2012届万学海文钻石卡学员英语(二)强化阶段测试40份

2012届钻石卡学员英语（二）强化阶段测试

考试时间：180分钟 满分：100分

学员姓名： 是否学数学： 目标院校和专业： 总分：

Section I Use of English

Directions：

Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A，B，C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

What can be said of the normal process of aging, from a linguistic point of view? In general 1 , there is a clear and 2 relationship: no one would have much difficulty 3 a baby, a young child, a teenager, a middle-aged person, or a very old person from a tape recording. With children, it is possible for 4 in language development, and people 5 in child care, to make very detailed 6 about how language correlates with age in the early years.

Little is known about the patterns of 7 change that affect older people. It is plain that our voice quality, vocabulary, and style 8 as we grow older, but research into the nature of these changes is in its earliest stages. 9 , a certain amount of information is known about the production and 10 of spoken language by very old people, 11 regarding the phonetic changes that take place.

Speech is 12 to be affected by reductions in the 13 of the vocal organs. The muscles of the chest 14 , the lungs become less elastic, the ribs less mobile: 15 , respiratory efficiency at age 75 is only about half that at age 30, and this has 16 for the ability to speak loudly, rhythmically, and with good tone. In addition, speech is affected by poorer movement of the soft palate and changes in the 17 skeleton, especially around the mouth and jaw.

There are other, more general signs of age. Speech rate slows, and fluency may be more inconsistent. Hearing 18 , especially after the early fifties. Weakening 19 of memory and attention may affect the ability to comprehend complex speech patterns. But it is not all bad news: vocabulary awareness may continue to grow, as may stylist ability — skills in narration, for example. And grammatical ability seems to be 20 affected.

1. [A] speech [B] terms [C] ways [D] cases 2. [A] obscure [B] unmistakable [C] unacceptable [D] backward 3. [A] identifying [B] perceiving [C] discerning [D] disclosing 4. [A] doctors [B] teachers [C] lawyers [D] specialists 5. [A] prominent [B] competent [C] experienced [D] distinguished 6. [A] predictions [B] determination [C] judgments [D] decisions 7. [A] psychological [B] social [C] linguistic [D] physical 8. [A] vary [B] deviate [C] depart [D] alter 9. [A] However [B] Therefore [C] Moreover [D] Otherwise 10. [A] edition [B] appreciation [C] comprehension [D] distribution

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11. [A] approximately 12. [A] able 13. [A] effect 14. [A] weaken 15. [A] for example 16. [A] subsequences 17. [A] audio 18. [A] damages 19. [A] faculties 20. [A] much

[B] especially [B] similar [B] accuracy [B] increase [B] as a result [B] disadvantages [B] visual [B] decays [B] departments [B] little [C] frankly [C] used [C] efficiency [C] cease [C] in turn [C] consequences [C] vocal [C] deteriorates [C] patterns [C] clearly [D] fairly [D] likely

[D] proficiency [D] fracture [D] in addition [D] advantages [D] facial [D] spoils [D] authorities [D] often

Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text 1

Forget all the talk about corporate culture. It?s time to analyze your company?s personality.

Plenty of business gurus have argued for years that companies aren?t just boxes and bubbles on the charts. Instead, they?ve argued, companies are more like biological organisms—living things that learn, evolve, and eventually die. Are you ready to take this biological worldview to the next level? According to marketing consultant Sandy Fekete, companies can best be understood when thought of as people—as unique creatures with their own value, their own personalities, and sometimes, if her clients really get into the spirit, their own names. “Most people assume that a company?s personality matches its CEO?s personality,” says Fekete, 43 founder of Fekete Company, a marketing-communications firm based in Columbus, Ohio. “But that?s not true. An organization has its own ways of being.”

Fekete?s job is to help her clients understand their company?s personality—its strengths and its weaknesses. Her main tool is a 74-question diagnostic method called appropriately “Companies Are People, Too.” So far, people in 63 organizations ranging from museums to construction firms to medical practices have put pen to paper to scrutinize their companies? personalities.

It may sound like psychobabble, but the idea behind the tool is fairly simple: An organization, like a person, has preferred ways of focusing energy, gathering information, making decisions, and structuring work. Once people inside an organization understand those preferences, argues Fekete, they can do a better job of articulating their company?s identity and values, and they can figure out better ways to work and to communicate. Some of her clients even elect “keepers of the personality” —volunteers who make sure that their organization is clear about the attributes that it prizes.

“Change comes from awareness,” Fekete says. “Once you figure out who you are, you can begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors.”

Dixon Schwabl Advertising Inc., a fast-growing agency based in upstate New York, has actually undergone a personality change as a result of using the tool. After taking the test for the first time, the agency created a character, named Samm, to embody the company?s strengths and weaknesses. But a year later, after the agency

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worked on its weaknesses, Samm gave way to Jaz. “Samm was too deadline-focused,” muses Lauren Dixon, 45, founder and president of Dixon Schwabl. “We?re still driven to meet our deadlines, but not at the risk of compromising the creative. We needed a different character to personify who we had become.”

Indeed, Dixon claims that Jaz has not only helped her company better understand its values; the personality has also contributed to the firm?s phenomenal growth—from billings of $18 million in 1997 to $49 million in 2000. “In any situation,” she says, “we ask ourselves, ?What would Jaz do??”

21. What the author intends to tell us is that

A. corporate culture should always be a hot topic for a company. B. companies have lifespan expectations just like humans.

C. it is better for most people to recognize a company?s personality. D. companies are made up of living individuals.

22. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage? A. Companies can be seen as biological entities.

B. A company?s personality is closely related to its CEO?s personality. C. A company may owe its personality to its staff.

D. A company, like a person, shows its unique characteristics.

23. Judging from the context, the word “scrutinize” (Line 4, Para. 4) most probably means A. specify. B. testify. C. associate. D. examine.

24. The example of the Dixon Schwabl company is cited to illustrate that A. small agencies can have personalities as well.

B. awareness of a company?s personality can help them make improvements. C. a company with a deadline-focused personality is unlikely to last very long. D. it is important to pick the right name for a company?s personality.

25. According to Sandy Fekete, once a company?s personality is understood the company can A. begin to make changes to its personality.

B. have a basis by which to make important hiring decisions. C. find ways to better its work and communication.

D. create a character to market this personality to the public.

Text 2

America?s economic recovery remains uncomfortably weak. The 1atest data show industrial production falling while the trade deficit soars to record levels. To round off a dismal week for economic statistics, the Fed announced that industrial production fell by 0.2％ in December compared with the previous month. That came as a disappointment to economists who had been expecting a small rise. Monthly data are always unreliable, of course; there is always a plausible explanation for unexpectedly bad (or good) news. But nearly all recent economic statistics point to the same conclusion—that America?s recovery remains sluggish and erratic. It could put pressure on the Fed to consider cutting interest rates again when its policymaking committee meets at the end of the month.

The biggest obstacle to healthier economic performance, though, is political. As the Fed?s chairman, Alan Greenspan, acknowledged in the closing months of 2002, uncertainty about the future is holding both investors and consumers back. The shadowy threat of international terrorism and the much more explicit prospect of a war

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with Iraq have made many Americans nervous about the future. For businesses still reeling from the speed at which the late-1990s boom turned to slump, the political climate is one more reason to put off investing in new plant and equipment or hiring new staff. For consumers, for so long the mainstay of the American economy, the thrill of the shopping mall seems, finally, to be on the wane.

It is hard to put a favorable interpretation on most of the data. But it is important to keep a sense of perspective. Some recent figures look disappointing partly because they fall short of over-optimistic forecasts—a persistent weakness of those paid to predict the economic future, no matter how often they are proved wrong. The Fed will be watching carefully for further signs of weakness during the rest of the month. Mr. Greenspan is an avid, even obsessive, consumer of economic data. He has made it clear that the Fed stands ready to reduce interest rates again if it judges it necessary—even after 12 cuts in the past two years. At its last meeting, though, when it kept rates on hold, the Fed signaled that it did not expect to need to reduce rates any further.

Monetary policy still offers the best short-term policy response to weak economic activity, and with inflation low the Fed still has scope for further relaxation. President Bush?s much-vaunted fiscal stimulus is unlikely to provide appropriate help, and certainly not in a timely way.

26. Which of the following best describes the America?s economic situation? A. It is recovering. B. It faces an uncertain future. C. It remains depressing. D. It shows unreliable signs. 27. What does the figure 0.2％in Paragraph 1 indicate? A. America?s economic recovery is still shaky.

B. Economists are disappointed at the future economy. C. It is a bad sign for America?s economic recovery.

D. The biggest obstacle to healthier economic performance is political. 28. What factor makes investors put off investing in new plant and equipment? A. The sluggish economic situation.

B. The direct threat of international terrorism. C. The possibility of a war with Iraq. D. Investors? shortage of capital.

29. What is the author?s attitude toward some recent figures mentioned in Paragraph 3? A. Optimistic. B. Suspicious. C. Worrisome. D. Critical. 30. How does monetary policy offer help for weak economic activity? A. It can stimulate investment in new plant and equipment.

B. It can reduce interest rates so as to stimulate weak economic activity. C. The Fed tries to keep inflation low.

D. President Bush can offer appropriate monetary policy.

Text 3

Dieting, according to an old joke, may not actually make you live longer, but it sure feels that way. Nevertheless, evidence has been accumulating since the 1930s that calorie restriction—reducing an animal?s energy intake below its energy expenditure—extends lifespan and delays the start of age-related diseases in rats, dogs, fish and monkeys. Such results have inspired thousands of people to put up with constant hunger in the hope of living longer, healthier lives. They have also led to a search for drugs that mimic the effects of calorie restriction without the pain of going on an actual diet.

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Amid the trend, it is easy to forget that no one has until now shown that calorie restriction works in humans. That omission, however, changed this month, with the publication of the initial results of the first systematic investigation into the matter. This study took 48 men and women and assigned them randomly to either a control group or a calorie-restriction regime. Those in the second group were required to cut their calorie intake for six months to 75％of that needed to maintain their weight.

The study is a landmark in the history of the field, because its subjects were either of normal weight or only slightly overweight. Previous projects have used individuals who were clinically fat, thus confusing the unquestionable benefits to health of reducing fatness with the possible advantages of calorie restriction to the otherwise healthy.

At a molecular level, it suggests these advantages are real. Those on restricted diets showed drops in body temperature and blood-insulin levels—both phenomena that have been seen in long-lived, calorie restricted animals. They also suffered less damage to their DNA.

Eric Ravussin, of Louisiana State University, says that such results provide support for the theory that calorie restriction produces a metabolic adaptation over and above that which would be expected from weight loss alone. Nevertheless, such metabolic adaptation could be the reason why calorie restriction is associated with longer lifespan in other animals—and that is certainly the hope of those who, for the past 15 years, have been searching for ways of triggering that metabolic adaptation by means other than semi-starvation.

The search for a drug that will delay old age is itself as old as the hills—as is the wishful thinking of the suckers who finance such efforts. Those who hope to find it by mimicking the effect of calorie restriction are not, however, complete snake-oil salesmen, for there is known to be a family of enzymes, which act both as sensors of nutrient availability and as regulators of metabolic rate. These might provide the necessary biochemical link between starving and living longer.

31. We learn from the first two paragraphs that A. people are crazy about dieting in order to lose some weight. B. experimental results show that dieting can prolong animals? life. C. two groups of people were asked to go on a diet in the study.

D. few results have been worked out on the effects of calorie restriction. 32. The word “landmark” (Line 1, Paragraph 3) probably means A. an event of much profit. B. an event of great excitement. C. an event of great significance. D. an event of unique features.

33. The results of previous research on the effects of calorie restriction are unconvincing because A. the subjects of the research were either of overweight or slightly underweight. B. calorie-restricted animals showed different physical signs in the research.

C. the decrease in body temperature may result from changes of outside temperature. D. people cannot tell the benefits of losing weight from those of calorie restriction. 34. It can be inferred from paragraph 5 that A. people have been engaged in the study of the replacement of calorie restriction. B. people have been looking for drugs that can prolong humans? life for ages. C. people can expect a change in their metabolic rate when going on a diet.

D. people may benefit from metabolic adaptation in that it may protect their DNA. 35. People might take enzymes as a substitute for calorie restriction in that

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