GMAT阅读新题练习:Passage 47

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　　Passage 47 (47/63)

　　Australian researchers have discovered electroreceptors (sensory organs designed to respond to electrical fields) clustered at the tip of the spiny anteater’s (spiny anteater: n. 〈动〉针鼹) snout. The researchers made this discovery by exposing small areas of the snout to extremely weak electrical fields and recording the transmission of resulting nervous activity to the brain. While it is true that tactile receptors, another kind of sensory organ on the anteater’s snout, can also respond to electrical stimuli, such receptors do so only in response to electrical field strengths about 1,000 times greater than those known to excite electroreceptors.

　　Having discovered the electroreceptors, researchers are now investigating how anteaters utilize such a sophisticated sensory system. In one behavioral experiment, researchers successfully trained an anteater to distinguish between two troughs of water, one with a weak electrical field and the other with none. Such evidence is consistent with researchers’ hypothesis that anteaters use electroreceptors to detect electrical signals given off by prey; however, researchers as yet have been unable to detect electrical signals emanating from termite mounds, where the favorite food of anteaters live. Still, researchers have observed anteaters breaking into a nest of ants at an oblique angle (oblique angle: 斜角(包括锐角和钝角)) and quickly locating nesting chambers. This ability quickly to locate unseen prey suggests, according to the researchers, that the anteaters were using their electroreceptors to locate the nesting chambers.

　　1. According to the passage, which of the following is a characteristic that distinguishes electroreceptors from tactile receptors?

　　(A) The manner in which electroreceptors respond to electrical stimuli

　　(B) The tendency of electroreceptors to be found in clusters

　　(C) The unusual locations in which electroreceptors are found in most species

　　(D) The amount of electrical stimulation required to excite electroreceptors(D)

　　(E) The amount of nervous activity transmitted to the brain by electroreceptors when they are excited

　　2. Which of the following can be inferred about the experiment described in the first paragraph?

　　(A) Researchers had difficulty verifying the existence of electroreceptors in the anteater because electroreceptors respond to such a narrow range of electrical field strengths.

　　(B) Researchers found that the level of nervous activity in the anteater’s brain increased dramatically as the strength of the electrical stimulus was increased.

　　(C) Researchers found that some areas of the anteater’s snout were not sensitive to a weak electrical stimulus.

　　(D) Researchers found that the anteater’s tactile receptors were more easily excited by a strong electrical stimulus than were the electroreceptors.(C)

　　(E) Researchers tested small areas of the anteater’s snout in order to ensure that only electroreceptors were responding to the stimulus.

　　3. The author of the passage most probably discusses the function of tactile receptors (lines 7-11) in order to

　　(A) eliminate and alternative explanation of anteaters’ response to electrical stimuli

　　(B) highlight a type of sensory organ that has a function identical to that of electroreceptors

　　(C) point out a serious complication in the research on electroreceptors in anteaters

　　(D) suggest that tactile receptors assist electroreceptors in the detection of electrical signals(A)

　　(E) introduce a factor that was not addressed in the research on electroreceptors in anteaters

　　4. Which of the following can be inferred about anteaters from the behavioral experiment mentioned in the second paragraph?

　　(A) They are unable to distinguish between stimuli detected by their electroreceptors and stimuli detected by their tactile receptors.

　　(B) They are unable to distinguish between the electrical signals emanating from termite mounds and those emanating from ant nests.

　　(C) They can be trained to recognize consistently the presence of a particular stimulus.

　　(D) They react more readily to strong than to weak stimuli.(C)

　　(E) They are more efficient at detecting stimuli in a controlled environment than in a natural environment.

　　5. The passage suggests that the researchers mentioned in the second paragraph who observed anteaters break into a nest of ants would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

　　(A) The event they observed provides conclusive evidence that anteaters use their electroreceptors to locate unseen prey.

　　(B) The event they observed was atypical and may not reflect the usual hunting practices of anteaters.

　　(C) It is likely that the anteaters located the ants’ nesting chambers without the assistance of electroreceptors.

　　(D) Anteaters possess a very simple sensory system for use in locating prey.(E)

　　(E) The speed with which the anteaters located their prey is greater than what might be expected on the basis of chance alone.

　　6. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the hypothesis mentioned in lines 17-19?

　　(A) Researchers are able to train anteaters to break into an underground chamber that is emitting a strong electrical signal.

　　(B) Researchers are able to detect a weak electrical signal emanating from the nesting chamber of an ant colony.

　　(C) Anteaters are observed taking increasingly longer amounts of time to locate the nesting chambers of ants.

　　(D) Anteaters are observed using various angles to break into nests of ants.(B)

　　(E) Anteaters are observed using the same angle used with nests of ants to break into the nests of other types of prey.

　　Passage 48 (48/63)

　　When A. Philip Randolph assumed the leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car (sleeping car: 卧车) Porters, he began a ten-year battle to win recognition from the Pullman (Pullman: n.卧车, 普式火车(19世纪美国发明家George M.Pullman设计的豪华型列车车厢,常用为特等客车)) Company, the largest private employer of Black people in the United States and the company that controlled the railroad industry’s sleeping car (sleeping car: 卧车) and parlor (a room used primarily for conversation or the reception of guests: parlor car: n.特等豪华铁路客车) service. In 1935 the Brotherhood became the first Black union recognized by a major corporation. Randolph’s efforts in the battle helped transform the attitude of Black workers toward unions and toward themselves as an identifiable group; eventually, Randolph helped to weaken organized labor’s antagonism toward Black workers.

　　In the Pullman contest Randolph faced formidable obstacles. The first was Black workers’ understandable skepticism toward unions, which had historically barred Black workers from membership. An additional obstacle was the union that Pullman itself had formed, which weakened support among Black workers for an independent entity.

　　The Brotherhood possessed a number of advantages, however, including Randolph’s own tactical abilities. In 1928 he took the bold step of threatening a strike against Pullman. Such a threat, on a national scale, under Black leadership, helped replace the stereotype of the Black worker as servant with the image of the Black worker as wage earner (wage earner: n.靠工资为生的人, 雇佣劳动者). In addition, the porters’ very isolation aided the Brotherhood. Porters were scattered throughout the country, sleeping in dormitories in Black communities; their segregated life protected the union’s internal communications from interception. That the porters were a homogeneous group working for a single employer with single labor policy, thus sharing the same grievances from city to city, also strengthened the Brotherhood and encouraged racial identity and solidarity as well. But it was only in the early 1930’s that federal legislation prohibiting a company from maintaining its own unions with company money eventually allowed the Brotherhood to become recognized as the porters’ representative.

　　Not content with this triumph, Randolph brought the Brotherhood into the American Federation of Labor, where it became the equal of the Federation’s 105 other unions. He reasoned that as a member union, the Brotherhood would be in a better position to exert pressure on member unions that practiced race restrictions. Such restrictions were eventually found unconstitutional in 1944.

　　1. According to the passage, by 1935 the skepticism of Black workers toward unions was

　　(A) unchanged except among Black employees of railroad-related industries

　　(B) reinforced by the actions of the Pullman Company’s union

　　(C) mitigated by the efforts of Randolph

　　(D) weakened by the opening up of many unions to Black workers(C)

　　(E) largely alleviated because of the policies of the American Federation of Labor

　　2. In using the word “understandable” (line 14), the author most clearly conveys

　　(A) sympathy with attempts by the Brotherhood between 1925 and 1935 to establish an independent union

　　(B) concern that the obstacles faced by Randolph between 1925 and 1935 were indeed formidable

　　(C) ambivalence about the significance of unions to most Black workers in the 1920’s

　　(D) appreciation of the attitude of many Black workers in the 1920’s toward unions(D)

　　(E) regret at the historical attitude of unions toward Black workers

　　3. The passage suggests which of the following about the response of porters to the Pullman Company’s own union?

　　(A) Few porters ever joined this union.

　　(B) Some porters supported this union before 1935.

　　(C) Porters, more than other Pullman employees, enthusiastically supported this union.

　　(D) The porters’ response was most positive after 1935.(B)

　　(E) The porters’ response was unaffected by the general skepticism of Black workers concerning unions.

　　4. The passage suggests that if the grievances of porters in one part of the United States had been different from those of porters in another part of the country, which of the following would have been the case?

　　(A) It would have been more difficult for the Pullman Company to have had a single labor policy.

　　(B) It would have been more difficult for the Brotherhood to control its channels of communication.

　　(C) It would have been more difficult for the Brotherhood to build its membership.

　　(D) It would have been easier for the Pullman Company’s union to attract membership.(C)

　　(E) It would have been easier for the Brotherhood to threaten strikes.

　　5. The passage suggests that in the 1920’s a company in the United States was able to

　　(A) use its own funds to set up a union

　　(B) require its employees to join the company’s own union

　　(C) develop a single labor policy for all its employees with little employee dissent

　　(D) pressure its employees to contribute money to maintain the company’s own union(A)

　　(E) use its resources to prevent the passage of federal legislation that would have facilitated the formation of independent unions

　　6. The passage supplies information concerning which of the following matters related to Randolph?

　　(A) The steps he took to initiate the founding of the Brotherhood

　　(B) His motivation for bringing the Brotherhood into the American Federation of Labor

　　(C) The influence he had on the passage of legislation overturning race restrictions in 1944

　　(D) The influence he had on the passage of legislation to bar companies from financing their own unions(B)

　　(E) The success he and the Brotherhood had in influencing the policies of the other unions in the American Federation of Labor

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