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)

　　Text 1

　　The food you eat does more than provide energy. It can have a dramatic effect on your body's ability to fight off heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and weak bones. With remarkable consistency, recent research has found that a diet high in plant-based foods—fruits, vegetables, dried peas and beans, grains, and starchy staples such as potatoes—is the body's best weapon in thwarting many health-related problems. These foods work against so many diseases that the same healthy ingredients you might use to protect your heart or ward off cancer will also benefit your intestinal tract and bones.

　　Scientists have recently estimated that approximately 30 to 40 percent of all cancers could be averted if people ate more fruits, vegetables, and plant-based foods and minimized high-fat, high-calorie edibles that have scant nutritional value. Up to 70 percent of cancers might be eliminated if people also stopped smoking, exercised regularly, and controlled their weight. In the past, researchers had linked fat consumption with the development of cancers, but they currently believe that eating fruits, vegetables, and grains may be more important in preventing the disease than not eating fat. "The evidence about a high-fat diet and cancer seemed a lot stronger several years ago than it does now," says Melanie Polk, a registered dietitian and director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research.

　　The road to strong bones is paved with calcium-rich food. Leafy green vegetables and low-fat dairy products are excellent sources of calcium, the mineral that puts stiffness into your skeletal system and keeps your bones from turning rubbery and fragile. Your body uses calcium for more than keeping your bones strong. Calcium permits cells to divide, regulates muscle contraction and relaxation, and plays an important role in the movement of protein and nutrients inside cells. If you don't absorb enough from what you eat to satisfy these requirements, your body will take it from your bones. Because your body doesn't produce this essential mineral, you must continually replenish the supply. Even though the recommended daily amount is 1,200 mg, most adults don't eat more than 500mg. One reason may have been the perception that calcium-rich dairy products were also loaded with calories. "In the past, women, in particular, worried that dairy products were high in calories," says Letha Y. Griffin, M.D., of Peachtree Orthopaedics in Atlanta. "But today you can get calcium without eating any high-fat or high-calorie foods by choosing skim milk or low-fat yogurt." Also low-fat dairy products contain phosphorous and magnesium and are generally fortified with vitamin D, all of which help your body absorb and use calcium. If you find it difficult to include enough calcium in your diet, ask your doctor about supplements. They're potent way to get calcium as well as vitamin D and other minerals. But if you rely on pills instead of a calcium-rich diet, you won't benefit from the other nutrients that food provides. Getting the recommended vitamin D may be easy, since your body makes the vitamin when your skin is exposed to the sun's rays.

　　21. Which kind of food is recommended to prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and weak bones?

　　[A] Calcium-rich food.

　　[B] Plant-based and starchy staples food.

　　[C] High-fat, high-calorie food

　　[D] Vitamin D-rich food.

　　22. The underlined word "thwart" (Para. 1) most probably means "________".

　　[A] destroy

　　[B] forbid

　　[C] cure

　　[D] prevent

　　23. ________ percent of all cancers could be averted if people ate more fruits, vegetables, and plant-based foods and minimized high-fat, high-calorie edibles.

　　[A] 30-40

　　[B] 40-50

　　[C] 50-60

　　[D] 60-70

　　24. According to the passage, cancers may take some healthy steps other than ________.

　　[A] stop smoking

　　[B] exercise regularly

　　[C] take non-fat diet

　　[D] control their weight

　　25. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　[A] Today you can get calcium without eating any high-fat or high-calorie food by choosing skim milk or low-fat yogurt.

　　[B] Calcium plays an important role in the movement of protein and nutrients inside cells.

　　[C] You can rely on pills instead of a calcium-rich diet to take enough calcium.

　　[D] If you want to absorb calcium, you should expose yourself to the sun's rays.

　　Text 2

　　To understand how astrology works, we should first take a quick look at the sky. Although the stars are at enormous distances, they do indeed give the impression of being affixed to the inner surface of a great hollow sphere surrounding the earth. Ancient people, in fact, literally believed in the existence of such a celestial sphere. As the earth spins on its axis, the celestial sphere appears to turn about us each day, pivoting at points on a line with the earth's axis of rotation. This daily turning of the sphere carries the stars around the sky, causing most of them to rise and set, but they, and constellations they define, maintains fixed patterns on the sphere, just as the continent of Australian maintains its shape on a spinning globe of the earth. Thus the stars were called fixed stars.

　　The motion of the sun along the ecliptic is, of course, merely a reflection of the revolution of the earth around the sun, but the ancients believed the earth was fixed and the sun had an independent motion of its own, eastward among the stars. The glare of sunlight hides the stars in daytime, but the ancients were aware that the stars were up there even at night, and the slow eastward motion of the sun around the sky, at the rate of about thirty degrees each month, caused different stars to be visible at night at different times of the year.

　　The moon, revolving around the earth each month, also has an independent motion in the sky. The moon, however, changes its position relatively rapidly. Although it appears to rise and set each day, as does nearly everything else in the sky, we can see the moon changing position during as short an interval as an hour or so. The moon's path around the earth lies nearly in the same plane as the earth's path around the sun, so the moon is never seen very far from the ecliptic in the sky. There are five other objects visible to the naked eye that also appear to move in respect to the fixed background of stars on the celestial sphere. These are the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Saturn. All of them revolve around the sun in nearly the same plane as the earth does, so they, like the moon, always appear near the ecliptic. Because we see the planets from the moving earth, however, they behave in a complicated way, with their apparent motions on the celestial sphere reflection both their own independent motions around the sun and our motion as well.

　　26. The ancient people believed that ________.

　　[A] the earth was spinning on the axis of the sky

　　[B] the sky was a hollow sphere spinning around the earth

　　[C] the patterns of stars on the sky would never change

　　[D] the stars around the sky were not stationary

　　27. Which of the following is true about the motion of the moon?

　　[A] The moon and the sun are moving in the same plane.

　　[B] The moon revolved along the ecliptic.

　　[C] The moon moves faster than the sun.

　　[D] The position of the moon can be found changed in an hour's time.

　　28. It is stated in astrology that ________.

　　[A] the sun is so distant from us that it was hard to follow its motion

　　[B] the sun was moving westward around the sky

　　[C] the motion of the sun is at the rate of about thirty degrees every week

　　[D] the motion of the sun is similar to the revolution of the earth around the sun

　　29. All the other five planets ________.

　　[A] always appear near the path of the sun

　　[B] are moving in a way more complicated than the earth does

　　[C] aren't moving around the sun as independently as the earth does

　　[D] are moving around the sun at the same speed as the earth does

　　30. According to the passage which of the following is true?

　　[A] A fixed star refers a star that is always stationary on the sky.

　　[B] Scientists can tell the motion of the earth from the motions of other five planets.

　　[C] Ancient people had scanty knowledge about the movement of the stars.

　　[D] All the stars on the sky can be seen all the year around.