本类题目考察对于理解和感知作者的能力
Paragraph 1: It should be obvious that cetaceans-whales, porpoises, and dolphins-are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke3 and blowhole4 cannot disguise their affinities with land-dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but, already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans.
1. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about early sea otters?
○It is not difficult to imagine what they looked like
○There were great numbers of them.
○They lived in the sea only.
○They did not leave many fossil remains.
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. It can be inferred that Basilosaurus bred and gave birth in which of the following locations
○On land
○Both on land and at sea
○In shallow water
○In a marine environment
Paragraph 10: The extreme seriousness of desertification results from the vast areas of land and the tremendous numbers of people affected, as well as from the great difficulty of reversing or even slowing the process. Once the soil has been removed by erosion, only the passage of centuries or millennia will enable new soil to form. In areas where considerable soil still remains, though, a rigorously enforced program of land protection and cover-crop planting may make it possible to reverse the present deterioration of the surface.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the author most likely believes which of the following about the future of desertification?
○Governments will act quickly to control further desertification.
○The factors influencing desertification occur in cycles and will change in the future.
○Desertification will continue to increase.
○Desertification will soon occur in all areas of the world.
Paragraph 1: Before 1815 manufacturing in the United States had been done in homes or shops by skilled artisans. As master craft workers, they imparted the knowledge of their trades to apprentices and journeymen. In addition, women often worked in their homes part-time, making finished articles from raw material supplied by merchant capitalists. After 181 5 this older form of manufacturing began to give way to factories with machinery tended by unskilled or semiskilled laborers. Cheap transportation networks, the rise of cities, and the availability of capital and credit all stimulated the shift to factory production.
4. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about articles manufactured before 181 5?
○They were primarily produced by women.
○They were generally produced in shops rather than in homes.
○They were produced with more concern for quality than for speed of production.
○They were produced mostly in large cities with extensive transportation networks.
Paragraph 5: The Whigs, in contrast, viewed government power positively. They believed that it should be used to protect individual rights and public liberty, and that it had a special role where individual effort was ineffective. By regulating the economy and competition, the government could ensure equal opportunity. Indeed, for Whigs the concept of government promoting the general welfare went beyond the economy. In particular, Whigs in the northern sections of the United States also believed that government power should be used to foster the moral welfare of the country. They were much more likely to favor social-reform legislation and aid to education.
5. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 5 about variations in political beliefs within the Whig Party?
○They were focused on issues of public liberty.
○They caused some members to leave the Whig party.
○They were unimportant to most Whigs.
○They reflected regional interests.
Paragraph 2: Hills and mountains are often regarded as the epitome of permanence, successfully resisting the destructive forces of nature, but in fact they tend to be relatively short-lived in geological terms. As a general rule, the higher a mountain is, the more recently it was formed; for example, the high mountains of the Himalayas are only about 50 million years old. Lower mountains tend to be older, and are often the eroded relics of much higher mountain chains. About 400 million years ago, when the present-day continents of North America and Europe were joined, the Caledonian mountain chain was the same size as the modern Himalayas. Today, however, the relics of the Caledonian orogeny (mountain-building period) exist as the comparatively low mountains of Greenland, the northern Appalachians in the United States, the Scottish Highlands, and the Norwegian coastal plateau.
6. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the mountains of the Himalayas?
○Their current height is not an indication of their age.
○At present, they are much higher than the mountains of the Caledonian range.
○They were a uniform height about 400 million years ago.
○They are not as high as the Caledonian mountains were 400 million years ago.
Paragraph 1: Groundwater is the word used to describe water that saturates the ground, filling all the available spaces. By far the most abundant type of groundwater is meteoric water; this is the groundwater that circulates as part of the water cycle. Ordinary meteoric water is water that has soaked into the ground from the surface, from precipitation (rain and snow) and from lakes and streams. There it remains, sometimes for long periods, before emerging at the surface again. At first thought it seems incredible that there can be enough space in the “solid” ground underfoot to hold all this water.
7. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about the ground that we walk on?
○It cannot hold rainwater for long periods of time.
○It prevents most groundwater from circulating.
○It has the capacity to store large amounts of water.
○It absorbs most of the water it contains from rivers.
Paragraph 5: Even the kind of stability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated with maximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwood forest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individuals growing on the forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability—just the opposite, in fact. A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. (A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle.)
8. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 5 about redwood forests?
○They become less stable as they mature.
○They support many species when they reach climax.
○They are found in temperate zones.
○They have reduced diversity during mid-successional stages.
Paragraph 2： One of the most puzzling aspects of the paintings is their location. Other rock paintings—for example, those of Bushmen in South Africa—are either located near cave entrances or completely in the open. Cave paintings in France and Spain, however, are in recesses and caverns far removed from original cave entrances. This means that artists were forced to work in cramped spaces and without sources of natural light. It also implies that whoever made them did not want them to be easily found. Since cave dwellers normally lived close to entrances, there must have been some reason why so many generations of Lascaux cave dwellers hid their art.
9. What can be inferred from paragraph 2 about cave painters in France and Spain?
○They also painted rocks outside caves.
○They did not live close to the cave entrances.
○They developed their own sources of light to use while painting.
○Their painting practices did not last for many years.
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.
10. According to paragraph 5, why do some scholars refer to a trance state to help understand the cave paintings?
○To explain the state of consciousness the artists were in when they painted their pictures
○To demonstrate the mythical significance of the strange geometric shapes
○To indicate that trance states were often associated with activities that took place inside caves
○To give a possible reason for the strange appearance of the men painted on the cave walls
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.
11. Based on the information in paragraph 3 and paragraph 4, what can be inferred about the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas mentioned at the end of paragraph 1?
○They rely largely on coal-fired power plants.
○They contain remote areas where the winds rarely die down.
○Over 1 percent of the electricity in these states is produced by wind farms.
○Wind farms in these states are being expanded to meet the power needs of the United States.
12. According to paragraph 4, what can be inferred about the problems of visual pollution and noise associated with wind farms?
○Both problems affect the efficiency of wind farms.
○Possible solutions are known for both problems.
○Wind power creates more noise than visual pollution.
○People are more concerned about visual pollution than noise.
Paragraph 2: Nearly any kind of plant of the forest understory can be part of a deer‘s diet. Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer browses on huckleberry, salad, dogwood, and almost any other shrub or herb. But this is fair-weather feeding. What keeps the black-tailed deer a lived in the harsher seasons of plant decoy and dormancy? One compensation for not hibernating is the built- in urge to migrate. Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder.
13. It can be inferred from the discussion in paragraph 2 that winter conditions
○ Cause some deer to hibernate
○ Make food unavailable in the highlands for deer
○ Make it easier for deer to locate understory plants
○ Prevent deer from migrating during the winter
Paragraph 3：Oil pools are valuable underground accumulations of oil, and oil fields are regions underlain by one or more oil pools. When an oil pool or field has been discovered, wells are drilled into the ground. Permanent towers, called derricks, used to be built to handle the long sections of drilling pipe. Now-portable drilling machines are set up and are then dismantled and removed. When the well reaches a pool, oil usually rises up the well because of its density difference with water beneath it or because of the pressure of expanding gas trapped above it. Although this rise of oil is almost always carefully controlled today, spouts of oil, or gushers, were common in the past. Gas pressure gradually dies out, and oil is pumped from the well. Water or steam may be pumped down adjacent wells to help push the oil out. At a refinery, the crude oil from underground is separated into natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, and various oils. Petrochemicals such as dyes, fertilizer, and plastic are also manufactured from the petroleum.
14．Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about gushers?
○They make bringing the oil to the surface easier.
○They signal the presence of huge oil reserves.
○They waste more oil than they collect.
○They are unlikely to occur nowadays.
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醤 region of Mexico. The crater, now deeply buried in sediment, was originally about 200 kilometers in diameter.
15. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about the location of the meteorite impact in Mexico?
○ The location of the impact site in Mexico was kept secret by geologists from 1980 to 1990.
○It was a well-known fact that the impact had occurred in the Yucat醤 region.
○Geologists knew that there had been an impact before they knew where it had occurred.
○The Yucat醤 region was chosen by geologists as the most probable impact site because of its climate.
参考答案：
1. ○It is not difficult to imagine what they looked like
2. ○In a marine environment
3. ○Desertification will continue to increase.
4.○They were produced with more concern for quality than for speed of production.
5.○They reflected regional interests.
6.○At present, they are much higher than the mountains of the Caledonian range.
7.○It has the capacity to store large amounts of water.
8.○They have reduced diversity during mid-successional stages.
9.○They developed their own sources of light to use while painting.
10. ○To give a possible reason for the strange appearance of the men painted on the cave walls
11. ○They contain remote areas where the winds rarely die down.
12. ○Possible solutions are known for both problems.
13. ○Make food unavailable in the highlands for deer
14. ○They are unlikely to occur nowadays.
15. ○Geologist knew that there had been an impact before they knew where it had occurred.