2007年职称英语考试综合类模拟试题(5)

3.阅读理解（一）

Forty May Be the New 30 as Scientists Redefine Age
Is 40 really the new 30? In many ways people today act younger than their parents did at the same age.
Scientists have defined a new age concept and believe it could explain why populations are aging, but at the same time seem to be getting younger.
Instead of measuring aging by how long people have lived, the scientists have factored in how many more years people can probably still look forward to.
“Using that measure, the average person can get younger in the sense that he or she can have even more years to lives as time goes on,” said Warren Sanderson of the University of New York in Stony Brook.
He and Sergei Scherbov of the Vienna Institute of Demography （人口统计学）at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have used their method to estimate how the proportion of elderly people in Germany, Japan and the United States will change in the future.
The average German was 39.9 years old in 2000 and could plan to live for another 39.2 years, according to research reported in 2050 would occur at around 52 years instead of 40 years as in 2000.
“As people have more and more years to live they have to save more and plan more and they effectively are behaving as if they were younger,” said Sanderson.
Five years ago, the average American was 35.3 years old and could plan for 43.5 more years of life. By 2050, the researchers estimate it will increase to 41.7 years and 45.8 future years.
“A lot of our skills, our education, our savings and the way we deal with our health care depend a great deal on how many years we have to live,” said Sanderson.
“This dimension of how many years we have to live has been completely ignored in the discussion of aging so far.”
1. People 40 years of age today seem to be as young as ______ .
A. their parents were at the same age
B. their parents were at the age of 30
C. their children were at the same age
D. their children were at the age of 30
2. The new age concept takes into account the factor of ______ .
A. future years.
B. average years.
C. past years.
D. unexpected years.
3. In 2000, middle age for the average German occurred ______ .
A. at 39.9
B. at 40.
C. at 39.2 years.
D. at 52 years.
4. By 2050, the average American will hive to ______ .
A. 41.7 years of age.
B. 45.8 years of age.
C. 78.8 years of age.
D. 87.5years of age
5. The number of years we have to live does not affect ______ .
A. our education
B. our savings.
C. the way we handle health care.
D. the number of years we have lived.

4.阅读理解（二）

Live with Computer
After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend's Liverpudlian accent suddenly becomes indecipherable after the clarity of his words on screen; a secretary's tone seems more rejecting than I'd imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid ─ hours become minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.
For the last three years, since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit articles and edit them via E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England; so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.
If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the blizzard of '96 on TV.
But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I've merged with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another node on the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It's like attending an A.A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponent's worst nightmare.
What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, and clothes and face, has become avoidance, a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction, coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.
At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I'd never done previously. The voices of the programs soothe me, but then I'm jarred by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. “Dateline,” “Frontline,” “Nightline,” cnn, New York 1, every possible angle of every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves form foreground to background.
1. Compared to the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent becomes _____ .
A. unidentifiable
B. unbearable
C. unreal
D. misleading
2. The passage implies that the author and her boyfriend live in _____ .
A. different cities in England
B. different countries
C. the same city
D. the same country
3. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. She is so absorbed in the TV programs that she often forgets her work.
B. In order to keep up with the latest news and the weather, she watches TV a lot.
C. In order to get some comfort from TV programs she, sometimes, turns on the television.
D. Having worked on the computer for too long, she became a bit odd.
4. What is the author's attitude to the computer?
A. She dislikes it because TV is more attractive.
B. She dislikes it because it cuts off her relation with the outside world.
C. She has become bored with it.
D. She likes it because it is very convenient.
5. The phrase “coming back out of cave” in the fifth paragraph means _____ .
A. coming back home
B. going back home
C. living a luxurious life
D. restoring direct human contact.