1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 281 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 It is not quite Benidorm yet, but Antarctica has become an increasingly popular destination for the more adventurous tourist. In this years southern-hem
2、isphere summer season, running from November to March, as many as 39,000 visitors are expected to make the trip from Tierra del Fuego, the nearest jump-ing-off point to the worlds emptiest continent. That amounts to a fourfold increase in a decade. Officials in both Chile and Argentina are getting i
3、ncreasingly worried about the risk of a fatal accident“a new Titanic“ as due Chilean naval officer puts it.Nobody has died so far, but there have been some near-collisions. In 2007 more than 150 people were evacuated when their ship, the Explorer, sank after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetlan
4、d Islands. They were “very lucky with the weather“, says Chiles deputy minister for the navy, Carolina Echeverria. That was one of only two accidents last season, with a similar number the previous year and one so far this season.Help is usually not far away. Although cruise ships plan their route s
5、o as to keep out of each others sight, there are generally 20 to 30 boats heading to or from the Antarctic Peninsula on any one day. Even so, surviving an accident is something of a lottery. It depends partly on the weather. Not all the ships have the covered lifeboats recommended for polar conditio
6、ns. Small boats, like the Explorer, have a better chance of being able to transfer their passengers if they get into difficulties. But some cruise ships visiting Antarctica now carry almost 3,000 passengersmore than ten times the limit that offers a reasonable chance of timely rescue, according to C
7、hiles navy.The navy is annoyed about the cost of patrols, rescue operations and cleaning up fuel spills. It wants legally binding rules, backed by penalties, for Antarctic cruise ships. But that is hard to achieve. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty no country can exercise sovereignty over any part of
8、the continent and its waters are international. Some rules on tourism have been written under the treaty: cruise ships carrying over 500 passengers cannot make landings, for example. But these are not legally enforceable. Neither will be rules being debated by the United Nations International Mariti
9、me Organization on safety requirements.Some tour operators say they would welcome tighter regulation and higher safety standards. Others insist that safety is already adequate. The world recession may place a temporary brake on the trade. But Chilean officials reckon that the trend to big cruise shi
10、ps, with their cheaper fares, will resume once recovery comes. If so, a tragedy may be only a matter of time.1 We learn from the first paragraph that Antarctica has（A）become a Benidorm-like tourist destination.（B） witnessed more fatal accidents than before.（C） attracted more bold guests than before.
11、（D）experienced a new Titanic period.2 The Explorer is mentioned in Paragraph 2 to show that（A）its perfectly safe to visit Antarctica.（B） the weather will help people survive.（C） nobody has died from accidents so far.（D）accidents occur occasionally in this area.3 “Help is usually not far away“(Line 1
12、, Paragraph 3)suggests that（A）cruise ships plan to keep themselves away from other boats.（B） surviving an accident depends largely on the weather.（C） boats sail frequently around the visiting area of the cruise ships.（D）cruise ships are equipped with lifeboats for passengers.4 According to the Antar
13、ctic Treaty,（A）the navy should rescue as many survivors as possible in spite of high cost.（B） no country is entitled to the rights of Antarctic continent and its waters.（C） Antarctica should be open to the world without any form of restrictions.（D）rules concerning Antarctica should be approved by th
14、e United Nations.5 It can be inferred from the last paragraph that（A）tour operators are eager to see more regulations concerning Antarctica.（B） safety issues should not be worried about no matter how many cruise ships come.（C） the world recession helps tour operators to reduce their fares.（D）when mo
15、re and more visitors come to Antarctica, a tragedy is foreseeable.5 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 menopausethe shutting down of female reproductive systembegins. But in th
16、e 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. By using the natural experiment of migration, researchers demonstrated how differences during childhood do alter the course of reproduction in ad
17、ult 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 who stayed in Sylhet; and Bangladeshi women bom in London. In the
18、 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 direct effect on fertility: Migrant women in London had an 11% higher
19、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 migrants and women in Sylhet. Bentley presented preliminary results f
20、rom 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 Bangladesh but earlier than did those born in London. “The adult migra
21、nts 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, land-owning families, who grew up with adequate calories. However, gi
22、rls 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 reproductive potential as adults. Bentley plans to test that idea next
23、 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.“6 According to the text, which of the following factor in childhood will probably
24、 cause an adult to be less fertile?（A）Menopause period.（B） Infectious disease.（C） Vigorous exercise.（D）Reproductive hormones.7 In Paragraph 2, Gillian Bentleys research showed us that（A）women staying in Sylhet had a high level of reproductive hormones.（B） women born in London were less fertile than
25、those migrates from Sylhet.（C） reproduction level of adult women varied in different regions.（D）where you spend your childhood might affect the fertility of adult women. 8 Migration here in the experiment is（A）a measuring tool.（B） a research methodology.（C） an independent variable.（D）a controlled co
26、ndition.9 What could be concluded from the research on the menopause of women?（A）Environment changes would make a difference of ones reproduction.（B） The beginning of menopause symbolized the lessening of hormones.（C） The period of menopause demonstrated an adult womens maturation.（D）Migrants entere
27、d menopause later than those who stayed in their birth place.10 Which of the following is the best title for this text?（A）More Energy, More Fertility（B） Childhood and Adulthood（C） Reproductive Fate vs. Environment（D）Migration Might Be a Choice10 The staggering variety of free stuff available on the
28、Internet sometimes seems to have repealed the first law of economics: Theres no such thing as a free lunch. But as so often happens, the dismal science actually has it right. When it looks like youre getting something for nothing, somebody is paying, and its often instructive to know who that is.Ive
29、 been testing a new phone service called ooma that provides an interesting case in point. Once you pay $399 up front for a box called the ooma Hub and connect it to your phone and the Internet via your home network, you are promised free, unlimited phone calls over two lines, plus voice mail. The sy
30、stem works fine and is simple to set up.When a voice-over-Internet call has to go to a regular phone number, a service such as ooma usually has to pay a “temination fee“ to a carrier such as Verizon. Skype, for example, charges 2% per minute for calls outside the Skype network. But ooma avoids this
31、by using some of its customersthose who have kept regular phone linesto serve as gateways onto the local phone network at no charge.When you want to call outside the ooma network, the call moves from your Hub over the Internet to a second landline-connected Hub within the destinations local calling
32、area The Hub dials the target number and patches the call through. In effect, ooma customers with landlines pay to keep the whole system going. You dont even notice if your landline is being used because your own phone calls go out over your broadband connection, with your flat-rate monthly phone bi
33、ll covering the ooma traffic. In fact, this improves the efficiency of the phone system by putting idle lines to work. But if ooma ever gains real traction, I expect a legal assault from big phone companies, which are losing income from termination fees.Web services do take advantage of genuine econ
34、omies. The phone network is more expensive than the Net. Lots of Net players build on these advantages. Skype relies on selected users who act, often without their knowledge, as “super nodes“ to manage the system. FreeC provides calls by taking advantage of regulatory quirksnamely, the stiff termina
35、tion fees long-distance carriers must pay to certain rural phone companies that handle calls into their territory. In effect, the free conferences are subsidized by customers and shareholders of the long-distance carriers. You may as well enjoy free calls while you can. But its always a good idea to
36、 read the fine print. If it isnt obvious whos paying for a free service, it might well be you.11 The phrase “a free lunch“(Line 3, Paragraph 1)implies that the free stuff on the Internet seems to be（A）totally free.（B） impossible as a free lunch.（C） as right as the science.（D）paid by someone you know
37、.12 The ooma system promised free, unlimited phone calls by（A）connecting the ooma Hub to your phone.（B） taking advantage of their customers.（C） paying termination fee to carrier Verizon.（D）keeping regular local phone lines.13 It could be concluded from the passage that the ooma service（A）worked ille
38、gally by losing termination fees.（B） improved the efficiency of the phone system.（C） was paid by the ooma customers.（D）covered the ooma traffic by broadband connection.14 One cannot notice if the landline is being used by others because（A）the ooma traffic cannot be calculated by the outside network.
39、（B） your monthly phone bill still remains stable with new traffic.（C） your Hub will dial the target number from a second Hub.（D）the whole system keeps going with the broadband connection.15 The author suggests that readers（A）enjoy their free calls.（B） pay their bills by themselves.（C） read carefully
40、 their bills.（D）avoid paying others bills.15 As long as people have looked up at the night sky, they have wondered whether humanity is alone in the universe. Of places close enough for people to visit, Mars is the only one that anybody seriously thinks might support life. The recent confirmation of
41、a five-year-old finding that there is methane(a colorless gas with no smell)in the Martian atmosphere has therefore excited the hopes of those scientists who study the outer space. These sources are probably geological but they might, just, prove to be biological.The possibility of life on Mars is t
42、oo thrilling for mankind to ignore. But how should we explore such questionswith men, or machines? George Bushs administration strongly supported manned exploration, but the new administration is likely to have different prioritiesand so it should.Michael Griffin, the boss of NASA, a physicist and a
43、erospace engineer who supported Mr. Bushs plan to return to the moon and then push on to Mars, has gone. Mr. Obamas transition team had already been asking difficult questions of NASA, in particular about the cost of scrapping parts of the successor to the ageing and old-fashioned space shuttles tha
44、t now form Americas manned space program. That successor system is also designed to return humans to the moon by 2020, as a stepping stone to visiting Mars. Meanwhile, Mr. Obamas administration is wondering about spending more money on lots of new satellites designed to look down at the Earth, rathe
45、r than outward into space.These are sensible priorities. In space travel, as in politics, domestic policy should usually by far outweigh foreign adventures. Moreover, cash is short and space travel costly. Yet it would be a shame if man were to give up exploring celestial bodies, especially if there
46、 is a possibility of meeting life forms even ones as lowly as microbesas a result.Luckily, technology means that man can explore both the moon and Mars more fully without going there himself. Robots are better and cheaper than they have ever been. They can work tirelessly for years, beaming back dat
47、a and images, and returning samples to Earth. They can also be made germless, which germ-infected humans, who risk spreading disease around the solar system, cannot.Humanity, some will argue, is driven by a yearning to boldly go to places far beyond its crowded corner of the universe. If so, private
48、 efforts will surely carry people into space. In the meantime, Mr. Obamas promise in his inauguration speech to “restore science to its rightful place“ sounds like good news for the sort of curiosity-driven research that will allow us to find out whether those columns of methane are signs of life.16
49、 According to the first paragraph, men want to explore Mars because they（A）have found columns of gas in the Martian atmosphere.（B） think it is the nearest place for men to go in the universe.（C） are convinced that Mars have something biological.（D）want to figure out whether there is life beyond earth.17 To which of the following statements would Mr. Obamas administration most likely agree?（A）The cost of manned space program is overestimated by Bushs administration.（B） The successor system should be updated and act as a stepping s
