第四部分：阅读理解(第31～45题，每题3分，共45分)
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案涂在答题卡相应的位置上。
第一篇
Listening to Birdsong
A male zebra finch chirps away to himself. Suddenly he notices a female bird, nearby: He realizes he has an audience and immediately changes his song. Can the female tell the difference in his performance? According to a new study, the female zebra finch knows. And she prefers the special trills he creates when he sings to her. A male zebra finch changes his song when singing to a female in ways that people can barely detect. But the female finch can tell the difference.
Scientists had noticed slight variations in the songs of male zebra finches based on whether they were singing alone or whether there was a female ( and potential mate) nearby. With an audience, the males sped up the pace of their songs and controlled the notes they used. For this Study, researchers Sarah C. Woolley and Allison Doupe at the University of California, San Francisco decided to focus attention on the listening females, which have not been well studied in the past.
In the study, Woolley and Doupe set up a long cage with a sound speaker at each end. One broadcast the sound of a male zebra finch singing to himself, like someone singing in the shower. The other speaker broadcast a male performing for a female audience, as if he was giving a concert.
Female birds were placed between the two speakers. Some of the birds had mates, others didn't. The females shifted around a bit, and then most of them hopped over to sit beside just one speaker. All the birds that made a clear choice liked songs meant for a female audience, even if they'd never met the male.
Mated females also had a chance to listen to two different performance songs, one from an unknown male, and one from their mate. They spent more time listening, to the concert version of their mates' songs. This suggests that after a while, females learn to recognize—and prefer-the songs of their mates.
Scientists then studied the brains of the females. They found certain areas of the brain perked up when the birds listened to the concert songs. These brain areas may be involved in recognizing and evaluating the songs, and storing the memories of them. This research deals with what's called directed communication, when the communicator, or sender, focuses the message for a specific audience. One example is the way morns speak to their babies. Mothers around the world use the same sort of high-pitched sing-song chatter, and the babies respond best to those sounds. Songbirds are one of the only other species known to learn their communication, in this case their songs.
31 What does the first paragraph say about zebra finches? __________
A Male zebra finches like to sing to female zebra finches.
B Male zebra finches sing louder than female zebra finches.
C Male zebra finches change their songs in female zebra finches' presence.
D Male zebra finches like to listen to female zebra finches sing.
32 What did the researchers find in their study of female zebra finches? _________
A Female finches liked songs male finches sang for them.
B Female finches only liked songs male finches sang for their mates.
C Female finches liked to listen to songs from both speakers.
D Female finches chose the best male singers as their mates.
33 What is meant by “concert songs” in the seventh paragraph? __________
A Songs sung by zebra finches at a concert.
B Songs sung by male finches for female finches.
C Songs sung by female finches for male finches.
D Songs sung by male finches to many female finches.
34 What is NOT tree of directed communication? __________
A The sender of a message has a specific audience.
B Male zebra finches sing to female finches.
C Mothers talk to their babies.
D Male zebra finches sing to themselves.
35 Which of the following can best reflect the theme of the passage? _________
A Chirping away.
B Birdsongs as communication.
C Zebra finches and their life.
D Enjoying birdsongs.
第二篇
Media and Current Events
The media can impact current events. As a graduate student at Berkeley in the 1960s, I remember experiencing the events related to the People's park that were occurring on campus. Some of these events were given national media coverage in the press and on TV. I found it interesting to compare my impressions of what was going on with perceptions obtained from the news media. I could begin to see events of that time feed on news coverage. This also provided me with some healthy insights into the distinctions between these realities.
Electronic media are having a greater impact on the people's lives every day. People gather more and more of their impressions from representations. Television and telephone communications are linking people to a global village, or what one writer calls the electronic city. Consider the information that television brings into your home every day. Consider also the contact you have with others simply by using telephone. These media extend your conscious-ness and your contact. For example, the video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake focused on “live action” such as the fires or the rescue efforts. This gave the viewer the impression of total disaster. Television coverage of the Iraqi War also developed an immediacy. CNN reported events as they happened. This coverage was distributed worldwide. Although most people were far away from these events, they developed some perception of these realities.
In 1992, many people watched in horror as riots broke out on a sad Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, seemingly fed by video coverage from helicopters. This event was triggered by the verdict (裁定) in the Rodney King beating. We are now in an age where the public can have access to information that enables it to make its own judgments, and most people, who had seen the video of this beating, could not understand how the jury (陪审团) was able to acquit (宣布无罪) the policemen involved. Media coverage of events as they occur also provides powerful feedback that influences events. This can have harmful results, as it seemed on that Wednesday night in Los Angeles. By Friday night the public got to see Rodney King on television pleading, “Can we all get along?” By Saturday, television seemed to provide positive feedback as the Los Angeles riot turned out into a rally for peace. The television showed thousands of people marching with banners and cleaning tools. Because of that, many more people turned out to join the peaceful event they saw unfolding (展开) on television. The real healing, of course, will take much longer, but electronic media will continue to be a part of that process.
36 The best title for the passage is ____________.
A The 1992 Los Angeles Riots
B The Impact of Media on Current Events
C The 1989 San Francisco Earthquake and 1992 Los Angeles Riots
D How Media Cover Events ____________.
37 All of the following statements are true EXCEPT that
A electronic media can extend one's contact with the world
B those living far away from a certain event can also have some perception of realities by watching television
C all the events occurring on the university campus at Berkeley were given national media coverage
D video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake gave the viewers the impression of the total disaster
38 The term “electronic city” in Paragraph 2 refers to ____________.
A Los Angeles
B San Francisco
C Berkeley
D Earth
39 The 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out because ____________.
A the jury acquitted the policemen who had beaten Rodney King
B people can make their own judgements
C video coverage from helicopters had made people angry
D video coverage had provided powerful feedback
40 It can be inferred from the passage that ____________.
A media coverage of events as they occur can have either good or bad results
B most people who had seen the video of the Rodney King beating agree with the verdict of the jury
C the 1992 Los Angeles riots lasted a whole week
D Rodney King seemed very angry when he appeared on television on Friday
第三篇
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabilities are very common. They affect perhaps 10 percent of all children. Four times as many boys as girls have learning disabilities.
Since about 1970, new research has helped brain scientists understand these problems better. Scientists now know there are many different kinds of learning disabilities and that they are caused by many different things. There is no longer any question that all learning disabilities result from differences in the way the brain is organized.
You cannot look at a child and tell if he or she has a learning disability. There is no outward sign of the disorder. So some researchers began looking at the brain itself to learn what might be wrong.
In one study, researchers examined the brain of a learning-disabled person who had died in an accident. They found two unusual things. One involved cells in the left side of the brain, which control language. These cells normally are white. In the learning disabled person, however, these cells were gray. The researchers also found that many of the nerve cells were not in a line the way they should have been. The nerve cells were mixed together.
The study was carried out under the guidance of Norman Geschwind, an early expert on learning disabilities. Doctor Geschwind proposed that learning disabilities resulted mainly from problems in the left side of the brain. He believed this side of the brain failed to develop normally. Probably, he said, nerve cells there did not connect as they should. So the brain was like an electrical device in which the wires were crossed.
Other researchers did not examine brain tissue. Instead, they measured the brain's electrical activity and made a map of the electrical signals.
Frank Dully experimented with this technique at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. Doctor Dully found large differences in the brain activity of normal children and those with reading problems. The differences appeared throughout the brain. Doctor Duffy said his research is evidence that disabilities involve damage to a wide area of the brain, not just the left side.
41 Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage? _________.
A Learning disabilities may result from the unknown area of the brain.
B Learning disabilities may result from damage to a wide area of the brain.
C Learning disabilities may result from abnormal organization of the brain cells.
D Learning disabilities may result from problems in the left side of the brain.
42 Scientists found that the brain cells of a learning-disabled person differ from those of a normal person in _________.
A structure and function
B color and function
C size and arrangement
D color and arrangement
43 All of the following statements are TRUE except that _________.
A many factors account for learning disorder
B a learning-disabled person shows no outward signs
C reading disabilities are a common problem that affects 10 percent of the population
D the brain activity of learning-disabled children is different from that of normal children
44 Doctor Duffy believed that __________.
A he found the exact cause of learning disabilities
B the problem of learning disabilities did not lie in the left side of the brain
C the problem of learning disabilities resulted from the left side of the brain
D the problem of learning disabilities was not limited to the left side of the brain
45 According to the passage we can conclude that further researches should be made __________.
A to help learning-disabled children to develop their intelligence
B to study how children learn to read and write, and use numbers
C to investigate possible influences on brain development and organization
D to explore how the left side of the brain functions in language learning
