[外语类试卷]雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编4及答案与解析.doc

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1、雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编 4及答案与解析 0 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. The Mozart Effect A Music has been used for centuries to heal the body. In the Ebers Papyrs(one of the earliest medical documents, circa 1500 B.C.), it was recorded that physician

2、s chanted to heal the sick(Castleman, 1994). In various cultures, we have observed singing as part of healing rituals. In the world of Western medicine, however, using music in medicine lost popularity until the introduction of the radio. Researchers then started to notice that listening to music co

3、uld have significant physical effects. Therapists noticed music could help calm anxiety and researchers saw that listening to music could cause a drop in blood pressure. In addition to these two areas, music has been used with cancer chemotherapy to reduce nausea, during surgery to reduce stress hor

4、mone production, during childbirth, and in stroke recovery(Castleman, 1994 and Westley, 1998). It has been shown to decrease pain as well as enhance the effectiveness of the immune system. In Japan, compilations of music are used as medication, of sorts. For example, if you want to cure a headache o

5、r migraine, the album suggested Mendelssohns “Spring Song,“ Dvoraks “Humoresque,“ or part of George Gershwins “An American in Paris“(Campbell, 1998). Music is also being used to assist in learning, in a phenomenon called the Mozart Effect. B Frances H. Rauscher, Ph.D., first demonstrated the correla

6、tion between music and learning in an experiment in 1993. His experiments indicated that a 10-minute dose of Mozart could temporarily boost intelligence. Groups of students were given intelligence tests after listening to silence, relaxation tapes, or Mozarts Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major for a s

7、hort time. He found that after silence, the average IQ score was no, and after the relaxation tape, scores rose a point. After listening to Mozart, however, the scores jumped to 119(Westley, 1998). Even students who did not like the music still had an increased score on the IQ test. Rauscher hypothe

8、sized that “listening to complex, non-repetitive music, like Mozart, may stimulate neural pathways that are important in thinking(Castleman, 1994). C The same experiment was repeated on rats by Rauscher and Hong Hua Li from Stanford. Rats also demonstrated enhancement in their intelligence performan

9、ce. These new studies indicate that rats that were exposed to Mozart showed “increased gene expression of BDNF(a neural growth factor), CREB(a learning and memory compound), and Synapsin I(a synaptic growth protein)“ in the brains hippocampus, compared with rats in the control group, which heard onl

10、y white noise(e.g. the whooshing sound of a radio tuned between stations). D How exactly does the Mozart effect work? Researchers are still trying to determine the actual mechanisms for the formation of these enhanced learning pathways. Neuroscientists suspect that music can actually help build and

11、strengthen connections between neurons in the cerebral cortex in a process similar to what occurs in brain development despite its type. When a baby is born, certain connections have already been made like connections for heartbeat and breathing. As new information is learned and motor skills develo

12、p, new neural connections are formed. Neurons that are not used will eventually die while those used repeatedly will form strong connections. Although a large number of these neural connections require experience, they also must occur within a certain time frame. For example, a child born with catar

13、acts cannot develop connections within the visual cortex. If the cataracts are removed by surgery right away, the childs vision develops normally. However, after the age of 2, if the cataracts are removed, the child will remain blind because those pathways cannot establish themselves. E Music seems

14、to work in the same way. In October of 1997, researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany found that music actually rewires neural circuits(Begley, 1996). Although some of these circuits are formed for physical skills needed to play an instrument, just listening to music strengthens connecti

15、on used in higher-order thinking. Listening to music can then be thought of as “exercise“ for the brain, improving concentration and enhancing intuition. F If youre a little skeptical about the claims made by supporters of the Mozart Effect, youre not alone. Many people accredit the advanced learnin

16、g of some children who take music lessons to other personality traits, such as motivation and persistence, which is required in all types of learning. There have also been claims of that influencing the results of some experiments. G Furthermore, many people are critical of the role the media had in

17、 turning an isolated study into a trend for parents and music educators. After Mozart Effect was published to the public, the sales of Mozart CDs stayed on the top of the hit list for three weeks. In an article by Michael Linton, he wrote that the research that began this phenomenon(the study by res

18、earchers at the University of California Irvine)showed only a temporary boost in IQ, which was not significant enough to even last throughout the course of the experiment. Using music to influence intelligence was used in Confucian civilization and Plato alluded to Pythagorean music when he describe

19、d is ideal state in The Republic. In both of these examples, music did not have caused any overwhelming changes, and the theory eventually died out. Linton also asks, “If Mozarts Music were able to improve health, why was Mozart himself so frequently sick? If listening to Mozarts music increases int

20、elligence and encourages spirituality, why arent the worlds smartest and most spiritual people Mozart specialists?“ Linton raises an interesting point, if the Mozart effect causes such significant changes, why isnt there more documented evidence? H The “trendiness“ of the Mozart Effect may have died

21、 out somewhat, but there are still strong supporters(and opponents)of the claims made in 1993. Since that initial experiment, there has not been a surge of supporting evidence. However, many parents, after playing classical music while pregnant or when their children are young, will swear by the Moz

22、art Effect. A classmate of mine once told me that listening to classical music while studying will help with memorization. If we approach this controversy from a scientific aspect, although there has been some evidence that music does increase brain activity, actual improvements in learning and memo

23、ry have not been adequately demonstrated. Questions 7-5 Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet. 1 A description of how music affects the brain development of infants 2 Publics firs

24、t reaction to the discovery of Mozart Effect 3 The description of Rauschers original experiment 4 The description of using music for healing in other countries 5 Other qualities needed in all learning 5 Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Wri

25、te your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet. During the experiment conducted by Frances Rauscher, subjects were exposed to the music for a【 R1】 _period of time before they were tested. And Rauscher believes the enhancement in their performance is related to the【 R2】 _nature of Mozart music. La

26、ter, similar experiment was also repeated on【 R3】 _. 6 【 R1】 7 【 R2】 8 【 R3】 8 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the informat

27、ion NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 9 All kinds of music can enhance ones brain performance to somewhat extent. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 10 There is no neural connection made when a baby is born. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 11 There are very few who question Mozart Effect. （ A）真 （ B）假

28、（ C） Not Given 12 Michael Linton conducted extensive research on Mozarts life. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 13 There is not enough evidence in support of Mozart Effect today. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 13 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

29、The Ant and the Mandarin In 1476, the farmers of Berne in Switzerland decided there was only one way to rid their fields of the cutworms attacking their crops. They took the pests to court. The worms were tried, found guilty and excommunicated by the archbishop. In China, farmers had a more practica

30、l approach to pest control. Rather than relying on divine intervention, they put their faith in frogs, ducks and ants. Frogs and ducks were encouraged to snap up the pests in the paddies and the occasional plague of locusts. But the notion of biological control began with an ant. More specifically,

31、it started with the predatory yellow citrus ant Oecophylla smaragdina, which has been polishing off pests in the orange groves of southern China for at least 1700 years. The yellow citrus ant is a type of weaver ant, which binds leaves and twigs with silk to form a neat, tent-like nest. In the begin

32、ning, farmers made do with the odd ants nests here and there. But it wasnt long before growing demand led to the development of a thriving trade in nests and a new type of agriculture ant farming. For an insect that bites, the yellow citrus ant is remarkably popular. Even by ant standards, Oecophyll

33、a smaragdina is a fearsome predator. Its big, runs fast and has a powerful nip painful to humans but lethal to many of the insects that plague the orange groves of Guangdong and Guangxi in southern China. And for at least 17 centuries, Chinese orange growers have harnessed these six-legged killing m

34、achines to keep their fruit groves healthy and productive. Citrus fruits evolved in the Far East and the Chinese discovered the delights of their flesh early on. As the ancestral home of oranges, lemons and pomelos, China also has the greatest diversity of citrus pests. And the trees that produce th

35、e sweetest fruits, the mandarins or kan attract a host of plant-eating insects, from black ants and sap-sucking mealy bugs to leaf-devouring caterpillars. With so many enemies, fruit growers clearly had to have some way of protecting their orchards. The West did not discover the Chinese orange growe

36、rs secret weapon until the early 20th century. At the time, Florida was suffering an epidemic of citrus canker and in 1915 Walter Swingle, a plant physiologist working for the US Department of Agriculture, was sent to China in search of varieties of orange that were resistant to the disease. Swingle

37、 spent some time studying the citrus orchards around Guangzhou, and there he came across the story of the cultivated ant. These ants, he was told, were “grown“ by the people of a small village nearby who sold them to the orange growers by the nestful. The earliest report of citrus ants at work among

38、 the orange trees appeared in a book on tropical and subtropical botany written by Hsi Han in AD 304. “The people of Chiao-Chih sell in their markets ants in bags of rush matting. The nests are like silk. The bags are all attached to twigs and leaves which, with the ants inside the nests, are for sa

39、le. The ants are reddish-yellow in colour, bigger than ordinary ants. In the south if the kan trees do not have this kind of ant, the fruits will all be damaged by many harmful insects, and not a single fruit will be perfect.“ Initially, farmers relied on nests which they collected from the wild or

40、bought in the market where trade in nests was brisk. “It is said that in the south orange trees which are free of ants will have wormy fruits. Therefore the people race to buy nests for their orange trees,“ wrote Liu Hsun in Strange Things Noted in the South, written in about 890. The business quick

41、ly became more sophisticated. From the 10th century, country people began to trap ants in artificial nests baited with fat. “Fruitgrowing families buy these ants from vendors who make a business of collecting and selling such creatures,“ wrote Chuang Chi-Yu in 1130. “They trap them by filling hogs o

42、r sheeps bladders with fat and placing them with the cavities open next to the ants nests. They wait until the ants have migrated into the bladders and take them away. This is known as rearing orange ants.“ Farmers attached the bladders to their trees, and in time the ants spread to other trees and

43、built new nests. By the 17th century, growers were building bamboo walkways between their trees to speed the colonisation of their orchards. The ants ran along these narrow bridges from one tree to another and established nests “by the hundreds of thousands“. Did it work? The orange growers clearly

44、thought so. One authority, Chhii Ta-Chun, writing in 1700, stressed how important it was to keep the fruit trees free of insect pests, especially caterpillars. “It is essential to eliminate them so that the trees are not injured. But hand labour is not nearly as efficient as ant power.“ Swingle was

45、just as impressed. Yet despite his reports, many Western biologists were sceptical. In the West, the idea of using one insect to destroy another was new and highly controversial. The first breakthrough had come in 1888, when the infant orange industry in California had been saved from extinction by

46、the Australian vedalia beetle. This beetle was the only thing that had made any inroad into the explosion of cottony cushion scale that was threatening to destroy the states citrus crops. But, as Swingle now knew, Californias “first“ was nothing of the sort. The Chinese had been expert in biocontrol

47、 for many centuries. The long tradition of ants in the Chinese orchards only began to waver in the 1950s and 1960s with the introduction of powerful organic insecticides. Although most fruit growers switched to chemicals, a few hung onto their ants. Those who abandoned ants in favour of chemicals qu

48、ickly became disillusioned. As costs soared and pests began to develop resistance to the chemicals, growers began to revive the old ant patrols in the late 1960s. They had good reason to have faith in their insect workforce. Research in the early 1960s showed that as long as there were enough ants i

49、n the trees, they did an excellent job of dispatching some pests mainly the larger insects and had modest success against others. Trees with yellow ants produced almost 20 per cent more healthy leaves than those without. More recent trials have shown that these trees yield just as big a crop as those protected by expensive chemical sprays. One apparent drawback of using ants and one of the main reasons for the early scepticism by Western scientists was that citrus ants do nothing to control mealy bugs, waxy-coated scale insects w