1、考研英语（阅读）模拟试卷 173 及答案与解析Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)0 Less than a year ago, a new generation of diet pills seemed to offer the long-sought answer to our chronic weight problems. Hundreds of thousands of pou
2、nd-conscious Americans had discovered that a drug combination known as “fen-phen“ could shut off voracious appetites like magic, and the FDA had just approved a new drug, Redux, that did the same with fewer side effects. Redux would attract hundreds of thousands of new pill poppers within a few mont
3、hs.But now the diet-drug revolution is facing a backlash. Some of the nations largest HMOs, including Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Prudential Healthcare, have begun cutting back or eliminating reimbursement for both bills. Diet chains like Jenny Graig and Nutri System are backing away from them too. Se
4、veral states, meanwhile, have restricted the use of fen-phen. Last week the Florida legislature banned new prescriptions entirely and called on doctors to wean current patients from the drug within 30 days; it also put a 90-day limit on Redux prescriptions. Even New Jersey doctor Sheldon Levine, who
5、 touted Redux last year on TV and in his book The Redux Revolution, has stopped giving it to all but his most obese patients.The reason for all the retrenchment: potentially lethal side effects. Over the summer, the FDA revealed that 82 patients had developed defects in their heart valves while on f
6、en-phen, and that seven patients had come down with the same condition on Redux. As if that werent bad enough, physicians reported that a woman who had been taking fen-phen for less than a month died of primary pulmonary hypertension, a sometimes fatal lung condition already associated with Redux. A
7、nd an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month confirmed earlier reports that both fen-phen and Redux can cause brain damage in lab animals.These findings led the New England Journal to publish an editorial admonishing doctors to prescribe the drugs only for patients wit
8、h severe obesity. Meanwhile, FDA asked drugmakers to put more explicit warnings on fen-phen and Redux labels. Since mid-July, prescriptions for fen-phen have dropped 56%, and those for Redux 36%, according to IMS America, a pharmaceutical-market research firm.All that really does, however, is bringi
9、ng the numbers down to where they should have been all along. Manufacturers said from the start that their pills offered a short-term therapy for the obese, not for people looking to fit into a smaller bathing suit. FDA approved Redux with just such a caveat, and when limited to these patients, the
10、drugs may still make sense despite the risksbecause morbid obesity carries its own dangers, including heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Too often, however, Redux and fen-phen were peddled to all comers, almost like candy. The current backlash, says Levine, is a “roller coaster that never should ha
11、ve happened“.1 What does the phrase “pill poppers“(Lines 5-6, Paragraph 1)means?（A）Pill distributors.（B） Pill manufacturers.（C） Pill promoters.（D）Pill takers and abusers.2 The worst case that revealed the fatal dark side of the diet pills is（A）82 patients on fen-phen and seven on Redux had developed
12、 heart disease.（B） a woman patient on fen-phen had died of abnormally high blood pressure.（C） a woman patient on fen-phen had died of a lung disease.（D）both diet pills have caused brain damage.3 New England Journal admonished doctors to（A）give the pills only to the severely overweight persons.（B） ta
13、ke the obese patients off the drugs completely.（C） reduce prescriptions of the pills drastically.（D）put clearer warnings on the drug labels.4 According to the drug manufacturers, the pills（A）only offer temporary treatment for patients with morbid obesity.（B） are meant for all the people who yearn fo
14、r slimness.（C） are the best cure to our chronic weight problems.（D）are the most important weight-loss discoveries.5 We can infer from the last paragraph that（A）the severe obesity carries the potential of illnesses.（B） the pills were sold to all comers without discrimination.（C） the pills may still b
15、e effective if properly administered.（D）the pills shouldnt have been hailed as miraculous cures and then discarded.5 The Warranty Holdings Group, a European leader in mechanical breakdown insurance and a researcher and commentator on trends in motoring, says that the motorists world 20 years from no
16、w will be marked by more cars, more choice and more technology. Built-in safety features will increase and will include night-vision and collision-avoidance system, and monitoring devices to stop drivers falling asleep at the wheel.A growth in tele-working and home shopping should cut the numbers of
17、 trips in a car made by most motorists and “fun“ sportscars will become popular as private motoring becomes more recreational in nature.The survey results show that despite years of research into alternative fuel sources for vehicles, no clear winner has emerged for a replacement for the conventiona
18、l petrol-engined car. Gas and electricity are the best possibilities, with Toyotas design division in Japan claiming it already has an electric car that will drive up to 250 km on a single charge.However, while electric and “hybrid“ powered vehicles will be far more in evidence in the future, it wil
19、l take a major technological breakthrough to steer the car industry away from its current path of gradual improvements to the petrol-driven internal combustion engine.Professor Garel Rhys, of the Cardiff Business School in Wales, says engine fuel injection systems of the future will be far more frug
20、al than anything that exists at the moment. “It will be like putting a pipette of petrol into the cylinders, rather than just throwing it in by the bucket load, which is almost what we do at the moment when you compare it with what could be possible. “Some environmentalists point to the Twingo, the
21、small car developed by Frances Renault company, to show that what could be achieved by the worlds car industry if it moved away from a trend towards bigger and more powerful cars and radically cut the fuel consumption of its products. Public opinion polls in many countries show motorists wanting acc
22、ess to this kind of environmentally-aware car.A prototype environmental car, the SmILE(smaller, intelligent, lighter, efficient)has been put together by the environmental group Greenpeace. The group hopes the concept will catch on. It depends heavily on supercharging or forcing fuel mixture into the
23、 cylinders at higher than normal pressure. Some experts say this is a good way to extract high performance and high fuel efficiency from small engines.Cutting the fuel consumption has had no negative effect on the handling or performance of the car, according to the designers. Top speed, flexibility
24、 and acceleration from the engine is as good or better than the original Twingo. They say the technology used to create the Twingo SmILE could just as easily be used on other brands of car.What remains to be seen is whether the enthusiasm of environmental designers catches on with the dollar-driven
25、international car industry, and whether motorists back up with their chequebooks their desire for “greener“ cars.6 Which of the following is true about the motorists world 20 years from now?（A）The number of cars will reduce as more people work and shop at home.（B） People will only use cars for recre
26、ational purposes.（C） Cars will be better equipped to enhance road safety.（D）Fun sportscars will be the mainstream of car industry.7 It can be inferred from the passage that（A）it is unlikely that todays petrol-driven car will be a thing of the past in the near future.（B） electricity will soon be the
27、alternative fuel source as Toyota designed its electric car.（C） the car industry has attempted but failed to make a breakthrough in improving the petrol-driven engine.（D）the car industry is now trying to economize its current engine fuel injection systems.8 The phrase “catch on“(Line 3, Paragraph 7)
28、most probably means（A）become popular.（B） draw attention.（C） be formulated.（D）be in trouble.9 The author thinks that environmentalists who are keen for environmental cars（A）can be very optimistic.（B） are more likely to be disappointed than satisfied.（C） will have to be patient.（D）should be cautious.1
29、0 This passage can be best entitled（A）New Trends in Car Industry.（B） Environmental Car under Scrutiny.（C） The Future of Car Industry.（D）Green Cars: Is It Possible?10 One of the differences between animals and machines is that animal bodies can repair much of the damage that a cruel and hostile world
30、 inflicts on them. A machine, by contrast, has to wait for someone to fix it. But that may change if researchers of self-repairing materials have their way. Two groups in America and Britain are trying to create composite materials that mend themselves if they get cracked, in much the same way that
31、an animals broken bone heals itself. The difference is that these materials will heal in minutes rather than months.Such self-healing composites may take a while to enter everyday use. But if they can be made reliable they will be welcome in high-stress applications. Jeffrey Moore and his colleagues
32、 at the University of Illinois are working on the problem by adding extra components to their composites. These composites consist of fibres embedded in a plastic matrix. The main extra component added by Dr. Moore is a sprinkling of tiny capsules containing a chemical. If the composite cracks, the
33、capsules near the crack break open and release the chemical molecules, which link together to form another type of plastic that binds the crack together and heals the material.Ian Bond and his colleagues at the University of Bristols department of aerospace engineering are taking a slightly differen
34、t approach. They use glass fibres rather than carbon fibres in their composite and, instead of adding capsules, they have put the healing molecules into the fibres themselves. The molecules in question are the two ingredients of epoxy resin. Half the fibres contain one ingredient and half contain th
35、e other. A crack in the material breaks the fibres, releasing the ingredients which react, form more epoxy, and thus mend the crack. The advantage of this approach is that it retains the basic fibre-plus-matrix structure of the material. Adding capsules changes that and risks weakening it. The disad
36、vantage is that capsules are easier to make than hollow, fluid-filled fibres.Whichever system is adopted, two further things are needed. One is a way of checking that a component really has healed. The other is a way to top up the healing molecules once some of them have been used. A repaired area w
37、ould develop a bruise. Topping up the supply of healing fluid might be done by mimicking another biological systemthe network of blood capillaries that supplies living tissues with the stuff they need to thrive. Dr. Moore and Dr. Bond are attempting to borrow from nature this way. If they succeed, t
38、he machines of the future will have longer and healthier lives.11 What are the American and British groups busy doing?（A）Creating self-repairing materials for machines.（B） Developing composite materials for animals capable of being restored by human beings.（C） Making materials that will heal in mont
39、hs automatically for machines.（D）Inventing for machines materials that can be repaired by human beings.12 How are Jeffrey Moore and his colleagues trying to solve the problem?（A）By adding extra components to their materials.（B） By creating new materials to substitute the former ones.（C） By filling u
40、p the replenishment of healing fluid.（D）By discovering new methods to improve their techniques.13 Which of the following is true about Ian Bonds method?（A）The capsules he uses are more difficult to make than hollow fibres.（B） He uses carbon fibres rather than glass fibres in his composite materials.
41、（C） He has added capsules into the fibres themselves instead of the healing molecules.（D）A crack in the material breaks the fibres to release the ingredients to fix the crack.14 Both Dr. Moore and Dr. Bonds researches aim to（A）add a new extra ingredient to the machines.（B） make the future machines l
42、onger and healthier lives.（C） find a way of checking that an ingredient has really healed.（D）make up for the healing molecules once some of them have been used. 15 The passage is mainly about（A）the substitutes for self-healing composites.（B） the differences between animals and machines.（C） different
43、 ways of realizing self-recovery.（D）materials capable of repairing themselves under development.15 Scientists in Belgium spent months building robotic versions of the dreaded vermin and then let them loose in a community of real roaches. The robots not only blended in with their biological cousins,
44、they acted as agents for the scientists, influencing the roach communitys collective decisions to search for the best resting location. The ultimate goal of the research is to figure out how the simple behavior of individuals gives rise to a complex collective decision. The principle, called emergen
45、ce, is fundamental to life. What is the relationship between each bees individual motion and the hives overall success? How do millions of brain cells give rise to thought? The roach is a good launching point toward these big questions because its social system is simple enough for scientists to stu
46、dy mathematically.The first step was to build robots that real roaches would accept as their own. Although the robotic bugs dont look much like the real thing, they act like them in two key ways: they naturally head toward dark areas and are influenced by the presence of other cockroaches. And more
47、important, they smell like roaches. They emit the same molecules that roaches use to identify their kin, giving the robots a unique roach smell. “We could see the cockroaches accepting the robot when it had the right scents, touching and climbing on it,“ says Jose Halloy, a professor of life science
48、s.The next step was getting the robotic and biological roaches to cooperate on common tasks. In experiments, the robots would collectively head toward a dark shelter, mimicking the nighttime behavior of natural cockroaches. That got the researchers wondering: if you program the robot-roaches to make
49、 an inappropriate decision and head toward the lighted shelter, would the real cockroaches follow, going against their natural instincts?Many of the biological roaches reduced their natural tendency to prefer dark places and followed the collective to a lighter shelter. But influence turned out to be a two-way street. On occasion, the real roaches were able to override the programming of their machine counterparts and get them to scurry into dark hiding places. Being social creatures, both the robotic and natural roaches were paying attention to and following afte
