2017职称英语《理工类A级》阅读理解练习试题
part1
"Don't Drink Alone" Gets New Meaning(不要在就餐时间以外饮酒有了新含义)
In what may be bad news for bars and pubs, an European research group has found that people drinking alcohol outside of meals have a significantly higher risk of cancer in the mouth and neck than do those taking their libations with food. Luigino Dal Maso and his colleagues studied the drinking patterns of 1,500 patients from four cancer studies and another 3,500 adults who had never had cancer.
一定程度上，这对酒吧可能是一个坏消息，欧洲的一个研究小组发现人们在就餐时间以外饮酒会使患口腔和颈部癌症的机率比就餐时饮酒更高。Luigino Dal Maso和他的同事们研究了取自四项癌症研究的1,500个病例的饮酒习惯模式和另外3,500个从没患癌症的成年人的饮酒习惯模式。
After the researchers accounted for the amount of alcohol consumed, they found that individuals who downed a significant share of their alcohol outside of meals faced at least a 50 to 80 percent risk of cancer in the oral cavity, pharynx, and esophagus, when compared with people who drank only at meals. Consuming alcohol without food also increased by at least 20 percent the likelihood of laryngeal cancer. “Roughly 95 percent of cancers at these four sites traced too smoking or drinking by study volunteers,” Dal Maso says. The discouraging news his team reports, is that drinking with meals didn’t eliminate cancer risk at any of the sites.
在研究者分析了饮酒的总量后，他们发现和只在就餐时饮酒的人相比，在就餐时间以外灌下大量烈酒的人面临至少50%~80%的患口腔癌、咽癌和食道癌的危险。在就餐时间外饮酒也会使患喉癌的可能性增加至少20%。“被研究者的情况说明大约95%患以上四种癌症的原因就是抽烟或饮酒。”Dal Maso说。他的研究小组提供的报告令人沮丧的消息是就餐时饮酒不会消除患以上任何一种癌症的危险。
For their new analysis, the European scientists divided people in the study into four groups, based on how many drinks they reported having in an average week. The lowest-intake group included people who averaged up to 20 drinks a week. The highest group reported downing at least 56 servings of alcohol weekly for an average of eight or more per day. Cancer risks for the mouth and neck sites rose steadily with consumption even for people who reported drinking only with meals. For instance, compared with people in the lowest-consumption group, participants who drank 21 to 34 alcohol servings a week at least doubled their cancer risk for all sites other than the larynx. If people in these consumption groups took some of those drinks outside meals, those in the higher consumption group at least quadrupled their risk for oral cavity and esophageal cancers.
为了进行新的分析，欧洲科学家根据每星期平均饮酒量将被研究者分为4组。饮酒量最少的一组包括每周平均饮酒量达20杯的人，饮酒量最高的一组每周饮酒至少56杯，平均每天8杯以上。患口腔癌和喉癌的危险随着饮酒量而稳定上升，即使是那些只在就餐时饮酒的人。例如，和低饮酒量的人相比，每周饮酒21~34杯的人患除喉癌以外其他部位的癌症的危险增加了一倍。如果这几组中的人在就餐时间以外饮酒，那些属于高饮酒量组的人会使他们患口腔癌和食道癌的危险至少增加3倍。
People in the highest-consumption group who drank only with meals had 10 times the risk of oral cancer, 7 times the risk of pharyngeal cancer, and 16 times the risk of esophageal cancer compared with those who averaged 20 or fewer drinks a week with meals. In contrast, laryngeal cancer risk the high-intake, with-meals-only group was only triple that in the low-intake consumers who drank with meals.
和每周只在就餐时平均饮酒至多20杯的人相比，高饮酒量组的人在就餐时间饮酒患口腔癌的危险是低饮酒量组的10倍，咽癌是其7倍，食道癌16倍。相反，酒精高摄入且仅在就餐时饮酒的人患喉癌的危险是酒精低摄入且仅在就餐时饮酒的人的3倍。
“Alcohol can inflame tissues. Over time, that inflammation can trigger cancer.” Dal Maso says. He suspects that food reduced cancer risk either by partially coating digestive-tract tissues or by scrubbing alcohol off those tissues. He speculates that the reason laryngeal risks were dramatically lower for all study participants traces to the tissue’s lower exposure to alcohol.
“酒精能使组织发炎，一段时间后，炎症可引发癌症。”Dal Maso说。他认为食物降低了患癌症的危险，或是通过覆盖在消化道组织上或是通过将酒精从那些组织上擦除。他推测所有被研究者患喉癌的机率比其他癌症低很多的原因是组织被酒精侵害到的部分少。
1. Researchers have found that the risk of cancer in the mouth and neck is higher with people
A. who drink alcohol outside of meals.
B. who drink alcohol at meals.
C. who never drink alcohol.
D. who drink alcohol at bars and pubs.
2. Which of the following is NOT the conclusion made by the researchers about “drinking with meals”?
A. It has a lower risk of cancer than drinking without food.
B. It may also be a cause of cancer.
C. It increases by 20 percent the possibility of cancer in all sites.
D. It does not eliminate cancer risk at any of the sites.
3. Approximately how many drinks do the lowest-intake group average per day?
A. 3 drinks.
B. 8 drinks.
C. 20 drinks.
D. 50 drinks.
4. Which cancer risk is the lowest among all the four kinds of cancer mentioned in the passage?
A. Oral cancer
B. Laryngeal cancer(喉癌)
C. Pharyngeal cancer
D. Esophageal cancer
5. According to the last paragraph, tissue's lower exposure to alcohol
A. explains why inflammation triggers cancer.
B. accounts for why food can coat digestive-tract tissues.
C. is the reason why food can scrub alcohol off tissues.
D. reduces the risk of laryngeal cancer.
参考答案：ACADB
part2
"Life Form Found" on Saturn's Titan(土卫六上发现了生命迹象)
Scientists say they have discovered hints of alien life1 on the Saturn's moon2. The discovery of a sort of life was announced after researchers at the US space agency，NASA3，analyzed data from spacecraft Cassini4,which pointed to，the existence of methane-based form of life on Saturn's biggest moon.
科学家们说，在土卫六上发现了外星生命迹象并宣布了这一发现。美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的研究者们对卡西尼号探测器所传回来的数据进行了分析，数据表明，土星卫星中最大的一颗卫星有以甲烷为基础的生命的存在迹象。
Scientists have reportedly discovered clues showing primitive alien beings are "breathing" in Titan's dense atmosphere filled with hydrogen.
据报道，科学家们已经找到了在土卫六高浓度氢气大气层里“呼吸”的原始外星生命的线索。
They argue that hydrogen gets absorbed before hitting Titan's planet-like surface covered with methane lakes and rivers. This，they say，points to the existence of some"bugs"5 consuming the hydrogen at the surface of the moon less than half the size of the Earth.
他们认为，氢气在到达布满甲烷河流湖泊的土卫六类似行星一样的表层前就已经被吸收了。这就证明在这个不及半个地球大小的卫星表面有某种微生物在依靠氢气生存。
"We suggested hydrogen consumption because it's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan，similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth，"says NASA scientist Chris McKay."If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life，it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth."
美国国家航空航天局的科学家Chris Mckay说，“我们提出有氢气的消耗，是由于它是土卫六上生命赖以生存的显而易见的气体，就像我们地球上用氧气呼吸一样。如果这些迹象最终证明是生命的迹象，它会加倍令人兴奋，因为它会代表完全不同于地球上水基生命的第二种生命。”
To date，scientists have not yet detected this form of life anywhere，though there are liquid-water-based microorganisms on Earth that grow well on methane or produce it as a waste product. On Titan, where temperatures are around 90 Kelvin6(minus 290 degrees Farenheit) ，a methane based organism would have to use a substance that is liquid as its medium for living processes, but not water itself. Water is frozen solid on Titan's surface and much too cold to support life as we know it.
时至今日，尽管地球上的依赖液体水的微生物在甲烷里生长良好或把它作为废物排出，科学家在任何地方都没有探测到这种生命的形式。在土卫六上，绝对温度达到90度(相当于摄氏-273.15度)，依赖于甲烷的微生物不得不用某种液体物质作为生存的介质，这种液体不是水，水在土卫六上会冻成冰块，不能融化。我们知道，冰块太冷不能维持生命。
Scientists had expected the Sun's interactions with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce a coating of acetylene on Titan's surface. But Cassini detected no acetylene on the surface.
科学家们原指望太阳与大气层中的化学物质相互作用会在土卫六上产生一层乙炔。但卡西尼号在它的表面没有探测到乙炔。
The absence of detectable acetylene on the Titan's surface can very well have a non-biological explanation，said Mark Allen，a principal investigator7 of the NASA Titan team.
Mark Allen是美国宇航局土卫六项目组的主要负责人，他说道，既然在土卫六的表面没有探测到乙炔，那就充分说明上面没有生物。
"Scientific conservatism suggests that a biological explanation should be the last choice after all non-biological explanations are addressed，"Allen said. "We have a lot of work to do to rule out8 possible non-biological explanations. It is more likely that a chemical process，without biology，can explain these results."
Allen说：“科学界的保守主义者们建议，要做出土卫六上有生物的结论，首先必须对土卫六上所有没有生物的观点做出回应;要排除土卫六上可能没有生物的观点，我们任重道远。极为可能的是，一种化学过程而非生物学能解释这些结果。”
词汇：
Saturn /'sætən/ n.土星 methane/'mi:θein/ n.甲烷，沼气
Titan/'taitən/ n.土卫六 acetylene/ə'setili:n/ n.乙炔
alien/'eiljən/ n.外星人;adj.外星球的;相异的
conservatism/kən'sʒ:vətizəm/ n.保守主义,守旧
注释：
1.hints of alien life：外星生命迹象。
2.the Saturn's moon：指土卫六(Titan) 。土卫六又称泰坦星，是土星卫星中最大的一颗。
3.NASA：美国国家航空航天局的缩写，全称是： National Aeronautics and Space Administration。
4.spacecraft Cassini：卡西尼号探测器，以出生于意大利的法国天文学家卡西尼的名字命名，其任务是环绕土星飞行，对土星及其大气、光环、卫星和磁场进行深人考察。1997 年10 月15日，重六吨的“卡西尼”号星际探测器被发射飞往土星的轨道。这是上世纪发射的最后一艘行星际探测的大飞船。“卡西尼”号用了将近七年时间，在2004 年7月1日飞达土星轨道。
5.bugs：微生物。非正式口语表达，所以使用了引号。
6.Kelvin：可翻译成“绝对温度”。Kelvin Scale ，绝对温标，开氏温标，是由Kelvin 勋爵于19世纪中叶发明的温度计量方法，其零度相当于摄氏一273. 15" C ，被认为是宇宙中最低温度。这种温度计量方法多为科学家使用。
7.principal investigator：研究项目负责人
8.rule out：排除……的可能性