2013年职称英语考试理工类冲刺试卷及答案(3)

　　第4部分：阅读理解(第31～45题，每题3分，共45分)

　　下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。

　　第一篇

　　Food Fright

　　Experiments under way in several labs aim to create beneficial types of genetically modified (GM) foods, including starchier potatoes and caffeine-free coffee beans. Genetic engineers are even trying to transfer genes from a cold-water fish to make a frost-resistant tomato. A low-sugar GM strawberry now in the works might one day allow people with health problems such as diabetes to enjoy the little delicious red fruits again. GM beans and grains supercharged with protein might help people at risk of developing kwashiorkor. Kwashiorkor, a disease caused by severe lack of protein, is common in parts of the world where there are severe food shortages.

　　Commenting on GM foods, Jonathon Jones, a British researcher, said. “The future benefits will be enormous, and the best is yet to come.”

　　To some people, GM foods are no different from unmodified foods. “A tomato is a tomato,” said Brian Sansoni, an American food manufacturer.

　　Critics of GM foods challenge Sansonis opinion. They worry about the harm that GM crops might do to people, other animals, and plants.

　　In a recent lab study conducted at Cornell University, scientists tested pollen made by Bt corn, which makes up one-fourth of the U. S. corn crop. The scientist sprinkled the pollen onto milkweed, a plant that makes a milky juice and is the only known food source of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. Within four days of munching on the milkweed leaves, almost half of a test group of caterpillars had died. “Monarchs are considered to be a flagship species for conservation,” said Cornell researcher Linda Raynor. “This is a warning bell.”

　　Some insects that are not killed by GM foods might find themselves made stronger3. How so? The insecticides used to protect most of today’s crops are sprayed on the crops when needed4 and decay quickly in the environment. But GM plants produce a continuous level of insecticide. Insect species feeding on those crops may develop resistance to the plants and could do so in a hurry, say the critics. Insects may also develop a resistance to the insecticide Bt.

　　At the forum on GM food held last year in Canada, GM crops that have been made resistant to the herbicide might crossbreed with wild plants, creating “super weeds” that could take over whole fields.

　　So where do you stand? Should GM foods be banned in the United States, as they are in parts of Europe? Or do their benefits outweigh any of the risks they might carry?

　　31. Paragraphs 1, 2 &3 try to give the idea that _____

　　A. GM foods may bring about great benefits to humans.

　　B. we cannot recognize the benefits of GM foods too early.

　　C. GM foods may have both benefits and harm.

　　D. GM foods are particularly good to the kwashiorkor patients.

　　32. Why is the case of the pollen-sprayed milkweed cited in Paragraph 6?

　　A. It is cited to show GM foods can kill insects effectively.

　　B. It is cited to show GM foods contain more protein.

　　C. It is cited to show GM foods also have a dark side.

　　D. It is cited to show GM foods may harm crops.

　　33. What happens to those insects when not killed by the spray of insecticide?

　　A. They may lose their ability to produce offspring.

　　B. They may have a higher ability to adapt to the environment.

　　C. They move to other fields free from insecticide.

　　D. They never eat again those plants containing insecticide.

　　34. Which of the following statements concerning banning GM foods is true according to the passage?

　　A. Underdeveloped countries have banned GM foods.

　　B. Both Europe and the U. S. have banned GM foods.

　　C. Most European countries have not banned GM foods.

　　D. The United States has not banned GM foods.

　　35. What is the writer’s attitude to GM foods?

　　A. We cannot tell from the passage.

　　B. He thinks their benefits outweigh their risks.

　　C. He thinks their risks outweigh their benefits.

　　D. He thinks their benefits and risks are balanced.

　　第二篇

　　Digital Realm

　　In the digital realm, the next big advance will be voice recognition. The rudiments are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,” and it is likely to think you want it to “wreck a nice beach.” But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away and machines will soak it all in. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to our computers, we’ll also be able to chat with our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles, browsers, thermostats. VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around.

　　That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age: artificial intelligence. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents. Scary, huh? But potentially quite useful. At least until they decide they don’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around.

　　The law powering the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore’s: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power — the capacity of microprocessors and memory chips — would become nearly free; his company kept churning out more and more lines of complex software to make use of the cheap bounty. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free.

　　Along with the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this means a future in which all forms of content — movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt’s recipes and home videos — will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you’ll be able to create a movie or magazine, make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner!

　　The result will be a transition from a mass-market world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to, each user. You can subscribe to news sources that serve up only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes.

　　36. The techniques of voice recognition _____

　　A. are mature enough for extensive use.

　　B. are in its initial stage of development.

　　C. will aid people to chat through computers.

　　D. will assist people to recognize each other’s voice.

　　37. According to the second paragraph, when we reach the stage of artificial intelligence, _____

　　A. machines can be our agents us they understand our thoughts.

　　B. machines will give orders to smarter machines they build.

　　C. machines will not need us any more.

　　D. machines will be intelligent enough to boss around.

　　38. What’s the best description of Gordon Moore’s law as mentioned in the third paragraph?

　　A. It motivates the development of the digital world.

　　B. Bill Gates rules the digital world with the law.

　　C. It enables computing power to become free.

　　D. It helps the development of the bandwidth.

　　39. What can people do in a future scene as described in the fourth paragraph?

　　A. Compose music and make it available to the world.

　　B. Make films and charge for it.

　　C. Write books and sell them.

　　D. All of the above.

　　40. Which of the following statements is true of a personalized market?

　　A. The personalized market tends to be replaced by the mass market.

　　B. The same product is distributed to millions of users.

　　C. In a personalized market, products are tailored to each consumer.

　　D. Individuals can control centralized factories and studios.

　　第三篇

　　Plant Gas

　　Scientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades but hadn’t regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg，Germany. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees，may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane (甲烷) production requires an oxygen-free environment.

　　Previously, researchers had thought that it was impossible for plants to make significant amounts of the gas. They had assumed that, microbes need to be in environments without oxygen to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide (二氧化碳). Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

　　In its experiments, Keppler’s team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth’s atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants; and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves.

　　With the dried plants，the researchers took measurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found, a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms (微克) of methane per hour. (One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.) With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled.

　　Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight.

　　Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it’s unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions (散发). That’s another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes.

　　The new finding is an “interesting observation,” says Jennifer Y. King, a biogeochemist (生物地球化学家) at the University of Minnesota in St.Paul.Because some types of soil microbes consume methane, they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant’s influence, she notes.

　　41. What was scientists’ understanding of methane?

　　A. It was produced from plants.

　　B. It was not a greenhouse gas.

　　C. It was produced in oxygen-free environments.

　　D. It traps more heat than any other greenhouse gas.

　　42. To test whether plants are a sot，roe of methane，the scientists created_____

　　A. a oxygen-free environment.

　　B. an environment with the same concentration of oxygen as the Earth has.

　　C. a carbon dioxide-free environment.

　　D. an environment filled with the greenhouse gas.

　　43. Which statement is true of the methane emissions of plants in the experiment?

　　A. The lower the temperature, the higher the amount of methane emissions.

　　B. Living plants release less methane than dried plants at the same temperature.

　　C. When exposed to sunlight, plants stop releasing methane.

　　D. The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of methane emissions.

　　44. Which of the following about methane is Not mentioned in the passage?

　　A. Plants growing in soil release methane.

　　B. Plants growing in water release methane.

　　C. Soil microbes consume methane.

　　D. Microbes in plants produce methane.

　　45. What is the beneficial point of some microbes consuming plant-produced methane?

　　A. Methane becomes less poisonous.

　　B. Methane is turned into a fertilizer.

　　C. Less methane reaches the atmosphere.

　　D. Air becomes cleaner.