Part A

　　Directions:

　　Read the following two texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.

　　Text 1

　　Isabel has turned down two job offers in the past year. In 2006, she started her own consulting practice, but by 2008, most of her larger clients had to drop her because of the economy. In 2011, she was undertaking irregular assignments and knew she needed a steady job. The first job she considered was Director of HR for a company in Utah. After the initial interviews, she felt the job fit her except for the location. Still, she flew west to meet the hiring manager. The hiring manager explained that Isabel was the top candidate for the job but that, before she continued with the process, she should better understand the firm's culture. She directed Isabel to several videos of the company's CEO, who regularly appeared in front of the company in costume as part of morale building exercises and expected his senior leaders to do the same. "Even though I was desperate for a job, I knew I couldn't do that," Isabel says. She called the recruiter to turn down the job and explained that she didn't feel there was a cultural fit.

　　A few months later, she interviewed for another job: a director of employee relations at a local university. After several interviews, the hiring manager told her the job was hers if she wanted it. The job had many positives : it was a low-stress environment, it offered great benefits, and the university was an employee-friendly place. But the job was relatively junior despite the title and Isabel worried it wouldn't be challenging enough. Finally, she turned it down. "It would be great to have a paycheck and great benefits but I would definitely have trouble sleeping at night," she says.

　　In both cases, she was frank with the hiring managers about why she wasn't taking the jobs."In the past, it felt like dating, I was worried about hurting people's feelings," she says. However, they appreciated her frankness and thanked her for her honesty. She says it was hard to turn down the jobs and it was a risk for her financially but she felt she had to.

　　26. In 2011, Isabel_______。

　　A. did consulting now and then　　B. found a job close to her home

　　C. refused several job interviews　　D. ran a successful consulting firm

　　27. Isabel turned down the first job offer mainly because of its_______

　　A. CEO　　B. culture

　　C. location　　D. recruiter

　　28. Isabel was dissatisfied with the second job due to its_______

　　A. junior rifle　　B. low benefits

　　C. Environment　　D. lack of challenge

　　29. Isabel believed that her rejection of the jobs was______

　　A. harmful　　B. surprising

　　C. justifiable　　D. troublesome

　　30. According to Isabel, it is important to______

　　A. look for jobs with little stress　　B. look for jobs with great benefits

　　C. be truthful in declining job offers　　D. be cautious in declining job offers

　　Text 2

　　You do not usually get something for nothing. Now, a new study reveals that the evolution of an improved learning ability could come at a particularly high price: an earlier death.

　　Past experiments have demonstrated that it is relatively easy .through selective breeding to make rats, honey bees and-that great favourite of researchers-fruit flies a lot better at learning. Animals that are better learners should be competitive and, thus, over time, come to dominate a population by natural selection. But improved learning ability does not get selected amongst these animals in the wild. No one really understands why.

　　Tadeusz Kawecki and his colleagues at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland have measured the effects of improved learning on the lives of fruit flies. The flies were given two different fruits as egg-laying sites. One of these was laced with a bitter additive that could be detected only on contact. The flies were then given the same fruit but without an additive. Flies that avoided the fruit which had been bitter were deemed to have learned from their experience. Their children were reared and the experiment was run again.

　　After repeating the experiment for 30 generations, the children of the learned flies were com- pared with normal flies. The researchers report in a forthcoming edition of Evolution that although learning ability could be bred into a population of fruit flies, it shortened their lives by 15%. When the researchers compared their learned flies to colonies selectively bred to live long lives, they found even greater differences. Whereas learned flies had reduced their life spans, the long-lived flies learned less well than even average flies.

　　The authors suggest that evolving an improved learning ability may require a greater investment in the nervous system which takes resources away from processes that delay ageing. However, Dr. Kawecki thinks the effect could also be a by-product of greater brain activity increasing the production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), which can increase oxidation in the body and damage health.

　　No one knows whether the phenomenon holds true for other animals. So, biologists, at least, still have a lot to learn.

　　31. Past experiments prove selective breeding can make animals better_______

　　A. Commanders　　B. Competitors

　　C. survivors　　D. learners

　　32. In this experiment, scientists observed that________

　　A. some flies avoided the fruit without an addictive

　　B. some flies preferred the fruit with an addictive

　　C. the eggs of the flies were not damaged

　　D. the impact on the flies did not last long

　　33. The forthcoming report says that_______

　　A. long-lived flies are better at laying eggs

　　B. long-lived flies are poorer in learning

　　C. learned flies have a relatively long life

　　D. learned flies live as long as average ones

　　34. According to Dr.Kawecki, greater brain activity______

　　A. reduces oxygen consumption

　　B. regulates the nervous system

　　C. speeds up the ageing process

　　D. stabilizes the ageing process

　　35. We learn from the text that_______

　　A. the research findings need to be tested further

　　B. biologists are doing similar research on other animals

　　C. the animal world usually follows the same universal laws

　　D. biologists are applying their findings to other areas

　　2016年3月全国英语等级考试三级真题(阅读Part A)

　　真题答案：

　　26.A 27.B 　28.D　　29.A　　30.C

　　31.D　　32.A　　33.B　　34.C　　35.A