雅思阅读真经

1、INTERNALTIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TESTING SYSTEMACADEMIC READINGTEST 1TIME ALLOWED: 1 hour NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 40INSTRUCTIONSWRITE ALL YOUR ANSWERS ON THE ANSWER SHEETThe test is in 3 sections: Reading Passage 1Reading Passage 2Reading Passage 3Questions 1 13Questions 14 26Questions 27 40Remember to

2、answer all the questions. If you are having trouble with a question, skip it and return to it later.READING PASSAGE 1You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 13 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.IMPROVING READING SPEEDIt is safe to say that almost anyone can double his speed of read

3、ing while maintaining equal or even higher comprehension. In other words, anyone can improve the speed with which he gets what he wants from his reading. The average college student reads between 250 and 350 words per minute on fiction and non-technical materials. A "good" reading speed is

4、 around 500 to 700 words per minute, but some people can read a thousand words per minute or even faster on these materials. What makes the difference? There are three main factors involved in improving reading speed: (1) the desire to improve, (2) the willingness to try new techniques and (3) the m

5、otivation to practice. Learning to read rapidly and well presupposes that you have the necessary vocabulary and comprehension skills. When you have advanced on the reading comprehension materials to a level at which you can understand college-level materials, you will be ready to begin speed reading

6、 practice in earnest.Understanding the role of speed in the reading process is essential. Research has shown a close relation between speed and understanding. For example, in checking progress charts of thousands of individuals taking reading training, it has been found in most cases that an increas

7、e in rate has been paralleled by an increase in comprehension, and that where rate has gone down, comprehension has also decreased. Most adults are able to increase their rate of reading considerably and rather quickly without lowering comprehension.Some of the facts which reduce reading rate: (a) l

8、imited perceptual span i.e., word-by-word reading; (b) slow perceptual reaction time, i.e., slowness of recognition and response to the material; (c) vocalization, including the need to vocalize in order to achieve comprehension; (d) faulty eye movements, including inaccuracy in placement of the pag

9、e, in return sweep, in rhythm and regularity of movement, etc.; (e) regression, both habitual and as associated with habits of concentration(f) lack of practice in reading, due simply to the fact that the person has read very little and has limited reading interests so that very little reading is pr

10、acticed in the daily or weekly schedule.Since these conditions act also to reduce comprehension increasing the reading rate through eliminating them is likely to result in increased comprehension as well. This is an entirely different matter from simply speeding up the rate of reading without refere

11、nce to the conditions responsible for the slow rate. In fact, simply speeding the rate especially through forced acceleration, may actually result, and often does, in making the real reading problem more severe. In addition, forced acceleration may even destroy confidence in ability to read. The obv

12、ious solution, then is to increase rate as a part of a total improvement of the whole reading process.A well planned program prepares for maximum increase in rate by establishing the necessary conditions. Three basic conditions include: 1. Eliminate the habit of pronouncing words as you read. If you

13、 sound out words in your throat or whisper them, you can read slightly only as fast as you can read aloud. You should be able to read most materials at least two or three times faster silently than orally. 2. Avoid regressing (rereading). The average student reading at 250 words per minute regresses

14、 or rereads about 20 times per page. Rereading words and phrases is a habit which will slow your reading speed down to a snail's pace. Furthermore, the slowest reader usually regresses most frequently. Because he reads slowly, his mind has time to wander and his rereading reflects both his inabi

15、lity to concentrate and his lack of confidence in his comprehension skills. 3. Develop a wider eye-span. This will help you read more than one word at a glance. Since written material is less meaningful if read word by word, this will help you learn to read by phrases or thought units. Poor results

16、are inevitable if the reader attempts to use the same rate indiscriminately for all types of material and for all reading purposes. He must learn to adjust his rate to his purpose in reading and to the difficulty of the material he is reading. This ranges from a maximum rate on easy, familiar, inter

17、esting material or in reading to gather information on a particular point, to minimal rate on material which is unfamiliar in content and language structure or which must be thoroughly digested. The effective reader adjusts his rate; the ineffective reader uses the same rate for all types of materia

18、l.Rate adjustment may be overall adjustment to the article as a whole, or internal adjustment within the article. Overall adjustment establishes the basic rate at which the total article is read; internal adjustment involves the necessary variations in rate for each varied part of the material. As a

19、n analogy, you plan to take a 100-mile mountain trip. Since this will be a relatively hard drive with hills, curves, and a mountain pass, you decide to take three hours for the total trip, averaging about 35 miles an hour. This is your overall rate adjustment. However, in actual driving you may slow

20、 down to no more than 15 miles per hour on some curves and hills, while speeding up to 50 miles per hour or more on relatively straight and level sections. This is your internal rate adjustment. There is no set rate, therefore, which the good reader follows inflexibly in reading a particular selecti

21、on, even though he has set himself an overall rate for the total job.In keeping your reading attack flexible, adjust your rate sensitivity from article to article. It is equally important to adjust your rate within a given article. Practice these techniques until a flexible reading rate becomes seco

22、nd nature to you.Adapted from: Questions 1 - 4 Choose the appropriate letters A D and write them in boxes 1 4 on your answer sheet.1. Which of the following is not a factor in improving your reading speed?(A).willing to try new skills(B).motivation to improve(C).desire to practice(D).h

23、esitate to try new techniques2. Understanding college level materials is a prerequisite for(A).learning to comprehend rapidly.(B).having the necessary vocabulary.(C).beginning speed reading.(D).practicing comprehension skills.3. For most people(A).a decrease in comprehension leads to a decrease in r

24、ate. (B).a decrease in rate leads to a increase in comprehension.(C).an increase in rate leads to an increase in comprehension.(D).an increase in rate leads to a decrease in comprehension.4. Speeding up your reading rate through forced acceleration often results in(A).reducing comprehension.(B).incr

25、easing comprehension.(C).increasing your reading problem.(D).reducing your reading problem.Questions 5 9Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.FactorsEffectsReduces rateIncreases rateWider eye span(5)YES(6)Word-by-word readingYESSlow perceptual rea

26、ction(7)YES(8)Return sweep inaccuracyYES(9)Concentrate and be confidentYESQuestions 10 - 13 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 10 13 on your answer sheet write.TRUEFALSENOT GIVENif the statement is trueif the statement is falseif the informati

27、on is not given in the passage10. In gathering material on a topic a reader must maximize his reading rate.11. The basic rate for each part of the reading material involves an overall adjustment.12. The set rate for a 100-mile mountain trip is 35 miles an hour.13.A good reader never establishes a se

28、t rate for reading an article.READING PASSAGE 2You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.Questions 14 - 18 Reading Passage 2 has 9 paragraphs A IFrom the list of headings below choose the 5 most suitable headings for paragraphs B, C, E, G and H.

29、Write the appropriate numbers ( )NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.List of Headingsi A warm laboratoryii Morphology of stonefliesiii Going back rather than going forwardiv From water to airv Ancient and modernvi Which path did they take?vii A new theoryviii Fro

30、m stoneflies to waspsix A short lifex Interesting insects.14. Paragraph B15. Paragraph C16. Paragraph E17. Paragraph G18. Paragraph HEvolution of Insect FlightA. Pterosaurs, birds and bats took to the air from evolutionary runways that scientists believe they understand fairly well, but insects bega

31、n flying so much longer ago that details of their stepwise conquest of flight remain obscure. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University hypothesize, however, that a present-day flightless insect called the stonefly may be closely related to ancestral insects that first learned to fly more than 330

32、 million years ago.B. Last February, Dr. James H. Marden, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, and Melissa G. Kramer, his student, began studying the behavior and biology of stoneflies - the immature nymphs of which are familiar to many fishermen as delicacies for trout. The nymphs begin li

33、fe in river or pond water and then develop primitive wings enabling them to skim across water at high speed without actually taking to the air. Marden and Ms. Kramer have concluded that the humble ancestor of such expert fliers as mosquitoes and wasps may have been very much like the stonefly.C. The

34、 stoneflies living in Canada and the northern United States, which belong to a primitive species called Taeniopteryx burksi, breed and mature in cold water and come to the surface for their skimming trip to shore in February and March. To study them, a scientist must work quickly, since the life spa

35、n of a stonefly is only about two weeks. The adult stonefly has waterproof hair on its feet, and after reaching the surface of the water, it supports itself by coasting on the water's surface meniscus layer. To hasten its trip to the shore, the insect spreads its four feeble wings and flaps vigo

36、rously, using aerodynamic thrust to scoot across the water at speeds up to 2 feet per second. This, Marden said, appears to be the only time in its life the stonefly normally uses its wings.D. In a series of experiments Marden described in a report published in the current issue of the journal Scien

37、ce, he found that although stoneflies in the wild, where ambient temperatures were recorded as ranging between 32 degrees and 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit, are completely flightless, their flying ability improves when they are warmed up in a laboratory. Even when warm, the insects never voluntarily take

38、flight from a horizontal surface, but if they crawl to the edge of a table and drop over the side they will fly for a few yards before settling to the ground. Several specimens tested by the Penn State scientists actually gained a little altitude under their own power after being launched by hand, b

39、ut none remained in the air for more than a few seconds.E. Stoneflies are interesting, Marden said in an interview, because so little is known of the specific changes insects underwent in the remote past as they gained the ability to fly. The stonefly's faltering efforts to use its wings may app

40、roximate a transitional stage of evolution that occurred some 350 million years ago, when swimming insects first became fliers. F. The study of insect evolution is hampered by a gigantic gap in the fossil record. Although fossils of early nonflying insects have been found in sediments dating from th

41、e Devonian period nearly 400 million years ago, no insect fossils have turned up from the following 75-million-year period. Marden said that fossil insects reappear in strata 325 million years old, but by then they had evolved greatly, and their increased diversity suggests that at least some specie

42、s had left the water to colonize land. Many of the fossils of that period look like present-day insects, including grasshoppers.G. Stoneflies lack some features that are important for true fliers, They have relatively weak wing muscles, and their thoracic cuticle plates are not fused together to cre

43、ate a rigid external skeleton. Rigidity is needed to provide strong, inflexible attachment points for an insect's wing muscles if it is to be capable of powered flight - a much more demanding activity than skimming or gliding. If the stonefly is similar to the first protofliers, this would argue

44、 against a widely held hypothesis that animal flight begins with gliding, from which powered flight eventually develops. Stoneflies never glide, even though they are on the verge of flying.H. Although the stonefly may have evolved to its present form in a progressive direction from primitive swimmin

45、g insects, it is possible, Marden believes, that its evolution was digressive - that its ancestors were true fliers that evolved into nonflying skimmers. Skimming requires much less energy than true flight, as demonstrated by a new family of skimming "wing-in-ground-effect" flightless airc

46、raft developed during the last decade in Russia, China and Germany. These aircraft never rise more than a few feet above the ground or water, but their stubby wings support them on an air cushion that eliminates the drag of surface friction.I. "Stoneflies seem to have found an ecological niche

47、in any case," Marden said. Whether the evolutionary pathway of the stonefly was progressive or digressive makes little difference to the insect, he said, but to an entomologist, the direction is important. "By mapping behavioral characters and morphology 1 of stoneflies, we hope eventually

48、 to infer the direction by which evolution carried them to their present stage of development," Marden said.Glossary1 morphology The branch of biology that deals with the form and structure of organismsQuestions 19 22Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage, answer the following question

49、s.19. How long ago did stoneflies first use their wings? 20. How wide is the fossil gap?21. Where is the only place that stoneflies actually fly?22. What time of the year do stoneflies use their wings?Questions 23 26Complete the summary below. Choose your answers from the list below the summary.NB T

50、here are more words than spaces, so you will not use them all.Stoneflies have (23) wing muscles and a (24) external skeleton so that they cannot be true fliers. As they cant fly or (25) they skim. Less energy is needed for skimming and so stoneflies have found their (26). in life.List of Words new f

51、amily rigid strong attachment pointsverge of flying glide weakecological niche cuticle an air cushionflexible powered flight take off READING PASSAGE 3You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 40 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.Maternal Education and Child MortalityA. Many studies

52、 have been carried out which recognize education (especially that of mothers) as an effective way of improving children's health and reducing child mortality. Caldwell refers to the results of two surveys that were carried out in Nigeria to arrive at the conclusion that "Maternal education

53、is the single most significant determinant of child mortality." However, maternal education is an intertwined factor, and hence may account for other variables that represent socio-economic conditions as well. B. Although the relationship between maternal education and children's health is

54、no longer an issue to be debated, there still exists a dearth of research information on the mechanisms through which maternal education works to improve children's health. A few of the possible mechanisms that have been focused so far are pointed out below: u Education makes a woman conscious a

55、bout the well being of herself and her family. It gives the basic ideas about the path to well being and also equips and encourages to increase her knowledge on healthy living; u Education helps to form the attitude to practice "manners of hygiene" u Education equips mothers with the knowl

56、edge of scientific causes of disease and proper health behaviour and illness behaviour for preventive and curative measures;u Education encourages mothers to adopt proper feeding practices; u Education makes the mothers more willing to use health care services when necessary, and preparing them for

57、overcoming the barriers in doing so. Doctors and nurses are more likely to listen to her, as she can demand their attention, whereas the illiterate might be completely rebuffed;u Education allows greater exposure to the mass media, which can keep mothers better informed about the health issues;u Edu

58、cation empowers mothers to make and implement proper and timely decisions regarding their children's health; Thus, we find maternal education as a gate way toward diversified aspects of modern life that significantly affect children's morbidity and mortality. C. A debate has arisen on the link between maternal education and children's health concerns relative effectiveness of general education (acquired through formal sc