考前模拟：2008年12月阅读真题及名师精讲

　　试题详解

　　52. B

　　细节题。本题考查关于农业生产发展的衡量标准，通过关键词measure progress定位在文章第一段末尾：sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress，be taken as表示前后同位关系，解释说明。

　　53. D

　　细节题。题干关键词Specialisation and the effort to increase yields定位在文章第三段的第二、三句。题目问农业生产专业化及大量提高产量会带来什么样的后果。文中提到由于产量的加大，使得食物较之以前更加便宜、安全，但是也导致了动植物栖息地和生物多样性减少。B选项中的farmland是农田，混淆了文中habitat的概念。

　　54. C

　　细节推理题。可以通过题干关键词traditional farming practices定位在文章第五段第三行：we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. 意思是我们不能再认为传统耕作方式一定比新方式更具有可持续的特征。同义于C。

　　55. A

　　细节题。题干出现显性关键词in the 21st century，定位在文中第五段开头，原文意思是：21世纪的农业生产和20世纪的截然不同，也就是说21世纪的农业生产将发生巨大的变化。第五段的第二句话提到要求我们radical thinking(彻底改变原有的想法)。

　　56. D

　　主旨题。答案一般出自文章首段，而且本文从一开始就讲述可持续发展(sustainable development)，而且本文主要谈论工业生产的可持续发展问题，因此选项里必须要出现农业和可持续的单词。

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

　　The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United states has been creeping upward for years. At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid1920s.

　　We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about inferior races polluting America’s bloodstream. But once again we are wondering whether we have too many of the wrong sort newcomers. Their loudest critics argue that the new wave of immigrants cannot, and indeed do not want to, fit in as previous generations did.

　　We now know that these racist views were wrong. In time, Italians, Romanians and members of other so-called inferior races became exemplary Americans and contributed greatly, in ways too numerous to detail, to the building of this magnificent nation. There is no reason why these new immigrants should not have the same success.

　　Although children of Mexican immigrants do better, in terms of educational and professional attainment, than their parents UCLA sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don’t continue. Indeed, the fouth generation is marginally worse off than the third James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a similar trend among black Caribbean immigrants. Tells fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks-that large parts of the community may become mired(陷入)in a seemingly permanent state of poverty and underachievement. Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to (降入)segregated, substandard schools, and their dropout rate is the highest for any ethnic group in the country.