1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 120 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 The industrial revolution of the late 18th century made possible the mass production of goods, thereby creating economies of scale which changed the eco
2、nomyand societyin ways that nobody could have imagined at the time. Now a new manufacturing technology has emerged which does the opposite. Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profoun
3、d an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.It works like this. First you call up a blueprint on your computer screen and tinker with its shape and colour where necessary. Then you press print. A machine nearby whirrs into life and builds up the object gradually, either by depositing m
4、aterial from a nozzle, or by selectively solidifying a thin layer of plastic or metal dust using tiny drops of glue or a tightly focused beam. Products are thus built up by progressively adding material, one layer at a time: hence the technologys other name, additive manufacturing. Eventually the ob
5、ject in questiona spare part for your car, a lampshade, a violin pops out.Like computing before it, 3D printing is spreading fast as the technology improves and costs fall. A basic 3D printer, also known as a fabricator or “fabber“, now costs less than a laser printer did in 1985.The additive approa
6、ch to manufacturing has several big advantages over the conventional one. It cuts costs by getting rid of production lines. It reduces waste enormously, requiring as little as one-tenth of the amount of material. It allows the creation of parts in shapes that conventional techniques cannot achieve,
7、resulting in new, much more efficient designs in aircraft wings or heat exchangers, for example. It enables the production of a single item quickly and cheaplyand then another one after the design has been refined.By reducing the barriers to entry for manufacturing, 3D printing should also promote i
8、nnovation. If you can design a shape on a computer, you can turn it into an object. You can print a dozen, see if there is a market for them, and print 50 more if there is, modifying the design using feedback from early users. This will be a boon to inventors and start-ups, because trying out new pr
9、oducts will become less risky and expensive. And just as open-source programmers collaborate by sharing software code, engineers are already starting to collaborate on open-source designs for objects and hardware.A technological change so profound will reset the economics of manufacturing. Some beli
10、eve it will decentralise the business completely, reversing the urbanisation that accompanies industrialisation. There will be no need for factories, goes the logic, when every village has a fabricator that can produce items when needed. Up to a point, perhaps. But the economic and social benefits o
11、f cities go far beyond their ability to attract workers to man assembly lines. Although 3D printing will create winners and losers in the short term, in the long run it will expand the realm of industryand imagination.1 The merits of 3D printing do NOT include_.（A）decrease of production costs（B） dim
12、inishing economies of scales（C） reducing the risk of inventors（D）decentralizing business2 How 3D printing works shows that_.（A）small items can be made in the corner of an office（B） it is currently the preserve of hobbyists in academic and industrial niche（C） additive manufacturing is too complicated
13、 to be popularized at present（D）the blue print of 3D printing has to be designed three-dimensionally3 According to the text, additive manufacturing has a tendency to_.（A）duplicate the achievement of industrial revolution in the 18th century（B） eradicate factories and mass production（C） centre open-s
14、ource design as its core（D）encourage infringements on intellectual properties4 What can be inferred from the last paragraph?（A）Additive manufacturing may render cities obsolete.（B） The relation between urban and rural areas will be upturned due to 3D printing.（C） Factory and mass production is bound
15、 to disappear.（D）Should factory disappear, urbanization would still be in process.5 The authors attitude towards 3D printing is_.（A）curious（B） guarded（C） advocating（D）objective5 To most of us, nuclear is an all-or-nothing word. Nuclear war is unthinkable. Nuclear weapons must never be used. Nuclear
16、power plants must be perfectly safe. Nuclear meltdown is the end of the world. “Going nuclear“ means youve hit the fatal button, and theres no turning back.Two days ago, I saluted the reactor containment vessels at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant for surviving the earthquake and tsunami. “Everythi
17、ng that could go wrong did“, I wrote. Hours later, an explosion damaged one of the containers. That was a corollary to Murphys Law: Anyone who says “Everything that could go wrong did“ is overlooking something else that could go wrong.The nuclear industry likes to think failure isnt an option. It bu
18、ilds power plants according to a principle called “defense in depth.“ Under this principle, as articulated by the Nuclear Energy Agency, “consecutive and independent levels of protection . would all have to fail“ before harm could happen. But the levels of protection at Fukushima werent really indep
19、endent. They were all taken out by the same chain of events. The quake triggered the tsunami, knocking out the diesel generators. The cooling systems power failure led to explosions that knocked out the cooling systems conduits. The overheated reactors produced hydrogen explosions that blew off the
20、roofs of the reactor buildings, exposing spent-fuel pools to the atmosphere.Nothing is more exasperating than reading reports about all the things that cant be done at Fukushimafixing valves, pumping water, ascertaining damagebecause of heat, radiation, or the risk of explosion. Last year, BP plugge
21、d an oil leak a mile under the Gulf of Mexico with the aid of remotely operated vehicles. Why doesnt Japan, the worlds most robotically advanced country, have unmanned vehicles on hand to do simple but dangerous jobs at a radiation-contaminated nuclear power plant? Ten minutes ago, I got a newslette
22、r from the unmanned-vehicles industry about all the cool things robots are doing to help Japan. It has not a word about the nuclear reactors. Thats disgraceful.To head off the next nuclear accident, we need to think the parameters of plant design. Why do we build backup cooling pumps for reactors bu
23、t not for spent-fuel spots? And we need layers of protection that are truly independent. If some safety mechanisms require electricity, others should be functional without it. Store cooling water above the reactor so you can deliver it with plain old gravity if you lose power. And diversify the laye
24、rs. At Fukushima, all the gizmos failed, but the containers have largely held firm. Build in different kinds of protectionbarriers, gizmos, training, manual toolsso that if one kind fails, another can intercede.If everything goes wrong, and your reactor melts down, dont give up. You still have evacu
25、ation and iodine. And even if Fukushima becomes another Chernobyl, nuclear energy still has a much better safety record than fossil fuels, just as stocks have a better track record than bonds over the long term, despite the occasional crash. But that safety record depends on us. We have to learn fro
26、m Fukushima. We have to give ourselves a fighting chance when things go wrong, as they sometimes will. Fukushimas workers havent surrendered. We shouldnt either.6 Which of the following statements is in conformity with Murphys Law?（A）Everything that can go right will remain right.（B） Anything that c
27、an go wrong is bound to go wrong.（C） Things that can go wrong may not necessarily do so.（D）Almost everything that may go right will stay right.7 According to the author, the nuclear industry generally_.（A）maintains that failure is always inevitable（B） holds that success is not always impossible（C） t
28、ends to think success is not always possible（D）doesnt like the idea that failure is optional8 The underlined word “unmanned“(Para. 4)is NOT RELATED in meaning to_.（A）robotic（B） inhumane（C） pilotless（D）driverless9 When the author says robots are doing all the cool things except the nuclear reactors t
29、o help Japan, he uses a(n)_tone in his writing.（A）narrative（B） sarcastic（C） ambiguous（D）argumentative10 Judging from the last paragraph of this article, we can see that the author thinks people should take a(n)_attitude when they face the threat of a nuclear disaster.（A）critical（B） moderate（C） optim
30、istic（D）objective10 The film-awards season, which reaches its tearful climax with the Oscars next week, has long been only loosely related to the film business. But this years Oscar awards are less relevant than ever. The true worth of a film is no longer decided by the crowd that assembles in the K
31、odak Theatreor, indeed, by any American. It is decided by youngsters in countries such as Russia, China and Brazil.Hollywood has always been an international business, but it is becoming dramatically more so. In the past decade total box-office spending has risen by about one-third in North America
32、while more than doubling elsewhere. Falling DVD sales in America, by far the worlds biggest home-entertainment market, mean Hollywood is even more dependent on foreign punters. The rising foreign tide has lifted films that were virtually written off in America, such as “Prince of Persia“ and “The Ch
33、ronicles of Narnia“.The growth of the international box office is partly a result of the dollars weakness. It was also helped by “Avatar“, an eco-fantasy that made a startling $2 billion outside North America. But three things are particularly important: a cinema boom in the emerging world, a concer
34、ted effort by the major studios to make films that might play well outside America and a global marketing push to make sure they do.Growth is quick in China, where box-office receipts reached $1.5 billion last year. Chinas regulator has claimed that cinema screens are going up at a rate of three per
35、 day; some are IMAX screens that command higher ticket prices. The government allows only 20 non-Chinese films into the market each year, virtually guaranteeing big audiences for those that make the cut. Punters and censors alike warm to family films and movies that seem to reflect Chinas central pl
36、ace in the world. Thus, expect long queues for “Kung Fu Panda 2“ this summer.Unfortunately, Hollywood has learned that great sales in China do not always translate into great profits. In America distributors tend to receive 50-55% of box-office receipts, with the rest going to the cinemas. In China,
37、 where Hollywood must use a domestic distributor, the proportion is roughly 15%. American films may be yanked in favour of domestic ones. The WTO has ordered China to reform, but few moguls expect it to.The success of a film outside America is not purely a marketing matter. As foreign box-office sal
38、es have become more important, the people who manage international distribution have become more influential, weighing in on “green-light“ decisions about which films are made. The studios are careful to seed films with actors, locations and, occasionally, languages that are well-known in target cou
39、ntries.The growing internationalisation of the film business suits the biggest outfits, and not just because they can afford explosions. The major studios power lies not so much in their ability to make good filmsplenty of smaller operations can do thatbut in their ability to wring every possible dr
40、op of revenue from a film. With their superior global marketing system and their ability to anticipate foreign tastes, they are increasingly dominating the market. For everyone else, there is a chance to win a gold statue.11 We can learn from Paragraph 1 and 2 that_.（A）this years Academy Award is le
41、ss eye-catching than before（B） other countries now have their own saying in American films awarding（C） declining DVD sales indicate America is not the biggest home-entertainment market（D）some disappointing films can turn around through international market12 According to the text, the reason contrib
42、uting to the growth of global box office EXCLUDES _.（A）depreciated dollar（B） emerging marketsupturn of movie theaters（C） more outside-America-friendly movies（D）economic recovering from depression13 The author suggests in Paragraph 4 and 5 that the market in China_.（A）is not a dreamland that will jum
43、pstart Hollywood movie industry as expected（B） has witnessed a major expansion of Hollywood movies in recent years（C） has forced foreign movie distributors to make some cut to Chinas requirements（D）does not have a fondness for American movie14 By citing the example of Kung Fu Panda 2 the author inte
44、nds to_.（A）stress the multiple limitations American films have confronted in China（B） state the popularity of China-factored movies（C） prove how quick the box offices growth in China is（D）exemplify to complain the strict film censorship in China15 According to the author, what is the essential eleme
45、nt in the success of a movie?（A）A flexible and capable marketing machine.（B） The foreign factors in the movie.（C） A competent international distribution manager.（D）An overall ability to make quality movies.15 Could it be that excess fat is not, by itself, a serious health risk for the vast majority
46、of people who are overweight or obese-categories that in the U.S. include about six of every 10 adults? Is it possible that urging the overweight or mildly obese to cut calories and lose weight may actually do more harm than good?Such notions defy conventional wisdom that excess adiposity kills more
47、 than 300,000 Americans a year and that the gradual fattening of nations since the 1980s presages coming epidemics of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and a host of other medical consequences. Indeed, just this past March the New England Journal of Medicine presented a “Special Report“, by S
48、. Jay Olshansky, David B. Allison and others that seemed to confirm such fears. The authors asserted that because of the obesity epidemic, “the steady rise in life expectancy during the past two centuries may soon come to an end.“ Articles about the special report by the New York Times, the Washingt
49、on Post and many other news outlets emphasized its forecast that obesity may shave up to five years off average life spans in coming decades.And yet an increasing number of scholars have begun accusing obesity experts, public health officials and the media of exaggerating the health effects of the epidemic of overweight and obesity. The charges appear in a recent flurry of scholarly books. These critics, all academic researchers outside the medical community, do not dispute surveys th
