SAT test 5
1. For a long time, most doctors maintained that taking massive dos of vitamins was relatively harmless; now, however, some are warning that excessive dosages can be _________.
(A) healthy adj. 健康的
(B) expensive adj. 昂贵的
(C) wasteful adj. 浪费的
(D) toxic adj. 有毒的
(E) inane adj. 愚蠢的
解析：D，在很长的一段时间里，大多数医生认为用大量的维他命是无害的;不过现在有些人警告过量食用会----。这里however表示转折与前面的harmless是相反的意思。
2. In Jamaica Kincaid's novel Lucy, the west Indian heroine _________ her employers' world, critically examining its assumptions and values.
(A) idealizes v. 理想化
(B) avoids v. 避开
(C) beautifies v. 美化
(D) scrutinizes v. 仔细检查
(E) excludes v. 排除，
解析：E，在牙买加金彩的小说露西，这个西印度群岛英雄----她的雇主的世界，精细的审视他的猜测和价值。这个句子中前后两句意思是一致的，没有转折词，所以空格所需的东西与examining是同义词，所以D。
3.The frequent name changes that the country has undergone _________ the political turbulence that has attended its recent history.
(A) argue against v. 真钞，辩论
(B) contrast with v. 对比，差异
(C) testify to v. 证明
(D) jeopardize v. 危及
(E) sustain v. 支撑
解析：C，这个国家经历了频繁的国名变更---这个国家的近点史上的政治动乱。从句意可以看后句和前句是因果关系，前面证明了后面。
4.Brachiopods, clamlike bivalves of prehistoric times, were one of the most _________ forms of life on the Earth: more than 30,000 species have been _________ from fossil records.
(A) plentiful adj. 丰富的...subtracted v. 减去
(B) ornate adj. 华丽的...retrieved v. 重新取回
(C) multifarious adj. 多方面的...catalogued v. 登记分类
(D) scarce adj. 缺乏的，罕见的...extracted v. 萃取的
(E) anachronistic adj. 时代错误的...extrapolated v. 推算，推断
解析：C，腕足类就像远古时代的双壳蚌一样，是地球上—生物形式的一种：30000多种已经从化石记录上---。从后面的species 可以看出与前面的空格是同义词，多样性的种类。后面可以看出从化石记录中登记了。
5 Some interactive computer games are so elaborately contrived and require such _________ strategies that only the most __________ player can master them.
(A) byzantine adj. 错综复杂的...adroit adj. 熟练的，机敏的
(B) nefarious adj. 极坏的，恶毒的...conscientious adj. 认真的，勤奋的
(C) devious adj. 迂回的，狡猾的...lackadaisical adj. 无精打采的
(D) onerous adj. 困难的，繁重...slipshod adj. 穿着不整齐的，潦草的
(E) predictable adj. 可预言的...compulsive adj. 强制的，强迫的
解析：A，一些电脑互动的游戏设计的如此精致巧妙需要----策略只有那些最—玩家能够驾驭他们。这里前面空格与elaborately 是同义词，所以A。
Questions 6-7 are bad on the following passage.
The critic Edmund Wilson was not a lf-conscious
letter writer or one who tried to sustain studied mannerisms.
Nor did he resort to artifice or entangle himlf in
circumlocutions. The young, middle-aged, and old Wilson
5 speaks directly through his letters, which are informal for
the most part and which undisguidly reflect his changing
moods. On occasion-in respon, perhaps, to the miry
of a friend or a public outrage or a personal challenge-he
can become eloquent, even passionate, but that is not his
10 prevailing tone.
文章大意：文章主要讲评论家埃德蒙威尔逊在写信的风格上不拘一格，直言不讳，他的一生都是这样的风格不扭捏拘谨，应对各种挑战时候也能从容不会能言善辩。
长难词：mannerisms特殊习惯，矫揉造作，artifice 欺骗entangle 是纠缠，混乱circumlocution委婉的说法 eloquent雄辩的，有口才的， outrage 愤怒 undisguidly公开的，不伪装的。
6. Bad on the information in the passage,Wilson's letters can best be described as
(A) cynical冷嘲的
(B) spontaneous自发的无意识的
(C) critical批判的
(D) preachy爱唠叨的
(E) witty诙谐的，机智的
解析：B，这是主旨题，考察对文章全文的把控，文章开篇就提到埃德蒙的写信风格是不矫揉造作的，直言的。
7. The reference 10 the "young, middle-aged, andold Wilson" (line 4) rves to suggest th
e
(A) multifaceted nature of Wilson's literary
persona
(B) maturity Wilson displayed even as a youth
(C) effect aging had on Wilson's temperament
(D) longevity of Wilson's literary career
(E) consistency of Wilson's letter-writing style
解析：E，这里说从青年，中年，到老年他的写作风格都是informal和undisguidly,一直都没有变过。
Questions 8-9 are bad on the following passage.
The belief that it is harmful to the Black community
for authors to explore the humanity of our leaders can
have troubling effects. At the least, it promotes the belief
that our heroes have to be perfect to be uful. At worst.
5 it censors our full investigation of Black life. If our paintings
of that life are stock and cramped, their colors drab
and predictable, the reprentations of our culture are likely
to be untrue. They will not capture the breadth and
complexity of Black identity.
文章大意：文中描述对于黑人区的探索，对黑人生活的描述过于晦涩难懂的话很可能我们展现的形式会失真，所以整篇文段是对黑人生活展现形式的讨论。
长难词：censor监察官 cramp难懂的狭隘的 drab无生气的，褐色的 breadth宽度幅度
8. The passage implies that Black leaders have sometimes been portrayed as being
(A) overly ntimental
(B) deeply complex
(C) above reproach
(D) without regret
(E) beyond understanding
解析：C，文中提到“At the least, it promotes the belief that our heroes have to be perfect to be uful.”暗示有时候将领导人展现为不可挑剔的英雄。
9. In context, the "paintings" (lines 5-6) are bestunderstood as a reference to
(A) realistic sculptures
(B) historical biographies
(C) whimsical novels
(D) political cartoons
(E) colorful theorems
解析：B，paiting这里是对黑人领导生活的描述，那么一般就是我们所说的历史传记。
Questions 10-18 a re bad on the following passage.
The following passage was written by a physicist in 1986.
When astronomers point their telescopes to the nearest
galaxy, Andromeda, they e it as it was two million years
ago. That's about the lime Auslralopithecus was basking
in the African sun. This little bit of lime travel is possible
5 becau tight takes two mill ion years to make the trip from
there to here. Too bad we couldn’t turn things around and
obrve Earth from some cozy planet in Andromeda.
But looking at light from distant objects isn't real time
travel, the in-the-flesh participation in past and future found
10 in literature. Ever since I've been old enough 10 read science
fiction. I've dreamed of time traveling. The possibilities
are staggering. You could take medicine back to fourteenth century
Europe and stop the spread of plague, or you could
travel to the twenty-third century, where people take their
15 annual holidays in space stations.
Being a scientist mylf. I know that time travel is
quite unlikely according to the laws of physics. For one
thing, there would be a causality violation. If you could
travel backward in time, you could alter a chain of events
20 with the knowledge of how they would have turned out.
Cau would no longer always precede effect. For example,
you could prevent your parents from ever meeting.
Contemplating the conquences of that will give you a
headache. and science fiction writers for decades have
25 delighted in the paradoxes that can ari from traveling
through time.
Physicists are, of cour. horrified at the thought of
causality violation. Differential equations for the way
things should behave under a given t of forces and
30 initial conditions would no longer be valid. since what
happens in one instant would not necessarily determine
what happens in the next. Physicists do rely on a deterministic
univer in which to operate. and time travel would
almost certainly put them and most other scientists
35 permanently out of work.
Still. I dream of time travel. There is something very
personal about lime. When the first mechanical clocks
were invented. marking off time in crisp. regular intervals,
it must have surprid people 10 discover that time
40 flowed outside their own mental and physiological process.
Body time flows at its own variable rate, oblivious
to the most preci clocks in the laboratory. In fact, the
human body contains its own exquisite timepieces, all with
their parate rhythms. There are the alpha waves in the
45 brain; another clock is the heart. And all the while tick the
mysterious, ruthless clocks that regulate aging.
Recently, I found my great-grandfather's favorite pipe.
Papa Joe, as he was called, died more than venty years
ago, long before I was born. There are few surviving photo-
50 graphs or other memorabilia of Papa Joe. Butl do have his
pipe, which had been tucked away in a drawer somewhere
for years and was in good condition when I found il. I ran
a pipe cleaner through it, filled it with some tobacco I had
on hand. and ttled down to read and smoke. After a cou-
55 pic of minutes. the most wonderful and foreign blend of
smells began wafting from the pipe. All the different occasions
when Papa Joe had lit his pipe, all the different places
he had been that I will never know-all had been locked
up in that pipe and now poured out into the room. I was
60 vaguely aware that something had got delightfully twisted
in time for a moment, skipped upward on the page. There
is a kind of time travel 10 be had, if you don't insist on how
it happens.
文章大意：文中主要通过描写现下最流行的穿越小说，穿越时空，很多科幻小说都选取穿越题材，过度到作者物理学上的时间，人类心理对于时间的概念，人的生物钟。
