1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 223 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 With Japans welfare system buckling under the demands of an ageing society, the worlds oldest man apologized yesterday for his longevity.As Tomoji Tanab
2、e, 111, received his certificate from Guinness World Records, the former engineer, who never touches alcohol, said that his feat of survival was nothing special. “I have been around too long,“ he joked, “I amsorry.“ Mr. Tanabe added his customary explanation of how he has managed to reach such a rip
3、e old age: “Not drinking alcohol is the best formula for keeping myself healthy,“ he said.Other residents of his village attributed Mr. Tanabes long life to a diet that consists chiefly of vegetables and very little fried food. His explanation fuels a continuing mystery about the ideal formula for l
4、ongevityas each new holder of the title is crowned, each attributes his or her success to diets, lifestyles and habits that differ widely. Some have said that fresh air is the key, others have been heavy smokers. Some have taken vigorous exercise, others have sworn by periods of inactivity.The Mayor
5、 of Miyakonojo, the village where Mr. Tanabe lives with his family, presented the certificate to its famous resident after nearly five months of birthdate verification by the Guinness World Records team. Mr. Tanabe unofficially inherited the title when its previous record-holder, Emiliano Mer-cado d
6、el Toro, of Puerto Rico, died in January, aged 115.The crowning of Mr. Tanabe, who was born in the southern island of Kyushi in 1895, brings the desired “double trophy“ back to Japan. Yone Minagawa, who lives in the same area, is 114 and holds the title of worlds oldest woman.Japans population of th
7、e centenarians is the largest in the world. Most of the 28,000 Japanese who have made it beyond 100 are women and the highest concentration of the very elderly is in the southern part. The area around Hiroshima and the island of Okinawa are especially rich in former “worlds oldest“ title holders. Th
8、e number of centenarians has risen 160-fold since records began in the 1960s. Although Japan is proud of its record-breaking longevity, the success of Mr. Tanabe comes as the country is running short of ideas for how to solve its ageing crisis. With the fertility rate still at record lows, governmen
9、t and private sector efforts to stimulate the birthrate have met with little success. As the number of children decreases, the future welfare burden for working-age Japanese may become intolerably large.1 The word “buckling“ (Para, 1) most probably means _.（A）shrinking（B） collapsing（C） expanding（D）d
10、iminishing2 According to Mr. Tanabe, what contributes to his longevity?（A）A specially designed diet.（B） The fresh air in southern Japan.（C） An alcohol-free diet.（D）A mysterious reason.3 The statement “bring the desired double trophy back to Japan“ (Para. 4) most probably implies that_.（A）the worlds
11、oldest woman is also Japanese（B） Mr. Tanabe is happy to have been crowned the worlds oldest man（C） Japan feels proud to have the largest number of the centenarians（D）once the worlds oldest man and woman were Japanese4 It is suggested in the last paragraph that _.（A）women live a longer life than men
12、in Japan（B） the ageing problem is quite alarming in Japan（C） low birthrate has increased Japans welfare burden（D）measures to stimulate birthrate in Japan are successful5 Which of the following would be the best title for the text?（A）Longevity and Welfare System（B） The Worlds Oldest Man（C） Japan: An
13、Ageing Society（D）Physical Success, Welfare Burden5 How soon your performance will be rated may influence how well you do, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science. In the study, researchers Keri L. Kettle and Gerald Haubl from the University of Alberta set out to deter
14、mine whether the timing of feedback influences performance. Because earlier feedback means a more proximate possibility of disappointment,the researchers hypothesized that students told they would be learning their grade sooner would be more likely to perform well, compared with those who wouldnt fi
15、nd out their grade until later.Of 501 students taking a particular course, 271 agreed to participate in the study. All students were assigned a four minute oral presentation, which they had to deliver in front of about 10 classmates. Their performance was ranked on a scale of 1-10 by classmates, and
16、 the average of those scores made up their grade for the assignment. Prior to giving their oral presentation, study participants were asked to predict how well they would do, and were also told how soon they would learn their grade.The researchers found that study participants whod been told they wo
17、uld be given their scores earlier performed far better than those told theyd receive their scores later. Whats more, despite the fact that, on average, students who anticipated finding out how theyd done earlier significantly outperformed classmates who were given their scores later, they were more
18、likely to predict low marks for themselves. In contrast, those who were told they wouldnt learn their scores until later were more likely to predict very high markswhich they seldom actually went on to earn. As a control, the researchers also assessed the scores of the 230 students who had declined
19、to participate in the study. While students with the earliest feedback scored in the 60th percentile on average, and those with the latest feedback scored in the 40th percentile on average, those not included in the study (and whose feedback time hadnt been manipulated) consistently scored in the 50
20、th percentile.The findings suggest that “mere anticipation of more rapid feedback improves performance,“ the authors conclude, and that, interestingly, proximity of feedback influences predicted performance and actual performance differently. As the authors sum up: “People do best precisely when the
21、ir predictions about their own performance are least optimistic.“ The influence of feedback anticipation on performance has implications beyond the classroom as well, the researchers arguein the way that managers respond to employee work, for example, or maybe even how Mom and Dad size up how clean
22、that room is. The findings, Kettle and Haubl conclude, “have important practical implications for all individuals who are responsible for mentoring and for evaluating the performance of others.“6 According to Paragraph 1, researchers put forward such a hypothesis because _.（A）feedback and performanc
23、e are related（B） the timing of feedback affects performance（C） feedback may cause disappointment（D）feedback evaluates ones performance7 In paragraph 2, the author describes _（A）the experiment design（B） process of the experiment（C） participants and their tasks（D）evaluation of performance8 Participant
24、s who are told they will be given their scores earlier_.（A）underperform those who are told later（B） perform worse than they predict（C） are least optimistic at making prediction（D）seldom earn the marks they predict9 The significance of the findings lies in that _.（A）mere anticipation of more rapid fe
25、edback improves performance（B） they can also be applied to evaluation of performance in daily life（C） feedback influences predicted and actual performance differently（D）they can be used to improve students performance in classroom10 The text intends to tell us _.（A）the impact of feedback timing and
26、performance（B） the relations between feedback and performance（C） the findings about feedback timing and performance（D）the effects of feedback timing on performance10 Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kiplin
27、g, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years dwelling abroad. Now a pair of psychologists has proved that there is indeed a link.As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, WilliamMaddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau,
28、 France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity. Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked t
29、o attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pins.) They found 60% of students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the proble
30、m, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.A follow-up study with 72 Americans and 36 foreigners explored their creative negotiating skills. Pairs of students were asked to play the role of a seller of a petrol station who then needed to get a job and a buyer who would need to hire
31、 staff to run the business. The two were likely to reach a deadlock because the buyer had been told he could not afford what the seller was told was his minimum price. Nevertheless, where both negotiators had lived abroad 70% struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petr
32、ol station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was able to reach a deal.To check that they had not merely discovered that creative people are more likely to choose to live abroad, Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky identified and measured personality tra
33、its, such as openness to new experiences, that are known to predict creativity. They then used statistical controls to filter out such factors. Even after that had been done, the statistical relationship between living abroad and creativity remained, indicating that it is something from the experien
34、ce of living in foreign parts that helps foster creativity.Merely travelling abroad, however, was not enough. You do have to live there. Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself, make you Hemingway.11 In the opening paragraph, famous names are cited to show the relationship bet
35、ween_.（A）psychology and art（B） artistic creation and life experience（C） creativity and living abroad（D）writing and painting12 It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that _.（A）William Maddux and Adam Galinsky have carefully designed the test（B） the experience of living abroad can give people a creative
36、edge（C） American business students are less creative than those oversea students（D）ones creativity is associated with the length one has spent abroad13 The word “deadlock“ (Para. 3) most probably means _.（A）a failure to reach agreement（B） an intractable dilemma（C） an unacceptable offer（D）a bitter qu
37、arrel14 Dr Maddux and Dr Galinsky adopted statistical controls to _.（A）filter out the interference factors such as personality traits（B） identify the statistical relationship between personality and creativity（C） analyze the interaction between personality and creativity（D）measure the influence of o
38、penness to new experiences on creativity15 In the last sentence of Paragraph 5, the author means that_.（A）there exist sharp differences between traveling and living abroad（B） merely traveling abroad lends no help in cultivating ones creativity（C） only real experience of living abroad can help foster
39、 creativity（D）the travelling part of living abroad avails to nothing about ones creativity15 One of the least appreciated but most remarkable developments of the past 60 years is the extraordinary growth of American agriculture. Farming now accounts for about one tenth of the gross domestic product
40、yet employs less than 1 percent of all workers. It has accomplished this feat through exceptionally high growth in productivity, which has kept prices of food low and therebycontributed to rising standards of living. Furthermore, the exportable surplus has kept the trade deficit from reaching unsupp
41、ortable levels. Agriculture not only has one of the highest rates of productivity growth of all industries, but this growth appears to have accelerated during the past two decades.Over the period 1948 to 2004, total farm production went up by 166 percent. The land used for farming dropped by one qua
42、rter over the 56-year period, and investment in heavy farm equipment and other capital expenditures decreased by 12 percent. Several developments drove these changes, beginning with the replacement of the remaining horses by tractors immediately after World War II and with the expanding use of ferti
43、lizers and pesticides. Later came the adoption of hybrid seeds, genetic engineering of plants and improved livestock breeding.A key element was the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) extension service. Operating through land-grant universities and other organizations, it educated farmers on biot
44、echnology, pest management and conservation.For many years, critics have claimed that modern agriculture is not sustainable, one of the major assertions being that it encourages erosion, which will eventually wash away most of the topsoil Lost topsoil, the argument goes, is virtually irreplaceable b
45、ecause it takes up to 300 years for one inch of soil to form.But a detailed study of two large areas, the Southern Piedmont and the Northern Mississippi Valley Loess Hills, showed that based on 1982 data, soil loss has dropped sharply from the very high rates of the 1930s. The study attributed the d
46、ecrease in soil erosion to the USDA, which urged farmers after World War to adopt conservation practices such as strip cropping, whereby alternating rows are planted, and leaving plant residues in the fields year-round to inhibit water runoff.Despite being a robust contributor to the U.S. economy, m
47、odem agriculture is not without a dark side. Runoff of fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones degrade the environment and can upset the local ecology. If not grown properly, genetically modified crops could spread their DNA to conventional species.16 The growth of American agriculture has been mainly
48、 stimulated by _.（A）the productivity growth（B） low prices of food（C） rising standards of living（D）the exportable surplus17 The U.S. Department of Agriculture played an important role in agricultural developments by _.（A）adopting hybrid seeds and genetic engineering of plants（B） advocating the wide u
49、se of fertilizers and pesticides（C） improving the environmental conservation of lands（D）providing farmers with extension service of education18 Modern agriculture is criticized as unsustainable because _.（A）it promotes the erosion of topsoil（B） it cannot provide a long-term planning（C） 300 years is not long enough for the development（D）the lost topsoil is irreplaceable19 The sharp decrease of soil erosion in 1982 resulted from _.（A）the education of the USDA on farming technology（B） the p
