[外语类试卷]雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编5及答案与解析.doc

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1、雅思（阅读）历年真题试卷汇编 5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. WONDER PLANT The wonder plant with an uncertain future: more than a billion people rely on bamboo for either their shelter or income, while many endangered species depend on it fo

2、r their survival. Despite its apparent abundance, a new report says that many species of bamboo may be under serious threat. Section A Every year, during the rainy season, the mountain gorillas of Central Africa migrate to the foothills and lower slopes of the Virunga Mountains to graze on bamboo. F

3、or the 650 or so that remain in the wild, its a vital food source. Although they eat almost 150 types of plant, as well as various insects and other invertebrates, at this time of year bamboo accounts for up to 90 per cent of their diet. Without it, says Ian Redmond, chairman of the Ape Alliance, th

4、eir chances of survival would be reduced significantly. Gorillas arent the only locals keen on bamboo. For the people who live close to the Virungas, its a valuable and versatile raw material used for building houses and making household items such as mats and baskets. But in the past 100 years or s

5、o, resources have come under increasing pressure as populations have exploded and large areas of bamboo forest have been cleared to make way for farms and commercial plantations. Section B Sadly, this isnt an isolated story. All over the world, the ranges of many bamboo species appear to be shrinkin

6、g, endangering the people and animals that depend upon them. But despite bamboos importance, we know surprisingly little about it. A recent report published by the UN Environment Programme(UNEP)and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan(INBAR)has revealed just how profound is our ignorance

7、of global bamboo resources, particularly in relation to conservation. There are almost 1,600 recognised species of bamboo, but the report concentrated on the 1,200 or so woody varieties distinguished by the strong stems, or culms, that most people associate with this versatile plant. Of these, only

8、38 priority species identified for their commercial value have been the subject of any real scientific research, and this has focussed mostly on matters relating to their viability as a commodity. This problem isnt confined to bamboo. Compared to the work carried out on animals, the science of asses

9、sing the conservation status of plants is still in its infancy. “People have only started looking hard at this during the past 10-15 years, and only now are they getting a handle on how to go about it systematically,“ says Dr. Valerie Kapos, one of the reports authors and a senior adviser in forest

10、ecology and conservation to the UNEP. Section C Bamboo is a type of grass. It comes in a wide variety of forms, ranging in height from 30 centimetres to more than 40 metres. It is also the worlds fastest-growing woody plant; some species can grow more than a metre in a day. Bamboos ecological role e

11、xtends beyond providing food and habitat for animals. Bamboo tends to grow in stands made up of groups of individual plants that grow from root systems known as rhizomes. Its extensive rhizome systems, which lie in the top layers of the soil, are crucial in preventing soil erosion. And there is grow

12、ing evidence that bamboo plays an important part in determining forest structure and dynamics. “Bamboos pattern of mass flowering and mass death leaves behind large areas of dry biomass that attract wildfire,“ says Kapos. “When these burn, they create patches of open ground within the forest far big

13、ger than would be left by a fallen tree.“ Patchiness helps to preserve diversity because certain plant species do better during the early stages of regeneration when there are gaps in the canopy. Section D However, bamboos most immediate significance lies in its economic value. Modern processing tec

14、hniques mean that it can be used in a variety of ways, for example, as flooring and laminates. One of the fastest growing bamboo products is paper -25 per cent of paper produced in India is made from bamboo fibre, and in Brazil, 100,000 hectares of bamboo are grown for its production. Of course, bam

15、boos main function has always been in domestic applications, and as a locally traded commodity its worth about US$4.5billion annually. Because of its versatility, flexibility and strength(its tensile strength compares to that of some steel), it has traditionally been used in construction. Today, mor

16、e than one billion people worldwide live in bamboo houses. Bamboo is often the only readily available raw material for people in many developing countries, says Chris Staple-ton, a research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens. “Bamboo can be harvested from forest areas or grown quickly elsewhere,

17、 and then converted simply without expensive machinery or facilities,“ he says. “In this way, it contributes substantially to poverty alleviation and wealth creation.“ Section E Given bamboos value in economic and ecological terms, the picture painted by the UNEP report is all the more worrying. But

18、 keen horticulturists will spot an apparent contradiction here. Those whove followed the recent vogue for cultivating exotic species in their gardens will point out that if it isnt kept in check, bamboo can cause real problems. “In a lot of places, the people who live with bamboo dont perceive it as

19、 being endangered in any way,“ says Kapos. “In fact, a lot of bamboo species are actually very invasive if theyve been introduced.“ So why are so many species endangered? There are two separate issues here, says Ray Townsend, vice president of the British Bamboo Society and arboretum manager at the

20、Royal Botanic Gardens. “Some plants are threatened because they cant survive in the habitat - they arent strong enough or there arent enough of them, perhaps. But bamboo can take care of itself - it is strong enough to survive if left alone. What is under threat is its habitat.“ It is the physical d

21、isturbance that is the threat to bamboo, says Kapos. “When forest goes, it is converted into something else: there isnt anywhere for forest plants such as bamboo to grow if you create a cattle pasture.“ Section F Around the world, bamboo species are routinely protected as part of forest ecosystems i

22、n national parks and reserves, but there is next to nothing that protects bamboo in the wild for its own sake. However, some small steps are being taken to address this situation. The UNEP-INBAR report will help conservationists to establish effective measures aimed at protecting valuable wild bambo

23、o species. Townsend, too, sees the UNEP report as an important step forward in promoting the cause of bamboo conservation. “Until now, bamboo has been perceived as a second-class plant. When you talk about places such as the Amazon, everyone always thinks about the hardwoods. Of course these are sig

24、nificant, but there is a tendency to overlook the plants they are associated with, which are often bamboo species. In many ways, it is the most important plant known to man. I cant think of another plant that is used so much and is so commercially important in so many countries.“ He believes that th

25、e most important first step is to get scientists into the field. “We need to go out there, look at these plants and see how they survive and then use that information to conserve them for the future.“ Questions 1-7 Reading Passage 1 has six sections A-F. Which section contains the following informat

26、ion? Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. 1 Comparison of bamboo with other plant species 2 Commercial products of bamboo 3 Limited extent of existing research 4 A human development that destroyed large areas of bamboo 5 How bamboo

27、s are put to a variety of uses 6 An explanation of how bamboo can help the survival of a range of plants 7 The methods used to study bamboo 7 Look at the following statements(Questions 8-11)and the list of people below. Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, CorD. Write the correct lett

28、er, A, B, C or D, in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet. NB You may use any letter more than once. List of People A Ian Redmond B Valerie Kapos C Ray Townsend D Chris Stapleton 8 Destroying bamboo poses threat to wildlife. 9 People have very limited knowledge of bamboo. 10 Some people think bamboo is n

29、ot really endangered. 11 Bamboo has immeasurable commercial potentials. 11 Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet. 12 What environmental problem does the unique root system of bamboo prevent? 13

30、 Which bamboo product is experiencing market expansion? 13 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.CHILDRENS LITERATUREStories and poems aimed at children have an exceedingly long history: lullabies, for example, were sung in Roman times, and a

31、 few nursery games and rhymes are almost as ancient. Yet so far as written-down literature is concerned, while there were stories in print before 1700 that children often seized on when they had the chance, such as translations of Aesops fables, fairy-stories and popular ballads and romances, these

32、were not aimed at young people in particular. Since the only genuinely child-oriented literature at this time would have been a few instructional works to help with reading and general knowledge, plus the odd Puritanical tract as an aid to morality, the only course for keen child readers was to read

33、 adult literature. This still occurs today, especially with adult thrillers or romances that include more exciting, graphic detail than is normally found in the literature for younger readers.By the middle of the 18th century there were enough eager child readers, and enough parents glad to cater to

34、 this interest, for publishers to specialize in childrens books whose first aim was pleasure rather than education or morality. In Britain, a London merchant named Thomas Boreham produced Cajanus, The Swedish Giant in 1742, while the more famous John Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket Book in

35、1744. Its contents rhymes, stories, childrens games plus a free gift(A ball and a pincushion) in many ways anticipated the similar lucky-dip contents of childrens annuals this century. It is a tribute to Newberys flair that he hit upon a winning formula quite so quickly, to be pirated almost immedia

36、tely in America.Such pleasing levity was not to last. Influenced by Rousseau, whose Emile(1762)decreed that all books for children save Robinson Crusoe were a dangerous diversion, contemporary critics saw to it that childrens literature should be instructive and uplifting. Prominent among such voice

37、s was Mrs. Sarah Trimmer, whose magazine The Guardian of Education(1802)carried the first regular reviews of childrens books. It was she who condemned fairy-tales for their violence and general absurdity; her own stories, Fabulous Histories(1786)described talking animals who were always models of se

38、nse and decorum.So the moral story for children was always threatened from within, given the way children have of drawing out entertainment from the sternest moralist. But the greatest blow to the improving childrens book was to come from an unlikely source indeed: early 19th-century interest in fol

39、klore. Both nursery rhymes, selected by James Orchard Halliwell for a folklore society in 1842, and collection of fairy-stories by the scholarly Grimm brothers, swiftly translated into English in 1823, soon rocket to popularity with the young, quickly leading to new editions, each one more child-cen

40、tered than the last. From now on younger children could expect stories written for their particular interest and with the needs of their own limited experience of life kept well to the fore.What eventually determined the reading of older children was often not the availability of special childrens l

41、iterature as such but access to books that contained characters, such as young people or animals, with whom they could more easily empathize, or action, such as exploring or fighting, that made few demands on adult maturity or understanding.The final apotheosis of literary childhood as something to

42、be protected from unpleasant reality came with the arrival in the late 1930s of child-centered best-sellers intent on entertainment at its most escapist. In Britain novelist such as Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton described children who were always free to have the most unlikely adventures, secure

43、in the knowledge that nothing bad could ever happen to them in the end. The fact that war broke out again during her books greatest popularity fails to register at all in the self-enclosed world inhabited by Enid Blytons young characters. Reaction against such dream-worlds was inevitable after World

44、 War II, coinciding with the growth of paperback sales, childrens libraries and a new spirit of moral and social concern. Urged on by committed publishers and progressive librarians, writers slowly began to explore new areas of interest while also shifting the settings of their plots from the middle

45、-class world to which their chiefly adult patrons had always previously belonged.Critical emphasis, during this development, has been divided. For some the most important task was to rid childrens books of the social prejudice and exclusiveness no longer found acceptable. Others concentrated more on

46、 the positive achievements of contemporary childrens literature. That writers of these works are now often recommended to the attentions of adult as well as child readers echoes the 19th-century belief that childrens literature can be shared by the generations, rather than being a defensive barrier

47、between childhood and the necessary growth towards adult understanding.Questions 14-18Complete the table below.Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from Reading Passage 2 for each answer.Write your answers in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. 18 Look at the following people and the list of statements below

48、. Match each person with the correct statement. Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet. List of Statements A Wrote criticisms of childrens literature B Used animals to demonstrate the absurdity of fairy tales C Was not a writer originally D Translated a book into English E

49、Didnt write in the English language 19 Thomas Boreham 20 Mrs. Sarah Trimmer 21 Grimm Brothers 21 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 22 Children didnt start to read books until 1700. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 23 Sarah Trimmer believed mat childrens books should set good examples. （ A）真 （ B）假 （ C） Not Given 24 Par