专业英语八级-阅读理解(四)及答案解析.doc

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1、专业英语八级-阅读理解(四)及答案解析 (总分：20.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、Text A(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Make That a DoubleA few years ago, it dawned on Zach Thomas that coffee didnt have enough caffeine. At the time, he was pulling all-nighters as a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point. By the time he became an instr

2、uctor at the U.S. Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, Ga., he lived by a common saying at his school: Sleep is a crutch. I used to just drink a pot of coffee, but then you have to go to the bathroom 100 times during the day. If you could just get more caffeine in one cup, then that would be the best

3、 of both worlds, he says. In 2005 Thomas, now 30, founded Ranger Coffee, with a hypercaffeinated blend that contains double the caffeine of regular coffee, or about 300 milligrams per 12-ounce servingthe equivalent of six Diet Cokes. The small, Rockmart, Ga.-based company sells 1,700 bags of coffee

4、a year, nearly half of them to troops stationed in Iraq.These days you dont have to be a war hero to be a caffeine addict. Everywhere you look, people are wired on caffeine or touting its benefitsor both. Tabloids run images of celebrities sipping Red Bull or toting Starbucks venti lattes; Dunkin Do

5、nuts ads feature a coffee-swilling Rachael Ray, who moves so fast that she leaves tread marks on the floor. Theres no shortage of ways to get your caffeine fix. Sales of energy drinks like Red Bull and Full Throttle have grown tenfold since 2001, and new ones enter the market weekly. Products that a

6、lready have caffeine are adding morein the past few months Diet Pepsi, Jolt and Mountain Dew have all rolled out extra-caffeinated versions. Novelty items, like caffeinated lip balm, caffeinated sunflower seeds, caffeinated beer and even caffeinated soap (Tired of waking up and having to wait for yo

7、ur morning java to brew?) are also popping up in retail stores and nightclubs. In a spoof on this caffeine arms race, the site E launched a death by caffeine calculator that shows a 180-pound adult would have to down 44 tall cups of Starbucks coffee before checking in to the big java house in the sk

8、y.Why do we needor wantso much energy? Conventional wisdom says its because were sleeping less and working more. But government figures show that adults have averaged eight hours of sleep per night since the 1960s. Working hours, at least for men, have also remained constant: men with children have

9、averaged about 43 hours of paid work per week for the past half century. Of course, that doesnt mean we dont feel more stressed. University of Maryland sociologist Suzanne Bianchi says working mothers entry into the labor force means theres less downtime for families as a whole, with errands, housew

10、ork and outings packed into a tight two-day weekend. As for the young and unattached, they may be getting plenty of sleep, but at irregular hours. They have more options than ever for 24/7 entertainment, from TV to the Internet to video-games. In fact, many of the novelty caffeine products are aimed

11、 at computer games who stage weekend-long LAN parties where no one sleeps.But for the general public, the trend is more about getting a legal high. Caffeine is the worlds most popular mood-altering drug, says David Schardt, senior nutritionist at the Center for science in the Public Interest. And co

12、mpanies have been banking on its addictive properties to bring repeat business. Caffeine can lift your mood, improve concentration, boost physical stamina and, as an active ingredient in Excedrin, help cure headaches. More than 50 percent of caffeine drinkers experience withdrawal symptoms when they

13、 stop.By most accounts, though, the stimulant is fairly safe. Theres nothing inherently wrong with being dependent on caffeine, says Roland Griffiths, a neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as long as you dont overdose. For those accustomed to caffeine, a moderate intak

14、e is 200 to 300 milligrams per daythe equivalent of two to three cups of brewed coffee, one Starbucks tall coffee or 3.5 Red Bulls. Exceed 500 to 600 milligrams, and anxiety, nausea and heart palpitations can set in. Griffiths does worry about teenagers, who are drinking more caffeinated beverages:

15、Im concerned that impressionable adolescents are exposed to marketing messages that promote caffeine as a performance enhancer will later turn to stronger drugs, like steroids or Ritalin or cocaine. More worrisome still is the glamorization of the 24/7 caffeine high. Even Rachael Ray occasionally ne

16、eds her rest.（分数：5.00）(1).According to the passage, the following are the effects of caffeine with the EXCEPTION of _.（分数：1.00）A.It can cure diseases.B.It can change peoples mood.C.It can increase physical strength.D.It can make people more concentrate(2).According to the passage, the following are

17、the adverse effects of overdose of caffeine with the EXCEPTION of _.（分数：1.00）A.anxietyB.sicknessC.heart beatingD.obesity(3).According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true about caffeine?（分数：1.00）A.It makes people awake.B.It helps alter peoples mood.C.Drinking drinks with caf

18、feine is legal.D.Drinks with caffeine are dangerous to peoples healt(4).According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?（分数：1.00）A.People are not supposed to be dependent on caffeine.B.People need more energy because they feel more stressed.C.Peoples desire for caffeinated en

19、ergy products is soaring.D.People tend to drink the highest amount of caffeine that is legal.(5).Which of the following suggests the real cause for the high need of caffeine?（分数：1.00）A.It is harmless.B.It can enhance performance.C.It helps with peoples way of feeling.D.People are sleeping less and w

20、orking mor二、Text B(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The World Banks Real ProblemThe World Bank is undeniably in crisis. But not because its president, Paul Wolfowitz, got his girlfriend a raise.It is the Wolfowitz saga that has been grabbing all the headlines, of course. The Iraq- war architect was plucked from the De

21、fense Department and deposited by President George W. Bush at the World Bank in 2005 (by tradition, the U.S. President picks the banks chief). At the time, Wolfowitz informed the banks ethics committee that he was seeing Shaha Riza, a communication adviser at the bank, and the in-house ethicists tol

22、d him she should be moved to another agency and given a raise for her troubles. But the size of the pay hike (from $133,000 to $180,000, tax free) and other details about Rizas transfer raised hackles among bank staff and sparked an investigation. The banks board will decide any day now whether Wolf

23、owitz stays or goes.This dragged-out mess, though, is a distraction. The bigger issue is that the Washington-based bank and its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are struggling to justify their continued existence.The situation is most pressing for the smaller IMF, which pa

24、ys its bills with the profits it makes by lending money to middle-income countries in financial trouble. With hardly any such countries in trouble these days, the organization is projecting a $224 million deficit for this fiscal year and asking its member nations if they can start selling off some o

25、f the gold they deposited with it after World War II (the answer so far: no).The World Bank isnt that desperate, but it faces similar pressure. Both organizations were created in 1944 by the soon-to-be-victorious Allied powers. At the time, says Harvard professor and former IMF chief economist Kenne

26、th Rogoff, global financial markets barely existed, and domestic financial markets barely existed in Europe.The World Banks initial job was to finance reconstruction in Europe. The Marshall Plan rendered that task superfluous, so the bankin the first of several reinventions moved on to bankroll deve

27、lopment in other countries. The idea was to lend to governments that were creditworthy but had no access to rich-country capital markets. Now we live in a world where there are huge global capital markets, where, if anything, investors are too willing to invest in developing countries, says Adam Ler

28、rick, a former investment banker who teaches economics at Carnegie Mellon University. The World Banks net lending has plummeted over the past few years, even as it keeps shopping loans to the likes of Brazil, Turkey, Russia and China, sometimes on hugely generous terms.This is the work of the bigges

29、t part of the World Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Member countries make deposits (the U.S. share is $2 billion down and $30 billion pledged); the bank sells bonds backed by those deposits and pledges, then lends the money out at a small profit. The other main arm o

30、f the World Bank, the International Development Association, gets regular infusions of cash from rich countries and lends funds on near giveaway terms to truly poor countries, mostly in Africa (the U.S. contribution is just under $1 billion a year, or 0.04% of federal spending).Lerrick wants the Wor

31、ld Bank to stop lending to middle-income countries and restructure its loans to the poorest nations as outright grants. Nancy Birdsall, a former World Banker who run a Washington think tank called the Center for Global Development, argues that the bank could have more impact on poverty by making bet

32、ter use of its best assets: the expertise of its staff and its ability to coordinate global action. Lending and grant making at the country level should not be the end-all and be- all, she says. It should be the vehicle for advice and constant rebuilding of the banks knowledge. Birdsall is a World B

33、ank fan but agrees with critics like Lerrick that it must become smaller (it has a staff of 10,000) and less banklike to remain relevant.Wolfowitzs allies say he is the victim of backlash from entrenched bank staff upset that he is turning up the heat on an anticorruption campaign begun by his prede

34、cessor, James Wolfensohn. Thats probably overstating things. But the potential backlash against slashing the banks staff and getting it out of lending would surely be epic. Which may explain why no World Bank president, Wolfowitz included, has attempted it.（分数：5.00）(1).According to the author, the W

35、orld Banks real problem is _.（分数：1.00）A.its corruptionB.its policy on lendingC.its continued existenceD.Wolfowitzs romantic relationship(2).Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the World Bank?（分数：1.00）A.Its anticorruption campaign is still going on.B.It should readjust its r

36、ole in combating poverty.C.It has satisfied its initial job to finance reconstruction in Europe.D.It is playing a more and more important role in lending to developing countries.(3).According to the passage, the World Bank should do the following EXCEPT _.（分数：1.00）A.reducing staffB.coordinating glob

37、al actionC.increasing the profit it makesD.offering advice to poor countries(4).Which of the following is NOT true according to Nancy Birdsall?（分数：1.00）A.The World Bank should reduce its staff.B.The World Bank should coordinate global action.C.The World Bank should offer advice to poor countries.D.T

38、he World Bank should limit its work to lending and grant makin(5).We can infer from the last paragraph that the author was _ the capability of the World Bank to solve its problems.（分数：1.00）A.confident inB.indifferent toC.optimistic aboutD.pessimistic about三、Text C(总题数：1，分数：5.00)To Get on the Same Pa

39、geSami Adwan is the very model of a soft-spoken professor. He measures his words, and listens carefully to what others have said. Yet while pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of San Francisco in the 1980s, Adwan not only refused to listen to Jewish students, he says but he dropped out of classes if

40、he knew they included Jews. A Palestinian born in the village of Surif, near Hebron, Adwan had grown up under the shadow of the Israeli occupation, hearing tales from his father and grandfather of how Jews had seized the familys orange groves and wheat fields in 1948. Returning to his homeland with

41、his degree, Adwan joined the then outlawed Fatah Party and was thrown into an Israeli jail in 1993.That was his real education. While awaiting charges, Adwan overheard two Israeli soldiers arguing over whether he should be made to sign a document in Hebrew that he couldnt read. Shocked to hear one o

42、f his enemies defending his rights, Adwan decided that he had some things to learn about the Jewish nation.So much of the gulf in understanding that plagues the Middle East has to do with the willful disregard for the others point of view. Israelis refer to the 1948 conflict that gave birth to their

43、 nation as the War of Independence; Palestinians know it as the Nakba, or Catastrophe. What Israelis call the riots of 1920when Palestinians attacked Jewish neighborhoods around Jerusalem and Jaffaare termed the popular uprisings by the other side. Adwan, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, has spen

44、t much of his professional career trying to bridge this gap.Together with Dan Bar-On, a social psychologist at Ben Gurion University in southern Israel, he now co-directs the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME). Since 2002 the group has produced three booklets to use in Palestinian a

45、nd Israeli high schools that force each side to confront a contradictory vision of history. Each page is divided into three: the Palestinian and Israeli narratives and a third section left blank for the pupil to fill in. The idea is not to legitimize or accept the others narrative but to recognize i

46、t, Adwan says. The historical dates may be the same, but the interpretation of each side is very different.Side by side, the divergent world views are striking. Zionism is described in the Israeli column as a result of. the continuation of anti-Semitism in Europe, the inspiration of other national m

47、ovements, and the continual connection of the people of Israel to the land of Israel. It bears little resemblance to the imperialist political movement that bestowed a nationalist characteristic to the Jews known to Palestinians.Educators in other conflict-ridden societies are taking notice. Last ye

48、ar the Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at Skopje University in Macedonia published their own parallel Macedonian-Albanian narratives based on PRIMEs model. If the Israeli and Palestinian teachers managed to overcome the incredible gap between themselves, we can do it here, says Skopje University professor Violeta Petroska- Beska. In France, Which suffers from its own tensions between Muslims and non- Muslims, the PRIME booklet Learning the Others Narrative has sold more than 23,000 copies. Its also been translated into English, Spa