Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
There are desert plants which survive the dry season in the form of inactive seeds. There
are aim desert insects which survive as inactive larvae (幼蟲(chóng)). In addition, difficult as it is to
believe, there are desert fish which can survive through years of drought (干旱) in the form of
inactive eggs. These are the shrimps (小蝦) that live in the Mojave Desert, an intensely dry region in the south- west of the United States where shade temperatures of over 50C are often
recorded.
The eggs of the Mojave shrimps are the size and have the appearance of grains of sand.
When sufficient spring rain falls to form a lake, once every two to five years, these eggs hatch
(孵化). Then the water is soon filled with millions of tiny shrimps about a millmetre long
which feed on tiny plant and animal organisms which also grow in the temporary desert lake.
Within a week, the shrimps grow from their original 1 millimetre to a length of about 1.5 centimetres.
Throughout the time that the shrimps are rapidly maturing, the water in the lake equally
rapidly evaporates. Therefore, for the shrimps it is a race against time. By the twelfth day, how-
ever, when they are about 3 centimetre 10ng, hundreds of tiny eggs form on the underbodies of
the females. Usually by this time, all that remains of the lake is a large, muddy patch of wet
soil. On the thirteenth day and the next, during the final hours of their brief lives, the shrimps
lay their eggs in the mud. Then, having ensured that their species will survive, the shrimps die
as the last of the water evaporates.
If sufficient rain falls the next year to form another lake, the eggs hatch, and once again the
shrimps pass rapidly through their cycle of growth, adulthood, egg - laying, and death. Some
years there is insufficient rain to form a lake: in this case, the eggs will remain dormant for an-
other year, or even longer if necessary. Very, very occasionally, perhaps twice in a hundred
years, sufficient rain falls to form a deep lake that lasts a month or more. In this case, the species
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
There are desert plants which survive the dry season in the form of inactive seeds. There
are aim desert insects which survive as inactive larvae (幼蟲(chóng)). In addition, difficult as it is to
believe, there are desert fish which can survive through years of drought (干旱) in the form of
inactive eggs. These are the shrimps (小蝦) that live in the Mojave Desert, an intensely dry region in the south- west of the United States where shade temperatures of over 50C are often
recorded.
The eggs of the Mojave shrimps are the size and have the appearance of grains of sand.
When sufficient spring rain falls to form a lake, once every two to five years, these eggs hatch
(孵化). Then the water is soon filled with millions of tiny shrimps about a millmetre long
which feed on tiny plant and animal organisms which also grow in the temporary desert lake.
Within a week, the shrimps grow from their original 1 millimetre to a length of about 1.5 centimetres.
Throughout the time that the shrimps are rapidly maturing, the water in the lake equally
rapidly evaporates. Therefore, for the shrimps it is a race against time. By the twelfth day, how-
ever, when they are about 3 centimetre 10ng, hundreds of tiny eggs form on the underbodies of
the females. Usually by this time, all that remains of the lake is a large, muddy patch of wet
soil. On the thirteenth day and the next, during the final hours of their brief lives, the shrimps
lay their eggs in the mud. Then, having ensured that their species will survive, the shrimps die
as the last of the water evaporates.
If sufficient rain falls the next year to form another lake, the eggs hatch, and once again the
shrimps pass rapidly through their cycle of growth, adulthood, egg - laying, and death. Some
years there is insufficient rain to form a lake: in this case, the eggs will remain dormant for an-
other year, or even longer if necessary. Very, very occasionally, perhaps twice in a hundred
years, sufficient rain falls to form a deep lake that lasts a month or more. In this case, the species