剑桥雅思系列真题是剑桥大学考试委员会外语考试部出版各类考试真题的唯一官方出版社出版的权威教材，书中包含最新的雅思全真试题资料，是各类雅思考生备考过程中必不可少的参考书。非常适合学生自学的习题解答和听力录音文本。
PASSAGE 1 参考译文：
Advantages of public transport
公共交通的优势
A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP) has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars. The study compared the proportion of wealth poured into transport by thirty-seven cities around the world. This included both the public and private costs of building, maintaining and using a transport system.
默多克大学的科技政策研究所(ISTP)为世界银行做的最新研究表明，公共交通工具的效率髙于小汽车。该研究比较了全世界37座城市公共交通投人资金所占的比例。这其中包括修建、维护和使用公交系统时的政府投人和个人开销。
The study found that the Western Australian city of Perth is a good example of a city with minimal public transport. As a result, 17% of its wealth went into transport costs. Some European and Asian cities, on the other hand, spent as little as 5%. Professor Peter Newman, ISTP Director, pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.
研究显示，西澳大利亚的首府珀斯是最低限度发展公交系统的典型例子。结果是，该市的交通成本竟占政府收人的17%。然而，某些欧洲和亚洲城市的交通成本则仅有5%。研究所主任彼得?纽曼教授指出，后面这些效率更高的城市能够将更多资金投人到发展工业、扩大就业和创造更好的生活环境中去。
According to Professor Newman, the larger Australian city of Melbourne is a rather unusual city in this sort of comparison. He describes it as two cities: ‘A European city surrounded by a car-dependent one’. Melbourne’s large tram network has made car use in the inner city much lower, but the outer suburbs have the same car-based structure as most other Australian cities. The explosion in demand for accommodation in the inner suburbs of Melbourne suggests a recent change in many people’s preferences as to where they live.
纽曼认为，如此进行比较的话，规模相对较大的澳大利亚城市墨尔本则显得格外与众不同。他将其形容为双层城市：“一座欧洲城市外面裹着另一座汽车代步城。”墨尔本规模庞大的有轨电车网络大大降低了市内的汽车使用率，但远郊地区则同大多数其他澳大利亚城市一样依赖汽车交通。而该市近郊住房需求的激增正显示出近年来人们在选择居住地点时观念的变化。
Newman says this is a new, broader way of considering public transport issues. In the past, the case for public transport has been made on the basis of environmental and social justice considerations rather than economics. Newman, however, believes the study demonstrates that ‘the auto-dependent city model is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as environmental terms’.
据纽曼教授称，这是一种更广泛考虑公共交通问题的新方式。过去在解决公共交通问题时，我们通常关心的是环境和社会的合理性，而不是经济情况。除此之外，纽曼教授认为该研究显示了“依赖汽车作为交通工具的城市发展模式不仅效率低下，而且在经济与环境发展方而也相当不足”。
Bicycle use was not included in the study but Newman noted that the two most ‘bicycle friendly’ cities considered — Amsterdam and Copenhagen — were very efficient, even though their public transport systems were ‘reasonable but not special’.
自行车没有包含在此项研究范围之内。然而，纽曼教授指出在考察研究的37座城市中，阿姆斯特丹和哥本哈根这两座自行车普及率最高的城市效率也非常高，即便他们的公共交通系统“特色全无，相当一般”。
It is common for supporters of road networks to reject the models of cities with good public transport by arguing that such systems would not work in their particular city. One objection is climate. Some people say their city could not make more use of public transport because it is either too hot or too cold. Newman rejects this, pointing out that public transport has been successful in both Toronto and Singapore and, in fact, he has checked the use of cars against climate and found ‘zero correlation’.
公路网的拥护者们普遍反对以发达的公共交通系统为标志的城市发展模式。他们坚持认为该系统在个别城市并不适用。气候是反对的理由之一。有些人说他们的城市要么夏天太热，要么冬天太冷，以至于无法充分利用公交系统。纽曼教授则否定了这一观点，他指出公交系统的发展在多伦多和新加坡地区均获得了巨大成功。事实上，他调查过是否天气糟糕人们就会使用汽车，结果发现两者之间毫无关联。
When it comes to other physical features, road lobbies are on stronger ground. For example, Newman accepts it would be hard for a city as hilly as Auckland to develop a really good rail network. However, he points out that both Hong Kong and Zurich have managed to make a success of their rail systems, heavy and light respectively, though there are few cities in the world as hilly.
当我们考虑到其他硬件条件时，公路网的支持者们就有了更充分的理由。例如，纽曼认同，对于山地城市奥克兰来说，开发真正成功的轨道交通网是一件困难的事情。然而，他指出，虽然全世界的山地城市为数不多，但香港和苏黎世都分别设法成功地建成了重型和轻型轨道交通系统。
A In fact, Newman believes the main reason for adopting one sort of transport over another is politics: ‘The more democratic the process, the more public transport is favored.’ He considers Portland, Oregon, a perfect example of this. Some years ago, federal money was granted to build a new road. However, local pressure groups forced a referendum over whether to spend the money on light rail instead. The rail proposal won and the railway worked spectacularly well. In the years that have followed, more and more rail systems have been put in, dramatically changing the nature of the city. Newman notes that Portland has about the same population as Perth and had a similar population density at the time.
A 纽曼教授认为，事实上，，“决策过程越民主，公共交通就越容易得到支持”。他将美国俄勒冈州的波特兰市看作是其中的范例。几年前，国家拨款修建一条新公路。但是，当地的压力团体强行组织了一次公民投票，来表决是否要将国家拨款花费在建设替代公路的轻轨上。修建轻轨的提议最终获得通过，而且轨道系统在当地的运行状况非常良好。在随后的几年中，波特兰市修建了更多的轨道交通系统，城市面貌也因此得到巨大改善。纽曼教授发现，波特兰市与珀斯市的人口数量大致相同，并且当时的人口密度也十分相近。
B In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work. Trains and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.
B 在英国，人们不会去做通勤时间需要半小时以上的工作，因而六百年来，花在上班路途上的时间都得以保持不变。刚开始的时候，火车和汽车使人们住得远，却又无需增加花在路途上的时间。然而，公共基础设施无法跟上城市扩张的步伐，这就导致了大规模的交通拥堵问题，并且使上下班的时间大大延长。
C There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where cars are the only viable transport. The example of European cities refutes that. They are often wealthier than their American counterparts but have not generated the same level of car use. In Stockholm, car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and wealthier. A new study makes this point even more starkly. Developing cities in Asia, such as Jakarta and Bangkok, make more use of the car than wealthy Asian cities such as Tokyo and Singapore. In cities that developed later, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank discouraged the building of public transport and people have been forced to rely on cars — creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.
C 有一种广泛的说法是：财富的不断增长促使人们到更远的地方居住，而汽车是那里唯一可行的交通工具。然而许多欧洲城市的例子可以反驳这一观点。相对于美国城市，欧洲城市通常更加富有，而汽车使用率却比美国低。近年来，随着城市规模的不断扩张和财富的逐年增加，斯德哥尔摩的汽车使用率反而还有所 下降。一项新的研究更清楚地说明了这一点。亚洲的发展中城市，例如雅加达和曼谷，其汽车使用率要高于像东京和新加坡这样的富裕地区。在发展比较滞后的城市中，世界银行和亚洲发展银行不鼓励修建公共交通系统，因此人们不得不依赖汽车作为交通工具这导致了这些城市中标志性的大塞车。
D Newman believes one of the best studies on how cities built for cars might be converted to rail use is The Urban Village report, which used Melbourne as an example. It found that pushing everyone into the city centre was not the best approach. Instead, the proposal advocated the creation of urban villages at hundreds of sites, mostly around railway stations.
D 纽曼教授认为，以墨尔本为例的“城中村”报告是最优秀的研究报告之一，报告主要讲述如何将以汽车代步的城市转变成以轨道交通为主的城市。该报告显示，让大家都住在市中心并不是最好的方法。反之，报告主张建立几百个集中在车站附近的城中村。
E It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team’s research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. ‘The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.’
E 曾经有人假设，由于人们不再被迫住在城市，电信的改进将促使人口进一步分散。然而，ISTP研究小组的调查显示继几十年的下降之后，在20世纪80年代，城市人口和职位的密度都保持不变或有所上升。似乎合理的解释为，将工作在相关领域的人聚集在一起可以创造更大的价值。“未来新世界将主要依靠人类的创造力，而创造力在人们面对面的交流中会更加活跃。”
TEST 2 PASSAGE 2 参考译文：
老龄人口健康依旧
Elderly people are growing healthier, happier and more independent, say American scientists. The results of a 14-year study to be announced later this month reveal that the diseases associated with old age are afflicting fewer and fewer people and when they do strike, it is much later in life.
美国科学家指岀，现在老年人身体越来越健康，幸福感更强，生活更加独立。本月即将发布的一项持续长达14年的研究的结果显示，遭受老龄疾病折磨的人越来越少，即使是真的发病，年龄也向后推迟了不少。
In the last 14 years, the National Long-term Health Care Survey has gathered data on the health and lifestyles of more than 20,000 men and women over 65. Researchers, now analysing the results of data gathered in 1994, say arthritis, high blood pressure and circulation problems — the major medical complaints in this age group — are troubling a smaller proportion every year. And the data confirms that the rate at which these diseases are declining continues to accelerate. Other diseases of old age — dementia, stroke, arteriosclerosis and emphysema — are also troubling fewer and fewer people.
在过去的14年中，美国国家长期卫生保健调查收集了2万多名65岁以上的老年男性和女性健康状况和生活方式的数据资料。研究者们正在分析1994年收集的数据结果，他们表示。困扰这一年龄段老年人的主要疾病是关节炎、高血压和循环系统疾病，这些疾病的患病人数比例正在逐年下降。数据证实，上述疾病发病率下降的速度在继续加快。其他老龄疾病，诸如老年痴呆症、中风、动脉硬化和肺气肿等，患病人数也在逐年下降。
‘It really raises the question of what should be considered normal ageing,’ says Kenneth Manton, a demographer from Duke University in North Carolina. He says the problems doctors accepted as normal in a 65-year-old in 1982 are often not appearing until people are 70 or 75.
北卡罗来纳州杜克大学的人口统计学家肯尼思?曼顿说：“这的确促使我们思考到底什么情况才是正常老龄化的问题。”他指出，在1982年医生们认为是65岁老人常见疾病的症状现在经常要推迟到70或75岁才会出现。
Clearly, certain diseases are beating a retreat in the face of medical advances. But there may be other contributing factors. Improvements in childhood nutrition in the first quarter of the twentieth century, for example, gave today’s elderly people a better start in life than their predecessors.
显然，一些疾病在医学进步的面前被击退。除此之外，也可能有其他原因。例如，在20世纪的前25年中，儿童营养状况的改善使现在的老年人比以前的人们拥有更加健康的生活开端。
On the downside, the data also reveals failures in public health that have caused surges in some illnesses. An increase in some cancers and bronchitis may reflect changing smoking habits and poorer air quality, say the researchers. ‘These may be subtle influences,’ says Manton, ‘but our subjects have been exposed to worse and worse pollution for over 60 years. It’s not surprising we see some effect."
从不利方面来看，研究数据同样显示出公共卫生的不力措施导致了某些疾病的猛增。研究者们指出， 有些癌症和支气管疾病发病率的上升可能反映出人们吸烟习惯的变化和空气质量逐年恶化的问题。曼顿说：“这或许只是些细微的影响，但我们的研究对象已经在污染日益严重的环境中生活了60多年。因而，这些后果的出现也就不足为奇了。”
One interesting correlation Manton uncovered is that better-educated people are likely to live longer. For example, 65-year-old women with fewer than eight years of schooling are expected, on average, to live to 82. Those who continued their education live an extra seven years. Although some of this can be attributed to a higher income, Manton believes it is mainly because educated people seek more medical attention.
曼顿揭示了一种有趣的关联，即人们受教育的程度越髙，寿命可能就越长。例如，在65岁的女性中，受教育时间低于8年的女性的预期寿命平均可达82岁，而那些继续接受教育的女性的平均寿命则延长了7年之多。曼顿认为，尽管部分原因可以归结为更高的收人水平，但主要原因还是受过良好教育的人会更加注重医疗保健。
The survey also assessed how independent people over 65 were, and again found a striking trend. Almost 80% of those in the 1994 survey could complete everyday activities ranging from eating and dressing unaided to complex tasks such as cooking and managing their finances. That represents a significant drop in the number of disabled old people in the population. If the trends apparent in the United States 14 years ago had continued, researchers calculate there would be an additional one million disabled elderly people in today’s population. According to Manton, slowing the trend has saved the United States government’s Medicare system more than $200 billion, suggesting that the greying of America’s population may prove less of a financial burden than expected.
该调查同时评估了年龄在65岁以上的走人的独立程度，这再次发现了一个惊人的发展趋势。在1994年调查中，近80%的人都能完成日常起居活动，包括简单的活动，如独立的饮食和穿衣，也包括复杂的活动，如烹饪和财务管理等。这表明总人口中不能自理的老人的数量在显著下降。研究者们估算，如果美国14 年前的发展趋势持续下去的话，现今总人口中将会多出100万名不能自理的老人。曼顿表示，减缓这一趋势为美国政府的医疗保险系统节省了2，000多亿美元的开支，这意味着美国人口老龄化所带来的经济负担可能不像人们想象中的那样沉重。
The increasing self-reliance of many elderly people is probably linked to a massive increase in the use of simple home medical aids. For instance, the use of raised toilet seats has more than doubled since the start of the study, and the use of bath seats has grown by more than 50%. These developments also bring some health benefits, according to a report from the MacArthur Foundation’s research group on successful ageing. The group found that those elderly people who were able to retain a sense of independence were more likely to stay healthy in old age.
老年人自理能力的增强可能与简易家庭医疗辅助用品的广泛使用有关。例如，自该研究开始至今，使用增高座便器的人数增加了一倍之多，而使用浴缸座椅的人数也增加了50%以上。，上述发展变化同样给健康带来了好处。该研究小组发现，那些能够保持独立感的老年人更有可能在晚年保持身体健康。
Maintaining a level of daily physical activity may help mental functioning, says Carl Cotman, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Irvine. He found that rats that exercise on a treadmill have raised levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor coursing through their brains. Cotman believes this hormone, which keeps neurons functioning, may prevent the brains of active humans from deteriorating.
加利福尼亚大学欧文分校的神经学家卡尔?科特曼指出，维持一定数量的日常体育运动将有助于提高大脑功能的运作。他发现对于在脚踏车上运动的老鼠，流经大脑的脑源性神经营养因子含量水平会升高。 科特曼认为，这种维持神经细胞功能的激素可以阻止活跃的人类大脑功能退化。
As part of the same study, Teresa Seeman, a social epidemiologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, found a connection between self-esteem and stress in people over 70. In laboratory simulations of challenging activities such as driving, those who felt in control of their lives pumped out lower levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. Chronically high levels of these hormones have been linked to heart disease.
在同一调查研究中，洛杉肌南加利福尼亚大学的社会流行病学家特里萨?西曼发现在70岁以上的老年人中，自尊心和压力之间存在相互联系。在诸如驾驶汽车等挑战性活动的模拟试验中，感觉生活在自己掌控之中的人所释放的应激激素水平较低，比如肾上腺皮质激素。而心脏疾病则被证明与应激激素水平长期偏髙有关。
But independence can have drawbacks. Seeman found that elderly people who felt emotionally isolated maintained higher levels of stress hormones even when asleep. The research suggests that older people fare best when they feel independent but know they can get help when they need it.
然而，独立自主也有其缺点。西曼发现，感到精神孤独的老年人即使是在睡梦中也保持着较高的应激激素水平。研究结果显示，如果老人们知道自己在需要时能够得到帮助，就可以在保持独立感的同时拥有最幸福的生活。
‘Like much research into ageing, these results support common sense,’ says Seeman. They also show that we may be underestimating the impact of these simple factors. ‘The sort of thing that your grandmother always told you turns out to be right on target,’ she says.
西曼指出：“同许多研究老龄化问题的调査一样，其结果完全符合常识。”此外，研究结果显示，我们可能低估了某些简单因素的影响。她这样说道：“祖母经常向你讲的道理被证明是完全正确的。”
TEST 2 PASSAGE 3 参考译文：
Numeration
计数发展史
One of the first great intellectual feats of a young child is learning how to talk, closely followed by learning how to count. From earliest childhood we are so bound up with our system of numeration that it is a feat of imagination to consider the problems faced by early humans who had not yet developed this facility. Careful consideration of our system of numeration leads to the conviction that, rather than being a facility that comes naturally to a person, it is one of the great and remarkable achievements of the human race.
学说话是儿童最初掌握的主要智力技能之一，而紧随其后他们就要学会数数。从小我们就对数数这件事十分熟悉，所以真得费番心思才能想象出不会数数的先祖们的境遇。深思熟虑之后，我们确信计数不是人们生来就拥有的技能，而是人类伟大而非凡的成就之一。
It is impossible to learn the sequence of events that led to our developing the concept of number. Even the earliest of tribes had a system of numeration that, if not advanced, was sufficient for the tasks that they had to perform. Our ancestors had little use for actual numbers; instead their considerations would have been more of the kind Is this enough? rather than How many? when they were engaged in food gathering, for example. However, when early humans first began to reflect on the nature of things around them, they discovered that they needed an idea of number simply to keep their thoughts in order. As they began to settle, grow plants and herd animals, the need for a sophisticated number system became paramount. It will never be known how and when this numeration ability developed, but it is certain that numeration was well developed by the time humans had formed even semi-permanent settlements.
现在，我们无法了解人类创造数字这一概念的发展历程。即使没有先进的技术，连最原始的部落也拥有足够他们日常生活所需的计数方法。我们的祖先并不需要使用具体的数字;比如当他们采集食物时，他们会更多地考虑“够了吗?”而不是“有多少?”来代替具体数字的使用。然而，当早期人类开始思考周围事物的本质时，他们发觉自己需要数字的概念以保持思路的淸晰。随着他们开始定居生活、种植作物和放牧牲畜，需要一套复杂数字系统的要求变得极为重要。我们永远无法了解这种计数能力是如何以及何时发展起来的，但可以确定的是，当人类刚刚开始建立暂时的定居点时，计数方法已经发展得比较完备了。
Evidence of early stages of arithmetic and numeration can be readily found. The indigenous peoples of Tasmania were only able to count one, two, many; those of South Africa counted one, two, two and one, two twos, two twos and one, and so on. But in real situations the number and words are often accompanied by gestures to help resolve any confusion. For example, when using the one, two, many type of system, the word many would mean, Look at my hands and see how many fingers I am showing you. This basic approach is limited in the range of numbers that it can express, but this range will generally suffice when dealing with the simpler aspects of human existence.
关于早期算术和计数方法的证据并不难寻找。澳大利亚塔斯马尼亚州的土著民族民仅能计数“一”、“二”和“许多”;南非当地的土著民族能够计数“一”、“二”、“二加一”、“二加二”、“二加二加一”等等。然而，在实际情况中，数字和词语经常伴随着手势使用以帮助解决混乱的状态。例如，在使用“一、二和许多”计数系统时，“许多”一词可能表示“看我的手并数出我向你伸出了几根手指”。这种基本的方法限制了可表示的数字范围，但此范围对于处理人类生存方面的简单问题来说通常是足够的。
The lack of ability of some cultures to deal with large numbers is not really surprising. European languages, when traced back to their earlier version, are very poor in number words and expressions. The ancient Gothic word for ten, tachund, is used to express the number 100 as tachund tachund. By the seventh century, the word teon had become interchangeable with the tachund or hund of the Anglo-Saxon language, and so 100 was denoted as hund teontig, or ten times ten. The average person in the seventh century in Europe was not as familiar with numbers as we are today. In fact, to qualify as a witness in a court of law a man had to be able to count to nine!
一些文化缺少处理较大数字的能力，这并不令人惊讶。当追溯到早期彤式时，欧洲的各语种在数字及其表达方式上均十分贫乏。古哥特语中代表十的词语“tachund”在表示数字100时写作“tachund tachund”。到 公元7世纪，“teon”一词变得可以与盎格鲁一撒克逊语中的词语“tachund”或“hund”相互交换，因此100被表示为“hund teoning”或者“十乘十”。在7世纪的欧洲，普通人对数字的熟知程度远不及今天的人们。事实上， 当时人们必须具备数到9的能力才有资格作为证人出庭作证。
Perhaps the most fundamental step in developing a sense of number is not the ability to count, but rather to see that a number is really an abstract idea instead of a simple attachment to a group of particular objects. It must have been within the grasp of the earliest humans to conceive that four birds are distinct from two birds; however, it is not an elementary step to associate the number 4, as connected with four birds, to the number 4, as connected with four rocks. Associating a number as one of the qualities of a specific object is a great hindrance to the development of a true number sense. When the number 4 can be registered in the mind as a specific word, independent of the object being referenced, the individual is ready to take the first step toward the development of a notational system for numbers and, from there, to arithmetic.
或许，要发展对数字的领悟能力，最重要的一步不是拥有计数的能力，而是能够理解数字是相当抽象的概念，而并不只是与个别物品相联系的附属品。早期人类一定能够明白两只鸟与四只鸟的不同;然而. 他们却不具备将与四只鸟相关的数字4和与四块石头相关如数字4联系起来的基本能力。将数字与特定事物的性质之一相联系，对于发展真正的数宇感而言是巨大的障碍。当数字4在头脑中变成一个特定的词语并与其所指的事物相分离时，人类便向数字符号系统的发展迈出第一步，并继而发展算术学。
Traces of the very first stages in the development of numeration can be seen in several living languages today. The numeration system of the Tsimshian language in British Columbia contains seven distinct sets of words for numbers according to the class of the item being counted: for counting flat objects and animals, for round objects and time, for people, for long objects and trees, for canoes, for measures, and for counting when no particular object is being numerated. It seems that the last is a later development while the first six groups show the relics of an older system. This diversity of number names can also be found in some widely used languages such as Japanese.
至今，在有些现存的语言中依然可以寻找到早期计数方法的发展痕迹。在加拿大英属哥伦比亚省，根据计数的物品种类，钦西安语的计数系统包含截然不同的七组表达数字的词语：计数扁平物体和动物的词语，计数圆形物体和时间的词语，计算人数的词语，计数长条物体和树木的词语，计算独木舟数目的词语，计量尺寸的词语，以及在不计数具体事物时所用的词语。看起来最后一组词语是后来发展起来的，而前六 组则带有古代计数方法的痕迹。在一些诸如日语等广泛使甩的语言中，同样可以发现数字名称的多样性。
Intermixed with the development of a number sense is the development of an ability to count. Counting is not directly related to the formation of a number concept because it is possible to count by matching the items being counted against a group of pebbles, grains of corn, or the counter’s fingers. These aids would have been indispensable to very early people who would have found the process impossible without some form of mechanical aid. Such aids, while different, are still used even by the most educated in today’s society due to their convenience. All counting ultimately involves reference to something other than the things being counted. At first it may have been grains or pebbles but now it is a memorised sequence of words that happen to be the names of the numbers.
数字感与计数能力的发展相互融合。计算与数字概念的形成并非直接相关，因为我们完全有可能将被计数的物品用一堆石子、一把谷粒或者计数者的手指代替来进行计算。这些辅助工具对于早期人类而言是必不可少的，一旦离开某些形式的工具辅助，计数过程便无法完成。由于使用方便，类似的辅助工具在当今社会中仍然以不同的方式被人们——甚至是最有学识的学者们——使用。所有的计算最终都将由某事物、而不是被计数的物品指代。最初，这种指代或许是谷粒或石子，但现在已经变成一串被记忆的单词，而这些单词只是恰巧成为数字的名称而已。