剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析

时间:2022-12-28 03:57:49 作者:zzgbag 综合材料 收藏本文 下载本文

“zzgbag”通过精心收集,向本站投稿了10篇剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析,以下是小编帮大家整理后的剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析,欢迎大家收藏分享。

篇1:剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析

剑桥雅思阅读6原文(test1)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS

A They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.

B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one — such as building muscle strength in golfers — to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.

C A lot of their work comes down to measurement — everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (Swimming Analysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be analysed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.

D ‘Take a look,’ says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says Mason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better.’ This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports. With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run. There’s more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

E Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model’, based on what they expect will be the winning times.’ You design the model to make that time,’ says Mason.’ A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.’ All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.

F Of course, there’s nothing to stop other countries copying — and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists’ and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the ‘altitude tent’, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

Questions 1-7

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports

2 an explanation of how visual imaging is employed in investigations

3 a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity

4 how some AIS ideas have been reproduced

5 how obstacles to optimum achievement can be investigated

6 an overview of the funded support of athletes

7 how performance requirements are calculated before an event

Questions 8-11

Classify the following techniques according to whether the writer states they

A are currently exclusively used by Australians

B will be used in the future by Australians

C are currently used by both Australians and their rivals

Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

8 cameras

9 sensors

10 protein tests

11 altitude tents

Questions 12 and 13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS ANDIOR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.

12 What is produced to help an athlete plan their performance in an event?

13 By how much did some cyclists’ performance improve at the 1996 Olympic Games?

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

DELIVERING THE GOODS

The vast expansion in international trade owes much to a revolution in the business of moving freight

A International trade is growing at a startling pace. While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3% a year, the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that. Foreign products, from meat to machinery, play a more important role in almost every economy in the world, and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation’s borders.

B What lies behind this explosion in international commerce? The general worldwide decline in trade barriers, such as customs duties and import quotas, is surely one explanation. The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another. But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed: the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market. Theoretically, in the world of trade, shipping costs do not matter. Goods, once they have been made, are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place. The real world, however, is full of frictions. Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America, but if delays in shipment tie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring, trade may lose its advantages.

C At the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere, accounting for about 70% of total output in Germany, Italy and France, and 40-50% in America, Britain and Japan. International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials, such as wheat, wood and iron ore, or processed commodities, such as meat and steel. But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.

D Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours. Over time, however, world output has shifted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight. Today, it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade, and, thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components, manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky. As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar’s worth of imports or exports.

E To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world’s disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small and light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market. Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.

F This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. Computer software can be ‘exported’ without ever loading it onto a ship, simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another, so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. Businesses can locate based on other considerations, such as the availability of labour, while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.

G In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along. But, behind the scenes, a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and inter-modal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling. Forty years ago, the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling, which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way. The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship. By 1967, dual-purpose ships, carrying loose cargo in the hold_and containers on the deck, were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.

H The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient, intensely competitive business. But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story. National governments, by and large, kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight. This started changing, however, in the mid-1970s, when America began to deregulate its transportation industry. First airlines, then road hauliers and railways, were freed from restrictions on what they could carry, where they could haul it and what price they could charge. Big productivity gains resulted. Between 1985 and 1996, for example, America’s freight railways dramatically reduced their employment, trackage, and their fleets of locomotives — while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled. Europe’s railways have also shown marked, albeit smaller, productivity improvements.

I In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over, but in most countries the process still has far to go. State ownership of railways and airlines, regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices, such as cargo-handling monopolies, all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade. Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.

hold: ship’s storage area below beck

Questions 14-17

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

14 a suggestion for improving trade in the future

15 the effects of the introduction of electronic delivery

16 the similar cost involved in transporting a product from abroad or from a local supplier

17 the weakening relationship between the value of goods and the cost of their delivery

Questions 18-22

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

18 International trade is increasing at a greater rate than the world economy.

19 Cheap labour guarantees effective trade conditions.

20 Japan imports more meat and steel than France.

21 Most countries continue to prefer to trade with nearby nations.

22 Small computer components are manufactured in Germany.

Questions 23-26

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-K, below.

Write the correct letter, A-K, in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

THE TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

Modern Cargo-handing methods have had a significant effect on 23............ as the business of moving freight around the world becomes increasingly streamlined.

Manufacturers of computers, for instance, are able to import 24............ from overseas, rather than having to rely on a local supplier. The introduction of 25............ has meant that bulk cargo can be safely and efficiently moved over long distances. While international shipping is now efficient, there is still a need for governments to reduce 26............: in order to free up the domestic cargo sector.

A tariffs B components C container ships

D output E employees F insurance costs

G trade H freight I fares

J software K international standards

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the following pages.

Question 27-32

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 27-32 on you answer sheet.

List of Headings

i The reaction of the Inuit community to climate change

ii Understanding of climate change remains limited

iii Alternative sources of essential supplies

iv Respect for Inuit opinion grows

v A healthier choice of food

vi A difficult landscape

vii Negative effects on well-being

viii Alarm caused by unprecedented events in the Arctic

ix The benefits of an easier existence

Example Answer

Paragraph A viii

27 Paragraph B

28 Paragraph C

29 Paragraph D

30 Paragraph E

31 Paragraph F

32 Paragraph G

Climate Change and the Inuit

The threat posed by climate change in the Arctic and the problems faced by Canada’s Inuit people

A Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud, following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects — if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the ‘canary in the mine’ for global warming — a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.

B For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.

C The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.

D Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing. Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer. It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and for many people state benefits are their only income.

E While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people’s health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In Nunavut’s ‘igloo and email’ society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land, there’s a high incidence of depression.

F With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as ‘Intelligence Quotient’, or IQ. ‘In the early days scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’ says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’ In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests, or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.

G Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.

Questions 33-40

Complete the summary of paragraphs C and D below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from paragraphs C and D for each answer.

Write you answers in boxes 33-40 on your answer sheet.

If you visit the Canadian Arctic, you immediately appreciate the problems faced by people for whom this is home. It would clearly be impossible for the people to engage in 33............... as a means of supporting themselves. For thousands of years they have had to rely on catching 34...............and 35...............as a means of sustenance. The harsh surroundings saw many who tried to settle there pushed to their limits, although some were successful. The 36...............people were an example of the latter and for them the environment did not prove unmanageable. For the present inhabitants, life continues to be a struggle. The territory of Nunavut consists of little more than ice, rock and a few 37............... . In recent years, many of them have been obliged to give up their 38............... lifestyle, but they continue to depend mainly on 39............... for their food and clothes. 40...............produce is particularly expensive.

剑桥雅思阅读6原文参考译文(test1)

TEST 1 PASSAGE 1参考译文:

AUSTRALIA’S SPORTING SUCCESS

澳大利亚的体育成就

A They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.

A他们努力竞争,他们积极参与,他们参加比赛完全为了取胜。澳大利亚体育劲旅轻松击败对手,取得辉煌战绩。他们何以做到这一点?成功的秘密在于一个由体育学院和科研机构组成的网络,该网络以科学与医学为基础,涉及面广且耗资巨大。在澳大利亚体育学院(AIS)里,数百名青年选手与职业运动员在教练的指导下共同生活和训练。另一家机构——澳大利亚体育运动委员会(ASC),则为总计96项体育运动中项目的数千名表现突出的男女运动员提供资助。上述两家机构均提供强化训练、训练设备和营养咨询服务。

B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one — such as building muscle strength in golfers — to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‘We can’t waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don’t help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,’ says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.

B 科学在体育科研机构中的地位举足轻重。AIS不仅雇用了上百名在体育方面深有研究的科学家和医生,还与大学及研究中心的几十名专家学者致力合作。AIS的科学家们同时研究多个体育项目,并将一个项目中的研究成果跨界应用,例如将增强髙尔夫球运动员肌肉力量的训练方法应用于游泳和壁球中。科学家们也得到了那些设计专用仪器来收集运动员资料的技术人员们的强大支持。他们都只关注一个目标:胜利。AIS的科研主管彼得?弗里克说:“我们不能在不切实际的科学问题上浪费时间,它们既无法协助教练指导运动员,也无法提高运动员本身的能力。”

C A lot of their work comes down to measurement — everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Mason’s contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (Swimming Analysis) system now used in Australian national competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmer’s performance into factors that can be analysed individually — stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmer.

C 专家们的许多工作都涉及具体测量,测量内容包括从游泳运动员潜水的精确角度到自行车运动员每秒功率输出的所有数据。这些资料将有助于运动员发挥最大的潜力来提高运动能力。工作核心是以人为本,其目的在于促使运动员发挥最大潜力来提高哪怕是百分之一秒的速度或者是一毫米的成绩。无论多么微小的收获都值得为之努力。正是这些跬步的积累,才使得澳大利亚取得举世瞩目的体育成就。为了说明系统运作的原理,AIS的科学家布鲁斯?梅森展示了为研究游泳运动员而设计的三维分析工具模型。只见一个游泳冠军获得者的线框模型划开水面,她的双臂以慢动作的形式划动。侧面观察,梅森可以测量每次划动中运动员前进的距离。俯视观察,他可以分析这位运动员的脊柱是怎样转动的。该系统设计完成后,他将能够为教练们建立生物力学的模型,协助培养游泳运动员。梅森对体育事业的贡献还包括游泳运动分析系统(SWAN)的开发,该系统现在正广泛应用于澳大利亚各项全国赛事之中。系统采用摄影频率为50格/秒的数 码相机收集影像,然后将游泳运动员的每个动作都分解成可分析的因素.例如划距、划频、每个划水动作 的平均持续时间、速率、出发时间、往返时间和结束时间等等。每次比赛结束后,SWAN都会给出每名运动员的数据资料。

D ‘Take a look,’ says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a second down? ‘His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy,’ says Mason. ‘If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better.’ This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists’ research is bringing to a range of sports. With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbourne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athlete’s clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athlete’s ability to run. There’s more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AIS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes’ saliva. If IgA levels suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.

D“请看,”梅森一边说一边抽出一张数据资料分析表。他指出获得第二名和第三名运动员的资料,数据证明游的最快的人其实是获得第三名的选手。那么,为什么他会以0. 35秒之差落后呢?梅森解释说:“他转身所需的时间比另一名选手长0.44秒、如果能够提高转身的技能,他的成绩将会大大提高。”AIS科学家们的研究将这种精确性带到各种体育项目之中。他们正与位于墨尔本的微技术合作研究中心合作,共同开发可嵌人运动员衣服或跑鞋里的微型传感器,用以监控心律、出汗情况、发热量以及其他一切可能对运动员赛跑能力造成影响的因素。这不仅仅是简单地测评运动员们的表现。弗里克举了个每年都会因感冒咳嗽而病倒十一二次的运动员的例子来说明了这一点。经过多年试验,AIS与新南威尔士州的纽卡斯尔大学合作研发出一种测试,以测量运动员唾液中免疫球蛋白A的含量如果免疫球蛋白A的含量突然降到某一水平之下,训练就会减弱强度或完全停止。不久,免疫球蛋白A水平开始回升,危险也最终消除。自推行该测试以来,AIS所有体育项目的运动员们都非常成功地保持着良好的健康状态。

E Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a ‘competition model’, based on what they expect will be the winning times.’ You design the model to make that time,’ says Mason.’ A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times.’ All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the world’s most successful sporting nation.

E 数据资料的分析与应用十分复杂。在锦标赛开始之前,体育科学家和教练们就早早着手训练运动员, 为比赛做好准备。基于预期中将能夺冠的速度,他们力图使运动员进入“竞赛模式”。梅森说:“人们设计一种模式以达到预期的速度,该模式规定了出发时间的长短、每次划水的速率、一定的划频和划距、转身所需的时间等等。”因此,无论是针对比赛整体还是其每个组成部分,所有的训练都是为了使运动员达到这些目标。诸如此类的先进科技已使澳大利亚成为了一个当之无愧的世界体育强国。

F Of course, there’s nothing to stop other countries copying — and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists’ and rowers’ times. Now everyone uses them. The same has happened to the ‘altitude tent’, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australia’s success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.

F 当然,许多国家都曾尝试着模仿,这是无法避免的。十几年前,AIS为进行耐力讲练的运动员设计出一款流线型散热运动服。在举办的亚特兰大奥运会上,该运动服为自行车运动员和划艇选手们减少了2%的比赛时间。现在,所有的选手都在使用这种新型运动服。“高原帐篷”也是如此,这是AIS为了模仿在海平面髙度地点的训练效果而设计研发的。然而,澳大利亚的成功故事绝不仅仅是些可以机械复制的技术方案,这也是为何时至今日也没有任何国家能够效仿其包罗万象的训练系统。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 2 参考译文:

DELIVERING THE GOODS

The vast expansion in international trade owes much to a revolution in the business of moving freight

货物运输

国际贸易规模的巨大扩张应当归功于货运业的变革

A International trade is growing at a startling pace. While the global economy has been expanding at a bit over 3% a year, the volume of trade has been rising at a compound annual rate of about twice that. Foreign products, from meat to machinery, play a more important role in almost every economy in the world, and foreign markets now tempt businesses that never much worried about sales beyond their nation’s borders.

A 国际贸易正以惊人的速度不断发展。世界经济的年均增长率略高于3%,而贸易额的年均复合增长率则高达此数字的近两倍。外国产品几乎在各国经济中都扮演着愈加重要的角色,产品范围广及肉类制品到机械设备。国外市场也正在吸引着那些从来不曾关心其商品在国外销路的企业。

B What lies behind this explosion in international commerce? The general worldwide decline in trade barriers, such as customs duties and import quotas, is surely one explanation. The economic opening of countries that have traditionally been minor players is another. But one force behind the import-export boom has passed all but unnoticed: the rapidly falling cost of getting goods to market. Theoretically, in the world of trade, shipping costs do not matter. Goods, once they have been made, are assumed to move instantly and at no cost from place to place. The real world, however, is full of frictions. Cheap labour may make Chinese clothing competitive in America, but if delays in shipment tie up working capital and cause winter coats to arrive in spring, trade may lose its advantages.

B 国际贸易飞速发展的原因是什么呢?当然,其原因之一是贸易壁垒在全世界范围的普遍减少,比如关税的减免和进口配额的淡出。另一原因是为传统意义上贸易小国的经济开放。然而,在进出口贸易兴旺繁荣的背后,有一种力量一直被人们所忽视,那就是将货物运往市场所需费用的迅速下降。从理论上讲,运输费用在贸易往来中并不重要。人们认为,货物在制成成品之后就可以无需任何花费运往各地。但是,现实世界充满了矛盾。廉价劳动力可能使中国的纺织品在美国市场上极具竞争力,而一旦货运的延迟占用了流动资金,并导致冬大衣直至来春天才运达目的地,那么这笔交易将会失去其竞争优势。

C At the turn of the 20th century, agriculture and manufacturing were the two most important sectors almost everywhere, accounting for about 70% of total output in Germany, Italy and France, and 40-50% in America, Britain and Japan. International commerce was therefore dominated by raw materials, such as wheat, wood and iron ore, or processed commodities, such as meat and steel. But these sorts of products are heavy and bulky and the cost of transporting them relatively high.

C 在世纪之交,农业和制造业几乎曾是世界各地最重要的两大行业,其比重占德国、意大利和法国总产量的约70%,占美国、英国和日本总产量的40%~50%。因此,国际贸易以小麦、木材和铁矿石等为代表的原材料或者以肉类和钢铁等为代表的加工品为主。但这些商品重、体积大,从而运输费用也相对较髙。

D Countries still trade disproportionately with their geographic neighbours. Over time, however, world output has shifted into goods whose worth is unrelated to their size and weight. Today, it is finished manufactured products that dominate the flow of trade, and, thanks to technological advances such as lightweight components, manufactured goods themselves have tended to become lighter and less bulky. As a result, less transportation is required for every dollar’s worth of imports or exports.

D 至今为止,各国仍然将重点放在与邻国的贸易往来上。然而随着时间的推移,全世界范围的商品生产已经转向其价值与其尺寸、重量并不相关的商品。现今,制成品已在贸易往来中占据主体地位,而且像轻量级组件等科技进步成果使制成品变得愈加轻便、小巧。因此,进出口商品所需的运费也相应有所降低。

E To see how this influences trade, consider the business of making disk drives for computers. Most of the world’s disk-drive manufacturing is concentrated in South-east Asia. This is possible only because disk drives, while valuable, are small and light and so cost little to ship. Computer manufacturers in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger freight bills if they import drives from Singapore rather than purchasing them on the domestic market. Distance therefore poses no obstacle to the globalisation of the disk-drive industry.

E为了理解运费降低对于贸易的影响,让我们看看计算机磁盘驱动器的生产制造业。全世界大多数的磁盘驱动器制造业都集中在东南亚地区。磁盘驱动器价格昂贵(价值高)。但正是由于其重量轻、体积小而运输花费低,才使得制造业的集中成为可能。即使从新加坡进口磁盘驱动器而不是在国内市场购买,日本或美国得克萨斯州的计算机制造商们也不会面对花费高出很多的运费账单。因此,距离已不再是磁盘驱动器制造业的全球化进程的障碍。

F This is even more true of the fast-growing information industries. Films and compact discs cost little to transport, even by aeroplane. Computer software can be ‘exported’ without ever loading it onto a ship, simply by transmitting it over telephone lines from one country to another, so freight rates and cargo-handling schedules become insignificant factors in deciding where to make the product. Businesses can locate based on other considerations, such as the availability of labour, while worrying less about the cost of delivering their output.

F在飞速发展的信息产业更是如此。即便用飞机运输,胶片和光盘也只需极低的运费。计算机软件的“出口”甚至不需要装运,仅仅通过电话线就可以在各国之间传输。因此,在选定制造地点时,货运费用和货物装卸表已成为无关紧要的因素。企业在选址时可以去考虑其他因素,例如劳动力的可获得性,而不必过分担心产品的运送费用。

G In many countries deregulation has helped to drive the process along. But, behind the scenes, a series of technological innovations known broadly as containerisation and inter-modal transportation has led to swift productivity improvements in cargo-handling. Forty years ago, the process of exporting or importing involved a great many stages of handling, which risked portions of the shipment being damaged or stolen along the way. The invention of the container crane made it possible to load and unload containers without capsizing the ship and the adoption of standard container sizes allowed almost any box to be transported on any ship. By 1967, dual-purpose ships, carrying loose cargo in the hold_and containers on the deck, were giving way to all-container vessels that moved thousands of boxes at a time.

G在许多国家,管制的解除推动了国际贸易的发展。除此之外,一系列科技创新也间接地促进了货物装卸作业中生产率的迅速提高,其中包括广为人知的集装箱运输和多式联运。四十年前,进出口商品程序繁杂,这带来了部分货物在运送过程中被损坏或偷窃的危险。集装箱起重机的发明实现了集装箱的安全装卸,又不至于倾覆货运船只;而采用同一标准规格的集装箱则使所有船只都能够运载装箱运送的不同货物。到1967年,货舱中装运散装货物而甲板上装运集装箱的两用货轮已逐渐被淘汰,取而代之的是可以一次运载几千个集装箱的全集装箱船。

H The shipping container transformed ocean shipping into a highly efficient, intensely competitive business. But getting the cargo to and from the dock was a different story. National governments, by and large, kept a much firmer hand on truck and railroad tariffs than on charges for ocean freight. This started changing, however, in the mid-1970s, when America began to deregulate its transportation industry. First airlines, then road hauliers and railways, were freed from restrictions on what they could carry, where they could haul it and what price they could charge. Big productivity gains resulted. Between 1985 and 1996, for example, America’s freight railways dramatically reduced their employment, trackage, and their fleets of locomotives — while increasing the amount of cargo they hauled. Europe’s railways have also shown marked, albeit smaller, productivity improvements.

H集装箱已将海上运输转变为一种效率极髙且竞争力强的行业,但将货物运往或者运离码头却绝非易 事。总体来说,相对于控制海上运输的费用,各国政府都更倾向于牢牢控制货车运输和铁路运输的运价。然而,这种情况从二十世纪七十年代中期,即美国解除对运输业的管制时便开始发生转变。继航运业率先获得管制解除之后,公路运输业和铁路运输业也相继摆脱了限制运载货物种类、装卸地点和货运费用规定的束缚。生产率的显著提高获得了巨大的成果。例如,1985年至19间,美国铁路运输业以惊人的方式在提高货运量的同时,减少了职工人数,缩短了运程,降低了机车队规模。虽然不及美国成就巨大,欧洲铁路运输业同样取得了成果显著的生产力的进步和生产率的提高。

I In America the period of huge productivity gains in transportation may be almost over, but in most countries the process still has far to go. State ownership of railways and airlines, regulation of freight rates and toleration of anti-competitive practices, such as cargo-handling monopolies, all keep the cost of shipping unnecessarily high and deter international trade. Bringing these barriers down would help the world’s economies grow even closer.

I 在美国,运输业生产率高速增长的时代或许已近尾声,但对于大多数国家来说,此过程依然任重而道远。许多因素导致了运输费用不必要地持续偏高并阻碍着国际贸易的发展,其中包括国家对于铁路业和航空业的所有权,限制运输费用的管理规定,以及对于反竞争行为的宽容。这些障碍的消除将有助于全球经济一体化的进程与发展。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 参考译文:

Climate Change and the Inuit

The threat posed by climate change in the Arctic and the problems faced by Canada’s Inuit people

气候变化与因纽特人

北极地区气候变化造成的威胁和加拿大因纽特人(亦称“爱斯基摩人”)面临的困境

A Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud, following early thaws. There are reports of igloos losing their insulating properties as the snow drips and refreezes, of lakes draining into the sea as permafrost melts, and sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having dramatic effects — if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become virtually ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies, increased precipitation and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly keen to find out what’s going on because they consider the Arctic the ‘canary in the mine’ for global warming — a warning of what’s in store for the rest of the world.

A 据报导,罕见事件在北极各地不断发生。许多因纽特家庭在乘坐雪地汽车离开居住地去为夏季狩猎露营地做准备时,被大片因提早解冻而形成的泥沼隔断了回家的路。相关报道层出不穷,圆顶冰屋的雪砖在融化滴落后又再次冻结,损坏了大量绝缘物品;冻土层融化,使湖水流入海洋;海冰比往年提前破碎,漂流的碎冰将海豹带到了猎人们力所不及的狩猎范围之外。对我们中的大多数人来说,气候变化或许还是一个相当抽象的概念,但在北极地区这已经产生了巨大的影响。如果夏季海冰以现有的速度继续消融,不久之后浮冰就会在夏季的北冰洋上完全消失。气候变化的连锁效应还包括气温升高、云层增厚、降水量增加和海平面升高。科学家们致力于研究气候变化的原因,因为他们认为在全球变暖的进程中,北极是能够警示危险到来的“矿井里的金丝雀”警告着我们北极地区的现状就是全世界的未来。

B For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in precarious balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct threat to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outside experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are jealously guarding their hard-won autonomy in the country’s newest territory, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.

B 对因纽特人来说,形势非常紧迫,问题亟待解决。他们生活在地球上最艰苦的地方与周围环境保抟着不稳定的平衡。无论造成何种影响,气候变化都是他们生活方式的直接威胁。当地居民比任何人都更加了解北极,因此他们不会简单地满足于自己袖手旁观而让外国专家们告知他们北极的现状。努纳武特地区是加拿大最新成立的特别行政区,当地的因纽特人一直努力维护来之不易的自治权。他们认为在不断变化的环境中,生存的最大希望在于将先人的智慧与先进的现代科学相结合。但这本身就是一个巨大的挑战。

C The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Venture into this terrain and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers meagre pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the colonists were successful, sometimes they failed and vanished. But around a thousand years ago, one group emerged that was uniquely well adapted to cope with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing kayaks, sleds, dogs, pottery and iron tools. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.

C 加拿大北极区是一片广袤荒芜的极地荒漠,一年中多半时间都被冰雪所覆盖。踏上这片土地,你就会明白以此为家的人们的处境有多么艰苦。农耕种植绝不可能,而可供采摘的食物也寥寥无几。四千五百年前,人类首次在北极地区定居,并且以捕捉海洋哺乳动物和鱼类为生。环境的考验将他们生存的潜力逼迫到了极限:有时他们成功幸存,而有时则遭受失败并灭亡。然而,大约一千年前出现了一个种族,他们以独一无二的方式很好地适应了北极地区的环境。这些图勒人从阿拉斯加迁至北极,并带来了皮艇、雪橇、狗、陶器和铁质工具。他们是现今因纽特人的祖先。

D Life for the descendants of the Thule people is still harsh. Nunavut is 1.9 million square kilometres of rock and ice, and a handful of islands around the North Pole. It’s currently home to 2,500 people, all but a handful of them indigenous Inuit. Over the past 40 years, most have abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the territory’s 28 isolated communities, but they still rely heavily on nature to provide food and clothing. Provisions available in local shops have to be flown into Nunavut on one of the most costly air networks in the world, or brought by supply ship during the few ice-free weeks of summer. It would cost a family around £7,000 a year to replace meat they obtained themselves through hunting with imported meat. Economic opportunities are scarce, and for many people state benefits are their only income.

D 对图勒人的子钵后代来说,生活依然残酷而艰苦。努纳武特地区包括一百九十万平方公里被岩石和冰雪覆盖的陆地,以及此极点附近的几个岛屿。现在,除了少数几个人之外,该地区两千五百名居民几乎均为因纽特原住民。在过去的四十年中,大多数人都放弃了游牧生活而定居在该地区二十八个相互独立的社区,但他们仍旧主要依赖于大自然来获取食物与衣服。当地商店出售的日常必需品是通过世界上运费最昂贵的航线之一进行运输,或是通过只有在夏季不结冰的几个星期里才能航行的供应船运送进努纳武特地区的。一个家庭每年大约要花费七千英镑才能用进口的肉食来取代他们自己猎取的肉类。在这里,经济机遇极少,政府补助金是许多人唯一的收人来源。

E While the Inuit may not actually starve if hunting and trapping are curtailed by climate change, there has certainly been an impact on people’s health. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are beginning to appear in a people for whom these have never before been problems. There has been a crisis of identity as the traditional skills of hunting, trapping and preparing skins have begun to disappear. In Nunavut’s ‘igloo and email’ society, where adults who were born in igloos have children who may never have been out on the land, there’s a high incidence of depression.

E 即使气候变化阻碍了狩猎和诱捕,因纽特人或许也不会真的挨饿受冻,但气候变化的确影响了人们的健康。人们开始患上肥胖症、心脏病和糖尿病,而这些疾病曾经根本不会对因纽特人的健康构成威胁。随着狩猎、诱捕和剥皮等传统手艺的失传,人们面临着严重的身份危机。在努纳武特地区“圆顶冰星加电子邮件”的社会中,父母出生在冰屋之中,而其子女们或许从来没有到野外狩猎的经历,忧郁症频繁发生。

F With so much at stake, the Inuit are determined to play a key role in teasing out the mysteries of climate change in the Arctic. Having survived there for centuries, they believe their wealth of traditional knowledge is vital to the task. And Western scientists are starting to draw on this wisdom, increasingly referred to as ‘Intelligence Quotient’, or IQ. ‘In the early days scientists ignored us when they came up here to study anything. They just figured these people don’t know very much so we won’t ask them,’ says John Amagoalik, an Inuit leader and politician. ‘But in recent years IQ has had much more credibility and weight.’ In fact it is now a requirement for anyone hoping to get permission to do research that they consult the communities, who are helping to set the research agenda to reflect their most important concerns. They can turn down applications from scientists they believe will work against their interests, or research projects that will impinge too much on their daily lives and traditional activities.

F 在情况危急之下,因纽特人决定在解开北极地区气候变化之谜的过程中发挥关键作用。因纽特人在当地生活了几百年,他们相信传统知识的财富对于这项任务的完成至关重要。西方的科学家们也开始逐渐吸收借鉴传统知识,并将其称为“因纽特智慧”或IQ。因纽特首领兼政治家约翰?阿玛高利克说:“在科学家们来到这里展开研究工作的初期,他们忽视我们的存在。他们或许这样认为:反正因纽特人懂得的知识也不多,我们为什么要向他们请教呢?但是近年来,IQ已经逐渐显示出其可信度和重要性。”事实上,现在任何人若想得到在努纳武特地区开展科学研究的许可,都必须咨询当地社区,而社区则会协助安排研究日程,并在日程安排中反映出其关心的重要问题。他们可以拒绝可能损害社区利益的科研申请,或者否决可能严重影响当地居民日常生活和传统活动的科研项目。

G Some scientists doubt the value of traditional knowledge because the occupation of the Arctic doesn’t go back far enough. Others, however, point out that the first weather stations in the far north date back just 50 years. There are still huge gaps in our environmental knowledge, and despite the scientific onslaught, many predictions are no more than best guesses. IQ could help to bridge the gap and resolve the tremendous uncertainty about how much of what we’re seeing is natural capriciousness and how much is the consequence of human activity.

G 某些科学家质疑传统知识的价值,认为因纽特人在北极地区居住的时间太短。除此之外,另一些人指出北极地区第一批气象站也仅仅是五十年前才建立的。现今,我们的环境知识还很匮乏,即使以科学的发展为依据,许多预测也不过是大胆的猜测而巳。IQ能够填补我们现有环境知识的空白,并且能够解决一个巨大的疑问,即我们所见的现象是自然环境的反复无常还是人类活动的必然后果。

剑桥雅思阅读6原文解析(test1)

Test 1 Passage1

Question 1

答案:B

关键词:exchange of expertise, between different sports/collaborate, across a number of sports

定位原文:B段第2、3句“...and collaborates with… a number of sports …”

解题思路: 题干中讲到不同体育领域的专业知识交流正好跟原文中跨不同体育专家之间的合作相对应,理解意思即可容易找到正确答案。

Question 2

答案:C

关键词: visual imaging/3D, image

定位原文: C段第6句: “...shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis …”

解题思路: 通过题干中的视频成像可以很容易找到原文中对应的3D和成像。

Question 3

答案:B

关键词: a reason for narrowing/ can’t waste time

定位原文: B段最后1句: “We can’t waste our time looking…”

解题思路: 题目中的research activity和原文中的scientific questions 属于同义表达,定位答题区域,发现此句话所要表达的意思是不在一些飘渺的、不切实际的科学问题上浪费时间,也就是说要缩小研究的范围。

Question 4

答案:F

关键词:AIS ideas reproduce/ copying

定位原文: F段第1句话 “Of course, there’s nothing…”

解题思路: 题干中的reproduce是复制的意思,之后从文章中发现句子有复制copying,即可以直接定位。

Question 5

答案:D

关键词:Obstacle, investigated/ impact, monitor

定位原文: D段第6句“... to monitor heart rate…”

解题思路: 题干提到理想成绩的障碍是如何被调查研究的,而读到对应句子之后看到正好是sensors(传感器)对于运动员跑步的impact(影响)进行研究的仪器,而且obstacles和impact对应。

Question 6

答案:A

关键词:Overview, funded support finance

定位原文: A段倒数第2句 “...finances programmes of excellence…”

解题思路: finances是解题关键,意思为资助,正好跟题干中funded support表达了相同的义项,直接对应。而且之后一句话提及以上项目所提供的服务和建议,可以确信答案。

Question 7

答案:E

关键词:Calculated before an event/ using data, well before a championship

定位原文: E段第1句、第2句 “Using data is a complex business. Well before a championship, ...”

解题思路: 首先通过well before a championship和文章中before an event定位到E段, 之后发现后面提及的“竞争模型”作用就是计算时间和速率,因此内容对应上calculate,此时可断定答案的位置。

Question 8

答案:A

关键词: digital cameras

定位原文: C段倒数第3句: “..SWAN system now used in Australian national…”

解题思路: 前一句已经提到该系统已广泛应用于澳大利亚各项全国赛事之中,而没有提到其他国家,因此可以判断应该只有澳大利亚人在使用。

Question 9

答案:B

关键词:sensor

定位原文: D段第7句:“...With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro…”

解题思路: 找到相同对应词sensor,读其前后的句子,发现有 Melbourne,断定是澳大利亚人的发明。之后要特别留心动词develop运用现在进行时,表示正在开发;而且注意之后的定语从句采用了将来时,所以可以断定此发明还没有完成,应该属于将来的成果。因此选择B。

Question 10

答案: A

关键词:protein

定位原文: D段倒数第4句: “… AIS and the University of Newcastle…”

解题思路: 非常容易在前面第一句话中找到跟题目protein tests所对应的词语a test ...protein。之后细读前后句,发现后面一句话对于此项科技成果的受益者文章中只提到AIS运动员,即澳大利亚体育学院的运动员,隶属于澳大利亚,所以应该选择A。

Question 11

答案:C

关键词: altitude tent

定位原文: F段倒数第2句: “The same has happened to the ‘altitude tent ’…”

解题思路: 文章中很容易找到用引号括起来的题目中的名词短语,因此只要细心读原句,就会发现开头的‘The same has happened...’同样的事情也发生在……根据经验应该顺着文章向上追溯,发现跟‘altitude tent’相同情况的是1996年奥运会上澳大利亚人受益的流线型散热运动服现在全世界都在用。因此 ‘altitude tent’也被世界各国应用。所以答案应该选择C。且根据此段话大意可以了解文章只提到两种研究成果被别国运用,即髙原帐蓬和流线型散热服。所以可以间接判断前三项成果是由澳大利人独享的。

Question 12

答案: (a)competition model

关键词: help an athlete plan, produced / prepare the athlete by, developing

定位原文: E段第1句“Using data…”

解题思路: Help an athlete plan their performance 对应上prepare the athlete by之后,要认真研究题目所问的是what is produced,断定所作答案必定要填一个名词。因此要细读原文发现有单词developing恰与produced相对应,中文意思是“开发”,则答案必定是开发之后的名词。

Question 13

答案: (by)2 percent/%

关键词: 19% Olympic Games, cyclists, improve

定位原文: F段第3句“At the Atlanta…”

解题思路: 分析问句是 ‘By how much... improve’,意思为“提高了多少”,可以判断出答案需要写一个数字。因此仔细阅读相关语句找到 sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists ‘and rowers’ time。很快就可以找到数字百分之二。

Test 1 Passage 2

Question 14

答案:I

关键词:suggestion, in the future /would help

定位原文: I 段最后1句“Bringing these barriers down would help…”

解题思路: 首先看到题干中有明确的时间词“在未来”。根据段意,可以判定应该是文章的最后一段。之后看题干中的定位词suggestion表示建议,在文章结尾部分的最后一句话,可以清楚地找到它是作者对于提高贸易的一个建议,完全对应。

Question 15

答案: F

关键词:electronic delivery/transmitting...over telephone

定位原文: F段第3句“...simply by transmitting…”

解题思路: 题干中提到电子式的传递,很容易跟文章关于信息产业的F段挂钩,之后再细读本段第二句话就可以找到与题干相对应的 transmitting...over telephone。因此,答案是F段。

Question 16

答案: E

关键词:similar cost Abroad, local/ Singapore, domestic

定位原文: E段倒数第2句“… manufacturers in Japan or Texas…”

解题思路: 题干是说“无论是国际还是国内的,在运输货物环节的相近成本。”也就是说国内的运输和国际的运输成本基本相同,间接表明国际运输成本比较低。而文章中此句话的意思是“即使从新加坡进口磁盘驱动器而不是在国内市场购买,日本或美国得克萨斯州的计算机制造商们也不会面对花费高出很多的运费账单”。可以看出制造商们不用花费很高的运费,正好跟题干相应。

Question 17

答案:D

关键词:Weakening relationship, value of goods, cost of delivery/unrelated to

定位原文: D段第2句“...world output has shifted into goods…”

解题思路: 题干的weakening relationship(弱化的关系),跟文章unrelated to (不相关的)属于同义表达,描述的问题是商品价值和运输成本的关系。

Question 18

答案: TRUE

关键词:international trade, world economy

定位原文: A段第2句“... global economy has been expanding…”

解题思路: 非常明显,twice是题眼,表示trade是global economy的两倍,所以看出国际贸易要比世界经济增长快很多,正好对应上定位词和题干。

Question 19

答案: FALSE

关键词:cheap labour

定位原文: B段最后1句“Cheap labour may make Chinese…”

解题思路: 此题找到对应段落,正好cheap labour用词一样。之后文章尽管说廉价劳动力使得中国纺织品在美国具有竞争力,但要注意转折词‘but’,它使意思发生转变。后面的句子可以看出,如果没有好的、及时的运输,那么贸易也就失去了优势(lose advantages)。因此正好是驳斥了题干中关于廉价劳动力对于贸易的保证关系,因此题干与文章的意思不相符。

Question 20

答案: NOT GIVEN

关键词:Japan,France

定位原文: C段第1句“...agriculture and manufacturing…”

解题思路: 文章中C段正好有对应的法国和日本。但文章原义是“农业和制造业几乎曾是各地最重要的两大行业,其比重占德 国、意大利和法国总产量的约70%,以及美国、英国和日本总产量的40%~50%。”提到法 国比日本多的是农业和制造业的总产量,可文中并没有提及关于肉类和钢铁的进口问题。此题是典型的题不对文,因此应该选择NOT GIVEN。

Question 21

答案:TRUE

关键词:trade with nearby nations

定位原文: D段第1句“Countries still trade disproportionately…”

解题思路: 定位句译文是“各国仍然将重点放在与邻国的贸易往来上”。其中geographic neighbours与nearby nations对应,still和continue也对应。句子意思也跟题干意思完全吻合,因此此题应该选择TRUE。

Question 22

答案: NOT GIVEN

关键词: small computer components

定位原文: E段第2句“Most of the world’s disk-drive…”

解题思路: 首先确定小的电脑零件只能在E和F段来找,而根据E段提供的信息,大部分的电脑配件之一——硬盘都在东南亚生产。而并没有提到电脑零件在德国生产,因此文章中没有提及,既不肯定也不否定在德国生产小的电脑零件。因此答案应该是NOT GIVEN。

Question 23

答案:G

关键词:significant effect on, business of moving freight, increasingly streamlined

定位原文: E段第1句“To see how this influences trade…”

解题思路: 找到E段开头句‘To see how this influences trade’,可以知道是承接上一段货物类型转变与运输关系的。因此跟 business of moving freight becomes increasingly streamlined对应,而且两个词语effect和influence表达相同意义,因此可以选择influences后面的trade(贸易)作为答案。而题干词库中正好有trade一词,可以直接选择答案G。

Question 24

答案:B

关键词:computers, for instance, / overseas, rather than, local

定位原文: E段倒数第2句: “.. in Japan or Texas will not face hugely bigger...”

解题思路: 根据语法,此处要求填写一个名词。而题干附近有一个很明显的关键词‘for instance’,典型的举例题,而且根据之前的computers就可以定位在E段,因为E段核心是一个例子。之后就很容易地可以填出应该是电脑的硬盘及divers。但是答案选项里面却没有,只能选择相关的髙一级的词汇components。

Question 25

答案:C

关键词:introduction

定位原文: G段第2句“But, behind the…”

解题思路: 根据空格前面的introduction可以推出需要填写的是一种方法或者科研成果。而根据上下文和题目关系以及定位词找到在G段第二句话中,有 cargo-handling与之对应。之后看到斜体字中即为两种方法,集装箱运输和多式联运,那么可以判断innovations和introduction相对应。而且答案应该跟container有关,答案应该填写C。

Question 26

答案:A

关键词: governments

定位原文: H段第3句的“National governments…”

解题思路: 用government可以快速定位在H段,而且根据题干中所涉及的domestic cargo sector可以和 truck and railroad对应,因此答案就在这句话中,通过分析,题目的空格应该是填写“降低”的宾语。而国家应该降低原文句中的tariffs(关税)。因此答案选择A。

Test 1 Passage 3

Question 27

答案:i

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: B段倒数第2句“…they believe their best hope of…”

解题思路: B段主要介绍了因纽特人不满足于自己袖手旁观而让外国专家们告知他们北极的现状,他们要把祖先的知识和现代科技进行结合来解决环境变化问题。很明显可以看出,这是对于环境变化的一种反应和对策。因此答案为i。

Question 28

答案: vi

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: C段第1句“The Canadian Arctic…”

解题思路: C段详细地描述了位于加拿大北极圈里面的地貌,而且还提及了因纽特人的祖先顽强地适应了下来并定居在这片土地上。因此逐个分析答案可以看到只有vi符合原段意思。

Question 29

答案: iii

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: D段后半部分:food / clothing / provisions / meat

解题思路: 此段重点描述了过去因纽特人依靠自然提供食物和衣服,而现在则是更加先进的飞机和船运进口必需品,所以可以看出一个转变的过程。纵观题干,不难看出答案是iii,即生活必需品的替代的来源。

Question 30

答案:vii

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: E段第1句“... there has certainly been an impact on peopled health.”

解题思路: 首先E段开头用while,则可判断主题句应该在后半句。意思是这些气候变化会对人们的健康有影响。通过下一句的举例:肥胖,心脏病和糖尿病就可以判断出是一个负面的影响那么对应题干negative effect,故答案是 vii。

Question 31

答案:iv

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: F段第一句和引言句“... the Inuit are determined to play a key role in …in the Arctic. / ...in recent years, IQ… weight.”

解题思路: F段首句提出了因纽特人决定在应对北极环境变化要起关键作用。后面第五行的一句话,说“IQ已经逐渐显示出其可信度和重要性。”因此可以确定与答案iv相对应:对于因纽特人的意见和痤议越来越尊重。故答案是 iv。

Question 32

答案:ii

关键词:段落匹配题,暂无关键词

定位原文: G段第3句“There are still huge gaps…”

解题思路: 通过对于主题句进行分析,前半句提出观电,后半句给予说明。所以,作者本段的观点应该是“我们的环境知识还很匮乏”。gaps in knowledge很容易跟题干ii选项中的 understanding limited对应,因此断定答案选择ii。

Question 33

答案: farming

关键词:Canadian Arctic

定位原文: C段第3句“Farming is out of the question…”

解题思路: 此空格要求填一个名词,因为engage in表示“参与”的意思,后面in应该跟名词。看题目中填空的附近有一个impossible,表示否定。这样带着目的去阅读C 段文章,可以找到这句话。根据分析,文章中的out of question和题目中impossible对应,因此可以找到 out of question的主语即farming就是我们需要的答案,而且说engage in farming符合常理和语法规则。

Question 34 & Question 35

答案:sea mammals fish (in either order)

关键词:catching, and

定位原文: C段第4句“..surviving by exploiting sea mammals and fish.”

解题思路: 首先看到and并列连词,所以34和35题两个是并列关系,这可以帮助我们找到答案。另外一点是可以判断出34和35题要填写名词,做catching的宾语。这样到文章中去对应可以找到这句话。看到exploiting和 catching完全对应,而且后面的两个名词是并列关系,所以可以说轻而易举就找到了正确答案mammals和fish。关键的连词如and等有的时候是解题的突破口。

Question 36

答案:Thule

关键词:pushed limits

定位原文: C段第5句到C段结束“The environment tested … limits / ...one group emerged …the Arctic environment. / These Thule people moved in from Alaska...”

解题思路: 由于空格附近是people,因此可以断定空格处应该填一个形容词。而且这类人是latter的一个example,而且是“后者的一个例子” 所以此题要通读有空格的一句话和空格之前的一句话。可以看出要写的一类人是成功生活在艰难环境中的。找到pushed limits 作为定位词,在文章中找到对应句子。但是答案,不在这里,我们需要找到成功的人群。因此继续往下跟踪,看到文章提到了成功的人群,但直到最后才找到本题的正确答案。Thule人,注意要忠实原文,一定要大写T。注意此题阅读跨度比较大,很容易出错,因此要细致。

Question 37

答案: islands

关键词:territory of Nunavut, / ice, rock

定位原文: D段第2句“Nunavut is 1.9 million square…”

解题思路: 题干很明显的定位词Nunavut可以在文章的D段开头找到。之后文章里面出现了‘rock and ice,and a handful of islands’,这样答案很清晰地和题干对应上,因此直接填上islands就可以了。特别要注意的是,题干空格前面用‘a few of’来修饰,因此后面空格里必须是复数。

Question 38

答案:nomadic

关键词:in recent years / been obliged to give up / lifestyle

定位原文: D段第4句“Over the past 40 years, most…”

解题思路: 题干中提及被迫放弃什么生活方式,因此要求填一个形容词来修饰生活方式lifestyle。而时间状语in recent years是关键定位词。继续37题往下读。可以看到一个时间状语over the past 40 years正好跟我们的in recent years对应,而abandon与give up,ways和lifestyle。相对应,答案已经找到,即abandon后面的宾语ways的修饰语nomadic。

Question 39

答案: nature

关键词:depend on food and clothes

定位原文: D段最后一句的最后半句“...but they still rely nature to…”

解题思路: 题干很短,但已经足够判断出depend on后面需要填写一个名词,即依靠什么东西。而后面的food and clothes是非常好的定位词。很快在文章中就可以找到对应depend on的rely on,而后面又有food and clothes,因此答案可以很清楚地判断出rely on的宾语就是答案,即nature。

Question 40

答案: Imported

关键词: expensive

定位原文: D段最后5句话

解题思路: 通读这五句话,整体把握大意。其中,会看到他们的日用品都需要用costly(昂贵的)航空运输或者在夏天通过补给船运,costly对应expensive。后面就需要概括地去看所有这些必需品都是要进口的,也就是imported(进口的),而答案就是imported。首字母要大写。

篇2:剑桥雅思阅读4test1原文翻译及答案解析

剑桥雅思阅读4原文(test1)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements about the alarming rate of loss of tropical rainforests. For example, one graphic illustration to which children might readily relate is the estimate that rainforests are being destroyed at a rate equivalent to one thousand football fields every forty minutes — about the duration of a normal classroom period. In the face of the frequent and often vivid media coverage, it is likely that children will have formed ideas about rainforests — what and where they are, why they are important, what endangers them — independent of any formal tuition. It is also possible that some of these ideas will be mistaken.

Many studies have shown that children harbour misconceptions about ‘pure’, curriculum science. These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but organised, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification. These ideas may be developed by children absorbing ideas through the popular media. Sometimes this information may be erroneous. It seems schools may not be providing an opportunity for children to re-express their ideas and so have them tested and refined by teachers and their peers.

Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the destruction of rainforests, little formal information is available about children’s ideas in this area. The aim of the present study is to start to provide such information, to help teachers design their educational strategies to build upon correct ideas and to displace misconceptions and to plan programmes in environmental studies in their schools.

The study surveys children’s scientific knowledge and attitudes to rainforests. Secondary school children were asked to complete a questionnaire containing five open-form questions. The most frequent responses to the first question were descriptions which are self-evident from the term ‘rainforest’. Some children described them as damp, wet or hot. The second question concerned the geographical location of rainforests. The commonest responses were continents or countries: Africa (given by 43% of children), South America (30%), Brazil (25%). Some children also gave more general locations, such as being near the Equator.

Responses to question three concerned the importance of rainforests. The dominant idea, raised by 64% of the pupils, was that rainforests provide animals with habitats. Fewer students responded that rainforests provide plant habitats, and even fewer mentioned the indigenous populations of rainforests. More girls (70%) than boys (60%) raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.

Similarly, but at a lower level, more girls (13%) than boys (5%) said that rainforests provided human habitats. These observations are generally consistent with our previous studies of pupils’ views about the use and conservation of rainforests, in which girls were shown to be more sympathetic to animals and expressed views which seem to place an intrinsic value on non-human animal life.

The fourth question concerned the causes of the destruction of rainforests. Perhaps encouragingly, more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforests, some personalising the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’. About 18% of the pupils referred specifically to logging activity.

One misconception, expressed by some 10% of the pupils, was that acid rain is responsible for rainforest destruction; a similar proportion said that pollution is destroying rainforests. Here, children are confusing rainforest destruction with damage to the forests of Western Europe by these factors. While two fifths of the students provided the information that the rainforests provide oxygen, in some cases this response also embraced the misconception that rainforest destruction would reduce atmospheric oxygen, making the atmosphere incompatible with human life on Earth.

In answer to the final question about the importance of rainforest conservation, the majority of children simply said that we need rainforests to survive. Only a few of the pupils (6%) mentioned that rainforest destruction may contribute to global warming. This is surprising considering the high level of media coverage on this issue. Some children expressed the idea that the conservation of rainforests is not important.

The results of this study suggest that certain ideas predominate in the thinking of children about rainforests. Pupils’ responses indicate some misconceptions in basic scientific knowledge of rainforests’ ecosystems such as their ideas about rainforests as habitats for animals, plants and humans and the relationship between climatic change and destruction of rainforests.

Pupils did not volunteer ideas that suggested that they appreciated the complexity of causes of rainforest destruction. In other words, they gave no indication of an appreciation of either the range of ways in which rainforests are important or the complex social, economic and political factors which drive the activities which are destroying the rainforests. One encouragement is that the results of similar studies about other environmental issues suggest that older children seem to acquire the ability to appreciate, value and evaluate conflicting views. Environmental education offers an arena in which these skills can be developed, which is essential for these children as future decision-makers.

Questions 1-8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1 The plight of the rainforests has largely been ignored by the media.

2 Children only accept opinions on rainforests that they encounter in their classrooms.

3 It has been suggested that children hold mistaken views about the ‘pure’ science that they study at school.

4 The fact that children’s ideas about science form part of a larger framework of ideas means that it is easier to change them.

5 The study involved asking children a number of yes/no questions such as ‘Are there any rainforests in Africa?’

6 Girls are more likely than boys to hold mistaken views about the rainforests’ destruction.

7 The study reported here follows on from a series of studies that have looked at children’s understanding of rainforests.

8 A second study has been planned to investigate primary school children’s ideas about rainforests.

Questions 9-13

The box below gives a list of responses A-P to the questionnaire discussed in Reading Passage 1.

Answer the following questions by choosing the correct responses A-P.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

9 What was the children’s most frequent response when asked where the rainforests were?

10 What was the most common response to the question about the importance of the rainforests?

11 What did most children give as the reason for the loss of the rainforests?

12 Why did most children think it important for the rainforests to be protected?

13 Which of the responses is cited as unexpectedly uncommon, given the amount of time spent on the issue by the newspapers and television?

A There is a complicated combination of reasons for the loss of the rainforests.

B The rainforests are being destroyed by the same things that are destroying the forests of Western Europe.

C Rainforests are located near the Equator.

D Brazil is home to the rainforests.

E Without rainforests some animals would have nowhere to live.

F Rainforests are important habitats for a lot of plants.

G People are responsible for the loss of the rainforests.

H The rainforests are a source of oxygen.

I Rainforests are of consequence for a number of different reasons.

J As the rainforests are destroyed, the world gets warmer.

K Without rainforests there would not be enough oxygen in the air.

L There are people for whom the rainforests are home.

M Rainforests are found in Africa.

N Rainforests are not really important to human life.

O The destruction of the rainforests is the direct result of logging activity.

P Humans depend on the rainforests for their continuing existence.

Question 14

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, D or E.

Write your answer in box 14 on your answer sheet.

Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage 1?

A The development of a programme in environmental studies within a science curriculum

B Children’s ideas about the rainforests and the implications for course design

C The extent to which children have been misled by the media concerning the rainforests

D How to collect, collate and describe the ideas of secondary school children.

E The importance of the rainforests and the reasons for their destruction

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

What Do Whales Feel?

An examination of the functioning of the senses in cetaceans, the group of mammals comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises

Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.

The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free-ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched there.

The sense of vision is developed to different degree in different species. Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater — specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whale and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii — have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.

On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

Such variation can no doubt be explained with reference to the habitats in which individual species have developed. For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu and Chinese Beiji, for instance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind, their eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the direction and intensity of light.

Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense. Most species are highly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they produce, and many forage for food using echolocation1. Large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback whales. Toothed species in general employ more of the frequency spectrum, and produce a wider variety of sounds, than baleen species (though the sperm whale apparently produces a monotonous series of high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more complicated sounds are clearly communicative, although what role they may play in the social life and ‘culture’ of cetaceans has been more the subject of wild speculation than of solid science.

1. echolocation: the perception of objects by means of sound wave echoes.

Questions 15-21

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 2 for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet.

SENSE SPECIES ABILITY COMMENTS

Smell toothed no evidence from brain structure

baleen not certain related brain structures are present

Taste some types poor nerves linked to their 15………are underdeveloped

Touch all yes region around the blowhole very sensitive

Vision 16……… yes probably do not have stereoscopic vision

Dolphins, porpoises yes probably have stereoscopic vision 17………and………

18………

yes probably have stereoscopic vision forward and upward

Bottlenose dolphins yes exceptional in 19………and good in air-water interface

Boutu and beiji poor have limited vision

Indian susu no probably only sense direction and intensity of light

Hearing most large baleen yes usually use 20………; repertoire limited

21………whales and ………whales

yes song-like

Toothed yes use more of frequency spectrum; have wider repertoire

Questions 22-26

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

22 Which of the senses is described here as being involved in mating?

23 What species swims upside down while eating?

24 What can bottlenose dolphins follow from under the water?

25 Which type of habitat is related to good visual ability?

26 Which of the senses is best developed in cetaceans?

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Visual Symbols and the Blind

Part 1

From a number of recent studies, it has become clear that blind people can appreciate the use of outlines and perspectives to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space. But pictures are more than literal representations. This fact was drawn to my attention dramatically when a blind woman in one of my investigations decided on her own initiative to draw a wheel as it was spinning. To show this motion, she traced a curve inside the circle (Fig. 1). I was taken aback. Lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the history of illustration. Indeed, as art scholar David Kunzle notes, Wilhelm Busch, a trend-setting nineteenth-century cartoonist, used virtually no motion lines in his popular figures until about 1877.

When I asked several other blind study subjects to draw a spinning wheel, one particularly clever rendition appeared repeatedly: several subjects showed the wheel’s spokes as curved lines. When asked about these curves, they all described them as metaphorical ways of suggesting motion. Majority rule would argue that this device somehow indicated motion very well. But was it a better indicator than, say, broken or wavy lines — or any other kind of line, for that matter? The answer was not clear. So I decided to test whether various lines of motion were apt ways of showing movement or if they were merely idiosyncratic marks. Moreover, I wanted to discover whether there were differences in how the blind and the sighted interpreted lines of motion.

To search out these answers, I created raised-line drawings of five different wheels, depicting spokes with lines that curved, bent, waved, dashed and extended beyond the perimeter of the wheel. I then asked eighteen blind volunteers to feel the wheels and assign one of the following motions to each wheel: wobbling, spinning fast, spinning steadily, jerking or braking. My control group consisted of eighteen sighted undergraduates from the University of Toronto.

All but one of the blind subjects assigned distinctive motions to each wheel. Most guessed that the curved spokes indicated that the wheel was spinning steadily; the wavy spokes, they thought, suggested that the wheel was wobbling; and the bent spokes were taken as a sign that the wheel was jerking. Subjects assumed that spokes extending beyond the wheel’s perimeter signified that the wheel had its brakes on and that dashed spokes indicated the wheel was spinning quickly.

In addition, the favoured description for the sighted was the favoured description for the blind in every instance. What is more, the consensus among the sighted was barely higher than that among the blind. Because motion devices are unfamiliar to the blind, the task I gave them involved some problem solving. Evidently, however, the blind not only figured out meanings for each line of motion, but as a group they generally came up with the same meaning at least as frequently as did sighted subjects.

Part 2

Words associated Agreement

with circle/square among

subjects (%)

SOFT-HARD 100

MOTHER-FATHER 94

HAPPY-SAD 94

GOOD-EVIL 89

LOVE-HATE 89

ALIVE-DEAD 87

BRIGHT-DARK 87

LIGHT-HEAVY 85

WARM-COLD 81

SUMMER-WINTER 81

WEAK-STRONG 79

FAST-SLOW 79

CAT-DOG 74

SPRING-FALL 74

QUIET-LOUD 62

WALKING-STANDING 62

ODD-EVEN 57

FAR-NEAR 53

PLANT-ANIMAL 53

DEEP-SHALLOW 51

Fig. 2 Subjects were asked which word in each pair fits best with a circle and which with a square. These percentages show the level of consensus among sighted subjects.

We have found that the blind understand other kinds of visual metaphors as well. One blind woman drew a picture of a child inside a heart — choosing that symbol, she said, to show that love surrounded the child. With Chang Hong Liu, a doctoral student from China, I have begun exploring how well blind people understand the symbolism behind shapes such as hearts that do not directly represent their meaning.

We gave a list of twenty pairs of words to sighted subjects and asked them to pick from each pair the term that best related to a circle and the term that best related to a square. For example, we asked: What goes with soft? A circle or a square? Which shape goes with hard?

All our subjects deemed the circle soft and the square hard. A full 94% ascribed happy to the circle, instead of sad. But other pairs revealed less agreement: 79% matched fast to slow and weak to strong, respectively. And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square. (See Fig. 2.) When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects. One man, who had been blind since birth, scored extremely well. He made only one match differing from the consensus, assigning ‘far’ to square and ‘near’ to circle. In fact, only a small majority of sighted subjects — 53% — had paired far and near to the opposite partners. Thus, we concluded that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do.

Questions 27-29

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 27-29 on your answer sheet.

27 In the first paragraph the writer makes the point that blind people.

A may be interested in studying art.

B can draw outlines of different objects and surfaces.

C can recognise conventions such as perspective.

D can draw accurately.

28 The writer was surprised because the blind woman

A drew a circle on her own initiative.

B did not understand what a wheel looked like.

C included a symbol representing movement.

D was the first person to use lines of motion.

29 From the experiment described in Part 1, the writer found that the blind subjects

A had good understanding of symbols representing movement.

B could control the movement of wheels very accurately.

C worked together well as a group in solving problems.

D got better results than the sighted undergraduates.

Questions 30-32

Look at the following diagrams (Questions 30-32), and the list of types of movement below. Match each diagram to the type of movement A-E generally assigned to it the experiment. Choose the correct letter A-E and write them in boxes 30-32 on your answer sheet.

A steady spinning

B jerky movement

C rapid spinning

D wobbling movement

E use of brakes

Questions 33-39

Complete the summary below using words from the box.

Write your answers in boxes 33-39 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any word more than once.

In the experiment described in Part 2, a set of word 33…… was used to investigate whether blind and sighted people perceived the symbolism in abstract 34…… in the same way. Subjects were asked which word fitted best with a circle and which with a square. From the 35… volunteers, everyone thought a circle fitted ‘soft’ while a square fitted ‘hard’.

However, only 51% of the 36…… volunteers assigned a circle to 37…… . When the test was later repeated with 38…… volunteers, it was found that they made 39…… choices.

associations blind deep hard

hundred identical pairs shapes

sighted similar shallow soft

words

Question 40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

Write your answer in box 40 on your answer sheet.

Which of the following statements best summarises the writer’s general conclusion?

A The blind represent some aspects of reality differently from sighted people.

B The blind comprehend visual metaphors in similar ways to sighted people.

C The blind may create unusual and effective symbols to represent reality.

D The blind may be successful artists if given the right training.

剑桥雅思阅读4原文参考译文(test1)

Passage1

参考译文

Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements about the alarming rate of loss of tropical rainforests. For example, one graphic illustration to which children might readily relate is the estimate that rainforests are being destroyed at a rate equivalent to one thousand football fields every forty minutes — about the duration of a normal classroom period. In the face of the frequent and often vivid media coverage, it is likely that children will have formed ideas about rainforests — what and where they are, why they are important, what endangers them — independent of any formal tuition. It is also possible that some of these ideas will be mistaken.

无论大人还是孩子都经常会遇到这样的报道,那就是热带雨林正在以惊人的速度消失。打个比方,孩子们很容易就能理解这样一个图例,即平均每四十分钟,也就是一节课的时间内,世界上就会有相当于一千个足球场大小的热带雨林遭到破坏。面对媒体频繁且生动的报道,也许不需要任何正规的教育,孩子们就能够形成一系列有关热带雨林的观点:比如说雨林是什么,位置在哪里,为什么如此重要,又是什么在威胁它们等等。当然,这些观点也很有可能是错的。

Many studies have shown that children harbour misconceptions about ‘pure’, curriculum science. These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but organised, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification. These ideas may be developed by children absorbing ideas through the popular media. Sometimes this information may be erroneous. It seems schools may not be providing an opportunity for children to re-express their ideas and so have them tested and refined by teachers and their peers.

许多研究表明孩子们对于在学校里学到的科学知识心存误解。这些误解不是孤立存在的,而是组成了一个尽管多层面却十分有条理的概念体系,这一点使得该体系本身及其所有的组成观点更加难以攻破,有些观点本身甚至就是错误的,但是也正是这样,它们反而更容易被改动。这些错误观点正是由于孩子们从大众煤体上吸收了信息而形成的。有时连这些信息本身都是错误的。学校似乎也没能够给们提供一个再度阐述自己观点的机会,因此宠师及其他学生也不能帮助其检验及纠正这种错误观点。

Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the destruction of rainforests, little formal information is available about children’s ideas in this area. The aim of the present study is to start to provide such information, to help teachers design their educational strategies to build upon correct ideas and to displace misconceptions and to plan programmes in environmental studies in their schools.

尽管媒体对于热带雨林所遭受的破坏做了大量的报道,但是有关孩子相关观点的信息却少之又少。所以,目前这项研究的目的就是要给教师提供这样的信息来帮助他们设计自己的教学策略,以便帮助学生构筑正确的观点,置换他们的错误概念,并在学校中展开环保研究项目。

The study surveys children’s scientific knowledge and attitudes to rainforests. Secondary school children were asked to complete a questionnaire containing five open-form questions. The most frequent responses to the first question were descriptions which are self-evident from the term ‘rainforest’. Some children described them as damp, wet or hot. The second question concerned the geographical location of rainforests. The commonest responses were continents or countries: Africa (given by 43% of children), South America (30%), Brazil (25%). Some children also gave more general locations, such as being near the Equator.

该项研究调査了孩子有关热带雨林的科学知识以及态度。研究要求一些中学生填写一份包含了五个简答题的调査表。对于第一个问题,最常见的解答就来自“热带雨林”这一名称所附带的不言自明的含义。有些孩子把雨林描述成一个又潮又湿或闷热的地方。第二个问题是关于雨林的地理位置的,大多数答案都提到了国名或洲名:百分之四十三的孩子写了非洲,百分之三十写了美洲;还有百分之二十五的人认为热带雨林主要分布在巴西。有些孩子给出了如“赤道附近”这样更为宽泛的答案。

Responses to question three concerned the importance of rainforests. The dominant idea, raised by 64% of the pupils, was that rainforests provide animals with habitats. Fewer students responded that rainforests provide plant habitats, and even fewer mentioned the indigenous populations of rainforests. More girls (70%) than boys (60%) raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.

第三道题目问及了热带雨林的重要性。百分之六十四的学生认为雨林为动物提供了栖身之所。较少的学生回答说雨林是植物的生长地。更少的学生提到了雨林中的土著居民。其中,有百分之七十的女孩子认为雨林是动物的家,而男孩子中只有百分之六十的人执此观点。

Similarly, but at a lower level, more girls (13%) than boys (5%) said that rainforests provided human habitats. These observations are generally consistent with our previous studies of pupils’ views about the use and conservation of rainforests, in which girls were shown to be more sympathetic to animals and expressed views which seem to place an intrinsic value on non-human animal life.

相似的是,有百分之十三的女生认为热带雨林为人类提供了居所,而男生中有此想法的人只占百分之五。这些观点与先前就学生对热带雨林的开发及保护状况所做的研究的结果基本一致,该结果表明女生更容易表现出对小动物的同情,其观点也更容易将内在价值观基于动物而非人类生命上。

The fourth question concerned the causes of the destruction of rainforests. Perhaps encouragingly, more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforests, some personalising the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’. About 18% of the pupils referred specifically to logging activity.

第四个问题问到了热带雨林遭到破坏的原因。值得庆幸的是,过半的学生(百分之五十九)都认为是人类的行为导致了这一破坏,有人甚至用“我们”这样的字眼将问题与自身联系起来。大概有百分之十八的学生将这一破坏归咎于滥砍滥伐。

One misconception, expressed by some 10% of the pupils, was that acid rain is responsible for rainforest destruction; a similar proportion said that pollution is destroying rainforests. Here, children are confusing rainforest destruction with damage to the forests of Western Europe by these factors. While two fifths of the students provided the information that the rainforests provide oxygen, in some cases this response also embraced the misconception that rainforest destruction would reduce atmospheric oxygen, making the atmosphere incompatible with human life on Earth.

百分之十的学生错误地认为是酸雨导致了雨林的破坏,还有百分之十的学生觉得污染才是罪魁祸首。看来学生们是将热带雨林所受的破坏与上述因素对西欧森林的毁坏混为一谈了。百分之四十的学生认为热带雨林为人们提供了氧气,在某种程度上,这样的答案也包含着一个误解,那就是认为热带雨林的消失会减少大气中氧气的含量,最终导致地球上的大气不再适合人类呼吸。

In answer to the final question about the importance of rainforest conservation, the majority of children simply said that we need rainforests to survive. Only a few of the pupils (6%) mentioned that rainforest destruction may contribute to global warming. This is surprising considering the high level of media coverage on this issue. Some children expressed the idea that the conservation of rainforests is not important.

在被问及雨林保护的重要性时,大部分学生只是认为人类离开雨林就无法生存。只有寥寥百分之六的人提到热带雨林的消失会导致全球变暖。鉴于媒体对这个问题长篇累牍的报道,这样的结果真是有点出人意料。还有些学生认为保不保护雨林根本无关紧要。

The results of this study suggest that certain ideas predominate in the thinking of children about rainforests. Pupils’ responses indicate some misconceptions in basic scientific knowledge of rainforests’ ecosystems such as their ideas about rainforests as habitats for animals, plants and humans and the relationship between climatic change and destruction of rainforests.

研究结果表明,在学生们对雨林的观点中,某些观点明显占上风。在有些问题上,比如说热带雨林是植物、动物及人类的栖息地以及天气变化与雨林破坏之间的关系等,学生们的回答又表明了他们在一些基本科学知识上的误区。

Pupils did not volunteer ideas that suggested that they appreciated the complexity of causes of rainforest destruction. In other words, they gave no indication of an appreciation of either the range of ways in which rainforests are important or the complex social, economic and political factors which drive the activities which are destroying the rainforests. One encouragement is that the results of similar studies about other environmental issues suggest that older children seem to acquire the ability to appreciate, value and evaluate conflicting views. Environmental education offers an arena in which these skills can be developed, which is essential for these children as future decision-makers.

学生们给出的答案并不能够表明他们了解热带雨林所遭受破坏的原因的复杂性。换言之,没有任何迹象表明他们了解热带雨林对人类来讲到底如何重要以及那些破坏行为背后所潜藏的复杂社会、经济及政治因素。然而,值得欣慰的是,其他类似环保研究的结果表明,大孩子们已经具备了鉴赏、理解以及评价矛盾观点的能力。而环保教育正是为这些能力的养成提供舞台,这一点对于孩子们成为未来的政策制定者是至关重要的。

Passage2

参考译文

What Do Whales Feel?

An examination of the functioning of the senses in cetaceans, the group of mammals comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises

鲸鱼的感官

鲸目动物(包括鲸、海豚、鼠海豚等晡乳动物)的感官功能测试

Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.

对我们人类以及其他的陆地哺乳动物来说,有些感官是与生俱来的,然而对于鲸鱼来讲,这些功能要么已经衰退或彻底消失,要么就无法在水中正常发挥作用。比如说从齿鲸的大脑结构来看,它们是嗅不到气味的;而须鲸虽然有与嗅觉相关的脑部结构,可是我们却无法判断这些结构是否起作用。据推测,由于鲸鱼的气孔进化并最终移到了头部的正中,所以掌管嗅觉的神经纤维几乎全部不见了。同样,尽管有些鲸鱼也有味蕾,但这些味觉器官要么已经退化,要么就根本没有发育。

The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free-ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched there.

有人认为鲸鱼的触觉也不发达,不过这个观点很可能是错误的。训练人工饲养海豚和小鲸鱼的人常常会评论他们的小动物对于触碰和抚摩的敏感度。而无论是人工饲养还是放养,几乎所有种类的鲸鱼个体之间都会进行频繁的接触,特别是在成年鲸鱼和幼鲸之间或同一亚群的成员之间。这种接触有助于维护同一种群内部的秩序,而且对大多数鲸鱼而言,抚摸和触碰也是求偶仪式的一部分。气孔周围的部分尤其敏感,一旦被触碰,人工饲养的鲸鱼就会有激烈的反应。

The sense of vision is developed to different degree in different species. Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater — specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whale and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii — have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.

不同种类的鲸鱼,视觉发达程度也各不相同。通过研究一只被人工饲养了一年的小灰鲸,以及通过对阿根廷和夏威夷沿海所放养的露脊鲸和座头鲸的研究及拍摄,人们发现在封闭水域中的须鲸显然可以利用视觉来追踪水下的物体,而且它们无论在水中或空气中视力都相当好。但是眼睛的位置如此严重地限制了须鲸的视野,以致于它们可能不具备立体视觉。

On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

从另一方面来看,大多数海豚和江豚眼睛的位置表明它们是拥有向前及向下的立体视觉的。淡水海豚经常侧游,或是在吃东西的时候肚皮朝上游泳,这就表明眼睛的位置使它们拥有向前及向上的立体视觉。相反的是,宽吻海豚在水中视力就很敏锐,而从它观察及追踪空中飞鱼的方式来看,它在水天交界面的视力也相当好。尽管之前的实验证据表明,海豚在露天环境中可能是睁眼瞎,然而,它们能够从水中跃起很髙,并且能够准确地吃到训练员手中的小鱼,这就有趣地证明了上述观点是错误的。

Such variation can no doubt be explained with reference to the habitats in which individual species have developed. For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu and Chinese Beiji, for instance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind, their eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the direction and intensity of light.

当然,这些变异可以通过这些品种所生长的环境来解释。比如说,对于宽广清澈水域中的鲸鱼来说,视觉显然就有用的多;而对于那些住在混浊的河流或水淹的平原上的品种来说,视力显然就没什么大用。比如,南美洲亚马逊河中的江豚以及中国的白鳍啄视力都相当有限,而印度河中的江豚根本看不见东西,它们的眼睛已经退化成了两条窄缝,除了感知一下方向和光的强度几乎没什么作用。

Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense. Most species are highly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they produce, and many forage for food using echolocation1. Large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback whales. Toothed species in general employ more of the frequency spectrum, and produce a wider variety of sounds, than baleen species (though the sperm whale apparently produces a monotonous series of high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more complicated sounds are clearly communicative, although what role they may play in the social life and ‘culture’ of cetaceans has been more the subject of wild speculation than of solid science.

尽管鲸鱼们的味觉和嗅觉严重衰退,在水中的视觉又不那么确定,然而这些缺陷完全可以被它们那高度发迖的听觉系统所弥补。尽管鲸鱼们音域不同,但是大多数鲸鱼都很会“唱歌”,而且还能用回声定位法来觅食。大个子须鲸只能用低频发声,除此之外就黔“鲸”计穷了。当然也有些著名的例外:比如夏天里北极露脊鲸歌曲般的合唱,还有座头鲸那复杂的、令人难以忘怀的低语。与须鲸相比,齿鲸们可以更多地利用频谱,发出多种声音,当然,抹香鲸只会发出一系列单调激烈的喀哒声。有些复杂的声音显然具有交流作用,然而想要搞清楚它们在鲸鱼的社会生活及文化中到底起何作用,与其说是严谨科学研究的对象,不如说是丰富想像力的结果。

Passage3

参考译文

Visual Symbols and the Blind

盲人与视觉符号

Part 1

From a number of recent studies, it has become clear that blind people can appreciate the use of outlines and perspectives to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space. But pictures are more than literal representations. This fact was drawn to my attention dramatically when a blind woman in one of my investigations decided on her own initiative to draw a wheel as it was spinning. To show this motion, she traced a curve inside the circle (Fig. 1). I was taken aback. Lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the history of illustration. Indeed, as art scholar David Kunzle notes, Wilhelm Busch, a trend-setting nineteenth-century cartoonist, used virtually no motion lines in his popular figures until about 1877.

第一部分

最近的几次研究表明,盲人可以理解用轮廓线和透视法来描述物体排列及空间平面的方法。但是,图画不只是表面意思的体现。在研究中,一名盲人女性自发地画出了一个转动的车轮,这就引起了我对上述事实的极大关注。为了展示这样一个动作,她在圆圈中画了一条曲线(见图1)。我大吃一惊。像她所使用的这种运动线是插图史上最近的发明。实际上,正如艺术学者David Kunzle指出的那样,Wilhelm Busch,一名引领潮流的19世纪卡通画家,直到1877年才开始在其最流行的人物身上使用运动线。

When I asked several other blind study subjects to draw a spinning wheel, one particularly clever rendition appeared repeatedly: several subjects showed the wheel’s spokes as curved lines. When asked about these curves, they all described them as metaphorical ways of suggesting motion. Majority rule would argue that this device somehow indicated motion very well. But was it a better indicator than, say, broken or wavy lines — or any other kind of line, for that matter? The answer was not clear. So I decided to test whether various lines of motion were apt ways of showing movement or if they were merely idiosyncratic marks. Moreover, I wanted to discover whether there were differences in how the blind and the sighted interpreted lines of motion.

当我要其他接受研究的盲人对象画出转动中的车轮时,一种特别聪明的画法反复出现了:几个人把车条画成了曲线。当被问到为什么要用曲线的时候,他们都说这是喑示运动的一种带有隐喻意味的方法。多数原则会认为从某种角度来讲,这个图案充分地表示了运动。但是就此而言,曲线是不是比,比如说虛线,波浪线或者其他任何一种线条,更能说明问题呢?答案是不确定的。所以我决定测试一下,不同的运动线是否就是表现运动的恰当方式,而或它们只是一些特殊的符号而已。进一步而言,我还想找出盲人和普通人在诠释运动线时的不同之处。

To search out these answers, I created raised-line drawings of five different wheels, depicting spokes with lines that curved, bent, waved, dashed and extended beyond the perimeter of the wheel. I then asked eighteen blind volunteers to feel the wheels and assign one of the following motions to each wheel: wobbling, spinning fast, spinning steadily, jerking or braking. My control group consisted of eighteen sighted undergraduates from the University of Toronto.

为了找出答案,我用凸起线条做出了五幅有关轮子的画,车条被画成大曲线,小曲线,波浪线,虚线以及超出车轮的直线。然后,我让18名盲人志愿者抚摩这些轮子,并且将它们分别与下列运动中的一个搭配:不稳定地转动,飞速转动,稳定地转动,颠簸和刹车。参照组则是由来自于多伦多大学的18名普通大学生组成的。

All but one of the blind subjects assigned distinctive motions to each wheel. Most guessed that the curved spokes indicated that the wheel was spinning steadily; the wavy spokes, they thought, suggested that the wheel was wobbling; and the bent spokes were taken as a sign that the wheel was jerking. Subjects assumed that spokes extending beyond the wheel’s perimeter signified that the wheel had its brakes on and that dashed spokes indicated the wheel was spinning quickly.

除了一个人,其他所有的盲人都将具体的动作与车轮搭配了起来。大多数人猜测被画成大曲线的车条表示车轮正在稳定地转动;而他们认为波浪线车条表示车轮在不稳定地转动,小曲线则被认为是车轮正在颠簸的象征。受试者推测,超出车轮边缘的车条代表车轮正处在刹车状态,而虚线车条则说明车轮正在飞快地旋转。

In addition, the favoured description for the sighted was the favoured description for the blind in every instance. What is more, the consensus among the sighted was barely higher than that among the blind. Because motion devices are unfamiliar to the blind, the task I gave them involved some problem solving. Evidently, however, the blind not only figured out meanings for each line of motion, but as a group they generally came up with the same meaning at least as frequently as did sighted subjects.

另外,在毎种情况下,普通人喜爱的表达与盲人喜爱的基本一致。更有甚者,盲人之间的共识几乎与普通人的一样高。因为盲人不熟悉运动装置,因此这个任务对他们而言相当困难。然而,很明显,盲人不仅能够搞清楚每种运动线所代表的意义,而且作为一个团队,他们达成共识的频率也不比普通人低。

Part 2

We have found that the blind understand other kinds of visual metaphors as well. One blind woman drew a picture of a child inside a heart — choosing that symbol, she said, to show that love surrounded the child. With Chang Hong Liu, a doctoral student from China, I have begun exploring how well blind people understand the symbolism behind shapes such as hearts that do not directly represent their meaning.

第二部分

我们还发现盲人同样可以理解其他的视觉隐喻。有个盲人女性在心形中画了个小孩儿——她说选择心形是为了表示这个孩子周围充满了爱。于是,我和刘长虹,一名来自中国的博士生,开始探索盲人对如心形这样含义不直白的图形的象征意义,到底理解到了何种程度。

We gave a list of twenty pairs of words to sighted subjects and asked them to pick from each pair the term that best related to a circle and the term that best related to a square. For example, we asked: What goes with soft? A circle or a square? Which shape goes with hard?

我们给普通受试者一张有二十对词的单子,并且要求他们从每一对词当中挑一个最能代表圆形的词以及一个最能代表方形的词。举个例子,我们会问:“哪个形状和柔软有关?圆形还是方形?哪个形状表示坚硬?”

All our subjects deemed the circle soft and the square hard. A full 94% ascribed happy to the circle, instead of sad. But other pairs revealed less agreement: 79% matched fast to slow and weak to strong, respectively. And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square. (See Fig. 2.) When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects. One man, who had been blind since birth, scored extremely well. He made only one match differing from the consensus, assigning ‘far’ to square and ‘near’ to circle. In fact, only a small majority of sighted subjects — 53% — had paired far and near to the opposite partners. Thus, we concluded that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do.

所有的受试者都认为圆形代表柔软,方形代表坚硬。高达94%的人将快乐归给了圆形,而没有选悲伤。但是在其他词组上,不同意见就出现了:79%的人分别认为圆是快的而方是慢的,圆是弱的而方是强的。只有51%的人将深与圆形相连,将浅与方形相连(见图2)。当我们用同样的单子去测试四个完全失明的人时,他们的选择几乎与普通受试者的一模一样。有个先天失明的人做得极好。他的选择只有一个与众不同,那就是把“远”与方形联系起来而把“近”同圆形联系起来。实际上,也只有刚刚过半53%的普通受试者认为圆形代表远,而方形代表近。因此,我们可以得出结论,盲人同普通人一样能够理解抽象的图形。

剑桥雅思阅读4原文解析(test1)

Question 1

答案:FALSE

关键词:media

定位原文:第1段第3句“In the face of the frequent and often vivid media coverage…”;“Despite the extensive coverage in the popular media of the destruction of rainforests…”

解题思路:这两段当中的frequent/vivid/extensive/coverage等词都说明媒体对于热带雨林的现状十分关注,并做了广泛报道。

Question 2

答案:FALSE

关键词:children/classroom

定位原文:第2段第3句“These ideas may be developed by children absorbing ideas through the popular media。”这些观点可能是学生从大众媒体中获得的。

解题思路:这句话证明学生也从大众媒体中吸取有关热带雨林的观点,而并不是只从课堂中得到相关知识。

Question 3

答案:TRUE

关键词:pure/ mistaken

定位原文:第2段第1句“Many studies have shown that children harbour misconceptions about ‘pure’, curriculum science.”

解题思路:这句话是题干的同义替换,学生关键需要掌握“harbour”在这里的意思等于“hold”。

Question 4

答案:TRUE

关键词:framework/easier

定位原文:第2段第2句“These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted,but organized, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification.”

解题思路:解这题的关键是要明白题干中的“easier to change”和文中的“accessible to modification”是同义替换。

Question 5

答案:FALSE

关键词:yes/no

定位原文:第4段第2句“Secondary school children were asked to complete a questionnaire containing five open-form questions.”

解题思路:Open-form指简答题,与yes/no直接矛盾。

Question 6

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:more likely than

定位原文:第5段第4句“More girls (70%) than boys (60%) raised the idea of rainforest as animal habitats.”

第6段第1句“Similarly, but at a lower level, more girls (13%) than boys (5%) said that rainforests provided human habitats.”

解题思路: 虽然这两句话分别将男生女生作了比较,但是比较内容并不是关于热带雨林破坏的错误观点,所以此题属于并不存在的比较关系。

Question 7

答案: TRUE

关键词:follow on from

定位原文:第6段第2句“These observations are generally consistent with our previous studies of pupils’ views about the use and conservation of rainforests…”

解题思路:“previous”一词是先前的意思,证明在此研究之前,人们也就学生对热带雨林的看法做了研究,因此本文所提到的调査是在这些研究之后进行的。

Question 8

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:primary/second

解题思路:文中直到最末尾也从未提到这项研究是否会继续,所以此题属于无中生有。

Question 9

答案:M

关键词:where/ rainforests

定位原文:第4段第6句“The commonest responses were continents or countries: Africa (given by 43% of children), South America (30%), Brazil (25%).”

解题思路:根据对应句信息可选出答案为M。

Question 10

答案:E

关键词:importance/rainforests

定位原文:第9段第1句…the majority of children simply said that we need rainforests to survive.

解题思路:根据对应句信息可选出答案为E。

Question 11

答案:G

关键词:reason/loss

定位原文:第7段第2句“...more than half of the pupils(59%)identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforests,...”

解题思路:根据对应句信息可选出答案为G。

Question 12

答案:P

关键词:important/protected

定位原文:第5段第2句“The dominant idea, raised by 64% of the pupils, was that rainforests provide animals with habitats.”

解题思路:根据对应句信息可选出答案为P。

Question 13

答案:J

关键词:uncommon/issue

定位原文:第9段第2句至第3句“Only a few of the pupils(6%)mentioned that rainforest destruction may contribute to global warming. This is surprising considering the high level of media coverage on this issue.”

解题思路:根据对应句信息可选出答案为J。

Question 14

答案:B

关键词:title

定位原文:无

解题思路:从文章第二段开始,一直在围绕孩子对热带雨林容易产生错误的理解,因此本文重点应该放在孩子对热带雨林遭破坏状况的观点上,故要选择一个带有孩子的标题。

Question 15

答案:taste buds

关键词:taste

定位原文:第1段第5句“Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是taste buds。

Question 16

答案:baleen whales

关键词:stereoscopic vision

定位原文:第3段第3句“However,the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是baleen whales。

Question 17

答案:forward downward (IN EITHER ORDER)

关键词:Dolphins, porpoises

定位原文:第4段第1句“On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是forward和downward。

Question 18

答案:(the) freshwater dolphin(s)

关键词:forward and upward

定位原文:第4段第2句“Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward.”

解题思路:根据关键词定位,可知答案为freshwater dolphin(s)。

Question 19

答案:(the) water

关键词:bottlenose dolphin

定位原文:第4段第3句“By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water inter?face as well.”

解题思路:题干中的exceptional和文中的extremely是同义替换,所以根据定位句答案应该为water。

Question 20

答案:(the) lower frequencies

关键词:most large baleen

定位原文:第6段第3句“Large baleen whales primarily use the lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是(the) lower frequencies。

Question 21

答案:bowhead humpback (IN EITHER ORDER)

关键词:song-like

定位原文:第6段第4句“Notable exceptions are the nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the humpback whales.”

解题思路:根据song-like定位到该句话,可知答案为bowhead和humpback。

Question 22

答案:touch/sense of touch

关键词:mating

定位原文:第2段第3句“This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species.”

解题思路:这里的mating和文中的courtship ritual是同义替换,所以答案应为touch或者sense of touch。

Question 23

答案:freshwater dolphin(s)

关键词:upside down/eating

定位原文:第4段第2句“Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding...”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是freshwater dolphin(s)。

Question 24

答案:airborne flying fish

关键词:follow/under the water

定位原文:第4段第3句“By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well.”

解题思路:题目中的“follow”和文中的“tracks”是同义替换,根据定位句信息,可知答案是airborne flying fish。

Question 25

答案:clear water(s)/clear open water(s)

关键词:habitat/good visual ability

定位原文:第5段第句“For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是clear open water(s)。

Question 26

答案:(the) acoustic sense

关键词:best/cetaceans

定位原文:第6段第1句“Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息,可知答案是acoustic sense。

Question 27

答案:C

关键词:first paragraph

定位原文:第1段第1句“From a number of recent studies, it has become clear that blind people can appreciate the use of outlines and perspectives to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space.”

解题思路:根据定位句可知,说的是盲人能够理解outlines和perspectives的使用。故正确答案为C。

Question 28

答案:C

关键词:surprised/blind woman

定位原文:第1段第3-5句“This fact was drawn to my attention dramatically when a blind woman in one of my investigations decided on her own initiative to draw a wheel as it was spinning. To show this motion, she traced a curve inside the circle (Fig.1). I was taken aback. Lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the history of illustration.”

解题思路:这段话说到让作者惊讶的是一个盲人女性决定靠自己的能力绘出正在旋转的轮椅。故正确答案为C选项。

Question 29

答案:A

关键词:Part1/ blind subjects

定位原文:第5段第4句“Evidently, however, the blind not only figured out meanings for each line of motion,but as a group they generally came up with the same meaning at least as frequently as did sighted subjects.”

解题思路:从“not only…but…came up with the same meaning as least as frequently as did sighted subjects” 可以得出A选项正确。这里并没有说比sighted subjects会好,所以D选项是不对的。

Question 30

答案:E

关键词:无

定位原文:Part1第4段最后一句“Subjects assumed that spokes extending beyond the wheel's perimeter signified that the wheel had its brakes on...”

解题思路:这段话恰好说明辐条超出了车轮的周界是使用了刹车,所以正确答案为E。

Question 31

答案:C

关键词:无

定位原文:Part1第4段最后一句“...and that dashed spokes indicated the wheel was spinning quickly.”

解题思路:这句话的意思是虚线辐条表示车轮在快速转动,故正确答案为C。

Question 32

答案:A

关键词:无

定位原文:Part1第4段第2句“Most guessed that the curved spokes indicated that the wheel was spinning steadily…”

解题思路:这句话的意思是曲线辐条表示车轮在稳定的转动,故正确答案为A。

Question 33

答案:pairs

关键词:Part2/a set of word

定位原文:Part2第2段第1句“We gave a list of twenty pairs of word of words to sighted subjects...”

解题思路:此空要求填一个名词,而词库中只有associations, pairs, shapes, words四个词是名词,从意思上判断,words和shapes显然不太合适,最后只能填pairs。

Question 34

答案:shapes

关键词:abstract

定位原文:Part2第3段最后一句“Thus, we concluded that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do.”

解题思路:Abstract是形容词,空里要求填个名词。从对应句可以看出改名词为shapes。

Question 35

答案:sighted

关键词:circle/soft/hard/square

定位原文:Part2第3段第1句“All our subjects deemed the hard/square circle soft and the square hard.”

解题思路:虽然在这句话中没有出现sighted这个词,但是根据上一整段的内容推测,此处的subjects指得是sighted subjects.

Question 36

答案:sighted

关键词:51%

定位原文:Part2第3段第4句。And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square.(See Fig.2.)

解题思路:这题依然没有出现sighted这个词,但是同上题,根据上文可以推测出这里的volunteers指的是sighted subjects。

Question 37

答案:deep

关键词:51%

定位原文:Part2第3段第4句。And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square.(See Fig.2.)

解题思路:根据定位句可知,这里填的词应该是deep。

Question 38

答案:blind

关键词:repeated/volunteers

定位原文:Part2第3段第5句“When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely resembled those made by the sighted subjects.”

解题思路:这句话是说被测试者是blind volunteers,故正确答案为blind。

Question 39

答案:smilar

关键词:choices

定位原文:Part2第3段第7句“He made only one match differing from the consensus, assigning 'far' to square and 'near' to circle.”

解题思路:“Consensus”是共识的意思,从这句话我们可以知道盲人们对如何搭配基本可以达成一致意见。

Question 40

答案:B

关键词:conlusion

定位原文:Part2第3段最后一句“Thus, we concluded that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do.”

解题思路:这句话刚好是B选项的同义替换,意思是我们能够推断出盲人诠释abstract shapes与视力正常的人是一样的。

篇3:剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

A Chronicle of Timekeeping

Our conception of time depends on the way we measure it

A According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years ago, and long before the advent of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis; the lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year, defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet's revolution around the sun.

B Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however, where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became more crucial. As the Roman Empire expanded northward, it organised its activity chart for the most part around the solar year.

C Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness (and later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts. These periods became known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length of days and nights with the passing of the seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short; only at the spring and autumn equinoxes were the hours of daylight and darkness equal. Temporal hours, which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for more than 2,500 years.

D In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created sundials, which indicate time by the length or direction of the sun's shadow. The sundial's counterpart, the water clock, was designed to measure temporal hours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole near the bottom through which the water dripped out. The falling water level denoted the passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface. Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, they could not always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe.

E The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjusted to maintain temporal hours, it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones. With these, however, arose the question of when to begin counting, and so, in the early 14th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of the count: Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at midday and 'great clock' hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, at midnight. Eventually these were superseded by 'small clock', or French, hours, which split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight.

F The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in England. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels (which had been around for at least 1,300 years) that transferred the power; it was the part called the escapement. In the early 1400s came the invention of the coiled spring or fusee which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring. By the 16th century, a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient.

G To address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670, in England. It was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship's anchor. The motion of a pendulum rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in early pendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in a very small arc. Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a new floor-standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock.

H Today, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices. Nearly all computers contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation. Moreover, not only do time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so as well for mobile phones, instant stock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids. So integral have these time-based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is recognised only when they fail to work.

Questions 1-4

Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1 a description of an early timekeeping invention affected by cold temperatures

2 an explanation of the importance of geography in the development of the calendar

in farming communities

3 a description of the origins of the pendulum clock

4 details of the simultaneous efforts of different societies to calculate time using

uniform hours

Questions 5-8

Look at the following events (Questions 5-8) and the list of nationalities below.

Match each event with the correct nationality, A-F.

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

5 They devised a civil calendar in which the months were equal in length.

6 They divided the day into two equal halves.

7 They developed a new cabinet shape for a type of timekeeper.

8 They created a calendar to organise public events and work schedules.

List of Nationalities

A Babylonians

B Egyptians

C Greeks

D English

E Germans

F French

Questions 9-13

Label the diagram below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

图片10

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading

Passage 2 on the following pages.

Questions 14-19

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C-G from the list below.

Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i Disobeying FAA regulations

ii Aviation disaster prompts action

iii Two coincidental developments

iv Setting altitude zones

v An oversimplified view

vi Controlling pilots’ licences

vii Defining airspace categories

viii Setting rules to weather conditions

ix Taking off safely

x First steps towards ATC

14 Paragraph A

Example Answer

Paragraph B x

15 Paragraph C

16 Paragraph D

17 Paragraph E

18 Paragraph F

19 Paragraph G

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

IN THE USA

A An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation of aircraft in the skies over the United States, which were becoming quite congested. The resulting structure of air traffic control has greatly increased the safety of flight in the United States, and similar air traffic control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the world.

B Rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster. As early as the 1920s, the earliest air traffic controllers manually guided aircraft in the vicinity of the airports, using lights and flags, while beacons and flashing lights were placed along cross-country routes to establish the earliest airways. However, this purely visual system was useless in bad weather, and, by the 1930s, radio communication was coming into use for ATC. The first region to have something approximating today's ATC was New York City, with other major metropolitan areas following soon after.

C In the 1940s, ATC centres could and did take advantage of the newly developed radar and improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War, but the system remained rudimentary. It was only after the creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of America's airspace took place, and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a large number of very fast planes, reducing pilots' margin of error and practically demanding some set of rules to keep everyone well separated and operating safely in the air.

D Many people think that ATC consists of a row of controllers sitting in front of their radar screens at the nation's airports, telling arriving and departing traffic what to do. This is a very incomplete part of the picture. The FAA realised that the airspace over the United States would at any time have many different kinds of planes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of weather conditions, and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them.

E To meet this challenge, the following elements were put into effect. First, ATC extends over virtually the entire United States. In general, from 365m above the ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled airspace extends down to 215m above the ground, and, in the immediate vicinity of an airport, all the way down to the surface. Controlled airspace is that airspace in which FAA regulations apply. Elsewhere, in uncontrolled airspace, pilots are bound by fewer regulations. In this way, the recreational pilot who simply wishes to go flying for a while without all the restrictions imposed by the FAA has only to stay in uncontrolled airspace, below 365m, while the pilot who does want the protection afforded by ATC can easily enter the controlled airspace.

F The FAA then recognised two types of operating environments. In good meteorological conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which suggests a strong reliance on visual cues to maintain an acceptable level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set of Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR), under which the pilot relied on altitude and navigational information provided by the plane's instrument panel to fly safely. On a clear day, a pilot in controlled airspace can choose a VFR or IFR flight plan, and the FAA regulations were devised in a way which accommodates both VFR and IFR operations in the same airspace. However, a pilot can only choose to fly IFR if they possess an instrument rating which is above and beyond the basic pilot's license that must also be held.

G Controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by letters of the alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while controlled airspace below 5,490m above sea level and not in the vicinity of an airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is designated Class A. The reason for the division of Class E and Class A airspace stems from the type of planes operating in them. Generally, Class E airspace is where one finds general aviation aircraft (few of which can climb above 5,490m anyway), and commercial turboprop aircraft. Above 5,490m is the realm of the heavy jets, since jet engines operate more efficiently at higher altitudes. The difference between Class E and A airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR, and pilots must be instrument-rated, that is, skilled and licensed in aircraft instrumentation. This is because ATC control of the entire space is essential. Three other types of airspace, Classes D, C and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small municipal, medium-sized metropolitan and major metropolitan airports respectively, and encompass an increasingly rigorous set of regulations. For example, all a VFR pilot has to do to enter Class C airspace is establish two-way radio contact with ATC. No explicit permission from ATC to enter is needed, although the pilot must continue to obey all regulations governing VFR flight. To enter Class B airspace, such as on approach to a major metropolitan airport, an explicit ATC clearance is required. The private pilot who cruises without permission into this airspace risks losing their license.

Questions 20-26

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

20 The FAA was created as a result of the introduction of the jet engine.

21 Air Traffic Control started after the Grand Canyon crash in 1956.

22 Beacons and flashing lights are still used by ATC today.

23 Some improvements were made in radio communication during World War II.

24 Class F airspace is airspace which is below 365m and not near airports.

25 All aircraft in Class E airspace must use IFR.

26 A pilot entering Class C airspace is flying over an average-sized city.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

TELEPATHY

Can human beings communicate by thought alone? For more than a century the issue of telepathy has divided the scientific community, and even today it still sparks bitter controversy among top academics

Since the 1970s, parapsychologists at leading universities and research institutes around the world have risked the derision of sceptical colleagues by putting the various claims for telepathy to the test in dozens of rigorous scientific studies. The results and their implications are dividing even the researchers who uncovered them.

Some researchers say the results constitute compelling evidence that telepathy is genuine. Other parapsychologists believe the field is on the brink of collapse, having tried to produce definitive scientific proof and failed. Sceptics and advocates alike do concur on one issue, however: that the most impressive evidence so far has come from the so-called 'ganzfeld' experiments, a German term that means 'whole field'. Reports of telepathic experiences had by people during meditation led parapsychologists to suspect that telepathy might involve 'signals' passing between people that were so faint that they were usually swamped by normal brain activity. In this case, such signals might be more easily detected by those experiencing meditation — like tranquillity in a relaxing 'whole field' of light, sound and warmth.

The ganzfeld experiment tries to recreate these conditions with participants sitting in soft reclining chairs in a sealed room, listening to relaxing sounds while their eyes are covered with special filters letting in only soft pink light. In early ganzfeld experiments, the telepathy test involved identification of a picture chosen from a random selection of four taken from a large image bank. The idea was that a person acting as a 'sender' would attempt to beam the image over to the 'receiver' relaxing in the sealed room. Once the session was over, this person was asked to identify which of the four images had been used. Random guessing would give a hit-rate of 25 per cent; if telepathy is real, however, the hit-rate would be higher. In 1982, the results from the first ganzfeld studies were analysed by one of its pioneers, the American parapsychologist Charles Honorton. They pointed to typical hit-rates of better than 30 per cent — a small effect, but one which statistical tests suggested could not be put down to chance.

The implication was that the ganzfeld method had revealed real evidence for telepathy. But there was a crucial flaw in this argument — one routinely overlooked in more conventional areas of science. Just because chance had been ruled out as an explanation did not prove telepathy must exist; there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from 'sensory leakage' — where clues about the pictures accidentally reach the receiver — to outright fraud. In response, the researchers issued a review of all the ganzfeld studies done up to 1985 to show that 80 per cent had found statistically significant evidence. However, they also agreed that there were still too many problems in the experiments which could lead to positive results, and they drew up a list demanding new standards for future research.

After this, many researchers switched to autoganzfeld tests — an automated variant of the technique which used computers to perform many of the key tasks such as the random selection of images. By minimising human involvement, the idea was to minimise the risk of flawed results. In 1987, results from hundreds of autoganzfeld tests were studied by Honorton in a 'meta-analysis', a statistical technique for finding the overall results from a set of studies. Though less compelling than before, the outcome was still impressive.

Yet some parapsychologists remain disturbed by the lack of consistency between individual ganzfeld studies. Defenders of telepathy point out that demanding impressive evidence from every study ignores one basic statistical fact: it takes large samples to detect small effects. If, as current results suggest, telepathy produces hit-rates only marginally above the 25 per cent expected by chance, it's unlikely to be detected by a typical ganzfeld study involving around 40 people: the group is just not big enough. Only when many studies are combined in a meta-analysis will the faint signal of telepathy really become apparent. And that is what researchers do seem to be finding.

What they are certainly not finding, however, is any change in attitude of mainstream scientists: most still totally reject the very idea of telepathy. The problem stems at least in part from the lack of any plausible mechanism for telepathy.

Various theories have been put forward, many focusing on esoteric ideas from theoretical physics. They include 'quantum entanglement', in which events affecting one group of atoms instantly affect another group, no matter how far apart they may be. While physicists have demonstrated entanglement with specially prepared atoms, no-one knows if it also exists between atoms making up human minds. Answering such questions would transform parapsychology. This has prompted some researchers to argue that the future lies not in collecting more evidence for telepathy, but in probing possible mechanisms. Some work has begun already, with researchers trying to identify people who are particularly successful in autoganzfeld trials. Early results show that creative and artistic people do much better than average: in one study at the University of Edinburgh, musicians achieved a hit-rate of 56 per cent. Perhaps more tests like these will eventually give the researchers the evidence they are seeking and strengthen the case for the existence of telepathy.

Questions 27-30

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27 Researchers with differing attitudes towards telepathy agree on

28 Reports of experiences during meditation indicated

29 Attitudes to parapsychology would alter drastically with

30 Recent autoganzfeld trials suggest that success rates will improve with

A the discovery of a mechanism for telepathy

B the need to create a suitable environment for telepathy.

C their claims of a high success rate.

D a solution to the problem posed by random guessing.

E the significance of the ganzfeld experiments.

F a more careful selection of subjects.

G a need to keep altering conditions.

Questions 31-40

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 31-40 on your answer sheet.

Telepathy Experiments

Name/Date

Description Result Flaw

Ganzfeld

Studies

1982 Involved a person

acting as a

31..............

who picked out one

32............from

a random selection

of four, and a

33..............,

who then tried to

identify it. Hit-rates were

higher than with

random guessing. Positive results

could be produced

by factors such as

34..............or

35.............. .

Autoganzfeld

studies

1987 36.............

were used for key

tasks to limit the

amount of

37..............

in carrying out the

test. The results were

then subjected to

a 38............. The 39..........

between different

test results was

put down to the

fact that sample

groups were not

40...................(as

with most ganzfeld

Studies).

篇4:剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1)

PASSAGE 1参考译文:

时间记录的历史

我们对时间的概念取决于我们测量时间的方式

有考古证据表明,至少50前,早在罗马帝国尚未出现之时,巴比伦人就开始测量时间,他们引进日历来统筹公共活动,计划货物装运,特别是管控作物种植和收割。日历的编排基于三个自然周期:以由地球绕地轴自转形成的连续的光明与黑喑为标记的太阳日;以由月球环绕地球公转形成的月相来衡量的太阴月;以及根据地球绕太阳公转形成的四季来定义的回归年。

在人造光发明以前,月亮对社会产生的影响尤为显著。尤其对于赤道附近的居民而言,月圆月缺比季节更替更加明显。因此,低纬度地区日历的形成更多受到月运周期的影响,而不是回归年。然而,在践行季节性农业的更偏北的气候带,回归年则更为重要。随着罗马帝国向北扩张,它的活动图表通常都是根据回归年而编排的。

早在罗马帝国建立几个世纪以前,埃及人就已制定了市政日历,规定一年有12个月,每月有30天,此外还有5天用来补充一个近似回归年。每10天以特定星群的出现为标志,这些星群被称作“德坎”(黄道十度分度)。天狼星刚好在日出之前升起,此时可以看见12个德坎横跨天空,而这一现象会在每年极其重要的尼罗河泛洪前后出现。埃及人赋予12个德坎的宇宙意义使他们形成一种新的系统,他们将每一个黑夜区间(之后又将每一个白昼区间)分成12等份。这些时段被称为日光时,因为它的持续时间随着季节更替引起的昼夜长度的变化而变化。夏季日光时长,冬季日光时短;只有在春分和秋分时白昼与黑夜的时长才是一致的。日光时最早被希腊人采用,然后由罗马人采用并传到欧洲,一直使用了2500多年。

为了在白天记录日光时,发明家们创造了日晷,用太阳阴影的长度和方向来指示时间。水钟与日晷作用相当,用于在夜晚测量日光时。最早的水钟之一是一个水盆,盆底附近有一个小孔,水通过小孔滴出来。随着水降至盆子内表面刻着的小时刻度线以下,水位降低的刻度就表示流逝的时间长度。尽管这些装置在地中海地区十分好用,但在多云并常有严寒天气的欧洲北部却不能一直使用。

机械钟的出现意味着尽管人们可以调试它以记录日光时,但机械钟本身更适合于记录长度相同的时间段。由此引发了一个问题,即计时该从何时开始。于是14世纪初,许多新型计时系统逐渐形成。人们计划将一天分为24个等份,而这些计划因为计时起点的术同而不向:意大利时间从日落开始算起,巴比伦时间从日出开始,天文学时间从中午开始,而德国一些大型公共时钟使用的“大钟”时间从午夜开始算起。最终,这些计时方法被“小钟”时间,即法国时间所取代,它将一天分成两个12小时时段,从午夜开始算起。

最早有记载的以重量驱动的机械钟1283年建于英国贝德福德郡。这种新型计时器所具有的革命意义既不在于依靠向下的重力提供起动力,也不在于依靠齿轮(至少有1300年的使用历史)传递动力,而在于它使用了一个叫做擒纵机构棘轮装置的部件。15世纪初人们又创造出了螺旋弹簧,也被称为均力圆锥轮。尽管主发条承受着不断变化的张力,但该装置仍能为钟表齿轮提供恒力。到了16世纪,人们发明了摆钟。但由于钟摆摆动弧度很大,因此并不十分有效。

为了解决这个问题,原有擒纵机构棘轮装置的改进装置1670年在英格兰发明出来。该装置被称为锚型擒纵机构,以杠杆为基础,形状像一艘船的锚。钟摆的动作对该设备产生振动,以使它抓紧而后释放擒纵机构棘轮装置的每一个齿,从而使得齿轮精确地旋转。与早期摆钟中所使用的原始装置不同,锚型擒纵机构使钟摆的摆动弧度变得很小。此外,这一发明使得摆钟可以使用长摆,一秒钟摆动一下,从而引发了新型落地柜式造型的开发,也就是落地摆钟。

如今,高度精确的计时工具为大多数电子设备设置时间。几乎所有的计算机都带有石英钟以控制其运行。此外,从全球定位系统卫星发射的时间信号不仅校准精密导航设备的功能,还被用于移动电话、即时股票交易系统和全国电力分配网。这些以时间为基础的技术已完全成为日常生活的一部分,只有当它们无法正常工作时,我们才会意识到人类多么依赖这些技术。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 2 参考译文:

美国航空交通管制

A. 1956年美国大峡谷上空发生的一起事故促成了联邦航空局(FAA)的成立。该局负责管理和监督美国越来越拥挤的天空。由此形成的空中交通管制结构大大增加了飞机在美国的飞行安全,世界其他很多地方也采取了类似的空中交通管制程序。

B.早在大峡谷灾难发生之前就存在雏形的航空交通管制(ATC)。早在20世纪代初,最早的空中交通管制员在机场附近用灯和标志旗手动引导飞机。当时,灯标和闪光灯沿着越野路线放置以建立最早的航线。然而,这种纯粹的视觉系统在恶劣天气情况下是无用的。到20世纪30年代,航空交通管制开始使用无线电通讯。首个采用类似于今天的航空交通管制的地方是纽约市,其他主要的大都市紧随其后。

C.20世纪40年代,航空交通管制中心利用了第二次世界大战催生出的新研制的雷达和改进后的无线电通讯技术,但管制系统仍然很不成熟。直到联邦航空局分创建以后,美国才开始进行全面的领空管制。而这一事件却是偶然的,因为喷气式发动机的产生突然导致大批快速飞机的出现。这些飞机减少了飞行员的误差幅度,并且需要实际的整套规则以使飞机之间保持良好的分离状态,在空中安全行驶。

D.很多人认为,航空交通管制就是一排管理人员坐在国家机场的雷达屏幕前指挥着抵港及离港的交通。这只是整个场景中的一部分。美国联邦航空局认识到每时每刻都会有许多不同种类的飞机,为了这样那样的目的,在各种各样的天气情况下飞行在美国的空中。因此,急需一个能够容纳所有情况的同一体系。

E.为了迎接这一挑战,美国联邦航天局实施了以下重要措施。首先,让航空交通管制几乎遍及整个美国。一般来说,离地面365米以及更高的地方,整个国家都被管制空域覆盖。在某些地区,主要是靠近机场的地带,管制空域扩大到自地面215米以上的范围,而在紧邻机场的区域,管制空域包括地面以上所有区域。管制空域是美国联邦航空局规定适用的空域。在其他非受控空域,飞行员受到的限制较少。如此一来,那些出于娱乐目的只想短时间飞行而不受美国联邦航空局规定限制的飞行员就只能停留在365米以下的非受控领空,而希望得到航空局保护的飞行员可以很容易地进人管制空域。

F.然后,美国联邦航空局确认了两种类型的飞行环境。在气象条件良好的情况下,飞行员可按照目视飞行规则(VPR)飞行。该规则主要依靠视觉线索来维持可接受的安全水平。低能见度使建立一套仪表飞行规则(IFR)成为必需。根据该规则,飞行员依靠飞机仪表盘提供的飞行高度和导航信息确保飞行安全。天气晴朗时,管制空域内的飞行员可以选择在目视飞行规则或仪表飞行规则下飞行,而美国联邦航空局 的规定在同一空域同时适用于两套规则的实施。但如果飞行员的仪表等级超出或低于了其必须持有的基本飞行员执照规定的等级,飞行员只能选择遵循仪表飞行规则。

G.管制空域分为几个不同的类型,以英文字母命名。非受控空域被定为F级,而海拔5490米以下非紧邻机 场的受控空域被定为E级。5490米以上的所有空域被定为A级。E级和A级是根据其间飞行的不同飞机类型而划分的。一般来说,通用航空飞机(这类飞机的飞行高度大多不超过5490米)和商业涡轮螺旋桨飞机在E级空域飞行。5490米以上是大型喷气机的领空,因为喷气式发动机的效率随着高度的增加而增高。E级和A级之间的区别在于A级空域中所有的操作都遵循仪表飞行规则,飞行员必须具有仪表级别,换言之,必须熟练掌握飞机仪表的使用并获得许可。因为航空交通管制对整个空域的控制是至关重要的。其他三个等级:D级、C级和B级用于管理机场附近的区域。这三个级别大致分别适用于小型城市、中等城市和大型城市的机场,包含了一套越来越严格的规章制度。例如,目视飞行规则飞行员如要进入C级空域,必须与航空交通管制建立双向无线电联系。航空交通管制无需提供明确的进人许可,但飞行员必须始终遵守在目视飞行规则下飞行的所有规定。如要进人B级空域,比如飞临主要城市机场,则必须有明确的航空交通管制许可。未经许可进入领空的私人飞行员可能会被吊销飞行执照。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 参考译文:

心灵感应

人类可以仅凭思想沟通吗?一个多世纪以来,心灵感应问题一直使科学界意见不一,直至今天依然在学界精英中引发着激烈的争论。

上世纪70年代以来,世界各地顶尖高校和科研院所的超心理学家冒着遭受那些持怀疑态度的同事们嘲笑的危险,将关于心灵感应的各种断言假说放人几十个严谨的科学研究中进行试验。试验的结果及其启 示甚至将发现该结果的研究者们也分成了几派。

一些研究者认为试验结果构成令人信服的证据,表明心灵感应是真实存在的。其他超心理学家则认为该学科曾试图提出明确的科学论证,但却失败了,因此正处于瓦解的边缘。不过,怀疑者和倡导者却在一 个问题上达成共识:即迄今为止令人印象最为深刻的证据出自所谓的“ganzfeld”(超感官知觉全域测试)实验中,这一德文术语的意思是“整个领域”。人类在冥想状态下的心灵感应体验报告使超心理学家怀疑心灵感应可能包含人与人之间传递的“信号”。这种信号十分微弱,以至于往往被正常的大脑活动所淹没。如此说来,这种信号可能更容易被那些沉浸于冥想般宁静中的人检测到。他们所处的“整个领域”有着令人放松的灯光,怡人的声音和温暖的环境。

超感官知觉全域测试试图重新营造这些条件,让参与者坐在一个封闭房间里的柔软躺椅上,听着令人放松的声音,用特殊滤光器将参与者的眼睛蒙住,使他们只能看见柔和的粉红色光线。在早期的超感官知觉全域测试实验中,心灵感应测试包括识别从大型图片库中随机选择的四张图片中的其中一张。试验的想 法是有一个人作为“发送者”,尝试把图像发送给在封闭房间中休息的“接收者”。传递过程结束时,接收者 需要回答四张图片中的哪一张是刚刚使用过的。随机猜测的命中率是25%,但如果心灵感应是真实存在的,命中率应该更高。1982年,此项研究的先驱者之一,美国超心理学家Charles Honorton对第一批超感官知觉全域测试研究结果进行了分析。研究结果显示了高于30%的典型命中率。虽然效果不甚明显,但统计测试显示不能将它归因于偶然。

其言下之意是超感官知觉全域测试方法揭示了心灵感应的真实证据。但这种说法有一个关键的漏洞—— 一个在较传统的科学领域经常被忽视的问题。仅仅由于这种解释排除了偶然因素并不能证明心灵感应一定存在;通过很多其他的方法也能获得积极结果。这些可能性既包括“感官泄漏”,即与图片有关的线索意外地传给了接收者,也包括彻底的欺诈。作为回应,研究者们发表了一份综述,总结了 1985年以前进行的所有超感官知觉全域测试研究,以表明80%的研究都发现了有统计意义的证据。但他们也同意目前实验中尚有太多的问题可能导致积极的结果,他们还草拟了一份清单,要求为今后的研究设立新的标准。

此后,许多研咳嗽弊蛄俗远泄僦跞虿馐裕馐且恢旨际醯淖远涮澹簿褪鞘褂电脑完成许多关键任务,如随机选择图像。通过最大限度地减少人为参与,这一想法是要将有缺陷的结果最小化。1987年,Honorton使用“荟萃分析”,即从一系列研究中寻找整体结果的统计技术,对上百次的自动超感官知觉全域测试结果进行了研究。结果虽然没有以往引人注目,却仍然令人印象深刻。

然而,一些超心理学家仍然为单个超感官知觉全域测试研究之间缺乏一致性感到烦恼。心灵感应捍卫者指出,要求每一项研究都提供令人印象深刻的证据忽略了一个基本的统计事实:检测这些微小影响需要大量的样本支持。如果像目前研究结果表明的那样,心灵感应的命中率仅仅略高于概率预测的25%,涉及40人左右的典型超感官知觉全域测试也不太可能检测得到:试验群体根本不够大。只有当大量研究结合在一个荟萃分析之中,心灵感应的微弱信号才会真正明显起来。而这似乎正是研究者们所发现的。

然而,他们肯定当然不会发现主流科学家们的态度有任何变化:大部分人仍然完全排斥心灵感应的观点。至少一部分问题在于心灵感应缺乏合理的机制。

各种理论都被提了出来,很多以理论物理学的深奥思想为重点。其中包括“量子纠缠”:无论两组原子间距离多么遥远,影响一组原子的事件都会立即影响另一组原子。虽然物理学家们用专门准备的原子演示了“纠缠”,但这一现象是否同样存在于构成人类头脑的原子中却无人知晓。对于这些问题的回答将改变超心理学。这使得一些研究人员认为该学科的未来不在于收集更多心灵感应的证据,而在与探索其可能的机制。一些工作已经开始进行,研究人员试图识别在自动超感官知觉全域测试中特别成功的被试者。早期的结果表明有创造力和艺术性的人们的表现要远远高于平均水平:在爱丁堡大学的一次研究中,音乐家的测试命中率高达56%。或许更多诸如此类的测试最终将为研究人员提供他们正在寻求的证据,巩固加强心灵感应存在的依据。

篇5:剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1)

Passage1

Question 1

答案: D

关键词: early timekeeping invention, cold temperatures

定位原文: D段最后1句“Although these devices performed…”

解题思路: 全文只有该句中提及寒冷气温。该句含义为“尽管这些装置在地中海地区十分好用,但在多云并常有严寒天气的欧洲北部却不能一直使用。”与题干中描述的内容相符。

Question 2

答案: B

关键词: geography, development of the calendar, farming communities

定位原文: B段内容

解题思路: 该段一共五句话,从第二句开始每一句话都介绍了一个地理位置的变化对calendar的影响。分别是:And, for those living near the equator in particular,...Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes,...In more northern climes, however,...

As the Roman Empire expanded northward, ...

Question 3

答案: F

关键词: pendulum clock, origins

定位原文: F段最后1句“By the 16th century…”

解题思路:含义为“到了 16世纪,人们发明了摆钟。但由于钟摆摆动弧度很大,因此并不十分有效”。此句中devised意为“发明”,与题干中的origins对应。

Question 4

答案: E

关键词: simultaneous efforts, different societies, uniform hours

对应原文: E段第3句“The schemes…”

解题思路: 含义为“人们计划将一天分为24个等份,而这些计划因为计时起点的不同而不同:意大利时间从日落开始算起,巴比伦时间从日出开始,天文学时间从中午开始,而德国一些大型公共时钟使用的‘大钟’时间从午夜开始算起”。24 equal parts与题目中的 uniform hours 相对应, 本段中提到的各具体国家对应题目中的 different societies。

Question 5

答案: B

关键词: civil calendar, months, equal

定位原文: C段第1句“... the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months…”

解题思路: 该句提到埃及人制定了市政日历,规定一年有12个月,每月有30天。答案 B 题目中的 months were equal in length 对应文章中的 12 months of 30 days,题目中的 civil calendar 对应文 章中的 municipal calendar,这项发明 是 Egyptians 完成的。

Question 6

答案: F

关键词: day, two equal halves

定位原文: E段最后1句 “...or French hours, which split the day into two 12-hour periods … ”

解题思路:题目中的 divide the day into two equal halves 对应文章中的 split the day into two 12-hour periods, 具体指的是 French hours。

Question 7

答案: D

关键词: new cabinet shape

定位原文: G段最后一句 “... and thus led to the development of a new floor-standing case …”

解题思路: 此句中的floor-standing case design就对应着cabinet shape,且该段第一行就出现了 England这个代表国家的词汇。所以答案为D。

Question 8

答案: A

关键词: organise, public events

定位原文: A段第1句“.. the Babylonians began to measure…”

解题思路: 题目中的 organize public events 对应文章中的 co-ordinate communal activities,题目中的work schedules 对应文章中的 the shipment of goods 及 planting and harvesting, 这些都是 Babylonians 的所作所为。

Question 9

答案: (ship’s) anchor / (an/the) anchor

关键词: escapement, resembling

定位原文: G段第2句 “It was called the anchor…”

解题思路: 通过定位词很容易找到文中定位句,此句中的like对应resembling,所以答案为(ship’s) anchor / (an/the) anchor。

Question 10

答案: (escape) wheel

关键词: release each tooth, wheel

定位原文: G段第3句“The motion of a pendulum rocks this…”

解题思路: 由图可知,本题要求找到该圆盘状物体的名称,故应有意识地寻找与该形状有关的词汇 ;另外此物体上有齿轮,这也可以作 为答题线索。根据 ...release each tooth of the escape wheel 可知,本题答案为 (escape) wheel。

Question 11

答案: tooth

关键词: release

定位原文: G段第3句“The motion of a pendulum rocks this…”

解题思路: 由图可知,本题要求找到圆盘物体的支出 部分的名称。通过解答第 10 题,可以很容 易地判定本题答案为 tooth。

Question 12

答案: (long)pendulum

关键词: beats, each

定位原文: G段最后1句“Moreover, this invention allowed…”

解题思路: 由图可知,本题要求找到长形物体的名称, 且应发出 beat 的动作。同时,本题答案应为一个单数可数名词,可通过冠词帮助找到答案。通过 G 段最后一句中的 a long pendulum which could beat once a second 可以确定本题答案为 (long) pendulum。

Question 13

答案: second

关键词: beats, each

定位原文: G段最后1句“Moreover, this invention allowed…”

解题思路: 此题可与第12题同时解出,此句中的once对应题干中的each, 所以答案为second。

Test 1 Passage 2

Question 14

答案: ii

关键词: aviation disaster,prompts

定位原文: A段第1句“An accident that occurred in …”

解题思路: 本段第1句讲述飞机失事是美国联邦 航空总署成立原因,第 2 句简述其建立的结 果影响。文章中的 an accident 与选项 ii 中的 disaster对应;文章中的result in与选项ii中 的 prompt 对应 ;文章中的 the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 被抽象概括成选项 ii 中的 action。

Question 15

答案: iii

关键词: coincidental developments

定位原文: C段前两句“In the 1940s, ATG centres could and did…”

解题思路: C段首句说明了 ATC取得的第一个development, 即利用了第二次世界大 战催生出的新研制的雷达和改进后的无线电通讯技术而建立的不成熟的管制系统。第二句则提到喷气式发动机的产生突然导致大批快速飞机的出现,因此促使美国开始进行全面的空中管制,两个逗号之间的部分指出了这一development的偶然性 (fortuitous), 与 iii 中的 coincidental 含义一致。因此答案为iii。

Question 16

答案: v

关键词: oversimplified

定位原文: D段第1、2句“Many people think that...This is a very incomplete part of the picture.”

解题思路: D段首句阐述了一个大众观点(many people think...),接着第二句指出这个观点过于片面。题干中的 oversimplified相当于原句中的 incomplete。

Question 17

答案: iv

关键词: altitude zones

定位原文: E段第2句“First, ATC extends over virtually …”

解题思路: E段第二句中提出让航空交通管制几乎遍及整个美国,接着分别讲述了不同高度的空域管制情况(from 365m above the ground and higher, 215m above the ground, below 365m...)因此答案为iv。

Question 18

答案: viii

关键词: weather conditions

定位原文: F段第1句“The FAA then recognized…”

解题思路: F段首句提出FAA确认了两种飞行环境。接着对这两种环境进行了解释说明,即在气象条件良好的情况下,飞行员可按照目视飞行规则(VFR)飞行;在低能见度的情况下,飞行员则须按照仪表飞行规则(IFR)飞行。因此答案是viii。

Question 19

答案: vii

关键词: airspace categories

定位原文: G段第1句“Controlled airspace is divided into…”

解题思路: G段首句点出此段主要阐述管制空域的分类(controlled airspace…different types)。因此答案为vii。文章中的 types 与选项 vii 中的 categories 对应。

Question 20

答案: FALSE

关键词: FAA, created as result of

定位原文: A段第1句“An accident that occurred in the skies…”

解题思路: 文章中第 1 句明确说 FAA 成立的原因是空难, 题目中却说是由于喷气式引擎出现, 题目表述与文章矛盾。

Question 21

答案: FALSE

关键词: Air Traffic Control, the Grand Canyon crash

定位原文: B段第1句“Rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) existed…”

解题思路: 文章中明确说是ATC existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster, 与题目中 started after 直接相反。

Question 22

答案: NOT GIVEN

关键词: beacons and flashing lights

定位原文: B段第2句“...while beacons and flashing lights …”

解题思路: 此题的定位词在文中原词出现,按照顺序原则可以迅速定位。文中定位处仅指出beacons和flashing lights在当时的使用情况,对于题干中所指的如今的使用状况只字未提。故此题答案为NOT GIVEN。

Question 23

答案: TRUE

关键词: improvements, radio communication, World War II

定位原文: C段第1句 “...improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War...”

解题思路:此题定位很简单,定位句含义为“第二次世界大战催生出的……改进后的无线电通讯技术”,与题干含义无异。故此题答案为TRUE。

Question 24

答案: TRUE

关键词: Class F, 365m

定位原文: G段第2句“Uncontrolled airspace …” E段第3、4句和最后1句

解题思路:通过定位词Class F可快速定位至G段处,但是只能确定Class F为uncontrolled airspace,通过该短语及365m可继续定位于E段。E段定位句说明从365米往上的区间为controlled airspace,且在大部分near airports的区域,215米以上的区间都是controlled airspace,因此可以逆推出uncontrolled airspace的情况。故此题答案为TRUE。

Question 25

答案: FALSE

关键词: Class E airspace, IFR

定位原文:G段第7句“The difference between Class E and…”

解题思路:此题通过定位词能够迅速定位。定位句的含义为“E级和A级之间的区别在于A级领空中所有的操作都遵循仪表飞行规则”。显然题干信息与定位句内容矛盾。此题还可以按照绝对化词汇all和must来快速判定答案。故此题答案为FALSE。

Question 26

答案: TRUE

关键词: pilot, Class C

定位原文:G段第9句“Three other types of airspace,…”

解题思路:此题通过定位词能够迅速定位。定位句中的medium-sized与题干中average-sized属于同义转述。故此题答案为TRUE。

Test 1 Passage 3

Question 27

答案: E

关键词: researchers with differing attitudes, agree on

定位原文:第2段第3句“Sceptics and advocates…”

解题思路:通过题目中定位词找到文章中的具体表 达:第二段第3句。题目中的differing attitudes 对应文章中的 skeptics and advocates,题目中的 agree on 对应文章中的do concur on。由本句名词性从句的主干 evidence...come from... experiments 即可得出答案。所有选项中提到 experiment 的只有一个。

Question 28:

答案: B

关键词: experiences, meditation

定位原文:第2段第5句话“In this case, such signals might …”

解题思路:题目中要求找到实验的 启示,答案出现在下一句中,其中 in a relaxing‘whole field’of light, sound and warmth 是题目中 的 suitable environment 的具体表现。

Question 29:

答案: A

关键词: attitudes, parapsychology, alter

定位原文:第8段第4、5句“Answering such questions would…”

解题思路:第四句中的transform对应题干中的alter,第五句中才提及研究者们的attitude,即该研究的未来在于探究可能的机制(mechanisms)。故正确答案为A。

Question 30:

答案: F

关键词: autoganzfeld trials, success

定位原文:第8段倒数第2、3句“Some work has begun already …”

解题思路:此题通过定位词可以迅速定位到第八段倒数第三句,倒数第二句指出有创造力和艺术性的人们表现得更好。因此可知样本的选择对命中率会有很大影响。故正确答案为F。

Question 31:

答案: sender

关键词: Ganzfeld studies, 1982, person, acting as, four

定位原文:第3段第3句“The idea was that a person…”

解题思路:由空格前冠词和空格后的定语从句引导词 who 可知本题需填入一个指代人的单数可数名词。通过题目中数字 1982 迅速定位至文章第三段。再通过数字 four 定位至该段第 5 行。本题答案为 sender。

Question 32:

答案: picture/image

关键词: one, random selection, four

定位原文: 第3段第2句“In early ganzfeld experiments…”

解题思路: 此题轻微乱序,但定位词很明显且定位句是上一题定位句的前一句。空格所填词应为从random selections of four中picked out的宾语。所以此题填picture/image。题干中的picked out与原文中的chosen from属于同义转述。

Question 33:

答案: receiver

关键词: ichthyosaurs, can be determined by, appearance

定位原文:第3段第4句“Once the session was over, this …”

解题思路:此题定位较易。空格所填词应为 identify这一动作的发出者,定位句中与之相对应的是指代词this person,于是倒着往回看上一句,即第31题对应句,可以找出this person的具体指代对象。所以此题填receiver。

Question 34:

答案: sensory leakage

关键词: flaw, positive results

定位原文:第4段第4句“...there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from ‘sensory leakage…”

解题思路:此题根据定位词及顺序原则可定位至第四段第四行最后,其中many other ways对应题干中的factors,具体内容在接下来的一句中。所以此题填sensory leakage。

Question 35:

答案: outright fraud

关键词: or

定位原文:第4段第4句““...there were many other ways of getting positive results. These ranged from ‘sensory leakage…”

解题思路:此空与34题为并列关系。很明显答案为 outright fraud。

Question 36:

答案: computers

关键词: 1987, key tasks

定位原文:第5段第1句“…technique which used computers to …”

解题思路: 空格所填词应为被用来完成key tasks的对象,文中的perform对应题干中的were used for。所以此题填computers。

Question 37:

答案: human involvement

关键词: limit

定位原文:第5段第2句“By minimising human involvement...”

解题思路:此题按照顺序原则定位,原文中的 minimising对应题干中的limit,空格所填词应为被限制的对象。所以此题填human involvement。

Question 38:

答案: meta-analysis

关键词: results, subjected to a

定位原文: 第5段倒数第2句“In 1987, results from hundreds…”

解题思路: 空格所填词应为 subject to的对象。所以此题填meta?-analysis。

Question 39:

答案: lack of consistency

关键词: flaw, different test results

定位原文: 第6段第1句“Yet some parapsychologists…”

解题思路: 此题定位较难,文中的individual ganzfeld studies与题干中的different test对应。空格所填词应为不同实验结果之间的关系。所以此题填lack of consistency。

Question 40:

答案: big/large enough

关键词: fact, sample group, not

定位原文:第6段倒数第3句“...the group is just not big enough.”

解题思路:此题定位较易。空格所填词应为 sample groups的特征,而且此题可以通过否定词not帮助判断答案。所以此题填big/large enough。

剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1)

篇6:剑桥雅思阅读4原文翻译及答案解析(test3)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Micro-Enterprise Credit for Street Youth

‘I am from a large, poor family and for many years we have done without breakfast. Ever since I joined the Street Kids International program I have been able to buy my family sugar and buns for breakfast. I have also bought myself decent second-hand clothes and shoes.’

Doreen Soko

‘We’ve had business experience. Now I’m confident to expand what we’ve been doing. I’ve learnt cash management, and the way of keeping money so we save for re-investment. Now business is a part of our lives. As well, we didn’t know each other before — now we’ve made new friends.’

Fan Kaoma

Participants in the Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative Program, Zambia

Introduction

Although small-scale business training and credit programs have become more common throughout the world, relatively little attention has been paid to the need to direct such opportunities to young people. Even less attention has been paid to children living on the street or in difficult circumstances.

Over the past nine years, Street Kids International (S.K.I.) has been working with partner organisations in Africa, Latin America and India to support the economic lives of street children. The purpose of this paper is to share some of the lessons S.K.I. and our partners have learned.

Background

Typically, children do not end up on the streets due to a single cause, but to a combination of factors: a dearth of adequately funded schools, the demand for income at home, family breakdown and violence. The street may be attractive to children as a place to find adventurous play and money. However, it is also a place where some children are exposed, with little or no protection, to exploitative employment, urban crime, and abuse.

Children who work on the streets are generally involved in unskilled, labour-intensive tasks which require long hours, such as shining shoes, carrying goods, guarding or washing cars, and informal trading. Some may also earn income through begging, or through theft and other illegal activities. At the same time, there are street children who take pride in supporting themselves and their families and who often enjoy their work. Many children may choose entrepreneurship because it allows them a degree of independence, is less exploitative than many forms of paid employment, and is flexible enough to allow them to participate in other activities such as education and domestic tasks.

Street Business Partnerships

S.K.I. has worked with partner organisations in Latin America, Africa and India to develop innovative opportunities for street children to earn income.

? The S.K.I. Bicycle Courier Service first started in the Sudan. Participants in this enterprise were supplied with bicycles, which they used to deliver parcels and messages, and which they were required to pay for gradually from their wages. A similar program was taken up in Bangalore, India.

? Another successful project, The Shoe Shine Collective, was a partnership program with the Y.W.C.A. in the Dominican Republic. In this project, participants were lent money to purchase shoe shine boxes. They were also given a safe place to store their equipment, and facilities for individual savings plans.

? The Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative in Zambia is a joint program with the Red Cross Society and the Y.W.C.A. Street youths are supported to start their own small business through business training, life skills training and access to credit.

Lessons learned

The following lessons have emerged from the programs that S.K.I. and partner organisations have created.

? Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, nor for every street child. Ideally, potential participants will have been involved in the organisation’s programs for at least six months, and trust and relationship-building will have already been established.

? The involvement of the participants has been essential to the development of relevant programs. When children have had a major role in determining procedures, they are more likely to abide by and enforce them.

? It is critical for all loans to be linked to training programs that include the development of basic business and life skills.

? There are tremendous advantages to involving parents or guardians in the program, where such relationships exist. Home visits allow staff the opportunity to know where the participants live, and to understand more about each individual’s situation.

? Small loans are provided initially for purchasing fixed assets such as bicycles, shoe shine kits and basic building materials for a market stall. As the entrepreneurs gain experience, the enterprises can be gradually expanded and consideration can be given to increasing loan amounts. The loan amounts in S.K.I. programs have generally ranged from US$30-$100.

? All S.K.I. programs have charged interest on the loans, primarily to get the entrepreneurs used to the concept of paying interest on borrowed money. Generally the rates have been modest (lower than bank rates).

Conclusion

There is a need to recognise the importance of access to credit for impoverished young people seeking to fulfil economic needs. The provision of small loans to support the entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions of youth can be an effective means to help them change their lives. However, we believe that credit must be extended in association with other types of support that help participants develop critical life skills as well as productive businesses.

Questions 1-4

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1 The quotations in the box at the beginning of the article

A exemplify the effects of S.K.I.

B explain why S.K.I. was set up.

C outline the problems of street children.

D highlight the benefits to society of S.K.I.

2 The main purpose of S.K.I. is to

A draw the attention of governments to the problem of street children.

B provide school and social support for street children.

C encourage the public to give money to street children.

D give business training and loans to street children.

3 Which of the following is mentioned by the writer as a reason why children end up living on the streets?

A unemployment

B war

C poverty

D crime

4 In order to become more independent, street children may

A reject paid employment.

B leave their families.

C set up their own businesses.

D employ other children.

Questions 5-8

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.

Country Organisations Involved Type of Project Support Provided

5………………

and………………

? S.K.I courier service ? provision of 6………………………

Dominican Republic ? S.K.I

? Y.W.C.A 7………………… ? loans

? storage facilities

? savings plans

Zambia ? S.K.I.

? The Red Cross

? Y.W.C.A. setting up small businesses ? business training

? 8…………training

? access to credit

Questions 9-12

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 9-12 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the wirter

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

9 Any street child can set up their own small business if given enough support.

10 In some cases, the families of street children may need financial support from S.K.I.

11 Only one fixed loan should be given to each child.

12 The children have to pay back slightly more money than they borrowed.

Question 13

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answer in box 13 on your answer sheet.

The writers conclude that money should only be lent to street children

A as part of a wider program of aid.

B for programs that are not too ambitious.

C when programs are supported by local businesses.

D if the projects planned are realistic and useful.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Questions 14-27

Reading Passage 2 has four sections A-D.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number i-vi in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

I Causes of volcanic eruption

Ii Efforts to predict volcanic eruption

Iii Volcanoes and the features of our planet

Iv Different types of volcanic eruption

V International relief efforts

Vi The unpredictability of volcanic eruptions

14 Section A

15 Section B

16 Section C

17 Section D

Volcanoes-earth-shattering news

When Mount Pinatubo suddenly erupted on 9 June 1991, the power of volcanoes past and present again hit the headlines

A Volcanoes are the ultimate earth-moving machinery. A violent eruption can blow the top few kilometres off a mountain, scatter fine ash practically all over the globe and hurl rock fragments into the stratosphere to darken the skies a continent away.

But the classic eruption — cone-shaped mountain, big bang, mushroom cloud and surges of molten lava — is only a tiny part of a global story. Vulcanism, the name given to volcanic processes, really has shaped the world. Eruptions have rifted continents, raised mountain chains, constructed islands and shaped the topography of the earth. The entire ocean floor has a basement of volcanic basalt.

Volcanoes have not only made the continents, they are also thought to have made the world’s first stable atmosphere and provided all the water for the oceans, rivers and ice-caps. There are now about 600 active volcanoes. Every year they add two or three cubic kilometres of rock to the continents. Imagine a similar number of volcanoes smoking away for the last 3,500 million years. That is enough rock to explain the continental crust.

What comes out of volcanic craters is mostly gas. More than 90% of this gas is water vapour from the deep earth: enough to explain, over 3,500 million years, the water in the oceans. The rest of the gas is nitrogen, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane, ammonia and hydrogen. The quantity of these gases, again multiplied over 3,500 million years, is enough to explain the mass of the world’s atmosphere. We are alive because volcanoes provided the soil, air and water we need.

B Geologists consider the earth as having a molten core, surrounded by a semi-molten mantle and a brittle, outer skin. It helps to think of a soft-boiled egg with a runny yolk, a firm but squishy white and a hard shell. If the shell is even slightly cracked during boiling, the white material bubbles out and sets like a tiny mountain chain over the crack — like an archipelago of volcanic islands such as the Hawaiian Islands. But the earth is so much bigger and the mantle below is so much hotter.

Even though the mantle rocks are kept solid by overlying pressure, they can still slowly ‘flow’ like thick treacle. The flow, thought to be in the form of convection currents, is powerful enough to fracture the ‘eggshell’ of the crust into plates, and keep them bumping and grinding against each other, or even overlapping, at the rate of a few centimetres a year. These fracture zones, where the collisions occur, are where earthquakes happen. And, very often, volcanoes.

C These zones are lines of weakness, or hot spots. Every eruption is different, but put at its simplest, where there are weaknesses, rocks deep in the mantle, heated to 1,350℃, will start to expand and rise. As they do so, the pressure drops, and they expand and become liquid and rise more swiftly.

Sometimes it is slow: vast bubbles of magma — molten rock from the mantle — inch towards the surface, cooling slowly, to show through as granite extrusions (as on Skye, or the Great Whin Sill, the lava dyke squeezed out like toothpaste that carries part of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England). Sometimes — as in Northern Ireland, Wales and the Karoo in South Africa — the magma rose faster, and then flowed out horizontally on to the surface in vast thick sheets. In the Deccan plateau in western India, there are more than two million cubic kilometres of lava, some of it 2,400 metres thick, formed over 500,000 years of slurping eruption.

Sometimes the magma moves very swiftly indeed. It does not have time to cool as it surges upwards. The gases trapped inside the boiling rock expand suddenly, the lava glows with heat, it begins to froth, and it explodes with tremendous force. Then the slightly cooler lava following it begins to flow over the lip of the crater. It happens on Mars, it happened on the moon, it even happens on some of the moons of Jupiter and Uranus. By studying the evidence, vulcanologists can read the force of the great blasts of the past. Is the pumice light and full of holes? The explosion was tremendous. Are the rocks heavy, with huge crystalline basalt shapes, like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland? It was a slow, gentle eruption.

The biggest eruptions are deep on the mid-ocean floor, where new lava is forcing the continents apart and widening the Atlantic by perhaps five centimetres a year. Look at maps of volcanoes, earthquakes and island chains like the Philippines and Japan, and you can see the rough outlines of what are called tectonic plates — the plates which make up the earth’s crust and mantle. The most dramatic of these is the Pacific ‘ring of fire’ where there have been the most violent explosions — Mount Pinatubo near Manila, Mount St Helen’s in the Rockies and El Chichón in Mexico about a decade ago, not to mention world-shaking blasts like Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits in 1883.

D But volcanoes are not very predictable. That is because geological time is not like human time. During quiet periods, volcanoes cap themselves with their own lava by forming a powerful cone from the molten rocks slopping over the rim of the crater; later the lava cools slowly into a huge, hard, stable plug which blocks any further eruption until the pressure below becomes irresistible. In the case of Mount Pinatubo, this took 600 years.

Then, sometimes, with only a small warning, the mountain blows its top. It did this at Mont Pelée in Martinique at 7.49 a.m. on 8 May, 1902. Of a town of 28,000, only two people survived. In 1815, a sudden blast removed the top 1,280 metres of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The eruption was so fierce that dust thrown into the stratosphere darkened the skies, cancelling the following summer in Europe and North America. Thousands starved as the harvests failed, after snow in June and frosts in August. Volcanoes are potentially world news, especially the quiet ones.

Questions 18-21

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.

18 What are the sections of the earth’s crust, often associated with volcanic activity, called?

19 What is the name given to molten rock from the mantle?

20 What is the earthquake zone on the Pacific Ocean called?

21 For how many years did Mount Pinatubo remain inactive?

Questions 22-26

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.

Volcanic eruptions have shaped the earth’s land surface. They may also have produced the world’s atmosphere and 22…… . Eruptions occur when molten rocks from the earth’s mantle rise and expand. When they become liquid, they move quickly through cracks in the surface. There are different types of eruption. Sometimes the 23……. moves slowly and forms outcrops of granite on the earth’s surface. When it moves more quickly it may flow out in thick horizontal sheets. Examples of this type of eruption can be found in Northern Ireland, Wales, South Africa and 24…… . A third type of eruption occurs when the lava emerges very quickly and 25…… violently. This happens because the magma moves so suddenly that 26…… are emitted.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below

Obtaining Linguistic Data

A Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about one’s mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home.

B In all cases, someone has to act as a source of language data — an informant. Informants are (ideally) native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language (e.g. translations, comments about correctness, or judgements on usage). Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics. But a linguist’s personal judgements are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgements of other linguists, at which point recourse is needed to more objective methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech.

C Many factors must be considered when selecting informants — whether one is working with single speakers (a common situation when languages have not been described before), two people interacting, small groups or large-scale samples. Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used. The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting (e.g. the level of formality) are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants (e.g. their fluency and consistency). For larger studies, scrupulous attention has been paid to the sampling theory employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use.

D Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguist’s claims about the language to be checked, and provides a way of making those claims more accurate (‘difficult’ pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly). But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to minimise the ‘observer’s paradox’ (how to observe the way people behave when they are not being observed). Some recordings are made without the speakers being aware of the fact — a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated. Alternatively, attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones. A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style (e.g. asking older informants about how times have changed in their locality).

E An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist’s problems, however. Speech is often unclear and ambiguous. Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observer’s written comments on the non-verbal behaviour of the participants, and about the context in general. A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said. Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcriptions always benefit from any additional commentary provided by an observer.

F Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviours. With a bilingual informant, or through use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation techniques (‘How do you say table in your language?’). A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview worksheets and questionnaires. Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just a single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used: a particular feature of pronunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words. There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as asking informants to fill in the blanks in a substitution frame (e.g. I___ see a car), or feeding them the wrong stimulus for correction (‘Is it possible to say I no can see?’).

G A representative sample of language, compiled for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus. A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers. Its range and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature. The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, through either introspection or experimentation.

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs labeled A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27 the effect of recording on the way people talk

28 the importance of taking notes on body language

29 the fact that language is influenced by social situation

30 how informants can be helped to be less self-conscious

31 various methods that can be used to generate specific data

Questions 32-36

Complete the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet.

METHODS OF OBTAINING LINGUISTIC DATA ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

32……as informant convenient method of enquiry not objective enough

Non-linguist as informant necessary with 33…… and child speech the number of factors to be considered

Recording an informant allows linguists’ claims to be checked 34……of sound

Videoing an informant allows speakers’ 35…… to be observed 36……might miss certain things

Questions 37-40

Complete the summary of paragraph G below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

A linguist can use a corpus to comment objectively on 37…… . Some corpora include a wide range of language while others are used to focus on a 38…… . The length of time the process takes will affect the 39…… of the corpus. No corpus can ever cover the whole language and so linguists often find themselves relying on the additional information that can be gained from the 40…… of those who speak the language concerned.

篇7:剑桥雅思阅读4(test2)原文翻译及答案解析

剑桥雅思阅读4原文(test2)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Lost for words

Many minority languages are on the danger list

In the Native American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street signs, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.

Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations — that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. ‘At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world,’ says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. ‘It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know.’

Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in Fairbanks.

Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture,’ he says. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.’

The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures,’ he says. ‘They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English.’ But are languages worth saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.

Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene says. ‘Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world,’ says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces physiological changes in the brain. ‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French, for instance,’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’

So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true. ‘The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language,’ says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. ‘Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism,’ he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8,000 new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, ‘apprentice’ programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer ‘apprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language. After about 300 hours of training they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day. ‘Preserving a language is more like preserving fruits in a jar,’ he says.

However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later generations. But a written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before.

Questions 1-4

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

There are currently approximately 6,800 languages in the world. This great variety of languages came about largely as a result of geographical 1…… . But in today’s world, factors such as government initiatives and 2…… are contributing to a huge decrease in the number of languages. One factor which may help to ensure that some endangered languages do not die out completely is people’s increasing appreciation of their 3…… . This has been encouraged through programmes of language classes for children and through ‘apprentice’ schemes, in which the endangered language is used as the medium of instruction to teach people a 4…… . Some speakers of endangered languages have even produced writing systems in order to help secure the survival of their mother tongue.’

Questions 5-9

Look at the following statements (Questions 5-9) and the list of people in the box below. Match each statement with the correct person A-E.

Write the appropriate letter A-E in boxes 5-9 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

5 Endangered languages cannot be saved unless people learn to speak more than one language.

6 Saving languages from extinction is not in itself a satisfactory goal.

7 The way we think may be determined by our language.

8 Young people often reject the established way of life in their community.

9 A change of language may mean a loss of traditional culture.

A Michael Krauss

B Salikoko Mufwene

C Nicholas Ostler

D Mark Pagel

E Doug Whalen

Questions 10-13

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

10 The Navajo Language will die out because it currently has too few speakers.

11 A large number of native speakers fail to guarantee the survival of a language.

12 National governments could do more to protect endangered languages.

13 The loss of linguistic diversity is inevitable.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA

The first students to study alternative medicine at university level in Australia began their four-year, full-time course at the University of Technology, Sydney, in early 1994. Their course covered, among other therapies, acupuncture. The theory they learnt is based on the traditional Chinese explanation of this ancient healing art: that it can regulate the flow of ‘Qi’ or energy through pathways in the body. This course reflects how far some alternative therapies have come in their struggle for acceptance by the medical establishment.

Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural or alternative therapies, according to Dr Paul Laver, a lecturer in Public Health at the University of Sydney. ‘We’ve had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath to allow any pretenders to their position to come into it.’ In many other industrialised countries, orthodox and alternative medicine have worked ‘hand in glove’ for years. In Europe, only orthodox doctors can prescribe herbal medicine. In Germany, plant remedies account for 10% of the national turnover of pharmaceuticals. Americans made more visits to alternative therapists than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spend about $US 12 billion on therapies that have not been scientifically tested.

Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years. In a 1983 national health survey, 1.9% of people said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to 2.6% of the population. The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the 1990 survey represented about an eighth of the total number of consultations with medically qualified personnel covered by the survey, according to Dr Laver and colleagues writing in the Australian Journal of Public Health in 1993. ‘A better educated and less accepting public has become disillusioned with the experts in general, and increasingly sceptical about science and empirically based knowledge,’ they said. ‘The high standing of professionals, including doctors, has been eroded as a consequence.’

Rather than resisting or criticising this trend, increasing numbers of Australian doctors, particularly younger ones, are forming group practices with alternative therapists or taking courses themselves, particularly in acupuncture and herbalism. Part of the incentive was financial, Dr Laver said. ‘The bottom line is that most general practitioners are business people. If they see potential clientele going elsewhere, they might want to be able to offer a similar service.’

In 1993, Dr Laver and his colleagues published a survey of 289 Sydney people who attended eight alternative therapists’ practices in Sydney. These practices offered a wide range of alternative therapies from 25 therapists. Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief. They commented that they liked the holistic approach of their alternative therapists and the friendly, concerned and detailed attention they had received. The cold, impersonal manner of orthodox doctors featured in the survey. An increasing exodus from their clinics, coupled with this and a number of other relevant surveys carried out in Australia, all pointing to orthodox doctors’ inadequacies, have led mainstream doctors themselves to begin to admit they could learn from the personal style of alternative therapists. Dr Patrick Store, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, concurs that orthodox doctors could learn a lot about bedside manner and advising patients on preventative health from alternative therapists.

According to the Australian Journal of Public Health, 18% of patients visiting alternative therapists do so because they suffer from musculo-skeletal complaints; 12% suffer from digestive problems, which is only 1% more than those suffering from emotional problems. Those suffering from respiratory complaints represent 7% of their patients, and candida sufferers represent an equal percentage. Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6% and 5% of patients respectively, and a further 4% see therapists for general health maintenance.

The survey suggested that complementary medicine is probably a better term than alternative medicine. Alternative medicine appears to be an adjunct, sought in times of disenchantment when conventional medicine seems not to offer the answer.

Questions 14 and 15

Choose the correct letter, A, B C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 14 and 15 on your answer sheet.

14 Traditionally, how have Australian doctors differed from doctors in many Western countries?

A They have worked closely with pharmaceutical companies.

B They have often worked alongside other therapists.

C They have been reluctant to accept alternative therapists.

D They have regularly prescribed alternative remedies.

15 In 1990, Americans

A were prescribed more herbal medicines than in previous years.

B consulted alternative therapists more often than doctors.

C spent more on natural therapies than orthodox medicines.

D made more complaints about doctors than in previous years.

Questions 16-23

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 16-23 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

16 Australians have been turning to alternative therapies in increasing numbers over the past 20 years.

17 Between 1983 and 1990 the numbers of patients visiting alternative therapists rose to include a further 8% of the population.

18 The 1990 survey related to 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists.

19 In the past, Australians had a higher opinion of doctors than they do today.

20 Some Australian doctors are retraining in alternative therapies.

21 Alternative therapists earn higher salaries than doctors.

22 The 1993 Sydney survey involved 289 patients who visited alternative therapists for acupuncture treatment.

23 All the patients in the 1993 Sydney survey had long-term medical complaints.

Questions 24-26

Complete the vertical axis on the table below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 2 for answer.

Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should ,spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below

PLAY IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS

Does play help develop bigger, better brains?

Bryant Furlow investigates

A Playing is a serious business. Children engrossed in a make-believe world, fox cubs play-fighting or kittens teasing a ball of string aren’t just having fun. Play may look like a carefree and exuberant way to pass the time before the hard work of adulthood comes along, but there’s much more to it than that. For a start, play can even cost animals their lives. Eighty per cent of deaths among juvenile fur seals occur because playing pups fail to spot predators approaching. It is also extremely expensive in terms of energy. Playful young animals use around two or three per cent of their energy cavorting, and in children that figure can be closer to fifteen per cent. ‘Even two or three per cent is huge,’ says John Byers of Idaho University. ‘You just don’t find animals wasting energy like that,’ he adds. There must be a reason.

B But if play is not simply a developmental hiccup, as biologists once thought, why did it evolve? The latest idea suggests that play has evolved to build big brains. In other words, playing makes you intelligent. Playfulness, it seems, is common only among mammals, although a few of the larger-brained birds also indulge. Animals at play often use unique signs — tail-wagging in dogs, for example — to indicate that activity superficially resembling adult behaviour is not really in earnest. A popular explanation of play has been that it helps juveniles develop the skills they will need to hunt, mate and socialise as adults. Another has been that it allows young animals to get in shape for adult life by improving their respiratory endurance. Both these ideas have been questioned in recent years.

C Take the exercise theory. If play evolved to build muscle or as a kind of endurance training, then you would expect to see permanent benefits. But Byers points out that the benefits of increased exercise disappear rapidly after training stops, so any improvement in endurance resulting from juvenile play would be lost by adulthood. ‘If the function of play was to get into shape,’ says Byers, ‘the optimum time for playing would depend on when it was most advantageous for the young of a particular species to do so. But it doesn’t work like that.’ Across species, play tends to peak about halfway through the suckling stage and then decline.

D Then there’s the skills-training hypothesis. At first glance, playing animals do appear to be practising the complex manoeuvres they will need in adulthood. But a closer inspection reveals this interpretation as too simplistic. In one study, behavioural ecologist Tim Caro, from the University of California, looked at the predatory play of kittens and their predatory behaviour when they reached adulthood. He found that the way the cats played had no significant effect on their hunting prowess in later life.

E Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general. Comparing measurements for fifteen orders of mammal, he and his team found larger brains (for a given body size) are linked to greater playfulness. The converse was also found to be true. Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood. ‘I concluded it’s to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development,’ he says.

F According to Byers, the timing of the playful stage in young animals provides an important clue to what’s going on. If you plot the amount of time a juvenile devotes to play each day over the course of its development, you discover a pattern typically associated with a ‘sensitive period’ — a brief development window during which the brain can actually be modified in ways that are not possible earlier or later in life. Think of the relative ease with which young children — but not infants or adults — absorb language. Other researchers have found that play in cats, rats and mice is at its most intense just as this ‘window of opportunity’ reaches its peak.

G ‘People have not paid enough attention to the amount of the brain activated by play,’ says Marc Bekoff from Colorado University. Bekoff studied coyote pups at play and found that the kind of behaviour involved was markedly more variable and unpredictable than that of adults. Such behaviour activates many different parts of the brain, he reasons. Bekoff likens it to a behavioural kaleidoscope, with animals at play jumping rapidly between activities. ‘They use behaviour from a lot of different contexts — predation, aggression, reproduction,’ he says. ‘Their developing brain is getting all sorts of stimulation.’

H Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher cognitive processes. ‘There’s enormous cognitive involvement in play,’ says Bekoff. He points out that play often involves complex assessments of playmates, ideas of reciprocity and the use of specialised signals and rules. He believes that play creates a brain that has greater behavioural flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life. The idea is backed up by the work of Stephen Siviy of Gettysburg College. Siviy studied how bouts of play affected the brain’s levels of a particular chemical associated with the stimulation and growth of nerve cells. He was surprised by the extent of the activation. ‘Play just lights everything up,’ he says. By allowing link-ups between brain areas that might not normally communicate with each other, play may enhance creativity.

I What might further experimentation suggest about the way children are raised in many societies today? We already know that rat pups denied the chance to play grow smaller brain components and fail to develop the ability to apply social rules when they interact with their peers. With schooling beginning earlier and becoming increasingly exam-orientated, play is likely to get even less of a look-in. Who knows what the result of that will be?

Questions 27-32

Reading Passage 3 had nine paragraphs labeled A-I.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27 the way play causes unusual connections in the brain which are beneficial

28 insights from recording how much time young animals spend playing

29 a description of the physical hazards that can accompany play

30 a description of the mental activities which are exercised and developed during play

31 the possible effects that a reduction in play opportunities will have on humans

32 the classes of animals for which play is important

Questions 33-35

Choose THREE letters A-F.

Write your answers in boxes 33-35 on your answer sheet.

The list below gives some ways of regarding play.

Which THREE ways are mentioned by the writer of the text?

A a rehearsal for later adult activities

B a method animals use to prove themselves to their peer group

C an activity intended to build up strength for adulthood

D a means of communicating feelings

E a defensive strategy

F an activity assisting organ growth

Questions 36-40

Look at the following researchers (Questions 36-40) and the list of findings below.

Match each researcher with the correct finding.

Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.

36 Robert Barton

37 Marc Bekoff

38 John Byers

39 Sergio Pellis

40 Stephen Siviy

List of Findings

A There is a link between a specific substance in the brain and playing.

B Play provides input concerning physical surroundings.

C Varieties of play can be matched to different stages of evolutionary history.

D There is a tendency for mammals with smaller brains to play less.

E Play is not a form of fitness training for the future.

F Some species of larger-brained birds engage in play.

G A wide range of activities are combined during play.

H Play is a method of teaching survival techniques.

剑桥雅思阅读4原文参考译文(test2)

Passage 1

参考译文

Lost for words

Many minority languages are on the danger list

语言的消失

——许多少数民族语言濒临灭绝

In the Native American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly. Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street signs, supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.

对于居住在美国西南部四州的那瓦霍人来讲,他们的语言正在遭遇灭顶之灾。大多数说那瓦霍语的人要么是中年人,要么就是垂垂老者。尽管有许多学生都在学习该门语言,可是学校却是用英文授课的。路牌、超市商品说明、甚至报纸全部是英文的。因此语言学家怀疑在百年之后还会不会有人会说这门语言也就不足为奇了。

Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two generations — that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic diversity shrunk at such a pace. ‘At the moment, we are heading for about three or four languages dominating the world,’ says Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading. ‘It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult to know.’

那瓦霍语决不是惟一会有此厄运的语言。再经历两代人的时间,全球6,800种语言当中的半数就有可能从世界上彻底消失——这就相当于平均每十天就有一种语言消失。地球上语言的多样性从未以如此惊人的速度降低过。“现在,我们面临的将是两三种语言支配整个世界。”雷丁大学的进化生物学家Marl Pagel说,“这就是(语言的)大规模灭绝,而且我们很难知道能否从这种语言灭绝当中恢复过来。”

Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least 3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in Fairbanks.

封闭产生了语言的多样性。结果整个世界就布满了只有几个人说的语言。只有250种语言拥有超过100万的使用者,而至少有3,000种语言使用者不足2,500人。那些行将消失的小语种并非命该如此。尽管仍有15万人在使用那瓦霍语,但这种语言还是上了濒危名单。判断一种语言是否濒危的标准不是使用者的数量,而是使用者的年龄。如果一种语言是孩子们在使用,就会相对安全些。用费尔班克斯Alassk语言中心的主任Micheal Krauss的话说就是,真正面临灭绝之灾的是那些只有老年人才懂得说的语言。

Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence, when a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture,’ he says. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.’

可人们为什么拒绝说他们父母的语言呢?这一切都始于一场信任危机。BATH英国濒危语言基金会成员Nicholas Ostler说:“当一个小规模社会发现自己与一个大规模,更富有的社会并肩而存的时候,其成员就会对自己的文化丧失信心。当这个社会的下一代进人青春期的时候,他们很可能不会接受(包括语言在内的)传统事物。”

The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example, effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs the Linguistics department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic globalisation. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures,’ he says. ‘They cannot refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English.’ But are languages worth saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution, which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.

这种转变往往不是自发的。为了加强国家凝聚力,政府通常会通过在公共场合禁用,以及在学校中不提倡使用的方法,消灭少数民族语言。例如,以前美国政府在印地安保留地学校推行英语授课政策,这事实上就是将那瓦霍语等少数语言推上了濒危名单。但是芝加哥大学语言学系系主任Salikoko Mufwene认为,最致命的原因并不是政府政策,而是经济的全球化。他说,“美国印地安人并没有失去对他们自己语言的信心,但是他们不得不去适应社会经济压力。如果大多数生意都是用英语来谈的,他们就不能拒绝说英语,但是,濒危语言就真的值得去挽救吗?至少,对于语言及其进化研究来讲,(不去挽救)就会导致资料的缺失,因为该研究正是基于对现存的和过去的语言的比较而进行的。当一门既无文字记录也无录音考证的语言消失时,对于科学(研究)来讲,它也就不存在了。

Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene says. ‘Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the world,’ says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces physiological changes in the brain. ‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French, for instance,’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’

语言与文化也有千丝万缕的联系,因此要想单纯保存语言而不保留文化是非常困难的。“如果一个本来说那瓦霍语的人现在要改说英语,那么他准得失去点东西。”Mufwene说道,Pagel也评价道,“而且,语言多样性的丧失也使我们无法以多种方式来看待这个世界。”越来越多的证据表明,学习一门语言可以为大脑带来生理上的变化。“比如说,你我的大脑与说法语人的大脑就十分不同,”Page说,这是会影响我们的思维和看法的。“我们针对不同的概念建立了不同的模式和联系,这很可能就是由我们社会的语言习惯构筑而成的。”

So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true. ‘The key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant language,’ says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in New Haven, Connecticut. ‘Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of bilingualism,’ he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori and rekindled interest in the language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8,000 new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, ‘apprentice’ programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer ‘apprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language. After about 300 hours of training they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day. ‘Preserving a language is more like preserving fruits in a jar,’ he says.

所以,尽管语言学家已经竭尽全力,但是许多语言到了下个世纪还是会消失。但是,一种对文化认同感越来越多的关注,也许会阻止最骇人的预言成为现实。“保持语言多样性的关键在于,让人们接受主流语言的同时,也去学习他们祖先的语言。”康那狄格州纽黑文市濒危语言基金会主席Doug Whalen说道,“如果不实行双语制度,大多数濒危语言都无法生存下去。”在新西兰,为孩子们开设的课程明显减轻了毛利语所受的损害,并且重新燃起了人们对该语言的兴趣。在夏威夷,一种相似的方式使波利尼西亚语的使用者在过去数年中增长了8,000人。在加利福尼亚州,“学徒”计划使得数种土著语言得以生存。“学徒”志愿者与某种印地安语的最后一些使用者中的一位组成小组,学习如编织篮子这样的传统工艺,当然交流全部都是用印地安语。通常,经过300个小时的训练后,他们就可以流利地说了,其流利程度足以将这种语言传给他们的子女。但是Mufwene指出,避免语言消失并不等同于通过每天的使用赋予其新的生命。他指出,“保存语言更像用罐子保存水果。”

However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later generations. But a written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before.

然而,通过保存的确可以使一门语言起死回生。已经有例子表明,有些语言通过文字记录被保存了下来,而且还在后代中得以复兴。当然,文字记录是这其中的关键。因此,单单是这种语言复兴的可能性,就使得很多说濒危语言的人试图去创造本来并不存在的文字系统。

Passage 2

参考译文

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN AUSTRALIA

澳大利亚的另类疗法

The first students to study alternative medicine at university level in Australia began their four-year, full-time course at the University of Technology, Sydney, in early 1994. Their course covered, among other therapies, acupuncture. The theory they learnt is based on the traditional Chinese explanation of this ancient healing art: that it can regulate the flow of ‘Qi’ or energy through pathways in the body. This course reflects how far some alternative therapies have come in their struggle for acceptance by the medical establishment.

1994年初,澳大利亚第一批另类疗法学生在悉尼科技大学开始了他们为期四年的全职课程。除了学习其他一些疗法之外,他们的课程还包括针灸术,他们所学的理论基于中国古代对这门古老疗法的解释:那就是针灸可以调节“气”或能量在人体神经系统中的流通。这门课程足以反映另类疗法在争取医疗机构认同的斗争中所取得的成果。

Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural or alternative therapies, according to Dr Paul Laver, a lecturer in Public Health at the University of Sydney. ‘We’ve had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath to allow any pretenders to their position to come into it.’ In many other industrialised countries, orthodox and alternative medicine have worked ‘hand in glove’ for years. In Europe, only orthodox doctors can prescribe herbal medicine. In Germany, plant remedies account for 10% of the national turnover of pharmaceuticals. Americans made more visits to alternative therapists than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spend about $US 12 billion on therapies that have not been scientifically tested.

由于对自然或另类疗法所采取的极端保守态度,澳大利亚在西方国家中独树一帜。悉尼大学公共健康系博士Paul Laver评价道:“我们有个传统,医生是相当权威的,我猜他们很不愿意让那些觊觎他们位置的冒牌货得逞。”在其他许多工业国家里,正统医生和另类医师早已亲密无间地合作多年了。在欧洲,只有正统医生才可以开草药。在德国,草药占了药品销售额的10%。1990年美国人去看另类疗法医师的次数比去看传统医生的次数还多,而每年,他们花在未经科学测试的疗法上的钱竟髙达约120亿美元。

Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years. In a 1983 national health survey, 1.9% of people said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to 2.6% of the population. The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the 1990 survey represented about an eighth of the total number of consultations with medically qualified personnel covered by the survey, according to Dr Laver and colleagues writing in the Australian Journal of Public Health in 1993. ‘A better educated and less accepting public has become disillusioned with the experts in general, and increasingly sceptical about science and empirically based knowledge,’ they said. ‘The high standing of professionals, including doctors, has been eroded as a consequence.’

在过去中,由于人们对传统医疗不再迷信,另类疗法在澳大利亚慢慢流行起来。在1983年进行的全国健康调査中,有1.9%的人说此前两周内曾经去看过按摩师、理疗家、整骨医师、针灸医生或草药医生。到了1990年,这个数字已经攀升到澳大利亚人口的2.6%。根据Laver博士和他的同事们刊登在1993年《澳大利亚公共健康期刊》上的报道:在1990年调査中,另类疗法医生进行了55万次诊断,这个数字几乎占了调查中所有医疗诊断的八分之一。“总体而言,受过良好教育又不那么轻信的民众已经对专家失望了,而且对科学和经验主义知识已经越来越怀疑了,”博士们说,“结果,包括医生在内的专业人士的崇高地位也就大打折扣。”

Rather than resisting or criticising this trend, increasing numbers of Australian doctors, particularly younger ones, are forming group practices with alternative therapists or taking courses themselves, particularly in acupuncture and herbalism. Part of the incentive was financial, Dr Laver said. ‘The bottom line is that most general practitioners are business people. If they see potential clientele going elsewhere, they might want to be able to offer a similar service.’

越来越多的澳大利亚医生,特别是那些年轻一些的医师,非但没有抵制或是批判这样一个潮流,反而开始与另类疗法医师联合开业,或是干脆自己去学习相关课程,尤其是针灸和草药医学。Laver博士说,部分动机当然是出于经济考虑。“关键在于大多数全科医生都是商人。如果他们看到潜在的客户去别处看病,他们就想也要能提供类似的服务。”

In 1993, Dr Laver and his colleagues published a survey of 289 Sydney people who attended eight alternative therapists’ practices in Sydney. These practices offered a wide range of alternative therapies from 25 therapists. Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief. They commented that they liked the holistic approach of their alternative therapists and the friendly, concerned and detailed attention they had received. The cold, impersonal manner of orthodox doctors featured in the survey. An increasing exodus from their clinics, coupled with this and a number of other relevant surveys carried out in Australia, all pointing to orthodox doctors’ inadequacies, have led mainstream doctors themselves to begin to admit they could learn from the personal style of alternative therapists. Dr. Patrick Store, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, concurs that orthodox doctors could learn a lot about bedside manner and advising patients on preventative health from alternative therapists.

1993年,Laver博士和他的同事们发表了一项调查报告,报告包括289名曾到8家另类疗法诊所寻求治疗的悉尼市民。这些诊所共有25名另类治疗师,提供相当广泛的另类疗法。接受调查的人都患有慢性疾病,正统疗法治疗对这些疾病的效果微乎其微。病人们评价说他们喜欢另类疗法医师所采取的全面的治疗手段,也喜欢那里友善热情、细致入微的关怀。这次调査揭示了正统医生的冷漠态度。病人从诊所中大批离去,加上其他一些相关的全国性调查的结果,矛头直指正统医生的不足之处,这就使得他们开始承认应该学习一下另类疗法医师的亲切态度。就连皇家医学院的Patrik Stone博士也赞同说,正统医生应该多学习另类疗法医师对待病人的态度,还有他们给病人的预防建议。

According to the Australian Journal of Public Health, 18% of patients visiting alternative therapists do so because they suffer from musculo-skeletal complaints; 12% suffer from digestive problems, which is only 1% more than those suffering from emotional problems. Those suffering from respiratory complaints represent 7% of their patients, and candida sufferers represent an equal percentage. Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6% and 5% of patients respectively, and a further 4% see therapists for general health maintenance.

根据《澳大利亚公共健康期刊》,18%的病人因为得了肌肉骨骼方面的疾病而去看另类医师;12%的人则是因为消化系统疾病,这个数字只比因为感情问题而去就医的人多1个百分点。呼吸系统疾病患者和假丝酵母过敏者各占7%。头疼就医者和整体感觉身体不适而就医者分别占到了6%和5%,还有4%的人看医生只是为了保持身体健康。

The survey suggested that complementary medicine is probably a better term than alternative medicine. Alternative medicine appears to be an adjunct, sought in times of disenchantment when conventional medicine seems not to offer the answer.

这项调查表明,与另类疗法这个字眼相比,互补疗法是个更为合适的称呼。前者听起来仿佛是正统疗法的附庸,一种只有当你对传统疗法的无能为力失望后,才会去追寻的东西。

Passage 3

参考译文

PLAY IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS

Does play help develop bigger, better brains? Bryant Furlow investigates

玩耍是件严肃的事

玩耍能否帮助大脑发育得更大更好?Bryant Furlow就此展开了调査。

A Playing is a serious business. Children engrossed in a make-believe world, fox cubs play-fighting or kittens teasing a ball of string aren’t just having fun. Play may look like a carefree and exuberant way to pass the time before the hard work of adulthood comes along, but there’s much more to it than that. For a start, play can even cost animals their lives. Eighty per cent of deaths among juvenile fur seals occur because playing pups fail to spot predators approaching. It is also extremely expensive in terms of energy. Playful young animals use around two or three per cent of their energy cavorting, and in children that figure can be closer to fifteen per cent. ‘Even two or three per cent is huge,’ says John Byers of Idaho University. ‘You just don’t find animals wasting energy like that,’ he adds. There must be a reason.

A玩耍是件严肃的事。孩子们沉溺在假想的世界中,狐狸幼崽儿嬉戏打闹,小猫玩线球,这些行为都不只是取乐而已。看上去玩耍是成人世界的辛苦工作到来之前,无忧无虑、精力充沛的消磨时光的方式,其实远非如此。首先,玩耍可能使动物们送命。比如,百分之八十的小海狗死亡都是因为玩耍中的小海狗没能看到接近的捕食者。玩耍也是相当消耗精力的。顽皮的小动物要花上百分之二三的精力来嬉戏打闹,而对于儿童而言,这个数字可以高达百分之十五。“就算只有百分之二三也是个不小的数目了。”Idaho大学的John Byers说道,“你很难发现动物们如此消耗精力。”Byers补充说。总有一定的原因使他们这么做。

B But if play is not simply a developmental hiccup, as biologists once thought, why did it evolve? The latest idea suggests that play has evolved to build big brains. In other words, playing makes you intelligent. Playfulness, it seems, is common only among mammals, although a few of the larger-brained birds also indulge. Animals at play often use unique signs — tail-wagging in dogs, for example — to indicate that activity superficially resembling adult behaviour is not really in earnest. A popular explanation of play has been that it helps juveniles develop the skills they will need to hunt, mate and socialise as adults. Another has been that it allows young animals to get in shape for adult life by improving their respiratory endurance. Both these ideas have been questioned in recent years.

B但是,如果玩耍不像生物学家们过去认为的那样,只是发育过程中的小插曲的话,那么到底是什么促使了玩耍的发展呢?最新的观点认为玩耍可以促进大脑的发育。换句话说,玩耍使你变得聪明。尽管一些脑子比较大的鸟类也沉溺其中,但玩耍好像还是只在哺乳动物中普遍存在。玩耍中的动物会用一些独特的标志——比如狗摇尾巴来表明这种简单模仿大动物行为的举动并不是玩真的。一种有关玩耍的普遍观点说,玩耍能帮助小动物发展成年之后捕猎、交配以及社交所需要的技能。另一个理论认为,通过增强小动物的呼吸耐力,玩耍可以帮助他们在体力上更适应成年生活。但是这两个理论近年来都遭到了置疑。

C Take the exercise theory. If play evolved to build muscle or as a kind of endurance training, then you would expect to see permanent benefits. But Byers points out that the benefits of increased exercise disappear rapidly after training stops, so any improvement in endurance resulting from juvenile play would be lost by adulthood. ‘If the function of play was to get into shape,’ says Byers, ‘the optimum time for playing would depend on when it was most advantageous for the young of a particular species to do so. But it doesn’t work like that.’ Across species, play tends to peak about halfway through the suckling stage and then decline.

C就拿锻炼理论来说吧。如果玩耍是为了增强肌肉,或是进行某种耐力训练,那么我们应该能够看到一些终生的效果。但是Byers指出,训练一结束,由增强训练所带来的好处就随之迅速消失了,所以,任何通过小时候的玩耍增强的耐力到了成年阶段就会消失殆尽了。“如果玩耍的作用就是使身体健康的话,”Byers说道,“那么玩耍的最佳时间就应该是对于某种小动物(身体发展)最有利的时间,但是,实际情况并非如此。”无论什么种群的动物,玩耍都倾向于在哺乳期的中期达到顶峰,然后则开始走下坡路。

D Then there’s the skills-training hypothesis. At first glance, playing animals do appear to be practising the complex manoeuvres they will need in adulthood. But a closer inspection reveals this interpretation as too simplistic. In one study, behavioural ecologist Tim Caro, from the University of California, looked at the predatory play of kittens and their predatory behaviour when they reached adulthood. He found that the way the cats played had no significant effect on their hunting prowess in later life.

D接着,我们又有了技能训练假说。乍看上去,玩耍的小动物好像是在练习那些成年时必须的复杂动作。但是,更为仔细的观察表明,这种解释把问题简单化了。在某项研究中,California大学的行为生态学家Tim Caro观察了小猫的捕食游戏以及它们成年之后的捕猎行为。他发现,小猫玩耍的方式对成年后的捕猎技能并没有太大的影响。

E Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general. Comparing measurements for fifteen orders of mammal, he and his team found larger brains (for a given body size) are linked to greater playfulness. The converse was also found to be true. Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood. ‘I concluded it’s to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development,’ he says.

E今年早些时候,加拿大Lethbridge大学的Sergio Pellis公布说,哺乳动物的玩耍与他们大脑的大小往往成正比。在比较了十五种哺乳动物的测量数据之后,Sergio和他的研究小组发现,更多的玩耍会造就大一些的脑子(与身体大小比较而言),而且这个理论反过来也成立。Durham大学的Robert Barton认为,由于大一座的脑子比小一些的脑子对发育刺激更敏感,因此它们需要更多的玩耍来促进它们发育至成年期。他说:“我的结论是,玩耍与学习有关,也与大脑发育过程中环境资料的重要性有关。”

F According to Byers, the timing of the playful stage in young animals provides an important clue to what’s going on. If you plot the amount of time a juvenile devotes to play each day over the course of its development, you discover a pattern typically associated with a ‘sensitive period’ — a brief development window during which the brain can actually be modified in ways that are not possible earlier or later in life. Think of the relative ease with which young children — but not infants or adults — absorb language. Other researchers have found that play in cats, rats and mice is at its most intense just as this ‘window of opportunity’ reaches its peak.

F根据Byers的理论,对于小动物而言,玩耍期的时机对未来的发展至关重要。如果你用图表来表明在发育期间,小动物每天用于玩耍的时间的话,就会发现一种一般与“敏感期”相关联的模式。所谓“敏感期”指的是发育过程中一个短暂的阶段,在这一阶段中,大脑会获得此前和此后都不可能获得的改变。想想孩子们在学习语言时那种婴儿们和大人们都无法做到的得心应手吧。其他学者也发现,猫、田鼠和家鼠最爱玩耍的时期恰好是这扇“机会之窗”达到峰值的时候。

G ‘People have not paid enough attention to the amount of the brain activated by play,’ says Marc Bekoff from Colorado University. Bekoff studied coyote pups at play and found that the kind of behaviour involved was markedly more variable and unpredictable than that of adults. Such behaviour activates many different parts of the brain, he reasons. Bekoff likens it to a behavioural kaleidoscope, with animals at play jumping rapidly between activities. ‘They use behaviour from a lot of different contexts — predation, aggression, reproduction,’ he says. ‘Their developing brain is getting all sorts of stimulation.’

G“人们没有充分注意到玩耍激活了大脑多少部件。”Colorado大学的Marc Bekoff说。Becoff研究了玩要的小土狼,发现其中所涉及的行为显然比成年土狼的花样更多,更不可预测。他推断,这样的行为能激活大脑许多不同的部分。由于动物们在玩耍时行为总是迅速地变换,Becoff将玩耍比喻为一个行为万花筒。“他们会做出不同环境所需要的动作——捕猎,进攻,繁殖等,而他们正在发育的大脑获得了各种各样的刺激。”

H Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher cognitive processes. ‘There’s enormous cognitive involvement in play,’ says Bekoff. He points out that play often involves complex assessments of playmates, ideas of reciprocity and the use of specialised signals and rules. He believes that play creates a brain that has greater behavioural flexibility and improved potential for learning later in life. The idea is backed up by the work of Stephen Siviy of Gettysburg College. Siviy studied how bouts of play affected the brain’s levels of a particular chemical associated with the stimulation and growth of nerve cells. He was surprised by the extent of the activation. ‘Play just lights everything up,’ he says. By allowing link-ups between brain areas that might not normally communicate with each other, play may enhance creativity.

H大脑不仅比猜想中更多地参与玩耍,而且好像还能够激活更髙级的认知过程。“玩耍中有很多的认知成分。”Becoff指出。玩耍通常包括对玩伴的评估,互相依存的观念,以及恃殊标志及规则的使用。他认为玩耍会创造一个更具行为灵活性,在今后生活中更多学习潜力的大脑。这一观点得到了Gettysburg学院Stephen Siviy研究结果的支持。Siviy认为玩耍能够影响大脑中一种特殊化学物质的分泌,这种物质会刺激神经细胞生长。他被这种刺激可能达到的程度吓了一跳。“玩耍使一切都变得活泼起来。”通过使大脑中不常交流的部分产生联系,玩耍也许会提髙创造力。

I What might further experimentation suggest about the way children are raised in many societies today? We already know that rat pups denied the chance to play grow smaller brain components and fail to develop the ability to apply social rules when they interact with their peers. With schooling beginning earlier and becoming increasingly exam-orientated, play is likely to get even less of a look-in. Who knows what the result of that will be?

I进一步的实验又会对如今许多社会中,孩子们被养育的方式有何影响呢?我们已经知道,没有机会玩耍的小老鼠,大脑各部分发育得比较小,同时也不具备运用社会规则与其他小老鼠交流的能力。在上学年龄越来越早,学校教育越来越应试化的今天,大家对玩耍的作用不屑一顾。谁会知道这样做会带来什么样的影响呢?

剑桥雅思阅读4原文解析(test2)

Question 1

答案:isolation

关键词:6800/variety of language/geographical

定位原文:第3段第1句“Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people.”

解题思路:根据这句话可知,语言多样性是由于地理上的isolation。

Question 2

答案:economic globalization/globalization/socio-economic pressures

关键词:government/huge decrease

定位原文:第5段第4句“…the deadliest weapon is not government policy but economic pressures...”

解题思路:本题目要看清楚问的是语言消失的原因,and表示并列,因此空中应该填与government initiatives对等的原因,而文中第五段前半部分提到政府政策对语言的影响,但是科学家们也指出,真正致命的原因是社会经济压力。

Question 3

答案:cultural identity

关键词:Increasing appr?eciation/language classes

定位原文:第7段第2句话“But a growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direst predictions from coming true.”

解题思路:“increasing appreciation”和文中的“growing interest”是同义替换,故正确答案是cultural identity。”

Question 4

答案:traditional skill

关键词:‘apprentice’/teach/a

定位原文:第7段倒数第4句“Volunteer 'apprentices' pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered language.”

解题思路:“apprentice”做为定位词,题干这句话的意思是在学徒计划中,濒危语言被用来作为载体来教授人们一种……,文中的“learn”与“teach”在意思上有关联,而不定冠词“a”之后要填一个专有名词。

Question 5

答案:E

关键词:more than one...

定位原文:第7段第4句“Most of these languages will not survive without a large bilingualism…”

解题思路:题干这句话正好跟文中这句话表达的是相同的意思,而文中有这个观点的正是E选项。

Question 6

答案:B

关键词:in itself

定位原文:“But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not the same as giving it new life by using it every day。”

解题思路:通过这句话可以推测,保护语言本身并不是目标,如何让语言活起来才是真正目的。故正确答案为B。

Question 7

答案:D

关键词:think/determine

定位原文:第6段倒数第2句“‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of someone who speaks French, for instance,’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’”

解题思路:这句话话当中提到了说英语的人的大脑与说法语的人大脑的不同,随后提出语言会影响我们的想法和观点。

Question 8

答案:C

关键词:reject/established/way of life

定位原文:第4段最后一句“People lose faith in their culture, When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the old traditions.”

解题思路:题干句子意思是“年轻人经常会拒绝接受社会约定俗成的生活方式”,正好与文中这句话“语言的转化意味着传统文化的消失”表达的意思一致。

Question 9

答案:B

关键词:loss

定位原文:第6段第2句“If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something…”

解题思路:文中的shift等同于题目当中的change,而传统文化的存在正意味着人们可以采用不同的观点来看待这个世界。

Question 10

答案:NO

关键词:Navajo

定位原文:第3段第4句话“Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are.”

解题思路:这句话说有15万人在使用那瓦霍语,证明使用者并不是很少,在接下来的一句话当中,作者又表明使语言濒临灭绝的真正原因并不是说的人少,而是说的人太老。

Question 11

答案:YES

关键词:a large number of

定位原文:第3段第4句话“Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers.”

解题思路:根据文中给出的证据,即有15万人说那瓦霍语,但是这门语言仍然濒临灭绝,作者推出了题中的结论,这个结论是正确的。

Question 12

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:government

定位原文:第5段

解题思路:文中第五段提到了政府,主要是指出政府的政策也是导致语言濒危的原因,但是此后就并未对政府的作用再多做叙述,而是转而论述社会经济压力的重要性。本题是典型的节外生枝型。

Question 13

答案:YES

关键词:linguistic diversity

定位原文:第7段第1句“So despite linguists' best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century.”

解题思路:这句话表明尽管语言学家已经竭尽全力,但是许多语言到了下个世纪还是会消失。这句话就表明语言多样性的消失是不可避免的。

定位原文:第3段第1句“Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people.”

Question 14

答案:C

关键词:Western

定位原文:第1段第1句“Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural or alternative therapies, according to Dr Paul Laver, a lecturer in Public Health at the University of Sydney.”

解题思路:A答案说澳大利亚医生与制药公司关系紧密,属于完全未提及型答案。B答案认为澳大利亚医生总是和其他医师一同工作,与文中所说的事实恰好相反。D答案说澳大利亚医生会开出另类处方,这也是不正确的。只有C答案与文章叙述相符。

Question 15

答案:B

关键词:Americans

定位原文:第1段倒数第1句“Americans made more visits to alternative therapists than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spend about $US 12 billion on therapies that have not been scientifically tested.”

解题思路:文中这句话说1990年美国人去看另类疗法医师的次数比去看传统医生的次数还多。所以答案B是正确的。而A、C和D答案中提到的比较关系并不存在。

Question 16

答案:YES

关键词:20 years

定位原文:第2段第1句“Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years.”

解题思路:在过去20年中,由于人们对传统医疗不再迷信,另类疗法在澳大利亚慢慢流行起来。这句话就证明在过去20年里,比以往更多的澳大利亚人开始相信另类疗法。

Question 17

答案:NO

关键词:1983/1990/ a further 8%

定位原文:第2段第2句话和第3句话“In a 1983 national health survey, 1.9% of people said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to 2.6% of the population.”

解题思路:在1983年的调査中,约有1.9%的人说他们曾经看过另类疗法医师,到了1990年,这个数字上升到了总人口的2.6%。如果做减法的话,实际上人数上升了将近0.7个百分点,因此题目中所说的增加8%是错误的。

Question 18

答案:YES

关键词:550,000

定位原文:第2段第4句话“The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the 1990 survey represented about an eighth of…”

解题思路:题干这句话刚好和定位句的“The 550,000 consultations with alternative therapists”表达的是同样的意思,因此是正确的。

Question 19

答案:YES

关键词:had a higher opinion of...

定位原文:第2段最后一句“The high standing of professionals, including doctors, has been eroded as a consequence.”

解题思路:这句话说的是包括医生在内的专业人士的崇高地位也就大打折扣。这句话的含义就是澳大利亚人以前对医生等专业人士有较高的评价,而现在这种观点已经遭受损害。

Question 20

答案:YES

关键词:Australian doctors

定位原文:第3段第1句“Rather than resisting or criticising this trend, increasing numbers of Australian doctors, particularly younger ones, are forming group practices with alternative therapists or taking courses themselves, particularly in acupuncture and herbalism.”

解题思路:这句话表明澳大利亚正统医生正在接受另类疗法培训,相对于以前他们接受的正统医疗培训来说,这次培训无疑是一种再培训。

Question 21

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:salaries

定位原文:第3段

解题思路:并不存在的比较关系是TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN题解题的一条黄金法则。尤其当作者将两者进行简单肤浅比较的时候,一般答案都是NOT GIVEN。文中没有任何地方提到两种医生的薪水,因此正确答案是NOT GIVEN。

Question 22

答案:YES

关键词:1993/289

定位原文:第4段首句和第二句“In 1993, Dr Laver and his colleagues published a survey of 289 Sydney people who attended eight alternative therapists' practices in Sydney. These practices offered a wide range of alternative therapies from 25 therapists.”

解题思路:89名病患去看病的这8家诊所提供各种各样的另类疗法服务,这其中也许包括针灸疗法,但是如果说这289名病人都是去做针灸的,就未免有些以偏概全了。

Question 23

答案:NO

关键词:1993/long-term

定位原文:第4段第3句“Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief.”

解题思路:chronic是“长期的,慢性的”意思,complaints在此处不是“抱怨,投诉”的意思,而是指疾病。

Question 24

答案:emotional/emotional problems

关键词:10%-15%

定位原文:第5段第1句“12% suffer from digestive problems, which is only 1% more than those suffering from emotional problems.”

解题思路:目测该数字应该在10%和15%之间,在第五段寻找这样一个数字,结果发现12%所对应的是digestive一词,但是,很快我们会发现Digestive已经出现在了表格上,所以答案应该是比12%少一个百分点的emotional/emotional problems。

Question 25

答案:headache

关键词:5%-10%

定位原文:第5段最后一句“Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6% and 5% of patients respectively…”

解题思路:该疾病所对应的数字应该在5%和10%之间,而且应该比第26空更接近10%。所以可以回第五段找两个相近并且都接近10%的数字,结果发现了6%和5%,故此空应该填:headache。

Question 26

答案:general ill health

关键词:5%

定位原文:第5段最后一句“Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6% and 5% of patients respectively…”

解题思路:该疾病对应数字是5%,故应该填general ill health。

Question 27

答案:H

关键词:unusual connection

定位原文:H段最后1句“By allowing link-ups between brain areas that might not normally communicate with each other, play may enhance creativity.”

解题思路:link-up等于connection,后面的play may enhance creativity证明这种不寻常的联系是有好处的。

Question 28

答案:F

关键词:record/time

定位原文:F段第2句“If you plot the amount of time...”

解题思路:这个heading的意思是由记录小动物玩耍的时间而得到的见解,关键词是时间,回到文章当中寻找对应词时,只有这个段落提到了时间。plot一词是用图表记录的意思,在这里就等同于record。

Question 29

答案:A

关键词:physical hazard

定位原文:A段第4句之后“For a start, play can even cost animals their lives. Eighty per cent of deaths among juvenile fur seals…”

解题思路:问题是问哪一段包含有对玩要带来的危险的描述。文章中只有在第一段中谈到了玩要可能带来的危险,而且还举出了小海狗的例子来说明这种危险的存在。

Question 30

答案:H

关键词:mental/exercise/develop

定位原文:H段前3句“Not only is more of the brain involved in play than was suspected, but it also seems to activate higher… and rules.”

解题思路:mental activity是大脑活动的意思,问题问的是在玩耍过程当中,哪些大脑活动得到了练习和发展。

Question 31

答案:I

关键词:effects/reduction

定位原文:I段首句和2句“What might further experimentation… with their peers.”

解题思路:问题问得是哪一段包含了这样的内容:减少玩耍机会可能对儿童造成的影响。在最后一段中,作者谈到了被剥夺了玩耍机会的小老鼠大脑就发育的不好,并且用一个设问句表明了他对人类儿童的忧虑。而且一般来讲,含有effect的段意都是对应文章的最后一段。

Question 32

答案:B

关键词:class/animals

定位原文:B段第4句“Playfulness, it seems, is common only among mammals...”

解题思路:B段中提到了玩要在哺乳动物中很普遍,而且在有些鸟类当中也存在,即提到了各种各样的动物。一些同学会在E段当中看到fifteen orders of mammals一词,不过仔细读下来,E段的主要意思是在讲哺乳动物中大脑大小和玩耍之间的关系,并不是说玩耍对哪种动物重要。故答案选B。

Question 33-35

答案:ACF(IN EITHER ORDER)

Question 33

答案:A

关键词:rehearsal/adult

定位原文:B段倒数第2句“A popular explanation of play has been that it helps juvenile develop the skills they will need to hunt, mate and socialize as adults.”

解题思路:这段中提到了帮助青少年培养作为成年人需要的一些技能,所以A选项正确。

Question 34

答案:C

关键词:build up strength

定位原文:B 段最后一句“Another has been that it allows young animals to get in shape for adult life...”

解题思路:“使年轻的动物保持体形”与C选项对应。

Question 35

答案:F

关键词:organ growth

定位原文:E段首句:“...reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness…”

解题思路:“在脑部大小与玩耍之间有正面的关联”与F选项对应。

Question 36

答案:B

关键词:Robert Barton

定位原文:E段倒数第2句和末句 “Robert Barton of Durham University …I concluded it's to do with learning,and with the importance of environmental data to...”

解题思路:Barton认为玩耍与学习有关,也与大脑发育过程中环境资料的重要性有关。Environmental data可以与physical surroundings对应。

Question 37

答案:G

关键词:Marc Becoff

定位原文:G 段第4句“Bekoff likens it to a behavioural kaleidoscope...”

解题思路:Becoff将玩耍比喻为一个行为万花筒,这句话也就是说在玩耍当中动物会做出各种各样的举动,正好和G选项中的a wide range of相对应。

Question 38

答案:E

关键词:John Byers

定位原文:C段第2句“Byers points out that the benefits of increased exercise disappear rapidly after training stops, so...”

解题思路:Byers认为训练一结束,由增强训练所带来的好处就跟着迅速消失了,无论什么种群的动物,玩耍都倾向于在哺乳期的中期达到顶峰,然后则开始走了下坡路。这就与E答案观点—致。

Question 39

答案:D

关键词:Sergio Pellis

定位原文:E段第1句“...reported that there is a strong positive link between brain size and playfulness among mammals in general.”

解题思路:Pellis认为哺乳动物的玩耍量与他们大脑的大小往往成正比。所以玩耍比较少的动物脑子也比较小。

定位原文:第3段第1句“Isolation breeds linguistic diversity: as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken by only a few people.”

Question 40

答案:A

关键词:Stephen Siviy

定位原文:H段第6句“Siviy studied how bouts of play affected the brain's levels of a particular chemical associated with..”

解题思路:Siviy认为玩耍能够影响大脑中一种特殊化学物质,这种物质会刺激神经细胞生长。答案选A。

剑桥雅思阅读4(test2)原文翻译及答案解析

篇8:剑桥雅思阅读4原文翻译及答案解析(test4)

Question 1

答案:TRUE

关键词:record,1900

定位原文:第1段第1句“Since the early years of the twentieth century, when the International Athletic Federation began keeping records, there has been a steady improvement in how fast athletes run, how high they jump and how far they are able to hurl massive objects, themselves included, through space.”

解题思路:“自从20世纪早期国际田联开始记录成绩以来……”,题干说现代官方运动员记录始于大约19。因此答案为TRUE。

Question 2

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:before the twen?tieth century

定位原文:第1段第1句“Since the early years of the twentieth century, when the International Athletic Federation began keeping records, there has been a steady improvement in how fast athletes run, how high they jump and how far they are able to hurl massive objects, themselves included, through space.”

解题思路:很明显体感说的与原文说的相反,故答案为FALSE。

Question 3

答案:FALSE

关键词:burst of energy

定位原文:第1段第2-3句“For the so-called power…In the endurance events the results have been more dramatic.”

解题思路:体感说运动员的成绩提高幅度最大的项目是需要爆发力强的项目,而原文说的是在持久项目中,运动成绩提高得更多。故答案为FALSE。

Question 4

答案:FALSE

关键词:genetics

定位原文:第3段第1-2句“Identifying genetically talented individuals is only the first step. Michael Yessis, an emeritus professor of Sports Science at California State University at Fullerton, maintains that 'genetics only determines about one third of what an athlete can do.”

解题思路:题干说的是基因在运动员的表现上起完全充分的作用。而文中说的很明显是只有大概三分之一的决定因素。故正确答案为FALSE。

Question 5

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:parents of top athletes

定位原文:无

解题思路:题干中说顶尖运动员的父母通常也是很成功的运动员。而文中并未提到。

Question 6

答案:TRUE

关键词:gifted athletes, younger age

定位原文:第2段第3句“Over the past century, the composition of… be identified early.”

解题思路:题干中说运动不断提升的国际重要性意味着有天分的运动员有可能被发现的更早。定位句中最后也说道因此现在比以往更有可能尽早发现那些独具运动员基因的个体。故正确答案是TRUE。

Question 7

答案:genetics

关键词:American runners

定位原文:第3段第4句“Yessis believes that U.S. runners, despite their impressive achievements, are 'running on their genetics.”

解题思路:根据大写字母American runners定位到原文第3段第4句,可知答案为genetics。

Question 8

答案:power

关键词:former Soviet Union

定位原文:第3段最后一句“These methods include strength training that duplicates what they are doing in their running events as well as plyometrics, a technique pioneered in the former Soviet Union.”

解题思路:据大写字母former Soviet Union定位到原文第3段最后1句,原文的表述是前苏联率先应用plyometrics来训练运动员,结合第4段首句:plyometrics focuses on increasing power,因此答案为power。

Question 9

答案:injuries

关键词:inadequate diet

定位原文:第5段最后1句“Few coaches, for instance, understand how deficiencies in trace minerals can lead to injuries.”

解题思路:根据inadequate diet定位到原文第5段最后l句,该段主要讲营养方面对于运动员得到影响。最后一句明确指出,...deficiency in trace mineral can lead to injuries,因此答案为injuries。

Question 10

答案:training

关键词:key, setting

定位原文:第6段第1句“Focused training will also play a role in enabling records to be broken.”

解题思路:根据题目顺序在原文第6段中找到答案及第2句,即打破记录的关键因素为training。

Question 11

答案:A

关键词:Biomechanics films

定位原文:第7段第2句至第4句“A biomechanic films an athlete…high jumpers.”

解题思路:此题根据专有名词Biomechanics films定位到原文第7段,这一段倒数第2句说到Dapena用这些方法帮助跳髙运动员。故正确答案为A。

Question 12

答案:D

关键词:Biomechanics specialists/Fosbury flop

定位原文:第8段第2句至第4句“For example, during the 1968… own mathematical simulations.”

解题思路:此题根据4个选项中共有的大写字母词汇Fosbury flop迅速定位到原文第8段第2句至第4句,原文的表述是:……生物力学专家后来对他的方法进行了分析,并理解了这一方法。答案为D。

Question 13

答案:B

关键词:John S. Raglin

定位原文:最后1段第2句及第3句“'Once you study athletics, … our understanding in many cases is fundamental.”

解题思路:原文的表述是:印第安纳大学的运动心理学家John S. Raglin说:“核心表现不是更高,更快,更强这一简单或者平凡的事。有很多的变数进人这一方程式,我们对很多案例的理解都是最基本(fundamental)的。我们还有很长的路要走。”因此答案为B。

Question 14

答案:YES

关键词:creativity, investigative work

定位原文:第1段第1句“Archaeology is partly the discovery of the treasures of the past, partly the careful work of the scientific analyst, partly the exercise of the creative imagination.”

解题思路:题目说考古学既包括创新也包括认真的分析调査工作。原文:考古学部分是对过去财富的发现,部分是科学分析的严谨工作,部分是创造性想像的练习,因此答案为TURE。

Question 15

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:ancient languages

定位原文:无

解题思路:题目说考古学家必须能够翻译古代语言文本。原文没有提及题目的内容,因此答案为NOT GIVEN。

Question 16

答案:NO

关键词:movies

定位原文:第2段最后一句“However far from reality such portrayals are, they capture the essential truth that archaeology is an exciting quest—the quest for knowledge about ourselves and our past.”

解题思路:题目说电影为考古学家的工作提供了真实的画面。原文的表述是:相反,这些描述(指上句所说的电影)和现实差距甚远(far from reality such portrayals are),因此很明显答案应为FALSE。

Question 17

答案:YES

关键词:anthropolo?gist

定位原文:第4段第1句至第3句“Anthropology, at its broadest, … from other societies.”

解题思路:题目说人类学家从不止一个角度来定义文化。而文中恰好从广义和狭义来定义文化,故正确答案为TRUE。

Question 18

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:anthropology

定位原文:无

解题思路:题目说考古学比人类学要求更加苛刻。原文当中没有提到题目中的内容,因此答案为NOT GIVEN。

Question 19

答案:NO

关键词:Europe, 3,000 BC

定位原文:第8段最后一句“Conventional historical sources begin only with the introduction of written records around 3,000 BC in western Asia, and much later in most other parts of the world.”

解题思路:题目说的是欧洲的历史自公元前3000年就有记录了。原文中的表述是传统的历史始于公元前3000左右西亚的文字记载,而世界的其他大多数地区的历史要比这晚很多。因此答案为FALSE。

Question 20-21

答案:DE (IN EITHER ORDER)

关键词:anthropology

定位原文:第4段最后1句“Anthropology is thus a broad discipline so broad that it is generally broken down into three smaller disciplines: physical anthropology, cultural anthropology and archaeology.”

第5段首句“Physical anthropology, or biological anthropology as it is also called, concerns the study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved.”

解题思路:该题的要求是从A—E五个选项中选出文中提到的两个关于人类学的陈述。根据文章结构分別在第4段最后1句及第5段首句找到答案即选项D和E。

Question 22-23

答案:CD (IN EITHER ORDER)

关键词:tasks/archaeologist

定位原文:第7段

解题思路:该题的要求是从A-E五个选项中选出文中提到的两个考古学家的任务。根据文章结构可以在原文第7段当中找到答案,分别为选项C及选项D。

Question 24

答案:oral histories

关键词:written records/equally valuable

定位原文:原文倒数第2段最后1句“… but in no way lessens the importance of the useful information contained in oral histories.”

解题思路:这句话中和written records形成对应的只有原文倒数第2段最后一句中的oral histories词组。

Question 25-26

答案:humanistic study/historical discipline

关键词:archaeology

定位原文:最后1段第1句“Since the aim of archaeology is the understanding of humankind, it is a humanistic study, and since it deals with the human past, it is a historical discipline.”

解题思路:根据定位信息可知,答案为humanistic study或historical discipline。

Question 27

答案:scientist

关键词:compare/style

定位原文:最后1段倒数第2句“In this respect, the practice of the archaeologist is rather like that of the scientist, who collects data, conducts experiments, formulates a hypothesis, tests the hypothesis against more data, and then, in conclusion, devises a model that seems best to summarise the pattern observed in the data.”

解题思路:原文最后1段倒数第2句很明显的告诉我们,被作者用来和考古学家进行比较的只有一种人即科学家。因此答案为scientist。

Question 28

答案:iv

关键词:无

定位原文:section A

解题思路:文中说到在经济发达的社会,每一个卫生系统都需要做出决定:在卫生保健方面投入资源应占社会全部资源的多大比例……什么形式的治疗是最节省成本的?由此可见原文首段均在围绕发达国家共同面对的问题进行阐述,所以答案为选项iv。

Question 29

答案:i

关键词:无

定位原文:Section C 第1句“However, at exactly the same time as this new realisation of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing in Western societies: that people have a basic right to health-care as a necessary condition of a proper human life.”

解题思路:首句的主要意思是:然而,就在这种认为卫生资源是有限的新思想销声匿迹的同时,一种相反的思想在西方社会发展起来了。这种思想认为享受卫生保健是人们的一项基本权利(basic right),而这种权利是人们正常生活的必要条件。直到该段末句,都在阐述医疗和人权的关系问题,因此答案为选项i。

Question 30

答案:iii

关键词:无

定位原文:Section D 第2句“It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that adequate heath-care resources are provided out of the public purse.”

解题思路:该段第2句的表述是:还有一个观点也是被普遍接受的:这种权利使得国家有义务有责任确保从公共预算中划拨足够的资金提供卫生服务。该段由此直到末句都在阐述国家在保障医疗服务中的应承担的义务及扮演的角色,因此答案为选项iii。

Question 31

答案:v

关键词:无

定位原文:Section E 第2句“The second set of more specific changes that have led to the present concern about the distribution of heath-care resources stem from the dramatic rise in heath costs in most OECD countries…”

解题思路:该段第2句的表述为:大多数经合发展组织的国家的卫生费用急剧增加,这再一次引发了一系列改变,使人们开始关注医疗卫生资源的分配问题。下面内容均是针对该句所举的具体例子及这一系列改变带来的结果或影响,因此答案为选项v。

Question 32

答案:B

关键词:resources/limited

定位原文:Section B第2句至第4句“Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s,… 'limits to growth'”

解题思路:题目说人们意识到医疗资源是有限的。原文中“在20世纪50年代和60年代,西方社会出现了一种意识:化石燃料能源的供应资源是有限的,……换句话说,我们开始意识到一个显而易见的事实,就是增长是有限制的。”因此答案为B。

Question 33

答案:B

关键词:rise/cost

定位原文:Section E 第2句“The second set of more specific changes…consumers of health-care resources.”

解题思路:题目说医疗保健费用的急剧上涨。原文“大规模的人口数量及社会的变化导致大多数经济合作发展组织的国家的卫生费用急剧增加,这再一次引发了一系列改变,使人们开始关注医疗卫生资源的分配问题。”结合例子当中的时间,得出答案即选项B。

Question 34

答案:A

关键词:belief/economic growth

定位原文:Section B最后一句“Looking back, it now seems quite incredible that in the national health systems that emerged in many countries in the years immediately after the 1939-45 World War, ... ”

解题思路:题目中说到一种观点:经济的增长能够产生所有人们所需的医疗资源。原文“回溯起来,有一个观点现在看来不可思议:在1939年到1945年的世界大战结束后的几年内,很多国家建立了国民卫生体系,人们认为这样的国民卫生体系至少在理论上能够满足任何人群的所有基础卫生需求,经济增长中‘看不见的手’将提供一切所需”因此答案为A。

Question 35

答案:B

关键词:guaranteeing/provision

定位原文:Section D第2句及第3句“It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse. The state has no obligation to provide a health-care system itself, but to ensure that such a system is provided.”

解题思路:题目的意思是接受国家在提供医疗保障中的角色。原文“还有一个观点也是被普遍接受的:这种权利使得国家有义务有责任确保从公共预算中划拨足够的资金提供卫生服务。国家本身没有义务去建立卫生健康体系,但是有义务去保证这样一个体系的存在。”结合该段首句中的时间1970s,答案为选项B。

Question 36

答案:NO

关键词:Personal liberty

定位原文:Section C最后两句“People are not in a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are poverty-stricken, or deprived of basic education, or do not live within a context of law and order. In the same way, basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy.”

解题思路:文中说到如果为贫穷而苦恼,或者被剥夺了基础教育,或者没有生活在法律法规的框架下,那么人们就不能拥有个人自由,自主行事。同样,基础卫生保健也是人实现自由的一个条件。很明显个人自由和医疗保健是密切相关的,因此答案为NO。

Question 37

答案:YES

关键词:right, limits

定位原文:Section C第1句“However, at exactly the same time as this new realisation of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing in Western societies: that people have a basic right to health-care as a necessary condition of a proper human life.”

解题思路:原文表达的意思是:就在人们开始了解到医疗资源是有限的同时,一种相反的思想在西方社会发展起来了。这种思想认为享受卫生保健是人们的一项基本权利,而种权利是人们正常生活的必要条件。原文和题目的表述一致,因此答案为YES。

Question 38

答案:YES

关键词:OECD countries

定位原文:Section E第2句“The second set of more specific changes…consumers of health-care resources.”

解题思路:文中说到大规模的人口数量及社会的变化导致大多数经济合作发展组织的国家的卫生费用急剧增加,这再一次引发了一系列改变,使人们开始关注医疗卫生资源的分配问题。与题干中说的“近年来,OECD国家人口数量的改变对医疗费用产生了影响”一致,故答案为YES。

Question 39

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:OECD government

定位原文:Section E

解题思路:题干中说OECD国家的政府一直低估了医疗供应的需求程度。根据大写字母词汇OECD定位到原文E段,该段没有提到题目中的内容,因此答案为NOT GIVEN。

Question 40

答案:GIVEN

关键词:Economically developed countries, elderly

定位原文:E段

解题思路:题干中说在大多数经济发达国家,老年人将不得不为他们的未来医疗做一些特殊的准备。原文中E段提到了elderly people,但是没有提到题目中的内容,因此答案为NOT GIVEN。

篇9:剑桥雅思阅读4原文翻译及答案解析(test3)

Question 1

答案:A

关键词:box/beginning

定位原文:标题下方方框中

解题思路:题目是问文章开头的方框当中的引言是什么意思。A答案:exemplify例证;举……例子;B答案是解释国际流浪儿童组织建立的原因;C答案:outline描述,描画轮廓;D答案中highlight是指突出、强调。很明显引言是在举例子,故正确答案选A。

Question 2

答案:D

关键词:purpose/S.K.I

定位原文:Introduction部分第2段首句“Over the past nine years, …lives of street children.”

解题思路:“to support the economic lives of street children...等同于D答案,而其他三个选项基本未提到。

Question 3

答案:C

关键词:reason/end up

定位原文:Background部分的第一段首句“Typically, children do not end up on … and violence.”

解题思路:…the demand for income at home...等同于poverty,而D答案crime并不是儿童流浪的原因,而是其可能产生的后果。

Question 4

答案:C

关键词:independent

定位原文:Background部分的第2段最后1句“Many children may choose entrepreneurship because it allows them a degree of independence,”

解题思路:A,B,D三个答案都比较极端,只有C符合本文的主题。children独立的方式是“choose entrepreneurship”与C选项中的“set up their own businesses”是同义替换,故C 正确。

Question 5

答案:Sudan/India

关键词:country/courier service

定位原文:Street Business Partnerships部分第1点“The S.K.I. Bicycle Courier Service first started in the Sudan. Participants in this enterprise were supplied with bicycles, which they used to deliver parcels and messages, and which they were required to pay for gradually from their wages. A similar program was taken up in Bangalore, India.”

解题思路:提供courier service的两个国家分别是Sudan和India。

Question 6

答案:bicycles

关键词:courier service

定位原文:Street Business Partnership部分第1点

解题思路:题干中的provision是文中provide的变形,所以这里的正确答案是bicycles。

Question 7

答案:Shoe Shine Collective

关键词:Dominican Republic

定位原文:Street Business Partnership部分第2点“Another successful project, The Shoe Shine Collective, was a partnership program with the Y.W.C.A. in the Dominican Republic. In this project, participants were lent money to purchase shoe shine boxes. They were also given a safe place to store their equipment, and facilities for individual savings plans.”

解题思路:定位到原文,可知答案是Shoe Shine Collective。

Question 8

答案:life skills

关键词:Zambia

定位原文:Street Business Partnership部分第3点“The Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative in Zambia is a joint program with the Red Cross Society and the Y.W.C.A. Street youths are supported to start their own small business through business training, life skills training and access to credit.”

解题思路:定位到该句话末尾,可知正确答案是life skills。

Question 9

答案:NO

关键词:set up/money

定位原文:Lessons learned部分第1点“Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, for every street child.”

解题思路:很明显文中说的不是对于每个人来说的,所以答案应该是NO。

Question 10

答案:NOT GIVEN

关键词:families/S.K.I.

定位原文:Lessons learned部分第4点“There are tremendous advantages to involving parents or guardians in the program, where such relationships exist. Home visits allow staff the opportunity to know where the participants live, and to understand more about each individual's situation.”

解题思路:这一点当中虽然提到了流浪儿童的家人,但是并没有说明他们是否要从S.K.I.那里得到帮助,属于纯粹未提及型的NOT GIVEN。

Question 11

答案:NO

关键词:loan

定位原文:Lessons learned部分第5点“Small loans are provided initially for …ranged from US30?30?100.”

解题思路:题目当中如果含有ONLY/ONE这样的词,往往选NO。从文中我们也可以看出孩子们不只可以申请一笔贷款。

Question 12

答案:YES

关键词:pay back

定位原文:Lessons learned部分第6点“All S.K.I. programs have charged interest on the loans, primarily to get the entrepreneurs used to the concept of paying interest on borrowed money. Generally the rates have been modest (lower than bank rates).”

解题思路:All S.K.I. programs have charged interest on the loans.所有的计划都要收取利息,也就是要多还一点钱。

Question 13

答案:A

关键词:conclude

定位原文:Conclusion部分“However, we believe that credit must be extended in association with other types of support...”

解题思路:根据conclude可以定位到conclusion部分,根据“credit must be extended in association with other types of support”可知正确答案是A。

Question 14

答案:iii

关键词:无

定位原文:A部分:第一段首句Volcanoes are the ultimate earth-moving machinery. 第二段:Eruptions have rifted continents…a basement of volcanic basalt.

第三段开头:Volcanoes have not only made the continents,they are also thought to have made the world's first stable atmosphere and...

解题思路:A部分说明了火山活动的作用,正好和iii选项中的火山与地球的特征吻合,因此答案为iii。

Question 15

答案:i

关键词:无

定位原文:B部分:第1段:整个段落描述了火山爆发的起因。第二段最后:

These fracture zones, where the collisions occur, are where earthquakes happen. And,very often, volcanoes.

解题思路:通过扫描这两个段落,发现其中主要将地球比喻成一个鸡蛋,并且由此说明了火山爆发的原因。因此答案应该是i。

Question 16

答案:iv

关键词:无

定位原文:第2段:Sometimes,it is slow...第3段;Sometimes the magma moves very swiftly indeed. 第4段:The biggest eruptions are deep on the mid-ocean floor.

解题思路:此部分出现了大量的火山名字,由此我们可以预测该段落讲的是火山喷发的不同类型。因此答案是iv。

Question 17

答案:vi

关键词:无

定位原文:第1段:But volcanoes are not very predict?able.

解题思路:vi答案是说火山爆发的不可预测性。

Question 18

答案: plates/the tectonic plates/the plates

关键词:sections of the earth's crust/volcanic activity

定位原文:C部分的第4段第2句“...and you can see the rough outlines of what are called tectonic plates--the plates which make up the earth's crust and mantle.”

解题思路:很明显,应该是被叫做the tectonic plates。

Question 19

答案:magma

关键词:molten rock from the mantle

定位原文:C部分第2段第1句:Sometimes it is slow: vast bubbles of magma—molten rock from the mantle…

解题思路:根据关键词定位,可知答案为magma。

Question 20

答案:ring of fire

关键词:zone/the Pacific Ocean

定位原文:C部分第4段第3句:The most dramatic of these is the Pacific “ring of fire”...

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知正确答案是ring of fire。

Question 21

答案:600 years/for 600 years/600

关键词:Mount Pinatubo/inactive

定位原文:D部分第1段最后一句:In the case of Mount Pinatubo, this took 600 years.

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知正确答案是600 years。

Question 22

答案:water

关键词:produce/atmosphere

定位原文:A部分的第3段第1句:Volcanoes have not only made the continents, they are also thought to have made the world's first stable atmosphere and provided all the water for the oceans, rivers and ice-caps.

解题思路:火山不仅制造出陆地,也为地球提供了大气,为海洋、河川和冰帽提供了水。

Question 23

答案:magma/lava

关键词:different types of eruptions /moves slowly

定位原文:Sometimes it is slow: vast bubbles of magma—molten rock from the mantle—inch to?wards the surface.

解题思路:首先可以根据之前做过的LIST OF HEADINGS题判定,C部分讲到了不同类型的火山爆发。然后寻找slowly这个词。根据定位句信息可知正确答案是magma。

Question 24

答案:(west) India

关键词:quickly/horizontally Northern Ireland/Wales/South Africa

定位原文:C部分第2段第2句:Sometimes—as in Northern Ireland, Wales and the Karoo in South Africa一the magma rose faster,and then flowed out horizontally on to the surface in vast thick sheets. In the Deccan Plateau in western India, …

解题思路:此处要求填一个地名,根据定位句信息可知正确答案为(west) India。

Question 25

答案:explodes

关键词:third/lava/very quickly/violently

定位原文:C部分第3段前3句:Sometimes the magma moves very swiftly indeed. It does not have time to cool as it surges upwards. The gases trapped in side the boiling rock expand suddenly, the lava glows with heat, it begins to froth, and it exploded with tremendous force.

解题思路:这个空要求填一个动词,而且要注意时态。根据定位句信息可知正确答案为explodes。

Question 26

答案:gases

关键词: magma/emitted

定位原文:C部分第3段:Sometimes the magma moves very swiftly indeed. It does not have time to cool as it surges upwards. The gases trapped in side the boiling rock expand suddenly,...

解题思路:emit是“发射,发出”的意思,跟文中的expand属于同义替换,故正确答案应该是gases。

Question 27

答案:D

关键词:recording

定位原文:D段首句“Today, researchers often tape-record informants.”

解题思路:题干问的刚好是哪一段讲到了录音对人们谈话方式的影响。故答案是D。

Question 28

答案:E

关键词:body language

定位原文:E段第3句“Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observer's written comments on the non-verbal behavior of the participants,...”

解题思路:题干问的是哪一段讲到了记录人们肢体语言的重要性。故答案是E。

Question 29

答案:C

关键词:social situation

定位原文:C段第2句“Age, sex,social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used.”

解题思路:题目问的是哪段提到了语言受到社会背景的影响。故答案是C。

Question 30

答案:D

关键词:self-conscious

定位原文:D段第6句“Some recordings are made without speakers being aware of the fact — a procedure that obtains very natural data,...”

解题思路:题目问的是哪一段提到了如何帮助资料提供者变得自然一点。故答案是D。

Question 31

答案:F

关键词:specific data various methods

定位原文:F段第3句和最后一句“A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview work-sheets and questionnaires.”

“There are also several direct methods of elicitation,…”

解题思路:题目问的是哪段提到了产生详细信息的不同方式。答案是F。

Question 32

答案: (the) linguists (acts)/(the) linguist (act)

关键词:convenient/not objective enough

定位原文:B段倒数第2句“Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知答案为linguists act。

Question 33

答案:foreign languages

关键词:non-linguist

定位原文:B段最后两句:…at which point recourse is needed to more objective methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech.

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知答案为foreign languages。

Question 34

答案:(the) (poor) quality

关键词:recording/sound

定位原文:D段第3-4句“But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnor?mally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. ”

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知答案为(the)(poor)quality。

Question 35

答案:facial expression

关键词:video/speaker

定位原文:E段第4句“A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知答案为facial expression。

Question 36

答案:video recording/camera/video camera/recording

关键词:video/miss certain things

定位原文:E段最后一句“Video recording avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcriptions always bene?fit from any additional commentary provided by an observer.”

解题思路:根据定位句信息可知答案为video recording/camera/video camera/recording。

Question 37

答案:fre?quency of usage

关键词:comment

定位原文:G段第2句“A corpus enables the linguists to make unbiased statements about fre?quency of usage,...”

解题思路:这里的make unbiased statements about和题干中的comment objectively on是同义替换,故正确答案为fre?quency of usage。

Question 38

答案:particular linguistic feature

关键词:while/focus on

定位原文:G段第4句“Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature.”

解题思路deals only with和focus on在这里是同义替换,故正确答案为particular linguistic feature。

Question 39

答案:size

关键词:length of time

定位原文:The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the data.

解题思路:corpus的size取决于很多因素,例如时间等,所以题干中时间的长短会影响的应该是corpus的size。

Question 40

答案:intuitions

关键词:those who speak

定位原文:G段最后一句“An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size,are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data de?rived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, through either introspection or experimentation.”

解题思路:根据定位信息,可知正确答案为intuitions。

篇10:剑桥雅思阅读4原文翻译及答案解析(test3)

Passage1

参考译文

Micro-Enterprise Credit for Street Youth

流浪儿童的小型企业贷款

‘I am from a large, poor family and for many years we have done without breakfast. Ever since I joined the Street Kids International program I have been able to buy my family sugar and buns for breakfast. I have also bought myself decent second-hand clothes and shoes.’

Doreen Soko

“我来自一个贫困的大家庭。我们已经很多年没吃过早餐了。自从加人了国际流浪儿童组织,早饭我们就吃得起糖和面包了。我还给自己买了体面的二手服装和二手鞋子。”

DOREEN SOKO

‘We’ve had business experience. Now I’m confident to expand what we’ve been doing. I’ve learnt cash management, and the way of keeping money so we save for re-investment. Now business is a part of our lives. As well, we didn’t know each other before — now we’ve made new friends.’

Fan Kaoma

“我们有经商的经验。现在我非常有信心扩大我的生意。我学过现金管理以及节省开支的方法,所以现在存了些钱进行再投资。生意已经成了我生活的一部分。还有,以前我们素不相识——现在,我们已经交到了很多新朋友。”

FAN KAOMA

Participants in the Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative Program, Zambia

赞比亚青年创业计划的参与人

Introduction

Although small-scale business training and credit programs have become more common throughout the world, relatively little attention has been paid to the need to direct such opportunities to young people. Even less attention has been paid to children living on the street or in difficult circumstances.

简介

尽管在世界范围内,小型企业培训及贷款计划已经越来越普遍,然而相对而言,很少有人注意到年轻人也需要获得这样的机会。更少的人会去留意那些无家可归或家境贫困的孩子。

Over the past nine years, Street Kids International (S.K.I.) has been working with partner organisations in Africa, Latin America and India to support the economic lives of street children. The purpose of this paper is to share some of the lessons S.K.I. and our partners have learned.

在过去的九年里,国际流浪儿童组织已经与非洲、拉丁美洲以及印度的伙伴组织进行合作,来改善流浪儿童的经济状况。此文的目的主要是为了和大家分享一下他们所总结的经验教训。

Background

Typically, children do not end up on the streets due to a single cause, but to a combination of factors: a dearth of adequately funded schools, the demand for income at home, family breakdown and violence. The street may be attractive to children as a place to find adventurous play and money. However, it is also a place where some children are exposed, with little or no protection, to exploitative employment, urban crime, and abuse.

背景

通常来讲,儿童流离失所并非由某个原因造成,而是若干因素综合所致:比如缺乏拥有足够资金的学校,家里等着用钱,父母离异以及家庭暴力等。对于孩子来讲,街道可能是个令人着迷的地方,充满了冒险游戏和赚钱机会。然而,由于缺乏或根本没有保护,有些孩子在那里遭到剥削,遭遇暴力事件甚至虐待。

Children who work on the streets are generally involved in unskilled, labour-intensive tasks which require long hours, such as shining shoes, carrying goods, guarding or washing cars, and informal trading. Some may also earn income through begging, or through theft and other illegal activities. At the same time, there are street children who take pride in supporting themselves and their families and who often enjoy their work. Many children may choose entrepreneurship because it allows them a degree of independence, is less exploitative than many forms of paid employment, and is flexible enough to allow them to participate in other activities such as education and domestic tasks.

在街头工作的孩子们通常都是从事一些无需技术但工作时间超长的劳动力密集型工作,比如擦鞋,搬运货物、门童或冼车,以及不正规交易。有些孩子甚至通过乞讨或干盗窃等非法勾当来赚钱。同时,也有些流浪儿童以能够养活自己和家人而自豪,而且他们很喜欢所做的工作。许多孩子会选择做生意是因为那可以使他们相对独立一些,而且做生意也比做其他许多有偿工作要少受一些压榨;生意的灵活性还使他们有时间去参与其他活动,比如上学或是做家务。

Street Business Partnerships

流浪儿童就业互助计划

S.K.I. has worked with partner organisations in Latin America, Africa and India to develop innovative opportunities for street children to earn income.

国际流浪儿童组织与拉丁美洲、非洲及印度的伙伴组织合作,开发了让流浪儿童赚钱的新机会。

? The S.K.I. Bicycle Courier Service first started in the Sudan. Participants in this enterprise were supplied with bicycles, which they used to deliver parcels and messages, and which they were required to pay for gradually from their wages. A similar program was taken up in Bangalore, India.

?国际流浪儿童组织速递服务首先在苏丹展开。这项计划为参与者提供自行车用以递送包裹或信件,买自行车的钱会从参与者的工资中一点一点扣除。在印度的班加罗尔,一项类似的计划也已经展开。

? Another successful project, The Shoe Shine Collective, was a partnership program with the Y.W.C.A. in the Dominican Republic. In this project, participants were lent money to purchase shoe shine boxes. They were also given a safe place to store their equipment, and facilities for individual savings plans.

?在多米尼加共和国,一项与__女青年会合作,名为擦鞋合作社的计划也已经成功展开。这项计划借钱给参与者购买擦鞋箱,还给他们提供一个安全的地方来放置擦鞋工具,同时还提供了供他们存钱的设备。

? The Youth Skills Enterprise Initiative in Zambia is a joint program with the Red Cross Society and the Y.W.C.A. Street youths are supported to start their own small business through business training, life skills training and access to credit.

?赞比亚的青年创业计划是与红十字协会以及__女青年会合办的项自。通过商务培训、生存技能训练以及提供贷款机会等方式,该项目的参与者得以开办自己的小生意。

Lessons learned

The following lessons have emerged from the programs that S.K.I. and partner organisations have created.

经验教训

在国际流浪儿童组织的计划实施过程中,出现了下列教训:

? Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone, nor for every street child. Ideally, potential participants will have been involved in the organisation’s programs for at least six months, and trust and relationship-building will have already been established.

?不是每个人都是做生意的料,流浪儿童也一样。理想状态下,孩子们至少应该参与计划六个月以上,这样双方之间可以建立起信任关系。

? The involvement of the participants has been essential to the development of relevant programs. When children have had a major role in determining procedures, they are more likely to abide by and enforce them.

?参与者的投入对于建立相关计划十分重要。如果孩子们在制定规程过程中起到关键作用,他们就更可能去遵守并执行这些规定。

? It is critical for all loans to be linked to training programs that include the development of basic business and life skills.

?关键是所有的贷款都要与培训计划眹系起来,培训计划应该包括基本商业技能及生存技能的开发。

? There are tremendous advantages to involving parents or guardians in the program, where such relationships exist. Home visits allow staff the opportunity to know where the participants live, and to understand more about each individual’s situation.

?如果条件允许的话,容许家长或监护人参与计划是十分有好处的。家访使工作人员有机会知晓孩子们的住址,并且可以更好地了解每个人所处的环境。

? Small loans are provided initially for purchasing fixed assets such as bicycles, shoe shine kits and basic building materials for a market stall. As the entrepreneurs gain experience, the enterprises can be gradually expanded and consideration can be given to increasing loan amounts. The loan amounts in S.K.I. programs have generally ranged from US30?30?100.

?开始的时候应该给孩子们提供一些小额贷款,以便他们购买如自行车、擦鞋设备以及市场摊位的原材料等固定资产。当从业者有了经验之后,就可以考虑扩大生意规模,并且考虑提髙贷款金额。国际流浪儿童组织计划中的贷款额度通常在30到100美元不等。

? All S.K.I. programs have charged interest on the loans, primarily to get the entrepreneurs used to the concept of paying interest on borrowed money. Generally the rates have been modest (lower than bank rates).

?国际流浪儿童组织所有的计划都会对贷款收取利息。这样做的主要目的是使贷款人习惯为借来的钱支付利息。通常来讲,这种利息都很低(一般低于银行利率)。

Conclusion

There is a need to recognise the importance of access to credit for impoverished young people seeking to fulfil economic needs. The provision of small loans to support the entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions of youth can be an effective means to help them change their lives. However, we believe that credit must be extended in association with other types of support that help participants develop critical life skills as well as productive businesses.

结论

我们需要认识到,为贫困的年轻人提供贷款以满足他们的经济需求是十分重要的。通过提供小额贷款,实现年轻人的经商梦,是帮助他们改变人生的有效途径。然而,我们认为贷款必须与其他形式的援助一起开展,才能帮助年轻人在生意兴隆的同时,发展出其他关键的生存技巧。

Passage2

参考译文

Volcanoes-earth-shattering news

When Mount Pinatubo suddenly erupted on 9 June 1991, the power of volcanoes past and present again hit the headlines.

火山——惊天动地大消息

1991年6月9日,Pinatubo火山突然爆发,结果,有关过去和现在火山爆发威力的文: 章再度登上了报纸的头版。

A Volcanoes are the ultimate earth-moving machinery. A violent eruption can blow the top few kilometres off a mountain, scatter fine ash practically all over the globe and hurl rock fragments into the stratosphere to darken the skies a continent away.

A火山就是终极“移山倒海”的机器。一次猛烈的喷发可以把一座山的山头轰掉几千米,将细灰几乎洒遍全世界,把岩石碎片抛进平流层,遮蔽整个大洲的天空。

But the classic eruption — cone-shaped mountain, big bang, mushroom cloud and surges of molten lava — is only a tiny part of a global story. Volcanism, the name given to volcanic processes, really has shaped the world. Eruptions have rifted continents, raised mountain chains, constructed islands and shaped the topography of the earth. The entire ocean floor has a basement of volcanic basalt.

然而,这种典型的喷发——锥形山体,轰隆巨响,蘑菇云升起,熔岩喷涌——只是长篇故事中的一小章。火山作用,这个由火山活动而来的名词,的确塑造了我们的世界。火山喷发撕裂大陆,举起山脉,构筑岛屿,最终造就了整个世界地形。五大洋的海底基岩就是火山喷发形成的玄武岩。

Volcanoes have not only made the continents, they are also thought to have made the world’s first stable atmosphere and provided all the water for the oceans, rivers and ice-caps. There are now about 600 active volcanoes. Every year they add two or three cubic kilometres of rock to the continents. Imagine a similar number of volcanoes smoking away for the last 3,500 million years. That is enough rock to explain the continental crust.

火山不仅造就了大陆,也许还造就了地球上第一个稳定的大气层,并且为大洋、河流以及冰川提供了水资源。现在全球有600多座活火山。这些火山每年都要为地球增加两、三立方公里的岩石。想像一下,过去3,500年中这600多座火山一直在喷发,这些岩石就足够解释地壳是如何形成的了。

What comes out of volcanic craters is mostly gas. More than 90% of this gas is water vapour from the deep earth: enough to explain, over 3,500 million years, the water in the oceans. The rest of the gas is nitrogen, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane, ammonia and hydrogen. The quantity of these gases, again multiplied over 3,500 million years, is enough to explain the mass of the world’s atmosphere. We are alive because volcanoes provided the soil, air and water we need.

从火山口喷发出来的主要是气体。其中有90%是来自地心深处的水蒸气:火山一连喷发了3,500年,这就足够解释大洋中的水是从哪里来的了。其余气体有氮气、二氧化碳、二氧化硫、甲烷、氨气以及氢气。同样经过了3,500年的积累,这些气体的量就足以解释大气层之“大”了。我们能活着,正是因为火山提供了我们需要的土壤、空气和水。

B Geologists consider the earth as having a molten core, surrounded by a semi-molten mantle and a brittle, outer skin. It helps to think of a soft-boiled egg with a runny yolk, a firm but squishy white and a hard shell. If the shell is even slightly cracked during boiling, the white material bubbles out and sets like a tiny mountain chain over the crack — like an archipelago of volcanic islands such as the Hawaiian Islands. But the earth is so much bigger and the mantle below is so much hotter.

B地质学家认为地球有一个熔化的核心,周围是半熔化的地幔,外边是一层脆脆的外皮。想像一个半熟的鸡蛋会有些帮助——流淌的蛋黄,坚实但又黏稠的蛋清,还有一层坚硬的蛋壳。在煮的时候,蛋壳只要有一点点开裂,蛋淸就会噗噗地冒出来,在裂缝周围形成一座小小的山脉——就像夏威夷群岛那样的火山群岛。只是地球大得多,里面的地幔也烫得多。

Even though the mantle rocks are kept solid by overlying pressure, they can still slowly ‘flow’ like thick treacle. The flow, thought to be in the form of convection currents, is powerful enough to fracture the ‘eggshell’ of the crust into plates, and keep them bumping and grinding against each other, or even overlapping, at the rate of a few centimetres a year. These fracture zones, where the collisions occur, are where earthquakes happen. And, very often, volcanoes.

尽管在上层压力下地幔是固态的,但是它们仍然可以像蜜糖一样“流淌”。这种流动据信是以对流形式进行的,力量足以使地壳这“蛋壳”破裂成板块,并且使这些板块互相碰撞摩擦,甚至使它们以一年数厘米的速度互相重叠。这些破碎的地方正是碰撞发生的地方,也是地震发生之处,通常也是火山出现的地方。

C These zones are lines of weakness, or hot spots. Every eruption is different, but put at its simplest, where there are weaknesses, rocks deep in the mantle, heated to 1,350℃, will start to expand and rise. As they do so, the pressure drops, and they expand and become liquid and rise more swiftly.

C这些区域正是脆质带,也就是地震多发区。每次喷发都不尽相同,但是简而言之,在脆弱的地方,地幔深处的岩石被加热到1,350摄氏度,并开始膨胀上升。当地幔变化的时候,压力就会减小,因此地幔就开始膨胀并变成液体,然后迅速上涨。

Sometimes it is slow: vast bubbles of magma — molten rock from the mantle — inch towards the surface, cooling slowly, to show through as granite extrusions (as on Skye, or the Great Whin Sill, the lava dyke squeezed out like toothpaste that carries part of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England). Sometimes — as in Northern Ireland, Wales and the Karoo in South Africa — the magma rose faster, and then flowed out horizontally on to the surface in vast thick sheets. In the Deccan plateau in western India, there are more than two million cubic kilometres of lava, some of it 2,400 metres thick, formed over 500,000 years of slurping eruption.

有时候喷发很慢:岩浆——地幔中熔化的岩石——的巨大气泡慢慢接近地表,慢慢变冷,最后作为花岗岩突起显露出来。(在斯凯岛和大玄武岩山,熔岩堤坝像牙膏一样挤出来,延伸成为英格兰北部哈德良长城的一部分。)有时候——比如在北爱尔兰,威尔士以及南非的干旱台地卡鲁——岩浆上升得很快,然后以大厚块的形式水平地涌上地面。在印度西部的德千髙原,经过超过50万年咕嘟咕嘟的火山喷发,积累了超过200万立方公里的熔岩,其中有些厚达2,400米。

Sometimes the magma moves very swiftly indeed. It does not have time to cool as it surges upwards. The gases trapped inside the boiling rock expand suddenly, the lava glows with heat, it begins to froth, and it explodes with tremendous force. Then the slightly cooler lava following it begins to flow over the lip of the crater. It happens on Mars, it happened on the moon, it even happens on some of the moons of Jupiter and Uranus. By studying the evidence, vulcanologists can read the force of the great blasts of the past. Is the pumice light and full of holes? The explosion was tremendous. Are the rocks heavy, with huge crystalline basalt shapes, like the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland? It was a slow, gentle eruption.

有时候岩浆移动得十分迅速。在向上喷涌的过程中没有时间冷却。沸腾的岩石中所包含的气体突然膨胀,熔岩因为受热而闪闪发光,岩浆开始冒泡,接着以巨大的力量爆发。然后,下面稍微凉一点的熔岩开始漫出火山口。这种情形曾经发生在火星上,也曾经发生在月球上,甚至在木星和天王星的卫星上也曾经出现过。通过研究这些证据,火山学家们得以了解过去大喷发的威力。轻石是不是很轻并且充满孔洞?其喷发的力量是巨大的。岩石是否很重,是否像北爱尔兰巨人堤一样,有着巨大的结晶玄武岩形状?那就是一场缓慢,温和的喷发。

The biggest eruptions are deep on the mid-ocean floor, where new lava is forcing the continents apart and widening the Atlantic by perhaps five centimetres a year. Look at maps of volcanoes, earthquakes and island chains like the Philippines and Japan, and you can see the rough outlines of what are called tectonic plates — the plates which make up the earth’s crust and mantle. The most dramatic of these is the Pacific ‘ring of fire’ where there have been the most violent explosions — Mount Pinatubo near Manila, Mount St Helen’s in the Rockies and El Chichón in Mexico about a decade ago, not to mention world-shaking blasts like Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits in 1883.

最剧烈的喷发发生在大洋中间深深的海底,新的熔岩将大陆撕开,每年将大西洋加宽五厘米。观察一下火山、地震和像菲律宾和日本这样的群岛,你就会看到被称为地壳板块的大致轮廓——地壳板块组成了地球的地壳和地幔。这其中最明显的例子就是太平洋上的“火环”,那里曾经发生过最剧烈的喷发——马尼拉附近的Pinatubo喷发,洛基山脉中的圣海伦山喷发,还有十年前的墨西哥EI Chichón山喷发,更不用提1883年苏丹海峡喀拉喀托山震惊世界的喷发。

D But volcanoes are not very predictable. That is because geological time is not like human time. During quiet periods, volcanoes cap themselves with their own lava by forming a powerful cone from the molten rocks slopping over the rim of the crater; later the lava cools slowly into a huge, hard, stable plug which blocks any further eruption until the pressure below becomes irresistible. In the case of Mount Pinatubo, this took 600 years.

D然而火山喷发并不总是能被预测,那是因为地质时间与人类时间不同。在休眠期,火山用熔岩将自己盖起来,用溢出火山口的熔岩形成坚硬的锥型体,随后熔岩慢慢冷却成为又大又哽,稳固的岩颈,岩颈会阻止进一步的喷发,直到压力大到无法抵挡为止。拿Pinatubo山为例,这个过程花了600年。

Then, sometimes, with only a small warning, the mountain blows its top. It did this at Mont Pelée in Martinique at 7.49 a.m. on 8 May, 1902. Of a town of 28,000, only two people survived. In 1815, a sudden blast removed the top 1,280 metres of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The eruption was so fierce that dust thrown into the stratosphere darkened the skies, cancelling the following summer in Europe and North America. Thousands starved as the harvests failed, after snow in June and frosts in August. Volcanoes are potentially world news, especially the quiet ones.

然而,有时候,只有一个小小的征兆,火山就喷发了。1902年5月8日早上7点49分,Martinique的Pelée山爆发了。28,000人的城镇,只有两人幸存。在1815年,一次突然喷发炸掉了印度尼西亚的Tambora山1,280米的山顶。那次喷发如此剧烈,以至于喷进平流层的火山灰遮蔽了天空,使得欧洲和美洲直接进人秋季。六月下雪,八月上霜,粮食因此而歉收,上千人忍饥挨饿,火山,尤其是那些安静的火山,是潜在的世界新闻。

Passage3

参考译文

Obtaining Linguistic Data

获得语言资料

A Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about one’s mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home.

A我们有很多种可以用来获得语言资料的方式。这些方法既可以是精心准备,深入细致的国外实地调査,也可以是在自家摇椅上进行的,对母语的一次不经意的反思。

B In all cases, someone has to act as a source of language data — an informant. Informants are (ideally) native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language (e.g. translations, comments about correctness, or judgements on usage). Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics. But a linguist’s personal judgements are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgements of other linguists, at which point recourse is needed to more objective methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The latter procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech.

B无论用何种方式,总有人要充当语言资料的来源——这个人就叫做资料提供者。资料提供者(理想状态下)应该是以该语言为母语的人,他可以提供做分析之用的语句,还可以给出有关该语言的其他信息(如翻译,正误评判,用法判断等)。在研究本国语言时,语言学家本人往往充当资料提供者一角,比照他们的直觉,来对语句的歧义现象、可接受度及其他特性加以评判。这种方法因其便利性而被广泛使用,而且还被看作是生成式语言研究方式的规范。然而,一名语言学家的个人判断通常要么是不确定的,要么就与其他语言学家的意见相左,此时就需要求助于更为客观的提问方式,让语言学家本人以外的人来充当资料提供者。

C Many factors must be considered when selecting informants — whether one is working with single speakers (a common situation when languages have not been described before), two people interacting, small groups or large-scale samples. Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used. The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting (e.g. the level of formality) are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants (e.g. their fluency and consistency). For larger studies, scrupulous attention has been paid to the sampling theory employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use.

C在研究外语及儿童语言的时候,第二种方式是不可避免的在选择资料提供人的时候要考虑多种因素——你面对的是单个说话人(当语言从未被描述过的时候出现的通常状况),还是两个人互动;是小组还是大规模的样本。年龄、性别、社会背景以及身份的其他方面都很重要,因为据信这些因素会影响使用语言的类别。对话的话题和社交场合的特征(比如正式程度)也极其相关;同样,资料提供者的个人资质(比如语言流畅度和连贯性)也十分重要。对于较大规模的研究来说,要对所采用的抽样方式一丝不苟,而且无论在什么情况下,都要决定采用最好的调查技术。

D Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguist’s claims about the language to be checked, and provides a way of making those claims more accurate (‘difficult’ pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly). But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to minimise the ‘observer’s paradox’ (how to observe the way people behave when they are not being observed). Some recordings are made without the speakers being aware of the fact — a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated. Alternatively, attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones. A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style (e.g. asking older informants about how times have changed in their locality).

D如今,语言研究者通常都会为资料提供人录音。这就使语言学家针对这些语言的某些论断变得可以接受检查,并且还能提供一种使这些观点更为精确的方式(反复听“难”懂的语言)。但是想要获得自然的,高质量的资料可没那么容易。当得知被录音的时候,人们说话的方式就不同了,而且音质可以很差。因此,一系列的录音方式就被设计出来以便尽可能地解除研究者的矛盾(如何能够观察人们的行为方式又不让他们知道正在被观察)。有时候,说话人是在毫不知情的情况下被录音的——这一方式可以获得极自然的材料,但是道德方面的反对意见也是预料之中的事。另外,也可以尝试让说话人忘记录音这回事,比如把录音机藏起来,或是使用无线麦克风。还有一种管用的方式,就是提出一个说话人能够迅速融入的话题,从而激发一种自然的语言风格(比如询问年长的资料提供者:在他们的家乡,时代是如何变迁的)。

E An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist’s problems, however. Speech is often unclear and ambiguous. Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observer’s written comments on the non-verbal behaviour of the participants, and about the context in general. A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said. Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcriptions always benefit from any additional commentary provided by an observer.

E然而,磁带录音的方式并不能够解决语言学家面临的所有问题。讲话通常又不清楚,又有歧义。因此,如果可能的话,要对参与者的非语言行为以及整体语境做出书面评述,作为对录音的补充。例如,一个面部表情就可以彻底改变一句话的意思。在很大情况下,可以用录像方式避免这样的问题,但是就算是这个方式也存在局限性(摄像机不可能安得到处都是),而且文字誊本总是要得益于观察者另外提供的注解。

F Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviours. With a bilingual informant, or through use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation techniques (‘How do you say table in your language?’). A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview worksheets and questionnaires. Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just a single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used: a particular feature of pronunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words. There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as asking informants to fill in the blanks in a substitution frame (e.g. I___ see a car), or feeding them the wrong stimulus for correction (‘Is it possible to say I no can see?’).

F语言学家还需要大量使用结构化会议,当中他们系统地要求资料提供者说出有关某种动作、物体及行为的语句。如果资料提供者是说双语的,或者通过翻译的帮助,我们就有可能用到翻译技巧(比如你们怎么说桌子这个词)。通过使用面试表格和调查问卷,我们能够在很短的时间里覆盖大量的知识点。通常,研究者只想获得有关某个语言变项的信息,在这种情况下,就必须使用一套严格设置好的问题:比如说,发音上的某个特殊规则,可以用要求资料提供者读出一组严格设定的单词的方法引出来。我们还有几种直接的诱导方式,比如让资料提供人填写替换表中的空格(比如:我__看到一辆汽车),或者给他们做改错练习(“能不能说我能不看到?”)。

G A representative sample of language, compiled for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus. A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers. Its range and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature. The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, through either introspection or experimentation.

G为了语言分析而被编纂起来的语言代表样本被叫做语料库。语料库使得语言学家能够对一种用法的频率加以客观陈述,而且还可以为其他的研究者所用。语料库的范围和规模是各不相同的。有些语料库试图将语言作为一个整体来研究,从不同类型的文章中节选材料;其他的则十分挑剔,只提供针对某个特殊语言现象的一组材料。语料库的大小是由实践因素决定的,比如说可以用来搜集、处理、存储资料的时间:要想为几分钟的演讲做一个精确的原文,可能要花上数小时的时间。有时候,个小资料样本就足以证明一种语言学假说。相反地,重大研究项目的语料库加起来足有上百万字。一个重要的原则是,无论大小,所有的语料库在覆盖面上都不可避免地存在局限性,因此,它们总是需要通过内省或实验的方式,被源自母语者直觉的资料补充。

清史稿阅读答案解析及原文翻译

《韩湟》阅读答案解析及原文翻译

雅思阅读判断题解析

《包拯》原文翻译及阅读答案

爱莲说原文翻译及阅读答案

《惜抱轩文集》的阅读答案解析及原文翻译

《扁鹊投石》阅读答案和原文翻译

《赵孟頫传》阅读答案及原文翻译

《太史公自序》阅读答案及原文翻译

《东坡志林》阅读答案解析及翻译

剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析(推荐10篇)

欢迎下载DOC格式的剑桥雅思阅读6test1原文翻译及答案解析,但愿能给您带来参考作用!
推荐度: 推荐 推荐 推荐 推荐 推荐
点击下载文档 文档为doc格式
点击下载本文文档