1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 171 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 Stephen Hawkings 1988 best seller, A Brief History of Time, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 40 languages. Last f
2、all, Hawking returned with a new book aimed at the general public. The Universe in a Nutshell already is zipping up the best-seller lists. Lavishly praised by Time magazine, The Universe in a Nutshell brims with spectacular full-color illustrations. The new book is easier to understand than A Brief
3、History of Time. It highlights Hawkings famous wit, erudition and writing ability.Hawking employs his brain to range around those huge theoretical topics that terrify and fascinate laypeople, particularly those who do not attribute the literal creation of the cosmos to Gods hand. Questions such as:
4、Is the universe infinite? What is the nature of time, light, space? What is the Big Bang theory?Asked whether physics is the most poetic of the sciences, Hawking replies, “Physics is the most fundamental of the sciences. In that sense, it is the most poetic. “Asked if having three children harmed hi
5、s own research, Hawking says, “I havent felt a conflict between my children and my work. My disability prevented me from the rough and tumble, but I gave them a lot of time and attention. “ His russet-haired grandson is featured in full, proud color in The Universe in a Nutshell.Hawking was diagnose
6、d with ALS at 21. On his Web site, he discusses his disability and reflects on a boy he met at the hospital. “I had seen a boy I vaguely knew die of leukemia, in the bed opposite me. It had not been a pretty sight. Clearly, there were people who were worse off than me. At least my condition didnt ma
7、ke me feel sick. Whenever I feel inclined to be sorry for myself, I remember that boy. “Asked about his mixing hard science and fun details, Hawking says, “I find a few human touches help the science go down. I dont plan them, they just bubble up. “ Hawking occupies the Lucasian chair of applied mat
8、hematics and physics at Cambridge University. The chairs second occupant was Isaac Newton.In the end, he writes, “I see myself as a scientist trying to uncover the basic laws that govern the universe. If I can encourage others to take an interest in those laws, Im glad, but that has not been my prim
9、ary aim. “1 Compared to A Brief History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell（A）has been translated into more languages.（B） sells better around the world.（C） illustrates with more spectacular sceneries.（D）can be understood more easily.2 The theoretical topics that Hawking is studying terrify and fasci
10、nate those who（A）are illiterate about the universe and common sense.（B） do not know how God created space and light.（C） do not believe in Gods creation of the cosmos.（D）attribute the natural creation to the Big Bang theory.3 It can be inferred that the boy who died of leukemia makes Hawking（A）acquir
11、e a sense of priority.（B） become optimistic.（C） feel sick for himself.（D）inclined to be sorry.4 Which of the following is true according to the passage?（A）Hawking intentionally combines the human touches with science.（B） Hawking has a sense of guilt to his children due to his disability.（C） Hawkings
12、 chief purpose of life is to encourage others to be interested in science.（D）Hawking takes the job Newton once did before him.5 What is the best title for this passage?（A）Hawkings View About Science and Life（B） HawkingA Disable ScientistWorth Respecting（C） Hawking and Newton（D）Hawkings Contributions
13、 to Science5 About 2,500 of so-called supernovae are known inside our galaxy and beyond. But exactly what they were before they exploded is not so clear. The hunt for supernovae, from their origins to their long-term effects, is heating up rapidly. Understanding these incendiary objects is important
14、 in part because they are responsible for creating most of the elements in the universe, including the stuff of which people, plants and planets are made. A supernova is relatively easy to detect because of the intense radiation it casts off in visible light and other wavelengths. Figuring out what
15、the star looked like prior to the explosion, however, requires probing into the archives of astronomy.A separate team of supernova hunters did just that, using a decade of Hubble Space Telescope images to search for possible pre-supernova stars. Their new findings support existing theory of supernov
16、a mechanics, which holds that only very massive stars explode. When a massive star burns up all its hydrogen fuel, it casts its outer layers into space and then collapses into a dense neutron star or black hole. Theorists believe that stars must be about 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun to support
17、 such an explosive scenario. Such heavy objects have brief lives, typically less than 20 million years, compared with the sun, which is middle-aged and already 4. 6 billion years old.Ground-based telescopes that observed the actual supernova explosions are not as accurate as Hubble, however, due to
18、air turbulence, so scientists require follow-up Hubble observations to see if they are in the right positions. One has already been eliminated, Alexei Filippenko of the University of California at Berkeley said, but hes confident at least a couple of the remaining five will prove to be actual precur
19、sor stars. Astronomers have known for decades that the universe is expanding. But in the late 1990s they began to realize that the expansion is occurring at an ever-faster rate. This suggests that some mysterious, unseen force is at work across great distances, breaking the will of gravity that woul
20、d otherwise rein in the universe eventually.Supernovae are useful in this research because they can be seen from far away. Astronomers measure how much an exploded stars light has stretched, which tells them the speed at which the object is receding. By comparing this to nearby supernovae, researche
21、rs can refine the universal expansions rate of acceleration. In particular, the orbiting observatorys keen new eyesight can be used to analyze pinpricks of light from very distant objects and learn what they are and what theyre made of. This so-called spectroscopy technique is just like using a pris
22、m to break white light into its constituent colors.6 Scientists devote themselves to studying the supernovae prior to their explosion because（A）the search for supernova stars can support existing theory of supernova mechanics.（B） what the pre-supernova stars looked like is related to the elements in
23、 the universe.（C） searching for the pre-supernova stars is extremely important for human development.（D）the search for pre-supernova stars can help probing into expansion in universe.7 From the research of a team of supernova hunters we can infer that（A）searching for explosion of the pre-supernova s
24、tars is essential.（B） researchers can refine the universal expansions rate of acceleration.（C） only stars about 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun can explode.（D）to observe actual supernova explosions, scientists require follow-up Hubble observations.8 If there were no mysterious force at work acros
25、s the great distance, what would happen to the universe?（A）It would break the will of gravity.（B） It would be reined by gravity.（C） It would get into a mess.（D）It would expand at a faster rate.9 The research of what supernovae were before they exploded can help researchers（A）refine the universal exp
26、ansions rate of acceleration.（B） measure how much an exploded stars light has stretched.（C） analyze light from very distant objects.（D）find how the universe expands.10 What is this passage mainly about?（A）Acceleration of supernovae.（B） Expansion in the universe.（C） Exploration of galaxy.（D）Explosion
27、 of supernovae.10 Another week, another crop of bad news from the telecoms industry. Bernie Ebbers, the chief executive of WorldCom, has been forced out. The share price of Qwest, another heavily indebted American telecoms company, fell to an all-time low, after it had announced a first-quarter loss
28、 of $698 million. Siemens, a German company, said it would cut 6,500 jobs in its telecoms-infrastructure division, on top of 10,000 layoffs already announced. Marconi and JDS Uniphase, two other network-equipment vendors, announced or gave warning of gloomy results, and Telewest, a struggling Britis
29、h cable company, said that it would cut 1,500 jobs.Even as the broader economic climate begins to improve, the carnage in telecoms continues. “No bottom in sight“ is how analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos puts it. He notes that, historically, the telecoms sector tends to recover six months later than the
30、economy as a whole. But this time, he says, there is evidence of bigger structural problems in the industry that will not be solved by an economic recovery. That suggests the industry must undergo painful rationalisation before things start to improve.How did this happen? Telecoms is an infrastructu
31、re-intensive business, and infrastructure takes a long time to build. So telecoms firms have to gamble on the level of future demand. In recent years, however, their betsin both fixed and mobile telecoms have gone spectacularly wrong.In fixed-line telecoms, the problem is overcapacity. During the In
32、ternet boom, operators assumed that demand would continue to grow by 100% a year indefinitely. A vast construction programme ensued, fuelled by cheap capital. At its height, says Andrew Heaney of Spectrum, a consultancy, telecoms operators built seven years worth of capacity in a single year.The res
33、ult was a capacity glut, ferocious competition and frantic price-cutting. Traffic growth has not translated into extra revenue. Fixed-line operators have now cut their infrastructure spending to focus on picking up clients rather than expanding their networks. All of this is terrible news for equipm
34、ent vendors. Two of the biggest, Nortel and Lucent, have cut around 50,000 jobs apiece in the past year or so.Operators of mobile networks also made what turned out to be an ill-judged bet on future demand. With voice revenues stabilising, the industry hoped that new data services, piped over “third
35、 generation“(3G)networks, would provide growth. But consumers in most parts of the world have been far slower to embrace new data services than the operators had hoped. Worse, European operators hobbled themselves with huge debts by overpaying for 3G licences.Investors now worry that mobile telecoms
36、 is merely a low-growth utility, rather than an industry on the verge of a new phase of explosive expansion. The uncertainty has had a knock-on effect on wireless-infrastructure vendors, who were banking on selling vast amounts of 3G equipment. Ericsson and Motorola, for example, are each laying off
37、 more than 40,000 workers.In short, even though Internet traffic continues to grow and mobile phones remain popular, telecoms firms bet everything on a surge in demand that has so far failed to materialise. Backing out of these bets is proving to be very unpleasant. The carnage will continue for som
38、e time yet.11 Which of the following statement is ture according to Nikos Theodosopoulos?（A）The telecoms industry will recover in six months time.（B） The telecoms industry will suffer an ever-lasting carnage.（C） Things in the telecoms industry are likely to get worse before they get better.（D）Teleco
39、ms problems can be solved after the broader economy has recovered.12 Capacity glut in fixed-line telecoms mainly resulted from（A）the Internet boom.（B） cheap construction capital.（C） operators over-optimism about future demand.（D）ferocious competition and frantic price-cutting.13 One reason traffic g
40、rowth has not translated into extra revenue is that（A）operators competed to cut prices.（B） operators focused on picking up clients.（C） operators failed to expand their networks.（D）operators had to pay more to equipment vendors.14 Operators of mobile networks assumed that（A）future demand for voice se
41、rvices would stabilize.（B） consumers would embrace new data services very quickly.（C） mobile telecoms would be a low-growth utility.（D）3G licences would be difficult to obtain.15 The passage is mainly（A）a prediction about future trends.（B） a criticism of wrong policies.（C） an analysis of existing pr
42、oblems.（D）a suggestion of possible solutions.15 A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U. S. bachelors degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a new report says. In 2005, 15 prominent business groups warned that a lack of expert
43、workers and teachers posed a threat to U. S. competitiveness, and said the country would need 400,000 new graduates in the so-called STEM(science, technology, engineering and math)fields by 2015.In an update to be published Tuesday, the group reports the number of degrees in those fields rose slight
44、ly earlier in the decade, citing figures from the years after 2001 that have become available since the first report was published. But the number of degrees has since flattened out at around 225,000 per year.The coalition, representing groups such as the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the National D
45、efense Industrial Association, said there has been substantial bipartisan support in Washington for boosting science training, including passage last year of the America Competes Act, which promotes math and science.But Susan Traiman, director of education and work force policy for the Business Roun
46、dtable, an organization of corporate CEOs, said theres been insufficient follow-through with funding to support the programs. Other countries, she said, are doing more to shift incentives toward science training. “The concern that CEOs have is if we wait for a Sputniklike event, its very hard to tur
47、n around and get moving on the kind of timeline we would need,“ said Traiman, referring to the Soviet Unions launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957, which prompted a massive U. S. commitment to science investment.The report by the group Tapping Americas Potential, which has grown to repres
48、ent 16 business groups, also argues that the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform has hurt U. S. competitiveness by making it difficult to retain high-skilled workers who study at American universities. While there appears to be, if anything, a surplus in the job market of sc
49、ientists with doctoral degrees, the case for boosting bachelors degrees is strongerparticularly for people who go into teaching, where teachers who have college level subject training are generally more effective. Last week, The National Research Councila group that provides policy advice under a Congressional charterissued a report calling for more support for professional masters degrees programs. The idea would be to provide advanced training to more people in fields like chemistry and biology, which require less time and money than doctoral degr
