阅读选择题0907.docx

Passage One
Question 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
　　If you think a high-factor sunscreen(防晒霜)keeps you safe from harmful rays, you may be wrong. Research in this week's Nature shows that while factor 50 reduces the number of melanomas(黑瘤)and delays their occurrence, it can't prevent them. Melanomas are the most aggressive skin cancers. You have a higher risk if you have red or blond hair, fair skin, blue or green eyes, or sunburn easily, or if a close relative has had one. Melanomas are more common if you have periodic intense exposure to the sun. Other skin cancers are increasingly likely with long-term exposure.
　　There is continuing debate as to how effective sunscreen is in reducing melanomas—the evidence is weaker than it is for preventing other types of skin cancer. A 2011 Australian study of 1,621 people found that people randomly selected to apply sunscreen daily had half the rate of melanomas of people who used cream as needed. A second study, comparing 1,167 people with melanomas to 1,101 who didn't have the cancer, found that using sunscreen routinely, alongside other protection such as hats, long sleeves or staying in the shade, did give some protection. This study said other forms of sun protection—not sunscreen—seemed most beneficial. The study relied on people remembering what they had done over each decade of their lives, so it's not entirely reliable. But it seems reasonable to think sunscreen gives people a false sense of security in the sun.
　　Many people also don't use sunscreen properly-applying insufficient amounts, failing to reapply after a couple of hours and staying in the sun too long. It is sunburn that is most worrying-recent shows five episodes of sunburn in the teenage years increases the risk of all skin cancers.
　　The good news is that a combination of sunscreen and covering up can reduce melanoma rates, as shown by Australian figures from their slip-slop-slap campaign. So if there is a heat wave this summer, it would be best for us, too, to slip on a shirt, slop on(抹上)sunscreen and slap on a hat.
　　57.【题干】What is people's common expectation of a high-factor sunscreen?
　　A.It will delay the occurrence of skin cancer.
　　B.It will protect them from sunburn.
　　C.It will keep their skin smooth and fair.
　　D.It will work for people of any skin color.
　　【答案】B

　　58.【题干】What does the research in Nature say about a high-factor sunscreen?
　　A.It is ineffective in preventing melanomas.
　　B.It is ineffective in case of intense sunlight.
　　C.It is ineffective with long-term exposure.
　　D.It is ineffective for people with fair skin.
　　【答案】C
　　59.【题干】What do we learn from the 2011Australian study of 1,621 people?
　　A.Sunscreen should be applied alongside other protection measures.
　　B.High-risk people benefit the most from the application of sunscreen.
　　C.Irregular application of sunscreen does women more harm than good.
　　D.Daily application of sunscreen helps reduce the incidence of melanomas.
　　【答案】D
　　60.【题干】What does the author say about the second Australian study?
　　A.It misleads people to rely on sunscreen for protection.
　　B.It helps people to select the most effective sunscreen.
　　C.It is not based on direct observation of the subjects.
　　D.It confirms the results of the first Australian study.
　　【答案】D
　　61.【题干】What does the author suggest to reduce melanoma rates?
　　A.Using both covering up and sunscreen.
　　B.Staying in the shade whenever possible.
　　C.Using covering up instead of sunscreen.
　　D.Applying the right amount of sunscreen.
　　【答案】A
　　Passage Two
　　Questions 62 to 65are based on the following passage.
　　Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound.
　　The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity(长寿)translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems.
　　But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers(二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人)are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
　　Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy(预期寿命), combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with less generous defined-contribution ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding generation. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management knowhow to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.
　　62.【题干】What is happening in the workforce in rich countries?
　　A.Younger people are replacing the elderly.

　　B.Well-educated people tend to work longer.
　　C.Unemployment rates are rising year after year.
　　D.People with no college degree do not easily find work.
　　【答案】B

　　63.【题干】What has helped deepen the divide between the well-off and the poor?
　　A.Longer life expectancies.
　　B.Profound changes in the workforce.
　　C.A rapid technological advance.
　　D.A growing number of the well-educated.
　　【答案】C

　　64.【题干】What do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th century?
　　A.Economic growth will slow down.
　　B.Government budgets will increase.
　　C.More people will try to pursue higher education.
　　D.There will be more competition in the job market.
　　【答案】A

　　65.【题干】What is the result of policy changes in European countries?
　　A.Unskilled workers may choose to retire early.
　　B.More people have to receive in-service training.
　　C.Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retirement.
　　D.People may be able to enjoy generous defined-benefits from pension plans.
　　【答案】C

　　66.【题干】What is characteristic of work in the 21st century?
　　A.Computers will do more complicated work.
　　B.More will be taken by the educated young.

　　C.Most jobs to be done will be creative ones.
　　D.Skills are highly valued regardless of age.
　　【答案】D

Passage Three
　　Question 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
　　Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-education well off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individual and society, are profound.
　　The world is facing as astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长寿)translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems.
　　But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers (二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
　　That even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding generation. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management knowhow to creativity. Do not necessarily decline with age.
　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
　　56、what is happening in the workforce in rich countries?
　　A. younger people are replacing the elderly
　　B. well-educated people tend to work longer
　　C. unemployment rates are rising year after year
　　D. people with no college degree do not easily find work
　　57、what has helped deepen the divide between the well-off and poor?
　　A. Longer life expectancies
　　B. Profound changes in the workforce
　　C. rapid technological advance
　　D. A growing number of well-graduated.
　　58、what do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th century?
　　A. Economic growth will slow down.
　　B. Government budgets will increase.
　　C. More people will try to pursue higher education
　　D. There will be more competition in the job market.
　　59、What is the result of policy changes in European countries?
　　A. Unskilled workers may choose to retire early.
　　B. more people have to receive in-service training.
　　C. Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retirement.
　　D. People may be able to enjoy generous defined-benefits from pension plans.
　　60、What is characteristic of work in the 21st century?
　　A. Computers will do more complicated work.
　　B. More will be taken by the educated young.
　　C. Most jobs to be done will be creative ones.
　　D. Skills are highly valued regardless of age.
　　参考答案：
　　56. B 定位在第一段第一行：Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled.
　　57. B 定位在第一段的第四行。rapid technological advance提升了the highly skilled的收入，从而进一步压榨了the unskilled 的收入。
　　58. A 由题干中的20th century和observers定位到第二段第五行，“his
　　shift will lead to slower economies growth”，所以答案选A：economic growth will slow down。
　　59.C 由Europe定位到最后一段中间“even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement”， 可选出答案C。
　　60.D 这一题可以理解为主旨题，根据题干串联以及前面四题的总结和文章最后一段的最后一句可以推断出，选D选项。

Passage Four
　　Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.
　　Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines.One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops.A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
　　The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat corn and soybeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that tood place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
　　There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous(人口多的) countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.
　　Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soyabeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”
　　The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.
　　Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughted up for crops might be able to revert(回返)to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.
　　注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
　　61.What does the author try to draw attention to?
　　A)Food riots and hunger in the world. C)The decline of the grain yield growth.
　　B)News headlines in the leading media. D)The food supply in populous countries.
　　62.Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
　　A)Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.
　　B)Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.
　　C)Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.
　　D)Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.
　　63.What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?
　　A)They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.
　　B)They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.
　　C)They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.
　　D)They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.
　　64.What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation say about world food production in the coming decades?
　　A)The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.
　　B)The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.
　　C)The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.
　　D)The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.
　　65.How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation?
　　A)It is built on the findings of