2011年华北电力大学考博英语真题

The two claws of the mature American lobster are decidedly different from each other. The crusher claw is short and stout; the cutter claw is long and slender. Such bilateral asymmetry, in which the right side of the body is, in all other respects, a mirror image of the left side, is not unlike handedness in humans. But where the majority of humans are right-handed, in lobsters the crusher claw appears with equal probability on either the right side or left side of the body.

Bilateral asymmetry of the claws comes about gradually. In the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development, the paired claws are symmetrical and cutter like. Asymmetry begins to appear in the juvenile sixth stage of development, and the paired claws farther diverge toward well-defined cutter and crusher claws during succeeding stages. An intriguing aspect of this development was discovered by Victor Emmer. He found that if one of the paired claws is removed during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw invariably becomes a crusher, while the regenerated claw becomes a stutter. Removal of a claw during a later juvenile stage or during adulthood, when asymmetry is present, does not alter the asymmetry; the intact and regenerated claws retain their original structures.

These observations indicate that the conditions that trigger differentiation must operate in a random manner when the paired claws are intact, but in a nonrandom manner when one of the claws is lost. One possible explanation is that differential use of the claws determines their asymmetry. Perhaps the claw that is used more becomes the crusher. This would explain why, when one of the claws is missing during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw always becomes a crusher. With two intact claws, initial use of one claw might prompt the animal to use it more than the other throughout the juvenile fourth and fifth stages, causing it to become a crusher. To test this hypothesis, researchers raised lobsters in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development in a laboratory environment in which the lobster could manipulate oyster chips. (Not coincidentally, at this stage of development lobsters typically change from a habitat where they drift passively, to the ocean floor where they have the opportunity to be more active by borrowing in the substrate.) Under these conditions, the lobsters developed asymmetric claws, half with crusher claws on the left, and half with crusher claws on the right. In contrast, when juvenile lobsters were reared in a smooth tank without the oyster chips, the majority developed two cutter claws. This unusual configuration of symmetrical cutter claws did not change when the lobsters were subsequently placed in a manipulable environment or when they lost and regenerated one or both claws.

56. The passage is primarily concerned with _______.

A. drawing an analogy between asymmetry in lobsters and handedness in humans

B. discussing a possible explanation for the way bilateral asymmetry is determined in

lobsters

C. explaining differences between lobsters’ crusher claws and cutter claws

D. developing a method for predicating whether crusher claws in lobsters will appear on

the left or right side

57. Which of the following experimental result, if observed, would most clearly contradict the

findings of Victor Emmer?

A. A left cutter like claw is removed in the fifth stage and a crusher claw develops on the

right side.

B. A left cutter like claw is removed in the fourth stage and a crusher claw develops on the

left side.

C. A left cutter like claw is removed in the sixth stage and a crusher claw develops on the

right side.

D. A left cutter like claw is removed in the fourth stage and a crusher claw develops on the

right side.

58. It can be inferred from the passage that one difference between lobsters in the earlier stages

of development and those in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages is that lobsters in the early

stages are _______.

A. more likely to regenerate a lost claw

B. more likely to replace a crusher claw with a cutter claw

C. likely to be less symmetrical

D. likely to be less active

59. Which of the following conditions does the passage suggest is a possible cause for the failure

of a lobster to develop a crusher claw?

A. The loss of a claw during the third or earlier stage of development.

B. The loss of a claw during the fourth or fifth stage of development.

C. The loss of a claw during the sixth stage of development.

D. Development in an environment devoid of material that can be manipulated.

60. The author regards the idea that differentiation is triggered randomly when paired claws

remain intact as _______.

A. irrefutable considering the authoritative nature of Emmer’s observations

B. contradictory to conventional thinking on lobster-claw differentiation

C. likely in view of present evidence

D. purely speculative because it is based on scattered research and experimentation

Passage Three

Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Biologists have spent much of the past century taking cells apart to figure out what makes them tick. Adam Arkin, a physical chemist who divides his time between the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, has a goal to create a computer model of how the cell works so that someday he’ll be able to design his own cells from scratch.

It’s a daunting task. A single enzyme in a liver cell may be controlled by as many as 14 different regulatory processes. Multiply that by thousands of interconnected chemical reactions operating simultaneously in billions of cells, and you’ve got one incredibly complex system.

Enter a computer program called SPICE (Simulation Program for Integrated Circuit Evaluation), developed at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1970s. SPICE allowed engineers to analyze their electronic circuits and predict, more or less accurately, how they would work before they were actually built. There would always be problems to iron out, but at least the program pointed chip designers in the right direction.

Arkin is developing a similar program he calls bio/SPICE that he hopes will do for the cell what SPICE did for the chip. His first targets are simple bacteria. “They’re still complicated enough that we get depressed,” Arkin admits with a laugh. But he has already had some success grouping reactions together by the kinds of jobs they do. And, sure enough, some of them bear a remarkable resemblance to the gates and switches of an electronic circuit.

Of course, no one knows for sure whether Arkin or anyone else will be able to develop a working computer model of the cell. But it’s the sort of project that could keep scientists busy for another 100 years.

61. In the first paragraph, “… what makes them tick …” means _______.

A. why something operates as it does

B. what makes cells thick and then block in blood streams

C. what cells consist of

D. how cells are born and die

62. What do we learn from the passage?

A. What Arkin intends to achieve is unprecedented.

B. Arkin has just followed the past biologists’ footprints and nothing new

C. Arkin, based on the work of others, wants to build a computer model of his own

D. To design one’s own cells is what biologists have dreamed of for almost a century.

63. Which of the following adjectives can best describe the task Arkin is engaged in?

A. Challenging.

B. Delicate.

C. Simple.

D. Depressing.

64. How is Arkin getting on with his work?

A. Getting nowhere.

B. Getting somewhere.

C. There is a bigger breakthrough.

D. There is a remarkable resemblance found in his research.

65. What is the author’s attitude towards Arkin’s research?

A. Suspicious.

B. Positive.

C. Negative.

D. Indifferent.

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