2014年12月英语四级冲刺全真模拟试题七

　　根据以下资料，回答51-70题：

　　Being a.man has always been dangerous.There are about l05 males born for every 100 fe-males, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity，and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed.Now，boy babies survive almost as well as girls do.This means that，for the first time，there will be lie excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate.More important，another chance for natural selection has been removed.Fifty years ago，the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby)surviving depended on its weight.A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost cer-tain death.Today it makes almost no difference.Since much of the variation is due to genes，one more agent of evolution has gone.

　　There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide：stay alive，but have fewer children.Few people are as fertile as in the past.Except in some religious communities，very few women have l5 children.Nowadays the number of births，like the age of death，has become average.Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring.Again，differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished.India shows what is hap-penin9.The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples.The grand mediocrity of today--everyone being the same in survival and number of off-spring--means that natural selection has lost 80%of its power in upper--middle--class India compared to the tribes.

　　For us, this means that evolution is over;the biological Utopia has arrived.Strangely，it ha-involved little physical change.No other species fills so many places in nature.But in the pas 100.000 years-even the past l00 years-our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not.

　　We did not evolve，because machines and society did it for us.Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution：they "look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship，as at some-thing wholly beyond his comprehension".No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness.But however amazed our descendants may-be at how far from Utopia we were，they will look just like us.

　　51、What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?

　　A.A lack of mates.

　　B.A fierce competition.

　　C.A lower survival rate.

　　D.A defective gene.

　　52、 What does the example of India illustrate?

　　A.j Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

　　B.Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

　　C.The middle class population is 80%smaller than that of the tribes.

　　D.India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.

　　53、 The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because__________.

　　A.life has been improved by technological advance

　　B.the number of female babies has been declining

　　C.our species has reached the highest stage of evolution

　　D.the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing

　　54、 What does "fertile" in the second paragraph mean?

　　A.Female.

　　B.Able to produce much.

　　C.Religious celebration.

　　D.Quick.

　　55、 Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

　　A.Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.

　　B.Ways of Continuing Man's Evolution.

　　C.The Evolutionary Future of Nature.

　　D.Human Evolution Going Nowhere.

　　根据以下资料，回答56-75题：

　　With human footprints on the moon，radio telescopes listening for messages from alien creatures(who may or may not exist)，technicians looking for celestial and planetary sources of energy to support our civilization，orbiting telescopes' data hinting at planetary systems around other stars，and political groups trying to figure out how to save humanity from nuclear warfare that would damage life and eliminate on a planet-wide scale，an astronomy book published today enters a world different from the one that greeted books a generation ago.Astronomy has broadened to involve our basic circumstances and our mysterious future in the universe.With eclipses and space missions broadcast live，and with NASA，Europe，and the USSR planning and building permanent space stations，astronomy offers adventure for all people，an outward exploratory thrust that may one day be seen as an alternative to mindless consumerism，ideological bickering，and wars to control dwindling resources on a closed，finite Earth.

　　Today's astronomy students not only seek an up-to-date summary of astronomical facts：they ask，as people have asked for ages，about our basic relations to the rest of the universe.They may study astronomy partly to seek points of contact between science and other human endeavors：philosophy，history，politics，environmental action，even the arts and religion.

　　Science fiction writers and special effect artists on recent films help today's students realize that unseen worlds of space are real places-not abstract concepts, Today's students are citizens of a more real，more vast cosmos than conceptualized by students of a decade ago.

　　In designing this edition，the Wadsworh editors and I have tried to respond to these developments.Rather than jumping at the start into murky waters of cosmology，I have begun with the viewpoint of ancient people on Earth and worked outward across the universe.This method of organization automatically(if loosely)reflects the order of humanity's discoveries about astronomy and provides a unifying theme、of increasing distance and scale.

　　56、This passage is most probably taken from__________.

　　A.an article of popular science

　　B.the introduction of a book of astronomy

　　C.a lecture given by the author to astronomy students

　　D.the preface of a piece of science fiction

　　57、 The author's purpose in presenting the first paragraph is__________.

　　A.to explain the background and new features of today's astronomy

　　B.to discuss in detail the most recent achievements in space research

　　C.to introduce some newly established space stations

　　D.to illustrate that the world today is different in many aspects from that of a generations ago

　　58、 The author thinks that the growing interest in space exploration among people on Earth will probably lead to__________.

　　A.all people having chances of travelling in space

　　B.the realization of permanent settlement on other planets

　　C.more disturbance not only on Earth but also in outer space

　　D.order，harmony and peace on our planet Earth

　　59、 The author believes that today's astronomy students__________.

　　A.are much brighter than students of a generation ago

　　B.no longer care about astronomical facts

　　C.are better-informed about the unseen worlds of space

　　D.may learn more about man and his research in various fields through the study of astronomy

　　60、 In the last paragraph.the underlined expression "these developments" refers to all of the following EXCEPT__________.

　　A.the development of science fiction and special effects of films

　　B.the new concepts about the universe acquired by today's astronomy students

　　C.the world-wide involvement in space exploration

　　D.humanity's new achievements in the field of astronomy

　　Section III Reading Comprehension