剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案(test3).docx

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1、剑桥雅思阅读8原文翻译及答案(test3) 学习啦我为大家整理收集了剑桥雅思阅读8真题解析：test3阅读原文解析，希望对各位考生的备考有所帮助,祝每位烤鸭考试顺当，都能取得好成果! 剑桥雅思阅读8原文(test3) READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. Striking Back at Lightning With Lasers Seldom is the weather more dramatic t

2、han when thunderstorms strike. Their electrical fury inflicts death or serious injury on around 500 people each year in the United States alone. As the clouds roll in, a leisurely round of golf can become a terrifying dice with death out in the open, a lone golfer may be a lightning bolts most invit

3、ing target. And there is damage to property too. Lightning damage costs American power companies more than $100 million a year. But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit back. Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for neutralising the power of thunderstorm

4、s, and this winter they will brave real storms, equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before lightning can strike. The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on command is not new. In the early 1960s, researche

5、rs tried firing rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these clouds generate. The technique survives to this day at a test site in Florida run by the University of Florida, with support from the Electrical Power Research Institut

6、e (EPRI), based in California. EPRI, which is funded by power companies, is looking at ways to protect the United States power grid from lightning strikes. We can cause the lightning to strike where we want it to using rockets, says Ralph Bernstein, manager of lightning projects at EPRI. The rocket

7、site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up. Bad behaviour But while rockets are fine for research, they cannot provide the protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for. The rockets cost around $1,20

8、0 each, can only be fired at a limited frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent. And even when they do trigger lightning, things still do not always go according to plan. Lightning is not perfectly well behaved, says Bernstein. Occasionally, it will take a branch and go someplace it was

9、nt supposed to go. And anyway, who would want to fire streams of rockets in a populated area? What goes up must come down, points out Jean-Claude Diels of the University of New Mexico. Diels is leading a project, which is backed by EPRI, to try to use lasers to discharge lightning safely and safety

10、is a basic requirement since no one wants to put themselves or their expensive equipment at risk. With around $500,000 invested so far, a promising system is just emerging from the laboratory. The idea began some 20 years ago, when high-powered lasers were revealing their ability to extract electron

11、s out of atoms and create ions. If a laser could generate a line of ionisation in the air all the way up to a storm cloud, this conducting path could be used to guide lightning to Earth, before the electric field becomes strong enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge. To stop the las

12、er itself being struck, it would not be pointed straight at the clouds. Instead it would be directed at a mirror, and from there into the sky. The mirror would be protected by placing lightning conductors close by. Ideally, the cloud-zapper (gun) would be cheap enough to be installed around all key

13、power installations, and portable enough to be taken to international sporting events to beam up at brewing storm clouds. A stumbling block However, there is still a big stumbling block. The laser is no nifty portable: its a monster that takes up a whole room. Diels is trying to cut down the size an

14、d says that a laser around the size of a small table is in the offing. He plans to test this more manageable system on live thunderclouds next summer. Bernstein says that Dielss system is attracting lots of interest from the power companies. But they have not yet come up with the $5 million that EPR

15、I says will be needed to develop a commercial system, by making the lasers yet smaller and cheaper. I cannot say I have money yet, but Im working on it, says Bernstein. He reckons that the forthcoming field tests will be the turning point and hes hoping for good news. Bernstein predicts an avalanche

16、 of interest and support if all goes well. He expects to see cloud-zappers eventually costing $50,000 to $100,000 each. Other scientists could also benefit. With a lightning switch at their fingertips, materials scientists could find out what happens when mighty currents meet matter. Diels also hope

17、s to see the birth of interactive meteorology not just forecasting the weather but controlling it. If we could discharge clouds, we might affect the weather, he says. And perhaps, says Diels, well be able to confront some other meteorological menaces. We think we could prevent hail by inducing light

18、ning, he says. Thunder, the shock wave that comes from a lightning flash, is thought to be the trigger for the torrential rain that is typical of storms. A laser thunder factory could shake the moisture out of clouds, perhaps preventing the formation of the giant hailstones that threaten crops. With

19、 luck, as the storm clouds gather this winter, laser-toting researchers could, for the first time, strike back. Questions 1-3 Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet. 1 The main topic discussed in the text is A the damage caused to US golf

20、courses and golf players by lightning strikes. B the effect of lightning on power supplies in the US and in Japan. C a variety of methods used in trying to control lightning strikes. D a laser technique used in trying to control lightning strikes. 2 According to the text, every year lightning A does

21、 considerable damage to buildings during thunderstorms. B kills or injures mainly golfers in the United States. C kills or injures around 500 people throughout the world. D damages more than 100 American power companies. 3 Researchers at the University of Florida and at the University of New Mexico

22、A receive funds from the same source. B are using the same techniques. C are employed by commercial companies. D are in opposition to each other. Questions 4-6 Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 4-6 on your answer

23、 sheet. 4 EPRI receives financial support from . . 5 The advantage of the technique being developed by Diels is that it can be used. 6 The main difficulty associated with using the laser equipment is related to its. Questions 7-10 Complete the summary using the list of words, A-I, below. Write the c

24、orrect letter, A-I, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet. In this method, a laser is used to create a line of ionization by removing electrons from 7 . . This laser is then directed at 8 . in order to control electrical charges, a method which is less dangerous than using 9. . As a protection for the

25、lasers, the beams are aimed firstly at 10 . . A cloud-zappers B atoms C storm clouds D mirrors E technique F ions G rockets H conductors I thunder Questions 11-13 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet write YES if the s

26、tatement agrees with the claims of the writer No if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 11 Power companies have given Diels enough money to develop his laser. 12 Obtaining money to improve the lasers will depend on

27、 tests in real storms. 13 Weather forecasters are intensely interested in Dielss system. READING PASSAGE 2 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below. The Nature of Genius There has always been an interest in geniuses and prodigies. The word geni

28、us, from the Latin gens (= family) and the term genius, meaning begetter, comes from the early Roman cult of a divinity as the head of the family. In its earliest form, genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family, the paterfamilias, to perpetuate himself. Gradually, genius came t

29、o represent a persons characteristics and thence an individuals highest attributes derived from his genius or guiding spirit. Today, people still look to stars or genes, astrology or genetics, in the hope of finding the source of exceptional abilities or personal characteristics. The concept of geni

30、us and of gifts has become part of our folk culture, and attitudes are ambivalent towards them. We envy the gifted and mistrust them. In the mythology of giftedness, it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area, they must be defective in another, that intellectuals are impractica

31、l, that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out, that gifted people are eccentric, that they are physical weaklings, that theres a thin line between genius and madness, that genius runs in families, that the gifted are so clever they dont need special help, that giftedness is the same as h

32、aving a high IQ, that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others, that genius goes unrecognised and unrewarded, that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them. Language has been enriched with such terms as highbrow, egghead, blue

33、-stocking, wiseacre, know-all, boffin and, for many, intellectual is a term of denigration. The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius, and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies. Perhaps for us today, two of the most significant aspects of most of these studies

34、 of genius are the frequency with which early encouragement and teaching by parents and tutors had beneficial effects on the intellectual, artistic or musical development of the children but caused great difficulties of adjustment later in their lives, and the frequency with which abilities went unr

35、ecognised by teachers and schools. However, the difficulty with the evidence produced by these studies, fascinating as they are in collecting together anecdotes and apparent similarities and exceptions, is that they are not what we would today call norm-referenced. In other words, when, for instance

36、, information is collated about early illnesses, methods of upbringing, schooling, etc., we must also take into account information from other historical sources about how common or exceptional these were at the time. For instance, infant mortality was high and life expectancy much shorter than toda

37、y, home tutoring was common in the families of the nobility and wealthy, bullying and corporal punishment were common at the best independent schools and, for the most part, the cases studied were members of the privileged classes. It was only with the growth of paediatrics and psychology in the twe

38、ntieth century that studies could be carried out on a more objective, if still not always very scientific, basis. Geniuses, however they are defined, are but the peaks which stand out through the mist of history and are visible to the particular observer from his or her particular vantage point. Cha

39、nge the observers and the vantage points, clear away some of the mist, and a different lot of peaks appear. Genius is a term we apply to those whom we recognise for their outstanding achievements and who stand near the end of the continuum of human abilities which reaches back through the mundane an

40、d mediocre to the incapable. There is still much truth in Dr Samuel Johnsons observation, The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction. We may disagree with the general, for we doubt if all musicians of genius could have become scientists of

41、 genius or vice versa, but there is no doubting the accidental determination which nurtured or triggered their gifts into those channels into which they have poured their powers so successfully. Along the continuum of abilities are hundreds of thousands of gifted men and women, boys and girls. What

42、we appreciate, enjoy or marvel at in the works of genius or the achievements of prodigies are the manifestations of skills or abilities which are similar to, but so much superior to, our own. But that their minds are not different from our own is demonstrated by the fact that the hard-won discoverie

43、s of scientists like Kepler or Einstein become the commonplace knowledge of schoolchildren and the once outrageous shapes and colours of an artist like Paul Klee so soon appear on the fabrics we wear. This does not minimise the supremacy of their achievements, which outstrip our own as the sub-four-

44、minute milers outstrip our jogging. To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different. The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another, and in the process of being educated

45、 we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves. But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable. We may envy their achievements and fame, but we should also recognise the

46、 price they may have paid in terms of perseverance, single-mindedness, dedication, restrictions on their personal lives, the demands upon their energies and time, and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top. Genius and giftedness are re

47、lative descriptive terms of no real substance. We may, at best, give them some precision by defining them and placing them in a context but, whatever we do, we should never delude ourselves into believing that gifted children or geniuses are different from the rest of humanity, save in the degree to which they have developed the performance of their abilities. Questions 14-18 Choose FIVE letters, A-K. Write the c