第二篇 Living with Computer
After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend’s Liverpudian accent suddenly becomes hard to understand after the clarity of his words on screen; a secretary’s tone seems more rejecting than I’d imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid – hours become minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.
For the last three years, since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a tele-commuter (远程交谈者). I submit articles and edit them via E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriends lives in England, so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.
If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the blizzard (暴风雪)of ’96 on TV.
But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I’ve merged with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another node (节点) on the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It’s like attending an A.A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponents’ worst nightmare.
What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, and clothes and face, has become an avoidance, a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction (网上交流), coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.
At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I’d never done previously. The voices of the programs soothe (安慰) me, but then I’m jarred (使感不快)by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively (强制性地) needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. “Dateline,” “Frontline,” “Nightline,” CNN, every possible angle of every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work movers from foreground to background.
36 Compared with the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent is
A obscure.
B distinct.
C unreal.
D misleading.
37 The passage implies that the writer and her boyfriend live in
A England.
B different countries.
C the same city.
D the same country.
38 Living alone in a house, the writer seems to
A have totally forgotten her work.
B be afraid of her neighbors.
C get some comfort from TV programs.
D have gone crazy.
39 We learn from the passage that the writer
A is fed up with the Net opponents.
B prefers people to the computer.
C is addicted to the computer.
D does not like human contact.
40 The phrase “coming back out of the cave” in the fifth paragraph means
A “coming back home”.
B “giving up the present job”.
C “living a luxurious life”.
D “restoring real human contact”.
第三篇 The Body Clock
Why is it that flying to New York from London will leave you feeling less tired than flying to London from New York? The answer may be a clear case of biology not being able to keep up with technology.
Deep inside the brain there is a ‘clock’ that governs every aspect of the body’s functioning: sleep and wake cycles, levels of alertness, performance, mood, hormone levels, digestion, body temperature and so on. It regulates all of these functions on a 24-hour basis and is called the biological clock.
The body clock programmes us to be sleepy twice a day, between 3-5 am and again between 3-5 pm. Afternoon tea and nap are all cultural responses to our natural biological sleepiness in the afternoon.
One of the major causes of the travellers’ malady known as jet lag is the non-alignment of a person’s internal body clock with clocks in the external world. Crossing different time zones confuses the biological clock, which then has to adjust to the new time and patterns of light and activity. To make matters more complex, not all internal body functions adjust at the same rate. So your sleep/wake may adjust to a new time zone at one rate, while your temperature adjusts at a different pace. Your digestion may be on a different schedule altogether.
Though we live in a 24-hour day, the natural tendency of the body clock is to extend our day beyond 24 hours. It is contrary to our biological programming to ‘shrink’ our day.
That is why traveling in a westward direction is more body-clock friendly than flying east. NASA studies of long haul pilots showed that westward travel was associated with significantly better sleep quantity and quality than eastward flights.
When flying west, you are ‘extending your day, thus traveling in the natural direction of your internal clock. Flying eastward will involve ‘shrinking’ or reducing your day and is in direct opposition to your internal clock’s natural tendency.
One of the more common complaints of travelers is that their sleep becomes disrupted. There are many reasons for this: changing time zones and schedules, changing light and activity levels, trying to sleep when your body clock is programmed to be awake, disruption of the internal biological clock and working longer hours.
It is often suggested that you adjust your watch as soon as you board a plane, supposedly to try to help you adjust to your destination’s schedule as soon as you arrive. But it can take the body clock several days to several weeks to fully adjust to a new time zone.
So, our body clock truly can ‘govern’ us.
41 The role of the body clock is to
A enable us to sleep 6 hours a day.
B help us adapt to a 24-hour cycle.
C regulate the body’s functions.
D interfere with the body’s functions.
42 The word “malady” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to
A “condition”.
B “discomfort”.
C “injury”.
D “excitement”.
43 Flying in a westward direction will
A help you sleep better.
B increase the degree of jet lag.
C shrink your day.
D make you overeat.
44 Which of the following in NOT mentioned as a reason for the disrupted sleep of travelers?
A Crossing different time zones.
B Changing light and activity levels.
C Working longer hours.
D Watching out of the plane for a long time.
45 It can be seen from the last two paragraphs that
A you can control your own body clock.
B it is not difficult to adjust to a new time zone.
C adjusting your watch can help you a avoid jet lag.
D there isn’t much you can do to avoid jet lag.
第5部分：补全短文（第46—50题，每题2分，共10分）
阅读下面的短文，文章中有5处空白，文章后面有6组文字，请根据文章的内容选择5组文字，将其分别放回文章原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。请将答案涂在答题卡相应的位置上。
Ruining the Ruins
　
Acid rain (酸雨)is now a familiar problem in the industrialized countries in Europe. Harmful gases are produced by power stations and cars. They dissolve in rainwater and this makes acid rain, which damages trees, rivers and streams.
Acid rain is also capable of dissolving some rocks. And buildings made of soft rock, such as limestone (石灰石), are particularly badly affected. The acid rain attacks the rock, and so carvings and statues are eroded (受腐蚀) more quickly.
__________(46) According to a report in the New Scientist, acid rain is being blamed for the rapid decay of ancient ruins in Mexico. The old limestone buildings in places like Chichen Itza, Tulum and Palenque are wearing away very quickly indeed. These sites are the remains of the buildings built by the Mayas between 250 BC and AD900, and the spectacular ruins of Mayan civilization are visited by thousands of tourists every year.
But those ruins are in danger of being seriously damaged by pollution. At many sites the stone has been covered with a layer of black substance. ________________(47).
Scientists estimate that about one millimeter of stone is worn away every twelve years. ________________(48) The acid rain is said to be caused by pollution from oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Car exhaust gases are also a problem. Local volcanic eruptions make the problem even worse. Nevertheless, with enough money and effort, researchers say that many of the problems could be solved and the rate of erosion reduced. ____________ (49).
Mexico’s current lack of funds is also partly due to oil. The country has rich oil fields and a few years ago, when oil was expensive, Mexico was selling large quantities of oil to the USA and earning a lot of money. __________ (50) However, the price of oil then dropped, and Mexico has been left owing enormous sums of money and with not enough income from oil sales to pay back the loans. So unless the price of oil rises, it is unlikely that Mexico will be able to afford to clean up the pollution and save its Mayan ruins from destruction.
A At others the painted surfaces inside temples are lifting and flaking off () and the stone is being eaten away.
B That is enough to have caused some of the ancient carvings to become seriously damaged already.
C These measures would reduce the pollution, but would not stop it completely.
D The government was therefore able to borrow huge sums of money from banks around the world, thinking they would have no problem repaying their debts.
E The problem, however, is not just a European one.
F However, the Mexican government does not have enough money to do the work, and needs to spend what money it has on the Mexican people.
第6部分：完形填空 （第51—65题，每题1分，共15分）
阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案，涂在答题卡相应的位置上。
Science and Truth
　
“FINAGLE”() is not a word that most people associate with science. One reason is that the image of the scientist is of one who always __________ (51) data in an impartial () search for truth. In any debate- ___________ (52)intelligence, schooling, energy – the phrase “science says” usually disarms opposition.
But scientists have long acknowledged the existence of a “finagle factor” – a tendency by many scientists to give a helpful change to the data to __________ (53) desired results. The latest of the finagle factor in action comes from Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard biologist, who has ___________ (54) the important 19th century work of Dr. Samuel George Morton. Morton was famous in his time for analyzing the brain ____________ (55) of the skulls as a measure of intelligence. He concluded that whites had the largest brains, that the brains of Indians and blacks were smaller, and _______ (56), that whites constitute a superior race.
Gould went back to Morton’s original data and concluded that the ____________ (57) were an example of the finagle at work. He found that Morton’s “discovery” was made by leaving out embarrassing data, ___________ (58) incorrect procedures, and changing his criteria – again, always in favour of his argument. Morton has been thoroughly discredited by now and scientists do not believe that brain size reflects __________ (59).
But Gould went on to say Morton’s story is only an example of a common problem in ____________(60) work. Some of the leading figures in science are ________________ (61) to have used the finagle factor. Gould says that Isaac Newton fudged out () to support at least three central statements that he could not prove. And so _____________ (62)Laudius Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, whose master work, Almagest, summed up the case for a solar system that had the earth as its center. Recent _____________ (63) indicate that Ptolemy either faked some key data or resorted heavily to the finagle factor.
All this is important because the finagle factor is still at work. For example, in the artificial sweetener controversy, for example, it is ________ (64) that all the studies sponsored by the sugar industry find that the artificial sweetener is unsafe, ________ (65) all the studies sponsored by the diet food industry find nothing wrong with it.

　

　
2003年职称外语等级考试 英语.理工类（A级）答案
1. A 2. C 3. C 4. C 5. D
6. D 7. A 8. D 9. C 10. C
11. A 12. A 13. B 14. B 15. A
16. B 17. B 18. A 19. C 20. C
21. A 22. A 23. C 24. F 25. B
26. E 27. A 28. E 29. C 30. D
31. D 32. B 33. C 34. A 35. A
36. A 37. B 38. C 39. C 40. D
41. C 42. B 43. A 44. D 45. D
46. E 47. A 48. B 49. F 50. D
51. A 52. B 53. D 54. C 55. A
56. D 57. A 58. C 59. C 60. C
61. B 62. D 63. A 64. B 65. B

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