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劍橋雅思閱讀5原文(test3)　

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Early Childhood Education

New Zealand’s National Party spokesman on education, Dr Lockwood Smith,

recently visited the US and Britain. Here he reports on the findings of his trip

and what they could mean for New Zealand’s education policy

‘Education To Be More’ was published last August. It was the report of the New Zealand Government’s Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. The report argued for enhanced equity of access and better funding for childcare and early childhood education institutions. Unquestionably, that’s a real need; but since parents don’t normally send children to pre-schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important years of all?

A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words — most of the language they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.

Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life. Researchers claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school. Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world.

It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system. That’s observed not just in New Zealand, but also in Australia, Britain and America. In an attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement, a nationwide programme called ‘Headstart’ was launched in the United States in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school.

Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two explanations for this. First, the programme began too late. Many children who entered it at the age of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence. Second, the parents were not involved. At the end of each day, ‘Headstart’ children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment.

As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a child’s life and the disappointing results from ‘Headstart’, a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in the US that focused on parents as the child’s first teachers. The ‘Missouri’ programme was predicated on research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life. The four-year pilot study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and families with either the mother or father at home.

The programme involved trained parent — educators visiting the parents’ home and working with the parent, or parents, and the child. Information on child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the child’s intellectual, language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the child’s educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development. Medical problems were referred to professionals.

Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with other new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest. Parent resource centres, located in school buildings, offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care.

At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the ‘Missouri’ programme were evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic backgrounds and family situations, and also a random sample of children that age. The results were phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving and other intellectual skills, and were further along in social development. In fact, the average child on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability.

Most important of all, the traditional measures of ‘risk’, such as parents’ age and education, or whether they were a single parent, bore little or no relationship to the measures of achievement and language development. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of socio-economic disadvantages. Child abuse was virtually eliminated. The one factor that was found to affect the child’s development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.

These research findings are exciting. There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle of disadvantage. The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their place of work, contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalized early childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital, but without a similar focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.

Questions 1-4

Reading Passage 1 has six sections, A-F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1 details of the range of family types involved in an education programme

2 reasons why a child’s early years are so important

3 reasons why an education programme failed

4 a description of the positive outcomes of an education programme

Questions 5-10

Classify the following features as characterising

A the ‘Headstart’ programme

B the ‘Missouri’ programme

C both the ‘Headstart’ and the ‘Missouri’ programmes

D neither the ‘Headstart’ nor the ‘Missouri’ programme

Write the correct letter A, B, C or D in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet.

5 was administered to a variety of poor and wealthy families

6 continued with follow-up assistance in elementary schools

7 did not succeed in its aim

8 supplied many forms of support and training to parents

9 received insufficient funding

10 was designed to improve pre-schoolers’ educational development

Questions 11-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

11 Most ‘Missouri’ programme three-year-olds scored highly in areas such as listening speaking, reasoning and interacting with others.

12 ‘Missouri’ programme children of young, uneducated, single parents scored less highly on the tests.

13 The richer families in the ‘Missouri’ programme had higher stress levels.

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Questions 14-17

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D-F from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

I Effects of irrigation on sedimentation

Ii The danger of flooding the Cairo area

Iii Causing pollution in the Mediterranean

Iv Interrupting a natural process

V The threat to food production

Vi Less valuable sediment than before

Vii Egypt’s disappearing coastline

Viii Looking at the long-term impact

Example Paragraph A Answer vii

14 Paragraph B

Example Paragraph C Answer vi

15 Paragraph D

16 Paragraph E

17 Paragraph F

Disappearing Delta

A The fertile land of the Nile delta is being eroded along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast at an astounding rate，in some parts estimated at 100 metres per the past，land scoured away from the coastline by the currents of the Mediterranean Sea used to be replaced by sediment brought down to the delta by the River Nile，but this is no longer happening.

B Up to now, people have blamed this loss of delta land on the two large dams at Aswan in the south of Egypt，which hold back virtually all of the sediment that used to flow down the river. Before the dams were built，the Nile flowed freely carrying huge quantities of sediment north from Africa’s interior to be deposited on the Nile continued for 7,000 years，eventually covering a region of over 22,000 square kilometres with layers of fertile al flooding brought in new, nutrient-rich soil to the delta region，replacing what had been washed away by the sea，and dispensing with the need for fertilizers in Egypt’s richest food-growing when the Aswan dams were constructed in the 20th century to provide electricity and irrigation，and to protect the huge population centre of Cairo and its surrounding areas from annual flooding and drought，most of the sediment with its naturaI fertilizer accumulated up above the dam in the southern, upstream half of Lake Nasser, instead of passing down to the delta.

C Now, however, there turns out to be more to the appears that the sediment-free water emerging from the Aswan dams picks up silt and sand as it erodes the river bed and banks on the 800-kilometre trip to el Jean Stanley of the Smithsonian Institute noticed that water samples taken in Cairo，just before the river enters the delta，indicated that the river sometimes carries more than 850 grams of sediment per cubic metre of water — almost half of what it carried before the dams were built. ‘I’m ashamed to say that the significance of this didn’t strike me until after I had read 50 or 60 studies，’ says Stanley in Marine Geology.‘There is still a lot of sediment coming into the delta, but virtually no sediment comes out into the Mediterranean to replenish the this sediment must be trapped on the delta itself.’

D Once north of Cairo, most of the Nile water is diverted into more than 10,000 kilometres of irrigation canals and only a small proportion reaches the sea directly through the rivers in the water in the irrigation canals is still or very slow-moving and thus cannot carry sediment, Stanley explains. The sediment sinks to the bottom of the canals and then is added to fields by farmers or pumped with the water into the four large freshwater lagoons that are located near the outer edges of the very little of it actually reaches the coastline to replace what is being washed away by the Mediterranean currents.

E The farms on the delta plains and fishing and aquaculture in the lagoons account for much of Egypt’s food by the time the sediment has come to rest in the fields and lagoons it is laden with municipal, industrial and agricultural waste from the Cairo region, which is home to more than 40 million people.’Pollutants are building up faster and faster,’ says Stanley.

Based on his investigations of sediment from the delta lagoons, Frederic Siegel of George Washington University concurs. ‘In Manzalah Lagoon, for example, the increase in mercury, lead, copper and zinc coincided with the building of the High Dam at Aswan, the availability of cheap electricity, and the development of major power-based industries,’ he says. Since that time the concentration of mercury has increased significantly. Lead from engines that use leaded fuels and from other industrial sources has also increased dramatically. These poisons can easily enter the food chain, affecting the productivity of fishing and farming. Another problem is that agricultural wastes include fertilizers which stimulate increases in plant growth in the lagoons and upset the ecology of the area, with serious effects on the fishing industry.

F According to Siegel, international environmental organisations are beginning to pay closer attention to the region, partly because of the problems of erosion and pollution of the Nile delta, but principally because they fear the impact this situation could have on the whole Mediterranean coastal ecosystem. But there are no easy solutions. In the immediate future, Stanley believes that one solution would be to make artificial floods to flush out the delta waterways, in the same way that natural floods did before the construction of the dams. He says, however, that in the long term an alternative process such as desalination may have to be used to increase the amount of water available. ‘In my view, Egypt must devise a way to have more water running through the river and the delta,’ says Stanley. Easier said than done in a desert region with a rapidly growing population.

Questions 18-23

Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 18-23 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

18 Coastal erosion occurred along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast before the building of the Aswan dams.

19 Some people predicted that the Aswan dams would cause land loss before they were built.

20 The Aswan dams were built to increase the fertility of the Nile delta.

21 Stanley found that the levels of sediment in the river water in Cairo were relatively high.

22 Sediment in the irrigation canals on the Nile delta causes flooding.

23 Water is pumped from the irrigation canals into the lagoons.

Questions 24-26

Complete the summary of paragraphs E and F with the list of words A-H below.

Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

In addition to the problem of coastal erosion, there has been a marked increase in the level of 24………………contained in the silt deposited in the Nile delta. To deal with this, Stanley suggests the use of 25………………in the short term, and increasing the amount of water available through 26………………in the longer term.

A artificial floods B desalination C delta waterways D natural floods

E nutrients F pollutants G population control H sediment

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

The Return of Artificial Intelligence

It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing

human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition

A After years in the wilderness, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) seems poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI, a movie about a robot boy. This has ignited public debate about AI, but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.

B The field was launched, and the term ‘artificial intelligence’ coined, at a conference in 1956, by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field. The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research, cybernetics, logic and computer science. The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines. That said, different groups of researchers attacked different problems, from speech recognition to chess playing, in different ways; AI unified the field in name only. But it was a term that captured the public imagination.

C Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985. A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ would be substantially solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise, and a backlash ensued. ‘There was undue optimism in the early 1980s,’ says David Leake, a researcher at Indiana University. ‘Then when people realised these were hard problems, there was retrenchment. By the late 1980s, the term AI was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks, agent technology, case-based reasoning, and so on."

D Ironically, in some ways AI was a victim of its own success. Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved, such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended, the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first place. ‘If it works, it can’t be AI,’ as Dr Leake characterises it. The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI came to refer to ‘blue-sky’ research that was still years away from commercialisation. Researchers joked that AI stood for ‘almost implemented’. Meanwhile, the technologies that made it onto the market, such as speech recognition, language translation and decision-support software, were no longer regarded as AI. Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.

E But the tide may now be turning, according to Dr Leake. HNC Software of San Diego, backed by a government agency, reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered. HNC claim that their system, based on a cluster of 30 processors, could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background — tasks humans can do well, but computers cannot. ‘Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it, the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development,’ says Dr Leake.

F Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology, rather than just a clever business model, to differentiate themselves. In particular, the problem of information overload, exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages, means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information — classic AI problems. That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.

G The 1969 film, 2001:A Space Odyssey, featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000. As well as understanding and speaking English, HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread. HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001. But 2001 has been and gone, and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer. Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech, but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive. It may be, however, that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important, and AI can now be judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film. ‘People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do.’ says Dr Leake hopefully.

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

27 how AI might have a military impact

28 the fact that AI brings together a range of separate research areas

29 the reason why AI has become a common topic of conversation again

30 how AI could help deal with difficulties related to the amount of information available electronically

31 where the expression AI was first used

Questions 32-37

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 32-37 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this

32 The researchers who launched the field of AI had worked together on other projects in the past.

33 In 1985, AI was at its lowest point.

34 Research into agent technology was more costly than research into neural networks.

35 Applications of AI have already had a degree of success.

36 The problems waiting to be solved by AI have not changed since 1967.

37 The film 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected contemporary ideas about the potential of AI computers.

Questions 38-40

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

38 According to researchers, in the late 1980s there was a feeling that

A a general theory of AI would never be developed.

B original expectations of AI may not have been justified.

C a wide range of applications was close to fruition

D more powerful computers were the key to further progress.

39 In Dr Leake’s opinion, the reputation of AI suffered as a result of

A changing perceptions.

B premature implementation

C poorly planned projects.

D commercial pressures.

40 The prospects for AI may benefit from

A existing AI applications.

B new business models.

C orders from internet-only companies.

D new investment priorities.

　　劍橋雅思閱讀5原文參考譯文(test3)

TEST 3 PASSAGE 1 參考譯文：

Early Childhood Education

New Zealand’s National Party spokesman on education, Dr Lockwood Smith, recently visited the US and Britain. Here he reports on the findings of his trip and what they could mean for New Zealand’s education policy.

兒童早期教育

新西蘭國家黨教育發言人Lockwood Smith博士最近訪問了美國和英國。下面是他撰寫的一份報告，文中闡述了他此行的收穫以及這些收穫對新西蘭教育政策的意義。

A 《教育增進能力》是一份由新西蘭政府兒童早期關懷和教育工作小組所作的報告，於去年8月出版。該報告呼籲促進機會均等、加強對兒童的關愛和對兒童早期教育機構的資助。毫無疑問，這的確是必要的。但是一般而言，家長直到孩子3歲時才把他們送到早期教育學校，這樣一來，我們是不是錯過了教育孩子的最佳時期?

B 哈佛大學進行了一項長達13年的兒童早期發展的研究，結果表明：到了3歲時，大多數孩子已經具備理解1000個單詞的能力，這些詞彙是他們在以後的一生中進行日常對話時會經常用到的。

該研究還表明：儘管每個孩子都有與生俱來的好奇心，但是這種好奇心卻可能在2歲到3歲時受到強烈的壓抑。研?a href="">咳嗽北硎荊說母魴允竊誄鏨蟮牧僥曛行緯傻模攪?歲的時候，孩子們已經掌握了將來在家庭和學校中會用到的基本技能。從3歲以後，孩子們就開始在已有知識的基礎上繼續拓展對世界的認識。

C 人們一般認爲，家庭社會地位和經濟條件不太好的孩子往往在學校表現不佳。不僅新西蘭有這種情況，澳大利亞、英國和美國也都有這種情況。爲了改變這種狀況，美國於1965年在全國開展了一項“先發優勢”計劃，並投人大量資金。按照該計劃，孩子在3歲時被送進早期教育學校，以幫助家境不好的孩子在學校取得成功。

儘管投人了大量資金，結果卻令人失望。這可能有兩個原因。首先，該計劃所定開始年齡太大，許多3歲時進入早教學校的孩子此時已經在語言和智力發育上落後於他們的同齡人了。其次，這些孩子的家長並沒有參與進來。每天放學後，這些孩子又回到了不利於他們成長的家庭環境中。

D 由於越來越多的研究表明兒童3歲前的時間是非常重要的，而且“先發優勢”計劃的結果又令人失望，所以，美國密蘇里州實施了一項試點項目，其核心就是把家長作爲孩子的第一任老師。研究表明：與家長合作而不是繞過家長，是幫助孩子獲得人生最佳起跑點的最有效方式。密蘇里州的這個項目正是以這一研究成果爲基礎的。該項目爲期4年，包含了380個即將迎來第一個孩子的家庭，涵蓋了不同家庭經濟狀況、社會地位、年齡段和家庭構成，其中包括單親家庭、雙親家庭、雙職工家庭以及父母中有一方居家的家庭。

該項目派出受過專業訓練的教育學家進行家訪，與家長和孩子共同合作。項目提供了孩子發展的相關知識，以及孩子成長過程中要注意的事項。此外，該項目還提供在促進孩子智力、語言、社會和運動技能等方面的指導，定期檢查孩子教育和感官(聽覺和視覺)能力的發展情況，以及時發現孩子在成長和發育過程中的障礙，其中涉及到的醫療問題則由專門的醫生處理。

教育學家親自進行家訪，對家長進行培訓，並每月召開集體會議與那些新做爸爸媽媽的家長分享經驗，討論他們關心的問題。位於校內的家長資源中心則爲家長和資助者提供關愛孩子的學習資料。

E 當密蘇里項目中的孩子3歲時，研究人員將這些孩子與來自相同經濟狀況、社會地位、家庭狀況的孩子以及隨機抽取的同齡的孩子放在一起，共同進行評估。結果是驚人的。到了3歲的時候，參與項目的孩子在語言發育方面已遠遠領先於他們的同齡人。他們解決問題的能力和其他的知識技能得到了更明顯的提高，在社會交往方面也取得了很大的進步。事實上，在諸如聽力理解、口頭表達和語言能力方面，參與項目的孩子一般都處於同齡人中前15%-20%的位置。

最重要的是，結果還表明傳統意義上的一些不利因素，如家長的年齡和受教育程度、是否是單親家庭等，與孩子所取得的進步大小和語言發育幾乎沒有任何關係。無論項目中的這些孩子所處的經濟條件或社會條件如何不利，他們的表現都毫不遜色。虐待兒童的現象幾乎完全消失了。人們發現惟一一個會影響孩子發展的因素就是由幹家庭壓力所導致的親子交流質量不佳，而這種交流在較爲貧困的家庭倒不一定差。

F 這些研究結果是令人激動的。在新西蘭，有越來越多的例證表明家庭經濟條件和社會背景不佳的孩子入學時的發育就不是很充分，但我們的教育體制卻在延續這種劣勢。而上述項目中創新的做法則可以打破這種惡性循環。與家長在家庭、單位中進行合作的理念與兒童早期關懷和教育工作小組的報告提出的觀念形成了鮮明的對比。該小組所關注的是使母親和孩子能得到兒童保育，並使早期教育制度化。3歲到5歲間的教育無疑是非常重要的，但某些實例表明：如果不重視對家長的培訓，不重視孩子3歲前的時間，那麼這種教育將無法克服教育上的差距。

TEST 3 PASSAGE 2 參考譯文：

Disappearing Delta

日益消失的三角洲

A 尼羅河三角洲在地中海沿岸的肥沃土地正以驚人的速度遭到侵蝕。在某些地段，估計侵蝕速度會達到100米/年。過去，由地中海洋流沖刷掉的沿岸土地會得到由尼羅河帶到三角洲的土壤的補充，但是現在情況卻發生了改變。

B 到目前爲止，人們一直在指責埃及南部阿斯旺的兩座大壩，認爲它們造成了三角洲土地的流失，這兩座大壩幾乎將所有原來順尼羅河直下的淤泥都阻擋住了。在建壩之前，尼羅河可以自由地流動，攜帶非洲北部內陸地區的大量泥沙、淤積到尼羅河三角洲地區，這種情況一直持續了 7000年，最終將這個22,000多平方公里的土地覆蓋上了一層又一層肥沃的淤泥。每年的洪水氾濫都會給尼羅河三角洲地區帶來新的富有營養的淤泥，補充那些被海水沖刷走的土壤。這樣一來，儘管這個地區是埃及糧食產量最高的地區，卻不需施加肥料。但是，到了 20世紀，人們建造了阿斯旺水壩來提供電力和進行灌溉，並保護開羅這個人口大城及其周邊地區免遭洪水和乾旱。自那時起，大多數淤泥連帶其中的豐富養分都在大壩南部，Nasser湖的上游淤積起來，而沒有被帶入尼羅河三角洲。

C 然而，現在看來，情況似乎不這麼簡單。從阿斯旺水壩流出的無沉澱物的河水在到達開羅前的800公里的路程當中，似乎在不斷地侵蝕其流經的河牀和河岸，泥沙含量在不斷增加。Smithsonian學院的Daniel Jean Stanley注意到,從河水流人三角洲前的開羅河段中採集的水樣表明，尼羅河攜帶的泥沙含量有時會多於850g/m3，差不多相當於建壩前的一半。Stanley在《海洋地質學》雜誌上說：“說起來有些羞愧，我讀了 50到60項研究才驚訝地發現這一重大情況，仍然有大量淤泥流入三角洲地區，但卻幾乎沒有淤泥由此處流入地中海來補充海岸線，這就說明這些淤泥肯定淤積在了三角洲地區。”

D 從前在開羅北部，尼羅河水大部分被引入長達1,000公里的灌溉渠道，只有一小部分通過三角洲地區的河流直接匯入海洋。Stanley解釋說，因爲灌溉渠道中的河水是不流動的或流速很慢，所以不會攜帶泥沙。泥沙會沉積到灌溉渠的底部，然後由農民施加到田裏，或者和河水一起被抽人三角洲外緣附近的四大淡水瀉湖中。所以，事實上只有很小的一部分泥沙到達海岸線，補充被地中海洋流沖刷走的土壤。

E 三角洲平原的農業和瀉湖地區的漁業和水產養殖業爲埃及提供了大部分食物。但當淤泥開始逐漸在田裏和瀉湖沉積的時候，淤泥中已經含有大量來自開羅這個人口超過4000萬城市的工業和農業廢棄物。Stanley說：“污染物增加的速度越來越快。”

喬治華盛頓大學的Frederic Siegel根據自己對尼羅河三角洲地區瀉湖沉積物的調查，對Stanley的說法表示贊同。他說：“以Manzalah瀉湖爲例，隨着阿斯旺高壩的建設、廉價電力的使用和大型耗電工業的發展，湖中汞、鉛、銅和鋅的含量也增多了。”從那時起，汞的濃度便大幅上升。使用含鉛燃料的發動機產生的鉛和其他工業源產生的鉛也大幅度增加。這些有害物質很容易就會進入到食物鏈中，從而影響漁業和農業的產量。另一個問題就是包括化肥(殘留物)在內的農業廢棄物會刺激瀉湖中植物的迅速生長，擾亂該地區的生態平衡，進而對漁業產生嚴重的影響。

F 據Siegel說，國際環保組織開始日益關注這一地區，一部分原因是因爲侵蝕問題和尼羅河三角洲污染的問題，但主要原因還是他們害怕這種情況會影響到整個地中海沿岸的生態系統。可是對於這個問題並沒有簡單的解決方案。Stanley認爲，在不遠的將來，使用人工洪水，像建造大壩前自然洪水那樣沖刷三角洲的水道可能會是一種解決方案。但是，他又說，從長遠角度來看，可能需要採取其他的作法(如海水淡化)來增加可用水的數量。Stanley說：“我認爲，埃及必須設計出一種方案，使更多的水流入尼羅河，流經三角洲地區。”在這樣一個人口迅速增長的沙漠地區，做到這一點的確不是一件容易的事。

TEST 3 PASSAGE 3 參考譯文：

The Return of Artificial Intelligence

It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition

人工智能的迴歸

談論計算機執行人類才能執行的任務，如解決問題、模式識別，再一次成爲受歡迎的話題。

A 在失寵數年之後，“人工智能”這個詞好像在準備着東山再起。人工智能在20世紀80年代非常流行，但到了20世紀90年代卻突然消聲匿跡了。隨着《人工智能》這部關於機器男孩的電影的上映，這個詞又重新回到公衆的意識之中。雖然這部電影引發了公衆對於人工智能的辯論，但這個詞還是在計算機領域再次被使用。研究人員、行政管理人員和營銷人員使用這個詞的時候不再帶有嘲諷的意味，也不再加引號。關於這個詞，也不再總是天花亂墜的宣傳。現在，這個術語逐漸被合理地應用到某些產品中，而這些產品正是依託原來人工智能研究人員開發的技術。誠然，這個詞的復活還有待時日，而且有些公司仍儘量避免使用它。但是其他人已經開始再次使用這個詞彙，這表明人們漸漸地不再將人工智能看作是好高騖遠、無所建數的研究的代名詞。

B 1956 年，一組包括 Marvin Minsky、John McCarthy、Herbert Simon 和Alan Newell 在內的研究人員在一次大會上創造了“人工智能”這一名詞，並開創了這一研究領域。這幾位研究人員後來都成了這一領域的領軍人物，這個研究領域涵蓋了先前幾個毫不相關的領域，如工序研究、控制論、邏輯和計算機科學。而人工智能一詞爲這個研究領域起了一個吸引人而又有實質內涵的名字。這些研究的共同目標就是試圖用機器來模擬或再現人類的能力。說到這，需要指出的是，不同的研究小組用不同的方法解決不同的問題，包栝從語音識別到下棋等衆多方面，人工智能只是在名字上將這個領域統一了起來，但這個詞卻引發了公衆的無限遐想。

C 大多數研究人員都認爲1985年是人工智能的鼎盛時期。由科幻電影培育起來的、對計算機日益增強的能力激動不已的公衆，對人工智能抱着很高的期望。多年來，人工智能的研究人員一直暗示成功近在咫尺。1967年，Marvin Minsky曾說，建立人工智能的實質性問題在一代人的時間裏就將得以解決。醫療診斷程序和語音識別軟件的雛形似乎都在取得進展。但最終這一切卻成了一場空歡喜。有思維能力的計算機和家庭機器人都沒能問世，緊接着又出現了強烈反對的輿論。印第安納大學的研究員David Leake說：“20世紀80年代早期的人們是過於樂觀了。此後人們意識到這些問題並不好解決，於是就紛紛退出。到了 20世紀80年代晚期，許多研究人員都避免使用人工智能這個詞，轉而稱自己從事的是一些具體分支學科的研究，如神經網絡、智能主體技術和個案推理等等。”

D 頗具諷刺意義的是，在某些方面，人工智能反而成爲自己成功的受害者。每當解決了一個現實世界中的問題，如建造了一個可以無人在場的飛機降落系統，人們都不會將此歸功於人工智能。正如Leake博士所說：“起作用的肯定不是人工智能。”這種不斷拔高研究目標所造成的後果使有關人工智能的研究成了一種純理論的研究，要實現其商業化還要很多年的時間。研究人員打趣說人工智能就是“接近完成”的代名詞。與此同時，將人工智能推向市場的許多技術，如語音識別、語言翻譯和決策支持軟件，已不再被認爲是人工智能，然而這三項技術曾經一度是完全屬於人工智能研究領域的。

E 據Leake博士說，現在這種趨勢可能要開始扭轉了。聖地亞哥的HNC軟件得到了某個政府機構的支持，這一軟件的研究人員認爲他們處理人工智能的新方法是迄今爲止所發現的最有效、最具前景的方法。HNC稱，他們這一由30個處理器支持的系統可以在戰場上發現僞裝的車輛或從嘈雜的環境中提取某一聲音信號。這些任務原來都是人可以做到、但計算機做不到的。Leake博士說：“無論他們的技術能否達到他們所宣稱的水準，HNC強調自己在使用人工智能技術本身就是一個頗有意思的進展。”

F 在不遠的將來，還可能會有另外一個使人工智能前景更光輝燦爛的因素。爲了突顯自己的個性，投資者不再單純地尋求一種精明的商業模式，轉而尋求與利用智能技術的公司的合作。電子郵件和網頁數量的激增加劇了信息超載問題，這一特別的問題意味着新技術在信息過濾和分類方面將大有可爲，而這些其實都是人工智能要解決的典型的問題。這就意味着更多的人工智能公司會應運而生。

G 1969年一部名爲《2001太空漫遊》的電影，主要描述了一個叫HAL 9000的智能計算機的故事。HAL除了能懂英語和說英語之外，還可以下棋甚至通過觀察人的嘴脣動作來理解話意。因此HAL集中體現了 20世紀60年代的樂觀情緒，認爲到了 2001年，智能計算機將得到廣泛應用。但2001年已成爲過去，HAL那樣的智能計算機仍然沒有絲毫出現的跡象。單獨的系統可以下棋或轉換語音，但是仍然沒有一套關於機器智能的宏觀理論。或許，與HAL之間的比較已變得不那麼重要，人工智能可以憑藉自己的作爲得到公正的評判，而無需與一個30多年前的科幻電影中的人工智能機器進行比照。Leake博士滿懷希望地說：“人們開始意識到人工智能系統是可以做出許多出色的工作的。”

劍橋雅思閱讀5原文解析(test3)

Test 3 Passage 1

Question 1

答案： D

關鍵詞：details / the range of / family types /an education programme

定位原文: D段第3句”The four-year pilot study included…”

解題思路: 定位句對應題幹上的the range of family。接下來作者詳細地描述了這些家庭的狀況：They included single-parent and two-parent families, families in which both parents worked，and families with either the mother or father at home.正好可以對應題幹上的details一詞。注意：儘管E段也提到了家庭，但是其論述重點已經不在幹表明家庭的多樣性，故不選。

Question 2

答案：B

關鍵詞：reasons /early years / important

定位原文: B段內容

解題思路: 在這一部分怍者從兩方面論述了早教爲什麼重要，儘管本段並沒有直接說出reason這個詞，但是我們足以總結出早期教育對兒童十分重要。答案是B

Question 3

答案： C

關鍵詞：reasons / failed

定位原文: C段第2小段

解題思路: 這一部分直接闡述了explanations，所以對應題目。

Question 4

答案：E

關鍵詞：description / positive outcomes

定位原文: E段第1小段內容

解題思路: programme were evaluated... The results were phenomenal...這些都對應了題目的總結。

Question 5

答案：B

關鍵詞：poor/ wealthy

定位原文: D段第3句“The four-year pilot study included…”

解題思路: 其中a cross-section of socio-economic status 就證明該項目包含了不同經濟狀況的家庭。而這一點在Headstart計劃中並未提到。

Question 6

答案：D

關鍵詞：follow-up/ elementary schools

定位原文: C、D、E段

解題思路: 題幹：哪個項目包括在小學中提供後續幫助?結果是：兩個頊目都沒有提到這一點。所以答案選D。

Question 7

答案： A

關鍵詞：did not succeed

定位原文: C段第2小段

解題思路: 定位句得知屬於Headstart 項目。

Question 8

答案： B

關鍵詞：support and training / parents

定位原文: D段第2小段

解題思路: 定位句得知屬於Missouri項目。

Question 9

答案：D

關鍵詞：insufficient funding

定位原文: C段第2小段

解題思路: C 段：Despite substantial funding...這句話證明Headstart計劃資金充足。而關幹密蘇里計劃，作者根本就沒有提到資金的問題。所以這道題目只能選D。

Question 10

答案：C

關鍵詞：pre-schoolers

定位原文: C段第1小段第3句;D段第1小段第1句

解題思路: C段定位句證明Headstart計劃的目的正是爲了促進兒童的教育;D段定位句證明密蘇里計劃是爲了彌補Headstart計劃的不足而產生的新計劃，所以目標也是爲了提升兒童的教育。所以答案選C。

Question 11

答案：TRUE

關鍵詞：Missouri

定位原文: E段第1小段

解題思路: listening 等同於文中auditory comprehension;speaking 等同於文中verbal ability and language ability;reasoning 等同於文中problem solving;interacting 等同於文中social development。

Question 12

答案： FALSE

關鍵詞：Missouri / young / uneducated / single

定位原文: E段第2小段第1句

解題思路: 定位句這句話明確表明家長的年齡，教育背景，或是否是單親家庭，對孩子的成績和語言發展都沒有太太的影響。

Question 13

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞：richer

定位原文: D段和E段

解題思路：如果回到文章通讀密蘇里計劃所在的D段和E段，我們會發現作者根本沒有提到富裕家庭所面臨的壓力問題。作者只在E段末句提到人們發現的惟一一個會影響孩子發展的因素就是由於家庭壓力所導致的親子交流質量不佳。而這種交流在較爲貧困的家庭倒不一定差。但是從這句話我們也無法推知富裕家庭的壓力是否更大。

Test 3 Passage 2

Question 14

答案：iv

關鍵詞：篇章匹配，無題幹定位詞

定位原文: B段第1句

解題思路: 文中對應點這句話告訴我們由幹阿斯旺水壩的修建，原本的自然過程被打亂了，阻擋了原來順流而下的淤泥，因此答案爲iv。

Question 15

答案：i

關鍵詞：篇章匹配，無題幹定位詞

定位原文：D段內容

解題思路: D段詳細地描述了灌漑渠裏沉澱的淤泥對於尼羅河三角洲的影響。因此答案應該是i。

Question 16

答案：v

關鍵詞：篇章匹配，無題幹定位詞

定位原文: E段倒數第2句

解題思路: 本題可能會誤選iii。本段的確講到了尼羅河沿岸的污染問題，但是並未提到地中海，而是在段落末尾提到污染對農業及漁業的影響。因此答案是v。

Question 17

答案：viii

關鍵詞：篇章匹配，無題幹定位詞

定位原文: F段內容

解題思路: 這段話中的確提到了污染可能對地中海沿岸生態環境造成的影響。但是如果通觀全局的話，viii是比vi更合適的答案。因爲ⅷ更具概括性和終結感，更適合做末段的段意。

Question 18

答案： YES

關鍵詞：Egypt's Mediterranean

定位原文: A段最後1句

解題思路: 這句話說明，在過去，尼羅河三角洲在地中海海浪的沖刷下，已經產生了部分的水土流失。scour away from 從……沖走。

Question 19

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞：before

定位原文: B段前半段

解題思路: B段前半.部分提到：到目前爲止，人們一直在指責埃及南部阿斯旺的兩座大壩，認爲它們造成了三角洲土地的流失。但是在這裏作者並沒有提到大壩建設之前是否有人就此進行預測，這是一個典型的完全未提及型的NOT GIVEN。

Question 20

答案： NO

關鍵詞：Nile delta

定位原文: B段最後1句

解題思路: 這句話表明建設大壩的目的並非提髙尼羅河三角洲土壤土塊的肥力，而是爲了提供電力和灌溉，保護首都開羅及周邊地區免受洪澇災害及旱災。文中說做某事的目的是A，題中說做某事的目的是B，目的不同則視爲矛盾，答案爲NO。

Question 21

答案： YES

關鍵詞：Stanley

定位原文: C段第3句

解題思路: 這句話表明，儘管在大壩修建之後，尼羅河水裏的泥沙含量有所下降，但是相對而言還是很高的，幾乎相當於大壩建設前的一半。所以答案應該選YES。

Question 22

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞：irrigation canals

定位原文: D段內容前半部分

解題思路: D段前半部分提到了灌溉渠道，但是並沒有說明是否是由幹這些渠道里的泥沙而引起了洪水。這又是一道完全未提及型的NOT GIVEN。

Question 23

答案： YES

關鍵詞：lagoons

定位原文: D段倒數第2句“The sediment…”

解題思路: 定位句說明泥沙和水一起被從灌溉渠中抽進了瀉湖。

Question 24

答案： F

關鍵詞： coastal erosion/ increase

定位原文: E段第3句“Pollutants…”

解題思路: 首先確定這道題目的位置在E段， building up對應summary中的increase。.推出尼羅河三角洲的問題不僅是泥沙沉積，還有污染問題。所以答案應該填F pollutants。

Question 25

答案： A

關鍵詞： Stanley / in the short term

定位原文: F段第3句 “In the immediate…”

解題思路: 用Stanley一詞將此題定位在F段，隨後找到in the short term的對應詞in the immediate future，,所以對付污染問題的短期解決方案是artificial floods。答案應該選A。

Question 26

答案： B

關鍵詞： in the longer term

定位原文: F段第4句“ in the long term an alternative process such as desalination...”

解題思路: 找到in the long term一詞，很容易就可以找到desalination，,而隨後的have to be used to increase the amount of water available。.更加證明答案應該是B。

Test 3 Passage 3

Question 27

答案：E

關鍵詞：military

定位原文：E段第3句 “d be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield...”

解題思路：camouflage(僞裝)和battlefield (戰場)兩個詞都證明這一段提到了AI的軍事用途。答案爲E。

Question 28

答案： B

關鍵詞：bring together/ separate research areas

定位原文: B段第2句 “...a research programme that…”

解題思路: 這個研究領域涵蓋了先前幾個毫不相關的領域，如工序研究、控制論、邏輯和計算機科學。答案爲B。

Question 29

答案： A

關鍵詞： reason/ common topic / again

定位原文: A段內容

解題思路: 這一段解釋了AI迴歸的原因。答案爲A。

Question 30

答案：F

關鍵詞：difficulties / amount / information available electronically

定位原文: F段第2句“In particular…”

解題思路: AI在處理大量信息方面很有幫助。答案爲F。

Question 31

答案：B

關鍵詞：first

定位原文: B段第1句“The field…”

解題思路: 定位句中 coin的意思是“創造”，證明AI一詞是在1956年第一次被創造出來的。答案爲B。

Question 32

答案：NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞：researchers/launch

定位原文: B段第1句 “The field…”

解題思路: 這句話僅僅提到了AI這一領域的開創者們後來都成了領軍人物，但是並沒有提到他們在過去是否進行過合作。這是一道明顯的畫蛇添足式的NOT GIVEN題目。

Question 33

答案：FALSE

關鍵詞：1985

定位原文: C段第1句

解題思路: peak一詞是指達到頂峯，與the lowest point正好相反。

Question 34

答案：NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： agent technology/neural networks

定位原文: C段最後1句

解題思路: 這句話只是簡單地提到了神經網絡和智能主體技術，並未將兩者在花費上作任何比較，顯然是一道典型的NOT GIVEN題型。

Question 35

答案： TRUE

關鍵詞：applications/success

定位原文: D段最後兩句

解題思路: 這句話提出人工智能研究中的三項技術已經取得了一定程度的商業成功。

Question 36

答案： FALSE

關鍵詞：1967/problems

定位原文: E段和F段內容

解題思路: 在這兩段中雖然沒有直接提到人工智能所面臨的問題是否已經變化，但是字裏行間都在暗示變化正在產生。人工智能將會被應用到軍事，諜報、信息處理等嶄新領域。所以題目中提到的一成不變顯然是錯誤的。

Question 37

答案： TRUE

關鍵詞：A Space Odyssey

定位原文: G段第3句

解題思路: encapsulate 是“概括”的意思，contemporary 與1960s 對應。HAL集中體現了 20世紀60年代的樂觀情緒，認爲到了 2001年，智能計算機將得到廣泛應用。

Question 38

答案： B

關鍵詞： late 1980s

定位原文: C段內容

解題思路: A/C/D三個答案不是太絕對，就是和文中敘述相反，只有B反映出了80年代末人們對人工智能的看法。

Question 39

答案： A

關鍵詞： Dr. Leake

定位原文: C段倒數3句內容

解題思路: retrenchment是“削減，減去，緊縮”的意思，在這裏是指人們對人工智能的樂觀態度正在消退。

Question 40

答案： D

關鍵詞： prospect

定位原文: F段第1句

解題思路: C答案過於絕對，應該首先被排除。A答案顯然與上文這句話不相符，也應該被排除。而B答案在文中並沒有被提到。

當前位置

劍橋雅思閱讀5原文精講(test3)

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