Section A Directions:In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. If you have a heart disease or condition, high-intensity exercise for long stretches could actually increase your chance of a massive heart attack or stroke, recent studies found. In the first of two studies 1 in Heart, German researchers spent a decade studying the 2 and intensity of weekly exercise in 1,000 people in their 60s with coronary artery heart disease (冠心病), almost half of whom were 3 2-4 times a week. Predictably, participants who 4 less than 2 times a week were determined to be at greater risk for a heart attack. However, counter-intuitively (直觉地), participants who exercised more than the average were also twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke than the average. A different study found that young men who engage in endurance exercise more than five hours a week may 5 their risk of developing an irregular heart rhythm later in life. Swedish researchers surveyed 44,000 men, ages 45-79, about their exercise 6 at ages of 15, 30, 50 and over in 2013. Those who exercised 7 for more than five hours a week were 19% more likely to have developed an irregular heartbeat, which is a 8 factor in stroke risk. Despite their findings, researchers 9 sounding the alarm full-force on intense exercise, citing the "benefits of exercise" while clarifying that "the studies reviewed here, and future studies, will serve to maximize benefits obtained by 10 exercise while preventing undesirable effects of intense exercise." A. active B. avoided C. behavior D. consequently E. density F. energetic G. engagement H. exercised I. frequency J. increase K. intensely L. key M. largely N. published O. regular
[解析] 根据空格前的the和空格后的and intensity可以判断,此处需要填入一个可以和intensity(强度)并列使用的名词。备选词汇中behavior意为“行为”,density意为“密度”,behavior/density of weekly exercise语义不通,可排除。frequency(频率)符合此处语境,the frequency and intensity of weekly exercise意为“每周运动的频率和强度”。故选I。
3.
A
[解析] 根据空格前的whom were和空格后的2-4 times a week可以判断,此处需要填入一个形容词或动词的过去分词。从语义来看,句子所在的整个段落都在论述人们每周运动的次数与心脏健康之间的关系,由此可以推知,该句说的是参与调查的患者中几乎有一半的人每周运动2~4次。备选词汇中active(活动的;活跃的)符合此处语境,故选A。
Section B Directions:In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may Choose a paragraph more than once.
A Mess on the Ladder of Success
A. Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their fortune elsewhere. For the first 300 or so years of European settlement, the story was about moving outward: getting immigrants to the continent and then to the frontier to clear the prairies (大草原) , drain the wetlands and build new cities. B. By the end of the 19th century, as the frontier vanished, the US had a mild panic attack. What would this energetic, enterprising country be without new lands to conquer? Some people, such as Teddy Roosevelt, decided to keep on conquering (Cuba, the Philippines, etc.), but eventually, in industrialization, the US found a new narrative of economic mobility at home. C. From the 1890s to the 1960s, people moved from farm to city, first in the North and then in the South. In fact, by the 1950s, there was enough prosperity and white-collar work that many began to move to the suburbs. As the population aged, there was also a shift from the cold Rust Belt to the comforts of the Sun Belt. We think of this as an old person's migration, but it created many jobs for the young in construction and health care, not to mention tourism, retail and restaurants. D. For the last 20 years—from the end of the cold war through two burst bubbles in a single decade—the US has been casting about for its next economic narrative. And now it is experiencing another period of panic, which is bad news for much of the workforce but particularly for its youngest members. E. The US has always been a remarkably mobile country, but new data from the Census Bureau indicate that mobility has reached its lowest level in recorded history. Sure, some people are stuck in homes valued at less than their mortgages (抵押贷款), but many young people—who don't own homes and don't yet have families—are staying put, too. This suggests, among other things, that people aren't packing up for new economic opportunities the way they used to. Rather than dividing the country into the 1 presenters versus (与……相对) everyone else, the split in our economy is really between two other classes: the mobile and immobile. F. Part of the problem is that the country's largest industries are in decline. In the past, it was perfectly clear where young people should go for work (Chicago in the 1870s, Detroit in the 1910s, Houston in the 1970s) and, more or less, what they'd be doing when they got there (killing cattle, building cars, selling oil). And these industries were large enough to offer jobs to each class of worker, from unskilled laborer to manager or engineer. Today, the few bright spots in our economy are relatively small (though some promise future growth) and decentralized. There are great jobs in Silicon Valley, in the biotech research capitals of Boston and Raleigh-Durham and in advanced manufacturing plants along the southern z-85 corridor. These companies recruit all over the country and the globe for workers with specific abilities. (You don't need to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, to get a job in one of the microhubs (微中心), by the way. But you will almost certainly need at least a B. A. in computer science or a year or two at a technical school.) This newer, select job market is national, and it offers members of the mobile class competitive salaries and higher bargaining power. G. Many members of the immobile class, on the other hand, live in the America of the gloomy headlines. If you have no specialized skills, there's little reason to uproot to another state and be the last in line for a low-paying job at a new auto plant or a green-energy startup. The surprise in the census (普查) data, however, is that the immobile workforce is not limited to unskilled workers. In fact, many have a college degree. H. Until now, a B. A. in any subject was a near-guarantee of at least middle-class wages. But today, a quarter of college graduates make less than the typical worker without a bachelor's degree. David Autor, a prominent labor economist at M. I. T. , recently told me that a college degree alone is no longer a guarantor of a good job. While graduates from top universities are still likely to get a good job no matter what their major is, he said, graduates from less-famous schools are going to be judged on what they know. To compete for jobs on a national level, they should be armed with the skills that emerging industries need, whether technical or not. I. Those without such specialized skills—like poetry, or even history, majors—are already competing with their neighbors for the same sorts of second-rate, poorer-paying local jobs like low-level management or big-box retail sales. And with the low-skilled labor market atomized into thousands of microeconomics, immobile workers are less able to demand better wages or conditions or to acquire valuable skills. J. So what, exactly, should the ambitious young worker of today be learning? Unfortunately, it's hard to say, since the US doesn't have one clear national project. There are plenty of emerging, smaller industries, but which ones are the most promising? (Nanotechnology)'s moment of remarkable growth seems to have been 5 years into the future for something like 20 years now.) It's not clear exactly what skills are most needed or if they will even be valuable in a decade. K. What is clear is that all sorts of government issues—education, health-insurance portability, worker retraining—are no longer just bonuses to already prosperous lives but existential requirements. It's in all of our interests to make sure that as many people as possible are able to move toward opportunity, and America's ability to invest people and money in exciting new ideas is still greater than that of most other wealthy countries. (As recently as five years ago, US migration was twice the rate of European Union states.) That, at least, is some comfort at a time when our national economy seems to be searching for its next story line.
1. Unlike in the past, a college degree alone does not guarantee a good job for its holder.
Section C Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A., B., C. and D. You should decide on the best choice.
Passage One
Did the Rich Get Rich from Hard Work or "Connections".
A new Pew Research poll shows that the cultural battle between rich and poor is as fierce as ever. Fully 66% of Americans believe there are "strong" or "very strong" conflicts between rich and poor in the U.S. That's way up from 47% in 2009. The rich-poor conflict now eclipses perceived conflicts over immigration. The poll found that 62% of respondents believed there was a strong conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans less than the 66% for rich-poor. What's more, Americans remain highly skeptical of the way the rich in America get rich. According to the poll, 46% of respondents believe the wealthy got wealthy "because they were born with money or they knew the right people". Only 43% of Americans believe that "hard work, ambition or education" are the reasons the rich got rich. Of course, these questions could have been phrased more precisely. Getting rich through an inheritance is very different from getting rich by making the right connections and relationships in life (clearly a part of any rich-person's journey). They should be separated as wealth causes. And the numbers are about the same as they were in 2009, meaning that while class-warfare may be at an all-time high, Americans' actual perceptions of the rich haven't changed much. Yet their opinions are still fairly negative, since more Americans believe the rich owe their fortunes to their parents or social circles rather than hard work, ambition or education. This skeptical view is most pronounced among the young, or those between the ages of 18 and 34. Republicans believe in the "hard work" path more than Democrats (their responses are almost mirror opposites). And men generally fall into the "hard work" camp more than women. The results highlight just how conflicted Americans are about the rich. Most studies show that more than two-thirds of today's millionaires made it themselves, rather than from inheritance. And clearly education and skills matter in making a fortune in the knowledge economy.
1. The new Pew Research poll tells us that ______.
A.the conflict between rich and poor becomes not so apparent
B.more people believe there is a conflict between rich and poor
C.there is no conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans
D.the cultural conflict between rich and immigrants is fierce as ever
A B C D
B
[解析] 根据题干中的new Pew Research poll定位到原文第一段及其后面的几个段落。原文第二段中提到,足有66%的美国人认为美国存在“激烈”或者“非常激烈”的贫富矛盾,这一比例与2009年的47%相比增长明显。由此可知,有更多的美国人认为存在贫富矛盾,B项表述符合原文,故选B。 [参考译文]
3. What do we know about Americans' actual opinion about the rich? ______
A.Their attitude has changed a lot since 2009.
B.Their attitude remains almost the same as in 2009.
C.They look down upon rich people.
D.They think the rich get rich through hard work.
A B C D
B
[解析] 根据题干中的Americans' actual opinion about the rich定位到原文第七段,该段中提到,这些数据与2009年时大致相同,这意味着,虽然阶层之间的矛盾或许达到了历史最高点,但美国人对富人的看法没有太大的改变。由此可知,人们对富人的态度与他们在2009年时的态度大体相同,故选B。其他三个选项的表述均与原文不符,因而排除。
4. Why does the author think Americans' opinions are still fairly negative? ______
A.Because less Americans owe richness to personal effort.
B.Because more Americans lose their ambition to be rich.
What makes cells age? Wear and tear, yes. But biologically, says Dr. David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, it's lack of oxygen that signals cells that it's their time to go. Without oxygen, the energy engines known as the mitochondria (线粒体) become less efficient at turning physiological fuel like glucose (葡萄糖) into the energy that the cells need to function. Eventually, they shut down. But in a paper published in the journal Cell, Sinclair and his colleagues describe for the first time a compound naturally made by young cells that is able to make older cells energetic and youthful again. In an experiment in mice, the team found that giving older mice a chemical called NAD for just one week made 2-year-old-mice tissue resemble that of 6-month-old mice (in human years, that would be like a 60-year-old's cells becoming more like those belonging to a 20-year-old). As animals age, says Sinclair, levels of NAD drop by 50%; with less of the compound, the communication between the cell and its mitochondrial energy source also pauses occasionally, and the cell becomes easily hurt from common aging attacks—inflammation (炎症), muscle wasting (肌肉萎缩) and slower metabolism (新陈代谢). By tricking the cell into thinking it's young again, with adequate amounts of NAD, aging can theoretically be reversed. His next step is to put NAD in the drinking water of his mice, and see if they take longer to develop the typical chronic diseases linked to aging, such as inflammation, muscle wasting and cancer. The pathway may become an important target for cancer researchers as well, since tumors (肿瘤) typically grow in low-oxygen conditions and are more common in older patients. Because NAD is a naturally occurring compound that simply declines with age, Sinclair is optimistic that boosting its levels in people won't have as many significant negative effects as introducing an entirely new compound might. "If a body is slowly falling apart and losing the ability to regulate itself effectively, we can get it back on track to what it was in its 20s and 30s," he says.
4. What will happen as animals become older? ______
A.Communication between cells disappears.
B.Levels of NAD nearly drop by half.
C.The metabolism of the cell becomes faster.
D.The cell becomes vulnerable to common aging attacks.
A B C D
D
[解析] 根据题干中的as animals become older定位到原文第三段。该段首句提到,辛克莱说,随着动物日益衰老,其NAD水平会下降50%;随着这种化合物的减少,细胞和其线粒体能量来源之间的交流也会偶尔暂停,细胞就会更容易受到常见的衰老症——炎症、肌肉萎缩和新陈代谢减慢的侵袭。四个选项中只有D项表述与原文相符,故选D。
5. Why does Sinclair think boosting levels of NAD won't cause many negative effects? ______
A.Because NAD is an entirely new compound to human's body.
B.Because NAD can resist chronic diseases linked to aging.
C.Because NAD has been successfully tested on mice.