《7+雅思预测机经?阅读5》

　　1.“雅思VIP之王”郑仁强团队强力打造
　　2. 以近几年雅思真题为基础和依据，真实性、针对性强，再现雅思阅读真题原貌
　　3. 每本书24篇文章、8个TEST，按考试模块构建，采用递进式训练模式，是雅思考前不可多得的复习材料
 

　　《7+雅思预测机经?阅读》系列图书以近几年雅思真题为基础和依据，真实性、针对性强，再现雅思阅读真题原貌。本套图书内容完全经过考证，真实可靠。本套书籍共5册、120篇文章，内容设置按考试模块构建。8个TEST（一本书）为一个阶段，采用递进式训练模式，是雅思考前不可多得的复习材料。

　　北京外国语大学英语语言文学学士，历任全国医护英语考试办公室学术顾问，新东方前途出国文书专员，北京新东方学校雅思名师，环球网校雅思写作合作名师，YY8640频道创始人，郑仁强和他的小伙伴们教育科技有限公司董事长兼CEO、读书客文化传播有限公司董事长兼CEO，欢聚时代旗下100教育副总经理。他是一位纯粹学术派雅思教师。因每年教授的雅思学员数量较多（据说业内多，超过百名），并且成绩有口皆碑，故得绰号“雅思VIP之王”。他从大三时就开始研究剑桥系统的考试，并教授剑桥系统的考试课程，老少通吃无所不能。曾获剑桥MSE执教证书，结业分数在当期受训的所有教师中名列。他接触并通晓了整个剑桥系统考试的思路、理念、传统、规则。之后在全国医护英语水平考试办公室学术部的工作经历，又使他能够从测试学的角度看待各类英语考试。与众不同的经历，造就了“强”强老师对于雅思考试的独到见解。郑仁强同众人眼中的“培训行业老师”差距较大。幽默不多，江湖味很淡，授课风格清晰、简练、学术。注重实力培养，鄙视所谓“技巧”传授。课堂用语中 没有一般老师的“应该”，“大概”，“也许”，取而代之的是大篇幅的“*”，“必须”，“一定”，从不给学生模糊的概念和建议，从不给自己的话留有余地，从来坚信自己所讲的，故有人赞其“艺高人胆大”。

Test 1
READING PASSAGE 1
What Are You Laughing at? 2
READING PASSAGE 2
Ancient Computer in Aegean Sea 7
READING PASSAGE 3
Plain English Campaign 12

Test 2
READING PASSAGE 1
How to Achieve Happiness 18
READING PASSAGE 2
Grey Workers 24
READING PASSAGE 3
Tasmanian Tiger Extinction Is Forever? 30

Test 3
READING PASSAGE 1
Agriculture and Tourism 38
READING PASSAGE 2
Fossil Files — the Paleobiology Database 43
READING PASSAGE 3
Father of Modern Management 49

Test 4
READING PASSAGE 1
Choices and Happiness 56
READING PASSAGE 2
Animal Minds: Parrot Alex 62
READING PASSAGE 3
Detection of a Meteorite Lake 67

Test 5
READING PASSAGE 1
Charles Darwin’s Theory and Finches 74
READING PASSAGE 2
Food for Thought 79
READING PASSAGE 3
The Secrets of Persuasion 85

Test 6
READING PASSAGE 1
Timekeeper: Invention of Marine Chronometer 92
READING PASSAGE 2
Twin Study:Two of a Kind 97
READING PASSAGE 3
TV Addiction 102

Test 7
READING PASSAGE 1
Songs of Stones 110
READING PASSAGE 2
Smell and Memory — Smells Like Yesterday 115
READING PASSAGE 3
Tattoo on Tikopia 120

Test 8
READING PASSAGE 1
Consecutive and Simultaneous Translation 126
READING PASSAGE 2
The British Bittern 131
READING PASSAGE 3
Asian Space — Satellite Technology 136

　　READING PASSAGE 1
　　You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
　　What Are You Laughing at?
　　We may know what makes us giggle, but understanding why is a more ticklish problem, says Kate Douglas. The happy combination of tickle, the original stimulus for laughter, laugh, and play extends way back beyond the origins of the human species. The idea that laughter works as a kind of glue fits with some other observations by noted scientists.

　　A
　　We like to think that laughing is the height of human sophistication. Our big brains let us see the humour in a strategically positioned pun, an unexpected plot twist or a clever piece of word play. But while joking and wit are uniquely human inventions, laughter certainly is not. Other creatures, including chimpanzees, gorillas and even rats, chuckle. Obviously, they don’t crack up at Homer Simpson or titter at the boss’s dreadful jokes, but the fact that they laugh in the first place suggests that sniggers and chortles have been around for a lot longer than we have. It points the way to the origins of laughter, suggesting a much more practical purpose than you might think.

　　B
　　There is no doubt that laughing typical involves groups of people. “Laughter evolved as a signal to others — it almost disappears when we are alone,” says Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland. Provine found that most laughter comes as a polite reaction to everyday remarks such as “see you later”, rather than anything particularly funny. And the way we laugh depends on the company we’re keeping. Men tend to laugh longer and harder when they are with other men, perhaps as a way of bonding. Women tend to laugh more and at a higher pitch when men are present, possibly indicating flirtation or even submission.

　　C
　　To find the origins of laughter, Provine believes we need to look at play. He points out that the masters of laughing are children, and nowhere is their talent more obvious than in the boisterous antics, and the original context is play, he say. Well-known primate watchers, including Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, have long argued that chimps laugh while at play. The sound they produce is known as a pant laugh. It seems obvious when you watch their behavior — they even have the same ticklish spots as we do. But remove the context, and the parallel between human laughter and a chimp’s characteristic pant laugh is not so clear. When Provine played a tape of the pant laughs to 119 of his students, for example, only two guessed correctly what it was.

　　D
　　These findings underline how chimp and human laughter vary. When we laugh the sound is usually produced by chopping up a single exhalation into a series of shorter with one sound produced on each inward and outward breath. The question is: does this pant laughter have the same source as our own laughter? New research lends weight to the idea that it does. The findings come from Elke Zimmerman, head of the Institute for Zoology in Germany, who compared the sounds made by babies and chimpanzees in response to tickling during the first year of their life. Using sound spectrographs to reveal the pitch and intensity of vocalizations, she discovered that chimp and human baby laughter follow broadly the same pattern. Zimmerman believes the closeness of baby laughter to chimp laughter supports the idea that laughter was around long before humans arrived on the scene. What started simply as a modification of breathing associated with enjoyable and playful interactions has acquired a symbolic meaning as an indicator of pleasure.

　　E
　　Pinpointing when laughter-developed is another matter. Humans and chimps share a common ancestor that lived perhaps 8 million years ago, but animals might have been laughing long before that. More distantly related primates, including gorillas, laugh, and anecdotal evidence suggests that other social mammals may do too. Scientists are currently testing such stories with a comparative analysis of how common laughter is among animals. So far, though, the most compelling evidence for laughter beyond primates comes from the research done by Jaak Panksepp from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, into the ultrasonic chirps produced by rats during play and in response to tickling.

　　F
　　All this still couldn’t answer the question of why we laugh at all. One point is that laughter and tickling originated as a way of strengthening the relationship between mother and child. Another point is that the reflex response to tickling is protective, alerting us to the presence of crawling creatures that might harm us or compelling us to defend the parts of our bodies that are most vulnerable in hand-to-hand combat. But the point that has gained most popularity in recent years is that laughter in response to tickling is a point for two individuals to signal and test their trust in one another. This hypothesis starts from the observation that although a little tickle can be enjoyable, if it goes on too long it can be torturous. By engaging in a bout of tickling, our put ourselves at the mercy of another individual, and laughing is a signal of trust that our laughter is what makes it a reliable signal of trust according to Tom Flamson, a laughter researcher at the University of California, Los Angels. “Even in rats, laughter, tickle, play and trust are linked. Rats chirp a lot when they play,” says Flamson. “These chirps can be aroused by tickling.  And they get bonded to us as a result, which certainly seems like a signal of trust.”

　　G
　　We’ll never know which animal laughed the first laugh, or why. But we can be sure it wasn’t in response to a prehistoric joke. The funny thing is that while the origins of laughter are probably quite serious, we owe human laughter and our language-based humor to the same unique skill. While other animals pant, we alone can control our breath well enough to produce the sound of laughter. Without controling there would also be no speech — and no jokes to endure.

　　Questions 1–6
　　Look at the following research findings and the list of people below.
　　Match each finding with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
　　Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 1–6 on your answer sheet.
　　NBYou may use any letter more than once.

　　List of People
　　A  Robert Provine   
　　B  Elke Zimmerman   
　　C  Jaak Panksepp   
　　D  Tom Flamson
　　1  Laughter can be used to show that we feel safe and secure with others.
　　2  Human baby’s laughter is close to that of some primates in some ways.
　　3  Laughter is a social activity.
　　4  Apart from primates, there are some other animals with the ability of laughing.
　　5  Animal laughter boosts longer history than human laughter.
　　6  Not all of human laughter is related to humor.

　　Questions 7–10
　　Complete the summary using the list of words, A–K, below.
　　Write the correct letter, A–K, in boxes 7–10 on your answer sheet.

　　A tickling    B pitch    C rats    D confidence    E combat    F origins   
　　G chirps    H play    I primates    J fear    K babies

　　Robert Provine, a well-known neuroscientist, believes that laughter comes from 7  . Research has revealed that the same 8 may be shared by human and chimp. Scientists have long been aware of that 9  can laugh. However, some certain mammals may also have obtained the ability. The answer for the reason of laughter remains still a mystery. Some suggest that that laughter may result from the 10 we feel with another person.

　　Questions 11–13
　　Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Pass