- 关于我们
- 针对假冒留学监理网的声明
- 留学热线:4000-315-285
时间:2021-07-12
来源:留学监理网
各位考鸭,做了前面的雅思阅读(学术类)模拟题,看了留学监理网老师为大家做的解析,是不是觉得阅读题目不是那么的难了呀。今天,留学监理网老师继续为大家准备了雅思阅读(学术类)模拟题READING PASSAGE 3的题目及答案,快来做题练一练吧!
图片来自网络,不用作商业目的。 如有侵权,请联系我们删除。
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
HELIUM’S FUTURE UP IN THE AIR
A In recent years we have all been exposed to dire media reports concerning the impending demise of global coal and oil reserves, but the depletion of another key non-renewable resource continues without receiving much press at all. Helium – an inert, odourless, monatomic element known to lay people as the substance that makes balloons float and voices squeak when inhaled – could be gone from this planet within a generation.
B Helium itself is not rare; there is actually a plentiful supply of it in the cosmos. In fact, 24 per cent of our galaxy’s elemental mass consists of helium, which makes it the second most abundant element in our universe. Because of its lightness, however, most helium vanished from our own planet many years ago. Consequently, only a miniscule proportion – 0.00052%, to be exact – remains in earth’s atmosphere. Helium is the by-product of millennia of radioactive decay from the elements thorium and uranium. The helium is mostly trapped in subterranean natural gas bunkers and commercially extracted through a method known as fractional distillation.
C The loss of helium on Earth would affect society greatly. Defying the perception of it as a novelty substance for parties and gimmicks, the element actually has many vital applications in society. Probably the most well known commercial usage is in airships and blimps (non-flammable helium replaced hydrogen as the lifting gas du jour after the Hindenburg catastrophe in 1932, during which an airship burst into flames and crashed to the ground killing some passengers and crew). But helium is also instrumental in deep-sea diving, where it is blended with nitrogen to mitigate the dangers of inhaling ordinary air under high pressure; as a cleaning agent for rocket engines; and, in its most prevalent use, as a coolant for superconducting magnets in hospital MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners.
D The possibility of losing helium forever poses the threat of a real crisis because its unique qualities are extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to duplicate (certainly, no biosynthetic ersatz product is close to approaching the point of feasibility for helium, even as similar developments continue apace for oil and coal). Helium is even cheerfully derided as a “loner” element since it does not adhere to other molecules like its cousin, hydrogen. According to Dr. Lee Sobotka, helium is the “most noble of gases, meaning it’s very stable and non-reactive for the most part … it has a closed electronic configuration, a very tightly bound atom. It is this coveting of its own electrons that prevents combination with other elements’. Another important attribute is helium’s unique boiling point, which is lower than that for any other element. The worsening global shortage could render millions of dollars of high-value, life-saving equipment totally useless. The dwindling supplies have already resulted in the postponement of research and development projects in physics laboratories and manufacturing plants around the world. There is an enormous supply and demand imbalance partly brought about by the expansion of high-tech manufacturing in Asia.
E The source of the problem is the Helium Privatisation Act (HPA), an American law passed in 1996 that requires the U.S. National Helium Reserve to liquidate its helium assets by 2015 regardless of the market price. Although intended to settle the original cost of the reserve by a U.S. Congress ignorant of its ramifications, the result of this fire sale is that global helium prices are so artificially deflated that few can be bothered recycling the substance or using it judiciously. Deflated values also mean that natural gas extractors see no reason to capture helium. Much is lost in the process of extraction. As Sobotka notes: "[t]he government had the good vision to store helium, and the question now is: Will the corporations have the vision to capture it when extracting natural gas, and consumers the wisdom to recycle? This takes long-term vision because present market forces are not sufficient to compel prudent practice”. For Nobel-prize laureate Robert Richardson, the U.S. government must be prevailed upon to repeal its privatisation policy as the country supplies over 80 per cent of global helium, mostly from the National Helium Reserve. For Richardson, a twenty- to fifty-fold increase in prices would provide incentives to recycle.
F A number of steps need to be taken in order to avert a costly predicament in the coming decades. Firstly, all existing supplies of helium ought to be conserved and released only by permit, with medical uses receiving precedence over other commercial or recreational demands. Secondly, conservation should be obligatory and enforced by a regulatory agency. At the moment some users, such as hospitals, tend to recycle diligently while others, such as NASA, squander massive amounts of helium. Lastly, research into alternatives to helium must begin in earnest.
Questions 27–31
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A–F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.
27 a use for helium which makes an activity safer
28 the possibility of creating an alternative to helium
29 a term which describes the process of how helium is taken out of the ground
30 a reason why users of helium do not make efforts to conserve it
31 a contrast between helium’s chemical properties and how non-scientists think about it
Questions 32–35
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 32–35 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
32 Helium chooses to be on its own.
33 Helium is a very cold substance.
34 High-tech industries in Asia use more helium than laboratories and manufacturers
in other parts of the world.
35 The US Congress understood the possible consequences of the HPA.
Questions 36–40
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 36–40 on your answer sheet.
Sobotka argues that big business and users of helium need to help look after helium
stocks because 36 ……………….. will not be encouraged through buying and selling
alone. Richardson believes that the 37 ……………….. needs to be withdrawn, as the
U.S. provides most of the world’s helium. He argues that higher costs would mean
people have
38 ……………….. to use the resource many times over.
People should need a 39 ……………….. to access helium that we still have.
Furthermore, a 40 ……………….. should ensure that helium is used carefully.
Answers:
27. C
28. D
29. B
30. E
31. A
32. Yes
33. Not given
34. Not given
35. No
36. prudent practice
37. privatisation policy
38. incentives
39. permit
40. regulatory agency
(请持续关注留学监理网动态或关注微信公众号“考鸭资料库”阅读相关文章)
>>>一键输入GPA(2.0-4.0),雅思成绩,快速准确留学定位
留学规划和留学申请是一项复杂的长期工程,不能片面听取网友的交流,更不能轻信留学中介的说辞。留学监理网由有20多年国际教育行业管理和服务经验的前教育部官员胡本未老师创立,得到新华社和央视网的高度评价。留学监理网免费为学生提供留学咨询规划建议、推荐靠谱的留学机构、审核留学方案和中介服务协议,受学生委托提供监理服务、督办留学中介的服务过程并“先行赔付”。
任何关于雅思考试问题,比如雅思阅读考试有哪些注意事项,雅思阅读评分标准、雅思考试注意事项、国外大学对雅思成绩要求是多少等问题,大家都可以在线咨询或持续访问该栏目的其它相关文章。
相关阅读:
(特别申明:本站除原创图片外,其他图片来源于网络,版权归作者所有,如有侵权,请联系我们删除。)
跟我差不多情况的学长们都申请去了哪里?输入自身情况,真实案例比对,助你快速留学定位。流程:注册/登录>输入自身情况>留学方案定位
中教安学旗下留学监理网不是留学中介,所以能给你最客观的建议。5年以上经验的留学监理师,10年大量真实案例,留学方案值得你参考。
登陆成功,欢迎使用留学监理网!