2009年6月大学英语四级考试真题与答案_第4页

Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand(缕) of hair , a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims .
The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in people’s hair.
“You’re what you eat and drink, and that’s recorded in you hair,” said Thure Cerling, a geologist at the University of Utah.
While U.S diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary. The differences result from weather patterns. The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as raid clouds move.
Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable , but traces of both elements are also present as heavier isotopes (同位素) . The heaviest raid falls first .As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver heavier water to California than to Utah.
Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and oxygen isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline. Each inch of hair corresponds to about two months.
Cerling’s team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a mop of the regional differences. They checked the accuracy of the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from 65 barber shops.
They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad regions roughly corresponding to the movement of raid systems.
“It’s not good for pinpointing (精确定位),” Cerling said . “It’s good for eliminating many possibilities.”
Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified woman whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake.
The woman was 5 feet tall. Police recovered 26 bones, a T-shirt and several strands of hair.
When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the researchers. Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two months.
She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere between eastern Oregon and western Wyoming.
“It’s still a substantial area,” Park said “But it narrows it way down for me.”
62. What is the scientists’ new discovery?
A) One’s hair growth has to do with the amount of water they drink.
B) A person’s hair may reveal where they have lived.
C) Hair analysis accurately identifies criminal suspects.
D) The chemical composition of hair varies from person to person.
63. What does the author mean by “You’re what you eat and drink” (Line 1, Para.3)?
A) Food and drink affect one’s personality development.
B) Food and drink preferences vary with individuals.
C) Food and drink leave traces in one’s body tissues.
D) Food and drink are indispensable to one’s existence.
64. What is said about the rainfall in America’s West?
A) There is much more rainfall in California than in Utah.
B) The water it delivers becomes lighter when it moves inland.
C) Its chemical composition is less stable than in other areas.
D) It gathers more light isotopes as it moves eastward.
65. What did Cerling’s team produce in their research?
A) A map showing the regional differences of tap water.
B) A collection of hair samples from various barber shops.
C) A method to measure the amount of water in human hair.
D) A chart illustrating the movement of the rain system.
66. What is the practical value of Cerling’s research?
A) It helps analyze the quality of water in different regions.
B) It helps the police determine where a crime is committed.
C) It helps the police narrow down possibilities in detective work.
D) It helps identify the drinking habits of the person under investigation.
Part V Cloze (15 minutes)
Kimiyuki Suda should be a perfect customer for Japan’s car-makers. He’s a young, successful executive at an Internet-services company in Tokyo and has plenty of disposable  67  . He used to own Toyota’s Hilux Surf, a sport utility vehicle. But now he uses  68 subways and grains . “It’s not inconvenient at all ,” he says  69  , “having a car is so 20th century.”
Suda reflects a worrisome  70  in Japan; the automobile is losing its emotional appeal,  71  among the young ,who prefer to spend their money on the latest electronic devices.  72  mini-cars and luxury foreign brands are still popular ,everything in between is  73  .Last years sales fell 6.7 percent, 7.6 percent  74  you don’t count the mini-car market . There have been  75  one-year drops in other nations :sales in Germany fell 9 percent in 2007  76 a tax increase . But experts say Japan is
77  in that sales have been decreasing steadily  78  time. Since 1990, yearly new-car sales have fallen from 7.8 million to 5.4 million units in 2007.
Alarmed by this state of  79 , the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA)
 80  a comprehensive study of the market in 2006. It found that a  81 wealth gap, demographic(人口结构的) changes and  82  lack of interest in cars led Japanese to hold their
 83  longer , replace their cars with smaller ones 84 give up car ownership altogether .JAMA
85  a further sales decline of 1.2 percent this year. Some experts believe that if the trend continues for much longer , further consolidation (合并) in the automotive sector is  86  .
67. A) profit         C) income
   B) payment       D) budget
68. A) mostly        C) occasionally
   B) partially       D) rarely
69. A) Therefore      C) Otherwise
   B) Besides       D) Consequently
70. A) drift          C) current
   B) tide           D) trend
71. A) remarkably    C) specially
   B) essentially     D )particularly
72. A) While         C) When
   B) Because       D) Since
73. A) surging        C) slipping
   B) stretching      D) shaking
74. A) unless         C) as
   B) if             D) after
75. A) lower          C) broader
   B) slighter         D) larger
76. A) liable to        C) thanks to
   B) in terms of      D) in view of
77. A) unique         C) mysterious
   B) similar         D) strange
78. A) over           C) on
   B) against         D) behind
79. A) mess         C) growth
   B) boom         D) decay
80. A) proceeded     C) launched
   B)relieved       D) revised
81. A) quickening    C) strengthening
   B) widening      D) lengthening
82. A) average       C) abundant
   B) massive       D) general
83. A) labels        C) vehicles
   B) cycles        D) devices
84. A) or           C) but
   B) until         D) then
85. A) concludes     C) reckons
   B) predicts       D) prescribes
86. A) distant        C) temporary
   B) likely         D) immediate