专四阅读题目汇总(96-01).doc

历年专四阅读题汇总
1996年 [25 MIN]
TEXT A
In the past thirty years many social changes bare taken place in Britain. The greatest of these have probably been in the economic lives of women.
The changes have been significant, but because tradition and prejudice can still handicap women in their working careers and personal lives, major legislation to help promote equality of opportunity and pay was passed during the 1970s.
At the heart of women's changed role in society has been the rise in the number of women at work, particularly married women. As technology and society permit highly effective and generally acceptable methods of family planning there has been a decline in family size. Women as a result are involved in child-rearing for a much shorter time and related to this, there has been a rapid increase in the number of women with young children who return to work when the children are old enough not to need constant care and attention.
Since 1951 the proportion of married women who work has grown from just over a fifth to a haft. Compared with their counterparts elsewhere on the Continent, British women comprise a relatively high proportion of the work force, about two-fifths, but on average they work fewer hours, about 31 a week There is still a significant difference between women's average earnings and men' s, but the equal pay legislation which came into force at the end of 1975 appears to have helped to narrow the gap between women's and men's basic rates.
As more and more women joined the work force in the 1960s and early 1970s there was an increase in the collective incomes of women as a whole and a major change in the economic role of large numbers of housewives. Families have come to rely on married women's earnings as an essential part of their income rather than as "pocket money". At the same time social roles within the family are more likely to be shared, exchanged or altered.
66. The general idea of the passage is about __
[ A] social trends in contemporary Britain
[ B] changes in women's economic stares
[ C] equal opportunity and pay in Britain
[ D ] women's roles within the family
67. According to the author, an increasing number of married women are able to work because __
[ A] their children no longer require their care
[ B] there are more jobs available nowadays
[ C] technology has enabled them to find acceptable jobs
[ D] they spend far less time on child care than before.
TEXT B
NATURE'S GIGANTIC SNOWPLOUGH
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, lucidly, 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.
68. The first paragraph catches the reader's attention with a __
[A] firsthand report [B] dramatic description
[C] tall tale [D] vivid word picture
69. In this passage devastating means
[A] violently ruinous [B] spectaculary interesting
[C] stunning [D] unpleasant
70. The passage is mostly about __
[A] avalanches [B] glaciers [C] Peru [D] mountains
TEXT C
I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their age as horses know of their, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesting, springtime, or fall time. A lack of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages, I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it. He considered all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from heating my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old.
My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Issac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather.
My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my maser was my father, but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was an infant before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some faint a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an older woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection towards its mother.
71. The author did not know exactly when he was born because __
[ A] he did not know who his mother was
[ B] there was no written evidence of it
[ C] his master did not tell his father
[ D] nobody on his farm knew anything about it
72. In the mid-nineteenth century, slaves often
[ A] marked their birthdays by the season
[ B] did not really care how old they were
[ C] forgot the exact time when they were born
[ D] pretended not to know each other's birthdays
73. The author's mother told him
[ A] his father was black [ B] his father was white
[ C ] nothing about his father [ D] his master was his father
74. According to the passage, when the author was very young his mother
[A] run away [ B] was light skinned
[ C] had several children [ D] was sent to work elsewhere
75. The author bad not spent much time with his
[A] mother [B] master [C] grandfather [D] grandmother
76. The author was most probably raised
[A] by his grandparents [B] by an old woman slave
[C] with his master' s support [D] together with other children
TEXT D
PLEASE RECYCLE THAT BOBSLED RUN (大雪橇滑道）
For the 1992 Winter Games, French organizers constructed a new motorway, parking lots and runs for skiing in the Alps. Environmentalists screamed "Disaster!". Thus warned, the Norwegians have adopted "green" advice and avoided great blots on the landscape. The speed-skating was built to look like an overturned ship, and placed so as not to disturb a bird sanctuary. Dug into a mountainside, the hockey arena is well concealed and energy efficient. The bobsled run is built out of wood not metal and hidden among trees. No wonder the president of the International Olympic Committee has called these the first "Green Games".
Lillehammer's opening ceremonies featured a giant Olympic Torch burning biogas produced by rotting vegetation. During construction, builders were threatened with $ 7,500 fines for felling trees unnecessarily. Rate trees were carefully transplanted from hillsides. Food is being served on potato-based plates that will be fed, in turn, to pigs. Smoking has been banned outdoors as well as in, with enforcement by polite requests.
Environmentalists have declared partial victory, though Coca-Cola's plan to decorate the town with Banners has been scaled back, there are still too many billboards for strict green tastes. Perhaps, but after the Games, athlete housing will be converted into vacation home or shipped to the northlands for student dormitories. Bullets will be plucked from biathlon targets and recycled to keep the lead from poisoning ground water. And these tricks won't be forgotten. Embarrassed by environmental protests, the I. O. C. claims that green awareness is now entrenched-along with sport and culture-as a permanent dimension of the Olympic Charter.
Indeed, Sydney was successful in becoming host for the 2000 Summer Games in part on the strength of its endorsement from Greenpeace. Aspiring host cities are picking up the code. Salt Lake City, bidding for the 2002 Games, may opt to use the bobsled run that Calgary built for the 88 Games. After that, who could deny that recycling is an Olympic movement?
77. Which of the following countries has not paid enough attention to the "green" issues?
[A]Norway. [B] France. [C] Arnica. [D] Australia.
78. In which area did the environmentalists fail in Lillehammer?
[A] Energy. [B] Smoking. [B] Housing. [D] Advertising.
79. Which of the following describes the I.O.C.'s attitude towards the environmentalists' protests?
[A] Trying to commit themselves. [B] Showing indifference and contempt.
[C] Arguing for practical difficulties. [D] Negotiating for gradual changes.
80. The 2002 Games might be held in__
[A] Oslo [B] Calgary [C] Sydney [D] Salt Lake City
1997年 [25 MIN]
TEXT A
University teaching in the United Kingdom is very different at both undergraduate and graduate levels from that of many overseas countries.
An undergraduate course consists of a series of lectures, seminars and tutorials and, in science and engineering, laboratory classes, which in total accounts for about 15 hours per week. Arts students may well find that their official contact with teachers is less than this average, while science and engineering students may expect to be timetabled for up to 20 hours per week. Students studying for a particular degree will take a series of lecture courses which run in parallel at a fixed time in each week and may last one academic term or the whole year. Associated with each lecture course are seminars, tutorials and laboratory classes which draw upon, analyze, illustrate or amplify the topics presented in the lectures. Lecture classes can vary in size from 20 to 200 although larger size lectures tend to decrease as students progress into the second and third year and more options become available. Seminars and tutorials are on the whole much smaller than lecture classes and in some departments can be on a oneto-one basis (that is one member of staff to one student). Students are normally expected to prepare work in advance for seminars and tutorials and this can take the form of researching a topic for discussion, by writing essays or by solving problems. Lectures, seminars and tutorials are all one hour in length, while laboratory classes usually last either 2 or 3 hours. Much emphasis is put on how to spend as much time if not more studying by themselves as being taught. In the UK it is still common for people to say that they are "reading" for a degree! Each student has a tutor whom they can consult on any matter whether academic or personal. Although the tutor will help, motivation for study is expected to come from the student.
66. According to the passage, science and engineering courses seem to be more __ than arts courses.
[A] motivating [B] varied [C] demanding [D] interesting
67. Which of the following is the length of lectures or seminars or tutorials?
[A] 1 hour. [B] 2 hours. [C] 3 hours. [D] 15 hours.
68. In British universities teaching and learning are carried on in __
[A] a variety of ways [B] laboratory classes
[C] seminars sand tutorials [D] lectures and tutorials
TEXT B
Who said the only way to learn about a country you can't visit is by reading a book? Dan Eckberg's television students at Hopkins High School know better. They're seeing countries and learning about cultures with the aid of electronic communications.
Using computers, satellite hookups, and telephone hotlines, Eckberg's students have already followed a team of cyclists 11,500 miles across the continent of Africa, sat on a top Mount Killmanjaro, and sweltered In the Sahara Desert.
This winter they' 11 interact with an expedition exploring Central America in search of the classic Maya culture.
You can join them.
How?. By following Eckberg and his class as they track the adventures of Dan and Steve Buettner, two world-class bicyclists from the U. S.. Starting last month these two bicyclists, joined by archaeologists and a technical support team, are interacting with students via the Internet, the worldwide computer network.
From classroom or home computer, students can make research proposals to the Buettners or the archaeologists at the various Central American locations they've been exploring as part of their Maya Quest expedition.
"We hope that someone will ask a question that can't readily be answered," says Hopkins High School student Barry Anderson, "and through the online activities, an answer will be found--a discovery !"
Having students "discover" why a civilization as advanced as the Maya collapsed in the 9th century is one key goal for the leaders of the Maya Quest expedition. The more important goal is using interactive learning to discover the cause of the decline and compare it to issues we face today--n