2009年研究生入學(xué)資格考試（GCT）英語備考方略

典型例題：

Passage One
    As world population becomes denser, we will feel greater pressure from the expanding number of people. Some experts argue that we are approaching the limit of the number of people the earth can support adequately, and they feel we should turn to compulsory birth control. Other authorities feel that if birth control is imposed on the population, the future of mankind would be seriously jeopardized. They think that very intelligent people would be more likely to have fewer children and this would bring about a lowering of the general level of intelligence in the population as a whole. However some critics see a fallacy in this argument. In addition to genetics, they say, intelligence depends on an adequate diet, a good home environment, parental attention, and education－all of which are increasing in the world as the general population becomes more affluent.

1. Some people think birth control is    .
    A. not a workable idea          B. too strict
    C. only for religious people      D. dangerous

2. Critics say intelligence is based on    .
    A. a good home environment     B. adequate diet
    C. genetics                   D. all of the above

3. Can you define the word “fallacy” in the sentence “However, some critics sees a fallacy in this argument”?
    A. False idea.                   B. Different idea.
    C. Unique idea                  D. Dangerous idea.

4. Which of the following statements is not true?
    A. The whole world is faced with the problem of the increasing population.
    B. Some scientists argued that birth control can affect the level of intelligence.
    C. Genetics in one of the main factors to intelligence.
    D. Food, family attention and education have nothing to do with intelligence.

Passage Two
    Honeybees cannot live alone. Their body structure and instincts equip them for life in a colony of community, where they have a complex social organization and the various duties are divided among the individuals according to physical fitness and age. An individual worker bee cannot reproduce itself. While it may continue to live if forcibly isolated from its mates, it fails to care for itself adequately, and soon dies. Most insects have the ability to hibernate in winter, but the honeybee seem to have lost this. Since at low temperatures the bee will die, it must have the ability to make its own environment, so far as temperature is concerned. This makes a colony necessary to the bees in winter, so that they may collectively warm each other. Efficiency if not necessity, demands that the work of the colony be divided, and such a division of labor tends to enhance the reed to maintain the colony. The physical structure of the honeybee is further suited for the defense of the entire colony rather than for its own defense. The bee's barbed sting is used only once and. is made more effective by the fact that it is left behind in the victim. With the loss of the sting, however, the bee dies. This kind of defensive weapon is not of service to the individual, but to the community.

1. According to the passage, bees are fitted for communal life by virtue of their    .     A. flexibility and initiative     B. intelligence and sensitivity     C. independence and endurance
    D. instincts and form

2. It can be inferred from the passage that at one time bees had the ability to    .
    A. increase their activity in lower temperatures
    B. leave cold climates during winter
    C. remain dormant (休眠的) through periods of cold weather
    D. construct insulated hives

3. The passage states that bees differ from most other communities of insects in their need to
   .
    A. reproduce in large numbers
    B. control the temperature where they live
    C. divide the work of their colonies
    D. have a complex defense system
 
4. The honeybee's sting is particularly effective because it    .
    A. has many potential uses
    B. can kill several victims at once
    C. is located in the rear of the bee's body
    D. remains with the bee's victim
 
5. Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the passage?
     A. The Communal Life of Bees.
     B. The Structure of the Bees.
     C. The Organization of Insect Colonies.
     D. The Life of Social Insects.

Passage Three
      It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and/or heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings even in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution. Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a greenhouse effect－h(huán)olding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.
     Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particulate matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature-a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do riot know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely). Perhaps, if we very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now.

1. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution ________.
    A. caused widespread damage in the countryside
    B. affected the entire eastern half of the United States
    C. had damaging effects on health
    D. existed merely in urban and industrial areas

2. As far as the greenhouse effect is concerned, the author _____________.
    A. shares the same view with the scientists
    B. is uncertain of its occurrence
    C. rejects it as being ungrounded
    D. thinks that it will destroy the world soon

3. The word 'offset' in the 2nd paragraph could best be replaced by   
    A. slip into                      B. make up for
    C. set up                        D. catch up with

4. It can be inferred from the passage that   
    A. raising the world's temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life
      on the earth
B. lowering the world's temperature merely a few degrees would lead many major farming
  areas to disaster
    C. almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade
    D. the world's temperature will remain constant in the years to come