最新北京学位英语考试试题(阅读)
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| 日期：2025年5月22日 访问：134 |
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最新北京学位英语考试试题(阅读)
Passage 1：八旬祖母的追梦之旅
来自新奥尔良的80岁祖母斯皮尔曼立志竞争电视节目主持机会。在比赛舞台上，她散发着温柔优雅的气质。当被问及参赛动机时，她告诉主持人亨利："我爱节目组的每位成员。每周六晚我都准时收看，满80岁之际，我想激励全球老年人感受与我相同的观看喜悦。"儿子奥蒂斯向媒体坦言担心主持工作对她过于吃力，但女儿玛丽·简持不同看法："她身体健康、精力充沛，且比我勇敢得多。"
据五强选手康妮·克劳福德回忆，斯皮尔曼的获胜对其他选手而言毫不意外。"我们都料到她能赢，"现任布朗大学表演与导演教授的克劳福德说，"她如此迷人讨喜——其他人毫无胜算。"克劳福德表示从未回看自己在节目中的短暂亮相影像，更愿通过"当下的感受"保持记忆的纯粹。她最珍贵的回忆是与斯皮尔曼的相遇："她是众人眼中的珍宝，因为她真切享受舞台——散发着积极能量与笑容。尽管年龄让人自然关心她，但你能感受到大家对她的真挚喜爱。"
斯皮尔曼带着23岁孙女贾尼恩·贝克前往纽约共同站上决赛舞台庆祝。"我想感谢全球为我投票的人，这是我生命中最美妙的时刻。"她郑重宣告。
An 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans, Spearman, aspired to compete for a television hosting opportunity. On the competition stage, she radiated gentle elegance. "I love every member of the show," she told host Henry when asked about her motivation for participating. "I watch the program every Saturday night, and as I turned 80, I wanted to inspire seniors worldwide to feel the same joy I experience while watching." Her son Otis expressed concern to the media that hosting might be too demanding for her. However, her daughter Mary Jane disagreed. "She's in excellent physical health, full of energy, and far braver than I am."
According to Connie Crawford, one of the five finalists, Spearman's victory came as no surprise to fellow contestants. "We all knew she'd win," recalled Crawford, now a Professor of Performance and Directing at Brown University. "How could she not? She was utterly charming and delightful—no one else stood a chance." Crawford mentioned she has never watched footage of her own brief appearance on the show, preferring to preserve the purity of her memories by clinging to "how it felt in the moment." One cherished memory was meeting Spearman. "She was a shining gem to everyone because she so clearly enjoyed herself—radiating positivity and smiles," Crawford said. "Though her age drew natural care from others, you could feel genuine affection for her presence. People couldn't have been kinder."
Spearman celebrated the experience by bringing her 23-year-old granddaughter, Janine Baker, to New York City. Together, they stood on the competition stage. "I want to thank everyone worldwide who voted for me. This has been the most wonderful time of my life," she declared.
Passage 2：关于打哈欠的科学之谜
这种在我们感到疲倦或无聊时出现的奇特行为，至今仍笼罩在神秘之中。打哈欠具有极强的传染性——当你看到别人打哈欠时，自己往往也会忍不住跟着打哈欠。甚至连读到关于打哈欠的文字都可能引发这一行为。
美国纽约州立大学理工学院的打哈欠专家安德鲁·加洛普指出，自然打哈欠与补充氧气无关，其作用可能是增强警觉性，且似乎由大脑温度升高触发。
然而，传染性打哈欠的机制截然不同。美国贝勒大学的研究表明，它与同理心（感知他人情绪的能力）有关。研究显示，缺乏同理心的人更不容易被"传染"打哈欠。
人类并非唯一会打哈欠的生物。科学家也研究了动物中的这一行为。一项针对南非狮群的研究发现，狮子打哈欠后会同步行动。这意味着大型猫科动物可能通过张嘴动作感知彼此情绪，这对狮子这类高度社会化的动物至关重要。
加洛普提出理论：打哈欠可能是为保护人类群体演化出的行为。通过互相模仿，群体成员打哈欠时能提升整体警觉性。张嘴动作暗示警惕性下降，促使观察者提高注意力。随着哈欠传播，群体对潜在危险的感知能力也随之增强。
为验证理论，加洛普设计了一项实验：让参与者观看打哈欠视频前后分别识别蛇（威胁）和青蛙（非威胁）的图片。结果显示，观看视频虽不影响识别无害青蛙的能力，但参与者对危险蛇类的探测能力在目睹他人打哈欠后显著提升。
This peculiar behavior, which occurs when we feel tired or bored, remains shrouded in mystery. Yawning is highly contagious—when you see someone yawn, you often can’t resist yawning yourself. Even reading about yawning might trigger one.
Andrew Gallup, a yawning expert from SUNY Polytechnic Institute in New York, USA, notes that natural yawning has nothing to do with increasing oxygen levels. Instead, it may help boost alertness and appears to be triggered by a rise in brain temperature.
Contagious yawning, however, is different. A study by Baylor University in the U.S. suggests it is linked to empathy—the ability to sense others’ emotions. The research shows that people who struggle to empathize are less likely to "catch" a yawn.
Humans aren’t the only ones who yawn. Scientists have studied this behavior in animals too. A study on lions in South Africa found that after yawning, lions synchronize their movements. This implies that gaping their mouths might be a way for big cats to sense each other’s moods, a trait critical for highly social animals like lions.
Gallup theorizes that yawning may have evolved to protect human groups. By mimicking one another, a group’s collective alertness could rise when people yawn. The act of opening one’s mouth signals reduced vigilance, prompting observers to become more attentive. As yawns spread, the group’s awareness of potential dangers intensifies.
To test this theory, Gallup conducted an experiment. He showed participants images of snakes (perceived as threats) and frogs (non-threatening) before and after they watched videos of people yawning. While viewing the videos did not affect their ability to spot harmless frogs, their ability to detect threatening snakes significantly improved after witnessing others yawn.
Passage 3：巴塞罗那的旅游困局
在巴塞罗那，旅游业并非历来是困扰。作为西班牙东北部加泰罗尼亚地区的首府，这座城市曾以稳定的游客流著称，人们被其精美建筑和地中海生活方式吸引。
然而，1992年巴塞罗那夏季奥运会改变了一切。奥运筹备期间，新的城市规划清除了地中海沿岸的铁路轨道和商业设施，使奥运会得以展现这座历史名城的风格与文化。至2004年，拥有150万居民的巴塞罗那年接待过夜游客达450万人次。兰布拉大道及周边社区的密集人流引发部分当地居民不满。
"我们感觉被彻底入侵了。"巴塞罗那居民琼·阿尔伯特·里乌向记者表示。
市长指出，最具代表性的圣家堂周边是拥堵重灾区。这个住有5万居民的社区，夏季每天需额外接待5万名游客参观这座尚未完工的教堂。
"我们认为旅游需求不可阻挡，"市长对记者说，"我们欢迎所有人，但必须有限度。"他未明确具体数字，仅补充道："唯一解决方案是控制供给。"
为应对激增的游客量，市政府移除了圣家堂附近的小花园和长椅，新塔楼预计今年晚些时候开放。旅游巴士和出租车停靠点也被迁至离入口更远处以缓解拥挤。
此外，巴塞罗那机场扩建引发争议。2024年机场创纪录接待5500万旅客，提供约200个全球直飞航线（70%在欧洲境内），包括8个美国城市。加泰罗尼亚总统办公室向记者透露，西班牙政府与当地官员正商讨"如何在保护周边环境的同时扩大运力"。
In Barcelona, tourism hasn’t always been a problem. For years, as the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region in the northeast, the city was known for its steady flow of visitors drawn to its beautiful architecture and Mediterranean lifestyle.
However, the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics changed everything. During preparations for the Games, a new urban plan cleared railway tracks and commercial facilities along the Mediterranean coast, allowing the Olympics to showcase the historic city’s style and culture. By 2004, Barcelona, home to 1.5 million residents, welcomed 4.5 million overnight tourists. The dense crowds along La Rambla and surrounding neighborhoods sparked discontent among some locals.
“We feel completely invaded,” Joan Albert Riu, a Barcelona resident, told reporters.
According to the city’s mayor, a major congestion hotspot is the area around the iconic Sagrada Família basilica. The neighborhood, with 50,000 residents, sees up to an additional 50,000 daily visitors in summer to the still-unfinished church.
“We consider tourist demand unstoppable,” the mayor said to reporters. “We welcome everyone, but there’s a limit,” he added, without specifying numbers. “The only solution is to control supply.”
To accommodate growing visitor numbers, the city has removed small gardens and benches near the Sagrada Família, with a new tower expected to open later this year. To reduce crowding, stops for tourist buses and taxis have been moved farther from the entrance.
Additionally, Barcelona’s airport expansion has drawn complaints. In 2024, the airport handled a record 55 million passengers. It offers direct flights to about 200 global destinations, 70% within Europe, including eight U.S. cities. The Spanish government and Catalan officials are discussing “how to expand capacity while protecting the surrounding environment,” the Catalan president’s office told reporters. |
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