考试日期：

2013年6月22日

Reading Passage 1

Title:

黑白Leopard的颜色由基因决定

Question types:

Answer the questions below;

TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN;

文章内容回顾

从leopard入手，研究为什么有的动物外貌会发生变异（比如皮毛颜色之类的）。猫科动物的某个基因影响其白毛黑毛还是斑点，然后讲了受这个基因影响的母鸡和老鼠是什么样的情况。最近科学家说为什么这个猫科动物会有不同毛色，是因为环境进化，为了更好伪装捕食，还是什么原因，然后又举了反例，结论是他们也不清楚为什么会出现这种情况。

相关英文原文阅读

　　Leopards&apos spots and tigers&apos stripes are a camouflage closely tied to their habitats, researchers say.

　　A UK team examined the flank markings of 37 species of wild cats in a bid to understand the spectacular variety of their colour patterns.

　　The scientists say that cats living in the trees and active at low light levels are the most likely to have complex and irregular patterns.

　　Continue reading the main story

　　“Start Quote

　　Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots - off five black finger-tips”

　　Rudyard Kipling "How the leopard got his spots"

　　They published the findings in a Royal Society journal.

　　It is not the first study to suggest that wild cats need spots to "vanish" in dense forests, sandy deserts or snowy mountains.

　　But this time, the researchers analysed the colour patterns&apos detailed shapes and complexities, stating that these two factors are vital for camouflage.

　　To examine different patterns, the team used images obtained from the internet and classified them with the help of mathematical formulas.

　　"[Some species] are particularly irregularly and complexly spotted," William Allen from the University of Bristol, the lead author of the study, told BBC News.

　　"The pattern depends on the habitat and also on how the species uses its habitat - if it uses it at night time or if it lives in the trees rather than on the ground, the pattern is especially irregularly spotted or complexly spotted."

　　Kipling&aposs inspiration

　　The first part of the study&aposs title, as it appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B is "Why the leopard got its spots".

　　Dr Allen said that the title has been inspired by a short story of Rudyard Kipling with a similar name, "How the leopard got his spots".

　　Some species, such as puma, undergo changes in patterning during their lives

　　In the story, an Ethiopian first changed his skin colour to black and then "put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black lt on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they lt five little black marks, all close together. Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots - off five black finger-tips".

　　Dr Allen explained that though the fingertips idea was understandably fictitious, Mr Kipling&aposs deduction about leopards needing spotty coats to "disappear" among trees was spot on.

　　Continue reading the main story

　　“Start Quote

　　Perhaps particular genetics mechanisms, a very simple mechanism, can solve very different appearances of cats”

　　William Allen University of Bristol

　　"The mechanism - the fingerprint - isn&apost the right idea, but it is actually the case that leopard&aposs spots and similar patterns evolve in forest habitats," said the scientist.

　　Dr Allen&aposs study still fails to explain the mechanism of wild cats&apos pattern development - but the scientists managed to find a set of numbers to measure the irregularity or complexity of a pattern and correlate this with where the species lives to explain its behaviour.

　　"We&aposve shown that the usulness of patterns for species&apos survival can be related to a mathematical model of how the pattern arises and what that does is it gives more complex information on why the leopard has its spots," said Dr Allen.

　　And it is all about genetics, he added.

　　"When you place cat patterning over the evolutionary tree of cats, you can see that patterning emerges and disappears very frequently within the cat family, which is kind of interesting - it suggests that perhaps particular genetic mechanisms can solve very different appearances of cats."

　　Other theories

　　Previously, researchers believed that wild cats used their colour patterns to attract members of the opposite sex, but Dr Allen&aposs team discounted this theory, saying that if there were a sexual motive, "you&aposd expect to see different patterns in males and females, which you don&apost".

　　"Another idea is that the patterns might have some sort of social signalling function, but again we didn&apost support this because the type of pattern cats have isn&apost related to their social system.

　　"For example, lions don&apost have particular flank markings that help them get along with living in prides."

题型难度分析

第一篇文章的题型包括问答和“TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN”，从难度上来讲，这两题的出题顺序与文章一致，难度都不算大，但相对于这篇文章来讲，文章中出现了较多生词，会对考生带来解题的不便。

题型技巧分析

问答题将成为2013年的一种较常规题型，这一点在剑九真题中已经有所体现（剑九第一套的3篇阅读都出现了问答题），而在2013年上半年3、4、5、6月也都有问答题出现。

问答题和Summary中的填空题非常类似，属于细节题的一种，顺序与文章顺序一致，在读题的时候一定要看清楚题目问的是什么内容，如果题目所提问部分出现了后置修饰语的话要特别注意，那是解题的关键。比如剑九 Test1 第8题：Bore Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated? 其中“in society”就是用来限定“what group”, 可以知道是“社会中的哪一个群体”。

剑桥雅思推荐原文练习

剑9 Test 1

Reading Passage 2

Title:

18世纪几位女性在教育方面的成就

Question types:

Which paragraph contains the following information;

Summary Completion;

Matching people with opinions;

文章内容回顾

讲18世纪女性科学家，意大利B开头某大学的几位女科学家，一个21岁即成为教授，但不能公开演讲和实验，且她其实还有一定文学造诣，但觉得文学没用；另一个是女雕塑家，帮助老公做解剖学人体模型，并在老公死后成为教授；还有一个人是因为残疾，爸妈觉得她以后不能成家，让她接受教育，以后资助他人完成学业。

相关英文原文阅读

　　Why women leave academia and why universities should be worried

　　A recent report reveals that only 12% of third year female PhD students want a career in academia. Curt Rice looks at the reasons why and warns that universities&apos survival is at risk.

　　Why young women are rejecting academic research careers Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

　　Young women scientists leave academia in far greater numbers than men for three reasons. During their time as PhD candidates, large numbers of women conclude that (i) the characteristics of academic careers are unappealing, (ii) the impediments they will encounter are disproportionate, and (iii) the sacrifices they will have to make are great.

　　This is the conclusion of The chemistry PhD: the impact on women&aposs retention, a report for the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In this report, the results of a longitudinal study with PhD students in chemistry in the UK are presented.

　　Men and women show radically different developments regarding their intended future careers. At the beginning of their studies, 72% of women express an intention to pursue careers as researchers, either in industry or academia. Among men, 61% express the same intention.

　　By the third year, the proportion of men planning careers in researchhad dropped from 61% to 59%. But for the women, the number had plummeted from 72% in the first year to 37% as they finish their studies.

　　If we tease apart those who want to work as researchers in industry from those who want to work as researchers in academia, the third year numbers are alarming: 12% of the women and 21% of the men see academia as their prerred choice.

　　This is not the number of PhD students who in fact do go to academia; it&aposs the number who want to. 88% of the women don&apost even want academic careers, nor do 79% of the men! How can it be this bad? Why are universities such unattractive workplaces?

　　Part of The chemistry PhD discusses problems that arise while young researchers are PhD candidates, including too little supervision, too much supervision, focus on achieving experimental results rather than mastery of methodologies, and much more. The long-term fects, though, are rlected in the attitudes and belis about academia that emerge during this period.

　　The participants in the study identify many characteristics of academic careers that they find unappealing: the constant hunt for funding for research projects is a significant impediment for both men and women. But women in greater numbers than men see academic careers as all-consuming, solitary and as unnecessarily competitive.

　　Both men and women PhD candidates come to realise that a string of post-docs is part of a career path, and they see that this can require frequent moves and a lack of security about future employment. Women are more negatively affected than men by the competitiveness in this stage of an academic career and their concerns about competitiveness are fuelled, they say, by a relative lack of self-confidence.

　　Women more than men see great sacrifice as a prerequisite for success in academia. This comes in part from their perception of women who have succeeded, from the nature of the available role models. Successful female professors are perceived by female PhD candidates as displaying masculine characteristics, such as aggression and competitiveness, and they were often childless.

　　As if all this were not enough, women PhD candidates had one experience that men never have. They were told that they would encounter problems along the way simply because they are women. They are told, in other words, that their gender will work against them.

　　By following PhD candidates throughout their study and asking probing questions, we learn not only that the number of women in chemistry PhD programs who intend to pursue a career in academia falls dramatically, but we learn why. (See also Why go for a PhD? Advice for those in doubt.)

　　This research and the new knowledge it produces should be required reading for everyone leading a university or a research group. The stories surely apply far beyond chemistry. Remember that it&aposs not just women who find academia unappealing. Only 21% of the men wanted to head our way, too.

　　Universities will not survive as research institutions unless university leadership realises that the working conditions they offer dramatically reduce the size of the pool from which they recruit. We will not survive because we have no reason to believe we are attracting the best and the brightest. When industry is the more attractive employer, our credibility as the home of long-term, cutting edge, high-risk, profoundly creative research, is diminished.

　　The answers here lie in leadership and in changing our current culture to build a new one for new challenges. The job is significant and it will require cutting edge, high-risk leadership teamwork to succeed. Is your university ready?

　　Curt Rice is a regular contributor at University of Venus and vice president for research at the University of Troms� in Norway.

题型难度分析

本篇文章的题型配置是比较难的，第一题段落细节题需要对整篇文章通读才可以全部做出来，定位是一个难点。第二道填空题由于与文章顺序一致，所以难度不大。第三道题“人物+理解”配对，由于在文章中找到人名比较简单，所以难度系数不如第一道“段落细节”题难。这种题型搭配是最近常考的类型，所以考生一定要多加注意。

题型技巧分析

段落细节配对题在做题时，关键是找到定位信息和题目中句子的重点。定位信息一般是“特殊词（如大写字母和数字）”、“具体性名词（汽车、飞机等）”；而句子当中的重要信息一般是句子的主谓宾结构或是主系表结构，或是这句话当中开始被修饰的名词。这道题还有一个特点是：题目顺序与文章顺序是不可能一致的。在做题时如果遇到题目中的“动词、时间类副词”与文章中的“动词、时间类副词”出现了对应替换关系，一般是正确的对应句。

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Summary题目注意空格前后的名词以及修饰关系，非常重要，这是做题的关键，另外如果空格前面出现了“a, an, the”这三个冠词，文章中应该填的那个词的前面也会出现这个空格前相应的“a, an或the”。

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“人物+理解”配对题目，题目中人物出现的顺序一般与文章中出现的顺序一致，可以帮助定位，题目出现的位置一般在人物出现前后，一段话这个人出现多次，当一个人算；几个段里出现一个人，按多个人算。

剑桥雅思推荐原文练习

剑5 Test 4