复习指导
08年考研英语阅读理解模拟预测题

Text1
  The sun is not growing weaker, yet its light appears to be dimming. Between 1960 and 1990, some scientists believe, the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface may have declined as much as 10% —— and in some places, Hong Kong, for example, more than 35%.

  What was going on? Well, it appears that increased air pollution during those 30 years —— over Asia, in particular - with the help, perhaps, of some increased cloudiness, may have exerted a cooling influence on the surface of the planet even as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were encouraging the atmosphere to warm. The impacts of that tug-of-war on the climate system could be devilishly difficult to untangle. At the same time, no task could be more urgent. For if global pollution has helped keep global warming in check, says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California at San Diego, then the full impact of the buildup of greenhouse gases has yet to be felt. This week, at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Montreal, Ramanathan and others will be presenting the latest data on the solar-dimming problem and pondering its implications for the climate system as a whole.

  Many scenarios for global warming, for example, invoke a speedup in the hydrological cycle by which water evaporates and then comes down as rain. The cooling produced by solar dimming, however, may slow the rate of evaporation, while higher up in the atmosphere the pollutants responsible for absorbing and reflecting sunlight are likely to interfere with the process that produces rain.

  Why? These pollutants, which take the form of tiny, airborne particles called aerosols, act as nuclei around which cloud droplets form. The problem is, there are too many aerosols in the atmosphere competing for water molecules, so the cloud droplets that form are too small and never become weighty enough to fall to the ground. As a result, says Beate Liepert, an atmospheric physicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the atmosphere could be filled with moisture while Earth's surface thirsts for rain.

  Many questions remain, including the true extent of the dimming. One analysis pegs the average worldwide darkening to be about 4% over three decades, while another computes it to be more than twice that much. There are also questions about the reliability of the devices that measure the sunlight reaching Earth's surface. Known as radiometers, these instruments are nothing more than flat, black solar collectors capped with glass. They are sometimes finicky; a smudge of dirt or a speck of dust can cause bogus readings and change the calculated results.

  Solar dimming, in other words, is a problem still in the process of being defined, and as its dimensions become clearer, so will the nature of the challenge the world faces. Although scientists have done a lot of thinking about global warming, they are just beginning to grapple with the problem of how global warming and solar dimming interact. As Ramanathan puts it, "It's like we have a new gorilla sitting down at the table" - and it could turn out to be a very big gorilla indeed.

  1. By "tug-of-war"(Line 4, Paragraph 2), the author means      
  [A] the different effect of solar dimming and global warming
  [B] the impact of the solar dimming on the climate system
  [C] the influence of the solar dimming on the global warming
  [D] the interaction between the solar dimming and global warming

  2. How do the scientists feel about the current climate situation?

  [A] Serious
  [B] Optimistic
  [C] Carefree
  [D] Panicked

  3. When mentioning "It's like we have a new gorilla sitting down at the table"(Last Line, Paragraph 6), the author implies that         .

  [A] scientists should have a close look at the solar dimming problem
  [B] we are facing a new problem which is very complicated and difficult to manage
  [C] we are just beginning to have research on this new field
  [D] the new solar dimming problem is beyond scientists' ability to tackle

  4. Which of the following cannot serve as a factor of causing the cooling surface of the planet?

  [A] The lack of the rain in the earth.
  [B] The increasing of the pollutants.
  [C] The forming of the cloud droplets.
  [D] The less weight of the cloud droplets.

  5. Which of the following is true according to the text?

  [A] The instruments used in the study are too simple to function well.
  [B] Living things in the earth will be greatly influenced by solar dimming.
  [C] There is still a long way to go in the study of solar dimming.
  [D] The findings that solar dimming has influence on the surface of the planet are doubtful.

  答案:D A B A C
  题目分析

  1. 答案为D,属猜词题。从句子"it appears that increased air pollution during those 30 years - over Asia, in particular - with the help, perhaps, of some increased cloudiness, may have exerted a cooling influence on the surface of the planet even as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were encouraging the atmosphere to warm."我们可看出一方面空气污染物及其形成的云星对地球表面有一种冷却作用,另一方面二氧化碳和其它温室气体却促使大气变暖。这是一种相互作用,一方强,另一方就弱,就像是"拔河赛".文章最后一段的一句话"They are just beginning to grapple with the problem of how global warming and solar dimming interact."可以进一步印证我们的这一判断。

  2. 答案为A,属情感态度。原文对应信息是"no task could be more urgent".注意含有比较级的否定式的理解,这句话的意思是"This task is the most urgent."从这句话我们可看出气候学家们对待此事的态度。

  3. 答案为B,属推理判断题。文章最后一段的中心思想是:对太阳变暗这一问题的研究还只是刚刚开始,还有很多东西我们不了解。然欧以拉曼纳森(Ramanathan)的话结束全文。就此我们可以判断拉曼纳森的话也应该是符合这段文章的中心大意的。

  4.答案为A,属事实细节题。原文对应信息是"it appears that increased air pollution during those 30 year - over Asia, in particular - with the help, perhaps, of some increased cloudiness, may have exerted a cooling influence on the surface of the planet".这句话的意思是"全球——特别是亚洲——不断加剧的大气污染,借助数量有所增加的云度可能对整个地球表面起了一种冷却作用",而在形成云层的过程中由于"the cloud droplets that form are too small and never become weighty enough to fall to the ground"(所形成的云状水滴显得又太小,永远达不到足以落到地面的重量),所以这些云层无法变成雨滴落在地面,而是停留在大气层,从而对大气层起到一种冷却作用。选项A是这种现象所造成的结果。

  5.答案为C,属推理判断题。文章最后一段提出对太阳变暗这一问题的研究还只是刚刚开始,还有很多东西我们不了解。由此我们可做出判断。

Text2
  Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976) worked relentlessly, never leaving New York but for a brief stay in Hollywood, of all places. He was admired by Pound and Kenneth Burke, and often published his own works; in the Depression era, he managed a treadle printing press in his basement. He wrote three sorts of poems: exceptionally short imagistic lyrics; longer pieces crafted and cobbled from other sources, often from the Judaic tradition; and book-length poems wrought from the testimony both of Holocaust trials and from the courtrooms of turn-of-the-century America. Two of these full-length volumes were indeed titled "Testimony," as was an earlier prose work; it was a word that kept him close company. When asked late in life to define his poetry, it was not the word he chose.

  "Objectivist," he wrote, naming his longstanding group, and mimicking poetic style with a single prose sentence: "images clear but the meaning not stated but suggested by the objective details and the music of the verse; words pithy and plain; without the artifice of regular meters; themes, chiefly Jewish, American, urban." If the sentence sounds hard-won, this is perhaps because it was. Four decades earlier, he wrote in a letter to friends, "There is a learned article about my verse in Poetry this month, from which I learn that I am an objectivist." The learned fellow was Louis Zukofsky, brilliant eminence of the Objectivists, "with whom I disagree as to both form and content of verse, but to whom I am obliged for placing some of my things here and there." So read Reznikoff's conclusion in 1931, with its fillip of polite resentment.

  Movements and schools are arbitrary and immaterial things by which poetic history is told. This must have rankled Reznikoff, who spent his writing life tracing the material and the necessary.

  Born a child of immigrants in Brooklyn in 1894, he was in journalism school at 16, took a law degree at 21. Though he was little interested in legal practice, the ideas would be near the heart of his writing. Ideal poetic language, he wrote, "is restricted almost to the testimony of a witness in a court of law." If this suggests a congenital optimism about the law, it made for astonishingly care-filled poetry. Reznikoff is unsurpassed in conveying the sense that the world is worth getting right. Not the glorious or the damaged world, but the world that is everything that is the case. Reznikoff's faith in the facts of the case takes on an intensity no less social than spiritual, no greater when surveying the Old Testament than New York. This collection gathers all his poems (but for those already book-length) by the technique of compressing onto single pages as many as five or six at a time. This can lessen the force; each is a sort of American haiku, though no more impressionistic than a hand-operated printing press. One such, numbered 69 in the volume "Jerusalem the Golden," runs in its length: "Among the heaps of brick and plaster lies / a girder, still itself among the rubbish." This exemplary couplet is sometimes taken to represent Reznikoff's poetry itself, immutable and certain amid the transitory.

  6. By saying "it was a word that kept him close company" (8th line, 1st para.), the author implies         .

  [A] Charles Reznikoff always wrote works about testimony.
  [B] Charles Reznikoff was always involved in the testimony affairs.
  [C] Charles Reznikoff liked to write testimony.
  [D] Charles Reznikoff is a busy lawyer.

  7. Reznikoff's attitude to the fact that he was grouped as objectivist is         .

  [A] approval
  [B] indifference
  [C] opposition
  [D] suspicion

  8. The word "rankled" (2nd line, 3rd para.) probably means         .

  [A] interested
  [B] Angered
  [C] Pleased
  [D] Consoled

  9. We can learn from the 4th paragraph that         .

  [A] Reznikoff liked to learn law.
  [B] Reznikoff was more interested in spiritual world than in social world.
  [C] It is astonishing that Reznikoff wrote care-filled poetry.
  [D] Reznikoff was greatly influenced by his legal experience in his poetry writing.

  10. By citing the poem in the last paragraph, the author intends to         .

  [A] show that the force is lessoned in this way
  [B] show that the poem is not impressionistic
  [C] show that the poem is immutable
  [D] show that the poem is compressed

  答案:A C B D D
  题目分析

  6.答案为A,属推理判断题。原句是"Two of these full-length volumes were indeed titled 'Testimony,' as was an earlier prose work; it was a word that kept him close company.""长篇中的两篇题目就是'证词',早些的散文作品也是,这个词一直伴随他左右。"从这句话前面对他作品的介绍也可以看出,这些长篇诗歌是来源于一些证词的,这就是为什么他一直和证词有关的原因,也就是为什么这个词一直和他有关。答案A:查尔斯经常写一些和证词有关的作品,答案B:查尔斯经常被卷入证词事件中,答案C:查尔斯喜欢写证词,答案D:查尔斯是个忙碌的律师,四个答案中最符合的是A.

  7.答案为C,属推理判断题。Reznikoff对待他被归为客观主义流派的态度可以追溯文章中谈到客观主义部分。文章第二段提到他被看作是客观主义流派,对此他的态度可以从他的话语中看出,"'The learned fellow was Louis Zukofsky, brilliant eminence of the Objectivists, with whom I disagree as to both form and content of verse, but to whom I am obliged for placing some of my things here and there.'"从disagree一词中就可以看出他对这种评价持反对态度,后面提到"So read Reznikoff's conclusion in 1931, with its fillip of polite resentment."从resentment也可以得出这个结论,因此答案该选C.

  8.答案为B,属猜词题。该词所在原句是"This must have rankled Reznikoff, who spent his writing life tracing the material and the necessary.""这一定……Reznikoff,他的写作生涯主要就是描述物质的和必然的东西。"这句话还需要结合上下文来看,上文提到运动和流派是讲述诗歌历史的随意、非物质的东西,而上一段提到Reznikoff对于被归为客观主义流派不满,可以提到他对此持否定态度,因此答案中A"使感兴趣",答案B"激怒",答案C"使高兴",答案D"安慰",其中B最符合逻辑。

  9.答案为D,属推理判断题。第四段主要讲述了Reznikoff青年学习法律,以及他诗歌创作中法律的作用。下面逐一分析答案,答案A"Reznikoff喜欢学习法律":从第四段"he was little interested in legal practice"可以看出他对此并不热衷,该选项不符合原文;答案B"Reznikoff更加喜欢精神世界":从第四段"Reznikoff's faith in the facts of the case takes on an intensity no less social than spiritual……"可以看出,他对社会方面的热衷不比精神世界差,因此该选项不符合原文;答案C"Reznikoff能写出充满关切的诗歌来令人惊讶":文章提到"If this suggests a congenital optimism about the law, it made for astonishingly care-filled poetry."(如果这暗示着对法律天生的乐观的话,这种天赋正是为了令人惊讶的充满关切诗歌而有的。)虽然提到"令人惊讶",但不是说他可以写出诗歌令人惊讶,因此也不符合原文;答案D"Reznikoff的诗歌写作很大程度上受其法律经验的影响。":其实整个段落讲述了他虽然年青时代不热衷法律,但是在其写作中处处有法律的影响,因此答案D是符合原文的答案。

  10.答案为D,属推理判断题。文章最后一段刚开始讲的是诗集将五六首诗压缩在一页上,这样会削弱力量,尽管不是那么会留下深刻印象,但每首诗都是一种美国式俳句,这之后就说到"One such, numbered 60 in the volume 'Jerusalem the Golden', runs in its length"有这么一首诗就是这么样的长度,因此可以看出,列出这首诗还是为了说明压缩诗后很短,因此答案为D.

Text3

  William Shakespeare described old age as "second childishness" - sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, have been even more perceptive than he realized. A paper in Neurology by Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues at the National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer's Disease in Brescia, Italy, shows that one form of senile dementia can affect musical desires in ways that suggest a regression, if not to infancy, then at least to a patient's teens.

  Frontotemporal dementia is caused, as its name suggests, by damage to the front and sides of the brain. These regions are concerned with speech, and with such "higher" functions as abstract thinking and judgement. Frontotemporal damage therefore produces different symptoms from the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer's disease, a more familiar dementia that affects the hippocampus and amygdale in the middle of the brain. Frontotemporal dementia is also rarer than patients; it has seen only 46 with frontotemporal dementia.

  Two of those patient interested Dr. Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia —— a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning.

  About two years after he was first diagnosed the lawyers, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as "mere noise", started listening to the Italian pop band "883". As his command of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyer's love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in the past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her 11-year-old granddaughter was listening to.

  This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimer's patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal-demetia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities known. And in another lapse of musical taste, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs.

  Dr. Frisoni speculates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain's right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr. Frisoni puts it in his article, "de gustibus non disputandum est". Or, in plainer words, there is no accounting for taste.

  11. For Shakespeare, old age as "second childishness" for they have the same        .

  [A] favorite
  [B] memory
  [C] experience
  [D] sense

  12. Which one is not a symptom of Frontotemporal dementia?

  [A] the loss of memory
  [B] the loss of judgement
  [C] the loss of abstract thinking
  [D] the loss of speech

  13. From the two patients mentioned in the passage, it can be concluded that        .

  [A] their command of language has deteriorated
  [B] their emotional attachments to friends and family are being lost
  [C] the Frontotemporal dementia can bring new gifts
  [D] Frontotemporal dementia can cause patients to change their musical tastes.

  14. The "novel" in the last paragraph means        .

  [A] historical
  [B] special
  [C] story-like
  [D] strange

  15. From the passage, it can be inferred that        .

  [A] the damage of the left frontal lobe may affect some specific neural circuit
  [B] the lawyer patient has the left frontal lobe damaged
  [C] the damage of the left frontal lobe decreased the appreciation certain kinds of music
  [D] every patient has the same taste

 答案:D A D D B
题目分析

  11.答案为D,属推理判断题。文章第一句"莎士比亚把老年人比作人生第二个幼年期",紧接着后面"sans teech, sans eyes, sans taste"是补充说明的,sans不知道是什么意思,但可以推断老人和婴儿在牙齿、眼睛、味觉方面的特点就是在这些方面都不敏感,(sans是法语,意思是"没有")那么答案中"A爱好"、"B记忆"、"C经历"、"D感觉",根据原文应该是D,因牙齿、眼睛、味觉都和感官有关。

  12.答案为A,属事实细节题。文章第二段脑周损伤痴呆顾名思义脑前和脑周受到破坏。它会影响语言表达能力、抽象思维能力和判断能力,因此答案中只有"A丧失记忆"是文章没有提到的。

  13.答案为D,属推理判断题。文章第五段中提到"这种对音乐品味的变化在Alzheimer's病人中是看不到的。它好像是脑周痴呆病人特有的症状。"而且文中提到的这两个人都是在爱好的音乐类型上发生了变化,所以答案中"A驾驭语言的能力衰退"、"B对朋友和家人的感情疏远"、"C脑周痴呆可能会对病人引发出新的兴趣和天分"、"D痴呆可使病人在音乐品味上有变化",答案D最为切合。虽然第五段也提到了这种病可以让人产生新的天分,但是其他的研究所发现的。

  14.答案为D,属猜词题。最后一段Frisoni论述到疾病使人对新鲜事物产生兴趣"Apredominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience."答案"A历史的"、"B特别的"、"C特殊的、故事般的"、"D新奇的、稀奇的",这四个答案中D最为符合。

  15.答案为B,属推理判断题。文章最后一段解释了为什么病人会对一些新奇的经验有新的态度。"Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain's right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music.""研究表明,大脑的右前体控制人追求稀奇事务的作为。一旦左前体受损,右前脑体作用突出,随即引发人对新事物的兴趣。或者说,这种损伤会影响用来欣赏某种音乐的特殊神经电路。"答案A"左半脑体受损影响一些特殊神经电路",根据文章有两种可能,这一点不能确定;答案B"那位律师病人的左前脑体受损了",律师对音乐的喜好发生了变化,这证明了是左前脑体受损了;答案C"左半脑体受损能减少对音乐的喜好",文中只提到会影响,至于是增加还是减少对音乐的喜还就不一定了;答案D"每个病人有不同样的品味",从文章最后一句可以看出,每个人品味是不同的。

Text4

  Compared with the glamorous thrill of the presidential primary, state elections in New Hampshire do not grip the voter - all those unfamiliar names, way down at the end of the ballot. That, at least, is the current explanation of how Tom Alciere managed to get elected to the state legislature last November. After an uneventful campaign of hand-shaking and sign-waving, this Republican from Nashua, who had lost several previous bids for office, won a seat by 55 votes. Whereupon his constituents learned that he was an advocate of killing policemen.

  Mr. Alciere had not tried to conceal this. He posted vigorous notes on Internet discussion boards; one, in October, declared that "nobody will ever be safe until the last cop is dead." He often joined in radio talk-shows, sometimes describing himself as "Angry Tom". But in his election campaign Mr. Alciere was much mistier: he promised only to fight for individual freedom. He later said that he did not bring up his opinions about the police because nobody asked.

  This has prompted some soul-searching among journalists, and others, who failed to spot Angry Tom behind Candidate Tom. Mr. Alciere blames the voters. In one Internet message, he called his constituents "a bunch of fat, stupid, ugly old ladies that watch soap operas, play bingo, read tabloids and don't know the metric system". These people, be it noted, are part of the New Hampshire electorate that is so often admired for its maverick charm, wielding much power in the choice of America's presidents through its first-in-the-nation primary.

  The point is that New Hampshire pays attention to presidential races, but considers its own state law makers pretty unimportant. As Ken Gidge, a radio talk-show host puts it, quite possibly "a dog-catcher in a particular community has more power". New Hampshire's legislature has 400 members who face re-election every two years and earn an annual salary of $100. The legislature is a "dinosaur with a tiny little brain", a symbol of New Hampshire's disdain for government, says Arnie Arnesen, a political science professor at Franklin Pierce College. She claims that, in the past, some of its members have been found to have mental problems. No doubt others held opinions as pungent as Mr. Alciere's; but they did not have an Internet on which to publicize them.

  At first, Mr. Alciere refused to leave his seat, insisting he was "not a nut". Then he said that he would step down, if 11 law makers pledged to bring his pet bills to a roll-call vote. He wants to legalize drugs, ban involuntary commitments to mental institutions, and replace state schools with online education. On January 10th, a compromise was reached: another freshman Republican agreed to submit eight of his proposals, and Mr. Alciere resigned. Some think he should have been kept around - to remind voters that they sometimes get what they deserve.

  16. Tom Alciere could have been elected to the state legislature because        .

  [A] people were familiar with his name for his several attendance campaigns
  [B] he was a charming person and gave thrills to his people
  [C] he approved of killing policemen
  [D] he was always the last one on the ballot list

  17. In the election campaign, Mr. Alciere        .

  [A] declared that all the cops should be killed
  [B] showed his anger on radio talk-shows
  [C] was not asked about the police issue
  [D] only played tricks with his constituents

  18. Which of the following statements is not true?

  [A] Some New Hampshire electorate has a little prestige in government.
  [B] Journalists didn't pay enough attention to Alciere's hatred to police.
  [C] Tom blamed his voters just to draw people's attention.
  [D] The "stupid, fat, ugly old ladies" are a little popular in society.

  19. The legislature is a "dinosaur with a tiny brain" implies        .

  [A] New Hampshire pays too much attention to presidential races
  [B] legislature members have mental problems
  [C] some people want to be as pungent as Mr. Alciere
  [D] there is indifference of the people on its own state governing

  20. Mr. Alciere at last        .

  [A] refused to leave his seat
  [B] would never pay his pet bills
  [C] resigned with some compromises accepted by the legislature
  [D] was expelled from the position by the opposite leader

 答案:A D C B D
  题目分析

  16.答案为A,属推理判断题。对他的名字已经比较熟悉了。文章第一段中提到"和富有美丽的总统初选相比,在New Hampshire的州选举中,投票人对那些他们不认识的名字没有任何兴趣。而这就是之所以Tom Alciere去年参选获胜的缘故——他曾好几次落选公职。但那次他获得了55票而获胜。"答案A"经过他几次的参选,人们记住了他的名字",答案B"他非常有魅力,给他的人民以魅力四射的震颤",答案C"他赞成杀死警察",答案D"他常常在投票名单上是最后一个".

  17.答案为D,属推理判断题。文章第二段Mr. Alciere在选举中只是许诺为个人而奋斗,并未提到警察什么的,其实我们可以从文章分析出来,不是当时别人没有问他,而是他心里明白那会引起什么反应。答案A"宣布所有警察该死",答案B"在广播脱口秀中发表愤怒",答案C"从未被问起过关于警察的事",答案D"和他的选民玩心计".

  18.答案为C,属事实细节题。答案C"他污蔑他的选民只是为了引起人们的注意",文中并没有这一点意思。答案A"许多选民在政府中有一定的声望",答案B"记者对他仇恨警察这件事并不以为然",答案D"'那些所谓愚蠢、肥胖、丑陋的老女人'在社会上还是有一定市场的".

  19.答案为B,属推理判断题。文章第四段提到"无脑恐龙"是New Hampshire对政府蔑视的象征。说明人们不知乎本地政府的运作。答案A"New Hampshire给予总统选举太多的注意力",答案B"关于人们对本州立法机构的运作的漠不关心",答案C"一些人想和Alciere一样尖刻",答案D"立法机构成员有精神问题".

  20.答案为D,属推理判断题。文章最后一段提到Alciere的8项提议被通过后,他才辞职。答案A"拒绝离开",答案B"永不付单",答案C"被反对派领导驱逐下台",答案D"Alciere辞职了,但新任者需要有一些妥协".

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