专四阅读一

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历年专四阅读参考答案

历年专四阅读参考答案

历年专四阅读部分答案02年TEXT A短文大意:这篇文章讲的是现代的日用家电产品的缺陷,它们只是改变了家务劳动的方式,而不能真正节省时间,且其商业广告具有很强的误导性和迷惑性。

66.答案:B【参考译文】根据短文,许多被认为可以解放妇女的家电产品如何?【试题分析】本题为细节题。

【详细解答】本题可从文中第二、三句找到答案“Machines have a certain novelty value… but the time saved does not really amount to much… ”即家用电器具有一定的新颖的价值,但是并不能节省多少时间。

故选项B为正确答案。

67.答案:A【参考译文】根据上下文,capital investment指的是什么钱?【试题分析】本题为细节题。

【详细解答】短文第四句话说“It would be more liberating to pack it all off to alaundry… since no capital investment is required.”即与其在家使用洗衣机这么麻烦,还不如直接把衣服送到洗衣店。

那样也不需要基本投资。

由此可知,capital investment指购买洗衣机所需的花费。

故选项A为正确答案。

68. 答案:D【参考译文】在女性杂志上做广告的产品的真正目的什么?【试题分析】本题为细节题。

【详细解答】文中在提到女性杂志上的广告时讲到“on no account hint at the notion that a woman could get herself a job,but instead foster her sense of her own usefulness,emphasizing the creative aspect of her function as a housewife.”即决不要使家庭主妇意识到那将会多一份劳动,反而要使她感觉自己很能干,强调她作为家庭主妇的创造才能。

专四法国英语阅读

专四法国英语阅读

专四法国英语阅读1.____native to North America, corn has now spread all over the world. [单选题] *A. In spite ofB. That it isC. It wasD. Although(正确答案)2. Our civilization cannot be thought of as____in a short period of time. [单选题] *A. to have been createdB. to be createdC. having been created(正确答案)D. being created3. We feel it is high time that the Government ____something to check the inflation. [单选题] *A. did(正确答案)B. doC.should doD. would do4. It has been proposed that we____our decision until the next meeting. [单选题] *A.delayedB.delay(正确答案)C. can delayD. are to delay5. Hurricanes are severe cyclones with winds over seventy?five miles an hour____originate over tropical ocean waters. [单选题] *A. which(正确答案)B. whoC. whereD.how to6.____is announced in the papers, our country has launched a large?scale movement against smuggling and fraudulent activities in foreign currency exchange deals. [单选题] *A. WhatB. As(正确答案)C. WhichD. That7. All the flights____because of the snowstorm, we had to take the train instead. [单选题] *A.were canceledB. had been canceledC. having canceledD. having been canceled(正确答案)8. Once ____, this power station will supply all the neighboring towns and villages with electricity. [单选题] *A. it being completedB. it completedC. completed(正确答案)D. it completes9 He might have been killed ____the timely arrival of the ambulance. [单选题] *A. but for(正确答案)B. except forC. besidesD. except10. If you have never planted anything, you won’t be able to know the pleasure of watching the thing you have planted ____. [单选题] *A.grow(正确答案)B. to growC. growingD. to be growing11. He did me a ____turn by lending me ten pounds. [单选题] *A. good(正确答案)B. niceC. fineD. pretty12. Once our chickens started laying eggs, we had such a ____of eggs that we were giving many away to our neighbors. [单选题] *A. outputB. surplus(正确答案)C. productionD. plenty13. Following are comments about the behavior that people in Korea usually expect in various social ____. [单选题] *A. occasions(正确答案)B. casesC.situationsD. circumstances14. They have considered their high standard of living a(n)____for practising their basic beliefs. [单选题] *A. awardB. reward(正确答案)C. resultD. consequence15. Mac’s close____to his brother made people mistake them for one another. [单选题] *A. resemblance(正确答案)B. identityC. appearanceD. relationship16. The thieves____the waste paper all over the room while they were searching for the diamond ring. [单选题] *A. spreadB. scratchedC.scattered(正确答案)D. burned17. The sight of the fruit salad made our daughter Kit’s mouth ____. [单选题] *A. wetB. water(正确答案)C. soakD. taste18. The____problem of bring a space?ship back from the moon has been solved. [单选题] *A. technical(正确答案)B. technologicalC. techniqueD. technology19. A large part of a person’s memory is____words and combination of words. [单选题] *A.by means ofB. in terms of(正确答案)C. in connection withD. by way of20. At her word she stood up and walked away, stopping at the window to pull back the curtain and ____. [单选题] *A.look roundB. look out(正确答案)C. look upD. look on21. Their happiness was very____. [单选题] *A. crispB. brittleC. delicateD. fragile(正确答案)22. I was awfully tired when I got home from work, but a half hour nap ____me. [单选题] *A.revived(正确答案)B. releasedC. relievedD. recovered23. We should always keep in mind that____decisions often lead to bitter regrets. [单选题] *A.hasty(正确答案)B. instantC. promptD.rapid24. Information and opinion?gap exercises have to have some content ____talking about. [单选题] *A. worthwhileB. worthilyC. worth(正确答案)D. worthy25. “If we fail to act now,”said Tom, “We’ll find ourselves ____in action later on.” [单选题] *A.paid back(正确答案)B. paid forC.paid upD.paid off1.____in the past, at the moment it is a favorite choice for wedding gown. [单选题] *A. Unpopular has as white beenB. White has been as unpopularC. Unpopular has been as whiteD. Unpopular as white has been(正确答案)2.____for a long time, the fields are all dried up. [单选题] *A. There has been no rainB. Having no rainC. There having been no rain(正确答案)D. There being no rain3. The millions of calculations involved, ____by hand, would have lost all practical value by the time they were finished. [单选题] *A. had they been done(正确答案)B. they had been doneC. having been doneD. they were done4. Televisions enable us to see things happen almost at the exact moment____. [单选题] *A. which they are happeningB. they are happening(正确答案)C. which they happenD. they have happened5.____me most was that the young boy who had lost both arms in an accident could handle a pen with his feet. [单选题] *A. That amazedB. It amazedC. Which amazedD. What amazed(正确答案)6. Although she wrote a lot of short stories and poems when she was very young,____she was twenty?five. [单选题] *A. her first real success did not come until(正确答案)B. her real first success came until notC. since her first real success did not come untilD. not until her first real success7. You should know better than____ your little sister at home by herself. [单选题] *A. to leave(正确答案)B. leavingC. to have leftD. left8. As the train will not leave until one hour later, we ____grab a bite at the snack bar. [单选题] *A. may wellB. just as wellC. might as well(正确答案)D. as well9. She resorted to ____ when she had no money to buy foods for her children. [单选题] *A. have stolenB. stealC. stoleD. stealing(正确答案)10. The boy has admitted to ____ the window while playing football yesterday. [单选题] *A. breaking(正确答案)B. having been brokenC. breakD. be breaking11. Betty advised me to label our luggage carefully in case it gets ____in transit. [单选题] *A. misusedB. mishandledC. mistakenD. mislaid(正确答案)12.____money, she is quite rich. However, this does not mean that she is happy. [单选题] *A. ConcerningB. As toC. In terms of(正确答案)D. In the light of13. A well?written composition ____good choice of words and clear organization among other things. [单选题] *A. calls for(正确答案)B. calls onC. calls upD. calls off14. It is ____with the customer not to let the shop assistants guess what she really likes and wants until the last moment. [单选题] *A. in her honorB. on her honorC. a point of honor(正确答案)D. an honor15. This house will probably come on the ____next month. [单选题] *A. fairB. market(正确答案)C. shopD. store16. George was introduced to ____activities at a young age, when she was hire to act as a lookout for drugdealers. [单选题] *A. illegal(正确答案)B. lawfulC. faithfulD. peaceful17. An institution that properly carries the name university is a more comprehensive and complex institution than any other kind of higher education____. [单选题] *A. settlementB. establishment(正确答案)C. costructionD. structure18. People’s status in society is frequently ____by how much they own. [单选题] *A. measured(正确答案)B. examinedC. testedD. questioned19. Jack is so ____to his appearance that he never has his clothes pressed. [单选题] *A. adverseB. anonymousC. indifferent(正确答案)D. casual20. There is an increasing ____to make movies describing violence. [单选题] *A. strengthB. directionC. traditionD. trend(正确答案)21. Outside my office window there is a fire ____ on the right. [单选题] *A. escape(正确答案)B. ladderD. stairs22. I ____with the Browns during my stay in New York City. [单选题] *A. put inB. put downC. put onD. put up(正确答案)23. Operations which left patients ____ and in need of long periods of discovery time now leave them feeling relaxed and comfortable. [单选题] *A. exhausted(正确答案)B. unhealthyC. upsetD. fearful24. Farmers are allowed to grow small gardens of their own and they sell their vegetables ____ the black market. [单选题] *A. on(正确答案)B. atC. inD. for25. The electric fan does not work because of the ____of service. [单选题] *A. pauseC. interruption(正确答案)D. breakdown。

英语专业四级阅读理解考试题及答案解析

英语专业四级阅读理解考试题及答案解析

英语专业四级阅读理解考试题及答案解析英语专业四级阅读理解考试题及答案解析韩愈说过这样一句话:“业精于勤荒于嬉,行成于思毁于随””。

天才就是无止境刻苦勤奋的努力。

成绩优与良;才思浓与淡,都是由勤奋注定的。

以下是店铺为大家搜索整理的英语专业四级阅读理解考试题及答案解析,希望对正在关注的您有所帮助!As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth?century North American Colonies, the silversmithand the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it.Only a few silversmiths were available in New Yorkor Boston in the late seventeenth century, but in theeighteenth century they could be found in all majorcolonial cities. No other colonial artisans rivaled thesilversmiths’ prestige. They handled the mostexpensive materials and possessed direct connections to prosperous colonial merchants. Theirproducts, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to theircustomers’ prominence. Silver stood as one of the surest ways to store wealth at a time beforeneighborhood banks existed. Unlike the silver coins from which they were made, silver articleswere readily identifiable. Often formed to individual specifications, they always carried thesilversmith’s distinctive markings and consequently could be traced and retrieved.Customers generally secure the silver for the silver object they ordered. They saved coins, tookthem to smiths, and discussed the type of pieces they desired. Silversmiths complied with theserequests by melting the money in a small furnace, adding a bit of copper to form a strongeralloy, and casting the alloy in rectangular blocks. They hammered these ingots to theappropriate thickness by hand, shaped them and pressed designs into them for adornment.Engraving was alsodone by hand. In addition to plates and bowls, some customers soughtmore intricate products, such as silver teapots. These were made by shaping or casting partsseparately and then soldering them together. Colonial coppersmithing also come of age in theearly eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities. Copper’s ability to conduct heatefficiently and to resist corrosion contributed to its attractiveness. But because it wasexpensive in colonial America, coppersmiths were never very numerous. Virtually all copperworked by Smiths was imported as sheets or obtained by recycling old copper goods. Copperwas used for practical items, but it was not admired for its beauty. Coppersmiths employed it tofashion pots and kettles for the home. They shaped it in much the same manner as silver ormelted it in a foundry with lead or tin. They also mixed it with zinc to make brass for maritimeand scientific instruments.?1、According to the passage, which of the following eighteenth century developments had strongimpact on silversmithsA. A decrease in the cost of silver.B. The invention of heat efficient furnaces.C. The growing economic prosperity of colonial merchants.D. The development of new tools used to shape silver.2.In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make silver articles? ?A. From their own mines.B. From importers.C. From other silversmiths.D. From customers.3.The passage mentions all of the following as uses for copper in Colonial America EXCEPT ______A. cooking potsB. scientific instrumentsC. musical instrumentsD. maritime instruments4.According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar inwhich of the following waysA. The amount of social prestige they had.B. The way they shaped the metal they worked with. ?C. The cost of the goods they made.D. The practicality of the goods they made.参考答案:1. C) 根据文章第一句“As the merchant classexpanded in the eighteenth?century North AmericanColonies,...”可知,随着在十八世纪的北美殖民地商人阶级膨胀起来,也就是说那时的商人财富有了很大的发展,银匠铜匠们有机会发挥他们的.专长了,这与选项C正好相符。

阅读理解 〉 《专业四级阅读测试1》

阅读理解 〉 《专业四级阅读测试1》

阅读理解《专业四级阅读测试1》测试类别:阅读理解试题级别:专四英语试题级别:专四英语Nobody‟s Watching MeI am a foot taller than Napoleon and twice the weight of Twiggy; on my only visit to a beautician, the woman said she found my face a challenge. Yet despite these social disadvantages I feel cheerful, happy, confident and secure.I work for a daily newspaper and so get to a lot of places I would otherwise never see. This year I went to Ascot to write about the people there. I saw something there that made me realize the stupidity of trying to conform,of trying to be better than anyone else. There was a small, plump woman, all dressed up—— huge hat, dress with pink butterflies, long white gloves. She also had a shooting stick. But because she was so plump, when she sat on the stick it went deep into the ground and she couldn‟t pull it out. She tugged and tugged, tears of rage in her eyes. When the final tug brought it out, s he crashed with it to the ground.”I saw her walk away. Her day had been ruined. She had made a fool of herself in public— she had impressed nobody. In her own sad, red eyes she was a failure.I remember well when I was like that, in the days before I learned that nobody really cared what you do . . . I remember the pain of my first dance, something that is always meant to be a wonderful occasion for a girl . . . There was a fashion then for diamante (人造钻石) ear-rings, and I wore them so often practicing for the big night that I got two great sores on my ears and had to put sticking-plaster on them. Perhaps it was this that made nobody want to dance with me. Whatever it was, there I sat for four hours and 43 minutes. When I came home, I told my parents that I had a marvelous time and that my feet were sore from dancing. They were pleased at my success and they went to bed happily, but l went to my room and tore the bits of sticking-plaster off my ears and felt forlorn and disconsolate.The beautician found the writer’s face a `challenge’, which means____.A. she thought it was a challenge to have such a face repairedB. she thought it was a challenge to deal with such a faceC. the writer‟s face challenged the beautician‟sD. it was a challenge to find the writer‟s faceIn the second paragraph, the word `plump’ can be replaced by which word?A. Heavy.B. Slim.C. Ugly.D. Stout.According to the writer, what was the main reason for the failure ofher first dance?A. She was too shy and kept quiet.B. She was not attractive.C. She wore diamante earring.D. She was not in fashion.The Virus HuntersThe mouth of the Amazon River has long been a starting place for hunters going to the jungles of Brazil. In recent years it has been, too, the headquarters for a middle-aged American couple who hunt the smallest living things and perhaps the most deadly——viruses. Dr Causey and his wife have discovered more new types and more old ones in new places than all of the other search teams.Dr. Causey insists that the couple‟s success is due more to the number of viruses in the forests of the Amazon than to the skill he and his wife have developed during their eighteen years of work in Brazil.“We have found the loveliest diseases right in our backyard,” he told me one day as we walked through a light rain along a jungle trail.“Oh, these viruses are here all right. There is in the jungle a great poolof disease which is carried in the blood of animals and birds. Some of the diseases can be caught by people. It may be that we shall find that the jungle is a great center of virus disease and that it overflows from here to other parts of the world. It may be that birds carry the viruses to far countries. It may be that some viruses which presently reproduce in man without making him ill, may change and become deadly to him.…Viruses waiting for a disease,‟ they are sometimes called. This is just an idea, you understand. We do not know, but it is important that we find out, and the first step in finding out is to learn what viruses there are in the jungles.”There is a Brazilian story about the beginn ing of the world which goes: “When God was making the world hetried to keep everything in balance. When he made a desert, he provided it with some green places. When he made a land that was beautiful, he gave it storms and other terrible things caused by the weather. Where the earth was rich below the surface, it was also made hard to live on, where the land could be farmed, the weather was made too hot or too cold or too dry. Where there was enough water, God made it so that there should sometimes be too much water.“But in one place God made a land that was rich, where everything grew easily. Where it was not too hot and certainly not too cold, where animals were plentiful and fruit hung from the trees all the year round.”“The angels looked at this loveliness and were jealous of man. They askedGod if this was not too beautiful, too much like heaven, this valley of the Amazon.” And God said, “True, this land looks like heaven, but wait until you see what happens to man when he tries to live in it.”When Dr. Causey said, “We have found the loveliest diseases right inour backyard,” he meant____.A. new viruses have just been discoveredB. his discovery was a bit frighteningC. he and his wife were surrounded by harmful virusesD. his job was exciting“Viruses waiting for a disease” refers to____.A. those viruses carried in the blood of animalsB. some viruses which are at present harmless to manC. the viruses that reproduce in man without making him illD. the still-not-yet-discovered viruses in the jungleWhen the author cited the Brazilian legend he was____.A. trying to add a little humorB. trying to illustrate his earlier pointC. simply jokingD. being religiousThe year 1400 opened with more peacefulness than usual in England. Only a few months before, Richard II, weak, wicked, and treacherous,had been deposed(废黜),and Herry IV declared king in his stead. But it was only a seeming peacefulness, lasting for but a little while; for though King Herry proved himself a just and a merciful man——as justice and mercy went with the men of iron of those days——and though he did not care to shed blood needlessly, there were many noble families who had been benefited by King Richard during his reign, and who had lost somewhat of their power and prestige from the coming in of the new king.Among these were a number of great lords who had been degraded from their former titles and estates, from which degradation King Richard had lifted them. They planned to fall upon King Herry and his followers and to massacre(屠杀)them during a great tournament(中世纪的马上比武大会) which was being held at Oxford. And they might have succeeded had not one of their own members betrayed them.But Herry did not appear at the lists; whereupon, knowing that he had been lodging at Windsor with only a few attendants, the conspirators marched there against him. In the meantime, the king had been warned of the plot, so that instead of finding him in the royal castle, they discovered through their scouts that he had hurried to London, and that he was marching against them at the head of a considerable army. So nothing was left but flight. One and another, they were all caught and some killed. Those few who found friends faithful and bold enough to afford them shelter dragged those friends down in their own ruin.Why did the nobles wish to kill Herry?A. Herry had taken away power given to them by Richard.B. Herry was weak, wicked, and treacherous.C. Herry had needlessly killed members of their families.D. Herry had killed King Richard.How did King Herry find out about the plot?A. His scouts discovered it.B. He saw the conspirators coming.C. One of the conspirators told him.D. He found a copy of the conspirators‟plan.What does the author seem to think of King Herry?A. He was the best king England had ever had.B. He was unfair and cowardly.C. He was just as evil as King Richard.D. He was a better ruler than King Richard.Although the United States cherishes the tradition it is a nation of small towns and wide open spaces, only one in every eight Americans now lives on a farm. The recent population trend has been a double one, toward both urbanization and suburbanization. Metropolitan areas have grown explosively in the past decade, and nearly half this increase has been in the suburbs. With the rapid growth of cities has come equally rapid decentralization. The flight of Americans from the central city to the suburbs constitutes one of the greatest migrations of modern times; quite residential sections outside cities have become conglomerations of streets, split-level houses, and shopping centers.This spurt of suburban expansion, however, does not alter the basic fact that the United States has become one of the most urban nations on the face of the earth. Census Bureau figures show that the rural population has been shrinking steadily since 1830. When the United States became a nation it had no large cities at all; today some fifty cities have population of more than 258,000. Mammoth complexes of cities are developing in the area of the East Coast and the east north-central states, on the Pacific and Gulf coasts, and near the shores of the Great Lakes. Some sociologists now regard the entire 600-mile stretch between Boston and Washington D.C.——an area holding a fifth of the country‟s population——as one vast city or, as they call it, megalopolis.The author says that trends are toward the____.A. growth of cities and shrinking of suburban areasB. growth of both rural and suburban areasC. growth of urban and suburban areasD. growth of suburban areas and shrinking of citiesDecentralization is best defined as ____.A. movement from the central city to rural areasB. movement from the central city to the suburbsC. disorderly expansion of the central cityD. shrinking of metropolitanOne aspect of the recent population trend is the____.A. development of complexes of citiesB. increasingly great distance between citiesC. transformation of cities into suburbsD. growth of many small townsA need for beauty, lightness, corrosion resistance, or other specific propertiesmust be present before plastic can be considered as competitors of brick, window glass, cement, cast iron, or steel, since volumetric prices are so low for thelast substance and for wood. It is not particularly unfortunate that plastics do not appear economical for every use. There is no reason why industry should want to replace wood, brick, concrete, and metals when the latter are adequate andinexpensive. Too much has been written about the coming “Plastics and Light Metal Age,” which is prophesized as the successor to the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. In the historical sequence of these earlier periods, there is logic in the quantitative sense; one age gave way to another when the use of anew material exceeded in quantity that of its predecessor. For the plastics andlight metals, however, a different picture presents itself; less than 3,000,000 tons of all these materials are being produced annually, while steel productionexceeded 90,000,000 tons last year and will probably not recede to less than 60,000,000 tons for many years. This is still the Iron Age or rather the Steel Age.The writer considers that the Bronze Age succeeded the Stone Age because____.A. there was a scarcity of wood and other building materialsB. bronze was less expensive than stoneC. stone was no longer availableD. more bronze than stone came into useThe writer regards the change to a “Plastic and Light Metal Age” in the near future as____.A. necessaryB. desirableC. improbableD. logicalThe title that best expresses the idea of this passage is____.A. New Uses for PlasticsB. How One Age Succeeds AnotherC. Advantages of PlasticsD. Limitations on the Use of Plastics。

专四模拟试题之阅读共30篇

专四模拟试题之阅读共30篇

专四模拟试题(阅读篇1)专四模拟试题(阅读篇1)Glacier National Park in Montana shares boundaries with Canada, an American Indian reservation, and a national forest. Along the North Fork of the Flathead River, the park also borders about 17,000 acres of private lands that are currently used for ranching, timber, and agriculture. This land is an important part of the habitat and migratory routes for several endangered species that frequent the park. These private lands are essentially the only ones available for development in the region.With encouragement from the park, local landowners initiated a land use planning effort to guide the future of the North Fork. The park is a partner in an inter local agreement that calls for resource managing agencies to work together and with the more than 400 private owners in the area. A draft plan has been prepared, with objective of maintaining traditional economic uses but limiting new development that would damage park resources. Voluntary action by landowners, in cooperation with the park and the county, is helping to restrict small lot subdivisions, maintain wildlife corridors, and minimize any harmful impact on the environment.The willingness of local landowners to participate in this protection effort may have been stimulated by concerns that congress would impose a legislative solution. Nevertheless, many local residents want to retain the existing character of the area. Meetings between park officials and landowners have led to a dramatically improved understanding of all concerns.1. The passage mainly discusses______.A. the endangered species in Glacier National ParkB. the protection of lands surrounding Glacier National ParkC. conservation laws imposed by the state of MontanaD. conservation laws imposed by Congress2. Why are the private lands surrounding Glacier National Park so important?A. They function as a hunting preserve.B. They are restricted to government use.C. They are heavily populated.D. They contain natural habitats of threatened species.3. The relationship between park officials and neighboring landowners may best be described as______.A. indifferentB. intimateC. cooperativeD. disappointing4. It can be inferred from the passage that a major interest of the officials of Glacier National Park is to______.A. limit land development around the parkB. establish a new park in MontanaC. influence national legislationD. settle border disputes with Canada答案解析:1. B) 这是一道主旨题。

专四阅读1

专四阅读1

TEXT AYou’ve heard, no doubt, about the planet-friendly benefits of putting gardens on rooftops, but what about installing plants on the sides of buildings? So-called living walls can make for stunning works of botanical art, can’t-miss-them signs of environmental stewardship. But does this architectural trend actually help cut down on buildings’ energy use?The answer depends on the gardens, which are sprouting up worldwide, everywhere from museums and corporate headquarters to airports and highway overpasses. And the new designs keep growing larger.When done right, a living wall can significantly reduce a building’s heating and cooling costs, though not as much as a green roof can. The wall treatments —which consist of a bunch of modular metal or plastic casings that can be removed for inspections or repairs — also cost more, easily climbing over $100 per sq. ft., compared with $15 to $40 per sq. ft. for green roofs.And since rain generally doesn’t fall sideways, irrigation is both necessary and tricky. Designers have to use drip-irrigation systems and often rely on electronic monitoring devices to make sure the plants don’t dry out. Irrigating with recycled water and installing native plants can help cut down on resource use.George Irwi n, CEO of Green Living Technologies admits that clients aren’t hanging living walls for the energy-cost savings. “Green roofs provide a faster return on the investment,” he says. “But everybody can see your green wall. It is marketing genius.”Minsuk Cho, an architect who dressed the outer and inner walls of Seoul’s Ann Demeulemeester store in a dense carpet of foliage, says greening walls maximizes the opportunity to create a better urban environment, but you can’t plant them and walk away. “Just lik e any garden, maintaining a green wall takes commitment,” Cho says. “It shouldn’t be considered as a building material but more like a pet.” A very large and thirsty one.1. At the beginning of the passage, the author intends to _____.A. arouse readers’ interest in environmental stewardshipB. inform readers that a green roof helps cut down on buildings’ energy useC. lead onto the discussion of advantages and disadvantages of the living wallD. describe the current status of architectural trend2. Th e word “stewardship” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.A. pollutionB. supervisionC. protectionD. damage3. According to the passage, which of the following will help to cut down the energy-cost?A. Utilizing removable modular metal or plastic casings.B. Utilizing drip-irrigation systems.C. Adopting electronic monitoring devices.D. Using recycled water.4. We learn from the passage that compared with a green wall, a green roof _____.A. provides a slower return on the investmentB. can be more effective in reducing a building’s heating and cooling costsC. costs much moreD. is more difficult to be installed5. Which of the following statements is true?A. Since living walls are more expensive, green roofs are more popular.B. Because of the energy-cost savings, many corporate headquarters are hanging green walls.C. The only advantage of a green wall is that it could create a better urban environment.D. A green wall demands extra care and concern, just like a pet.TEXT BBecau se I am extremely vulnerable to both slick advertising and peer pressure, I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad. But here’s the problem: I’m cheap, and the iPad’s not. If I’m going to fork over at least $499 for a new device, I want to try it out and ma ke sure it’s not just a larger, shinier version of my iPhone. But if I went to my local Apple Store, I’d get to spend only a few minutes testing out the machine. I wanted more time than that, so I rented one for $15 a day from a guy on SnapGoods.The Internet start-up in Brooklyn runs on a simple premise: there are people who want to borrow stuff —camping equipment, food processors, robot vacuums, etc. —and there are people who have stuff they want to lend. SnapGoods helps these two groups connect over the Web. SnapGoods is one of many sites that have sprung up to facilitate offline sharing. Some sites have a narrow, obvious focus (like ) while others are more obscure (Neighborhood Fruit helps people share what’s growing in their yards or find fruit trees on public land). But regardless of whether the sharing is free or involves a fee, these transactions often come with a stick-it-to-the-man attitude. “Borrow these things from your neighbors,” reads one exhortation on “T he owner-ship has SAILED!”All of these sites are encouraging something academics call collaborative consumption — in other words, peer-to-peer sharing or renting. Renting something you don’t need to use very often makes a lot more sense than buying i t and letting it collect dust in your garage. There’s a green aspect as well, since sharing helps cut down on overall use of resources. But one of collaborative consumption’s most surprising benefits turns out to be social. In an era when families are scattered around the country and we may not know the people down the street from us, sharing things —even with strangers we’ve just met online — allows us to make meaningful connections.“This isn’t just about saving the environment or saving a buck,” sa ys SnapGoods CEO Ron Williams, who came up with the idea after renting a stranger’s motorcycle via Craigslist. “This is about saving yourself by making informed consumer decisions.”I’m not sure if I got a jolt of oxytocin when I borrowed Goodwin’s iPa d, but it did feel good to make a connection. In the end, though, I decided not to purchase an iPad. Sorry, Steve Jobs. I’m just not that into owning things anymore.6. The author rented an iPad instead of buying it because of the following reasons EXCEPT that_____.A. the iPad is expensive and the author wants to make sure an iPad is worthyB. he has already got an iPhone and expects to test the better quality of an iPadC. the local Apple Store only offers limited time to test out the machineD. the iPad is so expensive that he cannot afford it7. SnapGoods is a website which ____.A. facilitates online sharingB. helps people borrow things from their neighborsC. connects borrowers and lenders for stuff sharingD. sells iPad online8. From the author’s point of view, which is NOT a benefit of collaborative consumption?A. It helps cut down on overall use of resources.B. It makes more sense than buying stuff that is not frequently used.C. It provides cheaper stuff.D. It allows people to make meaningful connections.9. What is the author’s attitude towards SnapGoods?A. Favorable.B. Critical.C. Indifferent.D. Objective.10. Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?A. Borrow, Don’t Buy: Websites that Let Stran gers ShareB. SnapGoods: A Good Place for ShoppingC. The Reason Why I RentD. Tips for Selling Things on the InternetTEXT CThe transformative trends of the past 50 years that have led to a sharp decline in marriage and a rise of new family forms have been shaped by attitudes and behaviors that differ by class, age and race, according to a new Pew Research Center nationwide survey, done in association with TIME, complemented by an analysis of demographic and economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.A new “marriage gap” in the United States is increasingly aligned with a growing income gap. Marriage, while declining among all groups, remains the norm for adults with a college education and good income but is now markedly less prevalent among those on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. The survey finds that those in this less-advantaged group are as likely as others to want to marry, but they place a higher premium on economic security as a condition for marriage. This is a bar that many may not meet.The survey also finds striking differences by generation. In 1960, two-thirds (68%) of all twenty-somethings were married. In 2008, just 26% were. How many of today’s youth willeventually marry is an open question. For now, the survey finds that the young are much more inclined than their elders to view cohabitation without marriage and other new family forms —such as same sex marriage and interracial marriage — in a positive light.Even as marriage shrinks, family —in all its emerging varieties —remains resilient. The survey finds that Americans have an expansive definition of what constitutes a family. And the vast majority of adults consider their own family to be the most important, most satisfying element of their lives.11. According to the survey, which is the root of the sharp decline in marriage and the rise of new family forms in the United States?A. The transformative trends in the past 50 years.B. The growing income gap.C. Distinct attitudes and behaviorsD. Differences in class, age and race.12. Which of the following statements is TRUE?A. The sharp decline in marriage has nothing to do with personal income.B. Adults with a college education and good income are less inclined to marry.C. Now a higher demand on economic security as a condition for marriage has become a bar which is hard to meet.D. Unlike the elders, more young people view cohabitation without marriage unacceptable.13. According to the passage, today’s youth are much more positive about the following family forms EXCEPT _____ than their elders.A. cohabitation without marriageB. early marriageC. same sex marriageD. interracial marriage14. According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?A. New family forms — such as same sex marriage and interracial marriage — are well accepted by the vast majority of Americans.B. The survey in Paragraph 1 is accomplished by an analysis of demographic and economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau.C. Income has more or less affected people’s inclination to marriage.D. Even though marriage is declining, a large majority of Americans still regard their own family most satisfying.15. The author sounds _____ in the last paragraph.A. optimisticB. bitterC. worriedD. ironicTEXT DA few years ago, teachers at Ellis Middle School in Austin, Minn., might have said that their top students were easy to identify: they completed their homework and handed it in on time; were rarely tardy; sat in the front of the class; wrote legibly; and jumped at the chance to do extra-credit assignments.But after poring over four years of data comparing semester grades with end-of-the-year test scores on state subject exams, the teachers at Ellis began to question whether they really knew who th e smartest students were. About 10 percent of the students who earned A’s and B’s in school stumbled during end-of-the-year exams. By contrast, about 10 percent of students who scraped along with C’s, D’s and even F’s — students who turned in homework late, never raised their hands and generally seemed turned off by school — did better than their eager-to-please B+ classmates.Some of the discrepancy between grades and test scores could be explained by test anxiety —that some students have trouble showing what they know in a standardized, timed environment. And some teachers simply may have done a poor job teaching what the standardized exam tested. But Austin’s school superintendent, David Krenz, and the principal at Ellis, Katie Berglund, said the disconnection between semester grades and end-of-the-year exams was too large and persistent to be the result of such factors.“Over time, we began to realize that many teachers had been grading kids for compliance —not for mastering the course materia l,” Ms. Berglund said. “A portion of our A and B students were not the ones who were gaining the most knowledge but the ones who had learned to do school the best.”Last fall, over protests from parents of some of the above-average students, the teachers at Ellis tried a new, standards-based grading system.As test scores fast become the single and most powerful measurement by which educational outcomes are being judged, more schools might find themselves engaged in what has become a pivotal debate: Should students be rewarded for being friendly, prepared, compliant, a good school citizen, well organized and hard-working? Or should good grades represent exclusively a student’s mastery of the material?When parents of students at Ellis Middle S chool look over their children’s report cards, they will find a so-called “knowledge grade,” which will be calculated by averaging the scores on end-of-unit tests. Homework is now considered practice for tests. Assignments that are half done, handed in lat e or missing all together will be noted, but will not hurt a student’s grade. Nor will showing up late for class, forgetting to bring your pencil, failing to raise your hand before shouting out an answer or forgetting to bring in a permission slip for the class trip — infractions that had previously caused Ellis students’ grades to suffer.Some parents welcome the change, for it provides grounds for equality. Their grades are more accurately reflecting their knowledge. While some other parents protest against the new policy, saying that the fact that daily homework, even when it is handed in late, accounts for only 10 percent of the grade, encourages laziness. Though they admit the old system did reward compliance, they consider revamping the policy in a way that could be of detriment to the kids who do well is not the answer. In the real world, they believe, attitude counts.16. Which of the following is NOT a merit of the so-called top students according to teachers atEllis Middle School?A. Being eager to get the extra credit.B. Being self-motivated for extra-curriculum activities.C. Being cooperative in finishing the assignments.D. Being very attentive in class.17. What did the teachers at Ellis find out after looking over four years of data?A. Usually students’ performance in class is consistent with their test scores.B. There is a big discrepancy between grades and test scores.C. Average students did even better in final exams than those so-called top students.D. The students were so naughty that they were playing tricks on their teachers.18. In the second paragraph, the author makes comparisons between two groups of students to illustrate ____.A. students who earned A’s and B’s in school actually are worse than students who got C’s or D’s or E’sB. some of the discrepancy between grades and test scores could be explained by test anxietyC. some A and B students were not the ones who were gaining the most knowledge but the ones who had learned to do school the bestD. the standard of evaluating the student’s ability is worth rethinking19. The new grading system includes all the following aspects EXCEPT that ____.A. assignment only works as a reference material to a student’s gradeB. being late for class would not cause students’ loss of scoresC. the good cultivated manners at class would be taken into considerationD. the knowledge score will be calculated by averaging the scores on end-of-unit tests20. According to the passage, why are some parents NOT in favor of the new school policy?A. Because they think the new system rewards compliance.B. Because they think the new policy is not effective in encouraging students to study.C. Because they think the new policy doesn’t take the students’ attitude towards study into account.D. Because they think the new policy is not fair to those who get high semester grades.1. 参考答案:CTIP:要求根据文章内容推断作者的意图。

专四阅读真题test 1

专四阅读真题test 1

T est OneText AImagine that the world consists of 20 men and 20 women, all of them heterosexual and in search of a mate. Since the numbers are even, everyone can find a partner. But what happens if you take away one man? Y ou might not think this would make much difference. Y ou would be wrong, argues Tim Harford, a British economist, in a book called “The Logic of Life”. With 20 women pursuing 19 men, one woman faces the prospect of spinsterhood. So she ups her game. Perhaps she dresses more seductively. Perhaps she makes an extra effort to be obliging. Somehow or other, she “steals” a man from one of her fellow women. That newly single woman then ups her game, too, to steal a man from someone else. A chain reaction ensues.Real life is more complicated, of course, but this simple model illustrates an important truth. In the marriage market, numbers matter. And among African-Americans, the difference is much worse than in Mr Harford‟s imaginary example. Between the ages of 20 and 29, one black man in nine is behind bars. For black women of the same age, the figure is about one in 150. For obvious reasons, convicts are excluded from the dating pool.Removing so many men from the marriage market has profound consequences. As imprisonment rates exploded between 1970 and 2007, the proportion of US-born black women aged 30-44 who were married plunged from 62% to 33%. Why this happened is complex and furiously debated. The era of mass imprisonment began as traditional mores were already crumbling, following the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the invention of the contraceptive pill. It also coincided with greater opportunities for women in the workplace. These factors must surely have had something to do with the decline of marriage.But jail is a big part of the problem, argue Kerwin Kofi Charles, now at the University of Chicago. They divided America up into geographical and racial “marriage markets”, to take account of the fact that most people marry someone of the same race who lives relatively close to them. Then, after crunching the census numbers, they found that a one percentage point increase in the male imprisonment rate was associated with a 2.4-point reduction in the proportion of women who ever marry. Could it be, however, that mass imprisonment is a symptom of increasing social malfunction, and that it was this social malfunction that caused marriage to wither? Probably not. For similar crimes, America imposes much harsher penalties than other rich countries. Mr Charles and Mr Luoh controlled for crime rates, as a substitution for social mal function, and found that it made no difference to their results. They concluded that “higher male imprisonment has lowered the likelihood that women marry…and caused a shift in the gains from marriage away from wome n and towards men.”81.The word “ensues” in Paragraph One probably meansA.results in something.B.happens after something.C.seems to be welcom.D.is interrupted temporarily.82.We can infer from the passage thatA.Most of the crimes are committed by blacks in America.B.The crime rate of black men is gradually decreasing in America.C.Black men committed more serious crimes than women in America.D.The crime rates of black men and women are different in America.83.Which of the following does NOT result in the decline of marriage of black women?A.The increasing number of career women.B.A movement that changed people‟s attitude.C.The utility of new equipment and apparatuses.D.The breakdown of the traditional morality.84.In terms of marriage, most people tend toA.get married after careful considerationB.be attracted by someone living in an alien land.C.be well-matched in social and economic statuses.D.marry one living in similar environmental conditions.85.Mr. Charles and Mr. Luoh‟s research shows that as to marriage,A.women will suffer more from hardship than men do.B.crime rates and social malfunction are of equal importance.C.male imprisonment plays a decisive role in women‟s marriage.D.social malfunction can be replaced by crime rates easily.Text B[1]In 1945, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the price—five dollars—was far beyond Reuben Earle's means.[2]Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle made through fishing in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, Canada. Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children.[3]Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed-out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, "But I don't have the money right now. Can you please hold it for me for some time?"[4]"I'll try," the shopkeeper smiled. "Folks around here don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while."[5]Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the sunlight with the bay rippling in a freshening wind. There was purpose in his loping stride. He would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody.[6]Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.[7]He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in Hessian sacks from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of building, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece.[8]That day he found two sacks, which he took to the rambling wooden factory and sold to the man in charge of packing nails.[9]The boy's hand tightly clutched the five-cent pieces as he ran the two kilometers home.[10]Near his house stood the ancient barn that housed the family's goats and chickens. Reuben found a rusty soda tin and dropped his coins inside. Then he climbed into the loft of the barn and hid the tin beneath a pile of sweet smelling hay.[11]It was dinner time when Reuben got home. His father sat at the big kitchen table, working on a fishing net. Dora was at the kitchen stove, ready to serve dinner as Reuben took his place at the table.[12]He looked at his mother and smiled. Sunlight from the window gilded her shoulder-length blonde hair. Slim and beautiful, she was the center of the home, the glue that held it together.[13]Her chores were never-ending. Sewing clothes for her family on the old Singer treadle machine, cooking meals and baking bread, planting and tending a vegetable garden, milking the goats and scrubbing soiled clothes on a washboard. But she was happy. Her family and their well-being were her highest priority.[14]Every day after chores and school, Reuben scoured the town, collecting the hessian nail bags. All summer long, despite chores at home weeding and watering the garden, cutting wood and fetching water—Reuben kept to his secret task.[15]Often he was cold, tired and hungry, but the thought of the object in the shop window sustained him. Sometimes his mother would ask: "Reuben, where were you? We were waiting for you to have dinner."[16]"Playing, Mum. Sorry."[17]Dora would look at his face and shake her head. Boys.[18]Finally spring burst into glorious green and Reuben's spirits erupted. The time had come!86.We can conclude from the passage thatA.the family‟s life depended on Mark Earle.B.Reuben‟s mother worked part-time.C.Reuben had five brothers and sisters.D.Dora was fed up with her life.87.Which of the following adjectives CANNOT describe Reuben?A.confident.B.sociable.C.arrogant.D.courteous.88.Which of the following statements is NOT true of Dora?A.She stayed in love.B.She wore long hair.C.She‟s content with life.D.She had a frail body.89.The word “scoured” in Paragraph 14 probably meansA.wandered aimlessly.B.searched carefully.C.went around.D.removed from90.“Boys” in the 17th paragraph implies thatA.Boys are not as quiet as girls.B.Boys love to have fun by nature.C.Boys are too naughty to be obedient.D.Boys are more adventurous than girls.Text CAs a fitness coach in Grand Rapids, Mich., Doreen Bolhuis has a passion for developingexercises for children. The younger, it seems, the better. “With the babies in our family,” she said, “I start working them out in the hospital.” Ms. Bolhuis turned her exercises into a company, Gymtrix, that offers a library of videos starting with training for babies as young as 6 months. There is no lying in the crib playing with toes.Infant athletes, accompanied by doting parents on the videos, do a lot of jumping, kicking and, in one exercise, something that looks like baseball batting practice.The growing competition in marketing baby sports DVDs includes companies with names like athleticBaby and Baby Goes Pro. Even experts in youth sports seem startled that the age of entry has dipped so low. “That‟s really amazing. What‟s next?” said Dr. Lyle Micheli, an orthopedic surgeon.Dr. Micheli said he did not see any great advantages in exposing babies to sports. “I don‟t know of any evidence that training at this infancy stage accelerates coordination,” he said. One of his concerns, he said, is “the potential for even younger ages of overuse injury.”The Little Gym, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., begins classes for children at 4 months old. Bob Bingham, the company‟s chief executive, said that about 20,000 youngsters under 2 —about a quarter of the total enrollment —were signed up for classes at locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. That is a sizable increase from last year, he said. The company, which has gyms in 20 countries, plans to open 100 locations over the next five years. My Gym, based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., said 55 percent of those who attend classes at its 200 locations — 157 in the United States — were 2 ½ or younger.The entrepreneurs behind these businesses —gym teachers, accountants and former professional athletes among them —make no claims about turning today‟s babies into tomorrow‟s Super Bowl star. In the past, marketing claims for products geared toward babies have caused trouble for companies. Disney, which owned the popular Baby Einstein brand, dropped the term “educational” after a children‟s-rights group objected to contentions that babies who watched “Baby Einstein” were learning. Disney also offere d refunds.That‟s not enough to sell Dr. Micheli on the idea of sports classes for tykes. Before rushing off to a day of treating injured athletes, he said, “We won‟t be putting their brochures in our clinic.”91.It can be inferred that babiesA.are not allowed to play with toes any more.B.are expected to do exercises as early as possible.C.are video-taped by parents as much as possible.D.are took good care of coaches in many gyms.92.Dr. Micheli‟s attitude towards baby sports is one ofA.disapproval.B.enthusiasm.C.curiosity.D.ambiguity.93.Parents start working babies early toA.go with the times.B.keep them fit and strong.C.train them to be athletes.D.accelerate their coordination.94.The businessmen for baby exercises are cautious about setting a goal becauseA.they will have been fined if they make any claims.B.it is hard for them to find a specific and feasible one.C.they have learned a lesson from previous experiences.D.they only attach importance to short-term development.95.The best title of the passage isA.Sports Training Has Begun for Babies and Toddlers.B.Sports Training Does Harm to Babies and Toddlers.C.Whether Should Babies Have Sports Training?D.What Training Should Babies and Toddlers Have?Text DA middle-aged couple sits in front of a TV set. He flicks idly through a magazine, she holds a drink. An advertisement for Marks & Spencer, a British retailer, comes on. It is a humdrum domestic scene, one that could have been captured at any point in the past 50 years.The husband and wife are playing back a programme that they have captured on a digital video recorder—something they do often. They do not need to watch advertisements. Indeed, they claim never to do so. Whenever an ad comes on during a recorded programme, the husband says in an interview, he zips through it at 30 times the normal speed.Just outside Brighton, on England‟s south coast, Sarah Pearson watches people watch television. She has almost 100,000 hours of video showing utterly banal scenes—people channel-surfing, fighting over the remote control and napping. Her findings are astonishing. There turns out to be an enormous gap between how people say they watch television and how they actually do. This gap contains clues to why television is so successful, and why so many attempts to transform it through technology have failed.In the past few years viewers have gained much more control over television. Video-cassette recorders have been replaced by DVD players and digital video recorders (DVRs), both of which are easier to use. Cable and satellite firms offer a growing number of videos on demand. TV has gone online and become mobile. As a result, viewers‟ expectations have changed dramatically. Katsuaki Suzuki of Fuji Television, Japan‟s biggest broadcaster, says nobody feels they need to be at home to catch the 9pm drama any more.But a change in expectations is not quite the same as a change in behaviour. Although it is easier than ever to watch programmes at a time and on a device of one‟s choosing, and people expect to be able to do so, nearly all TV is nonetheless watched live on a television set. Even in British homes with a Sky+ box, which allows for easy recording of programmes, almost 85% of television shows are viewed at the time the broadcasters see fit to air them.“People want to watch …Pop Idol‟ when everyone else is watching it,” says Mike Darcey of BSkyB. If that is not possible, they watch it as soon as they can afterwards. Some 60% of all shows recorded on Sky+ boxes are viewed within a day.96.According to the passage, the husband isA. a programmer.B.an interviewee.C. a producer.D.an employee.97.When watching TV, people do all the following EXCEPTA.switching channels.B.arguing over trifles.C.dozing off.D.seizing something.98.We can infer that what the husband and wife claim is notA.matter-of-fact.B.well-grounded.C.reasonable.D.feasible.99.Viewer‟s expectations of TV programs have changed due toA.the advancement of technology.B.the richness of recreational activities.C.the rapid spread of the Internet.D.the large quantity of programs.100.The passage aims to show usA.why people tend to change channels.B.how people really watch television.C.what people prefer to watch on TV.D.when people watch television.PART V READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]Text A短文大意本文围绕黑人女性结婚率逐年降低这一现象展开说明。

专四阅读真题及答案

专四阅读真题及答案

专四阅读真题及答案专四阅读真题及答案在学习和工作的日常里,我们经常跟试题打交道,借助试题可以对一个人进行全方位的考核。

什么样的.试题才是科学规范的试题呢?下面是店铺整理的专四阅读真题及答案,供大家参考借鉴,希望可以帮助到有需要的朋友。

In this section there are three passages followed by ten multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE(1)When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker's clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the details of stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I was content with the prospect. My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays, and I was accustomed to putting it in on a little sail-boat on the bay. One day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea. Just at nightfall, when hope was about gone, I was picked up by a small ship which was bound for London. It was a long and stormy voyage, and they made me work my passage without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped ashore in London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me twenty-four hours. During the next twenty-four I went without food and shelter.(2)About ten o'clock on the following morning, dirty and hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when a child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a big pear -minus one bite - into the gutter. I stopped, of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomach craved it, my whole being, begged for it. But every time I made a move to get it some passing eye detected my purpose, and of course I straightened up then, and looked indifferent and pretended that I hadn't been thinking about the pear at all. This same thing kept happening and happening, and I couldn't get the pear.(3)I was just getting desperate enough to brave all the shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised, and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying: "Step in here, please."(4)I was admitted by a man servant, and shown into a sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down. They had just finished their breakfast, and the sight of the remains of it almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep my wits together in the presence of that food, but as I was not asked to sample it,I had to bear my trouble as best as I could.(5)Now, something had been happening there a little before, which I did not know anything about until a good many days afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. Those two old brothers had been having a pretty hot argument a couple of days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet, which is the English way of settling everything.(6)You will remember that the Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to get to wonderingwhat might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in London without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to death; Brother B said he wouldn't. Brother A said he couldn't offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days, anyway, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to the Bank and bought that note. Then he dictated a letter, which one of his clerks wrote out in a beautiful round hand, and then the two brothers sat at the window a whole day watching for the right man to give it to. (7)I finally became the pick of them.41. In Para. 1, the phrase "set my feet" probably means___________. A. put me aside B. start my journey C. prepare me D. let me walk42. It can be concluded from Para. 2 that___________.A. the man wanted to maintain dignity though starvedB. the man could not get a proper chance to eat the pearC. the man did not really want the pear since it was dirtyD. it was very difficult for the man to get the pear43. Compared with Brother A, Brother B was more ___________ towards the effect of the one-million-pound bank-note on a total stranger. A. neutral B. negative C. reserved D. positive PASSAGE TWO(1)The concept of peace is a very important one in cultures all over the world. Think about how we greet people. In some languages, the phrases for greetings contain the word for peace. In some cultures we greet people by shaking hands or withanother gesture to show that we are not carrying weapons—that we come in peace. And there are certain symbols which people in very different cultures recognize as representing peace. Let's look at a few of them.The dove(2)The dove has been a symbol of peace and innocence for thousands of years in many different cultures. In ancient Greek mythology it was a symbol of love and the renewal of life. In ancient Japan a dove carrying a sword symbolized the end of war.(3)There was a tradition in Europe that if a dove flew arounda house where someone was dying then their soul would be at peace. And there are legends which say that the devil can turn himself into any bird except for a dove. In Christian art, the dove was used to symbolize the Holy Ghost and was often painted above Christ's head.(4)But it was Pablo Picasso who made the dove a modern symbol of peace when he used it on a poster for the World Peace Congress in 1949.The rainbow(5)The rainbow is another ancient and universal symbol, often representing the connection between human beings and their gods. In Greek mythology it was associated with Iris, the goddess who brought messages from the gods on Mount Olympus. In Scandinavian mythology the rainbow was a bridge between the gods and the earth. In the Bible a rainbow showed Noah that the Biblical flood was finally over, and that God had forgiven his people. In the Chinese tradition, the rainbow is a common symbol for marriage because the colours represent the union of yin and yang. Nowadays the rainbow is used by many popular movements for peace and the environment,representing the possibility of a better world in the future and promising sunshine after the rain.Mistletoe(6)This plant was sacred in many cultures, generally representing peace and love. Most people know of the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas time, which probably comes from Scandinavian mythology. The goddess Freya's son was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe, so, in honour of him, she declared that it would always be a symbol of peace. It was often hung in doorways as a sign of friendship.(7)The ancient Druids believed that hanging mistletoe in your doorway protected you from evil spirits. Tribes would stop fighting for a period of time if they found a tree with mistletoe. But you will never see mistletoe in a Christian church - it is banned because of its associations with pagan religion and superstition.The olive branch(8)The olive tree has always been a valuable source of food and oil. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena gave the olive tree to the people of Athens, who showed their gratitude by naming the city after her. But no one knows for sure when or why it began to symbolize peace. There is probably a connection with ancient Greece. Wars between states were suspended during the Olympic Games, and the winners were given crowns of olive branches. The symbolism may come from the fact that the olive tree takes a long time to produce fruit, so olives could only be cultivated successfully in long periods of peace. Whatever the history, the olive branch is a part of many modern flags symbolizing peace and unity. One well-known example is the United Nations symbol.The ankh(9)The ankh is an ancient symbol which was adopted by the hippie movement in the 1960s to represent peace and love. It was found in many Asian cultures, but is generally associated with ancient Egypt. It represented life and immortality. Egyptians were buried with an ankh, so that they could continue to live in the "afterworld". The symbol was also found along the sides of the Nile, which gave life to the people. They believed that the ankh could control the flow of the river and make sure that there was always enough water.44. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?A. Concept of Peace.B. Origin of Peace Symbols.C. Popular Peace Symbols.D. Cultural Difference of Peace.45. The rainbow represents the connection between human beings and their gods in all the following countriesEXCEPT___________. A. Sweden B. Greece C. Finland D. China46. In North Europe mistletoe was often hung in doorways to indicate___________. A. friendship B. love C. kinship D. honour47. The origin of the ankh can date back to___________. A. the Nile B. the "afterworld" C. the hippie movement D. ancient Egypt PASSAGE THREE(1)Two sides almost never change: That you can manipulate people into self-sufficiency and that you can punish them into good citizenship.(2)The first manifests itself in our tireless search for the magical level at which welfare grants are big enough to meet basic needs but small enough to make low-paid work attractive. The second has us looking to the criminal justice system to cure behavior that is as much as anything the result of despair.(7)Not only can we never find the "perfect" punishment, oursearch for optimum penalties is complicated by our desire for fairness: to let the punishment fit the crime. The problem is that almost any punishment - even the disgrace of being charged with a crime - is sufficient to deter the middle class, while for members of the underclass, probation may be translated as "I beat it."(8)So how can you use the system - welfare or criminal justice - to produce the behavior we want? The answer, I suspect is: You can't.(9)We keep trying to use welfare and prison to change people - to make them think and behave the way we do - when the truth is the incentives work only for those who already think the way we do: who view today's action with an eye on the future.(10)We will take lowly work (if that is all that's available) because we believe we can make bad jobs work for us. We avoid crime not because we are better people but because we see getting caught as a future-wrecking disaster. We are guided by a belief that good things will happen for us in the future if we take proper care of the present. Even under the worst of circumstances, we believe we are in control of our lives.(11)And we have trouble understanding that not everybody believes as we believe. The welfare rolls, the prisons and the mean streets of our cities are full of people who have given up on their(3)The welfare example is well known. We don't want poor people to live in squalor or their children to be malnourished. But we also don't want to subsidize the indolence of people who are too lazy to work. The first impulse leads us to provide housing, food stamps, medical care and a cash stipend for families in need. The second gets us to think about "workforce".(4)We've been thinking about it for two reasons: the "nanny"problems of two high-ranking government officials (who hired undocumented foreigners as household helpers, presumably because they couldn't find Americans to do the work) and President Clinton's proposal to put a two-year limit on welfare.(5)Maybe something useful will come of Clinton's idea, but I'm not all that hopeful. It looks to me like one more example of trying to manipulate people into taking care of themselves.(6)On the criminal justice side, we hope to make punishment tough enough to discourage crime but not so tough as to clog our prisons with relatively minor offenders. Too short a sentence, we fear, will create contempt for the law. Too long a sentence will take up costly space better used for the violent and unremorseful.(7)Not only can we never find the "perfect" punishment, our search for optimum penalties is complicated by our desire for fairness: to let the punishment fit the crime. The problem is that almost any punishment - even the disgrace of being charged with a crime - is sufficient to deter the middle class, while for members of the underclass, probation may be translated as "I beat it."(8)So how can you use the system - welfare or criminal justice - to produce the behavior we want? The answer, I suspect is: You can't.(9)We keep trying to use welfare and prison to change people - to make them think and behave the way we do - when the truth is the incentives work only for those who already think the way we do: who view today's action with an eye on the future.(10)We will take lowly work (if that is all that's available) because we believe we can make bad jobs work for us. We avoid crime not because we are better people but because we see getting caught as a future-wrecking disaster. We are guided by a belief that good things will happen for us in the future if we takeproper care of the present. Even under the worst of circumstances, we believe we are in control of our lives.(11)And we have trouble understanding that not everybody believes as we believe. The welfare rolls, the prisons and the mean streets of our cities are full of people who have given up on their future. Without hope for the future, hard work at a low-paid job makes no sense. Working hard in school, or pleasing a boss, or avoiding pregnancy makes no sense. The deadly disease is hopelessness. The lawlessness and poverty are only the obvious symptoms.(12)I'm not advocating that we stop looking for incentives to move poor people toward self-sufficiency or that we stop punishing people for criminal behavior. There will always be some people who need help and some who deserve to be in jail.(13)All I'm saying is that the long-term answer both to welfare and the crime that plagues our communities is not to fine tune the welfare and criminal justice systems but to prevent our children from getting the disease of despair.(14)If we encourage our young people to believe in the future, and give them solid evidence for believing, we'll find both crime and poverty shrinking to manageable proportions.48. What is the author's attitude towards Clinton's proposal to welfare? A. Pessimistic. B. Optimistic. C. Suspicious. D. Sarcastic.49. It can be inferred from Para. 7 that optimum penalties are___________to the underclass. A. useless B. hopeless C. frightening D. humiliating50. Which of the following is the most appropriate title for the passage?A. Lawlessness and Poverty.B. Criminal Justice System.C. Welfare Grants.D. Disease of Despair.SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer the questions with NO more than TEN words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE51. In Para. 4, what does the man mean by saying "I had to bear my trouble"?52. What can be inferred from the last sentence of the passage?PASSAGE TWO53. Why does the UN use the olive branch in its symbol?PASSAGE THREE54. According to the author, what balance should we keep in welfare?55. What does the author mean by saying "Even under the worst of circumstances, we believe we are in control of our lives" (Para. 10)?参考答案PART V READING COMPREHENSION41-50: BADBD ADCBD51.Keep wits together in the presence of that food.52.The author was given the million-pound bank-note.53.It symbolizes peace and unity.54.Meeting basic needs and making low-paid work.55.Good things will happen by taking care of the present.。

专四阅读练习一

专四阅读练习一

专四阅读练习一TEXT AAll Sir William Jones wanted to do was to learn Sanskrit. While he was studying, however, he made a surprising discovery. This ancient language of India was amazingly similar to Latin and Greek. The Sanskrit word for "mother"—matar—was almost identical to the Latin word, mater. “Father” was pitar in Sanskrit, pater in Latin and Greek. The more he studied, the more similarities he found.How could this be? Thousands of miles and many natural barriers separated India and Europe. Still, Jones concluded, the similarities were too strong to be accidental. In 1786, he announced “No one could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source.”Since then, scholars have traced many languages to this “common source.”Today, these languages are called the Indo-European family. But where did this source originate? Language and geography provide the clues. European languages have similar words for the animals and trees of northern Europe, such as oak, willow, bear, and wolf. There are no common words for the animals and trees of southern Europe.To scholars, this suggests that the Indo-European languages began in north central Europe. In time, some northern Europeans set out toward the east, settling in Iran, India, and Pakistan. Others migrated westward toward southern and western Europe. The root language developed into dozens of different languages, but the family resemblances remain. The word for “three” is drei in German, tres in Spanish, tre in Albanian, and tri in Russian.Almost every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family, but there are exceptions. Hungarian and Finnish cling to other language families. High in the Pyrenees, the Basque people speak a language that has no known relatives. Perhaps the Basques were the original inhabitants of the region. Isolated by mountains, they may have been bypassed by the spread of Indo-European culture.81. What did Sir William Jones discover when he was learning Sanskrit?A. Sanskrit was very similar to some European languages.B. Sanskrit was an ancient language.C. The Sanskrit word for mother is the same as that in Latin.D. Latin and Greek were very similar.82. Which of the following statements is true about "the common source"?A. Jones found out the common source.B. All languages sprang from the common source.C. Only three languages sprang from the common source.D. Since 1786, scholars have traced many languages to the common source.83. Where did the common source originate?A. In southern Europe.B. In north-central Europe.C. In India.D. in Pakistan.84. What can be concluded from the passage?A. Jones first discovered the root language.B. The languages with the common source are called the Indo-European family.C. The root language developed into different languages as people migrated.D. Every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family.TEXT BYour first culture shock came after you left your home country and you needed to adjust to the United States, It is now important to learn cultural information about your company, so that you will fit in and perform successfully. The people who make up this environment have their own customs, habits and expectations of each new employee. Gathering information that is formal (policy) and informal (traditions) will help you learn the professional norms and become fully accepted.Policies are corporate documents describing procedures, rules, and standards that guide decision making and conduct. They are similar to official laws that govern a country. Some sources of such written company information include the annual report, product or service brochures, technical and procedural manual, employee directory and the company newsletter. Organizational traditions are usually unwritten hut common practices that have evolved over time. They set the tone and philosophy of the particular corporation, just as the customs of a country do. The best way to learn such information is to observe and talk with others such as your supervisor and co-workers.You can supplement ideas from formal introductory materials given you earlier. Explore with fellow employees those behaviors that may be tolerated but frowned upon. Ask your supervisor for feedback to avoid typical traps that could cause your co-workers to reject you as a professional. Keep this guide nearby, and refer to it often in private. Reviewing formal company procedures, handouts, written notes, ideas, comments from bosses and colleagues, together with materials in this handbook, will help you make a more healthy cultural adjustment.85. What is the purpose to learn cultural information?A. To know the U. S. A. better.B. To work better in the new environment.C. To make more money.D. To improve one's English.86. According to the passage, ___________ is not the policy's function.A. describing procedures, rules and standardsB. governing a countryC. helping to guide decision making and conductD. writing down the company's information87. ____________ is the best way to learn the organizational traditions.A. To read the policiesB. To study the philosophyC. To study a country's customsD. To observe and communicate with the colleagues and boss.88. How to make a more healthy cultural adjustment?A. Read this passage often.B. Discuss the organizational culture with your colleagues.C. Gather and review the formal and informal information in the corporation.D. Ask your boss for help.89. The passage is written to ___________.A. help readers to understand the organization's cultureB. explain the culture shockC. analyze the policies and traditionsD. help readers to work better with their supervisor and co-workersTEXT C“White hostility toward African Americans, and the resulting discrimination, have been fueled by a sense of threat. During slavery, many working-class whites, encouraged by slaveholders, feared the release of large numbers of blacks into the labor market and society in general. When northern industries used African Americans as strikebreakers in the first decades of this cent ury, white workers feared the loss of their jobs. Today, many white Americans fear “black violence”. Moreover, specific fears about the “costs” of welfare as well as the "taking" of jobs through affirmative action have added to the fear of black violence.These fears have translated into negative stereotypes of African Americans as a people who are prone to crime and violence, unwilling to work, and a drain on the white taxpayer through their welfare dependency. In turn, these stereotypes have been used to justify informal discrimination, to prevent the help to the urban poor, to be negligent in enforcing laws or policies prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers, and most important, to hesitate in making a serious effort at job creation for African Americans. The result is that African Americans‟ share of valued resources has not increased much over the last two decades, even as formal discrimination has been greatly lessened. This fact is used to further the negative belief that African Americans have "not taken advantage of their equal opportunities."90. According to the passage, how did the northern industries make use of African Americans in 1900s?A. Sent them to ask the strikers to go back to work.B. Made them work very hard.C. Employed them to threaten the white strikers.D. Released them into the labor market.91. What is the ill influence of these negative stereotypes?A. Giving help to the poor black.B. Justifying informal discrimination.C. Enforcing laws prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers.D. Creating opportunities of employment for the black.92. What can be inferred from "a drain on the white taxpayer" about the African Americans?A. They are unwilling to work.B. They never pay tax.C. They lack security.D. Their welfare depends on the white's tax.93. The author wrote the passage to tell us__________.A. African Americans pose a threat to the whites in employmentB. African Americans are dependent on the tax paid by the whitesC. African Americans are discriminated against because they are often on strikeD. the sense of threat intensifies the white's hospitality and discrimination against the African AmericansTEXT D“People thought of themselves as having rights from companies,” said Hoshua Free man, a labor historian at Columbia University. That sense of entitlement grew even stronger in the early decades after World War II and collective bargaining became the arena for arguing out wages, pensions, health insurance, vacations, hours and job security.That system is disappearing today. Career-long attachments to one employer, a notion born in the 1920's, are no longer the .norm. The new class-consciousness makes less distinction between workers and managers. Rights are relative, at best. An increasingly conservative electorate has reduced government's role in regulating the economy. Unions have lost influence and membership.What people do is try to cope, by themselves, said Ms. Skelly, of DYG. Self-employment is one solution, DYG's polls show, and that is a rising trend. "They try, on the job, to hide any weakness in their performance," she said. “They work longer hours and take work home, without letting the boss know, to give the impression that they can do difficult tasks quickly. There is nothin g like, …we are all in this together.‟ There is too much competition. People talk of their weakness to friends and spouses, but not to coworkers.”And many Americans feel in their hearts that the unemployment might be justified. “There is a sense among peo ple that we are inefficient and bloated,” Ms. Skelly said. “And until they feel that is no longer true, they are reluctant to criticize the forces that are cutting out the fat and the inefficiencies.”94. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that ___________.A. people do not enjoy their rights nowadaysB. people are more likely to change their jobs than they were in the 1920'sC. workers and managers share the same rights todayD. nowadays, people refuse to take part in the Union95. According to Ms Skelly, which of the following is true?A. People like to work overtime.B. People want to work at home.C. People want to impress the boss with their capability and efficiency.D. People need help from their families, for they cannot cope with difficult problems themselves.96. People hide their weakness from___________.A. their parentsB. their wives or husbandsC. their friendsD. their colleagues97. The main idea of the passage is___________.A. people thought of themselves as having rights from companiesB. people's sense of entitlement is not as strong as it used to beC. people work at homeD. people regard unemployment as usualTEXT EYou may not have thought of it just this way, but the letter you write is part of you, and expression of your personality. Therefore to write letters that are mere patterns of form is to present a colorless personality.Letters, by their very nature, are too individual to be standardized. A letter may be absolutely perfect according to the standards of good taste and good form; but unless it also expresses something of the writer's personality, it is not a good letter.In other words, don't be satisfied to write letters that are just correct and nothing more. Try to write letters that are correct for you... letters that are warm and alive with reflections of your own personality.And if this sounds like a platitude (陈词滥调), stop for a moment and think back over your recent correspondence. What was the most interesting letter you received? Was it a letter anyone could have written? Or was it a letter that instantly “came alive”as you read it—that brought the personality of the sender right into the room with you. as though you were face to face, listening instead of reading?The fault with too many letters, today as in the past—the reason so many letters are dull and lifeless, and often fail to accomplish the purpose for which they are written is simply this: They sound exactly like the letters everyone else writes. They are neither exciting to receive nor stimulating to read.98. What does the author mean by saying “the letter you write is part of you”?A. Writing letters plays an important part in your life.B. When you write letters, you should be careful about what to write.C. People can see your personality from the letters you write.D. You should write good letters.99. What does the author want to explain in the fourth paragraph?A. A good letter presents one's personality.B. His opinion is a platitude.C. Letter-writing is interesting.D. Talking face to face is a better way to communicate than writing letters.100. The best title for the passage is___________.A. Letter WritingB. Personality in Letter WritingC. To Write Interesting LettersD. To Write Correct Letters。

专业英语四级(文化类阅读理解)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语四级(文化类阅读理解)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语四级(文化类阅读理解)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析) 题型有: 5. READING COMPREHENSIONPART V READING COMPREHENSION (25 MIN)Directions: In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.Sometimes you have to travel very far to gain perspective on things in your own country. Recently, I taught a UNICEF-sponsored course in Malang, Indonesia, on educational innovation. My audience consisted of teachers, administrators, teacher trainers, and high-ranking officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Education. Unlike in the United States, the public school system in Indonesia, as in many other countries, is run by a centralized ministry. Not only does this government department develop the curriculum for schools, it also employs curriculum officers who write the textbooks for the curriculum areas. Thus, the powerful Indonesian Ministry of Education controls essentially all aspects of education in the country. During my presentation about schools that have sustained meaningful innovation in the United States, I noticed a rising buzz coming from the audience. The people’s expressions of concern and the emotion in their voices was clear, but it wasn’t until their questions were translated that I understood the reason for this agitation. Their comments went something like this: “Tell us, Steve, why your country is moving in the direction of more and more tests for your children? Our system has been doing that for years and we have decided to move to a freer, more creative process. We invite people like you to help us untangle ourselves from all of that testing and the centralized control that goes with it. What is going on in America anyway?”Maybe it was the heat of the equatorial climate; maybe it was my own temperature rising from anxiety. Whatever the source, I started to feel quite feverish, and it was at this point that the metaphor of the flu popped into my mind. I told my Indonesian colleagues that in the United States, we periodically fall victim to a kind of “educational flu.” When we are overtaken in the international education arena (in the recent Programme for International Student Assessment, the United States ranked 15th out of 32 countries surveyed), our politicians and educational administrators get feverish. They start to manufacture lots of standardized tests and devise very severe consequences for students and teachers when test results do not meet expectations. Like a rising fever, these steps are a clear indication that we are coming down with our educational flu. Brilliant or not, this analogy was enough to get me through that difficult point in my lecture. The next day, things got worse. Again, like one falling victim to the flu, I began to feel out of step with the rest of the world. I picked up a regional newspaper and found that Thailand was also moving away from a hierarchical system and standardized tests and toward a more creative education program for children. When I came home, I readthat a similar move is taking shape in China where inventiveness, not the traditional national test, is moving to center stage. Thus, I was confronted with a real paradox: Some of the Asian societies well known for rigid bureaucracies are looking for ways to break free, while my country, renowned for its creativity and supposedly child-centered approach to education, is busily sewing itself into a thick hide of conformity and control. Why are the different cultures moving in such opposite directions?1.It can be inferred from the passage that______.A.The author did not know much about the schools in the U.S.B.The author does not speak Indonesian.C.The author likes the Indonesian school system.D.The author teaches in universities only.正确答案:B解析:推理题。

专四英语阅读题

专四英语阅读题

专四英语阅读题专四英语阅读题下面是店铺给大家提供的.专业四级的英语阅读题及答案,欢迎大家参考练习!第一篇:What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art, or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child? There is no connection between their nervous systems. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry her blood. Any chemical change in the mother's blood will affect the child for better or worse. But we can not see how a looking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child.In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind of behavior. It is certain that no one inherits a knowledge of mathematics. It may be, however, that children inherit more or less of a rather general ability that we may call intelligence. If very intelligent children become deeply interested in mathematics, they will probably make a success of that study.As for musical ability, it may be that what is inherited is an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or the vocal organs connections between nerves and muscles that makeit comparatively easy to learn the movements a musician must execute, and particularly vigorous emotions. If these factors are all organized around music, the child may become a musician. The same factors, in other circumstance might be organized about some other center of interest. The rich emotional equipment might find expression in poetry. The capable fingers might develop skill in surgery. It is not the knowledge of music that is inherited, then nor even the love of it, but a certain bodily structure that makes it comparatively easy to acquire musical knowledge and skill. Whether that ability shall be directed toward music or some other undertaking may be decided entirely by forces in the environment in which a child grows up.1. Which of the following statements is not true?A. Some mothers try to influence their unborn children by studying art and other subjects during their pregnancy.B. It is utterly impossible for us to learn anything about prenatal development.C. The blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly.D. There are no connection between mother's nervous systems and her unborn child's.2. A mother will affect her unborn baby on the condition that ____.A. she is emotionally shockedB. she has a good knowledge of inheritanceC. she takes part in all kind of activitiesD. she sticks to studying3. According to the passage, a child may inherit____.A. everything from his motherB. a knowledge of mathematicsC. a rather general ability that we call intelligenceD. her mother's musical ability4. If a child inherits something from his mother, such as an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or of the vocal organs, he will ____.A. surely become musicianB. mostly become a poetC. possibly become a teacherD. become a musician on the condition that all these factors are organized around music5. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?A. Role of Inheritance.B. An Unborn Child.C. Function of instincts.D. Inherited T alents第二篇:The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become "better" people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don't go.But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don't fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other's experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Other find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out—often encouraged by college administrators.Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves—they are spoiled and they are expecting too much.But that is a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn't explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can't absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.Some adventuresome educators and watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn't make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things—may it is just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.1.According to the author, ___.A.people used to question the value of college education.B.people used to have full confidence in higher education.C.all high school graduates went to college.D.very few high school graduates chose to go to college.2.In the 2nd paragraph, "those who don't fit the pattern" refer to___.A.high school graduates who aren't suitable for collegeeducation.B.college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis.C.college students who aren't any better for their higher education.D.high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college.3.The dropout rate of college students seems to go up because___.A.young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college.B.many people are required to join the army.C.young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education.D.young people don't like the intense competition for admission to graduate school.4.According to the passage, the problems of college education partly originate in the fact that___.A.society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained graduates.B.High school graduates do not fit the pattern of college education.C.Too many students have to earn their own living.D.College administrators encourage students to drop out.5.In this passage the author argues that___.A.more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for high school graduates.B.College education is not enough if one wants to be successful.C.College education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and quick-learning people.D.Intelligent people may learn quicker if they don't go tocollege.>>>>>>参考答案<<<<<<第一篇:BACDA第二篇:BCCAA。

【免费下载】专四阅读练习一

【免费下载】专四阅读练习一

专四阅读练习一TEXT AAll Sir William Jones wanted to do was to learn Sanskrit. While he was studying, however, he made a surprising discovery. This ancient language of India was amazingly similar to Latin and Greek. The Sanskrit word for "mother"—matar—was almost identical to the Latin word, mater. “Father” was pitar in Sanskrit, pater in Latin and Greek. The more he studied, the more similarities he found.How could this be? Thousands of miles and many natural barriers separated India and Europe. Still, Jones concluded, the similarities were too strong to be accidental. In 1786, he announced “No one could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source.”Since then, scholars have traced many languages to this “common source.” Today, these languages are called the Indo-European family. But where did this source originate? Language and geography provide the clues. European languages have similar words for the animals and trees of northern Europe, such as oak, willow, bear, and wolf. There are no common words for the animals and trees of southern Europe.To scholars, this suggests that the Indo-European languages began in north central Europe. In time, some northern Europeans set out toward the east, settling in Iran, India, and Pakistan. Others migrated westward toward southern and western Europe. The root language developed into dozens of different languages, but the family resemblances remain. The word for “three” is drei in German, tres in Spanish, tre in Albanian, and tri in Russian.Almost every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family, but there are exceptions. Hungarian and Finnish cling to other language families. High in the Pyrenees, the Basque people speak a language that has no known relatives. Perhaps the Basques were the original inhabitants of the region. Isolated by mountains, they may have been bypassed by the spread of Indo-European culture.81. What did Sir William Jones discover when he was learning Sanskrit?A. Sanskrit was very similar to some European languages.B. Sanskrit was an ancient language.C. The Sanskrit word for mother is the same as that in Latin.D. Latin and Greek were very similar.82. Which of the following statements is true about "the common source"?A. Jones found out the common source.B. All languages sprang from the common source.C. Only three languages sprang from the common source.D. Since 1786, scholars have traced many languages to the common source.83. Where did the common source originate?A. In southern Europe.B. In north-central Europe.C. In India.D. in Pakistan.84. What can be concluded from the passage?A. Jones first discovered the root language.B. The languages with the common source are called the Indo-European family.C. The root language developed into different languages as people migrated.D. Every language in Europe is part of the Indo-European family.TEXT BYour first culture shock came after you left your home country and you needed to adjust to the United States, It is now important to learn cultural information about your company, so that you will fit in and perform successfully. The people who make up this environment have their own customs, habits and expectations of each new employee. Gathering information that is formal (policy) and informal (traditions) will help you learn the professional norms and become fully accepted.Policies are corporate documents describing procedures, rules, and standards that guide decision making and conduct. They are similar to official laws that govern a country. Some sources of such written company information include the annual report, product or service brochures, technical and procedural manual, employee directory and the company newsletter. Organizational traditions are usually unwritten hut common practices that have evolved over time. They set the tone and philosophy of the particular corporation, just as the customs of a country do. The best way to learn such information is to observe and talk with others such as your supervisor and co-workers.You can supplement ideas from formal introductory materials given you earlier. Explore with fellow employees those behaviors that may be tolerated but frowned upon. Ask your supervisor for feedback to avoid typical traps that could cause your co-workers to reject you as a professional. Keep this guide nearby, and refer to it often in private. Reviewing formal company procedures, handouts, written notes, ideas, comments from bosses and colleagues, together with materials in this handbook, will help you make a more healthy cultural adjustment.85. What is the purpose to learn cultural information?A. To know the U. S. A. better.B. To work better in the new environment.C. To make more money.D. To improve one's English.86. According to the passage, ___________ is not the policy's function.A. describing procedures, rules and standardsB. governing a countryC. helping to guide decision making and conductD. writing down the company's information87. ____________ is the best way to learn the organizational traditions.A. To read the policiesB. To study the philosophyC. To study a country's customsD. To observe and communicate with the colleagues and boss.88. How to make a more healthy cultural adjustment?A. Read this passage often.B. Discuss the organizational culture with your colleagues.C. Gather and review the formal and informal information in the corporation.D. Ask your boss for help.89. The passage is written to ___________.A. help readers to understand the organization's cultureB. explain the culture shockC. analyze the policies and traditionsD. help readers to work better with their supervisor and co-workersTEXT C“White hostility toward African Americans, and the resulting discrimination, have been fueled by a sense of threat. During slavery, many working-class whites, encouraged by slaveholders, feared the release of large numbers of blacks into the labor market and society in general. When northern industries used African Americans as strikebreakers in the first decades of this century, white workers feared the loss of their jobs. Today, many white Americans fear “black violence”. Moreover, specific fears about the “costs” of welfare as well as the "taking" of jobs through affirmative action have added to the fear of black violence.These fears have translated into negative stereotypes of African Americans as a people who are prone to crime and violence, unwilling to work, and a drain on the white taxpayer through their welfare dependency. In turn, these stereotypes have been used to justify informal discrimination, to prevent the help to the urban poor, to be negligent in enforcing laws or policies prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers, and most important, to hesitate in making a serious effort at job creation for African Americans. The result is that African Americans’ share of valued resources has not increased much over the last two decades, even as formal discrimination has been greatly lessened. This fact is used to further the negative belief that African Americans have "not taken advantage of their equal opportunities."90. According to the passage, how did the northern industries make use of African Americans in 1900s?A. Sent them to ask the strikers to go back to work.B. Made them work very hard.C. Employed them to threaten the white strikers.D. Released them into the labor market.91. What is the ill influence of these negative stereotypes?A. Giving help to the poor black.B. Justifying informal discrimination.C. Enforcing laws prohibiting discriminatory practices against black workers.D. Creating opportunities of employment for the black.92. What can be inferred from "a drain on the white taxpayer" about the African Americans?A. They are unwilling to work.B. They never pay tax.C. They lack security.D. Their welfare depends on the white's tax.93. The author wrote the passage to tell us__________.A. African Americans pose a threat to the whites in employmentB. African Americans are dependent on the tax paid by the whitesC. African Americans are discriminated against because they are often on strikeD. the sense of threat intensifies the white's hospitality and discrimination against the African AmericansTEXT D“People thought of themselves as having rights from companies,” said Hoshua Freeman, a labor historian at Columbia University. That sense of entitlement grew even stronger in the early decades after World War II and collective bargaining became the arena for arguing out wages, pensions, health insurance, vacations, hours and job security.That system is disappearing today. Career-long attachments to one employer, a notion born in the 1920's, are no longer the .norm. The new class-consciousness makes less distinction between workers and managers. Rights are relative, at best. An increasingly conservative electorate has reduced government's role in regulating the economy. Unions have lost influence and membership.What people do is try to cope, by themselves, said Ms. Skelly, of DYG. Self-employment is one solution, DYG's polls show, and that is a rising trend. "They try, on the job, to hide any weakness in their performance," she said. “They work longer hours and take work home, without letting the boss know, to give the impression that they can do difficult tasks quickly. There is nothing like, ‘we are all in this together.’ There is too much competition. People talk of their weakness to friends and spouses, but not to coworkers.”And many Americans feel in their hearts that the unemployment might be justified. “There is a sense among people that we are inefficient and bloated,” Ms. Skelly said. “And until they feel that is no longer true, they are reluctant to criticize the forces that are cutting out the fat and the inefficiencies.”94. It can be inferred from the second paragraph that ___________.A. people do not enjoy their rights nowadaysB. people are more likely to change their jobs than they were in the 1920'sC. workers and managers share the same rights todayD. nowadays, people refuse to take part in the Union95. According to Ms Skelly, which of the following is true?A. People like to work overtime.B. People want to work at home.C. People want to impress the boss with their capability and efficiency.D. People need help from their families, for they cannot cope with difficult problems themselves.96. People hide their weakness from___________.A. their parentsB. their wives or husbandsC. their friendsD. their colleagues97. The main idea of the passage is___________.A. people thought of themselves as having rights from companiesB. people's sense of entitlement is not as strong as it used to beC. people work at homeD. people regard unemployment as usualTEXT EYou may not have thought of it just this way, but the letter you write is part of you, and expression of your personality. Therefore to write letters that are mere patterns of form is to present a colorless personality.Letters, by their very nature, are too individual to be standardized. A letter may be absolutely perfect according to the standards of good taste and good form; but unless it also expresses something of the writer's personality, it is not a good letter.In other words, don't be satisfied to write letters that are just correct and nothing more. Try to write letters that are correct for you... letters that are warm and alive with reflections of your own personality.And if this sounds like a platitude (陈词滥调), stop for a moment and think back over your recent correspondence. What was the most interesting letter you received? Was it a letter anyone could have written? Or was it a letter that instantly “came alive” as you read it—that brought the personality of the sender right into the room with you. as though you were face to face, listening instead of reading?The fault with too many letters, today as in the past—the reason so many letters are dull and lifeless, and often fail to accomplish the purpose for which they are written is simply this: They sound exactly like the letters everyone else writes. They are neither exciting to receive nor stimulating to read.98. What does the author mean by saying “the letter you write is part of you”?A. Writing letters plays an important part in your life.B. When you write letters, you should be careful about what to write.C. People can see your personality from the letters you write.D. You should write good letters.99. What does the author want to explain in the fourth paragraph?A. A good letter presents one's personality.B. His opinion is a platitude.C. Letter-writing is interesting.D. Talking face to face is a better way to communicate than writing letters.100. The best title for the passage is___________.A. Letter WritingB. Personality in Letter WritingC. To Write Interesting LettersD. To Write Correct Letters。

专四阅读第一讲

专四阅读第一讲
Reading comprehension
OF TEM4
一叶落而知秋
一叶障目不见森林
Four styles of essay
• Narration: narrative writing is an account of an event or a series of events. typical narratives include stories, biographies, autobiographies, histories, and news reports. In narrative writing, the writer tries to answer the following questions: who? What? When? Where? It usually organizes its subject in the order of time.
Techniques
It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn't know enough to really care. My older brother and I lived with Mom in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses' hoofs from "Wagon Train" or " Cheyenne" , and laughter from " I Love Lucy" or " Mister Ed". After supper, we'd sprawl on Mom's bed and stare for hours at the tube. But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But she was much brighter and smarter than we boys knew at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned—books. So she came home one day , snapped off the TV , sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. " You boys are going to read two books every week , " she said. "And you're going to write me a report on what you read. "

专业英语四级(阅读)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语四级(阅读)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)

专业英语四级(阅读)模拟试卷1(题后含答案及解析)题型有:1.4 million children out of the picture altogether. Equally worryingly, the consultation insists that any new poverty measure must resonate with the public. The latest British Social Attitudes survey shows just how widespread negative views of vulnerable groups in society are, but also makes clear that much of this shift in public opinion has been caused by current and previous government policies. So, should we expect better measures of child poverty as a result of the consultation? Not better for the children growing up in low-income families for sure. And given the broader costs to society of child poverty, not better for anyone else—except, perhaps, a government that we suspect may be trying to avoid being held to account.1.What will NOT lead vulnerable families to poverty according to the first paragraph?A.Sharp decline in tax credits.B.A three-year freeze in child benefit.C.Increasing unemployment benefits.D.The adoption of RPI instead of CPI.正确答案:D解析:细节题。

2023年专四阅读一

2023年专四阅读一

PART V READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.Mark your answers on Answer Sheet Two.TEXT AInundated by more information than we can possibly hold in our heads, we're increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones. Google is even reportedly working on eyeglasses that could one day recognize faces and supply details about whoever you're looking at. But new research shows that outsourcing our memory —and expecting that information will be continually and instantaneously available — is changing our cognitive habits.Research conducted by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University, has identified three new realities about how we process information in the Internet age. First, her experiments showed that when we don't know the answer to a question, we now think about where we can find the nearest Web connection instead of the subject of the question itself. A second revelation is that when we expect to be able to find information again later on, we don't remember it as well as when we think it might become unavailable. And then there is the researchers' final observation: the expectation that we'll be able to locate information down the line leads us to form a memory not of the fact itself but of where we'll be able to find it.But this handoff comes with a downside. Skills like critical thinking and analysis must develop in the context of facts: we need something to think and reason about, after all. And these facts can't be Googled as we go; they need to be stored in the original hard drive, our long-term memory. Especially in the case of children, "factual knowledge must precede skill," says Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology, at the University of Virginia — meaning that the days ofdrilling the multiplication table and memorizing the names of the Presidents aren't over quite yet. Adults, too, need to recruit a supply of stored knowledge in order to situate and evaluate new information they encounter. You can't Google context.Last, there's the possibility, increasingly terrifying to contemplate, that our machines will fail us. As Sparrow puts it, "The experience of losing our Internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend." If you're going to keep your memory on your smart phone, better make sure it's fully charged.81. Google's eyeglasses are supposed to ______A.improve our memoryB.function like memoryC.help us see faces betterD.work like smart phones82. According to the passage, "cognitive habits" refers to ______A.how we deal with informationB.functions of human memoryC.the amount of informationD.the availability of information83. Which of the following statements about Sparrow's research is CORRECT?A.We remember people and things as much as before.B.We remember more Internet connections than before.C.We pay equal attention to location and content of information.D.We tend to remember location rather than the core of facts.84. What does the author mean by "context" ?A.It refers to long-term memory.B.It refers to a new situation.C.It refers to a store of knowledge.D.It refers to the search engine.85. What is the implied message of the author?A.Web connections aid our memory.B.People differ in what to remember.C.People need to exercise their memory.D.People keep memory on smart phones.TEXTBI was a second-year medical student at the university, and was on my second day of rounds ata nearby hospital. My university's philosophy was to get students seeing patients early in their education. Nice idea, but it overlooked one detail: second-year students know next to nothing about medicine.Assigned to my team that day was an attending — a senior faculty member who was there mostly to make patients feel they weren't in the hands of amateurs. Many attendings were researchers who didn't have much recent hospital experience. Mine was actually an arthritis specialist. Also along was a resident (the real boss, with a staggering mastery of medicine, at least to a rookie like myself). In addition, there were two interns (住院实现医生). These guys were just as green as I was, but in a scarier way: they had recently graduated from the medical school, so they were technically MDs.I began the day at 6:30am. An intern and I did a quick check of our eight patients; later, wewere to present our findings to the resident and then to the attending. I had three patients and the intern had the other five — piece of cake.But when I arrived in the room of 71-year-old Mr. Adams, he was sitting up in bed, sweating heavily and panting(喘着). He'd just had a hip operation and looked terrible. I listened to his lungs with my stethoscope, but they sounded clear. Next I checked the log of his vital signs and saw that his respiration and heart rate had been climbing, but his temperature was steady. It didn't seem like heart failure, nor did it appear to be pneumonia. So I asked Mr. Adams what he thought was going on."It's really hot in here, Doc," he replied.So I attributed his condition to the stuffy room and told him the rest of the team would return in a few hours. He smiled and feebly waved goodbye.At 8:40 am., during our team meeting, "Code Blue Room 307!" blared from the loudspeaker.I froze.That was Mr. Adams's room.When we arrived, he was motionless.The autopsy (尸体解剖) later found Mr. Adams had suffered a massive pulmonary embolism (肺部栓塞). A blood clot had formed in his leg, worked its way to his lungs, and cut his breathing capacity in half. His symptoms had been textbook: heavy perspiration and shortness of breath despite clear lungs. The only thing was: I hadn't read that chapter in the textbook yet. And I was too scared, insecure, and proud to ask a real doctor for help.This mistake has haunted me for nearly 30 years, but what's particularly frustrating is that the same medical education system persists. Who knows how many people have died or suffered harm at the hands of students as naïve as I, and how many more will?86. Why was the author doing rounds in a hospital?A.He himself wanted to have practice.B.Students of all majors had to do so.C.It was part of his medical training.D.He was on a research team.87. We learn that the author's team members had ______A.some professional deficiencyB.much practical experienceC.adequate knowledgeD.long been working there88. While the author was examining Mr. Adams, all the following symptoms caught hisattention EXCEPT _____ .A.steady temperatureB.faster heart rateC.breathing problemD. moving difficulty89. "His symptoms had been textbook" means that his symptoms were ______ .A.part of the textbookB.explained in the textbookC.no longer in the textbookD.recently included in the textbook90. At the end of the passage, the author expresses _______ about the medical education system.A.optimismB.hesitationC.supportD.concernTEXT CThe war on smoking, now five decades old and counting, is one of the nation's greatest public health success stories — but not for everyone.As a whole, the country has made amazing progress. In 1964, four in ten adults in the US smoked; today fewer than two in ten do. But some states —Kentucky, South Dakota and Alabama, to name just a few — seem to have missed the message that smoking is deadly.Their failure is the greatest disappointment in an effort to save lives that was started on Jan. 11, 1964, by the first Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health. Its finding that smoking is a cause of lung cancer and other diseases was major news then. The hazards of smoking were just starting to emerge.The report led to cigarette warning labels, a ban on TV ads and eventually an anti-smoking movement that shifted the nation's attitude on smoking. Then, smokers were cool. Today, many are outcasts, rejected by restaurants, bars, public buildings and even their own workplaces. Millions of lives have been saved.The formula for success is no longer guesswork: Adopt tough warning labels, air public service ads, fund smoking cessation programs and impose smoke-free laws. But the surest way to prevent smoking, particularly among price-sensitive teens, is to raise taxes. If you can stop them from smoking, you've won the war. Few people start smoking after turning 19.The real-life evidence of taxing power is powerful. The 10 states with the lowest adult smoking rates slap an average tax of $2.42 on every pack — three times the average tax in the states with the highest smoking rates.New York has the highest cigarette tax in the country, at $4.35 per pack, and just 12 percent of teens smoke —far below the national average of 18 percent. Compare that with Kentucky, where taxes are low (60 cents), smoking restrictions are weak and the teen smoking rate is double New York's. Other low-tax states have similarly dismal records.Enemies of high tobacco taxes cling to the tired argument that they fall disproportionately on the poor. True, but so do the deadly effects of smoking — far worse than a tax. The effect of the taxes is amplified further when the revenue is used to fund initiatives that help smokers quit or persuade teens not to start.Anti-smoking forces have plenty to celebrate this week, having helped avoid 8 million premature deaths in the past 50 years. But as long as 3,000 adolescents and teens take their first puff each day, the war is not won.91. What does "counting" mean in the context?A.Including.B.Calculating.C.Relying on.D.Continuing.92. According to the context, "Their failure" refers to _______ .A.those adults who continue to smokeB.those states that missed the messageC.findings of the reportD.hazards of smoking93. The following are all efforts that led to the change of attitude on smoking EXCEPT _____ .A.cigarette warning labelsB.rejection by the publicC.anti-smoking campaignsD.anti-smoking legislation94. According to the author, raising tax on cigarettes ______ .A.is unfair to the poorB.is an effective measureC.increases public revenueD.fails to solve the problem95. What is the passage mainly about?A.How to stage anti-smoking campaigns.B.The effects of the report on smoking and health.C.The efforts to cut down on teenage smoking.D.Tax as the surest path to cut smoking.TEXT DAttachment Parenting is not Indulgent Parenting. Attachment parents do not "spoil" their children. Spoiling is done when a child is given everything that they want regardless of what they need and regardless of what is practical. Indulgent parents give toys for tantrums (发脾气), ice cream for breakfast. Attachment parents don't give their children everything that they want, they give their children everything that they need. Attachment parents believe that love and comfort arefree and necessary. Not sweets or toys.Attachment Parenting is not "afraid of tears" parenting. Our kids cry. The difference is that we understand that tantrums and tears come from emotions and not manipulation. And our children understand this too. They cry and have tantrums sometimes, of course. But they do this because their emotions are so overwhelming that they need to get it out. They do not expect to be "rewarded" for their strong negative emotions; they simply expect that we will listen. We pick up our babies when they cry, and we respond to the tears of our older children because we believe firmly that comfort is free, love is free, and that when a child has need for comfort and love, it is our job to provide those things. We are not afraid of tears. We don't avoid them. We hold our children through them and teach them that when they are hurt or frustrated we are here to comfort them and help them work through their emotions.Attachment Parenting is not Clingy Parenting. I do not cling to my children. In fact, I'm pretty free-range. As soon as they can move they usually move away from me and let me set up a chase as they crawl, run, skip and hop on their merry way to explore the world. Sure, I carry them and hug them and chase them and kiss them and rock them and sleep with them. But this is not me following them everywhere and pulling them back to me. This is me being a home base. The "attachment" comes from their being allowed to attach to us, not from us attaching to them like parental leeches.Attachment Parenting is not Selfish Parenting. It is also not selfless parenting. We are not doing it for us, and we are not doing it to torment ourselves.Attachment parenting is not Helicopter Parenting. I don't hover. I supervise. I follow, I teach, I demonstrate, I explain. I don't slap curious hands away. I show how to do things safely. I let my child do the things that my child wishes to do, first with help and then with supervision and finally with trust. I don't insist that my 23 month old hold my hand when we walk on the sidewalk because I know that I can recall him with my voice because he trusts me to allow him to explore and he trusts me to explain when something is dangerous and to help him satisfy hiscuriosities safely.Most of the negative things that I hear about "attachment parents" are completely off-base and describe something that is entirely unlike Attachment Parenting. Attachment Parenting is child-centric and focuses on the needs of the child. Children need structure, rules, and boundaries. Attachment Parents simply believe that the child and the parent are allies, not adversaries. And that children are taught, not trained.96. What makes attachment parents different from indulgent parents is that they ______A.show more love to their childrenB.think love is more importantC.prefer both love and toys in parentingD.dislike ice cream or sweets97. According to the author, what should parents do when their kids cry?A.Rewarding kids with toys.B.Trying to stop kids crying.C.Holding them till they stop.D.Providing comfort and love.98. What does "free-range" mean according to the passage?A.Willing to give kids freedom of movement.B.Ready to play games with my kids.C.Curious to watch what games they play.D.Fond of providing a home base.99. Which of the following is NOT attachment parenting?A.Fostering their curiosity.B. Helping them do the right thing.C.Showing them how things are done.D.Standing by and protecting. 100. What does the passage mainly discuss?A.How to foster love in children.B.Different types of parenting.C.How to build child confidence.D.Parent-child relationships.Section B Short-answer questionsText A1.What does the author mean by "context" ?2.What is the implied message of the author?Text B3.Why was the author doing rounds in a hospital?TEXT C4. What does "counting" mean in the context?Text D5. What does the passage mainly discuss?。

专四英语阅读练习含答案

专四英语阅读练习含答案

专四英语阅读练习含答案(一)People have been painting pictures for at least30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted bypeople who hunted animals. They used to paintpictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill.Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls ofcaves in France and Spain. No one knows why theywere painted there. Perhaps the painters thoughtthat their pictures would help them to catch theseanimals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell st ories in pictures.About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use picturesas kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also torepresent the sounds of their language. Th.The Egyptians used to re signs these people used became a kindof alphabet ecord information and to tell stories by putting picture writingand pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life werepainted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of the stories. It has been said that Egypt is strip se pictures arelike modern comic.But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic p the home of the comic strip ower. So they did not try to make their way ofwriting simple. The ordinary pe it.understand ople could not By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea haddeveloped a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and therewere fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter,represented only one sound in their langua alp ge. The Greeks developed this system and formedthe letters of the Greek isnow used all habet. The Romans copied the idea, and theRoman alphabetover the world.These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But westill need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find themeverywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, und and on the walls of the places where welive and work. Pictures help us toand remember things more easily, and they canmake a story much erstand more interesting.?1. Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spainbecause ?___ ___?.?.A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures?B. the painters were animal lovers?C. the painters wanted to show imagination?D. the pictures were thought to be helpful? was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the follo alphabet2. The Greek wing reasonsEXCEPT that ?______.A. the former was easy to write?B. there were fewer signs in the former?C. the former was easy to pronounce?D. each sign stood for only one sound?3. Which of the following statements is TRUE??.?A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet stories.?B. The Egyptians liked to write comic?strip was developed from the Egyptian one.?C. The Roman alphabet D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.?4. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ?______?.??comprehensible A. should be madeB. should be made interesting?C. are of much use in our life?D. have disappeared from our life参考答案:1. D) 根据文章第一段第五行“Perhaps the paintersthoughtthat their pictures would help them to catchthese animals.”可知古代人以为在墙上画画会对他们有所帮助,故选项D为正确答案。

2023英语专四考试精选阅读试题及答案

2023英语专四考试精选阅读试题及答案

2023英语专四考试精选阅读试题及答案2023英语专四考试精选阅读试题及答案Open up most fashion magazines and you will see incredibly thin models with impossible hair and wearing unreasonably expensive, impracticably styled clothes. But shouldn't clothes be fortably durable and make a principle of being simple for the individual who wears them? Why are we constantly told that we need to buy new clothes and add fresh pieces to our collection?Fashions change year after year so lots of people can make piles of money. If folks are convinced that they need a different look each season, that thisyear's sweater's length and shoes style are important, they can be persuaded to buy. The fashion industry would have you ignore your shortings and just make you feel beautiful and happy. In fact it is not only a phenomenon we can find in people's dressing.Fashion controls our lives. Fashion controls what we wear, what we eat, what we drink, the way we cut our hair, the makeup We buy and use, the color of the cars we drive. Fashion even controls our ideas.Where does fashion e from? Often the reasons are quite logical. Scientists and historians study the fashions of the past and discover the secrets of each fashion.When girls see an attractive guy, their blood pressure rises and their lips bee redder. That's why guys think that girls wearing lipstick are beautiful.Why do guys shave their heads? In the past soldiers shaved their heads to kill the insects that lived in their hair. Now guys shave their heads so that they look strong and masculine, like soldiers.And finally, fashion makes you feel good, doesn't it? When you are dressed in the latest style, dancing to the most fashionable music, after watching the latest hit film, you feel great, don't you?1. What's the author's viewpoint about the models and their hairstyles and clothes?A. Unbiased.B. Indifferent.C. Critical.D. Appreciative.2. It is indicated by the author that clothes should beA. fortable and durable.B. new and fresh.C. expensive and fashionable.D. simple and unique3. The fashion industry makes profits byA. selling the products at high prices.B. creating a need in you.C. helping you get rid of your shortings.D. making you look more beautiful.4. The author thinks what has been found about fashions by the scientists and the. historians isA. incredible.B. amazing.C. reasonable.D. creative.5. The passage mentions the advantages of fashion EXCEPT thatA. it can help promote technological development.B. it enables people to remain up-to-date.C. it can create more job opportunities for people.D. it can make people achieve a great feeling.【答案解析】1.[C]观点态度题。

专四阅读理解练习1-10

专四阅读理解练习1-10

专四阅读理解练习1As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe-sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with store rooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town.The people of the pueblos raised what are called"the three sisters" - corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain.The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou.The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents and tipis.1. What does the passage mainly discuss?A. The architecture of early American Indian buildings.B. The movement of American Indians across North America.C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians.D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America.2. It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were______.A. very smallB. highly advancedC. difficult to defendD. quickly constructed■答案■答案:1. D) 根据阅读短文可知,作者主要描述了北美地区不同印第安部落的不同的生活方式。

英语专业四级阅读1

英语专业四级阅读1

Text 1When television is good, nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without anything to distract you and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You see a procession of game shows, violence participation show, blood and thunder, murder, Westerns, gangsters, and cartoons. And endless commercial. And most of all, boredom. True, you will see a few things you enjoy. But they will be very, very few.Is there no room on television to teach, to inform, to uplift, to enlarge the capacities of our children? Is there no room for programs to deepen the children's understanding of children in other lands? Is there no room for a children's news show explaining something about the world for them at their level of understanding? Is there no room for the great literature of the past, the traditions of freedom? There are some fine children's shows, but they are drowned out by cartoons, violence, and more violence. Must these be your trademarks? Search your conscience and see whether you cannot offer more to children whose future you guard so many hours each day.There are many people in this country, and you must serve all of them. You are probably correct if you say that, given a choice between a Western and a symphony, more people will watch the Western. I like Western too--but a steady diet for the whole country is obviously not in the public interest. We all know that people would more often prefer to be entertained than stimulated or informed. But your obligations are not satisfied if you look only to popularity as a test of what to broadcast. You are not only in show business; you are free to communicate ideas as well as to give relaxation. You must provide a wide range of choices. It is not enough to satisfy the people's desires-you must also serve the nation's real needs. The people own the air. For every hour that the people give you-you owe them something. I intend to see that your debt is paid with interest.1.The attitude of the author in the passage is_____.A.expectationB. determinationC. rageD. despair2.The author seems to be addressing to________.A.parentsB. television producersC. television viewersD. government officials3.The author is, in effect, saying that________.A. the public, not the producers, should make decisions about TV programsB. all the children's shows are worthlessC. violence participation shows should be bannedD. TV producers share the public responsibility for programming4.Which of the following statement is true, according to the passage? producers try to do the right thing, but they fail.B.There are a lot of enjoyable TV programs at present.C.The viewers do not necessarily know what is good for them.D.It is right that popularity is the only test of what to broadcast.5.The author's main idea in the third paragraph is based on a contrast between___.A.ideas and desiresB. popularity and show businessC. stimulation and relaxationD. education and entertainment。

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PART V READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer.Mark your answers on Answer Sheet Two.TEXT AInundated by more information than we can possibly hold in our heads, we're increasingly handing off the job of remembering to search engines and smart phones. Google is even reportedly working on eyeglasses that could one day recognize faces and supply details about whoever you're looking at. But new research shows that outsourcing our memory —and expecting that information will be continually and instantaneously available — is changing our cognitive habits.Research conducted by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University, has identified three new realities about how we process information in the Internet age. First, her experiments showed that when we don't know the answer to a question, we now think about where we can find the nearest Web connection instead of the subject of the question itself. A second revelation is that when we expect to be able to find information again later on, we don't remember it as well as when we think it might become unavailable. And then there is the researchers' final observation: the expectation that we'll be able to locate information down the line leads us to form a memory not of the fact itself but of where we'll be able to find it.But this handoff comes with a downside. Skills like critical thinking and analysis must develop in the context of facts: we need something to think and reason about, after all. And these facts can't be Googled as we go; they need to be stored in the original hard drive, our long-term memory. Especially in the case of children, "factual knowledge must precede skill," says Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology, at the University of Virginia — meaning that the days of drilling the multiplication table and memorizing the names of the Presidents aren't over quite yet. Adults, too, need to recruit a supply of stored knowledge in order to situate and evaluate new information they encounter. You can't Google context.Last, there's the possibility, increasingly terrifying to contemplate, that our machines will fail us. As Sparrow puts it, "The experience of losing our Internet connection becomes more and more like losing a friend." If you're going to keep your memory on your smart phone, better make sure it's fully charged.81. Google's eyeglasses are supposed to ______A.improve our memoryB.function like memoryC.help us see faces betterD.work like smart phones82. According to the passage, "cognitive habits" refers to ______A.how we deal with informationB.functions of human memoryC.the amount of informationD.the availability of information83. Which of the following statements about Sparrow's research is CORRECT?A.We remember people and things as much as before.B.We remember more Internet connections than before.C.We pay equal attention to location and content of information.D.We tend to remember location rather than the core of facts.84. What does the author mean by "context" ?A.It refers to long-term memory.B.It refers to a new situation.C.It refers to a store of knowledge.D.It refers to the search engine.85. What is the implied message of the author?A.Web connections aid our memory.B.People differ in what to remember.C.People need to exercise their memory.D.People keep memory on smart phones.TEXTBI was a second-year medical student at the university, and was on my second day of rounds ata nearby hospital. My university's philosophy was to get students seeing patients early in their education. Nice idea, but it overlooked one detail: second-year students know next to nothing about medicine.Assigned to my team that day was an attending — a senior faculty member who was there mostly to make patients feel they weren't in the hands of amateurs. Many attendings were researchers who didn't have much recent hospital experience. Mine was actually an arthritis specialist. Also along was a resident (the real boss, with a staggering mastery of medicine, at least to a rookie like myself). In addition, there were two interns (住院实现医生). These guys were just as green as I was, but in a scarier way: they had recently graduated from the medical school, so they were technically MDs.I began the day at 6:30am. An intern and I did a quick check of our eight patients; later, we were to present our findings to the resident and then to the attending. I had three patients and the intern had the other five — piece of cake.But when I arrived in the room of 71-year-old Mr. Adams, he was sitting up in bed, sweating heavily and panting(喘着). He'd just had a hip operation and looked terrible. I listened to his lungs with my stethoscope, but they sounded clear. Next I checked the log of his vital signs and saw that his respiration and heart rate had been climbing, but his temperature was steady. It didn't seem like heart failure, nor did it appear to be pneumonia. So I asked Mr. Adams what he thought was goingon."It's really hot in here, Doc," he replied.So I attributed his condition to the stuffy room and told him the rest of the team would return in a few hours. He smiled and feebly waved goodbye.At 8:40 am., during our team meeting, "Code Blue Room 307!" blared from the loudspeaker.I froze.That was Mr. Adams's room.When we arrived, he was motionless.The autopsy (尸体解剖) later found Mr. Adams had suffered a massive pulmonary embolism (肺部栓塞). A blood clot had formed in his leg, worked its way to his lungs, and cut his breathing capacity in half. His symptoms had been textbook: heavy perspiration and shortness of breath despite clear lungs. The only thing was: I hadn't read that chapter in the textbook yet. And I was too scared, insecure, and proud to ask a real doctor for help.This mistake has haunted me for nearly 30 years, but what's particularly frustrating is that the same medical education system persists. Who knows how many people have died or suffered harm at the hands of students as naïve as I, and how many more will?86. Why was the author doing rounds in a hospital?A.He himself wanted to have practice.B.Students of all majors had to do so.C.It was part of his medical training.D.He was on a research team.87. We learn that the author's team members had ______A.some professional deficiencyB.much practical experienceC.adequate knowledgeD.long been working there88. While the author was examining Mr. Adams, all the following symptoms caught hisattention EXCEPT _____ .A.steady temperatureB.faster heart rateC.breathing problemD. moving difficulty89. "His symptoms had been textbook" means that his symptoms were ______ .A.part of the textbookB.explained in the textbookC.no longer in the textbookD.recently included in the textbook90. At the end of the passage, the author expresses _______ about the medical education system.A.optimismB.hesitationC.supportD.concernTEXT CThe war on smoking, now five decades old and counting, is one of the nation's greatest public health success stories — but not for everyone.As a whole, the country has made amazing progress. In 1964, four in ten adults in the US smoked; today fewer than two in ten do. But some states —Kentucky, South Dakota and Alabama, to name just a few — seem to have missed the message that smoking is deadly.Their failure is the greatest disappointment in an effort to save lives that was started on Jan. 11, 1964, by the first Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health. Its finding that smoking is a cause of lung cancer and other diseases was major news then. The hazards of smoking were just starting to emerge.The report led to cigarette warning labels, a ban on TV ads and eventually an anti-smoking movement that shifted the nation's attitude on smoking. Then, smokers were cool. Today, many are outcasts, rejected by restaurants, bars, public buildings and even their own workplaces. Millions of lives have been saved.The formula for success is no longer guesswork: Adopt tough warning labels, air public service ads, fund smoking cessation programs and impose smoke-free laws. But the surest way to prevent smoking, particularly among price-sensitive teens, is to raise taxes. If you can stop them from smoking, you've won the war. Few people start smoking after turning 19.The real-life evidence of taxing power is powerful. The 10 states with the lowest adult smoking rates slap an average tax of $2.42 on every pack — three times the average tax in the states with the highest smoking rates.New York has the highest cigarette tax in the country, at $4.35 per pack, and just 12 percent of teens smoke —far below the national average of 18 percent. Compare that with Kentucky, where taxes are low (60 cents), smoking restrictions are weak and the teen smoking rate is double New York's. Other low-tax states have similarly dismal records.Enemies of high tobacco taxes cling to the tired argument that they fall disproportionately on the poor. True, but so do the deadly effects of smoking — far worse than a tax. The effect of the taxes is amplified further when the revenue is used to fund initiatives that help smokers quit or persuade teens not to start.Anti-smoking forces have plenty to celebrate this week, having helped avoid 8 million premature deaths in the past 50 years. But as long as 3,000 adolescents and teens take their first puff each day, the war is not won.91. What does "counting" mean in the context?A.Including.B.Calculating.C.Relying on.D.Continuing.92. According to the context, "Their failure" refers to _______ .A.those adults who continue to smokeB.those states that missed the messageC.findings of the reportD.hazards of smoking93. The following are all efforts that led to the change of attitude on smoking EXCEPT _____ .A.cigarette warning labelsB.rejection by the publicC.anti-smoking campaignsD.anti-smoking legislation94. According to the author, raising tax on cigarettes ______ .A.is unfair to the poorB.is an effective measureC.increases public revenueD.fails to solve the problem95. What is the passage mainly about?A.How to stage anti-smoking campaigns.B.The effects of the report on smoking and health.C.The efforts to cut down on teenage smoking.D.Tax as the surest path to cut smoking.TEXT DAttachment Parenting is not Indulgent Parenting. Attachment parents do not "spoil" their children. Spoiling is done when a child is given everything that they want regardless of what they need and regardless of what is practical. Indulgent parents give toys for tantrums (发脾气), ice cream for breakfast. Attachment parents don't give their children everything that they want, they give their children everything that they need. Attachment parents believe that love and comfort are free and necessary. Not sweets or toys.Attachment Parenting is not "afraid of tears" parenting. Our kids cry. The difference is that we understand that tantrums and tears come from emotions and not manipulation. And our children understand this too. They cry and have tantrums sometimes, of course. But they do this because their emotions are so overwhelming that they need to get it out. They do not expect to be "rewarded" for their strong negative emotions; they simply expect that we will listen. We pick up our babies when they cry, and we respond to the tears of our older children because we believe firmly that comfort is free, love is free, and that when a child has need for comfort and love, it is our job to provide those things. We are not afraid of tears. We don't avoid them. We hold our children through them and teach them that when they are hurt or frustrated we are here to comfort them and help them work through their emotions.Attachment Parenting is not Clingy Parenting. I do not cling to my children. In fact, I'm pretty free-range. As soon as they can move they usually move away from me and let me set up a chase as they crawl, run, skip and hop on their merry way to explore the world. Sure, I carry them and hug them and chase them and kiss them and rock them and sleep with them. But this is not mefollowing them everywhere and pulling them back to me. This is me being a home base. The "attachment" comes from their being allowed to attach to us, not from us attaching to them like parental leeches.Attachment Parenting is not Selfish Parenting. It is also not selfless parenting. We are not doing it for us, and we are not doing it to torment ourselves.Attachment parenting is not Helicopter Parenting. I don't hover. I supervise. I follow, I teach, I demonstrate, I explain. I don't slap curious hands away. I show how to do things safely. I let my child do the things that my child wishes to do, first with help and then with supervision and finally with trust. I don't insist that my 23 month old hold my hand when we walk on the sidewalk because I know that I can recall him with my voice because he trusts me to allow him to explore and he trusts me to explain when something is dangerous and to help him satisfy his curiosities safely.Most of the negative things that I hear about "attachment parents" are completely off-base and describe something that is entirely unlike Attachment Parenting. Attachment Parenting is child-centric and focuses on the needs of the child. Children need structure, rules, and boundaries. Attachment Parents simply believe that the child and the parent are allies, not adversaries. And that children are taught, not trained.96. What makes attachment parents different from indulgent parents is that they ______A.show more love to their childrenB.think love is more importantC.prefer both love and toys in parentingD.dislike ice cream or sweets97. According to the author, what should parents do when their kids cry?A.Rewarding kids with toys.B.Trying to stop kids crying.C.Holding them till they stop.D.Providing comfort and love.98. What does "free-range" mean according to the passage?A.Willing to give kids freedom of movement.B.Ready to play games with my kids.C.Curious to watch what games they play.D.Fond of providing a home base.99. Which of the following is NOT attachment parenting?A.Fostering their curiosity.B. Helping them do the right thing.C.Showing them how things are done.D.Standing by and protecting.100. What does the passage mainly discuss?A.How to foster love in children.B.Different types of parenting.C.How to build child confidence.D.Parent-child relationships.Section B Short-answer questionsText A1.What does the author mean by "context" ?2.What is the implied message of the author?Text B3.Why was the author doing rounds in a hospital?TEXT C4. What does "counting" mean in the context?Text D5. What does the passage mainly discuss?。

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