2006.9上海中级口译阅读真题(有答案)

2006.9 SECTION 2: STUDY SKILLSDirections: In this section, you will read several passages. Each passage is followed by several questions based on its content. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C) or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.Questions 1—5The purpose of the American court system is to protect the rights of the people. According to American law, if someone is accused of a crime, he or she is considered innocent until the court proves that the person is guilty. In other words, it is the responsibility of the court to prove that a person is guilty. It is not the responsibility of the person to prove that he or she is innocent.In order to arrest a person, the police have to be reasonably sure that a crime has been committed. The police must give the suspect the reasons why they are arresting him and tell him his rights under the law. Then the police take the suspect to the police station to “book” him. “Booking means that the name of the person and the charges against him are formally listed at the police station.The next step is for the suspect to go before a judge. The judge decides whether the suspect should be kept in jail or released. If the suspect has no previous criminal record and the judge feels that he will return to court rather than run away—for example, because he owns a house and has a family—he can go free. Otherwise, the suspect must put up bail. At this time, too, the judge will appoint a court layer to defend the suspect if he can’t afford one.The suspect returns to court a week or two later. A lawyer from the district attorney’s office presents a case against the suspect. This is called a hearing. The attorney may present evidence as well as witnesses. The judge at the hearing then decides whether there is enough reason to hold a trial. If the judge decides that there is sufficient evidence to call for a trial, he or she sets a date for the suspect to appear in court to formally plead guilty or not guilty.At the trial, a jury of 12 people listens to the evidence from both attorneys and hears the testimony of the witnesses. Then the jury goes into a private room to consider the evidence and decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime. If the jury decides that the defendant is innocent, he goes free. However, if he is convicted, the judge sets a date for the defendant to appear in court again for sentencing. At this time, the judge tells the convicted person what his punishment will be. The judge may sentence himto prison, order him to pay a fine, or place him on probation.The American justice system is very complex and sometimes operates slowly. However, every step is designed to protect the rights of the people. These individual rights are the basis, or foundation, of the American government.1.What is the main idea of the passage?(A) The American court system requires that a suspect prove that he or she is innocent.(B) The US court system is designed to protect the rights of the people.(C) Under the American court system, judge decides if a suspect is innocent or guilty.(D) The US court system is designed to help the police present a case against the suspect.2. What follows ‘in other words’ (para.1)?(A) An example of the previous sentence.(B) A new idea about the court system.(C) An item of evidence to call for a trial.(D) A restatement of the previous sentence.3. According to the passage, ‘he can go free’ (para.3) means _________.(A) the suspect is free to choose a lawyer to defend him(B) the suspect does not have to go to trial because the judge has decided he is innocent(C) the suspect will be informed by mail whether he is innocent or not(D) the suspect does not have to wait in jail or pay money until he goes to trial4. What is the purpose of having the suspect pay bail?(A) To pay for the judge and the trial.(B) To pay for a court lawyer to defend the suspect.(C) To ensure that the suspect will return to court.(D) To ensure that the suspect will appear in prison.5. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?(A) The American justice system sometimes operates slowly.(B) The police can arrest a suspect without giving any reasons.(C) It is the responsibility of the suspect to prove he is innocent.(D) The jury considers the evidence in the court room.Questions 6—10So you’ve got an invention—you and around 39,000 others each year, according to 2002 statistics!The 64,000-dollar question, if you have come up with a device which you believe to be the answer to the energy crisis or you’ve invented a lawnmower which cuts grass with a jet of water (not so daft, s omeone has invented one), is how to ensure you’re the one to reap the rewards of your ingenuity. How will all you garden shed boffins out there keep others from capitalizing on your ideas and lining their pockets at your expense?One of the first steps to protect your interest is to patent your invention. That can keep it out of the grasp of the pirates for at least the next 20 years. And for this reason inventors in their droves beat a constant trail from all over the country to the doors of an anonymous grey-fronted building just behind London’s Holborn to try and patent their devices.The building houses the Patent Office. It’s an ant heap of corridors, offices and filing rooms—a sorting house and storage depot for one of the world’s biggest and most varied collections of technical data. Some ten million patents—English and foreign—are listed there.File after file, catalogue after catalogue detail the brain-children of inventors down the centuries, from a 1600’s machine gun designed to fire square bullets at infidels and round ones at Christians, to present-day laser, nuclear and computer technology.The first ‘letters patent’ were granted as long ago as 1449 to a Flemish craftsman by the name of John Utynam. The letters, written in Latin, are still on file at the office. They were granted by King Henry VI and entitled Utynam to ‘import into this country’ his knowledge of making stained glass windows in order to install such windows at Eton College.Present-day patents procedure is a more sophisticated affair than getting a go-ahead note from the monarch. These days the strict procedures governing whether you get a patent for your revolutionary mouse-trap or solar-powered back-scratcher have been reduced to a pretty exact science.From start to finish it will take around two and a half years and cost £165 for the inventor to gain patent protection for his brainchild. That’s if he’s lucky. By no means all who apply to the Patent Office, which is a branch of the Department of Trade, get a patent.A key man at the Patent Office is Bernard Partridge, Principal Examiner (Administration), who boils down to one word the vital ingredient any inventor needsbefore he can hope to overcome the many hurdles in the complex procedure of obtaining a patent—‘ingenuity’.6.People take out a patent because they want to __________.(A) keep their ideas from being stolen(B) reap the rewards of somebody else’s ingenuity(C) visit the patent office building(D) come up with more new devices7. The phrase ‘the brain-children of inventors’ (para.5) means _________.(A) the children with high intelligence(B) the inventions that people come up with(C) a device that a child believes to be the answer to the energy crisis(D) a lawnmower that an individual has invented to cut grass8. What have the 1600’s machine gun and the present-day laser in common?(A) Both were approved by the monarch.(B) Both were granted by King Henry VI.(C) Both were rejected by the Department of Trade.(D) Both were patented.9. Why is John Utynam still remembered?(A) He is the first person to get a patent for his revolutionary mouse-trap.(B) He is the first person to be granted an official patent.(C) He is the first person to be an officer in the Patent Office.(D) He is the first person to have invented a lawnmower.10. According to the passage, how would you describe the complex procedure of obtaining a patent for an invention?(A) It is rather expensive.(B) It is an impossible task.(C) It is extremely difficult.(D) It is very tricky.Questions 11—15All living cells on earth require moisture for their metabolism. Cereal grains when brought in from the field, although they may appear to be dry, may contain 20 per cent of moisture or more. If they are stored in a bin thus, there is sufficient moisture in them to support several varieties of insects. These insects will, therefore, live and breed and, as they grow and eat the grain, it provides them with biological energy for their life processes. This energy will, just as in man, become manifest as heat. Since the bulk of the grain acts as an insulator, the temperature surrounding the colony of insects will rise so that, not only is part of the grain spoiled by the direct attack of the insects but more may be damaged by the heat. Sometimes, the temperature may even rise to the point where the stored grain catches fire. For safe storage, grain must be dried until its moisture content is 13 per cent or less.Traditional arts of food preservation took advantage of this principle in a number of ways. The plant seeds, wheat, rye, rice, barley millet, maize, are themselves structures evolved by nature to provide stored food. The starch of their endosperm is used for the nourishment of the embryo during the time it over-winters (if it is a plant of the Temperate Zone) and until its new leaves have grown and their chlorophyll can trap energy from the sunlight to nourish the new-grown plant. The separation by threshing and winnowing is, therefore, to some degree part of a technique of food preservation. The direct drying of other foods has also been used. Fish has been dried in many parts of the world besides Africa. Slices of dried meat are prepared by numerous races. Biltong, a form of dried meat, was a customary food for travelers. The drying of meat or fish, either in the sun or over a fire, quite apart from the degree to which it exposes the food to infection by bacteria and infestation by insects, tends also to harm its quality. Proteins are complex molecular structures which are readily disrupted. This is the reason why dried meat becomes tough and can, with some scientific justification, by likened to leather.The technical process of drying foods indirectly by pickling them in the strong salt solutions commonly called ‘brine’ does less harm to the protein than straightforward drying, particularly if this is carried out at high temperatures. It is for this reason that many of the typical drying processes are not taken to completion. That is to say, the outer parts may be dried leaving a moist inner section. Under these circumstances, preservation is only partial. The dried food keeps longer than it would have undried but it cannot be kept indefinitely. For this reason, traditional processes are to be found in many parts of the world in which a combination of partial drying and pickling inbrine is used. Quite often the drying involves exposure to smoke. Foods treated in this way are, besides fish of various sorts, bacon, hams and numerous types of sausages.11.According to the passage, insects spoil stored cereals by ________.(A) consuming all the grain themselves(B) generating heat and raising the surrounding temperature(C) increasing the moisture content in the grain(D) attacking each other for more grain12. In speaking of the traditional methods of food preservation, the writer ________.(A) expresses doubts about direct smoking(B) describes salting and pickling as ineffective(C) condemns direct drying(D) mentions threshing and winnowing13.Direct drying affects the quality of meat or fish because ________.(A) it exposes them to insects(B) it makes them hard(C) it damages the protein(D) it develops bacteria14.We can learn from the passage that salting preserves food by ________.(A) destroying the protein(B) drawing away moisture from the food(C) drying the food in the sun(D) dressing the food15. According to the passage, partial drying is useful because ________.(A) it damages the protein less(B) it can be combined with pickling(C) it leaves the inside moist(D) it makes the food softQuestions 16—20We are moving inexorably into the age of automation. Our aim is not to devise a mechanism which can perform a thousand different actions of any individual man but, on the contrary, one which could by a single action replace a thousand men. Industrial automation has moved along three lines. First there is the conveyor belt system of continuous production whereby separate operations are linked into a single sequence. The goods produced by this well-established method are untouched by the worker, and the machine replaces both unskilled and semiskilled. Secondly, there is automation with feedback control of the quality of the product: here mechanisms are built into the system which can compare the output with a norm, that is, the actual product with what it is supposed to be, and then correct any shortcomings. The entire cycle of operations dispenses with human control except in so far as monitors are concerned. One or two examples of this type of automation will illustrate its immense possibilities. There is a factory in the U.S.A. which makes 1,000 million electric light bulbs a year, and the factory employs three hundred people. If the preautomation techniques were to be employed, the labour force required would leap to 25,000. A motor manufacturing company with 45,000 spare parts regulates their entire supply entirely by computer. Computers can be entrusted with most of the supervision of industrial installations, such as chemical plants or oil refineries. Thirdly, there is computer automation, for banks, accounting departments, insurance companies and the like. Here the essential features are the recording, storing, sorting and retrieval of information.The principal merit of modern computing machines is the achievement of their vastly greater speed of operation by comparison with unaided human effort; a task which otherwise might take years, if attempted at all, now takes days or hours.One of the most urgent problems of industrial societies rapidly introducing automation is how to fill the time that will be made free by the machines which will take over the tasks of the workers. The question is not simply of filling empty time but also of utilizing the surplus human energy that will be released. We are already seeing straws in the wind: destructive outbursts on the part of youth whose work no longer demands muscular strength. While automation will undoubtedly do away with a large number of tedious jobs, are we sure that it will not put others which are equally tedious in their place? For an enormous amount of sheer monitoring will be required. A man in an automated plant may have to sit for hours on and watching dials and taking decisive action when some signal informs him that all is not well. What meaning will his occupation bear for the worker? How will he devote his freetime after a four or five hour stint of labour? Moreover, what, indeed, will be the significance for him of his leisure? If industry of the future could be purged of its monotony and meaninglessness, man would then be better equipped to use his leisure time constructively.16.The main purpose of automation is _________.(A) to devise the machine which could replace the semi-skilled(B) to process information as fast as possible(C) to develop an efficient labor-saving mechanism(D) to make an individual man perform many different actions17. The chief benefit of computing machines is ________.(A) their greater speed of operation(B) their control of the product quality(C) their conveyor belt system of continuous production(D) their supervision of industrial installations18. One of the problems brought about by automation in industrial societies is_________.(A) plenty of information(B) surplus human energy(C) destructive outbursts(D) less leisure time19. Which of the following best explains the use of ‘stint’ (para.4)?(A) Effort.(B) Force.(C) Excess.(D) Period.20. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?(A) There is no automation with feedback control of the quality of the product.(B) Computers are reliable in any supervision of industrial installations.(C) The essential features for banks are the recording and sorting of information.(D) Automation will undoubtedly eliminate numerous tedious jobs.Questions 21—25The city water pipes in Rome were usually of baked clay or lead; copper was sometimes used and also hollowed stone. For the large supply conduits leading to the city the Romans used covered channels with free water surfaces, rather than pipes. Perhaps this choice was a matter of economics, for apparently they could make lead pipes up to 15 inches in diameter. While pipes can follow the profile of undulating ground, with the pressure increasing in the lower areas, channels cannot. They must slope continuously downwards, because water in channels does not normally flow uphill; and the grade must be flat, from 1 in 60 in small channels to perhaps 1 in 3,000 in large ones, to keep the water speed down to a few feet per second. Thus the main supply channels or aqueducts had long lengths of flat grade and where they crossed depressions or valleys they were carried on elevated stone bridges in the form of tiered arches. At the beginning of the Christian era there were over 30 miles of these raised aqueducts in the 250 miles of channels and tunnels bringing water to Rome. The channels were up to 6 feet wide and 5 to 8 feet high. Sometimes channels were later added on the tops of existing ones. The remains of some of these aqueducts still grace the skyline on the outskirts of Rome and elsewhere in Europe similar ruins are found.Brick and stone drains were constructed in various parts of Rome. The oldest existing one is the Cloaca Maxima which follows the course of an old stream. It dates back at least to the third century B.C. Later the drains were used for sewage, flushed by water from the public baths and fountains, as well as street storm run-off.The truly surprising aspect of the achievements of all the ancient hydraulic artisans is the lack of theoretical knowledge behind their designs. Apart from the hydrostatics of Archimedes, there was no sound understanding of the most elementary principles of fluid behaviour. Sextus Frontinus, Rome’s water commissioner around A.D. 100, did not fully realize that in order to calculate the volume rate of flow in a channel it is necessary to allow for the speed of the flow as well as the area of cross-section. The Romans’ flow standard was the rate at which water would flow through a bronze pipe roughly 4/3 inch in diameter and 9 inches long. When this pipe was connected to the side of a water-supply pipe or channel as a delivery outlet, it was assumed that the outflow was at the standard rate. In fact, the amount of water delivered depended not only on the cross-sectional area of the outlet pipe but also on the speed of water flowing through it and this speed depended on the pressure in the supply pipe.21.The Romans used all of the following to make water pipes EXCEPT _________.(A) earth (B) wood (C) copper (D) stone22. Covered channels were used instead of pipes to supply large quantities of water probably because _________.(A) the Romans could build them more cheaply(B) these channels could follow uneven ground more easily(C) the Romans could not build large pipes(D) these channels avoided rapid changes of pressure23. The use of ‘grace’ in line 15 suggests that the aqueducts today are _________.(A) hideous (B) divine (C) useful (D) attractive24. In order to calculate the volume of water flowing through a pipe, it is important to know its speed and ________.(A) the area across the end of the pipe (B) the length of the pipe(C) the water pressure in the pipe (D) the level from which the water falls25. The main subject of the passage is concerned essentially with __________.(A) the classical scientific achievements(B) the theoretical Greek hydrostatics(C) the ancient Roman hydraulic system(D) the early European architectural designingQuestions 26—30Every day of our lives we are in danger of instant death from small high-speed missiles from space—the lumps of rocky or metallic debris which continuously bombard the Earth. The chances of anyone actually being hit, however, are very low, although there are recorded insta nces of ‘stones from the sky’ hurting people, and numerous accounts of damage to buildings and other objects. At night this extraterrestrial material can be seen as ‘fireballs’ or ‘shooting stars’, burning their way through our atmosphere. Most, on reaching our atmosphere, become completely vaporised.The height above ground at which these objects become sufficiently heated to be visible is estimated to be about 60-100 miles. Meteorites that have fallen on buildings have sometimes ended their long lonely space voyage incongruously under beds, inside flower pots or even, in the case of one that landed on a hotel in North Wales, within a chamber pot. Before the era of space exploration it was confidently predicted that neither men nor space vehicles would survive for long outside the protective blanket of the Earth’s atmosphere. It was thought that once in space they would be seriously damaged as a result of the incessant downpour of meteorites falling towards our planet at the rate of many millions every day. Even the first satellites showed that the danger from meteorites had been greatly overestimated by the pessimists, but although it has not happened yet, it is certain that one day a spacecraft will be badly damaged by a meteorite.The greatest single potential danger to life on Earth undoubtedly comes from outside our planet. Collision with another astronomical body of any size or with a ‘black hole’ could completely destroy the Earth almost instantly. Near misses of bodies larger than or comparable in size to our own planet could be equally disastrous to mankind as they might still result in total or partial disruption. If the velocity of impact were high, collision with even quite small extraterrestrial bodies might cause catastrophic damage to the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and outer crust and thus produce results inimical to life as we know it. The probability of collision with a large astronomical body from outside our Solar System is extremely low, possibly less than once in the lifetime of an average star. We know, however, that our galaxy contains great interstellar dust clouds and some astronomers have suggested that there might also be immense streams of meteorite matter in space that the Solar system may occasionally encounter. Even if we disregard this possibility, our own Solar system itself contains a great number of small astronomical bodies, such as the minor planets or asteroids andthe comets, some with eccentric orbits that occasionally bring them close to the Earth’s path.26.According to the writer, the Earth is being continuously bombarded by _________(A) big bright stars from space(B) man-made space vehicles(C) great interstellar dust clouds(D) small high-speed pieces of rock from space27. The word “vaporised” (para.1) means _________.(A) turned from stones into missiles(B) turned from a fireball into black(C) turned from a solid into a gas(D) turned from meteors into shooting stars28. Why was it once thought that no spacecraft would survive for very long in space?(A) People believed that spacecraft would be destroyed in a black hole.(B) People believed that spacecraft would be misguided by missiles.(C) People believed that spacecraft would be collided with a star.(D) People believed that spacecraft would be damaged by meteorites.29. What is the greatest danger to life on Earth?(A) Collision with small high-speed missiles.(B) Collision with an astronomical body.(C) Collision with stones from the sky.(D) Collision with spacecrafts.30. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?(A) Our galaxy contains great interstellar dust clouds.(B) Near misses of bodies smaller than our own planet could be disastrous.(C) The probability of collision with a large astronomical body is very high.(D) The chances of anyone actually being hit by missiles are very high.SECTION 2: STUDY SKILLS1-5 BDDCA 6-10 ABDBC 11-15 BDCDC 16-20 CABDD 21-25 BADAC 26-30 DCDBA。