雅思阅读模拟题：TheTriumphofUnreason
模拟题雅思阅读TFNG模拟试题(4)
模拟题:雅思阅读T/F/NG模拟试题(4)Para 1. The need for a satisfactory education is more important than ever before. Nowadays, without a qualification from a reputable school or university, the odds of landing that plum job advertised in the paper are considerably shortened. Moreover, one's present level of education could fall well short of future career requirements.para 2. It is no secret that competition is the driving force behind the need to obtain increasingly higher qualifications. In the majority of cases, the urge to upgrade is no longer the result of an insatiable thirst for knowledge. The pressure is coming from within the workplace to compete with ever more qualified job applicants, and in many occupations one must now battle with colleagues in the reshuffle for the position one already holds.para 3. Striving to become better educated is hardly a new concept. Wealthy parents have always been willing to spend the vast amounts of extra money necessary to send their children to schools with a perceived educational edge. Working adults have long attended night schools and refresher courses. Competition for employment has been around since the curse of working for a living began. Is the present situation so very different to that of the past？para 4. The difference now is that the push is uni v ersal and from without as well as within.A student at secondary school receiving low grades is no longer as easily accepted by his or her peers as was once the case. Similarly, in the workplace, unless employees are engaged in part-time study, they may be frowned upon by their employers and peers and have difficulty even standing still. In fact, in these cases, the expectation is for careers to go backwards and earning capacity to take an appreciable nosedive.para 5. At first glance, the situation wo uld seem to be laudable；a positive response to the exhortation by a former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, for australia to become the `clever country'. Yet there are serious ramifications according to at least one educational psychologist. Dr Brendan Gatsby has caused some controversy in academic circles by suggesting that a bias towards what he terms `paper'excellence might cause more problems than it is supposed to solve. Gatsby raises a number of issues that affect the individual as well as society in general.para 6. Firstly, he believes the extra workload involved is resulting in abnormally high stress levels in both students at secondary school and adults studying after working hours. Secondly, skills which might be more relevant to the undertaking of a sought_after job are being overlooked by employers interviewing candidates without qualifications on paper. These two areas of concern for the individual are causing physical and emotional stress respectively.para 7. Gatsby also argues that there are at t itudinal changes within society to the exalted role education now plays in determining how the spoils of working life are distributed. Individuals of all ages are being driven by social pressures to achieve academic success solely for monetary considerations instead of for the joy of enlightenment. There is the danger that some universities are becoming degree factories with an attendant drop in standards. Furthermore, our education system may be rewarding doggedness above creativity；the very thing Australians have been encouraged to avoid.But the most undesirable effect of this academic paper chase, Gatsby says,is the disadvantage that `user pays'higher education confers on the poor, who invariably lose out to the more financially favoured.para 8. Na turally, although there is agreement that learning can cause stress, Gatsby's comments regarding university standards have been roundly criticised as alarmist by mosteducationists who point out that, by any standard of measurement, Australia's education system overall, at both secondary and tertiary levels, is equal to that of any in the world.TRUE／FALSE／NOT GIVEN1.It is impossible these days to get a good job without a qualification from a respected institution.2.Most people who upgrade their qualifications do so for the joy of learning.3.In some jobs, the position you hold must be reapplied for.4.Some parents spend extra on their children's education because of the prestige attached to certain schools5.According to the text, students who performed bally at school used to be accepted by their classmates.6.Employees who do not undertake extra study may find their salary decreased by employers.7.Australians appear to have responded to the call by a former Prime Minister to become better qualified.8.Australia's education system is equal to any in the world in the opinion of most educationists.Answer Keys1.F2.F3.T4.NG5.T6.NG7.T8.T转贴于：考试大_雅思考试。
雅思阅读真题V57范本1份
雅思阅读真题V57范本1份雅思阅读真题V57 1passage1.三个科学家研究热带雨林蝴蝶。
T/F/NG有六题。
各位考过的朋友都分别有几个T几个F呢？然后是配对题个5、6，要求对应文中段落填对应段落号。
接下来三个填空。
征集各位答案！第二篇（选择、配对）是说古钱币的，非常简单。
前面几个选择加上后面7，8个__G，我只有一个来不及找了（怕最后一篇时间不够：（）如果再碰到强烈建议先做，搞定十几题心里就有底了啊：）passage2.关于各国各种古怪的钱币。
四五个选择。
第一个是问什么钱币通用于19世纪，我在B和D中犹豫，一个是silver coin一个是silver clot吧最后还是选了前者。
然后是8、9个配对题，钱币和其性质的配对。
第三篇（判断、简答一个词、选择）是美国人关于运动员如何提高运动成绩的研究，不难。
但我只有十五六分钟了，大家知道最后五分钟心理紧张，一般是起不了什么作用的。
先是5，6个T/F/NG，然后是四个填空（容易），最后是三四道选择。
我因为时间不够，最后做的T/F/NG只好全选F了，呜呜~~~ S3 （28-40）体育运动performance提高5个TRUE/ FALSE/NOT GIVE 4 conclusions 3 choice1．对体育成绩有记录开始于ABOUT 1900，我犹豫半天选对，原句：有记录于EARLY IN 19世纪，1904年的奥林匹克百米成绩是。
马拉松是2：55分，而1999年新的记录是2：05，提高了30% 第一段完毕2．遗传可以FULLY完全解释为什么有些人成绩好，F，原文：遗传是最重要的原因，但也就能占1/3，没一个人能给出完全的合理的解释，__G弄好了比1/3还强3.好基因的父母他们自己一定是很出色的运动员NOT GIVEN，原文：你要是想当好运动员，你一定好好挑选父母。
4.有了记录数据后，很多人可以在很早的年纪就被发现体育特长T原句：因为有基因数据和国际比赛重奖，所以可以使很早运动员就被发现。
雅思阅读第036套P1-The_Forgotten_Forest
雅思阅读第036套P1-The_Forgotten_Forest雅思阅读第036套P1-The Forgotten ForestREADING PASSAGE 1You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.The Forgotten ForestFound only in the Deep South of America, longleaf pine woodlands have dwindled to about 3 percent of their former range, but new efforts are under way to restore them.THE BEAUTY AND THE BIODIVERSITY of the longleaf pine forest are well-kept secrets, even in its native South. Yet it is among the richest ecosystems in North America, rivaling tallgrass prairies and the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest in the number of species it shelters. And like those two other disappearing wildlife habitats, longleaf is also critically endangered.In longleaf pine forests, trees grow widely scattered, creating an open, parklike environment, more like a savanna than a forest. The trees are not so dense as to block the sun. This openness creates a forest floor that is among the most diverse in the world, where plants such as many-flowered grass pinks, trumpet pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, lavender ladies and pineland bog-buttons grow. As many as 50 different species of wildflowers, shrubs, grasses and ferns have been cataloged in just a single square meter.Once, nearly 92 million acres of longleaf forest flourished from Virginia to Texas, the only place in the world where it isfound. By the turn of the 2lst century, however, virtually all of it had been logged, paved or farmed into oblivion. Only about 3 percent of the original range still supports longleaf forest, and only about 10,000 acres of that is uncut old-growth—the rest is forest that has regrown after cutting. An estimated 100,000 of those acres are still vanishing every year. However, a quiet movement to reverse this trend is rippling across the region. Governments, private organisations (including NWF) and individual conservationists are looking for ways to protect and preserve the remaining longleaf and to plant new forests for future generations.Figuring out how to bring back the piney woods also will allow biologists to help the plants and animals that depend on this habitat. Nearly two-thirds of the declining, threatened or endangered species in the southeastern United States are associated with longleaf. The outright destruction of longleaf is only part of their story, says Mark Danaher, the biologist for South Carolina's Francis Marion National Forest. He says the demise of these animals and plants also is tied to a lack of fire, which once swept through the southern forests on a regular basis. "Fire is absolutely critical for this ecosystem and for the species that depend on it," says Danaher.Name just about any species that occurs in longleaf and you can find a connection to fire. Bachman's sparrow is a secretive bird with a beautiful song that echoes across the longleaf flatwoods. It tucks its nest on the ground beneath clumps of wiregrass and little bluestem in the open under-story. But once fire has been absent for several years, and a tangle of shrubs starts to grow, the sparrows disappear. Gopher tortoises, the only native land tortoises east of the Mississippi, are also abundant inlongleaf. A keystone species for these forests, its burrows provide homes and safety to more than 300 species of vertebrates and invertebrates ranging from eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes to gopher frogs. If fire is suppressed, however, the tortoises are choked out. "If we lose fire," says Bob Mitchell, an ecologist at the Jones Center, "we lose wildlife."Without fire, we also lose longleaf. Fire knocks back the oaks and other hardwoods that can grow up to overwhelm longleaf forests. "They are fire forests," Mitchell says. "They evolved in the lightning capital of the eastern United States." And it wasn't only lightning strikes that set the forest aflame. "Native Americans also lit fires to keep the forest open," Mitchell says. "So did the early pioneers. They helped create the longleaf pine forests that we know today."Fire also changes how nutrients flow throughout longleaf ecosystems, in ways we are just beginning to understand. For example, researchers have discovered that frequent fires provide extra calcium, which is critical for egg production, to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Frances James, a retired avian ecologist from Florida State University, has studied these small black-and-white birds for more than two decades in Florida's sprawling Apalachicola National Forest. When she realised female woodpeckers laid larger clutches in the first breeding season after their territories were burned, she and her colleagues went searching for answers. "We learned calcium is stashed away in woody shrubs when the forest is not burned," James says. "But when there is a fire, a pulse of calcium moves down into the soil and up into the longleaf." Eventually, this calcium makes its way up the food chain to a tree-dwelling species of ant, which is the red-cockaded's favorite food. The result: more calcium for thebirds, which leads to more eggs, more young and more woodpeckers.Today, fire is used as a vital management tool for preserving both longleaf and its wildlife. Most of these fires are prescribed burns, deliberately set with a drip torch. Although the public often opposes any type of fire—and the smoke that goes with it—these frequent, low-intensity burns reduce the risk of catastrophic conflagrations. "Forests are going to burn," says Amadou Diop, NWF's southern forests restoration manager. "It's just a question of when. With prescribed burns, we can pick the time and the place."Diop is spearheading a new NWF effort to restore longleaf. "It's a species we need to go back to," he says. Educating landowners about the advantages of growing longleaf is part of the program, he adds, which will soon be under way in nine southern states. "Right now, most longleaf is on public land," says Jerry McCollum, president of the Georgia Wildlife Federation. "Private land is where we need to work," he adds, pointing out that more than 90 percent of the acreage within the historic range of longleaf falls under this category.Interest among private landowners is growing throughout the South, but restoring longleaf is not an easy task. The herbaceous layer—the understory of wiregrasses and other plants - also needs to be re-created. In areas where the land has not been chewed up by farming, but converted to loblolly or slash pine plantations, the seed bank of the longleaf forest usually remains viable beneath the soil. In time, this original vegetation can be coaxed back. Where agriculture has destroyed the seeds, however, wiregrass must be replanted. Right now, the expense is pro-hibitive, but researchers are searching for low-cost solutions.Bringing back longleaf is not for the short-sighted, however. Few of us will be alive when the pines being planted today become mature forests in 70 to 80 years. But that is not stopping longleaf enthusiasts. "Today, it's getting hard to find longleaf seedlings to buy," one of the private landowners says. "Everyone wants them. Longleaf is in a resurgence."SECTION 1: QUESTIONS 1-13Questions 1-5Complete the notes below.Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.Questions 6-9Complete the flow-chart below.Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.Questions 10-13Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?In boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet, write10 _________________ The sparse distribution of longleaf pine trees leads to the most diversity of species.11 _________________ It is easier to restore forests converted to farms than forests converted to plantations.12 _________________ The cost to restore forest is increasingrecently.13 _________________ Few can live to see the replanted forest reach its maturity.。
雅思托福阅读(一)
The Triumph of UnreasonA.Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are rational beings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive to extract maximum benefit (or “utility”, in economist-speak) from any situation. Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making draws on the emotions—even when reason is clearly involved.B.The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations met frequently in the past, such as obtaining food and mates, and confronting or fleeing from threats, the neural mechanisms required to weigh up the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal outcome. Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes, evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences for utility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machinery has to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?C.One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In particular, he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run up debt. To prove the point he has teamed up with two psychologists, Brian Knutson of Stanford University and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to look at what happens in the brain when it is deciding what to buy.D.In a study, the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether to buy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the television show that were flashed on a computer screen one after another. In each round of the task, the researchers first presented the product and then its price, with each step lasting four seconds. In the final stage, which also lasted four seconds, they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While the volunteers were taking part in the experiment, the researchers scanned their brains using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures blood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain, as an indication of its activity.E.The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved at different stages of the test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active part when a product was being displayed. Moreover, the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.F.When the price appeared, however, fMRI reported more activityin other parts of the brain. Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex, a brain region linked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures. The researchers also found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.G.Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex, too. This part of the brain is involved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activity seemed to correlate with a volunteer's reaction to both product and price, rather than to price alone. Thus, the sense of a good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex, and this often preceded a decision to buy.H.People's shopping behaviour therefore seems to have piggy-backed on old neural circuits evolved for anticipation of reward and the avoidance of hazards. What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex), even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. His hypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives, as orthodox economics suggests happens, people actually balance the immediate pleasure of the prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying for it.I.That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one useful object is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time), the future utility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded. Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit, though, may be different. The abstract nature of credit cards, coupled with the deferment of payment that they promise, may modulate the “con”side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.J.Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments that the three researchers are now designing. These will test whether people with distinctly different spending behaviour, such as miserliness and extravagance, experience different amounts of pain in response to prices. They will also assess whether, in the same individuals, buying with credit cards eases the pain compared with paying by cash. If they find that it does, then credit cards may have to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods, and recreational drugs, that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have a long and malign aftertaste.Questions 1-6Do the following statemets reflect the claims of the writer inReading Passage 1?Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.TRUE if the statement reflets the claims of the writer FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is possbile to say what the writer thinks about this1. The belief of neoclassical economics does not accord with the increasing evidence that humans make use of the emotions to make decisions.2. Animals are urged by emotion to strive for an optimal outcomes or extract maximum utility from any situation.3. George Loewenstein thinks that modern ways of shopping tend to allow people to accumulate their debts.4. The more active the nucleus accumens was, the stronger the desire of people for the product in question became.5. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is linked to monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.6. When the activity in nucleus accumbens was increased by the sense of a good bargain, people tended to purchase coffee. Questions 7-9Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-9 on your answe sheet.7. Which of the following statements about orthodox economics is true?A. The process which people make their decisions is rational.B. People have a clear idea of their best interests in any situation.C. Humans make judgement on the basis of reason rather then emotion.D. People weigh the present good against future alternatives in shopping.8. The word “miserliness”in line 3 of Paragraph J means__________.A. people's behavior of buying luxurious goodsB. people's behavior of buying very special itemsC. people's behavior of being very mean in shoppingD. people's behavior of being very generous in shopping9. The three researchers are now designing the future experiments, which testA. whether people with very different spending behaviour experience different amounts of pain in response to products.B. whether buying an item with credit cards eases the pain of the same individuals compared with paying for it by cash.C. whether the abstract nature of credit cards may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.D. whether the credit cards may subvert human instincts in waysthat seem pleasurable but with a terrible effect.Questions 10-13Complete the notes below.Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.To find what happens in the brain of humans when it is decidingthings to buy, George Loewenstein and his co-researchers did an experiment by using the technique of fMRI. They found that differentparts of the brain were invloved in the process. The activity in 10 was greatly increased with the displaying of certain product. Thegreat activity was found in the insular cortex when 11 and the subject decided not to buy a product. The activity of the medial prefrontal cortex seemed to associate with both 12 informaiton. What interested Dr Loewenstein was the 13 of the assessment of the product and its price in different parts of the brain.Don't wash those fossils!Standard museum practice can wash away DNA.1. Washing, brushing and varnishing fossils-all standard conservation treatments used by many fossil hunters and museum curators alike-vastly reduces the chances of recovering ancient DNA.2. Instead, excavators should be handling at least some of their bounty with gloves, and freezing samples as they are found, dirt andall, concludes a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academyof Sciences today.3. Although many palaeontologists know anecdotally that this isthe best way to up the odds of extracting good DNA, Eva-Maria Geiglof the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris, France, and her colleagueshave now shown just how important conservation practices can be. This information, they say, needs to be hammered home among the peoplewho are actually out in the field digging up bones.4. Geigl and her colleagues looked at 3,200-year-old fossil bones belonging to a single individual of an extinct cattle species, calledan aurochs. The fossils were dug up at a site in France at two different times — either in 1947, and stored in a museum collection,or in 2004, and conserved in sterile conditions at -20 oC.5. The team's attempts to extract DNA from the 1947 bones allfailed. The newly excavated fossils, however, all yielded DNA.6. Because the bones had been buried for the same amount of time, and in the same conditions, the conservation method had to be to blame says Geigl. "As much DNA was degraded in these 57 years as in the 3,200 years before," she says.7. Because many palaeontologists base their work on the shape of fossils alone, their methods of conservation are not designed to preserve DNA, Geigl explains.8. The biggest problem is how they are cleaned. Fossils are often washed together on-site in a large bath, which can allow water and contaminants in the form of contemporary DNA — to permeate into the porous bones. "Not only is the authentic DNA getting washed out, but contamination is getting washed in," says Geigl.9. Most ancient DNA specialists know this already, says Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. But that doesn't mean that best practice has become widespread among those who actually find the fossils.10. Getting hold of fossils that have been preserved with their DNA in mind relies on close relationships between lab-based geneticists and the excavators, says palaeogeneticist Svante P bo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. And that only occurs in exceptional cases, he says.11. P bo's team, which has been sequencing Neanderthal DNA, continually faces these problems. "When you want to study ancient human and Neanderthal remains, there's a big issue of contamination with contemporary human DNA," he says.12. This doesn't mean that all museum specimens are fatally flawed, notes P bo. The Neanderthal fossils that were recently sequenced in his own lab, for example, had been part of a museum collection treated in the traditional way. But P bo is keen to see samples of fossils from every major find preserved in line with Geigl's recommendations — just in case.13. Geigl herself believes that, with cooperation between bench and field researchers, preserving fossils properly could open up avenues of discovery that have long been assumed closed.14. Much human cultural development took place in temperate regions. DNA does not survive well in warm environments in the first place, and can vanish when fossils are washed and treated. For this reason, Geigl says, most ancient DNA studies have been done on permafrost samples, such as the woolly mammoth, or on remains sheltered from the elements in cold caves — including cave bear and Neanderthal fossils.15. Better conservation methods, and a focus on fresh fossils, could boost DNA extraction from more delicate specimens, says Geigl.And that could shed more light on the story of human evolution.GlossaryPalaeontologists古生物学家Aurochs欧洲野牛Neanderthal(人类学)尼安德特人，旧石器时代的古人类Permafrost(地理)永冻层Questions 1-6Answer the following questions by using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.1. How did people traditionally treat fossils?2. What suggestions do Geigl and her colleagues give on what should be done when fossils are found?3. What problems may be posed if fossil bones are washed on-site? Name ONE.4. What characteristic do fossil bones have to make them susceptible to be contaminated with contemporary DNA when they are washed?5. What could be better understood when conservation treatments are improved?6. The passage mentioned several animal species studied by researchers. How many of them are mentioned?Questions 7-11Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Please writeTRUE if the statement agrees with the writer FALSE if the statement does not agree with the writerNOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage7. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Geigl and her colleagues have shown what conservation practices should be followed to preserve ancient DNA.8. The fossil bones that Geigl and her colleagues studied are all from the same aurochs.9. Geneticists don't have to work on site.10. Only newly excavated fossil bones using new conservation methods suggested by Geigl and her colleagues contain ancient DNA.11. Paabo is still worried about the potential problems caused by treatments of fossils in traditional way.Questions 12-13Complete the following the statements by choosing letter A-D for each answer.12. “This information” in paragraph 3 indicates:[A] It is critical to follow proper practices in preservingancient DNA.[B] The best way of getting good DNA is to handle fossils with gloves.[C] Fossil hunters should wear home-made hammers while digging up bones.[D] Many palaeontologists know how one should do in treating fossils.13. The study conducted by Geigl and her colleagues suggests:[A] the fact that ancient DNA can not be recovered from fossil bones excavated in the past.[B] the correlation between the amount of burying time and that of the recovered DNA.[C] the pace at which DNA degrades. the correlation between conservation practices and degradation of DNA.Why did a promising heart drug fail?Doomed drug highlights complications of meddling with cholesterol.1. The failure of a high-profile cholesterol drug has thrown a spotlight on the complicated machinery that regulates cholesterol levels. But many researchers remain confident that drugs to boost levels of ‘good' cholesterol are still one of the most promising means to combat spiralling heart disease.2. Drug company Pfizer announced on 2 December that it was cancelling all clinical trials of torcetrapib, a drug designed to raise heart-protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). In a trial of 15000 patients, a safety board found that more people died or suffered cardiovascular problems after taking the drug plus a cholesterol-lowering statin than those in a control group who took the statin alone.3. The news came as a kick in the teeth to many cardiologists because earlier tests in animals and people suggested it would lower rates of cardiovascular disease. "There have been no red flags to my knowledge," says John Chapman, a specialist in lipoproteins and atherosclerosis at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris who has also studied torcetrapib. "This cancellation came as a complete shock."4. Torcetrapib is one of the most advanced of a new breed of drugs designed to raise levels of HDLs, which ferry cholesterol out of artery-clogging plaques to the liver for removal from the body. Specifically, torcetrapib blocks a protein called cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP), which normally transfers the cholesterol from high-density lipoproteins to low density, plaque-promoting ones.Statins, in contrast, mainly work by lowering the ‘bad' low-density lipoproteins.5. Researchers are now trying to work out why and how the drug backfired, something that will not become clear until the clinical details are released by Pfizer. One hint lies in evidence from earlier trials that it slightly raises blood pressure in some patients. It was thought that this mild problem would be offset by the heart benefits of the drug. But it is possible that it actually proved fatal in some patients who already suffered high blood pressure. If blood pressure is the explanation, it would actually be good news for drug developers because it suggests that the problems are specific to this compound. Other prototype drugs that are being developed to block CETP work in a slightly different way and might not suffer the same downfall.6. But it is also possible that the whole idea of blocking CETP is flawed, says Moti Kashyap, who directs atherosclerosis research at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach, California. When HDLs excrete cholesterol in the liver, they actually rely on LDLs for part of this process. So inhibiting CETP, which prevents the transfer of cholesterol from HDL to LDL, might actually cause an abnormal and irreversible accumulation of cholesterol in the body. "You're blocking a physiologic mechanism to eliminate cholesterol and effectively constipating the pathway," says Kashyap.7. Most researchers remain confident that elevating high density lipoproteins levels by one means or another is one of the best routes for helping heart disease patients. But HDLs are complex and not entirely understood. One approved drug, called niacin, is known to both raise HDL and reduce cardiovascular risk but also causes an unpleasant sensation of heat and tingling. Researchers are exploring whether they can bypass this side effect and whether niacin can lower disease risk more than statins alone. Scientists are also working on several other means to bump up high-density lipoproteins by, for example, introducing synthetic HDLs. "The only thing we know is dead in the water is torcetrapib, not the whole idea of raising HDL," says Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore.Questions 1-7This passage has 7 paragraphs 1-7.Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.Write the correct number i-ix in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.List of Headingsi. How does torcetrapib work?ii. Contradictory result prior to the current trialiii. One failure may possibly bring about future successiv. The failure doesn't lead to total loss of confidencev. It is the right route to followvi. Why it's stoppedvii. They may combine and theoretically produce ideal result viii. What's wrong with the drugix. It might be wrong at the first placeExample answerParagraph 1 iv1. Paragraph 22. Paragraph 33. Paragraph 44. Paragraph 55. Paragraph 66. Paragraph 7Questions 8-14Match torcetrapib，HDLs，statin and CETP with their functions (Questions 8-14)..Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.NB You may use any letter more than once.8.It has been administered to over 10,000 subjects in a clinical trial.9.It could help rid human body of cholesterol.10.Researchers are yet to find more about it.11. It was used to reduce the level of cholesterol.12. According to Kashyap, it might lead to unwanted result if it's blocked.13. It produced contradictory results in different trials.14. It could inhibit LDLs.List of choicesA. TorcetrapicB. HDLSC. StatinD. CETP。
剑桥雅思汇编整理阅读解析test
P a s s a g e1 Question 1答案： spinning关键词： method定位原文: 第1段第3句“The first successful method for…”解题思路: 此题的较容易。
空格中所填词应为 method的名称。
通过 The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning 可知本题答案为 spinning。
Question 2答案： (perfectly) unblemished关键词： glass , remained定位原文：第1段倒数第2句“...so it stayed perfectly unblemished,...”解题思路：此题的定位词被同义转述为stayed。
所以此题填：(perfectly) unblemished。
Question 3答案： labour- intensive关键词： disadvantages, slow定位原文：第1段最后1句“However, the process took a long...”解题思路：由题目中的 disadvantages 找到文章中表示意思与上文相反或相对的强转折词 However。
同时根据 slow 判断本题需填入与之并列的形容词。
通过第一段最后一句可确定本题答案为 labour-intensive。
Question 4答案： thickness关键词： ribbon, varying对应原文：第2段第3句“This allowed glass of virtually…”解题思路：此题通过Ribbon可以定位到第二段，其中 Advantage部分集中在第三句;文中any对应题中varying。
所以此题填：thickness。
Question 5答案： marked关键词： disadvantages, 20%定位原文：第2段倒数第2句“...but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked,...”解题思路：此题通过20%定位于对应句之后的那一句，按照顺序原则找到对应处中的glass。
雅思冲刺全真模考阅读卷(答案) (3)
scaffold's apex. The idea was that as one end of the column rose, the base would roll across the ground on a trolley. Earlier this year, the team put Clemmons's unlikely theory to the test, using a 40-square-metre rectangular nylon sail. The kite lifted the column clean off the ground. We were absolutely stunned,' Gharib says. 'The instant the sail opened into the wind, a huge force was generated and the column was raised to the vertical in a mere 40 seconds.'
雅思考试阅读题(培训类)样题及答案(Sentence completion)
雅思考试阅读题(培训类)样题及答案General Training Reading sample task–Sentence completion[Note: This is an extract from a General Training Reading text on the subject of understanding bee behaviour. The text preceding this extract described Karl von Frisch's experiments and his conclusions about two bee dances.]At first, von Frisch thought the bees were responding only to the scent of the food.But what did the third dance mean? And if bees were responding only to the scent,how could they also ‘sniff down’ food hundreds of metres away from the hive*, food which was sometimes downwind? On a hunch, he started gradually moving the feeding dish further and further away and noticed as he did so that the dances of the returning scout bees also started changing. If he placed the feeding dish over nine metres away, the second type of dance, the sickle version, came into play.But once he moved it past 36 metres, the scouts would then start dancing the third, quite different, waggle dance.The measurement of the actual distance too, he concluded, was precise. For example, a feeding dish 300 metres away was indicated by 15 complete runs through the pattern in 30 seconds. When the dish was moved to 60 metres away, the number dropped to eleven.Von Frisch noted something further. When the scout bees came home to tell their sisters about the food source, sometimes they would dance outside on the horizontal entrance platform of the hive, and sometimes on the vertical wall inside. And, depending on where they danced, the straight portion of the waggle dance would point in different directions. The outside dance was fairly easy to decode: the straight portion of the dance pointed directly to the food source, so the bees would merely have to decode the distance message and fly off in that direction to find their food.But by studying the dance on the inner wall of the hive, von Frisch discovered a remarkable method which the dancer used to tell her sisters the direction of the food in relation to the sun. When inside the hive, the dancer cannot use the sun, so she uses gravity instead. The direction of the sun is represented by the top of the hive wall. If she runs straight up, this means that the feeding place is in the same direction as the sun. However, if, for example, the feeding place is 40º to the left of the sun, then the dancer would run 40º to the left of the vertical line. This was to be the first of von Frisch’s remarkable discoveries. Soon he would also discover a number of other remarkable facts about how bees communicate and, in doing so, revolutionise the study of animal behaviour generally.* Hive – a ‘house’ for bees; the place where they build a nest and liveQuestions 38 – 40Complete the sentences below.Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.38 Von Frisch discovered the difference between dance types by changing the position of the .................. .39 The dance outside the hive points in the direction of the ............... .40 The angle of the dance from the vertical shows the angle of the food from the ............Answers38 feeding dish39 food (source)40 sunWords in brackets are optional - they are correct, but not necessary.。
2019雅思阅读考试真题(10)
2019年12月17日雅思阅读真题预测>>>免费试听：【超值特惠】雅思临考预测四科联报核心考点大放送The Triumph of UnreasonA.Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are rational beings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive to extract maximum benefit (or “utility”, in economist-speak) from any situation. Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidencethat decision-making draws on the emotions—even when reason is clearly involved.B.The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations met frequently in the past, such as obtaining food and mates, and confronting or fleeing from threats, the neural mechanisms required to weigh up the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal outcome. Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes, evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences for utility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machinery has to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?C.One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In particular, he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run up debt. To prove the point he has teamed up with two psychologists, Brian Knutson of Stanford University and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to look at what happens in the brain when itis deciding what to buy.D.In a study, the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether to buy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the television show that were flashed on a computer screen one after another. In each round of the task, the researchers first presented the product and thenits price, with each step lasting four seconds. In the final stage, which also lasted four seconds, they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While the volunteers were taking part in the experiment, the researchers scanned their brains using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures blood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain, as an indication of its activity.E.The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved at different stages of the test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active part when a product was being displayed. Moreover, the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.F.When the price appeared, however, fMRI reported more activity in other parts of the brain. Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex, a brain regionlinked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures. The researchers also found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.G.Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex, too. This part of the brain is involved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activity seemed tocorrelate with a volunteer‘s reaction to both product and price, rather than to price alone. Thus, the sense of a good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medialprefrontal cortex, and this often preceded a decision to buy.H.People‘s shopping behaviour therefore seems to havepiggy-backed on old neural circuits evolved for anticipationof reward and the avoidance of hazards. What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex), even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. His hypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives, as orthodox economics suggests happens, people actually balancethe immediate pleasure of the prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying for it.I.That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one useful object is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time), the future utility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded. Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit, though, may be different. The abstract nature of credit cards, coupled with the deferment of payment that they promise, may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.J.Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments that the three researchers are now designing. These will test whether people with distinctly different spending behaviour, such as miserliness and extravagance, experience different amounts of pain in response to prices. They will also assess whether, in the same individuals, buying with credit cards eases the pain compared with paying by cash. If they find that it does, then credit cards may have to join the list of things such asfatty and sugary foods, and recreational drugs, that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have a long and malign aftertaste.Questions 1-6Do the following statemets reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.TRUE if the statement reflets the claims of the writerFALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is possbile to say what the writer thinks about this1. The belief of neoclassical economics does not accord with the increasing evidence that humans make use of the emotions to make decisions.2. Animals are urged by emotion to strive for an optimal outcomes or extract maximum utility from any situation.3. George Loewenstein thinks that modern ways of shopping tend to allow people to accumulate their debts.4. The more active the nucleus accumens was, the stronger the desire of people for the product in question became.5. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is linked to monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.6. When the activity in nucleus accumbens was increased by the sense of a good bargain, people tended to purchase coffee.Questions 7-9Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-9 on your answe sheet.7. Which of the following statements about orthodox economics is true?A. The process which people make their decisions is rational.B. People have a clear idea of their best interests in any situation.C. Humans make judgement on the basis of reason rather then emotion.D. People weigh the present good against future alternatives in shopping.8. The word “miserliness” in line 3 of Paragraph J means__________.A. people’s beha vior of buying luxurious goodsB. people’s behavior of buying very special itemsC. people’s behavior of being very mean in shoppingD. people’s behavior of being very generous in shopping9. The three researchers are now designing the future experiments, which testA. whether people with very different spending behaviour experience different amounts of pain in response to products.B. whether buying an item with credit cards eases the pain of the same individuals compared with paying for it by cash.C. whether the abstract nature of credit cards may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.D. whether the credit cards may subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable but with a terrible effect.。
2019年12月17日雅思阅读真题预测
2019年12月17日雅思阅读真题预测>>>免费试听：【超值特惠】雅思临考预测四科联报核心考点大放送The Triumph of UnreasonA.Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are rational beings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive to extract maximum benefit (or “utility”, in economist-speak) from any situation. Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidencethat decision-making draws on the emotions—even when reason is clearly involved.B.The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations met frequently in the past, such as obtaining food and mates, and confronting or fleeing from threats, the neural mechanisms required to weigh up the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal outcome. Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes, evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences for utility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machinery has to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?C.One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In particular, he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run up debt. To prove the point he has teamed up with two psychologists, Brian Knutson of Stanford University and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to look at what happens in the brain when itis deciding what to buy.D.In a study, the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether to buy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the television show that were flashed on a computer screen one after another. In each round of the task, the researchers first presented the product and thenits price, with each step lasting four seconds. In the final stage, which also lasted four seconds, they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While the volunteers were taking part in the experiment, the researchers scanned their brains using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures blood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain, as an indication of its activity.E.The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved at different stages of the test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active part when a product was being displayed. Moreover, the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.F.When the price appeared, however, fMRI reported more activity in other parts of the brain. Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex, a brain regionlinked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures. The researchers also found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.G.Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex, too. This part of the brain is involved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activity seemed tocorrelate with a volunteer‘s reaction to both product and price, rather than to price alone. Thus, the sense of a good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medialprefrontal cortex, and this often preceded a decision to buy.H.People‘s shopping behaviour therefore seems to havepiggy-backed on old neural circuits evolved for anticipationof reward and the avoidance of hazards. What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex), even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. His hypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives, as orthodox economics suggests happens, people actually balance。
雅思7test1passage3阅读解析
雅思7test1passage3阅读解析雅思考试中的阅读部分是很多考生感觉比较难的一部分，因为它不仅需要考生有一定的英语语言能力，还需要考生具有一定的阅读能力和理解能力。
今天我们来看一看雅思7test1passage3的阅读解析，帮助大家更好地掌握阅读技巧。
首先，我们先看一下这篇文章的大意。
这篇文章主要讲述的是美国墨西哥湾地区发现了一种新的深海生物——“烟鬼虾”，并且这种生物能够在高温和高压的环境下生存。
文章中详细介绍了这种生物的外形、生存环境，以及它对科学界的重要意义。
在阅读这篇文章时，我们可以采取以下几个策略：1.快速浏览文章在开始阅读之前，我们可以先快速浏览一下文章的标题和段落标题，了解文章大致的内容和结构。
这有助于我们在阅读时更有针对性地寻找信息。
2.识别关键词在阅读过程中，我们可以尝试识别关键词，将其标记出来，方便以后回忆。
例如，在这篇文章中，关键词包括“烟鬼虾”、“高温高压”、“深海生物”等。
3.理解生词如果我们在阅读中遇到了一些生词，可以根据上下文来理解其含义，或者查阅词典。
例如，在这篇文章中，“extremophile”（嗜极菌）就是一个比较生僻的词汇，但是在文章中已经给出了其含义：指一些生物可以在极端环境下生存。
4.寻找关键信息在阅读时，我们要尝试寻找关键信息，理解文章的主要内容。
例如，在这篇文章中，重点介绍了烟鬼虾的外形、生存环境和科学意义。
我们可以将这些信息进行概括和总结。
通过以上策略，我们可以更好地掌握阅读技巧，提高阅读效率和准确率。
希望这篇雅思7test1passage3的阅读解析能够对大家有所帮助。
雅思阅读预测真题3答案解析
Life-casting, can we call it art?1-5 段落matching1.D 对应：painters have always used technical back-up------studio assistants to do the boring bits, cameras lucida and obscure.... Boring bits 无聊的二进制back-up=help.2. In the 19th century, life-casting was to sculpture what photography was to painting; and both were viewed as cheating short-cuts by the senior arts.......for many life-casting was an insult to the sculptor’s creative gesture=figure’s mask3.G 对应：Barthes proclaimed the death of the author the liberation of the text from authorial intention, and the consequent empowerment of the readerThe liberation of the text=author matters in art4.H 对应：what counts is the surviving object and our living response to it. The tests are simple: does it interest the eye, excite the brain, move the mind to refection, and involve the heart; is an apparent level of skill involved? 其实就是对art 的评价5.F the initial impact is on the eye, in the contradiction between unexpected size and extreme verisimilitude. The initial impact =depiction of earlier work6-11判断题6.Art changes over time, what is art changes, too.=the definition of art7.Their virtues-of speed and unwavering realism-also implied their limitations; they left little for no room for the imagination.8.NG9.10.while apparently lesser crafts involve great skills, thought, preparation, choice and ----depending how we define it---imagination.=requires lots of skills.11.Each new art movement implies a reassessment of what has gone before; what is done now alters what was done before. In some cases, this is merely self-serving, with the new art using the old to justify itself implies a reassessment=reacquaint12-13选择题12.对应在F段: the initial impact is on the eye, in the contradiction between unexpected size and extreme verisimilitude (逼真的事物)= size and realism13.’’Multitasking Debate14-18(段落信息Matching)14.F段Selecting a response to one of these things will delay by some tenths of ability to respond to the Others. This called the ‘response selection bottleneck’ theory, first proposed in 195215......studies how aging affects our cognitive abilities16.’if you show an image and play a sound at the same time , one task is postponed’Show an image and Play a sound=visual and audio elementsSimultaneously=at the same time17. To demonstrate this, Marois devised an experiment to locate it18. He has written papers with titles like ‘Virtually perfect time-sharing in dual task performance’dual task=multitasking 说其优点=favor19-21（选择题）19.they have to press a key with their index finger different colored circles require presses from different fingers20.21.22-26（TFNG）22.The largest dual-task delays occur when the two tasks are presented simultaneously; progressively shorten as the interval between presenting the tasks lengthens23.Aircraft engines in one picture have disappeared in the other and they will fail to spot the differences24.NG25.NG26.It is not all bad news for over 55s,though. Kramer also found that older people can benefit from practice.Save endangered language拯救濒危语言27-32 heading27.A 1990 survey in Australia found that 70 of the 90 surviving aboriginal languages were no longer used regularly by all age groups28.The wider the portfolio of languages you study, the more likely you are t o get the right answer.29.1.teach young relative their native tongue;2 Ford foundation reinvigorate a master-appointment program.3create a multimedia archive(档案)30. Twenty years ago in New Zeal-and, Maori speakers set up language nests,’31.one factor that always seems to occur in the demise of a language is that the speakers begin to have collective doubts about the usefulness of language loyalty 都是一些消极的词汇32.The first step in saving dying languages is to persuade the world’s majorities to allow the minorities among them to speak with their own voices=solution of ....33-38( 人物信息matching)33.对应在D段It’s too early to call this language revitalization. In California the death rate of elderly speakers will always be greater than the recruitment rate of young speakers.现象：年轻speakers出现的速度小于老年speakers死去的速度--------But at least we prolong the survival of the language prolong=extend34.对应在E段A similar approach was tried in Hawaii, with some success -----the number of native speakers has stabilized .....35.对应在A段MK sent a shudder through the discipline of linguistic, with his prediction that half the 6000 or so languages spoken in the world would cease to be uttered within a century cease to ....停止36.对应在A段eight languages on which he had fieldwork had since passed into extinction.37.对应在C段A similar foundation in England......raised just $8,000=funding.38.对应在C段But t here isn’t any such effort organized in the profession. It is only recently that it has become fashionable enough to work on endangered languages39-40(选择)39.The Ford Foundation has also edged into the arena. Its contributions helped to reinvigorate a master apprentice program.....Fluent speakers receive$3,000 to tech a younger relative.....40.The first step in saving dying languages is to persuade the world’s majorities to allow the minorities among them to speak with their own voices.Tolerant to minority language speakers=allow minorities to speak with their......Roller Coaster 过山车1-4填空1-2 The traditional lifting mechanism is a long length of chain running up the hill under the track. The chain is fastened in a loop.Long line of-_____-=long length of______Be connected firmly to______= be fastened3-4 .....which is wound around a gear at the top of the hill and another on e at the bottom of the hill Is turned by a simple motor.At the bottom of the hill=under the hill turned by a simple motor=powered by ______5-10(summary)5.the direct ancestors of roller coasters were monumental ice slides----long steep wooden slides covered in ice, some as high as 70 feet.Be wrapped up by______=be covered in6.a few entrepreneurial Frenchmen imported the ice slide idea to FranceModified to______=imported _____to France7.The warmer climate of France tended to melt the ice=the temperature8.eventually adding wheels to the sleds = _____was installed9.it was originally used to transport coal from the top of Mount Pisgah to the bottom of Mount Jefferson.Transport=send10.A steam engine would haul passengers to the top of the mountainAllowed riders to slide downward back again11-14(TFNG)11.The most expensive ----------文中只提到了tallest and fastest12.The French continued to expand on this idea, coming up with mor e complex track layouts, with multiple cars and all sorts of twists and turns----------------innovation13. Because of its immediate popularity , it soon became strictly a passenger train ,.14.All over the America 对应在F段：Depression gave a crushing blow to amusement parks all over AmericaMammoth kill 猛犸象之死15-20(summary)15.定位B段：Now new findings offer support to one of these controversial hypothesis human hunting drove this megafaunal menagerie to extinction16.定位B段：The overkill model emerged in the 1960s, when it was put forth by Paul S.Martin of the university of Arizona.17.定位E段：Macphee does not have empirical evidence for the hyper-disease, and it won’t be easy to come by: Hyper lethal disease would kill far too quickly to leave its signature on the bones themselves。
剑桥雅思阅读6（test3）原文翻译答案
剑桥雅思阅读6(test3)原文翻译答案雅思阅读是块难啃的硬骨头，需要我们做更多的题目才能得心应手。
下面小编给大家分享一下剑桥雅思阅读6test6原文翻译及答案解析，希望可以帮助到大家。
剑桥雅思阅读6原文(test3)READING PASSAGE 1You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.A The Lumiere Brothers opened their Cinematographe, at 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, to 100 paying customers over 100 years ago, on December 8, 1895. Before the eyes of the stunned, thrilled audience, photographs came to life and moved across a flat screen.B So ordinary and routine has this become to us that it takes a determined leap of the imagination to grasp the impact of those first moving images. But it is worth trying, for to understand the initial shock of those images is to understand the extraordinary power and magic of cinema, the unique, hypnotic quality that has made film the most dynamic, effective art form of the 20th century.C One of the Lumiere Brothers’ earliest films was a 30-second piece which showed a section of a railway platform flooded with sunshine. A train appears and heads straight for the camera. And that is all that happens. Yet the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest of all film artists, described the film as a ‘work of genius’. ‘As the train approached,’ wrote Tarkovsky, ‘panic started in the theatre: people jumped and ran away. That was the moment when cinema was born. The frightened audience could not accept that they were watching amere picture. Pictures were still, only reality moved; this must, therefore, be reality. In their confusion, they feared that a real train was about to crush them.’D Early cinema audiences often experienced the same confusion. In time, the idea of film became familiar, the magic was accepted — but it never stopped being magic. Film has never lost its unique power to embrace its audiences and transport them to a different world. For Tarkovsky, the key to that magic was the way in which cinema created a dynamic image of the real flow of events. A still picture could only imply the existence of time, while time in a novel passed at the whim of the reader. But in cinema, the real, objective flow of time was captured.E One effect of this realism was to educate the world about itself. For cinema makes the world smaller. Long before people travelled to America or anywhere else, they knew what other places looked like; they knew how other people worked and lived. Overwhelmingly, the lives recorded — at least in film fiction —have been American. From the earliest days of the industry, Hollywood has dominated the world film market. American imagery —the cars, the cities, the cowboys —became the primary imagery of film. Film carried American life and values around the globe.F And, thanks to film, future generations will know the 20th century more intimately than any other period. We can only imagine what life was like in the 14th century or in classical Greece. But the life of the modern world has been recorded on film in massive, encyclopedic detail. We shall be known better than any preceding generations.G The ‘star’ was another natural consequence of cinema. The cinema star was effectively born in 1910. Film personalitieshave such an immediate presence that, inevitably, they become super-real. Because we watch them so closely and because everybody in the world seems to know who they are, they appear more real to us than we do ourselves. The star as magnified human self is one of cinema’s most strange and enduring legacies.H Cinema has also given a new lease of life to the idea of the story. When the Lumiere Brothers and other pioneers began showing off this new invention, it was by no means obvious how it would be used. All that mattered at first was the wonder of movement. Indeed, some said that, once this novelty had worn off, cinema would fade away. It was no more than a passing gimmick, a fairground attraction.I Cinema might, for example, have become primarily a documentary form. Or it might have developed like television —as a strange, noisy transfer of music, information and narrative. But what happened was that it became, overwhelmingly, a medium for telling stories. Originally these were conceived as short stories — early producers doubted the ability of audiences to concentrate for more than the length of a reel. Then, in 1912, an Italian 2-hour film was hugely successful, and Hollywood settled upon the novel-length narrative that remains the dominant cinematic convention of today.J And it has all happened so quickly. Almost unbelievably, it is a mere 100 years since that train arrived and the audience screamed and fled, convinced by the dangerous reality of what they saw, and, perhaps, suddenly aware that the world could never be the same again —that, maybe, it could be better, brighter, more astonishing, more real than reality.Questions 1-5Reading Passage 1 has ten paragraphs, A-J.Which paragraph contains the following information?Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.1 the location of the first cinema2 how cinema came to focus on stories3 the speed with which cinema has changed4 how cinema teaches us about other cultures5 the attraction of actors in filmsQuestions 6-9Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 1?In boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet, writeYES if the statement agrees with the views of the writerNO if the statement contradicts the views of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this6 It is important to understand how the first audiences reacted to the cinema.7 The Lumiere Brothers’ film about the train was one of the greatest films ever made.8 Cinema presents a biased view of other countries.9 Storylines were important in very early cinema.Questions 10-13Choose the correct letter, A B, C to D.Write the correct letter in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.10 The writer refers to the film of the train in order to demonstrateA the simplicity of early films.B the impact of early films.C how short early films were.D how imaginative early films were.11 In Tarkovsky’s opinion, the attraction of the cinema is that itA aims to impress its audience.B tells stories better than books.C illustrates the passing of time.D describes familiar events.12 When cinema first began, people thought thatA it would always tell stories.B it should be used in fairgrounds.C its audiences were unappreciative.D its future was uncertain.13 What is the best title for this passage?A The rise of the cinema starB Cinema and novels comparedC The domination of HollywoodD The power of the big screenREADING PASSAGE 2You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.Questions 14-18Reading Passage 2 contains six Key Points.Choose the correct heading for Key Points TWO to SIX from the list of headings below.Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.List of Headingsi Ensure the reward system is fairii Match rewards to individualsiii Ensure targets are realisticiv Link rewards to achievementv Encourage managers to take more responsibilityvi Recognise changes in employees’ performance over time vii Establish targets and give feedbackviii Ensure employees are suited to their jobsExample AnswerKey Point One Viii14 Key Point Two15 Key Point Three16 Key Point Four17 Key Point Five18 Key Point SixMotivating Employees underAdverse ConditionsTHE CHALLENGEIt is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organisation than a declining one. When organisations are expanding and adding personnel, promotional opportunities, pay rises, and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organisation create feelings of optimism. Management is able to use the growth to entice and encourage employees. When an organisation is shrinking, the best and most mobile workers are prone to leave voluntarily. Unfortunately, they are the ones the organisation can least afford to lose — those with the highest skills and experience. The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.Morale also suffers during decline. People fear they may be the next to be made redundant. Productivity often suffers, as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing oneanother with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs. For those whose jobs are secure, pay increases are rarely possible. Pay cuts, unheard of during times of growth, may even be imposed. The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such retrenchment conditions. The ways of meeting this challenge can be broadly divided into six Key Points, which are outlined below.KEY POINT ONEThere is an abundance of evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs. For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within a larger business, high achievers should be sought. However, if the job to be filled is a managerial post in a large bureaucratic organisation, a candidate who has a high need for power and a low need for affiliation should be selected. Accordingly, high achievers should not be put into jobs that are inconsistent with their needs. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goals and where there is independence and feedback. However, it should be remembered that not everybody is motivated by jobs that are high in independence, variety and responsibility.KEY POINT TWOThe literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. For those with high achievement needs, typically a minority in any organisation, the existence of external goals is less important because high achievers are already internally motivated. The next factor to be determined is whether the goals should be assigned by a manager or collectively set in conjunction with theemployees. The answer to that depends on perceptions of goal acceptance and the organisation’s culture. If resistance to goals is expected, the use of participation in goal-setting should increase acceptance. If participation is inconsistent with the culture, however, goals should be assigned. If participation and the culture are incongruous, employees are likely to perceive the participation process as manipulative and be negatively affected by it.KEY POINT THREERegardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management’s perceptions of the employee’s ability, if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort. Managers must be sure, therefore, that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals. For managers, this means that employees must have the capability of doing the job and must regard the appraisal process as valid.KEY POINT FOURSince employees have different needs, what acts as a reinforcement for one may not for another. Managers could use their knowledge of each employee to personalise the rewards over which they have control. Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay, promotions, autonomy, job scope and depth, and the opportunity to participate in goal-setting and decision-making.KEY POINT FIVEManagers need to make rewards contingent on performance. To reward factors other than performance will only reinforce those other factors. Key rewards such as pay increases and promotions or advancements should be allocated for the attainment of the employee’s specific goals. Consistent withmaximising the impact of rewards, managers should look for ways to increase their visibility. Eliminating the secrecy surrounding pay by openly communicating everyone’s remuneration, publicising performance bonuses and allocating annual salary increases in a lump sum rather than spreading them out over an entire year are examples of actions that will make rewards more visible and potentially more motivating.KEY POINT SIXThe way rewards are distributed should be transparent so that employees perceive that rewards or outcomes are equitable and equal to the inputs given. On a simplistic level, experience, abilities, effort and other obvious inputs should explain differences in pay, responsibility and other obvious outcomes. The problem, however, is complicated by the existence of dozens of inputs and outcomes and by the fact that employee groups place different degrees of importance on them. For instance, a study comparing clerical and production workers identified nearly twenty inputs and outcomes. The clerical workers considered factors such as quality of work performed and job knowledge near the top of their list, but these were at the bottom of the production workers’ list. Similarly, production workers thought that the most important inputs were intelligence and personal involvement with task accomplishment, two factors that were quite low in the importance ratings of the clerks. There were also important, though less dramatic, differences on the outcome side. For example, production workers rated advancement very highly, whereas clerical workers rated advancement in the lower third of their list. Such findings suggest that one person’s equity is another’s inequity, so an ideal should probably weigh different inputs and outcomes according to employee group.Questions 19-24Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 27?In boxes 19-24 on your answer sheet, writeYES if the statement agrees with the views of the writerNO if the statement contradicts the views of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this19 A shrinking organization tends to lose its less skilled employees rather than its more skilled employees.20 It is easier to manage a small business than a large business.21 High achievers are well suited to team work.22 Some employees can feel manipulated when asked to participate in goal-setting.23 The staff appraisal process should be designed by employees.24 Employees’ earnings should be disclosed to everyone within the organization.Questions 25-27Look at the following groups of workers (Questions 25-27) and the list of descriptions below.Match each group with the correct description, A-E.Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 25-27 on your answer sheet.25 high achievers26 clerical workers27 production workersList of DescriptionsA They judge promotion to be important.B They have less need of external goals.C They think that the quality of their work is important.D They resist goals which are imposed.E They have limited job options.READING PASSAGE 3You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.The Search for the Anti-aging PillIn government laboratories and elsewhere, scientists are seeking a drug able to prolong life and youthful vigor. Studies of caloric restriction are showing the wayAs researchers on aging noted recently, no treatment on the market today has been proved to slow human aging — the build-up of molecular and cellular damage that increases vulnerability to infirmity as we grow older. But one intervention, consumption of a low-calorie_et nutritionally balanced diet, works incredibly well in a broad range of animals, increasing longevity and prolonging good health. Those findings suggest that caloric restriction could delay aging and increase longevity in humans, too.Unfortunately, for maximum benefit, people would probably have to reduce their caloric intake by roughly thirty per cent, equivalent to dropping from 2,500 calories a day to 1,750. Few mortals could stick to that harsh a regimen, especially for years on end. But what if someone could create a pill that mimicked the physiological effects of eating less without actually forcing people to eat less? Could such a ‘caloric-restriction mimetic’, as we call it, enable people to stay healthy longer, postponing age-related disorders (such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, heart disease and cancer) until very late in life? Scientists first posedthis question in the mid-1990s, after researchers came upon a chemical agent that in rodents seemed to reproduce many of caloric restriction’s benefits. No compound that would safely achieve the same feat in people has been found yet, but the search has been informative and has fanned hope that caloric-restriction (CR) mimetics can indeed be developed eventually.The benefits of caloric restrictionThe hunt for CR mimetics grew out of a desire to better understand caloric restriction’s many effects on the body. Scientists first recognized the value of the practice more than 60 years ago, when they found that rats fed a low-calorie diet lived longer on average than free-feeding rats and also had a reduced incidence of conditions that become increasingly common in old age. What is more, some of the treated animals survived longer than the oldest-living animals in the control group, which means that the maximum lifespan (the oldest attainable age), not merely the normal lifespan, increased. Various interventions, such as infection-fighting drugs, can increase a population’s ave rage survival time, but only approaches that slow the body’s rate of aging will increase the maximum lifespan.The rat findings have been replicated many times and extended to creatures ranging from yeast to fruit flies, worms, fish, spiders, mice and hamsters. Until fairly recently, the studies were limited to short-lived creatures genetically distant from humans. But caloric-restriction projects underway in two species more closely related to humans — rhesus and squirrel monkeys — have made scientists optimistic that CR mimetics could help people.calorie: a measure of the energy value of foodThe monkey projects demonstrate that, compared withcontrol animals that eat normally, caloric-restricted monkeys have lower body temperatures and levels of the pancreatic hormone insulin, and they retain more youthful levels of certain hormones that tend to fall with age.The caloric-restricted animals also look better on indicators of risk for age-related diseases. For example, they have lower blood pressure and triglyceride levels (signifying a decreased likelihood of heart disease), and they have more normal blood glucose levels (pointing to a reduced risk for diabetes, which is marked by unusually high blood glucose levels). Further, it has recently been shown that rhesus monkeys kept on caloric-restricted diets for an extended time (nearly 15 years) have less chronic disease. They and the other monkeys must be followed still longer, however, to know whether low-calorie intake can increase both average and maximum life spans in monkeys. Unlike the multitude of elixirs being touted as the latest anti-aging cure, CR mimetics would alter fundamental processes that underlie aging. We aim to develop compounds that fool cells into activating maintenance and repair.How a prototype caloric-restriction mimetic worksThe best-studied candidate for a caloric-restriction mimetic, 2DG (2-deoxy-D-glucose), works by interfering with the way cells process glucose. It has proved toxic at some doses in animals and so cannot be used in humans. But it has demonstrated that chemicals can replicate the effects of caloric restriction; the trick is finding the right one.Cells use the glucose from food to generate ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule that powers many activities in the body. By limiting food intake, caloric restriction minimizes the amount of glucose entering cells and decreases ATP generation.When 2DG is administered to animals that eat normally, glucose reaches cells in abundance but the drug prevents most of it from being processed and thus reduces ATP synthesis. Researchers have proposed several explanations for why interruption of glucose processing and ATP production might retard aging. One possibility relates to the ATP-making machinery’s emission of free radicals, which are thought to contribute to aging and to such age-related diseases as cancer by damaging cells. Reduced operation of the machinery should limit their production and thereby constrain the damage. Another hypothesis suggests that decreased processing of glucose could indicate to cells that food is scarce (even if it isn’t) and induce them to shift into an anti-aging mode that emphasizes preservation of the organism over such ‘luxuries’ as growth and reproduction.Questions 28-32Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?In boxes 28-32 on your answer sheet, writeYES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writerNO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writerNOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this28 Studies show drugs available today can delay the process of growing old.29 There is scientific evidence that eating fewer calories may extend human life.30 Not many people are likely to find a caloric-restricted diet attractive.31 Diet-related diseases are common in older people.32 In experiments, rats who ate what they wanted led shorterliver than rats on a low-calorie diet.Questions 33-37Classify the following descriptions as relating toA caloric-restricted monkeysB control monkeysC neither caloric-restricted monkeys nor control monkeysWrite the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 33-37 on your answer sheet.33 Monkeys were less likely to become diabetic.34 Monkeys experienced more chronic disease.35 Monkeys have been shown to experience a longer than average life span.36 Monkeys enjoyed a reduced chance of heart disease.37 Monkeys produced greater quantities of insulin.Questions 38-40Complete the flow-chart below.Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.How a caloric-restriction mimetic worksCR mimeticLess 38..............is processedProduction of ATP is decreasedTheory 1: Theory 2:Cells less damaged by disease because Cells focus on 40..............becausefewer 39..............are emitted food is in short supply剑桥雅思阅读6原文参考译文(test3)PASSAGE 1 参考译文：A The Lumiere Brothers opened their Cinematographe, at 14Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, to 100 paying customers over 100 years ago, on December 8, 1895. Before the eyes of the stunned, thrilled audience, photographs came to life and moved across a flat screen.A 一百多年前，在1895年12月8日，吕米埃兄弟在巴黎嘉布欣大道14号向100名买票人场的观众放映了他们制作的电影。
雅思(阅读)模拟试卷107(题后含答案及解析)
雅思（阅读）模拟试卷107(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1. Reading ModuleReading Module (60 minutes)You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.Cutty Sark: the fastest sailing ship of all timeThe nineteenth century was a period of great technological development in Britain, and for shipping the major changes were from wind to steam power, and from wood to iron and steel.The fastest commercial sailing vessels of all time were clippers, three-masted ships built to transport goods around the world, although some also took passengers. From the 1840s until 1869, when the Suez Canal opened and steam propulsion was replacing sail, clippers dominated world trade. Although many were built, only one has survived more or less intact: Cutty Sark, now on display in Greenwich, southeast London.Cutty Sark’s unusual name comes from the poem Tarn O’Shanter by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Tarn, a farmer, is chased by a witch called Nannie, who is wearing a ‘cutty sark’- an old Scottish name for a short nightdress. The witch is depicted in Cutty Sark’s figurehead - the carving of a woman typically at the front of old sailing ships. In legend, and in Burns’s poem, witches cannot cross water, so this was a rather strange choice of name for a ship.Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1869, for a shipping company owned by John Willis. To carry out construction, Willis chose a new shipbuilding firm, Scott & Linton, and ensured that the contract with them put him in a very strong position. In the end, the firm was forced out of business, and the ship was finished by a competitor.Willis’s company was active in the tea trade between China and Britain, where speed could bring shipowners both profits and prestige, so Cutty Sark was designed to make the journey more quickly than any other ship. On her maiden voyage, in 1870, she set sail from London, carrying large amounts of goods to China. She returned laden with tea, making the journey back to London in four months. However, Cutty Sark never lived up to the high expectations of her owner, as a result of bad winds and various misfortunes. On one occasion, in 1872, the ship and a rival clipper, Thermopylae, left port in China on the same day. Crossing the Indian Ocean, Cutty Sark gained a lead of over 400 miles, but then her rudder was severely damaged in stormy seas, making her impossible to steer. The ship’s crew had the daunting task of repairing the rudder at sea, and only succeeded at the second attempt. Cutty Sark reached London a week after Thermopylae.Steam ships posed a growing threat to clippers, as their speed and cargo capacity increased. In addition, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the same year that Cutty Sark was launched, had a serious impact. While steam ships could make use of the quick, direct route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the canal was of no use to sailing ships, which needed the much stronger winds of the oceans, and so had to sail a far greater distance. Steam ships reduced the journey time between Britain and China by approximately two months.By 1878, tea traders weren’tinterested in Cutty Sark, and instead, she took on the much less prestigious work of carrying any cargo between any two ports in the world. In 1880, violence aboard the ship led ultimately to the replacement of the captain with an incompetent drunkard who stole the crew’s wages. He was suspended from service, and a new captain appointed. This marked a turnaround and the beginning of the most successful period in Cutty Sark’s working life, transporting wool from Australia to Britain. One such journey took just under 12 weeks, beating every other ship sailing that year by around a month.The ship’s next captain, Richard Woodget, was an excellent navigator, who got the best out of both his ship and his crew. As a sailing ship, Cutty Sark depended on the strong trade winds of the southern hemisphere, and Woodget took her further south than any previous captain, bringing her dangerously close to icebergs off the southern tip of South America. His gamble paid off, though, and the ship was the fastest vessel in the wool trade for ten years.As competition from steam ships increased in the 1890s, and Cutty Sark approached the end of her life expectancy, she became less profitable. She was sold to a Portuguese firm, which renamed her Ferreira. For the next 25 years, she again carried miscellaneous cargoes around the world.Badly damaged in a gale in 1922, she was put into Falmouth harbour in southwest England, for repairs. Wilfred Dowman, a retired sea captain who owned a training vessel, recognised her and tried to buy her, but without success. She returned to Portugal and was sold to another Portuguese company. Dowman was determined, however, and offered a high price: this was accepted, and the ship returned to Falmouth the following year and had her original name restored.Dowman used Cutty Sark as a training ship, and she continued in this role after his death. When she was no longer required, in 1954, she was transferred to dry dock at Greenwich to go on public display. The ship suffered from fire in 2007, and again, less seriously, in 2014, but now Cutty Sark attracts a quarter of a million visitors a year.Questions 1-8Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, writeTRUE if the statement agrees with the informationFALSE if the statement contradicts the informationNOT GIVEN if there is no information on this1．Clippers were originally intended to be used as passenger ships.A．TRUEB．假C．NOT GIVEN正确答案：B解析：题目：帆船建造的初衷是作为客流运输船只。
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雅思阅读模拟题：The Triumph of UnreasonPart IReading Passage 1You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based onReading Passage1 below.The Triumph of Unreason?A.Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are rationalbeings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive to extractmaximum benefit (or “utility”, in economist-speak) from any situation.Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational.But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making draws on theemotions—even when reason is clearly involved.B.The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations metfrequently in the past, such as obtaining food and mates, and confronting orfleeing from threats, the neural mechanisms required to weigh up the pros andcons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal outcome. Sinceemotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards such outcomes,evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical consequences forutility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machineryhas to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?C.One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein, aneconomist at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. In particular, hesuspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery in away that encourages people to run up debt. To prove the point he has teamed upwith two psychologists, Brian Knutson of Stanford University and Drazen Prelecof the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to look at what happens in thebrain when it is deciding what to buy.D.In a study, the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether tobuy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the televisionshow that were flashed on a computer screen one after another. Ineach round ofthe task, the researchers first presented the product and then its price, witheach step lasting four seconds. In the final stage, which also lasted fourseconds, they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While the volunteerswere taking part in the experiment, the researchers scanned their brains using atechnique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measuresblood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain, as an indication ofitsactivity.E.The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved atdifferent stages of the test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active partwhen a product was being displayed. Moreover, the level of itsactivitycorrelated with the reported desirability of the product in question.F.When the price appeared, however, fMRI reported more activity in otherparts of the brain. Excessively high prices increased activity in the insularcortex, a brain region linked to expectations of pain, monetary loss and theviewing of upsetting pictures. The researchers also found greater activity inthis region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.G.Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex, too. This part ofthe brain is involved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activityseemed to correlate with a volunteer's reaction to both product and price,rather than to price alone. Thus, the sense of a good bargain evoked higheractivity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex, and this often preceded adecision to buy.H.People's shopping behaviour therefore seems to have piggy-backed on oldneural circuits evolved for anticipation of reward and the avoidance of hazards.What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment ofthe product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from theassessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex), even though thetwo are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. His hypothesis is that ratherthan weighing the present good against future alternatives, as orthodoxeconomics suggests happens, people actually balance the immediate pleasure ofthe prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying forit.I.That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one usefulobject is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time), the futureutility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded.Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit,though, may be different. The abstract nature of credit cards, coupled with thedeferment of payment that they promise, may modulate the “con” side of thecalculation in favour of the “pro”.J.Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments thatthe three researchers are now designing. These will test whether people withdistinctly different spending behaviour, such as miserliness and extravagance,experience different amounts of pain in response to prices. They will alsoassess whether, in the same individuals, buying with credit cards eases the paincompared with paying by cash. If they find that it does, then credit cards mayhave to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods, and recreationaldrugs, that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable atthe timebut can have a long and malign aftertaste.。