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Passage 4
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:
Culture shock is an occupational disease (职业病) for people who have been
suddenly transplanted abroad.
Culture shock is caused by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar
signs and symbols of social intercourse. Those signs are as following: when to
shake hands and what to say when meet people, when and how to give tips, how to
make purchases, when to accept and refuse invitations, when to take statements
seriously and when not. These signs, which may be words, gestures, facial
expressions, or customs, are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up
and as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we
accept. All of us depend on hundreds of these signs for our peace of mind and
day-to-day efficiency, but we do not carry most at the level of conscious
awareness.
Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these
familiar signs are removed. No matter how broadminded or full of good will you
may be a series of supports have been knocked from under you, followed by a
feeling of frustration. When suffering from culture shock people first reject
the environment which caused discomfort. The ways of the host country are bad
because they make us feel bad. When foreigners in a strange land get together in
complain about the host country its people, you can be sure that they are
suffering from culture shock.
16. According to the passage, culture shock is .
A. an occupational disease of foreign people B. may lead to very serious
symptoms
C. actually not a disease D. incurable
17. According to the passage, culture shock result from .
A. the sudden change of social atmosphere and customs
B. the sudden change of our daily habits
C. the sudden loss of our own signs and symbols
D. the discomfort that we feel when faced with a foreigner
18. Which one of the following may not be a symptom of culture shock?
A. You don’t know how to express your gratitude.
B. You don’t know how to greet other people.
C. You suddenly forget what a word means.
D. You don’t understand why a foreigner shrugs.
19. According to the passage, how would a person who stays abroad most
probably react when he is frustrated by the culture shock?
A. He is most likely to refuse to absorb the strange environment at
first.
B. He is really to accept the change and adapt himself to the new
environment.
C. Although he takes the culture difference for granted, he still doesn’t
know how to do with it.
D. He may begin to hate the people or things around him.
20. The main idea of this passage is that .
A. culture shock is an occupational disease
B. culture shock is caused by the anxiety of living in a strange culture
C. culture shock has peculiar symptoms
D. it is very hard to cope with life in a new setting
Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants
and animals called plankton. Most of these plants and animals are too small for
the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the currents, providing a
basic food for many larger animals. Plankton has been described as the
equivalent of the grasses that grow on the dry land continents, and the
comparison is an appropriate one. In potential food value however, plankton far
outweighs that of the land grasses. One scientist has estimated that while
grasses of the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates
each year. The sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.
Despite its enormous food potential, little effort was made until recently to
farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine scientists have at last
begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea’s resources loom even
more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.
No one yet has seriously suggested that “planktonburgers” may soon become
popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food source,
however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.
One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny
shrimplike creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches long, krill
provide the major food for the giant blue whale, the largest animal ever to
inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow 100 feet and weigh 150
tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one devours more than one ton
of krill daily.
Krill swim about just below the surface in huge schools sometimes miles wide,
mainly in the cold Antarctic. Because of their pink color, they often appear as
a solid reddish mass when viewed from a ship or from the air. Krill are very
high in food value. A pound of these crustaceans contains about 460
calories—about the same as shrimp or lobster, to which they are related.
If the krill can feed such huge creatures as whales, many scientists reason,
they must certainly be contenders as new food source for humans.
1.Which of the following best portrays the organization of the passage?
A.The author presents the advantages and disadvantages of plankton as a food
source.
B.The author quotes public opinion to support the argument for farming
plankton.
C.The author classifies the different food sources according to amount of
carbohydrate.
D.The author makes a general statement about plankton as a food source and
then moves to a specific example.
2.According to the passage, why is plankton regarded to be more valuable than
land grasses?
A.It is easier to cultivate.
B.It produces more carbohydrates.
C.It does not require soil.
D.It is more palatable.
3.Why does the author mention “planktonburgers”?
A.To describe the appearance of one type of plankton.
B.To illustrate how much plankton a whale consumes.
C.To suggest plankton as a possible food sources.
D.To compare the food values of beef and plankton.
4.What is mentioned as one conspicuous feature of krill?
A.They are the smallest marine animals.
B.They are pink in color.
C.They are similar in size to lobsters.
D.They have grass like bodies.
5.The author mentions all of the following as reasons why plankton could be
considered a human food source except that it is ___.
A.high in food value.
B.in abundant supply in the oceans.
C.an appropriate food for other animals.
D.free of chemicals and pollutants.
Recent research has claimed that an excess of positive ions in the air can have an ill effect on people’s physical or psychological health. What are positive ions? Well, the air is full of ions, electrically charged particles,
and generally there is a rough balance between the positive and the negative charged. But sometimes this balance becomes disturbed and a larger proportion of positive ions are found. This happens naturally before thunderstorm, earthquakes
when winds such as the Mistral, Hamsin or Sharav are blowing in certain countries. Or it can be caused by a build-up of static electricity indoors from carpets or clothing made of man-made fibres, or from TV sets, duplicators or
computer display screens.
When a large number of positive ions are present in the air many people experience unpleasant effects such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and some sensitive people suffer nausea or even mental disturbance. Animals
are also affected, particularly before earthquakes, snakes have been observed to come out of hibernation, rats to flee from their burrows, dogs howl and cats jump about unaccountably. This has led the US Geographical Survey to fund a
network of volunteers to watch animals in an effort to foresee such disasters before they hit vulnerable areas such as California.
Conversely, when large numbers of negative ions are present, then people have a feeling of well-being. Natural conditions that produce these large amounts are near the sea, close to waterfalls or fountains, or in any place where water is sprayed, or forms a spray. This probably accounts for the beneficial effect of a holiday by the sea, or in the mountains with tumbling streams or waterfalls.
To increase the supply of negative ions indoors, some scientists recommend the use of ionisers: small portable machines, which generate negative ions. They claim that ionisers not only clean and refresh the air but also improve the health of people sensitive to excess positive ions. Of course, there are the detractors, other scientists, who dismiss such claims and are skeptical about negative/positive ion research. Therefore people can only make up their own minds by observing the effects on themselves, or on others, of a negative rich or poor environment. After all it is debatable whether depending on seismic readings to anticipate earthquakes is more effective than watching the cat.
1.What effect does exceeding positive ionization have on some people?
A.They think they are insane.
B.They feel rather bad-tempered and short-fussed.
C.They become violently sick.
D.They are too tired to do anything.
2.In accordance with the passage, static electricity can be caused by___.
A.using home-made electrical goods.
B.wearing clothes made of natural materials.
C.walking on artificial floor coverings.
D.copying TV programs on a computer.
3.A high negative ion count is likely to be found___.
A.near a pound with a water pump.
B.close to a slow-flowing river.
C.high in some barren mountains.
D.by a rotating water sprinkler.
4.What kind of machine can generate negative ions indoors?
A.Ionisers.
B.Air-conditioners.
C.Exhaust-fans
D.Vacuum pumps.
5.Some scientists believe that___.
A.watching animals to anticipate earthquakes is more effective than depending
on seismography.
B.the unusual behavior of animals cannot be trusted.
C.neither watching nor using seismographs is reliable.
D.earthquake
