1995年6月
Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Researchers have established that when people are mentally engaged, biochemical changes occur in the brain that allow it to act more effectively in cognitive (認(rèn)知的) areas such as attention and memory. This is true regardless of age.
People will be alert (警覺的) and receptive (接受能力強(qiáng)的) if they are faced with information that gets them to think about things they are interested in. And someone with a history of doing more rather than less will go into old age more cognitively sound than someone who has not had an active mind.
Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of challenging the brain that they are putting, the theory to work in their own lives. "The idea is not necessarily to learn to memorize enormous amounts of information." says James Fozard, associate director of the national Institute on Aging. "Most of us don't need that kind of skill. Such specific training is of less interest than being able to maintain mental alertness." Fozard and others say they challenge their brains with different mental skill, both because they enjoy them and because they are sure that their range of activities will help the way their brains work.
Gene Cohen, acting director of the same institute, suggests that people in their old age should engage in mental and physical activities individually as well as in groups. Cohen says that we are frequently advised to keep physically active as we age, but older people need to keep mentally active as well. Those who do are more likely to maintain their intellectual abilities and to be generally happier and better adjusted. "The point is, you need to do both," Cohen says. "Intellectual activity influences brain-cell health and size."
21. People who are cognitively healthy are those _____.
(A) who can remember large amounts of information (C) whose minds are alert and receptive
(B) who are highly intelligent (D) who are good at recognizing different sounds
22. According to Fozard's argument people can make their brains work more efficiently by _____.
(A) constantly doing memory work (C) going through specific training
(B) taking part in various mental activities (D) making frequent adjustments
23. The findings of James and other scientists in their work _____.
(A) remain a theory to be further proved (C) have been challenged by many other experts
(B) have been generally accepted (D) are practiced by the researchers themselves
24. Older people are generally advised to _____.
(A) keep fit by going in for physical activities
(B) keep mentally active by challenging their brains
(C) maintain mental alertness through specific training
(D) maintain a balance between individual and group activities
25. What is the passage mainly about?
(A) How biochemical changes occur in the human brain.
(B) Why people should keep active not only physically but also mentally.
(C) How intellectual activities influence brain-cell health.
(D) Why people should receive special mental training as they age.
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Attention to detail is something everyone can and should do--especially in a tight job market. Bob Crossley, a human-resources expert notices this in the job applications that come across his desk every day. "It's amazing how many candidates eliminate themselves." he says.
Resume (簡(jiǎn)歷) arrive with stains. Some candidates don't bother to spell the company's name correctly. Once I see a mistake, I eliminate the candidate," Crossley concludes. "If they cannot take of these details, why should we trust them with a job?"
Can we pay too much attention to detail? Absolutely. Perfectionists struggle over little things at the cost of something larger they work toward, "To keep from losing the forest for the trees", says Charles Garfield, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, "We must constantly ask ourselves how the details we're working on fit into the larger picture. If they don't, we should drop them and move to something else".
Garfield compares this process to his work as a computer scientist at NASA. "The Apollo II moon launch was slightly off-course 90 percent of the time." Says Garfield, "But a successful landing was still likely because we knew the exact coordinates of our goal. This allowed us to make adjustments as necessary." Knowing where we want to go helps us judge the importance of every task we undertake.
Too often we believe what accounts for others' success is some special secret or a lucky break (機(jī)遇). But rarely is success so mysterious. Again and again, we see that by doing little things within our grasp well, large rewards follow.
26. According to the passage, some job applicants were rejected _____.
(A) because of their carelessness as shown in their failure to present a clean copy of a resume
(B) because of their inadequate education as shown in their poor spelling in writing a resume
(C) because they failed to give detailed description of their background in their applications
(D) because they eliminated their names from the applicants' list themselves
27. The word "perfectionists" (para. 3, Line) refers to those who _____.
(A) demand others to get everything absolutely right
(B) know how to adjust their goals according to the circumstances
(C) pay too much attention to details only to lose their major objectives
(D) are capable of achieving perfect results in whatever they do
28. Which of the following is the author's device to the reader?
(A) Although too much attention to details may be costly, they should not be overlooked
(B) Don't forget details when drawing pictures
(C) Be aware of the importance of a task before undertaking it
(D) Careless applicants are not to be trusted
29. The example of the Apollo II moon launch is given to illustrate that _____.
(A) minor mistakes can be ignored in achieving major objectives
(B) failure is the mother of success
(C) adjustments are the key to the successful completion of any work
(D) keeping one's goal in mind helps in deciding which details can be overlooked
30. The best title for this passage would be _____.
(A) Don't Be a Perfectionist (C) Details and Major Objectives
(B) Importance of Adjustments (D) Hard Work Plus Good Luck
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
Britain almost more than any other country in the world must seriously face the problem of building upwards, that is to say, of accommodating a considerable proportion of its population in high blocks of flats. It is said that the English man objects to this type of existence, but if the case is such, he does in fact differ from the inhabitants of most countries of the world today. In the past our own blocks of flats have been associated with the lower-income groups and they have lacked the obvious provisions, such as central heating, constant hot water supply, electrically operated lifts from top to bottom, and so on, as well as such details, important notwithstanding (然而), as easy facilities for disposal of dust and rubbish and storage places for baby carriages in the ground floor, playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings, and drying grounds for washing. It is likely that the dispute regarding flats versus (對(duì)，對(duì)抗) individual houses will continue to rage on for a long time as far as Britain is concerned. And it is unfortunate that there should be hot feelings on both sides whenever this subject is raised. Those who oppose the building of flats base their case primarily on the assumption (設(shè)想) that everyone prefers an individual home and on the high cost per unit of accommodation. The latter ignores the higher cost of providing full services to a scattered community and the cost in both money and time of the journeys to work for the suburban resident.
31. We can infer from the passage that _____.
(A) English people, like most people in other countries, dislike living in flats
(B) people in most countries of the world today are not opposed to living in flats
(C) people in Britain are forced to move into high blocks of flats
(D) modern flats still fail to provide the necessary facilities for living
32. What is said about blocks of flats built in the past in Britain?
(A) They were mostly inhabited by people who did not earn much.
(B) They were usually not large enough to accommodate big families.
(C) They were sold to people before necessary facilities were installed.
(D) They provided playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings.
33. The word "rage" (Line 9) means _____.
(A) be ignored (C) encourage people greatly
(B) develop with great force (D) be in fashion
34. Some people oppose the building of flats because _____.
(A) the living expenses for each individual family are higher
(B) it involves higher cost compared with the building of houses
(C) they believe people like to live in houses with gardens
(D) the disposal of rubbish remains a problem for those living in flats
35. The author mentions that people who live in suburban houses _____.
(A) do not have access to easy facilities because they live away from the city
(B) have to pay a lot of money to employ people to do service work
(C) take longer time to know each other because they are a scattered community
(D) have to spend more money and time travelling to work every day
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
Where do pesticides (殺蟲劑) fit into the picture of environmental disease? We have seen that they now pollute soil, water and food, that they have the power to make our streams fishless and our gardens and woodlands silent and birdless. Man, however much he may like to pretend the contrary, is part of nature. Can he escape a pollution that is now so thoroughly distributed throughout our world:
We know that even single exposures to these chemicals, if the amount is large enough, can cause extremely severe poisoning. But this is not the major problem. The sudden illness or death of farmers, farmworkers, and others exposed to sufficient quantities of pesticides is very sad and should not occur. For the population as a whole, we must be more concerned with the delayed effects of absorbing small amounts of the pesticides that invisibly pollute our world.
Responsible public health officials have pointed out that the biological effects of chemicals are cumulative (累積) over long periods of time, and that the danger to individual may depend on the sum of the exposures received throughout his lifetime. For these very reasons the danger is easily ignored. It is human nature to shake off what may seem to us a threat of future disaster. "Men are naturally most impressed by diseases which have obvious signs, " says a wise physician, Dr Rene Dubos, "yet some of their worst enemies slowly approach them unnoticed."
36. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the sentence "Man... is part of nature" (Para. 1, Lines 3-4)?
(A) Man appears indifferent to what happens in nature.
(B) Man acts as if he does not belong to nature.
(C) Man can avoid the effects of environmental pollution.
(D) Man can escape his responsibilities for environmental effects of pesticides?
37. What is the author's attitude toward the environmental effects of pesticides?
(A) Pessimistic (C) Defensive
(B) Indifferent (D) Concerned
38. In the author's view, the sudden death caused by exposure to large amounts of pesticides _____.
(A) is not the worst of the negative consequences resulting from the use of pesticides
(B) now occurs most frequently among all accidental deaths
(C) has sharply increased so as to become the center of public attention
(D) is unavoidable because people can't do without pesticides in farming
39. People tend to ignore the delayed effects of exposure to chemical because _____.
(A) limited exposure to them does little harm to people's health
(B) the present is more important for them than the future
(C) the danger does not become apparent immediately
(D) humans are capable of withstanding small amounts of poisoning
40. It can be concluded from Dr. Dubos remarks that _____.
(A) people find invisible diseases difficult to deal with
(B) attacks by hidden enemies tend to be fatal
(C) diseases with obvious signs are easy to cure
(D) people tend to overlook hidden dangers caused by pesticides
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