1、雅思（阅读）模拟试卷 18 及答案与解析 一、 Reading Module (60 minutes) 1 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Money transfers by mobile A The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is being touted as a world first, Kenyas
2、 biggest mobile operator is allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS. Known as M-Pesa, or mobile money, the service is expected to revolutionise banking in a country where more than 80% of people are excluded from the formal financial sector. Apart from transferring cash-a servi
3、ce much in demand among urban Kenyans supporting relatives in rural areas-customers of the Safaricom network will be able to keep up to 50000 shillings ( 370) in a “virtual account“ on their handsets. B Developed by Vodafone, which holds a 35% share in Safaricom, M-Pesa was formally launched in Keny
4、a two weeks ago. More than 10000 people have signed up for the service, with around 8 minion shillings transferred so far, mostly in tiny denominations. Safaricoms executives are confident that growth will be strong in Kenya, and later across Africa. “We are effectively giving people ATM cards witho
5、ut them ever having to open a real bank account,“ said Michael Joseph, chief executive of Safaricom, who called the money transfer concept the “next big thing“ in mobile telephony. C M-Pesas is simple. There is no need for a new handset or SIM card. To send money you hand over the cash to a register
6、ed agent- typically a retailer-who credits your virtual account. You then send between 100 shillings (74p) and 35,000 shillings ( 259) via text message to the desired recipient-even someone on a different mobile network- who cashes it at an agent by entering a secret code and showing ID. A commissio
7、n of up to 170 shillings ( 1.25) is paid by the recipient but it compares favourably with fees levied by the major banks, whose services are too expensive for most of the population. D Mobile phone growth in Kenya, as in most of Africa, has been remarkable, even among the rural poor. In June 1999 Ke
8、nya had 15000 mobile subscribers. Today it has nearly 8 million out of a population of 35 million, and the two operators networks are as extensive as the access to banks is limited. Safaricom says it is not so much competing with financial services companies as filling a void. In time, M-Pesa will a
9、llow people to borrow and repay money, and make purchases. Companies will be able to pay salaries directly into workers phones-something that has already attracted the interest of larger employers, such as the tea companies, whose workers often have to be paid in cash as they do not have bank accoun
10、ts. There are concerns about security, but Safaricom insists that even if someones phone is stolen the PIN system prevents unauthorised withdrawals. Mr Joseph said the only danger is sending cash to the wrong mobile number and the recipient redeeming it straight away. E The project is being watched
11、closely by mobile operators around the world as a way of targeting the multibillion pound international cash transfer industry long dominated by companies such as Western Union and Moneygram. Remittances sent from nearly 200 million migrant workers to developing countries totalled 102 billion last y
12、ear, according to the World Bank. The GSM Association, which represents more than 700 mobile operators worldwide, believes this could quadruple by 2012 if transfers by SMS become the norm. Vodafone has entered a partnership with Citigroup that will soon allow Kenyans in the UK to send money home via
13、 text message. The charge for sending 50 is expected to be about 3, less than a third of what some traditional services charge. 1 Questions 1-4 The text has 5 paragraphs (A-E). Which paragraph contains each of the following pieces of information? 1 A possible security problem. 2 The cost of M-Pesa.
14、3 An international service similar to M-Pesa. 4 The fact that most Kenyans do not have a bank account. 5 Questions 5-8 Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text. 5 Safaricom is the _ mobile phone company in Kenya. 6 An M-Pesa account needs to be credited by _. 7 _
15、 companies are particularly interested in using M-Pesa. 8 Companies like Moneygram and Western Union have _ the international money transfer market. 9 Questions 9-13 Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? TRUE if the information in the text agrees with the statemen
16、t FALSE if the information in the text contradicts the statement NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 9 Most Kenyans working in urban areas have relatives in rural areas. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 10 So far, most of the people using M-Pesa have used it to send small amounts of money. （ A）真
17、（ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 11 M-Pesa can only be used by people using one phone network. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 12 M-Pesa can be used to buy products and services. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 13 The GSM Association is a consumer organization. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） NOT GIVEN 14 READING PASSAGE 2 You should s
18、pend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. Park the Car Permanently A More than a million people are likely to be disappointed by their experience of the Governments attempts to improve the democratic process. They may have signed an online petition against
19、 road pricing, but ministers are determined to push ahead with plans to make it more expensive to drive. The Government is convinced that this is the only way to reduce congestion and the environmental damage caused by motoring. B Why wait until you are forced off the road by costly charges? You may
20、 enjoy the convenience of your car, but the truth is that for huge numbers of people, owning a car makes little financial sense. Youd be far better off giving it up and relying on other forms of transport. “Im 47 and Ive never owned a car, despite having a job that requires me to travel all over the
21、 South-east to visit clients,“ says Donnachadh McCarthy, an environmental expert who specialises in advising people how to be greener. “A car is a huge financial commitment, as well as being a psychological addiction. Not owning a vehicle Is far more practical than most people realise.“ C It may see
22、m as if cars have never been cheaper. After all, It is now possible to buy a brand new car for less than 4800-the Perodua Kelisa, if youre Interested. There are plenty of decent vehicles you can buy straight from the showroom for between 5000 and 7000. Of course, if you buy second-hand, the prices w
23、ill be even lower. However, the falling purchase price of cars masks the fact that it has never been more expensive to own and run o vehicle. The estimate Is that the cost of running a car rose by more than ten per cent last year alone. The annual cost of running your own vehicle is put at an averag
24、e of 5539, or 107 a week. White drivers who do less or more than the average mileage each year will spend correspondingly less or more, many of the costs of car ownership are fixed-and therefore unavoidable. D Depreciation-the fact that your vehicle loses a large chunk of its resale value each year
25、s one problem, accounting for 2420 a year. The cost of finance packages, which most people have to resort to to pay for at least part of the price of a new car, has also been rising-to an average of 1040 a year. Then theres insurance, maintenance, tax and breakdown Insurance, all of which will cost
26、you broadly the same amount, however many miles you do. Only fuel costs are truly variable. While petrol prices are the most visible Indicator of the cost of running a car, for the typical driver they account for less than one-fifth of the real costs each year. In other wards, leaving aside all the
27、practical and psychological barriers to giving up your car, in financial terms doing so makes sense for many people. E Take the cost of public transport, for example. In London, the most expensive city in the UK, the most expensive annual travel card, allowing travel in any zone at any time, costs J
28、ust over 1700. You could give up your car and still have thousands of pounds to spare to spend on occasional car hire. in fact, assuming that you have the most expensive travel card in London, you could hire a cheap car from a company such as easyCar far about 30 weeks a year, and still be better of
29、f overall than if you own your own vehicle. Not that car hire is necessarily the mast cost-effective option for people who are prepared to do without a car but may still need to drive occasionally. F Streetcar, one of several “car clubs“ with growing numbers of members, reckons that using its vehicl
30、es twice a week, every week, for a year, would cost you just 700. Streetcars model works very similarly to those of its main rivals, Citycarclub and Whizzgo. These three companies, which now operate in 20 of Britains towns and cities, charge their members a refundable deposit- 150 at Streetcar-and t
31、hen provide them with an electronic smartcard. This enables members to get into the vehicles, which are left parked In set locations, and the keys are then found in the glove compartment. Members pay an hourly rate for the car- 4.95 is the cost at Streetcar-and return it to the same spot, or to a di
32、fferent designated parking place. G Car sharing is an increasingly popular option for people making the same journeys regularly-to and from work, far example. Many companies run schemes that help colleagues who live near to each other and work in the same place to contact each other so they can shar
33、e the Journey to work. Liftshare and Carshare are two national organisations that maintain online databases of people who would be prepared to team up, Other people may be able to replace part or all of their journey to work- or any journeys, for that matter-with low-cost transport such as a bicycle
34、, or even by just walking. The more you can reduce your car use, however you gain access to it, the more you will save. 14 Questions 14-17 The text has 7paragraphs (A-G). Which paragraph does each of the following headings best fit? 14 Dont wait! 15 Team up 16 Join a club 17 Use public transport 18
35、Questions 18-22 According to the text, FIVE of the following statements are true. Write the corresponding letters in answer boxes 18 to 22 in any order. A Me Carthy claims people can become addicted to using cars. B The cost of using a car rose by over ten per cent last year. C Most British people b
36、orrow money to help buy cars. D Many people need cars to drive in London occasionally. E Streetcar operates in over 20 cities in Britain. F Streetcars cars must be left at specific locations. G Car sharing is becoming more popular with people who live and work near each other. H The government wants
37、 to encourage people to go to work on foot or by bicycle. 18 【 18】 _ 19 【 19】 _ 20 【 20】 _ 21 【 21】 _ 22 【 22】 _ 23 Questions 23-26 According to the information given in the text, choose the correct answer or answers from the choices given. 23 The government has decided _. （ A） not to follow protest
38、ors suggestions. （ B） to become more democratic. （ C） to go ahead with charging drivers to use roads. 24 Cars are often _. （ A） relatively cheap in Britain. （ B） relatively expensive to operate in Britain. （ C） sold second-hand in Britain. 25 Fuel costs _. （ A） make up about 20% of the cost of runni
39、ng a car. （ B） are related to the amount drivers pay for their cars. （ C） depend on how far you drive. 26 Using public transport _. （ A） will save money for British motorists, except in London. （ B） and renting a car part of the time can save money. （ C） costs Londoners about 1700 a year. 27 READING
40、 PASSAGE 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. Low Cost Lamps Light Rural India Until throe months ago, life in this humble village without electricity would come to a halt after sunset. Inside his mud-and-clay home, Ganpat Jadhavs three
41、children used to study in the dim, smoky glow of a kerosene lamp. When their monthly fuel quota of four litres dried up in just a fortnight, they had to strain their eyes using the light from a cooking fire. That all changed with the installation of low-cost, energy-efficient lamps that are powered
42、entirely by the sun. The lights were installed by the Grameen Surya Bijli Foundation (GSBF), an Indian non-governmental organization focused on bringing light to rural India. Some 100,000 Indian villages do not yet have electricity. The GSBF lamps use LEDs-light emitting diodes-that are four times m
43、ore efficient than a normal bulb. After a 55 installation cost, solar energy lights the lamp free of charge. LED lighting, like cell phones, is another example of a technology whose low cost could allow the rural poor to leap into the 21st century. As many as 1.5 billion people-nearly 80 million in
44、India alone-light their houses using kerosene as the primary lighting media. The fuel is dangerous, dirty, and-despite being subsidized-consumes nearly four percent of a typical rural Indian households budget. A recent report by the Intermediate Technology Development Group suggests that indoor air
45、pollution from such lighting media results in 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year. LED lamps, or more specifically white LEDS, are believed to produce nearly 200 times more useful light than a kerosene lamp and almost 50 times the amount of useful light of a conventional bulb. “This technology c
46、an light an entire rural village with less energy than that used by a single conventional 100 watt light bulb,“ says Dave Irvins-Halliday, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada and the founder of Light Up the World Foundation (LUTW). Founded in 1997, LUTW has use
47、d LED technology to bring light to nearly 10000 homes in remote and disadvantaged comers of some 27 countries like India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, and the Philippines. The technology, which is not yet widely known in India, faces some scepticism here. “LED systems are revolutionising rural lightin
48、g, but this isnt a magic solution to the worlds energy problems,“ says Ashok Jhunjhunwala, head of the electrical engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. In a scenario in which nearly 60 percent of Indias rural population uses 180 million tons of biomass per year for co
49、oking via primitive wood stoves-which are smoky and provide only 10-15 percent efficiency in cooking-Jhunjhunwala emphasises the need for a clean energy source, not just for lighting but for other domestic purposes as well The Indian government in April launched an ambitious project to bring electricity to 112000 rural villages in the next decade. However, the remote locations of the village will make reaching this goal diffi
