2006.9上海中级口译阅读真题(有答案)

2006.9

SECTION 2: STUDY SKILLS

Directions: In this section, you will read several passages. Each passage is followed by several

questions based on its content. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C) or (D), to each

question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied

in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in

your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Questions 1

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5

The purpose of the American court system is to protect the rights of the people.

According to American law, if someone is accused of a crime, he or she is considered

innocent until the court proves that the person is guilty. In other words, it is the

responsibility of the court to prove that a person is guilty. It is not the responsibility of

the person to prove that he or she is innocent.

In order to arrest a person, the police have to be reasonably sure that a crime has been

committed. The police must give the suspect the reasons why they are arresting him

and tell him his rights under the law. Then the police take the suspect to the police

station to “book” him. “Booking means that the name of the person and the charges

against him are formally listed at the police station.

The next step is for the suspect to go before a judge. The judge decides whether the

suspect should be kept in jail or released. If the suspect has no previous criminal

record and the judge feels that he will return to court rather than run away

—

for

example, because he owns a house and has a family

—

he can go free. Otherwise, the

suspect must put up bail. At this time, too, the judge will appoint a court layer to

defend the suspect if he can?t afford one.

The suspect returns to court a week or two later. A lawyer from the district attorney?

s

office presents a case against the suspect. This is called a hearing. The attorney may

present evidence as well as witnesses. The judge at the hearing then decides whether

there is enough reason to hold a trial. If the judge decides that there is sufficient

evidence to call for a trial, he or she sets a date for the suspect to appear in court to

formally plead guilty or not guilty.

At the trial, a jury of 12 people listens to the evidence from both attorneys and hears

the testimony of the witnesses. Then the jury goes into a private room to consider the

evidence and decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime. If the jury decides

that the defendant is innocent, he goes free. However, if he is convicted, the judge sets

a date for the defendant to appear in court again for sentencing. At this time, the judge

tells the convicted person what his punishment will be. The judge may sentence him

to prison, order him to pay a fine, or place him on probation.

The American justice system is very complex and sometimes operates slowly.

However, every step is designed to protect the rights of the people. These individual

rights are the basis, or foundation, of the American government.

1.

What is the main idea of the passage?

(A) The American court system requires that a suspect prove that he or she is

innocent.

(B) The US court system is designed to protect the rights of the people.

(C) Under the American court system, judge decides if a suspect is innocent or guilty.

(D) The US court system is designed to help the police present a case against the

suspect.

2. What follows ?in other words? (para.1)?

(A) An example of the previous sentence.

(B) A new idea about the court system.

(C) An item of evidence to call for a trial.

(D) A restatement of the previous sentence.

3. According to the passage, ?he can go free? (para.3) means _________.

(A) the suspect is free to choose a lawyer to defend him

(B) the suspect does not have to go to trial because the judge has decided he is

innocent

(C) the suspect will be informed by mail whether he is innocent or not

(D) the suspect does not have to wait in jail or pay money until he goes to trial

4. What is the purpose of having the suspect pay bail?

(A) To pay for the judge and the trial.

(B) To pay for a court lawyer to defend the suspect.

(C) To ensure that the suspect will return to court.

(D) To ensure that the suspect will appear in prison.

5. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

(A) The American justice system sometimes operates slowly.

(B) The police can arrest a suspect without giving any reasons.

(C) It is the responsibility of the suspect to prove he is innocent.

(D) The jury considers the evidence in the court room.

Questions 6

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10

So you?ve got an invention—

you and around 39,000 others each year, according to

2002 statistics!

The 64,000-dollar question, if you have come up with a device which you believe to

be the answer to the energy crisis or you?ve invented a lawnmower which cuts grass

with a jet of water (not so daft, s

omeone has invented one), is how to ensure you?re

the one to reap the rewards of your ingenuity. How will all you garden shed boffins

out there keep others from capitalizing on your ideas and lining their pockets at your

expense?

One of the first steps to protect your interest is to patent your invention. That can keep

it out of the grasp of the pirates for at least the next 20 years. And for this reason

inventors in their droves beat a constant trail from all over the country to the doors of

an anonymous grey-

fronted building just behind London?s Holborn to try and patent

their devices.

The building houses the Patent Office. It?s an ant heap of corridors, offices and filing

rooms

—a sorting house and storage depot for one of the world?s biggest and most

varied collections of technical data. Some ten million patents

—

English and

foreign

—

are listed there.

File after file, catalogue after catalogue detail the brain- children of inventors down the

centuries, from a 1600?s machine gun designed to fire square bullets

at infidels and

round ones at Christians, to present-day laser, nuclear and computer technology.

The first ?letters patent? were granted as long ago as 1449 to a Flemish craftsman by

the name of John Utynam. The letters, written in Latin, are still on file at the office.

They were granted by King Henry VI and entitled Utynam to ?import into this

country? his knowledge of making stained glass windows in order to install such

windows at Eton College.

Present-day patents procedure is a more sophisticated affair than getting a go-ahead

note from the monarch. These days the strict procedures governing whether you get a

patent for your revolutionary mouse- trap or solar-powered back-scratcher have been

reduced to a pretty exact science.

From start to finish it will take around two and a half years and cost ?

165 for the

inventor to gain patent protection for his brainchild. That?s if he?s lucky. By no means

all who apply to the Patent Office, which is a branch of the Department of Trade, get

a patent.

A key man at the Patent Office is Bernard Partridge, Principal Examiner

(Administration), who boils down to one word the vital ingredient any inventor needs

before he can hope to overcome the many hurdles in the complex procedure of

obtaining a patent

—?ingenuity?.

6.

People take out a patent because they want to __________.

(A) keep their ideas from being stolen

(B) reap the rewards of somebody else?s ingenuity

(C) visit the patent office building

(D) come up with more new devices

7. The phrase ?the brain

-children of

inventors? (para.5) means _________.

(A) the children with high intelligence

(B) the inventions that people come up with

(C) a device that a child believes to be the answer to the energy crisis

(D) a lawnmower that an individual has invented to cut grass

8. What have the 1600?s machine gun and the present

-day laser in common?

(A) Both were approved by the monarch.

(B) Both were granted by King Henry VI.

(C) Both were rejected by the Department of Trade.

(D) Both were patented.

9. Why is John Utynam still remembered?

(A) He is the first person to get a patent for his revolutionary mouse-trap.

(B) He is the first person to be granted an official patent.

(C) He is the first person to be an officer in the Patent Office.

(D) He is the first person to have invented a lawnmower.

10. According to the passage, how would you describe the complex procedure of

obtaining a patent for an invention?

(A) It is rather expensive.

(B) It is an impossible task.

(C) It is extremely difficult.

(D) It is very tricky.

Questions 11

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15

All living cells on earth require moisture for their metabolism. Cereal grains when

brought in from the field, although they may appear to be dry, may contain 20 per

cent of moisture or more. If they are stored in a bin thus, there is sufficient moisture in

them to support several varieties of insects. These insects will, therefore, live and

breed and, as they grow and eat the grain, it provides them with biological energy for

their life processes. This energy will, just as in man, become manifest as heat. Since

the bulk of the grain acts as an insulator, the temperature surrounding the colony of

insects will rise so that, not only is part of the grain spoiled by the direct attack of the

insects but more may be damaged by the heat. Sometimes, the temperature may even

rise to the point where the stored grain catches fire. For safe storage, grain must be

dried until its moisture content is 13 per cent or less.

Traditional arts of food preservation took advantage of this principle in a number of

ways. The plant seeds, wheat, rye, rice, barley millet, maize, are themselves structures

evolved by nature to provide stored food. The starch of their endosperm is used for

the nourishment of the embryo during the time it over-winters (if it is a plant of the

Temperate Zone) and until its new leaves have grown and their chlorophyll can trap

energy from the sunlight to nourish the new-grown plant. The separation by threshing

and winnowing is, therefore, to some degree part of a technique of food preservation.

The direct drying of other foods has also been used. Fish has been dried in many parts

of the world besides Africa. Slices of dried meat are prepared by numerous races.

Biltong, a form of dried meat, was a customary food for travelers. The drying of meat

or fish, either in the sun or over a fire, quite apart from the degree to which it exposes

the food to infection by bacteria and infestation by insects, tends also to harm its

quality. Proteins are complex molecular structures which are readily disrupted. This is

the reason why dried meat becomes tough and can, with some scientific justification,

by likened to leather.

The technical process of drying foods indirectly by pickling them in the strong salt

solutions commonly called ?brine? does less harm

to the protein than straightforward

drying, particularly if this is carried out at high temperatures. It is for this reason that

many of the typical drying processes are not taken to completion. That is to say, the

outer parts may be dried leaving a moist inner section. Under these circumstances,

preservation is only partial. The dried food keeps longer than it would have undried

but it cannot be kept indefinitely. For this reason, traditional processes are to be found

in many parts of the world in which a combination of partial drying and pickling in

brine is used. Quite often the drying involves exposure to smoke. Foods treated in this

way are, besides fish of various sorts, bacon, hams and numerous types of sausages.

11.

According to the passage, insects spoil stored cereals by ________.

(A) consuming all the grain themselves

(B) generating heat and raising the surrounding temperature

(C) increasing the moisture content in the grain

(D) attacking each other for more grain

12. In speaking of the traditional methods of food preservation, the writer ________.

(A) expresses doubts about direct smoking

(B) describes salting and pickling as ineffective

(C) condemns direct drying

(D) mentions threshing and winnowing

13.

Direct drying affects the quality of meat or fish because ________.

(A) it exposes them to insects

(B) it makes them hard

(C) it damages the protein

(D) it develops bacteria

14.

We can learn from the passage that salting preserves food by ________.

(A) destroying the protein

(B) drawing away moisture from the food

(C) drying the food in the sun

(D) dressing the food

15. According to the passage, partial drying is useful because ________.

(A) it damages the protein less

(B) it can be combined with pickling

(C) it leaves the inside moist

(D) it makes the food soft