阅读理解Passage Two Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage

阅读理解 The biggest thing in operating rooms these days is a million-dollar, multi-armed robot named da Vinci, used in nearly 400,000 surgeries nationwide last year—triple the number just four years earlier. But now the high-tech helper is under scrutiny over reports of problems, including several deaths that may be linked with it and the high cost of using the robotic system. There also have been a few disturbing, freak incidents: a robotic hand that wouldn't let go of tissue grasped during surgery and a robotic arm hitting a patient in the face as she lay on the operating table. Is it time to curb the robot enthusiasm? Some doctors say yes, concerned that the 'wow' factor and heavy marketing have boosted use. They argue that there is not enough robust research showing that robotic surgery is at least as good or better than conventional surgeries. Many U. S. hospitals promote robotic surgery in patient brochures, online and even on highway billboards. Their aim is partly to attract business that helps pay for the costly robot. The da Vinci is used for operations that include removing prostates, gallbladders and wombs, repairing heart valves, shrinking stomachs and transplanting organs. Its use has increased worldwide, but the system is most popular in the United States. For surgeons, who control the robot while sitting at a computer screen rather than standing over the patient, these operations can be less tiring. Plus robot hands don't shake. Advocates say patients sometimes have less bleeding and often are sent home sooner than with conventional laparoscopic surgeries and operations involving large incisions. But the Food and Drug Administration is looking into a spike in reported problems during robotic surgeries. Earlier this year, the FDA began a survey of surgeons using the robotic system. The agency conducts such surveys of devices routinely, but FDA spokeswoman Synim Rivers said the reason for it now 'is the increase in number of reports received' about da Vinci. Reports filed since early last year include at least five deaths. Whether there truly are more problems recently is uncertain. Rivers said she couldn't quantify the increase and that it may simply reflect more awareness among doctors and hospitals about the need to report problems. Doctors aren't required to report such things; device makers and hospitals are. Company spokesman Geoff Curtis said intuitive Surgical has physician-educators and other trainers who teach surgeons how to use the robot. But they don't train them how to do specific procedures robotically, he said, and that it's up to hospitals and surgeons to decide 'if and when a surgeon is ready to perform robotic cases.' A 2010 New England Journal of Medicine essay by a doctor and a health policy analyst said surgeons must do at least 150 procedures to become adept at using the robotic system. But there is no expert consensus on how much training is needed. New Jersey banker Alexis Grattan did a lot of online research before her gallbladder was removed last month at Hackensack University Medical Center. She said the surgeon's many years of experience with robotic operations was an important factor. She also had heard that the surgeon was among the first to do the robotic operation with just one small incision in the belly button, instead of four cuts in conventional keyhole surgery.

阅读理解Passage F The standard of living of any country means the average persons share of the goods and services which the country produces

阅读理解As many office workers adapt to remote work, cities may undergo fundamental change if offices remain under-utilized. Who will benefit if working from home becomes the norm? Employers argue they make considerable savings on real estate when workers shift from office to home work. However, these savings result from passing costs on to workers. Unless employees are fully compensated, this could become a variant of parasitic (寄生的) capitalism, whereby corporate profits increasingly rely on extracting value from the public—and now personal—realm, rather than on generating new value. Though employers are backed by a chorus of remote work advocates, others note the loneliness, reduced productivity and inefficiencies of extended remote work. If working from home becomes permanent, employees will have to dedicate part of their private space to work. This requires purchasing desks, chairs and office equipment. It also means having private space dedicated to work: the space must be heated, cleaned, maintained and paid for. That depends on many things, but for purposes of illustration, I have run some estimates for Montreal. The exercise is simple but important, since it brings these costs out of the realm of speculation into the realm of meaningful discussion. Rough calculations show that the savings made by employers when their staff works from home are of similar value to the compensation workers should receive for setting up offices at home. What does this mean for offices in cities? One of two things may happen: Employers pass these costs onto employees. This would be a form of expropriation (侵占), with employees absorbing production costs that have traditionally been paid by the employer. This represents a considerable transfer of value from employees to employers. When employees are properly compensated, employers’ real estate savings will be modest. If savings are modest, then the many advantages of working in offices—such as lively atmosphere, rapidity of communication, team-building and acclimatization (适应环境) of new employees—will encourage employers to shelve the idea of remote work and, like Yahoo in 2013, encourage employees to work most of the time from corporate office space.

阅读理解Text 4 In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the inadequacies of the judicial system in the United States

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.Text CThe world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: Won’t the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti- competitive force?There’s no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy.I believe that the most important forces behind the massive MA wave are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers’ demands. All these are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world’s wealth increases.Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could re-create the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the US, when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as WorldCom, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coining down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt.Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. Not long ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the megamergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won’t multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about infringements to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of defending competition on issues that affect many other nations, as in the US vs. Microsoft case?

阅读理解Passage F The standard of living of any country means the average persons share of the goods and services which the country produces

阅读理解Questions 81 to 90 are based on the following passage

阅读理解For some time past it has been widely accepted that babiesand other creatureslearn to do things because certain acts lead to rewards, and there is no reason to doubt that this is true

阅读理解 Veterans make up 8.5 percent of America's adult population but account for 18 percent of its suicides. In the past year, according to new data from the Veterans Affairs Department, 7,403 veterans killed themselves. That is about 20 deaths a day. This is a national emergency, and attacking it is the primary mission of the V.A.'s Veterans Crisis Line, a call center based in Canandaigua, N.Y. through phone conversations, online chats and text messages, trained operators listen and console, contact the police and hospitals if necessary, and steer callers to mental health care. Since 2007, the crisis line has been an all-purpose safety net for many thousands of veterans in free call. The V.A.'s inspector general reported in February that calls were going unanswered or being sent to voice mail or backup call centers outside the V.A. The report raised questions about poor training and oversight, citing one center where staff members had never answered voice mail messages because they didn't know the voice mail system existed. A report in May from the Government Accountability Office found that the Crisis Line was failing to meet its goals for phone response times, and not answering all its text messages. The V.A. deserves much of its bad reputation. But even the department's harshest critics have to admit that veterans are often better off inside the V.A. than out. The V.A.'s data show that suicide rates are highest among veterans who are 50 and older and those who do not receive V.A. care. The only real solution is to sign up more veterans, and to serve them better, with greater access to mental health care and a well-run crisis center that has the staffing, oversight and attention needed for its critical mission. The V.A. says it has been working to fix things. It has updated phone systems so calls do not go to voice mail. It says it has hired dozens of people and will soon have more than 300 trained responders. It is expanding mental health care for women and redoubling efforts to identify patients at high risk for suicide. Public confidence in the V.A., sorely tested, will not be repaired until the appalling suicide rate goes down, and watchdogs have no more appalling lapses to write about.

阅读理解Passage 5 Anyone who thinks exploration always involves long journeys should have his head examined

阅读理解People once widely believed that intelligent life existed on Mars. The 19th-century discovery of what appeared to be geometric designs cut across the surface was taken as evidence. The lines were thought to have been a system of canals that had been built to irrigate the surface. It is now clear that the "canals"—perhaps the most spectacular geologic features of Mars—are natural valleys where ancient rivers once flowed. Another fragmented idea concerns the planet''s seasonal changes in color. Once attributed to the rapid spread of some life-form, these shifts are now known to develop from the movement of fine dust in the atmosphere. By the close of the 20th century none of the many experiments conducted by spacecraft had ever found persuasive evidence of life. Nevertheless, speculation continued over the existence of some form of life, in either the present or past. In 1996 scientists discovered organic compounds and minerals in a meteorite (陨石), consisting of Martian rock, that collided with Earth around 11,000 B.C.. These compounds suggest that Mars may have been inhabited by organisms more than three billion years ago.

阅读理解 American researchers are working on three antibodies that many mark a new step on the path toward an HIV vaccine, according to a report published online Thursday, July 8, 2010, in the journal Science. One of the antibodies suppresses 91 percent of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody ever discovered, according to a report on the findings published in the Wall Street Journal. The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man whose body produced them naturally. One antibody in particular is substantially different from its precursors, the Science study says. The antibodies could be tried as a treatment for people already infected with HIV, the WSJ reports. At the very least, they might boost the efficacy of current antiretroviral drugs. It is welcome news for the 33 million people the United Nations estimated were living with AIDS at the end of 2008. The WSJ outlines the painstaking method the team used to find the antibody amid the cells of the African-American man, known as Donor 45. First they designed a probe that looks just like a spot on a particular molecule on the cells that HIV infects. They used the probe to attract only the antibodies that efficiently attack that spot. They screened 25 million of Donor 45's cell to find just 12 cells that produced the antibodies. Scientists have already discovered plenty of antibodies that either don't work at all or only work on a couple of HIV strains. Last year marked the first time that researchers found 'broadly neutralizing antibodies,' which knock out many HIV strains. But none of those antibodies neutralized more than about 40 percent of them, the WSJ says. The newest antibody, at 91 percent neutralization, is a marked improvement. Still, more work needs to be done to ensure the antibodies would activate the immune system to produce natural defenses against AIDS, the study authors say. They suggest there are test methods that blend the three new antibodies together—in raw form to prevent transmission of the virus, such as from mother to child; in a microbicide gel that women or gay men could use before sex to prevent infection; or as a treatment for HIV/AIDS, combined with antiretroviral drug. If the scientists can find the right way to stimulate production of the antibodies, they think most people could produce then, the WSJ says.

阅读理解Questions 51 to 60 are based on the following passage

阅读理解PASSAGE FOUR With technology leased from the German company Tronical, Gibson has modified its classic Les Paul design to create a guitar that adjusts itself to one of six preset tunings

阅读理解Which of the following may be the best title of the text?

阅读理解 Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is one of life's essentials. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have all been told, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip. But for many people the thought of food first thing in the morning is by no means a pleasure. So despite all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest years for which figures are available, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33 percent—from 8. 8 million to 11. 7 million—according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America． For those who feel pain or guilt about not eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years indicate that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast. 'Going without breakfast does not affect performance. ' said Arnold E. Bender, the former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, 'nor does giving people breakfast improve performance. ' Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not adults. 'The literature,' says one researcher, Dr. Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas, 'is poor'.

阅读理解 Is athletic expertise attained or innate? Those who have suffered the tongue-lashing of a cruel games master at school might be forgiven for doubting the idea that anyone and everyone is capable of great sporting achievement, if only they would put enough effort into it. Practice may make perfect, but not all are built in ways that make it worth bothering in the first place. The latest evidence of this truth has been gathered by Sabrina Lee of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and Stephen Piazza at Pennsylvania State University. They have looked at the physical structure of short-distance runners and found that their feet are built differently from those of couch potatoes. Dr. Lee and Dr. Piazza already knew that short-distance runners tend to have a higher proportion of fast- contracting muscle fibres in their legs than more sedentary folk can muster. They suspected, though, that they would find differences in the bone structure as well. And they did. They looked at seven university sprinters who specialize in the 100-metre dash and five 200-metre specialists, and compared them with 12 non-athletic university students of the same height. In particular, they looked at the sizes of bones of the toes and heel. They also used ultrasonic scanning to measure the sliding motion of the Achilles tendons of their volunteers as their feet moved up and down. This allowed them to study the length of the lever created by the tendon as it pulls on the back of the heel to make the foot flex and push off the ground. Dr. Lee and Dr. Piazza found that the toes of their short-distance runners averaged 8.2cm in length, while those of common people averaged 7.3cm. The length of the lever of bone that the Achilles tendon pulls on also differed, being a quarter shorter in short-distance runners. These findings suggest short-distance runners get better contact with the ground by having longer toes. That makes sense, as it creates a firmer platform to push against. In a short-distance running race, acceleration off the block is everything. Cheetahs, the champion of short-distance runners of the animal kingdom, have non-flexible claws that give a similar advantage. It is possible—just—that the differences in physical structure are the result of long and rigorous training. But it is unlikely. Far more probable is that the old saying of coaches, that great short-distance runners are born not made, is true. Everyone else, games masters included, should just get used to the idea.

阅读理解Passage 9 Now, Alexander was in Corinth to take command of the League of Greek States which after conquering them，his father Philip had created as a disguise for the New Macedonian Order

阅读理解Section A Directions:In this section,there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements,each with four suggested answers A,B,C and D