2011年英语四级仔细阅读题精选练习20套(4)

　　Part II Reading Comprehension(35 minutes)

　　Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

　　Dogs are social animals and without proper training, they will behave like wild animals. They will soil your house, destroy your belongings, bark excessively, fight other dogs and even bite you. Nearly all behavior problems are perfectly normal dog activities that occur at the wrong time or place or are directed at the wrong thing. The key to preventing or treating behavior problems is learning to teach the dog to redirect its normal behavior to outlets that are acceptable in the domestic setting.

　　One of the best things you can do for your dog and yourself is to obedience train it. Obedience training doesn’t solve all behavior problems, but it is the foundation for solving just about any problem. Training pens up a line of communication between you and your dog. Effective communication is necessary to instruct your dog about what you want it to do.

　　Training is also an easy way to establish the social rank order. When your dog obeys a simple request of “come here, sit,” it is showing obedience and respect for you. It is not necessary to establish yourself as top dog or leader of the pack (群) by using extreme measure. You can teach your dog its subordinate (从属的) role by teaching it to show submission to you. Most dogs love performing tricks for you to pleasantly accept that you are in charge.

　　Training should be fun and rewarding for you and your dog. It can enrich your relationship and make living together more enjoyable. A well-trained dog is more confident and can more safely be allowed a greater amount of freedom than an untrained animal.

　　21. Behavior problems of dogs are believe to ________.

　　A) be just part of their nature

　　B) worsen in modern society

　　C) occur when they go wild

　　D) present a threat to the community

　　22. The primary purpose of obedience training is to ________.

　　A) teach the dog to perform clever tricks

　　B) make the dog aware of its owner’s authority

　　C) provide the dog with outlets for its wild behavior

　　D) enable the dog to regain its normal behavior

　　23. Effective communication between a dog and its owner is ________.

　　A) essential to solving the dog’s behavior problems

　　B) the foundation for dogs to perform tasks

　　C) a good way to teach the dog new tricks

　　D) an extreme measure in obedience training

　　24. Why do pet dogs love performing tricks for their masters?

　　A) To avoid being punished.

　　B) To show their affection for their masters.

　　C) To win leadership of the dog pack.

　　D) To show their willingness to obey.

　　25. When a dog has received effective obedience training, its owner ________.

　　A) can give the dog more rewards

　　B) will enjoy a better family life

　　C) can give the dog more freedom

　　D) will have more confidence in himself

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

　　Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college 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 or engineering. 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.

　　26. The author chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university because he ________.

　　A) wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality

　　B) intended to be a combination of engineer and humanist

　　C) wanted to coordinate engineering with liberal-arts courses in college

　　D) intended to be a sensible student with noble ideals

　　27. According to the author, by interacting with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ________.

　　A) balance engineering and the liberal arts

　　B) receive guidance in their careers

　　C) become noble idealists

　　D) broaden their horizons

　　28. In the eyes of the author, a successful engineering student is expected ________.

　　A) to have an excellent academic record

　　B) to be wise and mature

　　C) to be imaginative with a value system to guide him

　　D) to be a technical genius with a wide vision

　　29. The author’s experience shows that he was ________.

　　A) creative

　　B) ambitious

　　C) unrealistic

　　D) irrational

　　30. The word “they” in “...together they threaten to confuse.” (Line 3, Para. 5) refers to ________.

　　A) engineering and the liberal arts

　　B) reality and noble ideals

　　C) flexibility and a value system

　　D) practicality and rationality

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　Priscilla Ouchida’s “energy-efficient” house turned out to be a horrible dream. When she and her engineer husband married a few years ago, they built a $100,000, three-bedroom home in California. Tightly sealed to prevent air leaks, the house was equipped with small double-paned (双层玻璃的) windows and several other energy-saving features. Problems began as soon as the couple moved in, however. Priscilla’s eyes burned. Her throat was constantly dry. She suffered from headaches and could hardly sleep. It was as though she had suddenly developed a strange illness.

　　Experts finally traced the cause of her illness. The level of formaldehyde (甲醛) gas in her kitchen was twice the maximum allowed by federal standards for chemical workers. The source of the gas? Her new kitchen cabinets and wall-to-wall carpeting.

　　The Ouchidas are victims of indoor air pollution, which is not given sufficient attention partly because of the nation’s drive to save energy. The problem itself isn’t new. “The indoor environment was dirty long before energy conservation came along,” says Moschandreas, a pollution scientist at Geomet Technologies in Maryland. “Energy conservation has tended to accentuate the situation in some cases.”

　　The problem appears to be more troublesome in newly constructed homes rather than old ones. Back in the days when energy was cheap, home builders didn’t worry much about unsealed cracks. Because of such leaks, the air in an average home was replaced by fresh outdoor air about once an hour. As a result, the pollutants generated in most households seldom build up to dangerous levels.

　　31. It can be learned from the passage that the Ouchidas’ house ________.

　　A) is well worth the money spent on its construction

　　B) is almost faultless from the point of energy conservation

　　C) failed to meet energy conservation standards

　　D) was designed and constructed in a scientific way

　　32. What made the Ouchidas’ new house a horrible dream?

　　A) Lack of fresh air.

　　B) Poor quality of building materials.

　　C) Gas leakage in the kitchen.

　　D) The newly painted walls.

　　33. The word “accentuate” (Line 4, Para. 3) most probably means “________”.

　　A) relieve

　　B) accelerate

　　C) worsen

　　D) improve

　　34. Why were cracks in old houses not a big concern?

　　A) Because indoor cleanliness was not emphasized.

　　B) Because energy used to be inexpensive.

　　C) Because environmental protection was given top priority.

　　D) Because they were technically unavoidable.

　　35. This passage is most probably taken from an article entitled “________”.

　　A) Energy Conservation

　　B) Houses Building Crisis

　　C) Air Pollution Indoors

　　D) Traps in Building Construction

　　Passage Four

　　Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.

　　In 1993. New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage (饮料) containers. Within a year. Consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound up buried in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.

　　Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled (回收利用) in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc.

　　As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life-and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling,

　　throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.

　　Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

　　36. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?

　　A) Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.

　　B) Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.

　　C) A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.

　　D) Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them.

　　37. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to ________.

　　A) end up somewhere underground

　　B) be turned into raw materials

　　C) have a second-life value

　　D) be separated from other rubbish

　　38. The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is ________.

　　A) to sell them at a profitable price

　　B) how to turn them into useful things

　　C) how to reduce their recycling costs

　　D) to lower the prices for used materials

　　39. Recycling ahs become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because ________.

　　A) local governments find it easy to manage

　　B) recycling ahs great appeal for the jobless

　　C) recycling causes little pollution

　　D) other methods are more expensive

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

　　A) rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materials

　　B) local governments in the U.S. can expect big profits from recycling

　　C) recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally

　　D) landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal

　　答案：

　　21. C 22. D 23. D 24.A 25. B

　　26. C 27. A 28. B 29.D 30. B

　　31. D 32. A 33. A 34.D 35. B

　　36. C 37. D 38. C 39.B 40. A

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