1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 27 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 Twins to Impaired Fertility of WomenA woman with a twin brother has fewer children. Twin brothers can leave quite an impression. The mere presence of a b
2、oy in the same womb as his sister causes her to develop bigger teeth than she otherwise would. Girls with twin brothers perform better on spatial ability tests. They have better ball skills than most females and are more likely to be short-sighted. Now it seems that sharing the womb also has a harmf
3、ul effect on the sexual reproduction of women with a twin brother.Virpi Lummaa of the University of Sheffield, in Britain, and her colleagues made the claim after studying detailed data from several generations of church records from many parishes in Finland. They report that women with a twin broth
4、er were 15% less likely to get married than were women with a twin sister. Those with a male twin also had a 25% lower chance of giving birth even though they lived just as long as those with a female twin. When the researchers considered only married women, those with a twin brother on average had
5、two fewer children during their lifetimes than did women with a twin sister.And finallyto rule out any influence of sharing a house as well as a wombDr. Lu-mmaa checked the results were the same for women whose twin brothers died before they were three months old. The researchers reported their find
6、ings in this weeks Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.As with the teeth, the supposed cause of untypical female biology is early exposure to testosterone. This hormone is made by a male fetuss developing testes from about seven weeks after conception and is thought to diffuse, thus infl
7、uencing his sisters growth. But the exact mechanism by which a twin brother lowers his sisters chances of reproductive success is unclear.Dr. Lummaas results also suggest that, if a woman wishes to maximize the chances of passing on her genes, she would do better to avoid producing pairs of twins co
8、nsisting of one boy and one girl and go for a single-sex combination instead. Mothers included in the study who produced opposite-sex twins had 19% fewer grandchildren than did mothers who gave birth to same-sex twins.Evolutionary theory thus predicts that there should be fewer pairs of girl-and-boy
9、 non-identical twins than single-sex pairs of non-identical twins. Whether that is so requires another set of figures. Finnish church records, helpful as they are, do not distinguish non-identical same-sex twins from identical ones. In the eyes of God, unlike those of natural selection, twin girls a
10、re created equal.1 Which of the following can be an impression on the sisters by twin brothers?（A）Better musical skills.（B） Shorter views.（C） More spatial-competence.（D）Stronger teeth.2 According to Virpi Lummaa and her colleagues, women with twin brothers（A）encounter more difficulties in getting ma
11、rried than only-child women（B） raise two more children during their lifetime than women with a twin sister（C） enjoy a much shorter longevity than women whose female twins died early（D）present a reproduction rate a quarter less than those with a female twin3 The word “conception“ (Line 5, Para. 3) he
12、re has a meaning closest to_.（A）childbirth（B） pregnancy（C） teeth-forming（D）labour4 It can be inferred from Para. 4 that（A）maternal genes have slight chances of passing on through same-sex twins（B） single-sex combination boasts more chances of inheriting maternal genes（C） women should avoid producing
13、 opposite-sex twins to maximize their genes（D）maternal genes diminishes through generations especially through same-sex twins5 According to the last paragraph, in the future, there are probably more_.（A）twin sisters than twin brothers（B） twin brothers than twin sisters（C） single-sex twins than boy-a
14、nd-girl twins（D）boy-and-girl twins than single-sex twins5 Wiki SoftwareThe United Nations, notorious for endless deliberations, is trying a technological quick fix. Its Global Compact office, which promotes corporate responsibility, has embraced a once marginal social technology the wikiin hopes tha
15、t it will help staff in 80 countries share information and reach consensus with less deliberation and more speed. The office has done this by enlisting the public in its review of progress reports from more than 2, 000 companiesan effort to make sure each is complying with established social and env
16、ironmental guidelines. Its debatable whether encouraging public input is a good way to increase efficiency, but the move is the latest example of a quickly growing trend.Wiki softwareeasy-to-use programs that let anyone with Internet access create, remove and edit content on a Web pagefirst gained p
17、opularity thanks to Wikipedia, the user-generated encyclopedia that has come to be praised as one of the Webs greatest resources. Now the technology is increasingly spreading outside the world of bizarre tech people and into the mainstream, being adopted by workplaces, corporations and even governme
18、nts. In whats been called the “wiki workplace“, a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki softwarea basket of technologies that include wikis, blogs and other toolsto foster innovation acros
19、s organizational and geographic boundaries. Executives say the new tools make it easier for teams to collaborate and share information, and to get projects up and running on the fly. “Collaborative software has become a very important part of how businesses will invent and innovate,“ says Ken Biscon
20、ti, IBMs vice president of messaging and collaboration software.That the United Nations is embracing wikis is an indication that organizations are beginning to get over their fear that this technology could introduce chaos into their operations. As Wikipedia has demonstrated, Web sites that are open
21、 to the public are vulnerable to deliberate injury, bias, inconsistency and other problems. But most corporate wikis are closed to the public, limiting access to employees inside the company firewall. These quas-closed systems, say techology experts, impose accountability simply by keeping a record
22、of every change and who made it.IBM has used internal wikis since 2005, with an eye to selling the concept to its clients. One of its first applications was a wiki that employees could use to collaborate on writing a blogging manifesto: a set of policies for apropriate use of blogs in and out of the
23、 office. Thousands of employees contributed and edited that manifesto, which after receiving corporate approvalbecame the companys official policy.6 What is the passage mainly about?（A）It is about how the United Nations is forced to abopt the wiki sofware to improve efficiency.（B） It is an introduct
24、ion of the wiki technology and its growing trend.（C） It reviews the davantages and disadvantages of wiki technology.（D）It is about the immaturity of the wiki technology and its future development. 7 The application of the wiki technology turns out to be_.（A）very reliable（B） rather superficial（C） som
25、ewhat contradictory（D）quite encouraging8 The basic problem of applying wiki technology lies in that_.（A）some people doubt it is a communist plot（B） the technology is still not mature enough to be used widely（C） there might be purposeflu injury and damage from the public（D）the technology can only be
26、used internally9 Which of the following is NOT the advantage of wiki technology?（A）It is a safe technology when being applied both externally and internally.（B） The public can participate in the creation of Web contents.（C） It can enhance communication at least within an organization.（D）It hels prom
27、ote innovation and improve work efficiency. 10 Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?（A）UN has gained positive results by using wiki technology.（B） IBMs adoption of wikis turns out to be a faliure.（C） Wiki software is changing some coporate network structure.（D）Wiki websites will repl
28、ace conventional websits.10 How Clinch Weather to Become Warm ProblemThe amount of greenhouse gases weve already pumped into the atmosphere has irreversibly bound us to a certain amount of warming over the next several decades. That means climate change isnt a problem for tomorrowthe effects are hap
29、pening now. Already raining patterns seem to be changing, making some drier areas even drier, and rainy regions even wetter. As warmer temperatures creep northward, so do insects and other pests that are adapted to the heat. The population of the tiny mountain pine beetle, which infests pine trees i
30、n the Rocky Mountain region, used to be controlled by freezing winters. But as temperatures have warmed over the past decade, the mountain pine beetles territory has spread, destroying millions of acres of Canadian pines.The pine beetle infestation represents the unique challenges that warming will
31、pose for land conservation managers on the front lines of the battle against it. Generations of American conservationists have fought to preserve wildlife and to keep nature pure in the face of a growing population and pollution.But global warming threatens to change all that, by altering the very f
32、oundation on which the conservation movement was built. What good is a wildlife reserve if the protected animals cant live there, because climate change pushes them out? What difference does it make to defend trees from logging, if global warming will allow a new pest to ruin the whole forests?The a
33、nswer is to adapt the way we practice wildlife and land conservation to climate change. Theres a term for this adaptive management. We need to begin making moves today to adapt to changes that warming will bring decades hence. “Climate change will affect anything, you name it,“ said Lara Hansen of E
34、coAdapt. “We need to change the way we allocate resources and protect livelihoods.“That means that the way weve been carrying out conservationpicking the right land spaces and playing goaliewont work anymore, as climate change keeps moving the target. Conservationists will have to work even harder,
35、trying to minimize non climate-related threats to land and species even as the human population grows by billions. Regardless of what we do, the changes will be coming fast and the future would bring increased drought, heat waves, rainstorms, extinctions and more. We need to begin cutting our carbon
36、 immediately, but we need to adapt now as well The world is changing because of us; to save whats left, well have to change too.11 From the passage we can learn that pine beetle_.（A）mainly lives in America（B） can be killed by coldness（C） multiplies faster if warmer（D）has no natural enemies12 What is
37、 the basic change caused by warming to the conservationists?（A）The foundation of their movement.（B） The objects within their protection.（C） The purpose of their movement.（D）The effects of their protection.13 Which of the following can be an answer to the current climate change according to the autho
38、r?（A）To give up their movement.（B） To take some adaptive measures.（C） To do nothing but wait and see.（D）To change their protecting objects.14 What does the author imply by saying “the way weve been carrying out conservationpicking the right land spaces and playing goaliewont work anymore“ (Line 14,
39、Para. 4)?（A）Conservationists should keep changing their land spaces.（B） Conservationists wont find any land spaces to protect.（C） Conservationists role will have to be changed.（D）Conservationists work will become much harder.15 According to the author, what should be done in the face of climate chan
40、ge?（A）To control the growth of human population.（B） To shift the focus to climate-related threats.（C） To adapt ourselves to the climate change.（D）To do something to delay the climate change.15 The Darwin and Lincoln Are Strangely FitsCharles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on
41、the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. Hows this for a coincidence? Instinctively, we want to say that they belong together. Its not just because they were both great men, and not because they happen to be exactly at the same age. Rather, its because the scientist and the politician each touched off a revolut
42、ion that changed the world.Lincoln and Darwin were both revolutionaries, in the sense that both men upended realities that prevailed when they were born. They seenand soundmodern to us, because the world they left behind them is more or less the one we still live in. So, considering the joint magnit
43、ude of their contributionsand the coincidence of their conjoined birthdaysit is hard not to wonder: who was the greater man? Its an apples and-orangesor Superman-vs; Santacomparison. But if you limit the question to influence, it bears pondering, all the more if you turn the question around and ask,
44、 what might have happened if one of these men had not been born? Very quickly the balance tips in Lincolns favor. Great as Darvins book on evolution is, it does no harm to remember that he hurried to publish “The Origin of Species“ because he thought he was about to be scooped (抢先) by his fellow nat
45、uralist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had independently come up with much the same idea of evolution through natural selection. In other words, there was a certain inevitability to Darwins theory. Ideas about evolution surfaced thoroughout the first part of the 19th century, and while none of them was
46、as conclusive as Darwins, it was not as though he was the only man who had the idea.Lincoln, in contrast, is unique. Take him out of the picture, and there is no telling what might have happened to the country. True, his election to the presidency did provoke secession and, in turn, the war itself,
47、but that war seems inevitablenot a question of if but when. If Darwin were not so irreplaceable as Lincoln, that should not deny his accomplishment. No one could have formulated his theory any more elegantlyor anguished more over its implications. Like lincoln, Darwin was brave. He risked his health
48、 and his reputation to advance the idea that we are not over nature but a part of it. Lincoln prosecuted a warand became its ultimate casualtyto ensure that no man should have dominion over another. Their identical birthdays afford us a superb opportunity to observe these men in the shared context o
49、f their timehow each was shaped by his circumstances, how each reacted to the beliefs that steered the world into which he was born and ultimately how each reshaped his corner of that world and left it irrevocably changed.16 What is the major reason for the author to put Lincoln and Darwin into the same sort?（A）They were both great men at their age.（B） They were born at the same age.（C） Their birthdays are coincidently the same.（D）They both changed the world irrevocably
