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1、大学英语四级考试阅读Matching题练习1Reading Passage 1AUSTRALIAS SPORTING SUCCESSA They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive
2、 network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports fo
3、r thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice.B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres
4、. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one - such as building muscle strength in golfers - to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. We cant
5、waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that dont help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance, says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS.C A lot of their work comes down to measurement - everything from the exact angle of a swimmers dive to the second-by-second powe
6、r output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. Its the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-
7、beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between stroke
8、s. From above, he analyses how her spine swivels. When fully developed, this system will enable him to build a biomechanical profile for coaches to use to help budding swimmers. Masons contribution to sport also includes the development of the SWAN (SWimming ANalysis)system now used in Australian na
9、tional competitions. It collects images from digital cameras running at 50 frames a second and breaks down each part of a swimmers performance into factors that can be analysed individually - stroke length, stroke frequency, average duration of each stroke, velocity, start, lap and finish times, and
10、 so on. At the end of each race, SWAN spits out data on each swimmerD Take a look, says Mason, pulling out a sheet of data. He points out the data on the swimmers in second and third place, which shows that the one who finished third actually swam faster. So why did he finish 35 hundredths of a seco
11、nd down? His turn times were 44 hundredths of a second behind the other guy, says Mason. If he can improve on his turns, he can do much better This is the kind of accuracy that AIS scientists research is bringing to a range of sports.With the Cooperative Research Centre for Micro Technology in Melbo
12、urne, they are developing unobtrusive sensors that will be embedded in an athletes clothes or running shoes to monitor heart rate, sweating, heat production or any other factor that might have an impact on an athletes ability to run. Theres more to it than simply measuring performance. Fricker gives
13、 the example of athletes who may be down with coughs and colds 11 or 12 times a year. After years of experimentation, AlS and the University of Newcastle in New South Wales developed a test that measures how much of the immune-system protein immunoglobulin A is present in athletes saliva. If IgA lev
14、els suddenly fall below a certain level, training is eased or dropped altogether. Soon, IgA levels start rising again, and the danger passes. Since the tests were introduced, AIS athletes in all sports have been remarkably successful at staying healthy.E Using data is a complex business. Well before
15、 a championship, sports scientists and coaches start to prepare the athlete by developing a competition model, based on what they expect will be the winning times. You design the model to make that time, says Mason. A start of this much, each free-swimming period has to be this fast, with a certain
16、stroke frequency and stroke length, with turns done in these times. All the training is then geared towards making the athlete hit those targets, both overall and for each segment of the race. Techniques like these have transformed Australia into arguably the worlds most successful sporting nation.F
17、 Of course, theres nothing to stop other countries copying-and many have tried. Some years ago, the AIS unveiled coolant-lined jackets for endurance athletes. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, these sliced as much as two per cent off cyclists and rowers times. Now everyone uses them. The same ha
18、s happened to the altitude tent, developed by AIS to replicate the effect of altitude training at sea level. But Australias success story is about more than easily copied technological fixes, and up to now no nation has replicated its all-encompassing system.Questions 1-7Reading Passage 1 has six pa
19、ragraphs, A-F.Which paragraph contains the following information?Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.NB You may use any letter more than once.1 a reference to the exchange of expertise between different sports2 an explanation of how visual imaging is employed in investig
20、ations3 a reason for narrowing the scope of research activity4 how some AIS ideas have been reproduced5 how obstacles to optimum achievement can be investigated6 an overview of the funded support of athletes7 how performance requirements are calculated before an eventReading Passage 2Why some women
21、cross the finish line ahead of men?A Women who apply for jobs in middle or senior management have a higher success rate than men, according to an employment survey. But of course far fewer of them apply for these positions. The study, by recruitment (征召新成员) consultants NB Selection, shows that while
22、 one in six men who appear on interview shortlist get jobs, the figure rises to one in four for women.B The study concentrated on application for management positions in the $45,000 to $110,000 salary range and found that women are more successful than men in both the private and public sectors. Dr
23、Elisaebeth Marx from London-based NB Selection describe the findings as encouraging for women, in that they send a positive message to them to apply for interesting management positions. But she added, “We should not lose sight of the fact that significantly fewer women apply for senior position in
24、comparison with men.”C Reasons for higher success rates among women are difficult to isolate. One explanation suggested is that if a woman candidate manages to get on a shortlist, then she has probably already proved herself to be an exceptional candidate. Dr. Marx said that when women apply for pos
25、itions they tend to be better qualified than their male counterparts but are more selective and conservative in their job search. Women tend to research thoroughly before applying for positions or attending interviews. Men, on the other hand, seem to rely on their ability to sell themselves and to c
26、onvince employers that any shortcomings they have will not prevent them from doing a good job.D Managerial and executive progress made by women is confirmed by the annual survey of boards of directors carried out by Korn International. This year the survey shows a doubling of the number of women ser
27、ving as non-executive directors compared with the previous year. However, progress remains painfully slow and there were still only 18 posts filled by women out of a total of 354 non-executive positions surveyed.E In Europe a recent feature of corporate life in the recession has been the de-layering
28、 of management structures. Hilary Sears said that this has halted progress for women in as much as de-layering has taken place either where women are working or in layers they aspire to. Sears also noted a positive trend from the recession, which has been the growing number of women who have started
29、 up on their own.F In business as a whole, there are a number of factors encouraging the prospect of greater equality in the workforce. Demographic trends suggest that the number of women going into employment is steadily increasing. In addition a far greater number of women are now passing through
30、higher education, making them better qualified to move into management positions. Organizations such as the European Womens Management Development Network provide a range of opportunities for women to enhance their skills and contacts.G However, Ariane Antal, director of the International Institute
31、for Organization Change for Archamps in France, said that there is only anecdotal evidence of changes in recruitment patterns. And she said: Its still so hard for women to even get on to shortlists -there are so many hurdles and barriers. She agreed that there have been some positive signs but said:
32、 Until there is a belief among employers, until they value the difference, nothing will change.Questions 14-19Reading Passage 2 has 7 paragraphs, A-G.Which paragraph contains the following information?Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.14. The drawbacks of current com
33、pany restructuring patterns.15. Associations that provide support for professional women. 16. The success rate of female job applicants for management positions.17. Male and female approaches to job applications.18. Reasons why some women are being employed in the business sector.19. The improvement
34、 in female numbers on company management structures. Reading Passage 3Play is a serious business A. Playing is a serious business. Children engrossed in a make-believe world, fox cubs play-fighting or kittens teaming a ball of string arent just having fun. Play may look like a carefree and exuberant
35、 way to pass the time before the hard work of adulthood comes along, but theres much more to it than that. For a start, play can even cost animals their lives. Eighty percent of deaths among juvenile fur seals occur because playing pups fail to sport predators approaching. It is also extremely expen
36、sive in terms of energy. Playful young animals use around two or three per cent of energy cavorting, and in children that figure can be closer to fifteen per cent. Even two or three per cent is huge, says John Byers of Idaho University. You just dont find animals wasting energy like that, he adds. T
37、here must be a reason.B. But if play is not simply a developmental hiccup, as biologists once thought, why did it evolve? The latest idea suggests that play has evolved to build big brains. In other words, playing makes you intelligent. Playfulness, it seems, is common only among mammals, although a
38、 few of the larger-brained birds also indulge. Animals at play often use unique signs tail-wagging in dogs, for example to indicate that activity superficially resembling adult behavior is not really in earnest. In popular explanation of play has been that it helps juveniles develop the skills they
39、will need to hunt, mate and socialise as adults. Another has been that it allows young animals to get in shape for adult life by improving their respiratory endurance. Both these ideas have been questioned in recent years.C. Take the exercise theory. If play evolved to build muscle or as a kind of e
40、ndurance training, then you would expect to see permanent benefits. But Byers points out that the benefits of increased exercise disappear rapidly after training stops, so many improvement in endurance resulting from juvenile play would be lost by adulthood. If the function of play was to get into s
41、hape, says Byers, the optimum time for playing would depend on when it was most advantageous for the young of a particular species to do so. But it doesnt work like that. Across species, play tends to peak about halfway through the suckling stage and then decline.D. Then theres the skills- training
42、hypothesis. At first glance, playing animals do appear to be practising the complex manoeuvres they will need in adulthood. But a closer inspection reveals this interpretation as too simplistic. In one study, behavioural ecologist Tim Caro, from the University of California, looked at the predatory
43、play of kittens and their predatory behaviour when they reached adulthood. He found that the way the cats played had no significant effect on their hunting prowess in later life.E. Earlier this year, Sergio Pellis of Lethbridge University, Canada, reported that there is a strong positive link betwee
44、n brain size and playfulness among mammals in general. Comparing measurements for fifteen orders of mammals, he and his team found large brains (for a given body size) are linked to greater playfulness. The converse was also found to be true. Robert Barton of Durham University believes that, because
45、 large brains are more sensitive to developmental stimuli than smaller brains, they require more play to help mould them for adulthood. I concluded its to do with learning, and with the importance of environmental data to the brain during development, he says.F. According to Byers, the timing of the
46、 playful stage in young animals provides an important clue to whats going on. If you plot the amount of time juvenile devotes to play each day over the course of its development, you discover a pattern typically associated with a sensitive period a brief development window during which the brain can
47、 actually be modified in ways that are not possible earlier or later in life. Think of the relative ease with which young children but not infants or adults absorb language. Other researchers have found that play in cats, rats and mice is at its most intense just as this window of opportunity” reach
48、es its peak.G. People have not paid enough attention to the amount of the brain activated by plays, says Marc Bekoff from Colorado University. Bekoff studied coyote pups at play and found that the kind of behaviour involved was markedly more variable and unpredictable than that of adults. Such behaviour activates many different parts of the brain, he reasons. Bekoff likens it to a behavioural kaleidoscope, with animals at play jumping rapidly between activities. They use behaviour from a lot of different contexts predation, aggression, reproduction,