【温馨提示】：2013年职称英语考试已经进入倒计时阶段，小编为大家找了一些“2013年职称英语卫生B级练习：阅读指导”，希望对大家有所帮助，祝您在精品学习网学习愉快!
阅读两篇短文。每篇短文后面有五个问题，每个问题都有四个备选答案，应试者根据短文的内容从四个备选答案中选择一个最佳答案。
第一篇
Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world's only liberal arts university for deaf people.
When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd; among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.
Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the "hand talk" his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as "substandard". Stokoe's idea was academic heresy (异端邪说).
It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech the modulation (调节)of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. "What I said," Stokoe explains, "is that language is not mouth stuff—it's brain stuff.”
31.The study of sign language is thought to be________.
A.a new way to look at the learning of language
B. a challenge to traditional views on the nature of language
C. an approach to simplifying the grammatical structure of a language
D. an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language
32. The present growing interest in sign language was stimulated by________.
A. a famous scholar in the study of the human brain
B. a leading specialist in the study of liberal arts
C. an English teacher in a university for the deaf
D. some senior experts in American Sign Language
33. According to Stokoe, sign language is_________.
A. a substandard language
B. a genuine language
C. an artificial language
D. an international language
34. Most educators objected to Stokoe's idea because they thought_________.
A. sign language was not extensively used even by deaf people
B. sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted
C. a language should be easy to use and understand
D. a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds
35. Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that________.
A. sign language is as efficient as any other language
B. sign language is derived from natural language
C. language is a system of meaningful codes
D. language is a product of the brain
第二篇
Certain animals and plants develop characteristics that they cope with their environment better than others of their kind. This natural biological process is called adaptation. Among the superior characteristics developed through adaptation are those that may help in getting food or shelter,in protection,and in producing and protecting the young. That results in the evolution of more and more organisms that are better fitted to their environments.
Each living things is adapted to its way of life in a general way, but each is adapted especially to its owndistinct class. A plant,for example,depends upon its roots to fix itself firmly and to absorb water andinorganic chemicals. These ate general adaptations, common to most plants. In addition, there are special adaptations that only certain kinds of plants have.
Many animals have adaptations that help them escape from their enemies. Some insects are hidden by body color or shape,and many look like a leaf or a little branch. The coasts of deer are colored to mix with surroundings. Many animals have the ability to remain completely still when an enemy is near.
Organisms have a great variety of ways of adapting. They may adapt in their structure, functions, and genetics;in their development and production of the young;and in other respects. An organism may create its own environment,as do warm-blooded mammals,which have the ability to adjust body heat exactly to maintain their ideal temperature despite changing weather. Usually adaptations are an advantage, but sometimes an organism is so well adapted to a particular environment that, if conditions change, it is difficult or impossible to readapt to new conditions.
36. Some plants and animals develop superior characteristics so they may_________.
A.help other of their kind get food,shelter and other things needed
B. survive even in extremely severe conditions
C. become better adapted to the environments than others of their kind
D. result in the evolution and production of more intelligent organisms
37. In the first paragraph, the word"environments"could best be replaced by________.
A. contexts
B. surroundings
C. neighbor’s
D. enemies
38. It can be inferred from this passage that the feathers of a bird are colored _______.
A. to frighten its enemies
B. to attract its enemies
C. to adjust its body heat
D. to match its environment
39. Which to the following is not directly mentioned? ___________.
A.A living thing may adapt in its structure
B.An organism may adapt in its function
C.A living creature may adapt in genetics
D.A living organism may adapt in its sleeping habit
40. The author cites the behavior of warm-blooded mammals in order to illustrate which of the following? __________.
A.A living thing may have the ability to create an environment of its own
B.A living creature may have the ability to find shelter for them
C.A living creature may have the ability to make food from inorganic chemicals
D.A living creature may have the ability to change the color of its skin
相关推荐：