</p> Passage 1
8 d# m- S/ p0 o" A The great bulk of expert opinion is that owing a gun undermines rather than increases safety: the function of discouraging burglars or other criminals is more than offset by other factors. First come the suicides: in 1986,18,153 people shot themselves to death. No one on knows how many might have lived if they had been unable to pick up a gun and how many might have merely chosen other means to end their lives. But surely the presence of a loaded gun in a bureau drawer must have tempted many, particular teens, to yield to a black depression that might have lifted had the means to carry out the dark wish not been so readily available. _# K/ L+ |- }5 k
Then come the accidental shootings, many by foolish guys who never bother to learn how to handle their weapons. More heartbreaking are the frequent incidents of children picking up their parents’ guns and finding out in the most disastrous way that they are not toys; for example, an eight-year-old boy who shot his six-year-old sister dead last week in Fairfax. Then there are the quarrels between spouses, between parents and their children, between neighbors and friends that suddenly turn fatal because one or both can pick up a gun. Police commonly estimate that if a household gun is ever used at all, it is six times as likely to be fired at a member of the family or a friend as at an intruder. (It is even more likely, says Dr. Carl Bell, a Chicago psychiatrist, that the gun will be stolen; gun are prime targets for burglars because they can be easily and profitably sold to other criminals.)And finally, in the relatively rare shoot-outs between householders and burglars that do occur, it might easily be the burglar who proves more skilled in handling his guns and the householder who winds up in morgue(停尸房).
8 U( y1 x+ e; ~$ r Adding all types of deaths together, Mercy and Houk, researchers from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, point out that “during the last two years, the number of people who died of injuries inflicted by firearms in the United States exceeded the number of casualties during the entire 8.5-year Viet Nam conflict.” Mercy and Houk judged that “injury from firearms is a public-health problem whose toll is unacceptable.”
, R6 `' x9 k7 U) o3 S; I* K- V Another group of researchers presented evidence that lax U.S. gun laws might be to blame. The team, headed by emergency room surgeon John Henry Sloan, studied a pair of cities just 140 miles apart: Seattle and Vancouver. The two cities had similar unemployment rates, household incomes, law-enforcement policies and even favorite TV shows. Two differences: in Canada, handgun ownership is tightly restricted; in Washington State, guns are more easily purchased. And between 1980 and 1986 Seattle had 388 homicides, vs. 204 Vancouver.
- E) P9 X1 G# `9 U y0 i 21. According to most experts, possessing a gun ________.
- l+ {2 Y& j5 ~; A. Y2 T! | A) can not guarantee your safety
h, @1 E8 h8 n T. D0 k5 ~ B) does more than assure you safety
9 o+ D% H" x9 V1 a o) Y) s b1 w C) leads to more suicides
; W o9 w8 M% U& `% u& k } D) can only frighten thieves
( H M: k0 W* F$ I! o 22. “To carry out the dark wish” in the last sentence of the first paragraph means _________.6 S$ v2 [, r& q, C
A) killing oneself
; N2 a/ G+ K- T3 \; Z1 } B) shooting others
, j5 @% g; q( Q! s5 k5 K5 A C) yielding to depression# O0 f* h; _ |/ W. D
D) picking up a gun
0 M# Q+ X4 k; I1 K 23. Which of the following statements is NOT true?- C( U7 O/ `& _0 L' p- b: w
A) Many children become the victims of playing guns
# t+ H: u/ f: I B) A household gun is more likely to aim at a familiar person
9 r( V T! m! A/ Y C) Accidental shootings often happen when people are quarrelling
4 b0 V3 p+ H5 L" P D) A gun at home is very likely to be taken away by burglars7 x- F# V+ ]! Y8 w$ w# |
24. The word “lax” in the first sentence of the last paragraph most probably means________.
1 D& @- ~0 w5 ^ v: A. U A) different k8 C9 z! r7 Z" x
B) unrestricted
8 F8 R% n( t- ~' B% n) p: i5 O$ U" m+ q C) funny
, D( b; W5 g( h' h% p2 q D) not strict
# T) S/ f2 _3 f+ e6 D% [" J- l5 C 25. The author cites the two cities as an example to demonstrate that ________.. W9 D) U: C7 ?' G" Q U4 w. g
A) what matters is to carry out the gun laws2 S E1 m- I5 u# O
B) all states must have the same gun laws) G, l/ l6 W& Y8 ^2 _, i. \
C) gun ownership must be strictly restricted
: f* a9 H* [6 K e1 p2 @ D) gun laws have little effect
) N. \! C( l/ v* C, |, p: S Passage 2
/ y& e1 M- N2 ~7 S) e# ` Ever since Darwin’s theory of evolution, biologists have assumed that environments teeming with complex forms of life served as the nurseries of evolution. But two recent papers in Science magazine have turned that notion on its head. Last month some biologists reported that in the ocean it is the relatively barren areas that serve as “evolutionary crucibles(熔炉),” not regions with great diversity of species. Other researchers announced this summer that the Arctic, not the rain forest, spawned many plants and animals that later migrated to North America. Says John Sepkoski of the University of Chicago, “Harsh environments may be producing the major changes in the history of life.”
1 \' c/ U0 u: B, R8 G These “changes” do not result merely in a longer tail or a bigger claw for an existing species but, rather, in dramatic leaps up the evolutionary ladder — a rare innovation that comes along once in a million years. In the Arctic, reports Leo Hickey of Yale University, the innovations ran to forms never before seen on earth. By dating fossils from many geologic layers, he concluded that large grazing animals first appeared in the Arctic and migrated to temperate places a couple of million years or so later. Among plants, species of redwood and birch originated in polar regions some 18 millions years before they showed up in the south. Examining fossils as old as 570 million years, Chicago’s Sepkoski found that shell-less, soft-bodied creatures were suddenly replaced by trilobites(三叶虫), then by the more advanced clam-like animals. These changes, he notes, “first become common near shore.” That surprised him — an environment with as few species as exist in the near shore, and with such a poor record of producing new species, seems an unlikely place for biological innovation. But when Jablonski dated fossils of 100 million years ago, he found that during this era, too, the near shore spawned biological breakthroughs — more sophisticated sea creatures that move and find food in ocean sediments instead of passively filtering whatever floats by./ d& V7 a' k1 O& w, k# b
The findings are too new to apply to human evolution, but at first glance they seem to fit the facts. Anthropologists believe that our ancestors became fully human only after they left their secure life in the trees for the harsh world of savanna(plain without trees). There, the demanding conditions triggered that most human of traits, the large brain, and the most profound evolutionary step of all was taken.
) X8 g: C6 L# @9 }0 t2 g$ n9 i 26. Two recent papers in Science magazine claim to have found evidence which contradicts the traditional notion that _______.; a' C/ {( e! s1 {1 \
A) relatively harsh environments are the nurseries of evolution
5 {- V3 ?' f, C8 _+ f B) evolution occurred in regions with biological diversity
0 L5 a+ g1 Q6 o6 Q* J3 M. h C) new forms of life come into being in near-shore areas
) C0 a9 v9 i& c- x/ ] D) species of birch and redwood originated in the south5 X u. `+ \4 o2 Z; F
27. According to Leo Hickey of Yale University, which of the following may have spawned more advanced species of land animals?4 L' j% |( i6 c& S, }" _/ D/ _0 K: i
A) The barren ocean floor0 K; c u( p$ N! k* _8 q
B) The Arctic
. E3 }$ x' W' ~. L: _$ G C) The rain forest, j2 I3 I; M/ ]: ?. O" Z7 K+ S
D) Temperate Zones4 z6 S9 U: C$ F
28. The word “innovations” in the second paragraph means ________.
9 o& K# E* B4 V+ J* g A) New theory B) New phenomenon C) Changes D) New inventions& T. ~2 M( B+ T
29. How would anthropologists take the new findings?
- R% [2 r0 X5 L; ] A) They would look at them dubiously4 t* ~4 y2 V8 O
B) They would eagerly apply them to the study of human evolution4 B" M; r1 y# N) a# v/ Z
C) They would challenge them, though at first glance they tend to look at them favorably
% X9 z0 ^1 X2 a D) They would most probably think the new findings fit well into their theory
, B- h) o0 w1 E/ g0 o; q 30. Which of the following may be an appropriate title of the passage ?. Q8 R1 C" C* J* ~: [6 l7 m0 z
A) Darwin’s Theory Modified' D) d" A: ]1 [, Y4 e# ?) r- F( w
B) How Animals Evolve; ~4 j" L3 Z- Z2 b- S9 M4 r6 r
C) Evolution in Hard Places
5 M, |/ ]' M2 ?/ |) p0 E( i5 r9 i! J3 _+ s! w# |
D) Where Did Large Sea Animals Originate |