of learning language rapidly （ B） they are exposed to too much la
32、nguage at once （ C） their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak （ D） their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them 11 What is exceptionally remarkable about a child is that_. （ A） he is born with the capacity to speak （ B） he has a brain more complex than an animals （ C） he
33、 can produce his own sentences （ D） he owes his speech ability to good nursing 12 Which of the following can NOT be inferred from the passage? （ A） The faculty of speech is inborn in man. （ B） Encouragement is anything but essential to a child in language learning. （ C） The childs brain is highly se
34、lective. （ D） Most children learn their language in definite stages. 13 If a child starts to speak later than others, he will_. （ A） have a high IQ （ B） be less intelligent （ C） be insensitive to verbal signals （ D） not necessarily be backward 13 In general, our society is becoming one of giant ente
35、rprises directed by a bureaucratic management in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery.The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and “human-relations“ experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has be
36、come powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it.In fact, the blue and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management. The worker and employee are anxious, not only beca
37、use they might find themselves out of a job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life.They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive h
38、uman beings. Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious.Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates.They are even more insecure in some respects.They are in a highly competitive race.To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of
39、 self-respect.When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the tight mixture of submissiveness and independence.From that moment on they are tested again and again by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge thei
40、r behavior, sociability, capacity to get along , etc.This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than ones fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness. Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production
41、 or to nineteenth-century “free enterprise“ capitalism? Certainly not.Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown.I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themse
42、lves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities-those of love and of reason are the aims of all social arrangements.Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man. 14 By “a well-oiled cog in the ma
43、chinery“ the author intends to render the idea that man is_. （ A） a necessary part of the society though each individuals function is negligible （ B） working in complete harmony with the rest of the society （ C） an unimportant part in comparison with the rest of the society, though functioning smoot
44、hly （ D） a humble component of the society, especially when working smoothly 15 The real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees is that_. （ A） they are likely to lose their jobs （ B） they have no genuine satisfaction or interest in life （ C） they are faced with the fundamental realities o
45、f human existence （ D） they are deprived of their individuality and independence 16 From the passage we can infer that real happiness of life belongs to those_. （ A） who are at the bottom of the society （ B） who are higher up in their social status （ C） who prove better than their fellow-competitors
46、 （ D） who could keep far away from this competitive world 17 To solve the present social problems the author suggests that we should_. （ A） resort to the production mode of our ancestors （ B） offer higher wages to the workers and employees （ C） enable man to fully develop his potentialities （ D） tak
47、e the fundamental realities for granted 18 The authors attitude towards industrialism might best be summarized as one of_. （ A） approval （ B） dissatisfaction （ C） suspicion （ D） tolerance 18 When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: he can give the inv
48、ention to the world by publishing it, keep the idea secret, or patent it. A granted patent is the result of a bargain struck between an inventor and the state, by which the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly and publishes full details of his invention to the public after that period terminat
49、es. Only in the most exceptional circumstances is the lifespan of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events. The longest extension ever granted was to Georges Valensi; his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuitry was extended until 1971 because for most of the patents normal life there was no colour TV to receive and thus no hope of reward for the invention. Because a patent remains permanently public after it has terminated, the shelves of the library attached to the patent
