剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1).docx

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1、剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案解析(test1) 雅思阅读是块难啃的硬骨头，须要我们做更多的题目才能得心应手。下面我给大家共享一下剑桥雅思阅读4test1原文翻译及答案解析，希望可以帮助到大家。 剑桥雅思阅读8原文(test1) READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. A Chronicle of Timekeeping Our conception of time depends on the way we

2、 measure it A According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years ago, and long before the advent of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and ha

3、rvesting. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis; the lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year, defined by the changing seasons that acc

4、ompany our planet's revolution around the sun. B Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were develope

5、d at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however, where seasonal agriculture was practised, the solar year became more crucial. As the Roman Empire expanded northward, it organised its activity chart for the most part around th

6、e solar year. C Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star

7、 Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness (and later, each interval of d

8、aylight) was divided into a dozen equal parts. These periods became known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length of days and nights with the passing of the seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short; only at the spring and autumn equinoxes were the h

9、ours of daylight and darkness equal. Temporal hours, which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for more than 2,500 years. D In order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors created sundials, which indicate time by the

10、length or direction of the sun's shadow. The sundial's counterpart, the water clock, was designed to measure temporal hours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole near the bottom through which the water dripped out. The falling water level denoted the passing h

11、our as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface. Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, they could not always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe. E The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it co

12、uld be adjusted to maintain temporal hours, it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones. With these, however, arose the question of when to begin counting, and so, in the early 14th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the s

13、tart of the count: Italian hours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at midday and 'great clock' hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, at midnight. Eventually these were superseded by 'small clock', or French, hours, which split the day int

14、o two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight. F The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in England. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels (which had been arou

15、nd for at least 1,300 years) that transferred the power; it was the part called the escapement. In the early 1400s came the invention of the coiled spring or fusee which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring. By the 16th century

16、, a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient. G To address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670, in England. It was called the anchor escapement, which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship's anchor.

17、 The motion of a pendulum rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in early pendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in a very small arc. Moreover,

18、 this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a new floor-standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock. H Today, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices. Nearly all co

19、mputers contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation. Moreover, not only do time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so as well for mobile phones, instant stock-trading systems and nationwide p

20、ower-distribution grids. So integral have these time-based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is recognised only when they fail to work. Questions 1-4 Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the corre

21、ct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet. 1 a description of an early timekeeping invention affected by cold temperatures 2 an explanation of the importance of geography in the development of the calendar in farming communities 3 a description of the origins of the pendulum clock 4 details

22、of the simultaneous efforts of different societies to calculate time using uniform hours Questions 5-8 Look at the following events (Questions 5-8) and the list of nationalities below. Match each event with the correct nationality, A-F. Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 5-8 on your answer shee

23、t. 5 They devised a civil calendar in which the months were equal in length. 6 They divided the day into two equal halves. 7 They developed a new cabinet shape for a type of timekeeper. 8 They created a calendar to organise public events and work schedules. List of Nationalities A Babylonians B Egyp

24、tians C Greeks D English E Germans F French Questions 9-13 Label the diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet. 图片10 READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on R

25、eading Passage 2 on the following pages. Questions 14-19 Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A and C-G from the list below. Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet. List of Headings i Disobeying FAA regulations ii Aviation

26、 disaster prompts action iii Two coincidental developments iv Setting altitude zones v An oversimplified view vi Controlling pilots licences vii Defining airspace categories viii Setting rules to weather conditions ix Taking off safely x First steps towards ATC 14 Paragraph A Example Answer Paragrap

27、h B x 15 Paragraph C 16 Paragraph D 17 Paragraph E 18 Paragraph F 19 Paragraph G AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL IN THE USA A An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation of a

28、ircraft in the skies over the United States, which were becoming quite congested. The resulting structure of air traffic control has greatly increased the safety of flight in the United States, and similar air traffic control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the world. B Rudimen

29、tary air traffic control (ATC) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster. As early as the 1920s, the earliest air traffic controllers manually guided aircraft in the vicinity of the airports, using lights and flags, while beacons and flashing lights were placed along cross-country routes to esta

30、blish the earliest airways. However, this purely visual system was useless in bad weather, and, by the 1930s, radio communication was coming into use for ATC. The first region to have something approximating today's ATC was New York City, with other major metropolitan areas following soon after.

31、 C In the 1940s, ATC centres could and did take advantage of the newly developed radar and improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War, but the system remained rudimentary. It was only after the creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of America's airspace took plac

32、e, and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly resulted in a large number of very fast planes, reducing pilots' margin of error and practically demanding some set of rules to keep everyone well separated and operating safely in the air. D Many people think that ATC consist

33、s of a row of controllers sitting in front of their radar screens at the nation's airports, telling arriving and departing traffic what to do. This is a very incomplete part of the picture. The FAA realised that the airspace over the United States would at any time have many different kinds of p

34、lanes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of weather conditions, and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them. E To meet this challenge, the following elements were put into effect. First, ATC extends over virtually the entire United States. In general, from 365

35、m above the ground and higher, the entire country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled airspace extends down to 215m above the ground, and, in the immediate vicinity of an airport, all the way down to the surface. Controlled airspace is that airspac

36、e in which FAA regulations apply. Elsewhere, in uncontrolled airspace, pilots are bound by fewer regulations. In this way, the recreational pilot who simply wishes to go flying for a while without all the restrictions imposed by the FAA has only to stay in uncontrolled airspace, below 365m, while th

37、e pilot who does want the protection afforded by ATC can easily enter the controlled airspace. F The FAA then recognised two types of operating environments. In good meteorological conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which suggests a strong reliance on visual cues

38、to maintain an acceptable level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set of Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR), under which the pilot relied on altitude and navigational information provided by the plane's instrument panel to fly safely. On a clear day, a pilot in controlled airspace can choos

39、e a VFR or IFR flight plan, and the FAA regulations were devised in a way which accommodates both VFR and IFR operations in the same airspace. However, a pilot can only choose to fly IFR if they possess an instrument rating which is above and beyond the basic pilot's license that must also be he

40、ld. G Controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by letters of the alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while controlled airspace below 5,490m above sea level and not in the vicinity of an airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is designated Clas

41、s A. The reason for the division of Class E and Class A airspace stems from the type of planes operating in them. Generally, Class E airspace is where one finds general aviation aircraft (few of which can climb above 5,490m anyway), and commercial turboprop aircraft. Above 5,490m is the realm of the

42、 heavy jets, since jet engines operate more efficiently at higher altitudes. The difference between Class E and A airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR, and pilots must be instrument-rated, that is, skilled and licensed in aircraft instrumentation. This is because ATC control of the en

43、tire space is essential. Three other types of airspace, Classes D, C and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small municipal, medium-sized metropolitan and major metropolitan airports respectively, and encompass an increasingly rigorous set of regulations. For example, al

44、l a VFR pilot has to do to enter Class C airspace is establish two-way radio contact with ATC. No explicit permission from ATC to enter is needed, although the pilot must continue to obey all regulations governing VFR flight. To enter Class B airspace, such as on approach to a major metropolitan air

45、port, an explicit ATC clearance is required. The private pilot who cruises without permission into this airspace risks losing their license. Questions 20-26 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 20-26 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the state

46、ment agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 20 The FAA was created as a result of the introduction of the jet engine. 21 Air Traffic Control started after the Grand Canyon crash in 1956. 22 Beacons and flashing ligh

47、ts are still used by ATC today. 23 Some improvements were made in radio communication during World War II. 24 Class F airspace is airspace which is below 365m and not near airports. 25 All aircraft in Class E airspace must use IFR. 26 A pilot entering Class C airspace is flying over an average-sized city. READING PASSAGE 3 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below. TELEPATHY