本刊試題研究中心

Task 1

One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfill and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we chuck away is e-waste—electronic items that are broken and not recycled. Now solutions are being found to give this stuff a new life.

Many millions of tonnes of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are discarded each year, partly because it's cheaper to replace them than fix them, but also because we lack the skills to repair them. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.

However, there's a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London,which is one of many found around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo, said, “This project allows you to reduce waste and extend the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”

As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting these materials from electronic gadgets. It's thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 elements, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.

These projects make total sense—collections of e-waste for recycling are “stagnating or even decreasing” according to Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University. And in countries where there is no legislation, much of it just gets dumped. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to tackle the problem by insisting manufacturers have to make appliances longer-lasting and will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

1. What does the underlined word “discarded” in Para. 2 most probably mean?

A. Exchanged. B. Deserted.

C. Repaired. D. Replaced.

2. What is the purpose of the Restart Project?

A. To prolong the life of electronic equipment.

B. To better control e-waste.

C. To help people deal with e-waste.

D. To encourage people to use electronic equipment.

3. Which part of the electronic equipment can be “mined” and used again?

A. Old parts. B. Used batteries.

C. Precious metals. D. Useful cameras.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A. Our demand for new technology

B. Solving the problem of e-waste

C. The seriousness of e-waste pollution

D. The popularity of electronic equipment

Task 2

As doctors performed surgery on Dagmar Turner's brain, the sound of a violin filled the operating room. The music came from the patient on the operating table. In a video from the surgery, the violinist was moving her bow (琴弓) up and down as surgeons worked to remove her brain tumor (腫瘤). The King's College Hospital surgeons woke her up in the middle of the operation in order to ensure they did not damage parts of the brain necessary for playing the violin and keep her hand's functions intact.

Turner, 53, learned that she had a slow-growing tumor. Later doctors found that it had become more aggressive and the violinist decided to have surgery to remove it. “We knew how important the violin is to Turner, so it was vital that we preserved function in the delicate areas of her brain that allowed her to play,” Keyoumars Ashkan, a doctor at King's College Hospital, said in a press release.

Before Turner's operation, Ashkan and his colleagues spent two hours carefully mapping her brain to identify areas that were active when she played the violin and those controlling language and movement. Waking her up during surgery then allowed doctors to monitor whether those parts were suffering damage.

Brad Mahon, expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said the basic features of an “awake craniotomy”—the type of brain surgery where patients are awake in order to avoid damage to critical brain areas—have remained largely unchanged for decades. But he said that doctors are now able to map the patient's brain activity in great detail before the surgery, using an imaging technique called functional MRI. That means surgeons are coming into the operating room with far more information about a specific patient's brain. That kind of information helps doctors tailor tests to a patient's particular needs.

1. What does the underlined word “intact” mean in the first paragraph?

A. Strong. B. Sound. C. Talented. D. Influential.

2. Why did Ashkan and his colleagues map Turner's brain before operation?

A. To keep her brain more active when she played the violin.

B. To monitor whether her brain had suffered damage severely.

C. To recognize the areas related to music and movement precisely.

D. To remove the tumor while keeping all function of her brain.

3. What can we know according to Brad Mahon?

A. Doctors are using an imaging technique to monitor the surgery.

B. Patients are asleep to protect critical brain areas in a surgery.

C. A patient's language ability couldn't be preserved before.

D. Surgeons can personalize a patient's operation by mapping his brain.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A. Musician joined in her own brain surgery

B. Mapping a brain is realized after surgery

C. The violinist suffers from a brain tumor

D. Doctors perform surgery on a brain

Task 3

For those who can stomach it, working out before breakfast may be more beneficial for health than eating first, according to a study of meal timing and physical activity.

Athletes and scientists have long known that meal timing affects performance. However, far less has been known about how meal timing and exercise might affect general health.

To find out, British scientists conducted a study. They first found 10 overweight and inactive but otherwise healthy young men, whose lifestyles are, for better and worse, representative of those of most of us. They tested the men's fitness and resting metabolic (新陳代謝的) rates and took samples (樣品)of their blood and fat tissue.

Then, on two separate morning visits to the scientists' lab, each man walked for an hour at an average speed that, in theory, should allow his body to rely mainly on fat for fuel. Before one of these workouts, the men skipped breakfast, meaning that they exercised on a completely empty stomach after a long overnight fast (禁食). On the other occasion, they ate a rich morning meal about two hours before they started walking.

Just before and an hour after each workout, the scientists took additional samples of the men's blood and fat tissue.

Then they compared the samples. There were considerable differences. Most obviously, the men displayed lower blood sugar levels at the start of their workouts when they had skipped breakfast than when they had eaten. As a result, they burned more fat during walks on an empty stomach than when they had eaten first. On the other hand, they burned slightly more calories (卡路里), on average,during the workout after breakfast than after fasting.

But it was the effects deep within the fat cells that may have been the most significant, the researchers found. Multiple genes behaved differently, depending on whether someone had eaten or not before walking. Many of these genes produce proteins (蛋白質(zhì)) that can improve blood sugar regulation and insulin (胰島素) levels throughout the body and so are associated with improved metabolic health. These genes were much more active when the men had fasted before exercise than when they had breakfasted.

The implication of these results is that to gain the greatest health benefits from exercise, it may be wise to skip eating first.

1. The underlined expression “stomach it” in Paragraph 1 most probably means “ ”.

A. digest the meal easily

B. manage without breakfast

C. decide wisely what to eat

D. eat whatever is offered

2. Why were the 10 people chosen for the experiment?

A. Their lifestyles were typical of ordinary people.

B. Their lack of exercise led to overweight.

C. They could walk at an average speed.

D. They had slow metabolic rates.

3. What happened to those who ate breakfast before exercise?

A. They successfully lost weight.

B. They consumed a bit more calories.

C. They burned more fat on average.

D. They displayed higher insulin levels.

4. What could be learned from the research?

A. A workout after breakfast improves gene performances.

B. Too much workout often slows metabolic rates.

C. Lifestyle is not as important as morning exercise.

D. Physical exercise before breakfast is better for health.