专业英语四级考前恶补——阅读完型
http://en.eol.cn 来源： 作者： 2006-11-26 大 中 小
PART Ⅱ ［30 MIN.］
SECTION A ［25 MIN.］
In this section there are four passages followed by fifteen questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.
Mark your choice on your ANSWER SHEET.
TEXT A
Glacier National Park in Montana shares boundaries with Canada, an American Indian reservation, and a national forest. Along the North Fork of the Flathead River, the park also borders about 17,000 acres of private lands that are currently used for ranching, timber, and agriculture. This land is an important part of the habitat and migratory routes for several endangered species that frequent the park. These private lands are essentially the only ones available for development in the region.
With encouragement from the park, local landowners initiated a landuse planning effort to guide the future of the North Fork. The park is a partner in an interlocal agreement that calls for resourcemanaging agencies to work together and with the more than 400 private owners in the area. A draft plan has been prepared, with objective of maintaining traditional economic uses but limiting new development that would damage park resources. Voluntary action by landowners, in cooperation with the park and the county, is helping to restrict smalllot subdivisions, maintain wildlife corridors, and minimize any harmful impact on the environment.
The willingness of local landowners to participate in this protection effort may have been stimulated by concerns that congress would impose a legislative solution. Nevertheless, many local residents want to retain the existing character of the area. Meetings between park officials and landowners have led to a dramatically improved understanding of all concerns.
16. The passage mainly discusses ______.
A. the endangered species in Glacier National Park
B. the protection of lands surrounding Glacier National Park
C. conservation laws imposed by the state of Montana
D. conservation laws imposed by Congress
17. Why are the private lands surrounding Glacier National Park so important?
A. They function as a hunting preserve.
B. They are restricted to government use.
C. They are heavily populated.
D. They contain natural habitats of threatened species.
18. The relationship between park officials and neighboring landowners may best be described as ______.
A. indifferent B. intimate
C. cooperative D. disappointing
19. It can be inferred from the passage that a major interest of the officials of Glacier
National Park is to ______.
A. limit land development around the park
B. establish a new park in Montana
C. influence national legislation
D. settle border disputes with Canada
TEXT B
As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenthcentury North American Colonies, the silversmith and the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it. Only a few silversmiths were available in New York or Boston in the late seventeenth century, but in the eighteenth century they could be found in all major colonial cities. No other colonial artisans rivaled the silversmiths’ prestige. They handled the most expensive materials and possessed direct connections to prosperous colonial merchants. Their products, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to their customers’ prominence. Silver stood as one of the surest ways to store wealth at a time before neighborhood banks existed. Unlike the silver coins from which they were made, silver articles were readily identifiable. Often formed to individual specifications, they always carried the silversmith’s distinctive markings and consequently could be traced and retrieved. Customers generally secure the silver for the silver object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and discussed the type of pieces they desired. Silversmiths complied with these requests by melting the money in a small furnace, adding a bit of copper to form a stronger alloy, and casting the alloy in rectangular blocks. They hammered these ingots to the appropriate thickness by hand, shaped them and pressed designs into them for adornment. Engraving was also done by hand. In addition to plates and bowls, some customers sought more intricate products, such as silver teapots. These were made by shaping or casting parts separately and then soldering them together. Colonial coppersmithing also come of age in the early eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities. Copper’s ability to conduct heat efficiently and to resist corrosion contributed to its attractiveness. But because it was expensive in colonial America, coppersmiths were never very numerous. Virtually all copper worked by Smiths was imported as sheets or obtained by recycling old copper goods. Copper was used for practical items, but it was not admired for its beauty. Coppersmiths employed it to fashion pots and kettles for the home. They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in a foundry with lead or tin. They also mixed it with zinc to make brass for maritime and scientific instruments.
20. According to the passage, which of the following eighteenth century
developments had strong impact on silversmiths?
A. A decrease in the cost of silver.
B. The invention of heatefficient furnaces.
C. The growing economic prosperity of colonial merchants.
D. The development of new tools used to shape silver.
21. In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make
silver articles?
A. From their own mines.
B. From importers.
C. From other silversmiths.
D. From customers.
22. The passage mentions all of the following as uses for copper in Colonial America
EXCEPT ______.
A. cooking pots
B. scientific instruments
C. musical instruments
D. maritime instruments
23. According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar in which of the following ways?
A. The amount of social prestige they had.
B. The way they shaped the metal they worked with.
C. The cost of the goods they made.
D. The practicality of the goods they made.
TEXT C
When I was growing up, the whole world was Jewish. The heroes were Jewish and the villains were Jewish. The landlord, the doctor, the grocer, your best friend, the village idiot, and the neighborhood bully: all Jewish. We were working class and immigrants as well, but that just came with territory. Essentially we were Jews on the streets of New York. We learned to be kind, cruel, smart and feeling in a mixture of language and gesture that was part street slang, part grade school English, part kitchen Yiddish.One Sunday evening when I was eight years old my parents and I were riding in the back seat of my rich uncle’s car. We had been out for a ride and now we were back in the Bronx, headed for home. Suddenly, another car sideswiped us. My mother and aunt shrieked. My uncle swore softly. My father, in whose lap I was sitting, said out the window at the speeding car, “That’s all right. Nothing but a few Jews in here.” In an instant I knew everything. I knew there was a world beyond our streets, and in that world my father was humiliated man, without power or standing.
When I was sixteen,a girl in the next building had her nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away
a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote “Arnold Brown” instead of “Arnold Braunowiitz”. The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A nose job? A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn’t standstill. Things felt lively and active. Selfconfidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That’s what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there.
But who exactly do I mean when I say we? I mean Arnie, not Selma. I mean my brother, not me. I mean the boys, not the girls. My mother stood behind me, pushing me forward. “The girl goes to college, too,” she said. And I did. But my going to college would not mean the same thing as my mother’s going to college, and we all knew it. For my brother, college meant going from the Bronx to Manhattan. But for me? From the time I was fourteen I yearned to get out of the Bronx, but get out into what? I did not actually imagine myself a working person alone in
Manhattan and nobody else did either. What I did imagine was that I would marry, and that the man I married would get me downtown. He would brave the perils of class and race, and somehow I’d be there alongside him.
24. In the passage, we can find the author was ______.
A. quite satisfied with her life
B. a poor Jewish girl
C. born in a middleclass family
D. a resident in a rich area in New York
25. Selma Shapiro had her nose straightened because she wanted ___
___.
A. to look her best
B. to find a new job in the neighborhood
C. to live a new life in other places
D. to marry very soon
26. Arnold Brown changed his name because ______.
A. there was racial discrimination in employment
B. Brown was just the same as Braunowiitz
C. it was easy to write
D. Brown sounds better
27. From the passage we can infer that ______.
A. the Jews were satisfied with their life in the Bronx
B. the Jewish immigrants could not be rich
C. all the immigrants were very poor
D. the young Jews didn’t accept the stern reality
TEXT D
Nature’s Gigantic Snow Plough
On January 10, 1962, an enormous piece of glacier broke away and tumbled down the side of a mountain in Peru. A mere seven minutes later, when cascading ice finally came to a stop ten miles down the mountain, it had taken the lives of 4,000 people.
This disaster is one of the most ___devastating____ examples of a very common event: an avalanche of snow or ice. Because it is extremely cold at very high altitudes, snow rarely melts. It just keeps piling up higher and higher. Glaciers are eventually created when the weight of the snow is so great that the lower layers are pressed into solid ice. But most avalanches occur long before this happens. As snow accumulates on a steep slope, it reaches a critical point at which the slightest vibration will send it sliding into the valley below.
Even an avalanche of light power can be dangerous, but the Peruvian catastrophe was particularly terrible because it was caused by a heavy layer of ice. It is estimated that the ice that broke off weighed three million tons. As it crashed down the steep mountainside like a gigantic snow plough, it swept up trees, boulders and tons of topsoil, and completely crushed and destroyed the six villages that lay in its path.
At present there is no way to predict or avoid such enormous avalanches, but, luckily, they are very rare. Scientists are constantly studying the smaller, more common avalanches, to try to understand what causes them. In the future, perhaps dangerous masses of snow and ice can be found and removed before they take human lives.
28. The first paragraph catches the reader’s attention with a ___
___.
A. firsthand report
B. dramatic description
C. tall tale
D. vivid world picture
29. In this passage ___devastating____ means ______.
A. violently ruinous
B. spectacularly interesting
C. stunning
D. unpleasant
30. The passage is mostly about ______.
A. avalanches
B. glaciers
C. Peru
D. mountains
SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING ［5 MIN.］
In this section there are five passages followed by ten questions or unfinished statements. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
TEXT E
First read the following questions.
31. Bush fires are most likely to occur in Australia in ___
___.
A. December and January
B. April
C. July, August and September
D. May and June
32. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor that contributes to
great fire danger?
A. Sultry weather.
B. Cigarettes thrown out of car windows.
C. Pine forests.
D. Windstorm.
Now read Text E quickly and mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
Every summer in Australia there is the danger of bush fires. Long periods of hot dry weather cause the grass and trees to become highly inflammable. As well as the dryness and high temperature, an important factor is the great amount of oil in the leaves of such trees as eucalyptus, and gum trees.
Fires start very easily, often spontaneously, but usually because of a carelessly thrown cigarette or match. If there is a high wind, the ample supply of air fans the flames into an inferno. The radiant heat vaporizes the oil in the leaves, and the fire travels very quickly, sometimes overtakes fleeing cars and burns passengers to death.
Great fires often occur around Christmas, in areas near big cities, causing great loss of life and property.
TEXT F
First read the following questions.
33. According to the passage, how many people on earth spoke English twenty years ago?
A. About 300 million.
B. Roughly 500 million.
C. More than 600 million.
D. One seventh of the whole population.
34. What Burchfield says roughly means ______.
A. an educated person will be deprived of civil rights if he doesn’t learn
English
B. an educated person will be looked down upon if he knows not English
C. an educated person is hindered in his life if he does not know the language
D. knowledge of English helps him get rich in many ways
Now read Text F quickly and mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
The sun sets regularly on the Union Jack these days, but never on the English language. It was spread by British colonialists. It got a boost from American GI’s, and it was cemented by the multinational corporation. Today, like it or curse it, English is the closest thing to a lingua franca around the globe. Roughly 700 million people speak it——an increase of 40 percent in the last twenty years and a total that represents more than oneseventh of the world’s population.
It has replaced French in the world of diplomacy and German in the field of science. It is the dominant language of medicine, electronics and space technology, of international business and advertising, of radio, television and film. Says Robert Burchfield, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary: “Any literate, educated person is deprived if he does not know English.”
TEXT G
First read the following questions.
35. What is the main topic of the passage?
A. The mechanics of rain.
B. The weather patterns of North America.
C. How Earth’s gravity affects agriculture.
D. Types of clouds.
36. Ice crystals do not immediately fall to Earth because ___
___.
A. they are kept aloft by air currents
B. they combine with other chemicals in the atmosphere
C. most of them evaporate
D. their electrical charges draw them away from the earth
Now read Text G quickly and mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
What makes it rain? Rain falls from clouds for the same reason anything falls to Earth. The Earth’s gravity pulls it. But every cloud is made of water droplets or ice crystals. Why doesn’t rain or snow fall constantly from all clouds? The droplets or ice crystals in clouds are exceedingly small. The effect of gravity on them is minute. Air currents move and lift droplets so that the net downward displacement is zero, even though the droplets are in constant motion.
Droplets and ice crystals behave somewhat like dust in the air made visible in a shaft of sunlight. To the casual observer, dust seems to act in a totally random fashion, moving about chaotically without fixed direction. But in fact dust particles are much larger than water droplets and they finally fall. The average size of a cloud droplet is only 0.0004 inch in diameter. It is so small that it would take sixteen hours to fall half a mile in perfectly still air, and it does not fall out of moving air at all. Only when the droplet grows to a diameter of 0.0008 inch or larger can it fall from the cloud. The average raindrop contains a million times as much water as a tiny cloud droplet. The growth of a cloud droplet to a size large enough to fall out is the cause of rain and other forms of precipitation. This important growth process is called “coalescence”.
TEXT H
First read the following questions.
37. The 1030 bus leaving Miami at 5:45 p.m. arrives at Jacksonville at 2:35 a.m. after a stop at ______.
A. Naples B. Sarasota
C. Orlando D. Daytona Beach
38. Judging from the bus time schedule, the cities which are most
likely closest to one
another geographically are ______.
A. Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale
B. Orlando and Jacksonville
C. Miami and Hollywood
D. Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach
Now read Text H quickly and mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
Bus Schedule
GREYHOUND
MIAMI TO JACKSONVILLE
10301010
MIAMIA
JAXBOS
MIAMILv5:4511:45
HOLLYWOOD6:30
FT. LAUDERDALE6:55
WEST PALM BEACHLv8:10
Ft. Pierc
Melbourne
Cocoa
JACKSONVILLEAr
NaplesLv
Ft. MyersLv
SARASOTA
Bradenton
ST. PETERSBURGLv
TAMPALv
Lakeland
ORLANDOLv11:55
Daytona BeachLv
St. Augustine
JACKSONVILLEAr2:356:45
TEXT I
First read the following questions.
39. The best title is ______.
A. How to use credit cards
B. Advantages and disadvantages of credit cards
C. How to spend less with credit cards
D. How to avoid the disadvantages of credit cards
40. The passage is probably taken from ______.
A. a financial journal
B. a traveling guide
C. a shopping guide
D. newspapers
Now read Text I quickly and mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET.
CREDIT CARDS
ADVANTAGES
1. Used for emergencies, when something expensive breaks and needs to be fixed or replaced immediately. Many people think that this is the most important reason for having credit cards.
2. Used to avoid inflation, when you want to buy now to get cheaper prices instead of waiting until later, when the price will go up.
3. Used as a shopping convenience, when you do not want to carry cash or checks, and you want to have a record of what you have spent every month. Credit cards also make it easier to shop by telephone or mail.
4. Used as a loan, when you want to spend more money than you now have, and you know you will have more money in the future to pay the money back.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Possibility of spending too much: Because you are using plastic cards instead of cash or checks, it is easy to forget how much you have spent. Keeping a written record each time you use the credit card can help you avoid this problem.
2. High cost of credit: The interest rate for credit cards is the highest of all types of loans. If you use credit cards as a way to borrow money, it is important to find the card with the lowest interest rate. You can also find out about consumer loans from banks that probably have a lower interest rate.
3. High credit payments in the future: The more you use credit cards now, the more money you will need to pay to the bank each month. That means less money will be available to spend on other things you want.
重 点 词 汇
reservation: (印第安人的)保留地
ranching: 大农场
habitat: 栖息地；居留地
frequent: 时常访问
initiate: 发起
impose: 实施, 强迫
legislative: 立法的
artisan: 工匠; 技工
rival: 竞争
prestige: 声望; 威望; 威信
exalt: 提升; 赞扬; 使得意
testify: 证明; 声明
prominence: 突起; 显著
retrieve: 取回; 挽回; 恢复
alloy:合金
rectangular: 矩形的
ingot:锭; 铸块
engraving:雕刻
solder: 焊接
kettle: 水壶
maritime: 海的; 海事的
villain: 坏人; 恶棍
shriek: 尖叫
humiliate: 羞辱; 使蒙羞
passivity: 被动性
wane:衰微; 退潮
peril: 危险
tumble: 摔倒; 翻滚
devastate: 毁坏
avalanche: 雪崩
catastrophe:大灾难
inflammable: 易燃的
eucalyptus:桉树
ample:充足的
inferno: 地域
cement: 用水泥连接，固定
lingua franca: 佛兰卡语
displacement: 转移; 换位
shaft: 轴
precipitation:凝结降水
coalescence: 结合; 合并
参考答案及详解
1. B) 根据上下文结构和句意,此空需要一个关联性的
状语, 而且根据句义需要一个表示转折意义的副词, 故选项B However 为正确答案。Generally 意为“广泛地，普遍地，总的来说”，可作评述性状语；Possibly意为“可能地”，也
可作评述性状语和一般修饰性状语；Likewise意为“同样地，照样地；又，也”，在句中可作关联性的状语，但不是转折意义的。
2. C) 此空涉及到某些感官动词如：see，hear，watch，feel等所接宾语结构。这些动词后可接复杂宾语结构，即see，hear，watch，feel + sb. + do或see，hear，watch，feel +sb. + doing，因此此题正确答案为选项C。
3. C) 首先可知此空需要一个副词，因此可排除B和D。Out of the question意为“不可能”，意义不合适；Probably意为“很可能地”，用在此处表示作者比较肯定的猜测。
4. A) 根据上下文可知，魔术家Houdini擅长“逃脱”，他可以轻易地打开锁头，从被锁处逃脱。因此此空的正确答案为A。
5. D) 通过阅读上下文可知此处需要一个引导让步状语从句的连词，只有选项D符合。
6. D) 同位语从句用that引导。
7. D) Bound是bind的过去式，意为“捆绑”。其它三词意义不符。
8. C) In an instant是固定搭配，意为“立刻，马上”。
9. C) 四个选项中动词charge一般不与of搭配使用。rid…of 意为“除掉”
,不符。deprive ... of意为“剥夺……”，意义不符。选项C accuse 和of 搭配意为“指控 … ”，为正确答案。
10. D) Mud和something是不可数名词，不符；像蜡一样的candle是不合逻辑的；因此只有选项D substance（物质）正确。
11. A) 通过阅读本句可断定此空需要一个从属连词引导时间状语，四个选项只有A as 正确。
12. D) Overall是形容词，不符；All but意为“几乎，差不多”，意义不符；No longer意义不符。故只有altogether（总起来说）符合，故为正确答案。
13. B) 只有which才能用于介词后来引导定语从句。
14. A) 根据上文可知此空应为chest。
15. A) 通过阅读上下文可知，Houdini被装进木桶扔进了海里，但他很快就逃了出来，当木桶被捞上来时，人们发现桶被打开了，捆在木桶外面的铁链子却被放到了桶里面，由此可知此空应选A brought up“把……弄上来”。
16. B) 这是一道主旨题。通过阅读文章可知，为了保护冰川国家公园的濒危物种和资源，公园当局和地方土地所有者制订了限制土地使用计划，故答案为B。
17. D) 这是一道细节题。根据第一段第三句“This land is an important part of the habitat and migratory routes for several endangered species that fequent the park.”（这片土地是非常重要的，因为这里是几种经常光顾此公园的濒危物种的栖息地和迁徙路线。）可知选项D为正确答案。
18. C) 根据第二段可知，公园当局和地方土地所有者密切合作来保护资源，因此他们的关系是“cooperative”（合作性的）。
19. A) 这是一道推理题。根据第二段第三句和阅读全文，我们很容易就可以得到这样一个信息：为了保护自然资源和濒危物种，公园管理者限制那些会破坏资源的土地开发。因此选项A为正确答案。
20. C) 根据文章第一句“As the merchant class expanded in the eight
eenthcentury North American Colonies,...”可知，随着在十八世纪的北美殖民地商人阶级膨胀起来，也就是说那时的商人财富有了很大的发展，银匠铜匠们有机会发挥他们的专长了，这与选项C正好相符。
21. D) 根据文章第十四、五行“Customers generally secures …object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and...”可知顾客要做银器，首先要积攒银币，然后拿到银匠处加工成他们想要的形状。选项D“来自客户”与之相符。
22. C) 文章末尾在提到铜的用途时惟独没有提到乐器。
23. B) 根据文章倒数第四行“They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in a foundry with lead or tin.”可知银匠和铜匠在银器和铜器的塑型方式上是一样的，故选项B为正确答案。
24. B) 根据文章第一段和最后一段可以很明显判断出“I”是一位贫穷的犹太小女孩。
25. C) 根据第三段第一句中“..., wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block.”可知这个女孩做鼻子美容是为了使人们认不出她是犹太人，以适应犹太街区外边的生活，也就是说她要在外面的世界过新的生活。
26. A) 由于在美国招工时有种族歧视现象，因此这个男孩把犹太人的姓名改成普通的姓名。
27. D) 年轻犹太人对现实不满，更名、美容、嫁富人成了改变现状的手段，作者对种族歧视、性别歧视、贫富歧视深有感触，文中到处可以见到。
28. A) 文章的第一段就像一个新闻报道，报道了在秘鲁发生的雪崩的灾难性后果，一下子就吸引了读者的注意力。
29. A) 根据语境线索可判断出词义为A。
30. A) 通读全文可知，文章主要是讲述雪崩的形成。
31. A) 32. C) 33. B) 34.
B) 35. A) 36. A) 37. C)
38. A) 39. B) 40. A)
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