全国2008年1月高等教育自学考试
英语阅读（二）试题
课程代码:00596

I. Reading Comprehension. (50 points, 2 points for each)
Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages. Following each passage, there are five questions with four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet.
　　Two decades ago, the channels that separate the Adriatic Islands were brimming with giant blue-fin tuna, a species so plentiful that tourists used to climb ladders by the sea to watch the schools swim by.
　　Today, these majestic predators are rarely, if ever, caught. The catches have dropped by 80 percent over the past few years, even for high-tech trawlers that now comb remote corners of the sea in search of the hard-to-find fish.
　　"This is past the alarm stage," said Simon Cripps, director of the global marine program at the World Wildlife Fund. "We are seeing a complete collapse of the tuna population. It could disappear and never come back." The group is urging the European Union to impose an immediate fishing moratorium until the international body that regulates tuna catches meets in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in November.
　　Many edible fish stocks in the Mediterranean and its extension, the Adriatic, have sharply declined in the past decade because of pollution and intensive fishing, including crayfish and John Dory, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In Croatia, much of the fish eaten at seaside resorts is imported from as far away as the United States.
　　But it is the blue-fin tuna that is in crisis, thanks to a new and lucrative European network of fishing and fish farming companies that provide the prized fish to sushi and sashimi markets in Japan. With tuna prices going as high as $15 a pound in Tokyo, European trawlers fish for tuna aggressively and illegally, far exceeding international quotas meant to protect the species, scientists said. Compounding the problem is the recent development of tuna fattening farms in Croatia, Spain, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries.
　　Now, even small juvenile tuna, captured in the few corners of the Mediterranean where the species still breeds or even from the Atlantic, can be brought to the vast underwater cages that line the Croatian coast, where they are fed for months or years until they are ready for market. And so, though few tuna are in Croatia’s seas and none are in its restaurants, tuna is one of this country’s most lucrative food exports. One hundred percent of Croatia’s tuna is farm-fattened, ending up as toro—precious, fatty raw tuna.
Questions 1-5 are based on Passage One.
1. In the second paragraph, "these majestic predators" refer to ______.
A. big fish  
B. blue-fin tuna
C. crayfish  
D. fish that eat other fishes

2. Blue-fin tuna is in crisis because ______.
A. fishing companies catch the fish to-excess for money
B. it takes a long time for small tuna to grow up
C. there is no law to protect this species
D. the natural environment worsens

3. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Tuna is a typical dish on Croatian dinner table.
B. Europe consumes most of the tuna Croatia exports.
C. There are large amounts of tuna in the Mediterranean area.
D. Small tuna are kept at the Croatia’s coast and fed to be sold.

4. The author points out that ______.
A. intensive fishing causes sharp decline of the fish stock
B. it is quite difficult to catch tuna in the Mediterranean seas
C. Croatia doesn’t really need to import fish
D. tuna is the most expensive fish on market

5. "One hundred percent of Croatia’s tuna is farm-fattened". This means that Croatia’s tuna are ______.
A. fed and fattened by crops  
B. of first class quality
C. kept and fed to larger size  
D. very fat

Passage Two
　　A college education can be very costly in the United States, especially at a private school. Rising costs have led more and more families to borrow money to help pay for college.
　　There are different federal loans and private loans for students and parents. Interest rates on some of these loans will go up on July 1st. As borrowing has increased, there are growing concerns that many students graduate with too much debt. In 1993, less than one-half of graduates from four-year colleges had student loans. Now two-thirds of them do. Their average loan debt when they graduate is nineteen thousand dollars. At public universities, the average is seventeen thousand dollars.
　　The Project on Student Debt is an action group that collects these numbers from reports. It notes that averages do not present the full picture. For example, in 2004, one-fourth of students with loans graduated more than twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. And that did not include borrowing by their parents. The Project on Student Debt says parents as well as students are borrowing more to pay for college. Students can expect to take about ten years to pay back their loans. Repayment does not begin until after they are out of school.
　　Higher borrowing limits have also helped push up student debts. Students from all economic levels are borrowing more. Corrected for inflation, student loans have increased around sixty percent in ten years.
　　Researchers say one effect is that the higher the debts, the more likely graduates are to look only for high paying jobs. That means there is less chance they will take jobs in areas like teaching or other public service. A study done in 2002 for a major student lender found that debts can also affect lives in other ways. Some students paying back their college loans said they delayed buying their first house. Some delayed marriage or having children.
　　In May, groups representing students, parents and college officials asked the government to change some of its loan repayment rules. The requested changes would recognize graduates who have difficulty repaying their loans because they do not earn very much. They would be able to pay less fight after they graduate, then pay more as their earnings increase.
Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.
6. According to the passage, one may expect that young people graduate with a debt may ____.
A. be looked down upon by others  
B. never be able to get rid of it
C. avoid starting a family very early  
D. not have to repay all their debts

7. Which of the following is NOT true about student loans?
A. Higher tuition fees give rise to student loan.
B. Students from well-off families don’t borrow money.
C. Higher borrowing limits allow students to loan more money.
D. It may take quite a long time for graduates to repay their debts.

8. Groups representing students, parents and college officials appealed to the government to ______.
A. raise graduates’ pay at work
B. provide more loan options for students
C. cut down the amount that students have to repay
D. allow graduates to gradually increase their repayment

9. The passage is a(n) ______.
A. statement of facts  
B. argument against high student loans
C. comment on a controversial issue  
D. suggestion about student loans

10. Which can be the best title for the passage?
A. Costly Education, Heavier Burden
B. Fresh out of College, and in Debt
C. Efforts to Finance College Education
D. Graduates Expect Lower Repayment

Passage Three
　　On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil prices broke the record of $76.70 a barrel set just Thursday. The new price of oil for delivery in August shot to $77.95 before finishing the day at $77.03.
　　While $80-a-barrel oil seemed like a skeptic’s worst-case outlook a few months ago, oil traders are increasingly saying that it is now just a matter of time before prices cross that threshold. Oil futures contracts for delivery beyond this summer passed $80 a barrel for the first time on Thursday.
　　"The feeling is that we’re in a fairly bullish market right now," said Antoine Halff, head of research at Fimat. "Gasoline demand over the last few weeks has been very robust. Perhaps the bigger issue on top of that is geopolitics. And clearly the market is very jittery about what’s going on in Israel." Oil markets are typically sensitive to any political instability in the Middle East. Recently, they have been unsettled by Israeli military incursions into Gaza and then, this week, Lebanon. So, a market already worried about the potential for conflict with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs is growing even more anxious. William Rhodes, chief investment strategist at Rhodes Analytics, said, "People are scared, that’s the bottom line."
　　The Commerce Department said that retail sales fell by 0.1 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, the first drop since February. A University of Michigan survey that showed falling consumer confidence was one of the reasons.
　　How resilient consumer spending proves to be is something that will continue to factor heavily into stock performance. Most economists believe that consumers will curb their spending somewhat as the year goes on, and economic growth is expected to slow. But there is disagreement over how much spending will slow.
　　"The persistence of high gasoline prices, coupled with lower equity prices and lower consumer sentiment, will restrain the growth of real consumer spending in the second half of 2006," Brian Bethune, an analyst with Global Insight, wrote yesterday in a report about the retail sales numbers. But many analysts noted that the month’s decline in retail sales was exaggerated by poor car sales, and said that consumers were likely to keep shopping for other goods.
　　Even though the market swooned this week, analysts said that there were no signs yet that the drop was part of a larger unraveling of the economy.
Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.
11. According to the passage, which is NOT one of the factors that cause the oil price to rise?
A. There is a large market demand.
B. There is a shortage of oil reserve.
C. Political situation is instable in the Middle East.
D. Consumers worry about the high rise of oil price.

12. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. political instability strongly influences oil market
B. price of oil for delivery has already hit $80 a barrel
C. oil market is bullish because more people are buying cars
D. economy will be seriously affected by the rising oil price

13. By "bottom line", William Rhodes means ______.
A. oil is sold at $76.70 a barrel
B. oil is sold at $80 a barrel
C. oil retail price gradually goes down
D. people fear for worse political situation

14. The passage indicates that retail sales dropped, because ______.
A. gasoline price was high
B. dollar value increased
C. people wanted to protect the environment
D. there was not enough stock of gasoline on market

15. The author’s tone is ______.
A. worried
B. negative
C. objective  
D. cautious

Passage Four
　　About 60 million Americans regularly suffer from insomnia, either because they are taking medication, or experiencing pain, or not eating right. Or — according to Russell Rosenberg, who directs the Sleep Medicine Institute in Atlanta, Georgia — simply because they are living in the modern world.
　　"It’s a 24/7 society now. That is, you have Internet 24 [hours], 7 [days a week], television, radio. Everything can keep you distracted from the time you need to sleep. Plus, people are working harder, working more jobs, trying to squeeze in more family-time, more leisure-time and so forth, and so there’s only so much time to do all the things we want to do in one particular day."
　　According to an annual poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, in 2005, 75 percent of Americans experienced sleeping problems ranging from minor and transient to severe and chronic. That is up from 62 percent in 1999, when the NSF first conducted its poll.
　　The number of Americans turning to prescription sleep aids for help has gone up even more dramatically: nearly 60 percent over the past five years. American pharmacists filled about 42 million sleeping pill prescriptions last year, and most of them were for either Ambien or Lunesta, two recent additions to the sleep aid market.
　　These drugs are not believed to be habit-forming, and they don’t seem to have the same liver-damaging side-effects that earlier sleep aids had. At the same time, there is some evidence that these new sleeping pills may not be completely harmless.
　　Sleep experts also recommend their patients with what is known as "cognitive behavioral therapy," or CBT. It is a form of psychotherapy that tries to change the way a patient thinks, feels, and acts about sleep.
　　It doesn’t yield immediate results, though, and in many parts of the country, it is unavailable. There are only about 200 clinicians worldwide who have extensive CBT training in the area of sleep. That is part of the reason prescription drugs have become so popular.
　　But the biggest reason, says Gregg Jacobs, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is marketing. "You’ll see their ads every night on television now. They’re the most frequent drug ads on TV. As a result, people around the United States — and soon around the world — are being given the message that you can take a sleeping pill, and it will cure your insomnia. And when people hear that, they rush out to buy this pill."
Questions 16-20 are based on Passage Four.
16. Which is the topic of the passage?
A. Cures for insomnia. 
B. Drug companies’ strategies.
C. Harms caused by sleeping pills.  
D. Sleeping problem in the US.

17. According to the passage, Ambien and Lunesta are ______.
A. sleeping clinics  
B. sleep experts
C. sleeping pills  
D. symptoms of insomnia

18. According to the passage, people who take the new sleeping pills may ______.
A. feel sleepy during working hours  
B. experience some side-effects
C. develop the habit to eat them  
D. suffer some liver problem

19. Which is implied, but not stated, in the passage?
A. In the past, people used to sleep better.
B. 75% of Americans had sleeping problem in 2005.
C. Some new sleeping pills may not be totally harmless.
D. The modern life style is blamed for sleeping problems.

20. Sleeping pills are used more often than CBT to combat insomnia for the following reasons EXCEPT ______.
A. CBT doesn’t show quick results as sleeping pills
B. drug ads influence people in their choice
C. CBT is too new an idea for patients to accept
D. CBT cannot be found in many parts of the US

Passage Five
　　Farmers in the Midwest put in some of the longest workdays of any profession in the United States. In addition to caring for their crops and livestock, they have to keep up with new farming techniques, such as those for combining soil erosion and increasing livestock production. It is essential that farmers adopt these advances in technology if they want to continue to meet the growing demand of a hungry world.
　　Agriculture is the number one industry in the United States and agricultural products are the country’s leading export. American farmers manage to feed not only the total population of the United States, but also millions of other people throughout the rest of the world. Corn and soybean exports alone account for approximately 75% of the amount sold in world market.
　　This productivity, however, has its price. Intensive cultivation exposes the earth to the damaging forces of nature. Every year wind and water remove tons of rich soil from the nation’s croplands, with the result that soil erosion has become a national problem concerning everyone from the farmer to the consumer.
　　Each field is covered by a limited amount of topsoil, the upper layer of earth which is the richest in the nutrient and minerals necessary for growing crops. Ever since the first farmers arrived in the Midwest almost 200 years ago, cultivation and, consequently, erosion have been depleting the supply of topsoil. In the 1830s, nearly two feet of rich, black topsoil covered the Midwest. Today the average depth is only eight inches, and every decade another inch is blown or washed away. This erosion is steadily decreasing the productivity of valuable cropland. A United States Agricultural Department survey states that if erosion continues at its present rate, corn and soybean yields in the Midwest may drop as much as 30% over the next 50 years.
　　So far, farmers have been able to compensate for the loss of fertile topsoil by applying more chemical fertilizers to their fields; however, while this practice has increased crop yields, it has been devastating for ecology. Agriculture has become one of the biggest polluters on the nation’s precious water supply. Rivers, lakes, and underground reserves of water are being filled in and poisoned by soil and chemicals carried by the drainage from eroding fields. Furthermore, fertilizers only replenish the soil; they do not prevent its loss.
　　Clearly something else has to be done in order to avoid an eventual ecological disaster. Conservationists insist that the solution to this problem lies in new and better farming techniques. Concerned farmers are building terraces on hilly fields, rotating their crops, and using new plowing methods to cut soil loss significantly. Substantial progress has been made, but soil erosion is far from being under control.
Questions 21-25 are based on Passage Five.
21. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Farmers are the only people who are concerned about soil erosion.
B. Farmers in the Midwest lead a very busy life and work long hours.
C. Farmers should use advanced techniques to produce more food.
D. Farmers in the U.S provide food for the U.S. and other countries.

22. Agricultural products of the U.S. ______.
A. consist mainly of corn, wheat and soybeans
B. enjoy the world reputation for the good quality
C. are the largest source of exports of the country
D. account for about 75% of those sold in world market

23. What is the downside of using chemical fertilizers according to the passage?
A. It worsens soil erosion.  
B. It endangers people’s health.
C. It poisons the crops  
D. It pollutes water supply.

24. Which is true about topsoil in Midwest?
A. It is the richest in the U.S.  
B. It is lacking nutrients.
C. It is becoming thinner.  
D. It is ruined by chemicals.

25. Farmers can do the following things to prevent soil erosion EXCEPT ______.
A. rotating their crops  
B. using effective fertilizers
C. using new plowing methods  
D. building terraces on hilly fields

II. Vocabulary. (10 points, 1 point for each)
Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refers to the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on the Answer Sheet.
　　Most of us buy vitamins for one of three reasons. Either we believe that they are prophylactic, that is they will ward off advancing ill, or they are therapeutic and will deal with the ills we have already, or finally we may believe they are wonder drugs and will lift us into a state of super health. We are protected from some of these wild imaginings by the laws which control advertising but even without false promises we still believe that vitamins will "do us good".
　　Belief is a very potent state of mind and the power of the placebo pill is never underestimated in clinical trials used to test new drugs. A placebo is a harmless substance given to one group of patients in the trial and it is similar in taste and appearance to a new drug which is given to a second group of patients. Theoretically the drug should cure or relieve any symptoms and the placebo should have no effect. Often these trials produce surprising results and the placebo group recovers as well as the group taking the new drug.
　　Vitamins B and C cannot be retained in the body, so if we take more than we need of these, they are soon excreted in the urine. Taking too much of the fat soluble vitamins can be dangerous and vitamins A and D should never be taken indiscriminately. Vitamin E has not been found to have any toxic effect in large doses, but neither do there seem to be any noticeable benefits. This is an unexplored area in vitamin research and the only known advantages of vitamin E are confined to specialized medical cases.
26. to prevent something from harming you (Para. 1)
27. very good and effective (Para. 1)
28. situations or ideas that are not real or true (Para. 1)
29. having a powerful effect on your body or mind (Para.2)
30. a series of testing to find out whether something works (Para.2)
31. to make a pain or problem less severe (Para.2)
32. gets well after an illness, accident, shock (Para.2)
33. not thinking carefully before making a choice (Para.3)
34. poisoning (Para.3)
35. examples of particular situations, problems (Para.3)

III. Summarization. (20 points, 2 points for each)
Directions: In this section of the test, there are ten paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs is followed by an incomplete phrase or sentence which summarizes the main idea of the paragraph. Spell out the missing letters of the word on your Answer Sheet.

Paragraph One
　　Between 1979 and 1999, extremely hot weather killed more than 8000 people in the US. In that period, more Americans died from extreme heat than from severe storms, lightning, floods and earthquakes together.
36. Extreme heat was the top killer among several n______ threats.

Paragraph Two
　　The body itself is mostly water — more than 65% water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water is also needed for cooling the body on hot days, carrying body heat to the surface of the skin.
37. Water is essential to h______.

Paragraph Three
　　Development aid has increased since 2002. Still, the report says severe poverty continues to worsen, in part because of H.I.V./AIDS. Environmental conditions also add to poverty. The report says climate change already affects many low-lying and island nations, and more problems are likely in the years to come.
38. Worse poverty situation despite i______ development aid.

Paragraph Four
　　Strong earthquakes forced the bottom of the sea to rise above the water. After millions of years, it was pushed up into the air to form land and mountains. Meanwhile, hot liquid rock from deep in the Earth pushed to the surface. This liquid rock slowly cooled. The then cooling liquid formed a very hard rock known as granite.
39. Theory about f______ of land and mountains.

Paragraph Five
　　Many centuries of rain caused huge rivers to move violently through this area. Over time, these rivers cut deep into the new mountains. During the great Ice Age, millions of tons of ice cut and shaped the cooled granite to form giant rocks, known as Half Dome.
40. V______ forms of water change the outlook of the area.

Paragraph Six
　　Citizens who had formed a military group were the first real modern explorers of the valley. They were at war with the local Indians and came into the valley. The white soldiers called it Yosemites after the Indians.
41. White world’s f______ of Yosemites.

Paragraph Seven
　　Many young Americans began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs.
42. Youth defied traditional d______ style.

Paragraph Eight
　　Supporters say the goal is to get students to think about what they want to do and help them prepare for their future. But some people say the program could make it difficult for students to explore different possibilities, as they are too young to know what they want to do in life.
43. For and a______ over a school program.

Paragraph Nine
　　Educators did not become involved with blogging right away. Many were concerned with privacy issues and security. But now, thousands of teacher blogs can be found on the Internet. Many teachers do not identify themselves, and they change the names of students and co-workers.
44. Many teachers are going for blogs although some w______ about privacy issues.

Paragraph Ten
　　Employment of women with babies under one year dropped in the most recent period reported by the Census Bureau. The rate decreased from 59% in 1998 to 55% in 2002. The Census Bureau said this was the first recorded drop since it began to keep these records in 1976.
45. F______ women with infants are being employed.

IV. Translation. (20 points, 4 points for each)
Directions: In the following passage, there are five groups of underlined sentences. Read the passage carefully and translate these sentences into Chinese. Write the Chinese version on your Answer Sheet.
　　It’s believed the Internet was born in 1969 when two computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, were connected by a 15-foot cable, with bits of meaningless data flowing between them. 46. Since then the Net has taken off, with some 137 million U.S. computers online plus another 152 million outside the United States. And while the number of Internet-linked computers is surging, the volume of traffic they are carrying is increasing even faster. Some projections have it doubling every 100 days.
　　47. This is not surprising since a hallmark of the Cyber Age is connectivity and the sharing of information. The assertion that "information is meant to be free" is an increasing reality since it can be moved from those who have it to those who need it in the blink of an eye — and at virtually no cost, unlike for other media. This computer-driven contribution to the vitality of the U.S. economy is immeasurable.
　　Auction sites have been springing up all over the Internet, but the undisputed leader is eBay.
　　48. You simply go to eBay’s Web site, register, post a description of what you have to sell, along with photos and a minimum price, if you like. Bids from interested buyers appear on your computer screen, which is instantly updated as better bids come in. Once the auction ends, the highest bidder is obliged to pay for the item.
　　One of the Internet’s truly great features is that anybody can be a player who has an idea for a Web site and a few dollars to get it up and running. Possibly the most notorious site of all is the one dreamed up by an 18-year-old dropout from Northeastern University in Boston, Shawn Fanning, nicknamed the "Napster" for his unruly red hair.49. He created the world’s biggest online free-music community, which allows 38 million popular music lovers to exchange hundreds of recordings, using the Napster system as a search engine to find exactly what they want.
　　Napster has outraged everyone connected with the record business, from artists whose creative work was being hijacked to the Recording Industry Association of America, which brought a lawsuit seeking an injunction aimed at ending Napster’s brief, if notorious, life. It now appears, incredibly, that this deadlock may actually be resolved to almost everyone’s satisfaction. Napster users may pay a modest monthly fee, which will be spanided up among those creating, producing, and delivering the music. Napster is receiving financial backing from the German media giant Bertelsmann, which is getting a piece of Napster in return. There is a sticking point, however, since it’s now unclear how to put a user name and price on every digital music file being downloaded. 50. It’s also unclear if Napster users will pay even a few bucks a month for the service.