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PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
William Henry Perkin
The man who invented synthetic dyes
William Henry Perkin was born on March 12, 1838, in London, England. As a boy, Perkin’s curiosity prompted early interests in the arts, sciences, photography, and engineering. But it was a chance stumbling upon a run-down, yet functional, laboratory in his late grandfather’s home that solidified the young man’s enthusiasm for chemistry.
As a student at the City of London School, Perkin became immersed in the study of chemistry. His talent and devotion to the subject were perceived by his teacher, Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to attend a series of lectures given by the eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. Those speeches fired the young chemist’s enthusiasm further, and he later went on to attend the Royal College of Chemistry, which he succeeded in entering in 1853, at the age of 15.
At the time of Perkin’s enrolment, the Royal College of Chemistry was headed by the noted German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann. Perkin’s scientific gifts soon caught Hofmann’s attention and, within two years, he became Hofmann’s youngest assistant. Not long after that, Perkin made the scientific breakthrough that would bring him both fame and fortune.
At the time, quinine was the only viable medical treatment for malaria. The drug is derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to South America, and by 1856 demand for the drug was surpassing the available supply. Thus, when Hofmann made some passing comments about the desirability of a synthetic substitute for quinine, it was unsurprising that his star pupil was moved to take up the challenge.
During his vacation in 1856, Perkin spent his time in the laboratory on the top floor of his family’s house. He was attempting to manufacture quinine from aniline, an inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product. Despite his best efforts, however, he did not end up with quinine. Instead, he produced a mysterious dark sludge. Luckily, Perkin’s scientific training and nature prompted him to investigate the substance further. Incorporating potassium dichromate and alcohol into the aniline at various stages of the experimental process, he finally produced a deep purple solution. And, proving the truth of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur’s words ‘chance favours only the prepared mind’, Perkin saw the potential of his unexpected find.
Historically, textile dyes were made from such natural sources as plants and animal excretions. Some of these, such as the glandular mucus of snails, were difficult to obtain and outrageously expensive. Indeed, the purple colour extracted from a snail was once so costly in society at the time only the rich could afford it. Further, natural dyes tended to be muddy in hue and fade quickly. It was against this backdrop that Perkin’s discovery was made.
Perkin quickly grasped that his purple solution could be used to colour fabric, thus making it the world’s first synthetic dye. Realising the importance of this breakthrough, he lost no time in patenting it. But perhaps the most fascinating of all Perkin’s reactions to his find was his nearly instant recognition that the new dye had commercial possibilities.
Perkin originally named his dye Tyrian Purple, but it later became commonly known as mauve (from the French for the plant used to make the colour violet). He asked advice of Scottish dye works owner Robert Pullar, who assured him that manufacturing the dye would be well worth it if the colour remained fast (i.e. would not fade) and the cost was relatively low. So, over the fierce objections of his mentor Hofmann, he left college to give birth to the modern chemical industry.
With the help of his father and brother, Perkin set up a factory not far from London. Utilising the cheap and plentiful coal tar that was an almost unlimited byproduct of London’s gas street lighting, the dye works began producing the world’s first synthetically dyed material in 1857. The company received a commercial boost from the Empress Eugenie of France, when she decided the new colour flattered her. Very soon, mauve was the necessary shade for all the fashionable ladies in that country. Not to be outdone, England’s Queen Victoria also appeared in public wearing a mauve gown, thus making it all the rage in England as well. The dye was bold and fast, and the public clamoured for more. Perkin went back to the drawing board.
Although Perkin’s fame was achieved and fortune assured by his first discovery, the chemist continued his research. Among other dyes he developed and introduced were aniline red (1859) and aniline black (1863) and, in the late 1860s, Perkin’s green. It is important to note that Perkin’s synthetic dye discoveries had outcomes far beyond the merely decorative. The dyes also became vital to medical research in many ways. For instance, they were used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria, allowing researchers to identify such bacilli as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. Artificial dyes continue to play a crucial role today. And, in what would have been particularly pleasing to Perkin, their current use is in the search for a vaccine against malaria.
Questions 1-7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 Michael Faraday was the first person to recognise Perkin’s ability as a student of chemistry.
2 Michael Faraday suggested Perkin should enrol in the Royal College of Chemistry.
3 Perkin employed August Wilhelm Hofmann as his assistant.
4 Perkin was still young when he made the discovery that made him rich and famous.
5 The trees from which quinine is derived grow only in South America.
6 Perkin hoped to manufacture a drug from a coal tar waste product.
7 Perkin was inspired by the discoveries of the famous scientist Louis Pasteur.
Questions 8-13
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.
8 Before Perkin’s discovery, with what group in society was the colour purple associated?
9 What potential did Perkin immediately understand that his new dye had?
10 What was the name finally used to refer to the first colour Perkin invented?
11 What was the name of the person Perkin consulted before setting up his own dye works?
12 In what country did Perkin’s newly invented colour first become fashionable?
13 According to the passage, which disease is now being targeted by researchers using synthetic dyes?
TEST 1 PASSAGE 3 参考译文：
乌龟的进化史
如果追溯到远古时代，那时一切生物都生活在水里。在进化史的不同时期，各个动物种群中都有一些胆大的开始向陆地迁徙，有的甚至跑到了非常干旱的沙漠里，这些生物的血液与细胞液里还储存着曾经所生活海域里的海水。除了我们周围随处可见的爬行动物、鸟类、哺乳动物和昆虫以外，其他成功登陆的生物还包括蝎子、蜗牛和潮虫、陆蟹、千足虫、蜈蚣等甲壳类动物，还有蜘蛛及各种虫子。当然还有植物，如杲没有它们率先登陆，其他任何生物都不可能在陆地上生存。
从水里转移到陆地上使这些生物在方方面面都发生了巨大变化，包括呼吸和繁殖方式。然而，一大批动物彻底在陆地上安家后，却忽然回心转意，放弃了来之不易的陆上新生活，又重新回到了水中。海豹只恢复了部分水中生活的特征，向我们展示了演变过程中半成品的模样，而成品则是如鲸鱼和儒艮这样纯粹的海洋生物。鲸鱼(包括我们称作海豚的小鲸鱼)和儒艮，与它们的同类动物海牛一样不再是陆地动物，而是完全恢复了与老祖先一样的海洋生活习惯，它们甚至都不上岸繁殖。它们虽然仍呼吸空气，却没有进化出类似于鳃这样的早期海洋生物的器官。海龟在很早以前就回到了水中，和其他返回水中的脊椎动物一 样，它们也需要呼吸空气，但是却没有像鲸鱼和儒艮那样完全返回水中，这体现在一个方面——海龟仍然在海滩上产卵。
有证据表明，所有现代海龟的祖先都曾经生活在陆地上，比大多数恐龙在陆地上出现的时间还要早。 有两种可以追溯到恐龙时代早期的重要化石，分别是Proganochelys quenstedti (原颚龟化石)和 Potoeocfeersis tatompayewsis(古老的陆地龟化石)，它们与所有现代海龟和乌龟的祖先最为接近。你可能会问，我们是如何通过动物化石来判断它们是生活在水中还是陆地上的，尤其当我们只找到一些化石碎片的时候。有时候这个问题的答案很明显。鱼龙是与恐龙同时代的爬行动物，它有鱼鳍和流线型的身体。鱼龙化石看起来像海豚，它们确实和海豚一样曾经在水中生活。海龟在这一点上则没有这么明显。判断动物水生还是陆生的方法之一就是对它们前肢的骨骼进行检测。
耶鲁大学的Watter Joyce和Jacques Gauthier从三个方面对71种活的海龟和乌龟的特有骨骼进行了检测。他们用一种三角坐标纸分别标记了这三个方面的检测结果。所有陆栖乌龟的数据在三角坐标的上半部分形成了一簇密集的点，而所有水栖海龟的数据集中于下半部分。两部分数据没有重叠，除非在其中增加一些水陆两栖乌龟的检测结果。当然，这些数据出现在接近三角坐标中间的位置，位于水栖海龟与陆栖乌龟的坐标点之间。下一步就是确定具体的位置。毫无疑问，P. quenstedti与P. totompayewsis的坐标点正好位于陆栖乌龟的坐标点最密集的地方。这两种化石都是陆栖乌龟化石，而且都生存在海龟返回水里之前的时代。
也许你会认为，现代的陆栖乌龟可能自从早期有陆地生物以来就一直生活在陆地上，就像除了少数哺乳动物返回水中以外，大多数哺乳动物还在陆地上生活一样。但事实显然不是这样的。如果你画出所有现代海龟与乌龟的家谱图，会发现几乎所有的龟类分支都属于水栖动物。而现代的陆栖乌龟单独形成一个分支，穿插在水栖海龟的分支中。这说明自P. quenstedti与P. talampayensis的时代以来，现代的陆栖乌龟并没有一直在陆地上生活。更确切地说，它们的祖先曾经返回水中，只是在(相对)较近的年代又回到了陆地上。
因此很明显，乌龟曾往返于水中和陆地上生存。与所有的哺乳动物、爬行动物和鸟类一样，乌龟的老祖先是海洋中的鱼类。再向前追溯，它们也是海洋中类似蠕虫生物的原始细菌。后来，乌龟的祖先来到陆地 上并持续生活了相当长的年代，但后来又回到了水中，成为了水栖海龟。直到最后，它们再一次回到陆地上，成为陆龟，其中有一些甚至生活在干旱的沙漠中。
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