最新雅思阅读20篇

济南新航道学校

IELTS READING

雅思阅读

高分必备习题集

注：本习题集仅供济南新航道内部学员使用，严禁翻印，传阅。

Contents

1.Amateur naturalist 业余自然学家（P3）

https://www.sodocs.net/doc/7217208745.html,municating Styles and Conflict 交流的方式与冲突(P6)

3.Health in the Wild 野生动物自愈.(p10)

4.The Rainmaker 人工造雨(P13)

5.Shoemaker-Levy 9 Collision with Jupiter 舒梅克彗星撞木星(P16)

6. A second look at twin studies 双胞胎研究(P19)

7.Transit of Venus 金星凌日(P22)

8.Placebo Effect—The Power of Nothing安慰剂效应(P25)

9.The origins of Laughter 笑的起源(P29)

10.Rainwater Harvesting 雨水收集(P32)

11.Serendipity:The Accidental Scientists科学偶然性(P36)

12.T erminated! Dinosaur Era! 恐龙时代的终结(P40)

https://www.sodocs.net/doc/7217208745.html, ADDICTION 电视上瘾(P43)

14.E I nino and Seabirds 厄尔尼诺和水鸟(P46)

15.T he extinct grass in Britain 英国灭绝的某种草(P50)

16.E ducation philosophy教育的哲学(P53)

17.T he secret of Yawn打哈欠的秘密(P57)

18.c onsecutive and simultaneous translation交替传译和同声传译(P60)

19.N umeracy: can animals tell numbers?动物会数数么(P63)

20.G oing nowhere fast(P66)

21.T he seedhunters种子收集者(P69)

22.T he conquest of Malaria in Italy意大利征服疟疾(P72)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

文章背景：

业余自然学家主要讲述的是有一些人，平时喜欢观察自然界的植物生长，养蜂过程，气候变化，等等与大自然相关的变化并且做记录得到一些数据，这种数据叫做“amateur data”. 本文主要介绍业余自然学家以及一些专业自然学家探讨业余自然学家的数据是否能用，以及应该如何使用这些自然学家的数据，其可信度有多少等问题。

Amateur Naturalists

From the results of an annual Alaskan betting contest to sightings of migratory birds, ecologists are using a wealth of unusual data to predict the impact of climate change.

A Tim Sparks slides a small leather-bound notebook out of an envelope. The book’s yellowing pages contain beekeeping notes made between 1941and 1969 by the late Walter Coates of Kilworth, Leicestershire. He adds it to his growing pile of local journals, birdwatchers’ list and gardening diaries. “We’re uncovering about one major new record each month,” he says, “I still get surprised.” Around two centuries before Coates, Robert Marsham, a landowner from Norfolk in the east of England, began recording the life cycles of plants and animals on his estate- when the first wood anemones flowered, the dates on which the oaks burst into leaf and the rooks began nesting. Successive Marshams continued compiling these notes for 211 years.

B Today, such records are being put to uses that their authors could not possibly have expected. These data sets, and others like them, are proving invaluable to ecologists interested in the timing of biological events, or phenology. By combining the records with climate data, researchers can reveal how, for example, changes in temperature affect the arrival of spring, allowing ecologists to make improved predictions about the impact of climate change. A small band of researchers is combing through hundreds of years of records taken by thousands of amateur naturalists. And more systematic projects have also started up, producing an overwhelming response. “The amount of interest is almost frightening,” say s Sparks, a climate researcher at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire.

C Sparks first became aware of the army of “closet phenologists”, as he describes them, when a retiring colleague gave him the Marsham records. He now spends much of his time following leads from one historical data set to another. As news of his quest spreads, people tip him off to other historical records, and more amateur phenologists come out of their closets. The British devotion to recording and collecting makes his job easier- one man from Kent sent him 30 years’ worth of kitchen calendars, on which he has noted the date that his neighbour’s magnolia tree flowered.

D Other researchers have unearthed data from equally odd sources. Rafe Sagarin, an ecologist at Stanford University in California, recently studied records of a betting contest in which participants attempt to guess the exact time at which a specially erected wooden tripod will fall through the surface of a thawing river. The competition has taken place annually on the Tenana River in Alaska since 1917, and analysis of the results showed that the thaw now arrives five years earlier than it did when the contest began.

E Overall, such records have helped to show that, compared with 20years ago, a raft of natural events now occur earlier across much of the northern hemisphere, from the opening of leaves to the return of birds from migration and the emergence of butterflies from hibernation. The data can also hint at how nature will change in the future. Together with models of climate change, amateurs’ records could help guide conservation. Terry Root, an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, has collected birdwatchers’ counts of wildfowl taken between 1955 and 1996 on seasonal ponds in the American Midwest and combined them with climate data and models of future warming. Her analysis shows that the increased droughts that the models predict could halve the breeding populations at the ponds. “The number of waterfowl in North America will most probably drop significantly with global warming,” she says.

F But not all professionals are happy to use amateur data. “A lot of scientists won’t touch them, they say they’re too full of problems,” says Root. Because different observers can have different ideas of what constitutes, for example, an open snowdrop. “The biggest concern with ad hoc observations is how carefully and systematically they were taken,” says Mark Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who studies the interacti ons between plants and climate.” We need to know pretty precisely what a person’s been observing- if they just say ‘I note when the leaves came out’, it might not be that useful,” Measuring the onset of autumn can be particularly problem-atic because deciding when leaves change colour is a more subjective process than noting when they appear.

G Overall, most phenologists are positive about the contribution that amateurs can make. “They get at the raw power of science: careful observation of the natural world,” says Sagarin. But the professionals also acknowledge the need for careful quality control. Root, for example, tries to gauge the quality of an amateur archive by interviewing its collector. “You always have to worry- things as trivial as vacations can affect measurement. I disregard a lot of records because they’re not rigorous enough,” she says. Others suggest that the right statistics can iron out some of the problems with amateur data. Together with colleagues at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, environmental scientist Arnold van Vliet is developing statistical techniques to account for the uncertainty in amateur phenological data. With the enthusiasm of amateur phenologists evident from past records, professional researchers are now trying to create standardized recording schemes for future efforts. They hope that well-designed studies will generate a volume of observations large enough to drown out the idiosyncrasies of individual recorders. The data are cheap to collect, and can provide bre adth in space, time and range of species. “It’s very difficult to collect data on a large geographical scale without enlisting an army of observers,” says Root.

H Phenology also helps to drive home messages about climate change. “Because the public underst and these records, they accept them,” says Sparks. It can also illustrate potentially un pleasant consequences, he adds, such as the finding that more rat infestations are reported to local councils in warmer years. And getting people involved is great for public relations. “People are thrilled to think that the data they’ve been collecting as a hobby can be used for something scientific –it empowers them,”

says Root.

Questions 27-33

Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs A-H

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 27-33 on your answer sheet.

27. The definition of phenology

28. How Sparks first became aware of amateur records

29. How people reacted to their involvement in data collection

30. The necessity to encourage amateur data collection

31. A description of using amateur records to make predictions

32. Records of a competition providing clues for climate change

33. A description of a very old record compiled by generations of amateur naturalists Questions 34-36

Complete the sentences below with NO MORETHA N TWO WORDS from the passage.

Write your answers in boxes 34-36 on your answer sheet

34.Walter Coates’s records largely contain the information of.

35. Robert Marsham is famous for recording the of animals and plants on his

land.

36.According to some phenologists, global warming may cause the number of

waterfowl in North America to drop significantly due to increased . Questions 37-40

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

37. why do a lot of scientists discredit the data collected by amateurs?

A Scientific method was not used in data collection.

B Amateur observers are not careful in recording their data.

C Amateur data is not reliable.

D Amateur data is produced by wrong candidates.

38. Mark Schwartz used the example of leaves to illustrate that?

A Amateur records can’t be used.

B Amateur records are always unsystematic.

C The color change of leaves is hard to observe.

D Valuable information is often precise.

39. How do the scientists suggest amateur data should be used?

A Using improved methods.

B Be more careful in observation.

C Use raw materials.

D Applying statistical techniques in data collection.

40.What’s the implication of phenology for ordinary people?

A It empowers the public.

B It promotes public relations.

C It warns people of animal infestation.

D It raises awareness about climate change in the public.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following page.

文章背景：

交流的方式与冲突。从古希腊时期开始，一位叫做hippocrate 的人就开始通过分类人的性格来更好的处理人与人的冲突及如何更好的了解自己。本文主要阐述了四种性格类型：sanguine类型的人活泼积极向上。Phlegmatic是冷静而具有分析性的性格，melancholic类型的人体贴而具有同情心。Choleric类型的人大胆而且直接。在workplace, 一个团队需要四种性格的人都有才能保证正常的运转。

Communicating Styles and Conflict

Knowing your communication style and having a mix of styles on your team can provide a positive force for resolving conflict.

Section A

As far back as Hippocrates’ time (460-370 B.C) people have tried to understand other people by characterizing them according to personality type or temperament. Hippocrates believed there were four different body fluids that influenced four basic types of temperament. His work was further developed 500 years later by Galen (130-200 A.D). These days there are any number of self-assessment tools that relate to the basic descriptions developed by Galen, although we no longer believe the source to be the types of body fluid that dominate our systems.

Section B

The value in self-assessments that help determine personality style, learning styles, communication styles, conflict-handling styles, or other aspects of individuals is that they help depersonalize conflict in interpersonal relationships.

The depe rsonalization occurs when you realize that others aren’t trying to be difficult, but they need different or more information than you do. They’re not intending to be rude; they are so focused on the task they forget about greeting people. They would like to work faster but not at the risk of damaging the relationships needed to get the job done. They understand there is a job to do, but it can only be done right with the appropriate information, which takes time to collect.

When used appropriately, understanding communication styles can help resolve conflict on teams. Very rarely are conflicts true personality issues. Usually they are issues of style, information needs, or focus.

Section C

Hippocrates and later Galen determined there were four basic temperaments: sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric. These descriptions were developed centuries ago and are still somewhat apt, although you could update the wording. In today’s world, they translate into the four fairly common communication styles described below:

Section D

The sanguine person would be the expressive or spirited style of communication. These people speak in pictures. They invest a lot of emotion and energy in their communication an often speak quickly, putting their whole body into it. They are easily sidetracked onto a story that may or may not illustrate the point they are trying

to make. Because of their enthusiasm they are great team motivators. They are concerned about people and relationships. Their high levels of energy can come on strong at times and their focus is usually on the bigger picture, which means they sometimes miss the details or the proper order of things. These people find conflict or differences of opinion invigorating and love to engage in a spirited discussion. They love change and are constantly looking for new and exciting adventures.

Section E

The phlegmatic person-cool and persevering-translates into the technical or systematic communication style. This style of communication is focused on facts and technical details. Phlegmatic people have an orderly, methodical way of approaching tasks, and their focus is very much on the task, not on the people, emotions, or concerns that the task may evoke. The focus is also more on the details necessary to accomplish a task. Sometimes the details overwhelm the big picture and focus needs to be brought back to the context of the task. People with this style think the facts should speak for themselves, and they are not as comfortable with conflict. They need time to adapt to change and need to understand both the logic of it and the steps involved.

Section F

The melancholic person who is softhearted and oriented toward doing things for others translates into the considerate or sympathetic communication style. A person with this communication style is focused on people and relationships. They are good listeners and do things for other people-sometimes to the detriment of getting things done for themselves. They want to solicit everyone’s opinion and make sure everyone is comfortable with whatever is required to get the job done. At times this focus on others can distract from the task at hand. Because they are so concerned with the needs for others and smoothing over issues, they do not like conflict. They believe that change threatens the status quo and tends to make people feel uneasy, so people with this communication style, like phlegmatic people, need time to consider the changes in order to adapt to them.

Section G

The choleric temperament translates into the bold or direct style of communication. People with this style are brief in their communication-the fewer words the better. They are big picture thinkers and love to be involved in many things at once. They are focused on tasks and outcomes and often forget that the people involved in carrying out the tasks have needs. They don’t do detail work easily and as a result can often underestimate how much time it takes to achieve the task. Because they are so direct, they often seem forceful and can be very intimidating to others. They usually would welcome someone challenging them, but most other styles are afraid to do so. They also thrive on change, the more the better.

Section H

A well-functioning team should have all of these communication styles for true effectiveness. All teams need to focus on the task, and they need to take care of relationships in order to achieve those tasks. They need the big picture perspective or the context of their work, and they need the details to be identified and taken care of

for success.

We all have aspects of each style within us. Some of us can easily move from one style to another and adapt our style to the needs of the situation at hand – whether the focus is on tasks or relationships. For others, a dominant style is very evident, and it is more challenging to see the situation from the perspective of another style.

The work environment can influence communication styles either by the type of work that is required or by the predominance of one style reflected in that environment. Some people use one style at work and another at home.

The good news about communication styles is that we all have the ability to develop flexibility in our styles. The greater the flexibility we have, the more skilled we usually are at handling possible and actual conflicts. Usually it has to be relevant to us to do so, either because we think it is important or because there are incentives in our environment to encourage it. The key is that we have to want to become flexible with our communication style. As Henry F ord said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right!”

Questions 27-34

Reading passage 3 has eight sections A-H.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number i-x in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.

List of headings

i Summarizing personality types

ii Combined styles for workplace

iii Physical explanation

iv A lively person who encourages

v Demanding and unsympathetic personality

vi Lazy and careless personality

vii The benefits of understanding communication styles

viii Cautious and caring

ix Factual and analytical personality

x Self-assessment determines one’s temperament

27 Section A

28 Section B

29 Section C

30 Section D

31 Section E

32 Section F

33 Section G

34 Section H

Questions 35-39

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3In boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

35 It is believed that sanguine people dislike variety.

36 Melancholic and phlegmatic people have similar characteristics.

37 Managers often select their best employees according to personality types.

38 It is possib le to change one’s personality type.

39 Workplace environment can affect which communication style is most effective. Question 40

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D

Write your answers in box 40 on your answer sheet.

The writer believes using self-assessment tools can

A help to develop one’s personality.

B help to understand colleagues’ behavior.

C improve one’s relationship with the employer.

D directly resolve conflicts.

READING PASSAGE 3

文章背景：

野生动物存在一种先天性的本领那就是生病后其本能可以让其借助某些物质

到治病的效果。例如某些鸟类例如Macaws会吃泥土以解食物中存在的毒素。

更有趣的是，某位科学家观察到大猩猩总是会吃某种树叶，吃的时候表情痛

说明并非好吃，后来该科学家发现大猩猩吃树叶是为了利用其自身不能消化

树叶排出肠道的parasite(寄生虫)。这一点表明动物先天是有自我医治的本能的.

Health in the Wild

Many animals seem able to treat their illnesses themselves. Humans may have a thing or two to learn from them.

For the past decade Dr Engel, a lecture in environmental sciences at Britain’s Open University, has been collating examples of self-medicating behavior in wild animals. She recently published a book on the subject. In a talk at the Edinburgh science Festival earlier this month, she explained that the idea that animals can treat themselves has been regarded with some skepticism by her colleagues in the past. But a growing number of animal behaviourists now think that wild animals can and do deal with their own medical needs.

One example of self-medication was discovered in 1987. Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu, working in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, noticed that local chimpanzees suffering from intestinal worms would dose themselves with pith of a plant called Veronia. This plant produces poisonous chemicals called terpenes. Its pith contains a strong enough concentration to kill gut parasites, but not so strong as to kill chimps(nor people, for that matter; locals use the pith for t he same purpose).Given that the plant is known locally as “goat-killer”, however, it seems that not all animals are as smart as chimps and humans. Some consume it indiscriminately, and succumb.

Since the Veronia-eating chimps were discovered, more evidence has emerged suggesting that animals often eat things for medical rather than nutritional reasons. Many species, for example, consume dirt- a behavior known as geophagy. Historically, the preferred explanation was that soil supplies minerals such as salt. But geophagy

occurs in areas where the earth is not a useful source of minerals, and also in places where minerals can be more easily obtained from certain plants that are known to be rich in them. Clearly, the animals must be getting something else out of eating earth. The current belief is that soil-and particularly the clay in it-helps to detoxify the defensive posions that some plants produce in an attempt to prevent themselves from being eaten. Evidence for the detoxifying nature of clay came in 1999, from an experiment carried out on macaws by James Gilardi and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis, Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members such as strychnine. In the wild, the birds are frequently seen perched on eroding riverbanks eating clay. Dr Gillardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their blood streams than those that had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct.

Other observations also support the idea that clays is detoxifying. Towards the tropics the amount toxic compounds in plants increases-and so does the amount of earth eaten by herbivores. Elephants lick clay from mud holes all year around, except in September when they are bingeing on fruit which, because it has evolved to be eaten, is not toxic. And the addition of clay to the diets of domestic cattle increases the amount of nutrients that they can absorb from their food by 10-20%.

A third instance of animal self-medications is the use of mechanical scours to get rid of gut parasites. In 1972 Richard Wrangham, a researcher at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania, noticed that chimpanzees were eating the leaves of a tree called Aspilla. The chimps chose the leaves carefully by testing them in their mouths. Having chosen a leaf, a chimp would fold it into a fan and swallow it. Some of the chimps were noticed wrinkling their noses as they swallowed these leaves, suggesting the experience was unpleasant. Later, undigested leaves were found on the forest floor.

Dr Wrangham rightly guessed that the leaves had a medicinal purpose-this was, indeed, one of the earliest interpretations of a behavior pattern as self-medication. However, he guessed wrong about what the mechanism was. His(and everybody else’s) assumption was that Aspilla contained a drug, and his sparked more than two decades of phytochemical research to try to find out what chemical the chimps were after. But by the 1990s, chimps across Africa had been seen swallowing the leaves of 19 different species that seemed to have few suitable chemicals in common. The drug hypothesis was looking more and more dubious.

It was Dr Huffman who got to the bottom of the problem. He did so by watching what came out of the chimps, rather than concentrating on what went in. He found that the egested leaves were full of intestinal worms. The factor common to all 19 species of leaves swallowed by the chimps was that they were covered with microscopic hooks. These caught the worms and dragged them form their lodgings.

Following that observation, Dr Engel is now particularly excited about how knowledge of the way that animals look after themselves could be used t to improve the health of live-stock. People might also be able to learn a thing or two-and may,

indeed, already have done so. Geophagy. For example, is a common behavior in many parts of the world. The medical stalls in African markets frequently sell tablets made of different sorts of clays, appropriate to different medical conditions. Africans brought to the Americas as slaves continued this tradition, which gave their owners one more excuse to affect to despise them. Yet, as Dr Engel points out, Rwandan mountain gorillas eat a type of clay rather similar to kaolinite-the main ingredient of many patent medicines sold over the counter in the west for digestive complaints. Dirt can sometimes be good for you, and to be “as sick as a parrot” may, after all, be a state to be desired.

Questions 1-4

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1.Dr. Engel has been working on animal self-medication research for 10 years.

2.Animals often walk a considerable distance to find plants medication.

3.Birds, like Macaw, often eat clay because it is part of their natural diet.

4.According to Dr. Engel, research into animal self-medication can help to invent

new painkillers.

Questions 5-9

Complete the notes below using NO MORE THAN ONE WORD OR NUMBER from passage.

Write your answers in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.

Date Name Animal Food Mechanism

1987 Michael

Huffman and

Mohanmedi

Seifu Chimpanzee 5______of

Veronia

Contained

chemicals,6__

_, that can kill

parasites

1999 James Gilardi

and his

colleagues Macaw Seeds(contain

7_____)and

clay

Clay

can8____the

poisonous

contents in

food

1972 Richard

Wrang-ham Chimpanzee Leaves with

tiny 9_____on

surface

Such leaves

can catch and

expel worms

from intestines

Questions 10-13

Complete the summary below using words from the box.

Write your answers, A-H, in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

Though often doubted, the self-medicating behavior of animals has been supported by an increasing amount of evidence. One piece of evidence particularly deals with10___, a soil-consuming behavior commonly found across animals species, because earth,

often clay, can neutralize the 11____content of their diet. Such behavior can also be found among humans in Africa, where people purchase 12__at market stalls as a kind of medication to their illnesses. Another example if this is found in chimps eating leaves of often 13____taste but with no apparent medicinal value until its unique structure came into light.

A.Mineral B plants C unpleasant D toxic E clay tablets F nutritional G geophagy H

harmless

READING PASSAGE4

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

文章背景：

本文主要讲述了某种人造制雨器。

The Rainmaker

Sometimes ideas just pop up out of the blue. Or in Charlie Paton’s case, out of the rain. “ I was in a bus in Morocco travelling through the desert,” he remembers. “It had been raining and the bus was full of hot, wet people. The windows steamed up and I went to sleep with a towel against the glass. When I woke, the thing was soaking wet. I had to w ring it out. And it set me thinking. Why was it so wet?”

The answer, of course, was condensation. Back home in London, a physicist friend, Philip Davies, explained that the glass, chilled by the rain outside, had cooled the hot humid air inside the bus below its dew point, causing droplets of water to form on the inside of the window. Intrigued, Paton-a lighting engineer by profession-started rigging up his own equipment. “I made my own solar stills. It occurred to me that you might be able to produce water in this way in the desert, simply by cooling the air. I wondered whether you could make enough to irrigate fields and grow crops.”Today, a decade on, his dream has taken shape as giant greenhouse on a desert island off Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf ---the first commercially viable Version of his “seawater greenhouse”. Local scientists, working with Paton under a license from his company Light Works, are watering the desert and growing vegetables in what is basically a giant dew-making machine that produces fresh water and cool air from sum and seawater. In awarding Paton first prize in a design competition two years ago, Marco Goldschmied, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, called it “a truly original idea which has the potential to impact on the lives of millions of people living in coastal water-starved areas around the world.”

The design has three main parts (see Graphic). The greenhouse faces into the prevailing wind so that hot, dry desert air blows in through the front wall of perforated cardboard, kept wet and cool by a constant tickle of seawater pumped up from the nearby shoreline. The evaporating seawater cools and moistens the air. Last June, for example, when the temperature outside the Abu Dhabi greenhouse was 46°c, it was in the low 30s inside. While the air outside was dry, the humidity in the greenhouse was 90 percent. The cool, moist air allows the plants to grow faster, and because much less water evaporates from the leaves their demand for moisture drops dramatically. P aton’s crops thrived on a single litre of water per square metre per day, compared to 8 litres if they were growing outside.

The second feature also cools the air for the plants. Paton has constructed a double-layered roof with an outer layer of clear polythene and an inner, coated layer that reflects infrared light. Visible light can stream through to maximise photosynthesis, while heat from the infrared radiation is trapped in the space between the layer, away from the plants.

At the back of the greenhouse sits the third element, the main water-production unit. Just before entering this unit, the humid air of the greenhouse mixes with hot, dry air from between the two layers of the roof. This means the air can absorb more moisture as it passes through a second moist cardboard wall. Finally, the hot saturated air hits a condenser. This is a metal surface kept cool by still more seawater-the equivalent of the window on Paton’s Moroccan bus. Drops of pure distilled water from on the condenser and flow into a tank for irrigating the crops.

The greenhouse more or less runs itself. Sensors switch everything on when the sun rises and alter flows of air and seawater through the day in response to changes in temperature, humidity and sunlight. On windless days, fans ensure a constant flow of air through the greenhouse. “ once it is tuned to the local environment, you don’t need anyone there for it to work,” says Paton. “ we can run the entire operation off one 13-amp plug, and in future we could make it entirely independent of the grid, powered from a few solar panels.”

The net effect is to evaporate seawater into hot desert air, then recondense the moisture as fresh water. At the same time, cool moist air flows through the greenhouse to provide ideal conditions for the crops. The key to the seawater greenhouse’s potential is its unique combination of desalination and air conditioning. By tapping the power of the sun it can cool as efficiently as a 500-kilowatt air conditioner while using less than 3 kilowatts of electricity. In practice, it evaporates 3000 litres of seawater a day and turns it into about 800 litres of fresh water---just enough to irrigate the plants. The rest is lost as water vapour.

Critics point out that construction costs of ￡25per square metre mean the water is twice as expensive as water from a conventional desalination plant. But the comparison is misleading, says Paton. The natural air conditioning in the greenhouse massively increases the value of that water. Because the plants need only an eight of the water used by those grown conventionally, the effective cost is only a quarter that of water from a standard desalinator. And costs should plummet when mass production begins, he adds.

Best of all, the greenhouse should be environmentally, frien dly. “ I suppose there might be aesthetic objections to large structures on coastal sites,” says Harris, “but it is a clean technology and doesn’t produce pollution or even large quantities of hot water.”

Questions 27-31

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

27. Paton came up with the idea of making water in desert by pure accident.

28. the bus Paton rode in had poor ventilation because of broken fans.

29. Paton woke up from sleep to discover that his towel was wet.

30. Paton started his greenhouse project immediately after meeting up with his friend.

31. Paton later opened his own business in the Persian Gulf.

Questions 32-36(图形题）

Questions 37-40

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage

Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

The greenhouse Paton built is installed with37___to keep the air flowing if the wind stands still, and it is expected in the future to rely on electricity provided solely by 38___. Despite the high construction costs compared to desalination plants, the plants grown in Paton’s greenhouse need much less water, and if produced in large quantities the 39___could be reduced remarkably. In addition to all these advantages, it is also40___, because it is clean and pollution free.

READING PASSAGE5

文章背景：

Shoe-maker彗星(comet)是由美国天文学家夫妇Shoemaker以及天文爱好者David H. Levy发现的。这是他们发现的第9颗彗星因此以他们的名字命名，该彗星于1992年7月8日距木星(Jupiter)表面4万公里时因受到强大的引力(Gravity)而分裂为21个小碎块（fragment），并于格林尼治标准时间1994年7月16日20时15分开始以每小时21万公里的速度陆续进入木星大气层，撞向木星的南半球，形成了彗星撞木星的天文奇观。多块碎片的撞击威力中，以碎片G的威力最大。它于7月18日07时32分(UTC)撞向木星，威力达六万亿吨TNT炸药（其当量相当于全球核武器储备总合的750倍），所造成的疤痕比地球直径长。因发生地点十分遥远，对地球并无任何影响。

Questions 27-31

Choose the most suitable headings for paragraph B-F from the list of headings below. Write appropriate numbers (i-x) in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings

i Camera settings for observation

ii Collisions on stage

iii Size of the comet

iv String of pearls

v Scientific explanations

vi Hubble Space Telescope

vii First discovery of the squashed comet

viii Power generated from the collisions

ix Calculations, expectations and predictions

x Change of the fragment’s shape

27Paragraph B

28Paragraph C

29Paragraph D

30Paragraph E

31Paragraph F

Shoemaker-Levy 9 Collision with Jupiter

A The last half of July 1994 witnessed much interest among the astronomical

community and the wider public in the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. The comet was discovered on 25 March 1993 by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy, using a 450 mm Schmidt camera at the Mount Palomar Observatory. The discovery was based on a photographic plate exposed two days earlier. The Shoemakers are particularly experienced comet hunters with

61 discoveries to their credit. Their technique relied on the proper motion of a

comet to identify the object as a non-stellar body. They photograph large areas of the sky, typically with an eight minute exposure, and repeat the photographs with

a stereo-microscope reveals any bodies which have moved against the background

of fixed stars.

B As often in science, serendipity played a large part in the discovery of

Shoemaker-Levy9. The weather on the night of 23 March was so poor that the observers would not normally have bothered putting film into their camera.

However, they had a box of old film to hand which had been partially exposed by accident some days previously, so decided to insert it into the camera rather than waste good film. Fortunately, two of the film plates, despites being fogged round the edges captured the first image of a very strange, bar-shaped object. This object, which Carolyn Shoemaker first described as a squashed comet, later became known as comet Shoemaker-Levy9.

C Other, more powerful, telescopes revealed that the comet was in fact composed of

21 cemetery fragments, strung out in a line, which accounted for the unusual

shape. The term string of pearls was soon coined. Some graphic proofs obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the main fragments which at that time spanned a linear distance of approximately 600,000 km. Initially the fragments were surrounded by extensive dust clouds in the line of the nuclei but these later disappeared. Some of the nuclei also faded out, while others split into multiple fragments.

D The size of the original comet and each of the fragments was, and still is,

something of a mystery. The first analysis of the orbital dynamics of the fragments suggested that the comet was originally some 2.5 km in diameter with an average fragment diameter of 0.75 km. Later work gave corresponding diameters of approximately 10 km and 2 km and these values are now considered more likely.

There was considerable variation in the diameters of different fragments.

E Further calculations revealed that the cemetery fragments were on course to

collide with Jupiter during July 1994, and that each fragment could deliver an energy equivalent to approximately 500,000 million tons of TNT. The prospect of celestial fireworks on such a grand scale immediately captured the attention of astronomers worldwide.

F Each fragment was assigned and identity letter A-W and a coordinated program of

observations was put in place worldwide to track their progress towards impact

with Jupiter. As the cemetery fragments reached the cloud tops of Jupiter, they were traveling at approximately 60 km/s and the chain of fragments had spread out to cover approximately 30,000,000 km. The impacts occurred during 16-22 July. All took place at a latitude of approximately 48 degrees south which nominally placed them in the SSS Temperature Region, however, visually they appeared close to the Jovian Polar region. The impacts all occurred some 10-15 degrees round the limb on the far side of the planet as see from Earth. However the rapid rotation of the planet soon carried the impact sites into the view of Earth-based telescopes. The collisions lived up to all but the wildest expectations and provided a truly impressive spectacle.

G Jupiter is composed of relatively small core of iron and silicates surrounded by

hydrogen. In the depths of the planet the hydrogen is so compressed that it is metallic in form; further from the center, the pressure is lower and the hydrogen is in its normal molecular form. The Jovian cloud tops visible from Earth consist primarily of methane and ammonia. There are other elements and compounds lurking in the cloud tops and below which are thought to be responsible for the colors seen in the atmosphere.

H The smaller cemetery fragments plunged into Jupiter, rapidly disintegrated and

left little trace; three of the smallest fragments, namely T,U and V left no discernible traces whatsoever. However, many of the cometery fragments were sufficiently large to produce a spectacular display. Each large fragment punched through the cloud tops, heated the surrounding gases to some 20,000 K on the way, and caused a massive plume or fireball up to 2,000 km in diameter to rise above the cloud tops. Before encountering thicker layers of the atmosphere and disintegrating in a mammoth shock wave, the large fragments raised dark dust particles and ultra-violet absorbing gases high into the Jovian cloud tops. The dark particles and ultra-violet absorbing gases manifested themselves as a dark scar surrounding the impact site in visible light.

I Some days after collision the impact sites began to evolve and fade as they became

subject to the dynamics of Jupiter’s atmosphere. No one knows how long they will remain visible from Earth, but it is thought that the larger scars may persist for a year or more. The interest of professional astronomers in Jupiter is now waning and valuable work can therefore be performed by amateurs in tracking the evolution of the collision scars. The scars are easily visible in a modest telescope, and a large reflector will show them in some detail. There is scope for valuable observing work from now until Jupiter reaches conjunction with the Sun in November 2004.

J Astronomers and archivists are now searching old records for possible previously unrecognized impacts on Jupiter. Several spots were reported from 1690 to 1872 by observers including William Herschel and Giovanni Gassini. The records of the BAA in 1927 and 1948 contain drawings of Jupiter with black dots or sports visible. It may be possible that comet impacts have been observed before, without their identity being realized, but no one can be sure.

Questions 32-35

Write the appropriate letters A-J in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

32Shoemaker-Levy 9 comets had been accidentally detected.

33The collisions caused a spectacular vision on Jupiter.

34Every single element on Shoemaker-Levy 9 was labeled.

35Visual evidence explains the structure of Shoemaker-Levy 9.

Questions 36-40

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

The core o f Jupiter, which is enclosed by hydrogen, consists of 36…………………and 37………………………….Hydrogen is in metallic form as it is squeezed by pressure generated from the depths of the planet. The pressure is gradually reduced from the center to the outside layers, where hydrogen is in normal form of 38………….Far from the ground, methane and ammonia structures the 39………….., which can be observed from earth. Colors seen in the atmosphere is largely due to other particles 40……………..in the cloud.

READING PASSAGE6

文章背景：

双胞胎研究。科学家一直致力于研究双胞胎从而区分环境和基因对人的性格以及智商的影响。科学家们主要对于identical twins(同卵双胞胎)和fraternal twins(异卵双胞胎)进行研究以确定环境和基因哪一个会对人有更大的影响。研究主要考虑random mating(父母的择偶方式)，Gene-environment interaction（基因与环境的互相作用）Genetic mechanisms（基因结构）。出了对双胞胎自身的研究之外，目前研究已经延伸到了对其家人及父母的研究。

A second look at twin studies

More than a century after Galton's observation, twin studies remain a favorite tool of behavioral geneticists. Researchers have used twin studies to try to disentangle the environmental and genetic backgrounds of a cornucopia of traits, from aggression to intelligence to schizophrenia to alcohol dependence.

But despite the popularity of twin studies, some psychologists have long questioned assumptions that underlie them--like the supposition that fraternal and identical twins share equal environments or that people choose mates with traits unlike their own. The equal environments assumption, for example, has been debated for at least 40 years. Many researchers have found evidence that the assumption is valid, but others remain skeptical.

Overall, twin studies assumptions remain controversial, says psychologist James Jaccard, PhD, a psychologist who studies statistical methods at the University at Albany of the State University of New York. In response, though, researchers are working to expand and develop twin study designs and statistical methods. And while the assumptions question remains a stumbling block for some researchers, many agree twin studies will continue to be an important tool, along with emerging genome and molecular research methods, in shedding light on human behavioral genetics.

The classical twin study design relies on studying twins raised in the same family environments. Monozygotic (identical) twins share all of their genes, while dizygotic (fraternal) twins share only about 50 percent of them. So, if a researcher compares the similarity between sets of identical twins to the similarity between sets of fraternal twins for a particular trait, then any excess likeness between the identical twins should

be due to genes rather than environment.

Researchers use this method, and variations on it, to estimate the heritability of traits: The percentage of variance in a population due to genes. Modern twin studies also try to quantify the effect of a person's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait. The assumptions those studies rest on--questioned by some psychologists, including, in recent work,: Random mating. Twin researchers assume that people are as likely to choose partners who are different from themselves as they are to choose partners who are similar for a particular trait. If, instead, people tend to choose mates like themselves, then fraternal twins could share more than 50 percent of their genes--and hence more similarities on genetically influenced traits, because they would receive similar genes from their mothers and fathers.

Equal environments. Twin researchers also assume that fraternal and identical twins raised in the same homes experience equally similar environments. But some research suggests that parents, teachers, peers and others may treat identical twins more similarly than fraternal twins.

Gene-environment interaction. Some researchers think that interactions between genes and environment, rather than genes and environment separately, may influence many traits. A recent study from Science by Avshalom Caspi, PhD, of King's College London, for example, suggests that a gene might moderate propensity for violence, particularly in people who are severely maltreated as children. Many twin study designs don't take this type of complication into account.

Genetic mechanisms. Traits can be inherited through different genetic mechanisms. For traits governed by dominant genetic mechanisms, a dominant gene inherited from one parent trumps a recessive gene inherited from the other parent: If a person inherits a recessive gene for blue eyes from one parent and a dominant gene for brown eyes from the other parent, then the dominant brown gene wins, and the person's eyes are brown.

Additive genetic mechanisms, in contrast, mix together--a plant that receives one red gene and one white gene might, if the genes are additive, turn out pink. Epistatic mechanisms are complex cases where interactions among multiple genes may determine the outcome of one trait. Twin studies, in general, assume that only one type of genetic mechanism--usually additive--is operating for a particular trait.

Twin researchers acknowledge that these and other limitations exist. But, they say, the limitations don't negate the usefulness of twin studies. For traits that are substantially influenced by heredity, the approximately two-fold difference in genetic similarity between the two types of twins should outweigh any complications, says John Hewitt, PhD, director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

And the extent to which different assumptions matter may depend on which trait is being studied. Studies have suggested, for example, that people are more likely to select mates with similar levels of intelligence than they are mates with similar levels of neuroticism, extra version and other personality traits. So, researchers who use twins to study intelligence might have to worry more about nonrandom mating than

researchers who study personality.

Twin study designs and statistical analysis methods are also constantly evolving and improving. The original twin study design has expanded to include studies of twins' extended families, longitudinal studies and other variations. Some of these variations allow researchers to address previous limitations--they can investigate the effects of nonrandom mating, for example, by including the spouses of twins in studies. In fact, says psychologist Dorret Boomsma, PhD, of Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands, all of these assumptions can be tested, given the proper data. She argues that they should not be seen as assumptions at all, but instead as mechanisms whose relevance can be tested using study designs that go beyond the classical twin study design.

Analysis methods, likewise, don't remain static. "People are always thinking about ways to improve the analyses," Hewitt says. Jaccard acknowledges that this is true. "For some designs, we don't have to make as strong assumptions as we used to make," he says. "Instead of having to assume away four constructs, we only have to assume away two or three."

In the age of molecular genetics, meanwhile, the classical twin study design is only one aspect of genetics research. Twin studies estimate the heritability of a trait, but molecular genetics attempts to pinpoint the effects of a particular gene.

The future of twin research will involve combining traditional twin studies with molecular genetics research, according to Hewitt, who believes that day is already here. "When we conduct a study of twins these days, we always get DNA on everyone," Hewitt says. "And we'll use that DNA to try and identify specific individual genes that contribute to the overall pattern of heritability."

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writers in reading passage 1? On your answer sheet please write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1.The environment assumptions for twin studies have been challenged for a long

time.

2.Scientists only developed three methods to study human behavioral genetics.

3.Questioning previous on assumptions has made twin studies a useless toll.

4.Identical twins share more similarities than fraternal twins.

5.Because of an addictive genetic mechanism, people will inherit dominant genes

from their parents.

6.Numerous genetic elements may join together to determine the result of one trait.

7.Twin studies investigate the effects of a single gene.

Questions 8-12

Complete the summary below.

Choose your answer from the list below and write them in boxes 8-12 on your answer sheet.

NB There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all.

Twin studies are constantly evolving and improving. The classical twin study design

is on the basis of studying twins raised in the 8﹍﹍﹍Modern twin studies try to quantity the effect of a person’s family and 9﹍﹍﹍on a trait. Twin researchers acknowledge that some assumptions and limitations exist and expand the original twin study to include studies of twins’ extended family,10﹍﹍﹍and other variations. In the time of 11﹍﹍﹍,the classical twin study has its limitation. It does not pinpoint the implication of the particular gene, although it helps to assess individual’s 12﹍﹍﹍.

behavioral genetics environment assumptions longitudinal studies unique environment acknowledges molecular genetics heritability appropriate figures restrictions same family identical

obstacles accuracies distinct

READING PASSAGE 7

文章背景：

金星轨道在地球轨道内侧，某些特殊时刻，地球、金星、太阳会在一条直线上，这时从地球上可以看到金星就像一个小黑点一样在太阳表面缓慢移动，天文学称之为“金星凌日”。2012年6月6日上演的“金星凌日”是直到2117年以前所能看到的最后一次，凌日时间长达6小时，我国大部分地区处于最佳观测地区。

Transit of Venus

A A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly

between the Sun and earth, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transit is usually measured in hours. A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears much smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Before the space age, observations of transits of Venus helped scientists use the parallax method to calculate the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

B Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and

currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. Before 2004, the last pairs of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The first of pair of transits of Venus in the beginning of the 21st century took place on

8 June 2004 and the next will be on 6 June 2012. After 2012, the next transits of

Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125.

C A transit of Venus can be safely observed by taking the same precautions used

when observing the partial phases of a solar eclipse. Staring at the brilliant disk of the Sun with the unprotected eye can quickly cause serious and often permanent eye damage.

D Venus, with a n orbit inclined by 3.4°relative to the Earth’s, usually appears to pass

under the Sun in the sky at inferior conjunction. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun at or near one of its nodes, the longitude where Venus passes through th e Earth’s orbital planes, called the ecliptic. Although the inclination between these two orbital planes is only 3.4°,Venus can be as far as

2015年雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析三

Time to cool it 1 REFRIGERATORS are the epitome of clunky technology： solid， reliable and just a little bit dull. They have not changed much over the past century， but then they have not needed to. They are based on a robust and effective idea--draw heat from the thing you want to cool by evaporating a liquid next to it， and then dump that heat by pumping the vapour elsewhere and condensing it. This method of pumping heat from one place to another served mankind well when refrigerators' main jobs were preserving food and， as air conditioners， cooling buildings. Today's high-tech world， however， demands high-tech refrigeration. Heat pumps are no longer up to the job. The search is on for something to replace them. 2 One set of candidates are known as paraelectric materials. These act like batteries when they undergo a temperature change： attach electrodes to them and they generate a current. This effect is used in infra-red cameras. An array of tiny pieces of paraelectric material can sense the heat radiated by， for example， a person， and the pattern of the array's electrical outputs can then be used to construct an image. But until recently no one had bothered much with the inverse of this process. That inverse exists， however. Apply an appropriate current to a paraelectric material and it will cool down. 3 Someone who is looking at this inverse effect is Alex Mischenko， of Cambridge University. Using commercially available paraelectric film， he and his colleagues have generated temperature drops five times bigger than any previously recorded. That may be enough to change the phenomenon from a laboratory curiosity to something with commercial applications. 4 As to what those applications might be， Dr Mischenko is still a little hazy. He has， nevertheless， set up a company to pursue them. He foresees putting his discovery to use in more efficient domestic fridges and air conditioners. The real money， though， may be in cooling computers. 5 Gadgets containing microprocessors have been getting hotter for a long time. One consequence of Moore's Law， which describes the doubling of the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months， is that the amount of heat produced doubles as well. In fact， it more than doubles， because besides increasing in number，the components are getting faster. Heat is released every time a logical operation is performed inside a microprocessor， so the faster the processor is， the more heat it generates. Doubling the frequency quadruples the heat output. And the frequency has doubled a lot. The first Pentium chips sold by Dr Moore's company，Intel， in 1993， ran at 60m cycles a second. The Pentium 4--the last "single-core" desktop processor--clocked up 3.2 billion cycles a second. 6 Disposing of this heat is a big obstruction to further miniaturisation and higher speeds. The innards of a desktop computer commonly hit 80℃. At 85℃， they

2014年雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析（6）

1. A European spacecraft took off today to spearhead the search for another "Earth" among the stars. 2. The Corot space telescope blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan shortly after 2.20pm. 3. Corot， short for convection rotation and planetary transits， is the first instrument capable of finding small rocky planets beyond the solar system. Any such planet situated in the right orbit stands a good chance of having liquid water on its surface， and quite possibly life， although a leading scientist involved in the project said it was unlikely to find "any little green men". 4. Developed by the French space agency， CNES， and partnered by the European Space Agency (ESA)， Austria， Belgium， Germany， Brazil and Spain， Corot will monitor around 120，000 stars with its 27cm telescope from a polar orbit 514 miles above the Earth. Over two and a half years， it will focus on five to six different areas of the sky， measuring the brightness of about 10，000 stars every 512 seconds. 5. "At the present moment we are hoping to find out more about the nature of planets around stars which are potential habitats. We are looking at habitable planets， not inhabited planets. We are not going to find any little green men，" Professor Ian Roxburgh， an ESA scientist who has been involved with Corot since its inception， told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. 6. Prof Roxburgh said it was hoped Corot would find "rocky planets that could develop an atmosphere and， if they are the right distance from their parent star，they could have water". 7. To search for planets， the telescope will look for the dimming of starlight caused when an object passes in front of a star， known as a "transit". Although it will take more sophisticated space telescopes planned in the next 10 years to confirm the presence of an Earth-like planet with oxygen and liquid water， Corot will let scientists know where to point their lenses.

雅思阅读模拟试题-音乐

雅思阅读模拟试题:音乐 Background music may seem harmless, but it can have a powerful effect on those who hear it. Recorded background music first found its way into factories, shop and restaurants in the US. But it soon spread to other arts of the world. Now it is becoming increasingly difficult to go shopping or eat a meal without listening to music. To begin with, “ muzak ” (音乐广播网) was intended simply to create a soothing (安慰) atmosphere. Recently, however, it’s become big business –thanks in part to recent research. Dr. Ronald Milliman, an American marketing expert, has shown that music can boost sales or increase factory production by as much as a third. But, it has to be light music. A fast one has no effect at all on sales. Slow music can increase receipts by 38%. This is probably because shoppers slow down and have more opportunity to spot items they like to buy. Yet, slow music isn’t always answered. https://www.sodocs.net/doc/7217208745.html,liman found, for example, that in restaurants slow music meant customers took longer to eat their meals, which reduced overall sales. So restaurants owners might be well advised to play up-tempo music to keep the customers moving – unless of course, the resulting indigestion leads to complaints! ( )1. The reason why background music is so popular is that ______. A. it can have a powerful effect on those who hear it B. it can help to create a soothing atmosphere C. it can boost sales or increase factory production everywhere D. it can make customers eat their meals quickly ( )2. Background music means ________. A. light music that customers enjoy most B. fast music that makes people move fast C. slow music that can make customers enjoy their meals D. the music you are listening to while you are doing something ( )3. Restaurant owners complain about background music because ______. A. it results in indigestion B. it increases their sales C. it keeps customers moving D. it decreases their sales ( )4. The word “ up-tempo music” probably means_____. A.slow music B.fast music C.light music D.classical music

2012.9.1雅思阅读机经

2012年9月1日的雅思考试过后，环球雅思也在第一时间整理了完整的2012年9月1日雅思阅读机经，在此次的雅思阅读考试的三篇文章中，其中比较典型的几个题型的TRUE\FALSE\NOT GIVEN、Complete table、多选题、Sentence completion的出题比例依旧比较稳定，可以看到判断TRUE\FALSE\NOT GIVEN还是2012年9月1日雅思阅读机经中的重头戏。 考试日期：2012年9月1日 Reading Passage 1 Title:Man and Machine Question types:段落细节信息配对题填空题summary 文章内容 回顾 关于机器人的，MIT和日本的一些研究 英文原文阅读Types of Robots Humanoid Entertainment Robots ASIMO, manufactured by Honda QRIO, by Sony HOAP(*1) Robot Series (Humanoid for Open Architecture Platform), Manufactured by Fujitsu Toyota Partner Robot, manufactured by Toyota. EMIEW, by Hitachi

Androids Androids are robots designed to strongly resemble humans. Actroid, a realistic female robot demonstrated most prominently at Expo 2005 in Japan Hanako, a humanoid robot designed for dentist training HRP-4C, a humanoid robot with a realistic head and the average figure of a young Japanese female Animal (four legged) robots Aibo playing with kids AIBO is a commercial robotic dog manufactured by Sony Electronics. Social robots PaPeRo Paro, a robot baby seal intended for therapeutic purposes Wakamaru Guard robots Guardrobo D1 is manufactured by Sohgo Security Services. Banryu, manufactured by Sanyo and TMSUK. Domestic robots SmartPal V, manufactured by Yaskawa Electric

雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析(2)

雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析（2）

Next Year Marks the EU's 50th Anniversary of the Treaty A. After a period of introversion and stunned self-disbelief，continental European governments will recover their enthusiasm for pan-European institution-building in . Whether the European public will welcome a return to what voters in two countries had rejected so short a time before is another matter. B. There are several reasons for Europe’s recovering self-confidence. For years European economies had been lagging dismally behind America (to say nothing of Asia)， but in the large continental economies had one of their best years for a decade， briefly outstripping America in terms of growth. Since politics often reacts to economic change with a lag，’s improvement in economic growth will have its impact in ， though the recovery may be ebbing by then. C. The coming year also marks a particular point in a political cycle so regular that it almost seems to amount to a natural law. Every four or five years， European countries take a large stride towards further integration by signing a new treaty： the Maastricht treaty in 1992， the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997， the Treaty of Nice in . And in they were supposed to ratify a European constitution， laying the ground for yet more integration—until the calm rhythm was rudely shattered by French and Dutch voters. But the political impetus to sign something every four or five years has only been interrupted，not immobilised， by this setback. D. In the European Union marks the 50th anniversary of another treaty—the Treaty of Rome， its founding charter. Government leaders have already agreed to celebrate it ceremoniously， restating their commitment to “ever closer union” and the basic ideals of European unity. By itself， and in normal circumstances， the EU’s 50th-birthday greeting to itself would be fairly meaningless， a routine expression of European good fellowship. But it does not take a Machiavelli to spot that once governments have signed the declaration (and it seems unlikely anyone would be so uncollegiate as to veto

2019年雅思阅读模拟试题：流程图题(1)

2019年雅思阅读模拟试题：流程图题(1) BAKELITE The birth of modern plastics In 1907, Leo Hendrick Baekeland, a Belgian scientist working in New York, discovered and patented a revolutionary new synthetic material. His invention, which he named 'Bakelite,’was of enormous technological importance, and effectively launched the modern plastics industry. The term 'plastic' comes from the Greek plassein, meaning 'to mould'. Some plastics are derived from natural sources, some are semi-synthetic (the result of chemical action on a natural substance), and some are entirely synthetic, that is, chemically engineered from the constituents of coal or oil. Some are 'thermoplastic', which means that, like candlewax, they melt when heated and can then be reshaped. Others are 'thermosetting'： like eggs, they cannot revert to their original viscous state, and their shape is thus fixed for ever. Bakelite had the distinction of being the first totally synthetic thermosetting plastic. The history of today's plastics begins with the discovery of a series of semi-synthetic thermoplastic materials in the mid-nineteenth century. The impetus behind the development of these early plastics was generated by a number of factors—immense technological progress in the domain of chemistry, coupled with wider cultural changes, and the pragmatic need to find acceptable substitutes for dwindling supplies of 'luxury' materials such as tortoiseshell and ivory.

雅思阅读机经类5

雅思阅读机经类5

考试日期： 8月25日 Reading Passage 1 Title: Dirty But Clean River ---(FLOOD) Question types: TRUE\FALSE\NOT GIVEN 9题 Complete table 5题 文章内容回顾flood对生态群系的重要性，但某处flood愈发减少以致人们不得不模拟flood。 问flood or fire对森林更有害，后面问自从1663年t鱼就开始减少，还有flood最多可到3500每秒，1996的人造flood开始被认为成功了，cube鱼的减少是因为t鱼的引入，人造flood比天然的大，以前flood含有干净的水。 题型难度分析难度偏低，本文只有两种题型，且都是有顺序的题目，降低了做题难度。是非无判断的题量较大，在一定程度上降低了定位的难度。在表格填空题中，还有两道是时间（数字）的定位，难度降低。 题型技巧分析是非无判断题： 解题思路： 1. 关键词定位到原文中与题目出现重复的段落 2. 判断方式不包含任何逻辑推理 TRUE: 是原文中同义近义改写 FALSE: 对于原文信息的直接改写 NOT GIVEN: 原文没有信息，或经过原文信息不能直接推理出来3. 书写应该规范，大写全拼 剑桥雅思推荐原文练习剑桥5-3-2 Disappearing Delta 话题相似剑桥6-2-3 题型相似 Reading Passage 2 Title: graffiti（涂鸦） Question types: Which paragraph contains the following information? 5题连续两个5选2 （4题） Sentence completion 4题 文章内容回顾 graffiti（涂鸦）是艺术还是犯罪，主要讲各种去除涂鸦的方法，不足之处和注意事项 等。 英文原文阅读Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Stickers and other adhesives are not considered graffiti, apparently because they are less common. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.[2] In modern times, paint, particularly spray paint, and marker pens have become

雅思阅读模拟试卷

ACADEMIC READING 60 minutes READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Striking Back at Lightning With Lasers Seldom is the weather more dramatic than when thunderstorms strike. Their electrical fury inflicts death or serious injury on around 500 people each year in the United States alone. As the clouds roll in, a leisurely round of golf can become a terrifying dice with death - out in the open, a lone golfer may be a lightning bolt's most inviting target. And there is damage to property too. Lightning damage costs American power companies more than $100 million a year. But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit back. Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for neutralising the power of thunderstorms, and this winter they will brave real storms, equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before lightning can strike. The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on command is not new. In the early 1960s, researchers tried firing rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these clouds generate. The technique survives to this day at a test site in Florida run by the University of Florida, with support from the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), based in California. EPRI, which is funded by power companies, is looking at ways to protect the United States' power grid from lightning strikes. 'We can cause the lightning to strike where we want it to using rockets,' says Ralph Bernstein, manager of lightning projects at EPR!. The rocket site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up. Bad behaviour But while rockets are fine for research, they cannot provide the protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for. The rockets cost around $1,200 each, can only be fired at a limited frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent. And even when they do trigger lightning, things still do not always go according to plan. 'Lightning is not perfectly well behaved,' says Bernstein. 'Occasionally, it will take a branch and go someplace it wasn't supposed to go.' And anyway, who would want to fire streams of rockets in a populated area? 'What goes up must come down,' points out Jean-Claude Diels of the University of New Mexico. Diels is leading a project, which is backed by EPRI, to try to use lasers to discharge lightning safely and safety is a basic requirement since no one wants to put themselves or their expensive equipment at risk. With around $500,000 invested so far, a promising system is just emerging from the laboratory. The idea began some 20 years ago, when high-powered lasers were revealing. their ability to extract electrons out of atoms and create ions. If a laser could generate a line of ionization in the air all the way up to a storm cloud, this conducting path could be used to guide lightning to Earth, before the electric field becomes strong enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge. To stop the laser itself being struck, it would not be pointed straight at the clouds. Instead it would be directed at a mirror, and from

雅思阅读模拟试题精选

雅思阅读模拟试题精选

雅思阅读模拟试题精选 1. Washing， brushing and varnishing fossils — all standard conservation treatments used by many fossil hunters and museum curators alike —vastly reduces the chances of recovering ancient DNA. 2. Instead， excavators should be handling at least some of their bounty with gloves， and freezing samples as they are found， dirt and all， concludes a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today. 3. Although many palaeontologists know anecdotally that this is the best way to up the odds of extracting good DNA， Eva-Maria Geigl of the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris， France， and her colleagues have now shown just how important conservation practices can be. This information， they say， needs to be hammered home among the

10月24 号最新雅思阅读机经

10月24 号最新雅思阅读机经 10月刚过去，对于11月将要考雅思的同学来说，10月的雅思真题机经很重要，多了解最近的考试趋势和考试形式有助于考试成绩的提高，郑州培雅雅思培训专注雅思培训多年，对于考试的趋势和预测把握很深，欢迎各位河南地区的同学前来免费咨询。 一、考试概述： 本次考试三篇文章两旧一新，第一篇内容关于娃娃的发展起源，第二篇为人们工作中所接触到的压力，第三篇介绍的是关于一种蜥蜴。对于历史发展类，工作类和生物类的文章大家可以参考剑桥系列中C8T1P1，C10T1P3和C7T3P1进行复习。 二、具体题目分析 Passage 1： 题目：Doll 内容：娃娃的发展起源，材料及制作过程 题型：填空题7+判断题6 参考答案： 1-7 Completion 2000BC 埃及坟墓里经常可以发现由平整的木头制成的娃娃，“头发”由1. clay或木珠子制成，可以追溯到公元前2000多年。 600BC 希腊和罗马，女孩长到不再适合玩娃娃的年纪时，她们就会把娃娃奉献给女神们2. goddesses;公元前600年前娃娃已经有了可活动四肢3. movable limbs和可拆服装。 16-17th century 德国Grodnertal生产许多4. peg wooden dolls(木制挂钩娃娃),这种娃娃有着非常简单的挂钩关节，类似于衣夹。 1700-1800 除了木质娃娃，蜡质娃娃在17和18世纪也很流行。第一个以婴儿为模板的蜡质5.wax娃娃产于19世纪初的英国。

1800-1900 木材的替代品是1800年代发展起来的。纸浆木或纸张6.pulped wood or paper混合而成的合成物被用来制造娃娃的头和身体。 Mid of the 19th 19世纪40年代，德国，法国和丹麦开始制造瓷质娃娃头。19世纪60年代，陶制bisque娃娃取代了7.china娃娃头。 8-13 True/False/Not Given 8. 法国的dolls比德国的bisque dolls more costly—TRUE 9. The first rag doll 是在1850s制造出来的—NOT GIVEN 10. 赛璐璐celluloid娃娃容易掉色easily fade away—TRUE 11. only开头的判断题—FALSE 12. plastic与此前的材料resembled但是can last a longer time—TRUE 13. 待补充 Passage 2： 题目：Stress Level 内容：人类压力 题型：配对题5+选择题3+单选题6 参考文章(仅供参考)： Stress of Workplace A How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch; for others it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a "sickie" (病假) once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a "manageable" 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours. B Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights;