英語四級長篇閱讀真題卷一：

　　[D] The most recent of these studies, published in The Journal of Applied Gerontology, surveyed 150 Connecticut residents of assisted living, nursing homes and smaller residential care homes (known in some states as board and care homes or adult care homes). Researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center asked the residents a large number of questions about their quality of life, emotional well-being and social interaction, as well as about the quality of the facilities.

　　[E] “We thought we would see differences based on the housing types,” said the lead author of the study, Julie Robison, an associate professor of medicine at the university. A reasonable as- sumption——don't families struggle to avoid nursing homes and suffer real guilt if they can't?

　　[F]In the initial results, assisted living residents did paint the most positive picture. They were less likely to report symptoms of depression than those in the other facilities, for instance, and less likely to be bored or lonely. They scored higher on social interaction.

　　[G]But when the researchers plugged in a number of other variables, such differences disappeared. It is not the housing type, they found, that creates differences in residents' responses. "It is the characteristics of the specific environment they are in, combined with their own personal characteristics—how healthy they feel they are, their age and marital status." Dr. Robison explained. Whether residents felt involved in the decision to move and how long they had lived there also proved significant.

　　[H]An elderly person who describes herself as in poor health, therefore, might be no less depressed in assisted living (even if her children preferred it)than in a nursing home. A person who had input into where he would move and has had time to adapt to it might do as well in a nursing home as in a small residential care home, other factors being equal. It is an interaction between the person and the place, not the sort of place in itself, that leads to better or worse experiences. "You can't just say, 'Let's put this person in a residential care home instead of a nursing home—she will be much better off,'" Dr. Robison said. What matters, she added, "is a combination of what people bring in with them, and what they find there"

　　[I]Such findings, which run counter to common sense, have surfaced before. In a multi-state study of assisted living, for instance, University of North Carolina researchers found that a host of variables—the facility's type, size or age; whether a chain owned it; how attractive the neighborhood was—had no significant relationship to how the residents fared in terms of illness, mental decline, hospitalizations or mortality. What mattered most was the residents' physical health and mental status. What people were like when they came in had greater consequence than what happened once they were there.

　　[J]As I was considering all this, a press release from a respected research firm crossed my desk, announcing that the five-star rating system that Medicare developed in 2008 to help families compare nursing home quality also has little relationship to how satisfied its residents or their family members are. As a matter of fact, consumers expressed higher satisfaction with the one star facilities, the lowest rated, than with the five-star ones.(More on this study and the star ratings will appear in a subsequent post.)

　　[K]Before we collectively tear our hair out—how are we supposed to find our way in a landscape this confusing?—here is a thought from Dr. Philip Sloane, a geriatrician(老年病學專家)at the University of North Carolina: "In a way, that could be liberating for families."

　　[L] Of course, sons and daughters want to visit the facilities, talk to the administrators and residents and other families, and do everything possible to fulfill their duties. But perhaps they don't have to turn themselves into private investigators or Congressional subcommittees. "Families can look a bit more for where the residents are going to be happy," Dr.Sloane said. And involving the future resident in the process can be very important.

　　[M] We all have our own ideas about what would bring our parents happiness. They have their ideas, too. A friend recently took her mother to visit an expensive assisted living/nursing home near my town. I have seen this place-it is elegant, inside and out. But nobody greeted the daughter and mother when they arrived, though the visit had been planned; nobody introduced them to the other residents. When they had lunch in the dining room, they sat alone at a table.

　　[N]The daughter feared her mother would be ignored there, and so she decided to move her into a more welcoming facility. Based on what is emerging from some of this research, that might have been as rational a way as any to reach a decision.

　　37.【題干】Many people feel guilty when they cannot find a place other than a nursing home for their parents.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】E

　　【解析】

　　38.【題干】Though it helps for children to investigate care facilities, involving their parents in the decision-making process may prove very important.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】G

　　【解析】

　　39.【題干】It is really difficult to tell if assisted living is better than a nursing home.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】B

　　【解析】

　　40.【題干】How a resident feels depends on an interaction between themselves and the care facility they live in.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】I

　　【解析】

　　41.【題干】The author thinks her friend made a rational decision in choosing a more hospitable place over an apparently elegant assisted living home.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】N

　　【解析】

　　42.【題干】The system Medicare developed to rate nursing home quality is of little help to finding a satisfactory place.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】J

　　【解析】

　　43.【題干】At first the researchers of the most recent study found residents in assisted living facilities gave higher scores on social interaction.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】F

　　【解析】

　　44.【題干】What kind of care facility old people live in may be less important than we think.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】C

　　【解析】

　　45.【題干】The findings of the latest research were similar to an earlier multi-state study of assisted living.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】D

　　【解析】

　　46.【題干】A resident's satisfaction with a care facility has much to do with whether they had participated in the decision to move in and how long they had stayed there.

　　【選項】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　【答案】H

　　【解析】

　　英語四級長篇閱讀真題卷二：

　　Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?

　　[A] For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.

　　[B] I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.

　　[C] As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of many countries. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number of failing states was expanding. If the food situation continues to worsen, entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. In the 20th century the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is failing states.

　　[D] States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care. When governments lose their control on power, law and order begin to disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted. Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees(難民), threatening political stability everywhere.

　　[E] The surge in world grain prices in 2007 and 2008—and the threat they pose to food security——has a different, more troubling quality than the increases of the past. During the second of the 20th century, grain prices rose dramatically several times. In 1972, for instance, the Soviets. I recognizing their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result, wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and com prices up with them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven——drought in the Soviet Union, crop-shrinking heat in the U.S. Corn Belt. And the rises were short-lived: prices typically returned to normal with the next harvest.

　　[F]In contrast, recent surge in world grain prices is trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million people a year, a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to consume highly grain-intensive meat products, and the massive diversion(轉向)of U.S. grain to the production of bio-fuel.

　　[G]As incomes rise among low-income consumers, the potential for further grain consumption is huge. But that potential pales beside the never-ending demand for crop-based fuels. A fourth of this year's U.S. grain harvest will go to fuel cars.

　　[H]What about supply? The three environmental trends——the shortage of fresh water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperatures——are making it increasingly hard to expand the world's grain supply fast enough to keep up with demand. Of all those trends, however, the spread of water shortages poses the most immediate threat. The biggest challenge here is irrigation, which consumes 70% the world's fresh water. Millions of irrigation wells in many countries are now pumping water out of underground sources faster than rainfall can refill them. The result is falling water tables(地下水位)in countries with half the world's people, including the three big grain producers——China, India and the U.S.

　　[I]As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China's wheat crop, the world's largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123 million tons in 1997. But water shortages are even more worrying in India. Millions of irrigation wells have significantly lowered water tables in almost every state.

　　[J]As the world's food security falls to pieces, individual countries acting in their own self-interest are actually worsening the troubles of many. The trend began in 2007, when leading wheat-exporting countries such as Russia and Argentina limited or banned their exports, in hopes of increasing local food supplies and thereby bringing down domestic food prices. Vietnam banned its exports for several months for the same reason. Such moves may eliminate the fears of those living in the exporting countries, but they are creating panic in importing countries that must rely on what is then left for export.

　　[K]In response to those restrictions, grain-importing countries are trying to nail down long-term trade agreements that would lock up future grain supplies. Food-import anxiety is even leading to new efforts by food-importing countries to buy or lease farmland in other countries. In spite of such temporary measures, soaring food prices and spreading hunger in many other countries are beginning to break down the social order.

　　[L]Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental trends that cause it must be reversed. We must cut carbon emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2020, stabilize the world's population at eight billion by 2040, completely remove poverty, and restore forests and soils. There is nothing new about the four objectives. Indeed, we have made substantial progress in some parts of the world on at least one of these——the distribution of family-planning services and the associated shift to smaller families.

　　[M]For many in the development community, the four objectives were seen as positive, promoting development as long as they did not cost too much. Others saw them as politically correct and morally appropriate. Now a third and far more significant motivation presents itself: meeting these goals may necessary to prevent the collapse of our civilization. Yet the cost we project for saving civilization would amount to less than $200 billion a year, 1/6 of current global military spending. In effect, our plan is the new security budget.

　　37.【題干】The more recent steep climb in grain prices partly results from the fact that more and more people want to consume meat products.

　　【答案】F

　　38.【題干】Social order is breaking down in many countries because of food shortages.

　　【答案】A

　　39.【題干】Rather than superpower conflict, countries unable to cope with food shortages now constitute the main threat to world security.

　　【答案】C

　　40.【題干】Some parts of the world have seen successful implementation(實施) of family planning.

　　【答案】L

　　41.【題干】The author has come to agree that food shortages could ultimately lead to the collapse of world civilization.

　　【答案】B

　　42.【題干】Increasing water shortages prove to be the biggest obstante to boosting the world's grain production.

　　【答案】H

　　43.【題干】The cost for saving our civilization would be considerably less than the world's current military spending.

　　【答案】M

　　44.【題干】To lower domestic food prices, some countries limited or stopped their grain exports.

　　【答案】J

　　45.【題干】Environmental problems must be solved to case the current global food shortage.

　　【答案】D

　　46.【題干】A quarter of this year's American grain harvest will be used to produce bio-fuel for cars.

　　【答案】G