考研英语阅读理解精读练习六十八

考研英语阅读理解精读练习

Infertility is normally seen as a private matter. If a couple are

infertile and wish they were not, that is sad. But there is understandable

resistance in many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal

with this sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive

technologies, or ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds. Such funds

are scarce, and infertility is not a life-threatening condition.

However, two papers presented to the “State of the ART” conference

held earlier this month in Lyon argue that in Europe, at least, there may

be a public interest in promoting ARTs after all. The low fertility rate

in many of that continent's more developed countries means their

populations are ageing and shrinking. If governments want to change this,

ARTs—most significantly in-vitro fertilisation (IVF)—could offer at

least part of a way to do so.

As the conference heard, IVF does seem to be keeping up the numbers

in at least one country. Tina Jensen of the University of Southern Denmark

has just finished a study of more than 700,000 Danish women. She found

that young women in Denmark have a significantly lower natural conception

rate than in past decades. That is partly, but not entirely, because they

are having their children later in life. The rest of the cause is unknown,

though reduced sperm quality in men may be a factor. Whatever the cause,

she also found that the effect has been almost completely compensated for

by an increasing use of ARTs. Denmark's native population is more or less

stable, but some 3.9% of babies born there in 2003 were the result of IVF.

The comparable figure for another northern European country, Britain, was

1.5%.

Without IVF, then, the number of Danes would be shrinking fast. That

it is not may have something to do with the fact that in Denmark the

taxpayer will cover up to six cycles of IVF treatment. In Britain, by

contrast, couples are supposed to be entitled to three cycles. In practice,

many of the local trusts that dish the money out do not pay for any cycles

at all. Jonathan Grant, the head of the Cambridge branch of the Rand

Corporation (an American think-tank), believes this is shortsighted. His

paper showed that if Britain supported IVF at the Danish level then its

birth rate would probably increase by about 10,000 a year.

The cost of offering six cycles to couples (and doing so in practice,

rather than just in theory) would be an extra £250m-430m a year. That is

not trivial, but Dr Grant reckons it is cheaper than other ways of boosting

the birth rate. Some countries, for example, have tried to bribe women

into having more children by increasing child benefits. According to his

calculations, raising such benefits costs between £50,000 and £100,000

a year for each additional birth procured. Ten thousand extra births each

year would thus cost between £500m and £1 billion.

There are, of course, some disadvantages to promoting IVF. In

particular, women who use it tend to be older than those who conceive

naturally, and that can lead to congenital problems in their children.

But if the countries of Europe do wish to keep their populations up, making

IVF more widely available might be a good way of doing so.

1．According to the text, the public’s opinion on the infertility

treatments is that _____

[A] the treatments should be paid for out of public funds.

[B] the treatments are not so compulsory as they consume the limited

public funds.

[C] the treatments are not necessarily only paid for out of public

funds.

[D] the public is not obliged to pay for such treatments of no urgent

nature.

2．According to the study conducted by Tina Jensen, which one of the

following statements is true?

[A] ARTs have reversed the tendency of population decreasing in

Denmark.

[B] Danes’s problem of low natural conception has been completely

counterbalanced by the widely use of ARTs.

[C] The population of Denmark is not decreasing after the adoption

of ARTs.

[D] IVF has played an essential role in Denmark in terms of keeping

up the number of population.

3．From the paper of Dr Grant, it can be inferred that ______

[A] the cost of offering six cycles of IVF to couples is not high at

all.

[B] IVF treatment is an economical way of solving population

shrinking.

[C] Britain does not promote adopting IVF to boost the birth rate.

[D] encouraging women to bear more babies by bonus is not so efficient

to solve the problem of population shrinking.

4．The word “congenital” (Line 2, Paragraph 6) most probably means

_____

[A] innate.

[B] instinctive.

[C] cerebral.

[D] acquired.

5．According to the passage, the author’s attitude towards promoting

in-vitro fertilization can be said to be _____

[A] supportive.

[B] opposing.

[C] ambiguous.

[D] objective.

篇章剖析:

这篇文章介绍了辅助生育技术应当由公众基金支付这一问题。第一段讲述了

目前对该问题公众的看法；第二、三段讲述“辅助生育技术现状”会议有两个报告赞成政府支持“辅助生育技术”；第四、五段讲述丹麦实施这种措施的效果；第六段讲述辅助生育技术要比另外的方法成本低；第七段讲述玻璃体授精的一些缺点。

词汇注释：

congenital adj. 先天的

难句突破：

(1) But there is understandable resistance in many countries to

the idea that treatments intended to deal with this sadness—known

collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or ARTs—should be

paid for out of public funds.

[主体句式] But there is understandable resisitance to the idea that…

[结构分析] 这是一个复合句，that引导的是idea的同位语从句，该同位语从句中，过去分词结构known as…作treatments的定语。

[句子译文] 但是许多国家反对使用公众基金来支付不育问题的方法（辅助生育技术），这是合情合理的。

(2) However, two papers presented to the “State of the ART”

conference held earlier this month in Lyon argue that in Europe, at least,

there may be a public interest in promoting ARTs after all.

[主体句式] However, two papers argue that …

[结构分析] 这是一个复合句，held earlier…分词结构修饰前面的two

papers，that 引导的是宾语从句。

[句子译文] 但是，本月初在里昂举行的“辅助生育技术现状”会议上，有两个报告认为至少是在欧洲，公众可能有兴趣到促进辅助生育技术。

题目分析：

1．According to the text, the public’s 1．根据这篇文章，公众对于opinion on the infertility treatments is that

不育问题的看法是_____

_____

[A] the treatments should be paid for out

of public funds.

[B] the treatments are not so compulsory

as they consume the limited public funds.

[C] the treatments are not necessarily only

paid for out of public funds.

[D] the public is not obliged to pay for such

treatments of no urgent nature.

[答案] B

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析] 细节题。根据文章第一段“But there is understandable resistance in

many countries to the idea that treatments intended to deal with this

[A] 应该由公众基金来支付。

[B] 并不是义务性的，因为其消耗了有限的公共基金。

[C] 并不一定只要公众基金来支付。

[D] 公众没有义务为这种不具有紧急性质的支付费用。

sadness—known collectively as assisted reproductive technologies, or

ARTs—should be paid for out of public funds. Such funds are scarce, and

infertility is not a life-threatening condition”，可见许多国家反对用公众基金来支付不育的费用。A选项的表述显然不符合题意。而C选项的表述不如B选项确切。而D选项的表述过于绝对，不能反映总体公众意见。因此，选项中B最为符合。

2．According to the study conducted by

Tina Jensen, which one of the following

statements is true?

[A] ARTs have reversed the tendency of

population decreasing in Denmark.

[B] Danes’ problem of low natural

conception has been completely

counterbalanced by the widely use of

ARTs.

[C] The population of Denmark is not

decreasing after the adoption of ARTs.

[D] IVF has played an essential role in

Denmark in terms of keeping up the

number of population.

[答案] D

[难度系数] ☆☆☆☆

[分析] B。根据第四段，没有玻璃体受惊，丹麦人口就会减少的更快，那么可以看出现在丹麦人口仍在减少，但是速度放缓。因此，A、C选项是错误的。D选项第四段提到了丹麦人口是稳定的。因此，答案为D选项。B选项有一定的干扰性，文章第三段指出“Whatever the cause, she also found that

the effect has been almost completely compensated for by an increasing use of

ARTs”，与该选项的意思接近，但是文章用了一个almost，与completely意思上有出入。

3．From the paper of Dr Grant, it can be

inferred that ______

[A] the cost of offering six cycles of IVF to

couples is not high at all.

[B] IVF treatment is an economical way of

solving population shrinking.

[C] Britain does not promote adopting IVF

to boost the birth rate.

[D] encouraging women to bear more

babies by bonus is not so efficient to solve

the problem of population shrinking.

3．从Grant的报告中可以推导出_____

[A] 玻璃体受精七个疗程的费用根本不高。

[B] 玻璃体受精不是解决人口减少的经济的方法。

[C] 英国没有采用玻璃体受精来提高出生率。

[D] 通过奖金鼓励妇女多生孩子不是解决人口减少的有效方法。

2．根据Tina的研究，下列哪个陈述是不正确的？

[A] 辅助生育技术扭转了丹麦人口减少的趋势。

[B] 丹麦人自然受孕率低的问题已经完全倍玻璃体受精的广泛使用抵消了。

[C] 丹麦人口在使用辅助生育技术后没有再减少了。

[D] 玻璃体受精为帮助丹麦保证人口数量起到了重要的作用。

[答案] A

[难度系数] ☆☆☆

[分析] 推理题。根据第六段的金钱数据对比可以看出，玻璃体受精方法要比其他方法要经济，因此，选项中A符合题意。

4．The word “congenital” (Line 2, Paragraph

6) most probably means _____

[A] innate.

[B] instinctive.

[C] cerebral.

[D] acquired.

[答案] A

[难度系数] ☆

[分析] 猜词题。根据上下文，这个方法可能会让女性衰老很快，也会让孩子出现一些先天性的问题。选项中A最为符合题意。

5．According to the passage, the author’s

attitude towards promoting in-vitro

fertilization can be said to be _____

[A] supportive.

[B] opposing.

[C] ambiguous.

[D] objective.

[答案]A

[难度系数] ☆☆

[分析] 态度题。从文章中作者举的例子和分析可以看出，这个方法虽然有一定的缺点，但是对于解决目前欧洲人口减少的问题还是有积极的作用的，因此是支持的，答案为A选项。

参考译文：

不育一般被看作是很私密的事情。如果一对夫妇不能生育却又不希望能够生育，这就很可悲了。但是许多国家反对使用公众基金来支付不育问题的方法（辅助生育技术），这是合情合理的。公众基金本来就很少，而不育也不是什么可以威胁到生命的问题。

但是，本月初在里昂举行的“辅助生育技术现状”会议上，有两个报告认为至少是在欧洲，公众可能有兴趣到促进辅助生育技术。欧洲许多发达国家的低生育率意味着其人口正在老化和减少。如果政府想改变这种情况，辅助生育技术（最重要的是玻璃体授精）至少可以在某种程度上提供一个出路。

5．根据这篇文章，作者对于促进玻璃体生殖的态度可以说是_____

[A] 支持的。

[B] 反对的。

[C] 模棱两可的。

[D] 客观的。

4. “congenital” (第六段第二行)最有可能的意思是_____

[A] 天生的。

[B] 本能的。

[C] 大脑的。

[D] 后天的。

正如该会议上所提到的，玻璃体授精起码可以在一个国家内提高人口数量。南丹麦大学的Tina Jensen刚刚结束了涉及70万丹麦妇女的一项研究。她发现现在的丹麦年轻女性比过去几十年中的自然受精率降低了许多，这部分是因为她们生育孩子的年龄推后了，但其余的原因还不清楚，尽管男性精子质量下降也可能是一个因素。不管是什么原因，她还发现使用玻璃体授精后，这种情况可以完全得到缓解。丹麦本土的人口是稳定的，但是2003年出生的婴儿中3.9%是通过玻璃体授精出生的结果。相应的，另外一个欧洲北部国家英国的比率为1.5%。

如果没有玻璃体授精技术，丹麦人口就会更快地缩减。这是由于在丹麦，纳税人要支付六个周期的玻璃体授精费用。而在英国，夫妇本人需要支付3个周期的费用。实际上，许多本地的信托公司都不支付任何的周期，但却从中赚取金钱。兰德公司（一家美国智囊公司）剑桥分部的老板Jonathan Grant认为这是目光短浅的做法。他的研究报告表明如果英国人支持玻璃体授精的程度与丹麦人一样的话，该国每年多出生的婴儿可以增加大约一万。

而给与夫妇免费的六个周期（实际进行而非理论上的）会使政府一年多支付两亿五千万到四亿三千万英镑。这不是个小数目，但是Grant博士认为这要比其他提高出生率的方法要廉价。比如一些国家通过提高儿童福利来奖励那些多生育的妇女。根据他的估测，如此一来每增加一个孩子的话，每年要增加5万到10万英镑的支出。每年多出生一亿万个孩子的话，就需要5亿到10亿英镑。

当然，促进玻璃体授精也有一些弊端。使用这个方法的妇女要比那些自然受孕的女性衰老得更快，也会让孩子有一些先天性的问题。但是如果欧洲国家希望使本国人口增长的话，普及玻璃体授精可能是个好方法。