Although some observers have suggested that crying is a way to clicit assistance form others (as a crying baby might from its mother), the shedding of tears is hardly necessary to get help. Vocal cries would have been quite enough, more likely than tears to gain attention, So, it appears, there must be something special about tears themselves.
Indeed, the new studies suggest that emotional tears may play a direct role in alleviating stress, University of Minnesota researchers who are studying the chemical composition of tears have recently isolated two important chemicals from emotional tears. Both chemicals are found only in tears that are shed in response to emotion. Tears shed because of exposure to =cut onion would contain no such substance.
Researchers at several other institutions are investigating the usefulness of tears as a means of diagnosing human ills and monitoring drugs.
At Tulane University’s Teat Analysis Laboratory Dr.PeterKastl and his colleagues report that they can use tears to detect drug abuse and exposure to medication(药物), to determine whether a contact lens fits properly of why it may be uncomfortable, to study the causes of “dry eye” syndrome and the effects of eye surgery, and perhaps even to measure exposure to environmental pollutants.
At Columbia University Dt.LiasyFaris and colleagues are studying tears for clues to the diagnosis of diseases away from the eyes. Tears can be obtained painlessly without invading the body and only tiny amounts are needed to perform highly refined analyses.
31. It is known from the first paragraph that ________.
A) shedding tears gives unpleasant feelings to American B) crying may often imitate people or even result in tragedy
C) crying usually wins sympathy from other people
D) one who sheds tears in public will be blamed
32. What does “both those responses to tears”(Line 6, Para, 1) refer to?
A) Crying out of sorrow and shedding tears for happiness.
B) The embarrassment and unpleasant sensation of the observers. C) The tear shedder’s apology and the observer’s effort to stop the crying.
D) Linking illness with crying and finding the chemical composition of tears.
33. “Counterproductive” (Lines 6-7, Para,1) very probably means “________”.
A) having no effect at all
B) leading to tension
C) producing disastrous impact D) harmful to health
34. What does the author say about crying?
A) It is a pointless physiological response to the environment. B) It must have a role to play in man’s survival.
C) It is meant to get attention and assistance.
D) It usually produces the desired effect.
35. What can be inferred from the new studies of tears?
A) Emotional tears have the function of reducing stress.
B) Exposure to excessive medication may increase emotional tears. C) Emotional tears can give rise to “dry eye” syndrome in some cases.
D) Environmental pollutants can induce the shedding of emotional tears.
Text 4
When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.
Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good at communicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth. Then there is the scale of the typical housing project. It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure project, so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps th
e most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.
Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes. The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.
There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60,000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.
Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.
But it is not just down to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing ￡4.5bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015,is unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if returns to power. The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ev
er return to era of large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.
36. The author believes that the housing sector__ [A] has attracted much attention
[B] involves certain political factors
[C] shoulders too much responsibility
[D] has lost its real value in economy
【答案】[B] involves certain political factors
【解析】 根据本题题干中的关键词housing sector可以对应到文章的第二段， 中间说的很多，我们注意到最后有but出现，最后应该是作者真正想要表达的观点，另外这里用了the most significant 最高级，所以最后这个是最重要的一个原因，politically charged和选项B的political factors有对应关系，故选B involves certain political factors。
A项的吸引注意没有提及，C项的承担太多责任，原文说的shoulder the blame，D项说的丧失价值，原文说的是不善于表明真正价值，两者不一致，故排除。
37. It can be learned that affordable housing has__
[A] increased its home supply
[B] offered spending opportunities [C] suffered government biases
2014考研英语二全文翻译答案超详解析
