2013年4月重庆自考00836《英语科技文选》真题

2013年4月重庆自考00836《英语科技文选》真题

一、阅读理解题

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

1.

(A)    Like an only child dreaming of lost siblings, we dream of finding other Earths, other creatures and civilizations out in space, or even other universes. We all want to find out that we are cosmic Anastasias and that there is a secret that connects us, that lays bare the essential unity of physical phenomena. And so we try, sometimes against great odds. The year that is now ending began with some areas of science in ruins. One section of the Large Hadron Collider looked like a train wreck with several-ton magnets lying about smashed after an electrical connection between them vaporized only nine days off a showy inauguration. The Hubble Space Telescope was limping about in orbit with only one of its cameras working. But here is the scorecard at the end of the year: in December, the newly refurbished collider produced a million proton collisions, including 50,000 at the record energy of 1.2 trillion electron volls per proton, before going silent for the holidays. CERN is on track to run it next year at three times that energy. The Hubble telescope after one last astronaut servicing visit, reached to within spitting distance of the Big Bang and recorded images of the most distant galaxies yet observed, which existed some 600 million or 700 million years after the putative beginning of time. Not to mention the rapidly expanding universe of extrasolar planets. In my view from the cosmic bleachers, the pot is bubbling for discovery. We all got a hint of just how crazy that might be in the new age of the Internet on Dec. 17, when physicists around the world found themselves glued to a Webcast of the results from an experiment called the Cryogenic Dark Maner Search. Rumors had swept the blogs and other outposts of scientific commentary that the experimenters were going to announce that they had finally delected the ethereal and mysterious dark matter particles, which, astronomers say, make up a quarter of the universe. In the end, the result was frustratingly vague and inconclusive. “We want it to be true—we so want to have a clue about dark matter,” Maria Spiropulu, a Caltech physicist working at CERN wrote to me the night of the Webcast. “And it is not easy,” Dr. Spiropulu said. “The experiments are not easy and the analysis is not easy. This is a tough, tough ride over all.” Although we might well solve part of the dark maner conundrum in the coming years, the larger mystery winds out in front of us like a train snaking into the fog. What is the passage primarily about?

A.The Hubble Space Telescope.
B.The essential unity of physical phenomena.
C.The dark matter search.
D.Astronomy.

2.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A.Some areas of science were in ruins toward the end of the year.
B.The Large Hadron Collider was put in use.
C.The Hubble Space Telescope was working with difficulty in orbit.
D.Scientists still try to discover civilizations out in space, although sometimes it seems impossible for them to exist.

3.All of the following are the achievements in space exploration toward the end of the year EXCEPT______.

A.that the universe of extrasolar planets was expanding rapidly
B.that the newly refurbished collider produced a million proton collisions
C.that the Hubble telescope recorded images of the most distant galaxies yet observed
D.that CERN ran the collider at three times the energy

4.What is the attitude of the author toward the Webcast of the results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search?

A.Choosy.
B.Enthusiastic.
C.Critical.
D.Liberal.

5.The mystery of the dark matter will probably be solved_______.

A.in the coming years
B.next year
C.in the near future
D.in the distant future

6.

(B)     Only one man seems to have ever been cured of AIDS, a patient who also had leukemia. To treat the leukemia, he received a bone marrow transplant in Berlin from a donor who, as luck would have it, was naturally immune to the AIDS virus. If that natural mutation could be mimicked in human blood cells, patients could be endowed with immunity to the deadly virus. But there is no effective way of making precise alterations in human DNA. That may be about to change, if a powerful new technique for editing the genetic text proves to be safe and effective. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Carl June and colleagues have used the technique to disrupt a gene in patients’T cells, the type attacked by the AIDS virus. They have then infused those cells back into the body. A clinical trial is now under way to see if the treated cells will reconstitute a patient’s immune system and defeat the virus. The technique, which depends on natural agents called zinc lingers, may revive the lagging fortunes of gene therapy because it overcomes the inability to insert new genes at a chosen site. Other researchers plan to use the zinc finger technique to provide genetic treatments for diseases like bubble-boy disease, hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia. In principle, the zinc finger approach should work on almost any site on any chromosome of any plant or animal. If so, it would provide a general method for generating new crop plants, treating many human diseases, and even making inheritable changes in human sperm or eggs, should such interventions ever be regarded as ethically justifiable.    Zinc fingers are essential components of proteins bused by living cells to turn genes on and off. Their name derives from the atom of zinc that holds two loops of protein together to form a “finger”. Because the fingers recognize specific sequences of DNA, they guide the control proteins to the exact site where their target gene begins. After many years of development, biologists have learned how to modify nature’s DNA recognition system into a general system for manipulating genes. Each natural zinc finger recognizes a set of three letters, or bases, on the DNA molecule. By stringing three or four fingers together, researchers can generate artificial proteins that match a particular site. The new system has been developed by a small biotech company, Sangamo BioSciences of Richmond, Calif., and, to some degree separately, by academic researchers who belong to the Zinc Finger Consortium. “We now have a full alphabet of zinc fingers,” Mr. Lanphicr, head of Sangamo, said, “but when we started the company it was like typing a novel with two fingers.” Zinc finger proteins have many potential uses. One is to link them to agents that turn on or turn off the gene at the site recognized by the fingers. The passage mainly discusses_______.

A.bone marrow transplant
B.the structure of DNA
C.a new way to edit DNA
D.how to mimic mutations in human DNA

7.Which of the following is NOT true about the zinc finger technique?

A.It has been used to see if the treated cells will reconstitute a patient’s immune system.
B.It depends on natural agents called zinc fingers.
C.It overcomes the inability to insert new genes at a chosen site.
D.It will provide a general method for generating new crop plants and treating many human diseases.

8.Zinc fingers are essential to______.

A.making inheritable changes in human sperm or eggs
B.switching genes on and off
C.providing a general method for generating new crop plants
D.treating diseases like hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia

9.The zinc finger technique would probably involve______if it was effective on any chromosome of any plant or animal.

A.many clinical trials
B.interventions in DNA
C.moral issues
D.endorsement from the government

10.All of the following are true EXCEPT______.

A.that zinc fingers have a full alphabet
B.that the researchers were writers before they started the company
C.that Zinc finger proteins can be linked to agents that turn on or tum off the gene
D.that the fingers guide the control proteins to the exact site

二、词缀题

Directions: Add the affix to each word according to the given Chinese, making changes when necessary. (8%)

11.astronomy 天体的

12.fiction 虚构的

13.recur 重新产生(名词)

14.organic 无机的

15.sphere 半球

16.technology 生物技术

17.runner 预先

18.harmony 和谐的

三、填空题

Directions: Fill in the blanks, each using one of the given words or phrases below in its proper form. (12%)

21.stand for    concern with     bound up with      on the edge of     short of       end up      ignorant of    in memory of      comply with    focus on      a host of     give off Don’t______yourself_______matters that are not your business.

22.I was totally_______what happened at home while I was on vacation.

23.It was reported that the company_______collapse.

24.Uncle Sam_______the United States.

25.They are severely_______low-cost houses in the city.

26.The forest fire_______thick black smoke.

27.After two weeks of traveling around China, we_______in Beijing.

28.The future of the island is_______the fortunes of the local government.

29.________problems may delay the opening of the conference.

210.The congress opened with a minute’s silence________those who died in the earthquake.

211.Tonight’s TV program________health care reform.

212.Her husband________her wishes that he stop drinking.

四、选词填空题

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

31.television    because     first     movies    keep     owned     hardly    middle   program     American     Television has certainly changed American life, but not the way the first critics predicted. The (31) televisions were enormously expensive, so most families (32) only one. By 1975, however, 60% of (33) families owned two televisions or more; some (34)class families had as many as five (35) sets under one roof. Such multi-set families may (36) family members in the same house, but that (37) brings them “together.” In fact, family outings—hiking, going to the (38), going out to dinner—are often limited by TV (39) one or more family members don’t want to go: “I’ll miss my (40),” is the common complaint.

五、用法说明题

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

41.accessibleperceivebeyond one’ comprehensionelucidatetake...for granted41、经济危机之后，人们认为他们的房价不会再继续升高。42、虽然他是我们大学的校长，但他对学生总是平易近人。43、我不懂，你得解释一下。44、我认为他肯定认识我。45、我不明白她怎么能在一天内做那么多事情。

六、翻译题

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

51.The urban poor gained from the lower prices and greater supplies of food but the rural poor, especially the landless, have sometimes been disadvantaged. However, new agricultural technology should not be expected to stand proxy for social reform, and Lipton concludes that the technology per se (本身)was not to blame for the inequalities of impact; it met the criteria he would have specified for a technology to help the rural poor. As Frankel commented: ‘It is precisely the social blindness of modem technology that is encouraging the most disadvantaged scciion of the agricultural community’.

七、信息题

Directions: Read the following passage, and then fill in the table with the information based on the passage. (10%×2%)

61.     All the latest footwear engineering in your running sneakers might not mean a thing when it comes to preventing injuries. The latest barefoot running study in the journal Nature deployed 3-D infrared tracking to gauge the difference in foot strike between shod and shoeless runners. Scientific American reports.    Runners who wore sneakers ended up landing heel-first 75 to 80 percent of the time. By contrast, barefoot runners usually land toward the middle or front of the foot—a dramatic difference that recalls the more natural foot strike of early Homo sapiens. Needless to say, early humans certainly were not bom to run wearing Nike or Reebok.    “Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts.” said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and lead author on the study. “But actually you can run barefoot on the world’s hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain.”     More bad news for sneakers came last December, when the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation found that running shoes can increase joint torques at the hip, knee and ankle. Their study suggested that even going for a run in high heels was better for preventing joint injuries than tennis shoes.

八、写作题

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

71.My View on Low-carbon Economy


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