Direction: In this part, there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the on
e that you think is the correct answer.
Passage 1
Every profession or trade, every science has its technical vocabulary, the function of which is partly to designate things of processes, which have no names in ordinary English, and partly to secure GREater exactness in nomenclature（术语）. Such special dialects, of jargons, are necessary in technical discussion of any kind. Being universally understood by the devotees of the particular science or art, they have the precision of a mathematical formula. Besides, they save time, for it is much more economical to name a process than to describe it. Thousands of these technical terms are very properly included in every large dictionary, yet, as a whole, they are rather on the outskirts of the English language than actually within its borders.
Different occupations, however, differ widely in the character of their special vocabularies，that is — terminology. In trades and handicrafts, and other vocations, like farming and fishery, that have occupied GREat numbers of men from remote times, the technical vocabulary, is very old. It consists largely of native words, or of borrowed words that have worked themselves into the very fiber of our language — to even the most minerest area of our life. Hence, though highly technical in many particulars, these vocabularies are more familiar in sound; and more generally understood, than most other technicalities. The special dialects of law, medicine, divinity, and philosophy have also, in their older strata, become pretty familiar to cultivated persons, and have contributed much to the popular vocabulary.
Yet every vocation still possesses a large body of technical terms that remain essentially foreign, even to educated speech. And the proportion has been much increased in the last fifty years, particularly in the various departments of natural and political science and in the mechanic arts. Here new terms are coined with the GREatest freedom, and abandoned with indifference when they have served their turn. Most of the new coinages are confined to special discussions, and seldom get into general literature or conversation. Yet no profession is nowadays, as all professions once were, a close guild.
The lawyer, the physician, the man of science, the divine, associates freely with his fellowcreatures, and does not meet them in a merely professional way, but still in daily use or even popular use; furthermore, what is called “popular science” makes everybody acquainted with modern views and recent discoveries.
Any important experiment, though made in a remote or provincial laboratory, is at once reported in the newspapers, and everybody is soon talking about it — as in the case of the roentgen rays(伦琴射线) and wireless telegraphy — everybody knows the new name almost immediately after the experiment is successful. Thus our common speech is always taking up new technical terms and making them commonplace.
1. Which statement is the main idea of this passage?
A. The author introduces something about special words in various professions and occupations
B. The author tells us the changing of special words
C. The author infers to us how the new words are formed
D. The author says something about technical terminology
2. According to the contents, can you infer the meaning of the word “outskirts”(Sentence 4, Paragraph 1)?
A. Outer areasB. The skirts worn outside
C. Inside of somethingD. On the border of something
3. What is the authors attitude towards special vocabularies?
A. Satisfied B. NegativeC. PositiveD. objective
4. Which of the following four sentences is the best to outline the meaning of the last paragraph?
A. New technical terms actually come from the common speech
B. Immediately after the new invention, the new technical terms are adopted by common speech
C. People like to invent new names for new discoveries
D. New words are easy to be accepted
5. Can you choose the reason of “Have contributed much to the popular vocabulary”（P. 2） from the four choices?
A. Because its easier to name a process than to describe it
B. Because popular words are badly in need of new words
C. Because the process of a technology describing is more difficult than we can imagine
D. Because inventions of new words are very difficult
Passage 2
Earthquake survivors trapped in rubble could one day be saved by an unlikely rescuer：a robotic caterpillar that burrows its way through debris. Just a few centimeters wide, the robot relies on magnetic fields to propel it through the kind of tiny crevices that would foil the wheeled or tracked search robots currently used to locate people trapped in collapsed buildings.
The caterpillars inventor, Norihiko Saga of Akita Prefectural University in Japan, will demonstrate his new method of locomotion at a conference on magnetic materials in Seattle. In addition to lights and cameras, a search caterpillar could be equipped with an array of sensors to measure other factors — such as radioactivity or oxygen levels — that could tell human rescuers if an area is safe to enter.
The magnetic caterpillar is amazingly simple. It moves by a process similar to peristalsis, the rhythmic contraction that moves food down yours intestine. Saga made the caterpillar from a series of rubber capsules filled with a magnetic fluid consisting of iron particles, water, and a detergentlike surfactant, which reduces the surface tension of the fluid. Each capsule is linked to the next by a pair of rubber rods. The caterpillars guts are wrapped in a clear, flexible polymer tube that protects it from the environment.
To make the caterpillar move forwards, Saga moves a magnetic field backwards along the caterpillar. Inside the caterpillars “head” capsule, magnetic fluid surges towards the attractive magnetic field, causing the capsule to bulge out to the sides and draw its front and rear portions up. As the magnetic field passes to the next capsule, the first breaks free and springs forward and the next capsule bunches up. In this way, the caterpillar can reach speeds of 4 centimeters per second as it crawls along.
Moving the magnetic field faster can make it traverse the caterpillar before all the capsules have sprung back to their original shapes. The segments then all spring back, almost but not quite simultaneously.
Saga plans to automate the movement of the caterpillar by placing electromagnets at regular intervals along the inside of its polymer tube. By phasing the current flow to the electromagnets, hell be able to control it wirelessly via remote control. He also needs to find a new type of rubber for the magnetic capsules, because the one hes using at the minute eventually begins to leak.
But crawling is not the most efficient form of locomotion for robots, says Robert Full of the University of California at Berkeley, an expert in animal motion who occasionally advises robotics designers. “If you look at the energetic cost of crawling, compared to walking, swimming or flying, crawling is very expensive,” he says. Walking, on the other every step, energy is conserved in the foot and then released to help the foot spring up.
Saga acknowledges this inefficiency but says his caterpillar is far more stable than one that walks, rolls on wheels or flies. It has no moving parts save for a few fluidfilled rubber capsules. Biped robots and wheeled robots require a smooth surface and are difficult to miniaturize, and flying robots have too many moving parts. “My peristaltic crawling robot is simple — and it works,” he says.
1. From this passage, we can learn that .
A. A robotic caterpillar can crawl by a pair of rubber rods.
B. When a caterpillar moves, the magnetic field moves backwards along it.
C. The environment couldnt influence a robotic caterpillars guts, which are wrapped in a capsule.
D. Crawling is very stable and efficient, and when it moves, only a few elements are needed.
2. According to this passage, which is not TRUE about the construction of the robotic caterpillar?
A. A robotic caterpillar is made from a series of rubber capsules filled with a magnetic fluid.
B. Iron particles, water, and a detergentlike surfactant form a magnetic fluid.
C. Each capsule filled with a magnetic fluid is linked to a pair of rubber rods.
D. In order to keep stable condition, the caterpillars guts are wrapped in a clear, flexible polymer tube.
3. The meaning of the word “peristalsis” in paragraph three is similar to .
A. swimmingB. flying C. crawlingD. walking
4. Comparing the robotic caterpillar and the other robots, which of the following is not true?
A. A smooth surface is indispensable to biped robots and wheeled robots.
B. Flying robots are very inconvenient when moving, because they have too many moving parts.
C. The robotic caterpillar only has rubber capsules filled with a magnetic fluid.
D. Its incapable for wheeled robots to locate trapped people because they are impossible to miniaturize.
5. The passage is mainly about .
A. why a robotic caterpillar can find trapped people
B. how a robotic caterpillar work
C. the instruction of the magnetic caterpillar
D. how a robotic caterpillar peristalsis
Passage 3
Like the glitter and glare of Las Vegas beckoning tourists to the gambling tables, the orbweaving spiny spider FLASHes its colorful back to lure unsuspecting quarry into its web.
The discovery of this lethal use of color runs contrary to the longheld belief that in the animal kingdom color is used generally to attract mates rather than to entice prey, says a Cornell University animal behavior researcher.
“Attraction is all casinos are about. They lure you; they want to get you there. They lure people with bright lights, cheap plane tickets, inexpensive hotel rooms, GREat shows and great meals,” says Mark E. Hauber of Cornells Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. “The spiny spiders work the same way.”
Haubers discovery will be described in a forthcoming issue of the Royal Entomological Society journal Ecological Entomology (September 2002), in an article, “Coloration attracts prey to a stationary predator”.
Bright colors and contrasting patterns should be rare in predators that use traps, since conspicuous body color is scientifically counterintuitive in stationary predators, says Hauber. Generally, he says, animals use “sitandwait” tactics in their concealed traps to capture prey, and colors and patterns only alert potential prey. Yet orbweaving arachnids, such as the spiny spiders of Australia, are brightly colored and have contrasting patterns on their bodies. Hauber found that the more colorful their backs, the GREater their chances of catching prey.
“It goes against what most scientists would have thought. Color is an attracting feature,” says Hauber. “While color on animals like parrots allows them to blend into the colorful rain forest, other animals use color to attract mates. In this case, the color lures prey to the web. Perhaps the color itself may look like flowers to the insects that eventually become entrapped in the web,” he says.
Hauber observed spiny spiders in northeastern Australia. He covered the yellowblack striped dorsal surface on the spiders backs with ink from a black felttip pen. Spiders with the black dorsal surface caught less prey than spiders with their normal colorful stripes. Repeatedly he found that the blackened spiny spiders always attracted and caught less prey.
“Perhaps the colors and patterns of their dorsal surface mimic the color of food — such as flowers — for visually oriented prey. It is also possible that the dorsal surface of the spiny spiders is highly reflective in the ultraviolet spectra, because these indicate the presence of field clearings adjacent to dense forests.”
Hauber also learned that spiny spiders set their webs at an angle and that they sit on the underside of their webs with their backs to the ground. This suggests, says Hauber, that sun and nearby vegetation offer camouflage for the web. “Daytime webbuilding and hunting, along with the web placement and orientation, is consistent with behavior that attracts prey traveling from darker areas to lighter ones, ” says Hauber.
Funding for the research came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship program.
1. This passage is mainly about .
A. the research about the means of spiny spider to entice prey
B. how spiny spider entice prey by using conspicuous body color
C. why colors are useful for spiny spider to entice prey
D. the difference between spiny spider and other animals catching prey
2. The purpose of the third paragraph is .
A. to analogy how the spiny spider use color to catch prey
B. to describe lively the method spiny spider uses
C. to describe the detail about casinos
D. to tell the readers why the insects are attracted by spiny spider
3. According to this passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Color is usually uses to attract mates in the animal kingdom, which is known long by human beings.
B. Generally, bright colors can only make other animals alterative.
C. Animals using traips usually havent bright colors and contrasting patterns.
D. Parrots also have bright colors because they use color to entice prey like spiny spider.
4. The experiment Hauber has done can tell us that .
A. spider with the black color caught less prey than those with their normal colorful stripes
B. the colors and patterns of spiny spider are like some flowers for visually oriented prey
C. the dorsal surface of the spiny spider is highly reflective in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum
D. in enticing prey, bright colors and patterns can help spiny spiders a lot
5. The proper title for this passage should be .
A. The Study on How Spiny Spiders Entice Prey
B. Spiny Spiders Use Color to Entice Prey, Not Mates
C. The Difference Between Spiny Spider and Other Animals
D. The Using of Colors in Enticing Prey
Passage 4
The cause of Alzheimers disease is unknown, but various studies suggest that its risk factors extend beyond genetics. Some studies have associates the disease with a dearth of physical activity. Others have linked Alzheimers disease to a lack of stimulating brainwork — fitting a useitorloseit scenario o cognitive decline.
A new study bolsters the view that both kinds of inactivity pose risks. People who have the memory loss, confusion, and disorientation of Alzheimers disease in old age were generally less active physically and intellectually between the ages of 20 and 60 than people who dont have the disease were, according to study coauthor Robert P. Friedland, a neurologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, and his colleagues.
The researchers collected lifestyle histories of 193 Alzheimers patients with an average age of 73. The scientists compared these with data on a control group of 358 people, average age 71, without Alzheimers.
The team then calculated the amount of leisure time each participant had spent between ages 20 and 60 on each of three types of activities. Passive activities included watching television, talking on the phone, and going to church. The scientists also tallied time spent on intellectual activities, such as reading, knitting, and playing a musical instrument, and on physical activities that included gardening, walking, and competitive sports.
The researchers tabulated how many different passive, intellectual, or physical pursuits each person performed, hours spent on them, and the person age of leisure time devoted to each.
After establishing an average overall activity level for all the studys participants, the researchers discovered that the Alzheimers patients were nearly four times as likely as the people without Alzheimers to fall below that average. In particular, the nonAlzheimers volunteers had devoted more time on average between ages 40 and 60 to intellectual activities and less to passive ones than had those who developed the disease. The researchers report their findings in the March 13 Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.
The only single activity in which Alzheimers patients on average significantly outperformed their counterparts was watching television, Friedland says.
While certain genetic factors seem to influence the brain deterioration associated with Alzheimers, these dont account for all cases of the disease. Indeed, studies of genetically similar people living in separate countries show divergent rates of Alzheimers disease.
The new study accounted for differences in education and income but not occupation. It doesnt point to a cause of Alzheimers or even predict who reinforce the value of remaining physically and mentally active, Friedland says. From an evolutionary standpoint, people are still physically designed to be active hunters and gatherers. “Being a couch potato,” he says, “is not our natural state.”
Intellectual stimulation may work the same way, he says. Studies indicate that a higher educational level makes a person less likely to develop Alzheimers disease. Some researchers suggest that challenging the brain builds reserves of functional brain tissue that protect people against the disease.
“This is a very intriguing study” built on “extremely rigorous” data collection and tabulation, says Mary S. Mittelman, an epidemiologist at New York University School of Medicine. However, she wonders why some people are active during their middle years while others arent. Could it be that a sedentary lifestyle really contributes to the development of Alzheimers, or does the ailment begin early in life and subtly steer a person toward a lifestyle?
“It could be a combination of both,” Friedland says.
1． At present, the main causes about Alzheimers learned by people are those except .
A. genetic factors
B. a lake of intellectual activities
C. a lake of passive activities
D. a lake of physical activities
2. According to this passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. The nonAlzheimers people spend more time than the Alzheimers patients both on physical activities and intellectual activities.
B. Alzheimers patients spend more time than nonAlzheimers people on watching TV.
C. The brain deterioration associated with Alzheimers can be influenced by genetic factors.
D. It is sure that a sedentary lifestyle has little with the development of Alzheimers.
3. We can learn from the new study mentioned in this passage that .
A. Differences in education, income and occupation can influence Alzheimers.
B. We cannot learn the real cause of Alzheimers from the new study now, but it points out the importance of remaining physically and mentally active.
C. Challenging the brain builds reserves of functional brain tissue, so a higher educated person will not get Alzheimers disease.
D. It tells us why some people are active during their middle years while others arent.
4. The purpose of the sentence “Being a couch potato is not our natural state.” is .
A. to tell us we are not couch potatoes naturally.
B. to prove that people are still physically designed to be active hunters and gatherers.
C. to emphasize the importance of activities.
D. to tell us watching TV too much is useless for our health.
5. The best title of this passage is .
A. Sedentary Offhours Link to Alzheimers
B. Please Do More Activities
C. The Cause of Alzheimers
D. The Study on Alzheimers
