2008年考研英语模拟试题四及答案解析

　　Text 4

　　For many years, and discussion of reparations to compensate the descendants of African slaves for 246 years of bondage and another century of legalized discrimination was dismissed.

　　Opponents contend that the fledgling reparations movement overlooks many important facts. First, the assert, reparations usually are paid to direct victims, as was the case when the US gov??ernment apologized and paid compensation to Japanese-Americans interned during the World War II. Similarly, Holocaust （大屠杀） survivors have received payments from the Germans. In addition, not all blacks were slaves, and an estimated 3 000 were slave owners.

　　Also, many immigrants not only came to the United States after slavery ended, but they also faced discrimination. Should they pay reparations, too？Or should they receive them？

　　And regardless of how much slave labor contributed to the United States' wealth, opponents contend, blacks benefit from that wealth today. As a group, Afro-Americans are the best-educat??ed, wealthiest blacks on the planet.

　　But that attitude is slowly changing. At least 10 cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Washington, have passed resolutions in the past two years urging federal hearings into the impact of slavery. Mainstream civil rights groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference regularly raise the issue.

　　The surging interest in reparable heightened sensitivity to the horrors of slavery, in which as many as 6 million Africans perished in the journey to the Americas alone. There also is growing attention being paid to the huge economic bounty, that slavery created for private companies and the country as a whole.

　　Earliest this year, Aetna Inc. apologized for selling insurance policies that compensated slave owners for financial losses when their slaves died. Last summer, the Hartford Courant in Connecticut printed a front-page apology for the profits it made from running ads for the sale of slaves and the capture of runaways. Next month, a new California law will require insurance companies to disclose any slave insurance policies they may have issued. The state also is requiring University of California officials to assemble a team of scholars to research the history of slavery and report how current California businesses benefited.

　　Proponents of reparations argue that, even for nearly a century after emancipation, in 1865, blacks legally were still excluded from the opportunities that became the cornerstones for the white middle-class.

　　36. The reasons put forward by opponents of reparations include all the following EXCEPT that .

　　[A] compensations usually go to direct victims

　　[B] blacks who came after slavery ended should not receive compensations

　　[C] blacks now are enjoying the wealth they created under slavery

　　[D] some blacks were slave owners instead of slaves

　　37. Immigrants in paragraph 3 refers to .

　　[A] Afro-Americans [B] non-white immigrants

　　[C] Japanese-Americans [D] holocaust survivors

　　38. That the reparations movement is winning support in America is shown in the fact that___ .

　　[A] federal hearings were held to investigate the impact of slavery

　　[B] even mainstream civil rights groups were persuaded

　　[C] growing attention is being paid to the wealth of the blacks

　　[D] there was more public awareness of the horrors of the whites

　　39. The two private companies that made public apology had_______________ .

　　[A]given slave owners financial losses

　　[B]sold slaves and captured runaways

　　[C]operated insurance and advertisement businesses

　　[D]depended on slavery for their existence

　　40. Which of the following is true according the passage？

　　[A] US government killed Japanese-Americans during World War II.

　　[B] A new Californian law disclosed slave-insurance policies.

　　[C] National Urban League is one of the civil right groups.

　　[D] Blacks faced no discrimination after liberation in 1865.

PART B.

　　Directions： In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41—45, choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

　　Gene therapy could be given in advance to protect high-risk patients from the consequences of suffering a stroke or heart attack, suggests a new study. A team of researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US, and Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, have shown that animals equipped with an extra gene can survive simulated heart attacks virtually undamaged. 41_______________________________________.

　　Strokes and heart attacks occur when blockages in the arteries supplying the brain or heart muscles cut off the supply of blood to tissues. The resulting lack of oxygen kills cells, often leaving people with permanent damage, if they survive. Cells do have ways of protecting themselves when oxygen levels are low. They switch on the genes for a number of protective proteins, including heme oxygenase-1. But the researchers found that it takes 12 hours or more for cells to produce high levels of HO-1, by which time it is too late.

　　42____________________________________. The HO-1 protein produced by the gene is identical to the natural human protein. The difference is that the added gene has multiple copies of the switch, or promoter sequence, that turns on protein production.

　　43_____________________________________. Experiments in the lab show that cells with the extra gene produce high levels of HO-1 within an hour of oxygen levels plummeting. Next, the team injected the virus into the heart, liver or muscle tissue of rats and then cut off the blood supply to these tissues for up to an hour.The level of protection was dramatic,says team member Victor Dzau, now at Duke University in North Carolina. More recent tests show the approach can also protect brain cells, he told New Scientist.

　　44____________________________________________. But the trouble with this approach is that there is only a narrow window of time when these drugs can make a difference.

　　45.__________________________________________________.

　　The researchers believe the approach has broad applications. Besides people who have a high risk of having a stroke or heart attack, the therapy could also help patients with injuries, shock or bacterial infections, which can reduce the blood supply to some tissue or organs, they point out. It could also be given to patients prior to complicated operations. If necessary, more genes could be added to the virus to provide even better protection.

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