2008年度全国职称外语等级考试试卷及答案（理工类A级）
第4部分：阅读理解（第31-45题, 每题3分, 共45分）
下面有3篇短文, 每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容, 为每题确定1个最佳选项。
第一篇
Centers of the Great European Cities
The centers of the great cities of Europe are meeting places by tradition people gather there to drink coffee and chat late into the night. A mixture of locals and tourists make for an exciting, metropolitan atmosphere.
Squares, plazas（广场）and arcades（拱廊）form the heart of Europe's cities
Venice in Italy has the Piazza San Marco-a beautiful square surrounded by snacks, churches, restaurants and cafés. In Barcelona, Spain, La Bosqueria is a lively market with hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of goods. London's Covent Garden IS filled with fruit and vegetable stalls by day and musicians, acrobats（杂技演员）nd artists by night. The government buildings at the center of many cities often are architecturally impressive· In London, the serve as a beautiful backdrop(背景)to the coffee tables that line the streets and the banks of the Thames. . .
These vibrant（有活力的）hearts are the product of centuries of evolution, social historian Joel Garreau told US News and World Report recently. "The reason people think Venice is so great today is you don't see all the mistakes," said Garreau. "those have all been removed." Most European cities were laid out before the invention of the car, so bars, restaurants and cafés were near to people homes. Today the focus of many Europeans, life has moved away from the centers. They live in the suburbs and Outskirts, driving to supermarkets to get their supplies. But on a continent where people treasure convention, there are still those who hold onto traditional ways, ling and shopping locally. These people, together with tourists, provide the city centers with their reason for existence.
Coffee culture plays a part in keeping these city centers flourishing this is particularly true of Paris whose citizens are famous enthusiastic conversationalists. This skill is developed over many hours spent chatting over espressos（浓咖啡）and cigarettes.
Religion also plays a role in developing sociable atmosphere. People in Roman Catholic countries used to visit the Church on an almost daily basis. Entire communities would gather in the same building and then move out to the markets, cafes and bars in the surrounding streets. An enormous example of this relationship between church and society is the Duomo. The huge marble cathedral in Florence, Italy is surrounded by bakeries and coffee shops, and caters not only to the tourist crowds, but also the local community
31. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that each big city in Europe
A. has many large squares.
B. has many very magnificent sky-scrapers.
C. has a center where tourists meet their spouses.
D. draws tourists in large numbers every year.
32. Which statement is NOT true of Covent Garden?
A. It is crowded with people.
B. It is located in London.
C. It is surrounded by shops, churches, restaurants and cafes
D. It is filled with stalls.
33. Why do people think that Venice is so great?
A. Because it is a famous tourist attraction.
B. Because you can reach anywhere by boat.
C. Because all the mistakes have been removed.
D. Because it is well-known for its merchants.
34. What are Parisians famous for?
A. Their enthusiasm for conversation.
B. Their pursuit of independence.
C. Their ability to keep the city flourishing.
D. Their devotion to developing a multiple culture.
35. The writer cites the Duomo in the last paragraph as an example to illustrate that
A. all churches are magnificent.
B. there is a tight link between church and society.
C. old churches are very popular.
D. high-rise churches are impressive.
第二篇
Real-World Robots
When you think Of a robot, do you imagine a shiny ,metallic device having the same general shape as a human being, performing humanlike functions, and responding to your questions in a monotone（单调的）voice accentuated（强调）by high-pitched tones and beeps This is the way many of US imagine a robot, but in the real world a robot is not humanoid at all. Instead, a robot often is a voiceless box-shaped machine that efficiently carries out repetitive or dangerous functions usually performed by humans. Today's robot is more than an automatic machine that performs one task again and again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees of artificial intelligence, that is, a robot contains a computer program that tells it how to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, and learning from past.
A robot does not possess a human shape for the simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remaining balanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels and axles（轮轴）that roll and rotate. A robot even has limbs that turn round and move in combination with joints and motors. To find its way in its surroundings, a robot utilizes various built -in sensors. Antennae attached to the robot's base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to shake as it moves on an incline, a gyroscope（陀螺仪）inside it senses the vertical differential. To determine its distance from an object and how quickly it will reach the object, the robot bounces beams of laser. light and ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions（障碍物）in its path. These and other sensors constantly feed information to the computer, which then analyzes the information and corrects or adjusts the robot's actions. As science and technology advance the robot too will progress in its functions and use of artificial intelligence programs.
36 The writer begins the passage by comparing
A a real-life robot with a fictional robot.
B the shape of a human being with a box.
C an imaginary machine with a human.
D a robot with a computer program.
37 The word "humanoid" in Paragraph 1 means
A lacking human feelings.
B lacking human characteristics.
C having a human form and characteristics
D lacking human intelligence.
38 According to the first paragraph, artificial intelligence is
A the unnatural way in which robots move.
B a voiceless, box-shaped machine that performs repetitive tasks
C a computer program that imitates human intellectual processes
D a sensor that detects troubles in a robot.
39 The last paragraph suggests that future robots will
A surpass human beings in intelligence.
B be more humanlike in behavior and action.
C use a laser to transmit information.
D will perform very complicated household jobs.
40 Another good title for this passage would be
A Robots: Taking the Place of Humans.
B Artificial Intelligence Programs.
C Modern-Day Sensors.
D Today' S Robots and How They Function
第三篇
Why Humans Walk on Two Legs
A team of scientists that studied chimpanzees（黑猩猩）trained to use treadmills (跑步机) has gathered new evidence suggesting that our earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting around on all fours.
Michael Sockol, researcher of UC Davis, worked for two years to find an animal trainer willing to coax （劝诱) adult chimps to walk on two legs and to walk on all fours.
The five chimps also wore face masks used to help the researchers measure oxygen consumption. While the chimps worked out, the scientists collected data that allowed them to calculate which method of locomotion（移动) used less energy and why. The team gathered the same information for four adult humans walking on a treadmill.
The researchers found that human walking used about 75 percent less energy and burned 75 percent fewer calories than quadrupedal and bipedal walking in chimpanzees. They also found that for some but not all of the chimps, walking on two legs was no more costly than on all fours.
"We were prepared to find that all of the chimps used more energy walking on two legs-but that finding wouldn't have been as interesting, Sockol said." What we found was much more telling. For three chimps, bipedalism was more expensive, but for the other two chimps, this wasn't the case. One spent about the same energy walking on two legs as on all fours. The other used less energy walking upright." These two chimps had different gaits (步法) and anatomy (解剖) than 'their quadrupedal peers.
Taken together, the findings provide support for the hypothesis that anatomical (解剖学的) differences affecting gait existed among our earliest apelike ancestors, and that these differences provided the genetic variation which natural selection could act on when changes in the environment gave bipeds an advantage over quadrupeds.
Fossil and molecular evidence suggests the earliest ancestors of the human family lived in forested areas in equatorial Africa in the late Miocene era (中世纪) some 8 to 10 million years ago, when changes in climate may have increased the distance between food patches. That would have forced our earliest ancestors to travel longer distances on the ground and favored those who could cover more ground using less energy.
"This isn't the complete answer," Sockol said. "But it's a good piece of a puzzle humans have always wondered about: How and why did we become human? And why do we alone walk on two legs?"
41. Michael Sockol and his team were interested in
A. where humans came from.
B. how chimpanzees could be trained to use treadmills.
C. when our earliest ancestors began to live in forested areas
D. why our apelike ancestors came to walk on two legs.
42. The phrase "worked out' in paragraph 3 could be replaced by
A. calculated. B. exercised.
C. understood. D. planned.
43. What did the researchers find in the experiment?
A. One chimp used about the same energy in walking on two legs as on all fours
B. Human walking used more energy than bipedal walking in chimps.
C. Two chimps used more energy walking on two legs.
D. Three chimps used less energy walking on two legs.
44. The word "quadrupeds" in paragraph 6 is a technical word for
A. creatures with four feet. B. creatures with two feet.
C. creatures with six feet. D. creatures with eight feet.
45. What does fossil and molecular evidence tell us about our earliest ancestors?
A. They experienced more climate changes than we do today.
B. They were forced to travel between food patches.
C. They could cover more ground with less energy.
D. They were much taller than modern man.