雅思考试试题历年真题

The concept of childhood in the western countries

1. FALSE

2. FALSE

3. TRUE

4. NOT GIVEN

5. FALSE

6. NOT GIVEN

7. TRUE

8. history of childhood

9. miniature adults

10. industrialization

11. The factory Act

12. play and education

13. Classroom

Passage 2：新冰河时代

A New Ice Age

A

William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic .But he has spent a lot of time perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous painting “George Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which depicts a boatload of colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and Hessian troops the day after Christmas in 1776. “Most people think these other guys in the boat are rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away,” says Curry, tapping his finger on a reproduction of the painting. Sure enough, the lead oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. “I grew up in Philadelphia. The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of thing just doesn’t happen anymore.”

B

But it may again soon. And ice-choked scenes, similar to those immortalized by the 16th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, may also return to Europe. His works, including the 1565 masterpiece “Hunters in the Snow,” make the now-temperate European landscapes look more like Lapland. Such frigid settings were commonplace during a period dating roughly from 1300 to 1850 because much of North America and Europe was in the throes of a little ice age. And now there is mounting evidence that the chill could return. A growing number of scientists believe conditions are ripe for another prolonged cool down, or small ice age. While no one is predicting a brutal ice sheet like the one that covered the Northern Hemisphere with glaciers (n. 冰川) about 12,000 years ago, the next cooling trend could drop average temperatures 5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States and 10 degrees in the Northeast, northern Europe, and northern Asia.

C

“It could happen in 10 years,” says Terrence Joyce, who chairs the Woods Hole Physical Oceanography Department. “Once it does, it can take hundreds of years to reverse.” And he is alarmed that Americans have yet to take the threat seriously.

D

A drop of 5 to 10 degrees entails much more than simply bumping up the thermostat and carrying on. Both economically and ecologically, such quick, persistent chilling could have devastating consequences. A 2002 report titled“Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises,” produced by the National Academy of Sciences, pegged the cost from agricultural losses alone at $100 billion to $250 billion while also predicting that damage to ecologies could be vast and incalculable. A grim sampler: disappearing forests, increased housing expenses, dwindling freshwater, lower crop yields (n. 产量)， and accelerated species extinctions.

E

Political changes since the last ice age could make survival far more difficult for the world’s poor. During previous cooling periods, whole tribes simply picked up and moved south, but that option doesn’t work in the modern, tense world of closed borders. “To the extent that abrupt climate change may cause rapid and extensive changes of fortune for those who live off the land, the inability to migrate may remove one of the major safety nets for distressed people,” says the report.

F

But first things first. Isn’t the earth actually warming? Indeed it is, says Joyce. In his cluttered office, full of soft light from the foggy Cape Cod morning, he explains how such warming could actually be the surprising culprit of the next mini-ice age. The paradox is a result of the appearance over the past 30 years in the North Atlantic of huge rivers of fresh water the equivalent of a 10-foot-thick layer-mixed into the salty sea. No one is certain where the fresh torrents are coming from, but a prime suspect is melting (adj. 融化的) Arctic ice, caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that traps solar energy.

G

The freshwater trend is major news in ocean-science circles. Bob Dickson, a British oceanographer who sounded an alarm at a February conference in Honolulu, has termed the drop in salinity and temperature in the Labrador Sea— a body of water between northeastern Canada and Greenland that adjoins the Atlantic”arguably the largest full-depth changes observed in the modern instrumental oceanographic record.”

H

The trend could cause a little ice age by subverting the northern penetration of Gulf Stream waters. Normally, the Gulf Stream, laden with heat soaked up in the tropics, meanders up the east coasts of the United States and Canada. As it flows northward, the stream surrenders heat to the air. Because the prevailing North Atlantic winds blow eastward, a lot of the heat wafts to Europe. That’s why many scientists believe winter temperatures on the Continent are as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those in North America at the same latitude. Frigid Boston, for example, lies at almost precisely the same latitude as balmy Rome. And some scientists say the heat also warms Americans and Canadians. “It’s a real mistake to think of this solely as a European phenomenon,”says Joyce.

I

Having given up its heat to the air, the now-cooler water becomes denser and sinks into the North Atlantic by a mile or more in a process oceanographers call thermohaline circulation. This massive column of cascading cold is the main engine powering a deepwater current called the Great Ocean Conveyor that snakes through all the world’s oceans. But as the North Atlantic fills with freshwater, it grows less dense, making the waters carried northward by the Gulf Stream less able to sink. The new mass of relatively freshwater sits on top of the ocean like a big thermal blanket, threatening the thermohaline circulation. That in turn could make the Gulf Stream slow or veer southward. At some point, the whole system could simply shut down, and do so quickly. “There is increasing evidence that we are getting closer to a transition point, from which we can jump to a new state. Small changes, such as a couple of years of heavy precipitation or melting ice at high latitudes, could yield a big response,” says Joyce.

J

“You have all this freshwater sitting at high latitudes, and it can literally take hundreds of years to get rid of it,” Joyce says. So while the globe as a whole gets warmer by tiny fractions of 1 degree Fahrenheit annually, the North Atlantic region could, in a decade, get up to 10 degrees colder. What worries researchers at Woods Hole is that history is on the side of rapid shutdown. They know it has happened before.

Questions 14-16

14 The writer mentions the paintings in the first two paragraphs to illustrate

A that the two paintings are immortalized

B people’s different opinions

C a possible climate change happened 12,000 years ago

D the possibility of a small ice age in the future.

15 Why is it hard for the poor to survive the next cooling period?

A because people can’t remove themselves from the major safety nets.

B because politicians are voting against the movement.

C because migration seems impossible for the reason of closed borders.

D because climate changes accelerate the process of moving southward.

16 Why is the winter temperature in continental Europe higher than that in North

America?

A because heat is brought to Europe with the wind flow.

B because the eastward movement of freshwater continues.

C because Boston and Rome are at the same latitude.

D because the ice formation happens in North America.

Questions 17-21

Match each statement with the correct person A-D in the box below

NB You may use any letter more than once.

17 A quick climate change wreaks great disruption.

18 Most Americans are not prepared for the next cooling period.

19 A case of a change of ocean water is mentioned in a conference.

20 Global warming urges the appearance of the ice age.

21 The temperature will not drop to the same degree as it used to be.

List of People

A Bob Dickson

B Terrene Joyce

C William Curry

D National Academy of Science

答案

14-16 DCA 17-21 DBABC

22. heat 23. denser 24. Great Ocean Conveyer 25. Freshwater 26. southward

Passage 3：澳大利亚土壤盐碱化

一、单词词义(meaning)上的理解

这个理解层面是最基础的(the most basic)。因为要读懂一篇文章在说什么，自然要知道每句话的意思，但是每句话意思的理解(understanding)又是建立在每个单词的理解上。所以我们说要做好阅读，词汇量一直都是强调的重点(importance)。精读雅思阅读文章，第一步就是把文章中的生词都解决掉。换句话说，就是利用字典(dictionary)把文章中不认识的单词都查出来。我们以剑4上TEST1的PASSAGE1这篇文章为例(example)。这篇文章是讲一个调查研究(investigation)关于孩子们对热带雨林的了解状况。文章的第一句话Adults and children are frequently confronted with statements about the alarming rate of loss of tropical rainforests. 这句话中常见的不认识的单词可能有confronted, statements, alarming 和tropical rainforests. 所以要理解句子，我们就要把这几个单词的意思在字典中查找出来。Confront是指面临、遭遇，statement是指声明、陈述，alarming是指令人担忧的，令人震惊的，tropical rainforest是指热带雨林。查找完这些词的意思仅是第一步，因为光是把意思查找出来记忆(to memorize)并不深刻，所以建议(to suggest)大家可以准备一本单词本，专门记录(to record)文章中不认识的单词。但是记录下来还没有完成文章词义的理解，我们还要去具体分析(analyze)一下这些词，尤其是动词(verb)，要注意查找其同义词和反义词(opposite)。例如confront 这个词是一个动词，它的同义词有encounter, 意思都有遭遇，对抗的意思，但是区别有encounter常用于军事方面(army)。Statement是一个名词(noun)，它是state加ment，由动词state变成名词，其同义词有announcement、declaration等。而动词state除了有声明、陈述的意思以外，还有作为名词州(state)、国家(country)以及形容词国家的'，国有的，正式的等含义(meaning)。而alarming则是由动词alarm加上ing变成形容词，alarm的意思是恐吓、警告，同时也有名词意义为警报、恐慌。最后tropical的意思是热带的，tropical rainforest为热带雨林，那么可以引申出其他的类似(similar)词汇，例如温带就是temperate zone, 寒带就是frigid zone，极地就是polar region。

从一个词汇可以引申出一系列(a series of)的词汇，尤其是同义词，这在以后的阅读理解上也是非常有帮助的(helpful)，因为雅思阅读很多时候都是在考察学生的 paraphrasing同义转换的能力(ability)。所以如果在精读词汇的时候有意识的(conscious)去学习和认识同义词，对阅读能力的提高(improvement)大有裨益。当然在精读的单词挑选上我们也有一定的原则(rule)，并不是所有的单词都值得去精读。主要挑选的单词最好是具有普遍(general)含义的动词、形容词，其次是副词和名词。而那些比较难比较偏的名词是不适合精读的，基本上以认知为主就可以。

二、句子的分析和理解(understanding)

句子的分析和理解最好是结合题目来做。因为之前已经做过题目也对过答案，因此对于答案与文章对应的(correspondent)句子应该有所了解，那么分析起来就更具有针对性。同样以上文提到的文章为例。这篇文章的第四题是一道判断题(judgment)，题目为The fact that children’s ideas about science form part of a larger framework of ideas means that it is easier to change them. 题目的意思是孩子们关于科学的观点是融合在一个比较大的想法框架中的，这个事实意味着如果要改变孩子们的观点也还是相对容易的。这道题目在文章中对对应的相关句子是These misconceptions do not remain isolated but become incorporated into a multifaceted, but organized, conceptual framework, making it and the component ideas, some of which are erroneous, more robust but also accessible to modification. 这句话是一句难句(a difficult sentence)，中间有不少的插入成分来影响(influence)我们对句子的理解，但是如果我们从句子主干开始分析，一步一步，就能把整个脉络梳理清楚。这句话的主语是 misconceptions, 这些错误的观点或想法，然后用了一个not….but…的结构(structure)，告示我们这种错误(mistake)的观点不会是一直孤立的(isolated)，而是会合并到一个框架体系(system)中，framework之前的multifaceted, but organized, conceptual都是修饰这个framework的特征的(characteristic)，也就是这个框架体系是多方面的，有序的以及有概念(concept)系统的。接下来的句子则要理解2个代词所指代的意义，一个是making it 中的it, 还有一个是some of which 中的which. It 指的是一个单数名词(single noun)概念，而它之前就一个单数名词，就是framework, 而which 前离它最近的名词是ideas，所以它所指代的就是component ideas. 搞清楚了这2个代词所指代的内容，后面半句话也就容易理解了，意思是可以使这个概念体系及构成这个体系的思想(mind)——其中一部分是错误的——更加健全，同时也更加容易得到修正(revised)。从这个分析上来看，题目的意思和文章相关句子的意思一致，所以判断题目是TRUE，正确的。因此要分析清楚雅思阅读文章的句子结构，最有效的方法还是从句子的主干着手，然后再分析其修饰成分(mortified)，然后再用中文的思路去组织句意。当然重点分析的句子还是以与题目相关的句子为主，有些比较简单的句子就不需要花太多时间(too much time)。

三、文章宏观结构上的分析(analysis)

这一点是一个更高程度的精读要求(requirement)，是对基础比较好的学生来说应该去学会的一种精读方法(way)。雅思阅读文章大多是学术类气息浓厚的文章，因此多以说明文和议论文为主，而内容上也多关于调查研究报告，实验结果，课题研究以及其他自然(nature)原理现象说明的内容。所以文章结构很多会有类似(similar)。如果能分析出相似题材的文章结构(essay structure)，那么对做目前来说大家都头疼的段落细节配对题(matching)是有很大的帮助的。同样以雨林那篇文章为例。这篇文章是比较典型的(typical)调查研究报告类说明文，文章的结构脉络比较清晰(clear)。在经过上面两步骤的精读后，对文章的内容理解应该已经不成问题，现在要做的就是去掉外皮，将其骨骼提炼出来。文章分为11个小段落(paragraph)，前3段是调查研究的背景(background)介绍，后面的4到9段介绍了调查的具体内容，也就是5个开放式问题孩子们给出的答案及分析，最后2段进行了总结(summary)和对接下来调查的预期(prediction)。所以文章的总体结构和调查研究报告类文章是类似的，背景介绍——调查具体内容结果——总结51ielts预测，以后如果遇到类似的调查研究报告类文章最有可能的(impossible)行文结构也是这样，那么如果出了相关的段落细节配对题就可以利用文章结构快速定位(locate)相关的段落然后再进行选择，有了正确的范围(scope)，那么正确率也就大大提高了。

第一、明确答案的字数限制。

对字数限制的要求会出现在题目要求中，通常是以“NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS”或“NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER”的形式出现，因此大家要仔细阅读题目要求。

第二、阅读题目，划出题干中出现的定位词，并对所填答案的词性或其他特征进行预判。

划出的定位词应具备以下两个特点：①不容易被同义替换;②特征明显、易于查找。对于所填答案的词性或其他相关特征，大家可通过特殊疑问词及其在句中所指代的成分进行判断。

第三，根据题干定位词回原文查找相关答案信息出现的地方。

只有定位词出现的地方才有可能出现题目答案，所以大家应重视训练自己的快速定位能力。

第四，定位到答案信息后，阅读定位词所在的原文内容，结合对所填答案特征的预判确定最终的题目答案。

同学们应认真阅读读懂定位到的原文内容，确认该原文内容与题干是否构成同义表述，在构成同义表述的原文内容中找出应填答案，并确保所填答案与题目的内容要求相一致。除此之外，还应再确认一下所填答案的特征或词性是否与自己的预判。