雅思考试阅读模拟试题及标准答案

年雅思考试阅读模拟试题及答案

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2012年雅思考试阅读模拟试题及答案(一)

Published online：Nov 9th 2006

From The Economist print edition

How shops can exploit people’s herd mentality to increase s ales

1. A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (that is，how ants，bees or any social animal，including humans，behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy.

2. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome，Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani， a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology，described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted：for instance，by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store，forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes，also of the Florida Institute of Technology，set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that，if a certain product is seen to be popular，shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.

3. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani’s supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag，a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information，and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods，a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high，he is more likely to select it too.

4. Mr Usmani’s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right” product—that is，the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world，mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both

Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work，and testing will get under way in the spring.

5. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could，indeed，be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14，000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded，they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank，but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed，the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.

6. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category，and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem， a company in Cambridge，Massachusetts，also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.

7. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home，you can still be part of the swarm.

Questions 1-6

Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

1. Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.

2. In shops，products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more _______________.

3. According to Mr. Usmani，with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon，

a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.

4. On the way to everyday items at the back of the store，shoppers might be tempted to buy _______________.

5. If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high，other

customers tend to follow them.

6. Using the “swarm-moves” model，shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.

Questions 7-12

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? For questions 7-12 write

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contraicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

7. Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart.

8. People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.

9. Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers.

10. People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not.

11. Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops.

12. Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life.

Answer keys：

1. 答案：(freshly baked) bread. (第1段第2 行：Shoppers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they intended.)

2. 答案：expensive. (第1段第4 行：Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.)

3. 答案：impulse buying. (第2段第1 句：At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome，Zeeshan- ul- hassan Usmani，a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology，described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.)

4. 答案：other (tempting) goods/things/products. (第2段第2 句：Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted：for instance，by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store，forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.)

5. 答案：screen. (第3段第4 行：As a customer walks past a shelf of goods，a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high，he is more likely to select it too.)

6. 答案：discounts. (第4段第第1句：Mr Usmani’s “swarm- moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.)

7. 答案：NO. (第4段第3、4 句：The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world，mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal- Mart in America an Tesco in Britain are interestd in his workd，and testing will get under way in the spring. 短语“get under way”的意思是“开始进行”，在Wal-Mart的试验要等到春天才开始)

8. 答案：NOT GIVEN. (在文中没有提及该信息)

9. 答案：YES。(第5段第3 句：The reseachers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they have been downloaded，they followed the crowd.)

10. 答案：NO。(第5段最后两句：When the songs are not ordered by rank，but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed，the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. pronounced 的词义是“显著的、明显的”)

11. 答案：YES。(第6段第1 句：In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies.)

12. 答案：YES。(最后一段最后一句：Even in the privacy of your home，you can still be part of the swarm. home应该算是everyday life的一部分)

2012年雅思考试阅读模拟试题及答案(二)

Rogue theory of smell gets a boost

1. A controversial theory of how we smell，which claims that our fine sense of odour depends on quantum mechanics，has been given the thumbs up by a team of physicists.

2. Calculations by researchers at University College London (UCL) show

that the idea that we smell odour molecules by sensing their molecular vibrations makes sense in terms of the physics involved.

3. That’s still some way from proving that the theory，proposed in the mid-1990s by biophysicist Luca Turin，is correct. But it should make other scientists take the idea more seriously.

4. “This is a big step forward，” says Turin，who has now set up his own perfume company Flexitral in Virginia. He says that since he published his theory，“it has been ignored rather than criticized.”

5. Most scientists have assumed that our sense of smell depends on receptors in the nose detecting the shape of incoming molecules，which triggers a signal to the brain. This molecular ’lock and key’ process is thought to lie behind a wide range of the body’s detection systems：it is how some parts of the immune system recognise invaders，for example，and how the tongue recognizes some tastes.

6. But Turin argued that smell doesn’t seem to fit this picture very well. Molecules that look almost identical can smell very different —such as alcohols，which smell like spirits，and thiols，which smell like rotten eggs. And molecules with very different structures can smell similar. Most strikingly，some molecules can smell different — to animals，if not necessarily to humans — simply because they contain different isotopes (atoms that are chemically identical but have a different mass)。

7. Turin’s explanation for these smelly facts invokes the idea that the smell signal in olfactory receptor proteins is triggered not by an odour molecule’s shape，but by its vibrations，which can enourage an electron to jump between two parts of the receptor in a quantum-mechanical process called tunnelling. This electron movement could initiate the smell signal being sent to the brain.

8. This would explain why isotopes can smell different：their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier. Turin’s mechanism，says Marshall Stoneham of the UCL team，is more like swipe-card identification than a key fitting a lock.

9. Vibration-assisted electron tunnelling can undoubtedly occur — it is used in an experimental technique for measuring molecul ar vibrations. “The question is whether this is possible in the nose，” says Stoneham’s colleague，Andrew Horsfield.

10. Stoneham says that when he first heard about Turin’s idea，while Turin

was himself based at UCL，“I didn’t believe it”。But，he adds，“because it was an interesting idea，I thought I should prove it couldn’t work. I did some simple calculations，and only then began to feel Luca could be right.” Now Stoneham and his co-workers have done the job more thoroughly，in a paper soon to be published in Physical Review Letters.

11. The UCL team calculated the rates of electron hopping in a nose receptor that has an odorant molecule bound to it. This rate depends on various properties of the biomolecular system that are not known，but the researchers could estimate these parameters based on typical values for molecules of this sort.

12. The key issue is whether the hopping rate with the odorant in place is significantly greater than that without it. The calculations show that it is —which means that odour identification in this way seems theoretically possible.

13. But Horsfield stresses that that’s different from a proof of Turin’s idea. “So far things look plausible，but we need proper experimental verification. We’re beginning to think abou t what experiments could be performed.”

14. Meanwhile，Turin is pressing ahead with his hypothesis. “At Flexitral we have been designing odorants exclusively on the basis of their computed vibrations，” he says. “Our success rate at odorant discovery is t wo orders of magnitude better than the competition.” At the very least，he is putting his money where his nose is.

(668 words Nature)

Questions 1-4

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Please write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the writer

FALSE if the statement does not agree with the writer

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage

1. The result of the study at UCL agrees with Turin’s theory.

2. The study at UCL could conclusively prove what Luca Turin has hypothesized.

3. Turin left his post at UCL and started his own business because his theory was ignored.

4. The molecules of alcohols and those of thiols look alike.

Questions 5-9

Complete the sentences below with words from the passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

5. The hypothesis that we smell by sensing the molecular vibration was made by ______.

6. Turin’s company is based in ______.

7. Most scientists believed that our nose works in the same way as our ______.

8. Different isotopes can smell different when ______ weigh differently.

9. According to Audrew Horsfield，it is still to be proved that ______ could really occur in human nose.

Question 10-12

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

10. What’s the name of the researcher who collaborated with Stoneham?

11. What is the next step of the UCL team’s study?

12. What is the theoretical basis in designing odorants in Turin’s com pany?

(by Zhou Hong)

Answer Keys and Explanations

1. T 见第一段。“give sth the thumbs up”为“接受“的意思。

2. F 见第三段。“That’s still some way from proving that the theory，proposed in the mid- 1990s by biophysicist Luca Turin，is correct.”意即“现在尚无法证实生物物理学家Luca在九十年代中期提出的理论是否正确。”

3. NG

4. T 见第六段“Molecules that look almost identical can smell very different — such as alcohols，which smell like spirits，and thiols，which smell like rotten eggs.”“identical” 一词是“完全相同”的意思。这句话是说alcohols和thiols的分子结构看起来一样，但是它们的味道却相去甚远。

5. Luca Turin 文章第二，三和七段均可看出Luca的理论即人类的鼻子是通过感觉气味分子的震动来分辨气味的。

6. Virginia 见第四段。

7. tongue 见第五段“This molecular ’lock and key’ process is thought to lie behind a wide range of the body’s detection systems：it is how some parts of the immune system recognise invaders，for example，and how the tongue recognizes

some tastes.”

8. the atoms 见第八段“This would explain why isotopes can smell different：their vibration frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier.”

9. vibration-assisted electron tunneling 见第九段““The question is whether this is possible in the nose，” says Stoneham’s colleague，Andrew Horsfield.” 句中的代词“this”指句首的“vibration-assisted electron tunneling”。

10. Andrew Horsfield 见第九段结尾。

11.proper experimental verification 见第十三段。

12.their computed vibrations 见第十四段。

2012年雅思考试阅读模拟试题及答案(三)

1. The failure of a high-profile cholesterol drug has thrown a spotlight on the complicated machinery that regulates cholesterol levels. But many researchers remain confident that drugs to boost levels of ’good’ cholesterol are still one of the most promising means to combat spiralling heart disease.

2. Drug company Pfizer announced on 2 December that it was cancelling all clinical trials of torcetrapib，a drug designed to raise heart-protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs)。In a trial of 15000 patients，a safety board found that more people died or suffered cardiovascular problems after taking the drug plus a cholesterol-lowering statin than those in a control group who took the statin alone.

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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

雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析(4)

雅思阅读模拟试题及答案解析（4）

Selling Digital Music without Copy-protection Makes Sense A. It was uncharacteristically low-key for the industry’s greatest showman. But the essay published this week by Steve Jobs， the boss of Apple，on his firm’s website under the unassuming title “Thoughts on Music” has nonetheless provoked a vigorous debate about the future of digital music，which Apple dominates with its iPod music-player and iTunes music-store. At issue is “digital rights management” (DRM)—the technology guarding downloaded music against theft. Since there is no common standard for DRM， it also has the side-effect that songs purchased for one type of music-player may not work on another. Apple’s DRM system， called FairPlay， is the most widespread. So it came as a surprise when Mr. Jobs called for DRM for digital music to be abolished. B. This is a change of tack for Apple. It has come under fire from European regulators who claim that its refusal to license FairPlay to other firms has “locked in” customers. Since music from the iTunes store cannot be played on non-iPod music-players (at least not without a lot of fiddling)， any iTunes buyer will be deterred from switching to a device made by a rival firm， such as Sony or Microsoft. When French lawmakers drafted a bill last year compelling Apple to open up FairPlay to rivals， the company warned of “state-sponsored piracy”. Only DRM， it implied， could keep the pirates at bay. C. This week Mr. Jobs gave another explanation for his former defence of DRM： the record companies made him do it. They would make their music available to the iTunes store only if Apple agreed to protect it using DRM. They can still withdraw their catalogues if the DRM system is compromised. Apple cannot license FairPlay to others， says Mr Jobs， because it would depend on them to produce security fixes promptly. All DRM does is restrict consumer choice and provide a barrier to entry， says Mr Jobs； without it there would be far more stores and players， and far more innovation. So， he suggests， why not do away with DRM and sell music unprotected？“This is