医学考博英语特训教材阅读1试题
Part Ⅳ Reading Comprehension (30 % )
Directions: In this part there are six passages, each of which is followed by five questions. For each question there are four possible answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark the letter of your choice on the ANSWER SHEET.
Passage One
Fourteen-year-old Sean MeCallum lay in a hospital bed waiting for a new heart. Without it, Scan would die. Sean' s case is not unusual. Everyday many people die because there just aren't enough human organs to go around.
Now scientists say they can alter the genetic make-up of certain animals so that their organs may be acceptable to humans. With this gene-altering technique to overcome our immune rejection to foreign organs, scientists hope to use pig hearts for transplants by the year 2008.
That prospect, however, has stirred up strong opposition among animal fight activists. They protest that the whole idea of using animal organs is cruel and unjust; some scientists also fear such transplants may transform unknown diseases to humans.
Others believe transplanting animal organs into humans is unnecessary. Millions of dollars spent on breeding pigs for their organs could be better spent on health education programs. They believe seventy-five percent of the heart disease cases that lead to a need for organ transplant are preventable. The key is to convince people to eat healthfully, and not to smoke or drink alcohol. Scientists could also use research funds to improve artificial organs.
Still others believe that though new inventions and prevention programs may help, spending money to encourage more people to donate their organs is an even better idea. If enough people were educated about organ donations, everyone who needed an organ could be taken off the waiting list in a year.
61. What is the problem the passage begins with?
A. High mortality rate of immune rejection
B. A malpractice in heart transplantation.
C. An unusual case of organ transplant
D. A shortage of human organs
62. Not only is the gene-altering technique a technical issue, according to the passage but also it________ .
A. introduces an issue of inhumanity
B. raises the issue of justice in medicine
C. presents a significant threat to the human nature
D. pushes the practice of organ transplant to the limits
63. Doubtful of the necessity of using animal organs, some scientists ________ .
A. are to narrow the scope of organ transplants
B. switch to the development of artificial organs
C. come up with alternatives to the current problem
D. set out to pursue better ways of treating heart disease
64. It can be inferred from the concluding paragraph of the passage that ________ .
A. the gene-altering technique will help those waiting for organ transplants
B. the present supply of human organs still has potential to be explored
C. people prefer the use of animal organs for medical purposes
D. the gene-altering technique leaves much to believed
65. The information the passage carries is ________ .
A. enlightening B. unbelievable C. imaginative D. factual
Passage Two
There is a great irony of 21st-century global health: While many hundreds of millions of people lack adequate food as a result of economic inequities, political corruption, or warfare, many hundreds of millions more are overweight to the point of increased risk for diet-related chronic diseases. Obesity is a worldwide phenomenon, affecting children as well as adults and forcing all but the poorest countries to divert scarce resources away from food security to take care of people with preventable heart disease and diabetes.
To reverse the obesity epidemic, we must address the fundamental causes. Overweight comes from consuming more food energy than is expended in activity. The cause of this imbalance also is ironic: improved prosperity. People use extra income to eat more and be less physically active. Market economies encourage this. They make people with expendable income into consumers of aggressively marketed foods that are high in energy but low in nutritional value, and of cars, televisions set. And computers that promote sedentary behavior. Gaining weight are good business. Food is particularly big business because everyone eats.
Moreover, food is so overproduced that many countries, especially the rich ones that far more than they need, another irony, than the United States, to take an extreme example, most adults—of all ages, incomes, educational levels, and census categories—are overweight. The U. S. food supply provides 3800 kilocalories per person per day, nearly twice as much as required by many adults. Overabundant food forces companies to compete for sales through advertising, health claims, new products, larger portions, and campaigns directed toward children. Food marketing promotes weight gain. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any major industry that might benefit if people ate! Less food; certainly not the agriculture, food product, grocery, restaurant, diet or drug industries. All flourish when people eat more. And all employ armies of Lobbyists to discourage governments from doing anything to inhibit overeating.
66. The great irony of 21st century global public health refers to ________ .
A. the cause of obesity and its counteractive measures
B. the insufficient and superfluous consumption of food
C. the seas natural resource and the green of food source
D. the consumption of food and the increased risk for diet-related diseases
67. To address the fundamental cause of the obesity epidemic, according to the passage, is ________ .
A. to improve political and economic management
B. to cope with the energy imbalance issue
C. to combat diet-related chronic diseases
D. to increase investment in global health
68. As we can learn from the passage, the second irony refers to ________ .
A. affluence and obesity
B. food energy and nutritional value
C. food business and economic prosperity
D. diseases of civilization and pathology of inactivity
69. As a result of the third irony, people ________ .
A. consume 3800 kilocalories on a daily basis
B. complain about food overproduction
C. have to raise their food expenses
D. are driven towards weight gain
70. Which of the following can be excluded as we can understand based on the passage?
A. The economic dimension. B. The political dimension.
C. The humane dimension. D. The dietary dimension.
Passage Three
Women find a masculine face-with a large jaw and a prominent brow-more attractive when they are most likely to attractive, according to a study published in the June 24 NATURE. Before, during, and use after menstruation, however, they seem to be drawn to less angular, more "feminine" male faces, the researchers report.
"Other studies of female preference, mainly for odors, show changes across the menstrual cycle, " says lead author Ian Penton-Voak of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "We thought it would be interesting to look at visual preferences and see if they changed also". The researchers showed 39 Japanese women composite male faces that emphasized masculine or feminine facial features to differing degrees. The women preferred images with more masculine features when they were in the fertile phase of their menses but favored more feminine features during their less fertile phase.
The type of face women find attractive also seems to depend on the kind of relationship they wish to pursue, according to another experiment.
The cyclic preference for muscular faces was evident among 23 British women asked to choose the most attractive face for a short-term relationship, Penton-Voak says. The 26 women asked to choose an attractive face for a long-term relationship, however, preferred the more feminine features throughout their menstrual cycle.
Another 22 women who were using oral contraceptives did not show monthly changes in the faces they preferred even for short-term relationships, indicating that hormones might play a role in determining attractiveness, Penton-Voak says.
Men whose faces have some feminine softness are perceived as "kinder" men who may make better husbands and partners, he adds, while macho features may be associated with higher testosterone(睾丸素)levels and good genes. He cautions, however, that research hasn't yet shown a link between a woman' s preferences in such tests and her actual behavior.
71. The researchers made a study on ________ .
A. women' s menstrual cycle B. men' s preferred female images
C. women' s visual preferences of men D. men' s masculine and feminine features
72. Women are drawn to a masculine face, according to the researchers, when they ________ .
A. grow to be more feminine B. are on oral contraceptives
C. are ready for conception D. are on menstruation
73. It was found in Britain that women' s preferred male images were influenced by ________ .
A. their family planning B. the years of marriage they had
C. the length of their menstrual cycle D. the term or relationship they seek
74. Just because the studies of female preferences show changes across the menstrual cycle, as Penton-Voak implies, does not mean that
A. visual preferences do exist B. a woman acts this way is reality
C. a man will buy into the phenomenon D. men and women prefer the same image
75. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. Does a woman judge from a man' s appearance?
B. Is there such a thing as beauty in the world?
C. Are women more emotional than men?
D. Is beauty more than meets the eye?
Passage Four
WELL—do they or don' t they? For years, controversy has raged over whether the electromagnetic fields produced by power lines could cause cancer especially leukemia in young children. But in Britain last week confusion reached new heights.
One team from Bristol announced that it had evidence to back a controversial but plausible theory which would explain how power lines might cause cancer (electric fields attract airborne pollutants). Only to be followed by the release of results by another group in London which suggested there is nothing to worry about. What is going on?
Actually, the confusion may be more apparent than real. There can be no doubt that the effects of power lines on water droplets, pollutants and naturally occurring radon uncovered by the Bristol team are real and interning. But to suggest that they have anything to do with leukemia in children is premature. The extra exposure to pollution for a child living near power lines would be tiny, and it is not obvious why radon, a gas normally associated with lung cancer would cause leukemia in children.
The second study, which drew reassuring blank, is the world's biggest ever probe of the statistical link between childhood cancers and magnetic fields of the sort produced by power lines and electrical appliances. It is one of several recent studies that have failed to find a link.
Unlike earlier research, these newer studies involved going into homes to measure the electro-magnetic fields. The fields they measured included input from major power lines if they were.
Which is not to Say the research is perfectly. Critics argue that Britain' s childhood cancer study, for example, has not yet taken into account the surges in exposure that might come from, say, switching appliances on and off. And some people might wonder why measurements of the electric fields that are also produced by power lines did not figure in last week's study. But neither criticism amounts to a fatal blow. Electrical fields cannot penetrate the body significantly, for example,
A more serious concern is whether the British research provides an all-clear signal for such countries as the US where power lines carry more current and therefore produce higher magnetic fields. Pedants (书呆子)would conclude that it doesn't. But these counties will not have long to wait for answers from a major Japanese study.
In Britain the latest epidemiological study can be taken as the final word on the matter. If the electromagnetic fields in British homes can in some unforeseen way increase the risk of cancer, we can now be as certain as science allows that the increase is too tiny to measure.
76. Both the question "Well—do they or don't they?" and the question "What is going on?" suggest ________ .
A. the high incidence of Leukemia
B. the advent of bewilderment among people
C. the warning of the worsening air pollution
D. the tense relation between Bristol and London
77. What would the author say of the results of the first study?
A. Enlightening. B. Insignificant.
C. Reassuring. D. Apparent.
78. What can be suggested from the results of the second study?
A. There does exist a danger zone near power lines.
B. There is much to be improved in terms of design.
C. There is nothing to worry about as to power lines.
D. There is no link between the first and second study.
79. It can be inferred from the passage that the British outcomes ________ .
A. are expected to convince nobody but pedants
B. were found to have left much room for doubt
C. could have implications in such countries as the US
D. will be consistent with the Japanese ones in the near future
80. To conclude, the author ________ .
A. reassures us of the reliability of the latest research in Britain
B. asks for improved measurements for such an investigation
C. points out the drawbacks of the latest research in Britain
D. urges further investigations on the issue
Passage Five
Smoking causes wrinkles by upsetting the body' s mechanism for renewing skin, say scientists in Japan. Dermatologists say the finding confirms the long-held view that smoking ages skin prematurely.
Skin stays healthy and young-looking because of a fine balance between two processes that are constantly at work. The first breaks-down old skin while the second makes new skin. The body breaks down the old skin with enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases, or MMPs, They chop up the fibers that form collagen(胶原质)—the connective tissue that makes up around 80percent of normal skin.
Akimichi Morita and his colleagues at Nagoya City University Medical School suspected that smoking disrupted the body' s natural process of breaking down old skin and renewing it. To test their idea, they first made a solution of cigarette smoke by pumping smoke through a saline (盐的) solution. Smoke was sucked from cigarettes for two seconds every minute. Tiny drops of this smoke solution were added to dishes of human fibroblasts, the skin cells that produce collagen.
After a day in contact with smoke solution, the researchers tested the skin cells, to see how much collagen-degrading MMP they were making. Morita found that cells exposed to cigarette smoke had produced far more MMP than normal skin cells.
Morita also tested the skin cells to see how much new collagen they were producing. He found that the smoke caused a drop in the production of fresh collagen by up to 40 percent.
He says that this combined effect of degrading collagen more rapidly and producing less new collagen is probably what causes premature skin ageing in smokers, in both cases, the more concentrated the smoke solution the greater the effect on collagen. "This suggests the amount of collagen is important for skin ageing, " he says. "It looks like less collagen means more wrinkle formation".
Morita doesn't know if this is the whole story of why smokers have more wrinkles. But he plans to confirm his findings by testing skin samples from smokers and non-smokers of various ages to see if the-smoking has the same effect on collagen. "So far we're only done this in the lab. " He says. "We don't know exactly what happens in the body yet that might take some time.
Other dermatologists are impressed by file work. "This is fascinating, " says Lawrence Parish. Director of the Centre for International Dermatology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. This confirms scientifically what we've long expected, he says. "Tobacco smoke is injurious to skin. "
81. Healthy skin lies in ________ .
A. a well-kept balance between two working processes
B. the two processes of breaking down skin cells
C. a fine balance in the number of cigarettes
D. the two steps of forming collagen
82. For the Japanese scientists, to test their idea is ________ .
A. to verify the aging of human beings
B. to find out the mechanism of renewing skin
C. to prove the two processes of wrinkle formation
D. to confirm the hazards of smoking proven otherwise
83. The Japanese scientists tested their idea using ________ .
A. MMPs to form fresh collagen
B. cigarette smoke to contaminate skin cells
C. human fibroblasts to produce fresh collagen
D. non-smokers to be exposed to cigarette smoke
84. As inferred from Morita's results, smoking ________ .
A. could stimulate tile production of fresh collagen
B. is unlikely to promote the production of MMP
C. tends to cause skin to age prematurely
D. may cause collagen to die by 60%
85. Monrita implies that his findings ________ .
A. took less time than expected
B. were hard to accept in dermatology
C. were not exclusively based on the lab
D. need to be further verified in the human body
Passage Six
Today, I sit in a surgical ICU beside my favorite Jack as he recovers from a five-hour operation to repair a massive aortic aneurysm. For me it has been a journey into the medical system as an in-experienced consumer rather than in my usual position as a seasoned provider. This journey to an urban referral center has produced some disappointing surprises for Dad, and especially for me. For the past two days, my beloved Jack has been called "Harold" (his first name; Jack is his middle name). Of course, there is nothing wrong with "Harold"—it was what he was called in the army-but Dad never has been "Harold" except to those who really don' t know him. Telephone callers at our family home who asked for "Harold" were always red flags that the caller was a telemarketer or insurance salesperson.
Dad doesn't correct his physicians or the office receptionists—he is from the old school, where it is impolite to question or correct your physician. Once he was an almost ideal "Jack, "strong, athletic, quietly confident and imminently trustworthy, but his recent renal failure and dialysis treatments, his stroke and his constant tremor have robbed him of his strength, mobility, and golf game, but not of his will or love of his family, part of the reason he agreed to undertake this risky operation at his advanced age was because his wife and sisters still need his protective support. With so much at risk, he faced this life-threatening challenge in a city far away from his home and friends and in a place where he is greeted as "Harold. "
86. The author relates the story ________ .
A. from a consumer' s point of view
B. with a view to punctuating patient rights
C. according to his own standards of health care
D. based on his own unpleasant medical treatment
87. Apparently the author' s father________ .
A. did not like to be called by the first name
B. was not well taken care of as expected
C. was mistaken for somebody else
D. was treated like a businessman
88. As the author implies his father ________ .
A. encountered so many impolite physicians
B. did nothing but kept quiet in the hospital
C. accepted the way he was greeted
D. had his diagnosis made wrongly
89. What the story implies is that ________ .
A. people are what they are called
B. nobody likes to be called Harold in English
C. a patient should be called as he or she wishes
D. a patient cannot be called by the first name in the hospital
90. The author describes his" Jack" in a tone of ________ .
A. admiration B. Inspiration C. Indignation D. expectation
