1、雅思（阅读）模拟试卷 1及答案与解析 一、 Reading Module (60 minutes) 1 READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. In Praise of Amateurs Despite the specialisation of scientific research, amateurs still have an important role to play During the sci
2、entific revolution of the 17th century, scientists were largely men of private means who pursued their interest in natural philosophy for their own edification. Only in the past century or two has it become possible to make a living from investigating the workings of nature.Modem science was, in oth
3、er words, built on the work of amateurs. Today, science is an increasingly specialised and compartmentalised subject, the domain of experts who know more and more about less and less. Perhaps surprisingly, however, amateurs - even those without private means - are still important. A recent poll carr
4、ied out at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by astronomer Dr Richard Fienberg found that, in addition to his field of astronomy, amateurs are actively involved in such fields as acoustics, horticulture, ornithology, meteorology, hydrology and palaeontology. Far fr
5、om being crackpots, amateur scientists are often in close touch with professionals, some of whom rely heavily on their co-operation. Admittedly, some fields are more open to amateurs than others. Anything that requires expensive equipment is clearly a no-go area. And some kinds of research can be da
6、ngerous; most amateur chemists, jokes Dr Fienberg, are either locked up or have blown themselves to bits. But amateurs can make valuable contributions in fields from rocketry to palaeontology and the rise of the Internet has made it easier than ever before to collect data and distribute results. Exa
7、ctly which field of study has benefited most from the contributions of amateurs is a matter of some dispute. Dr Fienberg makes a strong case for astronomy. There is, he points out, a long tradition of collaboration between amateur and professional sky watchers. Numerous comets, asteroids and even th
8、e planet Uranus were discovered by amateurs. Today, in addition to comet and asteroid spotting, amateurs continue to do valuable work observing the brightness of variable stars and detecting novae - new stars in the Milky Way and supernovae in other galaxies. Amateur observers are helpful, says Dr F
9、ienberg, because there are so many of them (they far outnumber professionals) and because they are distributed all over the world. This makes special kinds of observations possible: if several observers around the world accurately record the time when a star is eclipsed by an asteroid, for example,
10、it is possible to derive useful information about the asteroids shape. Another field in which amateurs have traditionally played an important role is palaeontology. Adrian Hunt, a palaeontologist at Mesa Technical College in New Mexico, insists that his is the field in which amateurs have made the b
11、iggest contribution. Despite the development of high-tech equipment, he says, the best sensors for finding fossils are human eyes - lots of them.Finding volunteers to look for fossils is not difficult, he says, because of the near-universal interest in anything to do with dinosaurs. As well as helpi
12、ng with this research, volunteers learn about science, a process he calls recreational education. Rick Bonney of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, contends that amateurs have contributed the most in his field. There are, he notes, thought to be as many as 60 million birdwatc
13、hers in America alone. Given their huge numbers and the wide geographical coverage they provide, Mr Bonney has enlisted thousands of amateurs in a number of research projects. Over the past few years their observations have uncovered previously unknown trends and cycles in birdmigrations and reveale
14、d declines in the breeding populations of several species of migratory birds, prompting a habitat conservation programme. Despite the successes and whatever the field of study, collaboration between amateurs and professionals is not without its difficulties. Not everyone, for example is happy with t
15、he term amateur. Mr Bonney has coined the term citizen scientist because he felt that other words, such as volunteer sounded disparaging. A more serious problem is the question of how professionals can best acknowledge the contributions made by amateurs. Dr Fienberg says that some amateur astronomer
16、s are happy to provide their observations but grumble about not being reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses. Others feel let down when their observations are used in scientific papers, but they are not listed as co-authors. Dr Hunt says some amateur palaeontologists are disappointed when told that t
17、hey cannot take finds home with them. These are legitimate concerns but none seems insurmountable. Provided amateurs and professionals agree the terms on which they will work together beforehand, there is no reason why co-operation between the two groups should not flourish. Last year Dr S. Carlson,
18、 founder of the Society for Amateur Scientists won an award worth 290,000 for his work in promoting such co-operation. He says that one of the main benefits of the prize is the endorsement it has given to the contributions of amateur scientists, which has done much to silence critics among those pro
19、fessionals who believe science should remain their exclusive preserve. At the moment, says Dr Carlson, the society is involved in several schemes including an innovative rocket-design project and the setting up of a network of observers who will search for evidence of a link between low-frequency ra
20、diation and earthquakes. The amateurs, he says, provide enthusiasm and talent, while the professionals provide guidance so that anything they do discover will be taken seriously. Having laid the foundations of science, amateurs will have much to contribute to its ever-expanding edifice. 1 Questions
21、1-8 Complete the summary below. Choose ONE or TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet. Summary Prior to the 19th century, professional 【 1】 _did not exist and scientific research was largely carried out by amateurs. However, while 【 2】 _today
22、is mostly the domain of professionals, a recent US survey highlighted the fact that amateurs play an important role in at least seven 【 3】 _and indeed many professionals are reliant on their 【 4】 _ In areas such as astronomy, amateurs can be invaluable when making specific 【 5】 _on a global basis. S
23、imilarly in the area of palaeontology their involvement is invaluable and helpers are easy to recruit because of the popularity of 【 6】 _ Amateur birdwatchers also play an active role and their work has led to the establishment of a 【 7】 _Occasionally the term amateur has been the source of disagree
24、ment and alternative names have been suggested but generally speaking, as long as the professional scientists 【 8】 _the work of the non-professionals, the two groups can work productively together. 1 【 1】 2 【 2】 3 【 3】 4 【 4】 5 【 5】 6 【 6】 7 【 7】 8 【 8】 9 Questions 9-13 Reading Passage 1 contains a
25、number of opinions provided by four different scientists. Match each opinion (Questions 9-13) with the scientists A-D. NB You may use any of the scientists A-D more than once. 9 Amateur involvement can also be an instructive pastime. （ A） Dr Fienberg （ B） Adrian Hunt （ C） Rick Bonney （ D） Dr Carlson
26、 10 Amateur scientists are prone to accidents. （ A） Dr Fienberg （ B） Adrian Hunt （ C） Rick Bonney （ D） Dr Carlson 11 Science does not belong to professional scientists alone. （ A） Dr Fienberg （ B） Adrian Hunt （ C） Rick Bonney （ D） Dr Carlson 12 In certain areas of my work, people are a more valuable
27、 resource than technology. （ A） Dr Fienberg （ B） Adrian Hunt （ C） Rick Bonney （ D） Dr Carlson 13 It is important to give amateurs a name which reflects the value of their work. （ A） Dr Fienberg （ B） Adrian Hunt （ C） Rick Bonney （ D） Dr Carlson 14 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes o
28、n Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading P assage 2 below. READING THE SCREEN Are the electronic media exacerbating illiteracy and making our children stupid? On the contrary, says Colin McCabe, they have the potential to make us truly literate The debate surrounding literacy is one of the most
29、charged in education. On the onehand there is an army of people convinced that traditional skills of reading and writing are declining. On the other, a host of progressives protest that literacy is much more complicated than a simple technical mastery of reading and writing. This second position is
30、supported by most of the relevant academic work over the past 20 years. These studies argue that literacy can only be understood in its social and technical context. In Renaissance England, for example, many more people could read than could write, and within reading there was a distinction between
31、those who could read print and those who could manage the more difficult task of reading manuscript. An understanding of these earlier periods helps us understand todays crisis in literacy debate. There does seem to be evidence that there has been an overall decline in some aspects of reading and wr
32、iting - you only need to compare the tabloid newspapers of today with those of 50 years ago to see a clear decrease in vocabulary and simplification of syntax. But the picture is not uniform and doesnt readily demonstrate the simple distinction between literate and illiterate which had been consider
33、ed adequate since the middle of the 19th century. While reading a certain amount of writing is as crucial as it has ever been in industrial societies, it is doubtful whether a fully extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was 30 or 40 years ago. While print retains much of its authority as a
34、source of topical formation, television has increasingly usurped this role. The ability to write fluent letters has been undermined by the telephone and research suggests that for many people the only use for writing, outside formal education, is the compilation of shopping lists. The decision of so
35、me car manufacturers to issue their instructions to mechanics as a video pack rather than as a handbook might be taken to spell the end of any automatic link between industrialisation and literacy. On the other hand, it is also the case that ever-increasing numbers of people make their living out of
36、 writing, which is better rewarded than ever before. Schools are generally seen as institutions where the book rules - film, television and recorded sound have almost no place; but it is not clear that this opposition is appropriate. While you may not need to read and write to watch television, you
37、certainly need to be able to read and write in order to make programmes. Those who work in the new media are anything but illiterate. The traditional oppositions between old and new media are inadequate for understanding the world which a young child now encounters. The computer has re-established a
38、 central place for the written word on the screen, which used to be entirely devoted to the image. There is even anecdotal evidence that children are mastering reading and writing in order to get on to the Internet. There is no reason why the new and old media cannot be integrated in schools to prov
39、ide the skills to become economically productive and politically enfranchised. Nevertheless, there is a crisis in literacy and it would be foolish to ignore it. To understand that literacy may be declining because it is less central to some aspects of everyday life is not the same as acquiescing in
40、this state of affairs. The production of school work with the new technologies could be a significant stimulus to literacy. How should these new technologies be introduced into the schools? It isnt enough to call for computers, camcorders and edit suites in every classroom; unless they are properly
41、integrated into the educational culture, they will stand unused. Evidence suggests that this is the fate of most information technology used in the classroom. Similarly, although media studies are now part of the national curriculum, and more and more students are now clamouring to take these course
42、, teachers remain uncertain about both methods and aims in this area. This is not the fault of the teachers. The entertainment and information industries must be drawn into a debate with the educational institutions to determine how best to blend these new technologies into the classroom. Many peopl
43、e in our era are drawn to the pessimistic view that the new media are destroying old skills and eroding critical judgement. It may be true that past generations were more literate but taking the pre-19th century meaning of the term - this was true of only a small section of the population. The word
44、literacy is a 19th-century coinage to describe the divorce of reading and writing from a full knowledge of literature. The education reforms of the 19th century produced reading and writing as skills separable from full participation in the cultural heritage. The new media now point not only to a fu
45、turistic cyber-economy, they also make our cultural past available to the whole nation. Most childrens access to these treasures is initially through television. It is doubtful whether our literary heritage has ever been available to or sought out by more than about 5 per cent of the population; it
46、has certainly not been available to more than 10 per cent. But the new media joined to the old, through the public service tradition of British broadcasting, now makes our literary tradition available to all. 14 Questions 14-17 Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 14-17 on your
47、 answer sheet. 14 When discussing the debate on literacy in education, the writer notes that _. （ A） children cannot read and write as well as they used to （ B） academic work has improved over the last 20 years. （ C） there is evidence that literacy is related to external factors. （ D） there are oppo
48、sing arguments that are equally convincing. 15 In the 4th paragraph, the writers main point is that _. （ A） the printed word is both gaining and losing power. （ B） all inventions bring disadvantages as well as benefits. （ C） those who work in manual jobs no longer need to read. （ D） the media offers
49、 the best careers for those who like writing. 16 According to the writer, the main problem that schools face today is _. （ A） how best to teach the skills of reading and writing. （ B） how best to incorporate technology into classroom teaching. （ C） finding the means to purchase technological equipment. （ D） managing the widely differing levels of literacy amongst pupils. 17 At the end of the article, the writer is suggesting that _. （ A） literature and culture cannot be divorced. （ B） the term literacy has no
