阅读理解In its most abstract sense the perception of a loss of community in modern society refers to changes in both the structure and content of personal relationships

阅读理解C A world like no other--perhaps this is the best way to describe the world of the rainforest

阅读理解Passage 3 Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage: If the Dakota Access Pipeline (输油管) is completed, it will carry nearly half a million barrels of oil across four states every day

阅读理解Passage 1 He was just 12 years old when he died

阅读理解Questions 71 to 80 are based on the following passage

阅读理解 Rats and other animals need to be highly attuned to social signals from others so they can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid. To find out if this extends to non-living beings, Loleh Quinn at the University of' California, San Diego, and her colleagues tested whether rats can detect social signals from robotic rats. They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat—one social and one asocial—for four days. The robot rats were quite minimalist, resembling a chunkier version of a computer mouse with wheels to move around and colorful markings. During the experiment, the social robot rat followed the living rats around, played with the same toys, and opened cage doors to let trapped rats escape. Meanwhile, the asocial robot simply moved forwards and backwards and side to side. Next, the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release them by pressing a lever. Across 18 trials each, the living rats were 52 percent more likely on average to set the social robot free than the asocial one. This suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine social being. They may have bonded more with the social robot because it displayed behaviours like communal exploring and playing. This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed it, earlier, and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped, says Quinn. 'Rats have been shown to engage in multiple forms of reciprocal help and cooperation, including what is referred to as direct reciprocity where a rat will help another rat that has previously helped them,' says Quinn. The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its minimal design. The robot was the same size as a regular rat but resembled a simple plastic box on wheels. 'We'd assumed we'd have to give it a moving head and tail, facial features, and put a scent on it to make it smell like a real rat, but that wasn't necessary,' says Janet Wiles at the University of Queensland in Australia, who helped with the research. The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues, even when they come from basic robots. Similarly, children tend to treat robots as if they are fellow beings, even when they display only simple social signals. 'We humans seem to be fascinated by robots, and turns out other animals are too,' says Wiles.

阅读理解Water problems in the future will become more intense and more complex. Our increasingpopulation will tremendously increase urban wastes, primarily sewage. On the other hand, increasingdemands for water will decease substantially the amount of water available for diluting wastes.Rapidly expanding industries which involve more and more complex chemical processes willproduce large volumes of liquid wastes, and many of these will contain chemicals which are noxious.To feed our rapidly expanding population, agriculture will have to be intensified. This will involveever-increasing quantities of agricultural chemicals. From this, it is apparent that drastic steps mustbe taken immediately to develop corrective measures for the pollution problem.There are two ways by which this pollution problem can be dwindled. The first relates to thetreatment of wastes to decrease their pollution hazard. This involves the processing of solid wastes“prior to” disposal and the treatment of liquid wastes, or effluents, to permit the reuse of the water orminimize pollution upon final disposal.A second approach is to develop an economic use for all or a part of the wastes. Farm manure isspread in fields as a nutrient or organic supplement. Effluents from sewage disposal plants are usedin some areas both for irrigation and for the nutrients contained. Effluents from other processingplants may also be used as a supplemental source of water. Many industries, such as meat andpoultry processing plants, are currently converting former waste products into marketable byproducts.Other industries are potential economic uses for waste products.

阅读理解Directions: In this section, there are 4 passages followed by multiple-choice questions. Read the passage and thenwrite ONE best answer for each question on your ANSWER SHEET.Passage TwoThe idea that government should regulate intellectual property through copyrights and patents is relatively recent in human history, and the precise details of what intellectual property is protected for how long vary across nations and occasionally change. There are two standard sociological justifications for patents or copyrights: They reward creators for their labor, and they encourage greater creativity. Both of these are empirical claims that can be tested scientifically and could be false in some realms.Consider music. Star performers existed before the 20th century, such as Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini, but mass media produced a celebrity system promoting a few stars whose music was not necessarily the best or most diverse. Copyright provides protection for distribution companies and for a few celebrities, thereby helping to support the industry as currently defined, but it may actually harm the majority of performers. This is comparable to Anatole France’s famous irony, The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges. In theory, copyright covers the creations of celebrities and obscurities equally, but only major distribution companies have the resources to defend their property rights in court. In a sense, this is quite fair, because nobody wants to steal unpopular music, but by supporting the property rights of celebrities, copyright strengthens them as a class in contrast to anonymous musicians.Internet music file sharing has become a significant factor in the social lives of children, who download bootleg music tracks for their own use and to give as gifts to friends. If we are to believe one recent poll done by a marketing firm rather than social scientists, 48 of American Internet users aged 12 to 17 had downloaded music files in the past month. In so doing, they violate copyright laws, and criminologists would hypothesize they thereby learn contempt for laws in general. A poll by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that two-thirds of an estimated 35 million Americans who download music files do not care whether they are copyrighted. Thus, on the level of families, ending copyright could be morally as well as economically advantageous. On a much higher level, however, the culture-exporting nations (notably the United States) could stand to lose, although we cannot really predict the net balance of costs and benefits in the absence of proper research. We do not presently have good cross national data on file sharing or a well-developed theoretical framework to guide research on whether copyright protection supports cultural imperialism versus enhancing the positions of diverse cultures in the global marketplace.It will not be easy to test such hypotheses, and extensive economic research has not conclusively answered the question of whether the patent system really promotes innovation. We will need many careful, sharp-focus studies of well-formed hypotheses in specific industries and sectors of life. For example, observational and interview research can uncover the factors that really promote cultural innovation among artists of various kinds and determine the actual consequences for children of Internet peer-to-peer file sharing.

阅读理解Advertisement I JODRELL BANK VISITOR CENTRE EXHIBITION OF MODERN ASTRONOMY PLANETARIUM GARDENS, RESTAURANTS, SHOPS Open ! Summer (March 12—October 31) Daily (including SAT & SUN) 10: 30 a. m to 5:30 p. m. Winter (November 1—March 11) Weekends 2: 00 p.m. to 5: 00 p.m. (Winter weekday visits by prior arrangement) No extra charge for Planetarium, Gardens, Arboretum or Car Park Children and Senior Citizens admitted at reduced rate Details. Ring Lower Withington (0477) 71339 Or write to R. G. Lascelles, Jodrell Bank Maccelesfield, Cheshire, SK11 9D1 Advertisement II SCONE PALACE PERTH SCOTLAND The Home of the Earls of Mansfield Situated just outside Perth on the A93, Braemar Road 2004 Good Friday25THApril to Monday 5TH October Mondays to Saturdays 10:00a. m. to 5: 30 p. m. Sundays July and August from 11.00 a. m. Beautiful porcelain, superb French furniture, unique Vernis Martin collection Ivories, clocks, needlework and objects D'' art. Extensive Grounds. Woodland Gardens. Adventure Playgrounds. Old Kitchen Restaurant-Home Baking-Coffee Shop-Gift Shop-Produce Shop Evening tours, Meetings, Concerts CONTACT THE ADMINISTRATOR PERTH (0738) 52300 Admission Charges Adult: 30 p Children: 15 p

阅读理解Passage 2 By the year 2020 AD, a single silicon chip will contain more components than the number of cells in the human brain

阅读理解What belief do vegans hold?

阅读理解Passage 1 Hiking on soft sand proved surprisingly hard graft

阅读理解Questions 1 to 10 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Most young people enjoy some form of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling or swimming,or in winter, skating or skiing. It may be game of some kind football, hockey, golf, or tennis. It maybe mountaineering.Those who have a passion for climbing high and difficult mountains are often looked upon withastonishment. Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardship, and to take risks on highmountains? This astonishment is caused probably by the difference between mountaineering andother forms of activity to which men give their leisure.Mountaineering is a sport and not a game. There are no man-made rules, as there are for such gamesas golf and football. There are, of course, rules of a different kind which it would be dangerous toignore, but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to manypeople. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.If we compare mountaineering and other more familiar sports, we might think that one big differenceis that mountaineering is not a “team game”. We should be mistaken in this. There are, it is true, no“matches” between “teams” of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope onwhich their lives may depend, there is obviously teamwork.The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and more powerfulthan man. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport requires high mental and physical qualities.A mountain climber continues to improve in skill year after year. A skier is probably past his best bythe age of thirty, and most international tennis champions are in their early twenties. But it is notunusual for man of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in Alps. They may take more timethan younger men, but they probably climb with more skill and less waste of effort, and theircertainly experience equal enjoyment.

阅读理解Questions 41-45 are based on the following passage: Habits are a funny thing

阅读理解PASSAGE ONE (1) Life can be tough for immigrants in America

阅读理解The productivity of Americans employed in private businesses has declined. The productivity of workers in countries such as Japan and Germany is increasing. American machine tools, on average, are old, relatively inefficient, and rapidly becoming obsolete, whereas those of our competitors overseas, in comparison, are newer and more efficient. We are no longer the most productive workers in the world. We are no longer the leaders in industrial innovation. We are an immensely wealthy nation of educated men and women who seem to have lost sight of the fact that everything—from the simplest necessities to the finest luxuries—must be produced through our own collective hard work. We have come to expect automatic increases in our collective standard of living, but we seem to have forgotten that these increases are possible only when our productivity continues to grow.One thing that must change is the rate at which we substitute capital equipment for human labor. Simply put, our labor force has increased at a far greater rate than has our stock of capital investment. We seem to have forgotten that our past productivity gains, to a large extent, were realized from substitutions of capital for human labor. Today, 3 times as many robots are listed as capital assets by Japanese firms as by United States firms.There is no doubt that robots will become a common sight in American factories. Representing a new generation of technology, robots will replace factory labor much as the farm tractor replaced the horse. Robot technology has much to offer. It offers higher levels of productivity and quality at lower costs; in promises to free men and women from the dull, repetitious toil of the factory; it is likely to have an impact on society comparable to that made by the growth of computer technology.

阅读理解 In a poor, inland, gang-infested part of Los Angeles, there is a clinic for people with type 1 diabetes. As part of the country health care system, it serves persons who have fallen through all other safety-net options, the poorest of the poor. Although type 2 diabetes is rampant in this part of town, type 1 diabetes exists as well. Yet these latter individuals generally lack access to any specialty care—a type of treatment they desperately need due to a complexity of dealing with type 1 diabetes in the setting of poverty and psychosocial stress. The Type 1 Clinic meets one morning per week and is staffed by four endocrinology fellows and a diabetologist, often me. I have the unique perspective of working part of the time in a county setting and the other part of the time in a clinic for people with health insurance, in Beverly Hills. I know what is possible in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. East Los Angeles teaches me what happens when access to care is not available. Most of our patients, in their 20s and 30s and 40s, already have complications of their diabetes many near end stage. Concepts about maintaining near-normal blood glucose levels often miss their mark—lack of education or money or motivation or factors I can't even imagine make the necessity of a patient acting as his or her own exogenous pancreas nearly impossible, especially when there are acute consequences to hypoglycemia and few to moderate hyperglycemia. Historically, in spite of these barriers, we persisted and thought we made a difference. Often, teaching simple carbohydrate counting or switching therapy to long-acting insulin improved patients control and their quality of life. The fellows felt they made a positive impact in the health of their patients. Driving home I would be encouraged by what we had accomplished, although saddened by the severity of the complications suffered by many of our patients. Yet everything changed with the recession of 2008. In Beverly Hills I heard a lot about the demise of the financial markets. Patients of mine had invested with Bermie Madoff. Some, once billionaires, were now millionaires. Personal assistants and housekeepers were laid off, vacation homes were put on the market, and parties became less lavish. But all still live in safe, clean homes, wear designer clothes, and eat high-quality food. The landscape is very different for many of my East LA patterns. The temporary, part-time jobs they had cobbled together to keep food on the table and pay for housing are gone. I—naively—didn't realize how much worse poverty could get. But now many of our patients are young without food and are becoming homeless. One young man, a college student trying to work his way out of poverty by going to school, lost his job and is living in his car. He is still taking classes but is unable to afford more than a dollar meal from a fast-food restaurant once every day or two. Management of his diabetes involves simply keeping him alive with his erratic, poor eating habit.

阅读理解How to DoMan-on-the-Street Interviews Theman-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits thestreets with a cameraman to interview people on the sport

阅读理解Everyone knows that English departments are in trouble, but it is difficult to appreciate just how much trouble until you read the report from the Modern Language Association (MLA). The report is about Ph. D. programs, which have been in decline since 2008. These programs have gotten both more difficult and less rewarding: today, it can take almost a decade to get a doctorate, and, at the end of your program, you’re unlikely to find a tenure-track position. The core of the problem is the job market. The MLA report estimates that only sixty per cent of newly-minted Ph. D. s will find tenure-track jobs after graduation. If anything, that’s wildly optimistic: the MLA got to that figure by comparing the number of tenure-track jobs on its job list with the number of new graduates. But that leaves out the thousands of unemployed graduates from past years who are still job-hunting. Different people will tell you different stories about where all the jobs went. Some critics think that the humanities have gotten too weird—that undergrads, turned off by an overly theoretical approach, don’t want to participate anymore, and that teaching opportunities have disappeared as a result. Others point to the corporatization of universities, which are increasingly inclined to hire part-time, “adjunct” professors, rather than full-time, tenure-trackprofessors, to teach undergrads. Adjuncts are cheaper; perhaps more importantly, they are easier to hire. These trends, in turn, are part of an even larger story having to do with the expansion and transformation of American education after the Second World War. Essentially, colleges grew less elite and more vocational. Before the war, relatively few people went to college. Then, in the nineteen-fifties, the Baby Boom pushed colleges to grow rapidly, bulking up on professors and graduate programs. When the boom ended and enrollments declined, colleges found themselves overextended and competing for students. By the mid-seventies, schools were seeking out new constituencies — among them, women and minorities — and creating new programs designed to attract a broader range of students. Those reforms worked: about twice as many people attend college per capita now as they did forty years ago. But all that expansion changed colleges. In the past, they had catered to elite students who were happy to major in the traditional liberal arts. Now, to attract middle-class students, colleges have had to offer more career-focused majors, in fields like business. As a result, humanities departments have found themselves drifting away from the center of the university.