【任务9：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】
经过这些天的努力，他已经摸清了阅读理解的套路，只是部分单词尚未掌握，扫了眼试卷，岑越崎从容许多。
San Francisco Has Be One Huge Metaphor for Economic Inequality in America
A)The fog（薄雾） still chills the morning air and the cable cars（缆车） still climb halfway to the stars.Yet on the ground, the Bay Area has changed greatly since singer Tony Be left his heart here.Silicon Valley （硅谷）and the tech industry have led the region into a period of unprecedented wealth and innovation. But existing political and land limits have caused an alarming housing crisis and astronomical（极大的） rise in social and economic difference.
B)While the residents of most cities display pride and support for their home industries, drastic （激烈的）market distortions（畸变） in the San Francisco Bay Area have created boiling resentment（怨恨） in the region towards the tech industry.A vocal minority is even calling on officials to punish those who are benefitting from the economic and housing boom.If this boom and its consequences are not resolved, a drastic increase in social and economic difference may have a profound impact on the region for generations.A history and analysis of this transformation may hold invaluable insights about the opportunities.Perils （风险）of tech cities are currently being cultivated across the US, and indeed around the world.
C)According to a recent study, San Francisco ranks first in California for economic difference.The average ie of the top 1% of households in the city averages $3.6 million. This is 44 times （倍）the average ie of those at the bottom, which stands at $ 81,094.The top 1% of the San Francisco peninsula''s share of total ie now extends to 30.8% of the region''s ie.This was a dramatic jump from 1989, where it stood at 15.8%.
D) The region''s economy has been fundamentally transformed by the technology industry springing from Silicon Valley.Policies pushed by Mayor Ed Lee provided tax breaks for techpanies to set up shop along the city''s long-neglected Mid-Market area.The city is now home to Twitter, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Dropbox and others.In short, the Bay Area has be a global ma（磁铁） for those with specialized skills, which has in turn helped fuel economic enthusiasm, and this economic growth has reduced unemployment to 3.4%, an admirable feat.
E)In spite of all that, the strength of the recent job growth,bined with policies that have traditionally limited housing development in the city and throughout the peninsula,（半岛） did not help ease the affordability crisis. In 2015 alone, the Bay Area added 64,000 in jobs. In the same year, only 5,000 new homes were built.
F)With the average house in the city costing over $1.25 million and average flat prices over $1.11
million, the minimum qualifying ie to purchase a house has increased to $254,000.Considering that the average household ie in the city currently stands at around $ 80,000, it is not an exaggeration to say（毫不夸张的说） that the dream of home ownership is now beyond the grasp of the vast majority of （绝大多数）today''s people who rent.
G) For generations, the stability and prosperity of the American middle class has been anchored （维系）by homeownership.Studies have consistently shown that the value of land has overtaken （超过）overall ie growth, thus providing a huge advantage to property owners as a vehicle of wealth building.When home prices soar（飙升） above the reach of most households, the gap between the rich and the poor dramatically increases.
H)If contributing factors leading to housing bing less than affordable are not resolved over multiple generations（几代人）, a small elite（精英） will control a vast share of the country''s total wealth. The result?A society where the threat of class warfare （战争）would loom large.A society''s level of happiness is tied less to measures of quantitative wealth and more to measures of qualitative wealth.This means that how a person judges their security inparison to their neighbors'' has more of an impact on their happiness than their objective standard of living.At the same time, when a system no longer provides opportunities for the majority to participate in wealth building, it not only robs those who are excluded from opportunities, but also deprives them of their dignity.（尊严）
I) San Francisco and the Bay Area have long beenmitted to values which embrace inclusion and rejection（拒绝） of mainstream culture（主流文化）.To see these valuesing apart so publicly adds insult （侮辱）to injury（雪上加霜） for a region once defined by its progressive （进步性的）social fabric.In the face of resentment, it is human to want revenge.（报复）But deteriorating （恶化）policies such as heavily taxing technologypanies or real estate developers are not likely to shift the balance.
J) The housing crisis is caused by two primary factors: the growing desirability （向往）of the Bay Area as a place to live due to its excellent economy, and our limited housing stock（存量）.Although the city is experiencing an unprecedented boom in new housing, more units are sorely （非常）needed.Protection policies were originally designed to suppress bad development and boost historic preservation in our urban areas.Now, too many developers are experiencing excessive（过度的） delaysanwhile, there are the land limitations of the Bay Area to consider. The region is surrounded by water and mountains.Local governments need to aid development as well.This means increasing housing density throughout the region and building upwards while streamlining（流水线型的） the approval process.
K) Real estate alone will not solve the problem, of course.Transportation, too, needs to be updated and infrastructure extended to link distant regions to Silicon Valley and the city.We need to build an effective high-speedmuting system linking the high-priced and crowded Bay Area with the low-priced and low-density Central Valley. This would dramatically reduce travel times.And based on the operating speeds of hovering（悬停列车） trains used in countries such as Japan or Spain, high-speed rail could shorten the time to travel between San Francisco and California''s capital, Sacramento, or from Stockton to San Jose, to under 30 minutes.This system would bring once distant regions within reasonablemute to heavy job centers.The city also needs to update existing transportation routesbined with smart home-building policies that dramatically increase housing density in areas surrounding high-speed rail stations.
By doing so, we will be able to build affordable housing within acceptablemuting distances for a significant bulk of（大量的） the workforce. （劳动力）
L)Our threatening housing crisis forces the difficult question of what type of society we would like to be.Will it be one where the elite （精英mand（掌控） the vast bulk of wealth and regional culture is defined by an aggressive business world?We were recently treated to a taste of the latter, when local tech employee Justin Keller wrote an open letter to the cityplaining about having to see homeless people on his way to work.
M) It doesn''t have to be this way.But solutions need to be implemented（实施） now, before angry crowds grow from a nuisance to serious concern. It may take less than you might think.And in fact, the solutions to our housing crisis are already fairly clear. We need to increase the density of housing units.We need to use existing technology to shorten travel times and break the land limits.There is a way to solveplex social and economic problems without abandoning social responsibility. This is the Bay Area''s opportunity to prove that it can innovate more than just technology.
1.The higher rate of employment,bined with limited housing supply, did not make it any easier to buy a house.
2.One way to deal with the housing crisis is for the government to simplify approval procedures （程序）for housing project- s.
3.Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area strongly resent the tech industry because of the economic inequality it has contributed to.
4.The fast rise in the prices of land and houses increases the economic inequality among people.
5.San Francisco city government offered tax benefits to attract techpanies to establish operations in a less deve- loped area.
6.Innovative solutions to social and economic problems should be introduced before it is too late.
7.When peoplepare their own living standard with others'', it has a greater impact on their sense of contentment.
8.San Francisco has been found to have the biggest ie gap in California between the rich and the poor.
9.Improved transportworks connecting the city to distant outlying areas will also help solve the housing crisis
10.Average ies in the Bay Area make it virtually（几乎） impossible for most tenant （居住者）families to buy a home.
Key: E-J-B-G-D-M-H-C-K-F
The ability to make inferences（推理） from same and different, once thought to be unique to humans, is viewed as a cornerstone（基础） of abstract intelligent thought.
A new study, however, has shown that what psychologists call same-different discrimination is present in creatures generally seen as unintelligent: newborn ducklings.
The study, published Thursday in Science, challenges our idea of what it means to have a birdbrain, said Edward Wasserman, an experimental psychologist at the University of Iowa who wrote an independent review（评论） of the study"In fact, birds are extremely intelligent and our problem pretty much lies in （在于）figuring out how to get them to ''talk'' to us, or tell us how smart they really are," he said.
Antone Martinho and Alex Kacelnik, co-authors of the new paper, devised （设计）a clever experiment to bettertest bird intelligence.
First, they took 1-day-old ducklings and exposed them to a pair of moving objects. The two objects were either the same or different in shape or color.
Then they exposed each duckling to two entirely new pairs of moving objects.
The researchers found that about 70% of the ducklings preferred to move toward the pair of objects that had the same shape or color relationship as the first objects they saw.
A duckling that was first shown two green spheres, in other words, was more likely to move toward a pair of blue spheres（球体） than a mismatched （不匹配的）pair of orange and purple spheres.
Ducklings go through a rapid learning process called imprinting （铭记）shortly after birth - it''s what allows them to identify and follow their mothers.
These findings suggest that ducklings use abstract relationships between sensory inputs like color, shape, sounds and odor to recognize their mothers, said Dr. Kacelnik.
By studying imprinting, the authors of this study have shown for the first time that an animal can learn relationships between concepts without training, said Jeffrey Katz, an experimental psychologist at Auburn University who was not involved in the study.
Previous studies have suggested that other animals, including pigeons（鸽子）, dolphins, honeybees and some primates（灵长类）, can discern（识别） same from different, but only after extensive training.
Adding ducklings to the list -particularly untrained newborn ducklings - suggests that the ability topare abstract concepts "is far more necessary to a wider variety of animals'' survival than we previously thought," Dr. Martinho said.
He believes the ability is so crucial because it helps animals consider context when identifying objects in their environment.
It''s clear from this study and others like it that "animals process and appreciate far more of the intricacies（复杂性） in their world than we''ve ever understood," Dr. Wasserman said.
"We are in a revolutionary phase in terms of our ability to understand the minds of other animals."
1.In what way were humans thought to be unique?
A) Being a major source of animal intelligence.
B) Being the cornerstone of the creative world.
C) Being capable of same-different discrimination. （辨别）
D) Being able to distinguish abstract （抽象）from concrete.（具体）
2.What do we learn from the study published in Science?
A)Our understanding of the bird world was biased. （偏差）
B)Our conception of（概念） birds'' intelligence was wrong.
C)Ourmunication with birds was far from adequate.
D)Our knowledge about bird psychology needs updating.
3.What did the researchers discover about most ducklings from their experiment?
A) They could associate shape with color.
B)They reacted quickly to moving objects.
C)They preferred colored objects to colorless（无色的) ones.
D) They could tell whether the objects were the same.
4.What was novel（新奇） about the experiment in the study reported in Science?
A)The animals used received no training.
B)It used a number of colors and shapes.
C)It was conducted by experimental psychologists.
D)The ducklings werepared with other animals.
5.What do we learn from Dr. Wasserman''sment on the study of animal minds at the end of the passage?
A)It is getting more and more intricate. （复杂）
B) Research methods are being updated.
C)It is attracting more public attention.
D) Remarkable progress is being made.
Key: C-B-D-A-D
The suggestion that people should aim for dietary（饮食） diversity by trying to eat a variety of foods has been a basic public health rmendation for decades in the United States and elsewhere.
Now, however, experts are warning that aiming for a diverse diet may actually lead to just eating more calories, and, thus, to obesity.（肥胖）
One issue is that people may not interpret "variety" the way nutritionists intend.
This problem is highlighted by new research conducted by the American Heart Association.
Researchers reviewed all the evidence published related to dietary diversity and saw a correlation between dietary diversity and a greater intake of both healthy and unhealthy foods.
This had implications（暗示） for obesity, as researchers found a greater prevalence （流行）of obesity amongst people with a greater dietary diversity.
One author of the new study explained that their findings contradict （矛盾）standard dietary advice, as most dietary guidelines around the world include a statement of eating a variety of foods.
But this advice does not seem to be supported by science, possibly because there is little agreement about the meaning of "dietary diversity," which is not clearly and consistently defined.
Some experts measure dietary diversity by counting the number of food groups eaten, while others look at the distribution of calories across individual foods, and still others measure how different the foods eaten are from each other.
Although the findings of this new study contradict standard dietary advice, they do note as a surprise to all of the researchers involved.
Dr. Rao, one of the study authors, noted that, after 20 years of experience in the field of obesity, he has observed that people who have a regimented（（受管制的） lifestyle and diet tend to be thinner and healthier than people with a wide variety of consumption.
This anecdotal evidence matches the conclusions of the study, which found no evidence that dietary diversity promotes healthy body weight or optimal（最佳的） eating patterns, and limited evidence shows that eating a variety of foods is actually associated with consuming more calories, poor eating patterns and weight gain.
Further, there is some evidence that a greater variety of food options in a single meal may delay people''s feeling of fullness（饱腹感） and actually increase how much they eat.
Based on their findings, the researchers endorse（赞同） a diet consisting of a limited number of healthy foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, and poultry.
They also rmend that people simultaneously （同时）endeavor（努力） to restrict consumption of sweets, sugar and red meat. The researchers stress（强调）, however, that their dietary rmendations do not imply dietary diversity is never positive, and that, in the past, diversity in diets of whole, unprocessed food may have actually been very beneficial.
1.What has been a standard piece of dietary advice for decades?
A) People should cultivate a healthy eating habit.
B) People should have a well-balanced diet.
C) People should diversify what they eat.
D) People should limit calorie intake to avoid obesity.
2What did the new research by the American Heart Association find?
A) People seeking dietary diversity tend to eat more.
B) Big eaters are more likely to be overweight.
C) Dietary diversity is positively related to good health.
D) Unhealthy food makes people gain weight more easily.
3.What could help to explain the contradiction between the new findings and themon public health rmendation?
A) Most dietary guidelines around the world contradict one another.
B) Conventional wisdom about diet is seldom supported by science.
C)The methods researchers use to measure nutrition vary greatly.
D) There is little consensus （一致）on the definition of dietary diversity.
4.What did Dr. Rao find after 20 years of research on obesity?
A) Dietary diversity promotes healthy body weight.
B)Eating patterns and weight gain go hand in hand.
C) Diversified food intake may not contribute to health.
D) There is no clear definition of optimal（最佳的） eating patterns.
5.What does the passage say about people who eat a great variety of food?
A) They tend to consume more sweets, sugar and red meat.
B)They don''t feel they have had enough until they overeat.
C) They don''t have any problems getting sufficient nutrition.
D) They are more likely to eat foods beneficial to their health.
Key: C-A-D-C-B