2014新改版六级模拟题五套

第一套

阅读理解之选词填空

Directions: In this section, there is apassage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blankfrom a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bankis identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each itemon Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any ofthe words in the bank more than once.

A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria FOR half a century, the (1) __________of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less.

Moore's law famously observes that the number of transistors which can be crammed into a given space (2)__________ every 18 months.

The amount of data that can be stored has grown at a similar rate.

Yet as (3)__________ get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive.

On May 10th Paul Otellini, the boss of Intel, a big American chipmaker, put the price of a new chip factory at around $10 billion.

Happily for those that lack Intel's resources, there may be a cheaper option—namely to mimic Mother Nature,

who has been building tiny (4)__________, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it.

A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal , sets out the latest example of the (5)__________.

In it, a group of researchers led by Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds, in Britain, describe using naturally occurring proteins to make arrays of tiny magnets,

similar to those employed to store information in disk drives.

The researchers took their (6)__________ from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide.

Previous work has isolated the protein that makes these miniature compasses. Using genetic engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium—Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology—to (7)__________ this protein in bulk.

Next, they imprinted a block of gold with a microscopic chessboard pattern of chemicals.

Half the squares contained anchoring points for the protein.

The other half were left untreated as controls.

They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing it to bind to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated (8)__________ of iron salts.

After that, they examined the results with an electron microscope.

Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial protein.

In principle, each of these magnetic domains could store the one or the zero

of a bit of information, according to how it was polarised.

Getting from there to a real computer memory would be a long road.

For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain is huge by modern computing (9)__________.

But Dr Staniland reckons that, with enough tweaking, both of these objections could be dealt with.

The (10)__________ of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab.

Growing things does not need as much kit as making them.

If the tweaking could be done, therefore, the result might give the word biotechnology a whole new meaning.

A) components

B) advantage

C) standards

D) compliments

E) essence

F) inspiration

G) disadvantage

H) doubles

I) solution

J) resolution

K) devices

L) manufacture

M) spirit

N) product

O) technique

答案：1.E)essence

2.H)doubles

3.A)components

4.K)devices

5.O)technique

6.F)inspiration

7.L)manufacture

8.I)solution

9.C)standards

10.B)advantage

全文翻译

A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria

制造计算机存储器的新奇方法：使用细菌

FOR half a century, the essence of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less.

半个世纪以来，计算机产业发展的本质就是花钱更少，成事更多。

Moore's law famously observes that the number of transistors which can be crammed into a given space doubles every 18 months.

摩尔定律的著名论断是：能够放入某空间内的晶体管数量每18个月翻一番。

The amount of data that can be stored has grown at a similar rate.

储存的数据也有着类似的增长速率，

Yet as components get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive.

但是随着部件越来越小，它们的制造难度和成本也逐渐增加。

On May 10th Paul Otellini, the boss of Intel, a big American chipmaker, put the price of a new chip factory at around $10 billion.

5月10日，美国芯片巨头因特尔总裁兼CEOPaul Otellini宣布将花费上百亿美元建设新工厂。

Happily for those that lack Intel's resources, there may be a cheaper option—namely to mimic Mother Nature,

对于不像因特尔那么有钱的厂家的好消息是，他们或许可以选择更便宜的方式—模拟大自然。

who has been building tiny devices, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it.

对于大自然来说，她建造微小设备已经有数十亿年了，所以自然是信手拈来，当然，这些设备都是以活细胞和其组份的形式呈现。

A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal , sets out the latest example of the technique.

发表在纳米技术期刊《微小》的一篇论文描述了这一新技术的示例，

In it, a group of researchers led by Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds, in Britain, describe using naturally occurring proteins to make arrays of tiny magnets,

该技术团队由英国利兹大学的Sarah Staniland领导，他们用自然生成的蛋白质让微型磁性材料进行排列，

similar to those employed to store information in disk drives.

这与磁盘驱动器上储存信息的磁性材料排序是类似的。

The researchers took their inspiration from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide.

研究人员从趋磁细菌上获得了灵感，由于该细菌内部存在磁性颗粒，所以对地球磁场非常敏感。

Previous work has isolated the protein that makes these miniature compasses. Using genetic engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium—Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology—to manufacture this protein in bulk.

他们先要把制造这种微型罗盘的蛋白质分离出来，并采用基因工程技术设法让另一种细菌—大肠杆菌来批量生产这种蛋白质，而大肠杆菌在生物体内普遍存在，是生物工程中的常用苦力。

Next, they imprinted a block of gold with a microscopic chessboard pattern of chemicals.

然后他们用化学方法绘制微小的棋盘图案，

Half the squares contained anchoring points for the protein.

并把图案的每一块染成金黄色，

The other half were left untreated as controls.

每块区域的一半用该蛋白质做固定点，

They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing it to bind to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated solution of iron salts.

另一半不做任何处理作为对照，再把这些金黄色的棋盘浸入含蛋白质的溶液中，并允许溶液中的蛋白质与棋盘上的固定蛋白质结合，最后把该棋盘全部浸入加热的铁盐溶液中。

After that, they examined the results with an electron microscope.

他们再用电子显微镜观察实验结果，

Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial protein.

果然，棋盘上的固定蛋白质区域产生了成群的磁铁颗粒，并由细菌蛋白质控制在相应位置。

In principle, each of these magnetic domains could store the one or the zero of a bit of information, according to how it was polarised.

基本上每个磁域都能按极化的方式存储一个字节信息的1或0。

Getting from there to a real computer memory would be a long road.

但是要制成真正的计算机存储器还有很长的路要走，

For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain is huge by modern computing standards.

首先对于可用的存储器来说，那些磁铁颗粒的磁性还不够强大，并且每个区域的尺寸对现在计算机标准来说太大了。

But Dr Staniland reckons that, with enough tweaking, both of these objections could be dealt with.

但Staniland认为，只要做些足够的调整，那些困难都将不是问题。

The advantage of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab.

这种方法的好处就是不用像因特尔那样如此资源密集地去建造新工厂，

Growing things does not need as much kit as making them.

在制造不断发展的产品时也不需要同样多的设备，

If the tweaking could be done, therefore, the result might give the word biotechnology a whole new meaning.

所以，如果这种调整可以成功的话，生物技术将会有一个全新的定义。

阅读理解之快速阅读

Paper--More than Meets the Eye

A) We are surrounded by so much paper and card that it is easy to forget just how complex it is. There are many varieties and grades of paper materials, and whilst it is fairly easy to spot the varieties, it is far more difficult to spot the grades.

B) It needs to be understood that most paper and card is manufactured for a specific purpose, so that whilst the corn-flake packet may look smart, it is clearly not something destined for the archives. It is made to look good, but only needs a limited life span. It is also much cheaper to manufacture than high grade card.

C) Paper can be made from an almost endless variety of cellulose-based material

which will include many woods, cottons and grasses or which papyrus is an example and from where we get the word "paper". Many of these are very specialized, but the preponderance of paper making has been from soft wood and cotton or rags, with the bulk being wood-based.

Paper from Wood

D) In order to make wood into paper it needs to be broken down into fine strands. Firstly by powerful machinery and then boiled with strong alkalies such as caustic soda, until a fine pulp of cellulose fibers is produced. It is from this pulp that the final product is made, relying on the bonding together of the cellulose into layers. That, in a very small nutshell, is the essence of paper making from wood. However, the reality is rather more complicated. In order to give us our white paper and card, the makers will add bleach and other materials such as china clay and additional chemicals.

E) A further problem with wood is that it contains a material that is not cellulose. Something called lignin. This is essential for the tree since it holds the cellulose fibres together, but if it is incorporated into the manufactured paper it presents archivists with a problem. Lignin eventually breaks down and releases acid products into the paper. This will weaken the bond between the cellulose fibers and the paper will become brittle and look rather brown and careworn. We have all seen this in old newspapers and cheap paperback books. It has been estimated that most paper back books will have a life of not greater than fifty years. Not what we need for our archives.

F) Since the lignin can be removed from the paper pulp during manufacture, the obvious question is "why is it left in the paper?" The answer lies in the fact that lignin makes up a considerable part of the tree. By leaving the lignin in the pulp a papermaker can increase his paper yield from a tree to some 95%. Removing it means a yield of only 35%. It is clearly uneconomic to remove the lignin for many paper and card applications.

G) It also means, of course, that lignin-free paper is going to be more expensive, but that is nevertheless what the archivist must look for in his supplies. There is no point whatsoever in carefully placing our valuable artifacts in paper or card that is going to hasten their demise. Acid is particularly harmful to photographic materials, causing them to fade and is some cases simply vanish!

H) So, how do we tell a piece of suitable paper or card from one that is unsuitable? You cannot do it by simply looking, and rather disappointingly, you cannot always rely on the label. "Acid-free" might be true inasmuch as a test on the paper may indicate that it is a neutral material at this time. But lignin can take years before it starts the inevitable process of breaking down, and in the right conditions it will speed up enormously.

I) Added to this, as I have indicated earlier, paper may also contain other materials added during manufacture such as bleach, china clay, chemical whiteners and size. This looks like a bleak picture, and it would be but for the fact that there are suppliers who will guarantee the material that they sell. If you want to be absolutely sure that you are storing in, or printing on, the correct material

then this is probably the only way.

J) Incidentally, acids can migrate from material to material. Lining old shoe boxes with good quality acid-free paper will do little to guard the contents. The acid will get there in the end.

Paper from Rag

K) Paper is also commonly made from cotton and rag waste. This has the advantage of being lignin-free, but because there is much less cotton and rag than trees, it also tends to be much more expensive than wood pulp paper. You will still need to purchase from a reliable source though, since even rag paper and card can contain undesirable additives.

L) A reliable source for quality rag papers is a recognized art stockiest. Many water color artists insist on using only fine quality rag paper and board.

M) The main lesson to learn from this information is that you cannot rely on purchasing archival materials from the high street. The only safe solution is to purchase from specialist suppliers. It may cost rather more, but in the end you will know that your important and valuable data and images have the best home possible.

1. The corn-flake packet is cheaper than high grade card.

2. There are a lot of materials which can be used for making paper, but the superiority ones are soft wood, cotton and rags.

3. During the whole manufacturing process, the final product is made from a pulp of cellulose fibres.

4. In order to make white paper and card, the makers will add bleach.

5. Liguin is essential for the tree but it will make paper easy to break.

6. Many paper producers will preserve lignin during manufacture, because leaving the lignin will make more paper from a tree.

7. Acid is particularly harmful to photographic materials.

8. If the lignin is removed from the paper, the paper will be more expensive.

9. Although free of lignin, paper made from cotton and rag waste can also cost more money than wood pulp paper because there is much less cotton and rag than trees.

10. What we can learn from "Paper from Rag" is that you had better buy archival materials from specialist suppliers.

答案：本文主要介绍了我们平常所见所用的纸的复杂性，通过介绍用木头和破布料造纸的过程，使我们对纸的类别、属性有了更深入的了解。

1.B

根据题干中的信息提示词corn—flake packet,high grade card,可定位到文章第二段，该部分最后提到corn-flake packet在制造过程中比高等级的纸(high grade card)便宜.

2.C

根据题干中的信息提示词soft wood，cotton and rags，可定位到文章第三段最后一句。

3.D

根据题干中的信息提示词final product，可将答案定位到D段，第二、三句提到最后的产品来源于纤维素纸浆。

4.D

根据题干中的信息提示词white paper and card，可将答案定位到D段，该部分最后

提到为了得到白纸，纸张生产者在制造过程中添加了漂白粉和其他化学物质。

5.E

根据题干中的信息提示词essential for the tree，可将答案定位到E段，该部分提到木质素是木头的主要组成物，其作用是凝聚纤维素，但它会使纸张变得易碎。

6.F

根据题干中的信息提示词lignin，可将答案定位到F段，该部分最后提到许多纸张生产者在生产过程中会保留木质素，主要是因为它会增加树木的造纸产量。

7.G

根据题干中的信息提示词acid，可将答案定位到G段，该部分最后提到酸对相纸的原料尤其不利。

8.F

根据题干中的信息提示词lignin和paper可定位到文章的F段，因为该段提到，如果在纸张的生产中去除木质素，将会降低树木出产纸张的量，由此可以知道，去除了木质素的纸张价格必定会更加昂贵。

9.K

根据题干中的信息提示词cotton and rag waste可定位到文章的K段，该部分告诉我们，尽管用棉花和破布料造的纸里没有木质素，但它们要比木制的纸贵很多，这是因为棉花和破布料的数量比树木少得多，由此可以得出答案。

10.M

根据题干中的信息提示词Paper from Ra9可定位到文章的最后一段，该部分提出最好到专业的供应商那里去买档案材料，由此可以得出答案。

阅读理解之仔细阅读

It being not only possible but even easy to predict which ten-year-old boys are at greatest risk of growing up to be persistent offenders, what are we doing with the information? Just about the last thing that we should do is to wait until their troubles have escalated in adolescence and then attack them with the provisions of the new Criminal Justice Bill.

If this bill becomes law, magistrates will have the power to impose residential care orders. More young people will be drawn into institutional life when all the evidence shows that this worsens rather than improves their prospects. The introduction of short sharp shocks in detention centers will simply give more young people a taste of something else they don’t need; the whole regime of detention centers is one of toughening delinquents, and if you want to train someone to be anti-establishment, “I can’t think of a better way to do it,” says the writer of this report.

The Cambridge Institute of Criminology comes up with five key factors that are likely to make for delinquency: a low income family a large family, parents deemed by social workers to be bad at raising children, parents who themselves have a criminal record, and low intelligence in the child. Not surprisingly, the factors tend to overlap. Of the 63 boys in the sample who had at least three of them when they were ten, half became juvenile delinquents—compared with only a fifth of the sample as a whole.

Three more factors make the prediction more accurate: being judged troublesome

by teachers at the age of ten, having a father with at least two criminal convictions and having another member of the family with a criminal record. Of the 35 men who had at least two of these factors in their background 18 became persistent delinquents and 8 more were in trouble with the law.

Among those key factors, far and away the most important was having a parent with a criminal record, even if that had been acquired in the distant past, even though very few parents did other than condemn delinquent behavior in their children.

The role of the schools emerges as extremely important. The most reliable prediction of all on the futures of boys came from teachers’ ratings of how troublesome they were at the age of ten. If the information is there in the classroom there must be a response that brings more attention to those troublesome children: a search for things to give them credit for other than academic achievement, a refusal to allow them to go on playing truant, and a fostering of ambition and opportunity which should start early in their school careers.

1.According to the author, delinquency should be tackled ___.

A.before adolescence

B.during institutional treatment

C.during adolescence

D.when the problem becomes acute

2.The number of young offenders could be reduced by the way of ___.

A.new legal measures

B.better residential care

C.brief periods of harsh punishment

D.examination of their backgrounds

3.What is the outcome result of putting young offenders into detention centers?

A.They become more violent

B.They receive useful training

C.They become used to institutions

D.They turn against society

4.Ten-year-old children likely to become offenders are usually___.

A.spoilt children from small families.

B.bright children in a poor family.

C.dull children with many brothers and sisters.

D.children whose parents have acquired wealth dishonestly.

5.The writer concludes that potential offenders could be helped by ___.

A.spending more time at school

B.more encouragement at school

C.more activities outside school

D.stricter treatment from teachers

答案：ADDCB

阅读理解之仔细阅读

What does the future hold for the problem of housing? A good deal depends, of course, on the meaning of “future”. If one is thinking in terms of science fiction and the space age, it is at least possible to assume that man will have solved such

trivial and earthly problems as housing. Writers of science fiction, from H.G. Wells onwards, have had little to say on the subject. They have conveyed the suggestion that men will live in great comfort, with every conceivable apparatus to make life smooth, healthy and easy, if not happy. But they have not said what his house will be made of. Perhaps some new building material, as yet unimagined, will have been discovered or invented at least. One may be certain that bricks and mortar(泥灰，灰浆) will long have gone out of fashion.

But the problems of the next generation or two can more readily be imagined. Scientists have already pointed out that unless something is done either to restrict the world’s rapid gro wth in population or to discover and develop new sources of food (or both), millions of people will be dying of starvation or at the best suffering from underfeeding before this century is out. But nobody has yet worked out any plan for housing these growing populations. Admittedly the worst situations will occur in the hottest parts of the world, where housing can be light structure or in backward areas where standards are traditionally low. But even the minimum shelter requires materials of some kind and in the teeming, bulging towns the low-standard “housing” of flattened petrol cans and dirty canvas is far more wasteful of ground space than can be tolerated.

Since the war, Hong Kong has suffered the kind of crisis which is likely to arise in many other places during the next generation. Literally millions of refugees arrived to swell the already growing population and emergency steps had to be taken rapidly to prevent squalor(肮脏)and disease and the spread crime. The city is tackling the situation energetically and enormous blocks of tenements(贫民住宅)are rising at an astonishing aped. But Hong Kong is only one small part of what will certainly become a vast problem and not merely a housing problem, because when population grows at this rate there are accompanying problems of education, transport, hospital services, drainage, water supply and so on. Not every area may give the same resources as Hong Kong to draw upon and the search for quicker and cheaper methods of construction must never cease.

1. What is the author’s opinion of housing problems in the first paragraph?

A. They may be completely solved at sometime in the future.

B. They are unimportant and easily dealt with.

C. They will not be solved until a new building material has been discovered.

D. They have been dealt with in specific detail in books describing the future.

2. The writer is sure that in the distant future ____.

A. bricks and mortar will be replaced by some other building material.

B. a new building material will have been invented.

C. bricks and mortar will not be used by people who want their house to be fashionable.

D. a new way of using bricks and mortar will have been discovered.

3. The writer believes that the biggest problem likely to confront the world before the end of the century ___.

A. is difficult to foresee.

B. will be how to feed the ever growing population.

C. will be how to provide enough houses in the hottest parts of the world.

D. is the question of finding enough ground space.

4. When the writer says that the worst situations will occur in the hottest parts of the world or in backward areas, he is referring to the fact that in these parts ___.

A. standards of building are low.

B. only minimum shelter will be possible.

C. there is not enough ground space.

D. the population growth will be the greatest.

5. Which of the following sentences best summarizes Paragraph 3?

A. Hong Kong has faced a serious crisis caused by millions of refugees.

B. Hong Kong has successfully dealt with the emergency caused by millions of refugees.

C. Hong Kong’s crisis was not only a matter of housing but included a number of other problems of population growth.

D. Many parts of the world may have to face the kind of problems encountered by Hong Kong and may find it much harder to deal with them.

参考答案：

AABDD

第二套

阅读理解之选词填空

Nice juicy Apple

ALTHOUGH he is still (1)__________ things up at Dell, an ailing computer-maker, Carl Icahn has found time to tilt at another tech titan. On August 13th the veteran shareholder activist (2) __________that he had built up a stake in Apple, though he stayed mum about exactly how many shares he had bought. Mr Icahn’s intentions, however, are crystal clear: he wants the consumer-electronics behemoth to expand plans to return some of its whopping $147 billion of cash and marketable securities to shareholders.

Mr Icahn is also after more money at Dell, where he has been lobbying with allies against a (3)__________ buy-out plan put forward by Michael Dell, the firm’s founder, and Silver Lake, a private-equity firm. His pressing has already forced the buy-out group to raise its initial offer by over $350m, to $24.8 billion and he has taken his (4)__________ to the courts in a bid to extract an even higher price.

Other tech firms have been attracting the attention of activist investors too. Earlier this year ValueAct Capital, an investment fund, said it had built up a $2 billion stake in Microsoft. Jaguar Financial, a Canadian bank, has been (5)__________ fresh thinking at troubled BlackBerry, which announced on August 12th that it is exploring various (6) __________options, including alliances and a possible sale. And Elliott Management, a hedge fund, has been lobbying for change at NetApp, a data-storage firm that it thinks could do more to improve returns to (7)__________.

One reason tech firms have found themselves in activists’ crosshairs is that, like Apple, some built up big cash piles during the economic downturn and have been

slow to use the money. Financiers hope to get them to loosen their purse-strings faster and to pocket some of the cash. Mr Icahn wants Apple to increase and (8)__________ a share buy-back programme that is currently set to return $60 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015.

Another reason that tech firms make tempting targets for shareholder activists is that swift changes in technologies can trip up even the mightiest. Witness the case of Microsoft, which ruled the roost during the personal-computer era but has struggled to adapt to a world in which tablets and smartphones are all the rage. Investors hope to mint money by pushing companies to change more rapidly in response to such upheavals in their markets.

The rewards can be substantial. Egged on by Third Point, an activist hedge fund, Yahoo (9) __________Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive in July 2012. By the time she celebrated a year in the job last month, the troubled web giant’s share price had risen by over 70%. In July the hedge fund sold a big chunk of shares back to Yahoo. Mr Icahn thinks Apple’s share price, which closed at $499 on August 14th, could soar too if the firm follows his advice on buy-backs. He tweeted this week that he had had a “nice (10)__________” with Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, about his idea, though he did not say what Mr Cook thought of it. If Apple drags its feet, expect things to turn nasty.

A) shareholders

B) strategic

C) communication

D) battle

E) conversation

F) encouraging

G) exciting

H) stirring

I) appointed

J) race

K) revealed

L) method

M) accelerate

N) proposed

答案：

1.H) stirring

2.K) revealed

3.N) proposed

4.D) battle

5.F) encouraging

6.B) strategic

7.A) shareholders

8.M) accelerate

9.I) appointed

10.E) conversation

全文翻译：

新鲜多汁的“苹果”

Nice juicy Apple

尽管卡尔·伊坎仍在陷入困境的电脑生产商戴尔公司搅和，他已经抽出了时间力争另一家科技巨头。8月13日，这位积极的投资老手透露他已经持有苹果的股份，但是具体持有多少则避而不谈。然而，伊坎先生的意图很明确：他想要这家消费电子产品巨头扩张计划，将1470亿美元市值里的部分资金以现金和有价证券的形式返还给股东。

ALTHOUGH he is still stirring things up at Dell, an ailing computer-maker, Carl Icahn has found time to tilt at another tech titan. On August 13th the veteran shareholder activist revealed that he had built up a stake in Apple, though he stayed mum about exactly how many shares he had bought. Mr Icahn’s intentions, however, are crystal clear: he wants the consumer-electronics behemoth to expand plans to return some of its whopping $147 billion of cash and marketable securities to shareholders.

伊坎先生也仍在从戴尔公司争取更多的钱，他正在游说股东反对一起收购。这项收购计划是由戴尔的创始人迈克尔·戴尔和一家私募股权公司银湖发起的。来自伊坎先生的压力已经使收购方提高了3.5亿美元的价格，使得收购价达到了248亿美元。他已经将斗争带到了法庭，通过投标争取得到更多的钱。

Mr Icahn is also after more money at Dell, where he has been lobbying with allies against a proposed buy-out plan put forward by Michael Dell, the firm’s founder, and Silver Lake, a private-equity firm. His pressing has already forced the buy-out group to raise its initial offer by over $350m, to $24.8 billion and he has taken his battle to the courts in a bid to extract an even higher price.

其他的科技公司也吸引了不少积极投资者的注意。今年早些时候，一个投资基金ValueAct Capital表示其持有了微软公司20亿美元的股份。加拿大银行捷豹金融也鼓励陷入危机的黑莓创新思维。今年8月12日，黑莓公司表示其正在探索战略选择，包括结盟和出售公司。一家对冲基金艾略特管理公司游说数据存储公司NetApp做出改变，该公司认为NetApp能做出更多来提高股东的收益。

Other tech firms have been attracting the attention of activist investors too. Earlier this year ValueAct Capital, an investment fund, said it had built up a $2 billion stake in Microsoft. Jaguar Financial, a Canadian bank, has been encouraging fresh thinking at troubled BlackBerry, which announced on August 12th that it is exploring various strategic options, including alliances and a possible sale. And Elliott Management, a hedge fund, has been lobbying for change at NetApp, a data-storage firm that it thinks could do more to improve returns to shareholders.

积极投资人瞄准科技公司的一个原因是，很多科技公司跟苹果一样在经济衰退时拥有很大的现金流，但是资金利用不足。金融家希望他们放松自己的财政，放出更多的现金。伊坎先生想要苹果增加并加速其股份回购计划。现在该计划是截止到2015年末，苹果公司返还600亿美元给股东。

One reason tech firms have found themselves in activists’ crosshairs is that, like Apple, some built up big cash piles during the economic downturn and have been slow to use the money. Financiers hope to get them to loosen their purse-strings faster and to pocket some of the cash. Mr Icahn wants Apple to increase and accelerate a share buy-back programme that is currently set to return $60 billion to

shareholders by the end of 2015.

积极投资者瞄准科技公司的另一个原因就是科技的日新月异甚至会搞垮行业巨头。看一看微软的例子，在个人电脑时期成垄断之势，而在平板电脑智能手机时代则处于苦苦挣扎的境地。投资者希望通过推动公司做出更快改变适应市场变化来挣得更多利润。

Another reason that tech firms make tempting targets for shareholder activists is that swift changes in technologies can trip up even the mightiest. Witness the case of Microsoft, which ruled the roost during the personal-computer era but has struggled to adapt to a world in which tablets and smartphones are all the rage. Investors hope to mint money by pushing companies to change more rapidly in response to such upheavals in their markets.

报酬是实质性的。在活跃对冲基金第三点公司的怂恿之下，雅虎在2012年7月任命梅丽莎梅耶为新CEO。上个月她任职一年，这家陷入危机的互联网巨头股价上升了70%。7月，这家对冲基金回卖了一大笔股票给雅虎。伊坎先生认为苹果如果听从他关于回购的意见的话，其股价也能大涨。8月14日苹果的股价为每股499美元。这周他发推表示他跟苹果老板蒂姆库克有一个很愉快的对话，尽管他没有说库克对其建议的看法。如果苹果一拖再拖的话，等着丑事儿发生吧。

The rewards can be substantial. Egged on by Third Point, an activist hedge fund, Yahoo appointed Marissa Mayer as its new chief executive in July 2012. By the time she celebrated a year in the job last month, the troubled web giant’s share price had risen by over 70%. In July the hedge fund sold a big chunk of shares back to Yahoo. Mr Icahn thinks Apple’s share price, which closed at $499 on August 14th, could soar too if the firm follows his advice on buy-backs. He tweeted this week that he had had a “nice conversation” with Tim Cook, Apple’s boss, about his idea, though he did not say what Mr Cook thought of it. If Apple drags its feet, expect things to turn nasty.

阅读理解之快速阅读

Preparing for Computer Disasters

A: Summary: When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward.

B: Fires, power surges, and floods, they're all facts of life. We read about them in the morning paper and see them on the evening news. We sympathize with the victims and commiserate over their bad luck. We also shake our heads at the digital consequences—melted computers, system failures, destroyed data. Yet, somehow, many of us continue to live by that old mantra of denial: "It won't happen to me." Well, the truth is, at some point you'll probably have to deal with at least one disaster. That's just how it goes, and in most aspects of our lives we do something about it. We buy insurance. We stow away provisions. We even make disaster plans and run drills. But for some reason, computer disaster recovery is a blind spot for many of us. It shouldn't be. Home computers contain some of our most important information, both business and personal, and making certain our data survives a disaster should be a priority. Moreover, even the smallest disaster can be a serious disruption.

Personal computers have become an integral part of the smooth-running household. We use them to communicate, shop, and do homework, and they're even more vital to home office users. When home office computers go down, many small businesses grind to a halt. Fortunately, taking steps to recover from disasters and minimize their effects is quite straightforward. With a good offsite storage plan and the right tools, you can bounce back quickly and easily from minor computer disasters. And, should a major calamity strike, you can rest assured your data is safe.

Offsite Storage: Major Disasters

C: House fires and floods are among the most devastating causes of personal computer destruction. That's why a solid offsite backup and recovery plan is essential. Although many home users faithfully back up their hard drives, many would still lose all their data should their house flood our burn. That's because they keep their backups in relatively close to their computers. Their backup disks might not be in the same room as their computers—tucked away in a closet or even the garage—but they're not nearly far enough away should a serious disaster strike. So, it's important to back up your system to a removable medium and to store it elsewhere.

D: There are many ways to approach offsite storage. It starts with choice of backup tools and storage medium. Disaster situations are stressful, and your recovery tools shouldn't add to that stress. They must be dependable and intuitive, making it easy to schedule regular backups and to retrieve files in a pinch. They must also be compatible with your choice of backup medium. Depending on your tools, you can back up to a variety of durable disk types—from CDs to Jaz drives to remote network servers. Although many of these storage media have high capacity, a backup tool with compression capabilities is a big plus, eliminating the inconvenience of multiple disks or large uploads.

E: Once you select your tools and a suitable medium, you need to find a remote place to store your backups. The options are endless. However, no matter where you choose, be sure the site is secure, easily accessible, and a good distance away from your home. You may also want to consider using an Internet-based backup service. More and more service providers are offering storage space on their servers, and uploading files to a remote location has become an attractive alternative to conventional offsite storage. Of course, before using one of these services, make certain you completely trust the service provider and its security methods. Whatever you do, schedule backups regularly and store them far away from your home.

Come What May: Handling the Garden Variety Computer Crisis

F: Not all home computer damage results from physical disaster. Many less menacing problems can also hobble your PC or destroy your information. Systems crash, kids "rearrange" data, adults inadvertently delete files. Although these events might not seem calamitous, they can have serious implications. So, once again, it's important to be prepared. As with physical disasters, regular backups are essential. However, some of these smaller issues require a response that's more nuanced than wholesale backup and restoration. To deal with less-than-total disaster, your tool set must be both powerful and agile. For example, when a small number of files are

compromised, you may want to retrieve those files alone. Meanwhile, if just your settings are affected, you'll want a simple way to roll back to your preferred setup. Yet, should your operating system fail, you'll need a way to boot your computer and perform large-scale recovery. Computer crises come in all shapes and sizes, and your backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to meet each challenge.

The Right Tools for the Right Job: Gearing up for Disaster

G: When disaster strikes, the quality of your backup tools can make the difference between utter frustration and peace of mind. Symantec understands this and offers a range of top quality backup and recovery solutions. Norton GoBack is the perfect tool for random system crashes, failed installations, and inadvertent deletions. With this powerful and convenient solution, it's simple to retrieve overwritten files or to bring your system back to its pre-crash state. Norton Ghost is a time-tested home office solution. Equipped to handle full-scale backups, it's also handy for cloning hard drives and facilitating system upgrades. A favorite choice for IT professionals, it's the ideal tool for the burgeoning home office. You can buy Norton Ghost and Norton GoBack separately, or get them both when you purchase Norton System Works.

H: Life's disasters, large and small, often catch us by surprise. However, with a little planning and the right tools, you can reduce those disasters to bumps in the road. So, don't wait another day. Buy a good set of disaster recovery tools, set up an automatic backup schedule, and perform a dry run every now and again. Then, rest easy.

1. You should take steps to recover from computer disasters so as to minimize their effects.

2. For some reason, computer disaster recovery is always ignored by many of us.

3. You can bounce back quickly and easily minor computer disasters with the help of a good offsite storage plan and the right tools.

4. The most devastating causes of personal computer destruction includes house fires and floods.

5. It's necessary for us to back up our systems to some transferable medium and to put it somewhere else.

6. You should find a distant place to store your backups after selecting your tools and a suitable medium.

7. Not only physical disaster can damage your computer.

8. The backup and recovery tools must be flexible enough to deal with various computer crises.

9. The quality of your backup tools determines whether you are frustrated or have a peaceful mind when disaster strikes.

10. You should prepare for your computer disasters now and again.

1. A

根据题干中的信息词recover from computer disasters定位到本文的第一段。

2. B

根据题干中的信息词computer disaster recovery和many of us定位到本文的第二段第11句话，computer disaster recovery is a blind spot for many of us。

3. B

根据题干中的信息词offsite storage plan and the right tools定位到本文的第二段倒数第二句话。

4. C

根据题干中的信息词most devastating causes定位到第一个小标题下第一段的第一句话可知原文提到了家庭火灾和水灾是个人电脑危机的最具毁灭性的根源。

5. C

根据题干中的信息词back up our system及medium定位到第一个小标题下第一段的最后一句话。

6. E

根据题干中的信息词find a remote place to store your backups定位到第一个小标题下第三段的第一句话。

7. F

根据题干中的信息词physical disaster定位到第二个小标题下的前两句话。

8. F

根据题干中的信息词backup and recovery tools及computer crises定位到第二个小标题下的最后一句话。

9. G

根据题干中的信息词The quality of your backup tools和frustrated定位到第三个小标题下第一段的第一句话。

10.H

根据题干中的信息词prepare for your computer，总结文章最后一段大意即可找到答案。

阅读理解之仔细阅读

Proxemics(空间关系学) is the study of what governs how closely one person stands to another. People who feel close will be close, though the actual distances will vary between cultures. For Amreicans we can discern four main categories of distance: intimate, personal, social and public. Intimate ranges from direct contact to about 45 centimeters. This is for the closest relationships such as those between husband and wife. Beyond this comes personal distance. This stands at between 45 and 80 centimeters. It is the most usual distance maintained for conversations between friends and relatives. Social distance covers people who work together or are meeting at social gatherings. Distances here tend to be kept between 1.30 to 2 meters. Beyond this comes public distance, such as that between a lecturer and his audience.

All cultures draw lines between what is an appropriate and what is an inappropriate social distance for different types of relationship. They differ, however, in where they draw these lines. Look at an international reception withrepresentatives from the US and Arabic countries conversing and you will see the Americans pirouetting(快速旋转) backwards around the hall pursued by their Arab partners. The Americans will be trying to keep the distance between themselves and their pa rtners which they have grown used to regarding as “normal”. They probably will not even notice themselves trying to adjust the distance between themselves and their partners, though they may have vague feeling that their Arab neighbors are being a bit “pushy”. The Arab, on the other hand, coming from a culture where

much closer distance is the norm, may be feeling that the Americans are being “stand-offish”. Finding themselves happier standing close to and even touching those they are in conversation with they will persistently pursue the Americans round the room trying to close the distance between them.

The appropriateness of physical contact varies between different cultures too. One study of the number of times people conversing in coffee shops over a one hour period showed the following interesting variations: London, 0; Florida, 2; Paris, 10; and Puerto Rico 180. Not only dose it vary between societies, however, it also varies between different subcultures within one society. Young people in Britain, for example, are more likely to touch and hug friends than are the older generation. This may be partly a matter of growing older, but it also reflects the fact that the older generation grew up at a time when touching was less common for all age groups. Forty years ago, for example, footballers would never hug and kiss one another on the field after a goal as they do today.

1.In proxemics, ____governs the standing space between two persons.

A. distance

B. culture

C. conversation

D. relationship

2.The word “stand-offish”(Line 14, Para. 2) could best be replaced by_________.

A. cold and distant in behaviour

B. ungentlemanlike in behaviour

C. inhuman in behaviour

D. polite in behaviour

3. In conversation with an American partner at an international reception, an Arab deems that close distant is _________.

A. appropriate

B. inappropriate

C. rash

D. impetuous

4. We can infer from the third paragragh that the appropriateness of physical contact also varies with_________.

A. time

B. city

C. country

D. people

5. The best title for the passage would be __________.

A. Proxemics

B. Appropriateness of Social Distance

C. Appropriateness Relationships Between Two Persons

D. Appropriateness Physical Contact Between Two Persons

答案DAAAA

阅读理解之仔细阅读

In the past century Irish painting has changes from a British-influenced lyrical tradition to an art that evokes the ruggedness and roots of an Irish Celtic past. At the turn of the twentieth century Irish painters, including notables Walter Frederick Osborne and Sir William Orpen, looked elsewhere for influence. Osborne’s exposure to “plein air” painting deeply impacted his stylistic development; and Orpen allied himself with a group of English artists, while at the same time participated in the French avant-garde experiment, both as painter and teacher.

However, nationalist energies were beginning to coalesce (接合)，reviving interest in Irish culture-including Irish visual arts. Beatrice Elvery’s (1907), a landmark achievement, merged the devotional simplicity of fifteenth-century Italian painting with the iconography (肖像画法) of Ireland’s Celtic past, linking the history of Irish Catholicism with the still-nasce t (初生的) Irish republic.

And, although also captivated by the French plein air school, Sir John Lavery invoked the mythology of his native land for a 1928 commission to paint the central figure for the bank note of the new Irish Free State. Lavery chose as this figure, with her arm on a Celtic harp (竖琴)，the national symbol of independent Ireland.

In Irish painting from about 1910, memories of Edwardian romanticism coexisted with a new sense of realism,exemplified by the paintings of Paul Henry and Se Keating, a student of Orpen’s. realism also crept into the work of Edwardians Lavery a nd Orpen, both of whom made paintings depicting World WarⅠ,Lavery with a distanced Victorian nobility, Orpen closer to the front, revealing a more sinister and realistic vision. Meanwhile, counterpoint to the Edwardians and realists came Jack B. Yeats, whose travels throughout the rugged and more authentically Irish West led him to depict subjects ranging from street scenes in Dublin to boxing matches and funerals. Fusing close observations of Irish life and icons with an Irish identity in a new way, Yeats changed the face of Irish painting and became the most important Irishartist of his century.

1. Which of the following art most probably exerted the greatest influence on Irish painting in the 19th century?

A. British lyrical tradition

B. French avant-garde experiment

C. notionalist energies

D. Italian painting

2. It is implied_________was least influenced by the contemporary art of Frence.

A. Sir John Lavery

B. Sir William Orpen

C. Beatrice Elvery

D. Se Keating

3. Which of the following best e xplains the author’s use of the word “counterpoint” in referring to Yeats?

A. Yeats’ paintings differed significantly in subject matter from those of his contemporaries in Ireland.

B. Yeats reacted to the realism of his contemporary artists by invoking nineteenth-century naturalism in his own painting style.

C. Yeats avoided religious and mythological themes in favor of mundane portrayals of Irish life.

D. Yeats built upon the realism painting tradition, elevating it to unprecedented artistic heights.

4. The author points out the coexistence of romanticism and realism most probably in order to show that_________.

A. Irish painters of the early twentieth century tended to romanticize the harsh reality of war

B. for a time painters from each school influenced painters from the other school

C. Yeats was influenced by both the romantic and realist schools of Irish painting

D. the transition in Irish painting from one predominant style to the other was not an abrupt one

5. The most likely topic of the paragraph followed is _________.

A. The Role of Celtic Mythology in Irish Painting

B. Who Deserves Credit for the Preeminence of Yeats among Irish Painters?

C. Realism vs. Romanticism: Ireland’s Struggle for National Identity

D. Irish Paintings: Reflections of an Emerging Independent State

答案AAADD

第三套

阅读理解之选词填空

Reading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gets answers. In the light of these he puts __1__ questions, and so on.

For most of the time this “conversation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become __2__ of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between __3__ and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced, our question of the text continues at the unconscious level.

Different people __4__ with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page, others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is __5__ in the text. The latter represents __6__ levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers.

There is another conversation which from our point of view is __7__ important, and that is to do not with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a “process” conversation as __8__ to a “content” conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the __9__ we employ in reading. If we are an advanced reader our ability to hold a process conversation with a text is usually pretty well __10__. Not so our ability to hold a content conversation.

A)opposed

B)converse

C)equally

D)written

E)developed

F)strategies

G)compared

H)awake

I)higher

J)expectations

K)deal

L)absolutely

M)aware

N)better

O)further

答案解析：

1. O

2. M

3. J

4. B

5. D

6. I

7. C

8. A

9. F

10.E

阅读理解之快速阅读

Definitions of Obesity

A: How does one define when a person is considered to be obese and not just somewhat overweight? Height-weight tables give an approximate guideline as to whether one is simply overweight or has passed into the obese stage.

B: The World Health Organization recommends using a formula that takes into account a person's height and weight. The "Body Mass Index" (BMI) is calculated by dividing the person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters, and is thus given in units of kg/m2. A BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered to be the healthiest. A BMI of between 25 and 29.9 is considered to be overweight, while a BMI of over 30 is considered to be obese.

C: However, it is recognized that this definition is limited as it does not take into account such variables as age, gender and ethnic origin, the latter being important as different ethnic groups have very different fat distributions. Another shortcoming is that it is not applicable to certain very muscular people such as athletes and bodybuilders, who can also have artificially high BMIs. Agencies such as the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) in the USA and the International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) are starting to define obesity in adults simply in terms of waist circumference.

Health Effects of Obesity

D: Over 2000 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote that "persons who are naturally very fat are apt to die earlier than those who are slender". This observation remains very true today. Obesity has a major impact on a person's physical, social and emotional well-being. It increases the risk of developing diabetes mellitus type 2 ("mature onset diabetes") and also makes Type 2 diabetes more difficult to control. Thus weight loss improves the levels of blood glucose and blood fats, and reduces blood pressure. The association between obesity and coronary heart disease is also well-known.

Cancer

E: Furthermore, in 2001 medical researchers established a link between being overweight and certain forms of cancer, and estimated that nearly 10,000 Britons per year develop cancer as a result of being overweight. This figure was made up of 5,893 women and 3,220 men, with the strongest associations being with breast and colon cancers. However, it is thought that being overweight may also increase the risk of cancer in the reproductive organs for women and in the prostate gland for men.