广西师范大学2010年非英语专业研究生学位英语考试试卷.docVIP

广西师范大学2010年非英语专业研究生学位英语考试试卷 Part I Reading Comprehension (40 points) Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. At the end of each passage, five questions will be asked about it. For the first three passages, you should read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide on the best choice. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. For the last passage, you should write your answers to the questions on the Answer Sheet. Passage One The problems of the elderly are attracting greater attention largely because the American population is growing steadily older as the proportion of its aged members increase. At the time of the first United States census in 1790, half of the people in the country were 16 or younger. By the turn of the present century the median age of the population had risen to 22.9 years; by 1970, it was 27.7; and by 1977 it had reached 28.9; the median age will reach 35 by the year 2000, and will approach 40 by the year 2030. In time the burden of the years affects even the healthiest individual. Aging is accompanied by physiological changes that are not necessarily the result of any disease: apart from the more obvious signs of age such as baldness, wrinkling, changes in body form, and stiffness of limbs there is a general process of atrophy of the cells and gradual degeneration. However, the rate of physiological aging varies greatly from one person to another. Some people show noticeable signs of aging as early as fifty. Others seem relatively young and vital at seventy, and may even continue to enjoy a vigorous sex life. In general, however, ill health becomes more common with advancing age. More than three quarters of those over sixty-five suffer from some chronic health condition. But ill health need not have only physiological causes; it can have social and psychological causes as well. People tend to follow social expectations to fill the roles that are offered to them. In a sense, all we offer the aged is a sick role