【中英样题】2023年全国外语阅读大赛

一、短篇阅读（每题1分，共10分）

阅读文章，并根据文章内容，从每题所给四个选项中，选出一个最佳答案。

The knowledge of patients’ genetic information can be an invaluable tool in creating personalized treatment plans in fields like orthodontics or reconstructive surgery. For example, if someday doctors can use genetics to predict when a child’s jaw will hit its growth peak, it will help them.

1. How could the knowledge benefit people?

A. It could improve orthodontic treatments.

B. It could be useful for changing facial shapes

C. It could help recreate one’s jaw at an early age.

D. It could help predict facial appearance with ease.

2-10题略

二、长篇阅读（每题2分，共30分）

阅读文章，并根据文章内容，从每题所给选项中，选出最佳答案。其中每篇文章的第1-4题为单选题，要求从四个选项中选出一个最佳答案；第5题为多选题，要求从五个选项中选择两个最能反映文章主旨的题目。

More than half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035 without significant action, according to a new report. The World Obesity Federation’s 2023 atlas predicts that 51% of the world, or more than 4 billion people, will be obese or overweight within the next 12 years.

Rates of obesity are rising particularly quickly among children and in lower income countries, the report found. Describing the data as a “clear warning”, Louise Baur, president of the World Obesity Federation, said that policymakers needed to act now to prevent the situation worsening.

“It is particularly worrying to see obesity rates rising fastest among children and adolescents,” she said in a statement. “Governments and policymakers around the world need to do all they can to avoid passing health, social and economic costs on to the younger generation.”

The report found that childhood obesity could more than double from 2020 levels, to 208 million boys and 175 million girls by 2035. The cost to society is significant as a result of the health conditions linked to being overweight, the federation said: more than $4 trillion annually by 2035, or 3% of global GDP.

However, the authors said they were not blaming individuals, but calling for a focus on the societal, environmental and biological factors involved in the conditions. The report uses body mass index (BMI) for its assessments, a number calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared.

In line with the World Health Organization’s guidelines, a BMI score over 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese. In 2020, 2.6 billion people fell into these categories, or 38% of the world’s population.

The report also found that almost all of the countries expected to see the greatest increases in obesity in the coming years are low or middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. The data will be presented to United Nations policymakers and member states next week.

11. According to Paragraph 2, which group should be the focus of preventive measures against obesity?

A. Adults and people in middle income countries.

B. Elders and people in low income countries.

C. Children and people in low income countries.

D. All people in low income countries.

12-14题略

15. An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the TWO answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.

More than half of the world’s population will be overweight by 2035 without significant action.

A. Measures should be taken to address the rapid increase in obesity among children and adolescents.

B. The authors of the report called for a focus on the societal, environmental and biological factors involved in the conditions.

C. A BMI score over 25 is overweight and over 30 is obese.

D. In 2020, 2.6 billion people were overweight or obese.

E. It is also worth noting that low or middle income countries in Asia and Africa will see the greatest increase in obesity.

16-25题略

三、长篇阅读（每题2分，共10分）

阅读文章，并根据文章内容，判断所给描述是否正确或是否提及。

For those of us who struggle to leave our beds in the winter, taunts of “lazy” could well be misplaced. New research suggests that while humans do not hibernate, we may need more sleep during the colder months. Analysis of people undergoing sleep studies found that people get more REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in the winter.

While total sleep time appeared to be about an hour longer in the winter than the summer, this result was not considered statistically significant. However, REM sleep — known to be directly linked to the circadian clock, which is affected by changing light — was 30 minutes longer in the winter than in summer. The research suggests that even in an urban population experiencing disrupted sleep, humans experience longer REM sleep in winter than summer and less deep sleep in autumn.

Researchers say if the study’s findings can be replicated in people with healthy sleep, this would provide the first evidence for a need to adjust sleep habits to season — perhaps by going to sleep earlier in the darker and colder months. Dr Dieter Kunz, corresponding author of the study, based at the Clinic for Sleep & Chronomedicine at the St Hedwig hospital, Germany, said: “Seasonality is ubiquitous in any living being on this planet. “Even though we still perform unchanged over the winter, human physiology is down-regulated, with a sensation of ‘running-on-empty’ in February or March.

“In general, societies need to adjust sleep habits including length and timing to season, or adjust school and working schedules to seasonal sleep needs.” During REM sleep, brain activity increases and people may dream. Normal sleep starts with three stages of non-REM sleep at first, followed by a short period of REM sleep. While the researchers acknowledge the results would need to be validated in people with no sleep difficulties, the seasonal changes may be even greater in a healthy population.

In the study, a team of scientists recruited 292 patients that had undergone sleep studies called polysomnographies. These are regularly carried out on patients who experience sleep-related difficulties. They are asked to sleep naturally in a special laboratory without an alarm clock, and the quality and type of sleep can be monitored as well as the length of sleep. After exclusions were made for people taking sleep-affecting medication, technical errors and for those who may have skipped the first REM stage, 188 patients remained in the new study. The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.

26. It was found that REM sleep was longer in winter than in summer.

A. True.

B. False.

C. Not mentioned.

27. Based on their findings, researchers recommended public transport companies to adjust their schedules.

A. True.

B. False.

C. Not mentioned.

28-30题略

四、长篇阅读（每题2分，共20分）

阅读文章，文章后附有10个句子，每句一题。每句所含的信息出自篇章的某一段落，请找出与每句所含信息相匹配的段落。注意，每个句子仅匹配一个段落。有的段落可能对应多道题，有的段落可能不对应任何一题。

（前略）

(E). So what does this mean for employers? From a corporate social responsibility standpoint, it’s clear that if work impacts employees’ children, employers have a responsibility to ensure that the impact is as positive as possible. And from a business standpoint, it’s also in companies’ best financial interests to pay attention to the effects of work on their employees’ families. After all, when workers face challenges with their partners or kids, this stress inevitably spills over into the workplace, leading to lower productivity, more sick days and personal time off, and an unhappier, less motivated workforce.

(F). The good news is, providing working parents with the autonomy and supportive relationships that our research shows can have such a powerful, positive impact on children’s well-being is easier than one might expect. While many people might assume that low-wage jobs are inherently stressful, “bad” jobs, the parents we talked to described many common-sense business practices that their employers had used to help both workers and their families thrive (despite the financial stress that often accompanies these low-paid jobs).

(G). For instance, a hair stylist who participated in our study described a time when she received a phone call at work with news that her baby was sick and needed to be picked up right away. She still had three clients on her schedule for the day, but her boss simply said, “Go, of course. Go. Family comes first. We’ll figure this out.” This simple act of humanity and flexibility didn’t cost much, but it made a big difference, enabling a parent to care for her child in a moment of crisis.

（后略）

31. Humanity and flexibility can also be found in low-wage jobs.

32. The stress employees feel at home can in turn undermine work performance.

33. Parents’ work lives have significant impacts on children’s developmental outcomes.

34. Providing working parents with the autonomy and supportive relationships is not that difficult.

35. Respect and reward at work can make an employee more engaged in parenting.

36. Employers should also take employees’ children, families, neighborhoods, and entire communities into consideration.

37. How employees are trusted and respected at work can affect their interaction with children.

38. Our jobs not only affect our personal lives but also our children.

39. It is equally important to make sure employees are respected and supported in day-to-day lives.

40. Positive working experiences of any parent are significant to children’s early development.

五、简答题（每道题6分，共30分）

阅读文章，并根据文章内容，回答问题。

“Music makes you lose control,” Missy Elliott once sang on a hit that is almost impossible to hear without bopping along. Now scientists have discovered that rats also find rhythmic beats irresistible, showing how they instinctively move in time to music. This ability was previously thought to be uniquely human and scientists say the discovery provides insights into the animal mind and the origins of music and dance.

“Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music – beat synchronization,” said Dr Hirokazu Takahashi of the University of Tokyo. “Music exerts a strong appeal to the brain and has profound effects on emotion and cognition,” he added. While there have been previous demonstrations of animals dancing along to music — TikTok has a wealth of examples — the study is one of the first scientific investigations of the phenomenon.

In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, 10 rats were fitted with wireless, miniature accelerometers to measure the slightest head movements. They were then played one-minute excerpts from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, at four different tempos: 75%, 100%, 200% and 400% of the original speed. Twenty human volunteers also participated.

The scientists thought it possible that rats would prefer faster music as their bodies, including heartbeat, work at a faster pace. By contrast, the time constant of the brain is surprisingly similar across species. However, the results showed that both the rat and human participants had optimal beat synchronicity when the music was in the 120-140 beats per minute (bpm) range – close to the Mozart composition’s original 132bpm — suggesting we share a “sweet spot” for hitting the beat. The team also found that rats and humans jerked their heads to the beat in a similar rhythm, and that the level of head jerking decreased the more that the music was sped up.

41. In Paragraph 1, where does the quote “Music makes you lose control” come from?

42-45题略