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Part III Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
■ Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage.
Major retailers and car manufacturers have slashed (削減) their marketing budgets in the six months to October, 2008, as the financial crisis has taken its toll, while supermarkets have 11 advertising spending in a battle to prove that they offer the most 12 prices.
According to new research undertaken for The Daily Telegraph by Nielsen Media Research, in the six months to September 30, 2008, Marks & Spencer’s advertising spend fell 20.3pc to ￡25.3m, 13 with the same period in 2007.
While the retailer has spent heavily on a campaign 14 celebrities in the past two years, it is understood to be cutting back on celebrity spending in 2009. The retailer is, however, still the UK’s 25th largest spender on advertising,
15 being at 17th place in the six months to September 30, 2007.
Car manufacturers have also significantly 16 back on marketing spending, believed to be a result of the financial crisis. According to Nielsen, Ford spent ￡26.6m in the six months to September 30, 2008, down 21pc from the same period last year. Vauxhall also 17 spending by 15.6pc in the period to ￡26.5m.
For supermarkets, however, a significant increase in advertising spending, it appears, is a 18 as they seek to woo (追求) increasingly price- 19 customers. The leading supermarkets have 20 an aggressive price war in the past six months as consumers have been faced with news of higher food prices.
A) conscientious I) necessity
B) conscious J) contribution
C) against K) reduced
D) despite L) moreover
E) comparing M) scaled
F) compared N) competitive
G) launched O) featuring
H) boosted
■ Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished sentences. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
There are more than 2,000 different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its thin sucking tube to break the skin, find blood and inject the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing.
The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce as many as 250 eggs. The insect leaves the eggs in any standing water.
The eggs produce worm-like creatures called larvae (幼蟲) in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The larvae feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas (蛹). The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says mosquitoes carry organisms that cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria (瘧疾). The WHO says 247 million people became infected with malaria in 2006. Malaria caused almost one million deaths, mostly among children in Africa. The disease is found in more than one hundred countries in Africa, Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Middle East and Central and South America.
Malaria parasites (寄生蟲) enter a person’s blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells.
Some medicines are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed.
21. According to the passage, we can infer that _________.
A) female mosquitoes don’t bite animals
B) female mosquitoes bite people for a substance that keeps blood flowing
C) malaria is found everywhere in the world
D) countries in Europe and North America have low malaria death rate
22. What is the right order in which mosquitoes grow?
a. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away.
b. The larvae change into creatures called pupas.
c. The insect leaves the eggs in any standing water.
d. The eggs produce worm-like creatures called larvae.
A) c, a, b, d B) d, c, b, a C) c, d, b, a D) d, b, c, a
23. According to the WHO, the organisms carried by mosquitoes __________.
A) are the food for larvae
B) have led to the death of millions of people in the world
C) invade red blood cells first and then destroy major organs
D) can enter a person’s brain through the mosquito’s bite
24. According to the passage, malaria medicines are generally designed to _______.
A) keep people’s body temperature at a normal level
B) prevent parasites from entering people’s skins
C) stop parasites from growing inside the body
D) stop parasites from invading red blood cells
25. What is the passage mainly talking about?
A) The growing process of mosquitoes and the diseases spread by them.
B) The medicines used in preventing and treating malaria.
C) The kinds of mosquitoes in the world today.
D) The larvae of mosquitoes feed on organisms in the water.
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Conservationists call them hot spots — habitats that cover just 1.4 percent of the earth’s land surface but are so rich in biological diversity that preserving them could keep an astonishing number of plant and animal species off the endangered list.
Since 1988, when Dr. Norman Myers and his colleagues began describing these hot spots in a series of scientific papers and arguing for their protection, they have become a focus of worldwide conservation efforts. Private organizations and government agencies, including the World Bank, have made preserving 25 such ecological arks a top priority for financing and protective legislation. But a growing chorus of scientists is warning that directing conservation funds to hot spots may be a recipe for major losses in the future. Of species that live on land, nearly half of all plants and more than a third of all animals are found only in the hot spots. But they do not include many rare species and major animal groups that live in less biologically rich regions (“cold spots”). And the hot-spot concept does not factor in the importance of some ecosystems to human beings, the scientists argue.
This debate has been simmering quietly among biologists for years; however, it is coming to a boil now with the publication of an article in the current issue of American Scientist arguing that “calls to direct conservation funding to the world’s biodiversity hot spots may be bad investment advice.” “The hot-spot concept has grown so popular in recent years within the larger conservation community that it now risks eclipsing all other approaches,” write the authors of the paper. “The officers and directors of all too many foundations, non-governmental organizations and international agencies have been seduced by the simplicity of the hot spot idea,” they go on. “We worry that the initially appealing idea of getting the most species per unit area is, in fact, a thoroughly misleading strategy.”
But hot spots have their ardent defenders, notably Dr. Norman Myers and Dr. Russell Mittermeier. Dr. Myers says hot spots have been successful at attracting attention and financing for conservation in tropical countries. “And that has been good,” he said. “No one is suggesting that one invest solely in hot spots, but if you want to avoid extinctions, you have to invest in them.”
26. The best title for this passage would be ________.
A) A Debate on Preserving Hot Spots B) An Introduction to Hot Spots
C) Hot Spots vs. Cold Spots D) How to Finance Hot Spots
27. Hot spots occupy a small percentage of the earth’s land surface with _____________.
A) a third of all plants B) many major animal groups living in cold spots
C) rich biological diversity D) many rare species living in cold spots
28. Critics of hot spots hold the opinion that ________.
A) hot spots are always as important as cold spots
B) it is unwise to invest largely in hot spots
C) governments should choose the best time to invest in hot spots
D) the hot-spot approach is a misleading strategy from the very beginning
29. According to Dr. Norman Myers, _________.
A) protecting and investing in hot spots can save species from extinction
B) conservation efforts should not center on hot spots
C) governments should invest most in cold spots
D) the hot-spot approach now is not as good as it was in the past
30. What is the writer’s attitude towards the hot-spot approach?
A) Critical. B) Neutral. C) Supportive. D) Doubtful.
