单选题 {{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
{{B}}Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.{{/B}}
The idea of test-tube babies may make you either delighted at the wonders 'of modern medicine or irritated while considering the moral, or legal, or technological implications of starting life in a laboratory. But if you've ever been pregnant yourself, one thing is certain. You wonder what it's like to carry a test-tube baby. Are these pregnancies normal? Are the babies normal?
The earliest answers come from Australia, where a group of medical experts at the Queen Victoria Medical Center in Melbourne have taken a look at the continent's first nine successful invitro pregnancies. The Australians report that the pregnancies themselves seemed to have proceeded according to plan, but at birth some unusual trends did show up seven of the nine babies turned out to be girls. Six of the nine were delivered by Caesarean section. And one baby, a twin, was born with a serious heart defect and a few days later developed life-threatening problems.
What does it all mean? Even the doctors don't know for sure, because the numbers are so small. The proportion of girls to boys is high, but until there are many more test-tube babies no one will know whether that's something that just happened to be like that or something special that happens when egg meets sperm in a test tube instead of a fallopian tube. The same thin is true of the single heart defect. It usually shows up in only 15 out of 60000 births in that part of Australia, but the fact that it occurred in one out of nine test-tube babies does not necessarily mean that they are at special risk. One thing the doctors can explain is the high number of Caesareans. Most of the mothers were older, had long histories of fertility problems and in some cases had had surgery on the fallopian tubes, all of which made them likely candidates for Caesareans anyway.
The Australian researchers report that they are quite encouraged. All the babies are now making normal progress, even the twin with the birth defects.
单选题 What concern will the test-tube baby raise according to the passage?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[精析] 推理判断题【考频:68】。原文首段就指出,人们所担心的问题是怀孕及试管婴儿是否正常。文章就是围绕normal这个关键词陈述现象并分析实验结果的。故A)正确。 [避错] B)“试管婴儿是否被鼓励”,文中仅在第一段开始提到人们对试管婴儿的两种态度:delighted and irritated (高兴或被激怒),这不是人们担心的内容;C)“为什么有缺陷的孩子的比例那么高”和D)“为什么剖腹产的数量那么高”,这两项都是后文提到的,澳大利亚的医学专家分析了原因,而且这也超出了人们担心的范围,故这两项也要排除。
单选题 What does the word "invitro" underlined in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[精析] 语义理解题【考频:40】。首段第二句中carry a test-tube baby提示了invitro的含义,它的含义可以从上下文语境中推测出来。 [避错] A)“正常的”,如果这九例成功的怀孕是正常的,那么澳洲的医学专家就没有take a look at的必要了,故排除A);C)“植入的”,文章中压根没有提到,排除C);D)“正式的”,根据对原文的理解,很容易排除此项。
单选题 Which of the following statements about the experiment mentioned in the passage is TRUE?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[精析] 推理判断题【考频:68】。抓住试验这一环节,对号入座。第二段第三句Six of the nine were delivered by Caesarean section,九个婴儿中有6个剖腹产,由此说明大多数的婴儿都是剖腹产的。故选B)。 [避错] A)“只有这对双胞胎有缺陷”,事实是双胞胎中的一位有心脏病,排除此项;C)“所有母亲怀孕的过程都有烦恼”,文章中提到The Australians report that the pregnancies themselves seemed to have proceeded according to plan,这说明怀孕的过程基本是正常的,顺利的;D)“有一个婴儿好像是反常的”,文中未提到,排除D)。
单选题 Which of the following explanations regarding the high number of Caesarean operations is NOT true?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[精析] 推理判断题【考频:68】。文中介绍了选择试管怀孕的大多数母亲的特征:或高龄、或不育、或做过输卵管手术,但并未说一些母亲是否喜欢这种方式,故C)说法错误,为正确答案。 [避错] A)“有些母亲已经超过自然生育的最好年龄”,文中提到Most of the mothers were older大多数母亲都是高龄产妇,故A)正确;B)“有些母亲患有不育症”,此项在原文中可以找到had long histories of fertility problems,即有长期的不孕史,故B)正确;D)“有些母亲做过输卵管手术”,此项在原文中也有原话。这些在文章中都能一一对应,而题干要求找出不正确的解释,故排除这三项。
单选题 What is the author's tone in this passage?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[精析] 综合推断题【考频:28】。从encouraged,normal progress可以看出作者对试管婴儿的前景比较乐观。 [避错] A)沮丧的,C)反对的,D)否定的,这二项都可以算是一类,选择其中任意一项都意味着不支持试管婴儿,故三项都排除。