2021年2月20日雅思考试阅读机经真题答案

今天上海新航道雅思培训班 小编为大家整理了2021年2月20日雅思考试阅读机经真题答案，每次考试后新航道雅思 小编会在1-2天内更新托福机经回忆。

Passage 1

Topic

北极探险

待补充

Passage 2

Topic

Stress of Workplace

How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the

occasional long lunch; for others it means missing lunch altogether.For a few,it is not being able to take a "sickie"(病假) once a month. Then there is agroup of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, andfrantic is the tempo of their lives.For most senior executives, workloads swingbetween extremely busy and frenzied.The vice-president of the managementconsultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region,Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a"manageable"45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.

Threewarning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep,

scheduling and family.He knows he has too much on when he gets less thansix hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly havingto reschedule appointments;"and the third one is on the family side", saysPlumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a secondchild in October. " Ifl happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, l know thingsare out of control."Being "too busy" is highly subjective.But for any individual,the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing upas stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health.Nationalworkers' compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6weeks.The effects of stress are also expensive. Comcare, the Federal

Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injuryaccounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs.Experts say thekey to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief - a game of golf or amassage - but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it apriority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra

resources to a job, allowing more time or changing expectations.The decisionmay take several days.He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his

peers coach each other with business problems. "Just a fresh pair of eyesover an issue can help," he says.

Executive stress is not confined to big organisations.Vanessa Stoykovhas been running her own advertising and public relations business for sevenyears,specialising in work for financial and professional services firms.

Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list offastest-growing small enterprises last year - just after Stoykov had her firstchild. Stoykov thrives on the mental stimulation of running her own business."Like everyone, l have the occasional day when l think my head's going toblow off," she says.Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykovhas to concentrate on short-term stress relief-weekends in the mountains, theoccasional "mental health" day -rather than delegating more work.She says:"We're hiring more people, but you need to train them, teach them about theculture and the clients, so it's actually more work rather than less."

Dldentify the causes: Jan Elsnera, Melbourne psychologist who

specialises in executive coaching, says thriving on a demanding workload istypical of senior executives and other high-potential business people. She says there is no one-size-fits-all approach to stress: some people work bestwith high-adrenalin periods followed by quieter patches, while others thriveunder sustained pressure."We could take urine and blood hormonal

measures and pass a judgement of whether someone's physiologically

stressed or not,"she says. "But that's not going to give us an indicator of whattheir experience of stress is, and what the emotional and cognitive impacts ofstress are going to be."

Eisner's practice is informed by a movement known as positivepsychology, a school of thought that argues "positive" experiences - feelingengaged,challenged, and that one is making a contribution to somethingmeaningful - do not balance out negative ones such as stress; instead, theyhelp people increase their resilience over time. Good stress, or positiveexperiences of being challenged and rewarded, is thus cumulative in the

same way as bad stress.Eisner says many of the senior business people shecoaches are relying more on regulating bad stress through methods such asmeditation and yoga. She points to research showing that meditation can alterthe biochemistry of the brain and actualy help people "retrain" the way theirbrains and bodies react to stress."Meditation and yoga enable you to shift theway that your brain reacts,so if you get proficient at it you're in control.

F The Australian vice-president of AT Keamey,Neil Plumridge, says:"Often stress is caused by our setting unrealistic expectations of ourselves. I'lIpromise a client I'll do something tomorrow, and then [promise] another clientthe same thing, when l really know it's not going to happen. l've put stress onmyself when l could have said to the clients: 'Why don't l give that to you in 48hours?'The client doesn't care."Over committing is something people

experience as an individual problem. We explain it as the result of procrastination or Parkinson's law: that work expands to fill the time available.New research indicates that people may be hard-wired to do it.

A study in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental

Psychology shows that people always believe they will be less busy in thefuture than now.This is a misapprehension, according to the authors of thereport,Professor Gal Zauberman, of the University of North Carolina, andProfessor John Lynch, of Duke University."On average, an individual will be

just as busy two weeks or a month from now as he or she is today.But that isnot how it appears to be in everyday life," they wrote."People often make

commitments long in advance that they would never make if the samecommitments required immediate action.That is, they discount future timeinvestments relatively steeply." Why do we perceive a greater "surplus" oftime in the future than in the present? The researchers suggest that peopleunderestimate completion times for tasks stretching into the future, and thatthey are bad at imagining future competition for their time.

Question 14-18

Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-D) withopinions or deeds below.

Write the appropriate letters A-D in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.NB You may use any letter more than once.

A、Jan Elsnera

B、Vanessa Stoykov

C、Gal Zauberman

D、Neil Plumridge

14Work stress usually happens in the high level of a business.

15 More people's ideas involved would be beneficial for stress relief.

16Temporary holiday sometimes doesn't mean less work.

17Stress leads to a wrong direction when trying to satisfy customers.

18lt is not correct that stress in the future will be eased more than now.

Question 19-21

Choose the correct letter , A,B,C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 19-21 on your answer sheet.

19 Which of the following workplace stress is NOT mentioned according toPlumridge in the following options Not enough time spend on familyB Unable to concentrate on worklnadequate time of sleep DAlteration of appointment

20 Which of the following solution is NOT mentioned in helping reduce thework pressure according to Plumridge Allocate more personnel Increase more time Lower expectation

D Do sports and massage

21 What is point of view of Jan Elsnera towards work stress

A Medical test can only reveal part of the data needed to cope with stressB Index somebody samples will be abnormal in a stressful experience Emotional and cognitive affection is superior to physical one

D One well designed solution can release all stress

Question 22-27

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage,using NOMORE THAN Two wORDS from the Reading Passage for eachanswer.

Write your answers in boxes 22-27 on your answer sheet.

Statistics from National worker's compensation indicate stress plays the mostimportant role in 22....... which cause the time losses.Staffs take about23..... for absence from work caused by stress.Not just time is our mainconcern but great expenses generated consequently.An official insurer wrotesometime that about 24..... of all claims were mental issues whereas nearly27% costs in all claims,Sports Such as 25...... as well as 27...... could be atreatment to release stress; However, specialists recommended anotherpractical way out, analyse 27.... once again.

参考答案:

14-18为匹配题

14.A

15.D

16.B

17.D1

18.C

19-21为单选题

19.B

20.D

21.A

22-27为填空题

22.workplace injury

23.16.6 weeks

24.7%

25.golf

26.massage27.workloads

Passage 3

Topic

Biology of Bitterness

参考答案:

To many people, grapefruit is palatable only when doused in sugar. Bitterblockers like adenosine monophosphate(单磷酸腺苷) could change that.

A

There is a reason why grapefruit juice is served in little glasses: mostpeople don't want to drink more than a few ounces at a time. Naringin, anatural chemical compound found in grapefruit, tastes bitter. Some peoplelike that bitterness in small doses and believe it enhances the general flavor,but others would rather avoid it altogether. So juice packagers often selectgrapefruit with low naringin though the compound has antioxidant propertiesthat some nutritionists contend may help prevent cancer and arteriosclerosis.

B

lt is possible, however, to get the goodness of grapefruit juice

without the bitter taste.l found that out by participating in a test conducted atthe Linguagen Corporation, a biotechnology company in Cranbury,NewJersey. Sets of two miniature white paper cups, labeled 304and 305, wereplaced before five people seated around a conference table.Each of us drankfrom one cup and then the other , cleansing our palates between tastes withwater and a soda cracker. Even the smallest sip of 304 had grapefruit 'sunmistakable bitter bite.But 305 was smoother; there was the sour taste ofcitrus but none of the bitterness of naringin. This juice had been treated withadenosine monophosphate, or AMP, a compound that blocks the bitterness infoods without making them less nutritious.

C

Taste research is a booming business these days, with scientistsdelving into all five basics-sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami, the savorytaste of protein.Bitterness is of special interest to industry because of itsuntapped potential in food.There are thousands of bitter -tasting compoundsin nature.They defend plants by warning animals away and protect animalsby letting them know when a plant may be poisonous.But the system isn'tfoolproof.Grapefruit and cruciferous vegetable like Brussels sprouts and kaleare nutritious despite-and sometimes because of-their bitter-tasting

components.Over time, many people have learned to love them, at least insmall doses."Humans are the only species that enjoys bitter taste," saysCharles Zuker, a neuroscientist at the University of California School ofMedicine at San Diego."Every other species is averse to bitter because itmeans bad news.But we have learned to enjoy it. We drink coffee, which isbitter, and quinine [in tonic water] too. We enjoy having that spice in our lives."Because bitterness can be pleasing in small quantities but repellent whenintense, bitter blockers like AMP could make a whole range of foods, drinks,and medicines more palatable-and therefore more profitable.

D

People have varying capacities for tasting bitterness, and the

differences appear to be genetic.About 75 percent of people are sensitive tothe taste of the bitter compounds phenylthiocarbamide and

6-n-propylthiouracil.and 25 percent are insensitive.Those who are sensitiveto phenylthiocarbamide seem to be less likely than others to eat cruciferousvegetables, according to Stephen Wooding, a geneticist at the University ofUtah. Some people, known as supertasters, are especially sensitive to6-n-propylthiouraci because they have an unusually high number of taste buds. Supertasters tend to shun all kinds of bitter-tasting things, includingvegetable, coffee, and dark chocolate.Perhaps as a result, they tend to bethin. They're also less fond of alcoholic drinks, which are often slightly bitter.Dewar's scotch, for instance, tastes somewhat sweet to most people." But asupertaster tastes no sweetness at all, only bitterness," says Valerie Duffy, anassociate professor of dietetics at the University of Connecticut at Storrs.

E

ln one recent study, Duffy found that supertasters consume alcoholicbeverages, on average, only two to three times a week, compared with five orsix times for the average nontasters.Each taste bud, which looks like anonion, consists of 50 to 100 elongated cells running from the top of the bud tothe bottom.At the top is a little clump of receptors that capture the taste

molecules, known as tastants, in food and drink.The receptors function muchlike those for sight and smell.Once a bitter signal has been received, it isrelayed via proteins known as G proteins.The G protein involved in theperception of bitterness,sweetness,and umami was identified in the early1990s by Linguagen's founder, Robert Margolskee, at Mount Sinai School ofMedicine in New York City. Known as gustducin, the protein triggers a

cascade of chemical reactions that lead to changes in ion concentrationswithin the cell.Ultimately, this delivers a signal to the brain that registers asbitter. "The signaling system is like a bucket brigade,"Margolskee says. "Itgoes from the G protein to other proteins."

F

In 2000 Zuker and others found some 30 different kinds of genes thatcode for bitter-taste receptors."We knew the number would have to be largebecause there is such a large universe of bitter tastants,” Zuker says.Yet nomatter which tastant enters the mouth or which receptor it attaches to, bitter

always tastes the same to us.The only variation derives from its intensity andthe ways in which it can be flavored by the sense of smell."Taste cells are likea light switch,”Zuker says."They are either on or off.”"

G

Once they figured put the taste mechanism, scientists began to thinkof ways to interfere with it. They tried AMP, an organic compound found inbreast milk and other substances, which is created as cells break down food.Amp has no bitterness of its own, but when put it in foods,Margolskee and hiscolleagues discovered, it attaches to bitter-taste receptors.As effective as it

is，AMP may not be able to dampen every type pf bitter taste, because itprobably doesn't attach to all 30 bitter-taste receptors. So Linguagen hasscaled up the hunt for other bitter blockers with a technology called

high-throughput screening. Researchers start by coaxing cells in culture toactivate bitter-taste receptors.Then candidate substances, culled fromchemical compound libraries, are dropped onto the receptors, and scientistslook for evidence of a reaction.

H

Tin time, some taste researchers believe, compounds like AMP willhelp make processed foods less unhealthy.Consider, for example, that asingle cup of Campbell's chicken noodle soup contains 850 milligrams ofsodium chloride, or table salt-more than a third of the recommended dailyallowance.The salt masks the bitterness created by the high temperaturesused in the canning process, which cause sugars and amino acids to react.Part of the salt could be replaced by another salt, potassium chloride, whichtends to be scarce in some people's diets.Potassium chloride has a bitteraftertaste, but that could be eliminated with a dose of AMP.Bitter blockerscould also be used in place of cherry or grape flavoring to take the harshness

out of children's cough syrup, and they could dampen the bitterness ofantihistamines, antibiotics, certain HIV drugs, and other medications.

A number of foodmakers have already begun to experiment with AMPin their products, and other bitter blockers are being developed by rival firmssuch as Senomyx in La Jolla,California. In a few years, perhaps, after foodcompanies have taken the bitterness from canned soup and TV dinners, theycan set their sights on something more useful: a bitter blocker in a bottle thatany of us can sprinkle on our brussels sprouts or stir into our grapefruit juice.

参考答案:

待补充