1、雅思（阅读）模拟试卷 4及答案与解析 一、 Reading Module (60 minutes) 1 READING PASSAGE 1You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on the Reading Passage below. The Great Australian Fence Awar has been going on for almost a hundred years between the sheep farmers of Australia and the dingo, Au
2、stralias wild dog. To protect their livelihood, the farmers built a wire fence, 3,307 miles of continuous wire mesh, reaching from the coast of South Australia all the way to the cotton fields of eastern Queensland, just short of the Pacific Ocean. The Fence is Australias version of the Great Wall o
3、f China, but even longer, erected to keepout hostile invaders, in this case hordes of yellow dogs. The empire it preserves is that of the woolgrowers, sovereigns of the worlds second largest sheep flock, after Chinas - some 123 million head - and keepers of a wool export business worth four billion
4、dollars. Never mind that more and more people -conservationists, politicians, taxpayers and animal lovers - say that such a barrier would never be allowed today on ecological grounds. With sections of it almost a hundred years old,the dog fence has become, as conservationist Lindsay Fairweather ruef
5、ully admits, an icon of Australian frontier ingenuity. To appreciate this unusual outback monument and to meet the people whose livelihoods depend on it, I spent part of an Australian autumn travelling the wire. Its known by different names in different states: the Dog Fence in South Australia, the
6、Border Fence in New South Wales and the Barrier Fence in Queensland. I would call it simply the Fence. For most of its prodigious length, this epic fence winds like a river across a landscape that, unless a big rain has fallen, scarcely has rivers. The eccentric route, prescribed mostly by property
7、lines, provides a sampler of outback topography: the Fence goes over sand dunes, past salt lakes, up and down rock-strewn hills, through dense scrub and across barren plains. The Fence stays away from towns. Where it passes near a town, it has actually become a tourist attraction visited on bus tour
8、s. It marks the traditional dividing line between cattle and sheep. Inside, where the dingoes are legally classified as vermin, they are shot, poisoned and trapped. Sheep and dingoes do not mix and the Fence sends that message mile after mile. What is this creature that by itself threatens an entire
9、 industry, inflicting several millions of dollars of damage a year despite the presence of the worlds most obsessive fence? Cousin to the coyote and the jackal, descended from the Asian wolf, Canis lupus dingo is an introduced species of wild dog. Skeletal remains indicate that the dingo was introdu
10、ced to Australia more than 3,500 years ago probably with Asian seafarers who landed on the north coast. The adaptable dingo spread rapidly and in a short time became the top predator, killing off all its marsupial competitors. The dingo looks like a small wolf with a long nose, short pointed ears an
11、d a bushy tail. Dingoes rarely bark; they yelp and howl. Standing about 22 inches at the shoulder - slightly taller than a coyote - the dingo is Australias largest land carnivore. The woolgrowers war against dingoes, which is similar to the sheep ranchers rage against oyotes in the US, started not l
12、ong after the first European settlers disembarked in 1788, bringing with them a cargo of sheep. Dingoes officially became outlaws in 1830 when governments placed a bounty on their heads. Today bounties for problem dogs killing sheep inside the Fence can reach$500. As pioneers penetrated the interior
13、 with their flocks of sheep, fences replaced shepherds until, by the end of the 19th century, thousands of miles of barrier fencing crisscrossed the vast grazing lands. The dingo started out as a quiet observer,writes Roland Breckwoldt, in A Very Elegant Animal: The Dingo, but soon came to represent
14、 everything that was dark and dangerous on the continent. It is estimated that since sheep arrived in Australia, dingo numbers have increased a hundredfold. Though dingoes have been eradicated from parts of Australia, an educated guess puts the population at more than a million. Eventually governmen
15、t officials and graziers agreed that one well-maintained fence, placed on the outer rim of sheep country and paid for by taxes levied on woolgrowers, should supplant the maze of private netting. By 1960, three states joined their barriers to form a single dog fence. The intense private battles betwe
16、en woolgrowers and dingoes have usually served to define the Fence only in economic terms. It marks the difference between profit and loss. Yet the Fence casts a much broader ecological shadow for it has become a kind of terrestrial dam, deflecting the flow of animals inside and out. The ecological
17、side effects appear most vividly at Sturt National Park. In 1845, explorer Charles Sturt led an expedition through these parts on a futile search for an inland sea. For Sturt and other early explorers, it was a rare event to see a kangaroo. Now they are ubiquitous for without a native predator the k
18、angaroo population has exploded inside the Fence. Kangaroos are now cursed more than dingoes. They have become the rivals of sheep, competing for water and grass. In response state governments cull* more than three million kangaroos a year to keep Australias national symbol from overrunning the past
19、oral lands. Park officials, who recognise that the fence is to blame, respond to the excess of kangaroos by saying The fence is there, and we have to live with it. *Cull = to kill animals to reduce their population. 1 Questions 1-4 Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 1-4 on yo
20、ur answer sheet. 1 Why was the fence built? （ A） to separate the sheep from the cattle （ B） to stop the dingoes from being slaughtered by farmers （ C） to act as a boundary between properties （ D） to protect the Australian wool industry 2 On what point do the conservationists and politicians agree? （
21、 A） Wool exports are vital to the economy. （ B） The fence poses a threat to the environment. （ C） The fence acts as a useful frontier between states. （ D） The number of dogs needs to be reduced. 3 Why did the author visit Australia? （ A） to study Australian farming methods （ B） to investigate how th
22、e fence was constructed （ C） because he was interested in life around the fence （ D） because he wanted to learn more about the wool industry 4 How does the author feel about the fence? （ A） impressed （ B） delighted （ C） shocked （ D） annoyed 5 Questions 5-11 Do the following statements agree with the
23、 information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 5-11 on your answer sheet write： YES if the statement agrees with the information NO if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage 5 The fence serves a different purpose in each state. （ A） Y
24、ES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 6 The fence is only partially successful. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 7 The dingo is indigenous to Australia. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 8 Dingoes have flourished as a result of the sheep industry. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 9 Dingoes are known to attack human
25、s. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 10 Kangaroos have increased in number because of the fence. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 11 The author does not agree with the culling of kangaroos. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 12 Questions 12-13 Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 12-
26、13 on your answer sheet. 12 When did the authorities first acknowledge the dingo problem? （ A） 1788. （ B） 1830 （ C） 1845 （ D） 1960 13 How do the park officials feel about the fence? （ A） A philosophical （ B） angry （ C） pleased （ D） proud 14 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Ques
27、tions 14-27 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. ITS ECO-LOGICAL Planning an eco-friendly holiday can be a minefield for the well-meaning traveller, says Steve Watkins. But help is now at hand If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then ecotouris
28、m would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag a holiday co
29、uld carry. These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure i
30、s likely to be included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in
31、 an ecotourism jungle. It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Ad
32、d to this an annual growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials
33、of an operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an operators claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours. However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a companys commitment to minimise it
34、s impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism areas local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally harvested materials to build its tourist properties? Do they pay fair wages to all employees? Do they offer training to employees? It is comm
35、on for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to guide your custom to worthy operators but
36、 you will often find that the experience they offer is far more rewarding. The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardized approach. There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to educate travellers and operators ab
37、out the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable development. Helping to create inherent
38、economic value in wilderness environments and threatened cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movements most notable achievements. TES organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is launching Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference,
39、 an educational campaign aimed at helping consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also offers guidance on the choice of ecotour and has established a register of approved ecotourism operators around the world. A leading ecotourism operator in t
40、he United Kingdom is Tribes, which won the 1999 Tourism Concern and Independent Travellers World Award for Most Responsible Tour Operator. Amanda Marks, owner and director of Tribes, believes that the ecotourism industry still has some way to go to get its house in order. Until now, no ecotourism ac
41、creditation scheme has really worked, principally because there has been no systematic way of checking that accredited companies actually comply with the code of practice. Amanda believes that the most promising system is the recently re-launched Green Globe 21 scheme. The Green Globe 21 award is ba
42、sed on the sustainable development standards contained in Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit and was originally coordinated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The scheme is now an independent concern, though the WTTC still supports it. Until recently, tour companies became affiliates an
43、d could use the Green Globe logo merely on payment of an annual fee, hardly a suitable qualifying standard. However, in November 1999 Green Globe 21 introduced an annual, independent check on operators wishing to use the logo. Miriam Cain, from the Green Globe 21 marketing development, explains that
44、 current and new affiliates will now have one year to ensure that their operations comply with Agenda 21 standards. If they fail the first inspection, they can only reapply once. The inspection process is not a cheap option, especially for large companies, but the benefits of having Green Globe stat
45、us and the potential operational cost savings that complying with the standards can bring should be significant. We have joint ventures with organizations around the world, including Australia and the Caribbean, that will allow us to effectively check all affiliate operators, says Miriam. The scheme
46、 also allows destination communities to become Green Globe 21 approved. For a relatively new industry it is not surprising that ecotourism has undergone teething pains. However, there are signs that things are changing for the better. With a committed and unified approach by the travel industry, loc
47、al communities, travellers and environmental experts could make ecotourism a tag to be proud of and trusted. 14 Questions 14-19 Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet write: YES if the statement agrees with the writers
48、 views NO if the statement contradicts the writers views NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 14 The term ecotourism has become an advertising gimmick. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 15 The intentions of those who coined the term ecotourism were sincere. （ A） YES （
49、 B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 16 Ecotourism is growing at a faster rate than any other type of travel. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 17 It is surprising that so many tour organisations decided to become involved in ecotourism. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 18 Tourists have learnt to make investigations about tour operators before using them. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 19 Tourists have had bad experiences on ecotour holidays. （ A） YES （ B） NO （ C） NOT GIVEN 20 Questions 20-22 According to the information given in the reading passage, which THRE
