GRE阅读练习每日一篇(三十)

　　编辑点评： GRE阅读的方法相信大家已经积累了很多了，本文就为大家提供一些GRE阅读的材料，大家来练一练，把平时学到的东西运用到实际中，也多多积累词汇和句子，提高自己的阅读能力。

　　每天做一些标准的GRE阅读练习，有助于大家在GRE考试的复习过程中不断地进行练习和总结。希望大家在进行GRE阅读练习时，充分运用平时所积累的知识，这样才能有效果。

　　Mycorrhizal fungi infect more plants than do any other fungi and are necessary for many plants to thrive, but they have escaped widespread investigation until recently for two reasons. First, the symbiotic association is so well-balanced that the roots of host plants show no damage even when densely infected. Second, the fungi cannot as yet be cultivated in the absence of a living root. Despite these difficulties, there has been important new work that suggests that this symbiotic association can be harnessed to achieve more economical use of costly superphosphate fertilizer and to permit better exploitation of cheaper, less soluble rock phosphate. Mycorrhizal benefits are not limited to improved phosphate uptake in host plants. In legumes, mycorrhizal inoculation has increased nitrogen fixation beyond levels achieved by adding phosphate fertilizer ) alone. Certain symbiotic associations also increase the host plant s resistance to harmful root fungi. Whether this resistance results from exclusion of harmful fungi through competition for sites, from metabolic change involving antibiotic production, or from increased vigor is undetermined.

　　17. Which of the following most accurately describes the passage?

　　A description of a replicable experiment

　　A summary report of new findings

　　A recommendation for abandoning a difficult area of research

　　A refutation of an earlier hypothesis

　　A confirmation of earlier research

　　18. The level of information in the passage above is suited to the needs of all of the following people EXCEPT:

　　a researcher whose job is to identify potentially profitable areas for research and product development

　　a state official whose position requires her to alert farmers about possible innovations in farming

　　an official of a research foundation who identifies research projects for potential funding

　　a biologist attempting to keep up with scientific developments in an area outside of his immediate area of specialization

　　a botanist conducting experiments to determine the relationship between degree of mycorrhizal infection and expected uptake of phosphate

　　19. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following has been a factor influencing the extent to which research on mycorrhizal fungi has progressed?

　　Lack of funding for such research

　　Lack of immediate application of such research

　　Lack of a method for identifying mycorrhizal fungi

　　Difficulties surrounding laboratory production of specimens for study

　　Difficulties ensuing from the high cost and scarcity of superphosphate fertilizers

　　20. The passage suggests which of the following about the increased resistance to harmful root fungi that some plants infected with mycorrhizal fungi seem to exhibit?

　　There are at least three hypotheses that might account for the increase.

　　An explanation lies in the fact that mycorrhizal fungi increase more rapidly in number than harmful root fungi do.

　　The plants that show increased resistance also exhibit improved nitrogen fixation.

　　Such increases may be independent of mycorrhizal infection.

　　It is unlikely that a satisfactory explanation can be found to account for the increase.

　　In the early 1950 s, historians who studied preindustrial Europe began, for the first time in large numbers, to investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite: the kings, generals, judges, nobles, bishops, and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books. One difficulty, however, was that few of the remaining 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them chronicled by contemporaries. Faced with this situation, many historians based their investigations on the only records that seemed to exist: birth, marriage, and death records. As a result, much of the early work on the nonelite was aridly statistical in nature; reducing the vast majority of the population to a set of numbers was hardly more enlightening than ignoring them altogether. Historians still did not know what these people thought or felt.

　　One way out of this dilemma was to turn to the records of legal courts, for here the voices of the nonelite can most often be heard, as witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants. These documents have acted as a point of entry into the mental world of the poor. Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups and have revealed how the authorities administered justice. It has been societies that have had a developed police system and practiced Roman law , with its written depositions, whose court records have yielded the most data to historians. In Anglo-Saxon countries hardly any of these benefits obtain, but it has still been possible to glean information from the study of legal documents.

　　The extraction of case histories is not, however, the only use to which court records may be put. Historians who study preindustrial Europe have used the records to establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify indictments that were issued over a given number of years. This use of the records does yield some information about the nonelite, but this information gives us little insight into the mental lives of the nonelite. We also know that the number of indictments in preindustrial Europe bears little relation to the number of actual criminal acts, and we strongly suspect that the relationship has varied widely over time. In addition, aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime per thousand in one decade of the preindustrial period with rates in another decade. Given these inadequacies, it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred.

　　21. The author suggests that, before the early 1950 s, most historians who studied preindustrial Europe did which of the following?

　　Failed to make distinctions among members of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

　　Used investigatory methods that were almost exclusively statistical in nature.

　　Inaccurately estimated the influence of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

　　Confined their work to a narrow range of the preindustrial European population.

　　Tended to rely heavily on birth, marriage, and death records.

　　22. According to the passage, the case histories extracted by historians have

　　scarcely illuminated the attitudes of the political and social elite

　　indicated the manner in which those in power apportioned justice

　　focused almost entirely on the thoughts and feelings of different social groups toward crime and the law

　　been considered the first kind of historical writing that utilized the records of legal courts

　　been based for the most part on the trial testimony of police and other legal authorities

　　23. It can be inferred from the passage that much of the early work by historians on the European nonelite of the preindustrial period might have been more illuminating if these historians had

　　used different methods of statistical analysis to investigate the nonelite

　　been more successful in identifying the attitudes of civil authorities, especially those who administered justice, toward the nonelite

　　been able to draw on more accounts, written by contemporaries of the nonelite, that described what this nonelite thought

　　relied more heavily on the personal records left by members of the European political and social elite who lived during the period in question

　　been more willing to base their research on the birth, marriage, and death records of the nonelite

　　24. The author mentions Le Roy Ladurie in order to

　　give an example of a historian who has made one kind of use of court records

　　cite a historian who has based case histories on the birth, marriage, and death records of the nonelite

　　identify the author of the quotation cited in the previous sentence

　　gain authoritative support for the view that the case history approach is the most fruitful approach to court records

　　point out the first historian to realize the value of court records in illuminating the beliefs and values of the nonelite

　　25. According to the passage, which of the following is true of indictments for crime in Europe in the preindustrial period?

　　They have, in terms of their numbers, remained relatively constant over time.

　　They give the historian important information about the mental lives of those indicted.

　　They are not a particularly accurate indication of the extent of actual criminal activity.

　　Their importance to historians of the nonelite has been generally overestimated.

　　Their problematic relationship to actual crime has not been acknowledged by most historians.

　　26. It can be inferred from the passage that a historian who wished to compare crime rates per thousand in a European city in one decade of the fifteenth century with crime rates in another decade of that century would probably be most aided by better information about which of the following?

　　The causes of unrest in the city during the two decades

　　The aggregate number of indictments in the city nearest to the city under investigation during the two decades

　　The number of people who lived in the city during each of the decades under investigation

　　The mental attitudes of criminals in the city, including their feelings about authority, during each of the decades under investigation

　　The possibilities for a member of the city s nonelite to become a member of the political and social elite during the two decades

　　27. The passage would be most likely to appear as part of

　　a book review summarizing the achievements of historians of the European aristocracy

　　an essay describing trends in the practice of writing history

　　a textbook on the application of statistical methods in the social sciences

　　a report to the historical profession on the work of early-twentieth-century historians

　　an article urging the adoption of historical methods by the legal profession

　　答案：17-27：BEDADBCACCB