5. Some Australian food plants are botanically related to plants outside Australia.
6. Pre-European Aboriginal tribes closer to the coast had access to a greater variety of food plants than tribes further inland.
7. Some species of coastal food plants were also found inland.
专项练习五 FLOW CHART & TABLE COMPLETION
练习一
How, then to control the rate at which flowers die? By controlling respiration. How is respiration controlled? By controlling temperature. We know that respiration produces heat, but the reverse is also true. Thus by maintaining low temperatures, respiration is minimised and the cut flower will age more slowly. (Tropical flowers are an exception to this rule; they prefer warmer temperatures.)
Cooler temperatures also have the benefit of preserving the water content of the flower, which helps to slow down ageing as well. This brings us to another important aspect of cut flower care: humidity. The average air-conditioned room has a relative humidity of 65%, which contributes to greater water loss in the flower. Flowers are less likely to dry out if humidity levels are 90-95%, but this may be unrealistic unless you live in the tropics or subtropics.
Questions 1-4
Complete the flow chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
练习二
Literacy in Freedonia's prisons
In 1993, the Government of Freedonia's National Prisons Directorate (NPD) carried out a research project to investigate the extent of literacy in Freedonia's prison population.
The notion that prisoners are poor readers and writers seems to be questioned very little by the public despite the lack of hard evidence to support such a view . The media, in particular, continue to portray prisoners as illiterate and generally poorly educated. Freedonia's leading daily newspaper, The Freedonian, for example, frequently makes such statements as “Freedonia's jails are full of people who can't read!” (4 May, 1992). But the media are not the only ones who are critical. Research into attitudes of prison officials shows that they, too, hold that prisoners are poor readers (McDonnell, 1989). Overseas studies have also been influential in strengthening this view. For example, a survey of Canadian prisoners by Kohl in 1987 revealed a literacy rate ranging from 15% to 55%, while an Australian study of the same year showed similar results. To add to the general criticism, Freedonia's criminologists are beginning to suggest that crime is a product of illiteracy (Bass, 1988; Katz & Wallport, 1989). The NPD commissioned its study to compare prisoner literacy with that of the general public to see how Freedonian prisoners actually conform to these perceptions.
The study, carried out by the Literacy Institute of the Freedonian National University, took as samples 200 male prisoners from Yaxchilan Men's Correctional Institute and 150 female prisoners from Monambak Women's Prison. The prisoners were each made to work through a series of activities designed to assess performance in three separate literacy areas. The three areas included what the study termed “X-literacy”, which is the ability to correctly fill out forms or follow written directions; “Y-literacy”, the comprehension of reading passages; and “Z- literacy”, which calls for correct interpretation of text that is primarily number-based. This latter skill often includes some calculation. All activities were identical to those used in a national adult literacy survey carried out in 1990.
It was found that the prison population did, in fact, have a lower rate of X-literacy than the general population, but that the overall difference was slight. In an activity which had the prisoners complete mock job applications, for example, just 62% of female and 60% of male prisoners could correctly fill out the applications compared with 66% in the national adult sample (see figure 1). Similar differences were found between general and prison populations in completing insurance applications, although it should be mentioned that individual differences in this task were great.
There were activities in which prisoners did more noticeably worse, however. In one activity, the proportion of male prisoners who could correctly identify the main and secondary points of newspaper articles was 54%, compared with 64% of the general public. Interestingly, female prisoners, with 61%, were much closer to the national average for this activity. Prisoners, again more noticeably males, also did significantly worse in keeping a running total of a bank account, a quantitative task of relative complexity.
But, importantly, both male and female prisoners outperformed the national adult sample in other activities; in one, far fewer general adults than prisoners could correctly interpret train timetables, while in identifying directions on medical prescriptions, both male and female prisoners were marginally better than their counterparts on the other side of the prison fence.
Figure 1:Percentage correct on assorted literacy tasks
The results show that prisoners and the general adult population, seen from an overall perspective, are on an equivalent literacy level. Certainly, prisoners appear to display weaknesses in particular literacy areas, but if the results accurately reflect the prison population as a whole, it would be inaccurate and hencinappropriate to conclude that prisoners are the worse readers and writers. Th e study should not be taken to suggest that there are no literacy problemsamong prisoners, however, because while prisoners may be no worse off than the genera l adult public, the general adult public cannot be said to perform very well in any of the literacy tasks. Indeed, in commenting on the results of the NPD study , Wallport (1994) wrote, “It seems our initial assessment of literacy among prisoners was not incorrect. Where we were mistaken was in how we viewed the skill levels of the general public.”
literacy: the ability to read and write
mock: not real
Questions 1-3
The author of Reading Passage 2 mentions several influences on how prisoner literacy is generally viewed. One of these influences is “Freedonia's criminologist s”. Identify THREE other influences.Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer, write the three influences separately in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.
Questions 4-8
Below is a list of the materials used in assessing the three
literacy areas in the NPD study. Complete the list. Choose ONE or TWO WORDS from the passage for answer. Write your answers in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.
MATERIALS USED IN:
X-literacy activities
... (4) ...
... (5) ...
Example
medical prescriptions
Y-literacy activities
... (6) ...
Z-literacy activities
... (7) ...
... (8) ...
Questions 9-11
Complete the partial summary below. Choose your answers H-F from the list below the summary and write them in boxes 9-11 on your answer sheet.
NB: There are more phrases than spaces so you will not use them all. You may use any of the phrases more than once.
In comparing the NPD study's findings with that of a similar study of the general adult population in 1990. It was shown that the general adult population was most proficient at correctly ...E... (Example).The largest percentage-point difference between female prisoners and male prisoners was found in ...(9)... Male prisoners scored higher than their female counterparts in ... (10)... and ranked between female prisoners and the general public in ...(11)...
A completing an employment application
B completing an insurance application
C following medical prescription directions
D comprehending newspaper articles
E balancing bank accounts
F using train timetables
Questions 12-13
In analysing the results of the study. The Literacy Institute determined that, due to the sample sizes, differences in scores of 3 percentage points or lower could not be considered significant.
12. How many of the literacy activities in the NPD study showed a difference between male and female prisoners that was significant?
13. How many of the literacy activities showed a difference between female prisoners in the NPD study and the general adult public in the national adult study that was NOT significant?
Write the correct NUMBERS in boxes 12 and 13 on your answer sheet.
Questions 14-15
Choose the appropriate letter A-D and write them in boxes 24-25 on your answer sheet.
14. In setting up its study. the NPD wished to ...
A. see if prisoner illiteracy matched public perceptions.
B. show that prisoner literacy levels are not lower than those of t he general adult public.
C. identify areas in which prisoners need literacy training.
D. show that popular perceptions of prisoner literacy are not correct.
15. The NPD study suggests that ...
A. it is inaccurate to say prisoners have a low literacy level.
B. prisoners compare favourably with the general adult population.
C. neither prisoner literacy nor general adult literacy is very satisfactory.
D. prisoners are worse readers and writers than general adults.
专项练习六LONGER PASSAGES
练习一
The New Ice Age
Antarctica's long dark winter evokes visions of early explorers barely surviving in huts, their huskies and sleds snowbound outside in the harshest conditions imaginable. But times have changed.
Although expeditioners like Mawson, Scott and Amundsen explored and wintered on the continent in the early years of the century, the notion of operating permanent year-round bases in Antarctica was relatively new until the 1950s and 1960s. Even after the Second World War, Antarctica was still being opened up and there were many blank spots on the map. Mawson station, opened in 1954, and Davis in 1957 are Australia's two oldest, continually operated bases on the continent.
In the past, life at these bases was hardly luxurious. It meant caping in cramped zincalun sheds. Listening to katabatic winds scream in the long winter night. Communication with the outside world was restricted to just a few telegraphed lines. Expeditioners heading south were issued with pamphlets listing five-letter codes covering almost every conceivable situation so they could communicate with their families and still keep within strict “word limits” during their year o n base. Humour boosted morale and was an important element of life there. For in stance, “YIKLA” was code for “This is the life!”
Today, living year-round in Antarctica is considerably easier. The weather hasn't changed of course, but you can pick up a telephone and dial direct anywhere in the world. The cost is very modest and is subsidised at 90 cents a minute. All that individuals need to do is to collect the bill at the end of the year.
Because the summer-time work of scientists tends to capture the public's imagination, with revelations about the ozone hole or whale numbers, people tend to overlook the efforts of the 20 or so winterers at each base—mostly tradespeople—who keep the bases going long after “the boffins” (research scientists) have migrated to warmer climates. In doing so, they also keep alive claims to sovereignty of sections of the continent and maintain their environmental interest in this sensitive part of the planet. Aside from its wealth of marine resources, Antarctica controls much of the southern hemisphere's climate. As the only other wholly southern hemisphere continent, Australia, more than any other large nation, h as the most at stake in what happens here.
So what is life like down there? Over the past year, wintering on an Antarctic base has become positively civilised. The conclusion last summer of a 10-year building program has seen the historic zinc-alum shacks and even older wooden sheds built at an early Antarctic base, on Heard Island in 1947, supplanted by vast, bright-coloured buildings with baywindow views and ski-lodge decor. There are video lounges, gymnasiums, bars and libraries. The workshops are comparable to any thing in modern industrialized countries. The food is plentiful. There are even field huts that double as weekenders for those who feel the need to get away from it all. The money's good and eveything from beer to socks is supplied free. No t everyone is pleased with the new luxury. Nowhere were the changes felt more keenly than at Mawson, where the old quarters, with their rugged outpost atmosphere, were shut and the last team of huskies removed. To many old Antarctic hands, it marked the end of the great “Intrepid Age” in Antarctica.
There are some things about life in Antarctica, however, that even central heating and watching a live-via-satellite sports broadcast cannot change. The Antarctic Territory is still one of the most exotic places on Earth. Few people will ever get there. There are no flights which land there—you have to travel as the early explorers did, almost a century ago, by sea. Going to Mawson, for example, means a two-week voyage on an icebreaker such as Aurora Australia,across 500 0 kilometres of the Southern Ocean, one of the roughest stretches of water on Earth. Waves can exceed 15 metres, the ship can pitch 40 degrees and, if you're no t a good sailor, even the industrial strength Avomine prescribed by Antarctic Division doctors won't keep breakfast down. Most often though, tourist ships sail from South American ports, which offer the easiest access to the spectacular coastal scenery of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Once there, after the short shipping season has ended, some time in February when the ice closes in, there is no changing your mind and heading home. You are there for the duration, at least until the pack ice breaks up the following November. Like the early explorers, you are confronted with the challenge of getting along with a small, isolated group of people through the long winter night. Learning to put up with their foibles the way they have to put up with yours. Which is why everyone applying for a job in Antarctica is interviewed by a psychologist before being accepted. As one veteran diesel mechanic at Davis put it: “If you make an ass of yourself down here, there's no place you can go.”
Questions 1-5
The paragraph below summarises information from the Passage. Select ONE word from the reading passage to fill each gap. Write your answers in the spaces numbered 1-5 on the answer sheet.
Antarctica in the 1950s was a very different place from the Antarctica of the 1990s. In those early days, 1. was limited but today, with advancements in telecommunications, 2. calls are not only convenient, they are quite cheap. But however much life in Antarctica improves to become more 3. in terms of facilities, accommodation and food, the 4. never changes. Because of this, scientists, tradespeople, or tourists cannot travel out of Antarctica until at least 5.
