六级阅读训练(一）

    For years, doctors advised their patients that the only thing taking multivitamins does is give them expensive urine (尿). After all, true vitamin deficiencies are practically unheard of in industrialized countries. Now it seems those doctors may have been wrong. The results of a growing number of studies suggest that even a modest vitamin shortfall can be harmful to your health. Although proof of the benefits of multivitamins is still far from certain, the few dollars you spend on them is probably a good investment.

    Or at least that's the argument put forward in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ideally, say Dr. Walter Willett and Dr. Meir Stampfer of Harvard, all vitamin supplements would be evaluated in scientifically rigorous clinical trials. But those studies can take a long time and often raise more questions than they answer. At some point, while researchers work on figuring out where the truth lies, it just makes sense to say the potential benefit outweighs the cost.

    The best evidence to date concerns folate, one of the B vitamins. It's been proved to limit the number of defects in embryos ( 胚胎 ), and a recent trial found that folate in combination with vitamin B 12 and a form of B6 also decreases the re-blockage of arteries after surgical repair.

    The news on vitamin E has been more mixed. Healthy folks who take 400 international units daily for at least two years appear somewhat less likely to develop heart disease. But when doctors give vitamin E to patients who already have heart disease, the vitamin doesn't seem to help. It may turn out that vitamin E plays a role in prevention but cannot undo serious damage.

    Despite vitamin C's great popularity, consuming large amounts of it still has not been positively linked to any great benefit. The body quickly becomes saturated with C and simply excretes ( 排泄 ) any excess.

    The multivitamins question boils down to this: Do you need to wait until all the evidence is in before you take them, or are you willing to accept that there's enough evidence that they don't hurt and could help?       

    If the latter, there's no need to go to extremes and buy the biggest 'horse pills or the most expensive bottles. Large doses can cause trouble, including excessive bleeding and nervous system problems.

    Multivitamins are no substitute for exercise and a balanced diet, of course. As long as you understand that any potential benefit is modest and subject to further refinement, taking a daily multivitamin makes a lot of sense.

1. At one time doctors discouraged taking multivitamins because they believed that multivitamins____.

        A) could not easily be absorbed by the human body

        B) were potentially harmful to people's health

        C) were too expensive for daily consumption

        D) could not provide any cure for vitamin deficiencies

2. According to the author, clinical trials of vitamin supplements____.

        A) often result in misleading conclusions

        B) take time and will not produce conclusive results

        C) should be conducted by scientists on a larger scale

        D) appear to be a sheer waste of time and resources

3. It has been found that vitamin E_____.

        A) should be taken by patients regularly and persistently

        B) can effectively reduce the recurrence of heart disease

        C) has a preventive but not curative effect on heart disease

        D) should be given to patients with heart disease as early as possible

4. It can be seen that large doses of multivitamins_____.

        A) may bring about serious side effects

        B) may help prevent excessive bleeding

        C) are likely to induce the blockage of arteries

        D) are advisable for those with vitamin deficiencies

5. The author concludes the passage with the advice that_____.

        A) the benefit of daily multivitamin intake outweighs that of exercise and a balanced diet

        B) it's risky to take multivitamins without knowing their specific function

        C) the potential benefit of multivitamins can never be overestimated

        D) it's reasonable to take a rational dose of multivitamins daily

Passage Two
Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

    Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge ( 剧增 ) of women in the workforce may portend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would rather work than marry. The converse ( 反面 ) of this concern is that the prospects of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriages. In the past, only the earnings and financial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show that economic downturns tend to postpone marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy rebounds, the number of marriages also rises.

    Coincident with the increase in women working outside the home is the increase in divorce rates. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact of a wife's work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible. Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. Given high unemployment, inflationary problems, and slow growth in real earnings, a working wife can increase household income and relieve some of these pressing financial burdens. By raising a family's standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family's financial and emotional stability.

    Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.

    Also, a major part of women's inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in most cases, men have remained the main breadwinners. With higher earning capacity and status occupations outside of the home comes the capacity to exercise power within file family. A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.

6. The word "portend" (Line 2, Para. 1) is closest in meaning to “ _____” .

        A) defy                           C) suffer from

        B) signal                         D) result from

7. It is said in the passage that when the economy slides,_____.

        A) men would choose working women as their marriage partners

        B) more women would get married to seek financial security

        C) even working women would worry about their marriages

        D) more people would prefer to remain single for the time being

8. If women find fulfillment through work outside the home,_____.

        A) they are more likely to dominate their marriage partners

        B) their husbands are expected to do more housework

        C) their marriage ties can be strengthened

        D)they tend to put their career before marriage

9. One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____.

        A) they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom

        B) they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands

        C) they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations

        D) they tend to suspect their husbands' loyalty to their marriage

10. Which of the following statements can best summarize the author's view in the passage?

A) The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of the country.

B) Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage.

C) In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain independent

D) The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.

Passage Three
Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage,

    For most thinkers since the Greek philosophers, it was self-evident that there is something called human nature, something that constitutes the essence of man. There were various views about what constitutes it, but there was agreement that such an essence exists -- that is to say, that there is something by virtue of which man is man. Thus man was defined as a rational being, as a social animal, an animal that can make tools, or a symbol-making animal.

    More recently, this traditional view has begun to be questioned. One reason for this change was the increasing emphasis given to the historical approach to man. An examination of the history of humanity suggested that man in our epoch is so different from man in previous times that it seemed unrealistic to assume that men in every age have had in common something that can be called "human nature." The historical approach was reinforced, particularly in the United States, by studies in the field of cultural anthropology ( 人类学 ). The study of primitive peoples has discovered such a diversity of customs, values, feelings, and thoughts that many anthropologists arrived at the concept that man is born as a blank sheet of paper on which each culture writes its text. Another factor contributing to the tendency to deny the assumption of a fixed human nature was that the concept has so often been abused as a shield behind which the most inhuman acts are committed. In the name of human nature, for example, Aristotle and most thinkers up to the eighteenth century defended slavery. Or in order to prove the rationality and necessity of the capitalist form of society, scholars have tried to make a case for acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and selfishness as innate ( 天生的 ) human traits. Popularly, one refers cynically to "human nature" in accepting the inevitability of such undesirable human behavior as greed, murder, cheating and lying.

    Another reason for skepticism about the concept of human nature probably lies in the influence of evolutionary thinking. Once man came to be seen as developing in the process of evolution, the idea of a substance which is contained in his essence seemed untenable. Yet I believe it is precisely from an evolutionary standpoint that we can expect new insight into the problem of the nature of man.

11. The traditional view of "human nature" was strongly challenged by_____.

A) the emergence of the evolutionary theory

B) the historical approach to man

C) new insight into human behavior

D) the philosophical analysis of slavery

12. According to the passage, anthropologists believe that human beings_____

        A) have some traits in common

        B) are born with diverse cultures

        C) are born without a fixed nature

        D) change their characters as they grow up

13. The author mentioned Aristotle, a great ancient thinker, in order to_____

        A) emphasize that he contributed a lot to defining the concept of "human nature"

        B) show that the concept of "human nature" was used to justify social evils

        C) prove that he had a profound influence on the concept of "human nature"

        D) support the idea that some human traits are acquired

14. The word "untenable" (Line 3) in the last paragraph of the passage most probably means_____

        A) invaluable                      C) changeable

        B) imaginable                      D) indefensible

15. Most philosophers believed that human nature_____

        A) is the quality distinguishing man from other animals

        B) consists of competitiveness and selfishness

        C) is something partly innate and partly acquired

        D) consists of rationality and undesirable behavior

Passage Four
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

    Richard Satava, program manager for advanced medical technologies, has been a driving force in bringing virtual reality to medicine, where computers create a "virtual" or simulated environment for surgeons and other medical practitioners ( 从业者 ).

    "With virtual reality we'll be able to put a surgeon in every trench," said Satava. He envisaged a time when soldiers who are wounded fighting overseas are put in mobile surgical units equipped with computers.

    The computers would transmit images of the soldiers to surgeons back in the U.S. The surgeons would look at the soldier through virtual reality helmets ( 头盔) that contain a small screen displaying the image of the wound. The doctors would guide robotic instruments in the battlefield mobile surgical unit that operate on the soldier.

    Although Satava's vision may be years away from standard operating procedure, scientists are progressing toward virtual reality surgery. Engineers at an international organization in California are developing a tele-operating device. As surgeons watch a three-dimensional image of the surgery, they move instruments that are connected to a computer, which passes their movements to robotic instruments that perform the surgery. The computer provides, feedback to the surgeon on force, textures, and sound.

    These technological wonders may not yet be part of the community hospital setting but increasingly some of the machinery is finding its way into civilian medicine. At Wayne State University Medical School, surgeon Lucia Zamorano takes images of the brain from computerized scans and uses a computer program to produce a 3-D image. She can then maneuver the 3-D image on the computer screen to map the shortest, least invasive surgical path to the rumor (肿瘤). Zamorano is also using technology that attaches a probe to surgical instruments so that she can track their positions. While cutting away a tumor deep in the brain, she watches the movement of her surgical tools in a computer graphics image of the patient's brain taken before surgery.

    During these procedures -- operations that are done through small cuts in the body in which a miniature camera and surgical tools are maneuvered -- surgeons are wearing 3-D glasses for a better view. And they are commanding robot surgeons to cut away tissue more accurately than human surgeons can.

    Satava says, "We are in the midst of a fundamental change in the field of medicine."

16. According to Richard Satava, the application of virtual reality to medicine _____

    A) will enable surgeons to be physically present on every battlefield

    B) can raise the spirits of soldiers wounded on the battlefield

    C) will greatly improve medical conditions on the battlefield

    D) can shorten the time for operations on soldiers wounded on the battlefield

17. Richard Satava has visions of_____

A) using a remote-control technique to treat wounded soldiers fighting overseas

B) wounded soldiers being saved by doctors wearing virtual reality helmets on the battlefield

C) wounded soldiers being operated on by specially trained surgeons

D) setting up mobile surgical units overseas

18. How is virtual reality surgery performed?

    A) It is performed by a computer-designed high precision device.

    B) Surgeons wear virtual reality helmets to receive feedback provided by a computer.

    C) Surgeons move robotic instruments by means of a computer linked to them.

    D) A 3-D image records the movements of the surgeons during the operation.

19. During virtual reality operations, the surgeon can have a better view of the cuts in the body because _____.

    A) he is looking at the cuts on a computer screen

    B) the cuts can be examined from different angles

    C) the cuts have been highly magnified

    D) he is wearing 3-D glasses

20. Virtual reality operations are an improvement on conventional surgery in that they

A) cause less pain to the wounded

B) allow the patient to recover more quickly

C) will make human surgeons' work less tedious

D) are done by robot surgeons with greater precision

参考答案与详解

1.[A]。第一句隐含的意思是医生认为服用维生素很难被人体吸收，最后都被当作废物排出来。

2.  [B]。看第二段第三句，take a long time and often raise more questions than they answer意思是需要很长的时间而且没有确实解决问题。

3. [C]。第四段都在说明维他命E的作用，特别是最后一句总结，和C相符。

4. [A]。从第七段最后一句看出B是错的，而且服用大剂量会引起其它一些问题，所以A是对的，C从第四段最后一句看出也是错的。

5. [D]。根据最后一段，A是错的，B没有提到，C根据全文的意思是错误的，只有D符合题意。

6. [B]。考的是依照上下文对单词的推断能力，和对全文的把握，原文在第一句。

7. [D]。看第一段倒数第二句，经济低迷时因为无法负担家庭的开销，很多人选择单身。

8. [C]。看第四段，work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union。

9. [A]。看第三段，feel caged in the house相当于been robbed of their freedom。

10. [D]。见最后一句。

11. [B]。第二段第二句说的就很清楚了：这种变化的一个原因就是对人类用历史学研究方法的不断重视，即，以前的人类和现在的人类不同了。所以答案B完全符合要求。A这个问题(进化论)是在第三段谈的，显然是次要方面，不是重点，也不应该是问题的答案。C只是作者文章后面最后提到的个人观点。

12. [C]。C是第3段第4句"man is born as a blank sheet of paper"，第5句"to deny the assumption of a fixed human nature"的同义转述。A的出处是第2段第3句，但这句话前部分"it seemed unrealistic to assume"是对人类有共性的否定。B，D没有提到。

13. [B]。第2段倒数2、3句说亚里斯多德和其他学者打着"人的本性"的旗号为奴隶制、资本主义制度等社会罪恶的合理性辩护，slavery 和inhuman acts都属于social evils，defend和shield都体现了justify。A,C文中没有提到，很容易排除，D是亚里斯多德和其他学者为社会罪恶辩解的理由，而不是作者要说明的观点。

14. [D]。根据上下文，本句的意思是"一旦人类被看成是在进化过程中不断发展的，那么包含人性内容的思想似乎是站不住脚的"。而且文章对"人的本性"一直持否定态度。

15. [A]。

16. [C]。最后一句"a fundamental change in the field of medicine."即是指C的"greatly improve medical conditions"。A错在physically一词，因为医生并没亲临战场，而是通过电脑指挥机器人做手术。B中的spirits、D中的手术时间变短文中都没有提到。

17. [A]。第3段最后一句说医生通过电脑指导机器人给受伤的士兵做手术，可见A是对的，B 、C是错的。D并不是Richard Satava的想法。

18.[C]。C是第4段第3句的同义转述。A,B,C不够全面，只是过程中的一个步骤。

19. [D]。依据是第6段"surgeons are wearing 3-D glasses for a better view"。A不是根本原因。B,C没有提到。

20. [D]。依据在第6段第2句。A,B,C文中都没有提到。