全国2007年4月高等教育自学考试英语科技文选试题

全国2007年4月高等教育自学考试

英语科技文选试题

课程代码：00836

PART A:VOCABULARY

Ⅰ.Directions: Add the affix to each word according to the given Chinese, making changes when necessary.(10%)

1.extricable       无法摆脱的

2.fiction         想象的

3.period         周期的

4.produce        生产有经济价值之东西的

5.normal         异常的

6.justified        理由

7.habit           同居

8.class           标准的

9.field           外场

10.distinct        有特色的

Ⅱ.Directions: Fill in the blanks, each using one of the given words or phrases below in its proper form.(10%)

take…into account   burst forth   to the tune of    run for    do…justice/do justice to…

in relation to         cater for      in response to    after all      draw on

11.He is going to __________________________ President.

12.He has two jobs; he can’t ______________________ both of them.

13.She used the map to discover where she was _____________________ her surroundings.

14.The company has changed some of its working practices _________________ criticism by

     government inspectors.

15.Don’t get discouraged by setbacks; we are new to the work _______________________.

16.The record company __________________________all tastes in music.

17.A writer has to _________________________ his imagination and experience.

18.When you are planning a garden party, you’ll have to ________ the weather  ______.

19.Bamboo shoots ________________ in spring.

20.The city council had financed the new building ______________ over twelve million dollars.

Ⅲ.Directions: Fill in each blank with a suitable word given below.(10%)

contain   first   than   protein    in    remain   carbohydrates

later   then    with

Proteins are nutrients that build and repair body parts. Large parts of tissues—for instance, bone, muscle, and skin—come from  21 . Foods such as chicken and other meats, eggs, fish, and nuts supply you  22  protein. Fats are nutrients that supply your body with energy. Fats  23  large amounts of energy. Salad dressing, butter, and cooking oils are foods high  24  fat. Carbohydrates are nutrients that also supply you with energy. What  25  is the difference between fats and carbohydrates? The body uses carbohydrates  26  for energy. The body stores fats; that is, it keeps them for  27  use. Then, if necessary, it uses the fats for energy. Foods that contain starches and sugars (for instance, bread and fruit) supply you with  28 . A person can  29  healthy only if he or she gets the correct amounts of each nutrient. You must not get more or less of a nutrient  30  your body can use.

PART B:TRANSLATION

Ⅳ.Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, each using one of the given words or phrases below.(10%)

given      gigantic      untangle      reinforce      typify

31.大象是地球上一种巨大的动物。

32.假如有机会，我要放下工作去周游世界。

33.他花了很长的时间试图解开她头发上的发结。

34.最后关于事故的技术报告证实了最初调查的结果。

35.那台电脑的速度代表了同类电脑的速度。

Ⅴ.Directions:  Translate  the  following  paragraph  into  Chinese.(15%)

36.Related to this issue is that of inequalities of impact of the Green Revolution on various social groups. Quite apart from the advantages of scale, e. g. in the use of ground water for irrigation, large farmers inevitably had better access to information, credit and influence than did small farmers and they profited more from the new agricultural techniques, partly by adopting them earlier. However, adoption by small farmers eventually became widespread. The urban poor gained from the lower prices and greater supplies of food but the rural poor, especially the landless, have sometimes been disadvantaged. However, new agricultural technology should not be expected to stand proxy for social reform, and Lipton concludes that the technology per se (本身) was not to blame for the inequalities of impact; it met the criteria he would have specified for a technology to help the rural poor. As Frankel commented: “It is precisely the social blindness of modern technology that is encouraging the most disadvantaged sections of the agricultural community.”

PART C: READING           COMPREHENSION

Ⅵ. Directions: Read through the following passages. Choose the best answer and put the letter in the bracket.(20%)

(A)

      No layman, it is probably safe to assume, really understands Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Yet it is somewhat unnerving, to say the least, when somebody like MIT’s Victor Weisskopf, a National Medal of Science winner, claims not to understand it either. “It’s like the peasant who asks the engineer how the steam engine works,” Weisskopf says. “The engineer explains exactly how the steam moves through the engine, how all the parts move, and so on. And when he’s finished, the peasant says, ‘Yes, I understand all that. But where is the horse?’ That’s how I feel about general relativity. I know how it works in great detail, but I don’t understand where the horse is.”

       Knowledge is not the same as understanding, of course. Doctors know how to treat what ails the human body, but rarely do they understand in detail how or why their treatments work. Many people know a great deal about quarks and quasars, dinosaurs and jumping genes without claiming to understand them in the least.

       Even Isaac Newton admitted that he never understood gravity---something that later earned him Einstein’s greatest respect. Newton wrote: “It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other matter without mutual contact. That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it.”

       Newton was the first to see that the fall of the apple and the orbit of the moon were propelled by the same force: gravity. Both to him and G.W. Leibniz are attributed the development of differential calculus. To Newton calculus provided a way to predict the pull of the force of gravity at various distances from the Earth’s center. Newton knew precisely how gravity behaved; he just did not understand how it worked. But if Newton did not understand gravity, who did? What does understanding mean, anyway? It turns out that there is no single answer to that question.

       In the first place, understanding means literally coming to terms. Confucius said, “The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names.”

       Yet names alone are hardly enough. As Paul Hewitt, author of the popular college text Conceptual Physics, tells his students, “We understand many things, and we have names and labels for these things. And there are many things that we do not understand, and we have names and labels for these things also.” It is easy to answer the question “Why do things fall toward the earth?” by giving the phenomenon a name, like gravity, or even cured space. Whether or not this suffices for understanding depends entirely on how well you understand what the name represents

37.The main purpose of the passage is to ______________.(     )

A. illustrate the fact that few people really understand Einstein’s theory of general relativity

B. explain that true understanding is rarely acquired

C. argue for the essence of understanding

D. discuss the incompleteness of scientific understanding

38.In telling the story about the peasant, Victor Weisskopf was _________.(     )

A. ridiculing the peasant

B. ridiculing scientists

C. showing respect for the peasant

D. arguing for respect for scientists

39.According to Issac Einstein, one of the incredible aspects of gravity is that _____.(     )

A. it keeps people and buildings upright

B. it makes the apple fall to the ground

C. it affects objects in the universe that are far from each other

D. it is innate, inherent and essential

40.It seems amazing that __________.(     )

A. even Newton admitted that he didn’t fully understand gravity

B. nobody but Newton understood fully what gravity really means

C. it takes a horse to make an engine run

D. good doctors know how and why their medicine works to help their patients recover

41.What can be said about names for things?(     )

A. Names may not stand for things.

B. There are not enough names for understanding things.

C. Even the unknown things have names.

D. Names may have inadequacy for understanding things.

(B)

Government in the United States have long looked to Canada as a leading light of health care fairness and equity. From a distance, Canada may seem to have it all: modern medicine and universal insurance. Up close, the story is quite different. On June 9, the Supreme Court of Canada called the system dangerous and deadly, striking down key laws and turning the country’s vaunted health care system on its head.

The Supreme Court of Canada is arguably the most liberal high court in the Western world, having recently endorsed the constitutionality of gay marriage and medical marijuana. Most legal scholars expressed surprise that the justices even agreed to hear this appeal of a health care case twice dismissed by lower courts. Involving a man who waited almost a year for a hip replacement, the bench decided that the province of Quebec has no right to restrict the freedom of a person to purchase health care or health insurance. In doing so, they struck down two Quebec laws, overturning a 30-year ban on private medicine in the province.

This outcome would not have been possible without the persistence of one man: Jacques Chaoulli. A Montreal physician, Chaoulli was so angered when a government bureaucrat shut down his private family practice that he went on a hunger strike. After a month, he gave up and decided that only the courts could help his fight.

With an eye on a legal challenge, Chaoulli tried his hand at law school—but flunked out after a semester. Undeterred, he sought the help of various organizations to support his efforts. None would. He decided to proceed anyway, choosing to represent himself. His legal fight, costing more than a half million dollars, was funded largely by his Japanese father-in-law.

But Chaoulli was not completely alone. He asked one of his patients for help. A former chemical salesman with a bad hip, the patient agreed. Their argument was simple: Quebec’s ban on private insurance caused unnecessary suffering since waiting lists have grown so long for basic care.

The woes of Chaoulli’s patient are all too common. Canadians wait for practically any diagnostic test, surgical procedure, or specialist consultation. Many can’t even arrange general care. In Norwood, Ontario, for example, one family doctor serves the entire town, and he can only take 50 new patients a year. The town holds an annual lottery to choose the lucky 50.

According to Statistics Canada, approximately 1.2 million Canadians lack a family doctor and are looking for one. Others seek more urgent care. Toronto was shaken recently when the media reported that a retired hockey legend was forced to wait more than a month for life-saving chemotherapy because of a bed shortage at the largest cancer hospital in the country.

42.According to the passage, which of the following is true of Canada?(     )

A. Gay marriage is legal in it.

B. Its health care system is the best in the world.

C. Its health care system has experienced a setback.

D. Its justices are the most liberal in the world.

43.Why were the legal scholars surprised when the justices heard the appeal of the health care case twice? (     )

A. The case was dismissed by lower courts.

B. They thought the case was a small one.

C. The justices failed to decide the case when they first heard the appeal.

D. The case was misrepresented.

44.EXCEPT FOR ________, the following may contribute to the ending of two Quebec laws and the lifting of a ban on private medicine in the province.(     )

A. Chaoulli

B. a former chemical salesman

C. a family doctor in Norwood, Ontario

D. the Supreme Court of Canada

45.The phrase “flunked out” in line 1, paragraph 4, is closest in meaning to _____.(     )

A. quitted

B. gave up

C. was dismissed

D. dropped out

46.What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?(     )

A. Canadian medical specialists are not ready to give advice to their patients.

B. Many things are decided by lot in Norwood, Ontario.

C. Canadian hospitals are usually short of beds for patients.

D. Many Canadians are seeking private medicine.

Ⅶ.Directions: Read the following passage, and then fill in the table with the information based on the passage.(10%)

       The camera and the eye are similar in many respects. They both need light rays in order to function. Both have a sensitive surface on which the image is formed. In the eye the image is formed on the retina. In the camera the image is formed on the film. As in a camera, the image on the retina is inverted.

       Both the eye and the camera have a lens. The lens focuses the image on the sensitive surface. In the camera, the lens moves backward and forward. In the eye the curvature of the lens is changed. In this respect the eye differs from the camera.

       Both the camera and the eye have a device to regulate the amount of light that passes through the lens. In the camera there is a shutter of variable speed and a diaphragm of variable aperture. In the eye the iris automatically adjusts the size of the pupil according to the intensity of light.

       Both the eye and the camera are sensitive to light, shade and color. The film records light, shade and color. The eye perceives them but does not record them. The two eyes together produce a three-dimensional image. The camera lens produces a two-dimensional image.

       The eye is more flexible than the camera. It can adapt more quickly to a wider range of light conditions. Both the camera and the eye can register small and distant objects. The camera performs these functions better than the eye.

Camera VS Eye

PART D: WRITING

Ⅷ.Directions: Write a passage (150-200 words) in English on the following title. Develop the idea according to the Chinese outline given below.(15%)

52.Modern Technology and Our Life

1) 现代技术越来越发达，与人们的生活联系愈来愈紧密。

2) 现代技术给人们生活带来许多便利。