全国英语等级考试五级全真模拟阅读试题

Part B

In the following article some paragraphs have been removed. For Questions 66 —— 70, choose the most suitable paragraph from the list A —— F to fit into each of the numbered gaps. There is one paragraph which "does not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, an estimated 10 to 50 million people in this country have an allergic reaction to poison ivy each year. Poison ivy is often very. difficult to spot. It closely resembles several other common garden plates, and can also blend in with other plants and weeds. But if you come into contact with it, you' II soon know by the itchy, blistery rash that forms on your skin. Poison ivy is a red, itchy rash caused by the plant that bears its name. Many people get it when they are hiking or working in their garden and accidentally come into direct contact with the plant' s leaves, roots, or stems. The poison ivy rash often looks like red lines, and sometimes it forms blisters.

66.

About 85 percent of people are allergic to the urushiol in poison ivy, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Only a tiny amount of this chemical--1 billionth of a gram--is enough to cause a rash in many peo- ple. Some people may boast that they' ve been exposed to poison ivy many times and have never gotten the rash, but that doesn' t necessarily mean they' re not allergic. Sometimes the allergy doesn' t emerge until you' ve been ex- posed several times, and some people develop a rash after their very first exposure. It may take up to ten days for the rash to emerge the first time.

67.

Here are some other ways to identify the poison ivy plant. It generally grows in a cluster of low, weed-like plants or a woody vine which can climb trees or fences. It is most often found in moist areas, such as riverbanks, woods, and pastures. The edges of the leaves are generally smooth or have tiny "teeth". Their color changes based on the season--reddish in the spring; green in the summer; and yellow, orange, or red in the fall. Its berries are typically white.

68.

The body' s immune system is normally in the business of protecting us from bacteria, viruses, and the foreign invaders that can make us sick. But when urushiol from the poison ivy plant touches the skin, it instigates an immune response, called dermatitis, to what would otherwise be a harmless substance. Hay fever is another example of this type of response; in the case of hay fever, the immune system overreacts to pollen, or another plant-produced substance.

69.

The allergic reaction to poison ivy is known as delayed hypersensitivity. Unlike immediate hypersensitivity, which causes an allergic reaction within minutes of exposure to an antigen, delayed hypersensitivity reactions don' t emerge for several hours or even days after the exposure.

70.

In the places where your skin has come into contact with poison ivy leaves or urushiol, within one to two days you' 11 develop a rash, which will usually itch, redden, bum, swell, and form blisters. The rash should go away within a week, but it can last longer. The severity of the reaction often has to do with how much urushiol you've touched. Tar sooner in some parts of the body than in others, but it doesn' t spread  the urushiol simply absorbs into the skin at different rates in different parts of the body. Thicker skin such as the skin on the soles

A. Because urushiol is found in all parts of the poison ivy plant--the leaves, stems, and roots--it' s best to avoid the plant entirely to prevent a rash. The trouble is, poison ivy grows almost everywhere in the United States (with the exception of the Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii), so geography won' t help you. The general rule to identify poison ivy, "leaflets three, let it be, " doesn' t always apply. Poison ivy usually does grow in groups of three leaves, with a longer middle leaf--but it can also grow with up to nine leaves in a group.

B. Most people don' t have a reaction the first time they touch poison ivy, but develop an allergic reaction after repeated exposure. Everyone has a different sensitivity, and therefore a slightly different reaction, to poison ivy. Sensitivity usually decreases with age and with repeat exposures to the plant.

C. Here' s how the poison ivy response occurs. Urushiol makes its way down through the skin, where it is metabolized, or broken down. Immune cells called T lymphocytes ( or T-cells) recognize the urushiol derivatives as a foreign substance, or antigen. They send out inflammatory signals called cytokines, which bring in white blood cells. Under orders from the cytokines, these white blood cells turn into macrophages. The macrophages eat foreign substances, but in doing so they also damage normal tissue, resulting in the skin inflammation that occurs with poison ivy.

D. Poison ivy' s cousins, poison oak and poison sumac, each have their own unique appearance. Poison oak grows as a shrub (one to six feet tall). It is typically found along the West Coast and in the South, in dry reas such fields, woodlands, and thickets. Like poison ivy, the leaves of poison oak are usually clustered in groups of three. They tend to be thick, green, and hairy on both sides. Poison sumac mainly grows in moist, swampy areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and along the Mississippi River. It is a woody shrub made up of stems with rows of seven to thirteen smooth-edged leaflets.

E. The culprit behind the rash is a chemical in the sap of poison ivy plants called umshiol. Its name comes from the Japanese word "urushi, " meaning lacquer. Urushiol is the same substance that triggers an allergic reaction when people touch poison oak and poison sumac plants. Poison ivy, Eastern poison oak, Western poison oak, and poison sumac are all members of the same family--Anacardiaceae.

F. Call your doctor if you experience these more serious reactions :

Pus around the rash (which could indicate an infection).

A rash around your mouth, eyes, or genital area.

A fever above 100 degrees.

A rash that does not h.

Section 111  Reading Comprehension

( 50 minutes)

Part A

Read the following texts and answer the questions which accompany., them by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

Text 1

As long as her parents can remember, 13-year-old Katie Hart has been talking about going to college. Her mother, Tally, a financial-aid officer at a California University, knows all too well the daunting thing of paying for a college education. Last year the average yearly tuition at a private, four-year school climbed 5.5 percent to more than $17, 000. The Harts have started saving, and figure they can afford a public university without a problem. But what if Katie applies to Princeton ( she' s threatening), where one year' s tuition, room and board-almost $ 34, 000 in 2007-will cost more than some luxury cars? Even a number cruncher like Tally admits it' s a little scary, especially since she' 11 retire and Katie will go to college at around the same time.

Paying for college has always been a hard endeavor. The good news: last year students collected $ 74 billion in financial aid, the most ever. Most families pay less than full freight. Sixty percent of public-university students and three quarters of those at private colleges receive some form of financial aid-mostly, these days, in the form of loans. But those numbers are not as encouraging as they appear for lower-income families, because schools are changing their formulas for distributing aid. Eager to boost their magazine rankings, which are based in part on the test scores of entering freshmen, they' re throwing more aid at smarter kids--whether they need it or not.

The best way to prepare is to start saving early. A new law passed last year makes that easier for some families. So-called 529 plans allow parents to sock away funds in federal-tax-free-investment accounts, as long as the money  is used for "qualified educaion expenses" like tuition, room and board. The plans aren' t for everyone. For tax reasons, some lower and middle income families may be better off choosing other investments. But saving is vital.

When' s the best time to start? "Sometime, " says Jack Joyce of the College Board, "between the maternity ward and middle school. "

Aid packages usually come in some combination of grants, loans and jobs. These days 60 percent of all aid comes in the form of low-interest loans. All students are eligible for "unsubsidized" federal Stafford loans, which let them defer interest payments until after graduation. Students who can demonstrate need can also qualify for federal Perkins loans or "subsidized" Staffords, where the government pays the interest during school. Fortunately, this is a borrower' s market. "Interest rates are at their lowest level in the history of student loans, " says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Finaid. Kantrowitz expects rates to fall even further when they' re reviewed this summer.

Traditional scholarships, academic or athletic, are still a part of many families' planning. Mack Reiter, a 17-year-old national wrestling champion, gets so many recruiting letters he throws most away. He' 11 almost certainly get a free ride. Without it, "we would really be in a bind, " says his mother, Janet. For everyone else, it' s worth the effort to pick through' local .and national scholarship offerings, which can be found Ol—— Web sites like college-board, com.

51. What does the author intend to illustrate with the example of the Harts?

A． The difficulty of paying the tuition.

B． The far-sight of the parents.

C． The promising future of Katie.

D． The increasing tuition in the university.

52. What can we infer from the second paragraph?

A． Some families are too poor to pay the full amount of the tuition.

B． The parents do not favor the form of loans.

C． Paying the tuition makes the parents feel humble.

D． Those who are in great need may not get what they need.

53. The last paragraph suggests that __

A． many recruiting letters failed to provide Mack Reiter with scholarships

B． Mack Reiter wanted to help his family go out of the trouble

C． traditional scholarships are a good solution to the tuition problems in some families

D． Mack Reiter was very proud of his national wrestling championship

54. What does the author mean by "better off" ( Line 4, Paragraph 3 ) ?

A． Richer.

B． Wiser.

C． Happier.

D． Luckier.

55. Which of the following is true according to the text?

A． The Harts prefer a public university to a private one.

B． It is much easier to pay the tuition at present.

C． All students can get the aid package.

D ．Traditional scholarships are still attractive to some families.

Part C

Answer Questions 71 -80 by referring to the following book reviews.

Note: Answer each question by choosing A, B, C or D and mark it on ANSWER SHEET 1. Some choicesmay be required more than once.

A = BOOK REVIEW 1B = BOOK REVIEW 2

C = BOOK REVIEW 3D = BOOK REVIEW 4

Which book review(s) contain(s) the following information?

The main point of the book is simple : globalization is not helping many poor countries. Incomes are not ris- ing in much of the world, and adoption of market-based policies such as open capital markets, free trade.

and privatization are makirlg developing economies less stable, not more. Instead of a bigger dose of free markets, Stiglitz argues, what' s needed to make globalization work better is more and smarter government intervention. While this has 'been said before, the ideas carry more weight coming from someone With Stiglitz's credentials. In some ways, this book ha—— the potential to be the liberal equivalent of Milton Friedman'S 1962 classic Capitalism and Freedom, which helped provide the intellectual foundafion for a generation of conservatives. But Giobalization and Its Discontents does not rise to the level of capitalism and freedom. While Stiglitz makes a strong case for govern- ment-oriented development policy, he ignores some key arguments in favor of the market. "The book' s main villain is the International Monetary Fund, the Washington organization that lends to troubled countries", Stiglitz' con- tempt for the IMF is boundless, "It is clear that the IMF has failed in its mission, " he declhe poli- cies that the IMF pushed have contributed to global instability. "

While parts of this book are disappointingly shallow, Stiglitz' s critique of the market-driven 90' s s011 reso- hates; especially when the business page is full of stories about white-collar crime and the stock market

seems stuck in a perpetual rut. Even the United States cannot blithely assume that financial markets will work on au- topilot. It is testament to the salience of Stiglitz' s arguments that many economists--even some Bush Administration officials--now embrace his view that economic change in the developing word must evolve more with local condi- tions, not on Washington' s calendar. Without a thorough makeover, globalization could easily become a quagmire. Stiglitz shared a Nobel Prize last year for his work analyzing the imperfections of markets. His main c——omplaint a- gainst Rubin and Summers, who served as Treasury Secretaries, and against Fischer, the NO. 2 official and de facto chief executive of the international Monetary Fund, is that they had too much faith that markets could transform poor countries overnight. He labels these three men market fundamentalists, who fought tO maintain financial stability with the same urgency that an earlier generation struggled to contain communism. Worse, he suggests, they shilled for Wall Street, conflating the interests of the big banks with the financial health of the world.

"Stiglitz, 58, is hardly the first person to accuse the IMF of operating undemocratically and exacerbating T——ird World poverty. But he is by far the most prominent and his emergence as a critic marks an important

shift in the intellectual landscape. Only a few years ago, it was possible for pundits to claim that no mainstream e- conomist, certainly nobody of Stiglitz' s stature, took the criticism of free trade and globalization seriously. Such

claims are no longer credible, for Stiglitz is part of a small but growing group Of economists, sociologists and poliO- cal scientists, among them Dani Rodrik of Harvard and Robert Wade of the London School of Economics, who not

only take the critics seriously but warn that ignoring their concerns could have dire consequences. " Over the past several years, Stiglitz, a celebrated theorist who was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics for his work on asymmetric information, has grown accustomed to being at the center of controversy. From 1997 to 2000, he served as senior vice president and chief economist at the Word Bank--a tire that did not stop him from publicly criticizing the bank' s sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, Stiglitz' s outspokenness, unprecedented for a high- ranking insider, infuriated top officials at the IMF and US Treasury Department, and eventually led James Wolfen- sohn, the World Bank' s president, to inform him that he would have to mute his criticism or resign, Stiglitz chose to leave.

"Stiglitz' book makes a compelling case that simple-minded economic doctrine, inadequately tailored to the realities of developing countries, can do more harm than good, and that the subtleties of economic theory are actually quite important for sound policy advice, But simplistic political advice--give developing countries more voice and the institutions of global governance will be rendered more legitimate and efficient--is equally problemat- ic. Political reform is as subtle and.complex as economic reform. Evidently, the .best minds among us have only be- gun to think about it. " Joseph Stiglitz' s memoirs of his years in Washington, D. C. --first as chair of President blill Clinton' s Council of Economic Advisers and then as chief economist at the World Bank--have the flavor of a morality play: Our goodhearted but slightly native hero, on leave from Stanford University, sets out for the nation'

capital to serve his country and improve the lot of the developing world. Once there he finds a morass of political opportunism, ideologically motivated decision-making and bureaucratic inertia. Undeterred, he battles valiantly on behalf of impoverished nations against the unrelenting globalisers of the International Monetary Fund.

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