科技英语理工模拟题-答案

科技英语(理工)模拟题第一部分阅读理解(12篇)Reading Passage 1I am one of the many city people who are always saying that given the choice we would prefer to live in the country away from the dirt and noise of a large city. I have managed to convince myself that if it w eren’t for my job I would immediately head out for the open spaces and go back to nature in some sleepy village buried in the county. But how realistic is the dream? Cities can be frightening places. The majority of the population live in massive tower blocks, noisy, dirty and impersonal. The sense of belonging to a community tends to disappear when you live fifteen floors up. All you can see from your window is sky, or other blocks of fiats. Children become aggressive and nervous - cooped up at home all day, with nowhere to play; their mothers feel isolated from the rest of the world. Strangely enough, whereas in the past the inhabitants of one street all knew each other, nowadays people on the same floor in tower blocks don’t even say hello to each other.Country life, on the other hand, differs from this kind of isolated existence in that a sense of community generally binds the inhabitants of small villages together. People have the advantage of knowing that there is always someone to turn to when they need help. But country life has disadvantages too. While it is true that you may be among friends in a village, it is also true that you are cut off from the exciting and important events that take place in cities. There’s little possibility of going to a new show or the latest movie. Shopping becomes a major problem, and for anything slightly out of the ordinary you have to goon an expedition to the nearest large town. The city-dweller who leaves for the country is often oppressed by a sense of unbearable stillness and quiet. What, then, is the answer? The country has the advantage of peace and quiet, but suffers from the disadvantage of being cut off: the city breeds a feeling of isolation, and constant noise batters the senses. But one of its main advantages is that you are at the center of things, and that life doesn’t come to an end at half-past nine at night. Some people have found (or rather bought) a compromise between the two: they have expressed their preference for the ―quiet life‖ by leaving the suburbs and moving to villages within commuting distance of large cities. They generally have about as much sensitivity as the plastic flowers they leave behind—they are polluted with strange ideas about change and improvement which they force on to the unwilling original habitants of the villages.What then of my dreams of leaning on a cottage gate and murmuring ―morning‖ to the locals as they pass by. I’m keen on the idea, but you see there’s my cat, Toby. I’m not at all sure that he would take to all that fresh air and exercise in the long grass. I mean, can you see him mixing with all those hearty males down the farm? No, he would rather have the electric imitation-coal fire any evening.1. We get the impression from the first paragraph that the author___.A. used to live in the countryB. used to work in the cityC. works in the cityD. lives in the country2. In the author’s opinion, the following may cause city peopleto be unhappy EXCEPT___.A. a strong sense of fearB. lack of communicationC. housing conditionsD. a sense of isolation3. The passage implies that it is easy to buy’ the following thingsin the country EXCEPT___A. daily necessitiesB. fresh fruitsC. designer clothesD. fresh vegetables4. According to the passage, which of the following adjectives best describes those people who work in large cities and live in villages?A. Original.B. Quiet.C. Arrogant.D. Insensitive.5. Do you think the author will move to the country?A.Yes, he will do so.B. No, he will not do so.C. It is difficult to tell.D. He is in two minds.Reading Passage 2We sometimes think humans are uniquely vulnerable (易受伤的，脆弱的) to anxiety, but stress seems to affect the immune defenses of lower animals too. In one experiment, for example, behavioral immunologist (免疫学家) Mark Laudenslager, at the University of Denver, gave mild electric shocks to 24 rats. Half the animals could switch off the current by turning a wheel in their enclosure, while the other half could not. The rats in the two groups were paired so that each time one rat turned the wheel it protected both itself and its helpless partner from the shock. Laudenslager found that the immune response was depressed below normal in the helpless rats but not in those that could turn off the electricity. What he has demonstrated, he believes, is that lack of control over an event, not the experience itself, is what weakens the immune system.Other researchers agree. Jay Weiss, a psychologist at Duke University School of Medicine, h as shown that animals who are allowed to control unpleasant stimuli don’t develop sleep disturbances or changes in brain chemistry typical of stressed rats. But if the animals are confronted with situations they have no control over, they later behave passively when faced with experiences they can control. Such findings reinforce psychologists’ suspicions that the experience and perception of helplessness is one of the most harmful factors in depression.One of the most startling examples of how the mind can alter the immune response was discovered by chance. In 1975 psychologist Robert Ader at the University of Rochester School of Medicine conditioned mice to avoid saccharin (糖精) by simultaneously feeding them the sweetener and injecting them with a drug that while suppressing their immune systems caused stomach upsets. Associating the saccharin with the stomach pains, the mice quickly learned to avoid the sweetener. In order to extinguish this dislike for the sweetener, Ader re-exposed the animals to saccharin, this time without the drug, and was astonished to find that those mice that had received the highest amounts of sweetener during their earlier conditioning died. He could only speculate that he had so successfully conditioned the rats that saccharin alone now served to weaken their immune systems enough to kill them.6. Laudenslager’s experiment showed that the immune system of those rats who could turn off the electricity ___________.A. was strengthenedB. was alteredC. was not affectedD. was weakened7. According to the text, the experience of helplessness causes rats to ____________.A. try to control unpleasant stimuliB. turn off the electricityC. behave passively in controllable situationsD. become abnormally suspicious8. The reason why the mice in Ader’s experiment avoided saccharin was that ____________.A. they disliked its tasteB. it affected their immune systemsC. it led to stomach painsD. they associated it with stomachaches9. The text tel ls us that the most probable reason for the death of the mice in Ader’s experiment was that ____________.A. they had been weakened psychologically by the saccharinB. the sweetener was poisonous to themC. their immune systems had been altered by the mindD. they had taken too much sweetener during earlier conditioning10. It can be concluded from the text that the immune systems of animals ____________.A.can be altered by electric shocksB. can be suppressed by drug injectionsC. can be affected by frequent doses of saccharinD. can be weakened by conditioningReading Passage 3People travel for a lot of reason. Some tourists go to see battlefields or religious shrines. Others are looking for culture, or simply want to have their picture taken in front of famous places. But most European tourists are looking for a sunny beach to lie on.Northern Europeans are willing to pay a lot of money and put up with a lot of inconveniences for the sun because they have so little of it. Residents of cities like London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam spend a lot of their winter in the dark because the days are so short, and much of the rest of the year in the rain. This is the reason the Mediterranean has always attracted them. Every summer, more than 25 million people travel to Mediterranean resort and beaches for their vacation. They all come for the same reason: sun!The huge crowds mean lots of money for the economies of Mediterr anean countries. Italy’s 30,000 hotels are booked solid every summer. And 13 million people camp out on French beaches, parks and roadsides. Spain’s long sandy coastline attracts more people than anywhere else. 37 million tourists visit yearly, or one tourist for every person living in Spain.But there are signs that the area is getting more tourism than it can handle. The Mediterranean is already one of the most polluted seas on earth. And with increased tourism, it’s getting worse. The French can’t figure out what to do with all the garbage left by campers around St. Tropez. And in many places, swimming is dangerous because of pollution.None of this, however, is spoiling anyone’s fun. The Mediter ranean gets more popular every year with tourists. Obviously, they don’t go there for clean water and solitude. They tolerate traffic jams and seem to like crowded beaches. They don’t even mind the pollution. No matter how dirty the water is, the coastline still looks beautiful. And as long as the sun shines, it’s still better than sitting in the cold rain in Berlin, London, or Oslo.11. The writer seems to imply that Europeans travel mostly for the reason that__________.A. they want to see historic remains or religious spots.B. they are interested in different cultural traditions and social customs.C. they would like to take pictures in front of famous sites.D. they wish to escape from the cold, dark and rainy days back at home.12. In paragraph 2, cities like London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam are mentioned __________.A. to show that they are not good cities in terms of geography and climate.B. to tell us how wealthy their residents are.C. to suggest that these cities lack places of historic interest and scenic beauty.D. to prove that they have got more tourism than they an handle.13. According to the passage, which of the following countries attracts more tourists than the others?A. ItalyB. SpainC. FranceD. Greece14. The latter half of the last sentence in paragraph3, i.e., ― or one tourist for every person living in Spain‖ means __________.A. all the 37 million people living in Spain are tourists.B. every year almost as many tourists visit Spain as there are people living in that country.C. every person living in Spain has to take care of a tourist.D. every Spanish is visited by a tourist every year.15. According to the passage, which of the following factors might spoil the tourists’ fun at Mediterranean resorts and beaches?A. Polluted waterB. Crowded busesC. Traffic jamsD. Rainy weatherPassage 4Everyone has heard of the San Andreas fault (断层), which constantly threatens California and the West Coast with earthquakes. But how many people know about the equally serious New Madrid fault in Missouri?Between December of 1811 and February of 1812, three major earthquakes occurred, all centered around the town of New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Property damage was severe. Buildings in the area were almost destroyed. Whole forests fell at once, and huge cracks opened in the ground, allowing smell of sulfur （硫磺）to filter upward.The Mississippi River itself completely changed character, developing sudden rapids and whirlpools. Several times it changed its course, and once, according to some observers, it actually appeared to run backwards. Few people were killed in the New Madrid earthquakes, probably simply because few people lived in the area in 1811; but the severity of the earthquakes are shown by the fact that the shock waves rang bells in church towers in Charleston, South Carolina, on the coast. Buildings shook in New Y ork City, and clocks were stopped in Washington, D.C. Scientists now know that America’s two major faults are essentially different. The San Andreas is a horizontal boundary between two major land masses that are slowly moving in opposite directions. California earthquakes result when the movement of these two masses suddenly lurches (倾斜) forward.The New Madrid fault, on the other hand, is a vertical fault; a some point, possibly hundreds of millions of years ago, rock was pushed up toward the surface, probably by volcanoes under the surface. Suddenly, the volcanoes cooled and the rock collapsed, leaving huge cracks. Even now, the rock continues to settle downwards, and sudden sinking motions trigger (触发) earthquakes in the region. The fault itself, a large crack in this layer of rock, with dozens of other cracks that split off from it, extends from northeast Arkansas through Missouri and into southern lllinois. Scientists who have studied the New Madrid fault say there have been numerous smaller quakes inthe area since 1811; these smaller quakes indicate that larger ones are probably coming, but the scientists say have no method of predicting when a large earthquake will occur.16. This passage is mainly aboutA)the New Madrid fault in MissouriB)the San Andreas and the New Madrid faultsC)the causes of faultsD)current scientific knowledge about faults17. The New Madrid fault isA)a horizontal faultB)a vertical faultC)a more serious fault than the San Andreas faultD)responsible for forming the Mississippi River18. We may conclude from the passage thatA)it is probably as dangerous to live in Missouri as in CaliforniaB)the New Madrid fault will eventually develop a mountain range in MissouriC)California will become an island in futureD)A big earthquake will occur to California soon19. This passage implies thatA)horizontal faults are more dangerous than vertical faults.B)V ertical faults are more dangerous than horizontal faultsC)Earthquakes occur only around fault areasD)California will break into pieces by an eventual earthquake20. As used in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph, the word “essentially”meansA) greatly C) basicallyB) extremely D) necessarilyPassage 5Those who welcomed the railway saw it as more than a rapid and comfortable means of passing. They actually saw it as a factor in world peace. They did not foresee that the railway would be just one more means for the rapid movement of aggressive armies. None of them foresaw that the more weare together-the more chances there are of war. Any boy or girl who is one of a large family knows that.Whenever any new invention is put forward, those for it and those against it can always find medical men to approve or condemn. The anti-railway group produced doctors who said that tunnels would be most dangerous to public health: they would produce colds, catarrhs (粘膜炎) and consumptions.The deafening noise and the glare of the engine fire, would have a bad effect on the nerves. Further, being moved through the air at a high speed would do grave injury to delicate lungs. In those with high blood-pressure, the movement of the train might produce apoplexy (中风). The sudden plunging of a train into the darkness of a tunnel, and the equally sudden rush into full daylight, would cause great damage to eyesight. But the pro-railway group was of course able to produce equally famous medical men to say just the opposite. They said that the speed and swing of the train would equalize the circulation, promote digestion, tranquilize the nerves, and ensuregood sleep.The actual rolling-stock was anything but comfortable. If it was a test of endurance to sit for four hours outside a coach in rain, or inside in dirty air, the railway offered little more in the way of comfort. Certainly the first-class carriages had cushioned seats; but the second-class had only narrow bare boards, while the third-class had nothing at all; no seats and no roof; they were just open trucks. So that third-class passengers gained nothing from the few mode except speed. In the matter of comfort, indeed they lost; they did, on the coaches, have a seat, but now they had to stand all the way, which gave opportunities to the comic (滑稽的) press. This kind of thing: ‘A man was seen yesterday buying a third-class ticket for the new London and Birmingham Railway. The state of his mind is being enquired into.’A writer in the early days of railways wrote feelingly of both second-and third-class carriages. He made the suggestion that the directors of the railways must have sent all over the world to find the hardest possible wood. Of the open third-class trucks he said that they had the peculiar property of meeting the rain from whatever quarter it came. He described them as horizontal shower-baths, from whose searching power there was no escape.21. All boys and girls in large families know thatA)a boy and a girl usually fight when they are togetherB)people tend to be together more than they used to beC)a lot of people being together makes fights likelyD)Railway leads the world to peace22. According to those who welcomed the railway, the railway itself should include all the following exceptA)the railway enables people travel fastB)the railway brings comfort to peopleC)the railway makes the world peacefulD)the railway leads the world to war as well.23. According to the anti-railway group, all the followings are true butA)tunnels are dangerous to public healthB)the noise and the glare of the engine fire may affect people’s nervesC)the rapid speed through the air does damage to people’s lungsD)to those with high blood-pressure, the rapid speed of the train causes them to die24. We may safely conclude thatA)the author belongs to the anti-railway groupB)the author belongs to the for-railway groupC)the author speaks highly of the railwayD)the author may never take train because of its potential dangers25. What is the tone of this passage?A) Practical C) SatiricalB) Humorous D) ExaggeratedPassage 6According to psychologists(心理学家), an emotion is aroused when a man or animal views something as either bad or good. When a person feels like running away from something he thinks will hurt him, we call this emotion fear. if the person wants to remove the danger by attacking it, we call the emotion anger. The emotions of joy and love are aroused when we think something can help us. An emotion does not have to be created by something in the outside world. it can be created by a person’s thoughtsEveryone has emotions. Many psychologists believe that infants are born without emotions. They believe children learn emotions just as they learn to read and write. A growing child not only learns his emotions but learns how to act in certain situations because of an emotion. Psychologists think that there are two types of emotion: positive and negative. l Positive emotions include love, liking, joy, delight, and hope. They are aroused by something that appeals to a person. Negative emotions make a person unhappy or dissatisfied. They include anger, fear, despair, sadness, and disgust. in growing up, a person learns to cope with the negative emotions in order to be happy.Emotions may be weak or strong. Some strong emotions are so unpleasant that a person will try any means to escape from them. in order to feel happy, the person may choose unusual ways to avoid the emotion.Strong emotions can make it hard to think and to solve problems. They may prevent a person from learning or paying attention to what he is doing. For example, a student taking an examination may be so worried about failing that he cannot think properly. The worry drains valuable mental energy he needs for the examination.26. We learn from the passage that an emotion is created by somethingA) one thinks bad or good B) one feels in dangerC) one faces in the outside world D) one tries to escape from real life27. Which of the following is NOT true?A) Children learn emotions as they grow up.B) Babies are born with emotions.C) Emotions fall into two types in general.D) People can cope with the negative emotions in life.28. The author’s purpose of writing this passage is to .A) explain why people have emotionsB) show how people avoid the negative emotionsC) explain what people should do before emotionsD) define and classify people’s emotions29. We can safely conclude that a student may fail in an exam ifA) he can not think properly B) he can’t pay attention to itC) he can’t pay attention to it D) he is not full of energy29题有问题，B和C一样的，没有答案30. As used in the last sentence, the word “drains”meansA) stops B) ties C) weakens D) flows graduallyPassage 7Credit card companies make a profit from the fees they charge the store and also from the fees collected from customers who pay for their charges in monthly installments’. However, credit card companies sometimes have problems collecting overdue payments from unreliable customers. Also, the use of stolen, lost, or counterfeit credit cards by criminals has become a big headache for the credit card company that is responsible for the goods and services illegally charged to its customers’ account.Y et, in many ways, the big loser in the credit card system is not the credit card company, the store, or the card user, but rather the general customer.Many feel that it will only be a matter of time before credit cards completely replace cash and checks for both individuals and businesses. In such a credit card economy there would be only one ―super-credit-card-bank-company‖ and each individual would be given his or her card.However, with a complete credit card economy, there would still be the problem of thefts of cards, forging of card and lost cards, so the credit card is really not that practical. Something else is needed that is small, always with us, cannot be forged, and easily identifies our account. The answer is your thumbprint; everyone’s thumbprint would be recorded with his or her Social Security number!31. From Para.2, we know that the big loser in the credit card system is .A. the credit card companyB. the storeC. the general customerD. the card user32. To some extent, which of the following suffers most?A. The cash customer.B. The credit card customer.C. The credit card company.D. The sponsor bank.33. The author thinks that credit cards .A. can’t replace cash and checks in the futureB. will completely replace cash and checks quicklyC. will completely replace cash and checks sooner or laterD. will not replace cash and checks because there is a matter of time34. It is predicted that in the future credit card economy .A. there would be at least one super-credit-card-bank companyB. there would be more than one super-credit-card-bank companyC. there would be no super-credit-card-bank companyD. there would be only one super-credit-card-bank company35. From the author’s point of view, the credit card is .A. perfect and practicalB. not easily forged and lostC. not perfect and practicalD. more practical than one’s thumbprintPassage 8Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk, a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives’birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring and the more hours he is free to play, the better.Technology and the division of labor have done two things: by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours. It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Indeed, the problem of dealing with boredom may be even more difficult for such a future mass society than it was for aristocracies. The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc. The masses are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as possible. Again, the masses cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to be hunted. For other aristocratic amusements like gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drug-taking, and senseless acts of violence. Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression in mental work is aptly expressed by the phrase ―getting one’s teeth into a problem.‖36. A job can be classified as labor or work, depending on .A. whether the job is easy or hardB. whether it is a manual or mental jobC. the taste of the individual who does the jobD. the payment of the job37. According to the passage, a worker wants .A. more hours to relax than a laborer doesB. as many hours to relax as a laborer doesC. more hours to play than a laborer doesD. fewer hours to relax than a laborer does38. The author says that the division of labor and technology has all the following effects on the labor force EXCEPT .A. turning enjoyable work into boring laborB. reducing the number of laboring hoursC. increasing productivityD. eliminating the need for special skill39. The author worries about the possibility of our increased leisure time because .A. a leisure society leads to chaosB. the majority of the population may desire to labor as few hours as possibleC. 16% of the population may be happy with their workD. the problem of the boredom may be more difficult to deal with in the future40. According to the author, a worker puts his aggression into .A. his workB. his acts of violenceC. his amusementsD. his huntingPassage 9Thirty-two people watched kitty Genovese being killed right beneath their windows. She was their neighbor. Y et none of the 32 helped her. Not one even called the police. Was this in gunman cruelty? Was it lack of feeling about one’s fellow man?―Not so,‖ say scientists John Barley and Bib Fatane. These men went beyond the headlines to probe the reasons why people didn’t act. They found that a person has to go through two steps before he can help.First he has to notice that is an emergency. Suppose you see a middle-aged man fall to the side-walk. Is he having a heart attack? Is he in a coma (昏迷) from diabetes(糖尿病)? Or is he about to sleep off a drunk? Is the smoke coming into the room from a leak in the air conditioning? Is it ―steam pipes‖? Or is it really smoke from a fire? it’s not always easy to tell if you are faced with a real emergency.Second, and more important, the person faced with an emergency must feel personally responsible. He must feel that he must help, or the person won’t get the help he needs. The researchers found that a lot depends on how many people are around. They had college students in to be ―tested.‖ Some came alone. Some came with one or t wo others. And some came in large groups. The receptionist started them off on the ―tests.‖ Then she went into the next room. A curtain divided the ―testing room‖ and the room into which she went. Soon the students heard a scream, the noise of file cabinets falling and a cry for help. All of this had been pre-recorded on a tape-recorder. Eight out of ten of the students taking the test alone acted to help. Of the students in pairs, only two out of ten helped. Of the students in groups, none helped. In other words, in a group, Americans often fail to act. They feel that others will act. They, themselves, needn’t. They do not feel any direct responsibility. Are people bothered by situations where people are in trouble? Y es. Scientists found that the people were emotional, they sweated, they had trembling hands. They felt the other person’s trouble. But they did not act. They were in a group. Their actions were shaped by the actions of those they were with.41. The purpose of this passage isA) to explain why people fail to act in emergenciesB) to explain when people will act in emergenciesC) to explain what people will do in emergenciesD) to explain how people feel in emergencies42. Which of the following is NOT true?。