雅思考试阅读考题回顾1108
雅思考试阅读考题回顾
朗阁海外考试研究中心张晓予考试日期 2014年11月8日
Reading Passage 1
Title Back to life（野马的保护和重归自然）
Question types 是非无判断题TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN 3题简答题Short Answer Questions 5题
填空题5题
文章内容回顾此篇文章为动物类题材，内容是关于野马的保护和野化回归自然，蒙古马与另一种马的介绍。
相关英文原文阅读Equine advocates are taking a new approach to get wild horses much-needed protection by petitioning the Department of the Interior to have horses who roam on federal public lands listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The petition was filed by Friends of Animals (FoA) and the Cloud Foundation over concerns that if the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) doesn’t change the course it’s on soon, the agency will mismanage these American icons into extinction.
In 1971, Congress recognized the value of wild horses as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” who “contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” It enacted the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which was intended to protect wild horses from “capture, branding, harassment, or death.”
Sadly, the BLM has failed, and continues to fail, to uphold its duties and continues to remove and warehouse thousands upon thousands of wild horses. According to FoA, more than 200,000 horses have been driven off of public land since the Act was passed, while thousands more still face the threat of removal.
Wild horses have already disappeared from Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, and things are getting ugly in other states, including Utah and Nevada. Now there are believed to be fewer than 33,000 horses live on 26 million acres of BLM lands, while almost twice as many are in BLM holding facilities as the government continues to pointlessly spend millions of dollars every year on more gathers and holding costs.
Yet the agency still wants to reduce their numbers by another 30 percent and will continue to subject them to terrifying, incredibly inhumane and indiscriminate roundups where the young, old and pregnant are forced to run for their lives as they’re chased by helicopters.
FoA and the Cloud Foundation cite these excessive roundups and removals as a major threats to their populations, thanks mainly to private livestock grazing, in addition to habitat loss (they’ve already lost 22 million acres) and inadequate regulation.
Now concerns continue to be raised about how these threats will continue to hurt them and whether the small herds that are left in the wild will be able to survive, while further fears have been raised that the government will open the door to legally allow horses in holding to be sold for slaughter.
“The tragedy of horse roundups exists because the BLM appears devoted to turning arid western public lands into feedlots for cows and sheep to appease cattle producers,” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA. “Friends of Animals finds this morally and ecologically reprehensible, as wild horses are driven off lands to leave the bulk of water, forage and space for two domestic animals owned by ranchers.”
Even though they’re legally protected, the BLM treats wild horses like an invasive species who have no right to the land, but scientific research based on fossil records and DNA evidence has proven that they did originate here. The belief that they’re a native species was also upheld last month by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals during a lawsuit that argued the BLM was breaking the law by rounding up too many horses.
“Misclassification of wild horses as a non-native species is politically, not scientifically driven,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation. “Wild horses are severely endangered but without recognition of current scientific evidence of their native status, they could become extinct.”
题型难度分析1-3是非无判断题
1. 两种马对…有difference NOT GIVEN
2. …中的11匹马如何？
3. TRUE
4-8简答题(no more than 3 words)
4. From which year Przewalski’s horses kept in zoo? 1990
5. How many groups? 3 groups
6. 马在某地跑出去了，researcher用什么定位？Genetic reserve
7. free to多少land? 13000 hectares
8. 多少匹马？27
题型技巧分析此篇文章中出现了简答题。这类题型其实就是填空题的一个变体。在解决简答题的时候，考生除了应当学习从题干中找到准确的定位词之外，还可以通过疑问词的问法推测答案的可能性，从而帮助自己快速从文章中定位到答案。另外还需要注意填写答案的字数要求，答案不要超过字数要求。
剑桥雅思推荐原文练习剑桥4 Test 1 Passage 2 What Do Whales Feel
剑桥6 Test 1 Passage 1 Australian Sports Success
Reading Passage 2
Title Antarctica – in from the cold?
Question types 段落信息配对题5题
分类题3题
选择题Multiple Choices 5题
文章内容回顾本文是自然地理类题材的文章，主要内容是介绍南极洲的自然环境以及其对水循环和气候等的影响。
相关英文原文阅读考试文章与考题：
Antarctica ---come in from the Cold?
A段：南极洲(Antarctica)曾经被人遗忘，在人们印象中是偏远又生活无比艰苦的地方(only the most courageous of men)。
B段：进入21世纪人们的看法有所改变，对南极洲开始有所了解，把它视为地球的一部分(seen to an integral part of Planet Earth)，也开始做scientific research, 发现它对气候、海洋环流(ocean circulation)有很大的影响。
C段：解释了南极洲的气候变化，提到Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC)，ice is up to 4 km thick, temperatures as low as -89.2°C, 第一次提到katabatic wind（下降风），并对其进行了解释，the icy blast that howls over the ice cap and out to sea，时速可达300km/hr，造成fearsome wind-chill effects.
D段：对南极洲气候的预测对澳洲农业的影响，by receiving more accurate predictions, graziers（牧场主）in northern Queensland are able to avoid overstocking（过度放牧）in years when rainfall will be poor. Not only does this limit their losses but it prevents serious pasture（牧场的牧草） degradation（土地退化） that may take
decades to repair.
E段：从南澳的experience可以看得出sea ice对生态的影响。Antarctic krill（磷虾）在sea ice is extensive的时候就breed得好，否则就breed 不出，它是baleen whales, penguins, seals, flighted（迁徙） sea birds and many fish的staple diet（主食）。
F段：sea ice的形成为北半球带来了活力。Cold water caries more oxygen than warm water, so when it rises, well into the northern hemisphere, it reoxygenates and revitalizes the ocean.
G段：人类对于南极洲的新认识，知道它不是useless and barren（贫瘠的），而是a powerful engine that has impacts on human, animal and plant life across the globe. 已经publish了300 research papers and articles.
14-18段落信息配对题
14, the effect of weather prediction on agriculture 选：D
15. sea ice brings life back to Antarctica 选：E
16. sea ice formation contributes to northern hemisphere’s vitality.选：F
17. the explanation of Antarctic climate change 选：C
18. Antarctica was once a forgotten continent. 选：A
19-21分类题
A. Ice
B. Wind
C. Air pressure
19. Southern Oscillation Index 选：C
20. Fresh water 选：A
21. Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) 选：B
22-26选择题
22. Why do Australian farmers value the prediction system?
选：B. Prevent grassland from degradation.
23. What would happen to sea creatures if sea ice decreases?
选：D. Krills fail to reproduce babies successfully.
24. What is the effect of katabatic winds?
选：C. Bring fresh ice into southern ocean.
25. What happens near continent shelf of Antarctica?
选：A. Salt density increases.
26. How does Antarctica benefit Northern hemisphere?
选：C. Flowed Cold water is rich in oxygen.
相关阅读：
Antarctica and cold-adapted micro-organisms
During the past two decades, there has been a large increase in research on cold-adapted micro-organisms, generally known as psychrophiles, driven by the realization that they and their enzymes have a great potential for exploitation in biotechnology. As a consequence, many more laboratories are culturing micro-organisms at low temperatures. However, many of the most commonly used growth media were designed originally for the culture of pathogenic micro-organisms that grow best at 37°C. Such media are also generally “rich”, i.e., in comparison with most natural environments they not only contain relatively high concentrations of carbon and nitrogen sources but also generous supplies of other necessary nutrients, usually in a readily assimilable form. Nutrient cornucopia is relatively rare on Earth and many habitats will be deficient in more than one important component of a micro-organism’s nutrition. In addition, most of our earthly environment is (from a human perspective) relatively cold, i.e., it is more or less permanently below 5°C.
Therefore, most micro-organisms are cold-adapted. They have special adaptations to their enzymes, membranes and other cellular components, enabling them to grow at low temperatures at rates comparable to those of mesophiles at moderate temperatures. These molecular changes are discussed in several reviews. This short review instead considers the growth of psychrophiles, and the requirements of isolating them from natural habitats and culturing them in the laboratory. Antarctica is used as the example of a cold habitat, which is not only one of the most extreme on Earth but also has been used both as a source of psychrophiles for biotechnological use and as a model in the search for extraterrestrial life.
题型难度分析本篇为旧题，版本号V080412。南极洲这个话题对大部分考生来说会比较陌生，因此背景知识的储备可能不多，对考生来说可能时间比较紧迫。
题型技巧分析在考试的准备阶段，考生应当正确的评估自己的词汇量和背景知识储备的盲点，有意识的进行一些相关题材的补充阅读以及词汇积累。碰到选择题可能会导致看题看文章时间不够，还是建议考生不要空题，实在来不及看也可以大胆猜测答案。
剑桥雅思推荐原文
练习
剑桥6 Test 1 Passage 3 Climate Change and the Inuit
Reading Passage 3
Title 达尔文进化论与企业管理（2012.06.16 P3）
Question types 是非无判断题YES/NO/NOT GIVEN 选择题 Multiple Choice
Summary填空（有词库）
文章内容回顾此篇文章为心理类题材的文章，主要内容是关于达尔文的进化论在企业管理中的应用。
相关英文原文阅读In the first edition of "The Origin of Species" in 1859, Charles Darwin speculated about how natural selection could cause a land mammal to turn into a whale. As a hypothetical example, Darwin used North American black bears, which were known to catch insects by swimming in the water with their mouths open:
"I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale," he speculated.
The idea didn't go over very well with the public. Darwin was so embarrassed by the ridicule he received that the swimming-bear passage was removed from later editions of the book.
Scientists now know that Darwin had the right idea but the wrong animal: instead of looking at bears, he should have instead been looking at cows and hippopotamuses.
The story of the origin of whales is one of evolution's most fascinating tales and one of the best examples scientists have of natural selection.
Natural selection
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science, supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and developmental biology.
To understand the origin of whales, it's necessary to have a basic understanding of how natural selection works: It is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more offspring.
Natural selection can change a species in small ways, causing a population to change color or size over the course of several generations. This is called "microevolution."
But natural selection is also capable of much more. Given enough time and enough accumulated changes, natural selection can create entirely new species. It can turn dinosaurs into birds, apes into humans and amphibious mammals into whales.
Mutations
The physical and behavioral changes that make natural selection possible happen at the level of DNA and genes. Such changes are called "mutations."
Mutations can be caused by chemical or radiation damage or errors in DNA replication. Mutations can even be deliberately induced in order to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
Most times, mutations are either harmful or neutral but in rare instances, a mutation might prove beneficial to the organism. If so, it will become more prevalent in the next generation and spread throughout the population.
In this way, natural selection guides the evolutionary process, preserving and adding up the beneficial mutations and rejecting the bad ones.
How whales took to water
Using evolution as their guide and knowing how natural selection works, biologists knew that the transition of early whales from land to water occurred in a series of predictable steps. The evolution of the blowhole, for example, might have happened in the following way:
Random mutations resulted in at least one whale having its nostrils placed farther back on its head. Those animals with this adaptation would have been better suited to a marine lifestyle, since they would not have had to completely surface to breathe. Such animals would have been more successful and had more offspring. In later generations, more mutations occurred, moving the nose farther back on the head.
Other body parts of early whales also changed. Front legs
became flippers. Back legs disappeared. Their bodies became
more streamlined and they developed tail flukes to better propel
themselves through water.
Smoking gun
Even though scientists could predict what early whales should
look like, they lacked the fossil evidence to back up their claim.
Creationists took this absence as proof that evolution didn't
occur. They mocked the idea that there could have ever been
such a thing as a walking whale. But since the early 1990s, that's
exactly what scientists have been finding.
The smoking gun came in 1994, when paleontologists found the
fossilized remains of Ambulocetus natans, an animal whose
name literally means "swimming-walking whale." Its forelimbs
had fingers and small hooves but its hind feet were enormous
given its size. It was clearly adapted for swimming but it was also
capable of moving clumsily on land, much like a seal.
When it swam, the ancient creature moved like an otter, pushing
back with its hind feet and undulating its spine and tail.
Modern whales propel themselves through the water with
powerful beats of their horizontal tail flukes but Ambulocetus still
had a whip-like tail and had to use its legs to provide most of the
propulsive force needed to move through water.
27. 文章title选择？
选：B. understanding of origins of people behaviors at
workplace
题型难度分析心理类话题考生不太熟悉，使得此篇文章难度较高。
剑桥5 Test 1 Passage 2 Nature or Nurture?
剑桥雅思推荐原文练
习
考试趋势分析和备考指导
本次考试题型比例较为常规，难度中等。建议考生在备考时注意补充背景知识，扩大阅读范围，积累常考词汇，熟悉所有的常见题型解法。