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國立中科實驗高級中學 102 學年度教師甄選 英文科試題本
Part I: Multiple Choices (40%)
I. Vocabulary (15%)
1. The mayor tried to ____ his actions that had been called capricious and irrational by critics.
(A) foist (B) expedite (C) vindicate (D) propagate 2. He was so needy that he could only afford to stay at a tiny room, whitewashed, _____ and
nondescriptly furnished.
(A) quixotically (B) meagerly (C) vaingloriously (D) nocturnally 3. He accused the leader of the opposition of political _____, and the mob was exhorted to burn his
effigy.
(A) lassitude (B) surfeit (C) celerity (D) heresy 4. After a fruitless attempt to wrest control of the government, the traitors were _____.
(A) incarcerated (B) garbled (C) expunged (D) attenuated 5. Under the aegis of a zealous campaign manager, the candidate was able to _____ herself into the
hearts of the public.
(A) redress (B) ingratiate (C) vitiate (D) proffer
6. While his demeanor remained imperturbable, there was latent anger at the ignominious and _____
role he had to play.
(A) irascible (B) infallible (C) subservient (D) defamatory 7. Police are searching for a gunman who ______ shot a man on a downtown Miami bridge during
rush hour Wednesday afternoon.
(A) exiguously (B) propitiously (C) vacuously (D) brazenly 8. The cynic will ______ the motives of anyone who tries to ameliorate the iniquities in our
society.
(A) deprecate (B) decapitate (C) desist (D) exacerbate 9. After the ______ of the gang leader, a mammoth conflict arose among his ambitious lieutenants
who aspired to be boss.
(A) liquidation (B) anathema (C) diatribe (D) conjecture 10. People have become so ______ about the once thrilling, now mundane flights into space.
(A) bogus (B) blasé (C) insidious (D) munificent
11. Criticism of the author was ______ among the coterie of intellectuals who used to praise him.
(A) inherent (B) conjugal (C) rife (D) fraught
12. It is amazing how lithe football players can be, despite the ______ of the safety features of their uniforms.
(A) dilettante (B) cacophony (C) conflagration (D) encumbrance 13. His estimate of half a million HIV positive cases was based on a(n) ______ of the known
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incidence of the virus.
(A) approbation (B) extrapolation (C) propriety (D) dichotomy 14. We have to admit that the sea's greatest predator is at risk from the ______ appetite of
humans.
(A) sinewy (B) numerical (C) jubilant (D) rapacious
15. The reporter wanted to elicit the pertinent facts from the reticent witness so he could ______ the charge of moral turpitude against the high city official.
(A) capitulate (B) divulge (C) substantiate (D) vacillate
II. Cloze (10%)
(A) Over three-fourths of physicians surveyed last year were pessimistic about the future of the medical profession; 84% agreed that the medical profession is on the decline; over half would not recommend medicine as a career. And more than 60% of physicians said they would retire if they had the means to do so. Let’s look at the factors that have created this __16__. Findings from the survey show that government regulation is the No. 1 least satisfying aspect of medical practice. In effect, dealing with medical red tape and meaningless rules and regulations, inauspiciously imposed on medical practice, has made our doctors very unhappy.
For example, electronic medical records, hailed as the answer to comprehensive patient
information, have added unnecessary costs and demoted doctors to “box checkers.” The government is forcing physicians to spend as much time looking at a computer screen as they do looking at the patient. Doctors say that new technology, when used wisely and __17__, is good, but not when the technology becomes as important as the patient. Unfortunately, red tape is only going to get worse if the number of pages of new regulations written for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is any indication of what is __18__ for doctors and patients. To date, government bureaucrats have written more than 20,000 pages of rules to support and amplify the 2,000-page ACA.
Ask any doctor why he or she went into medicine and the answer invariably is “to take care of my patients, to make the sick well and to save lives.” That is the articulation of the Hippocratic Oath.
Unfortunately, if the current __19__ of red tape and hassles continues to fall on the doctor and medical practice, more and more doctors will retire early. Or perhaps they’ll abandon private practice for employed positions where the work week is 35-40 hours versus 60-70 hours in a typical private practice. In effect, physicians working for hospitals see fewer patients and change hospitals, on average, every three years because of unreasonable “productivity” requirements. It’s time we took immediate steps to remove the red tape burden from physicians, roll back costly and ineffective regulations, and recognize the unique and essential role physicians play in our enormous and every growing health care enterprise. As __20__ in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.”
16. (A) malaise (B) acclivity (C) depredation (D) euphemism 17. (A) rhetorically (B) judiciously (C) promiscuously (D) loquaciously 18. (A) in a stupor (B) in limbo (C) on all fours (D) on the horizon 19. (A) touchstone (B) vanguard (C) avalanche (D) impunity 20. (A) reconnoitered (B) averred (C) plagiarized (D) modulated
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(B) Creative types are often seen as rather flaky — their minds leaping wildly from one bizarre idea to another, ever seeking inspiration. But a new study suggests that people who actually achieve creative success have minds that stubbornly __21__ ideas, even to the point where it impairs their ability to shift focus.
In one experiment, researchers included 19 students of more than 300 who had outstanding achievements in music, art, science, writing or other areas, 15 of __22__ being ranked as the least creative. During the study, participants had to shift their attention from a global level of processing to a local one, by focusing on different aspects of patterns. In some cases, they were asked to identify a large letter made up of smaller ones (for example, an “S” pattern made up of smaller “e’s”). In other instances, the correct answer was the opposite one — identifying the smaller letter. Surprisingly, people with high creativity made more than twice as many errors as the less creative group.
A second experiment involved the same task, performed by another 39 high, moderate or low scorers in creative achievements. Again, the more creative people scored lower. And in both experiments, there was no difference in performance whether people had to shift from the “forest” focus of the larger letters to the “tree level” of the smaller ones or whether the shift was in the __23__ direction.
That suggests that the lower scores were not related to creative people being more focused specifically on either detail or on general patterns.
The research may help explain why autistic people, who tend to focus obsessively, can often be highly creative. __24__, it may also help explain the link between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and creative success. The general idea is that people with ADHD are not able to focus on anything, but there are two different parts of the disorder, and one is that if they really get interested in something, they become almost like autistic people: really focused, so much so that they are not able to practice anything else. Indeed, between 30% and 50% of autistic people also have ADHD.
The combination of an ability to range widely from one thought to another and to focus when a good idea occurs may be the sweet spot for creative success. The study makes clear that creative achievement may come with some trade-offs in mental __25__, when the time comes to actually shift focus. Persistence certainly matters in creative achievement — but some creative folks may not know when to stop.
21. (A) adhere to (B) dawn on (C) obsess with (D) speculate on
22. (A) whom (B) which (C) what (D) them
23. (A) conscientious (B) ineffable (C) opposite (D) nefarious 24. (A) Cryptically (B) Paradoxically (C) Endemically (D) Histrionically 25. (A) flexibility (B) credibility (C) profanity (D) durability
III. Blank Filling (10%)
Polar bears are superb at ambushing seals as they come up through holes in the ice to breathe.
During the months of summer, though, when the ice __26__, this lethal game of whack-a-pinned is
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hard to play and the bears have been assumed to rely instead on the layers of fat they accumulate during the winter. This has led some conservationists to conclude that the species will run into trouble in the future as global warming melts the Arctic’s sea ice ever earlier and reduces the time bears have to __27__ their fat stores. But a new study suggests that seal is not the only thing in the bears’ larder.
They may supplement it with geese in summer, thus evading the consequences of a changing climate.
Polar-bear watchers do sometimes spot their __28__ chasing snow geese during the summer, when these birds have molted and are unable to fly. However, a quick calculation comparing the cost of doing so with the energetic gain from success suggests such hunts are not usually worth the effort.
To make a profit, the argument goes, a polar bear weighing 320kg (700lb, the average for an adult) must, if hunting a 2kg goose, make its kill in less than 12 seconds. If it does not do so, then the calories it expends running after its prey will exceed __29__ it gains from catching it—and the calculation is tipped still further in the birds’ direction if the cost of the ones that get away is included.
Geese and other waterfowl do, __30__, seem to form a significant part of polar bears’ diets, for studies done in the 1960s found a lot of bird remains in the animals’ feces. Robert Rockwell, a biologist at the American Museum of Natural History, therefore went to the Hudson Bay coast of Manitoba, in Canada, to undertake __31__ ventures and actually record polar-bear goose hunts in a systematic way.
As they report in Polar Biology, over the course of 11 days in July 2011 Dr Rockwell and his colleagues recorded the capture and __32__ by bears of nine snow geese during six separate hunts—a large number considering how hard it is to observe the bears’ hunting behavior in the wild. That confirms the suggestion from the fecal data that bird hunting is quite common. What really surprised Dr Rockwell, though, was that the average time a bear spent chasing a bird before killing it was 25 seconds: more than double the period after which the chase is supposedly not worth the effort.
A closer examination of the __33__ small sample of data Dr Rockwell collected suggested two explanations for what is happening. First, four of the five hunts that lasted more than 12 seconds were by sub-adult bears. Having less weight to shift, they may be able to run for longer before the energy balance tilts against them.
Second, all but one of the chases the team saw took place in shallow water. Indeed, the bears often seemed to drive birds into the water deliberately. This probably helps because geese cannot swim as fast as they can run. An __34__ hunt, though, may bring a second and more subtle benefit: it cools a hunting bear down. In one case the team watched a sow intentionally submerge herself entirely during a hunt. They therefore speculate that hunting in water makes the normally energy-intensive activity of shedding the __35__ heat of exercise less expensive for a bear to bear than it otherwise would be.
The upshot seems to be that polar bears are good at hunting snow geese—at least when those geese cannot fly. And though the matter will involve more observations and calculations to determine for sure, a summer diet of geese might be enough to take the edge off their appetites even if the winter seal-hunting season gets curtailed by climate change. In the case of polar bears, then, a wild-goose chase is something not to be sneered at.
(A) those (B) replenish (C) truculent (D) surplus
(E) admittedly (AB) skeptically (AC) retreats (AD) unprecedented (AE) quarry (BC) consumption (BD) nevertheless (BE) aquatic
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IV. Discourse Structure (5%)
To get drunk, people are getting creative. But a new form of drinking, known as “smoking”
alcohol, has doctors concerned. Whatever happened to taking shots? Any sort of excessive drinking is dangerous, be it via beer bongs or pouring shots into the eye socket. ___36___ The questionable practice, which has potentially scary consequences, has various permutations.
An individual can pour alcohol over dry ice and inhale it directly or with a straw, or make a DIY vaporizing kit using bike pumps. The alcohol of choice is poured into a bottle, the bottle is corked, and the bicycle pump needle is poked through the top of the cork. ___37___
In 2004, the U.S. saw a brief emergence of the trend with the availability of the AWOL (Alcohol Without Liquid) device, but the product was quickly banned in the U.S. and lost its following. Nearly a decade later, clinicians are seeing evidence that the practice is gaining some traction — and not just among college kids and adolescent risk takers. ___38___
When alcohol vapor is inhaled, it goes straight from the lungs to the brain and bloodstream, getting the individual drunk very quickly. ___39___ Drinkers feel the effects almost instantly, but the risks are also much higher. People who smoke their alcohol are at a much greater risk of getting
alcohol poisoning and potentially overdosing. When people drink too much alcohol, they tend to vomit.
Getting sick is one of the ways that prevents an alcohol overdose, but when alcohol circumvents the stomach and liver, the body can’t expel it. It’s also much harder to know just how much alcohol you’re consuming in one sitting if you’re not stringently measuring. ___40___
The prevalence of the trend is unclear, but like other drinking fads, YouTube videos of drinkers inhaling and smoking alcohol have increasingly popped up online. Indeed, the concept that people do something hazardous to get drunk is disturbing.
(A) If a cup of alcohol is poured into a bottle and then vaporized, the drinker cannot tell if they are inhaling a few sips or the whole cup, since the liquid remains in the bottle.
(B) Drink driving offences are not limited to public roads. They can be committed on private property.
(C) Air is pumped into the bottle to vaporize the alcohol, and the user inhales.
(D) It’s popular among people who want to lose weight and don’t want the calories that come from consuming alcohol.
(E) But now some drinkers are taking it even further and “smoking” alcohol.
(AB) Because the alcohol bypasses the stomach and liver, it isn’t metabolized, and the alcohol doesn’t lose any of its potency.
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國立中科實驗高級中學 102 學年度教師甄選
