考研英语(二)分类模拟题13
Reading Comprehensionops
Low-level slash-and-burn farming doesn't harm rainforest. On the contrary, it helps farmers and improves forest soils. This is the unorthodox view of a German soil scientist who has shown that burnt clearings in the Amazon, dating back more than 1,000 years, helped create patches of rich, fertile soil that farmers still benefit from today.
Most rainforest soils are thin and poor becau they lack minerals and becau the heat and heavy rainfall destroy most organic matter in the soils within four years of it reaching the forest floor. This means topsoil contains few of the ingredients needed for long-term successful farming.
But Bruno Glar, a soil scientist of the University of Bayreuth, has studied unexpected patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon. The soils contain lots of organic matter.
Glar has shown that most of this fertile organic matter comes from "black carbon" —the
organic particles from camp fires and charred wood left over from thousands of years of slash-and-burn farming. "The soils, known as Terra Preta, contained up to 70 times more black carbon than the surrounding soil." says Glar. inaba>上班路上学英语
Unburnt vegetation rots quickly, but black carbon persists in the soil for many centuries. Radiocarbon dating shows that the charred wood in Terra Preta soils is typically more than 1,000 years old.
"Slash-and-burn farming can be good for soils provided it doesn't completely burn all the vegetation, and leaves behind charred wood," says Glar. "It can be better than manure." Burning the forest just once can leave behind enough black carbon to keep the soil fertile for thousands of years. And rainforests easily regrow after small-scale clearing. Contrary to the conventional view that human activities damage the environment, Glar says: "Black carbon combined with human wastes is responsible for the richness of Terra Preta soils."
厌学心理 Terra Preta soils turn up in large patches all over the Amazon, where they are highly prized by farmers. All the patches fall within 500 square kilometers in the central Amazon.
Glar says the widespread prence of pottery confirms the soil's human origins.
The findings add weight to the theory that large areas of the Amazon have recovered so well from past periods of agricultural u that the regrowth has been mistaken by generations of biologists for" virgin" forest.
During the past decade, rearchers have discovered hundreds of large earth works deep in the jungle. They are up to 20 meters high and cover up to a square kilometer. Glar claims that the earth works, built between AD 400 and 1400, were at the heart of urban civilizations. Now it ems the richness of the Terra Preta soils may explain how such civilizations managed to feed themlves.
1. We learn from the passage that the traditional view of slash-and-burn farming is that ______. 丈夫的英文
A.it does no harm to the topsoil of the rainforest
B.it destroys rainforest soils
C.it helps improve rainforest soils
D.it diminishes the organic matter in rainforest soils
舞蹈的类型答案：B
2. Most rainforest soils are thin and poor becau ______.
A.the composition of the topsoil is rather unstable
B.black carbon is washed away by heavy rains
Canic matter is quickly lost due to heat and rain
D.long-term farming has exhausted the ingredients esntial to plant growth
答案：C
3. Glar made his discovery by ______.
A.studying patches of fertile soils in the central Amazon
B.examining pottery left over by ancient civilizations韩汉互译
C.test-burning patches of trees in the central Amazon
D.radiocarbon-dating ingredients contained in forest soils
contrast是什么意思答案：A
4. What does Glar say about the regrowth of rainforests?
A.They take centuries to regrow after being burnt.
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B.They cannot recover unless the vegetation is burnt completely.
C.Their regrowth will be hampered by human habitation.
D.They can recover easily after slash-and-burn farming.
答案：D
5. From the passage it can be inferred that ______.
A.human activities will do grave damage to rainforests
B.Amazon rainforest soils ud to be the richest in the world
C.farming is responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforests
rybakD.there once existed an urban civilization in the Amazon rainforests
答案：D
[解答] 推断题。
篇章推断题的题干中缺乏有价值的信号词，故需要将各选项逐一回文定位，进行判断。
As a wi man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn't the stuff of gloomy phil
osophical contemplations, hut a fact of Europe's new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, obrves a French sociologist, is part of the" irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on European' private lives.
Europe's new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe's shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raid in an era of privatization and incread consumer choice, today's tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so.
Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be tho on either side of marriage—twenty something professionals or widowed nior citizens. While pensioners, particula
rly elderly women, make up a large proportion of tho living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone.
The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn't leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old compor who lives alone in a hou in Paris, says he hasn't got time to get lonely becau he has too much work. "I have deadlines which would make life with someone el fairly difficult." Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called "The Single Woman and Prince Charming", thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don't last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she'd never have wanted to do what her mother did—gi
ve up a career to rai a family. Instead, "I've always done what I wanted to do: live a lf-determined life."
