09年12月英语六级模拟试卷及解析之七(文都)(3)
Part Ⅳ Reading Comprehension(Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
One of the most eminent of psychologists, Clark Hull, claimed that the essence of reasoning lies in the putting together of two "behavior segments" in some novel way, never actually performed before, so as to reach a goal。
Two followers of Clark Hull, Howard and Tracey Kendler, devised a test for children that was explicitly based on Hulll's principles. The children were given the task of learning to operate a machine so as to get a toy. In order to succeed they had to go through a two-stage sequence. The children were trained on each stage separately. The stages consisted merely of pressing the correct one of two buttons to get a marble; and of inserting the marble into a small hole to release the toy. The Kendlers found that the children could learn the separate bits readily enough. But they did not for the most part "integrate". They did not press the button to get the marble and then proceed without further help to use the marble to get the toy. So the Kendlers concluded that they were incapable of deductive reasoning。
The mystery at first appears to deepen when we learn, from anther psychologist, Michael Cole and his colleagues, that adults in an African culture apparently cannot do the Kendlers' task either. But it lessens, on the other hand, when we learn that a task was devised which was strictly analogous to the Kendlers' one but much easier for me African males to handle. Instead of the button-pressing machine, Cole used a locked box and two differently colored match-boxes, one of which contained a key that would open the box. Notice that there are still two behavior segments--"open the right match-box to get the key" and "use the key to open the box"---so the task seems formally to be the same. But psychologically it is quite different. Now the subject is dealing not with a strange machine but with familiar meaningful objects: and it is clear to him what he is meant to do. It then turns our that the difficulty of "integration" is greatly reduced。
Recent work by Simon Hewson is of great interest here for it shows that, for young children, too, the difficulty lies not in the inferential processes which the task demands, but in certain perplexing features of the apparatus and the procedure. Hewson made two crucial changes. First, he replaced the button-pressing mechanism in the side panels by drawers in these panels which the children could open and shut. This took away the mystery from the first stage of training. Then he helped the child to understand that there was no "magic" about the specific marble. The two modifications together produced a jump m success rates from 30% to 90% for five-year-olds and from 35% to 72.5 % for four-year-olds. For three-year-olds, for reasons that are still in need of clarification, no improvement--rather a slight drop in performance resulted from the change。
We may conclude, then, that children experience very real difficulty when faced with the Kendler apparatus; but this difficulty cannot be taken as proof that they are incapable of deductive reasoning。
47. Why did the Kendlers conduct the test described in the second paragraph?
48. The Kendlers trained their subjects separately in the two stages of their experiment, but not in how to ______ the two actions。
49. Michael Cole and his colleagues demonstrated that adult performance on deductive reasoning tasks depends on ______。
50. Who devised an experiment that investigated deductive reasoning without the use of any marbles?
51. ______ is cited as having demonstrated that earlier experiments into children's ability to reason deductively may have led to the wrong conclusion。
Section B
Passage One
Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" or "a touch on the brakes", makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth. The link between interest rates and inflation is uncertain. And there are long, variable lags before policy changes have any effect on the economy。
Given all these disadvantages, central bankers seem to have had much to boast of about late. Average inflation in the big seven industrial economies fell to a mere 2.3% last year, close to Its lowest level in 30 years, before rising slightly to 2.5% this July. This is a long way below the double-digit rates which many countries experienced in the 1970s and early 1980s。
It is also less than most forecasters had predicted. In late 1994 the panel of economists which The Economist polls each month said that America's inflation rate would average 3.5 % in 1995. In fact, it fell to 2.6% in August, and is expected to average only about 3% for the year as a whole. In Britain and Japan inflation is running half a percentage below the rate predicted at the end of the last year. This is no flash in the pan; over the past couple of years, inflation has been consistently lower than expected in Britain and America。
Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since conventional measures suggest that both economies, esp. America's, have little productive slack. America's capacity utilization, for example, hit historically high levels earlier this year, and its jobless rate has fallen below most
Why has inflation proved so wild7 The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have up-ended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation。
52. According to the passage, making monetary policy changes ______。
A) is comparable to driving a car
B) is similar to carrying out scientific work
C) will not influence the economy immediately
D) will have an immediate impact on the inflation rate
53. From the passage we learn that ______。
A) there is a clear relationship between inflation and interest rates
B) the economy always follows particular trends
C) the current economic problems are entirely predictable
D) the present economic situation is better than expected
54. The passage suggests that ______。
A) the previous economic models are still applicable
B) an extremely low jobless rate will lead to inflation
C) a high unemployment rate will result from inflation
D) interest rates have an immediate effect on the economy
55. By saying "This is no flash in the pan" (Paragraph 3, Line 6)， the author implies that
A) the low inflation rate will continue B) the inflation rate will rise again
C) inflation will disappear entirely D) there is no inflation at present
56. How does the author feel about the present situation?
A) Tolerant. B) Indifferent. C) Disappointed. D) Surprised。
Passage Two
If you live in a city in North America or Europe, you have probably never thought much about water. Whenever you need some, you turn on the tap and there it is. Millions of people in other parts of the world are not so lucky. They have trouble getting enough clean water for their basic needs. This situation may soon become common all around the world, scientists believe. In fact, they say that the lack of clean water may be one of the biggest issues in the twenty-first century。
The reasons for this are clear. On the one hand. people are using more water than ever before. Over the last fifty years, the population of the world has more than doubled. On the other hand, many sources of surface water such as rivers, lakes, and streams are too polluted and unhealthy for use as drinking water。
This has forced more and more people to drill wells so they can get water form underground. There are enormous amounts of water deep underground in lakes called aquifers. Until recently, scientists believed this underground water was safe from pollution. Then, in the 1980s. people in the United States began to find chemicals in their well water, and scientists took a closer look at what was happening. Weldon Spring, Missouri, for example, was the site of a bomb factory during World War Ⅱ. The factory was destroyed after the war. but poisonous chemicals remained on the ground. Very slowly, these chemicals dripped down through the ground and into the aquifer. Once they did, however, the water form that aquifer was no longer drinkable。
It probably never will be drinkable again, Underground water is not renewed regularly by the rain, like lake or river water. Thus, if a harmful chemical gets into an aquifer, it will stay there for a very long time. Furthermore, it is nearly imp6ssible to remove all the water in an aquifer and clean out the pollutants。
Industrial sites like Weldon Spring are one cause of underground water pollution. There are thousands of such sites in the United States alone, and many others around the world. Underground water pollution is also caused by modern farming methods, which require the use of large amounts of chemicals in the fields. And finally, yet another important cause of underground water pollution is waste. That includes solid waste thrown away in dumps and landfills, and also untreated human and animal waste。
The situation is indeed very serious. Fortunately, there are many aquifers and they are very large. Only a small number have been seriously damaged so far. But if the world does not want to go thirsty in the near future, further pollution must be prevented. Around the world, governments must make real changes in industry, agriculture, and waste disposal。
57. This passage is mainly about ______。
A) pollution problems in general
B) people in North America or Europe are living happier than those in other parts
C) people drilling wells to check chemicals in well water
D) underground water pollution
58. In the first paragraph scientists express the idea that ______。
A) clean water is no longer available for people in Europe
B) there will always be enough water for everyone
C) the water problem will soon be resolved in the twenty-first century
D) many more people may soon. be without clean water
59. One reason for water shortage is that ______。
A) people in Europe don't turn off their taps
B) people drill too many wells and pollute them
C) the population has been continuously rising
D) there is not much underground water
60. In Weldon Spring, people found ______。
A) chemicals in well Water B) many sources of surface water
C) more aquifers than other places D) chemicals in the bomb factory
61. We can infer from this passage that industry, farming, and waste are ______。
A) polluting all aquifers in the United States
B) minor sources of underground water pollution
C) causing problems in bomb factories
D) the three main sources of underground water pollution
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