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发表于 2016-7-28 13:28:27
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Part 3: Reading Comprehension. (40 POINTS)
Passage A
[A] In a land swept by typhoons and shaken by earthquakes, how have Japan.s tallest and
seemingly flimsiest old buildings—500 or so wooden pagodas—remained standing for centuries?
Records show that only two have collapsed during the past 1400 years. Those that have disappeared
were destroyed by fire as a result of lightning or civil war. The disastrous Hanshin earthquake in
1995 killed 6,400 people, toppled elevated highways, flattened office blocks and devastated the port
area of Kobe. Yet it left the magnificent five-storey pagoda at the Toji temple in nearby Kyoto
unscathed though it leveled a number of buildings in the neighborhood.
[B] Japanese scholars have been mystified for ages about why these tall, slender buildings are
so stable. It was only thirty years ago that the building industry felt confident enough to erect office
blocks of steel and reinforced concrete that had more than a dozen floors. With its special shock
absorbers to dampen the effect of sudden sideways movements from an earthquake, the
thirty-six-storey Kasumigaseki building in central Tokyo—Japan.s first skyscraper was considered a
masterpiece of modem engineering when it was built in 1968.
[C] Yet in 826, with only pegs and wedges to keep his wooden structure upright, the master
builder Kobodaishi had no hesitation in sending his majestic Toji pagoda soaring fifty-five metres
into the sky nearly half as high as the Kasumigaseki skyscraper built some eleven centuries later.
Clearly, Japanese carpenters of the day knew a few tricks about allowing a building to sway and
settle itself rather than fight nature.s forces. But what sort of tricks?
[D] The multi-storey pagoda came to Japan from China in the sixth century. As in China, they
were first introduced with Buddhism and were attached to important temples. The Chinese built their
pagodas in brick or stone, with inner staircases, and used them in later centuries mainly as
watchtowers. When the pagoda reached Japan, however, its architecture was freely adapted to local
conditions -- they were built less high, typically five rather than nine storeys, made mainly of wood
and the staircase was dispensed with because the Japanese pagoda did not have any practical use but
became more of an art object. Because of the typhoons that batter Japan in the summer, Japanese
builders learned to extend the eaves of buildings further beyond the walls. This prevents rainwater
gushing down the walls. Pagodas in China and Korea have nothing like the overhang that is found on
pagodas in Japan.
[E] The roof of a Japanese temple building can be made to overhang the sides of the structure
by fifty per cent or more of the building.s overall width. For the same reason, the builders of
Japanese pagodas seem to have further increased their weight by choosing to cover these extended
eaves not with the porcelain tiles of many Chinese pagodas but with much heavier earthenware tiles.
[F] But this does not totally explain the great resilience of Japanese pagodas, is the answer that.
like a tall pine tree, the Japanese pagoda—with its massive trunk-like central pillar known as
shinbashira simply flexes and sways during a typhoon or earthquake? For centuries, many thought so.
But the answer is not so simple because the startling thing is that the shinbashira actually carries no
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load at all. In fact, in some pagoda designs, it does not even rest on the ground, but is suspended
from the top of the pagoda—hanging loosely down through the middle of the building. The weight
of the building is supported entirely by twelve outer and four inner columns.
[G] And what is the role of the shinbashira, the central pillar? The best way to understand the
shinbashira.s role is to watch a video made by Shuzo Ishida, a structural engineer at Kyoto Institute
of Technology. Mr. Ishida, known to his students as .Professor Pagoda. because of his passion to
understand the pagoda, has built a series of models and tested them on a .shake-table. in his
laboratory. In short, the shinbashira was acting like an enormous stationary pendulum. The ancient
craftsmen, apparently without the assistance of very advanced mathematics, seemed to grasp the
principles that were, more than a thousand years later, applied in the construction of Japan.s first
skyscraper. What those early craftsmen had found by trial and error was that under pressure a
pagoda.s loose stack of floors could be made to slither to and fro independent of one another.
Viewed from the side, the pagoda seemed to be doing a snake dance—with each consecutive floor
moving in the opposite direction to its neighbors above and below. The shinbashira, running up
through a hole in the centre of the building, constrained individual storeys from moving too far
because, after moving a certain distance, they banged into it, transmitting energy away along the
column.
[H] Another strange feature of the Japanese pagoda is that, because the building tapers, with
each successive floor plan being smaller than the one below, none of the vertical pillars that carry the
weight of the building is connected to its corresponding pillar above. In other words, a five- storey
pagoda contains not even one pillar that travels right up through the building to carry the structural
loads from the top to the bottom. More surprising is the fact that the individual storeys of a Japanese
pagoda, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, are not actually connected to each other. They are
simply stacked one on top of another like a pile of hats. Interestingly, such a design would not be
permitted under current Japanese building regulations.
[I] And the extra-wide eaves? Think of them as a tightrope walker.s balancing pole. The bigger
the mass at each end of the pole, the easier it is for the tightrope walker to maintain his or her
balance. The same holds true for a pagoda. “With the eaves extending out on all sides like balancing
poles,” says Mr. Ishida, “the building responds to even the most powerful jolt of an earthquake with
a graceful swaying, never an abrupt shaking.” Here again, Japanese master builders of a thousand
years ago anticipated concepts of modern structural engineering.
Questions 1-4: YES/NO/NOT GIVEN
____01. Only two Japanese pagodas have collapsed in 1400 years.
____02. The Hanshin earthquake of 1995 destroyed the pagoda at the Toji temple.
____03. The other buildings near the Toji pagoda had been built in the last 30 years.
____04. The builders of pagodas knew how to absorb some of the power produced by severe
weather conditions.
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Questions 5-10: Classify the following as typical of [A] both Chinese and Japanese pagodas [B]
only Chinese pagodas [C] only Japanese pagodas
____05. easy interior access to top ____06. tiles on eaves
____07. use as observation post
____08. size of eaves up to half the width of the building
____09. original religious purpose ____10. floors fitting loosely over each other
Questions 11-13: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
11. In a Japanese pagoda, the shinbashira ____.
A. bears the full weight of the building
B. bends under pressure like a tree
C. connects the floors with the foundations
D. stops the floors moving too far
12. Shuzo Ishida performs experiments in order to ____.
A. improve skyscraper design
B. be able to build new pagodas
C. learn about the dynamics of pagodas
D. understand ancient mathematics
13. The storeys of a Japanese pagoda are ____.
A. linked only by wood
B. fastened only to the central pillar
C. fitted loosely on top of each other
D. joined by special weights
Passage B
[A] For more than forty years the cost of food has been rising. It has now reached a point where
a growing number of people believe that it is far too high, and that bringing it down will be one of
the great challenges of the twenty first century. That cost, however, is not in immediate cash. In the
West at least, most food is now far cheaper to buy in relative terms than it was in 1960. The cost is in
the collateral damage of the very methods of food production that have made the food cheaper: in
the pollution of water, the enervation of soil, the destruction of wildlife, the harm to animal welfare
and the threat to human health caused by modem industrial agriculture.
[B] First mechanization, then mass use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, then moncultures,
then battery rearing of livestock, and now genetic engineering—the onward march of intensive
farming has seemed unstoppable in the last half-century, as the yields of produce have soared. But
the damage it has caused has been colossal In Britain, for example, many of our best-loved farmland
birds, such as the skylark, the grey partridge, the lapwing and the corn bunting, have vanished from
huge stretches of countryside, as have even more wild flowers and insects. This is a direct result of
the way we have produced our food in the last four decades. Thousands of miles of hedgerows,
thousands of ponds, have disappeared from the landscape. The fecal filth of salmon farming has
driven wild salmon from many of the sea lochs and rivers of Scotland. Natural soil fertility is
dropping in many areas because of continuous industrial fertilizer and pesticide use, while the
growth of algae is increasing in lakes because of the fertilizer run-off.
[C] Put it all together and it looks like a battlefield, but consumers rarely make the connection
at the dinner table. That is mainly because the costs of all this damage are what economists refer to
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as externalities: they are outside the main transaction, which is for example producing and selling a
field of wheat, and are borne directly by neither producers nor consumers. To many, the costs may
not even appear to be financial at all, but merely aesthetic a terrible shame, but nothing to do with
money. And anyway they, as consumers of food, certainly aren.t paying for it, are they?
[D] But the costs to society can actually be quantified and, when added up, can amount to
staggering sums. A remarkable exercise in doing this has been carried out by one of the world.s
leading thinkers on the future of agriculture, Professor Jules Pretty, Director of the Centre for
Environment and Society at the University of Essex. Professor Pretty and his colleagues calculated
the externalities of British agriculture for one particular year. They added up the costs of repairing
the damage it caused, and came up with a total figure of ￡2,343m. This is equivalent to ￡208 for
every hectare of arable land and permanent pasture, almost as much again as the total government
and EU spend on British farming in that year. And according to Professor Pretty, it was a
conservative estimate.
[E] The costs included: ￡120m for removal of pesticides; ￡16m for removal of nitrates;
￡55m for removal of phosphates and soil; ￡23m for the removal of the bug cryptosporidium from
drinking water by water companies; ￡125m for damage to wildlife habitats, hedgerows and dry
stone walls; ￡1,113m from emissions of gases likely to contribute to climate change; ￡106m
from soil erosion and organic carbon losses; ￡169m from food poisoning; and ￡607m from cattle
disease. Professor Pretty draws a simple but memorable conclusion from all this: our food bills are
actually threefold. We are paying for our supposedly cheaper food in three separate ways: once over
the counter, secondly through our taxes, which provide the enormous subsidies propping up modern
intensive fanning, and thirdly to clean up the mess that modern farming leaves behind.
[F] So can the true cost of food be brought down? Breaking away from industrial agriculture as
the solution to hunger may be very hard for some countries, but in Britain, where the immediate
need to supply food is less urgent, and the costs and the damage of intensive farming have been
clearly seen, it may be more feasible. The government needs to create sustainable, competitive and
diverse fanning and food sectors, which will contribute to a thriving and sustainable rural economy,
and advance environmental, economic, health, and animal welfare goals.
[G] But if industrial agriculture is to be replaced, what is a viable alternative? Professor Pretty
feels that organic farming would be too big a jump in thinking and in practices for many farmers.
Furthermore, the price premium would put the produce out of reach of many poorer consumers. He
is recommending the immediate introduction of a .Greener Food Standard., which would push the
market towards more sustainable environmental practices than the current norm, while not requiring
the full commitment to organic production. Such a standard would comprise agreed practices for
different kinds of farming, covering agrochemical use, soil health, land management, water and
energy use, food safety and animal health. It could go a long way, he says, to shifting consumers as
well as farmers towards a more sustainable system of agriculture.
Questions 14-17: Each paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter,
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A-G, in bores 14-17 on your answer sheet. You may use any letter more than once.
____ 14. a cost involved in purifying domestic water
____ 15. the stages in the development of the farming industry
____ 16. the term used to describe hidden costs
____ 17. one effect of chemicals on water sources
Questions 18-21: YES/NO/NOT GIVEN
____ 18. Several species of wildlife in the British countryside are declining.
____ 19. The taste of food has deteriorated in recent years.
____ 20. The financial costs of environmental damage are widely recognized.
____ 21. One of the costs calculated by Professor Pretty was illness caused by food.
Questions 22-26: Complete the summary below Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
from the passage for each answer.
Professor Pretty concludes that our 22 are higher than most people realize, because we
make three different types of payment. He feels it is realistic to suggest that Britain should reduce its
reliance on 23 . Although most farmers would be unable to adapt to 24 , Professor Pretty
wants the government to initiate change by establishing what he refers to as a 25 . He feels this
would help to change the altitudes of both 26 and
Questions 27-30
Passage 3 has six sections, A-F. Choose the correct heading for sections B, C, E and F from the
list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-xi in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
I
Ii
Iii
Iv
v
vi
vii
viii
ix
x
xi
MIRTP as a future model
Identifying the main transport problems
Preference for motorized vehicles
Government authorities. instructions
Initial improvements in mobility and transport modes
Request for improved transport in Makete
Transport improvements in the northern part of the district
Improvements in the rail network
Effects of initial MIRTP measures
Co-operation of district officials
Role of wheelbarrows and donkeys
Example:
00. Section A (vi)
27. Section B ( )
28. Section C ( )
29. Section E ( )
30. Section F ( )
Section A
[1] The disappointing results of many conventional road transport projects in Africa led some
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experts to rethink the strategy by which rural transport problems were to he tackled at the beginning
of the 1980s. A request for help in improving the availability of transport within the remote Makete
District of south western Tanzania presented the opportunity to try a new approach.
[2] The concept of integrated rural transport. was adopted in the task of examining the transport
needs of the rural households in the district. The objective was to reduce the time and effort needed
to obtain access to essential goods and services through an improved rural transport system. The
underlying assumption was that the time saved would he used instead for activities that would
improve the social and economic development of the communities. The Makete Integrated Rural
Transport Project (MIRTP) started in 1985 with financial support from the Swiss Development
Corporation and was coordinated with the help of the Tanzanian government.
Section B
[1] When the project began, Makete District was virtually totally isolated during the rainy
season. The regional road was in such bad shape that access to the main towns was impossible for
about three months of the year. Road traffic was extremely rare within the district, and alternative
means of transport were restricted to donkeys in the north of the district. People relied primarily on
the paths, which were slippery and dangerous during the rains.
[2] Before solutions could be proposed, the problems had to be understood, Little was known
about the transport demands of the rural households, so Phase 1, between December 1985 and
December 1987, focused on research. The socio-economic survey of more than 400 households in
the district indicated that a household in Makete spent, on average, seven hours a day on transporting
themselves and their goods, a figure which seemed extreme but which has also been obtained in
surveys in other rural areas in Africa. Interesting facts regarding transport were found: 95% was on
foot; 80% was within the locality; and 70%was related to the collection of water and firewood and
travelling to grinding mills.
Section C
[1] Having determined the main transport needs, possible solutions were identified which might
reduce the time and burden. During Phase II, from January to February 1991, a number of
approaches were implemented in an effort to improve mobility and access to transport.
[2] An improvement of the road network was considered necessary to ensure the import and
export of goods to the district. These improvements were carried out using methods that were
heavily dependent on labor. In addition to the improvement of roads, these methods provided
training in the operation of a mechanical workshop and bus and truck services. However, the
difference from the conventional approach was that this time consideration was given to local
transport needs outside the road network.
[3] Most goods were transported along the paths that provide short-cuts up and down the
hillsides, but the paths were a real safety risk and made the journey on foot even more arduous. It
made sense to improve the paths by building steps, handrails and footbridges.
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[4] It was uncommon to find means of transport that were more efficient than walking but less
technologically advanced than motor vehicles. The use of bicycles was constrained by their high cost
and the lack of available spare parts. Oxen were not used at all but donkeys were used by a few
households in the northern part of the district. MIRTP focused on what would be most appropriate
for the inhabitants of Makete in terms of what was available, how much they could afford and what
they were willing to accept. After careful consideration, the project chose the promotion of
donkeys—a donkey costs less than a bicycle—and the introduction of a locally manufacturable
wheelbarrow.
Section D
[1] At the end of Phase 11, it was clear that the selected approaches to Makete.s transport
problems had had different degrees of success. Phase III, from March 1991 to March 1993, focused
on the refinement and institutionalization of these activities.
[2] The road improvements and accompanying maintenance system had helped make the
district centre accessible throughout the year. Essential goods from outside the district had become
more readily available at the market, and prices did not fluctuate as much as they had done before.
[3] Paths and secondary roads were improved only at the request of communities who were
willing to participate in construction and maintenance. However, the improved paths impressed the
inhabitants, and requests for assistance greatly increased soon after only a few improvements had
been completed.
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