历年英语四级考试阅读理解部分10

　　1998年6月

　　Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

　　Direction: 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:

　　Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived(被剥夺)of cigarettes through a series of tests.

　　In the first test, each subject(试验对象)sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well.

　　The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine(尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.

　　In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.

　　The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non- smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details.

　　“As our tests became more complex.” Sums up Spilich, “non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins” He predicts, “smokers might perform adequately at many jobs-until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.”

　　21. The purpose of George Spilich’s experiments is ________.

　　A) to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers

　　B) to show how smoking damages people’s mental capacity

　　C) to prove that smoking affects people’s regular performance

　　D) to find out whether smoking helps people’s short-term memory

　　22. George Spilich’s experiment was conducted in such a way as to __________.

　　A) compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details

　　B) put the subjects through increasingly complex tests

　　C) check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers

　　D) register the prompt responses of the subjects

　　23. The word “bested” (Line 3, Para.5) most probably means _________.

　　A) beat

　　B) envied

　　C) caught up with

　　D) made the best of

　　24. Which of the following statements is true?

　　A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.

　　B) Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.

　　C) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.

　　D) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.

　　25. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.

　　A) smokers should not expect to become airline pilots

　　B) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness

　　C) no airline pilots smoke during flights

　　D) smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:

　　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 form of 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 have chosen 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 repaid 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 rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.

　　26. To be the competent citizens of tomorrow, people should ________.

　　A) try to lay a solid foundation in computer science

　　B) be aware of how the things that they use do what they do

　　C) learn to use a computer by acquiring a certain set of skills

　　D) understand that programming a computer is more essential than repairing a car.

　　27. In the second paragraph “violin-making” is mentioned to show that _________.

　　A) programming a computer is as interesting as making a violin

　　B) our society needs experts in different fields

　　C) violin-making requires as much skill as computer programming

　　D) people who can use a computer don’t necessarily have to know computer programming

　　28. Learning to use a computer is getting easier all the time because _________.

　　A) programs are becoming less complicated

　　B) programs are designed to be convenient to users

　　C) programming is becoming easier and easier

　　D) programs are becoming readily available to computer users

　　29. According to the author, the phrase “learning to use a computer” (Lines3-4, Para.3) means learning ___________.

　　A) a set of rules

　　B) the fundamentals of computer science

　　C) specific programs

　　D) general principles of programming

　　30. The author’s purpose in writing this passage is _________.

　　A) to stress the impact of the computer on society

　　B) to explain the concept of the computer literacy

　　C) to illustrate the requirements for being competent citizens of tomorrow.

　　D) to emphasize that computer programming is an interesting and challenging job

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:

　　The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness, if fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

　　As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment(承担的义务), self-improvement.

　　Ask a bachelor(单身汉)why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.

　　Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.

　　Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

　　31. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________.

　　A) he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities

　　B) he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

　　C) he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

　　D) he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

　　32. Raising children, in the author’s opinion, is _________.

　　A) a moral duty

　　B) a thankless job

　　C) a rewarding task

　　D) a source of inevitable pain

　　33. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________.

　　A) hatred

　　B) misunderstanding

　　C) prejudice

　　D) ignorance

　　34. To understand what true happiness is one must ____________.

　　A) have as much run as possible during one’s lifetime

　　B) make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

　　C) put up with pain under all circumstances

　　D) be able to distinguish happiness from fun

　　35. What is the author trying to tell us?

　　A) Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.

　　B) One must know how to attain happiness.

　　C) It is important to make commitments.

　　D) It is pain that leads to happiness.

　　Passage Four

　　Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:

　　It’s very interesting to note where the debate about diversity(多样化)is taking place. It is taking place primarily in political circles. Here at the College Fund, we have a lot of contact with top corporate(公司的)leaders; none of them is talking about getting rid of those instruments that produce diversity. In fact, they say that if their companies are to compete in the global village and in the global market place, diversity is an imperative. They also say that the need for talented, skilled Americans means we have to expand the pool means promoting policies that help provide skills to more minorities, more women and more immigrants. Corporate leaders know that if that doesn’t occur in our society, they will not have the engineers, the scientist, the lawyers, or the business managers they will need.

　　Likewise, I don’t hear people in the academy saying. “Let’s go backward. Let’s go back to the good old days, when we had a meritocracy(不拘一格选人才) “(which was never true-we never had a meritocracy, although we’ve come close to it in the last 30 years). I recently visited a great little college in New York where the campus had doubled its minority population in the last six years. I talked with an African American who has been a professor there for a long time, and she remembers that when she first joined the community, there were fewer than a handful of minorities on campus. Now, all of us feel the university is better because of the diversity. So where we hear this debate is primarily in political circles and in the media-not in corporate board rooms or on college campuses.

　　36. The word “imperative” (Line 5, Para.1) most probably refers to something _______.

　　A) superficial

　　B) remarkable

　　C) debatable

　　D) essential

　　37. Which of the following groups of people still differ in their views on diversity?

　　A) Minorities.

　　B) Politicians.

　　C) Professors.

　　D) Managers.

　　38. High corporate leaders seem to be in favor of promoting diversity so as to _________.

　　A) lower the rate of unemployment

　　B) win equal political rights for minorities

　　C) be competitive in the world market

　　D) satisfy the demands of a growing population

　　39. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

　　A) meritocracy can never be realized without diversity

　　B) American political circles will not accept diversity

　　C) it is unlikely that diversity will occur in the U.S. media

　　D) minorities can only enter the fields where no debate is heard about diversity.

　　40. According to the passage diversity can be achieved in American society by ________.

　　A) expanding the pool of potential employees

　　B) promoting policies that provide skills to employees

　　C) training more engineers, scientists lawyers and business managers

　　D) providing education for all regardless of race or sex

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