李传伟考研英语阅读听课笔记之四

北京新航道学校  李传伟

       在“考研阅读的最高境界——（一）五层递进学习法”等文章中我说明了应该如何把握阅读文章与试题：

1． 把握中心思想层

2． 概括段落大意层

3． 深入剖析文章层

4． 摘录背诵佳句层

5． 换位思考命题层

       现在以历年真题为例说明如何实施上述的五层递进学习法。在每篇文章的后面，“文章结构与内容”对应上述学习法的1与2，“核心词汇”、“难句分析”与“参考译文”对应上述学习法的3，“佳句摘录”对应上述学习法的4，而“试题详解”对应上述学习法的5。关于“五层递进学习法”的具体内容，请阅读本人博客中的同名文章。

Passage 4

“I have great confidence that by the end of the decade we’ll know in vast detail how cancer cells arise,” says microbiologist Robert Weinberg, an expert on cancer. “But,” he cautions, “some people have the idea that once one understands the causes, the cure will rapidly follow. Consider Pasteur, he discovered the causes of many kinds of infections, but it was fifty or sixty years before cures were available.”

This year, 50 percent of the 910,000 people who suffer from cancer will survive at least five years. In the year 2000, the National Cancer Institute estimates, that figure will be 75 percent. For some skin cancers, the five-year survival rate is as high as 90 percent. But other survival statistics are still discouraging—13 percent for lung cancer, and 2 percent for cancer of the pancreas.

With as many as 120 varieties in existence, discovering how cancer works is not easy. The researchers made great progress in the early 1970s, when they discovered that oncogenes, which are cancer-causing genes, are inactive in normal cells. Anything from cosmic rays to radiation to diet may activate a dormant oncogene, but how remains unknown. If several oncogenes are driven into action, the cell, unable to turn them off, becomes cancerous.

The exact mechanisms involved are still mysterious, but the likelihood that many cancers are initiated at the level of genes suggests that we will never prevent all cancers. “Changes are a normal part of the evolutionary process,” says oncologist William Hayward. Environmental factors can never be totally eliminated; as Hayward points out, “We can’t prepare a medicine against cosmic rays.”医学全.在线网.站.提供

The prospects for cure, though still distant, are brighter.

“First, we need to understand how the normal cell controls itself. Second, we have to determine whether there are a limited number of genes in cells which are always responsible for at least part of the trouble. If we can understand how cancer works, we can counteract its action.”

13. The example of Pasteur in the passage is used to .

［A］ predict that the secret of cancer will be disclosed in a decade

［B］ indicate that the prospects for curing cancer are bright

［C］ prove that cancer will be cured in fifty to sixty years

［D］ warn that there is still a long way to go before cancer can be conquered

14. The author implies that by the year 2000, .

［A］ there will be a drastic rise in the five-year survival rate of skin-cancer patients

［B］ 90 percent of the skin-cancer patients today will still be living

［C］ the survival statistics will be fairly even among patients with various cancers

［D］ there won’t be a drastic increase of survival rate of all cancer patients

15. Oncogenes are cancer-causing genes.

［A］ that are always in operation in a healthy person

［B］ which remain unharmful so long as they are not activated

［C］ that can be driven out of normal cells

［D］ which normal cell can’t turn off

16. The word “dormant” in the third paragraph most probably means .

［A］ dead［B］ ever-present［C］ inactive［D］ potential

文章结构与内容

文章结构：层层递进型。本文指出人们虽然还没有找到治愈癌症的方法，但在癌症的研究方面已经有了很大进展。人们发现了致癌基因（oncogene），但是对于其活动过程还知之不多。作者认为虽然癌症的治愈前景遥远，但已经比较明朗。阅读时注意文中的转折处。

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