Part III 阅读理解

Passage One

Under the right circumstances, choosing to spend time alone can beahuge psychological blessing. In the 1980s, the Italian journalist and author Tiziano Terzani, after many years of reporting across Asia, holed himself up inacabin in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. "Foramonth I had no one to talk to except my dog Baoli," he wrote in his bookAFortune Teller Told Me.

Terzani passed the time with books, observing nature, "listening to the winds in the trees, watching butterflies, enjoying silence." For the first time inalong while he felt free from the unending anxieties of daily life: "At last Ihad time to have time." Terzani's embrace of isolation was relatively unusual: Humans have long considered solitude an inconvenience, something to avoid, a punishment, a realm of loners.

Science has often associated it with negative outcomes. Freud, who linked solitude with anxiety, noted that, "in children the first fears relating to situations are those of darkness and solitude." John Cacioppo, a modern social neuro-scientist who has extensively studied loneliness—what he calls "chronic perceived isolation"—contends that, beyond damaging our thinking powers, isolation can even harm our physical health.

But increasingly scientists are approaching solitude as something that, when pursued by choice, can proveatherapy. This is especially true in times of personal disorder, when the instinct is often for people to reach outside of themselves for support. "When people are experiencing crisis it's not always just about you: It's about how you are in society," explains Jack Fong, a sociologist at California State Polytechnic University who has studied solitude.

In other words, when people remove themselves from the social context of their lives, they are better able to see how they're shaped by that context. Thomas Merton, a monk and writer who spent years alone, heldasimilar notion. "We cannot see things in perspective until we cease to hug them to our breast," he writes in Thoughts in Solitude.

"People can go for a walk or listen to music and feel that they are deeply in touch with themselves."

21. Tiziano Terzani spentamonth alone to .

    1. embrace isolation
    2. study butterflies
    3. writeabook
    4. look after his dog

    答案 A

    归纳题。题目问的是坦尚尼花了一个月时间独处是为了什 么。第一段中先说他隐居在日本茨城的小屋里，整整一个月没有和人接 触。然后说到他的生活就是读书，享受自然，享受静默。最后说他感觉自 己从生活的焦虑中解脱出来。第二段第一句说他的"接受孤独"不同寻常， 可看成是对第一段的总结。A项"接受孤独"符合题意，

22. The word "solitude" (Para.2) is closest in meaning to " ".

    1. growing anxious
    2. feeling empty
    3. being helpless
    4. staying alone

    答案 D

    词汇题。题目问的是第二段的"solitude"和哪个词的意思最接近。 第二段开头说坦尚尼的"接受孤独"不同寻常，然后用冒号开始解释，表示后 面提到的都是一般人们对孤独的看法，因此"solitude"应该是"isolation"(独处， 孤独)的近义词。A项"变得焦虑",B项"感觉空虚",C项"感到无助",D项"一个 人待着"。综合考虑，D项符合题意，

23. The opinions of Freud and Cacioppo are cited to show that .

    1. children tend to fear darkness and solitude
    2. solitude pursued by choice can beatherapy
    3. chronic isolation can harm interpersonal relations
    4. solitude has long been linked with negative outcomes

    答案 D

    综合分析题。题目问的是引用弗洛伊德和卡乔波的话是为了说 明什么第二段第三句弗洛伊德将孤独和焦虑联系在一起；第四句中卡乔波认 为孤独不仅会伤害我们的思考能力，甚至还会损害我们的生理健康。这些都是 孤独的负面结果，正如本段第二句说的"科学常把孤独和负面的结果联系在一 起"。综上所述，只有D正确，

24. According to Jack Fong, the sense of personal crisis may be influenced by .

    1. an isolated lifestyle
    2. mental disorder
    3. low self-esteem
    4. social context

    答案 D

    细节题。题目问的是根据杰克·方，个人危机感可能受到什 么的影响。第三段最后一句里杰克·方提到当人们有危机感时，这不是你 一个人的事情：这还涉及你在社会中的表现。这说明个人危机感和社会 环境有关系，D项"社会环境"正确，

25. The main idea of the passage is that .

    1. solitude should be avoided at all costs
    2. anxieties of daily life may cause personal crisis
    3. choosing to spend time alone can beablessing
    4. seeking support is useless for tackling personal crisis

    答案 C

    主旨题。题目问的是文章的大意是什么。全文从坦尚尼的 例子说明独处对人有好处，然后说了传统科学界认为孤独会带来负面 的影响，随后介绍了较新的观点，认为孤独可以作为一种疗法，最后 又回归开头认为孤独能让人和自身进行深入的对话。由此可见，文章 认为孤独是一种对人有好处的事物。A项"应极力避免孤独";B项"日常 生活中的焦虑可能会导致个人危机感";C项"选择独处一段时光是一种 福佑"; D项"寻求帮助对解决个人危机没有用处"。浏览四个选项，只 有C项最符合文义，

Passage Two

Science is finally beginning to embrace animals who were, foralong time, considered second-class citizens. As Annie Potts of Canterbury University has noted, chickens distinguish among one hundred chicken faces and recognize familiar individuals even after months of separation. When given problems to solve, they reason: hens trained to pick colored buttons sometimes choose to give up an immediate (lesser) food reward foraslightly later (and better) one.

Healthy hens may aid friends, and mourn when those friends die. Pigs respond meaningfully to human symbols. Whenaresearch team led by Candace Croney at Penn State University carried wooden blocks marked withXandOsymbols around pigs, only theOcarriers offered food to the animals. The pigs soon ignored theXcarriers in favor of the O's.

Then the team switched from real-life objects to aT-shirts printed withXor O symbols. Still, the pigs ventured only toward the O-shirted people: they had transferred their knowledge toatwo-dimensional format, a not-inconsiderable feat of reasoning. Fairly soon, I came to see that along with our closest living relatives, cetaceans (鲸目动物) too are masters of cultural learning, and elephants express profound joy and mourning with their social companions.

Long-term studies in the wild on these mammals helped to fuel a perspective shift in our society: the public no longer so easily accepts monkeys made to undergo painful procedures in laboratories, elephants forced to perform in circuses, and dolphins kept in small tanks at theme parks.

Over time, though, as Ibegan to broaden out even further and explore the inner lives of fish, chicken, pigs, goats, and cows, I started to wonder: Will the new science of "food animals" bring an ethical revolution in terms of who we eat? In other words, will the breadth of our ethic start to catch up with the breadth of our science?

Animal activists are already there, of course, committed to not eating these animals. But what about the rest of us? Can paying attention to the thinking and feeling of these animals lead us to make change in who we eat?

26. According to Annie Potts, hens' choice ofalater and better reward indicates their ability of .

    1. social interaction
    2. facial recognition
    3. logical reasoning
    4. mutual learning

    答案 C

    细节题。题目问的是根据安妮·波茨，母鸡选择稍后更好的奖励表明它 们具有什么能力。第二段第二句"当被要求解决问题时，它们会进行推理",说明母 鸡具有逻辑推理的能力。

27. The expression "not-inconsiderable feat" (Para.3) shows what pigs can do is .

    1. extraordinary
    2. weird
    3. unique
    4. understandable

    答案 A

    词汇题。题目问的是第三段中的"not-inconsiderable feat"表明猪能做 的这些事是怎样的。feat在这里是""成就""的意思，inconsiderable"不足取的， 不值得考虑的",前面加上否定词not,意思就变成了"相当大的，重要的"。A项"非凡 的";B项"奇怪的";C项"独特的";D项"可理解的"。A项意思最接近，

28. What is Paragraph4 mainly about?

    1. The similarities between mammals and humans.
    2. The necessity of long-term studies on mammals.
    3. A change of public attitude to the treatment of mammals.
    4. A new discovery of how mammals think and feel.

    答案 C

    归纳题。题目问的是第四段的大意是什么。第四段先说作者发现鲸 目动物和大象等哺乳动物都有学习能力和情感，接下来说到对野生哺乳动物长 期的研究有助于我们形成社会视角的转变，也就是人们不能再轻易接受原先对哺 乳动物的处置方式。A项"哺乳动物和人类的相似处";B项"长期研究哺乳动物的 必要性";C项"公众对哺乳动物待遇的态度变化";D项"一个关于哺乳动物思考和 感受的新发现"。C项最符合文义，

29. What is the author's view on eating "food animals"?

    1. He regrets eating them before.
    2. He considers eating them justifiable.
    3. He is not concerned about the issue.
    4. He calls forachange in what we eat.

    答案 D

    态度题。题目问的是作者对吃"食用动物"的观点如何。第 五段中作者提出一个问题："关于'食用动物'的新兴科学会不会带来对我 们吃的是谁这个问题的一场伦理革命?"这表明他对吃这些动物是质疑的。 第六段中，他说："动物活动家已经承诺不再食用这些动物。但是剩下的 人呢?关注这些动物的思想和情感能否帮助我们改变我们的食用对象?"从 中可以看出作者对其他人的态度表示担忧，也暗示他本人是希望改变食用对 象的。D项"他呼吁改变食用对象"符合文义，

30. What is the best title for the passage?

    1. In Praise of Food Animals
    2. Food Animals in Science Reports
    3. The Inner Lives of Food Animals
    4. Food Animals: Past, Present and Future

    答案 C

    主旨题。题目问的是本文最好的题目是什么。这是对全文主旨 的概括，必须将所有选项都看懂，然后看是否和文章相对应。A项"赞扬食用 动物",与文章不符；B项"科学报告中的食用动物",在文中没有反映；C项"食 用动物的内在",与文义相符，且在第五段第一句明确提到；D项"食用动物：过 去，现在和将来",也与文义不符。

Passage Three

Almost eight decades years ago, the American educator Abraham Flexner published an article entitled The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. In it, he argued that the most powerful intellectual and technological breakthroughs usually emerged from research that initially appeared "useless", without much relevance to real life.

Asaresult, it was vital, Flexner said, that these "useless" efforts should be supported, even if they did not produce an immediate payback, because otherwise the next wave of innovation simply would not occur. "Curiosity, which may or may not produce something useful, is probably the outstanding characteristic of modern thinking," he declared.

In 1929, Flexner persuadedawealthy American family, the Bambergers, to use some of their donations to fund the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton to support exactly this kind of "undirected" research. And it paid off: brilliant Jewish scientists fleeing from Nazi Germany, such as Albert Einstein, gathered at the IAS to explore undirected ideas.

And while some of these, such as Einstein's own work developing his earlier theory of relativity, did not initially seem valuable, many eventually produced powerful applications (though after many decades). "Without Einstein's theory, our GPS tracking devices would be inaccurate by about seven miles," writes Robbert Dijkgraaf , the current director of the IAS, in the foreword toanewly released reprint of Flexner's article.

Concepts such as quantum mechanics (量子力学) or superconductivity also seemed fairly useless at first—but yielded huge dividends atalater date. The reason why the IAS is re-releasing Flexner's article now is that scientists such as Dijkgraaf fear this core principle is increasing under threat.

The Trump administration has releasedaprojected budget that threatens to reduce funding for the arts, science and educational groups. Many Republicans believe that research is better financed by business or philanthropists (慈善家) than by government. But one striking fact about the past century is how much American innovation originated in federal projects; Silicon Valley would never have boomed were it not for the fact that state funding enabled the development of the World Wide Web, for example.

31. What may be the best title for the passage?

    1. The Value of Creative Ideas
    2. The Importance of Basic Research
    3. Innovation in Silicon Valley
    4. In Praise of "Useless" Endeavors

    答案 D

    主旨题。题目问的是文章最好的标题是什么。从弗菜克斯纳的 文章引入，介绍了"无用"知识的重要性，虽然最初看起来"无用",但之后会 产生巴大的回报。接下来介绍了IAS现任院长罗伯特·迪卡格阿夫重提弗莱克斯 纳观点的原因：这一核心规律正日益受到威胁。由此可知，全文都是围绕 "useless" 的知识进行的。A项"创造性想法的价值";B项"基础研究的重要性";C 项"硅谷的创新";D项"对'无用'努力的赞扬"。综合考虑，D项最符合文义，故 选D。

32. According to Abraham Flexner, what is an important feature of modern thinking?

    1. Curiosity
    2. Application
    3. Devotion
    4. Passion

    答案 A

    细节题。题目问的是根据亚伯拉罕·弗莱克斯纳，现代思考一个重要特 征是什么。根据定位句"好奇心，……是现代思考突出的特征"可知，答案是"curiosity"。 B项"应用"; C项"贡献";D项"热情"。综上所述，A最合适，

33. The "undirected" research (Para.3) refers to research _________.

    1. not funded by government agencies
    2. without any practical purpose in mind
    3. with indefinite experimental methods
    4. supported by non-profit organizations

    答案 B

    推理题。题目问的是第三段中的"undirected"研究指的是什么样的 研究。弗莱克斯纳认为"无用"的知识虽然不能即时产生回报，但是在以后可能会 产生巨大的利益，因此他劝说邦贝热一家来进行资助，由此可知，"undirected"和 useless在含义上有所关联。A项"不由政府机构资助的";B项"脑海中没有实际目标 的";C项"无实际实验方法的";D项"由非营利组织支持的"。B项最符合，

34. Examples of initially "useless" research include all of the following EXPECT .

    1. quantum mechanics
    2. theory of relativity
    3. superconductivity
    4. GPS tracking devices

    答案 D

    细节题。题目问的是下列哪项不属于最初看起来"无用的"研究 例子。A项"量子力学"在第五段中提到；B项"相对论"在第四段中提到；C项" 超导性"在第五段中提到；D项"GPS定位设备"虽然第五段提到了，但只是作为 说明爱因斯坦理论起作用的例子，并非属于"无用的"研究。

35. Flexner's article was reprinted because .

    1. businesses in Silicon Valley wish to put pressure on the government
    2. Democrats believe that government funding should go to small business
    3. Republicans argue that scientific research should be financed by business
    4. some scientists worry that government will cut its funding for basic research

    答案 D

    细节题。题目问的是弗莱克斯纳的文章进行量版的原因是什么。 根据定位句，重新出版弗莱克斯纳的文章是因为像通卡格阿夫这样的科学家 担心这一核心规律正日益受到威胁。这里的"核心规律"指的是第二段中"支 持这些'无用的'努力是非常重要的，即使它们不能产生即时的回报，因为不支 持的话，下二波创新浪潮将不会发生。"A项"硅谷的企业希望对政府施加压 力"; B项"共和党人相信政府应资助小企业";C项"民主党人认为科研应由企 业资助"; D项"一些科学家担心政府会削减对基础研究的资助"。综合比较，D 项最符合句意，

Passage Four

In 1902, Georges Méliès made and releasedamovie calledATrip to the Moon. In this movie, the spaceship wasasmall capsule, shaped likeabullet, that was loaded intoagiant cannon and aimed at the moon. This movie was based onabook that came out many years earlier by an author named Jules Verne.

One of the fans of the book was aRussian man, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The book made him think. Could one really shoot people out ofacannon and have them get safely to the moon? He decided one couldn't, but it got him thinking of other ways one could get people to the moon. He spent his life considering this problem and came up with many solutions.

Some of Tsiolkovsky's solutions gave scientists in America and Russia ideas when they began to think about space travel. They also thought about airplanes they and other people had made, and even big bombs that could fly themselves very long distances. Many scientists spent years working together to solve the problem.

They drew and discussed different designs until they agreed on the ones that were the best. Then, they built small models of those designs, and tested them until they felt ready to build even bigger models. They made full-scale rockets, which they launched without any people inside, to test for safety.

Often the rockets weren't safe, and they exploded right there on the launch pad, or shot off in crazy directions likeaballoon that you blow up and release without tying it first. After many, many tests, they started to send small animals into space. Only afteralong time did they ever putaperson insidearocket and shoot him into space.

Even after they began sending people into space, scientists were still trying to improve the shape of the rockets. The design changed many times, and eventually ended up looking like a half-rocket and half-airplane. The machine called space shuttle was used for many years. Now, the government lets private companies try their own designs for spaceships, and they have come up with many different, crazy-looking machines.

36. In the movieATrip to the Moon, the spaceship was sent to the moon .

    1. inacapsule
    2. inabullet
    3. byacannon
    4. byagun

    答案 C

    细节题。题目问的是在电影《月球旅行记》中，太空船是通过什么被 送入太空的。根据定位句，电影中太空船被装在大炮里瞄准月球。C项"通过大 炮"符合句意，

37. The movie was based onabook written by .

    1. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
    2. an unknown author
    3. Georges Méliès
    4. Jules Verne

    答案 D

    细节题。题目问的是这部电影是以谁的小说为蓝本的。根据定位 句"这部电影是根据多年前一位名叫儒勒·凡尔纳的作者的小说改编的",说明 是凡尔纳写的书。和D项相符，

38. Before the invention ofaspaceship, possible solutions of space travel included all of the following EXCEPT .

    1. bombs
    2. balloons
    3. airplanes
    4. rockets

    答案 B

    细节题。题目问的是在太空船发明之前，下列哪种不是太空 旅行的解决方案。A项"炸弹",出现在第三段第二句；B项"气球",在第四段 第五句提到，但用来说明初期火箭的不安全性；C项"飞机",出现在第三段 第二句；D项"火箭",出现在第四段第四句。综上所述，B项不是太空旅行 的解决方案，

39. What is Paragraph4mainly about?

    1. It tookalong time and hard work to sendaperson into space.
    2. American scientists worked better than Russian scientists.
    3. Scientists from Russia and America had close cooperation.
    4. The design of the rocket was inspired by the movieAtrip to the moon.

    答案 A

    归纳题。题目问的是第四段大意是什么。第四段介绍了科 学家制作并发射航天飞机的全过程。首先是进行设计，然后制作小模型， 再逐渐增大体积直至和实际尺寸一致，接下来进行无人测试，动物测试、最 后再进行载人测试。A项"将人送入太空花了很多时间和努力";B项"美国 科学家比俄国科学家工作得好";C项"来自俄国和美国的科学家进行了 紧密的合作";D项"火箭的设计受到了电影《月球旅行记》的影响"。结 合段意分析，A项最符合，

40. The word "shoot" (Para.4) is closest in meaning to " ".

    1. send with great force
    2. break into many pieces
    3. fixaproblem
    4. attack withaweapon

    答案 A

    词汇题。题目问的是第四段的"shoot"和哪个词意思最接近。根 据定位句"在很久之后，科学家才让人进入火箭并把他发射到太空中去。"可 知，这里的shoot是发射的意思。A项"大力发送出去";B 项"碎成很多片"; C项"修正一个问题";D项"用武器攻击"。A项意思最为接近，

Blog and Comments

The blog and the comments are followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark your answer on the Answer Sheet. In 2003, I was told byarestaurant owner on aThai island that local fishermen used to wrap their lunch in banana leaves, which they would then casually toss overboard when done.

That was OK, because the leaves decayed and the fish ate them all. But in the past decade, he said, plastic wrap had rapidly replaced banana leaves, so the beach was edged withacrust of plastic. This isaworldwide problem—we can't point the finger at Thai fishermen. The UK alone produces more than 170m tons of waste every year, much of it food packaging.

Now we live in an absurd age whereapacket of cookies can have seven layers of wrapping. While it has revolutionized the way we store and consume food, there is now so much of it that landfills ( 垃圾填埋场) can't cope. Some of it is poisonous, and some of it never degrades. It can take 450 years for some types of plastic bottle to break down.

Indeed, as Rachelle Strauss of the UK's Zero Waste Week says, we never actually throw anything "away"—it's really just put somewhere else. It's easy to say despair at the scale of handing the plastic wrap, but it isn't beyond humanity to solve it—look at how the world took action on CFCs (含氯氟烃): there are signs that the hole in the ozone layer is now closing.

Food packaging ought to beadoddle.

41. What is the author's view on the plastic problem in Thailand?

    1. The problem is not unique to Thailand.
    2. There is no point overreacting to the problem.
    3. It is important to raise people's awareness.
    4. The government should be held responsible.

    答案 A

    细节题。题目问的是关于泰国的塑料问题，作者的观点如何。根据定 位句"这是一个世界性的问题——我们不能光指责泰国渔民。"说明这不是泰国 独有的问题，而是一个世界普遍的问题。A项"这不是泰国独有的问题"符合题意，

42. A package of cookies" is mentioned in Paragraph2to .

    1. illustrate the problem of excessive packaging
    2. introduce the revolutionary way of packaging
    3. review the gradual development of packaging
    4. emphasize the necessity of food packaging

    答案 A

    细节题。题目问的是第二段提到"一包饼干"的目的是什么。根据定 位句"现在我们生活在一个连一袋饼干都需要七层包装的荒谬时代。"可知，作者认 为一包饼干有七层包装是一件非常荒谬的事情，由此表达了对过度包装的不满。A项 "说明了过度包装的问题"符合题意，

43. The word "doddle" (Para.3) probably means "something ".

    1. no longer useful
    2. extremely difficult
    3. beyond imagination
    4. easily accomplished

    答案 D

    词汇题。题目问的是第三段中的"doddle"的意思是什么。根据定位 句"食品包装也应该是一个doddle"可知，后面提到的臭氧层空洞的问题和前文提 过的某个问题类似。前面几句提到虽然塑料包装问题严重，但并没有超过人的应对 范围，并以造成臭氧空洞的CFCs为例，说空洞正在闭合，表示我们已经在逐渐消 除这个问题了。这表明和臭氧空洞问题一样，塑料包装问题虽然可怕，但还是可以 被解决的。A项"不再有用的";B项"极困难的";C项"超出想象的";D项"轻松解 决的",综合考虑发现D项最接近，

44. Which of the comments is positive about packaging?

    1. Comment 1.
    2. Comment 2.
    3. Comment 3.
    4. Comment 4.

    答案 C

    态度题。题目问的是哪一个评论对包装持有正面的看法。评论1认 为政府应采取措施改变过度包装；评论2认为自带外皮的物品不需要包装；评论3 表示喜欢包装，但是要使用可降解材料；评论4认为现在的包装都不是生物降解的 材料，要改变不是一夜之间的事。综合考虑，只有评论3有正面的看法，

45. Which of the following comments point out ways to solve over-packaging?

    1. Comment1and 2.
    2. Comment1and 3.
    3. Comment2and 4.
    4. Comment3and 4.

    答案 B

    细节题。题目问的是哪些评论提出了解决过度包装的方法。评论1提 出政府应该用政策干涉；评论2只是说有外皮的物品不需要包装；评论3提出要使 用可生物降解的材料做包装材料；评论4说解决过度包装的问题不容易。由此可 见，评论1和3都提出了解决途径，