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2013-2014华科考博英语真题答案

2013——2014年华科考博英语真题及答案

2013完型

BARACK OBAMA, in his state-of-the-union speech on February 12th, called for a new era of scientific discovery. “Now is the time to reach a level o f research and development not seen since the height of the space race,” he dec lared. He praised projects to map the human brain and accelerate regenerative medicine. This would mean spending more on research. As The Economist went to press, America’s government was about to do the opposite.

2月12日，贝拉克?奥巴马在国情咨文演讲中号召人民开启科研成果新纪元。他宣布：“自太空竞赛取胜以来，我们始终未能将科技研发推向一个新高度，现在是时候了。”他还表扬了大脑活动图谱绘制工程和再生医学提速项目。这意味着他打算在科研上投入更多的经费。本期《经济学人》付印时，美国政府正欲背道而驰。

Federal spending is due to be cut on March 1st, the result of a long brawl over the deficit. Complex politics triggered this “sequester” (Congress exce ls at nothing if not elaborate dysfunction) but the sequester itself is brutally simple. America will cut $85 billion from this year’s budget (about 2.5% of spending),split between military and non-military programmes. Among the areas to be squeezed is R&D, and medical research in particular.

赤字当前，各政客长期意见不合，导致联邦自动减支于3月1日强制启动。政局复杂导致了“财政封存”（国会只擅长把紊乱的政局变得更糟），但是“财政封存”却简单得要命。美国将在本年度预算中削减850亿美元（约为总开支的2.5%），由军事开支和非军事开支共同分担。研发项目开支也将被削减，而医学研究首当其冲。

For years America has enjoyed pre-eminence in research, but this is fading. Chinese investment (including both public and private money) more than quintupled from 2000 to 2010, to $160 billion, in 2005 prices. America’s R&D spending rose by just 22% over that period, according to the OECD. Research also makes up a smaller portion of America’s economy than some other countries’. In a ranking of R&D spending as a share of GDP, America came tenth in 2011. A decade earlier it was sixth.

美国历年都在科研方面独占鳌头，但现在她龙头的光环越来越小。以2005年价格核算，2010年中国的研发投资是2000年的5倍多，达1600亿美元；而据经济合作与发展组织称，同期美国只增加了22%。同时，研究经费在美国经济中所占的比例比其他一些国家都要小。在2011年研发开支占GDP比例上，美国排名第十，而十年前，美国位居第六。

Nevertheless, America remains the world’s biggest engine for innovation. It spent $366 billion on research in 2011, compared with $275 billion by all 27 countries of the European Union. Despite China’s rapid ascent, America still spends more than twice as much on R&D. Subsidies help. America’s government pays for about one-third of all domestic research and for most basic science.

然而，美国仍然是全球最大的创新引擎。2011年，美国在科研上投入了3660亿美元，而27个欧盟国家

的总投入仅有2750亿美元。虽然中国涨势迅猛，美国在研发上的开支仍比中国高出1倍以上。这少不了补贴的功劳。美国政府承担国内三分之一左右的研究经费及多数基础科学费用。

Medicine is one of the main beneficiaries. America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the world’s biggest funder of biomedical research. It pays for risky basic science; companies pay for later stages of development. For example, the NIH supported early research into monoclonal antibodies. By 2010 such research underpinned five of America’s 20 bestselling drugs. As drug firms trim their budgets, the NIH’s work is becoming even more vital. But since 2003, inflation-adjusted spending on medical research has declined.

医学研究成了补贴的主要受益对象。美国国家卫生研究所（NIH）是世界最大的生物医学研究投资方。对于成功率较低的基础科学，开始阶段的研究由研究会买单，而后阶段的开发则由各大公司支付。比如，NIH 支付了单克隆抗体早期的研发费用。截至2010年，美国最畅销的20种药物中，有5种来自于这种方式。药物公司的预算减少，NIH的作用就更加重要了。然而，由于通胀所迫，医学研究经费自2003年起也有所下降。

With the sequester public investment will shrink further. America’s total outlay on R&D will drop by $8.7 billion this year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Francis Collins, the NI H’s director, says that his organisation will spend $1.6 billion less in 2013—a cut of 5.1%—and $16 billion less over the next decade. Hundreds of grants will not be awarded. Existing grantees will receive only 90% of the cash promised to them.

由于财政封存，国家投资将进一步减少。据美国科学发展协会称，今年美国在研发上的总支出会减少87亿美元。NIH所长弗朗西斯?柯林斯（Francis Collins）说，今年，NIH的开支也会缩减16亿美元，减少约5.1%。在未来十年内，将减少160亿美元；数百项项目经费也将取消。已申请成功的人士也只能拿到约定经费总额的九成。

These cuts will speed the erosion of American supremacy in research. In December Battelle, a research group, predicted that China would surpass America’s spending by 2023. Thanks to the sequester, that date may come earlier.

美国在研究领域的龙头地位已经不保，以上各项开支削减进一步加快了其下滑速度。去年12月，巴特尔研究中心预测，中国的科研经费将在2023年赶超美国。拜财政封存所赐，这天将来得更早了。

But the real problem is absolute, not relative, and affects the whole world, not just America. R&D is a rare type of public spending that stimulates growth. Knowledge is cumulative, easy to share and generates benefits that spill rapidly across borders. Dr Collins says that cuts to the NIH will slow work on Alzheimer’s disease, a universal flu vaccine and cancer therapies, to name just a few.

阅读

For years scholarshave contrasted slavery in the United States and in Brazil, stimulated by thefact that racial patterns assumed such different aspects in the two countriesafter emancipation. Brazil never developed a system of rigid segregation of the sort (of thesort: 那样的;这类的...., 诸如此类的...) thatreplaced slavery in the United States, and its racial system was fluid becauseits definition of race was based as much on characteristics such as economicstatus as on skin color. Until recently, the most persuasive explanation forthese differences was that Portuguese institutions especially the RomanCatholic church and Roman civil law (civil law: n.民法),promoted recognition of the slave‘s humanity. The English colonists, on theother hand, constructed their system of slavery outof whole cloth (whole cloth: purefabrication usually used in the phrase outof whole cloth). There were simply no precedents in English common law (commonlaw: 习惯法), and separation of church and state barred Protestant clergy fromthe role that priests assumed in Brazil.

But the assumption that institutions alone could so powerfully affect the history of two raw and malleable frontier (a new field for exploitative or developmental activity)countriesseems, on reexamination, untenable. Recent studies focus instead on aparticular set of contrasting economic circumstances and demographic profilesat significant periods in the histories of the two countries. Persons of mixed race quickly appeared in both countries. In the United States they were considered to be Black, a social definition that was feasible because they werein the minority. In Brazil, it was not feasible. Though intermarriage wasillegal in both countries, the laws were unenforceable in Brazil since Whitesformed a small minority in an overwhelmingly Black population. Manumission for persons of mixed race was also easier in Brazil, particularly in the nineteenthcentury when in the United States it was hedged about with difficulties.Furthermore, a shortage of skilled workers in Brazil provided persons of mixedrace with the opportunity to learn crafts and trades, even before generalemancipation, whereas in the United States entry into these occupations was blocked by Whites sufficiently numerous to fill the posts. The consequence was the development in Brazil of a large class of persons of mixed race, proficientin skilled trades and crafts, who stood waiting as a community for freed slavesto join.

There should be no illusion that Brazilian society after emancipation was color-blind. Rather, the large population of persons of mixed race produced a racial system thatincluded a third status, a bridge between the Black caste and the White, whichcould be traversed by means of economic or intellectual achievement, marriage,or racial heritage. The strict and sharp line between the races socharacteristic of the United States in the years immediately after emancipationwas simply absent. With the possi ble exception of New Orleans, no special ―place‖ developed in the United States for persons of mixed race.Sad to say, every pressure of society worked to prevent their attaininganything approximating the economic and social position available to theircounterparts in Brazil.

1. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

(A) contrastingthe systems of slavery that were established in Brazil and in the United States

(B) criticizingthe arguments of those scholars who considered religion and law to be thedeterminants of the systems of slavery in Brazil and in the United States

(C) describingthe factors currently thought to be responsible for the differences in theracial patterns that evolved in Brazil and in the United States

(D) advocatingfurther study of the differences between the racial systems that developed inBrazil and in the United States答案（C）

(E) pointingout the factors that made the status of Blacks in the United States lower thanthat of Blacks in Brazil

2. Accordingto the passage, early scholars explained the differences between the racialsystems that developed in the United States and in Brazil as the result ofwhich of the following factors?

(A)Institutional

(B) Demographic

(D) Geographical答案（A）

(E) Historical

3. Int he context in which it is found, the phrase ―constructed their system ofslavery out of whole cloth‖ (lines 15-16) implies that the system of slaveryestablished by the English settlers was

(A) based onfabrications and lies

(B) tailored tothe settlers‘ par ticular circumstances

(D) developed without direct influence from the settlers‘ religion or legal system答案（D）

(E) evolvedwithout giving recognition to the slave‘s humanity

4. Theauthor implies that the explanation proposed by early scholars for thedifferences between the systems of slavery in the United States and in Brazilis

(A) stimulatingto historians and legal scholars

(B) morepowerful than more recent explanations

(D) excessivelylegalistic in its approach 答案（E）

(E)questionable in light of current scholarly work

5. Theauthor mentions intermarriage, manumission, and the shortage of skilled workersin Brazil primarily in order to establish which of the following?

(A) Theenvironment in which Brazil‘s racial system developed

(B) Theinfluence of different legal and economic conditions in Brazil and the UnitedStates on the life-style of persons of mixed race

(D) Thedifferences between treatment of slaves in Brazil and in the United States 答案（C）

(E) Thedifficulties faced by persons of mixed race in the United States, as comparedto those in Brazil

8. Withwhich of the following statements regarding human behavior would the author ofthe passage be most likely to agree?

(A) Only a foolor a political candidate would sing very loudly the glories of the institutionsof Western culture.

(B) Contactsports—displacements of our abiding impulses to kill—speak of essential humanbehavior more truthfully than all the theories of psychologists and historians.

(D) Money andits pursuit: an exploration of that theme will chart accurately the developmentof civilizations and the determinants of human behavior. 答案（E）

(E) Thecircumstances in which humans find themselves—more than treasured beliefs orlegal prescriptions—mold human behavior.

托福LSAT第26套SECTION IV

Medievalists (medievalist: n.中世纪研究家, 中古史学家) usually distinguish medieval public law (public law: n.公法, 国际公法) from private law: the former was concerned with government and military affairs and the latter with the family, social status, and land transactions. Examination on medieval women’s lives shows this distinction to be overly simplistic. Although medieval women were legally excluded from roles that categorized as public, such as solider, justice, jury member, or professional administrat ive official, women‘s control of land—usually considered a private or domestic phenomenon—had important political implications in the feudal system of thirteenth-century England. Since land equaled wealth and wealth equaled power, certain women exercised influence by controlling land. Unlike unmarried women who were legally subject to their guardians or married women who had no legal identity separate from their husbands, women who were widows had autonomy with respect to (with respect to: 关于, 至于)acquiring or disposing of certain property, suing in court, incurring liability for their own debts, and making wills.

Although feudal lands were normally transferred through primogeniture (the eldest son inheriting all), when no sons survived, the surviving daughters inherited equal shares under what was known as partible (partible: adj.可分的) inheritance. In addition to controlling any such land inherited from her parents and any bridal dowry—property a woman brought to the marriage from her own family—a widow was entitled to use of one-third of her late (late: adj.已故的) husband’s lands. Called “dower (dower: n.从亡夫处得来的用以维持生活的财产)”in England, this grant had greater legal importance under common law than did the bridal dowry; no marriage was legal unless the groom endowed the bride with this property at the wedding ceremony. In 1215 Magna Carta (The charter of English political and civil liberties granted by King John at Runnymede in June 1215.: 大宪章1215年6月英国国王约翰在拉尼米德签署的保障公民政治和自由权的宪章)

guaranteed a widow’s right to claim her dower without paying a fine; this document also strengthened widow’s ability to control land by prohibiting forced remarriage. After 1272 women could also benefit from jointure (jointure: n.[律] 寡妇所得遗产, v.(丈夫生前划定的)由妻继承的遗产): the groom could agree to hold part or all of his lands jointly with the bride, so that if one spouse died, the other received these lands.

Since many widows had inheritances as well as dowers, widows were frequently the financial heads of the family; even though legal theory assumed the maintenance of the principle of primogeniture, the amount of land the widow controlled could exceed that of her son or of other male heirs. Anyone who held feudal land exercised authority over the people attached to the land—knights, rental tenants, and peasants—and had to hire estate administrators, oversee accounts, receive rents, protect tenants from outside encroachment, punish tenants for not paying rents, appoint priests to local parishes, and act as guardians of tenants‘ children and executors of their wills. Many married women fulfilled these duties as deputies for husbands away at court or at war, but widows could act on their own behalf. Widow‘s legal independence is suggested by their frequent appearance in thirteenth-century English legal records. Moreover, the scope of their sway (3 a: a controlling influence b: sovereign power: DOMINION c: the ability to exercise influence or authority: DOMINANCE; synonyms see POWER) is indicated by the fact that some controlled not merely single estates, but multiple counties.

Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

(A) The traditional view of medieval women as legally excluded from many public offices fails to consider thirteenth-century women in England who were exempted from such restrictions.

(B) The economic independence of women in thirteenth-century England was primarily determined not by their marital status, but by their status as heirs to their parents‘ estates.

(C) The laws and customs of the feudal system in thirteenth-century England enabled some women to exercise a certain amount of power despite their legal exclusion from most public roles.

(D) During the thirteenth century in England, widows gained greater autonomy and legal rights to their property than they had had in previous centuries.（C）

(E) Widows in thirteenth-century England were able to acquire and dispose of lands through a number of different legal processes.

With which one of the following statements about the views held by the medievalists mentioned in line 1 would the author of the passage most probably agree?

(A) The medieval role of landowners was less affected by thirteenth-century changes in law than these medievalists customarily have recognized.

(B) The realm of law labeled public by these medievalists ultimately had greater political implications than that labeled private.

(D) The distinction made by these medievalists between private law and public law fails to consider some of the actual legal cases of the period.（E）

(E) The distinction made by these medievalists between private and public law fails to address the political importance of control over land in the medieval era.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the world “sway” as it is used in line 60 of the passage?

(A) vacillation

(B) dominion

(D) inclination（B）

(E) mediation

Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?

(A) providing examples of specific historical events as support for the conclusion drawn in the third paragraph

(B) narrating a sequence of events whose outcomes discussed in the third paragraph

(D) describing the effects of an event mentioned in the first paragraph（C）

(E) evaluating the arguments of a group mentioned in the first paragraph

10.

According to information in the passage, a widow in early thirteenth-century England could control more land than did her eldest son if

(A) the widow had been granted the customary amount of dower land and the eldest son inherited the rest of the land

(B) the widow had three daughters in addition to her eldest son

(D) none of the lands held by the widow’s late husband had been placed in jointure（E）

(E) the combined amount of land the widow had acquired from her own family and from dower was greater than the amount inherited by her son

13.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) explain a legal controversy of the past in light of modern theory

(B) evaluate the economic and legal status of a particular historical group

(D) trace the historical origins of a modern economic situation（B）

(E) provide new evidence about a historical event

美国法学院入学考试LSAT阅读真题7

Painter Frida Kahlo (1910-1954) often used harrowing images derived from her Mexican heritage to express suffering caused by a disabling accident and a stormy marriage. Suggesting much personal and emotional content, her works—many of them self-portraits—have been exhaustively psychoanalyzed, while their political content has been less studied. Yet Kahlo was an ardent political activist who in her art sought not only to explore her own roots, but also to champion Mexico‘s struggle for an independent political and cultural i dentity.

Kahlo was influenced by Marxism, which appealed to many intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s, and by Mexican nationalism. Interest in Mexico’s culture and history had revived in the nineteenth century, and by the early 1900s, Mexican indigenista tendencies ranged from a violently anti-Spanish idealization of Aztec Mexico to an emphasis on contemporary Mexican Indians as the key to authentic Mexican culture. Mexican nationalism, reacting against contemporary United States political intervention in labor disputes as well as against past domination by Spain, identified the Aztecs as the last independent rulers of an indigenous political unit. Kahlo‘s form of Mexicanidad, a romantic nationalism that focused upon traditional art uniting all indigenistas, revered the Aztecs as a powerful pre-Columbian society that had united a large area of the Middle Americas and that was thought to have been based on netmunal labor, the Marxist ideal.

In her paintings, Kahlo repeatedly employed Aztec symbols, such as skeletons or bleeding hearts that were traditionally related to the emanation of life from death and light from darkness. These images of destruction coupled with creation speak not only to Kahlo‘s personal battle for life, but also to the Mexican struggle to emerge as a nation—by implication, to emerge with the political and cultural strength admired in the Aztec civilization. Self-portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States (1932), for example, shows Kahlo wearing a bone necklace, holding a Mexican flag, and standing between a highly industrialized United States and an

agricultural, preindustrial Mexico. On the United States side are mechanistic and modern images such as smokestacks, light bulbs, and robots. In contrast, the organic and ancient symbols on the Mexican side—a blood-drenched Sun, lush vegetation, an Aztec sculpture, a pre-Columbian temple, and a skull alluding to those that lined the walls of Aztec temples—emphasize the interrelation of life, death, the earth, and the cosmos.

Kahlo portrayed Aztec images in the folkloric style of traditional Mexican paintings, thereby heightening the clash between modern materialism and indigenous tradition; similarly, she favored planned economic development, but not at the expense of cultural identity. Her use of familiar symbols in a readily accessible style also served her goal of being popularly understood; in turn, Kahlo is viewed by some Mexicans as a mythic figure representative of nationalism itself.

1. Which one of the following best expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) The doctrines of Marxist ideology and Mexican nationalism heavily influenced Mexican painters of Kahlo’s generation.

(B) Kahlo’s paintings contain numerous references to the Aztecs as an indigenous Mexican people predating European influence.

(C) An important element of Kahlo’s work is conveyed by symbols that reflect her advocacy of indigenous Mexican culture and Mexican political autonomy.

(D) The use of Aztec images and symbols in Kahlo’s art can be traced to the late nineteenth-century revival of interest in Mexican history and culture.

(E) Kahlo used Aztec imagery in her paintings primarily in order to foster contemporary appreciation for the authentic art of traditional Mexican culture.

参考答案：C

2. With which one of the following statements concerning psychoanalytic and political interpretations of Kahlo’s work would the author be most likely to agree?

(A) The psychoanalytic interpretations of Kahlo’s work tend to challenge the political interpretations.

(B) Political and psychoanalytic interpretations are netplementary approaches to Kahlo’s work.

(C) Recent political interpretations of Kahlo’s work are causing psychoanalytic critics to revise their own interpretations.

(D) Unlike the political interpretations, the psychoanalytic interpretations make use of biographical facts of Kahlo’s life.

(E) Kahlo’s mythic status among the audience Kahlo most wanted to reach is based upon the psychoanalytic rather than the political content of her work.

参考答案：B

3. Which one of the following stances toward the United States does the passage mention as characterizing Mexican nationalists in the early twentieth century?

(A) opposition to United States involvement in internal Mexican affairs

(B) desire to decrease emigration of the Mexican labor force to the United States

(D) reluctance to imitate the United States model of rapid industrialization

(E) advocacy of a government based upon that of the Marxist Soviet Union rather than that of

the United States

参考答案：A

4. In the context of the passage, which one of the following phrases could best be substituted for the word “romantic”(line 24) without substantially changing the author’s meaning?

(A) dreamy and escapist

(B) nostalgic and idealistic

(D) transcendental and impractical

(E) overwrought and sentimental

参考答案：B

7. The passage implies that Kahlo’s attitude toward the economic development of Mexico was

(A) enthusiastic

(B) condemnatory

(D) nonnetmittal

(E) uncertain

参考答案：C

GMAT

Passage 87 (2/15)There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been accompanied by an equivalent surge in industrial research. A recent study of important inventions made since the turn of the century reveals that more than half were the product of individual inventors working alone, independent of organized industrial research. While industrial laboratories contributed such important products as nylon and transistors, independent inventors developed air conditioning, the automatic transmission, the jet engine, the helicopter, insulin, and streptomycin. Still other inventions, such as stainless steel, television, silicones, and Plexiglas (Plexiglas: n.树脂玻璃(多用以制造飞机座舱罩、镜片等)) were developed through the combined efforts of individuals and laboratory teams.

Despite these finding, we are urged to support monopolistic power on the grounds that such power creates an environment supportive of innovation. We are told that the independent inventor, along with the small firm, cannot afford to undertake the important research needed to improve our standard of living while protecting our diminishing resources; that only the giant corporation or conglomerate, with its prodigious assets, can afford the kind of expenditures that produce the technological advances vital to economic progress. But when we examine expenditures for research, we find that of the more than $35 billion spent each year in this country, almost two-thirds is spent by the federal government. More than half of this government expenditure is funneled into military research and product development, accounting for the enormous increase in spending in such industries as nuclear energy, aircraft, missiles, and electronics. There are those who consider it questionable that these defense-linked research projects will either improve our standard of living or do much to protect our diminishing resources.

Recent history has demonstrated that we may have to alter our longstanding conception of the process actuated by competition. The price variable, once perceived as the dominant aspect of the process, is now subordinate to the competition of the new product, the new business structure, and the new technology. While it can be assumed that in a highly competitive industry not dominated by single corporation, investment in innovation—a risky and expensive budget item—might meet resistance from management and stockholders concerned about cost-cutting, efficient organization, and large advertising budgets, it would be an egregious error to equate the monopolistic producer with bountiful expenditures on research. Large-scale enterprises tend to operate more comfortably in stable and secure circumstances, and their managerial bureaucracies tend to promote the status quo and resist the threat implicit in change. Moreover, in some cases, industrial giants faced with little or no competition seek to avoid the capital loss resulting from obsolescence by deliberately obstructing technological progress. By contrast, small firms undeterred by large investments in plant and capital equipment often aggressively pursue new techniques and new products, investing in innovation in order to expand their market shares.

The conglomerates are not, however, completely except from strong competitive pressures. There are instances in which they too must compete with another industrial Goliath, and then their weapons may include large expenditures for innovation.

1.The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) advocate an increase in government support of organized industrial research

(B) point out a common misconception about the relationship between the extent of industrial research and the growth of monopolistic power in industry

(D) show that America‘s strength depends upon individual ingenuity and resourcefulness

答案（B）

(E) encourage free-market competition among industrial giants

2.According to the passage, important inventions of the twentieth century

(A) were produced largely as a result of governmental support for military weapons research and development

(B) came primarily from the huge laboratories of monopolistic industries

(D) have greater impact on smaller firms than on conglomerates答案（C）

(E) sometimes adversely affect our standard of living and diminish our natural resources

3.Which of the following best describes the organization of the second paragraph of the passage?

(A) Expenditures for various aspects of research are listed.

(B) Reasons for supporting monopolistic power are given and then questioned.

(D) Resources necessary for research are defined. 答案（B）

(E) Costs for varied aspects of military research are questioned.

6.With which of the following statements would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?

(A) Monopolistic power creates an environment supportive of innovation.

(B) Governmental expenditure for military research will do much to protect our dwindling resources.

(C) Industrial giants, with their managerial bureaucracies, respond more quickly to technological change than smaller firms do.

(D) Firms with a small share of the market aggressively pursue innovations because they are not locked into old capital equipment. 答案（D）

(E) The independent inventor cannot afford to undertake the research needed to improve our standard of living.

8.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author‘s main point?

(A) In the last decade, conglomerates have significantly increased their research budgets for defense technology.

(B) Tax restructuring permits smaller firms to write off a larger percentage of profits against research.

(D) Military research is being directed more extensively to space technology than to short-range missiles. 答案（C）

(E) Competition from foreign industries has increased the cost of labor and materials.

翻译

科学家称夏天出生的孩子性格更开朗

Being born in the summer could give you a sunnydisposition for life. And a winter birthday might cast a permanent shadow over your happiness, scientists believe。

科学家认为，出生在夏天将赋予你开朗的性情，而出生在冬天则可能给你的快乐蒙上永久的阴影。

Experiments suggest that season of birth dramatically affects the way the speed at which the body clock ticks。

实验表明，出生的季节会极大地影响人体生物钟运转的速度。

A winter birth could leave it moving too slowly – affecting health and personality。

冬天出生的人体内的生物钟运转得太慢，从而可能对健康和性格产生影响。

The intriguingtheory comes from a study of mice exposed to varying amounts of light in the first months of life。

这一离奇有趣的理论来自一项对老鼠的研究，该研究把刚出生的老鼠暴露在不等量的光线下长达数月。

Some were given summer conditions of 16 hours of light and eight hours of darkness per day. Others had only eight hours of daily light, to mimic the short days of winter。

有些老鼠被放置在夏天的光照条件下，每天有16小时的―白天‖和8个小时的―黑夜‖。其他老鼠则只有8个小时的―白天‖，和冬天昼短夜长的光照条件类似。

After they were weaned, they were kept in the same light cycle for several weeks or switched to the opposite one。

在这些老鼠断奶后，他们被放置在相同的光照周期中长达数周，或转换到相反的光照环境。

Finally, they were plunged into darkness and watched to see how they would react。

最后，科学家把它们都放置到黑暗中，观察它们的反应。

Those reared in summer conditions kept to a daily routine, but those brought up in little light struggled to cope with the change, the journal Nature Neuroscience reports。

根据《自然神经科学》杂志的报道，那些在夏天的光照条件下成长起来的老鼠像往常一样作息，而那些在缺少光线的环境中成长起来的老鼠在应对这一变化时却显得吃力。

Researcher Professor Douglas McMahon said: ?The mice raised in the winter cycle show an exaggerated response to a change in season that is strikingly similar to that of human patients suffering from seasonal affective disorder.‘

研究者道格拉斯麦克马洪教授说：―在冬天的光照周期中成长起来的老鼠对于季节的变化表现出夸大的反应，这和得了季节性情感抑郁症的人类病患的反应极其相似。‖

Despite this, the finding raises the intriguing possibility that the amount of light to which the human brain is exposed in the first weeks or months of life affects mood。

此外，这一研究发现还提出了一个非常有趣的可能性，就是人的大脑在生命的最初几周或几个月所感知到的光照量可能会对心情造成影响。

The professor said: ?Our biological clocks measure the day length and change our behaviour according to the seasons。

教授说：―我们体内的生物钟对白日的长短进行衡量，并根据季节变化而改变我们的行为。

?Several studies show that people born in the winter months have an elevated risk of mood disorders such as seasonal depression, bipolar depression and schizophrenia –all of which are associated with dis ruption of normalcircadian rhythms.‘

―几项研究都表明，出生在冬天的人发生情绪异常的风险更大，他们更容易患上诸如季节性抑郁症、两极型忧郁症和精神分裂症这种病，而这些病症都和打乱正常的昼夜节律有关。‖

But being born in the summer can have drawbacks –such as an increased risk of short-sightedness。

但是，出生在夏天也有不利之处，比如近视的风险会增大。

Another study of more than 1.5 million children in the US clearly showed that those conceived in the summer are less clever than other youngsters。

另外一项面向美国150多万儿童的研究显示，夏天受孕后生出的小孩不如其他小孩聪明。

It is thought that they receive more exposure to pesticides during the first few months of pregnancy – a critical time for brain development。

据认为，这是因为这些小孩在孕期的头几个月接触更多的杀虫剂所致，而这几个月正是大脑发育的关键时期。

日航空公司要求乘客登机前上厕所

Japanese airline asks fliers to flush first

[ 2009-10-15 15:59 ]

日航空公司要求乘客登机前上厕所

Passenger jets of Japan's air carrier All Nippon Airways are seen parked on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport in 2008. The Japanese airline is taking its weight-saving efforts to new heights, asking passengers on some of its flights to visit the restroom before flying.(Agencies)

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A Japanese airline is taking its weight-saving efforts to new heights, asking passengers on some of its flights to visit the restroom before flying.

The unusual request is one of a number of measures being tried out by All Nippon Airways to reduce fuel consumption.

ANA estimates that if half its passengers went to the bathroom before boarding, it could

reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 4.2 tons a month, said company spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka.

The airline will also recycle paper cups and plastic bottles, and use chopsticks produced from wood from forest thinning projects, as part of its efforts to become more environmentally friendly.

The measures are being trialled on 38 domestic flights and four international flights -- on the Tokyo-Singapore route -- during October.

The move follows earlier steps by airlines to reduce the weight of flights by trimming the size of in-flight magazines, slimming the handles of forks and spoons and using lighter drink trolleys and porcelain.

ANA announced in April its first annual loss in six years as the global economic downturn reduced the number of people taking to the skies.

It is not the only airline looking to the lavatory to save money. Irish budget airline Ryanair has previously said it is considering charging passengers to use on-board toilets.

日本一家航空公司誓将飞机“减负”进行到底，要求其部分航班的乘客在登机前上厕所。

这一“离谱”要求是全日本航空公司为了降低飞机在飞行中的燃料消耗量而试行的一系列措施之一。

全日空公司的发言人手冢惠美说，据估算，如果有一半的乘客在登机前如厕排空，那么飞机每月可减少4.2吨的二氧化碳排放量。

作为其环保措施的一部分，该航空公司还将回收纸杯和塑料瓶，并将使用由森林间伐项目所产木材制成的筷子。

这些措施于本月在全日空的38个国内航班和东京至新加坡的四个国际航班上试行。

在全日空公司推出这项举措之前，已有一些航空公司开始为飞机“减负”，如减小机内杂志尺寸、为餐叉和勺子手柄“瘦身”以及采用更轻便的饮料手推车和瓷器等。

今年四月，全日空公司六年来首次宣布其财年亏损，这主要是因为全球经济衰退导致坐飞机的人减少。

全日空公司并非唯一一家指望通过厕所来省钱的航空公司。爱尔兰廉价航空公司Ryanair此前就表示，该公司正考虑向使用机上厕所的乘客收费。

作文Is it better to set up a bridge or a wall between china and the west？

2014

Passage 72 (9/22)

Since Would War II considerable advances have been made in the area of health-care services. These include better access to health care (particularly for the poor and minorities), improvements in physical plants, and increased numbers of physicians and other health personnel. All have played a part in the recent improvement in life expectancy. But there is mounting criticism of the large remaining gaps in access, unbridled cost inflation, the further fragmentation of service, excessive indulgence in wasteful high-technology “gadgeteering,” and a breakdown in doctor-patient relationships. In recent years proposed panaceas and new programs, small and large, have proliferated at a feverish pace and disappointments multiply at almost the same rate. This has led to an increased pessimism—“everything has been tried and nothing works”—which sometimes borders on cynicism or even nihilism.

It is true that the automatic “pass through” of rapidly spiraling costs to government and insurance carriers, which was set in a publicized environment of “the richest nation in the world,” produced for a time a sense of unlimited resources and allowed to develop a mood whereby every practitioner and institution could “do his own thing” without undue concern for the “Medical Commons.” The practice of full-cost reimbursement encouraged capital investment and now the industry is overcapitalized. Many cities have hundreds of excess hospital beds; hospitals have proliferated a superabundance of high-technology equipment; and structural ostentation and luxury were the order of the day. In any given day, one-fourth of all community beds are vacant; expensive equipment is underused or, worse, used unnecessarily. Capital investment brings rapidly rising operating costs.

Yet, in part, this pessimism derives from expecting too much of health care. It must be realized that care is, for most people, a painful experience, often accompanied by fear and unwelcome results. Although there is vast room for improvement, health care will always retain some unpleasantness and frustration. Moreover, the capacities of medical science are limited. Humpty Dumpty cannot always be put back together again. Too many physicians are reluctant to admit their limitations to patients; too many patients and families are unwilling to accept such realities. Nor is it true that everything has been tried and nothing works, as shown by the prepaid group practice plans of the Kaiser Foundation and at Puget Sound. In the main, however, such undertakings have been drowned by a veritable flood of public and private moneys which have supported and encouraged the continuation of conventional practices and subsidized their shortcomings on a massive, almost unrestricted scale. Except for the most idealistic and dedicated, there were no incentives to seek change or to practice self-restraint or frugality. In this atmosphere, it is not fair to condemn as failures all attempted experiments; it may be more accurate to say many never had a fair trial.

1. The author implies that the Kaiser Foundation and Puget Sound plans (lines

47-48) differed from other plans by

(A) encouraging capital investment

(B) requiring physicians to treat the poor

(D) employing only dedicated and idealistic doctors

(E) relying primarily on public funding

2. The author mentions all of the following as consequences of full-cost

reimbursement EXCEPT

(A) rising operating costs

(B) underused hospital facilities

(D) overreliance on expensive equipment

(E) lack of services for minorities

3. The tone of the passage can best be described as

(A) light-hearted and amused

(B) objective but concerned

(D) cautious but sincere

(E) enthusiastic and enlightened

4. According to the author, the ―pessimism‖ mentioned at line 35 is partly

attributable to the fact that

(A) there has been little real improvement in health-care services

(B) expectations about health-care services are sometimes unrealistic

health-care services

(D) advances in technology have made health care service unaffordable

(E) doctors are now less concerned with patient care

5. The author cites the prepaid plans in lines 46-48 as

(A) counterexamples to the claim that nothing has worked

(B) examples of health-care plans that were over-funded

(D) proof of the theory that no plan has been successful

(E) experiments that yielded disappointing results

6. It can be inferred that the sentence ―Humpty Dumpty cannot always be put back

together again‖ means that

(A) the cost of health-care services will not decline

(B) some people should not become doctors

(D) illness is often unpleasant and even painful

(E) medical science cannot cure every ill

7. With which of the following descriptions of the system for the delivery of

health-care services would the author most likely agree?

(A) It is biased in favor of doctors and against patients.

(B) It is highly fragmented and completely ineffective

(D) It is generally effective but can be improved

(E) It discourages people from seeking medical care

8. Which of the following best describes the logical structure of the selection?

(A) The third paragraph is intended as a refutation of the first and second

paragraphs.

(B) The second and third paragraphs explain and put into perspective the points

made in the first paragraph.

(D) The first paragraph describes a problem, and the second and third paragraphs

present two horns of a dilemma.

(E) The first paragraph describes a problem, the second its causes, and the third a

possible solution.

9. The author‘s primary concern is to

(A) criticize physicians and health-care administrators for investing in techno-

logically advanced equipment

(B) examine some problems affecting delivery of health-care services and assess

their severity

improved since World War II

(D) analyze the reasons for the health-care industry‘s inability to provide quality

care to all segments of the population

(E) describe the peculiar economic features of the health-care industry that are the

causes of spiraling medical costs

Passage 72 (9/22)

1. C

2. E

3. B

4. B

5. A

6. E

7. D

8. C

9. B 10.

Passage 71 (8/22)

Behavior is one of two general responses available to endothermic (warm-blooded) species for the regulation of body temperature, the other being innate (reflexive) mechanisms of heat production and heat loss. Human beings rely primarily on the first to provide a hospitable thermal microclimate for themselves, in which the transfer of heat between the body and the environment is accomplished with minimal involvement of innate mechanisms of heat production and loss. Thermoregulatory behavior anticipates hyperthermia, and the organism adjusts its behavior to avoid becoming hyperthermia: it removes layers of clothing, it goes for a cool swim, etc. The organism can also respond to changes in the temperature of the body core, as is the case during exercise; but such responses result from the direct stimulation of thermo receptors distributed widely within the central nervous system, and the ability of these mechanisms to help the organism adjust to gross changes in its environment is limited.

Until recently it was assumed that organisms respond to microwave radiation in the same way that they respond to temperature changes caused by other forms of radiation. After all, the argument runs, microwaves are radiation and heat body tissues. This theory ignores the fact that the stimulus to a behavioral response is normally a temperature change that occurs at the surface of the organism. The thermo receptors that prompt behavioral changes are located within the first millimeter of the skin’s surface, but the energy of a microwave field may be selectively deposited in deep tissues, effectively bypassing these thermoreceptors, particularly if the field is at near-resonant frequencies. The resulting temperature profile may well be a kind of reverse thermal gradient in which the deep tissues are warmed more than those of the surface. Since the heat is not conducted outward to the surface to stimulate the appropriate receptors, the organism does not “appreciate” this stimulation in the same way that it “appreciates” heating and cooling of the skin. In theory, the internal organs of a human being or an animal could be quite literally cooked well-done before the animal even realizes that the balance of its thermomicroclimate has been disturbed.

Until a few years ago, microwave irradiations at equivalent plane-wave power densities of about 100 mW/cm2 were considered unequivocally to produce “thermal” effects; irradiations within the range of 10 to 100 mW/cm2 might or might not produce “thermal” effects; while effects observed at power densities below 10 mW/cm2 were assumed to be “nonthermal” in nature. Experiments have shown this to be an oversimplification, and a recent report suggests that fields as weak as 1 mW/cm2 can be thermogenic. When the heat generated in the tissues by an imposed radio frequency (plus the heat generated by metabolism) exceeds the heat-loss capabilities of the organism, the thermoregulatory system has been compromised. Yet surprisingly, not long ago, an increase in the internal body temperature was regarded merely as “evidence” of a thermal effect.

1. The author is primarily concerned with

(A) showing that behavior is a more effective way of controlling bodily

temperature than innate mechanisms

(B) criticizing researchers who will not discard their theories about the effects of

microwave radiation on organisms

other forms of radiation

(D) analyzing the mechanism by which an organism maintains its bodily

temperature in a changing thermal environment

(E) discussing the importance of thermo receptors in the control of the internal

temperature of an organism

2. The author makes which of the following points about innate mechanisms for

heat production?

I. They are governed by thermo receptors inside the body of the organism

rather than at the surface.

II. They are a less effective means of compensating for gross changes in temperature than behavioral strategies.

III. They are not affected by microwave radiation.

(A) I only

(B) I and II only

(D) II and III only

(E) I, II, and III

3. Which of the following would be the most logical topic for the author to take up

in the paragraph following the final paragraph of the selection?

(A) A suggestion for new research to be done on the effects of microwaves on

animals and human beings

(B) An analysis of the differences between microwave radiation

dangerous

(D) A survey of the literature on the effects of microwave radiation on human

beings

(E) A discussion of the strategies used by various species to control hyperthermia

4. The author‘s strategy in lines 39-42 is to

(A) introduce a hypothetical example to dramatize a point

(B) propose an experiment to test a scientific hypothesis

(D) produce a counterexample to disprove an opponent‘s theory

(E) speculate about the probable consequences of a scientific phenomenon

5. The author implies that the proponents of the theory that microwave radiation

acts on organisms in the same way as other forms of radiation based their