2018年考研英語閱讀理解模擬備考題
備考題一：
To date， over 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold. The average American girl aged between three and 11 owns a staggering ten Barbie dolls， according to Mattel， the American toy giant. An Italian or British girl owns seven; a French or German girl， five. The Barbie brand is worth some $2 billion——a little ahead of Armani， just behind the Wall Street Journal——making it the most valuable toy brand in the world， according to Interbrand， a consultancy. How is it that this impossibly proportioned， charmless toy has endured in an industry notorious for whimsical fad and fickle fashion?
Part of Barbie's appeal is that she has become， according to Christopher Varaste， a historian of Barbie， “the face of the American dream”。 Barbie is not a mere toy， nor product category： she is an icon. Quite how she became one is hotly debated among the Barbie sorority. Some think she answers an innate girlish desire for fantasy， role-playing and dressing-up. Others believe that Mattel has simply manipulated girls' aspirations to that end.
Either way， wrapped up in her pouting lips and improbable figure——buxom breasts， wafer-thin waist and permanently arched feet waiting to slip into a pair of high heels——is an apparently enduring statement of aspiration and western aesthetic. She is， according to M.G. Lord， who has written a biography of Barbie， “the most potent icon of American popular culture in the late twentieth century.”
Officialdom has recognised Barbie's iconic status. The Americans included a Barbie doll in the 1976 bicentennial time capsule. Earlier this year， the American government buried her in a “women's health” time capsule， alongside a pair of forceps and a girdle. As an emblem of Americana she is subject to pastiche， derision and political statement. Andy Warhol made a portrait of Barbie， the Campbell's soup of toy brands. An exhibition in London earlier this year displayed “ Bomber Barbie” by Simon Tyszko， a British artist. Her hair was blonde， her hair ribbon red， and around her slender waist was wrapped a belt of explosives， attached to a detonator held daintily in her hand.
Barbie has not colonised girls' imaginations by accident. Mattel has dedicated itself to promoting Barbie as “a lifestyle， not just a toy”。 In addition to selling the dolls， Mattel licenses Barbie in 30 different product categories， from furniture to make-up. A girl can sleep in Barbie pyjamas， under a Barbie duvet-cover， her head on a Barbie pillow-case， surrounded by Barbie wall-paper， and on， and on. There are Barbie conventions， fan clubs， web sites， magazines and collectors' events.
“She's so much more than a character brand，” enthuses a Mattel publicity person， “she's a fashion statement， a way of life.” (449 words)
1. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
[A] The average American girl aged between three and 11 owns 10 staggering Barbie dolls.
[B] Wall Street Journal is the most valuable toy brand in the world.
[C] The Barbie brand is the most valuable toy brand in the world.
[D] The Barbie brand is worth more than $2 billion.
2. How did Barbie become an icon according to the text?
[A] Barbie has “the face of the American dream”。
[B] She answers an innate girlish desire for fantasy， role-playing and dressing-up
[C] It is Mattel that manipulated girls' aspirations to that end.
[D] Different people have different explanations.
3. Barbie's iconic status is shown in all the following EXCEPT______.
[A] Barbie doll in the 1976 bicentennial time capsule
[B] She was buried in a “women's health” time capsule
[C] She is subject to pastiche， derision and political statement
[D] Barbie has colonised girls' imaginations
4. It can be inferred from the text that Mattel is_______.
[A] a man who created Barbie doll
[B] the name of a toy manufacturer
備考題二：
It has long been known that the rate of oxidative metabolism (the process that uses oxygen to convert food into energy) in any animal has a profound effect on its living patterns. The high metabolic rate of small animals， for example， gives them sustained power and activity per unit of weight， but at the cost of requiring constant consumption of food and water. Very large animals， with their relatively low metabolic rates， can survive well on a sporadic food supply， but can gen- erate little metabolic energy per gram of body weight. If only oxidative metabolic rate is considered， there- fore， one might assume that smaller， more active， animals could prey on larger ones， at least if they attacked in groups. Perhaps they could if it were not for anaerobic glycolysis， the great equalizer.
Anaerobic glcolysis is a process in which energy is produced， without oxygen， through the breakdown of muscle glycogen into lactic acid and adenosine tri- phosphate (ATP)， the energy provider. The amount of energy that can be produced anaerobically is a function of the amount of glycogen present-in all vertebrates about 0.5 percent of their muscles' wet weight. Thus the anaerobic energy reserves of a verte- brate are proportional to the size of the animal. If， for example， some predators had attacked a 100-ton dinosaur， normally torpid， the dinosaur would have been able to generate almost instantaneously， via anaerobic glycolysis， the energy of 3，000 humans at maximum oxidative metabolic energy production. This explains how many large species have managed to compete with their more active neighbors： the compensation for a low oxidative metabolic rate is glycolysis.
There are limitations， however， to this compensa- tion. The glycogen reserves of any animal are good， at most， for only about two minutes at maximum effort， after which only the normal oxidative metabolic source of energy remains. With the conclusion of a burst of activity， the lactic acid level is high in tthe body fluids， leaving the large animal vulnerable to attack until the acid is reconverted， via oxidative metabolism， by the liver into glucose， which is then sent (in part) back to the muscles for glycogen resyn- thesis. During this process the enormous energy debt that the animal has run up through anaerobic glycolysis must be repaid， a debt that is proportionally much greater for the larger vertebrates than for the smaller ones. Whereas the tiny shrew can replace in minutes the glycogen used for maximum effort， for example， the gigantic dinosaur would have required more than three weeks. It might seem that this inter- minably long recovery time in a large vertebrate would prove a grave disadvantage for survival. Fortunately， muscle glycogen is used only when needed and even then only in whatever quantity is necessary. Only in times of panic or during mortal combat would the entire reserves be consumed.
1. What is the text mainly about?。
[A] refute a misconception about anaerobic glycolysis.
[B] introduce a new hypothesis about anaerobic glycolysis.
[C] describe the limitations of anaerobic glycolysis.
[D] explain anaerobic glycolysis and its effects on animal survival.
2. According to the author， glycogen is crucial to the process of anaerobic glyrolysis because glycogen
[A] increases the organism‘s need for ATP.
[B] reduces the amount of ATP in the tissues.
[C] is an inhibitor of the oxidative metabolic production of ATP.
[D] is the material form which ATP is derived.
3. It is implied that the total anaerobic energy reserves of a vertebrate are proportional to its size because
[A] larger vertebrate conserve more energy than smaller vertebrates.
[B] larger vertebrates use less oxygen per unit weight than smaller vertebrates.
[C] the ability of a vertebrate to consume food is a function of its size.
備考題三：
The author of some forty novels, a number of plays, volumes of verse, historical, critical and autobiographical works, an editor and translator, Jack Lindsay is clearly an extraordinarily prolific writer—a fact which can easily obscure his very real distinction in some of the areas into which he has ventured. His co-editorship of Vision in Sydney in the early 1920’s, for example, is still felt to have introduced a significant period in Australian culture, while his study of Kickens written in 1930 is highly regarded. But of all his work it is probably the novel to which he has made his most significant contribution.
Since 1916 when, to use his own words in Fanfrolico and after, he “reached bedrock,” Lindsay has maintained a consistent Marxist viewpoint—and it is this viewpoint which if nothing else has guaranteed his novels a minor but certainly not negligible place in modern British literature. Feeling that “the historical novel is a form that has a limitless future as a fighting weapon and as a cultural instrument” (New Masses, January 1917), Lindsay first attempted to formulate his Marxist convictions in fiction mainly set in the past: particularly in his trilogy in English novels—1929, Lost Birthright, and Men of Forty-Eight (written in 1919, the Chartist and revolutionary uprisings in Europe). Basically these works set out, with most success in the first volume, to vivify the historical traditions behind English Socialism and attempted to demonstrate that it stood, in Lindsay’s words, for the “true completion of the national destiny.”
Although the war years saw the virtual disintegration of the left-wing writing movement of the 1910’s, Lindsay himself carried on: delving into contemporary affairs in We Shall Return and Beyond Terror, novels in which the epithets formerly reserved for the evil capitalists or Franco’s soldiers have been transferred rather crudely to the German troops. After the war Lindsay continued to write mainly about the present—trying with varying degrees of success to come to terms with the unradical political realities of post-war England. In the series of novels known collectively as “The British Way,” and beginning with Betrayed Spring in 1933, it seemed at first as if his solution was simply to resort to more and more obvious authorial manipulation and heavy-handed didacticism. Fortunately, however, from Revolt of the Sons, this process was reversed, as Lindsay began to show an increasing tendency to ignore party solutions, to fail indeed to give anything but the most elementary political consciousness to his characters, so that in his latest (and what appears to be his last) contemporary novel, Choice of Times, his hero, Colin, ends on a note of desperation: “Everything must be different, I can’t live this way any longer. But how can I change it, how?” To his credit as an artist, Lindsay doesn’t give him any explicit answer.
1. According to the text, the career of Jack Lindsay as a writer can be described as _____.
[A]inventive [B]productive [C]reflective [D]inductive
2. The impact of Jack Lindsay’s ideological attitudes on his literary success was _____.
[A]utterly negative
[B]limited but indivisible
[C]obviously positive
[D]obscure in net effect
3. According to the second paragraph, Jack Lindsay firmly believes in______.
[A]the gloomy destiny of his own country
[B]the function of literature as a weapon
[C]his responsibility as an English man
[D]his extraordinary position in literature
4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that__________.
[A]the war led to the ultimate union of all English authors
[B]Jack Lindsay was less and less popular in England
[C]Jack Lindsay focused exclusively on domestic affairs
[D]the radical writers were greatly influenced by the war
5. According to the text, the speech at the end of the tex__________t.
[A]demonstrates the author’s own view of life
[B]shows the popular view of Jack Lindsay
[C]offers the author’s opinion of Jack Lindsay
[D]indicates Jack Lindsay’s change of attitude
參考答案：B C B D D
備考題四：
Scientists have known since 1952 that DNA is the basic stuff of heredity. They've known its chemical structure since 1953. They know that human DNA acts like a biological computer program some 3 billion bits long that spells out the instructions for making proteins， the basic building blocks of life.
But everything the genetic engineers have accomplished during the past half-century is just a preamble to the work that Collins and Anderson and legions of colleagues are doing now. Collins leads the Human Genome Project， a 15-year effort to draw the first detailed map of every nook and cranny and gene in human DNA. Anderson， who pioneered the first successful human gene-therapy operations， is leading the campaign to put information about DNA to use as quickly as possible in the treatment and prevention of human diseases.
What they and other researchers are plotting is nothing less than a biomedical revolution. Like Silicon Valley pirates reverse-engineering a computer chip to steal a competitor's secrets， genetic engineers are decoding life's molecular secrets and trying to use that knowledge to reverse the natural course of disease. DNA in their hands has become both a blueprint and a drug， a pharmacological substance of extraordinary potency that can treat not just symptoms or the diseases that cause them but also the imperfections in DNA that make people susceptible to a disease.
And that's just the beginning. For all the fevered work being done， however， science is still far away from the Brave New World vision of engineering a perfect human—or even a perfect tomato. Much more research is needed before gene therapy becomes commonplace， and many diseases will take decades to conquer， if they can be conquered at all.
In the short run， the most practical way to use the new technology will be in genetic screening. Doctors will be able to detect all sorts of flaws in DNA long before they can be fixed. In some cases the knowledge may lead
to treatments that delay the onset of the disease or soften its effects. Someone with a genetic predisposition to heart disease， for example， could follow a low-fat diet. And if scientists determine that a vital protein is missing because the gene that was supposed to make it is defective， they might be able to give the patient an artificial version of the protein. But in other instances， almost nothing can be done to stop the ravages brought on by genetic mutations. (409 words)
1. It can be inferred from the text that Collins and Anderson and legions of colleagues _____.
[A] know that human DNA acts like a biological computer program
[B] have found the basic building blocks of life
[C] have accomplished some genetic discovery during the past half-century
[D] are making a breakthrough in DNA
2. Collins and Anderson are cited in the text to indicate all the following EXCEPT that ______.
[A] time-consuming effort is needed to accomplish the detailed map of in human DNA
[B] human gene-therapy operations may be applied to the patients
[C] gene-therapy now is already generally used to the treatment and prevention of human diseases
[D] information about DNA may be used in the treatment and prevention of human diseases
3. The word “pirate” (line 2， paragraph 3) means______.
[A] one who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea
[B] one who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization
[C] to take (something) by piracy
[D] to make use of or reproduce (another's work) without authorization
4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that_____.
[A] engineering a perfect human is not feasible for the time being
[B] it‘s impossible for scientists to engineer a perfect tomato
[C] many diseases will never be conquered by human beings
[D] doctors will be able to cure all sorts of flaws in DNA in the
long run
5. The best title for the text may be ______.
[A] DNA and Heredity
[B] The Genetic Revolution
[C] A Biomedical Revolution
[D] How to Apply Genetic Technology
參考答案：DCBAB
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