第四部分：閱讀理解(第31～45題，每題3分，共45分)
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道題，每題后面有4個選項。請仔細(xì)閱讀短文并根據(jù)短文回答其后面的問題，從4個選項中選擇1個最佳答案涂在答題卡相應(yīng)的位置上。
第一篇
Hair Detectives
Scientists have found a way to use hair to figure out where a person is from and where that person has been. The finding could help solve crimes, among other useful applications.
Water is central to the new technique. Our bodies break water down into its parts: hydrogen and oxygen. Atoms of these two elements end up in our tissues and hair.
But not all water is the same. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms can vary in how much they weigh. Different forms of a single element are called isotopes. And depending on where you live, tap water contains unique proportions of the heavier and lighter isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen.
Might hair record these watery quirks? That's what James R. Ehleringer, an environmental scientist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, wondered.
To find out, he and his colleagues collected hair from barbers and hair stylists in 65 cities in 18 states across the United States. The researchers assumed that the hair they collected came from people who lived in the area.
Even though people drink a lot of bottled water these days, the scientists found that hair overwhelmingly reflected the concentrations of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in local tap water. That's probably because people usually cook their food in the local water. What's more, most of the other liquids people drink including milk and soft drinks contain large amounts of water that also come from sources within their region.
Scientists already knew how the composition of water varies throughout the country. Ehleringer and colleagues combined that information with their results to predict the composition of hair in people from different regions. One hair sample used in Ehleringer's study came from a man who had recently moved from Beijing, China, to Salt Lake City. As his hair grew, it reflected his change in location.
The new technique can't point to exactly where a person is from, because similar types of water appear in different regions that span a broad area. But authorities can now use the information to analyze hair samples from criminals or crime victims and narrow their search for clues.
31 What does the writer say about tap water? Which of the following is NOT correct? ___________
A Tap water reflects the concentrations of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in different regions.
B Tap water is a kind of soft drink in the United States.
C Tap water contains unique proportions of isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen.
D Tap water is used to cook food.
32 James R. Ehleringer tried to find out___________.
A if our bodies break water down into its parts
B if it is possible to collect hair samples across the country
C if tap water contains unique proportions of isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen
D if the composition of hair can indicate exactly where people are from
33 Which of the following statements is meant by the writer? ___________
A Ehleringer was successful in his research.
B Ehleringer failed in his research.
C Ehleringer can be a successful detective.
D Ehleringer's research proved successful in China.
34 What does the last paragraph tell you? ___________
A The new technique can tell precisely where a person lives.
B Water supplied in different regions all come from the same source.
C Types of water used in different regions provide useful information for the police.
D Hair samples provide the most important clues to identify crimes.
35 Which of the following is closest in meaning to the title? ___________
A Human hair may help detectives to solve crimes.
B Animal hair may help detectives to solve crimes.
C Detectives watch hairy criminals closely.
D Most detectives are hair specialists.
第二篇
Why They Travel?
Scholars and students have always been great travellers. The official case for“academic mobility” is now often stated in impressive terms as a fundamental necessity for economic and social progress in the world, and debated in the corridors of Europe, but it is certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready to go abroad in search of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous academies; in search of the purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the likeliest road to gold.
Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas, their transference across frontiers, their simultaneous impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with students or with colleagues; one presumes that only eccentrics have no interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect.
In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become vast highways. The vehicle which has made this possible has of course been the aeroplane, making contact between scholars even in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge.
Apart from the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centres of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students.
In addition one must recognise the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other countries.
Frequently these specialisations lie in areas where very rapid developments are taking place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware of what is happening in different centres of research and to meet each other in conferences and symposia. From these meetings come the personal relationships which are at the bottom of almost all formalized schemes of cooperation, and provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus.
But as the specialisations have increased in number and narrowed in range, there had been an Opposite movement towards interdisciplinary studies. These owe much to the belief that one cannot properly investigate the incredibly complex problems thrown up by the modern world, and by recent advances in our knowledge along the narrow front of a single discipline. This trend has led to a great deal of academic contact between disciplines, and a far greater emphasis on the pooling of specialist knowledge, reflected in the broad subjects chosen in many international conferences.
36 According to the passage, scholars and students are great travellers because __________.
A standards are higher at foreign universities
B their governments encourage them to travel
C salaries and conditions are better abroad
D they are eager for new knowledge
37 The writer says that travel was important in the past because it __________.
A was a way of spreading ideas
B broke down political barriers
C led to economic progress
D made new ideas less schooling
38 The writer claims that it is important for specialists to be able to travel because _________.
A there are so many people working in similar fields
B there is a lot of social unrest at universities
C their follow experts are scattered round the world
D their laboratories are in remote places
39 The writer thinks that the growth of specialist societies and periodicals has helped scholars to __________.
A spend less time travelling
B cut down research costs
C develop their ideas more quickly
D keep up with current developments
40 Developments in international cooperation are often, it is suggested, the result of __________.
A friendships formed by scholars at meetings
B articles in learned journals
C the work of international agencies
D programs initiated by governments
第三篇
Geography and Movement
To understand how astrology works, we should first take a quick look at the sky. Although the stars are at enormous distances, they do indeed give the impression of being affixed to the inner surface of a great hollow sphere surrounding the earth. Ancient people, in fact, literally believed in the existence of such a celestial sphere. As the earth spins on its axis, the celestial sphere appears to turn about us each day, pivoting at points on a line with the earth's axis of rotation. This daily turning of the sphere carries the stars around the sky, causing most of them to rise and set, but they, and constellations they define, maintains fixed patterns on the sphere, just as the continent of Australian maintains its shape on a spinning globe of the earth. Thus the stars were called fixed stars.
The motion of the sun along the ecliptic is, of course, merely a reflection of the revolution of the earth around the sun, but the ancients believed the earth was fixed and the sun had and independent motion of its own, eastward among the stars. The glare of sunlight hides the stars in daytime, but the ancients were aware that the stars were up there even at night, and the slow eastward motion of the sun around the sky, at the rate of about thirty degrees each month, caused different stars to be visible at night at different times of the year.
The moon, revolving around the earth each month, also has an independent motion in the sky. The moon, however, changes it position relatively rapidly. Although it appears to rise and set each day, as does nearly everything else in the sky, we can see the moon changing position during as short an interval as an hour or so. The moon's path around the earth lies nearly in the same plane as the earth's path around the sun, so the moon is never seen very far from the ecliptic in the sky. There are five other objects visible to the naked eye that also appear to move in respect to the fixed background of stars on the celestial sphere. These are the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Saturn. All of them revolve around the sun in nearly the same plane as the earth does, so they, like the moon, always appear near the ecliptic. Because we see the planets from the moving earth, however, they behave in a complicated way, with their apparent motions on the celestial sphere reflecting both their own independent motions around the sun and our motion as well.
41 The ancient people believed that ___________.
A the earth was spinning on the axis of the sky
B the sky was a hollow sphere spinning around the earth
C the patterns of stars on the sky would never change
D the stars around the sky were not stationary
42 Which of the following is true about the motion of the moon? ___________
A The moon and the sun are moving in the same plane.
B The moon revolved along the ecliptic.
C The moon moves faster than the sun.
D The position of the moon can be found changed in an hour's time.
43 It is stated in astrology that ___________.
A the sun is so distant from us that it was hard to follow its motion
B the sun was moving westward around the sky
C the motion of the sun is at the rate of about thirty degrees every week
D the motion of the sun is similar to the revolution of the earth around the sun
44 All the other five planets ___________.
A always appear near the path of the sun
B are moving in a way more complicated than the earth does
C aren't moving around the sun as independently as the earth does
D are moving around the sun at the same speed as the earth does
45 According to the passage which of the following is true? ___________
A A fixed star refers a star that is always stationary on the sky.
B Scientists can tell the motion of the earth from the motions of other five planets.
C Ancient people had scanty knowledge about the movement of the stars.
D All the stars on the sky can be seen all the year around.
