Section C: Reading Comprehension
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping—where you hand over notes and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go.
At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don't go and stand at any kind of cash register, when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa. Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. But earning money isn't quick or easy for most of us. Isn't it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink of an eye? Doesn't a wallet—that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something that matters?
What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smart phone or an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as a pebble. Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.
46. What is happening to the wallet?
47. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?
48. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?
49. Why does the author choose to write about what's happening to the wallet?
50. What can we infer from the passage about the author?
Passage Two
It's late in the evening: time to close the book and turn off the computer. You're done for the day. What you may not realize, however, is that the learning process actually continues—in your dreams.
Researchers are increasingly focusing on the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the day and the fragmented, often bizarre imaginings they generate at night. Scientists have found that dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved performance in that activity. What's more, researchers are coming to recognize that dreaming is an essential part of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.
While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls a neural virtual reality. A vivid example: researchers taught a series of dance moves to patients with sleepwalking. They then videotaped the subjects. Lying in bed, eyes closed, one female patient performs the dance moves she learned earlier.
This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what's important from the information we've recently encountered, then integrating that data into the vast store of what we already know. In a 2010 study, researchers at Harvard reported that students who dreamed about a computer maze task showed a 10-fold improvement in their ability to find their way compared with participants who did not dream about the task.
Robert Stickgold suggests that studying right before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session might increase the odds of dreaming about the material. Think about that as your head hits the pillow tonight.
51. What is scientists' finding about dreaming?
52. What happens when one enters a dream state?
53. What does the brain do while we are sleeping?
54. What does Robert Stickgold suggest about enhancing learning?
55. What can be inferred about dreaming from the passage?
Answers & Explanations
Passage One: The Vanishing Wallet
46. A。题干问钱包现在的处境。首段第一句 The wallet is heading for extinction（钱包正走向灭绝）直接对应选项 A (It is disappearing 正在消失)。
47. B。题干问大型现代商店如何交易。第二段指出员工配备 iPads 收款（take your payment），这属于 Electronically（电子化）交易，故选 B。
48. D。题干问作者为何感到不适。第三段中作者抱怨赚钱不易，但 spending it should happen in half a blink of an eye（花钱却在半眨眼间发生），觉得这有点怪异，对应选项 D (花钱太快太容易)。
49. A。题干问作者写钱包消失的原因。第四段首句 What bothers me... is the change it represents in our physical environment（让我困扰的是它代表了我们物理环境的改变），对应选项 A (代表了现代世界的改变)。
50. C。题干问关于作者的推断。作者在文中表达了对钱包消失的不安（makes me uneasy），并怀念周五晚上钱包鼓鼓的感觉（time-honoured feeling），说明他很不舍得放弃传统钱包，对应选项 C (reluctant to part with the traditional wallet)。
全文翻译
钱包正走向灭绝。作为一种日常必需品，它将与阅读纸质报纸的那一代人一起消亡。那种你递出钞票并找回零钱的购物方式——如今只发生在我们最微小的零售场合，比如买一块巧克力或一品脱牛奶。在任何你真正花钱的商店里，钱变得越来越抽象。而这在你消费档次越高的情况下越是如此。在最前沿的零售店铺——比如多佛街的Victoria Beckham——当你决定付款时，你不会走到任何收银台前站着。店员配备着iPad在你坐在沙发上放松时收款。如果你有钱，这无非是优质的服务。但放眼整个社会，现金概念的抽象化让我感到不安。也许我只是老派。但对大多数人来说，赚钱并不快也不容易。花钱在一眨眼间完成，难道不有点奇怪吗？难道钱包——那种周五晚上令人愉悦、令人充满期待的充实感——不代表某种重要的东西吗？钱包的消亡让我困扰的是它代表了我们物理环境的改变。钱包的外观和触感——扣件和材质随时间磨损和松弛的方式——恰恰与我们这个世界正在变成的样子相反。钱包的对立面是智能手机或iPad。圆润的边缘、凉爽的玻璃，像鹅卵石一样光滑而深不可测。我们不再翻找纸片、窥视角落，而是用手指左右滑动。如果你还有钱包，拿出来看看吧。它可能不会存在太久了。
Passage Two: Learning in Your Dreams
51. C。题干问科学家的发现。第二段指出 dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved performance（梦见学过的任务与表现提升相关），直接对应选项 C (betters its performance)。
52. D。题干问进入梦境时会发生什么。第三段指出 the brain replays the patterns of activity experienced during waking hours（大脑会重放醒着时的活动模式），对应选项 D (再次经历白天的学习活动)。
53. C。题干问睡觉时大脑在做什么。第四段指出 brains are drawing what's important... then integrating that data（提取重要信息并整合数据），对应选项 C (处理和吸收新获取的数据)。
54. A。题干问 Robert Stickgold 关于提升学习的建议。最后一段他指出 taking a nap following a study session might increase the odds（学习后小睡可能增加几率），对应选项 A (白天学习后小睡一会儿)。
55. A。题干问从文章中能推断出什么。全文核心主旨都在强调梦境（dreaming）能继续学习过程（learning process continues）并提升表现，因此推断出我们能通过做梦来增强学习，对应选项 A (enhance our learning through dreaming)。
全文翻译
夜深了：该合上书、关掉电脑了。你今天的学习结束了。然而你可能没有意识到的是，学习过程实际上还在继续——在你的梦中。
研究人员越来越关注我们大脑在白天吸收的知识和技能与夜间产生的零碎、常常怪异的想象之间的关系。科学家发现，梦见我们学过的任务与在该活动中表现的提升相关。更重要的是，研究人员逐渐认识到，做梦是理解、组织和保留所学内容的重要部分。
研究表明，当我们睡觉时，大脑会重放清醒时经历的活动模式，让我们进入一位心理学家所称的神经虚拟现实。一个生动的例子：研究人员教了一组梦游症患者一系列舞蹈动作，然后给他们录像。躺在床上、闭着眼睛，一位女性患者做出了她之前学到的舞蹈动作。
这表明，虽然我们的身体在休息，我们的大脑正在从最近接触的信息中提取重要的内容，然后将这些数据整合进我们已有的庞大知识库中。在2010年的一项研究中，哈佛大学的研究人员报告说，梦到电脑迷宫任务的学生在找路能力上比没有梦到该任务的参与者提高了10倍。
Robert Stickgold建议，睡前学习或学习后小睡一会儿可能会增加梦到相关材料的几率。今晚头枕到枕头上时，想想这一点。