1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 189 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 AWhy reading falls into decline?BReading is related to national politicsCReading is a stimulating experienceDReading and national healthEThe decline of
2、reading is the crisis in national educationFThe effects of electronic mediaA survey released on Thursday reports that reading for pleasure is way down in America among every group. The survey also indicates that readers are active, while nonreaders more than half the populationhave settled into apat
3、hy.【R1】 _Reading is not an active expression like writing, but it is not a passive experience, either. It requires effort, concentration, and attention. In exchange, it offers the stimulus to thought and feeling. Kafka said, “A book must be an ice ax to break the seas frozen inside our soul. “【R2】 _
4、The electronic media, on the other hand, tend to be torpid. Despite the existence of good television, fine writing on the Internet, and video games that test logic, the electronic media by and large invite inert reception. One selects channels, but then the information comes out preprocessed. Most p
5、eople use television as a means of turning their minds off, not on. Many readers watch television without peril; but for those for whom television replaces reading, the consequences are far-reaching.【R3】 _My last book was about depression, and the question I am most frequently asked is why depressio
6、n is on the rise. I talk about the loneliness that comes of spending the day with a TV or a computer or video screen. That the rates of depression should be going up as the rates of reading are going down is no happenstance.【R4】 _I will never forget seeing, as a high school student on my first trip
7、to East Berlin, the plaza where Hitler and Goebbels had burned books from the university library. The Nazis were right in believing that one of the most powerful weapons in a war of ideas is books. And the United States is now in such a war. Without books, we cannot succeed in our current struggle a
8、gainst absolutism and terrorism. You are what you read. If you read nothing, then your mind withers, and your ideals lose their vitality and sway.【R5】 _It is important to acknowledge that the falling-off of reading has to do not only with the incursion of anti-intellectualism, but also with a flawed
9、 intellectualism. The ascendancy of poststructuralism in the 1980s coincided with the beginning of the catastrophic downturn in reading; deconstructionisms suggestion that all text is equal in its meanings and the denigration of the canon led to the devaluation of literature. The role of literature
10、is to illuminate, to strengthen, to explain why some aspect of life is moving or beautiful or terrible or sad or important or insignificant for people who might otherwise not understand so much or so well. Reading is experience, but it also enriches other experience.Reading is harder than watching t
11、elevision or playing video games. But more difficult pleasures are more rewarding. Art comes to you professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass. Surely that is something all Americans would want, if we only understood how readily we might achieve it, how w
12、ell worth the effort it is.1 【R1 】2 【R2 】3 【R3 】4 【R4 】5 【R5 】5 ANuclear power is a potential threat to mankindBThe safety of nuclear power has improvedCThe spread of nuclear weapons material is potentially a fatal problemDThe disposal of nuclear waste is problematicEThe story of nuclear power seems
13、 to have begun and ended in the 20th centuryFThe need for nuclear power is coming backNuclear power died in the 20th century, but things have changed since then. World leaders are now taking a second look at the atom.【R1】 _First came the fireworks-two atom bombs that ended a world war and announced
14、vast stores of energy in the fine structure of the atom. Then came a new industry that promised electricity “too cheap to meter, “but instead foundered on high costs and inexcusable accidents. Its epitaph was written in the 1980s, when only the blind or the biased could still have believed that the
15、hundreds of billions of dollars invested in nuclear power was money well spent.【R2】 _So much has changed. The prices of oil and natural gas have gone through the roof and are expected to stay there. Wariness of major suppliers like Russia and Iran is forcing political recalculations across the world
16、. Coal is cheap and plentiful, but its a big source of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that 157 nations are committed to reducing. Environmentalists, who used to be the natural enemies of nuclear power, are now busy beating their drums over climate change. Energy demand is expected to rise worldwid
17、e by about 50% in 20 years, with growth in developing nations hitting 90%. Energy will have to come from somewhere. Its becoming plain that the world needs to exploit renewable sources such as solar and wind. It needs to find clean-coal technologies. It needs to make factories and homes energy effic
18、ient. And as leaders from India to Germany have declared recently, it needs nuclear power.【R3】 _Is nuclear energy worthy of a comeback? Theres some truth to the argument that 20 years ago the industry and its regulators were beginning to get things right just as the public was running out of patienc
19、e. Since then nuclear research hasnt exactly been a growth industry, but engineers have made steady improvements. Reactors now being built, if operated properly, could improve the industrys accident rate tenfold, according to John Deutch, a nuclear power expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
20、nology. New designs could do better. Advanced boiling water reactors(ABWR), for instance, are made to work even when they lose coolant, without overheating. Pebblebed reactors use uranium balls that dissipate heat so well they shut down during an accident. China and South Africa are building pilot p
21、lants.【R4】 _One potentially fatal problem is the so-called fuel cycle. Uranium fuel turns into radioactive waste, which must be either recycled or disposed of. Both options are problematic. Reprocessing puts pure plutonium, the stuff of bombs, into circulation; and disposal is politically and techni
22、cally tricky. Scientists have tried to invent a way out of this messone new technology turns nuclear waste into fuel that is worthless in bombs, but it is unproven.【R5】 _Proliferation seems destined to remain a diplomatic nightmare, as the current imbroglio over Irans nuclear program attests. To con
23、tain the spread of weapons material, nuclear nations may allow Iran and other countries to develop civilian reactors in exchange for giving up control over the fuel cycle.The other question is whether nuclear power is viable economically. On paper, high energy costs create an opening in the marketpl
24、ace. But, says Deutch, “one doesnt know what costs will be until real plants get built. “Much depends on whether industry and its regulators get things right this timeand whether environmentalists and the public give them a chance. An accident here or there may close nuclear powers second chapter as
25、 quickly as it closed the first. This time the stakes are higher.6 【R1 】7 【R2 】8 【R3 】9 【R4 】10 【R5 】10 ANo miracle diets for heart disease or cancerBHow the study was conducted?CThe outcome of the study on heart diseaseDLow colorectal cancer rate: chance or the low-fat diet?EThe significance of the
26、 study on breast cancerFHow fat and heart disease are related?Starting a low-fat diet in mid-life does not, by itself, decrease a womans risk of heart disease or stroke or dramatically reduce her risk of breast cancer or colorectal cancer, according to three studies published today of almost 50, 000
27、 healthy, post-menopausal women. But the findings still support the general idea that you need to pay attention to how much fatand particularly what kinds of fatyou eat.【R1】 _Researchers randomly divided the participants into two groups, worked hard to get one group to cut its fat intake and then co
28、mpared the results for each of them for the next several years. Through focus groups and sessions with nutritionists, the so-called intervention group was given a lot of help and information on how to cut the amount of fat in their diet. As a group they werent able to get all the way down to 20% fat
29、 intake, but they did manage to reduce it to 24% in the first year, though it slid back up to 29% by the sixth year. The other, so-called control group received printed material on dietary guidelines but no other help on healthy eating. The fat content of their diets was 35% after one year and crept
30、 up to 37% after six yearsand they gained a little weight to boot.(The intervention group lost weight or stayed the same.)【R2】 _All told, the women in the two groups showed no overall difference in the number of heart attacks or strokes they suffered over the eight years of the study. Part of the re
31、ason may be that the level of LDL or“ bad“ cholesterol dropped in the intervention group by a tiny 2. 4%too small a reduction for the study to be able to detect a difference in outcome.【R3】 _Its also possible that if you want to prevent heart disease, its not enough to focus just on the total amount
32、 of fat in the diet; you also have to look at the types of fat as well as exercise and physical activity levels. Why didnt the study focus more intently on these variables? Researchers were not as aware of how important they were back in the late 1980s, when they were designing the trial.【R4】 _Women
33、 in the low-fat group suffered 9 % fewer breast cancers than those in the control group. Although that difference was not statistically significant, it is very suggestive. Given how long it takes for most tumors to grow, it may simply be that the study has not lasted long enough to show a significan
34、t effect. In addition, there was a clear benefit for one sub-group of womenthose who began the study with the highest total fat consumption and who were able to make and maintain the greatest reduction in the number of fat calories in their diet. This group benefited from al5% to 20% drop in the inc
35、idence of breast cancer.【R5】 _Women in the low-fat group did not see a significant drop in their rates of colorectal cancer. Given how long it takes colorectal cancer to develop, a 9% difference is significant. Welcome to the wild and complex world of statistics. After looking at the variation in th
36、e data with various mathematical tools, research statisticians determined that they couldnt rule out the possibility that the 9% difference in breast cancer results was due to chance alone. On the other hand, after applying those same mathematical tools to the data in the colorectal cancer study, th
37、ey determined that the 9% difference in the number of polyps was unlikely to be due to chance alone.So, in many ways these studies raised more questions than they answered. Strictly speaking, the results do not apply to men, who tend to get heart disease earlier than women do and for whom a low-fat
38、diet might be particularly beneficial. But this study has set the gold standard for diet studies in the future.11 【R1 】12 【R2 】13 【R3 】14 【R4 】15 【R5 】15 AWomen marry up; men marry downBTodays women love domestic lifeCEquality in courtship unrealizedDWomen appreciate men paying the checkEWomen are m
39、ere domestic robotsFWomens magazines are no difference from what they wereWhen I entered college in 1969, women were shedding girdles, padded bras and conventions. Women were once again imitating men and acting all independent: smoking, drinking, wanting to earn money and thinking they had the right
40、 to be sexual, this time protected by the pill.【R1】 _Decades after the feminist movement promised equality with men, it was becoming increasingly apparent that many women would have to brush up on the venerable tricks of the trade: an absurdly charming little laugh, a pert toss of the head, an air o
41、f saucy triumph, dewy eyes and a full knowledge of music, drawing, elegant note writing and geography. Today, women have gone back to hunting their quarryin person and in cyberspacewith elaborate schemes designed to allow the deluded creatures to think they are the hunters.【R2】 _Now dating etiquette
42、 has reverted. Young women no longer care about using the check to assert their equality. They care about using it to assess their sexuality. Going Dutch is an archaic feminist relic. Young women talk about it with disbelief and disdain.【R3】 _Men would rather marry their secretaries than their bosse
43、s, and evolution may be to blame. A study by psychology researchers at the University of Michigan, using college undergraduates, suggested that men going for long-term relationships would rather marry women in subordinate jobs than women who are supervisors. Men think that women with important jobs
44、are more likely to cheat on them. There it is, right in the DNA: women get penalized by insecure men for being too independent. Women moving up still strive to marry up. Men moving up still tend to marry down. The two sexes going in opposite directions has led to an epidemic of professional women mi
45、ssing out on husbands and kids.【R4】 _Many women now do not think of domestic life as a comfortable concentration camp, where they are losing their identities and turning into anonymous biological robots in a docile mass. Now they want to be Mrs. Anonymous Biological Robot in a Docile Mass. They drea
46、m of being rescuedto shop, to stay home and be taken care of. They shop for“Stepford Fashions“matching shoes and ladylike bags and the 50s-style satin, lace and.chiffon party dresses featured in InStyle layoutsand spend their days at the gym trying for Wisteria Lane waistlines.【R5】 _Cosmo is still t
47、he best-selling magazine on college campuses, as it was when I was in college, and the best-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand. The June 2005 issue, with Jessica Simpson on the cover, her cleavage spilling out of an orange croqueted halter dress, could have been June 1970. The headlines are f
48、amiliar:“How to turn him on in 10 words or less, “Do You Make Men M-E-L-T? Take our quiz, “Bridal Special, “ “Cosmos stud search“ and “Cosmos Most Famous Sex Tips; the Legendary Tricks That Have Brought Countless Guys to Their Knees. “What I didnt like at the start of the feminist movement was that
49、young women were dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. They were supposed to be liberated, but it just seemed like stifling conformity. What I dont like now is that the young women rejecting the feminist movement are dressing alike, looking alike and thinking alike. Before it was“ dont be a sex object; “now its“ be a sex object“but the conformity is just as stifling.16 【R1 】17 【R2 】18 【R3 】19 【
