专业英语四级阅读-15_真题-无答案

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2024年3月22日发(作者：)

专业英语四级阅读-15

(总分100,考试时间90分钟)

READING COMPREHENSION

TEXT A

A company in Boston, AdelaVoice, has invented a smart-phone application called StartTalking

that allows drivers to send and receive text messages while driving. Unfortunately, however, such

a hands-free texting device will not reduce the likelihood of an accident while texting.

To date, 30 states have outlawed texting while driving. The new smart-phone application is

obviously designed to get around such laws and allow the drivers to text while driving. However,

the device is unlikely to reduce accidents for the same reason that the use of hands-free cell

phones apparently has not reduced auto accidents.

As I explain in an earlier post, it is not the use of the hands while driving that is likely

contributing to the greater likelihood of accidents while talking on the cell phone or texting, but

the use of the brain for an evolutionarily novel, "unnatural" behavior of communicating with a

person who is not present. Hands-free devices do not alter the evolutionary novelty of

**munication, so they are not likely to be less cognitively taxing than hand-held cell phones.

Because there was no such thing as communicating with someone who is not present within

the earshot in the ancestral environment, all **munications are evolutionarily novel. And the

human brain, designed for and adapted to the conditions of the ancestral environment, has inherent

**prehending and dealing with all **munications. It likely finds such tasks cognitively demanding

and taxing, and a greater portion of their cognitive energy and attention will have to be diverted

from the (equally evolutionarily novel) task of driving a car to the cell phone conversation. The

human brain likely finds it too cognitively demanding to carry on two such evolutionarily novel

tasks simultaneously and efficiently.

If the hands-free texting application reduces the likelihood of accidents at all, it is probably not

because it is hands-free, but because it allows the users to use (evolutionarily familiar) spoken

language, rather than (evolutionarily novel) written language, in **munication.

If we want truly to reduce auto accidents as a result of cell phone conversations, we shouldn't

be using hands-free devices, because they do not do anything to alter the evolutionary novelty of

the conversation. As I mention in the earlier post, we should develop a technology that allows us

to project a holographic image of the person we are speaking to inside the car. Short of that, we

should encourage people to use the new iPhone application Facetime that allows them to see the

other person on the phone. Using Facetime should somewhat fool their brain into thinking that the

person they **municating with is immediately present, especially if they are less intelligent.

1. What is said about the new smart-phone application?A. It has received some praise from

drivers. B. It has violated the law obviously. C. It turns out to not having reduced accidents. D.

It allows drivers to text messages without hands.

2. The author believes the greater likelihood of car accidents while talking on the cell phone or

texting is related toA. the use of the hands. B. the use of the eyes. C. the use of the brain. D.

the use of the mouth.

3. According to Paragraph 4, the human brainA. has inherent **prehending

face-to-**munication. B. has post-natal difficulty dealing with cell **munication. C. is limited

to carry on one evolutionarily novel task at a time. D. needs a great deal of cognitive energy to

handle driving a car.

4. We learn from the passage thatA. talking to people face-to-face is evolutionarily novel. B.

driving a car is evolutionarily familiar. C. having a cell phone conversation is evolutionarily

familiar. D. sending short messages is evolutionarily novel.

5. What's the author's advice to reduce accidents due to cell phone conversations?A. Strengthen

the legal supervision over drivers using a cell phone. B. Invent a new technology that can create

an image of the person we're talking to. C. Encourage people to use the hands-free devices when

driving a car. D. Increase penalties for texting or using a cell phone while driving.

TEXT B

Have you ever felt slightly under the weather, called your doctor for advice and been asked to

drag yourself to her office—only to be told to rest up and drink lots of fluids? Or, worse, have you

ever spent a day playing phone tag so you could get the results of an important diagnostic test?

Chances are these inconveniences could have been avoided if your doctor used a simple,

ubiquitous tool: e-mail. A study published in the July issue of Health Affairs indicates that patients

who use e-mail to communicate with their doctors not only save time and money but also have

healthier outcomes. The authors reviewed more than 500,000 patient-doctor e-mails sent within

the Kaiser Permanente network and found that people with hypertension or diabetes (or both) who

e-mailed their doctors managed their blood pressure and blood sugar better than non-e-mailers.

Given this news and given that millions of Americans have had e-mail accounts for more than

a decade, why is it that only a small percentage of physicians report that they use the tool with

patients? One reason is that primary-care providers, the doctors most likely to be able to

coordinate care via e-mail, generally get paid $60 to $100 per office visit and $0 per e-mail. This

kind of **munication is not recognized as a billable activity by Medicare, Medicaid or most

private insurers.

Kaiser is a special case in that the people it insures receive care at Kaiser-owned facilities

where the doctors are essentially paid per patient, not per procedure. Its physicians "don't get paid

by generating more visits, so they find a more efficient way," says study coauthor Terhilda Garrido.

"It's in their best interest to use e-mail."

The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could help spread the use of e-mail, since

the law is funding pilot projects similar to the Kaiser system. Dr. Fred Ralston, president of the

American College of Physicians and an internist in private practice in Tennessee, is one of

thousands of doctors across the country experimenting with such a model. The extra

funding—which, in Ralston's case, comes from BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee—could allow

more primary-care doctors to fully embrace e-mail.

"It's a wonderful thing," he says. "You can spend probably 30 seconds and give **monsense

advice."

Most doctors who e-mail don't use Gmail or Outlook. To comply with federal privacy laws,

they contract with software vendors to set up secure independent websites. Some private insurers

will reimburse for secure, third-party **munication but won't do so for standard e-mail. Cigna, for

instance, pays doctors about $25 for an "eVisit," in which patients, rather than writing free-form

messages, fill out discrete Web-page fields.

Dr. Richard Baron, a Philadelphia internist, takes a different approach. Patients can log on to

his practice's secure website and write as much as they like. "When people want to interact with

their doctor, they want to do it in a conversational mode," he says.

6. Which of the following is a reason mentioned that few physicians use e-mail with patients?A.

Communication on e-mails isn't clear enough. B. In most cases doctors get no profit in this

way. C. The government is against this approach. D. Most of the patients don't like the "eVisit".

7. What kind of organization may Kaiser be?A. A large hospital. B. An **pany. C. A health care

organization. D. A **pany.

8. Why does the new Act mentioned could help spread the use of e-mail?A. Because it provides

doctors using e-mails with high pay. B. Because it protects the online patients' privacy. C.

Because it requires to give money to projects using "eVisit". D. Because it stipulates that doctors

must use the e-mail.

9. What can we learn from Dr. Richard Baron's experience?A. "eVisit" will be popular among

doctors and patients. B. Patients want to communicate with doctors face to face. C. Patients

usually have a lot of words to tell the doctors. D. When consulting doctors, patients favor the

conversational mode.

TEXT C

Elizabeth I has been dead for more than 400 years, and Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded 16

years earlier in 1587. Yet today's women still identify with these two powerful queens.

Elizabeth is frequently mentioned in opinion polls about great leaders, and many successful

women have been inspired by her. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's self-willed cousin, Mary Queen of

Scots, also has legions of fans. She is often cited as the ultimate romantic heroine who followed

her heart and was undone by love.

Elizabeth and Mary were celebrity queens in their own lifetimes, and part of their enduring

fascination is that they embody the female dilemma we all share—whether we should follow our

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