15.A)They have often proved to be as helpful as doing mental exercise.
B)Taking them with other medications might entail unnecessary risks.
C)Their effect lasts only a short time.
D)Many have benefited from them.
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks followed by three or four questions. The recordings will be played only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
16.A)How catastrophic natural disasters turn out to be to developing nations.
B)How the World Meteorological Organization studies natural disasters.
C)How powerless humans appear to be in face of natural disasters.
D)How the negative impacts of natural disasters can be reduced.
17.A)By training rescue teams for emergencies.
B)By taking steps to prepare people for them.
C)By changing people’s views of nature.
D)By relocating people to safer places.
18.A)How preventive action can reduce the loss of life.
B)How courageous Cubans are in face of disasters.
C)How Cubans suffer from tropical storms.
D)How destructive tropical storms can be.
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19.A)Pay back their loans to the American government.
B)Provide loans to those in severe financial difficulty.
C)Contribute more to the goal of a wider recovery.
D)Speed up their recovery from the housing bubble.
20.A)Some banks may have to merge with others.
B)Many smaller regional banks are going to fail.
C)It will be hard for banks to provide more loans.
D)Many banks will have to lay off some employees.
21.A)It will work closely with the government.
B)It will endeavor to write off bad loans.
C)It will try to lower the interest rate.
D)It will try to provide more loans.
22.A)It won’t help the American economy to turn around.
B)It won’t do any good to the major commercial banks.
C)It will win the approval of the Obama administration.
D)It will be necessary if the economy starts to shrink again.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
23.A)Being unable to learn new things.
B)Being rather slow to make changes.
C)Losing temper more and more often.
D)Losing the ability to get on with others.
24.A)Cognitive stimulation.
B)Community activity.
C)Balanced diet.
D)Fresh air.
25.A)Ignoring the signs and symptoms of aging.
B)Adopting an optimistic attitude towards life.
C)Endeavoring to give up unhealthy lifestyles.
D)Seeking advice from doctors from time to time.
Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Directions:In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Read the passage through carefully before making your choices.Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter.Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Pursuing a career is an essential part of adolescent development.“The adolescent becomes an adult when he_26_a real job.”To cognitive researchers like Piaget,adulthood meant the beginning of an_27_.
Piaget argued that once adolescents enter the world of work,their newly acquired ability to form hypotheses allows them to create representations that are too ideal.The_28_of such ideals,without the tempering of the reality of a job or profession,rapidly leads adolescents to become _29_ of the non-idealistic world and to press for reform in a characteristically adolescent way.Piaget said:“True adaptation to society comes_30_when the adolescent reformer attempts to put his ideas to work.”
Of course,youthful idealism is often courageous,and no one likes to give up dreams.Perhaps,taken_31_out of context,Piaget’s statement seems harsh.What he was_32_，however,is the way reality can modify idealistic views.Some people refer to such modification as maturity.Piaget argued that attaining and accepting a vocation is one of the best ways to modify idealized views and to mature.
As careers and vocations become less available during times of _33_,adolescents may be especially hard hit.Such difficult economic times may leave many adolescents_34_about their roles in society.For this reason,community interventions and government job programs that offer summer and vacation work are not only economically_35_but also help to stimulate the adolescent’s sense of worth.
A)automatically I)incidentally
B)beneficial J)intolerant
C)capturing K)occupation
D)confused L)promises
E)emphasizing M)recession
F)entrance N)slightly
G)excited O)undertakes
H)existence
Section B
Directions:In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Can societies be rich and green?
[A]“If our economies are to flourish,if global poverty is to be eliminated and if the well-being of the world’s people enhanced—not just in this generation but in succeeding generations—we must make sure we take care of the natural environment and resources on which our economic activity depends.”That statement comes not,as you might imagine,from a stereotypical tree-hugging,save-the-world greenie(环保主义者),but from Gordon Brown,a politician with a reputation for rigour,thoroughness and above all,caution.
[B]A surprising thing for the man who runs one of the world’s most powerful economies to say?Perhaps;though in the run-up to the five-year review of the Millennium(千年的)Goals,he is far from alone.The roots of his speech,given in March at the roundtable meeting of environment and energy ministers from the G20 group of nations,stretch back to 1972,and the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.
[C]“The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world,”read the final declaration from this gathering,the first of a sequence which would lead to the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992 and the World Development Summit in Johannesburg three years ago.
[D]Hunt through the reports prepared by UN agencies and development groups—many for conferences such as this year’s Millennium Goals review—and you will find that the linkage between environmental protection and economic progress is a common thread.
[E]Managing ecosystems sustainably is more profitable than exploiting them,according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.But finding hard evidence to support the thesis is not so easy.Thoughts turn first to some sort of global statistic,some indicator which would rate the wealth of nations in both economic and environmental terms and show a relationship between the two.
[F]If such an indicator exists,it is well hidden.And on reflection,this is not surprising;the single word“environment”has so many dimensions,and there are so many other factors affecting wealth—such as the oil deposits—that teasing out a simple economy-environment relationship would be almost impossible.
[G]The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,a vast four-year global study which reported its initial conclusions earlier this year,found reasons to believe that managing ecosystems sustainably—working with nature rather than against it—might be less profitable in the short term,but certainly brings long-term rewards.
[H]And the World Resources Institute(WRI)in its World Resources 2005 report,issued at the end of August,produced several such examples from Africa and Asia;it also demonstrated that environmental degradation affects the poor more than the rich,as poorer people derive a much higher proportion of their income directly from the natural resources around them.
[I]But there are also many examples of growing wealth by trashing the environment,in rich and poor parts of the world alike,whether through unregulated mineral extraction,drastic water use for agriculture,slash-and-burn farming,or fossil-fuel-guzzling(大量消耗)transport.Of course,such growth may not persist in the long term—which is what Mr.Brown and the Stockholm declaration were both attempting to point out.Perhaps the best example of boom growth and bust decline is the Grand Banks fishery.For almost five centuries a very large supply of cod(鳕鱼)provided abundant raw material for an industry which at its peak employed about 40,000 people,sustaining entire communities in Newfoundland.Then,abruptly,the cod population collapsed.There were no longer enough fish in the sea for the stock to maintain itself,let alone an industry.More than a decade later,there was no sign of the ecosystem re-building itself.It had,apparently,been fished out of existence;and the once mighty Newfoundland fleet now gropes about frantically for crab on the sea floor.
[J]There is a view that modern humans are inevitably sowing the seed of a global Grand Banks-style disaster.The idea is that we are taking more out of what you might call the planet’s environmental bank balance than it can sustain;we are living beyond our ecological means.One recent study attempted to calculate the extent of this“ecological overshoot of the human economy”,and found that we are using 1.2 Earth’s-worth of environmental goods and services—the implication being that at some point the debt will be called in,and all those services—the things which the planet does for us for free—will grind to a halt.
[K]Whether this is right,and if so where and when the ecological axe will fall,is hard to determine with any precision—which is why governments and financial institutions are only beginning to bring such risks into their economic calculations.It is also the reason why development agencies are not united in their view of environmental issues;while some,like the WRI,maintain that environmental progress needs to go hand-in-hand with economic development,others argue that the priority is to build a thriving economy,and then use the wealth created to tackle environmental degradation.
[L]This view assumes that rich societies will invest in environmental care.But is this right?Do things get better or worse as we get richer? Here the Stockholm declaration is ambiguous.“In the developing countries,”it says,“most of the environmental problems are caused by under-development.”So it is saying that economic development should make for a cleaner world?Not necessarily;“In the industralised countries,environmental problems are generally related to industrialisation and technological development,”it continues.In other words,poor and rich both over-exploit the natural world,but for different reasons.It’s simply not true that economic growth will surely make our world cleaner.
[M]Clearly,richer societies are able to provide environmental improvements which lie well beyond the reach of poorer communities.Citizens of wealthy nations demand national parks,clean rivers,clean air and poison-free food.They also,however,use far more natural resources-fuel,water(all those baths and golf courses)and building materials.
[N]A case can be made that rich nations export environmental problems,the most graphic example being climate change.As a country’s wealth grows,so do its greenhouse gas emissions.The figures available will not be completely accurate.Measuring emissions is not a precise science, particularly when it comes to issues surrounding land use;not all nations have re-leased up-to-date data,and in any case,emissions from some sectors such as aviation are not included in national statistics.But the data is exact enough for a clear trend to be easily discernible.As countries become richer,they produce more greenhouse gases;and the impact of those gases will fall primarily in poor parts of the world.
[O]Wealth is not,of course,the only factor involved.The average Norwegian is better off than the average US citizen,but contributes about half as much to climate change.But could Norway keep its standard of living and yet cut its emissions to Moroccan or even Ethiopian levels?That question,repeated across a dozen environmental issues and across our diverse planet,is what will ultimately determine whether the human race is living beyond its ecological means as it pursues economic revival.
36.Examples show that both rich and poor countries exploited the environment for economic progress.
37.Environmental protection and improvement benefit people all over the world.
38.It is not necessarily true that economic growth will make our world cleaner.
39.The common theme of the UN reports is the relation between environmental protection and economic growth.
40.Development agencies disagree regarding how to tackle environment issues while ensuring economic progress.
