2020年3月14日朗阁雅思阅读考题题库

今天，就带大家来了解一下2020年3月14日的朗阁雅思阅读考题题库，有需求的朋友可以看一看文章内容哦!

Passage 1

Eco-Resort Management Practices

Ecotourism is often regarded as a form of nature-based and has become an important alternative source of tourists. In addition to providing the traditional resort-leisure product, it has been argued that ecotourism resort management should have a particular focus on best-practice environmental management, an educational and interpretive component, and direct and indirect contributions to the conservation of the natural and cultural environment (Ayala, 1996).

Couran Cove Island Resort is a large integrated ecotourism-based resort located south of Brisbane on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. As the world's population becomes increasingly urbanised, the demand for tourist attractions which are environmentally friendly, serene and offer amenities of a unique nature, has grown rapidly. Couran Cove Resort, which is one such tourist attractions, is located on South Stradbroke Island, occupying approximately150 hectares of the island. South Stradbroke Island is separated from the mainland by the Broadwater, a stretch of sea 3 kilometers wide More than a century ago, there was only one Stradbroke Island, and there were at least four aboriginal tribes living and hunting on the island. Regrettably, most of the original island dwellers were eventually killed by diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox and influenza by the end of the19th century. The second ship wreak on the island in 1894, and the subsequent destruction of the ship (the Cambus Wallace) because it contained dynamite, caused a large crater in the sand hills on Stradbroke Island. Eventually, the ocean broke through the weakened land form and Stradbroke became two islands. Couran Cove Island Resort is built on one of the world's few naturally-occurring sand lands, which is home to a wide range of plant communities and one of the largest remaining remnants of the rare livistona rainforest left on the Gold Coast. Many mangrove and rainforest areas, and Malaleuca Wetlands on South Stradbroke Island (and in Queensland), have been cleared, drained or filled for residential, industrial, agricultural or urban development in the first half of the 20thcentury. Farmers and graziers finally abandoned South Stradbroke Island in 1939 because the vegetation and the soil conditions there were not suitable for agricultural activities.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES OF COURAN COVE RESORT

Being located on an offshore island, the resort is only accessible by means of water transportation. The resort provides hourly ferry service from the marina on the mainland to and from the island. Within the resort, transport modes include walking trails, bicycle tracks and the beach train. The reception area is the counter of the shop which has not changed in 8 years at least. The accommodation is an octagonal "Bure". These are large rooms that are clean but! The equipment is tired and in some cases just working. Our coiling fan only worked on high speed for example. Beds are hard but clean, there is television, radio, an old air conditioner and a small fridge. These "Bures" are right on top of each other and night noises do carry so be careful what you say and do. The only thing is the mosquitos but if you forget to bring mosquito repellant they sell some on the island.

As an ecotourism-based resort, most of the planning and development of the attraction has been concentrated on the need to co-exist with the fragile natural environment of South Stradbroke Island to achieve sustainable development.

WATER AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT

South Stradbroke Island has groundwater at the centre of the island, which has a maximum height of 3 metres above sea level. The water supply is recharged by rainfall and is commonly known as an unconfined freshwater aquifer. Couran Cove Island Resort obtains its water supply by tapping into this aquifer and extracting it via a bore system. Some of the problems which have threatened the island's freshwater supply include pollution, contamination and over-consumption. In order to minimise some of these problems, all laundry activities are carried out on the mainland. The resort considers washing machines as onerous to the island's freshwater supply, and that the detergents contain a high level of phosphates which are a major source of water pollution. There sort uses LPG-power generation rather than a diesel-powered plant for its energy supply, supplemented by wind turbine, which has reduced greenhouse emissions by 70% of diesel-equivalent generation methods. Excess heat recovered from the generator is used to heat the swimming pool. Hot water in the eco-cabins and for some of the resort's vehicles are solar-powered. Water efficient fittings are also installed in showers and toilets. However, not all the appliances used by the resort are energy efficient, such as refrigerators. Visitors who stay at the resort are encouraged to monitor their water and energy usage via the in-house television systems, and are rewarded with prizes (such as a free return trip to the resort) accordingly if their usage level is low.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

We examined a case study of good management practice and a pro-active sustainable tourism stance of an eco-resort. In three years of operation, Couran Cove Island Resort has won 23 international and national awards, including the 2001 Australian Tourism Award in the 4-Star Accommodation category. The resort has embraced and has effectively implemented contemporary environmental management practices. It has been argued that the successful implementation of the principles of sustainability should promote long-term social, economic and environmental benefits, while ensuring and enhancing the prospects of continued viability for the tourism enterprise. Couran Cove Island Resort does not conform to the characteristics of the Resort Development Spectrum, as proposed by Prideaux (2000). According to Prideaux, the resort should be at least at Phase 3 of the model (the National tourism phase), which describes an integrated resort providing 3-4 star hotel-type accommodation. The primary tourist market in Phase 3 of the model consists mainly of interstate visitors. However, the number of interstate and international tourists visiting the resort is small, with the principal visitor markets comprising locals and residents from nearby towns and the Gold Coast region. The carrying capacity of Couran Cove does not seem to be of any concern to the Resort management. Given that it is a private commercial ecotourist enterprise, regulating the number of visitors to the resort to minimize damage done to the natural environment on South Stradbroke Island is not a binding constraint. However, the Resort's growth will eventually be constrained by its carrying capacity, and quantity control should be incorporated in the management strategy of the resort.

Questions 1-5

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

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1 The Stradbroke became two islands

A by an intended destruction of the ship of the Cambus Wallace

B by an explosion of dynamite on a ship and following nature erosion

C by the movement sand hills on Stradbroke Island

D by the volcanic eruption on island

2 Why are laundry activities for the resort carried out on the mainland.

A In order to obtain its water supply via a bore system

B In order to preserve the water and anti-pollution

C In order to save the cost of installing onerous washing machines

D In order to reduce the level of phosphates in water around

3 What is the major water supplier in South Stradbroke Island is by

A desalining the sea water

B collecting the rainfall

C transporting from the mainland

D boring ground water

4 What is applied for heating water on Couran Cove Island Resort?

A the LPG-power

B a diesel-powered plant

C the wind power

D the solar-power

5 What does, as the managers of resorts believe, the prospective future focus on?

A more awards of for resort's accommodation

B sustainable administration and development in a long run

C Economic and environmental benefits for the tourism enterprise

D successful implementation the Resort Development Spectrum

Questions 6-10

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.

Questions 11-13

Choose three correct letters among A-E

Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

What is true as to the contemporary situation of Couran Cove Island Resort in the last paragraph?

A Couran Cove Island Resort goes for more eco-friendly practices

B the accommodation standard only conforms to the Resort Development   Spectrum of Phase 3

C Couran Cove Island Resort should raise the accommodation standard and  build more facilities

D the principal group visiting the resort is international tourists

E its carrying capacity will restrict the future business' expansion

Answer Key：

1 B   2 B   3 D    4 D   5 B

6 ferry   7 bicycle  8 fan/ceiling fan  9 air-conditioner

10 mosquitoes/mosquito   11 A    12 C

13 E

Bamboo, A Wonder Plant

The wonder plant with an uncertain future: more than a billion people rely on bamboo for either their shelter or income, while many endangered species depend on it for their survival. Despite its apparent abundance, a new report says that species of bamboo maybe under serious threat.

A

Every year, during the rainy season, the mountain gorillas of Central Africa migrate to the foothills and lower slopes of the Virunga Mountains to graze on bamboo. For the 650 or so that remain in the wild, it’s a vital food source. Although they at most 150 types of plant, as well as various insects and other invertebrates, at this time of year bamboo accounts for up to 90 per cent of their diet. Without it, says Ian Redmond, chairman of the Ape Alliance, their chances of survival would be reduced significantly. Gorillas aren't the only locals keen on bamboo. For the people who live close to the Virungas, it's a valuable and versatile raw material used for building houses and making household items such as mats and baskets. But in the past 100 years or so, resources have come under increasing pressure as populations have exploded and large areas of bamboo forest have been cleared to make way for farms and commercial plantations.

B

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated story. All over the world, the ranges of many bamboo species appear to be shrinking, endangering the people and animals that depend upon them. But despite bamboo’s importance, we know surprisingly little about it. A recent report published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Inter-national Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) has revealed just how profound is our ignorance of global bamboo resources, particularly in relation to conservation. There are almost 1,600 recognized species of bamboo, but the report concentrated on the 1,200 or so woody varieties distinguished by the strong stems, or culms, that most people associate with this versatile plant. Of these, only 38 'priority species' identified for their commercial value have been the subject of any real scientific research, and this has focused mostly on matters relating to their viability as a commodity. This problem isn't confined to bamboo. Compared to the work carried out on animals, the science of assessing the conservation status of plants is still in its infancy. "People have only started looking hard at this during the past 10-15 years, and only now are they getting a handle on how to go about it systematically," says Dr. Valerie Kapos, one of the report's authors and a senior adviser in forest ecology and conservation to the UNEP.

C

Bamboo is a type of grass. It comes in a wide variety of forms, ranging in height from 30centimetres to more than 40 metres. It is also the world's fastest-growing woody plant; some species can grow more than a metre in a day. Bamboo's ecological rote extends beyond providing food and habitat for animals. Bamboo tends to grow in stands made up of groups of individual plants that grow from root systems known as rhizomes. Its extensive rhizome systems, which tie in the top layers of the soil, are crucial in preventing soil erosion. And there is growing evidence that bamboo plays an important part in determining forest structure and dynamics. "Bamboo's pattern of mass flowering and mass death leaves behind large areas of dry biomass that attract wildfire," says Kapos. "When these bum, they create patches of open ground within the forest far bigger than would be left by a fallen tree." Patchiness helps to preserve diversity because certain plant species do better during the early stages of regeneration when there are gaps in the canopy.

D

However, bamboo's most immediate significance lies in its economic value. Modem processing techniques mean that it can be used in a variety of ways, for example, as flooring and laminates. One of the fastest growing bamboo products is paper -25 per cent of paper produced in India is made from bamboo fiber, and in Brazil, 100,000 hectares of bamboo are grown for its production. Of course, bamboo's main function has always been in domestic applications, and as a locally traded commodity it's worth about US $4.5 billion annually. Because of its versatility, flexibility and strength (its tensile strength compares to that of some steel), it has traditionally been used in construction. Today, more than one billion people worldwide live in bamboo houses. Bamboo is often the only readily available raw material for people in many developing countries, says Chris Staple-ton, a research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens. "Bamboo can be harvested from forest areas or grown quickly elsewhere, and then converted simply without expensive machinery or facilities," he says. "In this way, it contributes substantially to poverty alleviation and wealth creation."

E

Given bamboo's value in economic and ecological terms, the picture painted by the UNEP report is all the more worrying. But keen horticulturists will spot an apparent contradiction here. Those who've followed the recent vogue for cultivating exotic species in their gardens will point out that if it isn't kept in check, bamboo can cause real problems. "In a lot of places, the people who live with bamboo don't perceive it as being endangered in any way," says Kapos. "In fact, a lot of bamboo species are actually very invasive if they've been introduced." So why are so many species endangered? There are two separate issues here, says Ray Townsend, vice president of the British Bamboo Society and arboretum manager at the Royal Botanic Gardens. "Some plants are threatened because they can't survive in the habitat - they aren't strong enough or there aren't enough of them, perhaps. But bamboo can take care of itself - it is strong enough to survive if left alone. What is under threat is its habitat." It is the physical disturbance that is the threat to bamboo, says Kapos. "When forest goes, it is converted into something else: there isn't any-where for forest plants such as bamboo to grow if you create a cattle pasture."

F

Around the world, bamboo species are routinely protected as part of forest eco-systems in national parks and reserves, but there is next to nothing that protects bamboo in the wild for its own sake. However, some small steps are being taken to address this situation. The UNEP-INBAR report will help conservationists to establish effective measures aimed at protecting valuable wild bamboo species. Towns end, too, sees the UNEP report as an important step forward in promoting the cause of bamboo conservation. "Until now, bamboo has been perceived as a second-class plant. When you talk about places such as the Amazon, everyone always thinks about the hardwoods. Of course these are significant, but there is a tendency to overlook the plants they are associated with, which are often bamboo species. In many ways, it is the most important plant known to man. I can't think of another plant that is used so much and is so commercially important in so many countries." He believes that the most important first step is to get scientists into the field. "We need to go out there, look at these plants and see how they survive and then use that information to conserve them for the future."

Questions 1-7

Reading Passage 1 has six sections A-F.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet

NB  You may use any letter more than once

1 Limited extent of existing research

2 Comparison of bamboo with other plant species

3 Commercial application of bamboo

4 Example of an animal which rely on bamboos for survival

5 Human activity that damaged large areas of bamboo

6 The approaches used to study bamboo

7 Bamboo helps the survival of a range of plants

Questions 8-11

Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 8-11 on your answer sheet.

NB  you may use any letter more than once

8 Destroying bamboo jeopardizes to wildlife.

9 People have very confined knowledge of bamboo.

10 Some people do not think that bamboo is endangered.

11 Bamboo has loads of commercial potentials.

Questions 12-13

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for the passage for each answer.

12 What problem does the bamboo’s root system prevent?

13 Which bamboo product is experiencing market expansion?

Answer Key：

1 B   2 E   3 D   4 D   5 A  

6 B   7 C   8 A   9 B   10 B  

11 D   12 Soil erosion 13 paper

Passage 2

Water Filter

A

An ingenious invention is set to bring clean water to the third world, and while the science may be cutting edge, the materials are extremely down to earth. A handful of clay, yesterday's coffee grounds and some cow manure are the ingredients that could bring clean, safe drinking water to much of the third world.

B

The simple new technology, developed by ANU materials scientist Mr. Tony Flynn, allows water filters to be made from commonly available materials and fired on the ground using cow manure as the source of heat, without the need for a kiln. The filters have been tested and shown to remove common pathogens (disease-producing organisms) including E-coli. Unlike other water filtering devices, the filters are simple and inexpensive to make. "They are very simple to explain and demonstrate and can be made by anyone, anywhere," says Mr. Flynn. 'They don't require any western technology. AH you need is terracotta clay, a compliant cow and a match."

C

The production of the filters is extremely simple. Take a handful of dry, crushed clay, mix it with a handful of organic material, such as used tea leaves, coffee grounds or rice hulls, add enough water to make a stiff biscuit-like mixture and form a cylindrical pot that has one end closed, then dry it in the sun. According to Mr. Flynn, used coffee grounds have given the best results to date. Next, surround the pots with straw; put them in a mound of cow manure, light the straw and then top up the burning manure as required. In less than 60 minutes the filters are finished. The walls of the finished pot should be about as thick as an adult's index. The properties of cow manure are vital as the fuel can reach a temperature of 700 degrees in half an hour and will be up to 950 degrees after another 20 to 30 minutes. The manure makes a good fuel because it is very high in organic material that burns readily and quickly; the manure has to be dry and is best used exactly as found in the field, there is no need to break it up or process it any further.

D

"A potter's kiln is an expensive item and can could take up to four or five hours to get up to 800 degrees. It needs expensive or scarce fuel, such as gas or wood to heat it and experience to run it. With no technology, no insulation and nothing other than a pile of cow manure and a match, none of these restrictions apply," Mr. Flynn says.

E

It is also helpful that, like terracotta clay and organic material, cow dung is freely available across the developing world. "A cow is a natural fuel factory. My understanding is that cow dung as a fuel would be pretty much the same wherever you would find it." Just as using manure as a fuel for domestic uses is not a new idea, the porosity of clay is something that potters have known about for years, and something that as a former ceramics lecturer in the ANU School of Art, Mr. Flynn is well aware of. The difference is that rather than viewing the porous nature of the material as a problem — after all not many people want a pot that won't hold water — his filters capitalize on this property.

F

Other commercial ceramic filters do exist, but, even if available, with prices starting at US$5 each, they are often outside the budgets of most people in the developing world. The filtration process is simple, but effective. The basic principle is that there are passages through the filter that are wide enough for water droplets to pass through, but too narrow for pathogens. Tests with the deadly E-coli bacterium have seen the filters remove 96.4 to 99.8 per cent of the pathogen — well within safe levels. Using only one filter it takes two hours to filter a litre of water. The use of organic material, which burns away leaving cavities after firing, helps produce the potential problems of finer clays that may not let water through and also means that cracks are soon halted. And like clay and cow dung, it is universally available.

G

The invention was born out of a World Vision project involving the Manatuto community in East Timor The charity wanted to help set up a small industry manufacturing water filters, but initial research found the local clay to be too fine — a problem solved by the addition of organic material. While the problems of producing a working ceramic filter in East Timor were overcome, the solution was kiln-based and particular to that community's materials and couldn't be applied elsewhere. Manure firing, with no requirement for a kiln, has made this zero technology approach available anywhere it is needed. With all the components being widely available, Mr. Flynn says there is no reason the technology couldn't be applied throughout the developing world, and with no plans to patent his idea, there will be no legal obstacles to it being adopted in any community that needs it. "Everyone has a right to clean water, these filters have the potential to enable anyone in the world to drink water safely," says Mr. Flynn.

Questions 14-19

Complete the flow chart, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.

Questions 20-23

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet, write

20 It takes half an hour for the manure to reach 950 degrees.

21 Clay was initially found to be unsuitable for pot making.

22 Coffee grounds are twice as effective as other materials.

23 E-coli is the most difficult bacteria to combat.

Questions 24-26

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

Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.

24 When making the pot, the thickness of the wall

A is large enough to let the pathogens to pass.

B varied according to the temperature of the fuel.

C should be the same as an adult's forefinger.

D is not mentioned by Mr. Flynn.

25 what is true about the charity, it

A failed in searching the appropriate materials.

B successfully manufacture a kiln based ceramic filter to be sold worldwide

C found that the local clay arc good enough.

D intended to help build a local filter production factory.

26 Mr. Flynn's design is purposely not being patented

A because he hopes it can be freely used around the world.

B because he doesn't think the technology is perfect enough.

C because there are some legal obstacles.

D because the design has already been applied thoroughly.

Answer Key：

14 clay    15 water    16 straw

17 cow manure  18 950 degrees   19 60 minutes

20 FALSE   21 TRUE    22 NOT GIVEN

23 NOT GIVEN  24 C     25 D

26 A

Global Warming: Prevent poles from melting

A

Such is our dependence on fossil fuels, and such is the volume of carbon dioxide we have already released into the atmosphere, that most climate scientists agree that significant global warming is now inevitable - the best we can hope to do is keep it at a reasonable level, and even that is going to be an uphill task. At present, the only serious option on the table for doing this is cutting back on our carbon emissions, but while a few countries are making major strides in this regard, the majority are having great difficulty even stemming the rate of increase, let alone reversing it. Consequently, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to explore the alternatives. They all fall under the banner of geoengineering - generally defined as the intentional large-scale manipulation of the environment.

B

Geoengineering has been shown to work, at least on a small, localised scale, for decades. May Day parades in Moscow have taken place under clear blue skies, aircraft having deposited dry ice, silver iodide and cement powder to disperse clouds. Many of the schemes now suggested look to do the opposite, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet. One scheme focuses on achieving a general cooling of the Earth and involves the concept of releasing aerosol sprays into the stratosphere above the Arctic to create clouds of sulphur dioxide, which would, in turn, lead to a global dimming. The idea is modeled on historical volcanic explosions, such as that of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991; which led to a short-term cooling of global temperatures by 0.5°C. The aerosols could be delivered by artillery, high-flying aircraft or balloons.

C

Instead of concentrating on global cooling, other schemes look specifically at reversing the melting at the poles. One idea is to bolster an ice cap by spraying it with water. Using pumps to carry water from below the sea ice, the spray would come out as snow or ice particles, producing thicker sea ice with a higher albedo (the ratio of sunlight reflected from a surface) to reflect summer radiation. Scientists have also scrutinized whether it is possible to block iceflow in Greenland with cables which have been reinforced, preventing icebergs from moving into the sea. Veli Albert Kallio, a Finnish scientist, says that such an idea is impractical, because the force of the ice would ultimately snap the cables and rapidly release a large quantity of frozen ice into the sea. However, Kallio believes that the sort of cables used in suspension bridges could potentially be used to divert, rather than halt, the southward movement of ice from Spitsbergen. It would stop the ice moving south, and local currents would see them float northwards' he says.

D

A number of geoengineering ideas are currently being examined in the Russian Arctic. These include planting millions of birch trees: the thinking, according to Kallio, is that their white bark would increase the amount of reflected sunlight. The loss of their leaves in winter would also enable the snow to reflect radiation. In contrast, the native evergreen pines tend to shade the snow and absorb radiation. Using ice-breaking vessels to deliberately break up and scatter coastal sea ice in both Arctic and Antarctic waters in their respective autumns, and diverting Russian rivers to increase cold-water flow to ice-forming areas, could also be used to slow down warming, Kallio says. 'You would need the wind to blow the right way, but in the right conditions, by letting ice float free and head north, you would enhance ice growth.'

E

But will such ideas ever he implemented? The major counter-arguments to geoengineering schemes are, first, that they are a 'cop-out' that allow us to continue living the way we do, rather than reducing carbon emissions; and, second, even if they do work, would the side- effects outweigh the advantages? Then there's the daunting prospect of upkeep and repair of any scheme as well as the consequences of a technical failure. 7 think all of us agree that if we were to end geoengineering on a given day, then the planet would return to its pre-engineered condition very rapidly, and probably within 10 to 20 years' says Dr Phil Rasch, chief scientist for climate change at the US-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. That's certainly something to worry about. I would consider geoengineering as a strategy to employ only while we manage the conversion to a non-fossil- fuel economy. 'The risk with geoengineering projects is that you can "overshoot",' says Dr Dan Lunt, from the University of Bristol. 'You may bring global temperatures back to pre-industrial levels, but the risk is that the poles will still be warmer than they should be and the tropics will be cooler than before industrialization.'

F

The main reason why geoengineering is countenanced by the mainstream scientific community is that most researchers have little faith in the ability of politicians to agree - and then bring in - the necessary carbon cuts. Even leading conservation organizations believe the subject is worth exploring. As Dr Martin Sommerkorn, a climate change advisor says.' But human-induced climate change has brought humanity to a position where it is important not to exclude thinking thoroughly about this topic and its possibilities despite the potential drawbacks. If, over the coming years, the science tells us about an ever-increased climate sensitivity of the planet - and this isn't unrealistic - then we may be best served by not having to start our thinking from scratch.'

Questions 14-18

Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs. A-F

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. You may use any letter more than once.

14 the existence of geoengineering projects distracting from the real task of  changing the way we live

15 circumstances in which geoengineering has demonstrated success

16 Frustrating maintenance problems associated with geoengineering projects

17 support for geoengineering being due to a lack of confidence in governments

18 more success in fighting climate change in some parts of the world than others

Questions 19-23

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.

Questions 24-26

Look at the following people (Questions 24-26) and the list of opinions below. Match each person with the correct opinion, A-E.

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

24 Phil Rasch

25 Dan Lunt

26 Martin Sommerkorn

Answer Key：

14 E    15 B     16 E    17 F  

18 A    19 birch trees   20 Russian rivers  21 pumps

22 cables   23 volcanic explosions  24 C    25 D

26 A

Passage 3

Music: Language We All Speak

Section A:

Music is one of the human species relatively few universal abilities. Without formal training, any individual, from Stone Age tribesman to suburban teenager has the mystery. After all, music isn’t necessary for getting through the day, and if it aids in reproduction, it does so only in highly indirect ways. Language, by contrast, is also everywhere – but for reasons that are more obvious. With language, you and the members of your tribe can organize a migration across Africa, build reed boats and cross the seas, and communicate at night even when you can’t see each other. Modern culture, in all its technological extravagance, springs directly from the human talent for manipulating symbols and syntax. Scientists have always been intrigued by the connection between music and language. Yet over the years, words and melody have acquired a vastly different status in the lab and the seminar room. While language has long been considered essential to unlocking the mechanisms of human intelligence, music is generally treated as an evolutionary frippery – mere “auditory cheesecake,” as the Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker puts it.

Section B:

But thanks to a decade-long wave of neuroscience research, that tune is changing. A flurry of recent publications suggests that language and music may equally be able to tell us who we are and where we’re from – not just emotionally, but biologically. In July, the journey Nature Neuroscience devoted a special issue to the topic. And in an article in the August 6 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, David Schwartz, Catherine Howe, and Dale Purves of Duck University argued that the sounds of music and the sounds of language are intricately connected.

To grasp the originality of this idea, it’s necessary to realize two things about how music has traditionally been understood. First, musicologists have long emphasized that while each culture stamps a special identity onto its music; music itself has some universal qualities. For example, in virtually all cultures sound is divided into some or all of the 12 intervals that make up the chromatic scale - that is, the scale represented by the keys on a piano. For centuries, observers have attributed this preference for certain combinations of tones to the mathematical properties of sound itself. Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras was the first to note a direct relationship between the harmoniousness of atone combination and the physical dimensions of the object that produced it. For example, a plucked string will always play an octave lower than a similar string half its size, and a fifth lower than a similar string two-thirds its length. This link between simple ratios and harmony has influenced music theory ever since.

Section C:

This music-is-mouth idea is often accompanied by the notion that music formally speaking at least, exists apart from the world in which it was created. Writing recently in the The New York Review of Books, pianist and critic Charles Rosen discussed the long-standing notion that while painting and sculpture reproduce at least some aspects of the natural world, and writing describes thoughts and feelings we are all familiar with, music is entirely abstracted from the world in which we live. Neither idea is right, according to David Schwartz and his colleagues. Human musical preferences are fundamentally shaped not by elegant algorithms or ratios but by the messy sounds of real life, and of speech in particular -which in turn is shaped by our evolutionary heritage." The explanation of music, like the explanation of any product of the mind, must be rooted in biology, not in numbers per se," says Schwartz.

Schwartz, Howe, and Purves analyzed a vast selection of speech sounds from a variety of languages to reveal the underlying patterns common to all utterances. In order to focus only on the raw sound, they discarded all theories about speech and meaning and sliced sentences into random bites. Using a database of over 100,000 brief segments of speech, they noted which frequency had the greatest emphasis in each sound. The resulting set of frequencies, they discovered, corresponded closely to the chromatic scale. In short, the building blocks of music are to be found in speech.

Far from being abstract, music presents a strange analog to the patterns created by the sounds of speech. "Music, like the visual arts, is rooted in our experience of the natural world," says Schwartz. "It emulates our sound environment in the way that visual arts emulate the visual environment." In music we hear the echo of our basic sound-making instrument- the vocal tract. The explanation for human music is simple; still than Pythagoras's mathematical equations. We like the sounds that are familiar to us-specifically, we like sounds that remind us of us.

This brings up some chicken-or-egg evolutionary questions. It may be that music imitates speech directly, the researchers say, in which case it would seem that language evolved first. It's also conceivable that music came first and language is in effect an Imitation of song - that in everyday speech we hit the musical notes we especially like. Alternately, it may be that music imitates the general products of the human sound-making system, which just happens to be mostly speech. "We can't know this," says Schwartz. "What we do know is that they both come from the same system, and it is this that shapes our preferences."

Section D:

Schwartz’s study also casts light on the long-running question of whether animals understand or appreciate music. Despite the apparent abundance of "music" in the natural world- birdsong, whalesong, wolf howls, synchronized chimpanzee hooting previous studies have found that many laboratory animals don't show a great affinity for the human variety of music making. Marc Hauser and Josh McDermott of Harvard argued in the July issue of Nature Neuroscience that animals don't create or perceive music the way we do. The act that laboratory monkeys can show recognition of human tunes is evidence, they say, of shared general features of the auditory system, not any specific chimpanzee musical ability. As for birds, those most musical beasts, they generally recognize their own tunes - a narrow repertoire – but don’t generate novel melodies like we do. There are no avian Mozarts.

But what’s been played to the animals, Schwartz notes, is human music. If animals evolve preferences for sound as we do – based upon the soundscape in which they live – then their “music” would be fundamentally different from ours. In the same way our scales derive from human utterances, a cat’s idea of a good tune would derive from yowls and meows. To demonstrate that animals don’t appreciate sounds the way we do, we’d need evidence that they don’t respond to “music” constructed from their own sound environment.

Section E:

No matter how the connection between language and music is parsed, what is apparent is that our sense of music, even our love for it, is as deeply rooted in our biology and in our brains as language is. This is most obvious with babies, says Sandra Trehub at the University of Toronto, who also published a paper in the Nature Neuroscience special issue.

For babies, music and speech are on a continuum. Mothers use musical speech to "regulate infants' emotional states." Trehub says. Regardless of what language they speak, the voice all mothers use with babies is the same: "something between speech and song." This kind of communication "puts the baby in a trance-like state, which may proceed to sleep or extended periods of rapture." So if the babies of the world could understand the latest research on language and music, they probably wouldn't be very surprised. The upshot, says Trehub, is that music may be even more of a necessity than we realize.

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has five sections A-E.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of heading below.

Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

27 Section A

28 Section B

29 Section C

30 Section D

31 Section E

Questions 32-38

Look at the following people and list of statements below.

Match each person with the correct statement.

Write the correct letter A-Gin boxes 32-38 on your answer sheet.

32  Steven Pinker

33  Musicologists

34  Greek philosopher Pythagoras

35  Schwartz, Howe, and Purves

36  Marc Hauser and Josh McDermott

37  Charles Rosen

38  Sandra Trehub

Questions 39-40

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D

Write your answers in boxes 39-40 on your answer sheet.

39 Why was the study of animal's music uncertain?

A Animals don't have the same auditory system as humans.

B Experiments on animal's music are limited.

C tunes are impossible for animal to make up.

D Animals don't have spontaneous ability for the tests.

40 What is the main subject of this passage?

A Language and psychology.

B Music formation.

C Role of music in human society.

D Music experiments for animals.

Answer Key：

27 vi   28 iv   29 ii   30 v   31 vii  

32 F   33 B   34 E   35 D   36 G  

37 A   38 C   39 B   40 C

How should reading be taught?

A

Learning to speak is automatic for almost all children, but learning to read requires elaborate instruction and conscious effort. Well aware of the difficulties, educators have given a great deal of thought to how they can best help children learn to read. No single method has triumphed. Indeed, heated arguments about the most appropriate form of reading instruction continue to polarise the teaching community.

B

Three general approaches have been tried. In one, called whole-word instruction, children learn by rote how to recognise at a glance a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. Then they gradually acquire other words, often through seeing them used over and over again in the context of a story.

Speakers of most languages learn the relationship between letters and the sounds associated with them (phonemes). That is, children are taught how to use their knowledge of the alphabet to sound out words. This procedure constitutes a second approach to teaching reading - phonics.

Many schools have adopted a different approach: the whole-language method. The strategy here relies on the child’s experience with language. For example, students are offered engaging books and are encouraged to guess the words that they do not know by considering the context of the sentence or by looking for clues in the storyline and illustrations, rather than trying to sound them out.

Many teachers adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal. Making reading fun promises to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends more on what the student does than on what the teacher does. The presumed benefits of whole-language instruction — and the contrast to the perceived dullness of phonics - led to its growing acceptance across America during the 1990s, and a movement away from phonics.

C

However, many linguists and psychologists objected strongly to the abandonment of phonics in American schools. Why was this so? In short, because research had clearly demonstrated that understanding how letters related to the component sounds in words is critically important in reading. This conclusion rests, in part, on knowledge of how experienced readers make sense of words on a page. Advocates of whole-language instruction have argued forcefully that people often derive meanings directly from print without ever determining the sound of the word. Some psychologists today accept this view, but most believe that reading is typically a process of rapidly sounding out words mentally. Compelling evidence for this comes from experiments which show that subjects often confuse homophones (words that sound the same, such as ‘rose’ and ‘rows’). This supports the idea that readers convert strings of letters to sounds.

D

In order to evaluate different approaches to teaching reading, a number of experiments have been carried out, firstly with college students, then with school pupils. Investigators trained English-speaking college students to read using unfamiliar symbols such as Arabic letters (the phonics approach), while another group learned entire words associated with certain strings of Arabic letters (whole-word). Then both groups were required to read a new set of words constructed from the original characters. In general, readers who were taught the rules of phonics could read many more new words than those trained with a whole-word procedure.

Classroom studies comparing phonics with either whole-word or whole-language instruction are also quite illuminating. One particularly persuasive study compared two programmes used in 20 first-grade classrooms. Half the students were offered traditional reading instruction, which included the use of phonics drills and applications. The other half were taught using an individualised method that drew from their experiences with language; these children produced their own booklets of stories and developed sets of words to be recognised (common components of the whole-language approach). This study found that the first group scored higher at year’s end on tests of reading and comprehension.

E

If researchers are so convinced about the need for phonics instruction, why does the debate continue? Because the controversy is enmeshed in the philosophical differences between traditional and progressive (or new) approaches, differences that have divided educators for years. The progressives challenge the results of laboratory tests and classroom studies on the basis of a broad philosophical scepticism about the values of such research. They champion student-centred learning and teacher empowerment. Sadly, they fail to realise that these very admirable educational values are equally consistent with the teaching of phonics.

F

If schools of education insisted that would-be reading teachers learned something about the vast research in linguistics and psychology that bears on reading, their graduates would be more eager to use phonics and would be prepared to do so effectively. They could allow their pupils to apply the principles of phonics while reading for pleasure. Using whole-language activities to supplement phonics instruction certainly helps to make reading fun and meaningful for children, so no one would want to see such tools discarded. Indeed, recent work has indicated that the combination of literature-based instruction and phonics is more powerful than either method used alone.

Teachers need to strike a balance. But in doing so, we urge them to remember that reading must be grounded in a firm understanding of the connections between letters and sounds. Educators who deny this reality are neglecting decades of research. They are also neglecting the needs of their students.

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for sections B-F from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

Example

Section A ix

27 Section B

28 Section C

29 Section D

30 Section E

31 Section F

Questions 32-36

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

In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write

32 The whole-language approach relates letters to sounds.

33 Many educators believe the whole-language approach to be the most interesting way to teach children to read.

34 Research supports the theory that we read without linking words to sounds.

35 Research has shown that the whole-word approach is less effective than the whole-language approach.

36 Research has shown that phonics is more successful than both the whole-word and whole-language approaches.

Questions 37-40

Complete the summary of sections E and F using the list of words, A-G, below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

In the teaching community, 37______ question the usefulness of research into methods of teaching reading. These critics believe that 38______ is incompatible with student-centred learning. In the future, teachers need to be aware of 39______ so that they understand the importance of phonics. They should not, however, ignore the ideas of 40______ which make reading enjoyable for learners.

Answer Key：

27 iv  28 i  27 vii  30 ii  31 iii

32 FALSE 33 TRUE 34 FALSE 35 NOT GIVEN

36 TRUE 37 E  38 A  39 G  40 C