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英语四级阅读理解

　大学生英语四级考试阅读练习题及答案 1

　　Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-mindedactions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses(差错)in a scientific report, hewas surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nordid the lapses appear to be entirely random(随机的).

　　One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures,"

　　Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing---an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest(荒谬可笑的).These aretwo hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m."Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain’ programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses----- 12.5 compared with 10.9 for men m probably because they were more reliable reporters.

　　A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse m even dangerous.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________

　　A. to keep track of people who tend too forget things

　　B. to report their embarrassing lapses at random

　　C. to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically

　　D. to keep a record of what they did unintentionally

　　2. Professor Smith discovered that ________

　　A. certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents

　　B. many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness

　　C. men tend to be more absent-minded than women

　　D. absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness

　　3. "Programme assembly failures" (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people ______

　　A. often fail to programme their routines beforehand

　　B. tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry

　　C. unconsciously change the sequence of doing things

　　D. are likely to mess things up if they are too tired

　　4. We learn from the third paragraph that _______

　　A. absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day

　　B. women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods

　　C. women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness

　　D. men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations

　　5.It can be concluded from the passage that _____

　　A. people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses

　　B. hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at

　　C. people should be careful when programming their actions

　　D. lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration

　　答案

　　1.[D] 事实细节题。本文第1句中的to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions就是指to keep a record of what they did unintentionally,题目中的subjects指实验对象，被测试者。

　　2.[A] 事实细节题。根据第2句中nearly all of them fell into a few groupings可以找到本题答案，题目中的discover是该句中find的同义词,A的patterns与原文中的groupings意义相同。

　　3.[C] 语义题。根据第2段最后两句提到,但是不知怎么的这种行为在程序中颠倒了。这些被测试者报告的`事件中二十个中有一个属于这种“流水线程序错误”。C的unconsciously与somehow对应,change the sequence of doing things与the action got reversed对应，故本题选C。

　　4.[A] 事实细节题。根据第3段的第2、3句“一天之中似乎存在一些人们易犯荒谬可笑错误的高峰时段”,之后到举了几个高峰时间，可知A与之相符。

　　5.[D] 推理判断题。根据文章最后两句“一般来说，我们会以为技术娴熟可以减少错误。但是为了避免出现愚蠢的失误而更加专注，只会把事情弄得更糟糕，甚至会导致危险。”可知D“差错并不总是注意力不集中导致的” 正确。

　　大学生英语四级考试阅读练习题及答案 2

　　The simple act of surrendering a telephone number to a store clerk may not seem harmful--so much so that many consumers do it with no questions asked. Yet that one action can set in motion a cascade of silent events, as that data point is acquired, analyzed, categorized, stored and sold over and over again. Future attacks on your privacy may come from anywhere, from anyone with money to purchase that phone number you surrendered. If you doubt the multiplier effect, consider your e-mail inbox. If its loaded with spam, its undoubtedly because at some point in time you unknowingly surrendered your e-mall to the wrong Web site.

　　Do you think your telephone number or address is handled differently? A cottage industry of small companies with names youve probably never heard of--like Acxiom or Merlin--buy and sell your personal information the way other commodities like corn or cattle futures are bartered. You may think your cell phone is unlisted, but if youve ever ordered a pizza, it might not be. Merlin is one of many commercial data brokers that advertises sale of unlisted phone numbers compiled from various sources--including pizza delivery companies. These unintended, unpredictable consequences that flow from simple actions make privacy issues difficult to grasp, and grapple with.

　　In a larger sense, privacy also is often cast as a tale of "Big Brother"--the government is watching you or An big corporation is watching you. But privacy issues dont necessarily involve large faceless institutions: A spouse takes a casual glance at her husbands Blackberry, a co-worker looks at e-mall over your shoulder or a friend glances at a cell phone text message from the next seat on the bus. while very little of this is news to anyone--people are now well aware there are video cameras and Internet cookies everywhere--there is abundant evidence that people live their lives ignorant of the monitoring, assuming a mythical level of privacy. People write e-mails and type instant messages they never expect anyone to see. Just ask Mark Foley or even Bill Gates, whose e-mails were a cornerstone of the Justice Departments antitrust case against Microsoft.

　　And polls and studies have repeatedly shown that Americans are indifferent to privacy concerns. The general defense for such indifference is summed up a single phrase: "I have nothing to hide." If you have nothing to hide, why shouldnt the government be able to peek at your phone records, your wife see your e-mail or a company send you junk mail? Its a powerful argument, one that privacy advocates spend considerable time discussing and strategizing over.

　　It is hard to deny, however, that people behave different when theyre being watched. And it is also impossible to deny that Americans are now being watched more than at any time in history.

　　1. In the first paragraph, the telephone number is cited to show

　　A. many customers didnt keep their privacy confidential.

　　B. it is harmful to give a store clerk a telephone number.

　　C. careless disposal of personal information can be harmful.

　　D. customers should inquire its use when giving telephone numbers to others.

　　2. What do companies like Acxiom and Merlin do?

　　A. Compile telephone directories for businessmen.

　　B. Collect and sell personal information to make a profit.

　　C. Trade commodities like corn on the market.

　　D. Crack down crimes like stealing private information.

　　3. From Paragraph 3, we learn that

　　A. cases of privacy intrusion happen only in large institutions.

　　B. people are quite aware of how their privacy is intruded.

　　C. it is not privacy intrusion when a wife glances at her husbands cell phone.

　　D. Bill Gates email messages were cited as evidence against him.。

　　4. It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that the author thinks

　　A. Americans are actually concerned about privacy issues.

　　B. Americans are indifferent to privacy concerns.

　　C. Americans are very frank about privacy concerns.

　　D. Americans are puzzled about privacy concerns.

　　5. Which of the following is the authors viewpoint?

　　A. Never give your private information to anyone.

　　B. People should pay more attention to their privacy issues.

　　C. Do not surrender your email to any website.

　　D. It does no good saying "I have nothing to hide".

　　【文章概要】

　　本文以个人无意泄漏电话号码和电子邮件为例引出对隐私问题的探讨。首段指出简单无意识地泄漏个人信息的行为可能事后会给自己带来麻烦;第2段讲述某些小 公司利用泄漏个人信息来赢利，使得隐私成为一个棘手的问题;第3段进一步提到隐私问题不一定只涉及大机构，隐私在日常生活中就可能有意无意地受到侵犯;第4段讲到美国人对隐私问题的态度及作者对此的看法;第5段作小结指出美国人正面临着更多的监视。

　　【答案解析】

　　1.[C]细节判断题。首段第l句提到泄漏电话号码的例子，第2、3句指出这一行为可能带来的麻烦，故选C。A、B本身正确但只停留在例子本身，并没有指明举例要表明的问题;D在文中没有提及。

　　2.[B]细节推断题。根据Acxiom和Merlin定位到第2段第2旬。该句第2个破折号说明了这两家公司的性质，指出他们买卖个人信息就像买卖玉米和牛期货证券一样，故选8。文中提到Merlin公司出售那些未登记过的电话号码，这些号码汇编来源多样，A只是利用原文个别单词设置的干扰项;文中 只是说这些公司买卖个人信息的.方式就像在市场买卖玉米的方式一样，故C错;D“破解如窃取个人信息的犯罪行为”在文中没有提及。

　　3.[D]段落细节题。由第3段第2句可知A错误;由该段倒数2、3句可知人们对隐私受侵犯并没有多深的意识，故B也错：But一句指出隐私问题并不一定只涉及大机构，冒号后所列举的例子即是对此观点的支持，可见C的说法也是不正确的;末旬指出司法部控告微软公司就是利用比尔·盖茨的邮件为证据，故D正确。

　　4.[A]推理判断题。第4段第l句指出调查和研究证明美国人对隐私问题漠不关心，但根据后文连续几个假设问句可以推断出。美国人实际上很关住他们的隐私问题，故C错误;B只是一种表面现象;文中没有提及他们对隐私的关注是否“迷惑”，D也不对。

　　5.[B]观点态度题。文章首段就提到了隐私无意间的泄漏可能会带来的麻烦，接下来几段分别从个人信息被滥用、隐私问题无处不在、美国人对隐私的态度等方面说明，在当今时代，由于通信技术的发达，个人隐私的保护问题越来越复杂.因此人们对隐私问题应给予更多的重视，故选B。A、C说法太过绝对;D项也不能概述作者的观点。

　　大学生英语四级考试阅读练习题及答案 3

　　"Culture shock" occurs as a result of total immersion (浸没) in a new culture. It happens to "people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad. " Newcomers may be anxious because they do not speak the language, know the customs, or understand peoples behavior in daily life. The visitor finds that "yes" may not always mean "yes", that friendliness does not necessarily mean friendship, or that statements that appear to be serious are really intended as jokes. The foreigner may be unsure as to when to shake hands, when to start conversations, or how to approach a stranger. The notion of "culture shock" helps explain feelings of bewilderment and disorientation. Language problems do not account for all the frustrations that people feel. When one is deprived of everything that was once so familiar, such as understanding a transportation system, knowing how to register for university classes, or knowing how to make friends, difficulties in coping with the new society may arise.

　　"... when an individual enters a strange culture, he or she is like fish out of water, " Newcomers feel at times that they do not belong to and feel alienated from the native members of the culture. When this happens visitors may want to reject everything about the new environment and may glorify and exaggerate the positive aspects of their own culture. Conversely visitors may scorn their native country by rejecting its values and instead choosing to identify with (if only temporarily) the value of the new country. This may occur as an attempt to over-identify with the new culture in order to be accepted by the people in it.

　　26. The expression "he or she is like fish out of water" suggests_______.

　　A. people away from their cultures can hardly survive in a new culture

　　B. a fish can not survive without water

　　C. people away from their culture experience mental isolation

　　D. people away from their culture have difficulties in their studies

　　27. In order to identify with the new environment, some people may_______.

　　A. give an exaggerated picture of their own country

　　B. criticize the positive aspects of their own country

　　C. abandon their original beliefs

　　D. accept a temporary set of values

　　28. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the author?

　　A. Homesickness results in culture shock.

　　B. A typical symptom of culture shock is confusion.

　　C. Culture shock is the explanation of anxiety.

　　D. Culture shock happens to foreign students only.

　　29. Newcomers may worry about

　　A. their ignorance of the alien customs

　　B. their knowledge of "yes" in the native language

　　C. their understanding of friendship

　　D. their control of their behavior

　　30. When the foreign visitor is immersed in new problems he finds hard to cope with, he is most likely to feel_______.

　　A. uninsured B. deprived

　　C. alienated D. disappointed

　　答案

　　26. C 27. B 28. B 29. A 30. C

　　大学生英语四级考试阅读练习题及答案 4

　　Today ,as in every other day of the year ,more than 3000 U.S. adlescents will smoke their first cigarette on their way to becoming regular smokers as adults. During their lifetime,it can be expected that of these 3000 about 23 will be murdered,30 will die in traffic accidents, and nearly 750 will be killed by a smoking-related disease. The number of deaths attributed to cigarette smoking outweithts all other factors, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a cause of death.

　　Since the late 1970s, when daily smoking among high school seniors reached 30 precent , smoking rates among youth have declined . While the decline is impressive ,several important issues must be raised.

　　First, in the past several years,smoking rates among youth have declined very little. Second,in the late 1970s ,smoking among male high school seniors exceeded that among female by nearly 10 percent . The statistic is reversing.Third ,several recent studies have indicate high school dropouts have excessively high smoking rates, as much as 75 percent .

　　Finally, thouth significant declines in adolescent smoking have occurred in the past decade,no definite reasons for the decline exist. Within this context,the Naional Cancer Instiute (NCI) began its current effort to determine the most effecive measures to reduce smoking levesl among youth.

　　1.According to the author, the deaths among youth are mainly caused by _____.

　　a.traffic accidents

　　b.smoking-related desease

　　c.murder

　　d.all of these

　　2.Every day there are over_____high school strdents who will become regular smoker.

　　a.75 b.23 c.30 d.3000

　　3.By "dropout" the author means______.

　　a.students who failed the examination

　　b.students who left school

　　c.students who lost their way

　　d.students who were driven out of school

　　4.The reason for declining adolescent smoking is that ________.

　　a.NCI has taken effective measures

　　b.smoking is prevented among high school seniors

　　c.there are many smokers who have died of cancer

　　d.none of these

　　5.What is implied but not stated by the author is that ________.

　　a.smoking rates among youth have declined very little

　　b.there are now more female than male smokers among high school seniors

　　c.high smoking rates are due to the incease in wealth

　　d.smoking at high school are from low socio-economic backgrounds

　　答案：bdbdb

　　大学生英语四级考试阅读练习题及答案 5

　　【阅读练习】

　　Nowadays, is it possible to tell a person’s class just by looking at him? Physical details __1__ tell us about health, diet and type of work done. A hundred years ago the working class very often lookd unhealthy, small and were either too thin or too fat. The upper classes were often __2__, sporting types who were used to a good diet and looked healthy. Today living and working conditions have improved, and such __3__ would no longer be so true.The clothes people choose to wear, however, do provide information about their __4__. The most obvious way in which is for the amount of money spent on them. Expensive clothes look expensive and show their wearer had money. Clothes can provide other __5__ as well. The upper classes __6__ to be less interested in fashion and wear good quality clothes in non-bright colours, made of natural material like wool, leather or cotton. Lower working class people often choose clothes in bright colours, made of man-made material. A sociological explanation for this would be that color and interest are mssing from their lives, and therefore any opportunity to introduce this is __7__.Clothes are __8__ at a price within most people’s reach. New clothes make the wearer feel good, and show some __9__ of wealth to the outside world. Today some new fashions are started by the lower working class people who want to look __10__ and feel important. They want people to look at them.

　　A) available

　　B) background

　　C) different

　　D) tall

　　E) totally

　　F) taken

　　G) descriptions

　　H) degree

　　I) clues

　　J) alone

　　K) appear

　　L) consider

　　M) full

　　N) hobby

　　O)fetched

　　【答案】

　　1、选J)。此处应填副词。可选项有totally和alone，由前一句中just可推出，外表上的细节仅仅能告诉我们这个人的健康状况，平时的营养状况以及他所从事的工作而不能看出他所处的阶级，故排除totally而选alone“惟一”。

　　2、选D)。此处应填形容词。因此此句和前一句是在将以前的工人阶级和上层阶级的`身体状况进行对比，故此处应填与small“矮的”意思相反的词，选项中只有tall符合题意。而full“丰满的”不能用来修饰sporting types,故排除。

　　3、选G)。此处应填名词。现在的生活和工作条件改善了，情况已经不同了。而such指代的是上文中对一百年以前工人阶级和上层阶级的身体状况的身体状况的描述，故descriptions“描述”符合题意。

　　4、选B)。此处应填名词。根据句意“衣服可以提供...方面的信息”，选项中有background和hobby，选background“人的背景，社会阶层”，符合文章主题。

　　5、选I)。由as well可知，此处应填名词且与本段首句中的informaiton的意思相近，选项中只有clues“线索”符合题意。

　　6、选K)。此处应填动词的原形。选项中有appear和consider,appear可直接接不定式;而consider带不定式的复合结构，用于主动语态时，consider后面得接宾语，故选appear。

　　7、选F)。这句中this指代bright colour，句子主干是any opportunity is...。可选项有taken和fetched,take“抓住”则可以与opportunity搭配，但fetch“拿来”不能与opportunity构成动宾搭配，故排除fetched而选taken。

　　8、选A)。此处应填形容词。句子意思是“衣服的价钱......，大多数人都买得起。”选项中只有available“可以接受的”符合题意。

　　9、选H)。此处应填名词。由a price within most people’s reach可推出，此处新衣服向外界显示的是穿衣者的富裕程度，故选择degree“程度”。

　　10、选C)。此处应填形容词。由new fashions和feel important可推出工人阶级想通过穿衣来改变他们，而选项中只有different“与众不同的”符合此意，故选择C)。

大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 1

　　Merchant and passenger ships are generally required to have a life preserver for every person aboard and in many cases, a certain percentage of smaller sizes for children. According to United States requirements, life preservers must design, reversible capable of being quickly adjusted to fit the uninitiated individual, and must be so designed as to support the wearer in the water in an upright or slightly backward position.

　　Sufficient buoyancy(浮力) to support the wearer should be retained by the life preserver after 48 hours in the water, and it should be reliable even after long period of storage. Thus it should be made of materials resistant to sunlight, gasoline, and oils, and it should be not easily set on fire.?The position in which the life preserver will support a person who jumps or falls into the water is most important, as is its tendency to turn the wearer in the water from a face-down position to an upright or slightly backward position, with his face clear of the water, even when the wearer is exhausted or unconscious.

　　The method of adjustment to the body should be simple, and self-evident to uninitiated persons even in the dark under the confused conditions, which follow a disaster. Thus, the life be reversible that it is nearly impossible to get it on wrong. Catches, straps, and ties should be kept to a minimum. In addition, the life preserver must be adjustable to the wide variety of shapes and sizes of wearers, since this greatly affects the position of floating and the self-righting qualities. A suitable life also be comfortable to wear at all times, in and out of the water, not so heavy as to encourage to take it off on shipboard while the ship is in danger, nor so burdensome that it hinders a person in the water while trying to swim.

　　1. The passage is mainly about____.

　　A) the uses of life preservers

　　B) the design of life preservers

　　C) the materials for life preservers

　　D) the buoyancy of life preservers

　　2. According to the passage, a life be first of all ____.

　　A) adjustable B) comfortable C) self-evident D) self-righting

　　3. United States Coast Guard does NOT require the life preserver to be made ____.

　　A) with as few strings as possible

　　B) capable of being worn on both sides

　　C) according to each wearers size

　　D) comfortable and light to wear

　　4. By “the uninitiated individual” (Para. 1, Line. 4) the author refers to the person ____.

　　A) who has not been instructed how to use a life preserver

　　B) who has a little experience in using a life preserver

　　C) who uses a life preserver without permission

　　D) who becomes nervous before a disaster

　　5. What would happen if a person were supported by the life preserver in a wrong position?

　　A) The waves would move him backwards.

　　B) The water would choke him.

　　C) He would immediately sink to the bottom.

　　D) He would be exhausted or unconscious.

　　答案与解析：

　　1. B

　　文章主要讲述了救生衣的设计。间接题型段首主旨题。C项和D项都是对救生衣设计中设计材料的说明。A项为陷阱，指救生衣的用途，尽管开头提到，但范围不着边际。故只有B是正确选项。

　　2. D

　　根据文章，救生衣首先会自动扶正。事实细节题。本文第三段主要讨论救生衣落水位置，应设计的能“自动扶正”,或稍向后仰。B项是对材料的描述，范围太窄，而A和C不合题意，因此D是正确答案。

　　3. C

　　美国海岸巡逻队不需要救生衣根据穿戴者的尺寸生产。事实细节题。A项和B项都涉及method，其相关部分见最后一段第三句，A，B，D三项都是文章中提及的，C项与本题无关的内容，因此应该选C。

　　4. A

　　“the uninitiated individual”作者指的'是不知道怎么使用救生衣的人。语义指代题。根据文章最后一段第一句，我们可推出“the uninitiated individual”就是指的那些不知道怎么使用救生衣的人。故A是正确选项。

　　5. D

　　如果一个人没有正确使用救生衣，就会发生什么?细节辨别题。第三段第一句后半句中a face-down position和本题中的 in a wrong position相对应。因此选项D“他可能太累了或者是已经失去知觉”是正确答案。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 2

　　Most episodes of absent-mindedness forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered aroom-are caused by a simple lack of attention,says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, butyou haven’t encoded it deeply.”

　　Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phonein a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in you wardrobe (衣柜). “Your memory itself isn’t failing you,” says Schacter. “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”

　　Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago,” says Zelinski, “may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.” Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on justthat.

　　Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. “But be sure the cue is clear and available,” he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication (药物) with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.

　　Another common episode of absent-mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time,” says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. Why does the author think that encoding properly is very important?

　　A. It helps us understand our memory system better.

　　B. It enables us to recall something form our memory.

　　C. It expands our memory capacity considerably.

　　D. It slows down the process of losing our memory.

　　2. One possible reason why women have better memories than men is that ________.

　　A. they have a wider range of interests

　　B. they are more reliant on the environment

　　C. they have an unusual power of focusing their attention

　　D. they are more interested in what’s happening around them

　　3. A note in the pocket can hardly serve as a reminder because ________.

　　A. it will easily get lost

　　B. it’s not clear enough for you to read

　　C. it’s out of your sight

　　D. it might get mixed up with other things

　　4. What do we learn from the last paragraph?

　　A. If we focus our attention on one thing, we might forget another.

　　B. Memory depends to a certain extent on the environment.

　　C. Repetition helps improve our memory.

　　D. If we keep forgetting things, we’d better return to where we were.

　　5. What is the passage mainly about?

　　A. The process of gradual memory loss.

　　B. The causes of absent-mindedness.

　　C. The impact of the environment on memory.

　　D. A way if encoding and recalling.

　　参考答案

　　1.[B]事实细节题。根据第2段第1句可知，encoding是关注某事的一种特殊方式，这影响到以后是否能回忆起这件事来，因此B正确。

　　2.[D]事实细节题。根据第3段第3句，“女性比男性的记忆力稍强，这也许是因为她们对周围的环境更加注意，而记忆正是依靠这个”，故选D “她们对于周围发生的事更感兴趣”。

　　3.[C]事实细节题。根据第4段首句中说到的“视觉线索可以防止遗忘某事”可知破折号之后的警告“不要把药瓶放在药箱里，然后写一张纸条装进口袋”正是为了防止药瓶、提示性信条离开了视线，故选C。

　　4.[A]推断题。根据最后一段的`前两句“心不在焉的另一个常见的情景是:走进房间,却不知为什么要进来。你很有可能是在想别的事”,可知本题答案为A。

　　5.[B]主旨题。根据第1、3、5段的首句可以得出，本文主要讲的是精神不集中的原因，故选B。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 3

　　Not surprising in these hard times, the student’s major objective “is to be financially well off. Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life.” It follows then that today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting.

　　Interest in teaching, social service and the“altruistic”fields is at a low. On the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and computer science is way up.

　　That’s no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of her college instructors her first year on the job-even before she completed her two-yearassociate degree.

　　While it’s true that we all need a career, it is equally true that our civilization has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed from our own and that we are better for our understanding of these other contributions m be they scientific or artistic. It is equally true that, in studying thediverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. More important, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections between things, as well as to see beyond our immediate needs.

　　Weekly we read of unions who went on strike for higher wages, only to drive their employer out of business.No company; no job. How shortsighted in the long run!

　　But the most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon recently which shows a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom (对讲机): “Miss Baxter,”he says, “could you please send in someone who can distinguish right from wrong?”

　　From the long-term point of view, that’s what education really ought to be about.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. According to the author’s observation, college students _______.

　　A. have never been so materialistic as today

　　B. have never been so interested in the arts

　　C. have never been so financially well off as today

　　D. have never attached so much importance to moral sense

　　2. The students’ criteria for selecting majors today have much to do with _______.

　　A. the influences of their instructors

　　B. the financial goals they seek in life

　　C. their own interpretations of the courses

　　D. their understanding of the contributions of others

　　3. By saying “While it’s true that ... be they scientific or artistic” (Lines 1-3, Para. 5), the author means that _______.

　　A. business management should be included in educational programs

　　B. human wisdom has accumulated at an extraordinarily high speed

　　C. human intellectual development has reached new heights

　　D. the importance of a broad education should not be overlooked

　　4. Studying the diverse wisdom of others can ________.

　　A. create varying artistic interests

　　B. help people see things in their right perspective

　　C. help improve connections among people

　　D. regulate the behavior of modern people

　　5. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

　　A. Businessmen absorbed in their career are narrow-minded.

　　B. Managers often find it hard to tell right from wrong.

　　C. People engaged in technical jobs lead a more rewarding life.

　　D. Career seekers should not focus on immediate interests only.

　　1.[A]事实细节题。根据第1段可知，根据调査，当今处于传统年龄的大学一年级的学生在17年来的民意测验中是“最追求物质享受、最自私的”，这与A所述相一致。

　　2.[B]事实细节题。根据第2段第1句指出现在大学生选择专业的.目的是为了经济上的富裕，B中的financial goals对应文中的financial well off，故正确。

　　3.[D]句意理解题。本句首选强调Career职业的重要性，之后强啁我们也必须理解其他领域的知识，所以这句目的是强调全面教育的重要性，故D正确。

　　4.[B]事实细节题。根据第5段第2句：同样毋庸置疑的还有，学习他人的各种智慧时，我们也学会怎样去思考。句中how to think与B中的see things in…right perspective意思最为相反，故B正确。

　　5.[D]事实细节题。根据文章的第5至6段可知，作者认为罢工要求加薪等一些追求眼前利益的行为是目光短浅的，故D正确。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 4

　　The dancers stand motionless at their position and the room grows silent. But as the music starts, they began to move, bending, turning and waving their fans gracefully as they perform. a traditional Japanese dance. Yoshihiro Kuroki watches in silence, occasionally making notes. But as the dance ends, he beams with happiness. The performance has been flawless.

　　There have been many performances of traditional Japanese dances over the centuries, but this one is unique,because it is performed not by human dancers but by robots. And the performance takes place not in a dance studio but in a laboratory of Sony Corp.s Entertainment Robot Co. in Shinagawa, Japan, where Kuroki isgeneral manager. He is the mastermind behind a series of even more capable humanoid entertainment robots,starting with the Sony Dream Robot, or SDR, in 1997, up to the current QRIO in 2003.

　　These delightful machines are only 58 cm tall, about the size of a newborn infant, weigh about 7 kg, and move with 38 degrees of freedom, each with its own servomotor(辅助马达).

　　QRIOs predecessor, the SDR4X, announced in 2002, can walk, dance, sing, speak, recognize faces, and understand continuous speech. Each robot has two charge-coupled-device cameras to detect color and position andcan locate a colored ball, move toward it, and kick it into a goal. It also has contact sensors in severaljoints to avoid pinching real human fingers. Seeing the robot perform, it is difficult to remember that there is no sentience(知觉)behind those glass eyes.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.Which of the following is the most suitable title of this passage?

　　A.New Entertainment Robots Produced in Japan.

　　B.QRIO the Robot Dancers.

　　C.Robots Mans Best Friend.

　　D.An Extraordinary Performance in Sonys Lab.

　　2.Yoshihiro Kuroki ______.

　　A.is excited when the robots are performing a traditional Japanese dance

　　B.keeps silent because he is a little unsatisfied with the new product

　　C.witnesses the creation of a series of entertainment robots

　　D.is an executive manager of Sony Corp.

　　3.Which aspect of the robots is NOT mentioned in the passage?

　　A.The vividness of their motion.

　　B.Their pleasant appearance.

　　C.Their smart designing principles.

　　D.Their communicative ability.

　　4.The Sony Dream Robot was___

　　A.the first human-like entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

　　B.as capable as the QRIO of speaking,dancing,singing and walking

　　C.largest among all the entertainment robot developed by the Sony Corp

　　D.the first entertainment robot sold at the market by the Sony Corp

　　5.The robot can locate colored balls by mens of ____

　　A.a charge-coupled device

　　B.two cameras

　　C.two contacts sensors

　　D.a digital detector

　　参考答案

　　1.[A]主旨大意题。标题需要既全面又突出地概括文章的主题。本文先是描述“舞蹈演员”，然后揭晓这是些“机器人”(第2段第1句)，接着对Sony公司的一些机器人产品进行详细介绍。选项A比较全面地概括了文章内容。选项B、D只是涉及细节，不能全面地概括本文的内容。而C又过于笼统，不具有针对性。

　　2.[C]事实细节题。选项C符合第2段最后一句“He is the mastermind behind a series of... robots...”。仔细阅读有关的细节信息会发现,第1段第3句可帮助否定选项A。第1段最后两句可帮助否定选项B。另外，根据第2段倒数第2句可否定选项D。

　　3.[D]事实细节题。全文分四段，分别讨论机器人三方面的特点：第1段和第2段描述机器人舞蹈演员栩栩如生的表演，即选项A;第3段描写它们的外表，即选项B;第4段介绍它们巧妙的设计，即选项C;只有选项D是没有提到的，故为答案。

　　4.[A]推理判断题。该句中的分词结构“starting with...”表明the Sony Dream Robot是第一个人形娱乐机器人，因此选项A正确。文章在最后一段的第1句提到两种能说话、跳舞的机器人，但没有提到SDR是否和它们一样，由此可否定选项B。在第3段讨论机器人大小的`时候也没有提到SDR体型最大，因此选项C不正确。选项D在文中没有讨论到。

　　5.[B]事实细节题。该句中“two…cameras to...”的结构表明这两个摄像头可以用于定位，所以选项B正确。选项A在该句中也有提到，但它只是摄像机的工作机制，而不是用于定位的装置。选项C在下一句提到，但与题干提到的定位功能无关。选项D在文中并未提及。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 5

　　The stone age, The Iron Age. Entire epochs have been named for materials. So what to call the decades ahead? The choice will be tough. Welcome to the age of superstuff. Material science -- once the least sexy technology – is bursting with new, practical discoveries led by superconducting ceramicsthat may revolutionize electronics. But superconductors are just part of the picture: from house and cars to cook pots and artificial teeth, the world will someday be made of different stuff. Exotic plastics, glass and ceramics willshape the future just as surely as have genetic engineering and computer science.

　　The key to the new materials is researchers’ increasing ability to manipulate substances at the molecular level. Ceramics, for example, have long been limited by their brittleness. But by minimizing the microscopic imperfections that cause it, scientists are making far stronger ceramics that still retain such qualities as hardness and heat resistance. Ford Motor Co. now uses ceramic tools to cut steel. A firm called Kyocera has created a line of ceramic scissors and knives that stay sharp for years and never rust or corrode.

　　A similar transformation has overtaken plastics. High-strength polymers now form bridges, ice-skating rinks and helicopter rotors. And one new plastic that generates electricity when vibrated or pushed is used in electric guitars, touch sensors for robot hands and karate jacketsthat automatically record each punch and chop. Even plastic litter, which once threatened to permanently blot the landscape, has proved amenable to molecular tinkering. Several manufacturers now make biodegradable forms; some plastic six-pack rings for example, gradually decompose when exposed to sunlight. Researchers are developing ways to make plastics as recyclable as metal or glass. Besides, composites – plastic reinforced with fibers of graphite or other compounds – made the round-the-world flight of the voyager possible and have even been proved in combat: a helmet saved an infantryman’s life by deflecting two bullets in the Grenada invasion.

　　Some advanced materials are old standard with a new twist. The newest fiberoptic cable that carry telephone calls cross-country are made of glass so transparent that a piece of 100 miles thick is clearer than a standard window pane.

　　But new materials have no impact until they are made into products. And that transition could prove difficult, for switching requires lengthy research and investment. It can be said a firmer handle on how to move to commercialization will determine the success or failure of a country in the near future.

　　1. How many new materials are mentioned in this passage?

　　[A] Two

　　[B] Three

　　[C] Four

　　[D] Five

　　2. Why does the author mention genetic engineering and computer science?

　　[A] To compare them with the new materials.

　　[B] To show the significance of the new materials on the future world.

　　[C] To compare the new materials to them.

　　[D] To explain his view point.

　　3. Why is transition difficult?

　　[A] Because transition requires money and time.

　　[B] Because many manufacturers are unwilling to change their equipment.

　　[C] Because research on new materials is very difficult.

　　[D]Because it takes 10 years.

　　4. Where lies success of a country in the New Age of superstuff?

　　[A] It lies in research.

　　[B] It lies in investment.

　　[C] It lies in innovation.

　　[D] It lies in application.

　　Vocabulary

　　1. superstuff 超级材料

　　2. superconducting ceramic 超导陶瓷

　　3. exotic 神奇的

　　4. shape 塑造，成型

　　5. brittleness 脆性

　　6. polymer 聚合体

　　7. karate jacket 空手道外衣

　　8. touch sensor 触及传感器

　　9. each punch and chop 每一个击、打

　　10. blot 玷污，损害风景的东西

　　11. tinker 修补，调整

　　12. amendable 服从于，遵循的

　　13. biodegradable 能生物递减分解的

　　14. six-pack rings 放六个罐子的环状物

　　15. decompose 分解

　　16. recyclable 可循环(使用的)

　　17. infantryman 步兵

　　18. deflect 使偏斜，使转向

　　19. a new twist 一个新的观点，方法

　　难句译注

　　1. Material science – once the least sexy technology – is bursting with new, practicaldiscoveries led by superconducting ceramics that may revolutionize electronics.

　　【参考译文】材料科学，一度曾是最无吸引力(最不起眼)的技术，正以崭新的 ，以超导陶瓷为首的种种实用性发明绽开新颜。这种超导陶瓷可能会使电子技术彻底改变。

　　2. Some advanced materials are old standard with a new twist. The newest fiberopticcables that carry telephone calls cross-country are made of glass so transparent that a piece of100 miles thick is clearer than a standard window pane.

　　【参考译文】有些高级材料是带有新方法的老标准。最新全国电话的光纤电缆由玻璃制成。这种玻璃透明度极高，一片100英里厚的玻璃比一块标准的窗框玻璃还要清晰透明。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是一篇介绍“超导材料”的论说文,采用一般到具体的分类写作手法。先指出未来时代的材料属于超导，然后再提出三种超导材料，再逐一说明。

　　答案详解

　　1. B 三种超导材料。答案再第一段最后一句“神奇的塑料、玻璃和陶瓷”。下面各段具体讲这三种材料。第二段讲陶瓷：“新材料之关键在于研究工作者不断提高在分子水平上处理物质的能力。举陶瓷为例，由于它的脆性，长期来应用范围有限。但是通过改善导致脆性的微小缺陷，科学家制造出一种保持原有硬度和抗热性，但坚实得多的陶瓷”。第三段讲塑料。“类似的`转折发生在塑料上，高强度的塑料建成了桥梁、溜冰场、直升机的叶轮。一种震动或推动就能发电的新型塑料用于电子吉他上，触及传感塑料用于机械手和空手道外衣上，它能自动记录每次击打。”后面谈及塑料垃圾可以处理，或者制造可分解还原的塑料制品。塑料内加入其他化合物加强性能。第四段讲有些高级材料由新的改变，最新的光纤电缆由玻璃制成，透明度极高，100英里厚的一块其清晰度比一块普通窗玻璃还高。

　　2. B 说明这种新材料对未来世界的意义。答案在第一段：“神奇的塑料、玻璃和陶瓷一定会象生物工程和计算机一样将改变世界。”A. 把它们和新材料相比较，这里不仅仅是比较，而是说明三者都具同样的作用--改变世界。 C. 把新材料比作它们。也不仅仅是比喻比拟。 与A一样没有说到核心电。D. 说明他的观点。太笼统。

　　3. A 转折需要钱和时间。见最后一段“可是新材料只有制成产品才有影响，而这个转折可能很困难，因为转折需要长期的研究和投资。可以这么说，在不久的将来，更牢牢地掌握如何把材料转变成商品将决定一个国家之成败。”B. 因为许多制造商不愿改变他们的设备。C. 因为新材料的研究非常困难。 D. 转折要华上十年时间。这三项文内没有涉及。

　　4. D 在超级材料时代已过之成功在于应用。A. 在于研究。B. 在于投资。C. 在于革新。这三项都是应用的部分前提。其中A和B文内提到，C项文内未涉及。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 6

　　Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-mindedactions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses(差错)in a scientific report, hewas surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nordid the lapses appear to be entirely random(随机的).

　　One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme," About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures,"

　　Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing---an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest(荒谬可笑的).These aretwo hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m."Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain’ programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses----- 12.5 compared with 10.9 for men m probably because they were more reliable reporters.

　　A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse m even dangerous.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________

　　A. to keep track of people who tend too forget things

　　B. to report their embarrassing lapses at random

　　C. to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically

　　D. to keep a record of what they did unintentionally

　　2. Professor Smith discovered that ________

　　A. certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents

　　B. many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness

　　C. men tend to be more absent-minded than women

　　D. absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness

　　3. "Programme assembly failures" (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people ______

　　A. often fail to programme their routines beforehand

　　B. tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry

　　C. unconsciously change the sequence of doing things

　　D. are likely to mess things up if they are too tired

　　4. We learn from the third paragraph that _______

　　A. absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day

　　B. women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods

　　C. women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness

　　D. men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations

　　5.It can be concluded from the passage that _____

　　A. people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses

　　B. hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at

　　C. people should be careful when programming their actions

　　D. lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration

　　参考答案

　　1.[D] 事实细节题。本文第1句中的to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions就是指to keep a record of what they did unintentionally,题目中的subjects指实验对象，被测试者。

　　2.[A] 事实细节题。根据第2句中nearly all of them fell into a few groupings可以找到本题答案，题目中的discover是该句中find的同义词,A的patterns与原文中的.groupings意义相同。

　　3.[C] 语义题。根据第2段最后两句提到,但是不知怎么的这种行为在程序中颠倒了。这些被测试者报告的事件中二十个中有一个属于这种“流水线程序错误”。C的unconsciously与somehow对应,change the sequence of doing things与the action got reversed对应，故本题选C。

　　4.[A] 事实细节题。根据第3段的第2、3句“一天之中似乎存在一些人们易犯荒谬可笑错误的高峰时段”,之后到举了几个高峰时间，可知A与之相符。

　　5.[D] 推理判断题。根据文章最后两句“一般来说，我们会以为技术娴熟可以减少错误。但是为了避免出现愚蠢的失误而更加专注，只会把事情弄得更糟糕，甚至会导致危险。”可知D“差错并不总是注意力不集中导致的” 正确。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 7

　　Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused of killing farm animals. They are officially classified as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them.

　　Farmers can also call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of pursuing a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding horses. When the dogs eventually catch the fox they kill it or a hunter shoots it.

　　People who take part in hunting think of as a sport; they wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict codes of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly is expensive, so most hunters are wealthy.

　　It is estimated that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox hunting. But over the last couple of decades the number of people opposed to fox hunting, because they think it is brutal (残酷的), has risen sharply. Nowadays it is rare for a hunt to pass off without some kind of confrontation (冲突) between hunters and hunt saboteurs (阻拦者). Sometimes these incidents lead to violence, but mostly saboteurs interfere with the hunt by misleading riders and disturbing the trail of the fox’s smell, which the dogs follow.

　　Noisy confrontations between hunters and saboteurs have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as the pursuit of foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labour Party Member of the Parliament, Mike Foster, is trying to get Parliament toapprove a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. Rich people in Britain have been hunting foxes ________.

　　A. for recreation

　　B. in the interests of the farmers

　　C. to limit the fox population

　　D. to show off their wealth

　　2. What is special about fox hunting in Britain?

　　A. It involves the use of a deadly poison.

　　B. It is a costly event which rarely occurs.

　　C. The hunters have set rules to follow.

　　D. The hunters have to go through strict training.

　　3. Fox hunting opponents often interfere in the game ________.

　　A. by resorting to violence

　　B. by confusing the fox hunters

　　C. by taking legal action

　　D. by demonstrating on the scene

　　4. A new law may be passed by the British Parliament to ________.

　　A. prohibit farmers from hunting foxes

　　B. forbid hunting foxes with dogs

　　C. stop hunting wild animals in the countryside

　　D. prevent large-scale fox hunting

　　5. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

　　A. killing foxes with poison is illegal

　　B. limiting the fox population is unnecessary

　　C. hunting foxes with dogs is considered cruel and violent

　　D. fox-hunting often leads to confrontation between the poor and the rich

　　参考答案

　　1.[A] 事实细节题。根据第3段第1句的`前半部分People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport可知，参加捕杀的人们把猎杀狐狸当成是一种运动，A与之相符。

　　2.[C] 事实细节题。根据第3段首句末尾说，凡是参加的人都要遵循严格的行为准则，C “猎手已建立起需要遵循的规则”与之相符，故选C。

　　3.[B] 事实细节题。第4段末句提到，在大部分情况下，阻拦者利用为骑马的人引错路和进行气味干扰来干涉捕猎，B与之相符，故选B。

　　4.[B] 事实细节题。文章倒数第2句提及，督促议会通过一项新法案,将带狗猎杀野生动物列为非法。而狐狸是野生动物的一种，故选B。

　　5.[C] 推断题。.根据第4段第2句后半部分可知，反对捕猎狐狸的人数在上升是因为他们认为捕猎狐狸是残酷的，故选C。

　　大学英语四级阅读理解题及解析 8

　　“The worlds environment is surprisingly healthy. Discuss.”If that were an examination topic, most students would tear it apart. offering a long list of complaints: from local smog (烟雾) to global climate change, from the felling(砍伐) of forests to the extinction of species. The list would largely be accurate,the concern legitimate. Yet the students who should be given the highest marks would actually be those who agreed with the statement. The surprise is how good things are, not how bad.

　　After all. the worlds population has more than tripled during this century, and world output has risen hugely. so you would expect the earth itself to have been affected. Indeed, if people lived, consumed and produced things in the same way as they did in 1900 (or 1950. or indeed 1980), the world by now would be a pretty disgusting place: smelly, dirty. toxic and dangerous.

　　But they dont. The reasons why they dont. and why the environment has not been ruined. have to do with prices. technological innovation, social change and government regulation in response to popular pressure. That is why todays environmental problems in the poor countries ought. in principle, to be solvable.

　　Raw materials have not run out. and show no sign of doing so. Logically. one day they must: the planet is a finite place. Yet it is also very big. and man is very ingenious. What has happened is chat every time a material seems to be running short, the price has risen and. in response. people have looked for new sources of supply, tried to find ways to use less of the material, or looked for a new substitute. For this reason prices for energy and for minerals have fallen in real terms during the century. The same is true for food. Prices fluctuate, in response to harvests. natural disasters and political instability; and when they rise, it takes some time before new sources of supply become available. But they always do. assisted by new farming and crop technology. The long-term trend has been downwards.

　　It is where prices and markets do not operate properly that this benign (良性的) trend begins to scumble, and the genuine problems arise. Markets cannot always keep the environment healthy. If no one owns the resource concerned. no one has an interest in conserving it or fostering it: fish is the best example of this.

　　1.According to the author, most students_________________.

　　A) believe the worlds environment is in an undesirable condition

　　B) agree that the environment of the world is not as bad as it is thought to be

　　C) get high marks for their good knowledge of the worlds environment

　　D) appear somewhat unconcerned about the state of the worlds environment

　　2.The huge increase in world production and population________________.

　　A) has made the world a worse place to live in

　　B) has had a positive influence on che environment

　　C) has not significantly affected the environment

　　D) has made the world a dangerous place to live in

　　3.One of the reasons why the long-term trend of prices bas been downwards is that__________.

　　A) technological innovation can promote social stability

　　B) political instability will cause consumption io drop

　　C) new farming and crop technology can lead to overproduction

　　D) new sources are always becoming available

　　4.Fish resources are diminishing because_________________.

　　A) no new substitutes can be found in large quantities

　　B) they are not owned by any particular entity

　　C) improper methods of fishing have ruined che fishing grounds

　　D) water pollution is extremely serious

　　5.The primary solution to environmental problems is_______________.

　　A) to allow market forces to operate properly

　　B) to curb consumption of natural resources

　　C) to limit the growth of the world population

　　D) to avoid fluctuations in prices

　　答案：

　　1.作者认为，大部分学生__________________。

　　A)相信全球环境现在是糟糕的

　　B)同意全球环境没有人们想象的那么糟糕

　　C)在关于全球环境知识上掌握得很好，取得了很高的分数

　　D)对全球环境表现出不关心的态度

　　[A]根据文章第1段前两句“如果以《全球环境状况非常好》作为考试题，大多数学生会将试卷撕碎，并列出一大堆的抱怨，从烟雾到全球气候变暖，从砍伐森林到物种灭绝”，由此可推断，大多数学生认为全球环境并不令人满意。因此,A正确。

　　2.世界生产力和人口的激增，_________________。

　　A)使得这个世界的居住环境更加糟糕

　　B)已经对环境造成了正面的影响

　　C)并没有严重地影响环境

　　D)使得世界的居住环境更加危险

　　[C]根据文章第2段全段和第3段首句“本世纪，全球人口增加了三倍多，全球产量也有巨大的增长，因此你可能会认为地球会受到影响。的确.如果人们还像1900年或1950年甚至1980年那样居住，消费和生产，那么到现在，地球很可能是一个令人厌恶的地方但人们没有这样做”，注意此处的虚拟语气，由此可推断产量和人口的增加并没有对全球环境造成太大的影响，故此，应选C。

　　3.从长期来看，价格是下降的，其中的一个原因是_____________。

　　A)技术创新促进了社会稳定型

　　B)政治的不稳定性会导致消费下降

　　C)新的农耕和作物技术会导致过度生产

　　D)总能获得新的资源

　　[D]根据文章第4段第4、5句“每次当一种资源似乎就要匮乏时，价格就会上升，相应地，人们会寻找新的资源，想方设法找到节省资源的方法或者寻找新的替代品。正因为如此，本世纪能源和矿产品的价格实质上已经下降了一，故应选D。

　　4.鱼类资源在减少，因为___________________。

　　A)没有大量的新替代品

　　B)鱼类资源不属于任何一个实体

　　C)不当的'捕鱼方法损坏了渔区

　　D)水质污染非常严重

　　[B]根据文章最后一段第2、3句“市场并不能总是保持环境的健康发展。如果相关的资源不属于任何人，人们就没有兴趣保护它、培养它。鱼类资源就是一个最 好的例子”，因此，可推断B正是鱼类减少的原因。

　　5.解决环境问题的主要办法是_________________。

　　A)让市场力量恰当地运作

　　B)减步自然资源的消耗

　　C)限制世界人口增长

　　D)避免价格波动

　　[A]根据文章展后一段第1句“在价格和市场手段不能正常运转的地方，这种良性的趋势就会动摇，就会出现环境能源等问题”，故此，让市场价格手段正常地发挥作用才是解决环境问题的方法，A与文章的意思相符，故而正确。

1.2023年12月英语四级阅读精选练习 篇一

　　Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language,complete with grammar, is something that we are born With, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.

　　When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.

　　Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English.At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the “hand talk”his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually: have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, wheneven deaf people dismissed their signing as“substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy (异端邪说).

　　It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff—it’s brain stuff.”

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. The study of sign language is thought to be ________.

　　A. a new way to look at the learning of language

　　B. a challenge to traditional, views on the nature of language

　　C. an approach: to simplifying the grammatical structure of a language

　　D. an attempt to clarify misunderstanding about the origin of language

　　2. The present growing interest in sign language was stimulated by _______.

　　A. a famous scholar in the study of the human brain

　　B. a leading specialist in the study of liberal arts

　　C. an English teacher in a university for the deaf

　　D. some senior experts in American Sign Language

　　3. According to Stokoe, sign language is ________.

　　A. a Substandard language

　　B. a genuine language

　　C. an artificial language

　　D. an international language

　　4. Most educators objected to Stokoe’s idea because they thought ________.

　　A. sign language was not extensively used even by deaf people

　　B. sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted

　　C. a language should be easy to use and understand

　　D. a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds

　　5. Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that ________.

　　A. sign language is as efficient as any other language

　　B. sign language is derived from natural language

　　C. language is a system of meaningful codes

　　D. language is a product of the brain

2.2023年12月英语四级阅读精选练习 篇二

　　Learning how to write is like taking a course in public speaking. I'd ask whether anyone in class had evertaken such a course. Always a few hands would go up.

　　"What did you learn in that course?" I'd ask.

　　"Well, the main thing was learning how to face an audience: not to be inhibited (拘谨)... not to be nervous. "

　　Exactly, when you take a course in public speaking nowadays, you don't hear much about grammar and vocabulary. Instead. you're taught how not to be afraid or embarrassed, how to speak without a prepared sc.ript. how to read out to the live audience before you. Public speaking is a matter of overcoming your long-standing nervous inhibitions.

　　The same is true of writing. The point of the whole thing is to overcome your nervous inhibitions, to break through the invisible barrier that separates you from the person who’ll read what you wrote. You must learn to sit in front of your typewriter of dictating machine and read out to the person at the other end of the line.

　　Of course, in public speaking with the audience right in front of you, the problem is easier. You can lookat them and talk to them directly. In writing, you 're alone. It needs an effort of your experience or imagination to take hold of that other person and talk to him or her. But that effort is necessary or at least it' s necessary until you've reached the point when you quite naturally and unconsciously "talk on paper".

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.The main task of a public speech course is to __________.

　　A.teach grammar and vocabulary

　　B. teach how to write a sc.ript

　　C. teach how to overcome nervousness

　　D. teach live spoken-language expressions

　　2.Learning how to write is similar to learning how to speak in public in that writer should _____.

　　A.overcome his or her nervousness in the first place

　　B. take hold of a reader and talk to him or her before writing

　　C. learn to use a typewriter or dictating machine

　　D. talk to himself on paper

　　3.what does the author compare writing and public speaking?

　　A.Writhing needs more experience and imagination than public speaking

　　B.Both writing and public speaking require great effort

　　C.Writhing is just as imagination as public speaking

　　D.Writhing is not as natural as public speaking

　　4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

　　A.Few students feel the need to learn public speaking

　　B.Training is necessary before you can speak with a sc.ript

　　C.In public speaking, the audience are more nervous than the speaker

　　D.Writing is just like making a public speech on paper

　　5.This selection is mainly about ___________.

　　A.the effort involved in writing

　　B.the similarities between writing and public speaking

　　C.learning how to make a public speech

　　D.learning how to talk on paper

3.2023年12月英语四级阅读精选练习 篇三

　　Congratulations, Mr. Jones, it's a girl."

　　Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning and bring forth a different response from every man who hears these words. Some feel pride when they receive the news, while others worry, wondering whether they will be good fathers. Although there are some men who like children and may have had considerable experiencewith them, others do not particularly care for children and spend little time with them. Many fathers and mothers have been planning and looking forward to children for some time. For other couples, pregnancy wasan accident that both husband and wife have accepted willingly or unwillingly.

　　Whatever the reaction to the birth of a child, it is obvious that the shift from the role of husband to that of father is a difficult task. Yet, unfortunately, few attempts have been made to educate fathers in this reconciliation (协调) process. Although numerous books have been written about American mothers, only recently has literature focused on the role of fathers.

　　It is argued by some writers that the change to the father's role, although difficult, is not nearly as great as the change the wife must take to the mother's role. The mother's role seems to require a complete transformation in daily routine and highly innovative(创新的) adaptation. On the other hand, the father's role is less demanding and immediate. However, even though we mentioned the fact that growing numbers of women are working outside the home, the father is still thought by many as the breadwinner in the household.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.What can we know about fatherhood from the passage?

　　A.It brings a feeling of excitement to most man

　　B.It make some man feel proud and others uneasy

　　C.It has a different meaning for men who have daughters

　　D.It means a responsibility that men accept unwillingly

　　2.What does the passage say about the shift from the role of husband to that of father?

　　A. Numerous books have been written about it.

　　B. Not enough attention has been paid to it.

　　C. The shift is harder for men than for women.

　　D. The shift is a difficult but incomplete one.

　　3.What can we know about mothers from the passage?

　　A.Mothers get more attention and recognition from society

　　B.Mothers are innovative and demanding according to some writers

　　C.Mothers generally stay at home to take care of the children

　　D.Mothers should help fathers in their reconciliation process

　　4.Which of the following will the author most probably disagree with?

　　A. It's as difficult to be a father as it is to be a mother.

　　B. More books should focus on the role of fathers.

　　C. The father is still the breadwinner in the household.

　　D. Fathers are as important to children as mothers.

　　5.The author's purpose in writing this passage is to

　　A. explain why there are few books on the role of fathers.

　　B. praise mothers for their great contributions to the home.

　　C. criticize fathers for not taking enough responsibility in bringing up the children.

　　D. complain about the lack of social programs to help fathers in their role shift.

　2024年12月英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案(100)

　　In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition (学会) of each new skill- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.

　　Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness.

　　As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality(道德). Also, parents should realize that “ example is better than precept ”. If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach(说教), their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.

　　A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skill ______

　　A.can be avoided

　　B.is universal among parents

　　C.sets up dangerous states of worry in the child

　　D.will make him lose interest in learning new things

　　2.In the process of children’s learning new skills parents ________

　　A. should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read

　　B. should not expect too much of them

　　C. should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own

　　D.should creative as many learning opportunities as possible

　　3.The second paragraph mainly tells us that _________

　　A. parents should be strict with their children

　　B. parental controls reflect only the needs of the parents and the values of the community.

　　C. parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone.

　　D. parental vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation.

　　4.The word “precept” (Line3, Para.3) probably means “_______”

　　A. Idea

　　B.punishment

　　C. behavior

　　D. instruction

　　5.In moral matters, parents should ________

　　A. observe the rules themselves

　　B. be aware of the marked difference between adults and children

　　C. forbid things which have no foundation in morality

　　D.consistently ensure the security of their children

　　参考答案

　　1.[B] 事实细节题。第1段第1句中的every parent，often等词表明这种做法在父母中是非常普遍的，显然B与之相符。A说法无原文依据，且由原文可看出题干所述现象是很难避免的;C中dangerous—词在原文中本是修饰其他情绪，故C不符;D是过多地让孩子自己一个独处的后果,不是题干所述行为的后果。

　　2.[C] 推理判断题。第1段第2句说明父母逼得太过分，应避免。最后一句则说明对小孩太放任自流同样不利。由这两点，我们可以做出如下判断：父母对孩子的“严”和“松”之间有一个恰当的“度”。C与之相符。

　　3.[C] 事实细节题。文章第2段表明：不同的家长对孩子的管制程度不同;家长对小孩的管制不仅是为了孩子个人的幸福，也反映了父母的需要以及社区的价值观，故C与原文相符。

　　4.[D] 词义理解题。由precept所在句可猜测precept应与example相对，且与下文的preach意思相近，故D正确。

　　5.[A] 推理判断题。第3段提到父母应该避免讲一套做一套，结合最后一段可得出结论：关于思想道德教育问题，父母应以身作则，带头遵循，故A正确。

篇1：大学四级英语阅读理解

The Present Is the Most Important

Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men wouldsteadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it withsuch things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If werespected only what is inevitable and has a right to be , music and poetry would resoundalong the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthythings have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure arebut the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes andslumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life ofroutine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation. Children, whoplay life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily, butwho think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book,that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought upby a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to thebarbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him,revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and heknew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes itsown character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself tobe Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account ofthe realities he beheld, we should not recognize the place in his des cription. Look at ameeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what thatthing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Menesteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adamand after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all thesetimes and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the presentmoment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages. And we are enabled toapprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching ofthe reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to ourconceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives inconceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of hisposterity at least could accomplish it.

篇2：大学四级英语阅读理解

Forecasting of Statistics

Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus become part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have presumably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and seers to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present day economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled computers and high-falutin mathematical system in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associated more readily with the desc ription of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecasters with a batting average below that of the Mets, and the President-elect of the Association cautioned that “high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of what crude and inadequate statisticians assume.” We left his birthday party somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired, that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is deluded into mistaking the delineation of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical exactitude.

篇3：解析大学英语四级之“阅读理解”

英语四级考试是各个院校对在校学生普遍采取的一种水平测试。为适应我国高等教育发展的新形势, 大学英语四六级改革应运而生。其目的是更加全面地测量大学生英语综合应用能力, 以适应我国大学英语课程教学的需要。在新的四级题型中, 阅读理解部分的比例为35%, 在仔细阅读理解的基础上, 又增加了快速阅读理解, 足以说明对考生阅读能力的考察加重。因此, 阅读理解可以说是决定考试成功与否的重要因素。

新四级的试卷构成

大学英语四级考试由四个部分构成:1) 听力理解35%;2) 阅读理解35%;3) 完形填空10%;4) 写作和翻译20%。

其中阅读理解部分包括仔细阅读 (Reading in Depth) 和快速阅读 (Skimming and Scanning) , 其中仔细阅读部分25%, 快速阅读部分10%。

与旧四级相比, 新四级中的阅读理解部分有以下几点变化:

第一, 快速阅读是最主要的新题型。考题设置上, “对、错、未提及 (Y/N/NG) ”型判断题7个, 填空题3个。难度不大, 但是15分钟的时间限制对考生是比较大的挑战。

第二, 在两篇传统阅读理解上, 题型没有变化, 但从35分钟阅读四篇提升到15分钟阅读两篇。因此, 强调阅读的速度是新四级考试的发展趋势。

新大学英语四级考试“阅读理解”应试策略

1.阅读理解测试要求

掌握所读材料的主旨大意;了解说明主旨大意的事实和细节;理解字面的意思, 能根据所读材料进行判断和推理;既理解个别句子的意义, 也能理解上下文的逻辑关系。

2.阅读技巧

(1) 意群阅读法

意群是构成句子的基本单位。在阅读过程中, 考生应把句子分解成若干意义群, 并把握每个意群中的关键词。

(2) 略读法

又称为选择性阅读。即重点阅读文章开头与结尾段, 捕捉文章的主旨句, 关注段落的主题句, 抓关键词等。

(3) 查读法

也叫导读。其目的是找出文章中某些特定的信息, 属于快速阅读。

(4) 细读法

主要是对文章有透彻深刻的理解, 领会文章细节, 对句子进行分析、归纳、推理, 从而了解句子的真正内涵。

3.猜词能力

猜词一般可以通过两种方法:构词法和根据上下文语境。

(1) 构词法

(1) 派生法 (前缀和后缀)

前缀:re-, mis-, anti-, ex-, pre-, post-, fore-, self-, super-, sub-, inter-, trans-, semi-, vice-, bi-, multi-等。例如rewrite, mistrust, anti-social, bimonthly等。

后缀:

A构成名词的常用后缀有:-ance, -ence, -tion, -ies, -ing, -ity, -ment, -ness, -th, -ure, -ship等。例如appearance, confidence, invitation, discussion, electronics, wedding等。

B构成形容词的常用后缀有:-ible, -al, -ful, -less, -ish, -ive, -ous, -an, -ic, -ary, -en等。例如changeable, divisible, natural, thoughtful, fearless等。

C构成副词的常用后缀有-ly, -ward, -wise等。例如shortly, eastward, likewise等。

D构成动词的后缀有:-en, -ify, -ize等。例如weaken, classify, industrialize等。

(2) 合成法:由两个或两个以上的词合成一个新词。

E合成名词。例如network, software, waterfall, weekend等。

F合成形容词。例如peace-loving, world-famous, manmade, duty-free等。

C合成动词。例如undergo, self-design, overthrow等。

(3) 转换法:在词型不变的情况下, 一个单词有一种词性转换为另一种词性。

例如:back n.后背—v.支持

(2) 根据上下文语境

(1) 定义法

The people really enjoy gathering in the plaza, which is much like a public square, to talk freely with each other. (根据后面的非限制性定语从句可知plaza的意思为“广场”)

(2) 重述

What he said was just flattery, for he praised me so much that I am sure he didn’t mean what he said. (根据后句可知flattery意为“巴结, 逢迎”)

(3) 常识

The Manager Chamber is on the second floor. (根据常识可知chamber为“房间, 办公室”之意)

(4) 举例

Select any of the periodicals:Times, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest or The New Yorker. (从后面的例子可知periodicals意为“期刊、杂志”)

(5) 比较

Green loves to talk, and his brothers are similarly loquacious. (从句中的similarly可知loquacious意为“健谈的”)

结束语

英语阅读能力是很重要的学习能力, 提高阅读能力能促进整个英语水平的提高。因此, 在四级考试中, 除了了解阅读理解的题型和测试要求之外, 掌握一些阅读技巧也很有必要, 考生应在融会贯通的基础上, 把理解和速度结合起来, 这样才能做到游刃有余, 最终取得令人满意的成绩。

参考文献

篇4：大学四级英语阅读理解

【关键词】大学英语四级 阅读理解 内容效度

英语四级考试是考察大学生英语相关素养，评判大学生英语素质是否达到大学规定标准的一种考核机制，具有较大的权威性和影响力。阅读理解作为四级试卷中重要的组成部分，也自然被列入考生的备考重点。那么，四级阅读理解能否真正实现对大学生英语素质的有效考核，其内容制定是否符合国家相关要求，也成为了不少学者研究的重点。

一、内容效度与测试目标、教学要求

四级阅读理解的内容效度实则是在考察阅读理解是否实现了对于大学生英语素质的有效检测，常用的方法便是依据对四级考试真题的分析，与《考试大纲》以及高校《教学要求》进行对照，看试题与其之间的贴合程度，以此检验四级阅读理解的内容效度。《考试大纲》中明确指出，四级考试的阅读理解内容是为了考察学生通过书面阅读获取相关信息的能力和信息理解能力。《教学要求》则指出，高校英语教学目标是培养学生的整体英语素养，提升学生的综合英语水平。

二、阅读理解内容效度分析

内容效度分析对象为2014年6月四级考试试题中的阅读理解题目，其中有三套不同的试题，题目设置都包含以下三类：完型填空题、多项选择类型的短文阅读以及快速阅读。下面我们分别对三种不同阅读理解类型作出考察与分析。

1.完型填空题。完形填空题目的设置是为了考察学生对于整体语境的感知能力以及相关词汇量积累程度。《考试大纲》中对于完形填空的篇幅长度作出了要求，一篇短文的词汇量在200到250词之间，短文的题材应接近于学生的知识背景，避免与学生生活和学习经验背离较远。通过对三套四级试卷的分析，可以知晓，三套试题中的完形填空篇幅都控制在200到250词之间，与大纲规定向吻合。从完形填空涉及的题材来看，分别为教育、天气和石油等方面的题材，学生接触度也较高，因此，与大纲要求相符合。从完形填空的考试题型来看，都设置为15选10，且词汇难易度有区分开来，能够对学生的英语水平实现有效检测。综上所述，三套四级试题中的完形填空的内容效度符合《考试大纲》与《教学要求》的相关规定，且能够实现对于学生英语素养高低的检验。但是该题型的设置是在一个相对固定的情景中，词汇涉及面较窄，因此使考察面有所限制；而且选项的词性也被固定，不能对学生自主运用词汇的水平进行有效测量。

2.短文阅读。《考试大纲》要求此类别的阅读篇幅为两篇，单篇长度在300到350词之间，主要考察大学生对于文章主要内容的理解和把握程度，每个选题设置四个选项，为单项选择题。经过对2014年6月四级试卷中此类阅读短文的考察可以得出，三套试题中的短文长度设置均符合大纲标准，在300-350之间；谈论的话题也是与大学生日常接触较为频繁的职场工资差异、领导力才能以及能源进口等内容，与大纲要求相符；由考试内容分析可以看出，第一套试卷与第二套试卷在观点判断题型、主题意图题型以及细节推理类题型的设置上相类似，与第三套试题在因果推理类型的题目上有较大差距，因此可以判断出三套试卷在此类型阅读类型的设置上有所出入，因此，其内容效度也会有所差别。而且此部分的考察设置与快速阅读类型的性质相仿，因此，有重复考察能力的倾向，使阅读理解的内容效度降低。

3.快速阅读。《考试大纲》中要求快速阅读类型的文章篇幅在1000词左右，考察的是学生快速识别主要信息和次要信息的能力。通过对2014年6月四级三套试卷的研究可以发现，三篇快速阅读的题材均为科普类说明性文章，文章题材相同；文章所谈论的话题也是有关触屏时代、纸质书籍的未来等方向，与学生日常接触的话题相接近；从文章长度来看，三篇文章都控制在1000字左右，符合大纲要求；从整体效果来看，三篇文章的难易程度相仿，因此不存在考题难易度有极大偏差的不公平现象。总结可知，快速阅读在整体考核上符合大纲要求，能够实现对大学生快速阅读能力的检测。

通过上述对于2014年6月三套四级试题中阅读理解题目的内容效度分析可知，四级阅读理解的内容效度符合《考试大纲》以及《教学要求》的相关规定，能够大致实现对于大学生英语素养的有效考察。但是，四级阅读理解还有其成长的空间，在题目类型的设置方面避免重复性，能够实现对不同知识背景学生差别性较小的考核题目，避免考试题目的偏差情况，最终实现对学生英语素养的有效检测。

参考文献：

[1]陶加辉，邬小琴.大学英语新四级阅读理解内容效度研究[J].教育与考试.2010（02）.

[2]张慧.大学英语四级新增快速阅读理解测试内容效度研究[J].高等函授学报（哲学社会科学版）.2010（05）.

篇5：大学英语四级阅读理解

The striving of countries in Central Europe to enter the European Union may offer anunprecedented chance to the continent’s Gypsies (or Roman) to be recognized as a nation,albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to achieve that they might even seeksome kind of formal place—at least a total population outnumbers that of many of the Union’spresent and future countries. Some experts put the figure at 4m-plus; some proponents ofGypsy rights go as high as 15m.

Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to hark back to. Though their languageis related to Hindi, their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held them to be bornon the moon. Other Europeans (wrongly) thought them migrant Egyptians, hence thederivative Gypsy. Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and entertainers whodrifted west from India in the 7th century.

However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a decade ago, the notion ofRomanestan as a landless nation founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. TheInternational Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more than 30 countries, isfostering the idea of “self-rallying”. It is trying to promote a standard and written form of thelanguage; it waves a Gypsy flag (green with a wheel) when it lobbies in such places as theUnited Bations; and in July it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where PresidentVaclav Havel said that Gypsies in his own country and elsewhere should have a better deal.

At the congress a Slovak-born lawyer, Emil Scuka, was elected president of the InternationalTomany Union. Later this month a group of elected Gypsy politicians, including members ofparliament, mayors and local councilors from all over Europe (OSCE), to discuss how topersuade more Gypsies to get involved in politics.

The International Romany Union is probably the most representative of the outfits that speakfor Gypsies, but that is not saying a lot. Of the several hundred delegates who gathered at itscongress, few were democratically elected; oddly, none came from Hungary, whose Gypsiesare perhaps the world’s best organized, with some 450 Gypsy bodies advising local councilsthere. The union did, however, announce its ambition to set up a parliament, but how itwould actually be elected was left undecided.

So far, the European Commission is wary of encouraging Gypsies to present themselves as anation. The might, it is feared, open a Pandora’s box already containing Basques, Corsicans andother awkward peoples. Besides, acknowledging Gypsies as a nation might backfire, just whenseveral countries, particularly Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, are beginning to treatthem better, in order to qualify for EU membership. “The EU’s whole premise is to overcomedifferences, not to highlight them,” says a nervous Eurocrat.

But the idea that the Gypsies should win some kind of special recognition as Europe’s largestcontinent wide minority, and one with a terrible history of persecution, is catching on . Gypsieshave suffered many pogroms over the centuries. In Romania, the country that still has thelargest number of them (more than 1m), in the 19th century they were actually enslaved. Hitlertried to wipe them out, along with the Jews.

“Gypsies deserve some space within European structures,” says Jan Marinus Wiersma, aDutchman in the European Parliament who suggests that one of the current commissionersshould be responsible for Gypsy affairs. Some prominent Gypsies say they should be moredirectly represented, perhaps with a quota in the European Parliament. That, they argue,might give them a boost. There are moves afoot to help them to get money for, among otherthings, a Gypsy university.

One big snag is that Europe’s Gypsies are, in fact, extremely heterogeneous. They belong tomany different, and often antagonistic, clans and tribes, with no common language or religion,Their self-proclaimed leaders have often proved quarrelsome and corrupt. Still, says,Dimitrina Petrova, head of the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, Gypsies’ sharedexperience of suffering entitles them to talk of one nation; their potential unity, she says,stems from “being regarded as sub-human by most majorities in Europe.”

And they have begun to be a bit more pragmatic. In Slovakia and Bulgaria, for instance, Gypsypolitical parties are trying to form electoral blocks that could win seats in parliament. InMacedonia, a Gypsy party already has some—and even runs a municipality. Nicholas Gheorge,an expert on Gypsy affairs at the OSCE, reckons that, spread over Central Europe, there arenow about 20 Gypsy MPS and mayors, 400-odd local councilors, and a growing number ofbusinessmen and intellectuals.

篇6：大学英语四级阅读

Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are sever over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general,the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness.

As regard the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality(道德). Also, parents should realize that “ example is better than precept ”. If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach(说教), their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.

A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

练习题：

Choose correct answers to the question:

1.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skill ______

A.can be avoided

B.is universal among parents

C.sets up dangerous states of worry in the child

D.will make him lose interest in learning new things

2.In the process of children’s learning new skills parents ________

A. should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read

B. should not expect too much of them

C. should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own

D.should creative as many learning opportunities as possible

3.The second paragraph mainly tells us that _________

A. parents should be strict with their children

B. parental controls reflect only the needs of the parents and the values of the community.

C. parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone.

D. parental vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation.

4.The word “precept” (Line3, Para.3) probably means “_______”

A. Idea

B.punishment

C. behavior

D. instruction

5.In moral matters, parents should ________

A. observe the rules themselves

B. be aware of the marked difference between adults and children

C. forbid things which have no foundation in morality

D.consistently ensure the security of their children

1.[B] 事实细节题。第1段第1句中的every parent，often等词表明这种做法在父母中是非常普遍的，显然B与之相符。A说法无原文依据，且由原文可看出题干所述现象是很难避免的;C中dangerous—词在原文中本是修饰其他情绪，故C不符;D是过多地让孩子自己一个独处的后果,不是题干所述行为的后果。

2.[C] 推理判断题。第1段第2句说明父母逼得太过分，应避免。最后一句则说明对小孩太放任自流同样不利。由这两点，我们可以做出如下判断：父母对孩子的“严”和“松”之间有一个恰当的“度”。C与之相符。

3.[C] 事实细节题。文章第2段表明：不同的家长对孩子的管制程度不同;家长对小孩的管制不仅是为了孩子个人的幸福，也反映了父母的需要以及社区的价值观，故C与原文相符。

4.[D] 词义理解题。由precept所在句可猜测precept应与example相对，且与下文的preach意思相近，故D正确。

【篇一】2021年6月英语四级考试阅读理解

　　By 1970, according to a World Wildlife Fund report, only about 4,500 tigers survived throughout the world-half of them in India. Mr. Foresters, who followed and counted tiger footprints, estimated that in May 1972 only about 1,800 tigers existed in India. Project Tiger Supported by W.W.F. was immediately launched. Nine tiger reserves(保留地) were created, with armed guards protecting them.

　　The project provided opportunities for researchers from India and abroad to study tigers in the reserves and gather previously unavailable information about their habits. Studies show that a male tiger may control a hunting territory of between 10 and 20 square kilometers, depending on its age, size and strength. Theterritory of male includes the smaller territories(领地) of three or four tigresses. A tiger marks the boundaries of its territories by spraying urine and other bodily liquids on bushes. But it tries to avoid territorial fights, being guided by the distinctive body smell of other tigers. Tigers fight to death only when a tigress is defending her young, or when a tiger is guarding a tigress from the attentions of other males.

　　The popular image of the tiger is that of a merciless and unconquerable hunter. But studies show that it catches only one of 20 victims it tries to attack.

　　Fears have recently developed that Project Tiger has been too successful. It has enabled the tiger population to double (by mid-80 S), but India"s human population has also grown out of control. Currently it is 750 million and likely to be 900 million by the end of the century. Land problem is becoming serious and many rural people feel bitter about the fact that some rich forests are reserved for tigers. A growing number of attacks by tigers on man has added to the hostility .

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.The ultimate aim of Project Tiger is to _____.

　　A.study the growth rate of tigers

　　B.protect tigers from being killed

　　C.promote the breeding of young tigers

　　D.analyze the behavioral patterns of tigers

　　2.Studies have shown that ______.

　　A.a tigress never attacks until attacked

　　B.the tigress is not as fierce as the tigers

　　C.a tiger usually fights another tiger to defend its own territory

　　D.the tiger is not an efficient hunter as is commonly described

　　3.According to the passage, a tiger"s territory _____.

　　A.remains unchanged

　　B.is often defended by tigresses

　　C.expands as the tiger grows up

　　D.is the cause of most fights

　　4.Some people are afraid that Project Tiger _____.

　　A.has been carried too far

　　B.has not received enough attention

　　C.has failed to achieve its goal

　　D.is not worth the money spent on it

　　5.The author seems _____.

　　A.to be enthusiastic about Project Tiger

　　B.to have a matter-of-fact attitude towards Project Tiger

　　C.to have a hostile attitude towards Project Tiger

　　D.to be satisfied with Project Tiger

　　1.[D] 根据文章第1段，老虎被捕杀是其数量剧减的根本原因，因此使老虎免于被杀是野生动物保护基金会的最终目的，故选D。

　　2.[B] 第3段第2句说，但研究表明老虎捕捉猎物的成功率仅为1/20，B与之相符。第2段说到老虎一般会避免领土之争，C与之不符，故排除;A、D在原文中并未提及均可排除。

　　3.[A] 第2段第2句提到，研究表明，一头雄老虎依年龄、体型及力量可以控制10至20公里的狩猎领地，随着老虎的长大，其体型及力量都在增大，其占领的狩猎领地的面积自然也就增大，故A正确。

　　4.[C] 文章第4段首句说,许多人近来开始担心老虎项目过于成功，C项是该句的同义替换，故为答案。

　　5.[B] 纵观全文，作者对于老虎保护项目没有加入个人的主观色彩，他持的是一种客观的态度，故选B。

【篇二】2021年6月英语四级考试阅读理解

　　When global warming finally came, it stuck with avengeance(异乎寻常地).In some regions, temperatures rose several degrees in less than acentury. Sea levels shot up nearly 400 feet. floodingcoastal settlements and forcing people to migrateinland. Deserts spread throughout the world asvegetation shifted drastically in North America. Europe and Asia. After driving many of theanimals around them to near extinction, people were forced to abandon their old way of lifefor a radically new survival strategy that resulted in widespread starvation and disease. The adaptation was farming: the global-warming crisis that gave rise to it happened morethan 10,000 years ago.

　　As environmentalists convene in Rio de Janeiro this week to ponder the global climate of thefuture, earth scientists are in the midst of a revolution in understanding how climate haschanged in the past-and how those changes have transformed human existence. Researchershave begun to piece together an illuminating picture of the powerful geological andastronomical forces that have combined to change the planet's environment from hot tocold, wet to dry and back again over a time period stretching back hundreds of millions ofyears.

　　Most important. scientists are beginning to realize that the climatic changes have bad a majorimpact on the evolution of the human species. New research now suggests that climateshifts have played a key role in nearly every significant turning point in human evolution: fromthe dawn of primates(灵长目动物) some 65 million years ago to human ancestors rising up towalk on two legs. from the huge expansion of the human brain to the rise of agriculture. Indeed, the human history has not been merely touched by global climate change, somescientists argue, it has in some instances been driven by it.

　　The new research has profound implications for the environment summit in Rio. Amongother things, the findings demonstrate that dramatic climate change is nothing new forplanet Earth. The benign(宜人的) global environment that has existed over the past 10,000 years-during which agriculture. writing, cities and most other features of civilization appeared-isa mere bright spot in a much larger pattern of widely varying climate over the ages. In fact, the pattern of climate change in the past reveals that Earth's climate will almost certainly gothrough dramatic changes in the future-even without the influence of human activity.

　　1.Farming emerged as a survival strategybecause man had been obliged__________.

　　A) to give up his former way of life

　　B) to leave the coastal areas

　　C) to follow the ever-shifting vegetation

　　D) to abandon his original settlement

　　2. Earth scientists have come to understand that climate____________.

　　A)is going through a fundamental change

　　B)has been getting warmer for 10,000 years

　　C) will eventually change from hot to cold

　　D) has gone through periodical changes

　　3.Scientists believe that human evolution________.

　　A) has seldom been accompanied by climatic changes

　　B) has exerted little influence on climatic changes

　　C) has largely been affected by climatic changes

　　D) has had a major impact on climatic changes

　　4.Evidence of past climatic changes indicates that__________.

　　A) human activities have accelerated changes of Earth's environment

　　B) Earth’s environment will remain mild despite human interference

　　C) Earth's climate is bound to change significantly in the future

　　D) Earth's climate is unlikely to undergo substantial changes in the future

　　5.The message the author wishes to convey in the passage is that______________.

　　A) human civilization remains glorious though it is affected by climatic changes

　　B) mankind is virtually helpless in the face of the dramatic changes of climate

　　C) man bas to limit his activities to slow down the global warming process

　　D) human civilization will continue io develop in spite of the changes of nature

　　1.务农成了糊口策略，因为人们已经被___________。

　　A)放弃原来的生活方式

　　B)离开海岸地区

　　C)跟随总在变化的植被情况

　　D)放弃原来的居住地

　　[A]文章第1段提到“人类在将其周围的许多种动物逼向濒临灭绝的境地之后，也被迫放弃他们已导致饥荒、疾病的旧有生活方式而选择全新的求生策略。这种策略就是农业”。A与文章的意思相符合。

　　2.地球科学家已经了解到，气候___________________。

　　A)正在经历重大的变化

　　B)已经在过去的l万年当中变得越来越热

　　C)终将从热变冷

　　D)已经经历了阶段性的变化

　　[D]文章第2段提到“研究者已经开始综合出一幅有关强大的地质和天文力量发生作用的说明性的图片，在过去的几百万年中，这两种力量结合在一起改变着地球的环境：从炎热到寒冷，从潮湿到干燥，如此反复，循环不止”，D与文章的意思一致。因而正确。

　　3.科学家认为人类的进化__________________。

　　A)极少伴随着气候变化

　　B)对气候变化的影响很小

　　C)深受气候变化的影响

　　D)对气候变化有重大影响

　　[C]文章第3段提到“最重要的是，科学家已经开始意识到气候的变化对人种的进化有着主要的影响。现在新的研究表明几乎在人类进化的每一个重大的转折时期天气变化都起着关键的作用”，所以人类进化受到气候变化的影响。因此，C正确。

　　4.过去气候变化的证据表明了__________________。

　　A)人类的活动已经加速了地球环境的变化

　　B)尽管受到了人类的干预，地球环境会保持湿和不变

　　C)地球的气候在未来会有重大的改变

　　D)地球的气候在未来不大可能发生实质性的改变

　　[C]文章最后一段提到“事实上，过去气候变化的模式表明地球的气候在将来肯定会经历重大的变化——即使是没有人类活动的影响”，因此，C与文章所表达的意思一致。

　　5.作者想通过文章传达出的信息是__________________。

　　A)虽然人类文明受到了气候变化的影响，但仍然绚烂无比

　　B)面对气候的剧烈变化，人类基本上束手无荣

　　C)人类应该限制自己的活动来减缓全球暖化的进程

　　D)尽管自然在发生变化，但人类文明仍会继续发展

　　[B]全文围绕气候变化给人类带来的影响展开，而文章最后一句“地球气候几乎注定要在将来发生巨大的变化——甚至无须人类的干预”，说明人类无力改变自然，B为正确答案。

【篇三】2021年6月英语四级考试阅读理解

　　Leonard da Vinci was a painter, a sculptor, anarchitect, a musician, an engineer, and a scientist. He was a man of many talents, a Renaissance man1 in the true sense of the word.

　　Leonard was born at a small town near Florence, where he was apprenticed to2 a painter. But he soonsurpassed his masters in uniting precision of linewith rhythm of movement, and in finding new ways to show light and shade.

　　Although Leonard is generally known as a painter, his actual output was very small. In facttoday only about twelve paintings are looked upon as3 having been done by him. This isbecause his diverse interest, his far-ranging curiosity in nature and his endless scientificexperiments and designings. To understand the man one has therefore , to read the 5, 000 notebooks in which he put down his observations in life and his sketch4 drawings.

　　Nevertheless, Leonard had profound understandings of art, which exerted5 great influenceamong the painters of his own generation and generations to follow. In painting he stressed theexpression of emotional states, which , to him were, the heart of painting:

　　"A good painter has two chief objects — to paint man and the intention of his soul. The formeris easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs. .. A painting will only be wonderful for the beholder by making that which is not so raisedand detached from the wall."

　　His major works: Last Supper, many European art masters have painted on the same subject. But none of their versions has been as impressive as da Vinci's. And none has the enduringvalue in the art world as his.

　　Mona Lisa, if Last Supper is the most famous of religious pictures, then Mona Lisa probably isthe world's most famous portrait. Mona Lisa had as its model wife of a banker. The quietlyfolded hands, the gaze that is directed at the observer, the ambiguity of the“smile”togetherhelp to create a curious effect and a secret effect.

　　阅读自测

　　Ⅰ. Read the passage and fill in the blanks with proper words :

　　Leonard da Vinci is first known as a________ , and he is also a________ , an________ , a________ , an________ , and a ________ . The amount of da Vinci's paintings is very small. There are only about________ paintings. For da Vinci, a good painter has two chief objects — to paint ________ and the ________ of his soul. In his famous work Mona Lisa , thequietly________ hands, the________ that is directed at the observer, the ambiguity of the"________ " together help to create a curious effect and a secret effect.

　　Ⅱ. Question :

　　What are da Vinci's famous paintings?

　　参考答案

　　Ⅰ. painter / sculptor / architect / musician / engineer / scientist / 12 / man / intention / folded / gaze / smile Ⅱ. Last Supper and Mona Lisa .

　　参考译文

　　达芬奇传奇

　　列奥纳多· 达· 芬奇是一位画家、一位雕刻家、一位建筑师、一位音乐家、一位工程师 和一位科学家。他多才多艺, 是一位真正的文艺复兴新人。

　　列奥纳多出生在佛罗伦萨附近的一个小城镇上, 从小给一位画家当学徒。但是, 很快 他就超越了老师。他将清晰的线条与绘画的动态感和谐地结合在一起, 找到了显示光与影 的新方式。

　　虽然通常列奥纳多是作为画家而闻名, 可他的画作数量并不多。事实上, 今天也只有 12 幅画被认为是他的作品。之所以这样, 是因为他兴趣广泛, 对自然界充满好奇, 还做了 无穷无尽的科学实验及设计。因此, 要了解这个人, 就必须去读那5 000 份笔记。在那些 笔记中, 达· 芬奇记录了他在生活中的观察结果与许多素描。

　　尽管如此, 列奥纳多对艺术还是有着深刻的理解。这对与他同时代的人及后人都有着深 远的影响。在绘画方面, 他强调对人物情感的传达。对他而言, 这是衡量绘画优秀与否 的灵魂所在:

　　“ 优秀的画家有两大目标——— 画人和画魂。前者易而后者难, 因为后者必须通过人物姿 态及肢体语言来表达一幅挂在墙上的画, 只有给人以呼之欲出之感, 才算得上是杰作。” 他的主要作品有:

　　《最后的晚餐》, 许多欧洲艺术大师都作了同样的画。但是, 没有一幅能像达· 芬奇的 那样给人留下深刻印象; 也没有哪幅作品能像达· 芬奇的那样在艺术界拥有持久的价值。

　　《蒙娜丽莎》, 如果说《最后的晚餐》是最有名的宗教画, 那么《蒙娜丽莎》则算得上世界 上最的肖像画。 《蒙娜丽莎》以一位银行家的妻子为模特。她娴静地搭在一起的双手, 凝视着欣赏者 的双眼以及那含义不甚明了的“ 微笑”, 共同创造出一种奇特而神秘的效果。

　　阅读导评

　　一生身兼数“职”, 在绘画、雕塑、建筑、科学方面都颇有建树的达·芬奇不愧是位传奇 人物。他的作品不仅给人以感官上的美的享受, 同时给人以无穷无尽的想象空间, 引人深 思。《达·芬奇密码》中对《最后的晚餐》*性的解读即体现了这种启发。难怪他经过了 历史批评的沉淀和净化至今依然光彩夺目。

　　阅读导释

　　1. Renaissance, 文艺复兴, 特指14—17 世纪的欧洲正在形成中的资产阶级在复兴希腊罗马 古典文化的名义下发起的弘扬资产阶级思想和文化的运动。名为“ 复兴”, 它本身却也 代表了一种进步。该运动发起于意大利, 波及整个欧洲, 囊括了文学、艺术、科学、哲学等 各个领域。被誉为西欧文学的三大天才巨匠———但丁( Dante, 1265—1321 ) 、莎士 比亚( Shakespeare, 1564—1616 ) 和歌德( Goethe, 1749—1832) , 以及“ 美术三杰”——— 达·芬奇、米开朗琪罗( Michelangelo, 1475—1564) 和拉斐尔( Raphael, 1483—1520) 都 是文艺复兴时代的精英。Renaissance man 则指“ 文艺复兴新人,文艺复兴时期的理想完 人”, 也可作“博学的人”,“ 多才多艺的人”,“开拓型人物”解。

　　2. 英语中很多名词转作动词用时, 很能提高句子质量, 此处的“be apprenticed to”就是一例。

　　3. 这是个非常有用的词组, 作“看作, 以为”解, 如: The Statue of Liberty is looked upon as the sign ofThe United States. ( 自由女神像被看作是美国的标志。) 和look 连用的短语很多, 如: look down upon / on 就是“看不起, 轻视”的意思, 而look down one's nose at 在口语中也是 表示“不把……放在眼里, 小看”。我们汉语中常说的“黑脸”, 就是指生气、厌恶或憎恨时 表现的怒容, 用a black look 表示。我们汉语说“三思而后行”, 英语是Look before you leap。

　　4. 在这里是“ 素描, 草图”的意思。达·芬奇一生不仅进行绘画创作, 还擅长画机械草图, 他认为人类可以模仿鸟类飞行, 就绘制了扑翼机图。

　　5. 这个词后面常和介词on 连用, 指“用( 某特质、技巧、压力等) , 应用( 某物) ”, 如: Her parents exerteda lot of pressure on her to succeed. ( 她父母殷切希望她成功, 给了她很大压力。

【篇四】2021年6月英语四级考试阅读理解

　　Ludwig Van Beethoven1 was one of the greatestmusicians in the 19 th century. John Lennon2 wasone of the greatest musicians in the 20 th century. Although there is a period of about 200 yearsbetween them, they are quite similar in certainways.

　　Both men expressed the spirit of their time in theirmusic. Beethoven lived in the period of rising capitalism. At that time, people were trying tobreak the shackles of feudalism3 , and they were pursuing freedom, equality, and universallove. This social trend, especially the French revolution, greatly inspired Beethoven. Hismusic was very active, passionate, and vigorous. Some of his works praised heroism, someconveyed the love for nature, and some extolled4 harmony among people. Similarly, Lennon'smusic revealed his time. In the 1960s and 1970 s, the youth in America were deeply frustratedby the discrimination and injustice in the society and were longing to build a new one . Mostof Lennon's songs expressed the ideas of the youth. In one of his songs entitled Imagine, hesings, "Imagine all the people , living under peace", and "The world will be united together asone". These words show his anti-war attitude and his hope for peace , and reflect the spirit ofthe 60s and 70 s.

　　Both men were social rebels to some extent. They refused to bow to social conventions andpower. Beethoven was a devoted republican. When Napoleon5 was in power, who claimed tobe a defender of republicanism, Beethoven admired him so much that he dedicated hisSymphony No. 3, the theme of which is heroism, to him. But then Napoleon crowned6 himselfand became an emperor. Beethoven was so angry that he openly declared he took back whathe had said about Napoleon, regardless of possible persecution. Lennon was also considered atrouble-maker by the authorities because of his support for youth movements. For a time hewas not even allowed to give public performances. But he ignored all this and stuck to hisbelief.

　　阅读自测

　　Ⅰ. Fin d the correct me anings of the words in the left from the right side :

　　1. passionate A. praise somebody or something highly

　　2. dedicate B. discouraged, not satisfied

　　3. frustrated C. caused by or showing strong feelings

　　4. stick to D. not change something; keep to

　　5. extol E. address ( one's book, a piece of music) to somebody as a way of showing respect

　　Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks :

　　1. At the time of capitalism, people were trying to break the _____________( 枷锁) offeudalism to pursue freedom _____________( 平等) and _____________( 博爱) . 2. In the 60 s and 70s, the youth in America were deeply frustrated by the _____________( 歧 视) and_____________( 不公正) in the society and were longing to build a new one. 3. They refusedto bow to social _____________( 习俗) and power and Beethoven was a _____________( 忠实的) republican. 4. But then Napoleon ________( 加冕) himself and became an emperor.

　　参考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. C 2 . E 3. B 4 . D 5. A

　　Ⅱ. 1. shackles / equality / universal love 2. discrimination / injustice 3. conventions / devoted4. crowned

　　参考译文

　　以音乐作武器

　　路德维希· 冯·贝多芬是18 世纪最伟大的音乐家之一。约翰· 列侬则是20 世纪最 有成就的音乐家之一。尽管两人相距近两百年, 但是他们在某些方面却极其相似。

　　贝多芬和列侬都在音乐中表达各自的时代精神。贝多芬生活在资本主义崛起之时。 那时, 人们正试图打破封建主义的枷锁, 追求自由、平等和博爱。这种社会趋势, 特别是法 国*, 给了他极大的启发。贝多芬的音乐非常积极向上、热情激昂、气势磅礴。他的音 乐作品有的赞美英雄主义, 有的表达对自然的热爱之情, 还有的歌颂人与人之间的融洽情 感。和贝多芬一样, 列侬的音乐也展示了他生活的那个时代。20 世纪60 年代与70 年代, 美国社会上出现的歧视与不公正现象强烈地打击了青年们, 他们都期望建立新的社会。列 侬的歌曲大多表达了青年的这种思想。他在一首名为《想象》的歌曲中唱道,“ 想象全人类 都生活在和平之中”,“ 世界大同”。这些歌词表达了他的反战情绪以及对和平的向往之 情, 并反射出上世纪60 和70 年代的时代精神。

　　在 一定程度上, 两人都是社会的叛逆者。他们拒绝向社会习俗和权势低头。贝多芬是 个忠实的共和党人。拿破仑当权时曾宣称自己是共和制的捍卫者, 贝多芬非常钦佩他, 就 把歌颂英雄主义的作品《第三交响曲》献给了他。但是不久, 拿破仑就加冕称帝了。贝多 芬异常气愤, 不顾可能遭受的迫 害, 公开宣布收回对拿破仑的赞扬。列侬因支持青年运动 也被当权者认定是捣乱分子, 甚至一度遭到封 杀, 可他却依然不顾一切地坚持自己的信仰。

　　阅读导评

　　我国音乐家冼星海说过:“音乐是人生的快乐, 音乐是生活中的一股清泉, 音 乐是陶冶性情的熔炉。”贝多芬和列侬不仅体验到了这种快乐, 还从中获得了一种促使他们 前进的精神力量。为了更好地生活, 我们也当悉心倾听音乐。倾听音乐才能更好地领悟音 乐。能够领悟音乐的人, 才能从一切世俗的烦恼中超脱出来, 才能更好地驾驭生活, 才能成 为生活的主人。

　　阅读导释

　　1. 路德维希·冯·贝多芬( 1770—1827) , 德国作曲家, 毕生追求“ 自由、平等、博爱”的理 想, 其创作集西方古典乐派之大成, 开浪漫乐派之先河, 对后世西洋音乐的发展有深远影 响。贝多芬被后人尊称为“ 乐圣”, 其主要作品有《英雄》、《命运》、《田园》等交响乐9部,《悲怆》、《月光》、《暴风雨》等钢琴奏鸣曲32 部及弦乐四重奏17 部。文章中提及的 Symphony No. 3 即《第三交响曲》, 作品原来打算题献给贝多芬心目中的英雄拿破仑, 但 当他听说拿破仑称帝, 便划掉了献词。共和主义原则使他义愤填膺, 于是把题词改为 “ 为了纪念一位伟人”。

　　2. 约翰·列侬( 1940—1980) ,“ 披头士”( Beatles) 乐队主要代表人物, 被称为“ 摇滚之父”。 大家所熟悉的歌曲《黄色潜水艇》与《昨天》均出自该乐队。这支乐队属于先锋派, 他们比 较狂热与敏感, 是和平的忠实捍卫者。1980 年12 月8 日, 列侬在自己曼哈顿公寓的门口, 被一名疯狂的歌迷枪杀。文章中提到的《想象》表达了列侬呼唤和平时代到来的思想。

　　3. shackle 原意是“镣铐, 手 铐, 脚镣”, 常比喻为“ 枷锁, 桎梏, 束缚”, 这里就取此词的比喻 义。feudalism意思是“封建主义, 封建制度”, 与前文中的capitalism, 即“ 资本主义, 资本 主义制度”是相对而言的。

　　4. 这个词的意思是“ 颂扬, 赞扬, 赞美”, 是个美化用语的动词, 如: extol one's merits ( 称颂 某人的功绩) ; extol one to the skies ( 把某人捧上天) 。

　　5. 这里指的是通常所说的拿破仑一世( 1769—1821) , 法兰西第一帝国和百日王朝皇帝。 1804 年, 拿破仑发动雾月18 日政变, 自任第一执政。他称帝后颁布的《拿破仑法典》对 后世有着重要影响。他在位时连年对外用兵, 滑铁卢战役惨败后被流放到圣赫勒拿岛。 今天所说的短语meet one's waterloo ( 惨遭失败) 即来源于此。

　　6. 该词原本指“皇 冠, 桂冠”, 这里用作动词, 意思是“ 为……加冕, 立……为君王”, 还有 “ 给……戴( 花冠) , 授……以荣誉”的意思, 如: The Emperor crowned the victor with laurel. ( 国王授予胜利者以桂冠。) 词组the crown of the year 则指“收获季节, 秋季”。

英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇1

　　Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way.

　　First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air.

　　One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly.

　　1.．Why should pruning be done?

　　A．To make the tree grow taller. B．To improve the shape of the tree.

　　C．to get rid of the small ranches . D．To make the small branches thicker.

　　2.．Trees become unhealthy if the gardener__________.

　　A. giving a tree a special shape and adefinite height

　　B. removing small side branches and making atree look less thick

　　C. allowing too many branches to grow in themiddle

　　D. having a tree surrounded by many othertrees

　　3.．Why is a special material painted on the tree?

　　A．To help a wound to dry. B．to cover a rough surface.

　　C．To make a wound smooth. D．To prevent disease entering a wound.

　　4.．A good gardener prunes a tree _________ .

　　A．several times throughout the year B．as quickly as possible

　　C．occasionally when necessary D．regularly every winter

　　5.．What was the author’s purpose when writingthis passage?

　　A．To discuss different methods of pruning.

　　B．To introduce some common knowledge of pruning.

　　C．To explain how trees developdisease.

　　D．To give practical instruction for pruning atree.

　　英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇2

　　Baekeland and Hartmann report that the “short sleepers” had been more or less average in their sleep needs until the men were in their teens. But at about age 15 or so, the men voluntarily began cutting down their nightly sleep time because of pressures from school, work, and other activities. These men tended to view their nightly periods of unconsciousness as bothersome interruptions in their daily routines. In general, these “short sleeps” appeared ambitious, active, energetic, cheerful, conformist(不动摇) in their opinions, and very sure about their career choices. They often held several jobs at once, or workers full-or part-time while going to school. And many of them had a strong urge to appear “normal” or “acceptable” to their friends and associates. When asked to recall their dreams, the “short sleepers” did poorly. More than this, they seemed to prefer not remembering. In similar fashion, their usual way of dealing with psychological problems was to deny that the problem existed, and then to keep busy in the hope that the trouble would go away. The sleep patterns of the “short sleepers” were similar to, but less extreme than, sleep patterns shown by many mental patients categorized as manic(疯人). The “long sleepers” were quite different indeed. Baekeland and Hartmann report that these young men had been lengthy sleeps since childhood. They seemed to enjoy their sleep, protected it, and were quite concerned when they were occasionally deprived of their desired 9 hours of nightly bed rest. They tended to recall their dreams much better than did the “short sleepers.” Many of the “long sleepers” were shy, anxious, introverted (内向), inhibited (压抑), passive, mildly depressed, and unsure of themselves (particularly in social situations). Several openly states that sleep was an escape from their daily problems.

　　1. According to the report,______. A) many short sleepers need less sleep by nature B) many short sleepers are obliged to reduce their nightly sleep time because they are busy with their work C) long sleepers sleep a longer period of time during the day D) many long sleepers preserve their sleeping habit formed during their childhood

　　2. Many “short sleepers” are likely to hold the view that _____. A) sleep is a withdrawal from the reality B) sleep interferes with their sound judgement C) sleep is the least expensive item on their routine program D) sleep is the best way to deal with psychological troubles

　　3. It is stated in the third paragraph that short sleepers _____. A) are ideally vigorous even under the pressures of life B) often neglect the consequences of inadequate sleep C) do not know how to relax properly D) are more unlikely to run into mental problems

　　4. When sometimes they cannot enjoy adequate sleep, the long sleepers might ____. A) appear disturbed B) become energetic C) feel dissatisfied D) be extremely depressed

　　5. Which of the following is Not included in the passage? A) If one sleeps inadequately, his performance suffers and his memory is weakened B) The sleep patterns of short sleepers are exactly the sane as those shown by many mental patients C) Long and short sleepers differ in their attitudes towards sleep D) Short sleepers would be better off with more rest

　　【答案及详解】 答案：DCBAB 贝克尔和哈特曼报道说，“睡眠少的人”在未进入少年期之前，其正常睡眠时间大致与所需要的时间差不多。但到了15岁左右，由于学校、工作或其它活动的地压力，他们就故意地减少了夜间睡眠的时间。这些人持有这样的观点：夜间睡眠是一件令人讨厌的事情，打断了日常事务。 总的说来，这些“睡眠少的人”表现得雄心勃勃、积极活跃、精力充沛、无意识乐观豁达、立场坚定，对自己职业的选择胸有成竹。他们往往同时从事几项工作，或者一边上学读书，一边从事专职或兼职工作。其中许多人有强烈愿望，想在朋友和熟人面前表现得“正常”或“合群”。 当让他们回忆梦境时，“睡眠少的人”回忆不起什么来。更有甚者，他们似乎情愿什么都记不住。类似的情况是他们通常处理心理问题的方式：不承认问题的存在，希望只要忙忙碌碌，麻烦总会过去的。 “睡眠少的人”的睡眠模式与被划入疯子之类精神病患者的睡眠模式十分相似，只不过没有那么严重而已。 “睡眠多的人”情形则大不相同。贝克尔和哈特曼报道说，这些年轻人从小的，有抱负的睡眠就一直很长。他们好像注重睡眠，不让睡眠受打搅。偶尔没有所需的9个小时夜间卧床休息，他们便会十分不安。他们比“睡眠少的人”要更能回忆得起梦的内容。许多“睡眠多的人”腼腆、焦躁、内向、压抑、消极和稍微有点儿沮丧，尤其在社交场合缺乏自信。好几个人坦言，睡眠是摆脱每天烦恼的一种方式。

　　英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇3

　　Passage Three

　　Method of Scientific Inquiry

　　Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deduction—by steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.

　　A failure to employ or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observation—these are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or the moderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.

　　The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of “facts” and “theories” or “facts” and “ideas”—in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latter—proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts and theories are not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are facts—a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.

　　Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. To convert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the full characteristics of a fact.

　　1. The title that best expresses the ideas of this passage is

　　[A]. Philosophy of mathematics. [B]. The Recent Growth in Science.

　　[C]. The Verification of Facts. [C]. Methods of Scientific Inquiry.

　　2. According to the author, one possible reason for the growth of science during the days of the ancient Greeks and in modern times is

　　[A]. the similarity between the two periods.

　　[B]. that it was an act of God.

　　[C]. that both tried to develop the inductive method.

　　[D]. due to the decline of the deductive method.

　　3. The difference between “fact” and “theory”

　　[A]. is that the latter needs confirmation.

　　[B]. rests on the simplicity of the former.

　　[C]. is the difference between the modern scientists and the ancient Greeks.

　　[D]. helps us to understand the deductive method.

　　4. According to the author, mathematics is

　　[A]. an inductive science. [B]. in need of simple verification.

　　[C]. a deductive science. [D]. based on fact and theory.

　　5. The statement “Theories are facts” may be called.

　　[A]. a metaphor. [B]. a paradox.

　　[C]. an appraisal of the inductive and deductive methods.

　　[D]. a pun.

　　Vocabulary

　　1. inductive 归纳法

　　induction n.归纳法

　　2. deductive 演绎法

　　deduction n.演绎法

　　3. culmination 到达顶/极点

　　4. conversant （with） 熟悉的，精通的

　　5. exercise 运用，实行，执行仪式

　　singular 卓越的，非凡的，独一无二的

　　6. conjunction 结合，同时发生

　　7. omnipotence 全能，无限权/威力

　　8. Providence （大写）指上帝，天道，天令

　　9. commonplace 平凡的，陈腐的

　　10. inquiry 调查，探究（真理，知识等）

　　11. doctrine 教义，学说，讲义

　　12. correlative 相互关联的

　　13. antithesis 对立面，对偶（修辞学中），对句

　　14. coordinate 同等的，并列的

　　15. subsist 生存，维持生活

　　16. attribute 特征，属性

　　17. connote 意味着，含蓄（指词内涵）

　　难句译注

　　1. Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant.

　　[结构简析] 破折号后面的内容（见难句译注2）先撇开。这样便于理解，整个句子是主谓表结构，前面一个问题句作主语，question后跟一个定语从句，和not less than连接的表语。

　　[参考译文] 为什么归纳发和数学科学，在希腊文明达到顶点时首先快速发展后，两千年内进展缓慢，现在哲学家对这个问题的兴趣不亚于对这些科学很熟悉研究的对象。

　　2. …—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—…

　　[参考译文] 问什么在后来的二百年中自然科学数理科学积累起来，它们广泛的超越了过去已知的一切，所以就把这些科学视为我们时代的产品。

　　3. arrested development 停滞发展（被制止了的发展）。

　　4. Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　[参考译文] 或者我们是否应当把两个阶段的特点归因于所谓的历史的偶然性（意外事件）——归因于客观环境中相似（结合）的影响。这一点除非以指导一切的上帝的智慧和无限权利来解释，否则难以解说清楚。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是篇议论文，论及科学探索的方法，总体是因果写法，具体分析又是对比写法。作者采用问答方式探究为什么希腊文明顶峰之后两千年，科技发展缓慢，而最近两百年又迅速发展超越前人，其原因在哪里?是采用新，旧方法所致，历史之偶然性，还是上天安排。

　　然后以现代用归纳法，古代用演绎法太狭隘说明科学总是在观察，实验，检验，证实中前进。但事实难以解释慢和快的现象。最后以“对立”——事实和理论对立古代重视事实来解释。然这两者是对立的统一。真正的理论就是事实。事实，构成之间具逻辑联系，就具有理论的一切正面特性。这种区分虽不足以解释科学研究中真正方法，但奠定了良好的基础，含有真正方法中的重要特性。

　　答案详解

　　1. D. 科学研究/探索的方法。文章一开始就提出问题，为什么从希腊文化顶峰时期后两千年来归纳法和数学科学发展如此缓慢，而后的两百年又超越了前人，是应用新，旧方法关系还是其它（见难句译注1，2）。第二段讲埃及古代在科学探索中运用了演绎推理法，而现在应用了归纳法。这种解释太狭隘，经仔细审核，难以很清晰地点明古代和现代科学教义和探究上明显的`差别。因为一切知识都基于观察，通过分析，综合，或综合分析，归纳演绎推理，有可能的话，经过校正或经由演绎指导下再观察而向前推进。第三段进一步阐明不用这些方法观察，实验;忽略相关事实，推理不慎;不能答出理论的结论，再用实验或观察来检验等或用得不全，不论在古代还是现代都会失败。但这不能说明为什么现代科学具有较高的功效，通过什么方式方法，超越了前人，更不用说说明最近科学突飞猛进的原因。第四，五段涉及事实和理论的关系。

　　A. 数学的哲学，文内没有提。 B. 近来科学的发展。 C. 事实的验证，只是最后两段提及验证方法之作用。

　　2. B. 是上天的安排，这是作家在用方法论等失败后得出的结论。见难句译注4，第一段最后一句话。

　　A. 两个阶段的相似性。 . 两者都试图应用归纳法。 D. 由于演绎法的衰落。

　　3. A. 后者需要证实。答案在第四，五段，死段试图在事实的对立面和理论，或事实和思想中发现上述现象的解释看起来有饿太狭隘，也会因模糊不清遭批评。因为，对立面不全面，事实和理论不是同类的事物。理论，如果是真正的理论，就是事实——一种特殊类别的事实，一般复杂，但仍是事实。而事实，从词的狭义来说，如果很复杂，如果各成分中存在着逻辑的联系，就具有理论的一切主要特征。第五段第二句，事实是一个提议，通过运用知识的源泉和经验而证实的提议直接而又简单。而理论，若是真理论，就有事实的一切特性（除非其证实只能通过非直接的，遥远的和困难的方式方法），把理论转成事实必须用简单的核实，理论因此具有事实的一切特性。

　　B. 前者简单。 C. 是现代科学家和古希腊的差异。 D. 帮助我们了解演绎法，三项都不对。

　　4. C. 是推理演绎科学，这个问题常识就能回答。

　　A. 归纳法科学。 B. 需要简单证实。 D. 基于事实和理论。

　　5. B. 是一个悖论，见第四，五段注释。

　　A. 比喻。 C. 对归纳法和演绎法的赞扬。 D. 双关语。

　英语四级阅读理解训练题 1

　　Congratulations, Mr. Jones, its a girl."

　　Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning and bring forth a different response from every man who hears these words. Some feel pride when they receive the news, while others worry, wondering whether they will be good fathers. Although there are some men who like children and may have had considerable experiencewith them, others do not particularly care for children and spend little time with them. Many fathers and mothers have been planning and looking forward to children for some time. For other couples, pregnancy wasan accident that both husband and wife have accepted willingly or unwillingly.

　　Whatever the reaction to the birth of a child, it is obvious that the shift from the role of husband to that of father is a difficult task. Yet, unfortunately, few attempts have been made to educate fathers in this reconciliation (协调) process. Although numerous books have been written about American mothers, only recently has literature focused on the role of fathers.

　　It is argued by some writers that the change to the fathers role, although difficult, is not nearly as great as the change the wife must take to the mothers role. The mothers role seems to require a complete transformation in daily routine and highly innovative(创新的) adaptation. On the other hand, the fathers role is less demanding and immediate. However, even though we mentioned the fact that growing numbers of women are working outside the home, the father is still thought by many as the breadwinner in the household.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.What can we know about fatherhood from the passage?

　　A.It brings a feeling of excitement to most man

　　B.It make some man feel proud and others uneasy

　　C.It has a different meaning for men who have daughters

　　D.It means a responsibility that men accept unwillingly

　　2.What does the passage say about the shift from the role of husband to that of father?

　　A. Numerous books have been written about it.

　　B. Not enough attention has been paid to it.

　　C. The shift is harder for men than for women.

　　D. The shift is a difficult but incomplete one.

　　3.What can we know about mothers from the passage?

　　A.Mothers get more attention and recognition from society

　　B.Mothers are innovative and demanding according to some writers

　　C.Mothers generally stay at home to take care of the children

　　D.Mothers should help fathers in their reconciliation process

　　4.Which of the following will the author most probably disagree with?

　　A. Its as difficult to be a father as it is to be a mother.

　　B. More books should focus on the role of fathers.

　　C. The father is still the breadwinner in the household.

　　D. Fathers are as important to children as mothers.

　　5.The authors purpose in writing this passage is to

　　A. explain why there are few books on the role of fathers.

　　B. praise mothers for their great contributions to the home.

　　C. criticize fathers for not taking enough responsibility in bringing up the children.

　　D. complain about the lack of social programs to help fathers in their role shift.

　　参考答案

　　1.[B] 事实细节题。由第2段第2句中的pride和worry可以判断选项B是对该句的近义替换。选项A原文未提到。选项C曲解了原文第2段第1句的意思，该句中的“Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning”表示对于每个男人来说当上父亲具有不同的意义，而不是就琼斯先生而言。第2段最后一句表明只有部分人不情愿接受责任，因此在D选项men前面加上some才正确。

　　2.[B] 推理判断题。根据第3段最后两句可以推断选项B正确。选项A与第3段最后一句陈述的相反。最后一段第1句虽有提及向父亲角色的转变很困难,但并未像选项C那样对比。选项D错在incomplete一词,文中并未提及与该词相关的内容。

　　3.[A] 推理判断题。本题可用排除法。选项B曲解了最后一段第2、3句对母亲角色的描述。选项C与原文最后一句不符。选项D原文未提及。只有选项A概括了全文关于母亲的论述，而且第2段最后一句也暗示母亲受到的关注更多。

　　4.[C] 推理判断题。最后一句提到很多人仍然认为父亲应该负担家计,但从本句的用词如even though和still可以看出作者对这种看法并不认同，由此可以判断只有选项C作者可能不赞成。

　　5.[D] 主旨大意题。原文第1、2段讲到父亲们对将为人父的不同反应;第3段指出很少有人尝试帮助父亲完成角色的转换;最后一段是一些作家对此做出的不太符合事实的解释，因此，只有选项D能概括文章的写作目的。选项A只是文中第2段中的某个细节;选项B的重点是mother,与本文的论题不符;作者并无批评父亲之意，因此选项C不正确。

　　英语四级阅读理解训练题 2

　　Merchant and passenger ships are generally required to have a life preserver for every person aboard and in many cases, a certain percentage of smaller sizes for children. According to United States requirements, life preservers must design, reversible capable of being quickly adjusted to fit the uninitiated individual, and must be so designed as to support the wearer in the water in an upright or slightly backward position.

　　Sufficient buoyancy(浮力) to support the wearer should be retained by the life preserver after 48 hours in the water, and it should be reliable even after long period of storage. Thus it should be made of materials resistant to sunlight, gasoline, and oils, and it should be not easily set on fire.?The position in which the life preserver will support a person who jumps or falls into the water is most important, as is its tendency to turn the wearer in the water from a face-down position to an upright or slightly backward position, with his face clear of the water, even when the wearer is exhausted or unconscious.

　　The method of adjustment to the body should be simple, and self-evident to uninitiated persons even in the dark under the confused conditions, which follow a disaster. Thus, the life be reversible that it is nearly impossible to get it on wrong. Catches, straps, and ties should be kept to a minimum. In addition, the life preserver must be adjustable to the wide variety of shapes and sizes of wearers, since this greatly affects the position of floating and the self-righting qualities. A suitable life also be comfortable to wear at all times, in and out of the water, not so heavy as to encourage to take it off on shipboard while the ship is in danger, nor so burdensome that it hinders a person in the water while trying to swim.

　　1. The passage is mainly about____.

　　A) the uses of life preservers

　　B) the design of life preservers

　　C) the materials for life preservers

　　D) the buoyancy of life preservers

　　2. According to the passage, a life be first of all ____.

　　A) adjustable B) comfortable C) self-evident D) self-righting

　　3. United States Coast Guard does NOT require the life preserver to be made ____.

　　A) with as few strings as possible

　　B) capable of being worn on both sides

　　C) according to each wearers size

　　D) comfortable and light to wear

　　4. By “the uninitiated individual” (Para. 1, Line. 4) the author refers to the person ____.

　　A) who has not been instructed how to use a life preserver

　　B) who has a little experience in using a life preserver

　　C) who uses a life preserver without permission

　　D) who becomes nervous before a disaster

　　5. What would happen if a person were supported by the life preserver in a wrong position?

　　A) The waves would move him backwards.

　　B) The water would choke him.

　　C) He would immediately sink to the bottom.

　　D) He would be exhausted or unconscious.

　　答案解析:

　　1. B文章主要讲述了救生衣的设计。间接题型段首主旨题。C项和D项都是对救生衣设计中设计材料的说明。A项为陷阱，指救生衣的用途，尽管开头提到，但范围不着边际。故只有B是正确选项。

　　2. D根据文章，救生衣首先会自动扶正。事实细节题。本文第三段主要讨论救生衣落水位置，应设计的能“自动扶正”,或稍向后仰。B项是对材料的描述，范围太窄，而A和C不合题意，因此D是正确答案。

　　3. C美国海岸巡逻队不需要救生衣根据穿戴者的尺寸生产。事实细节题。A项和B项都涉及method，其相关部分见最后一段第三句，A，B，D三项都是文章中提及的，C项与本题无关的内容，因此应该选C。

　　4. A“the uninitiated individual”作者指的是不知道怎么使用救生衣的人。语义指代题。根据文章最后一段第一句，我们可推出“the uninitiated individual”就是指的那些不知道怎么使用救生衣的人。故A是正确选项。

　　5. D如果一个人没有正确使用救生衣，就会发生什么?细节辨别题。第三段第一句后半句中a face-down position和本题中的 in a wrong position相对应。因此选项D“他可能太累了或者是已经失去知觉”是正确答案。

　　英语四级阅读理解训练题 3

　　Not all sounds made by animals serve as language, and we have only to turn to that extraordinary discovery of echolocation (回声定位) in bats to see a case in which the voice plays a strictly practical role.

　　To get a full appreciation of what this means we must turn first to some recent human inventions. Everyoneknows that if he shouts near a wall or a mountainside, an echo will come back. The further off this solid obstacle, the longer time it will take for the return of the echo. A sound made by tapping on the main body of a ship will be reflected from the sea bottom, and by measuring the time interval between the taps andthe receipt of the echoes the depth of the sea at that point can be calculated. So was born the echo-sounding equipment, now in general use in ships. Every solid object will reflect a sound, varying according to the size and nature of the object. A shoal of fish will do this. So it is a comparatively simple step fromlocating the sea bottom to locating a shoal of fish. With experience, and with improved equipment, it is now possible not only to locate fish but to tell if it is herring, cod, or other well-known fish, by the pattern of its echo.

　　A few years ago it was found that certain bats emit squeaks (吱吱声) and by receiving ’he echoes they could locate and steer clear of obstacles--or locate flying insects on which they feed. This echolocation in bats is often compared with radar, the principle of which is similar.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.The main purpose of this passage is to ______.

　　A. describe that animals can make different sounds

　　B. prove that animals’ voices can play practical roles

　　C. inspire the readers to make more inventions

　　D. startle the readers with some shocking facts

　　2. The discovery of echolocation may help with all of the following EXCEPT

　　A. measuring the depth of the sea

　　B. distinguishing different kinds of fish

　　C. improving the functions of radar

　　D. varying the size and nature of an object

　　3. By saying "A shoal of fish will do this"(Lines 6-7, Para. 2), the author means ________.

　　A. only one special kind of fish can reflect sounds

　　B. only one special kind of fish can be used to help locate a ship

　　C. a large group of fish can reflect sounds

　　D. a large group of fish can be used to help locate a ship

　　4. As it is discussed in the passage, the squeaks of bats can be functionally compared with ________.

　　A. human languages

　　B. a mountainside

　　C. a shoal of fish

　　D. taps on a ship

　　5. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?

　　A. Animals are more intelligent than humans.

　　B. Humans are more intelligent than animals.

　　C. Animals are often compared with human inventions.

　　D. Humans are often inspired by animals.

　　答案解析

　　1.[B] 主旨大意题。文章第1段就点明主题，明确指出以蝙蝠为例，动物发出的声音有实际作用，只有B可以概括文章的这个写作目的。

　　2.[C] 事实细节题。本题考査列举处，可用排除法解答。A、B、C在文中都有相关提及。D利用第2段中的varying制造干扰。在原文中，指的是回声因障碍物的不同而不同，而D偷换概念、曲解文意，D中的varying为及物动词，意为“改变”,显然不可能是回声定位的发现带来的功效。

　　3.[C] 词义推断题。本题考查对shoal的词义推测及代词this的理解。依据第2段最后几句话,可推测出a shoal of fish指的是“海里的一群鱼”;this则是指上一句提到的“任何固体都可以反射声音”，因此这句话表明一大群鱼就能像一个固体一样反射声音。

　　4.[D] 推理判断题。根据最后一段可知，蝙蝠发出吱吱声可以探测障碍物的距离，而第2段也指出轻敲船体可测知海底的距离，因此在功能上,D与蝙蝠的吱吱声相同。A中的human languages在文中未提到;B和C在文中各自的例子中充当的都是障碍物的角色，因此都不正确。

　　5.[D] 推理判断题。文章先说动物的回声定位功能,再说到回声定位探测仪的发明,由此可见，是动物的某些能力启发了人类的创造，因此只有D可从文中推测。文章并没有从智力方面比较人类和动物，因此可以排除A 和B;尽管文章说到了蝙蝠和雷达的原理相似，但是C中的often一词无据可循，且C的说法浮于表面，没有说到重点，故排除。

    6月四级阅读答案
    阅读第一套
    选词填空
    文章开头
    A team of researchers led by
    Priyanka..
    答案速查
    26-35 OBCAD MNIFE.
    26.0)ultimate
    27.B) attaining
    30.D) difficultark 星火英语
    28.C)conclusion
    29.A) approximately
    30.D) difficult
    31.M) significantly
    32.N)source
    33.l) manipulated
    34.F)fixed
    35.E)emerges
    阅读第一套
    长篇阅读
    文章标题How to better work towards long-term goals
    36-40ICMFA题干、答案和定位处
    36. Our brains are genetically determined tosatisfyimmediate desires.1)定位: Our brains are hard-wired for instantgratification.
    37. Taken in a practical way,saving for post-workyears is like8icnseh. x derst ndon cnat way, saving foretirement isthe equivalent of giving money awayto someone elseentirely.
    38. Research found that, as regards achievementof one'sgoals,it is important to focus more onenjoying the processthm, the o.s hese pedefts suegest that whedititcomes toachieving your goals, enjoving theprocess itself is moreimportant than wanting thelong-term benefits.
    39.Regarding our future selves as still beingourselves willhecp ve mare betertole robledeci'sicfolows thattrying toidentify more closely with our future selves will encourageus to make better long-termdecisions.
    40.Savings rates in America have dropped inrecent decadeseven though people's lifeexpectancy has increased.A 定位: Across the board, people are livinglonger... Andyet, saving rates in the U.S. have gonedown in recent decade,not up.
    41.Researchers found that enjoyment rather级thanimportance enabled people to persist in theirgoals.K定位: We found that enjoyment predictedpeoplegoal persistence two months aftersetting the goal far moreihan how important theyrated their goa to be, Woolley said
    42.When making decisions, we give priority to ourcurrentframe of mind without thinking much ofthe consequences.E)定位:…but in daing so, we prioritize ourcurrent moodover the consequences ofour火央inaction for thfuture slf.
    43.People ate more of a healthy food when theyfocused onitgose iereresseaole, neoole te gooeneore of ahealthyfood when directed to focus on the goodtaste rather thanthe long-term health benefits.
    44.As was expected, when people thought of theirpresentselves,their brains were observed tobecome more active.(B】定位:Unsurprisingly, people’s brains weremost activewhen thinking about their currentselves and..
    45.Researchers found that participants who sawthe imagesof their aged selves would save morefor their later years thanthose who didn't.G)定位: Participants who saw their aged selvessaid theywould save 30% more of their salary fordretirement than thecontrol group.

Passage One
    文章开头
    People often wonder why some entrepreneurs 
    答案46-50 BADCB
    46.What does the author say we need to do tostrengthen ourwillpower?
    B) Apply it continuously.
    47. How are almost half of our daily actionsperformed according to the passage?
    A) Out of habit.
    48. What will help people stick to doingsomethingconstructive automatically?D) Foreseeing the desired outcome it will yield.
    49.How does the art of self-control help ussucceed?
    C)By enabling us to take positive actions.
    50.Why can it be difficult for us to maintain self-control?
    B) We may not get immediate reward from self- control.
    Passage Tow
    文章开头    Today, most scientific research is funded by government
    51-55 DBACC
    51.What does the passage mainly discussregarding scientificresearch?
    D) lts funding.
    52.What do we learn from the passage aboutresearchers likebirdwatchers and rock collectors?
    B) They can do research with limited resources.
    53. What would scientific studies look like in aperfect worldaccording to the author?
    A) They would be totally unbiased.
    54. What does the author say about companiesand specialinterest groups?
    C)They provide valuable resources for scientificresearch.
    55.What does the author think of research fundedbyindustry or specialinterest group?
    C)It’s validity should be checked with additional care.

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(1)

Henry Ford, the famous U.S. inventor and car manufacturer, once said, “The business of America is business.” By this he meant that the U.S. way of life is based on the values of the business world.

Few would argue with Ford’s statement. A brief glimpse at a daily newspaper vividly shows how much people in the United States think about business. For example, nearly every newspaper has a business section, in which the deals and projects, finances and management, stock prices and labor problems of corporations are reported daily. In addition, business news can appear in every other section. Most national news has an important financial aspect to it. Welfare, foreign aid, the federal budget, and the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank are all heavily affected by business. Moreover, business news appears in some of the unlikeliest places. The world of arts and entertainment is often referred to as “the entertainment industry” or “show business.”

The positive side of Henry Ford’s statement can be seen in the prosperity that business has brought to U.S. life. One of the most important reasons so many people from all over the world come to live in the United States is the dream of a better job. Jobs are produced in abundance (大量地) because the U.S. economic system is driven by competition. People believe that this system crates more wealth, more jobs, and a materially better way of life.

The negative side of Henry Ford’s statement, however, can be seen when the word business is taken to mean big business. And the term big business—referring to the biggest companies, is seen in opposition to labor. Throughout U.S. history working people have had to fight hard for higher wages, better working conditions, and the fight to form union s. Today, many of the old labor disputes are over, but there is still some employee anxiety. Downsizing—the laying off of thousands of workers to keep expenses low and profits high—creates feelings of insecurity for many.

1. The United States is a typical country ________.

A) which encourages free trade at home and abroad

B) where people’s chief concern is how to make money

C) where all businesses are managed scientifically

D) which normally works according to the federal budget

2. The influence of business in the U.S. is evidenced by the fact that ________.

A) most newspapers are run by big businesses

B) even public organizations concentrate on working for profits

C) Americans of all professions know how to do business

D) even arts and entertainment are regarded as business

3. According to the passage, immigrants choose to settle in the U.S., dreaming that ________.

A) they can start profitable businesses there

B) they can be more competitive in business

C) they will make a fortune overnight there

D) they will find better chances of employment

4. Henry Ford’s statement can be taken negatively because ________.

A) working people are discouraged to fight for their fights

B) there are many industries controlled by a few big capitalists

C) there is a conflicting relationship between big corporations and labor

D) public services are not run by the federal government

5. A company’s efforts to keep expenses low and profits high may result in ________.

A) reduction in the number of employees

B) improvement of working conditions

C) fewer disputes between labor and management

D) a rise in workers’ wages

答案：1. B 2. D 3. D 4.C 5. A

2014年英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(2)

Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).

One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme,” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly failures.”

Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon,

between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—probably because they were more reliable reporters.

A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.

1. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________.

A) to keep track of people who tend to forget things

B) to report their embarrassing lapses at random

C) to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically

D) to keep a record of what they did unintentionally

2. Professor Smith discovered that ________.

A) certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents

B) many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness

C) men tend to be more absent-minded than women

D) absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness

3. “Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people ________.

A) often fail to programme their routines beforehand

B) tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry

C) unconsciously change the sequence of doing things

D) are likely to mess things up if they are too tired

4. We learn from the third paragraph that ________.

A) absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day

B) women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods

C) women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness

D) men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations

5. It can be concluded from the passage that ________.

A) people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses

B) hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at

C) people should be careful when programming their actions

D) lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration

答案：1. D 2. A 3. C 4.A 5. D

2014年英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(3)

I don’t ever want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people asked constantly for stories about what it’s like to work in a field dominated by men. I was never very good at telling those stories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do find interesting is the origin of the universe, the shape of space-time and the nature of black holes.

At 19, when I began studying astrophysics, it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in the classroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me. My every achievement—jobs, research papers, awards—was viewed through the lens of gender (性别) politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain versus (相对于) right brain, or nature versus nurture (培育), I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.

Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply to any and all provocations: I don’t talk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn’t want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burden on every female scientist? After all, I don’t study sociology or political theory.

Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women’s college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how may of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer, 45. I know some of my students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. And I don’t dismiss those concerns. Still, I don’t tell them “war” stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual of their physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of 45 women driven by a love of science. And that’s a sight worth talking about.

1. Why doesn’t the author want to talk about being a woman scientist again?

A) She feels unhappy working in male-dominated fields.

B) She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination.

C) She is not good at telling stories of the kind.

D) She finds space research more important.

2. From Paragraph 2, we can infer that people would attribute the author’s failures to ________.

A) the very fact that she is a woman

B) her involvement in gender politics

C) her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist

D) the burden she bears in a male-dominated society

3. What did the author constantly fight against while doing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research?

A) Lack of confidence in succeeding in space science.

B) Unfair accusations from both inside and outside her circle.

C) People’s stereotyped attitude toward female scientists.

D) Widespread misconceptions about nature and nurtured.

4. Why does the author feel great satisfaction when talking about her class?

A) Female students no longer have to bother about gender issues.

B) Her students’ performance has brought back her confidence.

C) Her female students can do just as well as male students.

D) More female students are pursuing science than before.

5. What does the image the author presents to her students suggest?

A) Women students needn’t have the concerns of her generation.

B) Women have more barriers on their way to academic success.

C) Women can balance a career in science and having a family.

D) Women now have fewer problems pursuing a science career.

答案：1. D 2. A 3. C 4.D 5. C

2014年英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(4)

Reaching new peaks of popularity in North America is Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Arthur von Wiesenberger, who carries the title Water Master, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water,” He says.

But is plain tap water all that bad? Not at all. In fact, New York’s municipal water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently considered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.

Nevertheless, soft-drink companies view bottled water as the next battle-ground for market share—this despite the fact that over 25 percent of bottled water comes from tap water: PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani are both purified tap water rather than spring water.

As diners thirst for leading brands, bottlers and restaurateurs salivate (垂涎) over the profits. A restaurant’s typical mark-up on wine is 100 to 150 percent, whereas on bottled water it’s often 300 to 500 percent. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands aren’t available in stores, most diners don’t notice or care.

As a result, some restaurants are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water. According to an article in The Street Journal, some of the more shameless tactics include placing attractive bottles on the table for a visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and pouring bottled water without even asking the diners if they want it.

Regardless of how it’s sold, the popularity of bottled water taps into our desire for better health, our wish to appear cultivated, and even a longing for lost purity.

1. What do we know about Iceberg Water from the passage?

A) It is a kind of iced water.

B) It is just plain tap water.

C) It is a kind of bottled water.

D) It is a kind of mineral water.

2. By saying “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water” (Line 4 Para.2), von Wiesenberger wants to convey the message that ________.

A) plain tap water is certainly unfit for drinking

B) bottled water is clearly superior to tap water

C) bottled water often appeals more to dogs taste

D) dogs can usually detect a fine difference in taste

3. The “fancier brands” (Line 3 Para. 5) refers to ________.

A) tap water from the Thames River

B) famous wines not sold in ordinary stores

C) PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani

D) expensive bottled water with impressive names

4. Why are some restaurants turning up the pressure to sell bottled water?

A) Bottled water brings in huge profits.

B) Competition from the wine industry is intense.

C) Most diners find bottled water affordable.

D) Bottled water satisfied diners’ desire to fashionable.

5. According to passage, why is bottled water so popular?

A) It is much cheaper than wine.

B) It is considered healthier.

C) It appeals to more cultivated people.

D) It is more widely promoted in the market.

答案：1. C 2. B 3. D 4.A 5. B

2014年英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(5)

Just five one-hundredths of an inch thick, light golden in color and with a perfect “saddle curl,” the Lay’s potato chip seems an unlikely weapon for global domination. But its maker. Frito-Lay. Thinks otherwise. “Potato chips are a snack food for the world,” said Salman Amin, the company’s head of global marketing. Amin believes there is no corner of the world that can resist the charms of a Frito-Lay potato chip.

Frito-Lay is the biggest snack maker in America, owned by PepsiCo. And accounts for over half of the parent company’s $3 billion annual profits. But the U.S. snack food market is largely saturated, and to grow, the company has to look overseas.

Its strategy rests on two beliefs: first a global product offers economies of scale with which local brands cannot compete. And second, consumers in the 21st century are drawn to “global” as a concept. “Global” does not mean products that are consciously identified as American, but ones than consumes-especially young people-see as part of a modem, innovative (创新的) world in which people are linked across cultures by shared beliefs and tastes. Potato chips are an American invention, but most Chinese, for instance, do not know than Frito-Lay is an American company. Instead, Riskey, the company’s research and development head, would hope they associate the brand with the new world of global communications and business.

With brand perception a crucial factor, Riskey ordered a redesign of the Frito-Lay logo (标识). The logo, along with the company’s long-held marketing image of the “irresistibility” of its chips, would help facilitate the company’s global expansion.

The executives acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rater, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world. “We’re making products in those countries, we’re adapting them to the tastes of those countries, building businesses and employing people and changing lives,” said Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo’s chief executive.

1. It is the belief of Frito-Lay’s head of global marking that ________.

A) potato chips can hardly be used as a weapon to dominate the world market

B) their company must find new ways to promote domestic sales

C) the light golden color enhances the charm of their company’s potato chips

D) people the world over enjoy eating their company’s potato chips

2. What do we learn about Frito-Lay from Paragraph 2?

A) Its products use to be popular among overseas consumers.

B) Its expansion has caused fierce competition in the snack marker.

C) It gives half of its annual profits to its parent company.

D) It needs to turn to the word market for development.

3. One of the assumptions on which Frito-Lay bases its development strategy is that ________.

A) consumers worldwide today are attracted by global brands

B) local brands cannot compete successfully with American brands

C) products suiting Chinese consumers’ needs bring more profits

D) products identified as American will have promising market value

4. Why did Riskey have the Frito-Lay logo redesigned?

A) To suit changing tastes of young consumers.

B) To promote the company’s strategy of globalization.

C) To change the company’s long-held marketing image.

D) To compete with other American chip producers.

5. Frito-Lay’s executives claim that the promoting of American food in the international market ________.

A) won’t affect the eating habits of the local people

B) will lead to economic imperialism

C) will be in the interest of the local people

D) won’t spoil the taste of their chips

答案：1. D 2. D 3. A 4.B 5. C

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(6)

As soon as it was revealed that a reporter for Progressive magazine had discovered how to make a hydrogen bomb, a group of firearm (火器) fans formed the National Hydrogen Bomb Association, and they are now lobbying against any legislation to stop Americans from owning one.

“The Constitution,” said the association’s spokesman, “gives everyone the right to own arms. It doesn’t spell out what kind of arms. But since anyone can now make a hydrogen bomb, the public should be able to buy it to protect themselves.”

“Don’t you think it’s dangerous to have one in the house, particularly where there are children around?”

“The National Hydrogen Bomb Association hopes to educate people in the safe handling of this type of weapon. We are instructing owners to keep the bomb in a locked cabinet

and the fuse (导火索) separately in a drawer.”

“Some people consider the hydrogen bomb a very fatal weapon which could kill somebody.”

The spokesman said, “Hydrogen bombs don’t kill people—people kill people. The bomb is for self-protection and it also has a deterrent effect. If somebody knows you have a nuclear weapon in your house, they’re going to think twice about breaking in.”

“But those who want to ban the bomb for American citizens claim that if you have one locked in the cabinet, with the fuse in a drawer, you would never be able to assemble it in time to stop an intruder (侵入者).”

“Another argument against allowing people to own a bomb is that at the moment it is very expensive to build one. So what your association is backing is a program which would allow the middle and upper classes to acquire a bomb while poor people will be left defenseless with just handguns.”

1. According to the passage, some people started a national association so as to ________.

A) block any legislation to ban the private possession of the bomb

B) coordinate the mass production of the destructive weapon

C) instruct people how to keep the bomb safe at home

D) promote the large-scale sale of this newly invented weapon

2. Some people oppose the ownership of H-bombs by individuals on the grounds that ________.

A) the size of the bomb makes it difficult to keep in a drawer

B) most people don’t know how to handle the weapon

C) people’s lives will be threatened by the weapon

D) they may fall into the hands of criminals

3. By saying that the bomb also has a deterrent effect the spokesman means that it ________.

A) will frighten away any possible intruders

B) can show the special status of its owners

C) will threaten the safety of the owners as well

D) can kill those entering others’ houses by force

4. According to the passage, opponents of the private ownership of H-bombs are very much worried that ________.

A) the influence of the association is too powerful for the less privileged to overcome

B) poorly-educated Americans will find it difficult to make use of the weapon

C) the wide use of the weapon will push up living expenses tremendously

D) the cost of the weapon will put citizens on an unequal basis

5. From the tone of the passage we know that the author is ________.

A) doubtful about the necessity of keeping H-bombs at home for safety

B) unhappy with those who vote against the ownership of H-bombs

C) not serious about the private ownership of H-bombs

D) concerned about the spread of nuclear weapons

答案：1. A 2. C 3. A 4.D 5. A

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(7)

Scratchy throats, stuffy noses and body aches all spell misery, but being able to tell if the cause is a cold or flu (流感) may make a difference in how long the misery lasts.

The American Lung Association (ALA) has issued new guidelines on combating colds and the flu, and one of the keys is being able to quickly tell the two apart. That’s because the prescription drugs available for the flu need to be taken soon after the illness sets in. As for colds, the sooner a person starts taking over-the-counter remedy, the sooner relief will come.

The common cold and the flu are both caused by viruses. More than 200 viruses can cause cold symptoms, while the flu is caused by three viruses—flu A, B and C. There is no cure for either illness, but the flu can be prevented by the flu vaccine (疫苗), which is, for most people, the best way to fight the flu, according to the ALA.

But if the flu does strike, quick action can help. Although the flu and common cold have many similarities, there are some obvious signs to look for.

Cold symptoms such as stuffy nose, runny nose and scratchy throat typically develop gradually, and adults and teens often do not get a fever. On the other hand, fever is one of the characteristic features of the flu for all ages. And in general, flu symptoms including fever and chills, sore throat and body aches come on suddenly and are more severe than cold symptoms.

The ALA notes that it may be particularly difficult to tell when infants and preschool age children have the flu. It advises parents to call the doctor if their small children have flu-like symptoms.

Both cold and flu symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter medications as well. However, children and teens with a cold or flu should not take aspirin for pain relief because of the risk of Reye syndrome (综合症)，a rare but serious condition of the liver and central nervous system.

There is, of course, no vaccine for the common cold. But frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with people who have colds can reduce the likelihood of catching one.

1. According to the author, knowing the cause of the misery will help ________.

A) shorten the duration of the illness

B) the patient buy medicine over the counter

C) the patient obtain cheaper prescription drugs

D) prevent people from catching colds and the flu

2. We learn from the passage that ________.

A) one doesn’t need to take any medicine if he has a cold or the flu

B) aspirin should not be included in over-the-counter medicines for the flu

C) delayed treatment of the flu will harm the liver and central nervous system

D) over-the-counter drugs can be taken to ease the misery caused by a cold or the flu

3. According to the passage, to combat the flu effectively, ________.

A) one should identify the virus which causes it

B) one should consult a doctor as soon as possible

C) one should take medicine upon catching the disease

D) one should remain alert when the disease is spreading

4. Which of the following symptoms will distinguish the flu from a cold?

A) A stuffy nose.

B) A high temperature.

C) A sore throat.

D) A dry cough

5. If children have flu-like symptoms, their parents ________.

A) are advised not to give them aspirin

B) should watch out for signs of Reye syndrome

C) are encouraged to take them to hospital for vaccination

D) should prevent them from mixing with people running a fever

答案：1. A 2. D 3. C 4.B 5. A

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(8)

In a time of low academic achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. However, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents (答问卷者) listed “to give children a good start academically” as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The vast majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.

In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondents chose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. Sixty-two percent of the more individually oriented (强调个性发展的) Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.

Like in America, there is diversity in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools. Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children’s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.

1. We learn from the first paragraph that many Americans believe ________.

A) Japanese parents are more involved in preschool education than American parents

B) Japan’s economic success is a result of its scientific achievements

C) Japanese preschool education emphasizes academic instruction

D) Japan’s higher education is superior to theirs

2. Most Americans surveyed believe that preschools should also attach importance to ________.

A) problem solving

B) group experience

C) parental guidance

D) individually-oriented development

3. In Japan’s preschool education, the focus is on ________.

A) preparing children academically

B) developing children’s artistic interests

C) tapping children’s potential

D) shaping children’s character

4. Free play has been introduced in some Japanese kindergartens in order to ________.

A) broaden children’s horizon

B) cultivate children’s creativity

C) lighten children’s study load

D) enrich children’s knowledge

5. Why do some Japanese parents send their children to university-based kindergartens?

A) They can do better in their future studies.

B) They can accumulate more group experience there.

C) They can be individually oriented when they grow up.

D) They can have better chances of getting a first-rate education.

答案：1. C 2. B 3. D 4.C 5. D

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(9)

Lead deposits, which accumulated in soil and snow during the 1960’s and 70’s, were primarily the result of leaded gasoline emissions originating in the United States. In the twenty years that the Clean Air Act has mandated unleaded gas use in the United States, the lead accumulation worldwide has decreased significantly.

A study published recently in the journal Nature shows that air-borne leaded gas emissions from the United States were the leading contributor to the high concentration of lead in the snow in Greenland. The new study is a result of the continued research led by Dr. Charles Boutron, an expert on the impact of heavy metals on the environment at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. A study by Dr. Boutron published in 1991 showed that lead levels in arctic (北极的) snow were declining.

In his new study, Dr. Boutron found the ratios of the different forms of lead in the leaded gasoline used in the United States were different from the ratios of European, Asian and Canadian gasolines and thus enabled scientists to differentiate (区分) the lead sources. The dominant lead ratio found in Greenland snow matched that found in gasoline from the United States.

In a study published in the journal Ambio, scientists found that lead levels in soil in the Northeastern United States had decreased markedly since the introduction of unleaded gasoline.

Many scientists had believed that the lead would stay in soil and snow for a longer period.

The authors of the Ambio study examined samples of the upper layers of soil taken from the same sites of 30 forest floors in New England, New York and Pennsylvania in 1980 and in 1990. The forest environment processed and redistributed the lead faster than the scientists had expected.

Scientists say both studies demonstrate that certain parts of the ecosystem (生态系统) respond rapidly to reductions in atmospheric pollution, but that these findings should not be used as a license to pollute.

1. The study published in the journal Nature indicates that ________.

A) the Clean Air Act has not produced the desired results

B) lead deposits in arctic snow are on the increase

C) lead will stay in soil and snow longer than expected

D) the US is the major source of lead pollution in arctic snow

2. Lead accumulation worldwide decreased significantly after the use of unleaded gas in the US ________.

A) was discouraged

B) was enforced by law

C) was prohibited by law

D) was introduced

3. How did scientists discover the source of lead pollution in Greenland?

A) By analyzing the data published in journals like Nature and Ambio.

B) By observing the lead accumulations in different parts of the arctic area.

C) By studying the chemical elements of soil and snow in Northeastern America.

D) By comparing the chemical compositions of leaded gasoline used in various countries.

4. The authors of the Ambio study have found that ________.

A) forests get rid of lead pollution faster than expected

B) lead accumulations in forests are more difficult to deal with

C) lead deposits are widely distributed in the forests of the US

D) the upper layers of soil in forests are easily polluted by lead emissions

5. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that scientists ________.

A) are puzzled by the mystery of forest pollution

B) feel relieved by the use of unleaded gasoline

C) still consider lead pollution a problem

D) lack sufficient means to combat lead pollution

答案：1. D 2. B 3. D 4.A 5. C

英语四级阅读理解冲刺习题：(10)

Exercise is one of the few factors with a positive role in long-term maintenance of body weight. Unfortunately, that message has not gotten through to the average American, who would rather try switching to “light” beer and low-calorie bread than increase physical exertion. The Centers for Disease Control, for example, found that fewer than one-fourth of overweight adults who were trying to shed pounds said they were combining exercise with their diet.

In rejecting exercise, some people may be discouraged too much by caloric-expenditure charts: for example, one would have to briskly walk three miles just to work off the 275 calories in one delicious Danish pastry (小甜饼). Even exercise professionals concede half a point here. “Exercise by itself is a very tough way to lose weight,” says York Onnen, program director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Still, exercise’s supporting role in weight reduction is vital. A study at the Boston University Medical Center of overweight police officers and other public employees confirmed that those who dieted without exercise regained almost all their old weight, while those who worked exercise into their daily routine maintained their new weight.

If you have been sedentary (极少活动的) and decide to start walking one mile a day, the added exercise could burn an extra 100 calories daily. In a year’s time, assuming no increase in food intake, you could lose ten pounds. By increasing the distance of your walks gradually and making other dietary adjustments, you may lose even more weight.{来源：考{试大}

1. What is said about the average American in the passage?

A) They tend to exaggerate the healthful effect of “light” beer.

B) They usually ignore the effect of exercise on losing weight.

C) They prefer “light” beer and low-calorie bread to other drinks and food.

D) They know the factors that play a positive role in keeping down body weight.

2. Some people dislike exercise because ________.

A) they think it is physically exhausting

B) they find it hard to exercise while on a diet

C) they don’t think it possible to walk 3 miles every day

D) they find consulting caloric-expenditure charts troublesome

3. “Even exercise professionals concede half a point here” (Line 3, Para. 2) means “They ________”.

A) agree that the calories in a small piece of pastry can be difficult to work off by exercise

B) partially believe diet plays a supporting role in weight reduction

C) are not fully convinced that dieting can help maintain one’s new weight

D) are not sufficiently informed of the positive role of exercise in losing weight

4. What was confirmed by the Boston University Medical Center’s study?

A) Controlling one’s calorie intake is more important than doing exercise.

B) Even occasional exercise can help reduce weight.

C) Weight reduction is impossible without exercise.

D) One could lose ten pounds in a year’s time if there’s no increase in food intake.

5. What is the author’s purpose in writing this article?

A) To justify the study of the Boston University Medical Center.

B) To stress the importance of maintaining proper weight.

C) To support the statement made by York Onnen.

D) To show the most effective way to lose weight.

答案：1. B 2. B 3. B 4.C 5. D

《2024年6月英语四级阅读答案：长篇阅读（第一套）》

　　答案速查36-40 ICMFA

　　36.Our brains are genetically determined tosatisfyimmediate desires.

　　【1】定位：Our brains are hard-wired for instantgratification.

　　37.Taken in a practical way,saving for post-workyears is likegiving money away to others.

　　【C】定位：Understand inthat way,saving forretirementisthe equivalent of giving money awayto someone elseentirely.

　　38.Research found that,as regards achievementof one'sgoals,it is important to focus more onenjoyingthe processthan the long-term benefits.

　　【M】定位：These findings suggest that whedit话comes toachieving your goals,enjoving theprocess itself is moreimportant than wanting thelong-term benefits.

　　39.Regarding our future selves as still beingourselves willhelp us makě better long-termdecisions.

　　【F】定位：If the central problem..,it follows thattrying toidentify more closelywith our future语selves will encourageus to make better long-termdecisions.

　　40.Savings rates in America have dropped inrecent decadeseven though people's lifeexpectancy has increased.

　　【A】定位：Across the board,people are livinglonger...Andyet,saving rates in the U.S.have gonedown in recent decade,not up.

　　文章标题How to better work towards long-term goals

　　答案速查41-45 KELBG

　　41.Researchers found that enjoyment rather thanimportance enabled peoplé to persist in theirgoals.

　　【K】定位：We found that enjoyment predictedpeople’sgoal persistence two months aftersetting the goal far morethan how important theyratedtheir goalto be,Woolley said.

　　42.When making decisions,we give priorityto ourcurrentframe of mind without thinking much ofthe consequences.

　　【E】定位：…but in daing so,we prioritize ourcurrent moodover the consequences of our火央inaction forthfuture slf.

　　43.People ate more of a healthyfood when theyfocused onits good taste instead of its long-termbenefits.

　　【L】定位：For example,people ate 50%more of ahealthyfood when directed to focus on the goodtaste rather thanthe long-termhealth benefits.

　　44.As was expected,when people thought of theirpresentselves,their brains were observed tobecome more active.

　　【B】定位：Unsurprisingly,people’s brains weremost activewhen thinking about their currentselves and...

　　45.Researchers found thatparticipants who sawtheimagesof their aged selves would save morefor their later years thanthose who didn't.

　　【G】定位：Participants who saw their aged selvessaid theywould save 30%moreof their salary fordretirement than thecontrol group.

英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇1

　　Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way.

　　First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air.

　　One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly.

　　1.．Why should pruning be done?

　　A．To make the tree grow taller. B．To improve the shape of the tree.

　　C．to get rid of the small ranches . D．To make the small branches thicker.

　　2.．Trees become unhealthy if the gardener__________.

　　A. giving a tree a special shape and adefinite height

　　B. removing small side branches and making atree look less thick

　　C. allowing too many branches to grow in themiddle

　　D. having a tree surrounded by many othertrees

　　3.．Why is a special material painted on the tree?

　　A．To help a wound to dry. B．to cover a rough surface.

　　C．To make a wound smooth. D．To prevent disease entering a wound.

　　4.．A good gardener prunes a tree _________ .

　　A．several times throughout the year B．as quickly as possible

　　C．occasionally when necessary D．regularly every winter

　　5.．What was the author’s purpose when writingthis passage?

　　A．To discuss different methods of pruning.

　　B．To introduce some common knowledge of pruning.

　　C．To explain how trees developdisease.

　　D．To give practical instruction for pruning atree.

　　英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇2

　　Baekeland and Hartmann report that the “short sleepers” had been more or less average in their sleep needs until the men were in their teens. But at about age 15 or so, the men voluntarily began cutting down their nightly sleep time because of pressures from school, work, and other activities. These men tended to view their nightly periods of unconsciousness as bothersome interruptions in their daily routines. In general, these “short sleeps” appeared ambitious, active, energetic, cheerful, conformist(不动摇) in their opinions, and very sure about their career choices. They often held several jobs at once, or workers full-or part-time while going to school. And many of them had a strong urge to appear “normal” or “acceptable” to their friends and associates. When asked to recall their dreams, the “short sleepers” did poorly. More than this, they seemed to prefer not remembering. In similar fashion, their usual way of dealing with psychological problems was to deny that the problem existed, and then to keep busy in the hope that the trouble would go away. The sleep patterns of the “short sleepers” were similar to, but less extreme than, sleep patterns shown by many mental patients categorized as manic(疯人). The “long sleepers” were quite different indeed. Baekeland and Hartmann report that these young men had been lengthy sleeps since childhood. They seemed to enjoy their sleep, protected it, and were quite concerned when they were occasionally deprived of their desired 9 hours of nightly bed rest. They tended to recall their dreams much better than did the “short sleepers.” Many of the “long sleepers” were shy, anxious, introverted (内向), inhibited (压抑), passive, mildly depressed, and unsure of themselves (particularly in social situations). Several openly states that sleep was an escape from their daily problems.

　　1. According to the report,______. A) many short sleepers need less sleep by nature B) many short sleepers are obliged to reduce their nightly sleep time because they are busy with their work C) long sleepers sleep a longer period of time during the day D) many long sleepers preserve their sleeping habit formed during their childhood

　　2. Many “short sleepers” are likely to hold the view that _____. A) sleep is a withdrawal from the reality B) sleep interferes with their sound judgement C) sleep is the least expensive item on their routine program D) sleep is the best way to deal with psychological troubles

　　3. It is stated in the third paragraph that short sleepers _____. A) are ideally vigorous even under the pressures of life B) often neglect the consequences of inadequate sleep C) do not know how to relax properly D) are more unlikely to run into mental problems

　　4. When sometimes they cannot enjoy adequate sleep, the long sleepers might ____. A) appear disturbed B) become energetic C) feel dissatisfied D) be extremely depressed

　　5. Which of the following is Not included in the passage? A) If one sleeps inadequately, his performance suffers and his memory is weakened B) The sleep patterns of short sleepers are exactly the sane as those shown by many mental patients C) Long and short sleepers differ in their attitudes towards sleep D) Short sleepers would be better off with more rest

　　【答案及详解】 答案：DCBAB 贝克尔和哈特曼报道说，“睡眠少的人”在未进入少年期之前，其正常睡眠时间大致与所需要的时间差不多。但到了15岁左右，由于学校、工作或其它活动的地压力，他们就故意地减少了夜间睡眠的时间。这些人持有这样的观点：夜间睡眠是一件令人讨厌的事情，打断了日常事务。 总的说来，这些“睡眠少的人”表现得雄心勃勃、积极活跃、精力充沛、无意识乐观豁达、立场坚定，对自己职业的选择胸有成竹。他们往往同时从事几项工作，或者一边上学读书，一边从事专职或兼职工作。其中许多人有强烈愿望，想在朋友和熟人面前表现得“正常”或“合群”。 当让他们回忆梦境时，“睡眠少的人”回忆不起什么来。更有甚者，他们似乎情愿什么都记不住。类似的情况是他们通常处理心理问题的方式：不承认问题的存在，希望只要忙忙碌碌，麻烦总会过去的。 “睡眠少的人”的睡眠模式与被划入疯子之类精神病患者的睡眠模式十分相似，只不过没有那么严重而已。 “睡眠多的人”情形则大不相同。贝克尔和哈特曼报道说，这些年轻人从小的，有抱负的睡眠就一直很长。他们好像注重睡眠，不让睡眠受打搅。偶尔没有所需的9个小时夜间卧床休息，他们便会十分不安。他们比“睡眠少的人”要更能回忆得起梦的内容。许多“睡眠多的人”腼腆、焦躁、内向、压抑、消极和稍微有点儿沮丧，尤其在社交场合缺乏自信。好几个人坦言，睡眠是摆脱每天烦恼的一种方式。

　　英语四级阅读理解考试题及答案 篇3

　　Passage Three

　　Method of Scientific Inquiry

　　Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deduction—by steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.

　　A failure to employ or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observation—these are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or the moderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.

　　The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of “facts” and “theories” or “facts” and “ideas”—in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latter—proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts and theories are not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are facts—a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.

　　Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. To convert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the full characteristics of a fact.

　　1. The title that best expresses the ideas of this passage is

　　[A]. Philosophy of mathematics. [B]. The Recent Growth in Science.

　　[C]. The Verification of Facts. [C]. Methods of Scientific Inquiry.

　　2. According to the author, one possible reason for the growth of science during the days of the ancient Greeks and in modern times is

　　[A]. the similarity between the two periods.

　　[B]. that it was an act of God.

　　[C]. that both tried to develop the inductive method.

　　[D]. due to the decline of the deductive method.

　　3. The difference between “fact” and “theory”

　　[A]. is that the latter needs confirmation.

　　[B]. rests on the simplicity of the former.

　　[C]. is the difference between the modern scientists and the ancient Greeks.

　　[D]. helps us to understand the deductive method.

　　4. According to the author, mathematics is

　　[A]. an inductive science. [B]. in need of simple verification.

　　[C]. a deductive science. [D]. based on fact and theory.

　　5. The statement “Theories are facts” may be called.

　　[A]. a metaphor. [B]. a paradox.

　　[C]. an appraisal of the inductive and deductive methods.

　　[D]. a pun.

　　Vocabulary

　　1. inductive 归纳法

　　induction n.归纳法

　　2. deductive 演绎法

　　deduction n.演绎法

　　3. culmination 到达顶/极点

　　4. conversant （with） 熟悉的，精通的

　　5. exercise 运用，实行，执行仪式

　　singular 卓越的，非凡的，独一无二的

　　6. conjunction 结合，同时发生

　　7. omnipotence 全能，无限权/威力

　　8. Providence （大写）指上帝，天道，天令

　　9. commonplace 平凡的，陈腐的

　　10. inquiry 调查，探究（真理，知识等）

　　11. doctrine 教义，学说，讲义

　　12. correlative 相互关联的

　　13. antithesis 对立面，对偶（修辞学中），对句

　　14. coordinate 同等的，并列的

　　15. subsist 生存，维持生活

　　16. attribute 特征，属性

　　17. connote 意味着，含蓄（指词内涵）

　　难句译注

　　1. Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant.

　　[结构简析] 破折号后面的内容（见难句译注2）先撇开。这样便于理解，整个句子是主谓表结构，前面一个问题句作主语，question后跟一个定语从句，和not less than连接的表语。

　　[参考译文] 为什么归纳发和数学科学，在希腊文明达到顶点时首先快速发展后，两千年内进展缓慢，现在哲学家对这个问题的兴趣不亚于对这些科学很熟悉研究的对象。

　　2. …—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—…

　　[参考译文] 问什么在后来的二百年中自然科学数理科学积累起来，它们广泛的超越了过去已知的一切，所以就把这些科学视为我们时代的产品。

　　3. arrested development 停滞发展（被制止了的发展）。

　　4. Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　[参考译文] 或者我们是否应当把两个阶段的特点归因于所谓的历史的偶然性（意外事件）——归因于客观环境中相似（结合）的影响。这一点除非以指导一切的上帝的智慧和无限权利来解释，否则难以解说清楚。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是篇议论文，论及科学探索的方法，总体是因果写法，具体分析又是对比写法。作者采用问答方式探究为什么希腊文明顶峰之后两千年，科技发展缓慢，而最近两百年又迅速发展超越前人，其原因在哪里?是采用新，旧方法所致，历史之偶然性，还是上天安排。

　　然后以现代用归纳法，古代用演绎法太狭隘说明科学总是在观察，实验，检验，证实中前进。但事实难以解释慢和快的现象。最后以“对立”——事实和理论对立古代重视事实来解释。然这两者是对立的统一。真正的理论就是事实。事实，构成之间具逻辑联系，就具有理论的一切正面特性。这种区分虽不足以解释科学研究中真正方法，但奠定了良好的基础，含有真正方法中的重要特性。

　　答案详解

　　1. D. 科学研究/探索的方法。文章一开始就提出问题，为什么从希腊文化顶峰时期后两千年来归纳法和数学科学发展如此缓慢，而后的两百年又超越了前人，是应用新，旧方法关系还是其它（见难句译注1，2）。第二段讲埃及古代在科学探索中运用了演绎推理法，而现在应用了归纳法。这种解释太狭隘，经仔细审核，难以很清晰地点明古代和现代科学教义和探究上明显的`差别。因为一切知识都基于观察，通过分析，综合，或综合分析，归纳演绎推理，有可能的话，经过校正或经由演绎指导下再观察而向前推进。第三段进一步阐明不用这些方法观察，实验;忽略相关事实，推理不慎;不能答出理论的结论，再用实验或观察来检验等或用得不全，不论在古代还是现代都会失败。但这不能说明为什么现代科学具有较高的功效，通过什么方式方法，超越了前人，更不用说说明最近科学突飞猛进的原因。第四，五段涉及事实和理论的关系。

　　A. 数学的哲学，文内没有提。 B. 近来科学的发展。 C. 事实的验证，只是最后两段提及验证方法之作用。

　　2. B. 是上天的安排，这是作家在用方法论等失败后得出的结论。见难句译注4，第一段最后一句话。

　　A. 两个阶段的相似性。 . 两者都试图应用归纳法。 D. 由于演绎法的衰落。

　　3. A. 后者需要证实。答案在第四，五段，死段试图在事实的对立面和理论，或事实和思想中发现上述现象的解释看起来有饿太狭隘，也会因模糊不清遭批评。因为，对立面不全面，事实和理论不是同类的事物。理论，如果是真正的理论，就是事实——一种特殊类别的事实，一般复杂，但仍是事实。而事实，从词的狭义来说，如果很复杂，如果各成分中存在着逻辑的联系，就具有理论的一切主要特征。第五段第二句，事实是一个提议，通过运用知识的源泉和经验而证实的提议直接而又简单。而理论，若是真理论，就有事实的一切特性（除非其证实只能通过非直接的，遥远的和困难的方式方法），把理论转成事实必须用简单的核实，理论因此具有事实的一切特性。

　　B. 前者简单。 C. 是现代科学家和古希腊的差异。 D. 帮助我们了解演绎法，三项都不对。

　　4. C. 是推理演绎科学，这个问题常识就能回答。

　　A. 归纳法科学。 B. 需要简单证实。 D. 基于事实和理论。

　　5. B. 是一个悖论，见第四，五段注释。

　　A. 比喻。 C. 对归纳法和演绎法的赞扬。 D. 双关语。

公共英语四级阅读理解题型辅导 1

　　A sixth grader settles downs to tackle her homework on a weekday afternoon in 2004. She is sitting on the bus with her laptop; logging on to the Internet to take a math-skills test in the school home page and get her own personalized assignment. She downloads the software she’ll need, seeks help from an online school librarian and emails the finished work to her teacher. Mom and dad check in from their office computer, comparing her scores with the class and the state averages.

　　Homework in the future may not any less laborious, but it will certainly be more wired. And as more children gain access to computers and the Net—75%of teens and 47% of kids aged 2 to 12 are expected to be online by 2002—schools and technology companies are responding with unique assignment and high-tech homework help for parents and kids. On the menu: TAILOR-MADE ASSIGNMENTS. The most profound way homework will change is that instead of everybody heading home with the same lesson; each student will sit down to an individual assignment. The school server, or central computer, will maintain information on each student’s progress and dole out the appropriate work when the child checks the Web page.

　　Keeping in touch. For students like high school junior Samantha Symonds of Pottstown, pa, the simple ease of getting assignments on line and turning in via emails is reason enough to take homework digital. Samantha, a competitive fencer, travels far from her school for tournament and boots up to stay on top of her assignment. Logging on in hotel rooms and airports, she gets copies of course lectures and lab assignments, emails her teacher when she is stumped and even takes tests on line. “You can actually focus on what you need to know rather than tracking down someone to answer your questions,” Samantha says.

　　Unlimited research. Kids are rapidly becoming experts at searching websites and CD-RoMS for research projects and wowing teachers with what they find. The most profound way homework will change is that instead of everybody heading home with the same lesson; each student will sit down to an individual assignment.

　　Wiring the Have-Nots. As computers become the homework to tool of choice, educators worry about children who don’t have access to the technology. “The kids who don’t have computers at home will be at such a fundamental disadvantage. It will be as if they don’t have a pen or paper,” says Ellyot Solovay, a professor at he university of Michigan. He’s just finished a study in which internet TVs were placed in the homes of a class of Detroit public-school students, and found it not only benefited the kids but boosted parental involvement as well.

　　Yet wining kids over to become fans of homework may take more than high-tech help. Annette Bitter’s seventh–graders love doing research on the laptops they got through a Microsoft study. “But of course there are always excuses” says Bitter, who keeps hearing a modern tale of woe. “The computer ate my homework.”

　　1.How will assignments in 2004 be finished?

　　A. Students will go to school and finish the school work assigned by teachers.

　　B. Middle school teachers will require students to type our all their assignments.

　　C. Different assignments will be given to students according ti their own will.

　　D. Staying at home, students can get their assignments through the Internet and email to their teachers after finishing them.

　　2. According to the passage, laptop probably refers to ____.

　　A. a small-sized portable computer

　　B. a newly-invented TV set

　　C. a kind of calculator

　　D. an old-fashioned private computer

　　3.What does the author mean by saying “it (homework) will certainly be more wired”?

　　A. More wires will be needed to finish homework.

　　B. homework is going to be done by wiring the house.

　　C. Students are expected to finish school work through the Internet.

　　D. Teachers will inform students of homework by phoning.

　　4.What kind of assignment will teachers give to students in 2004 according to the passage?

　　A. Less laborious than today’s homework.

　　B.Assignment given according to students’ different conditions.

　　C. Easy to complete with the help of online information.

　　D. work that are most entertaining to the students.

　　5.It is implied in the passage that _____

　　A. information technology enables education to vary from person to person.

　　B. assignment in 2004 will be more entertaining and less paining

　　C. all students are going to be fans of homework in the future.

　　D. traditional education is doomed to disappear

　　解析

　　1.D 考查对文章具体内容的的理解。通过对第一段具体事例的分析和总结，即可得出结论。

　　2.A 考查对不熟悉的词语的推断能力，通过上下文中的关键词可以推断该词的意思。比如：internet, home page, down load the soft ware, online, email.这些词都是和计算机密切相关的。

　　3.C 考查对不熟悉词语的推断能力。通过上下文可以得知，未来的作业需要通过网络完成。

　　4.B 考查对文章具体内容的`理解。通过文章中出现的关键词TAILoR-MADE ASSIGMENTS 及其解释可以得知未来的作业是量身订做的。

　　5.A 考查逻辑推理能力和对文章具体内容的理解。未来的作业将仍然是Laborioou 所以不是所有的学生都是fans of homework，文章当中也没有提及传统教育的命运.

　　公共英语四级阅读理解题型辅导 2

　　Passage Three

　　Method of Scientific Inquiry

　　Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deduction—by steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.

　　A failure to employ or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observation—these are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or the moderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.

　　The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of “facts” and “theories” or “facts” and “ideas”—in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latter—proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts and theories are not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are facts—a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.

　　Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. To convert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the full characteristics of a fact.

　　1. The title that best expresses the ideas of this passage is

　　[A]. Philosophy of mathematics. [B]. The Recent Growth in Science.

　　[C]. The Verification of Facts. [C]. Methods of Scientific Inquiry.

　　2. According to the author, one possible reason for the growth of science during the days of the ancient Greeks and in modern times is

　　[A]. the similarity between the two periods.

　　[B]. that it was an act of God.

　　[C]. that both tried to develop the inductive method.

　　[D]. due to the decline of the deductive method.

　　3. The difference between “fact” and “theory”

　　[A]. is that the latter needs confirmation.

　　[B]. rests on the simplicity of the former.

　　[C]. is the difference between the modern scientists and the ancient Greeks.

　　[D]. helps us to understand the deductive method.

　　4. According to the author, mathematics is

　　[A]. an inductive science. [B]. in need of simple verification.

　　[C]. a deductive science. [D]. based on fact and theory.

　　5. The statement “Theories are facts” may be called.

　　[A]. a metaphor. [B]. a paradox.

　　[C]. an appraisal of the inductive and deductive methods.

　　[D]. a pun.

　　Vocabulary

　　1. inductive 归纳法

　　induction n.归纳法

　　2. deductive 演绎法

　　deduction n.演绎法

　　3. culmination 到达顶/极点

　　4. conversant （with） 熟悉的，精通的

　　5. exercise 运用，实行，执行仪式

　　singular 卓越的，非凡的，独一无二的

　　6. conjunction 结合，同时发生

　　7. omnipotence 全能，无限权/威力

　　8. Providence （大写）指上帝，天道，天令

　　9. commonplace 平凡的，陈腐的

　　10. inquiry 调查，探究（真理，知识等）

　　11. doctrine 教义，学说，讲义

　　12. correlative 相互关联的

　　13. antithesis 对立面，对偶（修辞学中），对句

　　14. coordinate 同等的，并列的

　　15. subsist 生存，维持生活

　　16. attribute 特征，属性

　　17. connote 意味着，含蓄（指词内涵）

　　难句译注

　　1. Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant.

　　[结构简析] 破折号后面的内容（见难句译注2）先撇开。这样便于理解，整个句子是主谓表结构，前面一个问题句作主语，question后跟一个定语从句，和not less than连接的表语。

　　[参考译文] 为什么归纳发和数学科学，在希腊文明达到顶点时首先快速发展后，两千年内进展缓慢，现在哲学家对这个问题的兴趣不亚于对这些科学很熟悉研究的对象。

　　2. …—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—…

　　[参考译文] 问什么在后来的二百年中自然科学数理科学积累起来，它们广泛的超越了过去已知的一切，所以就把这些科学视为我们时代的产品。

　　3. arrested development 停滞发展（被制止了的发展）。

　　4. Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

　　[参考译文] 或者我们是否应当把两个阶段的特点归因于所谓的历史的偶然性（意外事件）——归因于客观环境中相似（结合）的影响。这一点除非以指导一切的上帝的智慧和无限权利来解释，否则难以解说清楚。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　这是篇议论文，论及科学探索的方法，总体是因果写法，具体分析又是对比写法。作者采用问答方式探究为什么希腊文明顶峰之后两千年，科技发展缓慢，而最近两百年又迅速发展超越前人，其原因在哪里?是采用新，旧方法所致，历史之偶然性，还是上天安排。

　　然后以现代用归纳法，古代用演绎法太狭隘说明科学总是在观察，实验，检验，证实中前进。但事实难以解释慢和快的.现象。最后以“对立”——事实和理论对立古代重视事实来解释。然这两者是对立的统一。真正的理论就是事实。事实，构成之间具逻辑联系，就具有理论的一切正面特性。这种区分虽不足以解释科学研究中真正方法，但奠定了良好的基础，含有真正方法中的重要特性。

　　答案详解

　　1. D. 科学研究/探索的方法。文章一开始就提出问题，为什么从希腊文化顶峰时期后两千年来归纳法和数学科学发展如此缓慢，而后的两百年又超越了前人，是应用新，旧方法关系还是其它（见难句译注1，2）。第二段讲埃及古代在科学探索中运用了演绎推理法，而现在应用了归纳法。这种解释太狭隘，经仔细审核，难以很清晰地点明古代和现代科学教义和探究上明显的差别。因为一切知识都基于观察，通过分析，综合，或综合分析，归纳演绎推理，有可能的话，经过校正或经由演绎指导下再观察而向前推进。第三段进一步阐明不用这些方法观察，实验;忽略相关事实，推理不慎;不能答出理论的结论，再用实验或观察来检验等或用得不全，不论在古代还是现代都会失败。但这不能说明为什么现代科学具有较高的功效，通过什么方式方法，超越了前人，更不用说说明最近科学突飞猛进的原因。第四，五段涉及事实和理论的关系。

　　A. 数学的哲学，文内没有提。 B. 近来科学的发展。 C. 事实的验证，只是最后两段提及验证方法之作用。

　　2. B. 是上天的安排，这是作家在用方法论等失败后得出的结论。见难句译注4，第一段最后一句话。

　　A. 两个阶段的相似性。 . 两者都试图应用归纳法。 D. 由于演绎法的衰落。

　　3. A. 后者需要证实。答案在第四，五段，死段试图在事实的对立面和理论，或事实和思想中发现上述现象的解释看起来有饿太狭隘，也会因模糊不清遭批评。因为，对立面不全面，事实和理论不是同类的事物。理论，如果是真正的理论，就是事实——一种特殊类别的事实，一般复杂，但仍是事实。而事实，从词的狭义来说，如果很复杂，如果各成分中存在着逻辑的联系，就具有理论的一切主要特征。第五段第二句，事实是一个提议，通过运用知识的源泉和经验而证实的提议直接而又简单。而理论，若是真理论，就有事实的一切特性（除非其证实只能通过非直接的，遥远的和困难的方式方法），把理论转成事实必须用简单的核实，理论因此具有事实的一切特性。

　　B. 前者简单。 C. 是现代科学家和古希腊的差异。 D. 帮助我们了解演绎法，三项都不对。

　　4. C. 是推理演绎科学，这个问题常识就能回答。

　　A. 归纳法科学。 B. 需要简单证实。 D. 基于事实和理论。

　　5. B. 是一个悖论，见第四，五段注释。

　　A. 比喻。 C. 对归纳法和演绎法的赞扬。 D. 双关语。

　　公共英语四级阅读理解题型辅导 3

　　It came as something of a surprise when Diana, Princess of Wales, made a trip to Angola in 1997, to support the Red Cross campaign for a total ban on all anti-personnel landmines. Within hours of arriving in Angola, television screens around the world were filled with images of her comforting victims injured in explosions caused by landmines. "I knew the statistics," she said. "But putting a face to those figures broughtthe reality home to me; like when I met Sandra, a 13-year-old girl who had lost her leg, and people like her."

　　The Princess concluded with a simple message: "We must stop landmines". And she used every opportunity during her visit to repeat this message.

　　But, back in London, her views were not shared by some members of the British government, which refused tosupport a ban on these weapons. Angry politicians launched an attack On the Princess in the press. They described her as "very ill-informed" and a "loose cannon (乱放炮的人)

　　The Princess responded by brushing aside the Criticisms: "This is a distraction (干扰) we do not need. AllI’m trying to do is help."

　　Opposition parties, the media and the public immediately voiced their Support for the Princess. To make matters worse for the government, it soon emerged that the Princess trip had been approved by the Foreign Office, and that she was in fact very well-informed about both the situation in Angola and the British governments policy regarding landmines. The result was a severe embarrassment for the government.

　　To try and limit the damage, the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkidnd, claimed that the Princess views on landmines were not very different from government policy, and that it was "working towards" a worldwide ban.The Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo, claimed the matter was "a misinterpretation or misunderstanding." -

　　For the Princess, the trip to this war-torn country was an excellent opportunity to use her popularity to show the world how much destruction and suffering landmines can cause. She said that the experience had also given her the chance to get closer to people and their problems.

　　练习题：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1. Princess Diana paid a visit to Angola in 1997 _____

　　A. to clarify the British governments stand on landmines

　　B. to establish her image as a friend of landmine victims

　　C. to investigate the sufferings of landmine victims there

　　D. to voice her support for a total ban of landmines

　　2. What did Diana mean when she said "... putting a face to those figures brought the realityhome to me" (Line 5, Para. 1)?

　　A. Meeting the landmine victims in person made her believe the statistics.

　　B. She just couldn’t bear to meet the landmine victims face to face.

　　C. The actual situation in Angola made her feel like going back home.

　　D. Seeing the pain of the victims made realize the seriousness of the situation.

　　3. Some members of the British government criticized Diana because _____

　　A. she had not consulted the government before the visit

　　B. she was ill-informed of the governments policy

　　C. they were actually opposed to banning landmines

　　D. they believed that she had misinterpreted the situation in Angola

　　4. How did Diana respond to the criticisms?

　　A. She made more :appearances on TV.

　　B. She paid no attention to them.

　　C. She rose to argue with her opponents.

　　D. She met the 13-year-old girl as planned.

　　5. What did Princess Diana think of her visit to Angola?

　　A. It had caused embarrassment to the British government.

　　B. It had greatly promoted her popularity.

　　C. It had brought her closer to the ordinary people.

　　D. It had affected her relations with the British government.

　　参考答案

　　1.[A]根据题干中的时间、人名可以马上找到信息源为文章第1句，其中的不定式正好与选项的形式一致,表示目的，只要将选项内容与原文第1句中的不定式结构内容相对照即可得出答案为A。

　　2.[D]此题考查语义及逻辑推理能力，关键在于理解brought the reality home to sb. (使某人了解到现实)及I knew the statistics, but...的'隐含义“我知道统计数字，但是(没想到会这么严重)”。再结合上文可知D的表述正确。C错在黛安娜不是亲身看到那些受害者之后才相信该统计数字的。

　　3.[B]第3段第1句指出，回到伦敦，她的观点并没有得到英国政府的一些官员的认可。黛安娜是支持banning landmines(禁止地雷)的，故英国政府的一些官员是反对禁止地雷，因此答案选B。而从第5段第2句“……黛安娜王妃出访已获英国外交部批准，而且事实上她对安哥拉的形势和英国政府有关地雷的政策都很了解。”可知A、C、D的说法均不正确。

　　4.[A]此题关键在于理解第4段第1句中brush aside“无视,不顾，漠视”这个短语，A的paid no attention与brush aside同义,故选A。

　　5.[B]根据文章最后一句，黛安娜总结其出访安哥拉的意义，B中的brought her closer to the ordinary people是原文get closer to people and their problems的同义改写。

第一篇：

　　Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to old cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Some other researchers who study various aspects of mental life, maintain those rewards often destroy creativity byencouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.

　　The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary rewards sparks in grade-school children suggesting that properly presented inducements indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal Personality and Social Psychology.

　　“If they know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity,” says Robert Esenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. “But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards.”

　　A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Esenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and restore falling grades.

　　In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economics, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.

　　1. Psychologists are divided with regard to their attitudes toward ____.

　　A) the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards

　　B) the appropriate amount of external rewards

　　C) the study of relationship between actions and

　　D) the effects of external rewards on students' performance

　　2. What is the view held by many educators concerning external rewards for students?

　　A) They approve of external rewards.

　　B) They don't think external rewards.

　　C) They have doubts about external rewards.

　　D) They believe external rewards can motivate small children, but not college students.

　　3. According to the result of the study mentioned in the passage, what should educators do to stimulate motivation and creativity?

　　A) Give rewards for performances which deserve them.

　　B) Always promise rewards.

　　C) Assign tasks which are not very challenging.

　　D) Be more lenient to students when mistakes are made.

　　4. It can be inferred from the passage that major universities are trying to tighten their grading standards because they believe ____.

　　A) rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students’

　　B) punishment is more effective than rewarding

　　C) failing uninspired students helps improve their overall academic standards

　　D) discouraging the students anticipation for easy rewards is matter of urgency

　　5.Which of the following facts about “token economics” is not correct?

　　A) Students are assigned challenging tasks.

　　B) Rewards are given for good performances.

　　C) Students are evaluated according to the effort they put into the task.

　　D) With token economics, students’ creativity can be enhanced.

　　第二篇：

　　Classified advertising is that advertising which is grouped in certain sections of the paper and is thus distinguished from display advertising. Such groupings as “Help Wanted”, “Real Estate”, “Lost and Found” are made, the rate charged being less than for display advertising. Classified advertisements are a convenience to the reader and a saving to the advertiser.

　　The reader who is interested in a particular kind of advertisement finds all advertisements of that type grouped for him. The advertisers may, on this account, use a very small advertisement if it were placed among larger advertisements in the paper. It is evident that the reader approaches the classified advertisement in a different frame of mind from that in which he approaches the other advertisements in the paper. He turns to a page of classified advertisements to search for the particular advertisement that will meet his needs. As his attention is voluntary, the advertiser does not need to rely too much extent on display type to get the reader’s attention. Formerly all classified advertisements were of the same size and did not have display type. With the increase in the number of such advertisements, however, each advertiser within a certain group is competing with others in the same group for the reader’s attention. In many cases, the result has been an increase in the size of the space used and the addition of headlines and pictures. In that way, the classified advertisement has in reality advertisement. This is particularly true of real estate advertising?

　　1. All of the following facts are advantages of classified advertisement for advertisers EXCEPT that ____.

　　A) classified advertisement charges less money

　　B) it is easier to attract the attention of the target consumers

　　C) it provides more information for the readers

　　D) it does not have to rely too much on display type

　　2. One of the examples given of types of classified advertisement is ____

　　A) houses for sale

　　B) people who are asking for help

　　C) people who are lost

　　D) job vacancies

　　3. What sort of attitude do people have when they look at classified advertisement, according to the writer?

　　A) They are in the frame of mind to buy anything.

　　B) They are looking for something they need.

　　C) They feel lost because there are so many advertisements.

　　D) They feel the same as when they look at display advertisements.

　　4.According to the passage, in which way have the classified advertisements changed nowadays?

　　A) They depend more on display type.

　　B) More money is charged for them.

　　C) They are divided into more groups.

　　D) They are less formal.

　　5.Why have classified advertisements changed in appearance?

　　A) Because people no longer want headlines and pictures.

　　B) Because real estate advertising is particularly truthful now.

　　C) Because the increase in the number of such advertisements means they have to be small now.

　　D) Because there are more advertisements now and more competition among advertisers.

　　>>>>>>答案及解析<<<<<<

　　第一篇：

　　1. D

　　心理学家认为外界的奖励对学生会有不同的影响。事实辨析题。根据文章第一句话“Psychologists take opposing views of how external re wards, from warm praise to old cash, affect motivation and creativity”可知，心理学家的分歧在于来自外界的奖励对学生的积极性和创造性究竟有什么影响，故选项D正确.

　　2. C

　　许多教育家对外界的奖励持怀疑态度。

　　文章第二段第一句话提到，后一种观点得到了许多教育工作者的支持，从第一段中可知，后一种观点是：奖励会促使学生对别人的赞许和馈赠产生依赖心理，因此奖励会破坏创造精神。由此可知，他们对奖励的正面作用持怀疑态度。故选项C正确。

　　3. A

　　根据文中的研究结果表明，教育家通过给予学生应得的奖励来提高他们的积极性和创造性。文章第三段指出，给予学生恰当的奖励，可使他们发挥更大的创造性，但如果对糟糕的表现也给予奖励，或让学生对奖励有太多的期许，反而会扼杀创造性。故选项A正确。

　　4. B

　　从文中可以得知，一些重点大学试图加强等级标准，因为他们相信惩罚比奖励更有效。事实辨析题。从文中第四段可知，许多大学之所以严格考试的评分标准，是因为“A teacher ... who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students”。选项B 与此意相同。

　　5. C

　　根据学生的表现对他们作出评价。事实辨析题。根据最后一段的意思，在这种奖励制度下，要根据学生的表现对他们做出评价，而不仅仅是他们花费了多少精力来完成任务，故选项C正确。

　　第二篇：

　　1. C

　　分类广告的优越性不包括为读者提供更多的信息。事实辨析题。从文中可看出，分类广告的优越性在于收费低、无需很多的展现形式，以及更易吸引对某类广告感兴趣的读者的注意力，因此A，B，D都正确。文中唯独没有提到C。

　　2. A

　　房地产业就是分类广告的其中一块。细节题。本题考察对“Real Estate”的理解，它的意思是“房地产”，故选项A 正确。

　　3. B

　　当读者看分类广告时，他们会搜索自己需要的信息。事实辨析题。从文中可知，读者在看分类广告时和看展示广告的注意力的模式是不一样的，他们会去浏览自己感兴趣的类别，查找所需信息。故选项B正确。

　　4. A

　　根据文章，分类广告更多地依赖展现形式。推断题。文章最后指出，由于竞争的加剧，分类广告商们不得不用大标题和图片来吸引读者的注意力。故选项A正确。

　　5. D

　　因为现在更多广告的投入和广告商之间的竞争日益加剧，所以分类广告不断变化形式。事实辨析题。文中指出，分类广告的变化是由于“With the increase in the number of such advertisements, however, each advertiser within a certain group is competing with others in the same group for the reader’s attention”，故选项D正确。

【篇一】2021年6月大学英语四级阅读理解

　　On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more that they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spendan average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log hall that time. All in all, however, children’sleisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%

　　“Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,” says Sandra Hofferth,who headed the recent study of children’s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner” householdsspent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)

　　All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,” says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships withtheir peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.

　　The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time” watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they’re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren’t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let’s face it, who’s got the time?

【篇二】2021年6月大学英语四级阅读理解

　　There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal-combustion engine(内燃机)has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞)being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the computer’s impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a formof literacy (读写能力);it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art.

　　Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who havechosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making.

　　Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more “user-friendly”. Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase learning to use a computer mean? It sounds like “learning to drive a car", that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired,enable one to use a computer.

　　In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like “learning to play a game”,but learning the rulesof one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such a thingas teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.

【篇三】2021年6月大学英语四级阅读理解

　　Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality， but when it comes to mycollege education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course,any sensible student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department，famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that‘s not what I did.

　　I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts(文科)university that doesn‘t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career.I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren’t studying science orengineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years,and I believed them.

　　I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering “factories” where they didn‘t care if you have values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitive humanist(人文学者)all in one.

　　Now I‘m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses,I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile(协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.

　　The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.