Section II Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text1

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation.

So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.

“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

All of us work through problems in ways of which we’re unaware, she says. Researchers in the late 1960 covered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. At puberty, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.

The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. “This breaks the major rule in the American belief system — that anyone can do anything,” explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book “This Year I Will...” and Ms. Markova’s business partner. “That’s a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.” This is where developing new habits comes in.

21. The view of Wordsworth habit is claimed by being

A. casual B. familiar C. mechanical D. changeable.

22. The researchers have discovered that the formation of habit can be

A. predicted B. regulated C. traced D. guided

23.” ruts”(in line one, paragraph 3) has closest meaning to

A. tracks B. series C. characteristics D. connections

24. Ms. Markova’s comments suggest that the practice of standard testing ?

A, prevents new habits form being formed

B, no longer emphasizes commonness

C, maintains the inherent American thinking model

D, complies with the American belief system

25. Ryan most probably agree that

A. ideas are born of a relaxing mind

B. innovativeness could be taught

C. decisiveness derives from fantastic ideas

D. curiosity activates creative minds

Text 2

It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly) wisdom – or at least confirm that he’s the kid’s dad. All he needs to do is shell our $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore – and another $120 to get the results.

More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without prescriptions last years, according to Doug Fog, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over-the-counter kits. More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests Directly to the public , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2500.

Among the most popular : paternity and kinship testing , which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and latest rage a many passionate genealogists-and supports businesses that offer to search for a family’s geographic roots .

Most tests require collecting cells by webbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA.

But some observers are skeptical, “There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,” says Trey Duster, a New York University sociologist. He notes that each individual has many ancestors-numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited through men in a father’s line or mitochondrial DNA, which a passed down only from mothers. This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great-grandparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.

Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don’t rely on data collected systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means that a DNA database may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review or outside evaluation.

26.In paragraphs 1 and 2 , the text shows PTK’s ___________.

[A]easy availability

[B]flexibility in pricing

[C] successful promotion

[D] popularity with households

27. PTK is used to __________.

[A]locate one’s birth place

[B]promote genetic research

[C] identify parent-child kinship

[D] choose children for adoption

28. Skeptical observers believe that ancestry testing fails to__________.

[A]trace distant ancestors

[B] rebuild reliable bloodlines

[C] fully use genetic information

[D] achieve the claimed accuracy

29. In the last paragraph ,a problem commercial genetic testing faces is __________.

[A]disorganized data collection

[B] overlapping database building

30. An appropriate title for the text is most likely to be__________.

[A]Fors and Againsts of DNA testing

[B] DNA testing and It’s problems

[C]DNA testing outside the lab

[D] lies behind DNA testing

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