GCT真题试卷

工程硕士研究生英语试卷 （2013） I. Reading comprehension: Directions: In this section there are 5 passages. Each passage is followed by 5 questions or unfinished sentences. For each of them there 4 choices marked A, B, C and D) choose the best answer. Passage one: The UK is made up of four countries — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—which have widely differing cultures and languages. Wales was the first country to fall under English control, in the late 16th-century. The Welsh were never actually defeated by the English. Instead, they realized that unity with their bigger neighbor was the only way to end the almost continuous state of war that existed between the two countries. Since unity, England and Wales have had the same systems of law, education and government. The situation between Scotland and England was very different. They fought fierce wars for centuries, each invading each other, whenever the situation seemed in their favour. This came to an end in the 17th-century when King James VI of Scotland inherited the throne (王位) of England, after Queen Elizabeth I died without children. In 1707, Scotland and England were brought together in an Act of Union. This took away much of the Scots' control of their own affairs, but they kept their own systems of law and education. For the three countries, union resulted in peace. But England's occupation of Ireland has always been characterized by violence . Ireland was slowly brought under English control in the 16th- and 17th-centuries. But it retained its own government until 1801, when it was brought together with the Parliament at Westminster. However, most of its people spoke Gaelic rather than English and they remained faithful Catholics, while the established religion in England was Protestantism. By 1920, Britain was under pressure to leave Ireland by 1920. In 1921, an agreement was signed whereby a separate Irish Free State (today called the Irish Republic) was created. This did not, however, include the six counties of Northern Ireland, which remain part of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". 1. The main topic of this passage is about _____. A) the different cultures and languages in UK B) how the four countries fought with each other C) how the UK came about D) the history of the UK 2. Which of the following is NOT part of UK? A)  England.    B) Scotland.  C) Wales and Northern Ireland.  D) The Irish Republic. 3. Who kept their own systems of law and education in spite of losing much of the control of their own affairs? A) The Scots.    B) The English.    C) The Welsh.    D) The Irish. 4. It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that _____. A) it is extremely difficult for England to occupy Ireland B) it is easy for England to occupy Ireland C) it is easy for England to occupy Scotland D) it is especially difficult for England and Wales to be united 5. Which of the following statements is NOT true? A) The Welsh, compared with other people in the UK, love peace most. B) Scotland and England fought fierce wars for centuries. C) Ireland kept their own government until 1801. D) England has completely occupied Ireland up till now. Passage two: It started last year when a group of middle school children on a biology field trip in south-central Minnesota spotted some unusual-looking frogs. One was missing a leg, some had withered arms, others had shrunken eyes. Of the 22 frogs caught that day, 11 were deformed. Their teacher told officials. Reports of strange frogs began to mount: a frog with nine legs; a clubfooted frog; a frog with three eyes, one of them in its throat. At first, investigators from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul assumed that the problem was restricted to their state, and the agricultural part at that. They were wrong. Deformed frogs have since turned up in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Vermont and up into Canada. "Abnormalities like this get me worried," says David Hoppe, a University of Minnesota researcher. "We don't know how far this is going to go." Because frogs spend much of their life in water, pesticides (杀虫剂) or harmful metals were prime suspects. But now possible causes include acid rain, global warming and increased ultraviolet light (紫外线). Hoppe observes that different deformities seem to be concentrated in frogs from different regions. It may be, he says, that more than one cause is at work. What some scientists fear is that the frogs could be a sign that something is very wrong with the environment. "We may have a large problem here," says Robert McK-innell, a University of Minnesota cancer researcher, who has collected hundreds of deformed frogs. "If frogs are not able to handle whatever it is that is causing this, it may turn out that people can't either."