职称英语考试《综合类》章节练习题精选
及答案0515-44
1、African wild dog
Finding a babysitter while you go out to work is, for example, an inconvenience. For the African wild dog, one of the continent's most endangered carnivores （食肉动物), it's a matter of life and death. A new research shows that once packs (兽群) fall below a certain size, they are not enough animals to both hunt food and stay at home protecting the young.
The African wild dog has declined drastically over the past century. Habitual loss (栖息地的丧失), persecution and unexplained outbreaks of disease have all been blamed. Only 3, 000 to5,000 animals remain, and the species is expected to go extinct within decades if the trend continues.
Other large carnivores such as the spotted hyena (鬣狗) face similar pressures, yet are not declining. Now Franck Courchamp of Cambridge University has found a reason why. The dog's weakness lies in its social organization.
Within each pack of up to 20 adults and pups, only the dominant
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male and female breed. The remaining animals help raise the pups, cooperating to hunt prey and defend the kill from other carnivores.
Because pups can't keep up on a hunt, large packs leave an adult behind to protect them from predators (捕猎者), which include lions and hyenas. But leaving a babysitter also carries costs. A smaller hunting party is less able to tackle large prey and to defend the kill. There is also one less stomach in which to carry food back to the den, and one more mouth to feed when they get there.
Courchamp investigated this awkward trade-off (权衡) by modeling how the costs of a babysitter change with decreasing pack size. This showed that packs of more than five adults should be able to feed all the pups and still spare a babysitter. But with smaller packs, either the hunting or the babysitting suffers, or the animals have to compensate by increasing the number of hunting excursions which itself carries a cost to the pack. Field observations in Zimbabwe supported the model. Packs of five animals or fewer left pups unguarded more frequently than larger packs did. There was also evidence that when they did leave a babysitter, they were forced to hunt more often. A pack which drops below a critical size becomes caught in a
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vicious circle (恶性循环), says Courchamp, who is now at Paris-Sud University. \reproduction and low survival further reduces pack size, culminating in (最终造成) failure of the whole pack. \may be what reduce pack numbers to below the sustamable threshold. Mammal ecologist Chris Carbone at London's Institute of Zoology agrees. Maintaining the integrity of wild dog packs will be vitalin preserving the species, he says.
The size of a pack must be big enough for it to survive.【单选题】 A.Right B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
正确答案:A
答案解析:答案的依据是文章最后一段开头，因此这个命题是正确的。
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2、New Product Will Save Lives
Drinking water that looks clean may still contain bugs, which can cause illness. A small company called Genera Technologies has produced a testing method in three stages, which shows whether water is safe. The new test shows if water needs chemicals added to it, to destroy anything harmful. It was invented by scientist Dr. Adrian Patton, who started Genera five years ago. He and his employees have developed the test together with a British water company.
Andy Headland, Genera's marketing director, recently presented the test at a conference in the USA and forecast good American sales for it. Genera has already sold 11 0fits tests at $42,500 a time in the UK and has a further four on order. It expects to sell another 25 tests before the end of March. The company says it is the only test in the UK to be approved by the government. Genera was formed five years ago and until October last year had only five employees; it now employs 14. Mr. Headland believes that the company should make around $19 million by the end of the year in the UK alone.
Genera Technologies has developed a method that determines whether water is clean.【单选题】
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A.Right B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
正确答案:A
答案解析:题干的意思与原文第2句相符，故为正确答案。
3、A Glass of Milk
One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by selling goods door to door found that he only had one dime left. He was hungry so he decided to beg for a meal at the next house.
However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, \
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职称英语考试《综合类》章节练习题精选及答案0515-44
