GRE阅读考试模拟题及答案解析(13)

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　　GRE阅读考试模拟题及答案解析(13)

　　【计时开始】

　　P1

　　Biologists have long maintained that two groups of pinnipeds, sea lions and walruses, are descended from a terrestrial bearlike animal, whereas the remaining group, seals, shares an ancestor with weasels.

　　But the recent discovery of detailed similarities in the skeletal structure of the flippers in all three groups undermines the attempt to explain away superficial resemblance as due to convergent evolution—the independent development of similarities between unrelated groups in response to similar environmental pressures.

　　Flippers may indeed be a necessary response to aquatic life; turtles, whales, and dugongs also have them.

　　But the common detailed design found among the pinnipeds probably indicates a common ancestor.

　　Moreover, walruses and seals drive themselves through the water with thrusts of their hind flippers, but sea lions use their front flippers.

　　If anatomical similarity in the flippers resulted from similar environmental pressures, as posited by the convergent-evolution theory, one would expect walruses and seals, but not seals and sea lions, to have similar flippers. (162 words)

　　1. The author implies that which of the following was part of the long-standing view concerning pinnipeds?

　　□A Pinnipeds are all descended from a terrestrial bearlike animal.

　　□B Pinnipeds share a common ancestor with turtles, whales, and dugongs

　　□C Similarities among pinnipeds are due to their all having had to adapt to aquatic life.

　　2. The author implies which of the following about the fact that turtles, whales, and dugongs all have flippers?

　　○A It can be explained by the hypothesis that turtles, whales, and dugongs are very closely related.

　　○B It can be explained by the idea of convergent evolution.

　　○C It suggests that turtles, whales, and dugongs evolved in separate parts of the world

　　○D It undermines the view that turtles, whales, and dugongs are all descended from terrestrial ancestors.

　　○E It is the primary difference between turtles, whales, and dugongs, on the one hand, and pinnipeds, on the other.

　　3. Select the sentence in the passage in which the author shows that the implication of the common view is contradicted by a new finding.

　　P2

　　According to astronomer S.A. Phinney, kicking a rock hard enough to free it from Earth's gravity would require a meteorite capable of making a crater more than 60 miles across.

　　Moreover, even if Earth rocks were freed by meteorite impact, Mars's orbit is much larger than Earth's, so Phinney estimates that the probability of these rocks hitting Mars is about one-tenth as great as that of Mars's rocks hitting Earth.

　　To demonstrate this estimate, Phinney used a computer to calculate where 1,000 hypothetical particles would go if ejected from Earth in random directions.

　　He found that 17 of the 1,000 particles would hit Mars.

　　4. Which of the following, if true, would cast most doubt on Phinney's estimate of the probability of Earth rocks hitting Mars?

　　○A Rather than going in random directions, about 25 percent of all particles ejected from Earth go in the same direction into space.

　　○B Approximately 100 meteorites large enough to make a noticeable crater hit the Earth each year.

　　○C No rocks of Earth origin have been detected on Mars.

　　○D The velocity of rocks escaping from Earth's gravity is lower than the velocity of meteorites hitting the Earth.

　　○E No craters more than 60 miles across have been found on Mars.

　　P3

　　Present-day philosophers usually envision their discipline as an endeavor that has been, since antiquity, distinct from and superior to any particular intellectual discipline such as theology or science.

　　The basis for this view, however, lies in a serious misinterpretation of the past, a projection of modern concerns onto past events.

　　The idea of an autonomous discipline called “philosophy,” distinct from and sitting in judgment on such pursuits as theology and science turns out, on close examination, to be of quite recent origin.

　　When, in the seventeenth century, Descartes and Hobbes rejected medieval philosophy, they did not think of themselves, as modern philosophers do, as proposing a new and better philosophy, but rather as furthering “the warfare between science and theology.”

　　They were fighting, albeit discreetly, to open the intellectual world to the new science and to liberate intellectual life from ecclesiastical philosophy and envisioned their work as contributing to the growth, not of philosophy, but of research in mathematics and physics.

　　This link between philosophical interests and scientific practice persisted until the nineteenth century, when decline in ecclesiastical power over scholarship and changes in the nature of science provoked the final separation of philosophy from both.

　　The demarcation of philosophy from science was facilitated by the development in the early nineteenth century of a new notion, that philosophy‘s core interest should be epistemology, the general explanation of what it means to know something.

　　Modern philosophers now trace that notion back at least to Descartes and Spinoza, but it was not explicitly articulated until the late eighteenth century, by Kant, and did not become built into the structure of academic institutions and the standard self-descriptions of philosophy professors until the late nineteenth century.

　　Without the idea of epistemology, the survival of philosophy in an age of modern science is hard to imagine.

　　Metaphysics, philosophy‘s traditional core—considered as the most general description of how the heavens and the earth are put together—had been rendered almost completely meaningless by the spectacular progress of physics.

　　Kant, however, by focusing philosophy on the problem of knowledge, managed to replace metaphysics with epistemology, and thus to transform the notion of philosophy as “queen of sciences” into the new notion of philosophy as a separate, foundational discipline: philosophy became “primary” no longer in the sense of “highest” but in the sense of “underlying”.

　　5. Which of the following best expresses the author‘s main point?

　　○A Philosophy‘s overriding interest in basic human questions is a legacy primarily of the work of Kant.

　　○B Philosophy was deeply involved in the seventeenth-century warfare between science and religion.

　　○C The set of problems of primary importance to philosophers has remained relatively constant since antiquity.

　　○D The status of philosophy as an independent intellectual pursuit is a relatively recent development.

　　○E The role of philosophy in guiding intellectual speculation has gradually been usurped by science.

　　For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply

　　6. The author of the passage implies which of the following in discussing the development of philosophy during the nineteenth century?

　　(A) Nineteenth-century philosophy took science as its model for understanding the bases of knowledge.

　　(B) The role of academic institutions in shaping metaphysical philosophy grew enormously during the nineteenth century.

　　(C) Nineteenth-century philosophers carried out a program of investigation explicitly laid out by Descartes and Spinoza.

　　(D) Kant had an overwhelming impact on the direction of nineteenth-century philosophy.

　　(E) Nineteenth-century philosophy made major advances in understanding the nature of knowledge.

　　7. The author suggests that Descartes‘ support for the new science of the seventeenth century can be characterized as

　　(A) pragmatic and hypocritical

　　(B) cautious and inconsistent

　　(C) daring and opportunistic

　　(D) intense but fleeting

　　(E) strong but prudent

　　8. With which of the following statements concerning the writing of history would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?

　　(A) History should not emphasize the role played by ideas over the role played by individuals.

　　(B) History should not be distorted by attributing present-day consciousness to historical figures.

　　(C) History should not be focused primarily on those past events most relevant to the present.

　　(D) History should be concerned with describing those aspects of the past that differ most from those of the present.

　　(E) History should be examined for the lessons it can provide in understanding current problems.

　　P4

　　Although recent years have seen substantial reductions in noxious pollutants from individual motor vehicles, the number of such vehicles has been steadily increasing.

　　Consequently, more than 100 cities in the United States still have levels of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and ozone (generated by photochemical reactions with hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust) that exceed legally established limits.

　　9.Which of the following most closely parallels the situation described in the first sentence of the passage?

　　○A Although a town reduces its public services in order to avoid a tax increase, the town's tax rate exceeds that of other towns in the surrounding area.

　　○B Although a state passes strict laws to limit the type of toxic material that can be disposed of in public landfills, illegal dumping continues to increase.

　　○C Although a town's citizens reduce their individual use of water, the town's water supplies continue to dwindle because of a steady increase in the total population of the town.

　　○D Although a country attempts to increase the sale of domestic goods by adding a tax to the price of imported goods, the sale of imported goods within the country continues to increase.

　　○E Although a country reduces the speed limit on its national highways, the number of fatalities caused by automobile accidents continues to increase.

　　P5

　　Hank Morgan, the hero of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, is a nineteenth-century master mechanic who mysteriously awakening in sixth-century Britain, launches what he hopes will be a peaceful revolution to transform Arthurian Britain into an industrialized modern democracy.

　　The novel, written as a spoof of Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, a popular collection of fifteenth-century legends about sixth-century Britain, has been made into three upbeat movies and two musical comedies.

　　None of these translations to screen and stage, however, dramatize the anarchy at the conclusion of A Connecticut Yankee, which ends with the violent overthrow of Morgan's three-year-old progressive order and his return to the nineteenth century, where he apparently commits suicide after being labeled a lunatic for his incoherent babblings about drawbridges and battlements.

　　The American public, although enjoying Twain's humor, evidently rejected his cynicism about technological advancement and change through peaceful revolution as antithetical to the United States doctrine of progress.

　　10.According to the passage, which of the following is a true statement about the reception of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by the American public?

　　○A The public had too strong a belief in the doctrine of progress to accept the cynicism demonstrated at the conclusion of Twain's novel.

　　○B Twain's novel received little public recognition until the work was adapted for motion pictures and plays.

　　○C Although the public enjoyed Twain's humor, his use of both sixth-century and nineteenth-century characters confused many people.

　　○D The public has continued to enjoy Twain's story, but the last part of the novel seems too violent to American minds.

　　○E Because of the cynicism at the end of the book, the public rejected Twain's work in favor of the work of Thomas Malory.

　　For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply

　　11. It can be inferred from the passage that Mark Twain would most probably have believed in which of the following statements about societal change?

　　□A Technological advancements are limited in their ability to change society and will likely bring liabilities along with any potential benefits.

　　□B The belief in the unmitigated benefits of societal change is antithetical to the American doctrine of progress.

　　□C Technological advances and peaceful revolutions, although sometimes accompanied by unintended violence and resistance to societal change, eventually lead to a more progressive order.

　　12.The author uses the examples of "three upbeat movies and two musical comedies"(lines 9-10) primarily in order to demonstrate that

　　○A well-written novels like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, regardless of their tone or theme, can be translated to the stage and screen.

　　○B the American public has traditionally been more interested in watching plays and movies than in reading novels like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

　　○C Twain's overall message in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is one that had a profound impact on the American public.

　　○D Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court has been a more popular version of the Arthurian legends than has Malory's Morte d'Arthur

　　○E A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court has been accepted as an enjoyable and humorous tale in versions that have omitted the anarchy at the novel's conclusion