01.05 几道阅读……

spcc

01.05
阅读12题：nowithstanding是尽管的意思，为什么选C啊，我觉得答案有错误

Question 11-20

 Molting is one of the most involved processes of a bird’s annual life cycle.

      Notwithstanding preening and constant care, the marvelously intricate structure of a bird’s

     Feather inevitably wears out. All adult birds molt their feathers at least once a year, and

Line
                        upon close observation, one can recognize the frayed, ragged appearance of feathers that

5)
                    are nearing the end of their useful life. Two distinct processes are involved in molting.

The first step is when the old, worn feather is dropped, or shed. The second is when a new

feather grows in its place. When each feather has been shed and replaced, then the molt

can be said to be complete. This, however, is an abstraction that often does not happen:

incomplete, overlapping, and arrested molts are quite common.

10)    Molt requires that a bird find and process enough protein to rebuild approximately

one-third of its body weight. It is not surprising that a bird in heavy molt often seems

listless and unwell. But far from being random, molt is controlled by strong evolutionary

forces that have established an optimal time and duration. Generally, molt occurs at the

time of least stress on the bird. Many songbirds, for instance, molt in late summer, when

15)
                    the hard work of breeding is done but the weather is still warm and food still plentiful.

This is why the woods in late summer often seem so quiet, when compared with the

Exuberant choruses of spring.

 Molt of the flight feathers is the most highly organized part of the process. Some species,

     for example, begin by dropping the outermost primary feathers on each side (to retain

 20)
                    balance in the air) and wait until the replacement feathers are about one-third grown before

     shedding the next outermost, and so on. Others always start with the innermost primary

     feathers and work outward. Yet other species begin in the middle and work outward on both

     weeks while the replacement feathers grow.

 

12.The word “Notwithstanding” in line 2 is closest

   in meaning to

  (A) despite

  (B) because of

  (C) instead of

  (D) regarding

 

阅读48题：答案是选C么？ 

Questions 41-50

      There are only a few clues in the rock record about climate in the Proterozoic con.

Much of our information about climate in the more recent periods of geologic history

comes from the fossil record, because we have a reasonably good understanding of

Line the types of environment in which many fossil organisms flourished. The scarce fossils

 5)  of the Proterozoic, mostly single-celled bacteria, provide little evidence in this regard.

However, the rocks themselves do include the earliest evidence for glaciation, probably

a global ice age.

      The inference that some types of sedimentary rocks are the result of glacial activity

    is based on the principle of uniformitarianism, which posits that natural processes now

10)  at work on and within the Earth operated in the same manner in the distant past. The

deposits associated with present-day glaciers have been well studied, and some of their

characteristics are quite distinctive. In 2.3-billion-year-old rocks in Canada near Lake

Huron (dating from the early part of the Proterozoic age), there are thin laminae of

fine-grained sediments that resemble varves, the annual layers of sediment deposited in

15) glacial lakes. Typically, present-day varves show two-layered annual cycle, one layer

corresponding to the rapid ice melting and sediment transport of the summer season, and

the other, finer-grained, layer corresponding to slower winter deposition. Although it is

not easy to discern such details in the Proterozoic examples, they are almost certainly

glacial varves. These fine-grained, layered sediments even contain occasional large

20)  pebbles or “dropstones,” a characteristic feature of glacial environments where coarse

material is sometimes carried on floating ice and dropped far from its source, into

otherwise very fine grained sediment. Glacial sediments of about the same age as those

in Canada have been found in other parts of North America and in Africa, India, and

Europe. This indicates that the glaciation was global, and that for a period of time in

25)  the early Proterozoic the Earth was gripped in an ice age.

        Following the early Proterozoic glaciation, however, the climate appears to have

Been fairly benign for a very long time. There is no evidence for glaciation for the

Next 1.5 billion years or so. Then, suddenly, the rock record indicates a series of

Glacial episodes between about 850 and 600 million year ago, near the end of the

Proterozoic con.

 

48. According to the passage, the presence of dropstones indicates that

  (A) the glacial environment has been unusually server

  (B) the fine-grained sediment has built up very slowly

  (C) there has been a global ice age

  (D) coarse rock material has been carried great distances

 

山衔落日

网上流传的这两题答案前一题很明显错了，后一题则有争议。

notwithstanding应该选despite，M-W字典也是这个解释。

48题，有人从原文直接找出了D,我认为C更合适。

“dropstones,” a characteristic feature of glacial environments where coarse material is sometimes carried on floating ice and dropped far from its source, into otherwise very fine grained sediment. Glacial sediments of about the same age as those in Canada have been found in other parts of North America and in Africa, India, and Europe. This indicates that the glaciation was global, and that for a period of time in the early Proterozoic the Earth was gripped in an ice age.

可见“coarse material…… ”只是修饰glacial environments

而dropstones则是“indicates that the glaciation was global”的一个（也许是间接的）证据。