2014年职称英语考试综合类模拟题（六）

　　第四部分：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，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案在答题卡相应的位置上。

　　第一篇 After-birth Depression Blamed for Woman’s Suicide

　　A new mother apparently suffering from postpartum mental illness fell to her death from a narrow 12th-floor ledge of a Chicago hotel, eluding the lunging grasp of firemen called to help.

　　The Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that the mother of a 3-month-old daughter, Melanie Stokes, 41, was said to be suffering from a severe form of after-birth depression called postpartum psychosis, an extremely rare biological response to rapidly changing hormonal levels that can result in hallucinations, delusions, severe insomnia and a drastic departure from reality.

　　“That was a monster in my daughter’s brain,” said Stokes’ mother, Carol Blocker. “The medicine took no effect at all, while her grief was so strong that nothing could make up for it. I’m just glad she didn’t take her daughter with her.”

　　Virtually all new mothers get postpartum blues, also called the “baby blues”, which are brief episodes of irritability, moodiness and weepiness. About 20 per cent of birthing women experience postpartum depression, which can be triggered by hormonal changes, sleeplessness and the pressures of being a new mother. It is often temporary and highly treatable.

　　But The Tribune said what scientists suspect Stokes was battling, postpartum psychosis, is even more extreme and is considered a psychiatric emergency. During postpartum psychosis—a very real disorder that affects less than 1 percent of women, according to the National Institute of Mental Health—a mother might hear voices, have visions, feel extremely agitated and be at risk of harming the child or herself.

　　Often the consequences are tragic. In 1987, Sheryl Masip of California told a judge that postpartum psychosis made her drive a Volvo over her 6-week-old son. Latrena Pixley of Washington, D. C., said the disorder was why she smothered her 6-week-old daughter in 1992. And last year, Judy Kirby, a 31-year-old Indianapolis mother allegedly suffering from postpartum psychosis, sped into oncoming traffic and plowed into a minivan, killing seven youngsters, including three of the own.

　　31. Which of the following is NOT a symptom of postpartum psychosis?

　　A. Visions. B. Delusions.

　　C. Inflamed breast. D. Serious sleeplessness.

　　32. It was considered fortunate by Stokes’ mother in the miserable event

　　A. that Stokes had died in a Chicago hotel.

　　B. that firemen had been called to help Stokes.

　　C. that Stokes had been taking the prescribed medicines.

　　D. that Stokes had not taken her daughter with her.

　　33. A patient suffering from “baby blues” may present briefly one or more of the following symptoms EXCEPT

　　A. having an intention of suicide.

　　B. readily becoming impatient or angry.

　　C. easily changing her moods.

　　D. tending to experience weeping and sadness.

　　34. How many bearing women have experiences of after-birth depression?

　　A. Virtually all of them. B. About one fifth of them.

　　C. Less than one percent of them. D. Not mentioned exactly in the passage.

　　35. Who induced the most serious consequence among the postpartum depression patients mentioned in the passage?

　　A. Melanie Stokes of Chicago. B. Sheryl Masip of California.

　　C. Latrena Pixley of Washington, D.C.. D. Judy Kirby of Indianapolis.

　　第二篇 Sleep Lets Brain File Memories

　　To sleep. Perchance to file? Findings published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brain organizes and stows memories formed during the day while the rest of the body is catching zzz’s.

　　Gyorgy Buzsaki of Rutgers university and his colleagues analyzed the brain waves of sleeping rats and mice. Specifically, they examined the electrical activity emanating from the somatosensory neocortex (an area that processes sensory information. and the hippocampus, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillation in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles (bursts of activity from the neocortex. were followed tens of milliseconds later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. 6

　　The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation.

　　A second study, also published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Links age-associated memory decline to high glucose levels.

　　Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend to increase with age, affect memory in healthy people as well. The scientists administered recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body’s tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects better able to absorb blood sugar.

　　“Our study suggests that this impairment may contribute to the memory deficits that occur as people age.” Convit says. “And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucose tolerance could reverse some age-associated problems in cognition” Exercise and weight control can help keep glucose levels in check, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.

　　36 Which of the following statements is nearest in meaning to the sentence “To sleep. Perchance to file?”

　　A Does brain have memories when one is sleeping?

　　B Does brain arrange memories in useful order during sleep?

　　C Does brain work on files in sleep?

　　D Does brain remember files after one falls asleep?

　　37 What is the result of the experiment with rats and mice carried out at Rutgers University?

　　A Oscillations in brain waves are from hippocampus.

　　B The electrical activity is emanating from the somatosensory neocortex.

　　C Somatosensory neocortex plays a primary role in memory consolidation.

　　D Somatosensory neocortex and hippocampus work together tin memory consolidation.

　　38 What is the relation of memory to glucose tolerance, as is indicated by a research mentioned in paragraph 4?

　　A People with good memory have low glucose tolerance.

　　B People with poor memory have high glucose tolerance.

　　C The poorer the memory, the poorer glucose tolerance.

　　D Memory level has nothing to do with glucose tolerance.

　　39 In what way is memory related to hippocampus shrinkage?

　　A The more hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory.

　　B There is no relation between memory and hippocampus shrinkage.

　　C The less hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory.

　　D The more hippocampus shrinks, the better one’s memory.

　　40 According to the last paragraph, what is the ultimate reason for going to the gym?

　　A To control weight.

　　B To prevent hippocampus shrinkage.

　　C To control glucose levels.

　　D To exercise.

　　第三篇 “Don’t Drink Alone” Gets New Meaning

　　In what may be bad news for bars and pubs, an European research group has found that people drinking alcohol outside of meals have a significantly higher risk of cancer in the mouth and neck than do those taking their libations with food. Luigino Dal Maso and his colleagues studied the drinking patterns of 1,500 patients from four cancer studies and another 3,500 adults who had never had cancer.

　　After the researchers accounted for the amount of alcohol consumed, they found that individuals who downed a significant share of their alcohol outside of meals faced at least a 50 to 80 percent risk of cancer in the oral cavity, pharynx, and esophagus, when compared with people who drank only at meals. Consuming alcohol without food also increased by at least 20 percent the likelihood of laryngeal cancer. “Roughly 95 percent of cancers at these four sites traced too smoking or drinking by study volunteers,” Dal Maso says. The discouraging news his team reports, is that drinking with meals didn’t eliminate cancer risk at any of the sites.

　　For their new analysis, the European scientists divided people in the study into four groups, based on how many drinks they reported having in an average week. The lowest-intake group included people who averaged up to 20 drinks a week. The highest group reported downing at least 56 servings of alcohol weekly for an average of eight or more per day. Cancer risks for the mouth and neck sites rose steadily with consumption even for people who reported drinking only with meals. For instance, compared with people in the lowest-consumption group, participants who drank 21 to 34 alcohol servings a week at least doubled their cancer risk for all sites other than the larynx. If people in these consumption groups took some of those drinks outside meals, those in the higher consumption group at least quadrupled their risk for oral cavity and esophageal cancers.

　　People in the highest-consumption group who drank only with meals had 10 times the risk of oral cancer, 7 times the risk of pharyngeal cancer, and 16 times the risk of esophageal cancer compared with those who averaged 20 or fewer drinks a week with meals. In contrast, laryngeal cancer risk the high-intake, with-meals-only group was only triple that in the low-intake consumers who drank with meals.

　　“Alcohol can inflame tissues. Over time, that inflammation can trigger cancer.” Dal Maso says. He suspects that food reduced cancer risk either by partially coating digestive-tract tissues or by scrubbing alcohol off those tissues. He speculates that the reason laryngeal risks were dramatically lower for all study participants traces to the tissue’s lower exposure to alcohol.

　　41 Researchers have found that the risk of cancer in the mouth and neck is higher with people

　　A who drink alcohol alone.

　　B who drink alcohol at meals.

　　C who never drink alcohol at meals.

　　D who drink alcohol at bars and pubs.

　　42 Which of the following is the conclusion made by the researchers about “drinking with meals”?

　　A It has a higher risk of cancer than drinking without food.

　　B It increases by 20 percent the possibility of cancer in all sites. 8

　　C It may also be a cause of cancer.

　　D It does eliminate cancer risk at any of the sites.

　　43 Approximately how many drinks do the lowest-intake group average per week?

　　A 20 drinks. B 8 drinks.

　　C 3 drinks. D 56 drinks.

　　44 Which cancer risk is the lowest among all the four kinds of cancer mentioned in the passage?

　　A Oral cancer. B Laryngeal cancer.

　　C Pharyngeal cancer. D esophageal cancer.

　　45 According to the last paragraph, tissue’s lower exposure to alcohol

　　A explains why inflammation triggers cancer.

　　B accounts for why food can coat digestive-tract tissues.

　　C is the reason why food can scrub alcohol off tissues.

　　D reduces the risk of laryngeal cancer.