1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 216 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 What makes a great high school? Americans think a lot of things do, from outstanding academics or a supportive environment for students to a great footb
2、all or basketball team. Still, pretty much everyone agrees teaching and learning are central to the mission. High schools are expected to prepare students for further education, work, or the military and eliminate the large gaps in achieve-ment separating different ethnic and income groups of studen
3、ts. These are sensible goals.While there are many great high schools among the nearly 22,000 across the country, too many are still not getting the job done. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic students finish high school on time. Meanwhile, the National Assessment of Education Progress
4、 tests, often referred to as “the nations report card,“ show significant achievement gaps separating white students from black and Hispanic high school students.These are not small differences but rather vast gaps that crush opportunity and tear at our nations social contract. Leave aside the intrin
5、sic value of being an educated citizen; there are practical effects as well. In 2005, the mean annual earnings were about $20,000 for a high school dropout but $54,000 for someone with a bachelors degree. And those differences are growing wider, not lessening, as our economy becomes more knowledge a
6、nd skills based. In 1975, a high school dropout earned about half as much as a college graduate, compared with about one third today.This is why U.S. News set some clear criteria for academic quality in its new ranking of American high schools. These criteria mean a lot of schools dont measure uponl
7、y 505 schools nationwide earned a silver or gold medal this year. The list illustrates at once the promise and the challenge for high schools today. Only about 1 in 8 of the schools on this list serves a student population that is more than 50 percent low income, and only about 1 in 5 has a majority
8、 of nonwhite students. Meanwhile, about 1 in 5 selects students based on academic merit, something that obviously boosts the chances of meeting the criteria.Because the U.S. News list uses more data to judge schools, it paints a clearer picture. Of course, no list is perfect. For instance, it is dif
9、ficult to account for high school graduation rates because states calculate them in different ways. But this one better reflects what policymakers and parents want from high schools, as well as the challenge our nation faces to make our high schools as good as they need to be.1 American high schools
10、 are expected to _.（A）eliminate large social gaps（B） remain ethnic diversities（C） teach students practical skills（D）prepare students for the future2 In Paragraph 2, “the nations report card“ is mentioned to show that _.（A）too many high schools fail to accomplish the mission of teaching and learning（
11、B） half of African-American and Hispanic high school students are dropouts（C） academic achievement gaps are the primary causes of ethnic gaps in America（D）Achievement gaps among different ethnic groups still remain in American high schools3 We can learn from Paragraph 3 that _.（A）inequality of educa
12、tion breaks the contract America signs with its citizens（B） income gaps are widened as the economy relies more on knowledge and skills（C） high school education results in more economic impact than emotional one（D）high school dropouts used to earn more in the 1970s than today4 High schools of silver
13、or gold medalists by U.S. News most probably_.（A）dedicate to students from low-income families（B） recruit mainly white students（C） select students based on academic performance（D）admit only minority elite students5 Which of the following is a feature of the U.S. News list?（A）Ideal.（B） Exaggerating.（
14、C） Insightful.（D）Threatening.5 It seems to happen with depressing frequencysunny skies turn to rain just as the weekend arrives. Now Spanish researchers say they have evidence that in some parts of Europe the weather really does follow a weekly cycle, although not in the straightforward way that the
15、 anecdote might suggest.Evidence has been mounting over the years that the weather in certain partsof the world, including the US, Japan and China, can be driven by the weekly cycle of human activity. This is because we tend to produce more air pollution during the week and less at the weekend. Evid
16、ence that such an effect occurs in Europe is controversial and has been harder to come by. Arturo Sanchez-Lorenzo of the University of Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues examined data gathered between 1961 and 2004 from weather stations across Spain to see whether such a pattern existed. They clai
17、m to have found it in Spain, as well as hints of weekly changes in air circulation more broadly over Western Europe.The result is puzzling, but it is known that airborne pollutants produced by human activity can affect the weather in a variety of ways. For example, particles can be heated by absorbi
18、ng sunlight, which in turn heats the air and changes air circulation patterns. Pollutant particles can also provide seeds for cloud formation. Exactly which effect has the greatest influence seems to depend on conditions that vary season by season. They also found signs that air pressure in Western
19、Europe tends to be lower midweek than at the weekend in data from a global database. This suggests that the human influence on weather goes beyond known local effects, says team member Josep Calbo of the University of Girona in Spain.However, it is not clear whether the teams findings are statistica
20、lly significant, says Thomas Bell of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who was part of a team that found a stronger weekly cycle in the US. “This whole enterprise of looking for weekly cycles is rife with possibilities for misleading oneself.“Why a weekly cycle would be less
21、noticeable in Europe than in the US and Asia is still unknown. No weekly cycle has ever been found in the UK, probably because the weather is dominated by large systems blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. These larger systems may be harder for weekly pollution cycles to influence, points out Douglas
22、 Maraun of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, who studies UK precipitation. “I doubt that there is a weekly influence of human activity on such a large weather system,“ he says.6 In the opening paragraph, Spanish researchers suggest that _.（A）the weather system of Europe follows a strict week
23、ly cycle（B） there is a great possibility of rain in Spain on weekends（C） rain cycles have resulted from the excessive human activities（D）weather interacts with human activities in a straightforward way7 The reason why weather changes are possibly due to human factors is that _.（A）the weather usually
24、 follows a weekly cycle（B） when people stay at home, they are careful with pollutants production（C） air circulation acts in different manners because of deliberate human interference（D）different activities on weekdays and weekends have imposed effect on the air8 Airborne pollutants can affect _.（A）s
25、unlight absorption（B） air circulation（C） cloud movement（D）human activities9 Whats Thomas Bells attitude toward the study of weekly change in weather?（A）He supports the findings through his own research statistics.（B） He agrees that the findings are possibly true.（C） He points out that the findings l
26、ack in abundant data.（D）He is certain that the purpose of study is misleading.10 The climate in UK is probably _.（A）under the influence of large weather systems（B） the same to that of the other regions of Europe（C） drawing the attention of global research world（D）less changeable due to weak human ac
27、tivities10 Telecommuting, Internet shopping and online meetings may save energy as compared with in-person alternatives, but as the digital age moves on, its green reputation is turning a lot browner. Last year, E-mailing consumed as much as 1.5 percent of the nations electricityhalf of which comes
28、from coal.In 2005 the computers of the world ate up 123 billion kilo-watt hours ofenergy. As a result, the power bill to run a computer over its lifetime will surpass the cost of buying the machine in the first placegiving Internet and computer companies a business reason to cut energy costs, as wel
29、l as an environmental one. One of the biggest energy sinks comes not from the computers themselves but from the air-conditioning needed to keep them from overheating. For every kilowatt-hour of energy used for computing in a data center, another kilowatt-hour is required to cool the furnace like rac
30、ks of servers.For Internet giant Google, this reality has driven efforts such as the installation of a solar array that can provide 30 percent of the peak power needs of its headquarters as well as increasing purchases of renewable energy. But to deliver Web pages within seconds, the firm must maint
31、ain hundreds of thousands of computer servers in cavernous buildings. “We are actively working to maximize the efficiency of our data centers, which account for most of the energy Google consumes worldwide.“ remarks Googles green energy czar Bill Weihl. Google will funnel some of its profits into a
32、new effort, dubbed REC (for renewable energy cheaper than coal, as Google translates it) to make sources such as solar-thermal, high-altitude wind and geothermal cheaper than coal “within years, not decades,“ according to Weihl.In the meantime, the industry as a whole has employed a few tricks to sa
33、ve watts. Efforts include rearranging the stacks of servers and the mechanics of their cooling, and using software to create multiple “virtual“ computers, rather than having to deploy several real ones. Such virtualization has allowed computer maker Hewlett-Packard to consolidate 86 data centers spr
34、ead throughout the world to just three, with three backups, says Pat Tiernan, the firms vice president of social and environmental responsibility.The industry is also tackling the energy issue at the computer-chip level. Chipmakers such as Intel and AMD have shifted to so-called multi-core technolog
35、y, which packs multiple processors into one circuit rather than separating them. “When we moved to multi-core and throttled down microprocessors, the energy savings were pretty substantial,“ says Allyson Klein, Intels marketing manager. Chipmakers continue to shrink circuits on the nanoscale as well
36、, which “means a chip needs less electricity“ to deliver the same performance, she adds.11 The sentence “its green reputation is turning a lot browner“ (Para. 1) shows that the digital industry（A）does not help save energy any more（B） is not so environmental friendly as before（C） consumes most of the
37、 nations electricity（D）has ruined its own green reputation12 One of the biggest energy sinks comes from the air-conditioning in that_.（A）one kilowatt-hour is needed by air-conditioning to cool the computers（B） air-conditioning costs a large sum of money（C） air-conditioning is needed to prevent compu
38、ters from overheating（D）a data center needs air-conditioning desperately13 We learn from the third paragraph that in the near future Google will _.（A）install solar array panels at its headquarters（B） purchase the energy which could be renewed（C） make renewable energy cheaper than coal（D）channel some
39、 of its profits into purchases of energy14 By citing the example of computer maker Hewlett-Packard, the author intends to show that _.（A）effort has been made by the digital industry to save energy（B） virtualization could help the company to save energy（C） HP has managed to consolidate 86 data center
40、s to just three（D）HP has employed software to create multiple “virtual“ computers15 Which of the following is true of changes at the computer-chip level?（A）The multi-core technology helps separate the multiple processors.（B） The multi-core technology helps save the energy substantially.（C） Circuits
41、on the nanoscale could save energy by sacrificing performance.（D）Circuits have been shrunk on the nanoscale in order to be lighter.15 Womens fertility is determined in large part at birth. They are born with their total number of reproductive cells, which normally influences the age at which menopau
42、sethe shutting down of female reproductive systembegins. But in the 1990s, researchers proposed that if a childs energy is depleted by malnutrition, disease, or other factors, he or she would be less fertile as an adult. Byusing the natural experiment of migration, researchers demonstrated how diffe
43、rences during childhood do alter the course of reproduction in adult women.Biological anthropologist Gillian Bentley of Durham University in the UK and colleagues compared levels of reproductive hormones in 250 Bangladeshi women, including women who migrated from Sylhet, Bangladesh to London; women
44、who stayed in Sylhet; and Bangladeshi women born in London. In the first stage of their study, they found that women who migrated from Bangladesh as children had higher levels of reproductive hormones in their saliva than women who lived in Sylhet, but less than women born in London. This had a dire
45、ct effect on fertility: Migrant women in London had an 11% higher rate of ovulationdischarging of mature ovumduring their lives than did women in Sylhet, the team reported in 2007.The team has now studied 900 women between the ages of 35 and 60 to see if the beginning of menopause varies between mig
46、rants and women in Sylhet. Bentley presented preliminary results from their measurement of hormones that regulate the maturation of reproductive cells and are indirect indices of how many ova they can still produce. Her team found that migrants enter menopause later than did women who stayed in Bang
47、ladesh but earlier than did those born in London. “The adult migrants seem to be sensitive to improved conditions,“ says Bentley.The group is trying to find out which environmental factors in Bangladesh lower growing girls fertility. All the Bangladeshi women in the study came from middle-class, lan
48、d-owning families, who grew up with adequate calories. However, girls growing up in Bangladesh were probably exposed to more infectious diseases during crucial developmental years. So, they may have had to make tradeoffs among using energy to grow, to maintain their bodies, or to maximize their repr
49、oductive potential as adults. Bentley plans to test that idea next year when her team returns to Bangladesh to see if girls there suffer from more diseases than do those in London. “In other words,“ says Bentley, “where you spend your childhood influences adult reproductive function.“16 According to the text, which of the following factor in childhood will probably cause an adult to be less fertile?（A）Menopause period.（B） Infectious disease.（C） Vigorous exercise.（D）Reproductive hormones.17 In Paragraph 2, Gillian Bent
