[考研类试卷]考研英语(阅读)模拟试卷171

[考研类试卷]考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷171

Part A

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by

choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

0 Stephen Hawking's 1988 best seller, A Brief History of Time, sold more than 10

million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 40 languages. Last fall, Hawking

returned with a new book aimed at the general public. The Universe in a Nutshell already

is zipping up the best-seller lists. Lavishly praised by Time magazine, The Universe in a

Nutshell brims with spectacular full-color illustrations. The new book is easier to

understand than A Brief History of Time. It highlights Hawking's famous wit, erudition

and writing ability.

Hawking employs his brain to range around those huge theoretical topics that terrify

and fascinate laypeople, particularly those who do not attribute the literal creation of the

cosmos to God's hand. Questions such as: Is the universe infinite? What is the nature of

time, light, space? What is the Big Bang theory?

Asked whether physics is the most poetic of the sciences, Hawking replies, "Physics is

the most fundamental of the sciences. In that sense, it is the most poetic. "

Asked if having three children harmed his own research, Hawking says, "I haven't felt

a conflict between my children and my work. My disability prevented me from the rough

and tumble, but I gave them a lot of time and attention. " His russet-haired grandson is

featured in full, proud color in The Universe in a Nutshell.

Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at 21. On his Web site, he discusses his disability

and reflects on a boy he met at the hospital. "I had seen a boy I vaguely knew die of

leukemia, in the bed opposite me. It had not been a pretty sight. Clearly, there were

people who were worse off than me. At least my condition didn't make me feel sick.

Whenever I feel inclined to be sorry for myself, I remember that boy. "

Asked about his mixing hard science and fun details, Hawking says, "I find a few

human touches help the science go down. I don't plan them, they just bubble up. "

Hawking occupies the Lucasian chair of applied mathematics and physics at Cambridge

University. The chair's second occupant was Isaac Newton.

In the end, he writes, "I see myself as a scientist trying to uncover the basic laws that

govern the universe. If I can encourage others to take an interest in those laws, I'm glad,

but that has not been my primary aim. "

1 Compared to A Brief History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell

（A）has been translated into more languages.

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（B）sells better around the world.

（C）illustrates with more spectacular sceneries.

（D）can be understood more easily.

2 The theoretical topics that Hawking is studying terrify and fascinate those who

（A）are illiterate about the universe and common sense.

（B）do not know how God created space and light.

（C）do not believe in God's creation of the cosmos.

（D）attribute the natural creation to the Big Bang theory.

3 It can be inferred that the boy who died of leukemia makes Hawking

（A）acquire a sense of priority.

（B）become optimistic.

（C）feel sick for himself.

（D）inclined to be sorry.

4 Which of the following is true according to the passage?

（A）Hawking intentionally combines the human touches with science.

（B）Hawking has a sense of guilt to his children due to his disability.

（C）Hawking's chief purpose of life is to encourage others to be interested in science.

（D）Hawking takes the job Newton once did before him.

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5 What is the best title for this passage?

（A）Hawking's View About Science and Life

（B）Hawking—A Disable Scientist—Worth Respecting

（C）Hawking and Newton

（D）Hawking's Contributions to Science

5 About 2,500 of so-called supernovae are known inside our galaxy and beyond. But

exactly what they were before they exploded is not so clear. The hunt for supernovae,

from their origins to their long-term effects, is heating up rapidly. Understanding these

incendiary objects is important in part because they are responsible for creating most of

the elements in the universe, including the stuff of which people, plants and planets are

made. A supernova is relatively easy to detect because of the intense radiation it casts off

in visible light and other wavelengths. Figuring out what the star looked like prior to the

explosion, however, requires probing into the archives of astronomy.

A separate team of supernova hunters did just that, using a decade of Hubble Space

Telescope images to search for possible pre-supernova stars. Their new findings support

existing theory of supernova mechanics, which holds that only very massive stars

explode. When a massive star burns up all its hydrogen fuel, it casts its outer layers into

space and then collapses into a dense neutron star or black hole. Theorists believe that

stars must be about 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun to support such an explosive

scenario. Such heavy objects have brief lives, typically less than 20 million years,

compared with the sun, which is middle-aged and already 4. 6 billion years old.

Ground-based telescopes that observed the actual supernova explosions are not as

accurate as Hubble, however, due to air turbulence, so scientists require follow-up

Hubble observations to see if they are in the right positions. One has already been

eliminated, Alexei Filippenko of the University of California at Berkeley said, but he's

confident at least a couple of the remaining five will prove to be actual precursor stars.

Astronomers have known for decades that the universe is expanding. But in the late

1990s they began to realize that the expansion is occurring at an ever-faster rate. This

suggests that some mysterious, unseen force is at work across great distances, breaking

the will of gravity that would otherwise rein in the universe eventually.

Supernovae are useful in this research because they can be seen from far away.

Astronomers measure how much an exploded star's light has stretched, which tells them

the speed at which the object is receding. By comparing this to nearby supernovae,

researchers can refine the universal expansion's rate of acceleration. In particular, the

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orbiting observatory's keen new eyesight can be used to analyze pinpricks of light from

very distant objects and learn what they are and what they're made of. This so-called

spectroscopy technique is just like using a prism to break white light into its constituent

colors.

6 Scientists devote themselves to studying the supernovae prior to their explosion

because

（A）the search for supernova stars can support existing theory of supernova mechanics.

（B）what the pre-supernova stars looked like is related to the elements in the universe.

（C）searching for the pre-supernova stars is extremely important for human

development.

（D）the search for pre-supernova stars can help probing into expansion in universe.

7 From the research of a team of supernova hunters we can infer that

（A）searching for explosion of the pre-supernova stars is essential.

（B）researchers can refine the universal expansion's rate of acceleration.

（C）only stars about 10 to 20 times the mass of the sun can explode.

（D）to observe actual supernova explosions, scientists require follow-up Hubble

observations.

8 If there were no mysterious force at work across the great distance, what would happen

to the universe?

（A）It would break the will of gravity.

（B）It would be reined by gravity.

（C）It would get into a mess.

（D）It would expand at a faster rate.

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9 The research of what supernovae were before they exploded can help researchers

（A）refine the universal expansion's rate of acceleration.

（B）measure how much an exploded star's light has stretched.

（C）analyze light from very distant objects.

（D）find how the universe expands.

10 What is this passage mainly about?

（A）Acceleration of supernovae.

（B）Expansion in the universe.

（C）Exploration of galaxy.

（D）Explosion of supernovae.

10 Another week, another crop of bad news from the telecoms industry. Bernie Ebbers,

the chief executive of WorldCom, has been forced out. The share price of Qwest, another

heavily indebted American telecoms company, fell to an all-time low, after it had

announced a first-quarter loss of $698 million. Siemens, a German company, said it

would cut 6,500 jobs in its telecoms-infrastructure division, on top of 10,000 layoffs

already announced. Marconi and JDS Uniphase, two other network-equipment vendors,

announced or gave warning of gloomy results, and Telewest, a struggling British cable

company, said that it would cut 1,500 jobs.

Even as the broader economic climate begins to improve, the carnage in telecoms

continues. "No bottom in sight" is how analyst Nikos Theodosopoulos puts it. He notes

that, historically, the telecoms sector tends to recover six months later than the economy

as a whole. But this time, he says, there is evidence of bigger structural problems in the

industry that will not be solved by an economic recovery. That suggests the industry must

undergo painful rationalisation before things start to improve.

How did this happen? Telecoms is an infrastructure-intensive business, and

infrastructure takes a long time to build. So telecoms firms have to gamble on the level of

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future demand. In recent years, however, their bets—in both fixed and mobile telecoms—

have gone spectacularly wrong.

In fixed-line telecoms, the problem is overcapacity. During the Internet boom,

operators assumed that demand would continue to grow by 100% a year indefinitely. A

vast construction programme ensued, fuelled by cheap capital. At its height, says Andrew

Heaney of Spectrum, a consultancy, telecoms operators built seven years' worth of

capacity in a single year.

The result was a capacity glut, ferocious competition and frantic price-cutting. Traffic

growth has not translated into extra revenue. Fixed-line operators have now cut their

infrastructure spending to focus on picking up clients rather than expanding their

networks. All of this is terrible news for equipment vendors. Two of the biggest, Nortel

and Lucent, have cut around 50,000 jobs apiece in the past year or so.

Operators of mobile networks also made what turned out to be an ill-judged bet on

future demand. With voice revenues stabilising, the industry hoped that new data services,

piped over "third generation"(3G)networks, would provide growth. But consumers in

most parts of the world have been far slower to embrace new data services than the

operators had hoped. Worse, European operators hobbled themselves with huge debts by

overpaying for 3G licences.

Investors now worry that mobile telecoms is merely a low-growth utility, rather than

an industry on the verge of a new phase of explosive expansion. The uncertainty has had

a knock-on effect on wireless-infrastructure vendors, who were banking on selling vast

amounts of 3G equipment. Ericsson and Motorola, for example, are each laying off more

than 40,000 workers.

In short, even though Internet traffic continues to grow and mobile phones remain

popular, telecoms firms bet everything on a surge in demand that has so far failed to

materialise. Backing out of these bets is proving to be very unpleasant. The carnage will

continue for some time yet.

11 Which of the following statement is ture according to Nikos Theodosopoulos?

（A）The telecoms industry will recover in six months' time.

（B）The telecoms industry will suffer an ever-lasting carnage.

（C）Things in the telecoms industry are likely to get worse before they get better.

（D）Telecoms problems can be solved after the broader economy has recovered.

12 Capacity glut in fixed-line telecoms mainly resulted from

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（A）the Internet boom.

（B）cheap construction capital.

（C）operators' over-optimism about future demand.

（D）ferocious competition and frantic price-cutting.

13 One reason traffic growth has not translated into extra revenue is that

（A）operators competed to cut prices.

（B）operators focused on picking up clients.

（C）operators failed to expand their networks.

（D）operators had to pay more to equipment vendors.

14 Operators of mobile networks assumed that

（A）future demand for voice services would stabilize.

（B）consumers would embrace new data services very quickly.

（C）mobile telecoms would be a low-growth utility.

（D）3G licences would be difficult to obtain.

15 The passage is mainly

（A）a prediction about future trends.

（B）a criticism of wrong policies.

（C）an analysis of existing problems.

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（D）a suggestion of possible solutions.

15 A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U. S. bachelor's

degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a

new report says. In 2005, 15 prominent business groups warned that a lack of expert

workers and teachers posed a threat to U. S. competitiveness, and said the country would

need 400,000 new graduates in the so-called STEM(science, technology, engineering and

math)fields by 2015.

In an update to be published Tuesday, the group reports the number of degrees in those

fields rose slightly earlier in the decade, citing figures from the years after 2001 that have

become available since the first report was published. But the number of degrees has

since flattened out at around 225,000 per year.

The coalition, representing groups such as the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the

National Defense Industrial Association, said there has been substantial bipartisan

support in Washington for boosting science training, including passage last year of the

America Competes Act, which promotes math and science.

But Susan Traiman, director of education and work force policy for the Business

Roundtable, an organization of corporate CEOs, said there's been insufficient follow-through with funding to support the programs. Other countries, she said, are doing more

to shift incentives toward science training. "The concern that CEOs have is if we wait for

a Sputniklike event, it's very hard to turn around and get moving on the kind of timeline

we would need," said Traiman, referring to the Soviet Union's launch of the first artificial

satellite in 1957, which prompted a massive U. S. commitment to science investment.

The report by the group Tapping America's Potential, which has grown to represent 16

business groups, also argues that the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive

immigration reform has hurt U. S. competitiveness by making it difficult to retain high-skilled workers who study at American universities. While there appears to be, if

anything, a surplus in the job market of scientists with doctoral degrees, the case for

boosting bachelor's degrees is stronger—particularly for people who go into teaching,

where teachers who have college level subject training are generally more effective. Last

week, The National Research Council—a group that provides policy advice under a

Congressional charter—issued a report calling for more support for professional master's

degrees programs. The idea would be to provide advanced training to more people in

fields like chemistry and biology, which require less time and money than doctoral

degrees.

16 According to the passage, "flattened out"(Line 4, Paragraph 2)probably means

（A）rocketed.

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（B）fluctuated.

（C）plateaued.

（D）soared.

17 From Paragraph 1, we can infer that

（A）the process of doubling the number is gaining ground.

（B）the reality of degree doubling is lagging behind its objective.

（C）the number of skilled workers and teachers has dramatically decreased.

（D）There's a long way for U. S. to strengthen its competitiveness.

18 Susan Traiman cited Soviet Union's launch of satellite in 1957 in order to

（A）argue for STEM incentives.

（B）draw a clean line between the U. S. and the Soviet Union.

（C）call on workers and experts to contribute their parts.

（D）overstress the cultivation of science graduates.

19 We may infer from the passage that

（A）the two parties in the U. S. disagree with each other on boosting science training.

（B）the general immigration reform is designed to attract people with high degrees.

（C）graduates with lower degrees are less needed than graduates with doctoral degrees.

（D）job hunters with doctoral degrees exceed demands in the market.

20 The probable title of this passage is

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（A）Degree Is Not Everything.

（B）The U. S. Needs to Strengthen Its Competitiveness.

（C）Science Revival in the U. S.

（D）High-Skilled Workers in Urgent Demand.

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