考试日期：

2015年8月8日­­­­­­­

Reading Passage  1  

Title

The legend of tea 茶的历史   旧

Question types:

List of headings 8

Matching 5

Question 1-8
 ...................................................................................
 Reading passage l has eight paragraphs, A-H
 Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A–H from the list of headings  below. Write
 the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-8 0n your answer sheet.
 List of Headings
 i.  Good or bad of tea
 ii.  Tea ritual
 iii.  Difficulties of import
 iv.  Religious objection of tea
 v.  Achance discovery
 vi.  In and out of fashion
 vii.  Aluxury thing
 viii.  A connection between tea and religion
 ix.  Shortage of supply
 x.  News of tea going to new continent
 1  Paragraph A
 2 Paragraph B
 3  Paragraph C
 4  Paragraph D
 5 Paragraph E
 6 Paragraph F
 7 Paragraph G
 8 Paragraph H
 Questions  9-13...............................................................................
 Use the information in the passage to match the country (listed A-G) with  statements below. Write the appropriate letters A-G in boxes 9-13 0n your  answer sheet.
   A France
   B Holland
   C Japan
   D China
   E Britain
   F Russia
   G Portugal
 9 house designed particularly for tea drinking
 10 tea being substituted after a short period
 11 using animals for tea transportation
 12 popularity of tea despite of some dispute
 13 favor of tea for ruler’s specialized knowledge

参考答案
 1. v
 2. viii
 3. ii
 4. x
 5. vii
 6. i
 7. vi
 8. iii
 9. C
 10. A
 11. F
 12. B
 13. D

文章内容

The History of Tea

A

The story of  tea began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago. According to the legend,  Shen Nung, an early emperor was a skilled ruler, creative scientist and  patron of the arts. His far-sighted edicts required, among other things, that  all drinking water be boiled as a hygienic precaution. One summer day while  visiting a distant region of his realm, he and the court stopped to rest. In  accordance with his ruling, the servants began to boil water for the court to  drink. Dried leaves from the nearby bush fell into the boiling water, and a  brown liquid was infused into the water. As a scientist, the emperor was  interested in the new liquid, drank some, and found it very refreshing. And  so, according to legend, tea was created.
 B

Tea  consumption spread throughout the Chinese culture reaching into every aspect  of the society. In 800 A.D. Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea, the  Ch’aChing. This amazing man was orphaned as a child and raised by scholarly  Buddhist monks in one of China’s finest monasteries. Patronized by the  Emperor himself, his work clearly showed the Zen Buddhist philosophy to which  he was exposed as a child. It was this form of tea service that Zen Buddhist  missionaries would later introduce to imperial Japan. The first tea seeds  were brought to Japan by the returning Buddhist priest Yeisei,   who  had  seen  the  value  of  tea   in  China  in  enhancing  religious mediation. As a  result, he is known as the “Father of Tea”in Japan. Because of this early  association, tea in Japan has always been associated with Zen Buddhism. Tea  received almost instant imperial sponsorship and spread rapidly from the  royal court and monasteries to the other sections of Japanese society.
 C

Tea was  elevated to an art form resulting in the creation of the Japanese Tea  Ceremony (“Cha-no-yu”or “the hot water for tea”). The best description of  this complex art form was probably written by the Irish-Greek journalist  historian Lafcadio Hearn, one of the few foreigners ever to be  grantedJapanese citizenship during this era. He wrote from personal  observation, “The
 Tea ceremony requires years of training and practice to graduate in art...yet  the whole of this art, as to its detail, signifies no more than the making  and serving of a cup of tea. The supremely important matter is that the act  be performed in the most perfect, most polite, most graceful, most charming  manner possible”. Sucha purity of form, of expression prompted the creation  of supportive arts and services. A special form of architecture (chaseki)  developed for “tea houses”, based on the duplication of the simplicity of a  forest cottage. The cultural/artistic hostesses of Japan, the Geishi, began  to specialize in the presentation of the tea ceremony. As more and more  people became involved in the excitement surrounding tea, the purity of the  original Zen concept was lost. The tea ceremony became corrupted, boisterous  and highly embellished. “Tea Tournament “were held among the wealthy where  nobles competed among each other for rich prizes in naming various tea  blends. Rewarding winners with gifts of silk, armor, and jewelry was totally  alien to the original Zen attitude of the ceremony. Three great Zen priests  restored tea to its original place in Japanese society. One of them is Sen-no  Rikkyu (1521-1591)-priest who set the rigid standards for the ceremony,  largely used intact today. Rikyo was successful in influencing the Shogun  Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who became Japan’s greatest patron of the “art oftea”. A  brilliant general, strategist, poet, and artist this unique leader facilitated  the final and complete integration of tea into the pattern of Japanese life.  So complete was this acceptance, that tea was viewed as the ultimate gift,  and warlords paused for tea before battles.
 D

While tea was  at this high level of development in both Japan and China, information  concerning this then unknown beverage began to filter back to Europe. Earlier  caravan leaders had mentioned it, but were unclear as to its service format  or appearance. (One reference suggests the leaves be boiled, salted, buttered,  and eaten) The first European to personally encounter tea and write about it  was the Portuguese Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz in 1560. Portugal, with her  technologically advanced navy, had been successful in gaining the first right  of trade with China. It was as a missionary on that first commercial mission  that Father de Cruz had tasted tea four years before. The Portuguese  developed a trade route by which they shipped their tea to Lisbon, and then  Dutch ships transported it to France, Holland, and the Baltic countries. (At  that time Holland was politically affiliated with Portugal. When this  alliance was altered in 1602, Holland, with her excellent navy, entered into  full Pacific trade in her own right.)
 E

Because of the  success of the Dutch navy in the Pacific, tea became very fashionable in the  Dutch capital, the Hague. This was due in part to the high cost of the tea  (over $100 per pound) which immediately made it the domain of the wealthy.
 F

Slowly, as the  amount of tea imported increased, the price fell as the volume of sale  expanded.Initially it was available to the public in apothecaries  along  with such rare and new spices as ginger and sugar, and by 1675 it  was  available  in  common food shops throughout Holland. As the  consumption of tea increased dramatically in Dutch society, doctors and  university authorities argued back and forth as to the negative and/or  positive benefits of tea. Known as “tea heretics”, the public largely ignored  the scholarly debate and continued to enjoy their new beverage though the  controversy lasted from 1635 to roughly 1657. Throughout this period France  and Holland led Europe in the use of tea.
 G

As the craze  for things oriental swept Europe, tea became part of the way of life. The  social critic Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Steven makes the  first mention in 1680 0f adding milk to tea. During the same period, Dutch  inns provided the first restaurant service of tea. Tavern owners would  furnish guests with a portable tea set complete with a heating unit. The  independent Dutchman would then prepare tea for himself and his friends  outside in the
 tavern’s garden. Tea remained popular in France for only about fifty years,  being replaced by a stronger preference for wine, chocolate, and exotic  coffees. Great Britain was the last of the three great sea-faring nations to  break into the Chinese and East Indian trade routes. This was due in part to  the unsteady ascension to the throne of the Stuarts and the Cromwellian Civil  War. The first samples of tea reached England between 1652 and 1654. Tea  quickly proved popular enough to replace ale as the national drink of  England. As in Holland, it was the nobility that provided the necessary stamp  of approval and so insured its acceptance. King Charles II had married, while  in exile, the Portuguese Infanta Catherine de Braganza (1662). Charles  himself had grown up in the Dutch capital. As a result, both he and his  Portuguese bride were confirmed tea drinkers. When the monarchy was  re-established, the two rulers brought this foreign tea tradition to England  with them.
 H

Imperial  Russia was attempting to engage China and Japan in trade at the same time as  the East Indian Company. The Russian interest in tea began as early as 1618  when the Chinese embassy in Moscow presented several chests of tea to Czar  Alexis. By 1689 the Trade Treaty of Newchinsk established a common border  between Russia and China, allowing caravans to then cross back and forth  freely. Still, the journey was not easy. The trip was 11,000 miles long and  took over sixteen months to complete. The average caravan consisted of 200 t0  300 camels. As a result of such factors, the cost of tea was initially  prohibitive and available only to the wealthy. By the time Catherine the  Great died (1796), the price had dropped some, and tea was spreading  throughout Russian society.

 

Reading Passage  2  

Title:

The secret of yawn 打哈欠 旧

Question types:

Summary 5

Information Containing 5

TFNG 3

文章内容

The secret of the Yawn

A

When a scientist began to study  yawning in the 1980s, it was difficult to

convince some of his research students  of the merits of “yawning science” Although it may appear quirky, his  decision to study yawning as a logical extension to human beings of my  research in developmental

neuroscience, reported in such papers  as “Wing-flapping during Development and Evolution”. As a neurobehavioral  problem, there is not much difference between the wing-flapping of birds and  the face- and body-flapping of human yawners.

B

Yawning is an ancient, primitive act.  Humans do it even before they are born, opening wide in the womb. Some snakes  unhinge their jaws to do it. One species of penguins yawns as part of mating.  Only now are researchers beginning to understand why we yawn, when we yawn  and why we yawn back. A professor of cognitive neuroscience at Drexel  University in Philadelphia, Steven Platek, studies the act of contagious  yawning, something done only by people and other primates.

C

In his first experiment, he used a  psychological test to rank people on their Empathic feelings. He found that  participants who did not score high on compassion did not yawn back. We  literally had people saying, “Why am I looking at people yawning?” Professor  Platek said. “It just had no effect.”

D

For his second experiment, he put 10  students in a magnetic resonance imaging machine as they watched video tapes  of people yawning. When the students watched the videos, the part of the  brain which reacted was the part scientists believe controls empathy - the  posterior cingulate, in the brain’s middle rear. I don’t know if it’s  necessarily that nice people yawn more, but I think it’s a good indicator of  a state of mind,” said Professor Platek. “It’s also a good indicator if  you’re empathizing with me and paying attention.”

E

His third experiment is studying  yawning in those with brain disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, in  which victims have difficulty connecting emotionally with others. A  psychology professor at the University of Maryland. Robert Provine, is one of  the few other researchers into yawning. He found the basic yawn lasts about  six seconds and they come in bouts with an interval of about 68 seconds. Men  and women yawn or half-yawn equally often, but men are significantly less  likely to cover their mouths which may indicate complex distinction in  genders. “A watched yawner never yawns.” Professor Provine said. However, the  physical root of yawning remains a mystery. Some researchers say it’s  coordinated within the hypothalamus of the brain, the area that also controls  breathing.

F

Yawning and stretching also share  properties and may be performed together as parts of a global motor complex.  But they do not always occur–people usually yawn when they stretch, but we  don’t always stretch when we yawn, especially before bedtime. Studies by J.  I. P , G. H. A. Visser and H. F. Prechtl in the early 1980s, charting  movement in the developing fetus using ultrasound, observed not just yawning  but a link between yawning and stretching as early as the end of the first  prenatal trimester.

G

The most extraordinary demonstration  of the yawn-stretch linkage occurs in many people paralyzed on one side of  their body because of brain damage caused by a stroke. The prominent British  neurologist Sir Francis Wal she noted in 1923that when these hemiplegics yawn,  they are startled and mystified to observe that their otherwise paralyzed arm  rises and flexes automatically in what neurologists term an “associated response”.  Yawning apparently activates undamaged, unconsciously controlled connections  between the brain and the cord motor system innervating the paralyzed limb.  It is not known whether the associated response is a positive prognosis for  recovery, nor whether yawning is therapeutic for innervation or prevention of  muscular atrophy.

H

Clinical neurology offers other  surprises. Some patients with “locked-in”

syndrome, who are almost totally  deprived of the ability to move voluntarily, can yawn normally. The neural  circuits for spontaneous yawning must exist in the brain stem near other  respiratory and vasomotor centers, because yawning is performed by anencephalies  who possess only the medulla oblongata. The multiplicity of stimuli of  contagious yawning, by contrast, implicates many higher brain regions.

Reading Passage  3  

Title:

Musical origin in nature 音乐起源 旧

Question types:

TFNG

Matching

文章内容

主要一个专家的研究成果，关于音乐的起源和影响。描述音乐和语言之间的联系和关系。BlackingMitten是其中一个重要人物。

We can only guess as to how music was  created in the primitive psyche of the time. What follows is pretty much my  guess.

Early man most likely took some interest  in the sounds around him, in some cases it meant life or death, as in the  roar of a tiger, or it was pleasing to the ear, as in a bird singing away. I  can imagine that after a successful hunt, the hunters would prance and growl  around a fire emulating the sounds of the fierce beast they had just slain.  They might even have started hitting sticks together in an attempt to emulate  the sounds of their clubs thumping dully upon the head of some prey, or the  hollow melon sound of a neighbor’s skull when they were fighting amongst  themselves over some chunk of meat, or for the best looking mate. The former  most likely, due to the fact that the latter would be a six of one half dozen  of the other proposition, cosmetics having yet to be invented.

In any case, as far as the origin of  music is concerned, drums were probably the first primitive music instrument  if we remove the human voice from the equation.

The Encyclopedia Britannica states  "Drums appear with wide geographic distribution in archaeological  excavations from Neolithic times onward; one excavated in Moravia is dated at  6000 BC. Early drums consisted of a section of hollowed tree trunk covered at  one end with reptile or fish skin and were struck with the hands. Later, the  skin was taken from hunted game or cattle, and sticks were used. The  double-headed drum came later, as did pottery drums in various shapes”.  Basically “Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee¹” was probably our first  artistic expression in the realm of music. (¹ Money for Nothing—Dire Straits)

The next logical step up from percussion  instruments may have been in the woodwind or string family. Imagine a  primitive man fascinated by the sound of the wind blowing over some hollow  reed, then recreating the effect for his fellow villagers at the next log  bashing party, what a hit he would have been! Regular life of the party, such  as it was.

Panpipes would have been an easy  progression for the primitive mind of the time, stick a bunch of varying  length reeds together and voila, let the good times roll. The move from the  panpipe to the flute must have taken a much greater leap of faith for the  period, yet wooden and bone flutes discovered in china have been dated as far  back as 9,000 years ago, and one bone flute made from mammoth bone dates back  35,000 years and has a 4 note scale comparable to the Do, Re, Mi, Fa, scale  that was so adamantly drummed into our little grade school heads.

So some concept of a musical scale  existed even if the designer merely chose sounds that were pleasing to him.  Still the jump from blowing over a hollow reed to blowing down a tube with  graduated fingering holes was a large one.

The string section most likely started  when some brave soul realized that the sinews garnered from the animals they  hunted had uses beyond the traditional binding and stitching functions. From  the simple, primitive musical “twang” of a string stretched on a bow as in  the Brazilian “berimbau” to the myriad of complex stringed instruments in use  today, from violins, to guitars, to pianos, and the many cultural variations  thereof.

Pythagoras was credited with the mathematics  of music as we know it today. His followers “The Pythagoreans” were all  musicians as well as mathematicians. According to legend, Pythagoras  discovered that musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations  when passing blacksmiths at work, and thought that the sounds of their anvils  being hit were harmonious and decided that the scientific law causing this to  happen must be mathematical and could be applied to music. He went to the  blacksmiths and discovered that the anvils were simple ratios of each other,  one was half the size of the first, another was 2/3 the size, and so on. The  music of the time being un-harmonious in his opinion, (probably due to  instrument makers using scale pleasing to them with no regard for what others  were doing). The legend also has Pythagoras studying the vibrations of a  string stretched tightly between two posts, and basing his musical scale on  the frequency of the vibration when the string length was changed.

When you attach a string between two  posts and pull it tight, you can create sound or musical notes by plucking on  the string. The vibration of the string will create a fundamental frequency,  according to the length, tension and mass of the string. The string can also  vibrate at multiples of its fundamental frequency. These are called  harmonics.

If the dimensions of the string or wire  are correct, the sound made from plucking the string will be a pleasant  musical sound, if they are slightly different, the sound may not be musical  and just be a sound. In most cases, the string will vibrate at the  fundamental frequency or 1st harmonic. But if you pull the string harder, it  can be made to vibrate with a shorter wavelength and higher frequency or  the 2nd harmonic, 3rd harmonic or even higher.

Pythagoras and his school did experiments  to discover the relations between musical notes. The pitch of a note being  played on, say, a guitar depends on:

-The length of the string.

-The tension of the string.

-The material the string is made of.

难度分析

本场考试三篇都是之前考过的旧文，tea的话题在剑10中有过涉及，话题背景知识的积累与普及建立在对机经的回顾上。第三篇的长难单词较多，话题的熟悉度不够。考生应加强对经典话题的举一反三能力。题型常规，配对，标题配对，判断，填空也有考察，阅读难度稳中有升，考生要继续加强对不同题型的练习，针对弱项题型的训练。