博士研究生入学考试英语全真模拟试题及详解(13)【圣才出品】

博士研究生入学考试英语全真模拟试题及详解（13）
Part I Reading comprehension (40 points)
Directions:Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are 4 answers marked A, B, C and D. Read the passage
carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions.
(1)
The biggest safety threat facing airlines today may not be a terrorist with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class. In the last 15 years, pilots have reported well over 100 incidents that could have been caused by electromagnetic interference. The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, experts are pointing the blame at portable electronic devices such as portable computers, radio and cassette players and mobile telephones.
RTCA, an organization which advises the aviation industry, has recommended that all airlines ban such devices from being used during “critical” stages of flight, particularly take-off and landing. Some experts have gone further, calling for a total ban during all flights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although some airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment during take-off and landing, most are reluctant to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during flights.
The difficulty is predicting how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft’s computers. Experts know that portable devices emit radiation, which
affects those wavelengths which aircraft use for navigation and communication. But, because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory, they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not.
The fact that aircraft may be vulnerable to interference raises the task that terrorists may use radio system in order to damage navigation equipment. As worrying, though, is the passenger who can’t hear t he instructions to turn off his radio because the music’s too loud.
1. The passage is mainly about ______.
A. a new regulation for all airlines
B. the defects of electronic devices
C. a possible cause of aircraft crashes
D. effective safety measures for air flight
2. Few airlines want to impose a total ban on their passengers using electronic devices, because ______.
A. they don’t belie ve there is such a danger as radio interference
B. the harmful effect of electromagnetic interference is yet to be proved
C. most passengers refuse to take a plane which bans the use of radio and cassette players
D. they have other effective safety measures to fall back on
3. Why is it difficult to predict the possible effects of electromagnetic fields on an airplane’s computers?
A. Because it is extremely dangerous to conduct such research on an airplane.
B. Because it remains a mystery what wavelengths are liable to be interfered with.
C. Because research scientists have not been able to produce the same effects in labs.
D. Because experts lack adequate equipment to do such research.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the author ______.
A. is in favor of prohibiting passengers’ use of electronic devices completely
B. has overestimated the danger of electromagnetic interference
C. hasn’t formed his own opinion on this problem
D. regards it as unreasonable to exercise a total ban during flight
【答案与解析】
1.C 通篇文章讲述的都是portable electronic devices可能对飞机的安全造成影响。

故选
项C 正确。

由文章可知，并不是所有航线都对passengers’use of electronic devices实行了控制，故排除选项A；选项B：电子仪器的缺点，显然不对；选项D 也容易排除。

2.C 文章第二段最后一句提到“most are reluctant to enforce a total ban”的原因，即
“many passengers want to work during flights”。

因此我们可以推断，如果全面禁止使用电子设备，很多在飞行中工作的人就会改乘其他航班，而这势必会影响公司的收益。

故选项C正确。

3.C 文章第三段首先讲述了电磁场是如何影响aircraft’s computers，即the portable
devices发出的放射线会影响“those wavelengths which aircraft use for navigation and communication”。

紧接着作者又指出由于在实验室里面不能再现这些影响，因此专家无法知道“the interference might be dangerous or not”。

故选项C正确。

4.A 纵观全文可以发现，作者一开始就提出portable electronic devices被怀疑对飞机的
安全产生隐患，在随后的两段中作者分别讲述了目前采取的防备措施以及对这一影响的解释说明，在文章最后一段作者又指出一个事实，那就是这一弱点很可能被恐怖分子利用。

因此我们可以看出，作者对这一现象还是比较担忧的，他应该会支持“prohibiting passengers’ use of electronic devices completely”。

故选项A 正确。

(2)
Hunger is no novelty. We can discount legends of golden ages, lands of Cockayne, and Megasthene s’statement that before Alexander’s invasion of India, there had never been famine or food shortage there. Trustworthy historical records show that during the Renaissance one year in ten in Britain, and one in five in Europe, was a famine year. China, with a greater area and more diverse climate, had a famine in some region every year.
Famine is a state of affairs in which people are dying in the streets. It therefore attracts the notice of historians and is recorded. The fact that it strikes people who are aware of having been properly fed and well is more important. Not only are the survivors more adjustable, they are also angry at the breakdown of the system and eager to do something about it though it is obvious from the record that they do not always have the means. Malnutrition is much more underhanded. It is a chronic state in which the total food supply or more often, the supply of certain
components such as protein or some of the vitamins is inadequate. It seems probable that, either constantly or seasonally, it used to be the usual condition of mankind and was regarded as normal. The unhealthy appearance of the figures in medieval paintings and drawings is often put down to the incompetence of the artist: it is as likely that most people really did look like that. The plentifulness with which poets greeted the ‘merry month of May’ may, in our dull climate, have had a climatic basis: it is just as likely that in May, after six months’ shortage, there was now an adequate vitamin supply. The promptness with which some sailors died of scurvy after leaving port suggests that they were normally on the edge of scurvy and needed only a slight worsening of conditions to get it acutely. Others will think of other examples. Hunger and malnutrition are components of a citric example of a vicious circle. They lead to enfeeblement or unfeelingness in which nothing either can be done, or seems to be worth doing, to alter the state of affairs; this leads to more hunger and malnutrition. There is good reason to think that, in much of the developing world, if the circle could once be broken, it need never return.
5. According to the text hunger in the past ______.
A. occurred more frequently in Britain than in the rest of the world
B. was less of a problem than it is today
C. was almost unknown in the Indian subcontinent
D. was quite a regular occurrence
6. The writer suggests that famine is different from malnutrition because ______.
A. it is a far more widespread problem
B. it causes rather more people to die
C. it arouses a desire for action rather than mere unfeelingness
D. it tends to affect the and well fed more than the poor
7. What does the writer say about malnutrition?
A. It was a common condition in the Middle Ages.
B. It arouses a great deal of emotion and interest
C. It affected the competence of medieval artists.
D. It is a more obvious problem than famine.
8. According to the writer, the vicious circle of malnutrition in developing countries ______.
A. makes long-term progress very difficult to achieve
B. could be broken for good if it were broken once
C. has a significant effect on the developed countries
D. could extend to the developed countries in the future
【答案与解析】
5.D 文章第一段指出：真实的历史记录显示“during the Renaissance…in some region
every year”。

因此我们可以知道，in the past，饥荒是常常发生的。

故选项D正确。

6.C 文章第二段分别对famine和malnutrition进行了描述，其中提到：famine是这样
一种状态-people are dying in the streets，因此容易引起人们的注意，尤其是“strikes people who are aware…”，同时人们“are angry at the breakdown of the system and eager to do something about it”，也就是说famine能够唤起人。