2021年12月英语四级阅读试题模考试卷（3）

　　2021年12月英语四级阅读试题模考试卷(3)

　　A nine-armed octopus (章鱼) caught off Japan’s coast nearly ended up being dinner, until the family preparing it noticed its extra limb and sent it to a museum instead, according to The Mainichi, a Japanese newspaper.

　　While unusual, this extra appendage ( 附 加 物 )—which wasn’t fully formed, but a small branch on a regular arm—isn’t unheard of in octopuses, said a well-known zoologist Juan Somavia, who was not involved with this octopus’s discovery.

　　Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate ( 无 脊 椎 动 物 ) zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., share the same view with Somavia. “Octopuses are capable of regenerating their arms, but sometimes regeneration doesn’t work quite right,” Somavia told Live Science. “If an arm gets damaged, it might regenerate wrong; it could wind up with extra tissue growing out, and that extra tissue could turn into an arm.”

　　The nine-armed oddity was caught in a trap with three other octopuses on Nov. 13 in Shizugawa Bay, in the northeastern town of Minamisanriku, Japan. Shizugawa Bay is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of the now decommissioned (已停止使用的) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which had a nuclear meltdown following a disastrous 7.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011. It is widely acknowledged that it’s likely that the octopus’ ninth arm was caused by radiation poisoning. But Vecchione didn’t think so. Reports of bifurcated (分岔的) octopus arms have been catalogued all over the world for years, he said. For instance, a 1960 report in the journal Nature describes an octopus at the University of Miami Marine Laboratory that had “an abnormal third left arm” with two branches, according to the report’s author. A 1965 study in the journal Proceedings of the apan Academy described numerous octopuses with more than eight arms, including one hat had 90.

　　Having just one bifurcated arm probably doesn’t affect an octopus, because it’s small nd simply dangles (来回摆动着) off the arm; it might even be functional and have the bility to move and feel, Vecchione said. “The worst case is that it’s just sort of dragging here, but it probably wouldn’t be too much of damage,” he said. However, octopuses withmany arms might face more challenges. “That might affect their ability to hunt or swim,” he said.

　　46. What can we get from the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi?

　　A) An octopus with an extra arm was captured on the coast.

　　B) An octopus with nine arms was everyday dinner at fishermen’s table.

　　C) Scientists were interested in the nine-armed octopus displayed in the museum.

　　D) Scientists worried about the damage to octopuses brought by the ninth arm.

　　47. What did Juan Somavia say about a small branch on a regular arm of octopuses?

　　A) It was not people’s first discovery.

　　B) It had been fully formed.

　　C) It amazed people living along the coast.

　　D) It was covered with poisonous bumps.

　　48. According to Michael Vecchione, octopuses can _____________.

　　A) generate new arms by themselves.

　　B) escape with the help of extra arms.

　　C) develop tissues in favorable surroundings.

　　D) spare any difficulties in Shizugawa Bay.

　　49. What is the popular belief of the nine-armed octopus?

　　A) It is a sign of biological evolution.

　　B) Its appearance is related to climate change.

　　C) It will generate more than nine branches.

　　D) It is the result of nuclear meltdown.

　　50. What challenge may octopuses with many arms face?

　　A) Inability to react to external stimulation.

　　B) Poor capability to catch food and swim.

　　C) Failure to fight against natural enemies.

　　D) Trouble in adapting to the environment

　　Scientists have successfully “talked” to a sleeping person in real-time by invading their reams, a new study shows. The researchers say it’s like trying to communicate with an astronaut on another world.

　　Dreamers can follow instructions, solve simple math problems and answer yes-no questions without ever waking up, according to the results of four experiments described Thursday in the journal Current Biology. “You might expect that if you were to try to communicate with somebody who was asleep, they just wouldn’t answer,” study first author Karen Konkoly, told Live Science. Although Konkoly hoped the real-time communication would work, she said she “didn’t believe it” when someone first responded to her questions from their dreams.

　　People dream every night, but scientists don’t fully understand why we dream. Studying dreams is difficult because people often forget or twist details after waking up. That’s in part because the brain doesn’t form many new memories while sleeping and has a limited capacity to accurately store information after the dream has ended, according to the study.Researchers placed electrodes ( 电 极 ) on the participants’ heads, to measure their brainwaves (脑电波); next to their eyes, to track eye movements; and on their chins, to measure muscle activity. They used this data to determine when the participants entered the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, when lucid (神志清醒的) dreams are most likely to occur, Konkoly explained. The researchers used several techniques across the experiments to communicate with dreamers during REM sleep, including asking them spoken questions and giving them encoded messages in flashing lights, beeping tones and physical taps. If dreamers received and understood the question or message during a lucid dream, they then responded with a set of distinctive eye or facial movements that were interpreted by the electrodes.

　　Robert Stickgold, a professor of psychiatry (精神病学) at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said the results of the study were “groundbreaking”, in an email to Live Science. “It provides a new idea for studying dreams in the future,” she said.

　　51. What can be learned about the real-time communication with a sleeping person?

　　A) It is impossible under any condition.

　　B) It is not like the communication with an astronaut.

　　C) It comes true by scientists’ intrusion on his dreams.

　　D) It needs the assistance of psychologists.

　　52. What did Karen Konkoly say in the interview by Live Science?

　　A) She felt unexpected to receive sleepers’ response to her questions.

　　B) She could get mental comfort from sleepers’ words.

　　C) She didn’t fully understand the specific reason of our dreams.

　　D) She could solve math problems without ever waking up.

　　53. According to the author, studying dreams is difficult because __________.

　　A) Dreamers cannot produce sufficient information during the sleep.

　　B) People think the dream is their privacy.

　　C) Dreamers twist or can’t remember details after waking up.

　　D) People lack related advanced techniques.

　　54. What will happen to dreamers in the rapid eye movement stage of sleep?

　　A) They will understand the given messages.

　　B) They are most inclined to have lucid dreams.

　　C) Their response cannot be interpreted by the electrodes.

　　D) Their dreams are free from any outside disruption.

　　55. What did Robert Stickgold think about the study?

　　A) Its method could treat with emotional suffering.

　　B) It proved the impossibility of dream research.

　　C) It is a blessing of people with sleep-loss.

　　D) Its results were markedly innovative.

　　答案：46. A 47. A 48. A 49. D 50. B

　　51. C 52. A 53. C 54. B 55. D