2009PETS4真题.doc

Section III Reading Comprehension (60 minutes) 阅读理解A21、根据以下内容，回答21-40题。 Text 1Inflation has just exploded. The real problem is that we have an underlyingrate of inflation-an impetus of wages chasing prices-of maybe 9percent that is heading towards 10 percent. There also have been tremendous shocks inenergy, food and housing prices, making it worse.By the end of the year, we will be in asituation where year in, year out, we can look forward to at least 10 percent inflation. And the question will be: How much worse willoil, food and housing prices make that?The situation has degenerated to the pointthat the only way to turn it around is to think of some very extreme changes in policy. A policy of gradualism, where youre talkingabout a mild recession and another 1 to 2 million people unemployed, wont makemuch difference. Postponing action justmeans that inflation presses further and is even more difficult to deal with.You have to start with revenue and monetaryrestraint. All the burden now is onmonetary policy. We should shift to a much more restrictiverevenue policy and an easier monetary policy. To be significant ,the 1981 budget should becut by at least 20 billion dollars from 616 billion President Carter proposed. Thats a major cut in government programs-andvery hard to do. Its impossible if yousave defense and all the programs indexed for changes in the cost of living.So it means cuts across the board in everyarea-including the indexed programs, such as Social Security and food stamps. State and local-government revenue-sharingprograms are another major candidate. Youve also got to reopen the 1980 budget andcut that. Then I would favor wage and price controlsto break the impetus of the wage-price interaction.In order to get quick results, Id set thestandard around 5 or 6 percent for both wages and prices.Basically , youre aiming to cut the rateof inflation in half the first year. There would be no exceptions , but you wouldfocus on large corporations and major labor settlements.For thespecial sectorswhere thebig shocks have occurred, controls wont work. Instead, you need additional policies in each one ofthose areas.There are no cheap or easy solutions to theinflation problem. My answer is to takeall the things that everybody wants to do, and instead of choosing among them,do all of them. Weve got to think interms of a comprehensive program.In the authors opinion, the high inflationrate in the U. S. was accompanied byAenergy crises.Bmounting wages.Chousing shortage.Dshrinking market.22、The only way to reverse the worseningsituation seems to beAa policy of gradualism.Bsacrifice of public interests.Cradical changes of policy.Dpostponing of drastic actions.23、We can learn from the fourth paragraph thatAasubstantial cut in annual revenue is called for.Bdefense and social welfare programs shouldundergo cuts.Cwe should leave intact programs for betteringpeoples living.Dwe should exercise less control over monetarypolicy.24、The phrase special sectors (Line 1,Paragraph 7)most probably refers toAenergy, food and housing.Bindexed programs.Csocial security and food stamps.Dlarge corporations and labor settlements.25、What is the text mainly about?AThe defect of U. S. monetary system.BThe causes of ever-worsening inflation in theU. S.CProspects for the U. S. economic situation.DA comprehensive settlement of inflation in theU. S.26、Text 2根据内容，回答26-45问题。For centuries the most valuable of Africanresources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports, withoutany need for going deep inland. Slaveryhad been an established institution in Africa. Prisoners of war had been enslaved, as werealso debtors and individuals guilty of serious crimes. But these slaves usually were treated as partof the family. They had clearly definedrights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited. Therefore it is commonly argued that Africastraditional slavery was mild compared to the Vans-Atlantic slave tradeorganized by the Europeans.Thisargument, however, can be carried too far.In the most re-cent study of this subject,some scholars warned against the illusion that cruel and dehumanizing enslavementwas a monopoly of the West. Slavery inits extreme forms, including the taking of life, was common to both Africa andthe West. The fact that African slaveryhad different origins and consequences should not lead us to deny what it wastheexploitation and control of human beings. Neither can it be denied that thewholesale shipment of Africans to the slave plantations of the Americas wasmade possible by the participation of African chiefs who rounded up theirfellow Africans and sold them as a handsome profit to European ship captainswaiting along the coasts.Granting all this, the fact remains that thetrans-Atlantic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different inquantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed withinAfrica. From the beginning the Europeanvariety was primarily an economic institution rather than social, as it hadbeen in Africa. Western slave tradersand slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations, and werequite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do sothan to treat them more mercifully. Thisinhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in theAfrican slave trade on a large scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization theygradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior, and therefore destinedto serve their white masters. Rationalizationalso may have been involved in the Europeans use of religion to justify thetraffic in human beings. It was argued,for instance, that enslavement assured the conversion of the Africanevil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.In the first paragraph, the author argues thatAthe Europeans were innocent in the trade ofAfrican slaves.Bslavery in Africa and in the West was the samein nature.Cthe view in the most recent studies ofenslavement is baseless.Dslaves had been treated even more cruelly inthe African tradition.27、Which of the following was true of the localAfrican slavery?ASlaves might have their own families.BThe son of a slave might not be a slave.CSlavery was confined to the coastal regions.DThere was no killing in African slavery.28、The sentence This argument. can becarried too far implies thatAAfricans traditional slavery was inhumane.Bthe slavery in Africa was confined to someregions.Csupporters of this argument knew little ofAfrica.Dslave shipment was not so serious as wasimagined.29、Supporters of the rationalization of slaverybelieve that the tradeAwas out of good intents from the beginning.Bhelped the development of local religion.Cwas a help for civilizing the Africans.Ddrove the evils out of the African religions.30、The relation between the two paragraphs isthat in the 2nd paragraph the authorAchallenges the viewpoint in the 1st paragraph.Bmodifies his view expressed in the 1stparagraph.Cprovides the reason for the argument in the1st paragraph.Dfurther analyzes the issue discussed in the 1st paragraph.Text 3根据内容，回答31-50问题。As West Nile virus creeps towardCalifornia, an unlikely warrior could provide the first line of defense: the chicken. The familiar fowl make irresistible targetsfor mosquitoes. Unlike crows, chickens dont get sick from West Nile. But they do produce telltale antibodies to thevirus. So in test coops scattered acrossthe state, more than 2000 sentinel chickens submit to frequentblood tests. When antibodies do turn up, California health officials will knowthat the inevitable has occurred: the West Nile epidemic will have swept thecountry.Lastweek alone, more than 100 new human cases of West Nile were reported. The virus was detected as far west as Colorado andWyoming, infecting 371 and killing 16 people in 20 states plus the District of Columbia.This year West Nile appeared earlier in the mosquito seasonmid-Juneinstead of August-and claimed younger victims; the average age dropped from 65to 54. Federal health officials arestill trying to figure out why, but say they may be finding more West Nileprecisely because theyre on the lookout for it. As Dr. Julie Gerberding, the new director of theCenters for Disease Control ( CDC), recently told reporters , Were notin crisis mode. WhenWest Nile hit New York City in 1999,the CDC realized it was a victim of its ownsuccess. Because health officials hadconquered most mosquito-borne diseases decades ago, many statesabolished their mosquito-control programs. The Feds rushed in with funds-some $ 50million since 1999, plus $31 million more this year alone-to train insectresearchers, set up state testing labs and kill off the annoying insects. The CDC established a new computer monitoringsystem and held strategy sessions with state officials.Someepidemiologists question the focus-and the millions-lavished on a virusthats killed fewer than 20. Theres an epidemic in gun violencethats taking more lives than West Nile virus, says Dr. William Steinmann, director of the TulaneCenter for Clinical Effectiveness and Prevention. But the Feds say theirefforts have kept West Nile from doing far more damage. Were basically building theinfrastructure to deal with this over the next 50 years, says Dr. Lyle Peterson, a CDC epidemiologist. This is here to stay. Sofar, there are no remedies for West Nile. Officials eventually expect the virus tosettle into a quiet pattern of mild infections withoccasional outbreaks. To do battle athome, the CDC recommends eliminating standing water and using insect spray withDEET-simple precautions, but the best defense against an invader that shows nosigns of going away.In California scientists use chicken toAsweep away the West Nile epidemic.Bproduce antibodies to West Nile virus.Cfight against the spread of West Nile virus.Dmonitor the presence of the West Nile virus.32、According to Federal health officials, thefact that more West Nile cases have been reported indicates thatAmore states are affected.Bthe average age dropped drastically.Chealth officials are more alert to the disease.Dthe epidemic season began a month earlier.33、CDC considered the outbreak of West Nile in1999 as a consequence ofAthe abolition of the mosquito-control programs.Bthe surviving mosquito-borne infections.Cthe abuse of some $ 50 million in funds.Dits failure to conquer mosquito-borne diseases.34、Feds claimed that their spending on West Nilecontrol wasAworthwhilein the long run.Bliable to continue regardless of the greatcost.Cbound to settle the problem once and for all.Dwasteful in view of the few victims of thedisease.35、Which of the following would CDC most probablyrecommend?AHealth weighs more than wealth.BPrevention is better than cure.CActions speak louder than words.DBetter late than never.36、Text4根据内容，回答36-55问题。Jill Ker Conway, president of Smith, echoesthe prevailing view of contemporary technology when she says that anyone in todays worldwho doesnt understand data processing is not educated. But she insists that the increasingemphasis on these matters leave certain gaps. Says she: The very strongly utilitarianemphasis in education, which is an effect of man-made satellites and the coldwar, has really removed from this culture something that was very profound inits 18th and 19th century roots, which was a sense that literacy andlearning were ends in themselves for a democratic republic. In contrast to Platos claim for the socialvalue of education, a quite different idea of intellectual purposes was advocated by the Renaissancehumanists. Overjoyed with theirrediscovery of the classical learning that was thought to havedisappeared during the Dark Ages, they argued that the imparting of knowledgeneeds no justification-religious, social, economic, or political. Its purpose, to the extent that it has one, isto pass on from generation to generation the corpus of knowledge that constitutescivilization. What could man acquire,by virtuous striving, that is more valuable than knowledge? askedErasmus, perhaps the greatest scholar of the early 16th century. That idea has acquired a tradition of its own.The educational process has no endbeyond itself, said John Dewey. It is its own end. But what exactly is the corpus of knowledgeto be passed on? In simpler times, it was all included in the medieval universitiesQuadrivium ( arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music ) and Trivium(grammar, rhetoric,logic). As recently as the last century,when less than5% of Americans went to college at all, students in New England establishmentswere compelled mainly tomemorize and recite various Latin texts, and crustyprofessors angrily opposed the introduction of any new scientific discoveriesor modem European languages. Theyfelt, said regretfully Charles Francis Adams, Jr. , the Union Pacific Railroad presidentwhodevoted his later years to writing history, that a classical educationwas the important distinction between a man who had been to college and a man whohad not been to college, and that anything that diminished the importance ofthis distinction was essentially revolutionary and tended to anarchy. The first paragraph shows that Jill Ker Conwayaccepts utilitarian emphasis in educationAwholeheartedly.Bwith reservation.Cagainst her own will.Dwith contempt.37、Education for educations sake was probablyopposed byAscholars in the Renaissance period.BJill Ker Conway.Cscholars in the Dark Ages.DPlato.38、The idea that education transmits knowledge isdated back toAthe Renaissance humanists.Bthe medieval universities.Cthe 18th centurys American scholars.Dthe cold war period.39、It can be inferred that Charles Francis Adams,Jr.Adevoted his later years to classical education.Bwas an advocate of education in history.Cwas an opponent to classical education.Dregretted diminishing the importance of thedistinction.40、According to the third paragraph, which of thefollowing is true?AFive percent of American college studentslearnt Latin texts.BStudents in New England learnt Latin texts inofficial organizations.CStudents were compelled to learn modemEuropean languages.DAmerican college students had to learn Latingrammar by heart.41、根据内容，回答41-45题。 Neither the Americans nor the Russians havethe resources to continue human space flight on their own; both sides know they need eachother. 61 )Its much easier andcheaper to get used to each other and to blend differing operating styles,languages, and systems on the aged Mir (aRussian word for peace )than trying to do that while jointly building a new space station.NASA, in fact, calls itsprogram of shuttle flights to Mir Phase 1 of the International Space Station(ISS). Phase 2 marks the beginning ofactual construction. The procedures usedto dock the shuttle to Mir, for example, also will be used as a lifeboat forthe ISS. And Progress freighters, likethe one that crashed into Mir in June, will haul cargo to the ISS. 62)One unintended benefit of Mirstechnical troubles is that they have actually forced the two nations to workmuch more closely together than they had planned.Except for a brief period in the 1970s withSkylab, NASA has never operated a space station;the Russians have been running them foryears. Astronauts have long been trainedintensively to perform specific tasks on shuttle flights lasting 18 days orless. 63)Russian astronauts, however,learn more general skills, since they spend many months in orbit and no one canforecast all the problems they might encounter.As a result of shuttle-Mir experience, NASA isrevising astronaut training to include more of the general skills they willneed on the ISSNASA decided to send astronauts to Mir based on its long record of safeoperation. But this year, crews aboardMir have faced two of the most serious emergencies in the history of human spaceflight. 64)In February, an oxygengenerator caught fire , shooting out 4-foot-long jets of flame like; fireextinguishers were bolted in place, delaying reaction to the fire.In June, a Progress Freighter collided withthe Spektr module, puncturing it. Spektrhad to be sealed off to prevent all the air from leaking from the spacecraft. 65 )The ancient computer that controls Mirhas failed many times , causing most other systems, including the one thatkeeps the stations solar panels pointed at the sun, to shut down.One failure in August occurred while aProgress was docking. Last week, the computercrashed again, the carbon dioxide removal system shut down, and a mysteriousbrown fluid-probably rocket fuelappeared to leak from the station._42、_43、_44、_45、_写作46、Study the following cartoon carefully and write an essay on it. In your essay ,you should(1) describe the cartoon briefly,(2) analyze this situation, and(3) give your comments.You should write 160 200 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2.参考答案及精析第一部分听力理解120略第二部分英语知识运用参考译文除了那些人们所熟知的能源，例如天然气、煤、石油、核能，我们还应该关注其他许多新能源。水力电能和潮汐能就是其中的两种。这两种能源的相似之处在于，它们都是可再生能源。但是，水力电能比潮汐能的使用范围要更广。事实上，水力电站已经为全世界提供了大量电能，而潮汐电站仍然处于最初的发展阶段。就地理位置而言，水力电站工程要建在湖泊和河流地区，而潮汐电站只能建在潮汐发生频率很高的河流入口处。不幸的是