1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 51 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 In the 1930s, an American meat company came out with a spiced ham product sold in a can. Before long, Spam, as it was called, became ubiquitous. However,
2、 critics called it a food with “no nutritive or aesthetic value“. Now, some high-tech observers say that unsolicited E-mail is the electronic equivalent. (1)_But, its more than just aesthetically displeasing. “The big problem with spam is that it is a cost shifted medium, which is to say that the pe
3、rson who receives the E-mail has to pay for it, “ says Tom Geller, founder of the SpamCon Foundation, a coalition of marketers and computer users, who want to control the number of unsolicited messages that are sent over the Internet. (2)_According to Tom Geller, some Internet service providers esti
4、mate that spam accounts for up to 10% of their operational costs. “Of course, they pass those operational costs on to you. The other problem with unsolicited E-mail is that when you send a piece of paper mail, you have to pay for it, “ he says. “So, it doesnt pay for marketers to send out millions a
5、nd millions of pieces. But with E-mail, since the senders dont pay for it, they tend to send it out in tens of millions. As a result, you end up with hundreds, possibly even thousands of unsolicited E-mails in your mail box, making E-mail essentially useless for you. “Attempts have been made to cont
6、rol the volume. “There are legal regulations in at least five countries and at least 16 U.S. states, “ says Mr. Geller. “The five countries that I know about are Denmark, Germany, Italy, Austria and Finland. (3)_ But the problem is that many spammers are using untraceable E-mail addresses and basica
7、lly try to hide their origins so theres no way to tell them to stop.“And Tom Geller says there isnt much the average Internet users can do about spam. “They can delete the message and curse, which is what I think most people do, “ he says. “People who know a little bit more about anti-spam issues so
8、metimes use the utility known as spam, cop, which is at spamcop. net. (4)_When the person finds out, when the Internet service provider finds out that they are hosting a spammer, almost invariably they will kick them off because no Internet service provider wants a spammer on their system. “(5)_ “Th
9、e first is technical. This is already happening, “ he says. “A second way is through legal measures. When there are penalties for spamming and there are at least warnings that people realize that: hey, Im doing something illegal. I think that will keep many people who are not professional criminals
10、from spamming, but I think that the third way that spam can be cut down is essentially for social and policy reasons, for more people to realize exactly how E-mail works and how it is a recipient-pays medium. I think that will cause a certain amount of peer pressure. “A While Tom Geller doesnt think
11、 that spam will ever be completely eliminated, he does believe that it could be cut down by a combination of three types of activities.B The new Office package is also closely linked to the Internet, and includes a feature called smart tags which permits word-processing documents to be connected dir
12、ectly to information stored on the Internet. And Office XP makes it easier to access E-mail.C According to America Online, a major Internet service provider, approximately a third of the estimated 30 million E-mail messages sent each day can be classified as spam.D Lets say you want to organize an e
13、vent, or a meeting. Right now you send out a bunch of E-mails back and forth, editing the things. Its not very organized. Now you can easily create a web site where everybody goes to get the documents.E Thats a utility that lets you complain, supposedly to the Internet service provider that allows t
14、he messages to be sent. Not the senders of the messages, but the person who gives them connectivity.F Many of the laws in the United States are fairly weak. They say, for example, that when somebody send you spam you have to tell them to stop before the law kicks in.G Unlike unsolicited mail, paper
15、mail which is perfectly fine, and unsolicited phone calls which some people have problems with, but dont cost anything, when you receive E-mail it is taking up your computer resources and your bandwidth.5 The U. S. space agency, NASA, is planning to launch a satellite that scientists hope will answe
16、r fundamental questions about the origin and destiny of our universe. (1)_The prevailing theory of the universes origin, the “Big Bang“ theory, says all matter and energy were once compressed into a tiny point. The density and resulting temperature were so enormous that, about 13-to-15-billion years
17、 ago by current estimates, a mighty explosion flung the matter hurtling outward in all directions. (2) _They also ask, is the expansion accelerating? Will the universe collapse? What is its shape? Scientists will seek explanations with NASAs new Microwave Anisotropy Probe, abbreviated as MAP. (3)_“M
18、AP will take the ultimate baby picture, an image of the infant universe taken in the fossil light that is still present from the Big Bang, “ he says. “This glow, this radiation, is the oldest light in the universe. Imprinted on this background, physicists knew, would be the secrets of the Big Bang i
19、tself. “This background radiation is the light and heat that the early cosmic soup of matter emitted. Once roiling hot, it has cooled over the eons to just a few degrees above absolute zero. It was once thought to be distributed evenly. But in 1992, a highly sensitive NASA satellite named COBE detec
20、ted nearly imperceptible variations in temperature as tiny as 30-millionths of a degree.(4)_“These patterns result from tiny concentrations that were in the very early universe that were the seeds that grew to become the stars and the galaxies that we see today, “ he says. “The tiny patterns in the
21、light hold the keys for understanding the history, the content, the shape, and the ultimate fate of our universe.“(5)_Princeton University scientist David Spergel says MAP will give us a much more accurate matter count than we have now. “Right now, we want to measure something like the matter-densit
22、y of the universe, “ he says. “Today, we can estimate that to a factor of two. Thats pretty good. What we want to do is be able to measure it to about the three-percent level, which is what MAP will be capable of doing.“To do its job, the $ 145 million MAP spacecraft will settle into an orbit 1.5 mi
23、llion kilometers from the Earth. This is where the Earths and suns gravitational pull are equal, and well past the range of the Earths own obscuring microwave radiation.While the older COBE satellite measured just a small part of the sky, Charles Bennett says MAP will scan the entire sky at 1, 000 t
24、imes better resolution. “The patterns that MAP measures are extremely difficult to measure, “ he says. “MAP will be measuring millionths of a degree temperature accuracies, and thats hard to do. Thats like measuring the difference between two cups of sand to the accuracy of a single grain of sand. “
25、A The principal NASA scientist for the new MAP spacecraft, Charles Bennett, says the heat patterns represent slight differences in the density of the young universe, where denser regions evolved into the present web of structures.B NASA says the first results from the MAP mission will be ready in ab
26、out 18 months after launch.C The spacecraft will orbit the Earth seeking answers from an extremely faint glow of microwaves that have existed since the beginning of time.D Scientists are trying to learn how it clumped together to produce stars, clusters of stars called galaxies, and clusters of gala
27、xies.E Astronomers are reporting evidence that points to a massive star-eating black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.F One of those keys is the amount of matter and its density. More matter with a higher density means more gravitational pull, suggesting a slowing of the universes expansio
28、n, and perhaps even its collapse.G The head of NASAs Evolution of the Universe program, Alan Bunner, says MAP will measure what is thought a remnant of the Big Bangan afterglow of microwaves bathing the universe that was emitted by the ancient cosmic matter.10 A Market for glass crafts is growingB D
29、ependence of computer development on glassC Behind the adaptability of glassD Architectural experiments with glassE Exciting innovations in fiber opticsF Traditional technology is developed on modern baseGlass, in one form or another, has long been in noble service to humans. As one of the most wide
30、ly used of manufactured materials, and certainly the most versatile, it can be as imposing as a telescope mirror the width of a tennis court or as small and simple as a marble rolling across dirt. The uses of this adaptable material have been broadened dramatically by new technologies: glass fibre o
31、pticsmore than eight million miles carrying telephone and television signals across nations; glass ceramics serving as the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth; tiny glass beads taking radiation doses inside the body to specific organs; even a new type of glass fashioned of nuclear waste i
32、n order to dispose of that unwanted material.1.On the horizon are optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of lightpulses from tiny lasersrather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibers function hundreds of times faster than todays electroni
33、c computers and hold vastly more information. Today fibre optics are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ever before even bacterial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. It is the
34、surge in fibre optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the U. S. glass industry (a 16 billion dollar business employing some 150, 000 workers) to building new plants to meet demand.2.But it is not only in technology and commerce that glass has widened its horizons. The use of glass as
35、art, a tradition going back at least to Roman times, is also booming. Nearly everywhere, it seems, men and women are blowing glass and creating works of art. “I didnt sell a piece of glass until 1975, “ Dale Chihuly said, smiling, for in the 18 years since the end of the dry spell, he has become one
36、 of the most financially successful artists of the 20th century. He now has a new commissiona glass sculpture for the headquarters building of a pizza company- for which his fee is half a million dollars.3.But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra modern. Consider the simple l
37、ight bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a days pay for the average worker. In effect, the invention of the ribbon machine by Corning in the 1920s lighted a nation. The price of a bulb plunged. Small wonder that the machine ha
38、s been called one of the great mechanical achievements of all time. Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes. The glass sags through the holes and into waiting moulds. Puffs of compressed air then shape the glass. In this way
39、, the envelope of a light bulb is made by a single machine at the rate of 66, 000 an hour, as compared with 1, 200 a day produced by a team of four glassblowers.4.The secret of the versatility of glass lies in its interior structure. Although it is rigid, and thus like a solid, the atoms are arrange
40、d in a random disordered fashion, characteristic of a liquid. In the melting process, the atoms in the raw materials are disturbed from their normal position in the molecular structure; before they can find their way back to crystalline arrangements the glass cools. This looseness in molecular struc
41、ture gives the material what engineers call tremendous “formability“ which allows technicians to tailor glass to whatever they need.5.Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and building designers test their imaginations with applications of special types of glass. A London
42、architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic buildings using molecular chemistry. “Glass is the great building material of the future, the dynamic skin, “ he said. Think of glass that has been treated to react to electric currents going through it, glass that will change from clear to opaque at t
43、he push of a button, that gives you instant curtains. Think of how the tall buildings in New York could perform a symphony of colours as the glass in them is made to change colours instantly.Glass as instant curtains is available now, but the cost is exorbitant. As for the glass changing colours ins
44、tantly, that may come true. Mike Daviess vision may indeed be on the way to fulfilment.15 C. P. Snow once said: “A sense of the future is behind all good policies. Unless we have it, we can give nothing either wise or decent to the world. “ Thinking carefully about an outcome is an intelligent first
45、 step in many processes, especially when the stakes are high, possibly even dangerous. Do you have any experience in getting out of hazardous situations? In the most exceptional circumstances, a few good rules of thumb may save you. Here are five things to keep in mind.1. Stay calmIf a catastrophe t
46、hreatens your life, panic will only make matters worse. Nothing but calmness can help you adequately take stock of the situation and take appropriate measures.2. Remain confidentDesperation can paralyze you or sap your energy, while confidence is the key to saving yourself.3. Help each otherYou shou
47、ld organize for mutual assistance in case of an earthquake, flood, fire, etc. People working together can always cope more successfully with any adverse situation. Solidarity means strength; solidarity means victory.4. Be obedient to superiorsThe best strategy when facing a catastrophe is to obey co
48、mmands and keep order. More often than not, leaders are experts, or someone familiar with the situation or with rich experience. Being too individualistic and going your own way will usually make the situation worse for you and others. So, the best thing to do is to listen to authorities and remain
49、orderly.5. CommunicateWhen in danger it is best to seek help immediately so those with more resources can come to your aid. If you are at risk, use whatever means available as soon as possible to contact others for help, and take efforts to maintain communication once it is established.While every catastrophe is different in its own way, all can be met and hopefully overcome with the above-mentioned pieces of advice. By carefully considering what needs to be done, ev
