GRE试题一(2)（在线收听） |
| 16. UPBRAlD : REPROACH :: (A) dote : like (B) lal: : stray (C) vex : please (D) earn : desire (E) recast : explain Directions: Each passage in this group is followed by questions based on its content. After reading a passage, choose the best answer to each question. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage. lt has been known for many decades that the appear- ance of sunspots is roughly periodic, with an average cycle of eleven years. Moreover, the incidence of solar flares and the flux of solar cosmic rays, ultraviolet radia- tion, and x-radiation all vary directly with the sunspot (5) cycle. But after more than a century of investigation. the relation of these and other phenomena, known collec- tively as the solar-activity cycle, to terrescrial weather and climate remains unclear. For example. the sunspot cycle and the allied rnagnetic-polarity cycle have been (10) linked to periodicities discerned in records of such vari- ables as rainhll. temperature, and winds. lnvariably, however, the relation is weak. and commonly ofdubious statistical significance. Effects of solar variability over longer terms have also (15) been sought. The absence of recorded sunspot activity in the notes kept by European observers in the late seven- teenth and early eighteenth centuries has led some schol- ars to postulate a brief cessation of sunspot activity at that time (a period called the Maunder minimum). The (20) Maunder minimum has been linked to a span of unusual cold in Europe extending from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. The reality of the Maunder mini- mum has yet to be established, however, especially since the records that Chinese naked-eye observers of solar (25) activity made at that time appear to contradict it. Scien- tists have also sought evidence of long-term solar period- icities by examining indirect climatological data, such as fossil recoras of the thickness of ancient tree rings. These studies, however, failed to link unequivocally terrestrial(30) climate and the solar-activity cycle, or even to contirm the cycle’s past existenue. If consistPn! and re!iab!e geo!sgigal~-arek-xologieal evidence tracing the solar-activity cycle in the distant past could be found, it might also resolve an important(35) issue in solar physics: how to model solar activity. Cur- rently, chere are two models of solar activity. The tirst supposes that the Sun’s internal motions (caused by rotation and convection) interact with its large-scale magnetic field to produce a dynamo. a device in which(40) mechanical energy is converted into the energy of a mag- netic field. ln short. the Sun’s large-scale magnetic field is taken to be self-sustaining, so that the solar-activity cycle it drives would be maintained with little overall changc for perhaps billions of years. The alternative(45) exp)anarion supposes that the Sun’s large-sca)e magnetic field is a remnant of the field the Sun acquired when it formed, and is not sustained against decay. In this model. the solar mechanism dependent on the Sun’s magnetiC field runs down more quickly. Thus, the char-(50) acteristics of the solar-activity cycle uvuld be expected to change over a long period of time. Modern solar obser- vations span too short a time to reveal whether present cyclical solar aCtivity is a long-lived feature of the Sun, or merely a transient phenomenon. 17. The author focuses primarily on (A) presenting two competing scientific theories concerning solar activity and evaluating geological evidence often cited to support them (B) giving a brief overview of some recent scientifrc developments in s’olar physics and assessing their impact on future climatological research (C) discussing the difficulties involved in linkinl: ter- restrial phenomena with solar activity and indicating how resolving that issue could have an impact on our understanding of solar physics (D) pointing out the futility of a certain line of sci- entific inquiry into the terrestrial effects of solar activity and recommendine ita aban- donment in favor of purely physics-oriented research (E) outlinine the specific reasons why a problem in solar physics has not yet been solved and faulting the overly theoretical approach of modern physicists. 18. Which of th.e following statements about the two models of solar activity. as they are described in lines 37-55, is accurate? (A) In both modgls cyclical solar activity is regarded as a long-lived feature of the Sun, persisting with little change over billions of years. (B) Tn both models the solar-activity cycle is hypothesized as being dependent on the large-scale solar magnetic field. (C) Tn one model the Sun’s magnetic fieid is thought to play a role in causing solar activ- ity, whereas in the other model it is not. (D) In one model solar activity is presumed to be unrelated to terrestrial phenomena. whereas in the other model solar activity is thought to have observable effects on the Earth. (E) In one model cycles of solar activity with peri- odicities longer than a few decades are con- sidered to be impossible, whereas in the other model such cycles are predicted. 19. According to the passage, late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Chinese records are impor- tant for which of the following reasons? (A) They suggest that the data on which the Maunder minimum was predicated were incorrect. (B) They syggest that the Maunder minimum can- not be related to climate. (C) Thcy suggest that the Maunder minimum might be \-’alid only for Europe. (D) They establish the existence of a span of unusu- ally cold weather worldwide at the time of the Maunder minimum. (E) They establish that solar activity at the tirne of the Maunder minimum did not significantly vary from its present pattern. 20. The author implies which of the followine about currently available geological and archaeoloeical evidence concerning the solar-activity cycle? (A) It best supports the model of solar activity described in lines 37-45. (B) It best supports the model of solar activity described in lines 45-52. (C) It is insufficient to confirtn either model of solar activity described in the third paragraph. (D) It contradicts both models of solar activity as they are presented in the third paragraph. (E) It disproves the theory that terrestrial weather and solar activitv are linked in some way. 21. Tt can be inferred from the passage that the argu- ment in favor of the model described in lines 37- 45 would be strengthened if which of the following were found ta he tme? (A) Episodes of intense volcanic eruptions in the distant past occurred in cycles having very long periodicities. (B) At the present time the global level of thunder- storm activity increases and decreases in cycles with periodicities of approximately 11 years. (C) In the distant past cyclical climatic changes had periodicities of longer than 200 years. (D) In the last century the length of the sunspot cycle has been known to vary by as much as 2 years from its average periodicity of 11 years. (E) Hundreds of millions of years ago, solar- activity cycles displayed the same periodicities as do present-day solap-activity cycles. 22. lt can be inferred from the passage that Chinese observations of the Sun during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (A) are ambiguous because most sunspots cannot be seen with the naked eye (B) probably were made under the same weather conditions as those made in Europe (C) are more reliable than European observations . made during this period (D) record some sunspot activity during this period (E) have been employed by scientists seeking to argue that a change in solar activity occurred during this period. 23. It can be inferred from the passage that studies attempting to use tree-ring thickness to locate possi- ble links between solar periodicity and terrestrial climate are based on which of the following assump- tions? (A) The solar-activity cycle existed in its present form during the time period in which the tree rings erew. (B) The biological mechanisms causing tree growth are unaffected by short-term weather pat- terns. (C) Average tree-ring thickness varies from species to species. (D) Tree-ring thicknesses reflecr changes in terres- trial climate. (E) Both terrestrial climate and the solar-activity cycle randomly af~ct tree-ring thickness. The common belief of some linguists that each language is a perfect vehicle for the thoughts of the nation speaking it is in some ways the exact counterpart of the conviction of the Manchester school of economics that supply and demand will regulate everything for the(5) best. Just as economists were blind to the numerous cases in which the law of supply and demand left actual wants unsatisfied, so also many linguists are deaf to those instances in which the very nature of a ianguage calls forth misunderstandings in everyday conversation,(10) and in which, consequently, a word has to be modified or defined in order to present the idea intended by the speaker: "He took his stick,no, not John’s, but his own." No language is perfec’t, and if we admit this truth, we must also admit that it is not unreasonable to investi-(15) gate the relative merits of different languages or of different details in languages. |
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