Passage 13

Two recent publications offer different assessment of the career of the famous British nurse Florence Nightingale. A book by Anne Summers seeks to debunk the idealizations and present a reality at odds with Nightingale’s heroic reputation. According to Summers, Nightingale’s importance during the Crimean War has been exaggerated: not until near the war’s end did she become supervisor of the female nurses.

Additionally, Summers writes that the contribution of the nurses to the relief of the wounded was at best marginal. The prevailing problems of military medicine were caused by army organizaitonal pratices, and the addition of a few nurses to the medical staff could be no more than symbolic. Nightingale’s place in the national pantheon, Summers asserts, is lrgely due to the propagandistic efforts of contemporary newspaper reporters.

By contrast, the editors of a new volume of Nightingale’s letters view Nightingale as a person who

significantly influenced not only her own age but also subsequenct generations. They highlight her ongoing efforts to reform sanitary conditions after the war. For example, when she leanred that peacetime living conditions in British barracks were so horrible that the death rate of enlisted men far exeeded that of neighboring civilian populations, she succeeded in persuading the government to establish a Royal Commission on the Health of the Army. She used sums raised through public contributions to found a nurses’ traning hospital in London. Even in administrative matters, the editors assert, her practical intelligence was formidable: as recently as 1947 the British Army’s medical services were still using the cost-accounting system she had devised in the 1860’s.

I believe that the evidence of her letters supports continued respect for Nightingale’s brilliance and creativity. When counseling a village schoolmaster to encourage children to use their faculties of observation, she sounds like a modern educator. Her insistence on classifying the problems of the needy in order to devise appropriate treatments is similar to the approach of modern social workers. In sum, although Nightingale may not have achieved all of her goals during the Crimean War, her breadth of vision and ability to realize ambitious projects have earned her an eminent place among the ranks of social pioneers.

78. Which of the following is an assumption underlying the author’s assessment of Nightingale’s creativity?

(A) Educational philosophy in Nightingale’s day did not normally emphasize developing children’s ability to observe.

(B) Nightingale was the first to notice the poor living conditions in British military barracks in peacetime.

(C) No educator before Nightingale had thought to enlist the help of village shcoolmasters in introducing new teaching techniques.

(D) Until Nightingale began her work, there was no concept of organized help for the needy in

nineteenth-century Britain.

(E) The British Army’s medical services had no cost-accounting system until Nightingale devised one in the 1860’s.

Why the answer is not E, but C. From the the sentence in red and the word"devised" which has the meaning of create, it shows that Nightingale has the creativity.

Passage 41

Neotropical coastal mangrove forests are usually “zonal,” with certain mangrove species found

predominantly in the seaward portion of the habitat and other mangrove species on the more

landward portions of the coast. The earliest research on mangrove forests produced descriptions of

species distribution from shore to land, without exploring the causes of the distributions.

The idea that zonation is caused by plant succession was first expressed by J. H. Davis in a study

of Florida mangrove forests. According to Davis’ scheme, the shoreline is being extended in a

seaward direction because of the “land-building” role of mangroves, which, by trapping sediments

over time, extend the shore. As a habitat gradually becomes more inland as the shore extends, the

“land-building” species are replaced. This continuous process of accretion and succession would

be interrupted only by hurricanes or storm flushings.

Recently the universal application of Davis’s succession paradigm has been challenged. It appears

that in areas where weak currents and weak tidal energies allow the accumulation of sediments,

mangroves will follow land formation and accelerate the rate of soil accretion; succession will

proceed according to Davis’s scheme. But on stable coastlines, the distribution of mangrove

species results in other patterns of zonation; “land building” does not occur.

To find a principle that explains the various distribution patterns, several researchers have looked

to salinity and its effects on mangrove. While mangroves can develop in fresh water, they can also

thrive in salinities as high as 2.5 times that of seawater. However, those mangrove species found in

freshwater habitats do well only in the absence of competition, thus suggesting that salinity

tolerance is a critical factor in competitive success among mangrove species. Research suggests

that mangroves will normally dominate highly saline regions, although not because they require

salt. Rather, they are metabolically efficient (and hence grow well) in portions of an environment

whose high salinity excludes plants adapted to lower salinities. Tides create different degrees of

salinity along a coastline. The characteristic mangrove species of each zone should exhibit a

higher metabolic efficiency at that salinity than will any potential invader, including other species

of mangrove.

255. It can be inferred from the passage that Davis’ paradigm does NOT apply to which of the

following?

(A) The shoreline of Florida mangrove forests first studies by Davis

(B) A shoreline in an area with weak currents

(C) A shoreline in an area with weak idal energy

(D) A shoreline extended by “land-building” species of mangrove

(E) A shoreline in which few sediments can accumulate

Why the answer is E. I cann't understand the priciple of the red part in the passage. Who could explan to me.Thanks

P13，该题的答案应该是A。

回答这题，答案应该到文章第三段的开头去找。I believe that the evidence of her letters supports continued respect for Nightingale’s brilliance and creativity.

P41，就象是防止沙化一样，树木在海岸线上生长，它们牢牢的抓住了土地。越来越多的树木开始想海的方向发展以至与新形成的土地越来越多，原来的海岸线都变成内陆了。但如果海岸线受海水的冲击太多而造成FEW SENDIMENT的话，那么这种土地的形成就难了。这一点正是DAVIS没有考虑到的。 正如文中所述But on stable coastlines, the distribution of mangrove species results in other patterns of zonation; “land building” does not occur. 所以选E。