四级阅读理解与翻译

Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
Boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity (阳刚), the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to conform to a stereotype. a US study says.
Boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to conform to the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
The findings of the study so against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being faded by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys' learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study's author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around. "Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine (女性的) and prefer the modem genre (类型) in which violence and sexism are major themes, "James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to conform to a stereotype that men should be "masterful and in charge" in relationships. "In mixed schools boys feel compelled to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means, " the study reported.
57. The author believes that a single-sex school would ____ .
A) force boys to hide their emotions to be "real men"
B) help to cultivate masculine aggressiveness in boys
C) encourage boys to express their emotions more freely
D) naturally reinforce in boys the traditional image of a man
58. It is commonly believed that in a mixed school boys _____ .
A) Perform relatively better
C) behave more responsibly
B) grow up more healthily
D) receive a better education
59. What does Tony Little say about the British education system?
A) It fails more boys than girls academically.
B) It focuses more on mixed school education.
C) It fails to give boys the attention they need.
D) It places more pressure on boys than on girls.
60. According to Abigail James, one of the advantages of single-sex schools is ____.
A) teaching can be tailored to suit the characteristics of boys
B) boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted
C) boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in
D) teaching can be designed to promote boys' team spirit
61. Which of the following is characteristic of boys according to Abigail James' report
A) They enjoy being in charge.
C) They have sharper vision.
B) They conform to stereotypes.
D) They are violent and sexist
Passage Two Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking? Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation. In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking.
62. What do we learn from the first paragraph about the self-help industry?
A) It is a highly profitable industry.
B) It is based on the concept of positive thinking.
C) It was established by Norman Vincent Peale.
D) It has yielded positive results.
63. What is the finding of the Canadian researchers?
A) Encouraging positive thinking many do more harm than good.
B) There can be no simple therapy for psychological problems.
C) Unhappy people cannot think positively.
D) The power of positive thinking is limited.
64. What does the author mean by "… you're just underlining his faults" (Line 4, Para.
3)?
A) You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough.
B) You are pointing out the errors he has committed.
C) You are emphasizing the fact that he is not intelligent.
D) You are trying to make him feel better about his faults.
65. What do we learn from the experiment of Wood, Lee and Perunovic?
A) It is important for people to continually boost their self-esteem.
B) Self-affirmation can bring a positive change to one's mood.
C) Forcing a person to think positive thoughts may lower their self-esteem.
D) People with low self-esteem seldom write down their true feelings.
66. What do we learn from the last paragraph?
A) The effects of positive thinking vary from person to person.
B) Meditation may prove to be a good form of psychotherapy.
C) Different people tend to have different ways of thinking.
D) People can avoid making mistakes through meditation.
There are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens.They tell you it’s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you ma y be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that glorifies “the hit”.
By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.
On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close ups. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.
Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or bring the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman’s position.Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”
The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.
1. The passage is mainly concerned with ______.
A. the different tastes of people for sports
B. the different characteristics of sports
C. the attraction of football
D. the attraction of baseball
2. Those who don’t like baseball may complain that ______.
A. it is only to the taste of the old
B. it involves fewer players than football
C. it is not exciting enough
D. it is pretentious and looks funny
3. The author admits that ______.
A. baseball is too peaceful for the young
B. baseball may seem boring when watched on TV
C. football is more attracting than baseball
D. baseball is more interesting than football
4. By stating “I could have had my eyes closed. ” the author means (4th paragraph last sentence):
A. The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game.
B. Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no different to the result.
C. The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time and do his work well.
D. The consequent was too bad he could not bear to see it.
5. We can safely conclude that the author ______.
A. likes football
B. hates football
C. hates baseball
D. likes baseball
Among the more colorful characters of Leadville’s golden age were H.A.W.Tabor and his second wi fe, Elizabeth McCourt, better known as “Baby Doe”. Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. Horace Austin Warner Tabor was a school teacher in Vermont. With his first wife and two children he left Vermont by covered wagon in 1855 to homestead in Kansas. Perhaps he did not find farming to his liking, or perhaps he was lured by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. At any rate, a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. “Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here.” he said.
As it turned out, it was silver, not lead, that was to make Leadville’s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store, which sold everything from boots to salt, flour, and tobacco.It was his custom to “grubstake” prospective miners, in other words, to supply them with food and supplies, or“grub”, while they looked for ore, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered.He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value.
Finally one day in the year 1878, so the story goes, two miners came in and asked for “grub”. Tabor had decided to quit supplying it because he had lost too much money that way. These were persistent, however, and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. “Oh help yourself. One more time won’t make any difference,” He said and went on selling shoes and hats to other customers. The two miners took $17 worth of supplies, in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings. They picked a barren place on the mountain side and began to dig. After nine days they struck a rich vein of silver. Tabor bought the shares of the other two men, and so the mine belonged to him alone. This mine, known as the “Pittsburgh Mine,” made 1 300 000 for Tabor in return for his $17 investment.
Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for $117 000. This turned out to be even more fabulous than the Pittsburgh, yielding $35 000 worth of silver per day at one time. Leadville grew. Tabor became its first mayor, and later became lieutenant governor of the state.
1. Leadville got its name for the following reasons EXCEPT ______.
A. because Tabor became its leading citizen
B. because great deposits of lead is expected to be found there
C. because it could bring good fortune to Tabor
D. because it was renamed
2. The word “grubstake” in paragraph 2 means ______.
A. to supply miners with food and supplies
B. to open a general store
C. to do one’s contribution to the development of the mine
D. to supply miners with food and supplies and in return get a share in the mine, if one was discovered
3. Tabor made his first fortune ______.
A. by supplying two prospective miners and getting in return a one-third interest in the findings
B. because he was persuaded by the two miners to quit supplying
C. by buying the shares of the other
D. as a land speculator
4. The underlying reason for Tabor’s life career is ______.
A. purely accidental
B. based on the analysis of miner’s being very poor and their possibility of discovering profitable mining site
C. through the help from his second wife
D. he planned well and accomplished targets step by step
5. If this passage is the first part of an article ,who might be introduced in the following part?
A. Tabor’s life.
B. Tabor’s second wife, Elizabeth McCourt.
C. Other colorful characters.
D. Tabor’s other careers.
翻译：
过去的七年，中国的房地产(real estate)业经历了前所未有的高速增长。

对于那些月薪较低却渴望在大城市拥有一套属于自己的体面、舒适的栖身之所的人来说，高昂的房价是他们无法承受的负担。

鉴于这一状况，政府近来采取了一系列的措施来防止房价过快增长，包括提高利率及增加房产税等。

目前，这些措施在部分城市已经取得了初步的成效
如今，越来越多的大学生抱怨很难找到好工作。

造成这一现象的原因如下：首先，大学生把在校的大多数时间都用在了专业学科学习上，只有当他们开始找工作的时候，才意识到自己缺乏必要的职业培训。

其次，大学生之间的竞争也越来越激烈，这导致任何一名大学生找到工作的机会都变小了。

因此，强烈建议大学生在课余时间做一些兼职工作，以积累相关的工作经验。