Paragraph 3: The fossil consists of a complete skull of an archaeocyte, an extinct group of ancestors of modern cetaceans. Although limited to a skull, the Pakicetus fossil provides precious details on the origins of cetaceans. The skull is cetacean-like but its jawbones lack the enlarged space that is filled with fat or oil and used for receiving underwater sound in modern whales. Pakicetus probably detected sound through the ear opening as in land mammals. The skull also lacks a blowhole, another cetacean adaptation for diving. Other features, however, show experts that Pakicetus is a transitional form between a group of extinct flesh-eating mammals, the mesonychids, and cetaceans. It has been suggested that Pakicetus fed on fish in shallow water and was not yet adapted for life in the open ocean. It probably bred and gave birth on land.
1. Pakicetus and modern cetaceans have similar
○Hearing structures
○Adaptations for diving
○Skull shapes
○Breeding locations
Paragraph 4: Another major discovery was made in Egypt in 1989. Several skeletons of another early whale, Basilosaurus, were found in sediments left by the Tethys Sea and now exposed in the Sahara desert. This whale lived around 40 million years ago, 12 million years after Pakicefus. Many incomplete skeletons were found but they included, for the first time in an archaeocyte, a complete hind leg that features a foot with three tiny toes. Such legs would have been far too small to have supported the 50-foot-long Basilosaurus on land. Basilosaurus was undoubtedly a fully marine whale with possibly nonfunctional, or vestigial, hind legs.
2. The hind leg of Basilosaurus was a significant find because it showed that Basilosaurus
○Lived later than Ambulocetus natans
○Lived at the same time as Pakicetus
○Was able to swim well
○Could not have walked on land
Paragraph 3: Even in the areas that retain a soil cover, the reduction of vegetation typically results in the loss of the soil‘s ability to absorb substantial quantities of water. The impact of raindrops on the loose soil tends to transfer fine clay particles into the tiniest soil spaces, sealing them and producing a surface that allows very little water penetration. Water absorption is greatly reduced; consequently runoff is increased, resulting in accelerated erosion rates. The gradual drying of the soil caused by its diminished ability to absorb water results in the further loss of vegetation, so that a cycle of progressive surface deterioration is established.
3. According to paragraph 3, the loss of natural vegetation has which of the following consequences for soil?
○Increased stony content
○Reduced water absorption
○Increased numbers of spaces in the soil
○Reduced water runoff
Paragraph 5: There is little doubt, however, that desertification in most areas results primarily from human activities rather than natural processes. The semiarid lands bordering the deserts exist in a delicate ecological balance and are limited in their potential to adjust to increased environmental pressures. Expanding populations are subjecting the land to increasing pressures to provide them with food and fuel. In wet periods, the land may be able to respond to these stresses. During the dry periods that are common phenomena along the desert margins, though, the pressure on the land is often far in excess of its diminished capacity, and desertification results.
4. According to paragraph 5, in dry periods, border areas have difficulty
○Adjusting to stresses created by settlement
○Retaining their fertility after desertification
○Providing water for irrigating crops
○Attracting populations in search of food and fuel
Paragraph 6: Four specific activities have been identified as major contributors to the desertification processes: overcultivation, overgrazing, firewood gathering, and overirrigation. The cultivation of crops has expanded into progressively drier regions as population densities have grown. These regions are especially likely to have periods of severe dryness, so that crop failures are common. Since the raising of most crops necessitates the prior removal of the natural vegetation, crop failures leave extensive tracts of land devoid of a plant cover and susceptible to wind and water erosion.
5. According to paragraph 6, which of the following is often associated with raising crops?
○Lack of proper irrigation techniques
○Failure to plant crops suited to the particular area
○Removal of the original vegetation
○Excessive use of dried animal waste
Paragraph 9: The final major human cause of desertification is soil salinization resulting from over irrigation. Excess water from irrigation sinks down into the water table. If no drainage system exists, the water table rises, bringing dissolved salts to the surface. The water evaporates and the salts are left behind, creating a white crustal layer that prevents air and water from reaching the underlying soil.
6. According to paragraph9, the ground’s absorption of excess water is a factor in desertification because it can
○Interfere with the irrigation of land
○Limit the evaporation of water
○Require more absorption of air by the soil
○Bring salts to the surface
Paragraph 4: With the advent of projection in 1895-1 896, motion pictures became the ultimate form of mass consumption. Previously, large audiences had viewed spectacles at the theater, where vaudeville, popular dramas, musical and minstrel shows, classical plays, lectures, and slide-and-lantern shows had been presented to several hundred spectators at a time. But the movies differed significantly from these other forms of entertainment, which depended on either live performance or (in the case of the slide-and-lantern shows) the active involvement of a master of ceremonies who assembled the final program.
7. According to paragraph 4, how did the early movies differ from previous spectacles that were presented to large audiences?
○They were a more expensive form of entertainment.
○They were viewed by larger audiences.
○They were more educational.
○They did not require live entertainers.
Paragraph 5: Although early exhibitors regularly accompanied movies with live acts, the substance of the movies themselves is mass-produced, prerecorded material that can easily be reproduced by theaters with little or no active participation by the exhibitor. Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by mixing films and other entertainments together in whichever way they thought would be most attractive to audiences or by accompanying them with lectures* their creative control remained limited. What audiences came to see was the technological marvel of the movies; the lifelike reproduction of the commonplace motion of trains, of waves striking the shore, and of people walking in the street; and the magic made possible by trick photography and the manipulation of the camera.
8. According to paragraph 5, what role did early exhibitors play in the presentation of movies in theaters?
○They decided how to combine various components of the film program.
○They advised film-makers on appropriate movie content.
○They often took part in the live-action performances.
○They produced and prerecorded the material that was shown in the theaters.
Paragraph 6: With the advent of projection, the viewer‘s relationship with the image was no longer private, as it had been with earlier peepshow devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid. It suddenly became public-an experience that the viewer shared with dozens, scores, and even hundreds of others. At the same time, the image that the spectator looked at expanded from the minuscule peepshow dimensions of 1 or 2 inches (in height) to the life-size proportions of 6 or 9 feet.
9. Which of the following is mentioned in paragraph 6 as one of the ways the Mutoscope differed from the Kinetoscope?
○Sound and motion were simultaneously produced in the Mutoscope.
○More than one person could view the images at the same time with the Mutoscope.
○The Mutoscope was a less sophisticated earlier prototype of the Kinetoscope.
○A different type of material was used to produce the images used in the Mutocope.
10. According to paragraph 6, the images seen by viewers in the earlier peepshows, compared to the images projected on the screen, were relatively
○Small in size
○Inexpensive to create
○Unfocused
○Limited in subject matter
Paragraph 2: The Biological Approach. Numerous biological structures and chemicals appear to be involved in aggression. One is the hypothalamus, a region of the brain. In response to certain stimuli, many animals show instinctive aggressive reactions. The hypothalamus appears to be involved in this inborn reaction pattern: electrical stimulation of part of the hypothalamus triggers stereotypical aggressive behaviors in many animals. In people, however, whose brains are more complex, other brain structures apparently moderate possible instincts.
11. According to paragraph 2, what evidence indicates that aggression in animals is related to the hypothalamus?
○Some aggressive animal species have a highly developed hypothalamus.
○Artificial stimulation of the hypothalamus results in aggression in animals.
○Animals behaving aggressively show increased activity in the hypothalamus.
○Animals who lack a hypothalamus display few aggressive tendencies.
Paragraph 3: An offshoot of the biological approach called sociobiology suggests that aggression is natural and even desirable for people. Sociobiology views much social behavior, including aggressive behavior, as genetically determined. Consider Darwin’s theory of evolution. Darwin held that many more individuals are produced than can find food and survive into adulthood. A struggle for survival follows. Those individuals who possess characteristics that provide them with an advantage in the struggle for existence are more likely to survive and contribute their genes to the next generation. In many species, such characteristics include aggressiveness. Because aggressive individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce, whatever genes are linked to aggressive behavior are more likely to be transmitted to subsequent generations.
12. According to Darwin‘s theory of evolution, members of a species are forced to struggle for survival because
○Not all individuals are skilled in finding food
○Individuals try to defend their young against attackers
○Many more individuals are born than can survive until the age of reproduction
○Individuals with certain genes are more likely to reach adulthood
Paragraph 5: The Psychodynamic Approach. Theorists adopting the psychodynamic approach hold that inner conflicts are crucial for understanding human behavior, including aggression. Sigmund Freud, for example, believed that aggressive impulses are inevitable reactions to the frustrations of daily life. Children normally desire to vent aggressive impulses on other people, including their parents, because even the most attentive parents cannot gratify all of their demands immediately. Yet children, also fearing their parents’ punishment and the loss of parental love, come to repress most aggressive impulses. The Freudian perspective, in a sense: sees us as “steam engines.” By holding in rather than venting “steam,” we set the stage for future explosions. Pent-up aggressive impulses demand outlets. They may be expressed toward parents in indirect ways such as destroying furniture, or they may be expressed toward strangers later in life.
13. According to paragraph 5, Freud believed that children experience conflict between a desire to vent aggression on their parents and
○A frustration that their parents do not give them everything they want
○A fear that their parents will punish them and stop loving them
○A desire to take care of their parents
○A desire to vent aggression on other family members
Paragraph 5: In this newly emerging economic order, workers sometimes organized to protect their rights and traditional ways of life. Craft workers such as carpenters, printers, and tailors formed unions, and in 1834 individual unions came together in the National Trades‘ Union. The labor movement gathered some momentum in the decade before the Panic of 1837, but in the depression that followed, labor’s strength collapsed. During hard times, few workers were willing to strike* or engage in collective action. And skilled craft workers, who spearheaded the union movement, did not feel a particularly strong bond with semiskilled factory workers and unskilled laborers. More than a decade of agitation did finally bring a workday shortened to 10 hours to most industries by the 185O’s, and the courts also recognized workers‘ right to strike, but these gains had little immediate impact.
14. Which of the following statements about the labor movement of the 1800’s is supported by paragraph 5?
○It was most successful during times of economic crisis.
○Its primary purpose was to benefit unskilled laborers.
○It was slow to improve conditions for workers.
○It helped workers of all skill levels form a strong bond with each other.
Paragraph 6: Workers were united in resenting the industrial system and their loss of status, but they were divided by ethnic and racial antagonisms, gender, conflicting religious perspectives, occupational differences, political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics. For them, the factory and industrialism were not agents of opportunity but reminders of their loss of independence and a measure of control over their lives. As United States society became more specialized and differentiated, greater extremes of wealth began to appear. And as the new markets created fortunes for the few, the factory system lowered the wages of workers by dividing labor into smaller, less skilled tasks.
15. The author identifies political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics as two of several factors that
○Encouraged workers to demand higher wages
○Created divisions among workers
○Caused work to become more specialized
○Increased workers‘ resentment of the industrial system
Paragraph 4: Tunas, mackerels, and billfishes have even more sophisticated adaptations than these to improve their hydrodynamics. The long bill of marlins, sailfishes, and swordfish probably helps them slip through the water. Many supersonic aircraft have a similar needle at the nose.
16. According to paragraph4, the long bills of marlins, sailfish, and swordfish probably help these fishes by
○Increasing their ability to defend themselves
○Allowing them to change direction easily
○Increasing their ability to detect odors
○Reducing water resistance as they swim
Paragraph 6: Because they are always swimming, tunas simply have to open their mouths and water is forced in and over their gills. Accordingly, they have lost most of the muscles that other fishes use to suck in water and push it past the gills. In fact, tunas must swim to breathe. They must also keep swimming to keep from sinking, since most have largely or completely lost the swim bladder, the gas-filled sac that helps most other fish remain buoyant.
17. According to the passage, which of the following is one of the reasons that tunas are in constant motion?
○They lack a swim bladder.
○They need to suck in more water than other fishes do.
○They have large muscles for breathing.
○They cannot open their mouths unless they are in motion.
Paragraph 8: There are adaptations that increase the amount of forward thrust as well as those that reduce drag. Again, these fishes are the envy of engineers. Their high, narrow tails with swept-back tips are almost perfectly adapted to provide propulsion with the least possible effort. Perhaps most important of all to these and other fast swimmers is their ability to sense and make use of swirls and eddies (circular currents) in the water. They can glide past eddies that would slow them down and then gain extra thrust by “pushing off” the eddies. Scientists and engineers are beginning to study this ability of fishes in the hope of designing more efficient propulsion systems for ships.
18. According to the passage, one of the adaptations of fast-swimming fishes that might be used to improve the performance of ships is these fishes’ ability to
○Swim directly through eddies
○Make efficient use of water currents
○Cover great distances without stopping
○Gain speed by forcing water past their gills
Paragraph 9: The muscles of these fishes and the mechanism that maintains a warm body temperature are also highly efficient. A bluefin tuna in water of 7°C(45°F) can maintain a core temperature of over 25°C(77“Fj. This warm body temperature may help not only the muscles to work better, but also the brain and the eyes. The billfishes have gone one step further. They have evolved special “heaters” of modified muscle tissue that warm the eyes and brain, maintaining peak performance of these critical organs.
19. According to paragraph 9, which of the following is true of bluefin tunas?
○Their eyes and brain are more efficient than those of any other fish.
○Their body temperature can change greatly depending on the water temperature.
○They can swim in waters that are much colder than their own bodies.
○They have special muscle tissue that warms their eyes and brain.
Paragraph 1: The development of the modern presidency in the United States began with Andrew Jackson who swept to power in 1829 at the head of the Democratic Party and served until 1837. During his administration, he immeasurably enlarged the power of the presidency. “The President is the direct representative of the American people,” he lectured the Senate when it opposed him. “He was elected by the people, and is responsible to them.” With this declaration, Jackson redefined the character of the presidential office and its relationship to the people.
20. According to paragraph 1, the presidency of Andrew Jackson was especially significant for which of the following reasons?
○The President granted a portion of his power to the Senate.
○The President began to address the Senate on a regular basis.
○It was the beginning of the modern presidency in the United States.
○It was the first time that the Senate had been known to oppose the President.
Paragraph 3: Whigs, on the other hand, were more comfortable with the market. For them, commerce and economic development were agents of civilization. Nor did the Whigs envision any conflict in society between farmers and workers on the one hand and businesspeople and bankers on the other. Economic growth would benefit everyone by raising national income and expanding opportunity. The government‘s responsibility was to provide a well-regulated economy that guaranteed opportunity for citizens of ability.
21. According to paragraph 3, Whigs believed that commerce and economic development would have which of the following effects on society?
○They would promote the advancement of society as a whole.
○They would cause disagreements between Whigs and Democrats
○They would supply new positions for Whig Party members.
○They would prevent conflict between farmers and workers.
Paragraph 4: Whigs and Democrats differed not only in their attitudes toward the market but also about how active the central government should be in people’s lives. Despite Andrew Jackson‘s inclination to be a strong President, Democrats as a rule believed in limited government. Government’s role in the economy was to promote competition by destroying monopolies‘ and special privileges. In keeping with this philosophy of limited government, Democrats also rejected the idea that moral beliefs were the proper sphere of government action. Religion and politics, they believed, should be kept clearly separate, and they generally opposed humanitarian legislation.
22. According to paragraph 4, a Democrat would be most likely to support government action in which of the following areas?
○Creating a state religion
○Supporting humanitarian legislation
○Destroying monopolies
○Recommending particular moral beliefs
Paragraph 2: Most investigators concur that certain facial expressions suggest the same emotions in all people. Moreover, people in diverse cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions. In classic research Paul Ekman took photographs of people exhibiting the emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness. He then asked people around the world to indicate what emotions were being depicted in them. Those queried ranged from European college students to members of the Fore, a tribe that dwells in the New Guinea highlands. All groups, including the Fore, who had almost no contact with Western culture, agreed on the portrayed emotions. The Fore also displayed familiar facial expressions when asked how they would respond if they were the characters in stories that called for basic emotional responses. Ekman and his colleagues more recently obtained similar results in a study of ten cultures in which participants were permitted to report that multiple emotions were shown by facial expressions. The participants generally agreed on which two emotions were being shown and which emotion was more intense.
23. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was true of the Fore people of New Guinea?
○They did not want to be shown photographs.
○They were famous for their story-telling skills.
○They knew very little about Western culture.
○They did not encourage the expression of emotions.
Paragraph 4；Psychological research has given rise to some interesting findings concerning the facial-feedback hypothesis. Causing participants in experiments to smile, for example, leads them to report more positive feelings and to rate cartoons (humorous drawings of people or situations) as being more humorous. When they are caused to frown, they rate cartoons as being more aggressive.
24. According to the passage, research involving which of the following supported the facial-feedback hypothesis?
○The reactions of people in experiments to cartoons
○The tendency of people in experiments to cooperate
○The release of neurotransmitters by people during experiments
○The long-term effects of repressing emotions
Paragraph 6: Ekman’s observation may be relevant to the British expression “keep a stiff upper lip” as a recommendation for handling stress. It might be that a “stiff” lip suppresses emotional response -- as long as the lip is not quivering with fear or tension. But when the emotion that leads to stiffening the lip is more intense, and involves strong muscle tension, facial feedback may heighten emotional response.
25. According to the passage, stiffening the upper lip may have which of the following effects?
○It first suppresses stress, then intensifies it.
○It may cause fear and tension in those who see it.
○It can damage the lip muscles.
○It may either heighten or reduce emotional response.
Paragraph 1: Most people consider the landscape to be unchanging, but Earth is a dynamic body, and its surface is continually altering-slowly on the human time scale, but relatively rapidly when compared to the great age of Earth (about 4,500 billion years). There are two principal influences that shape the terrain: constructive processes such as uplift, which create new landscape features, and destructive forces such as erosion, which gradually wear away exposed landforms.
26. According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements is true of changes in Earth‘s landscape?
○They occur more often by uplift than by erosion
○They occur only at special times.
○They occur less frequently now than they once did.
○They occur quickly in geological terms.
Paragraph 3: The Earth’s crust is thought to be divided into huge, movable segments, called plates, which float on a soft plastic layer of rock. Some mountains were formed as a result of these plates crashing into each other and forcing up the rock at the plate margins. In this process, sedimentary rocks that originally formed on the seabed may be folded upwards to altitudes of more than 26,000 feet. Other mountains may be raised by earthquakes, which fracture the Earth‘s crust and can displace enough rock to produce block mountains. A third type of mountain may be formed as a result of volcanic activity which occurs in regions of active fold mountain belts, such as in the Cascade Range of western North America. The Cascades are made up of lavas and volcanic materials. Many of the peaks are extinct volcanoes.
27. According to paragraph 3, one cause of mountain formation is the
○effect of climatic change on sea level
○slowing down of volcanic activity
○force of Earth’s crustal plates hitting each other
○replacement of sedimentary rock with volcanic rock
Paragraph 6: Under very cold conditions, rocks can be shattered by ice and frost. Glaciers may form in permanently cold areas, and these slowly moving masses of ice cut out valleys, carrying with them huge quantities of eroded rock debris. In dry areas the wind is the principal agent of erosion. It carries fine particles of sand, which bombard exposed rock surfaces, thereby wearing them into yet more sand. Even living things contribute to the formation of landscapes. Tree roots force their way into cracks in rocks and, in so doing, speed their splitting. In contrast, the roots of grasses and other small plants may help to hold loose soil fragments together, thereby helping to prevent erosion by the wind.
28. According to paragraph 6, which of the following is both a cause and result of erosion?
○Glacial activity
○Rock debris
○Tree roots
○Sand
Paragraph 2: The necessary space is there, however, in many forms. The commonest spaces are those among the particles—sand grains and tiny pebbles—of loose, unconsolidated sand and gravel. Beds of this material, out of sight beneath the soil, are common. They are found wherever fast rivers carrying loads of coarse sediment once flowed. For example, as the great ice sheets that covered North America during the last ice age steadily melted away, huge volumes of water flowed from them. The water was always laden with pebbles, gravel, and sand, known as glacial outwash, that was deposited as the flow slowed down.
29. According to paragraph 2, where is groundwater usually found?
○Inside pieces of sand and gravel
○On top of beds of rock
○In fast rivers that are flowing beneath the soil
○In spaces between pieces of sediment
Paragraph 6: Thus a proportion of the total volume of any sediment, loose or cemented, consists of empty space. Most crystalline rocks are much more solid; a common exception is basalt, a form of solidified volcanic lava, which is sometimes full of tiny bubbles that make it very porous.
Paragraph 7: The proportion of empty space in a rock is known as its porosity. But note that porosity is not the same as permeability, which measures the ease with which water can flow through a material; this depends on the sizes of the individual cavities and the crevices linking them.
30. According to paragraphs 6 and 7, why is basalt unlike most crystalline forms of rock?
○It is unusually solid
○It often has high porosity.
○It has a low proportion of empty space.
○It is highly permeable.
31. What is the main purpose of paragraph 7?
○To explain why water can flow through rock
○To emphasize the large amount of empty space in all rock
○To point out that a rock cannot be both porous and permeable
○To distinguish between two related properties of rock
Paragraph 1:In seeking to describe the origins of theater, one must rely primarily on speculation, since there is little concrete evidence on which to draw. The most widely accepted theory, championed by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, envisions theater as emerging out of myth and ritual. The process perceived by these anthropologists may be summarized briefly. During the early stages of its development, a society becomes aware of forces that appear to influence or control its food supply and well-being. Having little understanding of natural causes, it attributes both desirable and undesirable occurrences to supernatural or magical forces, and it searches for means to win the favor of these forces. Perceiving an apparent connection between certain actions performed by the group and the result it desires, the group repeats, refines and formalizes those actions into fixed ceremonies, or rituals.
32. According to paragraph 1, theories of the origins of theater
○Are mainly hypothetical
○Are well supported by factual evidence
○Have rarely been agreed upon by anthropologists
○Were expressed in the early stages of theater’s development
Paragraph ２:Stories (myths) may then grow up around a ritual. Frequently the myths include representatives of those supernatural forces that the rites celebrate or hope to influence. Performers may wear costumes and masks to represent the mythical characters or supernatural forces in the rituals or in accompanying celebrations. As a people becomes more sophisticated, its conceptions of supernatural forces and causal relationships may change. As a result, it may abandon or modify some rites. But the myths that have grown up around the rites may continue as part of the group’s oral tradition and may even come to be acted out under conditions divorced from these rites. When this occurs, the first step has been taken toward theater as an autonomous activity, and thereafter entertainment and aesthetic values may gradually replace the former mystical and socially efficacious concerns.
33. According to paragraph 2, what may cause societies to abandon certain rites?
○Emphasizing theater as entertainment
○Developing a new understanding of why events occur.
○Finding a more sophisticated way of representing mythical characters
○Moving from a primarily oral tradition to a more written tradition
Paragraph ５:In addition to exploring the possible antecedents of theater, scholars have also theorized about the motives that led people to develop theater. Why did theater develop, and why was it valued after it ceased to fulfill the function of ritual? Most answers fall back on the theories about the human mind and basic human needs. One, set forth by Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., sees humans as naturally imitative—as taking pleasure in imitating persons, things, and actions and in seeing such imitations. Another, advanced in the twentieth century, suggests that humans have a gift for fantasy, through which they seek to reshape reality into more satisfying forms than those encountered in daily life. Thus, fantasy or fiction (of which drama is one form) permits people to objectify their anxieties and fears, confront them, and fulfill their hopes in fiction if not fact. The theater, then, is one tool whereby people define and understand their world or escape from unpleasant realities.
34. Which of the following best describes the organization of paragraph 5?
○The author presents two theories for a historical phenomenon.
○The author argues against theories expressed earlier in the passage.
○The author argues for replacing older theories with a new one.
○The author points out problems with two popular theories.
Paragraph 1：The transition from forest to treeless tundra on a mountain slope is often a dramatic one. Within a vertical distance of just a few tens of meters, trees disappear as a life-form and are replaced by low shrubs, herbs, and grasses. This rapid zone of transition is called the upper timberline or tree line. In many semiarid areas there is also a lower timberline where the forest passes into steppe or desert at its lower edge, usually because of a lack of moisture.
35. Which is the lower timberline mentioned in paragraph 1 likely to be found?
○In an area that has little water
○In an area that has little sunlight
○Above a transition area
○On a mountain that has on upper timberline.
Paragraph 4：Even development in architecture has been the result of major technological changes. Materials and methods of construction are integral parts of the design of architecture structures. In earlier times it was necessary to design structural systems suitable for the materials that were available, such as wood, stone, brick. Today technology has progressed to the point where it is possible to invent new building materials to suit the type of structure desired. Enormous changes in materials and techniques of construction within the last few generations have made it possible to enclose space with much greater ease and speed and with a minimum of material. Progress in this area can be measured by the difference in weight between buildings built now and those of comparable size built one hundred ago.
36. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true about materials used in the construction of buildings?
○Because new building materials are hard to find, construction techniques have changed very little from past generations.
○The availability of suitable building materials no longer limits the types of structures that may be built.
○The primary building materials that are available today are wood, stone, and brick.
○Architects in earlier times did not have enough building materials to enclose large spaces.
Paragraph 5: Modern architectural forms generally have three separate components comparable to elements of the human body; a supporting skeleton or frame, an outer skin enclosing the interior spaces, equipment, similar to the body’s vital organs and systems. The equipment includes plumbing, electrical wiring, hot water, and air-conditioning. Of course in early architecture—such as igloos and adobe structures—there was no such equipment, and the skeleton and skin were often one.
37. Which of the following correctly characterizes the relationship between the human body and architecture that is described in paragraph5?
○Complex equipment inside buildings is the one element in modern architecture that resembles a component of the human body.
○The components in early buildings were similar to three particular elements of the human body.
○Modern buildings have components that are as likely to change as the human body is.
○In general, modern buildings more closely resemble the human body than earlier buildings do.
Paragraph 6: Much of the world’s great architecture has been constructed of stone because of its beauty, permanence, and availability. In the past, whole cities grew from the arduous task of cutting and piling stone upon. Some of the world’s finest stone architecture can be seen in the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu high in the eastern Andes Mountains of Peru. The doorways and windows are made possible by placing over the open spaces thick stone beams that support the weight from above. A structural invention had to be made before the physical limitations of stone could be overcome and new architectural forms could be created. That invention was the arch, a curved structure originally made of separate stone or brick segments. The arch was used was used by the early cultures of the Mediterranean area chiefly for underground drains, but it was the Romans who first developed and used the arch extensively in aboveground structures. Roman builders perfected the semicircular arch made of separate blocks of stone. As a method of spanning space, the arch can support greater weight than a horizontal beam. It works in compression to divert the weight above it out to the sides, where the weight is borne by the vertical elements on either side of the arch. The arch is among the many important structural breakthroughs that have characterized architecture throughout the centuries.
38．According to paragraph6, which of the following statements is true of the arch?
○The Romans were the first people to use the stone arch.
○The invention of the arch allowed new architectural forms to be developed.
○The arch worked by distributing the structural of a building toward the center of the arch.
○The Romans followed earlier practices in their use of arches.
Paragraph 1：The vast grasslands of the High Plains in the central United States were settled by farmers and ranchers in the 1880’s. This region has a semiarid climate, and for 50 years after its settlement, it supported a low-intensity agricultural economy of cattle ranching and wheat farming. In the early twentieth century, however, it was discovered that much of the High Plains was underlain by a huge aquifer (a rock layer containing large quantities of groundwater). This aquifer was named the Ogallala aquifer after the Ogallala Sioux Indians, who once inhabited the region.
39．According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements about the High Plains is true?
○Until farmers and ranchers settled there in the 1880’s, the High Plains had never been inhabited.
○The climate of the High Plains is characterized by higher-than-average temperatures.
○The large aquifer that lies underneath the High Plains was discovered by the Ogallala Sioux Indians.
○Before the early 1900’s there was only a small amount of farming and ranching in the High Plains.
Paragraph 4：This unprecedented development of a finite groundwater resource with an almost negligible natural recharge rate—that is, virtually no natural water source to replenish the water supply—has caused water tables in the region to fall drastically. In the 1930’s, wells encountered plentiful water at a depth of about 15 meters; currently, they must be dug to depths of 45 to 60 meters or more. In places, the water table is declining at a rate of a meter a year, necessitating the periodic deepening of wells and the use of ever-more-powerful pumps. It is estimated that at current withdrawal rates, much of the aquifer will run dry within 40 years. The situation is most critical in Texas, where the climate is driest, the greatest amount of water is being pumped, and the aquifer contains the least water. It is projected that the remaining Ogallala water will, by the year 2030, support only 35 to 40 percent of the irrigated acreage in Texas that is supported in 1980.
40. According to paragraph 4, compared with all other states that use Ogallala water for irrigation, Texas
○Has the greatest amount of farmland being irrigated with Ogallala water
○Contains the largest amount of Ogallala water underneath the soil
○Is expected to face the worst water supply crisis as the Ogallala runs dry
○Uses the least amount of Ogallala water for its irrigation needs
Paragraph 5：The reaction of farmers to the inevitable depletion of the Ogallala varies. Many have been attempting to conserve water by irrigating less frequently or by switching to crops that require less water. Other, however, have adopted the philosophy that it is best to use the water while it is still economically profitable to do so and to concentrate on high-value crops such as cotton. The incentive of the farmers who wish to conserve water is reduced by their knowledge that many of their neighbors are profiting by using great amounts of water, and in the process are drawing down the entire region’s water supplies.
41．Paragraph 5 mentions which of the following as a source of difficulty for some farmers who try to conserve water?
○Crops that do not need much water are difficult to grow in the High Plains.
○Farmers who grow crops that need a lot of water make higher profits.
○Irrigating less frequently often leads to crop failure.
○Few farmers are convinced that the aquifer will eventually run dry.
Paragraph 6：In the face of the upcoming water supply crisis, a number of grandiose schemes have been developed to transport vast quantities of water by canal or pipeline from the Mississippi, the Missouri, or the Arkansas rivers. Unfortunately, the cost of water obtained through any of these schemes would increase pumping costs at least tenfold, making the cost of irrigated agricultural products from the region uncompetitive on the national and international markets. Somewhat more promising have been recent experiments for releasing capillary water (water in the soil) above the water table by injecting compressed are into the ground. Even if this process proves successful, however, it would almost triple water costs. Genetic engineering also may provide a partial solution, as new strains of drought-resistant crops continue to be developed. Whatever the final answer to the water crisis may be, it is evident that within the High Plains, irrigation water will never again be the abundant, inexpensive resource it was during the agricultural boom years of the mid-twentieth century.
42．According to paragraph 6, what is the main disadvantage of the proposed plans to transport river water to the High Plains?
○The rivers cannot supply sufficient water for the farmer’s needs.
○Increased irrigation costs would make the products too expensive.
○The costs of using capillary water for irrigation will increase.
○Farmers will be forced to switch to genetically engineered crops.
Paragraph 2: An ecologist who studies a pond today may well find it relatively unchanged in a year’s time. Individual fish may be replaced, but the number of fish will tend to be the same from one year to the next. We can say that the properties of an ecosystem are more stable than the individual organisms that compose the ecosystem.
43. According to paragraph 2, which of the following principles of ecosystems can be learned by studying a pond?
○Ecosystem properties change more slowly than individuals in the system.
○The stability of an ecosystem tends to change as individuals are replaced.
○Individual organisms are stable from one year to the next.
○A change in the numbers of an organism does not affect an ecosystem’s properties
Paragraph 3: At one time, ecologists believed that species diversity made ecosystems stable. They believed that the greater the diversity the more stable the ecosystem. Support for this idea came from the observation that long-lasting climax communities usually have more complex food webs and more species diversity than pioneer communities. Ecologists concluded that the apparent stability of climax ecosystems depended on their complexity. To take an extreme example, farmlands dominated by a single crop are so unstable that one year of bad weather or the invasion of a single pest can destroy the entire crop. In contrast, a complex climax community, such as a temperate forest, will tolerate considerable damage from weather of pests.
44. According to paragraph 3, ecologists once believed that which of the following illustrated the most stable ecosystems?
○Pioneer communities
○Climax communities
○Single-crop farmlands
○Successional plant communities
Paragraph 4: The question of ecosystem stability is complicated, however. The first problem is that ecologists do not all agree what “stability” means. Stability can be defined as simply lack of change. In that case, the climax community would be considered the most stable, since, by definition, it changes the least over time. Alternatively, stability can be defined as the speed with which an ecosystem returns to a particular form following a major disturbance, such as a fire. This kind of stability is also called resilience. In that case, climax communities would be the most fragile and the least stable, since they can require hundreds of years to return to the climax state.
45. According to paragraph 4, why is the question of ecosystem stability complicated?
○The reasons for ecosystem change are not always clear.
○Ecologists often confuse the word “stability” with the word “resilience.”
○The exact meaning of the word “stability” is debated by ecologists.
○There are many different answers to ecological questions.
46. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true of climax communities?
○They are more resilient than pioneer communities.
○They can be considered both the most and the least stable communities.
○They are stable because they recover quickly after major disturbances.
○They are the most resilient communities because they change the least over time.
Paragraph 1: Growth, reproduction, and daily metabolism all require an organism to expend energy. The expenditure of energy is essentially a process of budgeting, just as finances are budgeted. If all of one’s money is spent on clothes, there may be none left to buy food or go to the movies. Similarly, a plant or animal cannot squander all its energy on growing a big body if none would be left over for reproduction, for this is the surest way to extinction.
47. In paragraph 1, the author explains the concept of energy expenditure by
○ Identifying types of organisms that became extinct
○ Comparing the scientific concept to a familiar human experience
○ Arguing that most organisms conserve rather than expend energy
○ Describing the processes of growth, reproduction, and metabolism
Paragraph 3：Almost all of an organism’s energy can be diverted to reproduction, with very little allocated to building the body. Organisms at this extreme are “opportunists.” At the other extreme are “competitors,” almost all of whose resources are invested in building a huge body, with a bare minimum allocated to reproduction.
48. According to the passage, the classification of organisms as “opportunists” or “competitors” is determined by
○ How the genetic information of an organism is stored and maintained
○ The way in which the organism invests its energy resources
○ Whether the climate in which the organism lives is mild or extreme
○ The variety of natural resources the organism consumes in its environment
Paragraph 7：The opposite of an opportunist is a competitor. These organisms tend to have big bodies, are long-lived, and spend relatively little effort each year on reproduction. An oak tree is a good example of a competitor. A massive oak claims its ground for 200 years or more, outcompeting all other would-be canopy trees by casting a dense shade and drawing up any free water in the soil. The leaves of an oak tree taste foul because they are rich in tannins, a chemical that renders them distasteful or indigestible to many organisms. The tannins are part of the defense mechanism that is essential to longevity. Although oaks produce thousands of acorns, the investment in a crop of acorns is small compared with the energy spent on building leaves, trunk, and roots. Once an oak tree becomes established, it is likely to survive minor cycles of drought and even fire. A population of oaks is likely to be relatively stable through time, and its survival is likely to depend more on its ability to withstand the pressures of competition or predation than on its ability to take advantage of chance events. It should be noted, however, that the pure opportunist or pure competitor is rare in nature, as most species fall between the extremes of a continuum, exhibiting a blend of some opportunistic and some competitive characteristics.
49. According to the passage, oak trees are considered compe, titors because
○ They grow in areas free of opportunists
○ They spend more energy on their leaves, trunks and roots than on their acorns
○ Their population tends to increase or decrease in irregular cycles
○ Unlike other organisms, they do not need much water or sunlight
50. In paragraph 7, the author suggests that most species of organisms
○ Are primarily opportunists
○ Are primarily competitors
○ Begin as opportunists and evolve into competitors
○ Have some characteristics of opportunists and some of competitors
Paragraph 1 In Southwest France in the 1940’s, playing children discovered Lascaux Grotto, a series of narrow cave chambers that contain huge prehistoric paintings of animals. Many of these beasts are as large as 16 feet (almost 5 meters). Some follow each other in solemn parades, but others swirl about, sideways and upside down. The animals are bulls, wild horses, reindeer, bison, and mammoths outlined with charcoal and painted mostly in reds, yellow, and browns. Scientific analysis reveals that the colors were derived from ocher and other iron oxides ground into a fine powder. Methods of applying color varied: some colors were brushed or smeared on rock surfaces and others were blown or sprayed. It is possible that tubes made from animal bones were used for spraying because hollow bones, some stained with pigment, have been found nearby.
51. What are the bones found in the Lascaux caves believed to indicate?
○Wild animals sometimes lived in the cave chambers.
○Artists painted pictures on both walls and bones.
○Artists ground them into a fine powder to make paint.
○Artists developed special techniques for painting the walls.
Paragraph 4 Another opinion is that the paintings were directly related to hunting and were an essential part of a special preparation ceremony. This opinion holds that the pictures and whatever ceremony they accompanied were an ancient method of psychologically motivating hunters. It is conceivable that before going hunting the hunters would draw or study pictures of animals and imagine a successful hunt. Considerable support exists for this opinion because several animals in the pictures are wounded by arrows and spears. This opinion also attempts to solve the overpainting by explaining that an animal’s picture had no further use after the hunt.
52. According to paragraph 4, why do some scholars believe that the paintings were related to hunting?
○Because some tools used for painting were also used for hunting
○Because cave inhabitants were known to prefer animal food rather than plant food
○Because some of the animals are shown wounded by weapons
○Because many hunters were also typically painters
Paragraph 5 A third opinion takes psychological motivation much further into the realm of tribal ceremonies and mystery: the belief that certain animals assumed mythical significance as ancient ancestors or protectors of a given tribe or clan. Two types of images substantiate this theory: the strange, indecipherable geometric shapes that appear near some animals, and the few drawings of men. Wherever men appear they are crudely drawn and their bodies are elongated and rigid. Some men are in a prone position and some have bird or animal heads. Advocates for this opinion point to reports from people who have experienced a trance state, a highly suggestive state of low consciousness between waking and sleeping. Uniformly, these people experienced weightlessness and the sensation that their bodies were being stretched lengthwise. Advocates also point to people who believe that the forces of nature are inhabited by spirits, particularly shamans* who believe that an animal’s spirit and energy is transferred to them while in a trance. One Lascaux narrative picture, which shows a man with a birdlike head and a wounded animal, would seem to lend credence to this third opinion, but there is still much that remains unexplained. For example, where is the proof that the man in the picture is a shaman? He could as easily be a hunter wearing a headmask. Many tribal hunters, including some Native Americans, camouflaged themselves by wearing animal heads and hides.
53. According to paragraph 5, if the man pictured with the birdlike head is not a shaman, he may have worn the headmask
○to look like an animal while a hunt took place
○to frighten off other hunters competing for food
○to prove that he is not a shaman
○to resist forces of nature thought to be present in animals
Paragraph 6 Perhaps so much time has passed that there will never be satisfactory answers to the cave images, but their mystique only adds to their importance. Certainly a great art exists, and by its existence reveals that ancient human beings were not without intelligence, skill, and sensitivity.
54. According to paragraph 6, why might the puzzling questions about the paintings never be answered?
○Keeping the paintings a mystery will increase their importance.
○The artists hid their tools with great intelligence and skill.
○Too many years have gone by since the images were painted.
○Answering the questions is not very important to scholars.
Paragraph 1：Since 1980, the use of wind to produce electricity has been growing rapidly. In 1994 there were nearly 20,000 wind turbines worldwide, most grouped in clusters called wind farms that collectively produced 3,000 megawatts of electricity. Most were in Denmark (which got 3 percent of its electricity from wind turbines) and California (where 17,000 machines produced 1 percent of the state’s electricity, enough to meet the residential needs of a city as large as San Francisco). In principle, all the power needs of the United States could be provided by exploiting the wind potential of just three states—North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.
55. Based on the information in paragraph 1, which of the following best explains the term wind farms?
○Arms using windmills to pump water
○Research centers exploring the uses of wind
○Types of power plant common in North Dakota
○Collections of wind turbines producing electric power
Paragraph 3: Wind power has a significant cost advantage over nuclear power and has become competitive with coal-fired power plants in many places. With new technological advances and mass production, projected cost declines should make wind power one of the world’s cheapest ways to produce electricity. In the long run, electricity from large wind farms in remote areas might be used to make hydrogen gas from water during periods when there is less than peak demand for electricity. The hydrogen gas could then be fed into a storage system and used to generate electricity when additional or backup power is needed.
Paragraph 4: Wind power is most economical in areas with steady winds. In areas where the wind dies down, backup electricity from a utility company or from an energy storage system becomes necessary. Backup power could also be provided by linking wind farms with a solar cell, with conventional or pumped-storage hydropower, or with efficient natural-gas-burning turbines. Some drawbacks to wind farms include visual pollution and noise, although these can be overcome by improving their design and locating them in isolated areas.
56. According to paragraph 3, which of the following is true about periods when the demand for electricity is relatively low?
○These periods are times when wind turbines are powered by hydrogen gas.
○These periods provide the opportunity to produce and store energy for future use.
○These periods create storage problems for all forms of power generation.
○These periods occur as often as periods when the demand for electricity is high.
57. In paragraph 4, the author states that in areas where winds are not steady
○Power does not reach all customers
○Wind farms cannot be used
○Solar power is more appropriate
○Backup systems are needed
Paragraph 6: The technology is in place for a major expansion of wind power worldwide. Wind power is a virtually unlimited source of energy at favorable sites, and even excluding environmentally sensitive areas, the global potential of wind power is much higher than the current world electricity use. In theory, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom could use wind to meet all of their energy needs. Wind power experts project that by the middle of the twenty-first century wind power could supply more than 10 percent of the world’s electricity and 10-25 percent of the electricity used in the United States.
58. Which of the following statements most accurately reflects the author’s opinion about wind energy?
○Wind energy production should be limited to large wind farms.
○The advantages of wind energy outweigh the disadvantages.
○The technology to make wind energy safe and efficient will not be ready until the middle of the twenty-first century.
○Wind energy will eventually supply many countries with most of their electricity.
Paragraph 1: Two species of deer have been prevalent in the Puget Sound area of Washington state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The black-tailed deer, a lowland, west-side cousin of the mule deer of eastern Washington, is now the most common. The other species, the Columbian white-tailed deer, in earlier times was common in the open prairie country, it is now restricted to the low, marshy islands and flood plains along the lower Columbia River.
59. According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true of the white-tailed deer of Puget Sound?
○It is native to lowlands and marshes.
○It is more closely related to the mule deer of eastern Washington than to other types of deer.
○It has replaced the black-tailed deer in the open prairie.
○It no longer lives in a particular type of habitat that it once occupied.
Paragraph 3：The numbers of deer have fluctuated markedly since the entry of Europeans into Puget Sound country. The early explorers and settlers told of abundant deer in the early 1800s and yet almost in the same breath bemoaned the lack of this succulent game animal. Famous explorers of the North American frontier, Lewis and had experienced great difficulty finding game west of the Rockies and not until the second of December did they kill their first elk. To keep 40 people alive that winter, they consumed approximately 150 elk and 20 deer. And when game moved out of the lowlands in early spring, the expedition decided to return east rather than face possible starvation. Later on in the early years of the nineteenth century, when Fort Vancouver became the headquarters of the Hudson‘s Bay Company, deer populations continued to fluctuate. David Douglas, Scottish botanical explorer of the 1830s. Found a disturbing change in the animal life around the fort during the period between his first visit in 1825 and his final contact with the fort in 1832. A recent Douglas biographer states:“ The deer which once picturesquely dotted the meadows around the fort were gone [in 1832], hunted to extermination in order to protect the crops.”
60. According to paragraph 3, how had Fort Vancouver changed by the time David Douglas returned in 1832?
○The fort had become the headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
○Deer had begun populating the meadows around the fort.
○Deer populations near the fort had been destroyed.
○Crop yields in the area around the fort had decreased.
Paragraph 4：Reduction in numbers of game should have boded ill for their survival in later times. A worsening of the plight of deer was to be expected as settlers encroached on the land, logging, burning, and clearing, eventually replacing a wilderness landscape with roads, cities, towns, and factories. No doubt the numbers of deer declined still further. Recall the fate of the Columbian white-tailed deer, now in a protected status. But for the black-tailed deer, human pressure has had just the opposite effect. Wild life zoologist Hulmut Buechner(1953), in reviewing the nature of biotic changes in Washington through recorded time, Says that “since the early 1940s, the state has had more deer than at any other time in its history, the winter population fluctuating around approximately 320,000 deer (mule and black-tailed deer), which will yield about 65,000 of either sex and any age annually for an indefinite period
61. Which of the following statements about deer populations is supported by the information in paragraph 4?
○Deer populations reached their highest point during the 1940s and then began to decline.
○The activities of settlers contributed in unexpected ways to the growth of some deer populations in later times.
○The cleaning of wilderness land for construction caused biotic changes from which the black-tailed deer population has never recovered.
○Since the 1940s the winter populations of deer have fluctuated more than the summer populations have.
Paragraph 1: The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. We might expect that early artistic efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings of Spain and southern France show a marked degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa. Some of those slabs appear to have been painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which suggests that painting in Africa is as old as painting in Europe. But painting may be even order than that. The early Australians may have painted on the walls of rock shelters and cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.
62．Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about painting in Europe?
○It is much older than painting in Australia.
○It is as much as 28,000 years old.
○It is not as old as painting in southern Africa.
○It is much more than 30,000 years old.
63．According to paragraph 2, what makes some researchers think that certain cave paintings were connected with magical-religious activities?
○The paintings were located where many people could easily see them, allowing groups of people to participate in the magical-religious activities.
○Upper Paleolithic people shared similar beliefs with contemporary peoples who use paintings of animals in their magical-religious rituals.
○Evidence of magical-religious activities has been found in galleries immediately off the inhabited areas of caves.
○The paintings were found in hard-to-reach places away from the inhabited parts of the cave.
Paragraph 4：The particular symbolic significance of the cave paintings in southwestern France is more explicitly revealed, perhaps, by the results of a study conducted by researchers Patricia Rice and Ann Paterson. The data they present suggest that the animals portrayed in the cave paintings were mostly the ones that the painters preferred for meat and for materials such as hides. For example, wild cattle (bovines) and horses are portrayed more often than we would expect by chance, probably because they were larger and heavier (meatier) than other animals in the environment. In addition, the paintings mostly portray animals that the painters may have feared the most because of their size, speed, natural weapons such as tusks and horns, and the unpredictability of their behavior. That is, mammoths, bovines, and horses are portrayed more often than deer and reindeer. Thus, the paintings are consistent with the idea that the art is related to the importance of hunting in the economy of Upper Paleolithic people. Consistent with this idea, according to the investigators, is the fact that the art of the cultural period that followed the Upper Paleolithic also seems to reflect how people got their food. But in that period, when getting food no longer depended on hunting large game animals (because they were becoming extinct), the art ceased to focus on portrayals of animals.
64．According to paragraph 4, which of the following may best represent the attitude of hunters toward deer and reindeer in the Upper Paleolithic period?
○Hunters did not fear deer and reindeers as much as they did large game animals such as horses and mammoths.
○Hunters were not interested in hunting deer and reindeer because of their size and speed.
○Hunters preferred the meat and hides of deer and reindeer to those of other animals.
○Hunters avoided deer and reindeer because of their natural weapons, such as horns.
65．According to paragraph 4, what change is evident in the art of the period following the Upper Paleolithic?
○This new art starts to depict small animals rather than large ones.
○This new art ceases to reflect the ways in which people obtained their food.
○This new art no longer consists mostly of representations of animals.
○This new art begins to show the importance of hunting to the economy.
Paragraph 5：Upper Paleolithic art was not confined to cave paintings. Many shafts of spears and similar objects were decorated with figures of animals. The anthropologist Alexander Marshack has an interesting interpretation of some of the engravings made during the Upper Paleolithic. He believes that as far back as 30.000 B.C., hunters may have used a system of notation, engraved on bone and stone, to mark phases of the Moon. If this is true, it would mean that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and were consciously aware of their environment. In addition to other artworks, figurines representing the human female in exaggerated form have also been found at Upper Paleolithic sites. It has been suggested that these figurines were an ideal type or an expression of a desire for fertility.
66．According to paragraph 5, which of the following has been used as evidence to suggest that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and conscious awareness of their environment?
○They engraved animal figures on the shafts of spears and other objects.
○They may have used engraved signs to record the phases of the Moon.
○Their figurines represented the human female in exaggerated form.
○They may have used figurines to portray an ideal type or to express a desire for fertility.
Paragraph 1：Petroleum, consisting of crude oil and natural gas, seems to originate from organic matter in marine sediment. Microscopic organisms settle to the seafloor and accumulate in marine mud. The organic matter may partially decompose, using up the dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as the oxygen is gone, decay stops and the remaining organic matter is preserved.
67．According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true about petroleum formation?
○Microscopic organisms that live in mud produce crude oil and natural gas.
○Large amounts of oxygen are needed for petroleum formation to begin.
○Petroleum is produced when organic material in sediments combines with decaying marine organisms.
○Petroleum formation appears to begin in marine sediments where organic matter is present.
Paragraph 1—2：Petroleum, consisting of crude oil and natural gas, seems to originate from organic matter in marine sediment. Microscopic organisms settle to the seafloor and accumulate in marine mud. The organic matter may partially decompose, using up the dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as the oxygen is gone, decay stops and the remaining organic matter is preserved.
Continued sedimentation—the process of deposits‘ settling on the sea bottom—buries the organic matter and subjects it to higher temperatures and pressures, which convert the organic matter to oil and gas. As muddy sediments are pressed together, the gas and small droplets of oil may be squeezed out of the mud and may move into sandy layers nearby. Over long periods of time (millions of years), accumulations of gas and oil can collect in the sandy layers. Both oil and gas are less dense than water, so they generally tend to rise upward through water-saturated rock and sediment.
68．In paragraphs 1 and 2, the author’s primary purpose is to
○Describe how petroleum is formed
○Explain why petroleum formation is a slow process
○Provide evidence that a marine environment is necessary for petroleum formation
○Show that oil commonly occurs in association with gas
Paragraph 4: As oil becomes increasingly difficult to find, the search for it is extended into more-hostile environments. The development of the oil field on the North Slope of Alaska and the construction the Alaska pipeline are examples of the great expense and difficulty involved in new oil discoveries. Offshore drilling platforms extend the search for oil to the ocean‘s continental shelves—those gently sloping submarine regions at the edges of the continents. More than one-quarter of the world’s oil and almost one-fifth of the world‘s natural gas come from offshore, even though offshore drilling is six to seven times more expensive than drilling on land. A significant part of this oil and gas comes from under the North Sea between Great Britain and Norway. Of course, there is far more oil underground than can be recovered. It may be in a pool too small or too far from a potential market to justify the expense of drilling. Some oil lies under regions where drilling is forbidden, such as national parks or other public lands. Even given the best extraction techniques, only about 30 to 40 percent of the oil in a given pool can be brought to the surface. The rest is far too difficult to extract and has to remain underground.
69．Which of the following strategies for oil exploration is described in paragraph 4?
○Drilling under the ocean’s surface
○Limiting drilling to accessible locations
○Using highly sophisticated drilling equipment
○Constructing technologically advanced drilling platforms
70．What does the development of the Alaskan oil field mentioned in paragraph 4 demonstrate?
○More oil is extracted from the sea than from land.
○Drilling for oil requires major financial investments.
○The global demand for oil has increased over the years.
○The North Slope of Alaska has substantial amounts of oil.
Paragraph 6：Moreover, getting petroleum out of the ground and from under the sea and to the consumer can create environmental problems anywhere along the line. Pipelines carrying oil can be broken by faults or landslides, causing serious oil spills. Spillage from huge oil-carrying cargo ships, called tankers, involved in collisions or accidental groundings (such as the one off Alaska in 1989) can create oil slicks at sea. Offshore platforms may also lose oil, creating oil slicks that drift ashore and foul the beaches, harming the environment. Sometimes, the ground at an oil field may subside as oil is removed. The Wilmington field near Long Beach, California, has subsided nine meters in 50 years; protective barriers have had to be built to prevent seawater from flooding the area. Finally, the refining and burning of petroleum and its products can cause air pollution. Advancing technology and strict laws, however, are helping control some of these adverse environmental effects.
71．In paragraph 6, the author’s primary purpose is to
○Provide examples of how oil exploration can endanger the environment
○Describe accidents that have occurred when oil activities were in progress
○Give an analysis of the effects of oil spills on the environment
○Explain how technology and legislation help reduce oil spills
Paragraph 2: Sensitivity to physical laws is thus an important consideration for the maker of applied-art objects. It is often taken for granted that this is also true for the maker of fine-art objects. This assumption misses a significant difference between the two disciplines. Fine-art objects are not constrained by the laws of physics in the same way that applied-art objects are. Because their primary purpose is not functional, they are only limited in terms of the materials used to make them. Sculptures must, for example, be stable, which requires an understanding of the properties of mass, weight distribution, and stress. Paintings must have rigid stretchers so that the canvas will be taut, and the paint must not deteriorate, crack, or discolor. These are problems that must be overcome by the artist because they tend to intrude upon his or her conception of the work. For example, in the early Italian Renaissance, bronze statues of horses with a raised foreleg usually had a cannonball under that hoof. This was done because the cannonball was needed to support the weight of the leg. In other words, the demands of the laws of physics, not the sculptor‘s aesthetic intentions, placed the ball there. That this device was a necessary structural compromise is clear from the fact that the cannonball quickly disappeared when sculptors learned how to strengthen the internal structure of a statue with iron braces (iron being much stronger than bronze).
72. According to paragraph 2, sculptors in the Italian Renaissance stopped using cannonballs in bronze statues of horses because
○They began using a material that made the statues weigh less
○They found a way to strengthen the statues internally
○The aesthetic tastes of the public had changed over time
○The cannonballs added too much weight to the statues
Paragraph 3: The body that impacted Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period was a meteorite with a mass of more than a trillion tons and a diameter of at least 10 kilometers. Scientists first identified this impact in 1980 from the worldwide layer of sediment deposited from the dust cloud that enveloped the planet after the impact. This sediment layer is enriched in the rare metal iridium and other elements that are relatively abundant in a meteorite but very rare in the crust of Earth. Even diluted by the terrestrial material excavated from the crater, this component of meteorites is easily identified. By 1990 geologists had located the impact site itself in the Yucat region of Mexico. The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometers in diameter.
73. According to paragraph 3, how did scientists determine that a large meteorite had impacted Earth?
○They discovered a large crater in the Yucat region of Mexico.
○They found a unique layer of sediment worldwide.
○They were alerted by archaeologists who had been excavating in the Yucat region.
○They located a meteorite with a mass of over a trillion tons.
Paragraph 6: Impacts by meteorites represent one mechanism that could cause global catastrophes and seriously influence the evolution of life all over the planet. According to some estimates, the majority of all extinctions of species may be due to such impacts. Such a perspective fundamentally changes our view of biological evolution. The standard criterion for the survival of a species is its success in competing with other species and adapting to slowly changing environments. Yet an equally important criterion is the ability of a species to survive random global ecological catastrophes due to impacts.
74. Paragraph 6 supports which of the following statements about the factors that are essential for the survival of a species?
○The most important factor for the survival of a species is its ability to compete and adapt to gradual changes in its environment.
○The ability of a species to compete and adapt to a gradually changing environment is not the only ability that is essential for survival.
○Since most extinctions of species are due to major meteorite impacts, the ability to survive such impacts is the most important factor for the survival of a species.
○The factors that are most important for the survival of a species vary significantly from one species to another.
Paragraph 7: Earth is a target in a cosmic shooting gallery, subject to random violent events that were unsuspected a few decades ago. In 1991 the United States Congress asked NASA to investigate the hazard posed today by large impacts on Earth. The group conducting the study concluded from a detailed analysis that impacts from meteorites can indeed be hazardous. Although there is always some risk that a large impact could occur, careful study shows that this risk is quite small.
75. According to the passage, who conducted investigations about the current dangers posed by large meteorite impacts on Earth?
○Paleontologists
○Geologists
○The United States Congress
○NASA
参考答案：
1. ○Skull shapes
2. ○Could not have walked on land
3. ○Reduced water absorption
4. ○Adjusting to stresses created by settlement
5. ○Removal of the original vegetation
6. ○Bring salts to the surface
7.○They did not require live entertainers.
8. ○They decided how to combine various components of the film program.
9. ○A different type of material was used to produce the images used in the Mutocope.
10. ○Small in size
11. ○Animals behaving aggressively show increased activity in the hypothalamus.
12. ○many more individuals are born than can survive until the age of reproduction
13. ○a fear that their parents will punish them and stop loving them
14. ○It was slow to improve conditions for workers.
15. ○created divisions among workers
16. ○Reducing water resistance as they swim
17. ○They lack a swim bladder.
18. ○make efficient use of water currents
19. ○They can swim in waters that are much colder than their own bodies.
20. ○It was the beginning of the modern presidency in the United Stales.
21. ○They would promote the advancement of society as a whole.
22. ○Destroying monopolies
23. ○They knew very little about Western culture.
24. ○The reactions of people in experiments to cartoons
25. ○It may either heighten or reduce emotional response.
26. ○They occur quickly in geological terms.
27. ○Force of Earth’s crustal plates hitting each other
28. ○Sand
29. ○Inside pieces of sand and gravel
30. ○It often has high porosity.
31. ○To distinguish between two related properties of rock
32. ○Are mainly hypothetical
33. ○Developing a new understanding of why events occur.
34. ○The author presents two theories for a historical phenomenon.
35. ○In an area that has little water
36. ○The availability of suitable building materials no longer limits the types of structures that may be built.
37. ○In general, modern buildings more closely resemble the human body than earlier buildings do.
38. ○The arch worked by distributing the structural of a building toward the center of the arch.
39. ○Before the early 1900’s there was only a small amount of farming and ranching in the High Plains.
40. ○Is expected to face the worst water supply crisis as the Ogallala runs dry
41. ○Farmers who grow crops that need a lot of water make higher profits.
42. ○Increased irrigation costs would make the products too expensive.
43. ○A change in the numbers of an organism does not affect an ecosystem’s properties
44. ○Climax communities
45. ○The exact meaning of the word “stability” is debated by ecologists.
46. ○They can be considered both the most and the least stable communities.
47. ○Comparing the scientific concept to a familiar human experience
48. ○The way in which the organism invests its energy resources
49. ○They spend more energy on their leaves, trunks and roots than on their acorns
50. ○Have some characteristics of opportunists and some of competitors
51. ○Artists developed special techniques for painting the walls.
52. ○Because some of the animals are shown wounded by weapons
53. ○To look like an animal while a hunt took place
54. ○Too many years have gone by since the images were painted.
55. ○Collections of wind turbines producing electric power
56. ○These periods provide the opportunity to produce and store energy for future use.
57. ○backup systems are needed
58. ○The advantages of wind energy outweigh the disadvantages.
59. ○It no longer lives in a particular type of habitat that it once occupied.
60. ○Deer populations near the fort had been destroyed.
61.○The activities of settlers contributed in unexpected ways to the growth of some deer populations in later times.
62. ○It is as much as 28,000 years old.
63. ○The paintings were found in hard-to-reach places away from the inhabited parts of the cave.
64. ○Hunters did not fear deer and reindeers as much as they did large game animals such as horses and mammoths.
65. ○This new art no longer consists mostly of representations of animals.
66. ○They may have used engraved signs to record the phases of the Moon.
67. ○Petroleum formation appears to begin in marine sediments where organic matter is present.
68. ○Describe how petroleum is formed
69. ○Drilling under the ocean’s surface
70. ○Drilling for oil requires major financial investments.
71. ○Provide examples of how oil exploration can endanger the environment
72. ○they found a way to strengthen the statues internally
73. ○ They found a unique layer of sediment worldwide.
74. ○ The ability of a species to compete and adapt to a gradually changing environment is not the only ability that is essential for survival.
75. ○NASA