1、雅思（阅读）模拟试卷 108及答案与解析 一、 Reading Module (60 minutes) 0 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.Case Study: Tourism New Zealand websiteNew Zealand is a small country of four million inhabitants, a long-haul flight from all the major tourist-gener
2、ating markets of the world. Tourism currently makes up 9% of the countrys gross domestic product, and is the countrys largest export sector. Unlike other export sectors, which make products and then sell them overseas, tourism brings its customers to New Zealand. The product is the country itself -
3、the people, the places and the experiences. In 1999, Tourism New Zealand launched a campaign to communicate a new brand position to the world. The campaign focused on New Zealands scenic beauty, exhilarating outdoor activities and authentic Maori culture, and it made New Zealand one of the strongest
4、 national brands in the world.A key feature of the campaign was the website , which provided potential visitors to New Zealand with a single gateway to everything the destination had to offer. The heart of the website was a database of tourism services operators, both those based in New Zealand and
5、those based abroad which offered tourism services to the country. Any tourism-related business could be listed by filling in a simple form. This meant that even the smallest bed and breakfast address or specialist activity provider could gain a web presence with access to an audience of long-haul vi
6、sitors. In addition, because participating businesses were able to update the details they gave on a regular basis, the information provided remained accurate. And to maintain and improve standards, Tourism New Zealand organised a scheme whereby organisations appearing on the website underwent an in
7、dependent evaluation against a set of agreed national standards of quality. As part of this, the effect of each business on the environment was considered.To communicate the New Zealand experience, the site also carried features relating to famous people and places. One of the most popular was an in
8、terview with former New Zealand All Blacks rugby captain Tana Umaga. Another feature that attracted a lot of attention was an interactive journey through a number of the locations chosen for blockbuster films which had made use of New Zealands stunning scenery as a backdrop. As the site developed, a
9、dditional features were added to help independent travellers devise their own customised itineraries. To make it easier to plan motoring holidays, the site catalogued the most popular driving routes in the country, highlighting different routes according to the season and indicating distances and ti
10、mes.Later, a Travel Planner feature was added, which allowed visitors to click and bookmark places or attractions they were interested in, and then view the results on a map. The Travel Planner offered suggested routes and public transport options between the chosen locations. There were also links
11、to accommodation in the area. By registering with the website, users could save their Travel Plan and return to it later, or print it out to take on the visit. The website also had a Your Words section where anyone could submit a blog of their New Zealand travels for possible inclusion on the websit
12、e.The Tourism New Zealand website won two Webby awards for online achievement and innovation. More importantly perhaps, the growth of tourism to New Zealand was impressive. Overall tourism expenditure increased by an average of 6.9% per year between 1999 and 2004. From Britain, visits to New Zealand
13、 grew at an average annual rate of 13% between 2002 and 2006, compared to a rate of 4% overall for British visits abroad.The website was set up to allow both individuals and travel organisations to create itineraries and travel packages to suit their own needs and interests. On the website, visitors
14、 can search for activities not solely by geographical location, but also by the particular nature of the activity. This is important as research shows that activities are the key driver of visitor satisfaction, contributing 74% to visitor satisfaction, while transport and accommodation account for t
15、he remaining 26%. The more activities that visitors undertake, the more satisfied they will be. It has also been found that visitors enjoy cultural activities most when they are interactive, such as visiting a marae (meeting ground) to learn about traditional Maori life. Many long-haul travellers en
16、joy such learning experiences, which provide them with stories to take home to their friends and family. In addition, it appears that visitors to New Zealand dont want to be one of the crowd and find activities that involve only a few people more special and meaningful.It could be argued that New Ze
17、aland is not a typical destination. New Zealand is a small country with a visitor economy composed mainly of small businesses. It is generally perceived as a safe English-speaking country with a reliable transport infrastructure. Because of the long-haul flight, most visitors stay for longer (averag
18、e 20 days) and want to see as much of the country as possible on what is often seen as a once-in-a-lifetime visit. However, the underlying lessons apply anywhere - the effectiveness of a strong brand, a strategy based on unique experiences and a comprehensive and user-friendly website.Questions 1-7C
19、omplete the table below.Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.7 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the info
20、rmation FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 8 The website aimed to provide ready-made itineraries and packages for travel companies and individual tourists. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 9 It was found that most visitors started searching
21、 on the website by geographical location. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 10 According to research, 26% of visitor satisfaction is related to their accommodation. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 11 Visitors to New Zealand like to become involved in the local culture. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 12
22、Visitors like staying in small hotels in New Zealand rather than in larger ones. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 13 Many visitors feel it is unlikely that they will return to New Zealand after their visit. （ A） TRUE （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 13 Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F. Choose the correct
23、 heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i The productive outcomes that may result from boredom ii What teachers can do to prevent boredom iii A new explanation and a new cure for boredom iv P
24、roblems with a scientific approach to boredom v A potential danger arising from boredom vi Creating a system of classification for feelings of boredom vii Age groups most affected by boredom viii Identifying those most affected by boredom Why being bored is stimulating - and useful, too This most co
25、mmon of emotions is turning out to be more interesting than we thought A We all know how it feels - its impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches out, and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But defining boredom so that it can be studied in the l
26、ab has proved difficult. For a start, it can include a lot of other mental states, such as frustration, apathy, depression and indifference. There isnt even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy, flat kind of emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too. In
27、 his book, Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares it to disgust - an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. If disgust protects humans from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious“ social situations, he suggests. B
28、 By asking people about their experiences of boredom, Thomas Goetz and his team at the University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types: indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant and apathetic. These can be plotted on two axes - one running left to right, which meas
29、ures low to high arousal, and the other from top to bottom, which measures how positive or negative the feeling is. Intriguingly, Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom, they tend to specialise in one. Of the five types, the most damaging is reactant boredom with its explo
30、sive combination of high arousal and negative emotion. The most useful is what Goetz calls indifferent boredom: someone isnt engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed and calm. However, it remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict the kind of boredom each of
31、 us might be prone to. C Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, goes further. All emotions are there for a reason, including boredom, she says. Mann has found that being bored makes us more creative. Were all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead to all k
32、inds of amazing things, she says. In experiments published last year, Mann found that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a control group. Mann concluded that a passive
33、, boring activity is best for creativity because it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out more boredom in our lives. D Psychologist John Eastwood at York University in Toronto, Canada, isnt convinced. If you are in a state of mind-wandering you are
34、 not bored, he says. In my view, by definition boredom is an undesirable state. That doesnt necessarily mean that it isnt adaptive, he adds. Pain is adaptive - if we didnt have physical pain, bad things would happen to us. Does that mean that we should actively cause pain? No. But even if boredom ha
35、s evolved to help us survive, it can still be toxic if allowed to fester. For Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is a failure to put our attention system into gear. This causes an inability to focus on anything, which makes time seem to go painfully slowly. Whats more, your efforts to improve
36、the situation can end up making you feel worse. People try to connect with the world and if they are not successful theres that frustration and irritability, he says. Perhaps most worryingly, says Eastwood, repeatedly failing to engage attention can lead to a state where we dont know what to do any
37、more, and no longer care. E Eastwoods team is now trying to explore why the attention system fails. Its early days but they think that at least some of it comes down to personality. Boredom proneness has been linked with a variety of traits. People who are motivated by pleasure seem to suffer partic
38、ularly badly. Other personality traits, such as curiosity, are associated with a high boredom threshold. More evidence that boredom has detrimental effects comes from studies of people who are more or less prone to boredom. It seems those who bore easily face poorer prospects in education, their car
39、eer and even life in general. But of course, boredom itself cannot kill -its the things we do to deal with it that may put us in danger. What can we do to alleviate it before it comes to that? Goetzs group has one suggestion. Working with teenagers, they found that those who approach a boring situat
40、ion - in other words, see that its boring and get stuck in anyway - report less boredom than those who try to avoid it by using snacks, TV or social media for distraction. F Psychologist Francoise Wemelsfelder speculates that our over-connected lifestyles might even be a new source of boredom. In mo
41、dern human society there is a lot of overstimulation but still a lot of problems finding meaning, she says. So instead of seeking yet more mental stimulation, perhaps we should leave our phones alone, and use boredom to motivate us to engage with the world in a more meaningful way. 14 Paragraph A 15
42、 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F 19 Look at the following people (Questions 20-23) and the list of ideas below. Match each person with the correct idea, A-E. Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet. List of Ideas A The way we live to
43、day may encourage boredom. B One sort of boredom is worse than all the others. C Levels of boredom may fall in the future. D Trying to cope with boredom can increase its negative effects. E Boredom may encourage us to avoid an unpleasant experience. 20 Peter Toohey 21 Thomas Goetz 22 John Eastwood 2
44、3 Francoise Wemelsfelder 23 Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet. Responses to boredom For John Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is that people cannot 【 R24】 _, due to a failure in what he ca
45、lls the attention system, and as a result they become frustrated and irritable. His team suggests that those for whom 【 R25】 _is an important aim in life may have problems in coping with boredom, whereas those who have the characteristic of 【 R26】 _can generally cope with it. 24 【 R24】 25 【 R25】 26
46、【 R26】 26 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. Artificial artists Can computers really create works of art? The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which, so their makers claim, possess creative talents. Classical
47、 music by an artificial composer has had audiences enraptured, and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score. Artworks painted by a robot have sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious galleries. And software has been built which creates art that could not have b
48、een imagined by the programmer. Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly. If we can break this process down into computer code, where does that leave human creativity? This is a question at the very core of humanity, says Geraint Wiggins, a computational cre
49、ativity researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. It scares a lot of people. They are worried that it is taking something special away from what it means to be human. To some extent, we are all familiar with computerised art. The question is: where does the work of the artist stop and the creativity of the computer begin? Consider one of the oldest machine artists, Aaron, a robot that has had paintings exhibited in Londons Tate Modern and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Aa
