劍橋雅思閱讀9(test1)原文答案解析

雅思閱讀部分的真題資料，同學們需要進行一些細緻的總結，比如說解析其實就是很重要的內容，接下來就是本站小編給同學們帶來的關於劍橋雅思閱讀9原文解析(test1)的內容，一起來詳細的分析一下吧，希望對你們的備考有所幫助。

劍橋雅思閱讀9原文(test1)

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

William Henry Perkin

The man who invented synthetic dyes

William Henry Perkin was born on March 12, 1838, in London, England. As a boy, Perkin’s curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences, photography, and engineering. But it was a chance stumbling upon a run-down, yet functional, laboratory in his late grandfather’s home that solidified the young man’s enthusiasm for chemistry.

As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the study of chemistry. His talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by his teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by the eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Those speeches fired the young chemist’s enthusiasm further, and he later went on to attend the Royal College of Chemistry, which he succeeded in entering in 1853, at the age of 15.

At the time of Perkin’s enrolment, the Royal College of Chemistry was headed by the noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin’s scientific gifts soon caught Hofmann’s attention and, within two years, he became Hofmann’s youngest assistant. Not long after that, Perkin made the scientific breakthrough that would bring him both fame and fortune.

At the time, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria. The drug is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South America, and by 1856 demand for the drug was surpassing the available supply. Thus, when Hofmann made some passing comments about the desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it was unsurprising that his star pupil was moved to take up the challenge.

During his vacation in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the top floor of his family’s house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine from aniline, an inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product. Despite his best efforts, however, he did not end up with quinine. Instead, he produced a mysterious dark sludge. Luckily, Perkin’s scientific training and nature prompted him to investigate the substance further. Incorporating potassium dichromate and alcohol into the aniline at various stages of the experimental process, he finally produced a deep purple solution. And, proving the truth of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur’s words ‘chance favours only the prepared mind’, Perkin saw the potential of his unexpected find.

Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as plants and animal excretions. Some of these, such as the glandular mucus of snails, were difficult to obtain and outrageously expensive. Indeed, the purple colour extracted from a snail was once so costly in society at the time only the rich could afford it. Further, natural dyes tended to be muddy in hue and fade quickly. It was against this backdrop that Perkin’s discovery was made.

Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to colour fabric, thus making it the world’s first synthetic dye. Realising the importance of this breakthrough, he lost no time in patenting it. But perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin’s reactions to his find was his nearly instant recognition that the new dye had commercial possibilities.

Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the colour violet). He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar, who assured him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth it if the colour remained fast (i.e. would not fade) and the cost was relatively low. So, over the fierce objections of his mentor Hofmann, he left college to give birth to the modern chemical industry.

With the help of his father and brother, Perkin set up a factory not far from London. Utilising the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost unlimited byproduct of London’s gas street lighting, the dye works began producing the world’s first synthetically dyed material in 1857. The company received a commercial boost from the Empress Eugenie of France, when she decided the new colour flattered her. Very soon, mauve was the necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in that country. Not to be outdone, England’s Queen Victoria also appeared in public wearing a mauve gown, thus making it all the rage in England as well. The dye was bold and fast, and the public clamoured for more. Perkin went back to the drawing board.

Although Perkin’s fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first discovery, the chemist continued his research. Among other dyes he developed and introduced were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863) and, in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green. It is important to note that Perkin’s synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far beyond the merely decorative. The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways. For instance, they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria, allowing researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have been particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a vaccine against malaria.

Questions 1-7

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1 Michael Faraday was the first person to recognise Perkin’s ability as a student of chemistry.

2 Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enrol in the Royal College of Chemistry.

3 Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.

4 Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich and famous.

5 The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.

6 Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.

7 Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur.

Questions 8-13

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

8 Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?

9 What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?

10 What was the name finally used to refer to the first colour Perkin invented?

11 What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his own dye works?

12 In what country did Perkin’s newly invented colour first become fashionable?

13 According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using synthetic dyes?

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.

Questions 14-17

Reading Passage 2 has five paragraphs, A-E.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i Seeking the transmission of radio signals from planets

ii Appropriate responses to signals from other civilisations

iii Vast distances to Earth’s closest neighbours

iv Assumptions underlying the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

v Reasons for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

vi Knowledge of extra-terrestrial life forms

vii Likelihood of life on other planets

Example Answer

Paragraph A v

14 Paragraph B

15 Paragraph C

16 Paragraph D

17 Paragraph E

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence

The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life.

A

The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we haven’t yet discovered.

B

In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists don’t consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water.

C

Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms.

D

An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the world’s largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

E

There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. It’s not important, then, if there’s a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply.

Questions 18-20

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18-20 on your answer sheet.

18 What is the life expectancy of Earth?

19 What kind of signals from other intelligent civilisations are SETI scientists searching for?

20 How many stars are the world’s most powerful radio telescopes searching?

Questions 21-26

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

21 Alien civilisations may be able to help the human race to overcome serious problems.

22 SETI scientists are trying to find a life form that resembles humans in many ways.

23 The Americans and Australians have co-operated on joint research projects.

24 So far SETI scientists have picked up radio signals from several stars.

25 The NASA project attracted criticism from some members of Congress.

26 If a signal from outer space is received, it will be important to respond promptly.

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

The history of the tortoise

If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history, enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land, sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we mustn’t forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land none of the other migrations could have happened.

Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thorough going land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales (including the small whales we call dolphins) and dugongs, with their close cousins the manatees, ceased to be land creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don’t even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their eggs on beaches.

There is evidence that all modern turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Proganochelys quenstedti and Plaeochersis talampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the ancestry of all modern turtles and tortoises. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived on land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it’s obvious. Ichthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs.

Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier, at Yale University, obtained three measurements in these particular bones of 71 species of living turtles and tortoises. They used a kind of triangular graph paper to plot the three measurements against one another. All the land tortoise species formed a tight cluster of points in the upper part of the triangle; all the water turtles cluster in the lower part of the triangular graph. There was no overlap, except when they added some species that spend time both in water and on land. Sure enough, these amphibious species show up on the triangular graph approximately half way between the ‘wet cluster’ of sea turtles and the ‘dry cluster’ of land tortoises. The next step was to determine where the fossils fell. The bones of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis leave us in no doubt. Their points on the graph are right in the thick of the dry cluster. Both these fossils were dry-land tortoises. They come from the era before our turtles returned to the water.

You might think, therefore, that modern land tortoises have probably stayed on land ever since those early terrestrial times, as most mammals did after a few of them went back to the sea. But apparently not. If you draw out the family three of all modern turtles and tortoises, nearly all the branches are aquatic. Today’s land tortoises constitute a single branch, deeply nested among branches consisting of aquatic turtles. This suggests that modern land tortoises have not stayed on land continuously since the time of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis. Rather, their ancestors were among those who went back to the water, and they then reemerged back onto the land in (relatively) more recent times.

Tortoises therefore represent a remarkable double return. In common with all mammals, reptiles and birds, their remote ancestors were marine fish and before that various more or less worm-like creatures stretching back, still in the sea, to the primeval bacteria. Later ancestors lived on land and stayed there for a very large number of generations. Later ancestors still evolved back into the water and became sea turtles. And finally they returned yet again to the land as tortoises, some of which now live in the driest of deserts.

Questions 27-30

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.

27 What had to transfer from sea to land before any animals could migrate?

28 Which TWO processes are mentioned as those in which animals had to make big changes as they moved onto lands?

29 Which physical feature, possessed by their ancestors, do whales lack?

30 which animals might ichthyosaurs have resembled?

Questions 31-33

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 31-33 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

31 Turtles were among the first group of animals to migrate back to the sea.

32 It is always difficult to determine where an animal lived when its fossilised remains are incomplete.

33 The habitat of ichthyosaurs can be determined by the appearance of their fossilised remains.

Questions 34-39

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 34-39 on your answer sheet.

Method of determining where the ancestors of turtles and tortoises come from

Step 1

71 species of living turtles and tortoises were examined and a total of 34 ……………………. were taken from the bones of their forelimbs.

Step 2

The data was recorded on a 35 ……………….. (necessary for comparing the information).

Outcome: Land tortoises were represented by a dense 36 …………………………… of points towards the top.

Sea turtles were grouped together in the bottom part.

Step 3

The same data was collected from some living 37 ………………. species and added to the other results.

Outcome: The points for these species turned out to be positioned about 38 ……………… up the triangle between the land tortoises and the sea turtles.

Step 4

Bones of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis were examined in a similar way and the results added.

Outcome: The position of the points indicated that both these ancient creatures were 39…………..

Question 40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.

According to the writer, the most significant thing about tortoises is that

A they are able to adapt to life in extremely dry environments.

B their original life form was a kind of primeval bacteria.

C they have so much in common with sea turtles.

D they have made the transition from sea to land more than once.

　　劍橋雅思閱讀9原文參考譯文(test1)

PASSAGE 1參考譯文：

William Henry Perkin 合成染料的發明者

Wiliam Henry Perkin於1838年3月12日出生於英國倫敦。還是個小男孩兒的時候，Perkin的好奇心就早早激發了他對藝術、科學、攝影與工程的興趣。但是一次偶然的機會，他發現已故祖父家有一個破舊但功能齊全的實驗室，正是這個發現使得這位年輕人確定了他對化學的熱情。

當Perkin就讀於倫敦城市學院時，他開始沉浸於對化學的研究。他的老師Thomas Hall發現了他在化學方面的天賦與熱忱，鼓勵其參加皇家學院著名科學家Michael Faraday的一系列講座。Faraday的講座進一步激發了這位年輕化學家的熱情，於是後來，在1853年，15歲的Perkin成功進入皇家化學學院學習。

在Perkin入學時，皇家化學學院的院長正是著名的德國化學家August Wilhelm Hofmann。Perkin的科學天賦很快引起了Hofmann的注意，不到兩年他就成了Hofmann最年輕的助理。不久之後，Perkin就取得了一項能爲他帶來名譽和財富的科學突破。

當時，奎寧是唯一可以治療瘧疾的藥物。這種藥物是從原產自南美洲的金雞納樹的樹皮中提煉出來的，而在1856年奎寧經常供不應求。因此，當Hofmann隨口提到想用合成藥物來替代奎寧時，自然而然，他的得意門生Perkin馬上承擔起了這項重任。

1856年，Perkin整個假期都待在他家頂樓的實驗室裏。他試圖利用苯胺這種廉價又易得的煤焦油廢料來製造奎寧。雖然他盡了最大努力，他最終並沒有製造出奎寧;但卻製造出了一種神祕的黑色沉澱物。幸運的是，長期的科學訓練與自身的天性使他對該沉澱物進行了深入的研究。在實驗過程中的不同階段，他把重鉻酸鉀和酒精加入苯胺中，最終他得到了一種深紫色的溶液。正如著名科學家Louis Pasteur所說，“機會總是垂青有準備的人”，Perkin意識到了他的意外發明擁有巨大的潛力。

歷來，紡織染料都是由諸如植物與動物排泄物等的天然原料製成的，其中一些原料，比如蝸牛黏液， 很難獲得，而且價格極其昂貴。事實上，從蝸牛身上提取出來的紫色染料曾經一度非常貴，在當時的社會條件下，只有富人才能買得起。此外，天然染料的顏色偏渾濁而且很快就會褪色。Perkin的發明正是在這種大背景下誕生的。

Perkin很快想到這種紫色溶液可以用到織物的染色中，由此使其成爲世界上第一種合成染料。意識到這項突破的重要性後，Perkin立即爲其申請專利。但是在Perkin對自己發明的各種反應中，最有趣的也許是他幾乎本能地想到這種新染料具有商業潛力。

起初Perkin把他發明的染料命名爲泰爾紫(Tyrian Purple)，但是後來人們通常稱其爲木槿紫(mauve，法語中製造藍紫色染料的植物的名字)。Perkin向蘇格蘭染料坊的老闆Robert Pullar尋求建議，Pullar向他保證，如果這種顏色不會褪色，那麼加工這種染料將大有“錢途”，而且成本相對低廉。因此，儘管他的導師Hofmann極力反對，Perkin還是離開了皇家學院，去爲現代化學工業的誕生而奮鬥了。

在父親與兄弟的幫助下，Perkin在離倫敦不遠的地方建立了一家工廠。1857年，他的染料坊開始生產世界上第一種合成染料，所用原料是廉價而充足的煤焦油，這種煤焦油是倫敦煤氣路燈所產生的幾乎無窮無盡的副產品。當法國皇后Eugenie看好這種新顏色後，Perkin的染料坊迎來了它的商業繁榮期。不久，木槿紫 就成了法國所有時尚女郎的必備品。英國女王Victoria也不甘示弱，身着木槿紫禮服出現在公共場合，這使得木槿紫在英國也風靡一時。這種染料顏色醒目、不易褪色，人們的需求越來越多，因此Perkin開始繪製新的藍圖。

雖然第一項發現使Perkin收穫了名譽和財富，但是這位化學家仍然繼續他的研究工作。他合成並給人們帶來了衆多其他顏色的染料，包括1859年合成的苯胺紅、1863年合成的苯胺黑，以及19世紀60年代末期的帕金綠。值得注意的是，Perkin的合成染料的發明不僅爲裝飾領域作出了貢獻，而且在醫學研究的諸多方面也起到了至關重要的作用。比如合成染料預先被用於給肉眼看不見的微生物與細菌上色，這就使研究者能夠辨別諸如肺結核、霍亂和炭疽之類的病菌。如今，人工合成染料還在繼續發揮着至關重要的作用。而且，最應該讓Perkin感到欣慰的是，合成染料目前正在被用於研究治療瘧疾的疫苗。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 2 參考譯文：

外星有生命存在嗎?

——搜尋外星文明計劃

人類是否是宇宙中唯一存在的生命這個問題已經困擾我們幾百年了，然而隨着搜索來自其他智慧文明的無線電信號，現在我們或許離這個問題的答案已經不遠了。這項也被稱爲SETI (search for extra?terrestrial intelligence, 搜尋外星文明)的計劃進行起來非常困難。雖然世界各地的團體已經斷斷續續地搜尋了三十多年，然而直到現在，我們所達到的技術水平才允許我們下定決心去嘗試搜尋附近所有附近星球上的任何生命跡象。

A 人類之所以搜索無線電信號，主要是出於一種基本的好奇心，正是這種對大自然的好奇心推動了所有純科學的發展。我們想知道人類是否是宇宙中唯一存在的生命。我們想知道在適宜的條件下，生命是否會自然形成。我們還想知道地球上是否存在某種特殊的物質，孕育了那些我們司空見慣的各種形式的生命體。只需監測一下無線電信號，這些最根本的問題就能夠得到充分解答。從這種意義上來說，SETI 是純科學系統發展的又一個重要推動力，而純科學正不斷拓寬着人類的知識範圍。然而，人類之所以對其他地方是否存在生命這件事感興趣，還有其他原因。比如，我們地球上的文明歷史只有寥寥數千年，而過去幾十年的核戰爭與污染的威脅告訴人類，我們的生命也許很脆弱。我們還能再延續兩千年嗎?還是將自我滅絕呢?既然像地球這樣的星球擁有數十億年的壽命，我們可以猜想，如果銀河系中確實還有其他文明存在，那麼它們的歷史可能從零到數十億年不等。因此，如果我們收到其他文明的信號，那它們的平均歷史很有可能比人類歷史長得多。只要這種文明存在，就說明生命是有可能長期存活的，同時也會帶給我們一個保持樂觀的理由。這些更古老的文明甚至有可能將其在應對生存威脅過程中積累下來的有益經驗傳授給我們，例如如何應對核戰爭與全球污染帶來的威脅，以及如何應對其他我們尚未發現的潛在威脅。

B 在探討我們是否是宇宙中唯一存在的生命時，大多數SETI的科學家遵循兩個基本原則。第一，UFOs (不明飛行物) 通常不在考慮範圍內，因爲大多數科學家認爲UFO的存在缺乏確鑿的證據，不做慎重考慮(儘管保持開放的思想也很重要，同時以防將來會出現令人信服的(關於UFO的)證據)。第二，我們保守地假定我們正在搜尋的生命形式和人類非常相似，如果完全不同，那麼我們可能不會把它看作是一種生命形式，更不用說能否與它進行交流了。換句話說，我們正在搜尋的生命形式也許會有兩個綠色的腦袋和七根手指，但是它們和人類一樣，能與同伴進行交流、對宇宙充滿興趣、生活在一個圍繞恆星公轉的星球上，就像地球繞着太陽轉一樣。也許更嚴格地說，它們和我們一樣，由基本的化學物質碳和水構成。

C 即使做出了這些假設，我們對其他生命形式的瞭解還是非常有限。比如，我們甚至不知道多少顆恆星有行星圍繞，當然，我們也不知道在適宜的條件下，生命自然形成的可能性有多大。然而，當我們觀測銀河系中的1000億顆恆星和可見宇宙中的1000億個星系的時候，很難相信這些恆星中沒有一個有生命存在。事實上，憑藉我們僅有的一點對碳基生命的瞭解，我們所能做出的最有根據的推測是，或許每十萬個恆星中的一個會有孕育着生命的行星圍繞着它運轉。這意味着我們最近的鄰居離我們也許只有100 光年，從天文學角度來講，這幾乎就相當於和隔壁鄰居的距離了。

D 外星文明可以選擇多種不同的方式在銀河系中發送信息，但是許多方式要麼需要消耗過多的能量，要麼在銀河系中長距離傳播時嚴重衰減。事實證明，在發射功率一定的情況下，頻率在1000到3000兆赫 之間的無線電波傳播的距離最遠，所以到目前爲止，我們主要在搜尋這個頻率範圍的無線電波。迄今爲止，世界各地已經有許多不同的團體進行了多次搜尋，包括澳大利亞在新南威爾士的帕克斯用無線電天文望遠鏡進行的搜尋。直到現在，在已經搜尋過的幾百個恆星中還沒有任何發現。1992年，美國國會計劃在以後的十年裏每年爲美國國家航空航天局投資1000萬美元，用於對外星生命進行徹底搜尋。從那時起，搜尋的規模便開始大幅增加。項目中的很多資金用於開發可以同時搜索多個頻率的特殊硬件 上。該項目分爲兩個部分，一部分是利用世界上最大的無線電天文望遠鏡進行有針對性的搜尋，分別通過位於波多黎各阿雷西沃港的、由美國操作的望遠鏡和位於法國南錫的、由法國操作的望遠鏡來完成。 這部分項目在距離最近的有可能接收到信號的1000顆活躍恆星中，對1000到3000兆赫的頻率進行搜索。該項目的另一部分是利用美國國家航空航天局深空網的小天線進行不定向搜尋，監控所有不太活躍的宇宙空間。

E 如果我們真的發現了來自外星文明的信號，我們應該如何迴應呢?這是一個備受爭議的問題。所有人都認爲我們不應該立即作出迴應。且不說要馬上向如此遙遠的地方發出迴應是多麼不切實際，這還會引發一系列的民族問題，這些問題在迴應被髮出去之前必須由國際社會聯合解決。如果面對一種更優越、更古老的文明，人類會不會面臨着文化衝擊呢?幸運的是，我們不需要立即作出迴應，因爲被搜尋的恆星離我們有數百光年之遠，它們的信號到達我們這裏需要數百年的時間，而我們作出的迴應到達這些恆星又需要花上數百年。就這一點而言，當人類在爭論是否要作出迴應時，或者在精心起草迴應內容的時候，再耽誤個幾年甚至幾十年也沒關係。

TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 參考譯文：

烏龜的進化史

如果追溯到遠古時代，那時一切生物都生活在水裏。在進化史的不同時期，各個動物種羣中都有一些膽大的開始向陸地遷徙，有的甚至跑到了非常乾旱的沙漠裏，這些生物的血液與細胞液裏還儲存着曾經所生活海域裏的海水。除了我們周圍隨處可見的爬行動物、鳥類、哺乳動物和昆蟲以外，其他成功登陸的生物還包括蠍子、蝸牛和潮蟲、陸蟹、千足蟲、蜈蚣等甲殼類動物，還有蜘蛛及各種蟲子。當然還有植物，如杲沒有它們率先登陸，其他任何生物都不可能在陸地上生存。

從水裏轉移到陸地上使這些生物在方方面面都發生了巨大變化，包括呼吸和繁殖方式。然而，一大批動物徹底在陸地上安家後，卻忽然回心轉意，放棄了來之不易的陸上新生活，又重新回到了水中。海豹只恢復了部分水中生活的特徵，向我們展示了演變過程中半成品的模樣，而成品則是如鯨魚和儒艮這樣純粹的海洋生物。鯨魚(包括我們稱作海豚的小鯨魚)和儒艮，與它們的同類動物海牛一樣不再是陸地動物，而是完全恢復了與老祖先一樣的海洋生活習慣，它們甚至都不上岸繁殖。它們雖然仍呼吸空氣，卻沒有進化出類似於鰓這樣的早期海洋生物的器官。海龜在很早以前就回到了水中，和其他返回水中的脊椎動物一 樣，它們也需要呼吸空氣，但是卻沒有像鯨魚和儒艮那樣完全返回水中，這體現在一個方面——海龜仍然在海灘上產卵。

有證據表明，所有現代海龜的祖先都曾經生活在陸地上，比大多數恐龍在陸地上出現的時間還要早。 有兩種可以追溯到恐龍時代早期的重要化石，分別是Proganochelys quenstedti (原顎龜化石)和 Potoeocfeersis tatompayewsis(古老的陸地龜化石)，它們與所有現代海龜和烏龜的祖先最爲接近。你可能會問，我們是如何通過動物化石來判斷它們是生活在水中還是陸地上的，尤其當我們只找到一些化石碎片的時候。有時候這個問題的答案很明顯。魚龍是與恐龍同時代的爬行動物，它有魚鰭和流線型的身體。魚龍化石看起來像海豚，它們確實和海豚一樣曾經在水中生活。海龜在這一點上則沒有這麼明顯。判斷動物水生還是陸生的方法之一就是對它們前肢的骨骼進行檢測。

耶魯大學的Watter Joyce和Jacques Gauthier從三個方面對71種活的海龜和烏龜的特有骨骼進行了檢測。他們用一種三角座標紙分別標記了這三個方面的檢測結果。所有陸棲烏龜的數據在三角座標的上半部分形成了一簇密集的點，而所有水棲海龜的數據集中於下半部分。兩部分數據沒有重疊，除非在其中增加一些水陸兩棲烏龜的檢測結果。當然，這些數據出現在接近三角座標中間的位置，位於水棲海龜與陸棲烏龜的座標點之間。下一步就是確定具體的位置。毫無疑問，P. quenstedti與P. totompayewsis的座標點正好位於陸棲烏龜的座標點最密集的地方。這兩種化石都是陸棲烏龜化石，而且都生存在海龜返回水裏之前的時代。

也許你會認爲，現代的陸棲烏龜可能自從早期有陸地生物以來就一直生活在陸地上，就像除了少數哺乳動物返回水中以外，大多數哺乳動物還在陸地上生活一樣。但事實顯然不是這樣的。如果你畫出所有現代海龜與烏龜的家譜圖，會發現幾乎所有的龜類分支都屬於水棲動物。而現代的陸棲烏龜單獨形成一個分支，穿插在水棲海龜的分支中。這說明自P. quenstedti與P. talampayensis的時代以來，現代的陸棲烏龜並沒有一直在陸地上生活。更確切地說，它們的祖先曾經返回水中，只是在(相對)較近的年代又回到了陸地上。

因此很明顯，烏龜曾往返於水中和陸地上生存。與所有的哺乳動物、爬行動物和鳥類一樣，烏龜的老祖先是海洋中的魚類。再向前追溯，它們也是海洋中類似蠕蟲生物的原始細菌。後來，烏龜的祖先來到陸地 上並持續生活了相當長的年代，但後來又回到了水中，成爲了水棲海龜。直到最後，它們再一次回到陸地上，成爲陸龜，其中有一些甚至生活在乾旱的沙漠中。

劍橋雅思閱讀9原文解析(test1)

Passage1

Question 1

答案： FALSE

關鍵詞： Michael Faraday the first person

定位原文: 第2段第2句“His talent and devotion…” 他的老師Thomas Hall發現了他在化學方面的天賦與熱忱，鼓勵其參加皇家學院著名科學家Michael Faraday的一系列講座。

解題思路: 從這句話很容易看出，Thomas Hall是文中提到的第一個發現Perkin化學天賦的人，儘管文中沒有用到the first person這樣的確切說法，但是看完第二段就不難發現，這點的確是對的。因此，題中的說法與文中的事實相反。

Question 2

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： Michael Faraday, Royal College of Chemistry，suggested

定位原文： 第2段第3句“Those speeches fired…” Faraday的講座進一步激發了這位年輕化學家的熱情，在1853年，15歲的Perkin成功進入皇家化學學院學習。

解題思路： 這句話僅僅告訴我們，Perkin是在聽了Faraday的講座後，對化學的激情更加澎湃，進而考上了皇家化學學院，而並沒有提到Faraday與Perkin進行直接接觸或溝通，所以題目是對文章中出現的人和事的過分解讀。

Question 3

答案： FALSE

關鍵詞： employed, assistant，August Wilhelm Hofmann

定位原文： 第3段第1、2句“At the time of Perkin’s enrolment, the…” 在Perkin入學時，皇家化學學院的院長正是著名的德國化學家August Wilhelm Hofmann。Perkin的科學天賦很快引起了Hofmann的注意，不到兩年他就成了Hofmann最年輕的助理。

解題思路：從這兩句話中可以清晰地看出Perkin和Hofmann之間的關係，前者是後者最年輕的助理， 題目的說法和文中的陳述是直接牴觸的。

Question 4

答案： TRUE

關鍵詞： rich and famous，still young

對應原文： 第3段最後一句“Not long after that, Perkin made…” 在這之後不久，Perkin就取得一項能爲他帶來名譽和財富的科學突破。

解題思路： 這裏的“不久之後”，指的是Perkin成爲Hofmann最年輕的助手之後，而成爲助手是Perkin入學兩年後的事情，第二段最後專門提到Perkin入學時只有15歲，所以可以推測出Perkin作出這項發現時也就十八九歲。經過這樣的推斷可知，題目的說法完全可以成立。

Question 5

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： only，quinine, South America

定位原文： 第4段第1句“At the time，quinine…” 當時，奎寧是唯一可以治療症疾的藥物。這種藥物是從原產自南美洲的金雞納樹的樹皮中提煉出來的……

解題思路： 如果誤把第一句中的only和第二句話結合，就很容易得出和題目一樣的錯誤結論。 其實出題人的意圖是說，當時只有奎寧可以治療瘧疾;而奎寧是從金雞納樹的樹皮裏提煉出來的，金雞納樹原產自南美洲。注意，這裏出題人並沒有說金雞納樹只有南美洲纔有。文中的說法不足以讓考生得出如題目“出產奎寧的樹木只能生長在南美洲”那樣的結論。

Question 6

答案: TRUE

關鍵詞: a coal tar waste product，hoped to manufacture

定位原文: 第5段第2句 “He was attempting to … ”他試圖利用苯胺這種廉價又易得的煤焦油廢料來製造奎寧。

解題思路：這句話很清晰地表明，Perkin的確希望用煤焦油廢料產品苯胺來製造一種藥物——奎寧。 此題難度很低，連動詞manufacture都沒有進行任何替換。

Question 7

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： Louis Pasteur，was inspired by

定位原文： 第5段最後一句“And, proving the truth of…” 正如著名科學家 Louis Pasteur所說，“機會總是垂青有準備的人”，Perkin意識到了他的意外發明擁有巨大的潛力。

解題思路： 出題人在這裏引用Louis Pasteur的名言來證明Perkin的成功絕非偶然，是他不斷髮現、不斷試驗的結果，但並沒有提到Perkin是受Louis Pasteur的發明激發纔有了自己的發明。本題和第2題在出題方式上有異曲同工之妙，都是讓Perkin和名人扯上了關係，而實際上這種關係文中並沒有提到。

Question 8

答案: the rich

關鍵詞: the colour purple

定位原文: 第6段第3句“Indeed, the purple colour…”

解題思路: The rich正好可以對應題目中what group in society,並且沒有超過只能填兩個字的字數限制，故答案應爲the rich。

Question 9

答案: commercial possibilities

關鍵詞: new dye

定位原文: 第7段最後一句 “But perhaps the most fascinating…”

解題思路： 尋找題幹中的關鍵字new dye, 繞過沿途synthetic dye的陷阱，很快就能找到定位句，鎖定答案是new dye 的賓語commercial possibilities。

Question 10

答案: mauve

關鍵詞： name, finally, first colour

定位原文： 第8段第1句“Perkin originally named his dye…”

解題思路: 在此題中，考生需要注意題幹中的關鍵副詞finally, 此題指的是 Perkin的顏色最終被叫做什麼，而不是起初被叫做什麼。題幹中的be referred to as是雅思閱讀中經常出現的用法，等同於be known as / be named as / be defined as, 意爲 “被稱爲…”答案是mauve。

Question 11

答案: Robert Pullar

關鍵詞: the name of the person, consulted, before setting up

定位原文: 第8段的第2句“He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar,...”

解題思路: 本段提到Perkin在建立工廠之前，曾經徵詢蘇格蘭染料坊的老闆Robert Pullar的意見，在得到Robert Pullar的建議之後，纔開始建立自己的工廠。這裏不要將Robert Pullar和Hofmann混淆，因爲本段後半部分也提到了Perkin的恩師Hofmann。Hofmann是強烈反對Perkin這麼做的。故本題答案是Robert Pullar。

Question 12

答案： France

關鍵詞： what country, first

定位原文： 第9段第2、3句“Utilising the cheap and plentiful coal…”

解題思路： 此句話明確指出在Perkin的工廠首度造出了第一支人工合成材料後， 法國皇后Eugenie十分喜愛這種新顏色，於是Perkin的染料坊進入了它的商業繁榮期。故答案是France。

Question 13

答案： malaria

關鍵詞： disease, now, synthetic dyes

定位原文： 第10段最後一句“And, in what would have been…”

解題思路： 尋找關鍵詞 synthetic dye時，可能會被microbes, bacteria, tuberculosis, cholera, anthrax所迷惑。但是要注意的是都沒有出現時間狀語now。再繼續向下尋找，就會發現 today, current等字眼，這說明這裏纔是真正的考點所在。仔細讀這個句子不難發現，malaria(瘧疾)纔是正確答案。

Test 1 Passage 2

Question 14

答案: iv

關鍵詞: assumptions, underlying

定位原文: B段第1句“In discussing whether we are alone, most…”

解題思路: 這句明確表明SETI科學家在搜尋外星人時遵循兩個基本原則。Ground相當於題目中的 underlying, rules相當於題目中的 assumptions，接下來的文字敘述兩個原則分別是什麼。考生從首句可以很明確地判斷出正確答案是iv。個別考生可能會看到second後面句子中的assumption— 詞，進而看到a life form，就認爲答案是vi，這種選擇顯然是以偏概全的，是不正確的。段意必須能夠涵蓋一整段內容，而不是某個部分或者某句話的內容。

因此本題答案是iv。

Question 15

答案: vii

關鍵詞: likelihood of, lives, other planets

定位原文: C段第3句的後半句“… ; in fact, the best educated guess…”

解題思路: 這一段是無法僅僅從首句就判斷答案的，需要讀舉例的內容，甚至讀完整段，出題人不斷用guess, estimate, perhaps, might這樣的詞來印證題幹中的 likelihood一詞。

Question 16

答案： i

關鍵詞： radio signals, from

定位原文： D段第1、2句“An alien… It turns out…”

解題思路: 本段是文中首次正式提出搜尋外星生命的方法，radio waves一詞不斷被重複。Looking for相當於題目中的 seeking，radio waves 相當於 radio signals，所有剩餘headings中只有i和ii談到了 radio signals，從邏輯上推測不可能是ii，因爲只有先搜尋外星信號，纔可能談到作迴應的事情。故此題答案是i。

Question 17

答案： ii

關鍵詞： appropriate responses

定位原文： E段第1句“There is considerate debate over…”

解題思路： 本段首句明確提出如果收到了外星文明信號， 人類應該如何迴應的問題。React相當於題目中的responses。而how暗指appropriate。故答案是ii。

Question 18

答案: several billion years

關鍵詞： life expectancy, Earth

定位原文： A段第9句“Since the lifetime of…”

解題思路: Earth這個詞出現在A段的第九行。順着這個詞再向下找到lifetime, 顯然這個詞對應題目中的life expectancy(壽命)一詞，讀完本句發現答案應該是several billion years 。

Question 19

答案: radio waves

關鍵詞： What kind of signals from other intelligent civilisations

定位原文： D段第1句“An alien civilisation could choose…”

解題思路： 本題定位與上一題相隔較遠。但是如果已經先完成了 List of Headings題目，就不難發現只有D段是在具體講外星文明會選擇哪種輸送信息的方式。題目中問的是SETI科學家在搜尋從外星文明發來的哪一種信號，也就表明答案是個具體的信號形式，考生也就不難猜測答案是radio waves。注意，此處問的是信號的形式，而不是電波頻率，因此填1000或者3000 MHz是不正確的。

Question 20

答案： 1000

關鍵詞： How many, most powerful radio telescopes

定位原文：D段倒數第4句“The project has two parts. One part is…”

解題思路：通過閱讀題目，發現要尋找的是恆星的數量。只要定位數字 就能迅速找到本題的位置。於是，考生找到1000這個數字，並且能迅速排除下方的1000到3000MHz。從1000這個數字向上看，考生可以看到 world’s largest radio telescopes與題目中的 most powerful radio telescopes 是同義表達。

Question 21

答案： YES

關鍵詞： Alien civilisations / the human race

定位原文： A段最後一句“It is even possible that…” 這些更古老的文明甚至有可能將其在應對生存威脅過程中積累下來的有益經驗傳授給我們，例如如何應對核戰爭與全球污染帶來的威脅，以及如何應對其他我們尚未發現的潛在威脅。

解題思路： 根據題幹關鍵字alien civilisation以及List of Headings題目留下的線索，最終會發現A段的最後一句話能夠對應本題。 be able to help能夠對應文中的it is even possible, serious problems對應文中的threats。本題基本上屬於同義詞替換型的YES題目。

Question 22

答案： YES

關鍵詞： SETI，resembles

定位原文： B段第3句“Second, we make a very conservative assumption…” 第二，我們保守地假定我們正在搜尋的生命形式和人類非常相似。

解題思路: 本句的定位可以根據順序原則推測，We在這裏指的就是SETI的科學家們，resemble humans指的是is pretty well like us。只要能順利定位，就能夠通過同義詞轉換解答。

Question 23

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： The Americans and Australians，Co-operated

定位原文： D段第3句“...，including Australian searches using…”

解題思路： 文章的D段雖然先提到了澳大利亞的搜尋工作，接着又提到了美國航空航天局負責的美國太空望遠鏡的搜索工作，但是並沒有明確指出在這方面澳大利亞人和美國人有沒有cooperate，合作這個概念完全是出題人的杜撰，遇到這種情況，應該選擇NOT GIVEN。

Question 24

答案: NO

關鍵詞: SETI scientists，have picked up

定位原文: D段第4句“Until now there have …” 直到現在，在已經搜尋過的幾百個恆星中還沒有任何發現。

解題思路：此題定位處位於上一題定位詞Australian的後方，比較好找。文中明確指出迄今爲止，科學家們還一無所獲，而不是題目中所說的已經發現了信號。文中的have not been和題目中的have picked up相矛盾, 連時態都沒有改變，是一道簡單的同義詞衝突型的NO。

Question 25

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： NASA, Congress, criticism

定位原文：D段第5句“The scale of the search…” 1992年，美國國會計劃在以後的十年裏每年爲美國國家航空航天局投資1,000萬美元，用於對外星生命進行徹底的搜尋。從那時起，搜尋的規模便開始大幅增加。

解題思路：文中僅僅說國會通過議案給NASA撥款來對外星人進行徹底的搜尋，並未涉及這個項目有沒有遭到某些議員批評一說。因此本題屬於完全未提及型NOT GIVEN。

Question 26

答案： NO

關鍵詞： respond promptly

定位原文：E段第1、2句“There is considerable debate over…” 如果我們真的發現了來自外星文明的信號，我們應該如何迴應呢?這是一個備受爭議的問題。所有人都認爲我們不應該立即作出迴應。

解題思路：文中這句話明確指出了對待外星人信號的態度，那就是不能立即迴應，這與題目中提出的馬上作出迴應完全相反。Immediately相當於promptly。

Test 1 Passage 3

Question 27

答案： plants

關鍵詞： before any animals could migrate

定位原文：第1段最後一句話“And we musn’t…”

解題思路： 這句話指出，如果沒有植物率先登陸，其他任何生物向陸地的遷徙都不可能完成。這吻合題目中的before any animals could migrate。故答案應該是plants。

Question 28：

答案： breathing and reproduction (in either order)

關鍵詞： TWO processes, make big changes, moved onto land

定位原文：第2段第1句話“Moving from…”

解題思路： 題目問的是：動物要想遷徙到陸地上，必須在哪兩個方面作出巨大的改變?此題定位可以根據順序原則鎖定在第二段，而第二段第一句話就提到Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction.這句話中的redesign對應題目中的changes。 故答案應該是breathing和reproduction。(並列答案，順序無關緊要)

Question 29：

答案： gills

關鍵詞： physical feature, whales, lack

定位原文：第2段第5句“Whales (including the small whales we call dolphins) and…”

解題思路：先根據題目關鍵字定位到whale, 然後通讀whale所在的句子，在這段敘述中，作者最後指出雖然鯨魚仍呼吸空氣，卻沒有進化出類似於鰓這樣的早期海洋生物的器官。所以考生可以得出結論，鯨魚缺乏的其實就是gills。故答案應該是gills。

Question 30：

答案： dolphins

關鍵詞： ichthyosaurs, Resemble

定位原文：第3段倒數第4、3句“Ichthyosaurs were reptilian…”

解題思路： 定位句中的contemporaries是理解重點，指的是“同時代的人，同時代的事物”，這裏說明魚龍年代久遠，和恐龍是同時代的動物，但是並不說明魚龍和恐龍相像(其實也不大可能嘛)。而後半句的look like，就完全呼應題目中 的resemble, 這纔是真正答案所在。

故答案應該是dolphins。

Question 31：

答案： NOT GIVEN

關鍵詞： Turtles，the first group

定位原文：第2段倒數第2句“Turtles went back to the sea…” 海龜在很早以前就回到了水中，和其他返回水中的脊椎動物一樣，它們也需要呼吸空氣。

解題思路：文中在第二段的後半部分第一次提到了烏龜，這就是本題的定位點。尋找turtle一詞後，文中這句話說很久以前，烏龜就重新返回海洋，但是並沒有說明是不是第一批迴海洋這個概念。實際上，整篇文章中都沒有討論到關於the first的問題，所以此題屬於完全未提及型NOT GIVEN題。

Question 32：

答案： FALSE

關鍵詞： fossilised remains, incomplete, always difficult

定位原文： 第3段第3句“You might…” 你可能會問，我們是如何通過動物化石來判斷它們是生活在水中還是陸地上的，尤其當我們只找到一些化石碎片的時候。

解題思路： 在第三段中尋找fossilised一詞，很快找到對應詞fossil。接着讀到fragments，可以對應題目中的incomplete, on land or in water對應題目中的where an animal lived。但題目中的敘述過於絕對，It is always difficult與文中Sometimes it’s obvious明顯相牴觸。

Question 33：

答案： TRUE

關鍵詞： ichthyosaurs, can be determined by, appearance

定位原文：第3段倒數第4、3句“Ichthyosaurs were reptilian…” 魚龍是與恐龍同時代的爬行動物，它有魚鰭和流線型的身體。魚龍化石看起來像海豚，它們確實和海豚一樣曾經在水中生活。

解題思路：通過ichthyosaurs一詞很好確定。文中提到魚龍的化石看上去像海豚，因此魚龍肯定生活在海里。這等於舉個例子向我們說明只要從魚龍化石的外表就能夠判定它的棲息地，與題目的意思完全吻合。

Question 34：

答案： three measurements

關鍵詞： 71, a total of

定位原文：第4段第1句“ined three measurements in these particular…”

解題思路：利用數字71，很快就可以將此題定位。但是要注意在該句中並沒有提到題目中的forelimbs。該詞出現於上一段的最後一句，在此句中則以these particular bones來指代，要多加註意。如果能夠順利突破這個小障礙，很快就能發現正確答案。正確答案爲three measurements。

Question 35：

答案： (triangular) graph

關鍵詞： data, a

定位原文：第4段第2句“They used a kind of triangular graph…”

解題思路：順着上一題的對應點找下來，可以順利找到a kind of,這個詞組可以等同於題目中的不定冠詞a。因此可以初步判定a kind of後面的triangular graph paper可能就是要填寫的答案。題目要求NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS，而triangular graph paper有三個詞， 只好犧牲最無關緊要的paper。

Question 36：

答案： cluster

關鍵詞： Land tortoises, a dense, points

定位原文：第4段第3句“All the land tortoise species…”

解題思路：題目中需要填的詞位於短語a dense of points 中，只要定位到陸龜這個詞，再順着向下讀到a tight cluster of points即可。這個詞組的結構和題目中的詞組一模一樣，只是將dense和tight做了替換。正確答案爲cluster。

Question 37：

答案： amphibious

關鍵詞： Sea turtles, living, added to

定位原文：第4段第4句“There was no overlap, except when they…”

解題思路： 此題的定位可以根據上一題最後一句話中的sea turtles定位到第四段water turtle後面這句話。從題目可以得知從某種物種蒐集的數據被添加到了結果中去。Add一詞是解題的關鍵。讀完這句話，很容易發現被添加的物種是既可以在陸上生活，也可以在水中生存的兩棲物種。

Question 38：

答案： half way

關鍵詞： up the triangle between

定位原文： 第4段第5句“Sure enough, these amphibious…”

解題思路： 此題十分簡單，找到兩棲物種之後尋找between，between前面的half way, 就是本題所要的答案。

Question 39：

答案： dry-land tortoises

關鍵詞： P. quenstedti, P. talampayensis, The position of the points, both

定位原文： 第4段倒數第2句“Both these fossils were dry-land tortoises.”

解題思路： 用兩個專有名詞可以順利找到第四段結尾處。然後利用題目中的The position of the points鎖定在Their points on the graph are right in the thick of the dry cluster.答案就是之後的那句。正確答案爲dry-land tortoises 。

Question 40：

答案： D

關鍵詞： the most significant thing, tortoises

定位原文：參見解題思路解析

解題思路： 題目：作者認爲關於烏龜最重要的一件事情是：A.它們能夠適應極其乾燥的環境。B.它們生命的最初形態是某種原始細菌。C.它們與海龜十分相似。D.它們不止一次從海洋遷徙到陸地。最後一段首句就表明Tortoises therefore represent a remarkable double return, 含義爲“因此很明顯，烏龜曾往返於水中和陸地上生存。”選項A中所說的乾燥環境，選項B中所說的原始細菌，以及選項C中提到的海龜，在最後一段中悉數登場，但是沒有一個是題目論述的核心。題目的真正意圖就是想告訴考生烏龜finally retuned yet again to the land as tortoises。故答案應該選D。