Text 1 Steven Pinker is the very model of a modern intellectual. Since the 1994 publication of his first bestseller, The Language Instinct, he's been known for his ability to boil down complex ideas into accessible, often-funny, cocktail-party-chatter-worthy sound bites. The Better Angels of Our Nature (the phrase comes from Abraham Lincoln) is a huge book, 696 pages of text plus 74 pages of notes and references. But "it has to be," Pinker writes. First he has to convince his readers violence has gone down in the face of all their incredulity—then he needs to explain how it happened. Pinker's magic is done with numbers, starting with the hunter-gatherer societies of 10,000 years ago when life was, as philosopher Thomas Hobbes put it, "nasty, brutish, and short." Data shows that back then the likelihood of a man dying at the hands of another was as high as 60 percent in some regions, more than 50 times the same calculation for the United States and Europe in the 20th century—and that includes two world wars. "If the death rate in tribal warfare had prevailed during the 20th century," Pinker says, "there would have been 2 billion deaths from wars and homicide, rather than 100 million." Pinker looks for explanations for these advances within the individual. Human nature consists of a constant pull of good and evil. He identifies five "innerdemons" —sadism, revenge, dominance, violence in pursuit of a practical benefit, violence in pursuit of an ideology—that struggle with four "better angels", self-control, empathy, morality, and reason. Over the years the forces of civilization have increasingly given the good in us the upper hand. Strong centralized governments, international trade, the empowerment of women all help make us kinder, gentler beings, cultures that empower women...are less likely to breed dangerous subcultures of rootless young men. Also important is what Pinker calls "the escalator of reason," in which people reframe conflict as a problem to be solved through brain instead of muscles. Pinker realizes his message could encourage complacency, since people might not feel like working to make the world a better place if they find out that the world is actually pretty good already. But he's an optimist by temperament, and he thinks that his message will lead not to complacency but to action: "I think it will embolden people to work harder, if they see that the stuff that people do has made a difference." Starry-eyed? Maybe. But the hopefulness is an outgrowth not only of Pinker's temperament but of his larger worldview. He calls himself a scientist and a humanist who "sees reason and science and knowledge as progressive forces, as the source of the flourishing of individuals". Let us hope his faith in the human race holds up against those devils on our shoulders.
1. In his book Pinker's argument is primarily based on ______
A.notes and references
B.the incredulity of the readers
C.statistics and historical facts
D.citations from political philosophers
A B C D
C
[解析] 第二段提到,Pinker首先想说服他的读者violence has gone down(暴力减少了),然后他需要解释造成暴力减少的原因。在做这两件事情的时候,Pinker使用的魔法是数字——他从1万年前的狩猎和种植社会开始,一直追溯到20世纪第二次世界大战结束之后的时代,他通过对数据的统计和对历史事件的描述,来说明世界变得越来越文明,暴力正在减少。
2. In our era of wars, genocide, and terrorism, Steven Pinker says ______
A.we're more peaceful than the tribal societies were
B.we are more cruel than the primitive societies were
C.our cruelties are traced to the hunter-gatherer societies
D.war does not necessarily mean the sacrifice of many lives
A B C D
A
[解析] 这是Pinker的主要观点,陈述在第二段(violence has gone down)。Pinker甚至发现,两次世界大战与原始社会的冲突相比死亡率要低得多。
3. The "angels" could defeat the "demons" because ______
A.the formers were supported by empowered women
B.the formers existed in society and the latter in individuals
C.the two existed at different levels of people's consciousness
D.favorable forces were at work to push the society forward
Text 2 A country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself; in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel. And a nation that once prized education—that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children—is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead. We're told that we have no choice, that basic government functions—essential services that have been provided for generations—are no longer affordable. And it's true that state and local governments, hit hard by the recession, are cash-strapped. But they wouldn't be quite as cash-strapped if their politicians were willing to consider at least some tax increases. And the federal government, which can sell inflation-protected long-term bonds at an interest rate of only 1.04 percent, isn't cash-strapped at all. It could and should be offering aid to local governments, to protect the future of our infrastructure and our children. But Washington is providing only a trickle of help, and even that grudgingly. We must place priority on reducing the deficit, say Republicans and "centrist" Democrats. And then, virtually in the next breath, they declare that we must preserve tax cuts for the very affluent, at a budget cost of $700 billion over the next decade. In effect, a large part of our political class is showing its priorities: given the choice between asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation's foundations to crumble—literally in the case of roads, figuratively in the case of education—they're choosing the latter. It's a disastrous choice in both the short run and the long run. In the short run, those state and local cutbacks are a major burden on the economy, perpetuating devastatingly high unemployment. And what about the economy's future? Everything we know about economic growth says that a well-educated population and high-quality infrastructure are crucial. Emerging nations are making huge efforts to upgrade their roads, their ports and their schools. Yet in America we're going backward. How did we get to this point? It's the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can't do anything right. So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we've taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.
2. To get money for maintaining infrastructure, the state and local governments can ______
A.cut back on other expenses
B.raise taxes for the rich
C.issue long-term bonds at low interest rates
D.reduce the deficit
A B C D
B
[解析] 第二段提到提高某些方面的税收(some tax increases)作为解决资金短缺问题的手段。第三段提到政府不愿意增加富人的税,宁愿眼睁睁地看着基础设施和教育崩溃(allowing the nation's foundations to crumble)。可见,在作者看来,增加富人的税是摆脱目前困境的一个有效办法。
3. It is implied in the third paragraph that ______
A.the federal government is willing to invest in infrastructure
B.most Americans support a deficit-cutting policy
C.the author is in favor of preserving the low-tax policy
D.the government's policy is contradictory to its rhetoric
[解析] 这个选择项表达的意思主要是指,以公共设施和教育为代表的美国公共部门的前景变得暗淡。文章中也多次提到了美国现状和前景暗淡,如第四段最后一句(Yet in America we're going backward)、最后一段最后两句。最后一段最后一句可以看作对全文的总结,在这句话中,unlit指关闭路灯,unpave指没有钱维护路面(见第一段)。但是这一句也有深刻的寓意,即美国在黑暗中前行,道路坎坷,目标不明。可见,选择项A较准确地概括了全文的主题。
Text 3 The latest research on caloric restrictions shows that near-starvation diets may not be the Fountain of Youth. Decades ago, in the 1930s, researchers found that animals that had been deprived of food seemed to live longer than rodents that were fed to satisfaction, raising the intriguing idea that maybe near-starvation was a good, rather than bad thing, for health. But the latest research conducted on close human cousins, rhesus monkeys, shows that the connection may not be as solid as once hoped. Published in the journal Nature, the results suggest that dramatically cutting back on daily calories—by 30%—does not help monkeys to live longer than those who ate normally. The restriction did help older monkeys to lower their levels of triglycerides, a risk factor for heart disease, but otherwise conferred no significant health or longevity benefit. Caloric restriction may have its evolutionary roots as a survival mechanism, allowing species to survive on scraps when food is scarce in order to continue to reproduce. But that restriction only has lasting positive effects if the overall diet is a balanced one, which may not always be the case in conditions of famine. It's possible the strategy developed as a way to protect species from consuming toxic plants or foods, when it wasn't always obvious which sources were prohibited. The study, begun in 1987 and one of the longest running trials to investigate the effects of caloric restriction, contradicts the only prior research conducted with rhesus monkeys, which found the opposite effect, highlighting the complex relationship between caloric processing and metabolic functions that contribute to aging and health. For example, the study's lead author, Rafael de Cabo of the National Institute on Aging, notes that the effects of caloric restriction on the immune system may not be all good: some studies show slower wound healing and increased risk for infectious disease. In young animals, restricting calories also reduces fertility. It's not entirely clear why the two monkey studies had such varying results. Ricki Colman, a co-author of the first monkey study and an associate scientist at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, believes that the differences may reflect variance in the diets given to the animals in the two studies. "They may be modeling different things," she says, explaining that in her study, the control animals were allowed to eat freely while in the new research, both controls and those on the restricted diet were limited to specific maximum amounts. Her control animals, she says, may reflect more of a typical American diet, while the controls in the new research are more like people who already eat healthy amounts. Indeed, the NIA study implies that the benefits of simply eating a balanced, healthy diet may provide as much life extension as dietary restrictions can produce. Even with the findings, however, some experts are still holding out hope that restricting calories may prove beneficial for certain health outcomes, specifically in combating cancer and heart disease. The question, of course, is how much restriction can you get away with in order to still get these benefits.
1. The new research has found that ______
A.rhesus monkeys react to caloric restriction as humans do
B.dramatic reduction in caloric intake reduces longevity
C.caloric restriction increases the risk for heart disease
D.restricting calories doesn't lead to a healthy and longer life
A B C D
D
[解析] 第一段用一个比喻,已经清楚地说明新研究的发现,即限制热量摄入不会延长寿命。这里,near-starvation diets跟后文提到的“限制热量摄入”、“削减热量摄入”等都指少吃食物;Fountain of Youth(青春之泉)指长寿。第二段第二句这个转折句再次说明这一发现,即在限制热量摄入和长寿之间不存在关联(connection)。
2. In evolutionary terms, caloric restriction is considered to be ______
A.a result from the necessity to learn to starve
B.a means of survival when food becomes a problem
C.a mechanism for preventing species from overfeeding
D.an effective way of figuring out a balanced diet
3. The old study on rhesus monkeys was different in that ______
A.it did not have control animals in its experiment
B.it simplified the relationship between diet and longevity
C.it found caloric restriction contributed to longevity
D.it used young rhesus monkeys in the experiment
A B C D
C
[解析] 本文提到三项研究,一是1987年以来用猕猴做的一项长期研究,这项研究发现,控制饮食和长寿之间不存在紧密联系;二是1930年代做的一项研究,当时发现,少吃食物的老鼠比吃饱的老鼠(rodents that were fed to satisfaction)活得更长;三是第四段第一句提到的此前用猕猴做的另一项研究,这项研究的结果与新的研究结果恰好相反(the opposite effect),言外之意,它支持了1930年代用啮齿动物实验得出的结果,即控制饮食有利于长寿。第四段提到的Rafael de Cabo是新研究的负责人,而第五段提到的Ricki Colman是旧研究的参与者。
4. Colman interprets the contradictory results by noting that ______
A.the two studies were conducted in different historical periods
B.the control monkeys in the two studies were treated differently
C.the animals in her study were given healthier food to eat
D.the objectives of the two studies were largely different
A.taking on a balanced diet rather than restricting diet
B.restricting caloric intake to lead a longer life
C.combating such diseases as cancer with caloric restriction
D.putting caloric restriction on a daily basis for better effect
A B C D
A
[解析] 新的研究发现,长寿和控制饮食没有直接联系,因此不推荐节食。早在第三段第二句作者就提到,只有当饮食总体达到平衡时,限制饮食才可能发生长期的积极效果。最后一段也提到,新的研究(这里NIA是National Institute on Aging的缩写,见第四段)结果意味着,只要饮食平衡就能起到延年益寿的目的。
Text 4 Cannes was quiet this week. Although the stars and the paparazzi went through the usual red-carpet routine, there was less extravagance and a smaller contingent of film-buyers than usual. Yet for makers of independent films, that was not the end of the world. In their business the action increasingly takes place not on the French Riviera but in American living rooms. Tricky, intelligent films are finding a home in the least glamorous corner of the television business. Getting independent films into cinemas, never easy, has become much harder in the past year. Some specialist distributors, such as Warner Independent Pictures, have closed and others are buying fewer films. The credit crunch and the strong dollar have cut foreign sales. Meanwhile cheap digital-video cameras and editing software have produced a flood of content. Some 5,500 films are chasing buyers in Cannes this year. Last year just 606 new films were released in American cinemas. Many lost money. "The economics just do not make sense," says Jonathan Sehring of IFC Films, an independent distributor. Hence the rapid growth of an alternative. This year IFC will release about 100 films "on demand", meaning they can be called up for a fee in most households that get their television via cable or satellite. Many will be available on the same day that they first appear at film festivals such as Sundance and South by Southwest. Later this year IFC plans to launch a new on-demand channel to showcase documentary films. Cinetic, a powerful independent-film broker, will also get into the game this summer. The reason for the rush is that, for low-budget films, the economics of video on demand do make sense. Cable companies, which take a cut when they sell a film, help with advertising. Mr Sehring says IFC makes about as much when a film is sold on demand as when a customer buys a cinema ticket, even though the ticket costs almost twice as much. He reckons he recoups his costs and returns money to filmmakers more than half the time—not bad for films that might otherwise have disappeared without trace. Distributors are learning what kinds of films are best suited to video on demand. Whether accessed via cable television or the Internet, video on demand is likely to grow. America's suburbs are becoming much more diverse places, with more ethnic minorities, more people with degrees and more gays, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. The potential audience for independent films is thus dispersing beyond the places where independent cinemas are concentrated. Not everybody lives near an art-house cinema, but almost everybody has a remote control.
1. From the first paragraph we know that ______
A.American filmmakers were big winners at Cannes
B.Cannes film festival for this year was a total failure
C.independent filmmakers earned money from TV viewers
D.most Americans watched the festival through television
Text 5 We live in a world that's more connected than ever before, one where humans—and the viruses hitchhiking inside us—can circle the planet in a day. As a result, we're at greater risk from new infectious diseases than ever before. But there's an upside to our interconnectedness as well. Thanks to the Internet and cell phones, we can know what's happening in nearly every corner of the globe almost instantaneously—and that's a boon for epidemiology. In the arms race between us and the viruses, communication is our advantage. By analyzing the Internet's everyday wealth of data, we can catch new diseases before they've emerged—and stop them before they become a deadly threat. That's what John Brownstein, a digital epidemiologist at Children's Hospital Boston, is working to do with his HealthMap project. HealthMap automatically search for news sites, eyewitness reports, government data, even wildlife-disease cases to identify new patterns in outbreaks, presenting the results on a clickable map. Want to know about an ongoing polio outbreak in Angola? HealthMap will show you where it's occurring and who's dying. HealthMap first launched about five years ago, but it has just relaunched with a new focus toward what Brownstein calls "participatory epidemiology." HealthMap will tap the wealth of potential information on social media—think tweets about flu outbreaks and Facebook postings about contaminated food. The result is more finely tuned intelligence about emerging outbreaks, presented in a personalized format. HealthMap already has a related mobile app called Outbreaks Near Me, which gives users news about public health around their location—and allows them to report information as well. "It's really taking the local-weather-forecast idea and making it applicable to disease," says Brownstein. "We're trying to make these ideas that much more relevant to the general population." The challenge with HealthMap and other digital epidemiology projects is the same one that all intelligence experts face. separating the signal from the noise. Brownstein points out that HealthMap could show unusual cases of respiratory illness in Mexico in the early spring of 2009, before what would become the H1N1 flu burst onto the global stage, but it's still difficult to separate truly dangerous events from run-of-the-mill outbreaks. The hope is that sharper data collection will allow future digital epidemiologists to identify the patterns that indicate a potentially deadly new disease in time to actually do something to stop it. One way to do that might be to get more people participating in participatory epidemiology. "We want to get people talking about this threat, so they can take it seriously without being scared," says Brownstein. Fighting new infectious diseases is no different than any other war—the first step is good intelligence.
1. The objective of the HealthMap project is to ______
A.identify infectious diseases traveling inside us
B.fight new diseases before they become widespread
C.search the news sites for reports about diseases
3. By calling it "participatory epidemiology", Brownstein means ______
A.epidemiologists should prefer participation to isolation
B.HealthMap has been designed by modeling Facebook
C.HealthMap engages the efforts of the ordinary people
D.HealthMap makes the best use of weather forecast
A B C D
C
[解析] 第三段介绍了HealthMap的形成过程,即它利用Facebook等社交媒体,并利用手机上的应用软件Outbreaks Near Me,来收集有关传染性疾病的信息,然后把这些信息再传送给相关地区的人们,使他们对传染病保持警惕。在这个意义上可以说,HealthMap是全民参与的传染病学。
4. One inadequacy about the HealthMap is ______
A.its relevance to the general population
B.the low intelligence in its workings
C.its failure to identify respiratory illness
D.its inaccurate forecast of some cases
A B C D
D
[解析] 第四段提到了HealthMap尚存的一个不足,即不能把真实信息与非真实的信息区分开来(这里separating the signal from the noise是一个比喻,所谓“噪音”当然指干扰信息)。文章举例说,HealthMap成功地预测了墨西哥流感的爆发,但是它仍然无法区分真正危险的传染病的爆发和普通疾病的爆发(run-of-the-mill意为“普通的,没什么特殊的”),因此作者说HealthMap有待找到更敏锐的数据收集方式(sharper data collection)。
5. If you want to control infectious diseases, you should first ______