雅思考試摘要題專項練習(xí)及解答

　　雅思考試摘要題專項練習(xí)及解答

　　It may be small一each molecule is less than a billionth of a metre long, and consists of a handful of atoms of carbon，hydrogen and oxygen一but ethyl alcohol makes an excellent time machine. People have enjoyed alcoholic drinks since prehistoric times，making drinking one of the few strands that runs throughout the history of western civilization.

　　Appreciating the art。music or literature of long-vanished cultures can require years of study; recreating their drinks, and comparing them to what we enjoy today，is simple in comparison，not to mention more fun. The consumption of alcohol is so widespread in history，says Patrick McGovern .an archaeological chemist at the University of Pennsylvania，that drinking is, in effect，"a universal language".

　　At the same time，of course，different cultures' attitudes to alcohol provide a window on a wide range of social and cultural practices. Alcoholic drinks have always been prized for their supposedly medicinal qualities, though exactly what these qualities were, and how best to take advantage of them, has only become clear in modern times. In short, the drinks of history are familiar enough that we can understand and appreciate them, while different enough to teach us something about the time and place in which they were originally drunk. Some of them can even be recreated at home·with commonly available ingredients.

　　The oldest surviving recipe in the world is for beer. It can be found on a 3,800-year-old clay tablet，as part of a hymn to Ninkasi. the Sumerian goddess of brewing. Sumerian documents.including the legal code drawn up during the reign of King Hammurabi around 1720 BC，show that beer played an important role in Mesopotamian rituals. myths and medical practices. It was drunk by all members of society，from top to bottom，and tavern keepers were expected to abide by strict rules: the penalty for overcharging, for example，was drowning.

　　In addition to being at the heart of Mesopotamian culture. beer may even have been the foundation for the whole of western civilization. In the 1950s Jonathan Sauer, an American botanist, suggested that the original motivation for domesticating cereal crops (and thus switching from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle) might have been to make beer. rather than bread. The question of whether beer or bread came first has been debated ever since.

　　Supporters of Sauer's idea have pointed out that many of the first cereals to be farmed were unsuitable for baking without tiresome preparation, but were suitable for brewing. Beer，they suggest·may have emerged in an attempt to make wild barley edible by mixing it with water and fruit. The thick beer produced in this way would be just as nutritious as bread，in addition to being slightly alcoholic.

　　Sumerian documents lend credence to this idea. For although Sumerian beer was made using bappir，a form of bread that could be stored for long periods, it seems that happir was consumed only when no other food was available. In other words, its primary function may have been to store the raw materials for making beer in a convenient form.

　　If beer really does underpin western civilization，that would explain its high status in Sumerian culture. The seal of Lady Pu-Abi. queen of the city of Ur around 2600 BC,shows her drinking beer from a cup through a straw; just such a straw，made of gold and lapis lazuli，was found in her tomb. and can be seen today in the British Museum.

　　So what would this Ur-beer have tasted like? A number of attempts have been made to brew Sumerian beer according to the Ninkasi recipe. Two such tipples were made in the early 1990s at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. though they were not put on sale to the general public. They involved a certain amount of guesswork. One problem，says Michael Jackson，a beer expert who has tasted various pseudo-Sumerian beers over the years, is that modern brewers avoid the use of wild yeast，which would have made the original beers taste."winey and sour". Another problem，he says, is that it is not clear what was added to ancient beers to balance the taste of the grain. It may well have been fruit，but could also have been honeyThis means there are various modern beers that may resemble the ancient kind. Mr Jackson notes that Iambic beers from Belgium use wild yeast，for example;he also recommends Sahti，a Finnish beer that is flavoured with juniper, which he describes as“the last primitive beer to survive in Europe".Philip Rogers. of the Anchor Brewing Company，says that the Ninkasi brew he tasted was reminiscent of mead:another beer. also based on the Ninkasi recipe, has been compared to Jade，a French organic beer.

　　To further complicate matters, says Mr. McGovern, the distinction between beer, wineand mead starts to break down once honey and fruit are included in the brewing process.

　　Furthermore.his analysis of drinking vessels, found in:，tomb in central Turkey dating to around 700 BC and thought to be that of King Midas, suggests that beer, wine and meadmay have been mixed together in equal quantities to make an early form of cocktail.

　　Complete the partial summary of the passage below using NO MORE THAN 7WO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

　　Write your answers in boxes 1一9 on your answer sheet.

　　Recreating old drinks is comparatively…1…but is more…2... for people. Drinking has been compared to a…3... . People have always valued drinks for their…4... qualities.

　　The earliest formula we can find today is for making…5... . Indeed. some people believe that it is the...6...of the western civilization instead of ...7... because the original ingredients were fit for…8... but unfit for…9...

　　解析

　　1 .simple;2. fun;3. language;4. medicinal; 5.beer; 6. foundation;7. bread; 8. brewing; 9. baking通過答題指引可以看出.這道摘要題是文章部分段落的大意概括(partial summary)，但沒有給出起止的段落，必須通過快速閱讀題目了解其大致內(nèi)容。

　　此題起始句中首先要抓住其主語Recreating old drinks，其他關(guān)鍵詞還有comparatively和more,原文第一段的第三句話中就出現(xiàn)了比較，不過是以兩個并列句的形式出現(xiàn)的:欣賞己消失了的文化的藝術(shù)、音樂或文學(xué)需要多年的研究;而再現(xiàn)它們的酒，和我們今天喝的酒相比較，就比較容易(simple in comparison).更不要說更加有趣(more fun) 了。這與第1個空格前的comparatively相對應(yīng);而more與第2個空格前的more相對應(yīng).因此第1題應(yīng)填simple，第2題應(yīng)填fun,第3題稍困難些，要求填出酒被比作了什么。文中并沒有出現(xiàn)compare或其同義詞。但第一段的后一句提到了一個人說的話，照他看來，由于酒的消費在歷史上如此廣泛，事實上.酒就是一種世界語言(universal language)。這句話包含了一個暗喻:酒是語言。實際上，酒被比作了語言，因此，第3題應(yīng)填language,第4題的關(guān)鍵詞是valued，與第二段第二句話中的prized相對應(yīng).兩個詞的意思都是“珍視”。根據(jù)原文意思，此題應(yīng)填medicinal,第5題的關(guān)鍵詞是earliest formula (早的配方).第二段的起始句中The oldest surviving recipe(保存下來的老的配方)意思與之完全對應(yīng)，因此此題應(yīng)填這句話末尾的beer,第6題的關(guān)鍵詞是western civilization,空格處要填的詞與western civilization有關(guān)系。

　　第四段起始句用表示推測的結(jié)構(gòu)提到，啤酒可能是整個西方文明的基礎(chǔ)(foundation).第5題中己填出beer這個詞，而在第6題里以it指代。所以.此處應(yīng)填foundation一詞。

　　第7題與第6題同屬一個句子，以instead of(而不是)連接，表明二者是對比關(guān)系。第四段第二句話中有一個很重要的結(jié)構(gòu)rather than(而不是)，對比了beer和bread在西方文明中的地位.據(jù)此，此題應(yīng)填bread.

　　第8題和第9題又形成了對比關(guān)系，關(guān)鍵詞分別是fit和unfit。原文第五段第一句話中有兩個詞與之對應(yīng):suitable和unsuitable，因此，第8題應(yīng)填suitable后的brewing, 而第9題應(yīng)填unsuitable后的baking.