雅思阅读-练习十二

1、雅思阅读 - 练习十二( 总分： 40.00 ，做题时间： 90 分钟 )一、 Reading passage 1 ( 总题数： 2 ，分数： 14.00)You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 , which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. *Doing It for the KidsA The defining moment of Vicky Yaylor's postdoc came when she met an eight-year-old girl in a prim

2、ary school. "1 asked her, 'What do you think about science?' and she said straight out, 'Men are scientists' ," recalls Taylor. "'But I'm a scientist, ' I said and that totally changed her perception."B Taylor, an endocrinologist, is taking part in a s

3、cheme that pays researchers at Imperial College London to spend half their time teaching in local schools. INSPIRE (Innovative Schemef or Post-docs in Research and Education), now halfway through its trial period, is a response to fears that science teaching in the United Kingdom is in crisis. The n

4、umber of science students in UK schools and universities has fallen in most subjects over the past decade, eroding the supply of science teachers (see graphic). Some 800 new physics teachers were needed in 2000, but only 200 signed up for teacher training. Similar shortages and trends are seen in th

5、e United States, and when vacancies are filled, the teachers are less and less likely to have any science training.C INSPIRE is trying to reverse this trend. In collaboration with the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, it offers three-year contracts to postdoctoral researchers, combined with a

6、teacher-training course. Richard Sykes, former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline and current rector of Imperial College, is the driving force behind the scheme, which began in September 2002. Since joining Imperial in 2001, he has become concerned by the shrinking pool of science applicants.D Sykes believ

7、es that INSPIRE can shape the next generation of scientists while they are still in the classroom. He had the contacts and clout to bring together drug-industry cash, academic expertise and government support to make it happen. Although INSPIRE's future funding is not yet secure, Sykes believes

8、the scheme could be reproduced in universities and schools around the country.E Why encourage active scientists, not just graduates, to become teachers? Sykes's response is blunt. "Most people who teach science haven't even been properly educated in it. As kids get older they become mor

9、e sophisticated and ask more sophisticated questions and if they don't get answers, they give up. " Postdocs have the experience,background and depth of understanding to give them those answers, he claims.F All the INSPIRE postdocs agree that their experience allows them to act as role mode

10、ls, give careers advice, and talk about how science is used in the wider world. But there are some practical benefits too. Jenny Litten is a pig-nutrition researcher at Imperial College's campus in Wye, Kent, and is finishing her first year with INSPIRE. Sometimes the piglets in her research are

11、 stillborn, so she dissected one of these animals for a crowd of 60 pupils. The teacher she was working with had a physics background, and would never have done the dissection himself, explains Litten. "It's a different experience for the kids, because not many secondary schools demonstrate

12、 dissection any more," she says. GAfter three years, the INSPIRE postdocs can either continue their research or switch to teaching. None of the original recruits has decided yet. But even if they stay in research, the schools they work in will still have benefited. Each school gets £ 40,00

13、0 (US $75,000) from GlaxoSmithKline to kick-start a bid to become a specialist scienee college, a move that attracts increased government funding for equipment and staff. The schools spread these benefits by running evening classes, or introducing younger children to science. Taylor's moment wit

14、h the little girl happened during an outreach visit to a local primary school.H Plant scientist Steven Cook was among the first INSPIRE recruits. He says that if they become teachers they are more likely to work with older pupils who have chosen to study science. He saw INSPIRE as a route into teach

15、ing that allowed them to continue research projects while earning almost three times as much as trainee teachers. But juggling two jobs is a challenge. Even though their time should be split evenly between teaching and research, all the postdocs say that studying for a teaching qualification eats in

16、to their research time. It is virtually impossible to go to a conference if it happens during a teaching block, says Taylor.I Cook says his research adviser is totally supportive of the scheme, not least because he gets a free 'half-postdoc' for three years. Even though Cook's research h

17、as progressed slowly, he believes that having completed his teacher training he will be able to devote more time to the lab. It is certainly vital to have a supportive lab group: "The team is very adaptable, so the research can continue even when I'm not here," says Litten. "It

18、9;s a guaranteed bit of funding for three years, whereas a lot of postdoc jobs might only be for a year," says David Chestnut, a laser physicist in his first year with INSPIRE. He is undecided about his future, but says that he enjoys teaching and is picking up transferable skills. "It'

19、;s certainly noticeable in public speaking. I went to a conference a couple of weeks ago where I was much more confident," he says. J Taylor is candid that she saw this as a way to boost her chances of getting a university lectureship. "The one thing I didn't have was a teaching qualif

20、ication," she says. She points out that the UK government is pushing for all new lecturers to have a formal teaching qualification by 2006. "And if you want to learn teaching skills, it's better to go to where the proper teaching is happening, which is in school," she says. INSPIR

21、E allows her to get a teaching qualification without dropping her research, and gives her an alternative career option that is easier to fit a family around. "It's still a problem for female researchers to take a career break to have kids," she says.K With only six postdoc-teachers so

22、far, can INSPIRE make a real difference? Taylor thinks so."If you just inspire one Nobel prizewinner then it's been worth it where would we be if Einstein had opted for Englishinstead of science?" she says. "At first, our interest in INSPIRE was the money," admits Ralph James

23、, head of science at St Gregory's High School in London, where Taylor teaches, but he was surprised by how much difference the postdocs made to practical lessons. "If it's a success then it could be a model to be adopted elsewhere," he adds.L The University of Leeds is launching an

24、 equivalent scheme in September. Oeri Nursaw, head of the university's city and regional office, is coordinating the scheme. She hopes that it will yield more applications for Leeds's mathematics and science courses. And, she adds, going into schools is good for researchers: "Teaching w

25、ill give them a better understanding of their subject." It took Leeds two years to get going, but Nursaw thinks other universities could get a programmer started in less than a year.M Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the American Association for the Advancement o Science, has campaigned for si

26、milar outreach efforts in the United States for more than two years. She argues that university or industry researchers could make significant teaching contribution during the school year and focus on their research in the summer. N The key is money: everyone likes these initiatives, but nobody want

27、s to pay for them. After receiving government funding during its first year, INSPIRE's future is looking shaky. Imperial is now funding the postdocs' research themselves, which Sykes says is unsustainable. Despite support from Britain's science minister, David Sainsbury, Sykes says that

28、"the good intentions just get lost in the bureaucratic machine. Kafka had nothing on this." The dual nature of a postdoc's work means that the government departments responsible for research and education each pass the buck, he adds. There won't be a shortage of applicants. In its

29、first year, the schemeattracted moreO than 50 applications from Imperial for just three positions. All six postdocs say that they would recommend the scheme to anyone interested in teaching, and the schools remain keen. "The students have really warmed to the fact that these people are actually

30、 using science for something useful," says Gareth Cross, a teacher at Stewards School in Harlow, and one of the science teachers involved. "And on top of that, they can bring a little bit of awe and wonder into the classroom." (分数： 7.00 )1.Steven Cook分数：1.00 )填空项 1:正确答案：I )解析：2.Ralph

31、James分数：1.00 )填空项 1:正确答案：B解析：3.Richard Sykes分数：1.00 填空项 1:正确答案：D解析：4.Jenny Litten (分数：1.00 )填空项 1:正确答案：G解析：5.Ceri Nursaw分数：1.00 )填空项 1:正确答案：A解析：6.Vicky Taylor 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： E 解析：7.David Chestnut 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： J 解析：Questions 8-14Look at the following researchers and the list of statem

32、ents according to INSPIRE below.Match each researcher with the correct statement regarding INSPIRE.Write the correct letterA-J in boxes 8-14 on your answer sheet.List of StatementsA. University could recruit more candidates for teaching some curriculums.B. Innovation in teaching pattern could be cop

33、ied in other places.C. Scientists could find the way to combine teaching task and research.D. Scientists could offer accurate knowledge to those students when they are young.E. It is incompatible for scientists to do some research while give a lesson to students.F. Scientists could earn more money i

34、n their own research areas.G. It may help teachers to bring new knowledge in courses.H. Lack of applicants becomes a big problem.I. Scientists could receive more rewards than before.J. It means a relatively short term of financial stability for those scientists. 分数： 7.00 1 .Steven Cook 分数： 1.00 填空项

35、1: 正确答案： I 解析：2.Ralph James 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： B 解析：3 .Richard Sykes 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： D解析：4 .Jenny Litten 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： G解析：5 .Ceri Nursaw 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： A解析：6.Vicky Taylor 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： E解析：7 .David Chestnut 分数： 1.00 填空项 1: 正确答案： J 解析：Reading passage 2 总题数： 2 ，分数： 13.

36、00 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.*Buried Cities of the RainforestIn a letter to his wife sent on May 29, 1925, Percy Fawcett, an English adventurer, reported that he was about to depart on an expedition into previously unexplored are

37、as of the Amazon jungle in central Brazil. His goal was to find a hidden city that he referred to as "Z." It was Fawcett's last contact with the outside world he disappeared without a trace and whether he succumbedto disease, human violence or animal attack is still unknown.Now, more t

38、han 80 years later, anthropologist Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida and his team, in collaboration with local indigenous people called the Kuikuro, Brazilian scholars and a group of archaeologists, have discovered the remains of pre-Columbian settlements in the Upper Xingu region of

39、 the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Mato Grosso state, the same area where Fawcett disappeared. Fawcett may not have been right about the existence of a city, but the recent discovery of the settlements 28 in all, estimated to have had a combinedpopulation of more than 50,000 is helping to overtu

40、rn the long-held theory that the Amazon rainforest in unsuited to human habitation.Other discoveries are also softening the Amazon's hostile reputation. In recent years, researchers have found indications that about 1,200 years ago, natives were able to tame large areas of the world's larges

41、t rainforest and transform its poor soil into lush orchards and fields that could feed tens of thousands of people. This is one of the prerequisites for the potential development of any highly developed urban society.The Amazon's rainforests cover approximately 2.3 million square miles an area a

42、bout twice the size ofIndia and are homet o the world's richest plant and animal communities. But paradoxically, the soils here are highly acidic and contain few nutrients. About 10 percent of the rainforest's nutrients can be found in the soil; the rest are bound up in plants and animals. O

43、nly plants that are perfectly adapted to draw their nutrients from the closed cycle of life and death here can survive in the reddish or yellowish earth that dominates this area. They take up nutrients and minerals from dead plants and animals before the rain can wash them away.But some parts of the

44、 forest contain plots of Amazonian dark earth, also known at terra preta, which contains elevated levels of nutrients and organic matter perfect for agriculture in areas otherwise unsuitable for growing crops. The soil a result of refuse piles usually including charcoal, fish bones, pottery fragment

45、s, animal bones, aches and excrement-most likely correlates with important societal and cultural changes in the Amazon that allowed for the development of larger towns and villages. This fertile soil is as deep as six and a half feet in fields sometimes as large as 50 acres. Researchers estimate tha

46、t as much as 1 percent of the Amazon rainforest is covered with it. The fertile pockets are concentrated near river-banks, and some of these areas are still in use for growing crops, which develop at least twice as fast here as they do in other soils. One of the many miracles of terra preta is that

47、it does not become depleted but retains its fertility for years.Most of the plots are between 500 and 2,500 years 01d, and some researchers suspect that inhabitants of the area created and spread the rich soil intentionally. By exploiting terra preto's extreme fertility, natives were able to put

48、 their previous existence as nomads behind them. Instead they settled in villages, surrounding themselves with green fields and groves of bountiful fruit trees. Ancient Cities, Destroyed and Forgotten Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist at the University of Sac Paulo in Brazil, has been studying these v

49、anished cultures for 17 years, and from his discoveries in the Amazon forests, he is convinced that Amazon forests, he is convinced that the jungle was relatively densely populated between 500 and 1,000 years ago. He suggests that at least five or six million people may have lived in the rainforest

50、during that period.Settlements comprised more than 1,000 people, Neves believes, yet the inhabitants left no mark on the archaeological record in the form of towns and buildings. In a region where stone was not available, they could build temples from wood, and as a result, the buildings would have

51、long since rotted in the humid tropical climate. But in more than 100 locations in the region where the Rio Negro flows into the Amazon, Neves has found smaller relics of long-lost cultures. Among the finds are ceramic objects, including decorated and glazed figures, dishes, pots and large vessels a

52、ble to hold more than 50 gallons of liquid. According to Neves, people who live as nomads in the rainforest would have neithermade nor attempted to travel with such large containers.So the vessels were probably used for water storage in the tow ns where the people perma nen tly settled.The big quest

53、i on, the n, in why such a large civilizatio n disappeared. Researchers speculate that whe n the Spanish conq uered Cen tral and the n South America in the 1500s, the n atives had no inn ate resista nee to diseases such as measles and smallpox imported by the conq uistadors. Accord ing to Neves'

54、 calculati ons, populati ons around where the Rio Negro meets the Amaz on had mostly died off by the 1800s.Sig ns of Civilizatio nThe Spanish, led by Francisco de Orellana, first explored the Rio Xingu in 1541 and 1542. Orellana reported seeing large settleme nts on the Amazo n's riverba nks. Wh

55、en the first scie ntific expediti ons en tered the Amaz on rain forest in 1800s, they found no evide nee of the villages that Orella na had reported.Rece nt research now in dicates that perhaps Orella na was not being un truthful. Which mosthistorians had thought was the case. With the help of his c

56、olleagues and the Kuikuro tribe, Michael Heckenberger has combed the jun gle aro und the upper reaches of the Rio Xingu since 1993. Aided by satellite imagery, by 2021 he had found evide nee of 28 settleme nts.They lie in an area of about 7,700 square miles and were once lin ked by roads and in some

57、 places by modified can als. The tow ns were all out in the same pattern; a circular plaza with roads orie nted in card inal directi ons. The orga ni zati on and pla nning of the tow ns show a degree of sophisticati on that was equal to, or eve n surpassed, the small cities of medieval Europe.It'

58、;s un certa in how many people lived in the rain forest settleme nts along the Xin gu, butHecke nberger estimates that larger tow ns and clusters of settleme nts had betwee n 1,000 and 5,000 in habita nts, for a total populati on of more tha n 50,000. In many places, Hecke nberger has found large ar

59、eas of dark soil like those studied by Neves 800 miles away. Today only 300 or so Kuikuro live in the regi on where Hecke nberger works, and they may be desce nded from the unknown peoples who built those tow ns.Fawcett set off on his last voyage in pursuit of a lost city, and Neves and Hecke nberger's work may con firm the an cie nt explorer's suspici on s. It seems likely higher level of developme nt tha n had