2025年4月26日雅思阅读考题回顾

　　P1 甜甜圈Doughnut

　　P2 Leaf-cutting Ants and Fungus

　　P3 飓风 Can hurricanes be moderated or diverted?

　　朗阁讲师点评

　　1. 本场考试的难度较高

　　2. 整体分析：涉及食物类(P1)、动物类(P2)、自然科普类(P3)

　　本次考试P2考察了蚂蚁话题，同学们可以参考8-4-3 Collecting Ant Specimen，7-3-1 Ant Intelligence。注意：三篇文章难度不一定是递进的，建议大家拿到试卷先浏览一下全文，调整自己的做题顺序，从简单的文章做起。从题型角度考虑，**篇还是常见的判断题+填空题，段落大意配对题和段落信息配对依旧作为配对题的重点，仍然需要引起重视。

　　3. 部分答案及参考文章：

　　Passage 1：甜甜圈Doughnut

　　题型： 判断题+填空题

　　参考答案如下：

　　1.FALSE

　　2.TRUE

　　3.FALSE

　　4.NOT GIVEN

　　5.FALSE

　　6.NOT GIVEN

　　7.FALSE

　　8.prejudice

　　9.messages

　　10.recipe

　　11.bagel

　　12.musical

　　13.book

　　具体文章待确认

　　Passage 2: Leaf-cutting Ants and Fungus

　　题型：段落信息配对+特殊词配对+单选题

　　14.H

　　15.C

　　16.B

　　17.D

　　18.F

　　19.G

　　20.B

　　21.A

　　22.C

　　23.A

　　24.A

　　25.C

　　26.D

　　Leaf-Cutting Ants and Fungus

　　A The ants and their agriculture have been extensively studied over the years, but the recent research has uncovered intriguing new findings about the fungus they cultivate, how they domesticated it and how they cultivate it and preserve it from pathogens. For example, the fungus farms, which the ants were thought to keep free of pathogens, turn out to be vulnerable to a devastating mold, found nowhere else but in ants’ nests. To keep the mold in check, the ants long ago made a discovery that would do credit to any pharmaceutical laboratory.

　　B Leaf - cutting ants and their fungus farms are a marvel of nature and perhaps the best known example of symbiosis, the mutual dependence of two species. The ants’ achievement is remarkable—the biologist Edward O. Wilson has called it “one of the major breakthroughs in animal evolution” – because it allows them to eat, courtesy of their mushroom’s digestive powers, the otherwise poisoned harvest of tropical forests whose leaves are laden with terpenoids, alkaloids and other chemicals designed to sicken browsers.

　　C Fungus growing seems to have originated only once in evolution, because all gardening ants belong to a single tribe, the descendants of the first fungus farmer. There are more than 200 known species of the attine ant tribe, divided into 12 groups, or genera. The leaf - cutters use fresh vegetation; the other groups, known as the lower attines because their nests are smaller and their techniques more primitive, feed their gardens with detritus like dead leaves, insects and feces.

　　D The leaf - cutters’ fungus was indeed descended from a single strain, propagated clonally, or just by budding, for at least 23 million years. But the lower attine ants used different varieties of the fungus, and in one case a quite separate species, the four biologists discovered. The pure strain of fungus grown by the leaf - cutters, it seemed to Mr. Currie, resembled the monocultures of various human crops, that are very productive for a while and then succumb to some disastrous pathogen, such as the Irish potato blight. Monocultures, which lack the genetic diversity to respond to changing environmental threats, are sitting ducks for parasites. Mr. Currie felt there had to be a parasite in the ant - fungus system. But a century of ant research offered no support for the idea. Textbooks describe how leaf - cutter ants scrupulously weed their gardens of all foreign organisms. “People kept telling me, ‘You know the ants keep their gardens free of parasites, don’t you?’” Mr. Currie said of his efforts to find a hidden interloper.

　　E But after three years of sifting through attine ant gardens, Mr. Currie discovered they are far from free of infections. In last month’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, he and two colleagues, Dr. Mueller and David Mairoch, isolated several alien organisms, particularly a family of parasitic molds called Escovopsis.

　　F Escovopsis turns out to be a highly virulent pathogen that can devastate a fungus garden in a couple of days. It blooms like a white cloud, with the garden dimly visible underneath. In a day or two the whole garden is enveloped. “Other ants won’t go near it and the ants associated with the garden just starve to death,” Dr. Rehner said. “They just seem to give up, except for those that have rescued their larvae.” The deadly mold then turns greenish - brown as it enters its spore - forming stage.

　　G Evidently the ants usually manage to keep Escovopsis and other parasites under control. But with any lapse in control, or if the ants are removed, Escovopsis will quickly burst forth. Although new leaf - cutter gardens start off free of Escovopsis, within two years some 60 percent become infected. The discovery of Escovopsis’s role brings a new level of understanding to the evolution of the attine ants. “In the last decade, evolutionary biologists have been increasingly aware of the role of parasites as driving forces in evolution,” Dr. Schultz said. There is now a possible reason to explain why the lower attine species keep changing the variety of fungus in their mushroom gardens, and occasionally domesticating new ones– to stay one step ahead of the relentless Escovopsis.

　　H Interestingly, Mr. Currie found that the leaf - cutters had in general fewer alien molds in their gardens than the lower attines, yet they had more Escovopsis infections. It seems that the price they pay for cultivating a pure variety of fungus is a higher risk from Escovopsis. But the leaf - cutters may have little alternative: they cultivate a special variety of fungus which, unlike those grown by the lower attines, produces nutritious swollen tips for the ants to eat.

　　I Discovery of a third partner in the ant - fungus symbiosis raises the question of how the attine ants, especially the leaf - cutters, keep this dangerous interloper under control. Amazingly enough, Mr. Currie has again provided the answer. “People have known for a hundred years that ants have a whitish growth on the cuticle,” said Dr. Mueller, referring to the insects’ body surface. “People would say this is like a cuticular wax. But Cameron was the first one in a hundred years to put these things under a microscope. He saw it was not inert wax. It is alive.” Mr. Currie discovered a specialized patch on the ants’ cuticle that harbors a particular kind of bacterium, one well known to the pharmaceutical industry, because it is the source of half the antibiotics used in medicine. From each of 22 species of attine ant studied, Mr. Cameron and colleagues isolated a species of Streptomyces bacterium, they reported in Nature in April. The Streptomyces does not have much effect on ordinary laboratory funguses. But it is a potent poisoner of Escovopsis, inhibiting its growth and suppressing spore formation. It also stimulates growth of the ants’ mushroom fungus. The bacterium is carried by virgin queens when they leave to establish new nests, but is not found on male ants, playboys who take no responsibility in nest - making or gardening.

　　J Because both the leaf - cutters and the lower attines use Streptomyces, the bacterium may have been part of their symbiosis for almost as long as the Escovopsis mold. If so, some Alexander Fleming of an ant discovered antibiotics millions of years before people did. Even now, the ants are accomplishing two feats beyond the powers of human technology. The leaf - cutters are growing a monocultural crop year after year without disaster, and they are using an antibiotic apparently so wisely and prudently that, unlike people, they are not provoking antibiotic resistance in the target pathogen.

　　Passage 3: 飓风Can hurricanes be moderated or diverted?

　　题型：段落大意配对+填空题+单选题

　　27.iii

　　28.ii(飓风是如何形成的)

　　29.viii(back to early ideas)

　　30.vii(利用电脑科技进行演习)

　　31.vi(how lives could be saved)

　　32.iv(利用未来科技的可能性)

　　33.ix(一些非高端技术解决方案)

　　34.thunderstorms

　　35.condensation

　　36.heat

　　37.eye

　　38.land

　　39.B

　　40.C

　　具体文章待确认

　　考试建议

　　1.从已知信息来看，阅读速度依旧是影响考生得分的关键。不少考生反馈考试时时间来不及，特别是在选择题上耗时较长。如果烤鸭没有太关注该题型的话，可以参考练习10-4-3，11-2-3，11-4-2，12-3-3，12-4-2，13-1-3。下场考试，**篇多会以填空+判断题型出现。第二篇注意配对题相关的题型搭配。课下练习关注时间的分配问题，考生需要熟练掌握各个题型和篇章搭配类型的定位方法。同时，下场考试需注意：常见段落结构如何区分主次信息，抽象选项和原文信息如何识别出对应点。填空题除高频的“直接填空”外，仍需关注“选词填空”。

　　2. 重点浏览2020到2024年机经。