1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(三十一)及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、BPART READING (总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、BTEXT A/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Prince Klemens Wenzel Von Metternich, foreign minister of the Austrian Empire during the Napoleonic era and its aftermath, would have no trouble recognizing Google. To him, the worlds most popular we
2、b-search engine would closely resemble the Napoleonic France that in his youth humiliated Austria and Europes other powers. Its rivals Yahoo!, the largest of the traditional web gateways, eBay, the biggest online auction and trading site, and Microsoft, a software empire that owns MSN, a struggling
3、web portal would look a lot like Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Metternich responded by forging an alliance among those three monarchies to create a balance of power against France. Googles enemies, he might say, ought now to do the same thing.Google announced two new conquests on August 7th. It stru
4、ck a deal with Viacom, an old media firm, under which it will syndicate video clips from Viacom brands such as MTV and Nickelodeon to other websites, and integrate advertisements into them. This makes Google the clear leader in the fledgling but promising market for web-video advertising. It also an
5、nounced a deal with News Corporation, another media giant, under which it will provide all the search and text-advertising technology on News Corporations websites, including MySpace, an enormously popular social-networking site.These are hard blows for Yahoo! and MSN, which had also been negotiatin
6、g with News Corporation. Both firms have been losing market share in web search to Google over the past year Google now has half the market. They have also fallen further behind in their advertising technologies and networks, so that both make less money than Google does from the same number of sear
7、ches. Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, a securities firm, estimates that for every advertising dollar that Google makes on a search query, Yahoo! makes only 60-70 cents. Last month Yahoo! said that a new advertising algorithm that it had designed to close the gap in profitability will be
8、delayed, and its share price fell by 22%, its biggest-ever one-day drop.MSN is further behind Google than Yahoo! in search, and its parent, Microsoft, faces an even more fundamental threat from the expansionist new power. Many of Googles new ventures beyond web search enable users to do things free
9、of charge through their web browsers that they now do using Microsoft software on their personal computers. Google offers a rudimentary but free online word processor and spreadsheet, for instance.The smaller eBay, on the other hand, might in one sense claim Google as an ally. Googles search results
10、 send a lot of traffic to eBays auction site, and eBay is one of the biggest advertisers on Googles network. But the relationship is imbalanced. An influential recent study from Berkeleys Haas School of Business estimated that about 12% of eBays revenues come indirectly from Google, whereas Google g
11、ets only 3% of its revenues from eBay. Worst of all for eBay, Google is starting to undercut its core business. Sellers are setting up their own websites and buying text advertisements from Google, and buyers are using its search rather than eBay to connect with sellers directly. As a result, eBay w
12、ould be wise to strike a deep partnership with Yahoo! or Microsoft in order to regain a balance of power in the industry, said the studys authors, Julien Decot and Steve Lee, sounding like diplomats at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.（分数：25.00）(1).Prince Klemens is mentioned in the first paragraph to
13、 A. show the web-search engine Google has become the most profitable site in the world. B. emphasize the importance of forging an alliance among the competitors. C. draw an analogy between present Internet competition and past European power distribution. D. stress the fact that even Microsoft cant
14、compete with Google.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).Google will play a decisive role in the market for web-video advertising because of A. Googles new business transaction with Viacom. B. the technology available in Viacom. C. Googles deal with News Corporation. D. the popularity of a social-networking site.（分
15、数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).Yahoo! and MSN are making less money for the same number of searches chiefly because A. they are not good at negotiating with News Corporation. B. they are losing market share very quickly. C. they lack advanced advertising technology and networks. D. they have failed in designing
16、 their new advertising algorithm.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Google wins an advantage over MSN in that A. Google offers a more powerful search tool than MSN. B. Microsoft is better at designing such software as Windows. C. MSN has some unquenchable technical loopholes in its software. D. users can perform
17、certain tasks for free with Googles support.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).Julien and Steve seem to suggest that A. eBay should further cooperate with Google to survive. B. eBay should form an alliance with Yahoo! or Microsoft. C. Google is making smaller revenues than eBay. D. Googles core business has alrea
18、dy shrank by 3%.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.三、BTEXT B/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)Addiction is such a harmful behavior, in fact, that evolution should have long ago weeded it out of the population: if its hard to drive safely under the influence, imagine trying to run from a saber-toothed tiger or catch a squirrel for lu
19、nch. And yet, says Dr.Nora Volkow, director of NIDA and a pioneer in the use of imaging to understand addiction, the use of drugs has been recorded since the beginning of civilization. Humans in my view will always want to experiment with things to make them feel good.Thats because drugs of abuse co
20、-opt the very brain functions that allowed our distant ancestors to survive in a hostile world. Our minds are programmed to pay extra attention to what neurologists call salience that is, special relevance. Threats, for example, are highly salient, which is why we instinctively try to get away from
21、them. But so are food and sex because they help the individual and the species survive. Drugs of abuse capitalize on this ready-made programming. When exposed to drugs, our memory systems, reward circuits, decision-making skills and conditioning kick in salience in overdrive to create an all consumi
22、ng pattern of uncontrollable craving. Some people have a genetic predisposition to addiction, says Volkow. But because it involves these basic brain functions, everyone will become an addict if sufficiently exposed to drugs or alcohol.That can go for non-chemical addictions as well. Behaviors, from
23、gambling to shopping to sex, may start out as habits but slide into addictions. Sometimes there might be a behavior-specific root of the problem. Volkows research group, for example, has shown that pathologically obese people who are compulsive eaters exhibit hyperactivity in the areas of the brain
24、that process food stimuli including the mouth, lips and tongue. For them, activating these regions is like opening the floodgates to the pleasure center. Almost anything deeply enjoyable can turn into an addiction, though.Of course, not everyone becomes an addict. Thats because we have other, more a
25、nalytical regions that can evaluate consequences and override mere pleasure seeking. Brain imaging is showing exactly how that happens. Paulus, for example, looked at drug addicts enrolled in a VA hospitals intensive four-week rehabilitation program. Those who were more likely to relapse in the firs
26、t year after completing the program were also less able to complete tasks involving cognitive skills and less able to adjust to new rules quickly. This suggested that those patients might also be less adept at using analytical areas of the brain while performing decision-making tasks. Sure enough, b
27、rain scans showed that there were reduced levels of activation in the prefrontal cortex, where rational thought can override impulsive behavior. Its impossible to say if the drugs might have damaged these abilities in the relapsers an effect rather than a cause of the chemical abuse but the fact tha
28、t the cognitive deficit existed in only some of the drug users suggests that there was something innate that was unique to them. To his surprise, Paulus found that 80% to 90% of the time, he could accurately predict who would relapse within a year simply by examining the scans.Another area of focus
29、for researchers involves the brains reward system, powered largely by the neurotransmitter dopamine. Investigators are looking specifically at the family of dopamine receptors that populate nerve cells and bind to the compound. The hope is that if you can reduce the effect of the brain chemical that
30、 carries the pleasurable signal, you can loosen the drugs hold.（分数：25.00）(1).According to Dr.Nora Volkow, the use of drugs A. is a very harmful behavior that evolution failed to get rid of. B. makes it hard for people to drive safely under its influence. C. has to do with peoples desire to achieve p
31、leasant feelings. D. is a kind of understandable behavior because it dates back long ago.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).According to the passage, anyone may be addicted to drugs if they A. are born with a predisposition to addiction. B. use certain chemicals long and frequently enough. C. have sufficient drug
32、s or alcohol to use. D. create an all consnming pattern of uncontrollable craving.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).Compulsive eaters are typical example of A. pleasure turning into habits and finally addiction. B. obese people with brain hyperactivity. C. those who cant control their mouth, lips and tongue. D.
33、those who might also be addicted to gambling.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).Paulus could accurately predict the relapsers because A. the part of their brain controlling cognitive skills is less active. B. a four-week intensive rehabilitation program is not effective enough. C. he has the devices sophisticated
34、 enough to scan any brain damage. D. something innate to their brains prompt them to use drugs.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(5).It can be inferred from the passage that we may cure addiction by A. scanning of brain as often as possible. B. practicing cognitive skills consciously. C. going through intensive reha
35、bilitation programs. D. making the neurotransmitter less sensitive.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.四、BTEXT C/B(总题数：1，分数：25.00)As a Canadian immersion teacher, I was enthused to see the letter from John Whelpton about the Canadian immersion experience (South China Morning Post, June 11). 1 would like to take this o
36、pportunity to expand upon and challenge some of his views.I agree that the Canadian immersion and bilingual schools have been successful in producing functionally bilingual students. In the province of Manitoba, there are French, Ukrainian, and German immersion schools; Hebrew bilingual schools; and
37、 a school for native Indian students. English immersion programmes are popular for students from the province of Quebec as well as from countries such as Libya and Japan. However, Mr.Whelptons suggested condition that teachers in these schools must be fully bilingual may be unnecessary. For example,
38、 primary teachers can and do function with a smaller vocabulary than secondary teachers.Secondly, it is doubtful that students will use English because they understand and accept the objective of making English the language of the classroom, which is a rather sterile motive. One reason that Canadian
39、 immersion programmes work is because of the commitment to Whole Language Learning, that is, children learn a language, (first or second,) by using it to transmit or receive meaningful messages that are interesting, real and important.They want to make their needs and desires known and to understand
40、 the world around them. Immersion programmes integrate language and content in an activity-based, child-centred manner so that the child is motivated to use the second language as a tool to transmit and receive messages related to social and academic interests. In addition the second language is mod
41、eled throughout the school, is encouraged and rewarded, and thus becomes the language of choice. It is not necessary to abandon Cantonese; an immersion programme should provide some daily instruction in the first language.Mr.Whelptons third argument that all the students in one class need to be at a
42、pproximately the same level of English proficiency when they switch to English is unrealistic and unprofitable. How does a teacher group children who have a huge vocabulary but poor grammar skills and others who have correct grammar but a poor vocabulary?Also, suppose the students have similar langu
43、age abilities but different learning styles! The odds are that a teacher, at any point in time, will be teaching at a level that is too difficult for one-third, too easy for one-third and appropriate for the final one-third of the students. Hence the concept of co-operative learning, students in het
44、erogeneous groups with a mixture of personalities, talents and weaknesses (a more realistic reflection of life) learn better as they co-operate, instead of compete, and depend on each other for support and information.This type of learning environment frees the teacher from the traditional lecturing
45、 mode in favor of circulating, monitoring and challenging the students to make use of their different experiences to expand their knowledge and skills.I support immersion programmes not simply so that Hong Kong SAR remains competitive as an international business centre, but because children who lea
46、rn a second language partake in an educational experience that expands their horizons in addition to their cognitive, social and affective capabilities; important goals of education indeed.（分数：25.00）(1).How would you describe the authors style of writing? A. In an academic style. B. In a journalisti
47、c style. C. In a personal style. D. On the basis of widespread research in the area.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(2).The authors attitude towards the Canadian immersion programme is A. supportive. B. unenthusiastic. C. critical. D. balanced prepared to weigh up the pros and cons.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(3).According t
48、o the author, the Canadian immersion programme has been a success because A. students accept the objective of making English the language of the classroom. B. students study in classrooms where everybody is at about the same level. C. students can use their first language freely. D. it works towards real life goals.（分数：5.00）A.B.C.D.(4).
