1、考博英语模拟试卷 207及答案与解析 一、 Reading Comprehension 0 Cities develop as a result of functions that they can perform, some functions result directly from the ingenuity of the citizenry, but most functions result from the needs of the local area and of the surrounding hinterland (the region that supplies good
2、s to the city and to which the city furnishes services and other goods). Geographers often make a distinction between the situation and the site of a city. Situation refers to the general position in relation to the surrounding region, whereas site involves physical characteristics of the specific l
3、ocation. Situation is normally much more important to the continuing prosperity of a city. If a city is well situated in regard to its hinterland, its development is much more likely to continue. Chicago, for example, possesses an almost unparalleled situation, it is located at the southern end of a
4、 huge lake that forces east-west transportation lines to be compressed into its vicinity, and at a meeting of significant land and water transport routes. It also overlooks what is one of the worlds finest large farming regions. These factors ensured that Chicago would become a great city regardless
5、 of the disadvantageous characteristics of the available site, such as being prone to flooding during thunderstorm activity. Similarly, it can be argued that much of New York Citys importance stems from its early and continuing advantage of situation. Philadelphia and Boston both originated at about
6、 the same time as New York and shared New Yorks location at the western end of one of the worlds most important oceanic trade routes, but only New York possesses an easy-access functional connection (the Hudson-Mohawk lowland) to the vast Midwestern hinterland. This account does not alone explain Ne
7、w Yorks primacy, but it does include several important factors. Among the many aspects of situation that help to explain why some cities grow and others do not, original location on a navigable waterway seems particularly applicable. Of course, such characteristic as slope, drainage, power resources
8、, river crossings, coastal shapes, and other physical characteristics help to determine city location, but such factors are normally more significant in early stages of city development than later. 1 What does the passage mainly discuss? （ A） The development of trade routes through United States cit
9、ies. （ B） Contrasts in settlement patterns in United States. （ C） Historical differences among three large United States cities. （ D） The importance of geographical situation in the growth of United States cities. 2 The passage suggests that a geographer would consider a citys soil type part of its
10、_ . （ A） hinterland （ B） situation （ C） site （ D） function 3 According to the passage, a citys situation is more important than its site in regard to the citys _ . （ A） long-term growth and prosperity （ B） ability to protect its citizenry （ C） possession of favorable weather conditions （ D） need to
11、import food supplies 4 The author mentions each of the following as an advantage of Chicagos location EXCEPT its _ . （ A） hinterland （ B） nearness to a large lake （ C） position in regard to transport routes （ D） flat terrain 5 The primary purpose of Paragraph is to _ . （ A） summarize past research a
12、nd introduce a new study （ B） describe a historical period （ C） emphasize the advantages of one theory over another （ D） define a term and illustrate it with an example 5 The two claws of the mature American lobster are decidedly different from each other. The crusher claw is short and stout; the cu
13、tter claw is long and slender. Such bilateral asymmetry, in which the fight side of the body is, in all other respects, a mirror image of the left side, is not unlike handedness in humans. But where the majority of humans are right-handed, in lobsters the crasher claw appears with equal probability
14、on either the right side or left side of the body. Bilateral asymmetry of the claws comes about gradually. In the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development, the paired claws are symmetrical and cutter like. Asymmetry begins to appear in the juvenile sixth stage of development, and the paired c
15、laws further diverge toward well-defined cutter and crusher claws during succeeding stages. An intriguing aspect of this development was discovered by Victor Emmer. He found that if one of the paired claws is removed during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw invariably becomes a crusher, whi
16、le the regenerated claw becomes a cutter. Removal of a claw during a later juvenile stage or during adulthood, when asymmetry is present, does not alter the asymmetry; the intact and regenerate claws retain their original structures. These observations indicate that the conditions that trigger diffe
17、rentiation must operate in a random manner when the paired claws are intact, but in a nonrandom manner when one of the claws is lost. One possible explanation is that differential use of the claws determines their asymmetry. Perhaps the claw that is used more becomes the crusher. This would explain
18、why, when one of the claws is missing during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw always becomes a crusher. With two intact claws, initial use of one claw might prompt the animal to use it more than the other throughout the juvenile fourth and fifth stages, causing it to become a crusher. To t
19、est this hypothesis, researchers raised lobsters in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development in a laboratory environment in which the lobsters could manipulate oyster chips. (Not coincidentally, at this stage of development lobsters typically change from a habitat where they drift passive
20、ly, to the ocean floor where they have the opportunity to be more active by borrowing in the substrate.) Under these conditions, the lobsters developed asymmetric claws, half with crusher claws on the left, and half with crusher claws on the right. In contrast, when juvenile lobsters were reared in
21、a smooth tank without the oyster chips, the majority developed two cutter claws. This unusual configuration of symmetrical cutter claws did not change when the lobsters were subsequently placed in a ma nipulable environment or when they lost and regenerated one or both claws. 6 The passage is primar
22、ily concerned with _ . （ A） drawing an analogy between asymmetry in lobsters and handedness in humans （ B） developing a method for predicating whether crusher claws in lobster will appear on the left or right side （ C） explaining differences between lobsters crusher claws and cutter claws （ D） discu
23、ssing a possible explanation for the way bilateral asymmetry is determined in lobsters 7 Which of the following experimental results, if observed, would most clearly contradict the findings of Victor Emmer? （ A） A left cutter like claw is removed in the fifth stage and a crusher claw develops on the
24、 right side. （ B） A left cutter like claw is removed in the fourth stage and a crusher claw develops on the left side. （ C） A left cutter like claw is removed in the six stage and a crusher claw develops on the right side. （ D） A left cutter like claw is removed in the fourth stage and a crusher cla
25、w develops on the right side. 8 It can be inferred from the passage that one difference between lobsters in the earlier stages of development and those in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages is that lobsters in the early stages are _ . （ A） likely to be less active （ B） likely to be less symmetrica
26、l （ C） more likely to replace a crusher claw with a cutter claw （ D） more likely to regenerate a lost claw 9 Which of the following conditions does the passage suggest is a possible cause for the failure of a lobster to develop a crusher claw? （ A） The loss of a claw during the third or earlier stag
27、e of development. （ B） The lose of claw during the fourth or fifth stage of development. （ C） The loss of a claw during the sixth stage of development. （ D） Development in an environment devoid of material that can be manipulated. 10 The author regards the idea that differentiation is triggered rand
28、omly when paired claws remain intact as _ . （ A） irrefutable considering the authoritative nature of Emmas observations （ B） likely in view of present evidence （ C） contradictory to conventional thinking on lobster-claw differentiation （ D） purely speculative because it is based on scattered researc
29、h and experimentation 10 The earth is witnessing an urban revolution, as people worldwide crowd into towns and cities. In 1800 only five per cent of the worlds population were urban dwellers; now the proportion has risen to more than forty-five percent, and by the year 2010 more people will live in
30、towns and cities than in the countryside. Humanity will, for the first time, have become a predominantly urban species. Though the world is getting more crowded by the day, absolute numbers of population are less important than where people concentrate and whether these areas can cope with them. Eve
31、n densities, however, tell us nothing about the quality of the infrastructureroads, housing and job creation, for exampleor the availability of crucial services. The main question, then, is not how many people there are in a given area, but how well their needs can be met. Density figures have to be
32、 set beside measurements of wealth and employment, the quality of housing and the availability of education, medical care, clean water, sanitation and other vital services. The urban revolution is taking place mainly in the Third World, where it is hardest to accommodate. Between 1950 and 1985 the n
33、umber of city dwellers grew more than twice as fast in the Third World as in industrialized countries. During this period, the urban population of the developed world increased from 477 million to 838 million, less than double; but it quadrupled in developing countries, from 286 million to 1.14 bill
34、ion. Africas urban population is racing along at five percent a year on average, doubling city numbers every fourteen years. By the turn of the century, three in every four Latin Americans will live in urban areas, as will two in every five Asians and one in every three Africans. Developing countrie
35、s will have to increase their urban facilities by two thirds by then, if they are to maintain even their present inadequate levels of services and housing. In 1940 only one out of every hundred of the worlds people lived in a really big city, one with a population of over a million. By 1980 this pro
36、portion had already risen to one in ten. Two of the worlds biggest cities, Mexico and Sao Paulo, are already bursting at the seamsand their populations are doubling in less than twenty years. About a third of the people of the Third Worlds cities now live in desperately overcrowded slums and squatte
37、r settlements. Many are unemployed, uneducated, undernourished and chronically sick. Tens of millions of new people arrive every year, flocking in from the countryside in what is the greatest mass migration in history. Pushed out of the countryside by rural poverty and drawn to the cities in the hop
38、e of a better life, they find no houses waiting for them, no water supplies, no sewerage, no schools. They throw up makeshift hovels, built of whatever they can find. sticks, fronds, cardboard, tar-paper, straw, petrol tins and, if they are lucky, corrugated iron. They have to take the land none els
39、e wants; land that is too wet, too dry, too steep or too polluted for normal habitation. Yet all over the world the inhabitants of these apparently hopeless slums show extraordinary enterprise in improving their lives. While many settlements remain stuck in apathy, many others are gradually improved
40、 through the vigour and co-operation of their people, who turn flimsy shacks into solid buildings, build school, lay out streets and put in electricity and water supplies. Governments can help by giving the squatters the right to the land that they have usually occupied illegally, giving them the in
41、centive to improve their homes and neighborhoods. The most important way to ameliorate the effects of the Third Worlds exploding cities, however, is to slow down the migration. This involves correcting the bias most governments show towards cities and towns and against the countryside. With few sour
42、ces of hard currency, though, many governments in developing countries continue to concentrate their limited development efforts in cities and towns, rather than rural areas, where many of the most destitute live. As a result, food production falls as the countryside slides ever deeper into depressi
43、on. Since the process of urbanization concentrates people, the demand for basic necessities, like food, energy, drinking water and shelter, is also increased, which can exact a heavy toll on the surrounding countryside. High-quality agricultural land is shrinking in many regions, taken out of produc
44、tion because of over-use and mismanagement. Creeping urbanization could aggravate this situation, further constricting economic development. The most effective way of tackling poverty, and of stemming urbanization, is to reverse national priorities in many countries, concentrating more resources in
45、rural areas where most poor people still live. This would boost food production and help to build national economies more securely. Ultimately, though, the choice of priorities comes down to a question of power. The people of the countryside are powerless beside those of the towns; the destitute of
46、the countryside may starve in their scattered millions, whereas the poor concentrated in urban slums pose a constant threat of disorder. In all but a few developing countries the bias towards the Cities will therefore continue, as will the migrations that are swelling their numbers beyond control. 1
47、1 The purpose of the passage is _ . （ A） to warn about the dangers of revolutions in towns （ B） to warn about the possibility of a population explosion （ C） to suggest governments should change their priorities （ D） to suggest governments invest in more housing in cities 12 The urban population of t
48、he world _ . （ A） has risen to around forty percent in the last 200 years （ B） will have risen to more than fifty percent by the year 2010 （ C） has risen by forty-five percent since 1800 （ D） will live in cities for the first time 13 The most important factor is _ . （ A） the quality of the infrastru
49、cture and services （ B） where people are concentrated （ C） wealth and employment （ D） density figures and measurements 14 A third of the people in Third World cities _ . （ A） live in Mexico and Sao Paulo （ B） are undernourished and ill （ C） live in inadequate housing （ D） arrived last year 15 Many Third World city dwellers _ . （ A） start their own business enterprises （ B） create their own infrastructure and services （ C） sleep in the streets （ D） form peoples co-operatives 16 Governments give _ . （ A）
