雅思阅读模拟试题

雅思阅读模拟试题：钱币In the earliest stages of man’s development he had no more need of money than animals have. He was content with very simple forms of shelter, made his own rough tools and weapons and could provide food and clothing for himself and his family from natural materials around him. As he became more civilized, however, he began to want better shelter, more efficient tools and weapons, and more comfortable and more lasting clothing than could be provided by his own neighborhood or by the work of his own unskilled hands. For these things he had to turn to the skilled people such as smiths, leather workers or carpenters. It was then that the question of payment arose. At first he got what he wanted by a simple process of exchange. The smith who had not the time to look after land or cattle was glad to take meat or grain from the farmer in exchange for an axe or a plough. But as more and more goods which had no fixed exchange value came on the market, exchange became too complicated to be satisfactory. Another problem arose when those who made things wanted to get stocks of wood or leather, or iron, but had nothing to offer in exchangeuntil their finished goods were ready. Thus thedifficulties of exchange led by degrees to the invention of money. In some countries easily handled things like seedsor shells were given a certain value and the farmer,instead of paying the smith for a new axe by giving him some meat or grain, gave him so many shells. If the smith had any shells left when he had bought his food, he could get stocks of the raw materials of his trade. In some countries quite large things such as cows or camels or even big flat stones were used for trade. Later, pieces of metal, bearing values according to the rarity of the metal and the size of the pieces, or coins were used. Money as we know it had arrived. 练习1 Exchange of goods became difficult because _________. A: man became morecivilized B: smiths began to look after land or cattlein their spare time C: more and more goods which had no fixed exchange values came to the marker D farmers hadn’t enough grain or meat to provide for skilled workers 2 Money was not used until _______. A: paper was invented B: people practiced a simple process of exchange C: nothing could be offered in exchange D: the exchange of one thing for another became toocomplicated 3 The best title for this passage is _____.A: What is money B: What are money’s functions. C: The importance of money D: The beginning of money 雅思阅读模拟试题：GlobalwarmingYou should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Questions 1-5 Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs A-F . Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-F from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers i-viii in boxes 1 - 5 on your answer sheet. List of Headingsi The plaintiffs?viewpoints on regulating emission ii Federal government being taken to court iii Possible impact of the case on other lawsuits iv Regulating air pollution by twelve States v Stance of the Bush administration vi Viewpoints of Bill Clinton on regulation vii The call for emission caps and reduction viii Uncertainty in ruling by the Supreme Court Example Answer Paragraph A ii 1. Paragraph B _____ 2. Paragraph C _____ 3. Paragraph D_____ 4. Paragraph E _____ 5. Paragraph F _____ Green states take the federal government to court Nov 30th 2006 From The Economist print edition A WHEN the subject is globalwarming，the villain is usually America . Although it produces a quarter of the greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet，it refuses to regulate them. When other countries agreed on an international treaty to do so——he Kyoto protocol——America failed to ratify it. But not all American officialdom is happy with the federal government's stance. In fact，12 states disagree so fiercely that they are suing to force it to curb emissions of carbon dioxide，the most common greenhouse gas. The Supreme Court heard argument in the case on November 29th. The outcome will not be known for months，but the political wind seems to be shifting in favour of firmer action to counter climate change. B The Clean Air Act charges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regulating air pollution from vehicles. But the EPA argues that Congress did not intend to include CO2 under that heading，and that to do so would extend the EPA's authority to an unreasonable extent. Furthermore，it contends that regulating emissions would not do good unless all or most other countries did the same. That is in keeping with the policies of President George Bush，who opposes mandatory curbs on emissions and believes that any international accord on global warmingshould apply to all countries——unlike the Kyoto protocol，which exempts poor ones，including big polluters such as China and India . Ten states，among them gas-guzzling Texas and car-making Michigan，also back the EPA.C The plaintiffs comprise 12 states，three cities，various NGOs，and American Samoa，a Pacific territory in danger of vanishing beneath the rising ocean. They are supported by a further six states，two power companies，a ski resort，and assorted clergymen，Indian tribes and agitated grandees such as Madeleine Albright，a former secretary of state. They point out that under the administration of Bill Clinton，the EPA decided that it did have the authority to regulate CO2. The act，they note，says the EPA should regulate any air pollutant that "may reasonably be interpreted to endanger public health or welfare". It goes on to define public welfare to include "effects on soils，water，crops，vegetation，manmade materials，animals，wildlife，weather，visibility，and climate".D The Supreme Court may give a mixed ruling，decreeing that carbon dioxide is indeed a pollutant，but one the EPA is free to ignore or regulate as it pleases. Or it might dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the plaintiffsdid not have the right to lodge it in the first place. In theory，they must prove that the EPA's foot-dragging has caused them some specific harm that regulation might remedy——a tall order in a field as fraught with uncertainty as climatology. Even if the court found in the plaintiffs' favour，rapid change is unlikely. By the time the EPA had implemented such a ruling，Congress would probably have superseded it with a new law. E That is the point，environmental groups say. They want Congress to pass a law tackling global warming，and hope that a favourable court ruling will jolly the politicians along. Moreover，the case has a bearing on several other bitterly-contested lawsuits. Carmakers，for example，are trying to get the courts to strike down a Californian state law based on certain provisions of the Clean Air Act that require them to reduce their vehicles' CO2 emissions. If the Supreme Court decides that the act does not apply to CO2，then the Californian law would also be in jeopardy. That，in turn， would scupper the decision of ten other states to adopt the same standard. F However the Supreme Court rules，many state governments are determined to tackle climate change. California is in the vanguard. Itslegislature has passed a law that will cap and then reduce industrial emissions of greenhouse gases. Seven eastern states have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative，which will treat emissions from power plants the same way. Almost 400 mayors have signed an agreement to cut their cities' emissions in line with Kyoto . Many businesses，even some power companies，would rather see regulation now than prolonged uncertainty. And several of the leading contenders for 2008's presidential election are much keener on emissions caps than Mr Bush. Change is in the air.雅思阅读模拟试题★How to increase salesPublished online: Nov 9th 2006From The Economist print editionHow shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales1.A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is.Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended.Stocking the mostexpensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (that is，how ants，bees or any social animal，including humans，behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy.2.At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome，Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani，a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology，described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance，by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store，forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes，also of the Florida Institute of Technology，set out to enhancethis tendency to buy more by playing on the herdinstinct.The idea is that，if a certain product is seen to be popular，shoppers are likely to choose it too.The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying.3.Enter smart-cart technology.In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequencyidentification tag，a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information，and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer.As a customer walks past a shelf of goods，a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product.If the number is high，he is more likely to select it too.4.Mr Usmani's “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.And it gives shoppers thesatisfaction of knowing that they bought the “right”product—that is，the one everyone else bought.The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world，mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets.But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work，and testing will get under way in the spring.5.Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could，indeed，be boosted in this way.Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial musicmarket in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs.The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded，they followed the crowd.When the songs were not ordered by rank，but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed，the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced.People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so.6.In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies.The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category，and the rankings are updated weekly.Icosystem，a company in Cambridge，Massachusetts，also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales.7.And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet.Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers.Even in the privacy of your home，you can still be part of the swarm.(644 words)Questions 1-6Complete the sentences below with words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.1.Shopowners realize that the smell of _______________ can increase sales of food products.2.In shops, products shelved at a more visible level sell better even if they are more _______________.3.According to Mr. Usmani, with the use of “swarm intelligence” phenomenon, a new method can be applied to encourage _______________.4.On the way to everyday items at the back of the store, shoppers might be tempted to buy _______________.5.If the number of buyers shown on the _______________ is high, other customers tend to follow them.ing the “swarm-moves” model, shopowners do not have to give customers _______________ to increase sales.Questions 7-12Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? For questions 7-12 write YES if the statement agrees with the informationNO if the statement contraicts the informationNOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in thepassage7.Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart.8.People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with.9.Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers.10.People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not.11.Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops.12.Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life.Answer keys:1.答案：(freshly baked) bread. (第1段第2行：Shoppers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they intended.)2.答案：expensive. (第1段第4行： Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors.)3.答案：impulse buying. (第2段第1句：At a recentconference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon.)4.答案：other (tempting) goods/things/products. (第2段第2句：Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them.)5.答案：screen. (第3段第4行：As a customer walks pasta shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too.)6.答案：discounts. (第4段第第1句：Mr Usmani’s “swarm-moves” model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts.)7.答案：NO.(第4段第3、4句：The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But MrUsmani says that both Wal-Mart in America an Tesco in Britain are interestd in his workd, and testing will get under way in the spring. 短语“get under way”的意思是“开始进行”，在Wal-Mart的试验要等到春天才开始)8.答案：NOT GIVEN. (在文中没有提及该信息)9.答案：YES。