职称英语考试2003年理工类B级考试试题

A. One third of the world’s population drinks coffee.
B. Coffee is native to Colombia.
C. Coffee can keep one awake.
D. Coffee drinks were first made by Arabs.

第二篇 Please Fasten Your Seatbelts
Severe turbulence (湍流) can kill aircraft passengers. Now, in test flights over the Rocky Mountains, NASA (美国航空航天局) engineers have successfully detected clear-air turbulence up to 10 seconds before an aircraft hits it.
Clear-air turbulence often catches pilots by surprise. Invisible to radar, it is difficult to forecast and can hurl  (用力抛出去) passengers about the cabin. In December 1997, one passenger died and a hundred others were injured when unexpected rough air caused a United Airlines flight over the Pacific to drop 300 metres in a few seconds.
However, passengers can avoid serious injury by fastening their seatbelts. "It is the only antidote (对策) for this sort of things," says Rod Bogue, project manager at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
The centre’s new turbulence detector is based on lidar, or laser radar, Laser pulses are sent ahead of the plane and these are then reflected back by particles in the air. The technique depends on the Doppler effect. The wavelength of the light shifts according to the speed at which the particles are approaching. In calm air, the speed equals the plane’s airspeed. But as the particles swirl (打漩) in rough air, their speed of approach increases or decreases rapidly. The rate of change in speed corresponds to the severity (激烈程度) of the turbulence. 
In a series of tests that began last month, a research jet flew repeatedly into disturbed air over the mountain ridges (山脉) near Pueblo, Colorado. The lidar detector spotted turbulence between 3 and 8 kilometres ahead, and its forecasts of strength and duration corresponded closely with the turbulence that the plane encountered.
Bogue says that he had " a comfortable amount of time" to fasten his seatbelt. The researchers are planning to improve the lidar’s range with a more powerful beam. The system could be installed on commercial aircraft in the next few years.

36. What does "clear-air turbulence" probably mean? (Paragraph 1)
A A not very rough storm.
B Unexpected disturbed air.
C A kind of visible storm.
D A storm over mountain ridges.

37. In December 1997, a United Airlines flight hit unexpected rough air,
A causing a lot of damage to the plane.
B throwing its passengers out of the cabin.
C resulting in heavy casualties.
D forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

38. The turbulence detector can tell the severity of the turbulence by measuring
A the speed of the plane.
B the speed of the light.
C the number of particles in the air.
D the changes of the particles’ speed.

39. We can infer from the fifth paragraph that
A the lidar detector can successfully forecast turbulence.
B researchers are not sure about the effectiveness of the lidar detector.
C passenger planes will be used in further experiments.
D no more test flights are needed.

40. The last paragraph tells us, among other things, that
A the lidar detector needs improvement.
B many airlines are interested in the system.
C passengers often forget to fasten their seatbelts.
D the lidar detector can be used in a wide range of areas.

第三篇 "Salty" Rice Plant Boosts Harvests
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive once more.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University’s School of Biological Sciences, have spent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that has become salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops, starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 100 hectares (公顷) of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts (妨碍生长)plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the tropics, mangroves (红树林) that create swamps (沼泽) and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down. In the Mediterranean, a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop, allowing sea water to seep (渗透) in. in Latin America, irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated (蒸发) by the heat, leaving salt deposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally. Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.
To overcome these problems, Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants’ growth. They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eight harvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants. Land that has been abandoned to nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.

41 Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?
A They are students at Sussex University.
B They are rice breeders.
C They are husband and wife
D They are colleagues at an institution of higher learning.

42 Flowers and Yeo have started a programme
A to find ways to prevent water pollution.
B to identify genes that promote growth in salty soil.
C to breed rice plants that taste salty.
D to find ways to remove excessive salt from soil.

43 Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the problem discussed in the passage?
A Natural barriers to sea water have been destroyed.
B The water table has gone down after droughts.
C Sea level has been continuously rising.
D Evaporation of water leaves salt behind.

44 The word "affect" in Paragraph 6 could be best replaced by
A "influence"
B "effect"
C "stop"
D "present"

45 The attitude of the author towards the research project is
A positive
B negative.
C suspicious
D indifferent.

第5部分：补全短文（第46-50题，每题2分，共10分）
 阅读下面的短文，文章中有5处空白，文章后面有6组文字，请根据文章的内容选择5组文字，将其分别放回文章原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。请将答案涂在答题卡相应的位置上。

Looking into the Future
 Bertrand Russell, a famous philosopher, said in 1944, "The one thing the study of the past teaches us is that the future is never how people imagine it will be."
 In 1946, physicists predicted that within twenty years, most of the world’s energy would be supplied by nuclear power. __________ (46) In 1951, a famous surgeon said that he and his colleagues were confident that "by the end of the 1950s, a cure for most if not all cancers will have been found." In 1954, an American economist predicted Americans would go on getting richer and richer. ___________ (47).
 In the year 1969, an automation engineer working for Max Factor Cosmetics in Britain said that "within twenty or twenty-five years factories that today employ hundreds of workers will need only five or ten computer technicians to run them." _____________ (48).
 In the early 1970s, there were many predictions that before the end of the century most homes in the United States, Europe and Japan would have computers in them. ___________ (49)
 Long before 1980, it was predicted that instead of letting nature and luck choose their children’s characteristics, people would have to decide which characteristics they wanted their children to inherit from them and previous generations in their families. ____________ (50) We may be able to have "undesirable" characteristics changed or destroyed through genetic therapy. Perhaps we may even begin to wish that Bertrand Russell was right when he said that history teaches us that the future is never like that future we imagine.

A "By the end of the century," he said, "there will be no poverty anywhere in the country."
B If this prediction comes true, we will be faced with a much greater responsibility than ever before.
C According to the same predictions, this would result in "an information explosion" as well as "radical and revolutionary changes in the way we work, learn, and do business."
D When this prediction came true, more people would be killed than ever before.
E They were certain that this would not only be "far cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels but far safer and much cheaper."
F He added that this "will lead to enormous social problems for unskilled manual workers in particular, who will be unable to find work."

第6部分：完形填空  （第51-65题，每题1分，共15分）
 阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案，涂在答题卡相应的位置上。

The American Family
 In the American family the husband and wife usually share important decision making. When the children are ___________ (51) enough, they take part as well. Foreigners are often surprised by the permissiveness (宽容) of American parents. The old rule that "children should be seen and not heard" is rarely _______ (52), and children are often allowed to do ____________ (53) they wish without strict control of their parents. The father seldom expects his children to listen to him __________ (54) question, and children are encouraged to be ______________ (55) at an early age. Some people believe that American parents carry this freedom _________ (56) far. Others think that a strong father image would not ____________ (57) the American values of equality and independence. Because Americans emphasize the importance of independence, young people are expected to _________ (58) their parental families by the time they have ________________ (59) their late teens or early twenties. Indeed, not to do so is often regarded as a ____________ (60), a kind of weak dependence.