2016年职称英语新增文章

Ice Cream Taster Has Sweet JobJohn Harrison has what must be the most wanted job in the United States. He’s the official taster for Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, one of the nation’s best-selling brands. Harrison’s taste buds are insured for $1 million. ___1___ A nd when he isn’t doing that, he travels, buying Edy’s in supermarkets all over the country so that he can check for perfect appearance, texture, and flavor. After I interviewed Harrison, I realized that the life of an ice cream taster isn’t all Cookies ’n Cream —a flavor that* he invented, by the way. No, it’s extremely hard work, which requires discipline and selflessness.For one thing, he doesn’t swallow on the job. Like a coffee taster, Harrison spits. Using a gold spoon to avoid “off” flavors, he take s a small bite and moves it around in his mouth to introduce it to all 9,000 or so taste buds. ___2___ Then he breathes in gently to bring the aroma up through the back of his nose. Each step helps Harrison evaluate whether the ice cream has a good balance of dairy, sweetness, and added ingredients 一 the three-flavor components of ice cream. Then, even if the ice cream tastes heavenly, he puts it into a trash can. A full stomach makes it, impossible to judge the quality of the flavors.During the workweek, Harrison told me that he has to make other sacrifices, too: no onions, garlic, or spicy food, and no caffeine. Caffeine will block the taste buds, he says, so his breakfast is a cup of herbal tea. ___3___Harrison’s family has been in the ice cream busines s in one way or another1 for four generations, so Harrison has spent his entire life with it2. However, he has never lost his love for its cold, creamy sweetness. ___4___ On these occasions3, he does swallow, and he eats about a quart (0.95 liters) each week. By comparison4, the average person in the United States eats 23.2 quarts (21.96 liters) of ice cream and other frozen dairy products each year.Edy’s ice cream is available in dozens of flavors. So what flavor does the best-trained ice-cream taster in the country prefer? Vanilla! In fact, vanilla is the best-selling variety in the United States. ___5___ “It’s a very complex flavor,” Harrison says.词汇：taste bud 味蕾texture /'tekstʃə/a/ n. 质地aroma /ə'rəumə/ n. 芳香vanilla /və'mlə/ n. 香草注释：1. in one way or another：以某种方式,用这样或那样的方式2. has spent his entire life with it：为此他已付出一生。

关于职称英语新增文章版全国职称英语等级考试正是遵循这一规律,合理安排测试层面和难度结构,合理确定考试内容与职称关系,充分体现题型设置与考试内容自身特点,走具有中国特色的职称英语考试之路。

下面是店铺带来的关于职称英语新增文章，欢迎阅读!关于职称英语新增文章篇一An Essential Scientific ProcessAll life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of mostplants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food or other organic matter on the earth. Most organisms would disappear. The earth’s atmosphere would no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential for life on our planet.练习：1.In the first paragraph，the word “excess” meansA heavy.B extra.C green.D liquid.2.Which of the following does not move through a plant’s stomata?A Carbon dioxide.B Water vapor.C Oxygen.D Food.3.In the title, the term Essential Scientific Process refers toA photosynthesis.B the formation of glucose.C global warming.D water getting to the roots of plants.4.This passage is primarily developed byA explaining a process.B telling a story.C comparing and contrasting.D convincing the reader of plants’ importance.5.Another good title for this passage would beA Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.B Plants and Their Roots.C How Photosynthesis Works.D Why Our Earth Needs Water.答案与题解：1.B 前文讲到，植物产生的氧气一部分被植物自身消耗了，但植物消耗的氧气量远小于它们产生的氧气，因此可以推测这句话的意思应该是剩余的氧气对于动物以及其他生物体的生存是至关重要的。

职称英语新增文章全国专业技术人员职称英语等级考试(以下简称职称英语考试),是由国家人事部组织实施的一项外语考试,它根据英语在不同专业领域活动中的应用特点,结合专业技术人员掌握和应用英语的实际情况，。

下面是小编带来的2017年职称英语新增文章，欢迎阅读!2017年职称英语新增文章篇一The Apgar TestThe baby was bom at 3:36 p. m. At 3:37，she scored 4 out of 10 on her first test. At 3:41，she scored 8 out of 10. The doctor was glad.Another baby, bom at 8:24 p. m.，scored 3 out of 10 on his first test. He scored 4 out of 10 on his second test. He took another test at 8:34 and scored 5. 1 He called for help1.These newborn babies took a test called the Apgar test. This test helps doctors diagnose problems. 2 Most babies take two tests. The first is at 1 minute after birth, and the second is at 5 minutes after birth. If a baby’s sc ore at 5 minutes is less than 6，the baby takes another test at 10 minutes after birth.The Apgar test is not an intelligence test. It’s a test that shows a baby’s health right after it is bom. The Apgar test measures things such as a baby’s color, heart ra te, and breathing. The test has five parts, and the score for each part can be 0，1，or 2. 3A doctor named Virginia Apgar developed the test. Apgar went to medical school at Columbia University in New York City in 1929. She faced many challenges because she was the first woman in the program. However, she was one of the best students in her class. After medical school，she started treating patients2.Apgar also became a researcher in anesthesiology, a new topic in medicine at the time3. During her studies, she learned how to give patients anesthesia. 4In the 1940s，many women started to have anesthesia when they gave birth. Apgar had a question: How does anesthesia affect newborn babies? In 1949，when Apgar was a professor at Columbia’s medical school, she crea ted her simple test. She wrote a paper about her methods in 1953. Soon after, people started using the Apgar test around the world.In her work, Apgar saw that many newborns had problems. She wanted to help these babies survive. She stopped practicing medicine in 1959，and she went back to school to get a master’s degree in public health. 5Today，the Apgar test is still used all over the world. Newborn babies don’t know it, but Virginia Apgar is a very important person in the first few minutes of their lives.练习：A Doctors add the scores together for the total Apgar score.B She spent the rest of her life doing research and raising money to help newborn babies.C A score of 10 is uncommon.D The doctor was worried.E They decide if a baby is normal or needs special care.F Anesthesia is a procedure that makes patients lose consciousness, so they do not feel any painduring surgery. 2017年职称英语新增文章篇二Baby TalkBabies normally start to talk when they are 13 to 15 months old. Ryan Jones is only eight months old, but he is already “talking” with his parents. When lie is hungry, he opens andcloses his hand. This means milk. He also knows the signs for his favorite toy and the word more.Ryan is not deaf, and his parents are not deaf, but his mother and father are teaching him to sign. They say a word and make a sign at the same time. They repeat this again and again. When 1 Ryan’s parents think that he will be a happier baby because he can communicate with them.Ryan s parents are teaching Ryan to sign because of a man named Joseph Garcia. Although Garcia was not from a deaf family, he decided to learn American Sign Language (ASL). First, he took courses in ASL. Then he got a job helping deaf people communicate with hearing people. In his work, he saw many deaf parents sign to their infants. He noticed that these babies were able to communicate much earlier than hearing children. 2 When they were one year old, they could use as many as 50 signs.Garcia decided to try something new. He taught ASL to parents who were not deaf. The families started to teach signs to their infants when they were six or seven months old. 3 More and more parents took Garcia’s ASL classes. Like Ryan’s family, they were excited about signing with their babies. They wanted to give their babies a way to communicate before they could use spoken words.Some people worry about signing to babies. They are afraid that these babies won’t feel a need to talk. Maybe they will develop spoken language later than other babies. 4 In fact, one study found just the opposite. Signing babies actually learned to speak earlier than other children. As they grow older, these children are more interested in books. They also score higher on intelligence tests1.There is still a big question for parents: Which are the bestsigns to teach their babies? Some parents make their own signs. Other parents want to teach ASL. 5 There’s no clear answer，but we do know this: All signing babies and their families are talking quite a lot!练习：A However, research does not show this.B All parents want to teach babies to sign.C Ryan learns a new sign, his family is very excited.D These babies started using signs about two months later.E It can be useful because many people understand it.F They talked with signs by the time they were eight months old.。

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•此次给出的重点文章范围是环球根据历年考试出题情况，从教材中去除了在以前的考试中已经考过的文章而成的重点文章范围。

根据考试出题规律，考试在教材中选用的2-4篇文章，必定在我们给出的这些重点文章中，请大家务必好好复习。

•在考题预测班中，幺建华老师还会根据自己的经验，在本次给出的重点文章的基础上，进一步压缩考试范围，考题预测班3月中旬上线，敬请期待！•考题预测班的再次压缩范围，目的是为大家在最后阶段，能够更集中精力，复习最重点的文章，这是建立在大家已经全面复习了这次给出的重点文章的基础之上。

每年预测的命中率，在不同科目上都有所不同，因此切不只看考题预测班中点出的文章，那样存在一定的风险性，而是应该全面复习本次给出的文章，在考前5天左右的最后阶段，再把考题预测班中点出的文章细致的复习一次。

•2016年职称英语等级考试-理工类复习文章范围•文章名称前无任何标记的为C级文章；•文章名称标记了“*”的为B级文章；•文章名称标记了“+”的为A级文章；请根据自己的报考级别，优先掌握本级别，标记为红色的文章篇目；全国职称英语等级考试介绍及解题方法 (1)第一部分词汇选项 (27)词汇学习1 (27)词汇学习2 (27)词汇学习3 (28)词汇学习4 (29)词汇学习5 (30)词汇学习6 (30)词汇学习7 (31)词汇学习8 (32)词汇学习9 (33)词汇学习10 (33)答案与题解 (34)第二部分阅读判断 (51)第一篇Inventor of LED (51)第二篇El Nino (52)第三篇Smoking (54)第四篇Engineering Ethics (55)第五篇Rescue Platform (57)* 第六篇Microchip Research Center Created (58)* 第七篇Moderate Earthquake Strikes England (60)* 第八篇What Is a Dream? (62)* 第九篇Dangers Await Babies with Altitude (64)* 第十篇The Biology of Music (66)+ 第十一篇Bill Gates: Unleashing Your Creativity (67)+ 第十二篇Study Helps Predict Big Mediterranean Quake (69)+ 第十三篇The Northern Lights (71)+ 第十四篇Stage Fright (73)+ 第十五篇Image Martian Dust Panicles (75)第三部分概括大意与完成句子…(77)天道 qq2331136253第一篇More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing (77)第二篇Soot and Snow a Hot Combination (79)第三篇Icy Microbes (80)第四篇Compact Disks (82)第五篇LED Lighting (84)* 第六篇How We Form First Impression (86)* 第七篇Screen Test (87)* 第八篇The Mir Space Station (89)* 第九篇More Rural Research Is Needed (91)* 第十篇Washoe Learned American Sign Language (93)+ 第十一篇The Tiniest Electric Motor in the World (95)+ 第十二篇A Strong Greenhouse Gas (97)+ 第十三篇 Face Masks May Not Protect from Super-Flu (99)+ 第十四篇The Magic Io Personal Digital Pen (101)+ 第十五篇Maglev Trains (103)第四部分阅读理解 (106)第一篇Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles (106)第二篇World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict (108)第三篇Citizen Scientists (110)第四篇Motoring Technology (112)第五篇 Late-Night Drinking (114)第六篇Making Light of Sleep (116)第七篇Sugar Power for Cell Phones (117)第八篇 Eif fel Is an Eyeful (119)第九篇An Essential Scientific Process (122)第十篇Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers (123)第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach (125)第十二篇Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass (127)第十三篇Invisibility Ring... (130)第十四篇Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers (131)第十五篇Winged Robot Learns to Fly (133)第十六篇Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth (135)* 第十七篇A Sunshade for the Planet (137)* 第十八篇Thirst for Oil (139)* 第十九篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience (141)* 第二十篇Explorer of the Extreme Deep (143)* 第二十一篇Plant Gas (145)* 第二十二篇 Real-World Robots (147)* 第二十三篇Powering a City ? It's a Breeze (148)*第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires -a Loomin g Catastrophe (150)* 第二十五篇Eat to Live (153)* 第二十六篇Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently (155)* 第二十七篇Driven to Distraction (157)* 第二十八篇Sleep Lets Brain File Memories (159)* 第二十九篇I’1l Be Bach (161)* 第三十篇Digital Realm (163)* 第三十一篇Hurricane Katrina (165)* 第三十二篇 Mind-reading Machine (167)* 第三十三篇Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for RadioactiveWaste (169)+ 第三十四篇Batteries Built by Viruses (171)+第三十五篇Putting Plants to Work (173)+ 第三十六篇Listening Device Provides Landslide Early Warning (175)+第三十七篇“Don't Drink Alone” Gets New Meaning (177)+ 第三十八篇“Life Form Found” on Saturn's Titan (179)+ 第三十九篇Clone Farm (181)+ 第四十篇Teaching Math, Teaching Anxiety (183)+ 第四十一篇Too Little for Global Warming (185)+ 第四十二篇Renewable Energy Sources (187)+第四十三篇Forecasting Methods (190)+ 第四十四篇Defending the Theory of Evolution Still Seems Needed (192)+第四十五篇Small But Wise…(194)天道 qq2331136253+ 第四十六篇Ants Have Big Impact on Environment as “Ecosystem Engineers” (196)+ 第四十七篇Listening to Birdsong (198)+ 第四十八篇Researchers Discover Why Humans Began Walking Upright (200)+ 第四十九篇 U.S. Scientists Confirm Water on Mars (202)+ 第五十篇Cell Phones Increase Traffic, Pedestrian Fatalities (204)第五部分补全短文 (207)第一篇Mobile Phones (207)第二篇Baby Talk…(208) 【新增文章】第三篇Common Questions about Dreams…(210) 【新增文章】第四篇The Bilingual Brain (211)第五篇 A Record-Breaking Rover (212)* 第六篇The Apgar Test…(214) 【新增文章】* 第七篇Ice Cream Taster Has Sweet Job…(215) 【新增文章】* 第八篇Watching Micro currents Flow (216)* 第九篇Lightening Strikes (218)* 第十篇How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear (219)+ 第十一篇Virtual Driver (221)+ 第十二篇Musical Training Can Improve Communication Skills (222)+ 第十三篇Affectionate Androids (224)+ 第十四篇Primer on Smell…(225) 【新增文章】+ 第十五篇A Memory Drug? (227)第六部分完形填空 (229)第一篇Captain Cook Arrow Legend (229)第二篇Avalanche and Its Safety (231)第三篇Giant Structures (232)第四篇Animal’s “Sixth Sense” (235)第五篇Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind (237)* 第六篇Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely (239)* 第七篇An Intelligent Car…(241)天道 qq2331136253* 第八篇Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures (243)* 第九篇Wonder Webs (245)* 第十篇Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness (247)+ 第十一篇Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities (249)+ 第十二篇Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk (252)+ 第十三篇Better Solar Energy Systems: More Heat, More Light (254)+ 第十四篇Sharks Perform a Service for Earth's Waters (256)+ 第十五篇“Liquefaction" Key to Much of Japanese Earthquake Damage (258)。

Primer on SmellIn addition to bringing out1 the flavor of food, what does the sense of smell do for us?Smell “gives us information about place, about where we are,” says Randall Reed, a Johns Hopkins University professor whose specialty is the sense of smell. ___1___ “Whether we realize it or not, we collect a lot of information about who is around us based on smell,” says Reed. Even at a distance, odors can warn us of2 trouble — spoiled food, leaking gas, or fire. “It’s a great alert,” offers Donald Leopold, a doctor at Johns Hopkins. For example, if something in the oven is burning, everyone in the house knows it.With just a simple scent, smell can also evoke very intense emotion. Let’s say, for example, that the smell is purple petunias. ___2___ Now let’s imagine that your mother died when you were three, and she used to have a flower garden. You wouldn’t need to identify the smell or to have conscious memories of your mother or her garden. You would feel sad as soon as you smelled that spicy odor.Compared with3 animals, how well do people detect smelts?That depends on what you mean by “how well”. We are low on receptor cells ：current estimates say that humans have roughly five million smell-receptor cells, about as many as a mouse. ___3___Reed says that, across species, there is a relatively good correlation between the number of receptor cells and how strong the sense of smell is. “You can hardly find the olfactory bulb in a human brain ——it’s a pea-sized object. In a mouse, it’s a little bigger. It’s bean-sized in a rat, about the size of your little finger in a rabbit, and the size of your thumb in a bloodhound.”Does that mean that our sense of smell is not very acute?Not exactly. While we may not have the olfactory range of other creatures, the receptors we do have are as sensitive as those of any animal. ___4___ A trained “nose”, such as that of a professional in the perfume business, can name and distinguish about 10,000 odors. Reed says that a perfume expert can sniff a modem scent that has a hundred different odorants in it, go into the lab, and list the ingredients. “In a modest amount of time, he comes back with what to you or me would smell like a perfect imitation of tha t perfume. It’s amazing.”What happens to4 our sense of smell as we age?Many people continue to have good olfactory function as they get older. ___5___ Leopold says that smell is generally highest in childhood, stays the same from the teens through the 50s, and drops starting at about 60 for women and 65 for men. “The average 80-year-old is only able to smell things half as well as the average 20-year-old,” says Leopold.词汇：scent /sent/ n. 气味，香味petunia /pə'tju:niə/ n. 喇叭花olfactory /ɔl'fækt(ə)ri/ adj. 嗔觉的，味道的sniff /snif/ v. 嗅，闻，用力吸注释：1. bring out：使……显出，使……变得明显2. warn of：发出关于……的警告。

2016年职称英语等级考试用书（理工类）阅读理解、完形填空Microchip Research Center CreatedA research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced microchip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology.The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance2.As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years3, plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while4 plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars.5 The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners — mainly from Japan and Singapore.Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry,6 the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property7 owners. 词汇: microchip / 5maIkrEJtFIp / n.微芯片marginalize /`mB:dVInLlaIz/ v.忽视，边缘化flagship /5flA^FIp/ n. (用作定语 )首位，最好 vendor /5vendC:/ n.卖主mainstream /5meInstri:m/ n.主流注释:微芯片研究中心成立为了开发先进的微芯片生产技术，这个远东国家建立了一个研究中心，该中心启动资金为一千四百万美元，可以帮助该国开发自己的芯片工业，不必总是依赖于进口技术。

第四部阅读理解第十七篇 A Sunshade for the Planet第十八篇 Thirst for Oil第十九篇 Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience第二十篇 Explorer of the Extreme Deep第二十一篇 Plant Gas第二十二篇 Snowflakes第二十三篇 Powering a City? It's a Breeze.第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires -- a Looming Catastrophe第二十五篇 Eat to Live第二十六篇 Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently第二十七篇 Driven to Distraction第二十八篇 Sleep Lets Brain File Memories第二十九篇 Food Fright第三十篇 Digital Realm*第三十一篇 Hurricane Katrina*第三十二篇 Mind-reading Machine*第三十三篇 Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive*第三十四篇Batteries Built by Viruses*第三十五篇 Putting Plants to work*第三十六篇 Listening Device Provides Landslide Early Warning*第三十七篇 "Don't Drink Alone" Gets New Meaning*第三十八篇 "Life Form Found" on Saturn's Titan*第三十九篇 Clone Farm*第四十篇 Teaching Math, Teaching Anxiety+第四十一篇 Too Little for Global Warming+第四十二篇 Renewable Energy Sources+第四十三篇 Forecasting Methods+第四十四篇 Defending the Theory of Evolution Still Seems Needed+第四十五篇 Small But Wise+第四十六篇Ants Have Big Impact on Environment as "Ecosystem Engineers"+第四十七篇 Listening to Birdsong+第四十八篇 Researchers Discover Why Humans Began Walking Upright+第四十九篇 U.S. Scientists Confirm Water on Mars+第五十篇 Cell Phones Increase Traffic, Pedestrian Fatalities第一篇至第三十篇为C级，第三十一篇至第四十篇为B级，第四十一篇至第五十篇为A级第五部分补全短文第一篇 Mobile phones第一篇The World’s Longest Bridge第二篇Reinventing the Table第三篇Don’t Rely on Plankton to Save the Planet第四篇The Magic of Sound第五篇Dung to Death第六篇Time in the Animal World第七篇Watching Microcurrents Flow第八篇Heat Is killer 第九篇High Dive第十篇*Virtual Driver第十一篇*Musical Training Can Improve CommunicationSkills第十二篇+Sleeping Giant第十三篇+Robotic Highway Cones第十四篇+The Arctic Ice Is Thawing第六部分完型填空第六篇 Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely第七篇 An Intelligent Car第八篇Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures第九篇 Wonder Webs第十篇Chicken Soup for the Soul：Comfort FoodFights Loneliness*第十一篇 Climate Change Poses Major Risks forUnprepared Cities*第十二篇 Free Statins With Fast Food CouldNeutralize Heart Risk+第十三篇 Better Solar Energy Systems: More Heat, MoreLight+第十四篇Sharks Perform a Service for Earth's Waters+第十五篇“Liquefaction” Key to Much of JapaneseEarthquake Damage1、Common Questions about Dreams2、Baby Talk3、The Apgar Test4、Ice Cream Taster Has Sweet Job5、Primer on Smell第十七篇A Sunshade for the PlanetEven with the best will1in the world, reducing ourcarbon emissions is not going prevent global warming.It has become clear that even if we take the most strongmeasures to control emissions, the uncertainties in ourclimate models still leave open the possibility ofextreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time,resistance by governments and special interest groupsmakes it quite possible that the actions suggested byclimate scientists might not be implemented soon enough./Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse2,scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves3.For the most part they have strongly resisted discussingthese options for fear of inviting a sense ofcomplacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the rootof the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number ofresearchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale“geoengineering” projects that might be used tocounteract global warming. “I use the analogy ofmethadone4,” says Stephen Schnei der, a climateresearcher at Stanford University in California who wasamong the first to draw attention to global warming.“If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment ishospitalization, and a long rehab. But if theyabsolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin./Basically the idea is to apply “sunscreen” to thewhole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radicalplan to cool Earth: launch trillions of feather-lightdiscs into space, where they would form a vast cloud thatwould block the sun’s rays. It’s controversial, butrecent studies suggest there are ways to deflect justenough of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface tocounteract the warming produced by the greenhouseeffect. Global climate models show that blocking just1. 8 p er cent of the incident energy in the sun’s rayswould cancel out the warming effects produced by adoubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Thatcould be crucial, because even the most severeemissions-control measures being proposed would leaveus with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of thiscentury, and that would last for at least a century more.练习: 1. According to the first two paragraphs，theauthor thinks that C despite the difficulty, scientistshave some options to prevent global warming.2.Scientists resist talking about their options becausethey don’t want people to C think the problem has beensolved.3. What does Stephen Schneider say about a heroinaddict and methadone? A Methadone is an effective wayto treat a hard heroin addict.4. What is StephenSchneider’s idea of preventing global warming? C Toapply sunscreen to the Earth.5. What is NOT true of theeffectiveness of “sunscreen”, according to the lastparagraph? D It decreases greenhouse gases in theatmosphere.第十八篇Thirst for OilWorldwide every day, we devour the energy equivalent ofabout 200 million barrels of oil. Most of the energy onEarth comes from the Sun. In fact enough energy from theSun hits the planet’s surface each minute to cover ourneeds for an entire year, we just need to find anefficient way to use it. So far the energy in oil hasbeen cheaper and easier to get at. But as suppliesdwindle, this will change, and we will need to cure ouraddiction to oil.Burning wood satisfied most energy needs until thesteam-driven industrial revolution, when energy-densecoal became the fuel of choice. Coal is still used,mostly in power stations, to cover one quarter of ourenergy needs, but its use has been declining since westarted pumping up oil. Coal is the least efficient,unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossilfuel, but could make a comeback, as supplies are stillplentiful: its reserves are five times larger thanoil’s.Today petroleum, a mineral oil obtained from below thesurface of the Earth and used to produce petrol, dieseloil and various other chemical substances, providesaround 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuellingautomobiles. The US consumes n quarter of all oil, andgenerates a similar proportion of greenhouse gasemissions.The majority of oil comes from the Middle East, whichhas half of known reserves. But other significantsources include Russia, North America, Norway,Venezuela and the North Sea. Alaska’s Arctic NationalWildlife Refuge1could be a major new US source, to reducereliance on foreign imports. Most experts predict wewill exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years,though opinions and estimates vary. We could fast reachan energy crisis in the next few decades, when demandexceeds supply. As conventional reserves become moredifficult to access, others such as oil shales and tarsands may be used instead. Petrol could also be obtainedfrom coal. Since we started using fossil fuels, we havereleased 400 billion tonnes2of carbon, and burning theentire reserves could eventually raise worldtemperatures by 130 C. Among other horrors, this wouldresult in the destruction of all rainforests and themelting of all Arctic ice.练习: 1. “… we will need tocure our addiction to oil.”Why does the author say so?D Oil supply is decreasing. 2. Which of the followingstatements is NOT meant by the author, according to thesecond paragraph? C Coal is the most environmentallyunfriendly fuel next to oil. 3. Which country is thebiggest consumer of petroleum? A The United States.4.What do experts say about the earth’s fuel reserves?B There will soon be an energy crisis. 5. What is NOTthe result of consuming fossil fuels according to thelast paragraph? D The sea level will go up.第十九篇 Musical Robot Companion Enhances ListenerExperienceShimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’sCenter for Music Technology, recommends songs, dancesto the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listenerfeedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robotis billed as an i nteractive “musical friend”./“Shimiis designed to change the way that people enjoy and thinkabout their music，”said Professor Gil Weinberg, therobot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band ofthree Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing insync with music created in the lab and composedaccording to its movements./Shimi is essentially adocking station with a “brain” powered by an Androidphone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing andmusical generation capabilities of the user’s mobiledevice. In other words, if there’s an “app” for that,Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’scamera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow alistener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognitionfeature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user tapsa beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musicallibrary and immediately plays the song that best matchesthe suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances tothe rhythm.“Many people think that robots are limited by theirprogramming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D.candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots c anbe creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in theworks will allow the user to shake their head indisagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimito skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume.The robot will also have the capability to recommend newmusic based on the user’s song choices and providefeedback on the music play list./Weinberg hopes otherdevelopers will be inspired to create more apps toexpand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities.“I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution thatwill see more robots in homes.” Weinbergsaid./Weinberg is in the process of commercializingShimi through an exclusive licensing agreement withGeorgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot availableto consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots aregoing to arrive in homes, we think that they will be thiskind of machines一 small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pavethe way for more intelligent service robots in ourlives.”练习：1.Which of the following is NOT trueaccording to the first three paragraphs?B Shimi is thecreator of the musical companion.2.What does Shimi doif the user taps a beat?D It selects a perfectly-matchedsong and plays it in sync with that beat.3.Which of thefollowing about Shimi is true?DShimi can be creative andinteractive.4.What does the author want to tell us?A Theresearch center is developing a stronger and moreversatile Shimi.5.Which of the following is Weinberg’sassertion?B human lives will be filled with more fun ifShimi is going to arrive in homes.第二十篇Explorer of the Extreme DeepOceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet. Yet,just a small fraction of the underwater world has beenexplored. Now, Scientists at the Woods Hole 1 Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle that will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet). The new machine, known as a manned submersible orhuman-operated vehicle (HOV), will replace another onenamed Alvin 2, which has an amazing record of discovery, playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions. Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet). It’s about time for an upgrade, WHOI researchers say. /Alvin was launched in 1964. Since then, Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year, says Daniel Fornari, a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI. During its lifetime, Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives. A newer, better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises about a world that is still full of mysteries, Fornari says. It might also make the job of exploration a little easier. “We take so much for granted on land,” Fornari says. “We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are. We can see colors, special arrangements.”Size-wise, the new HOV will be similar to Alvin . It’ll be about 37 feet long. The setting area inside will be a small sphere, about 8 feet wide, like Alvin , it’ll carry a pilot and two passengers. It will be just as maneuverable. In most other ways, it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view, for one thing. Alvi has only three windows, the new vehicle will have five, with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing.Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second, and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour), while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second. It’ll reach speeds of 3 knots, or 3.5 miles per hour.练习: 1. What is Alvin? C A submersible. 2. Which of the following statements is NOT a fact about Alvin? A It can carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters. 3. “… a world that is still full of mysteries” refers to D Shape. 5. In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin different? D Both A and B. 第二十一篇 Plant GasScientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades hut hadn’t regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the MaxPlanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heldelberg,Germany 1. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees, may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane production requires an oxygen-free environment.Previously, researchers had thought that it wasimpossible for plants to make significant amounts of thegas. They had assumed that microbes 2 need to be in environments without oxygen to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere and contribute to global warming. In its experiments, Keppler’s team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth’s atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves. /With the dried plants, the researchers tookmeasurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found,a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms of methane per hour. (One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.) With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled. /Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight. Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it’s unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions. That’s another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes. /The new finding is an “interesting observation,” says Jennifer Y.King, a biogeochemist at the University of Minnesota inSt. Paul 3. Because some types of soil microbes consume methane, they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant’s influence, she notes. 练习: 1. What was scientists’ understanding of methane? C It was produced in oxygen-free environments. 2. To testwhether plants are a source of methane, the scientists created B an environment with the same concentration of oxygen as the Earth has. 3. Which statement is true of the methane emissions of plants in the experiment? D The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of methane emissions. 4. Which of the following about methane is Not mentioned in the passage? D Microbes in plants produce methane. 5. What is the beneficial point of some microbes consuming plant-produced methane? CLess methane reaches the atmosphere.第二十三篇 Powering a City? It’s a Breeze.1The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries — a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips — yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole turbines.2 Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine” is a high -tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftopsof busy cities. Lighter, quieter, and often moreefficient than rural counterparts 3, they take advantageof the extreme turbulence 4 and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns. Prototypes havebeen successfully tested in several Dutch cities, andthe city government in the Hague 5 has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$ 8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. A typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours. But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercialbuildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane. Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but theever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. TheNetherlands, with 16 million people crowded into acountry twice the size of Slovenia 6, is the most denselypopulated in Europe. Problems remain, however, forexample, public safety concerns 7, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturer. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. Peop le don’t know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to oneof the big turbines. It might be too hectic. Meanwhile,projects are under way 8 to use minimills 9 to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think t he thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It’s a very local technology, and you can use it right in your backyard, I don’t think anybody wants a nuclear p ower plant in their backyard.”练习： 1. What are the symbols of the Netherlands according to the first paragraph? B Wooden shoes and wooden windmills. 2. Which statement best describes the urban turbine mentioned in the second paragraph? A It is a windmill put on rooftops of buildings for energy generation. B It is a high-tech machine designed to generate energy for urban people. 3. The smallest models of an urban turbine C can be carried up to the rooftop without a crane. D can he installed with a crane. 4. Netherlands leads in the urban turbine technology becauseD the Netherlands is a small country with a large population. 5. According to the last paragraph, what are the advantages of wind power technology? D Both A and C.第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires — a Looming Catastrophe1 Coal burning deep underground in China ， India andIndonesia is threatening the environment and human life,scientists have warned.2 These large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and killsurrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases andcan even ignite forest fires, a panel 3 of scientists toldthe annual meeting of the American Association for theAdvancement of Science in Denver 4. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned. “Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East GeorgiaCollege in Swainsboro , USA. But surprisingly few peopleknow about them. Coal can heat up on its own 5, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not caused todisappear and under the right combinations of sunlightand oxygen, can trigger spontaneous 6 catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coalstockpiles 7, abandoned mines or even as coal istransported. Such fires in China consume 8 up to 9 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U. S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted forpublication in the International journal of CoalEcology . Once underway,10 coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases, poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere. /The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, and agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to detect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country. /Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing 11 the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a beat-resistant grout (athin mortar 12used to fill cracks and crevices) , whichis designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off 13 the oxygen supply.练习: 1. According to the first paragraph, one or the warnings given by the scientists is that C poisonous elements released by the underground fires can pollute water sources. 2. According to the third paragraph, what will happen when the underground heat does not disappear? A Coal heats up on its own and catches fire and burns. 3. What did Stracher analyze in his article published in the International Journal of Coat Ecology? D Coal fires can have an impact on the environment. 4. Which of the following statements about Paul Van Dijk is NOT true? B He has detected and monitored underground fires in the Netherlands. 5. According to the fifth paragraph, what is the suggested method to control underground fires? D Cutting off the oxygen supply. 第二十五篇 Eat to LiveA meager diet may give you health and long life, butit’s not much fun — and it might not even be necessary.We may be able to hang on to 1 most of that youthful vigor even if we don’t start to diet until old age.Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse’s liver genes can he made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won’t reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, butcould help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid oftoxins.2 /Spindlers team fed three mice a normal diet fortheir whole lives, and fed another three onhalf-rations 3. Three more mice were switched from thenormal diet to half-feed 3 for a month when they were 34 months old — equivalent to about 70 human years. /The researchers checked the activity of 11, 000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age inthe normally fed mice. The changes were associated withthings like inflammation and free radical production 4 — probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted nil their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent ofthese gene changes. /“This is the first indication thatthese effects kick in 5 pretty quickly.” say Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington D. C.No one yet knows if calorie restriction works in people as it does in mice, but Spindler is hopeful. “There’s attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work ,” he says. /If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, our bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug iseffective. /But Spindler isn’t sure the trade -off isworth it 6. “The mice get less disease, they live lo nger, but they’re hungry,” he says, “Even seeing what a diet does , it’s still hard to go to a restaurant and say: ‘I can only cat half of that’.” Spindler hopes we soon won’t need to diet at all. His company, Lifespan Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of caloric restriction.练习: 1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true? D We have to begin dieting since childhood. 2. Why does the author mention an elderly mouse in paragraph 2? B To illustrate the effect of meager food on mice. 3. What can he inferred about completely normally fed micementioned in the passage? D They are more likely to suffer from inflammation. 4. According to the author, which of the following most interested the researchers? A The mice that started dieting in old age. 5. According 10 the last two paragraphs, Spindler believes that C dieting is not a good method to give us health and long life.第二十六篇 Male and Female Pilots Cause AccidentsDifferentlyMale pilots flying general aviation 1 (private) aircraft in the United States are more likely to crash due to inattention or flawed decision-making, while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft. These are results of a study fly researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.The study identifies difference between male and femalepilot in terms of circumstances or the crash and the typeor pilots error involved 2. “Crashes of general aviationaircraft account for 85 percent of all aviation deaths 3in the United States. The crash rate for male pilots,as for motor vehicle drivers, exceeds that 4 of crashes of female pilots.” explains Susan P. B aker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Because pilotyouth and inexperience are established 5 contributors toaviation crashes 6, we focused on only mature pilots, to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.” The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety. The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997, involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40-63. Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a 1:2 ratio, by age, classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash, and year of crash. Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common circumstance for both sexes, leading to 59 percent of female pilots’ crashes and 36 percent of males’. Experiencing mechanicalfailure, running out of fuel, and landing the plane withthe landing gear up 7 were among the factors more likely with males, while stalling was more likely with females. /The majority of the crashes — 95 percent for females and 88 percent for males — involved at least one type of pilot error. Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females (accounting for 81 percent of the crashes)than males (accounting for 48 percent ). Males, however,appeared more likely to be guilty of 8 poor decision-making, risk-taking, and inattentiveness,examples of whichinclude misjudging weather and visibility 9 or flying an aircraft with a known defect. Females, though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft,were generally more careful than their malecounterparts 10. 练习 : 1. What is the research at Johns Hopkins University about ？ B Gender difference in relation to types of aircraft crashes. 2. Which of the statements is NOT true according to the second paragraph? C It is commonly known that aircraft crashes are mostly caused by young and inexperienced pilots.3. How did the researchers carry out their study? A They studied the findings of several previous research projects. 4. What is the most common circumstance of crash with femalepilots? B Loss of control on landing or takeoff and stalling. 5. In the comparison of female and male pilots. D male pilots are found to make more errors in decision-making.第二十七篇 Driven to DistractionJoe Coyne slides into the driver’s seat, starts up thecar and heads 1 to town. The empty stretch of interstategives way to urban congestion 2, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.But even if he hadn’t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn’t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn’t really driving. Coyne is demonstratinga computerized driving simulator that is helpingresearchers at Old Dominion University 3 (ODU) examinehow in-vehicle guidance systems affect the personbehind the wheel.4 /The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, aretoo distracting — or whether any distractions areoffset 5 by the benefits drivers get from having helpfinding their way in unfamiliar locations.6 /“We are looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor lending the research, which involvesmeasuring drivers reaction time and brain activity asthey respond to auditory and visual cues 7.The researchers just completed a study of the mentalworkload 8 involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs, light traffic.Preliminary results show that as p eople “get into more challenging driving situations, they don’t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment.” Baldwin said.But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. The next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers’ mental workload. /“Is it best if they seea picture… that shows their position, a map kind of display?9”Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?” /Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They’re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.” /That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions. Baldwin said. Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choosethe style of directions they want, or modify systems topresent some information in a way that makes sense 10 for people who prefer the survey style, she said.Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don’t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.练习: 1. Which statement is true of the description in the first two paragraphs? C Coyne is not really driving so it is impossible for him to have hit the woman. 2. What do researchers want to find out, according to the third and fourth paragraphs? D All of the above. 3. What are the preliminary results given in the fifth paragraph? C In challenging driving situations, drivers do not have any additional mental energy to deal with something else. 4. The sixth paragraph mainly state that the researchers D want to determine the best ways of giving navigational information system. 5. What kind of directions do menand women prefer? B Men prefer more general directionand women prefer route directions.第二十八篇 Sleep Lets Brain File Memories 1To sleep. Perchance to file?2 Findings published online this week by the Proceedings 3 of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brainorganizes and stows memories formed during the day whilethe rest of the body is catching zzz’s 4. /Gyorgy Buzsakiof Rutgers University 5 and his colleagues analyzed thebrain waves of sleeping rats and mice. Specifically,they examined the electrical activity emanating from 6the somatosensory neocortex 7 (an area that processessensory information) and the hippocampus 8, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillations in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles(bursts of activity from the neocortex) were followedtens of milliseconds 9 later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation. A second study, also published onlinethis week by the Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences, links age-associated memory decline 10 to high glucose levels. /Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied 30 people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend toincrease with age, affect memory in healthy people aswell. The scientists administered 11 recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body’s tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects betterable to absorb blood sugar. /“Our study suggests thatthis impairment 12 may contribute to the memory deficits 13 that occur as people age.” Convit says. “And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucosetolerance could reverse some age-associated problems incognition.14” Exercise and weight control can help keepglucose levels in check 15, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.练习： 1. Which of the following statements is nearest in meaning to the sentence “To sleep. Perchance to file?”? A Does brain arrange memories in useful order during sleep? 2. What is the result of the experiment with rats and mice carried out at Rutgers University? C Somatosensory neocortex and hippocampus work together in memory consolidation. 3. What is the relation of memory to glucose tolerance, as is indicated by a research mentioned in paragraph 4? D The poorer the memory, the poorer glucose tolerance. 4. In what way is memory related to hippocampus shrinkage? B The more hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory. 5. According to the last paragraph, what is the ultimate reason for going to the gym? D To control glucose levels. 第二十九篇 Food FrightExperiments under way in several labs aim to create beneficial types of genetically modified (GM) foods, including starchier potatoes and caffeine-free coffee beans. Genetic engineers are even trying to transfer genes from a cold-water fish to make a frost-resistant tomato. A low-sugar GM strawberry now in the works might one day allow people with health problems such as diabetes to enjoy the little delicious red fruits again. GM beans and grains supercharged with protein might helppeople at risk of developing kwashiorkor.1Kwashiorkor,a disease caused by severe lack of protein, is common in parts of the world where there are severe food shortages. /Commenting on GM foods, Jonathon Jones, aBritish researcher, said. “The future benefits will beenormous, and the best is yet to come.2” /To some people, GM foods are no different from unmodified foods. “A tomato is a tomato,” said Brian Sansoni, an American food manufacturer.Critics of GM foods challenge Sansonis opinion. They worry about the harm that GM crops might do to people, other animals, and plants. /In a recent lab study conducted at Cornell University, scientists tested pollen made by Bt corn, which makes up one-fourth of the U. S. corn crop. The scientist sprinkled the pollen onto milkweed, a plant that makes a milky juice and is the only known food source of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. Within four days of munching on the milkweed leaves, almost half of a test group of caterpillars had died. “Monarchs are considered to be a flagship species for conservation,” said Cornell researcher Linda Ray nor. “This is a warning bell.”/Some insects that are not killed by GM foods might findthemselves made stronger 3. How so? The insecticides usedto protect most of today’s crops are spra yed on thecrops when needed 4 and decay quickly in the environment. But GM plants produce a continuous level of insecticide. Insect species feeding on those crops may develop resistance to the plants and could do so in a hurry, say the critics. Insects may also develop a resistance to the insecticide Bt. At the forum on GM food held last year in Canada, GM crops that have been made resistantto the herbicide might crossbreed with wild plants,creating “super weeds”5 that could take over whole fields. So where do you stand? Should GM foods be banned in the United States, as they are in parts of Europe? Or do their benefits outweigh any of the risks they might carry?练习: 1. Paragraphs 1、2 &. 3 try to give the idea that A GM foods may bring about great benefits to humans. 2. Why is the case of the pollen-sprayed milkweed cited in Paragraph 6? C It is cited to show GM foods also have a dark side. 3. What happens to those insects when not killed by the spray of insecticide? B They may have a higher ability to adapt to the environment. 4. Which of the following statements concerning banning GM foods is true according to the passage? D The United States has not banned GM foods. 5. What is the writer’s attitude to GM foods? A We cannot tell from the passage. 第三十篇 Digital RealmIn the digital realm, the next big advance will be voicerecognition 1. The rudiments 2 are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,”and it is likely to think you want it to “wreck a nicebeach.”3But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away 4 andmachines will soak it all in 5. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not onlyto our computers, we’ll also be able to chat with ourautomobile navigation systems, telephone consoles 6,browsers, thermostats. VCRs, microwaves and any otherdevices we want to boss around 7.That will open the way to the next phase of the digitalage : artificial intelligence 8. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how wethink so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds andact as our agents. Scary, huh 9? But potentially quite useful. At least until they decide they don’t need us。

1第一篇Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes, or1 LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has given the award to prominent inventors.“Any time you get an award, big or little2, it’s always a surprise.”Holonyak said.Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After graduate school3, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric4, where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches5. Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were lookingat how to generate invisible light, he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today, but didn’t realize how many uses they would have. “You don’t know in the beginning. You think you’re doing something important, you think it’s worth doing, but you really can’t tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don’t know.”he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Awardfor her work on a new generation of “molecular sieves,”that can separate molecules by size. 词汇：semiconductor /第一篇LED的发明者当Nick Holonyak着手用半导体含金创造一种新的可视照明设备的时候，同事们都认为他不现实。

2016年职称英语理工A考生必看——2013年到2015年职称英语理工A出自教材文章汇总职称英语考试在2014年之前，都会从职称英语教材中选取两篇文章作为真题，一篇阅读理解，一篇完形填空，而且阅读理解就是从教材的阅读理解里面出题，完形填空也是从教材中的完形填空出题。

2014年职称英语考试开始改革，跨级别跨类别跨题型出题。

2015年职称英语出题，依然延续2014年职称英语出题风格。

2016年职称英语出题，应该依然延续跨题型出题风格。

在此为2016年职称理工A类考生总结一下从2014年到2015年职称英语理工A从教材出题情况，分析一下这几年职称英语理工A出题难易程度。

预测一下2016年职称英语理工A出题情况。

职称英语理工A自2013年到2015年从教材选取文章汇总规律总结：2013年职称英语理工A从教材中选取了2篇文章，一篇阅读理解，一篇完形填空。

有原题。

没有跨题型出题。

难度级别低。

2014年职称英语理工A从教材中选取了2篇文章。

阅读理解从教材中选了理工A阅读判断。

完形填空选取的是补全短文的文章。

属于跨题型出题。

2014年是职称英语第一年改革，跨题型出题，考生没有复习到，也没有心理准备，所以难度级别高。

2015年职称英语理工A从教材中选取了3篇文章，2篇阅读理解，1篇完形填空。

两篇阅读理解一篇选自理工A的完形填空，一篇选自理工A的概括大意与完成句子。

两篇文章都是属于理工A的文章。

完形填空选自理工A的补全短文，属于跨题型出题。

2015年考生已经知道职称英语出题风格变化，有心理准备，而且三篇文章都是A级别的文章，所以2015年理工A的难度中等。

值得大家注意的是，Better Solar Energy Systems: More Heat, More Light这篇文章，在2013年理工A完形填空中考过，2015年又作为阅读理解来出题。

所以教材上考过的文章并不是百分之百不会再考了。

预测2016年职称英语理工A会延续2014年和2015年的出题风格，依然是跨题型出题，会从教材选取2到3篇左右的文章。

职称外语考试取消？独家揭秘2016考试内幕新东方在线职称外语教研组李莹莹2016年职称外语考试已经结束，这场没有硝烟的战争，总算落下了帷幕。

今年的职称外语考试与往年有何不同，命题趋势有什么变化？职称外语真的会取消么？新形式下职称外语究竟应该如何备考，新东方在线职称外语教研组李莹莹老师为大家独家揭秘2016职称外语考试，希望对大家有帮助。

一、搞定考试第一步，选对词典很重要职称外语考生都知道，职称考试，对我们学员最大的福利就是可以带一本词典进入考场，一方面，是为了搞定第一题词汇选项的15分，另一方面，阅读文章不认识的单词，我们也可以借助词典的帮忙。

按照规定，严谨携带附有“职称外语”和“同义词”字样的词典进入考场。

当然各地的考场环境不同，严厉的老师，一本一本的翻查词典，不合格的直接没收；当然也有的考场，监考老师全程保持静坐姿势，一动不动，方便大家“安心”考试。

据新东方在线学员的反映，某老师的词典被没收的较多，考生一怒之下，转头罢考的也不是少数，小编也是感觉很心酸，默默感叹，明年再见；某些词典虽然暗藏同义词部分，但是真真不给力，15个题目，查不到三瓜俩枣，你确定不是在逗我；当然有的词典还是不错的，群言出版社的新编实用英汉词典，据大量考生反映，找到12-13非常容易 , 冲击14-15 不是梦！另外阅读理解中的同意替换题目，也是可以查到3-6分，有木有很感动！一言以蔽之，选对好词典，送你20分！二、教材文章出题少，专项练习很有必要2013 年职称英语考试改革之后，考试中从教材会选择2-3篇文章，进行改编考查，考生的复习重点也是局限在教材上，翻来覆去，颠来倒去的看看看，但2016年考试之后，我们惊讶的发现：啊？教材文章只有一篇！据统计调查发现，2016年职称英语考试真题中，理工AB各自有一篇教材原文出现，C级无原文；综合ABC 各自有一篇原文；卫生A级一篇，C级两篇；B 级竟然有四篇！看来和2015年考试相同，医学的小伙伴又是这次考试的宠儿呀！或者经历了医师、药师各种考试之后，人事考试中心，开始心疼你们了！教材文章数目减少，小编也表示很气愤，但是仔细观察，就可发现，今年高频考题Sports star Yao ming 【运动明星姚明】，对，就是那篇，综合AB ,理工AB都考到的文章，竟然来自人事出版社的专项练习！Can you hear This 、Smart Window 以及The Theory of everything 都是出自专项练习。