2010年12月英语四级考试全真预测试卷(2)

　　Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

　　Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage

　　A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you 47 the two to do something for your local 48 ?

　　It may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to 49 it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.

　　50 , a biodegradable (生物可降解的)mobile phone was introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage 51 to recycle.

　　Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other 52 and can be hard or soft. and able to change shape. Overtime it can also break down into the soil without giving out any toxic 53 . British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this new type of cover turns into waste, it 54 nitrates(硝酸盐). These feed the seed and help the flower grow.

　　Engineers have designed a small 55 window to hold the seed. They have made sure it only grows when the phone is thrown away.

　　"We've only put sunflower seeds into the covers so far. But we are working with plant 56 to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time," said one scientist.

　　[A] Recently

　　[B] consumers

　　[C] chemicals

　　[D] environment

　　[E] combine

　　[F] transparent

　　[G] buy

　　[H] companion [I] experts

　　[J] forms

　　[K] bury

　　[L] paper

　　[M] paper

　　[N] plastic

　　[O] Usually

　　Section B

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

　　It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions, the basis for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory.

　　Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use. It not only includes "remembering" things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves. Memory is involved when a rat gives up eating grain because he has sniffed (嗅出)something suspicious in the grain pile.

　　Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines. Computers, for example, contain devices for storing data for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being. The instant access memory of a large computer may hold up to 100,000 "words"—string of alphabetic or numerical characters—ready for instant use. An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of English. However, this is but a fraction of the total amount of information that the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight.

　　The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem-solving intelligence of human beings. A large part of a person's memory is in terms of words and combinations of words. But while language greatly expands the number and the king of things a person can remember, it also requires a huge memory capacity. It may well be this capacity that distinguishes humans, setting them apart from other animals.