填空题
The human brain can do a lot of wonderful things; many of them include 1 mastery of complex feedback systems with long 2 For example, consider how difficult raising a child truly is. Many factors are 3 , including the nutritional, physical, emotional and mental condition of the child, and the feedback of these factors 4 the behavior of those involved in raising the child. To 5 matters, many of the responses of the child/parent "system" take years to 6 themselves. Yet billions of parents have somehow 7 to feed, clothe, protect, nurture, heal, teach, and love their children 8 successful adulthood.
9 all our intuitive sophistication in dealing with complicated situations, it''s a 10 to see how poorly we deal with some newer systems, most of 11 brought about by technology.
Both raising children and protecting Earth''s life-support systems are 12 of life and death; in the long term, they are equally important. But 13 our brains seem fairly well prepared for the long-term process of raising kids, we seem to have 14 built-in skill for taking care of the environment that supports us, any children we might have, and all other 15 . It seems that the "thinking" parts of our brains can''t deal with complicated systems and their long- term 16 ,and the 17 parts of our brains that can deal with complex systems don''t help us much outside of their 18 areas. One of the goals of systems science is to use math and computers to help people get better 19 taking care of Earth''s life-support systems. The task involves teaching our thinking brains about 20 complicated systems work.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】这里所说是人类大脑所能做之事。virtual: in fact(though not in name)(事实的，实际上的＜虽不在名义上＞)较切合句意。
firm(坚固的)，solid(坚实的，可靠的)，latent：present but not yet active，developed or visible(潜伏/在的)，用于此处皆不合逻辑。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】delays在此意为the time during which sth．/sb．Is delayed(延迟的时间)。此句大意是：人的大脑实际上能长期延时控制反应系统。后面的举例证明了此意。 intervals(间隔)，stays(逗留)不合句意逻辑。periods(时期)之前通常用in/during，不用with。
【答案解析】这四个词有一共同的意思：make sth．known(揭露；暴露；泄露)，但reveal另有allow or cause to be seen(显示；显露出)，reveal oneself(使自己显示出来)，符合句子要求。
betray oneself意为show what one really is(暴露出真实身份，原形毕露)。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】鉴于空白后有不定式作宾语，succeeded(成功)可先排除，因为它是vi，后接 in doing sth．。attempted：try(试图，尝试)；managed：succeed in doing sth．(设法做到；完成)；inclined: tend；be disposed(倾向于；愿意)。从句意看，managed是正确用词。
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】into: indicating change of condition，result(表示变成……状况/结果)。此句大意是：无数父母千方百计供子女们吃、穿……已成功地把他们养育成人。
【答案解析】空白前的不定冠词a表明此处需一可数名词。wonder(惊奇，惊叹)，chaos (混乱)和confusion(混乱)都是[U](uncountable noun不可数名词)，wonder作“奇物，奇迹”解时为[C]；在It''s a wonder(that)…(令人惊奇的是……)句型中，后接从句，而非不定式。故以上3词可以排除。只有surprise[C，U]：sth．sudden or unexpected(惊奇，诧异)可取。此题看似易解，但若不查阅英语原文词典，怎知孰是 [C]，孰是[U]?或何义是[U]，何义是[C]?
【答案解析】affair虽与matter都可作“事情”解，但a matter/matters of life and death是惯用短语，意为one(s)on which sb''s．continued existence depends(生死攸关之事)，不可用其他词替代。
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】从句意逻辑看，只能选用whereas：while on the other hand(然而；尽管)。 whereas引导的从句位于主句之前，意为“虽然……但是……”。
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】whereas引导的从句与主句有“对照”或“相反”之意。此句由于从句中有 fairly well prepared(准备得相当充分)，主句应有表示否定意义之词，据此proper(合适的，恰当的)可以排除。little：not much(很少的，几乎没有的)；poor：small in quantity；low in quality(少量的；质劣的)；lame：unconvincing；unsatisfactory(站不住脚的，不令人信服/满意的)，这三个词皆有否定含义。但据上下文判断，little最恰当，因为这里所讨论的并非skill的优劣，而是其有无的问题。其后的built-in意为“生来的；固有的”。
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】involved在此意为have as a part or result(涉及；包括)，这里指养育子女包括许多要素。
concern与involve另一义：cause sb．to become concerned(牵连/涉及某人)近似； correlated(互相关联)；incurred(招致；惹起)，不合句意。
【答案解析】识别词义：actions：things done；acts(所做之事；行为)；effects：results； outcomes(结果；效果)；influences：persons，facts，etc．that exercise such power(有影响力的人、事等，影响力)；functions：special activities or purposes of a person or thing(作用；功能)。上句说，我们几乎生来就没有关心……环境的能力，即不考虑长期的后果，故选effects最恰当。
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】这是词形干扰题，也是词义识别题。insensitive：不敏感的，迟钝的； initiative：创始的；indicative：指/暗示的；intuitive：直觉的，本能的。前一分句中有 the“thinking''’parts of our brains(我们大脑“进行思考”的部分)，后面与之对应的自然应是the intuitive parts of our brains(我们大脑的直觉部分)。
【答案解析】分析搭配关系可知，此处at与better连用，即good(better)at sth．：skillful； having the ability to do sth．(有能力做某事的，善于……的)，符合句意。good to/for： beneficial；wholesome(有益健康的)。