单选题 Florence Nightingale is most remembered as a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods. For most of her ninety years, Nightingale pushed for reform of the British military health-care system and with that the profession of nursing started to gain the respect it deserved. Unknown to many, however, was her use of new techniques, of statistical analysis, such as during the Crimean War when she plotted the incidence of preventable deaths in the military. She developed a method to prevent the needless deaths caused by unsanitary conditions and the need for reform. With her analysis, Florence Nightingale revolutionized the idea that social phenomena could be objectively measured and subjected to mathematical analysis. She was an innovator in the collection, interpretation, and display of statistics.
Florence Nightingale's two greatest life achievements-pioneering of nursing and the reform of hospitals-were amazing considering that most Victorian women of her age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers. It was her father, William Nightingale, who believed women, especially his children, should get an education. So Nightingale and her sister learned Italian, Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics. She in particular received excellent early preparation in mathematics.
During Nightingale's time at Scutari, she collected data and systematized record-keeping practices. Nightingale was able to use the data as a tool for improving city and military hospitals. Nightingale's calculations of the death rate showed that with an improvement of sanitary methods, deaths would decrease. In February, 1855, the death rate at the hospital was 42.7 percent of the cases treated. When Nightingale's sanitary reform was implemented, the death rate declined. Nightingale took her statistical data and represented them graphically.
As Nightingale demonstrated, statistics provided an organized way of learning and lead to improvements in medical and surgical practices. She also developed a Model Hospital Statistical Form for hospitals to collect and generate consistent data and statistics. She became a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858 and an honorary member of the American Statistical Association in 1874. Karl Pearson acknowledged Nightingale as a "prophetess" in the development of applied statistics.

单选题 What does the word "sanitation" mean in the passage?
[A] Medication. [B] Cleanness.
[C] Nursing. [D] Reforms

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 词义题；这个词在全文中多次出现，因为是主人公Nightingale的主要贡献的一个方面，虽然大部分考生在考前可能不认识这个单词，但阅读中考查我们的是通过上下文的关系来推测词汇含义的能力。通过文章中的分析，我们可以知道，这个词指的是和卫生条件有关的含义，也就是医院等从事医疗服务的机构，它的环境是否足够清洁，符合这个意思的是B选项。其他选项分别表示A医疗，C护理，D改革；将这些意思带回原文，在上下文中都是不通顺的。

单选题 What does this passage talk about Nightingale?
[A] As a pioneer of nursing.
[B] As a reformer of hospital sanitation methods.
[C] As a successful woman.
[D] As a innovator of statistical analysis in hospitals.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 文章主旨题；考生在阅读文章之后，对文章内容有了整体的宏观把握才能正确解答这个题目，Nightingale是部分考生可能知道的著名的医护人员南丁格尔，由她的名字命名的奖项用来奖励世界范围内在医疗护理领域做出贡献和成就的医护人员；但本文不是在谈论这个众人皆知的事实，在引导性地提到这些成就之后，文章转而提出了本文将对Nightingale进行讨论和关注的切入点，文章的第一段有这样一句话“unknown to many，however，was hei use of new techniques of statistical analysis”，这是很多人不知道的事情，但这正是本文要讨论的领域，也就是Nightingale在数字统计领域的贡献，和对于这种技术在医疗上的应用，所以D选项正确地认识到了这一点，是我们的答案；A和B选项分别指出了人们熟知Nightingale的两大理由，C更是脱离本文的主观臆测，都是不正确的。

单选题 What can be inferred about the women living in the same era as Nightingale?
[A] They chose to stay at home after graduating from colleges and universities.
[B] They tended to choose courses in Italian, Latin, Greek, history and so on.
[C] They seldom chose mathematics as their course.
[D] They did not have a equal education opportunities with men as they do today.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题；原文的第二段中有这样一句话women of her age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers，指出了同时代的其他女性无法接受高等教育和寻求职业发展，D选项正确地认识到了这一点，是本题的答案。A选项忽略了她们不能接受高等教育的事实。B选项也是在默认她们接受高等教育的前提下提出的，这个前提本身就是有问题的，干扰性在于courses in Italian，Latin，Greek，history与原文的信息完全一致，我们需要知道的是，这些课程是同样进入大学接受高等教育的Nightingale的姐妹选择的课程。C选项的错误和B选项是一样的。

单选题 Where did Nightingale prove her method could really reduce the death rates?
[A] Scutari. [B] Victorian.
[C] Crimean. [D] Royal Statistical Society.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 细节题；难度不大，要求考生识别在原文中通过利用数理统计的方式，使死亡率得到大幅降低的地方在哪里。原文明确指出是在Scutari，也就是A选项是正确答案，其他选项的地点分别出现在文章的其他段落，D选项是Nightingale后来工作的一个地方，只要考生不要凭借自己的印象，而是回到原文进行了查找的话，就不大可能在这个问题上出现误选。