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四级考试即将到来,为了巩固大家的知识,我们请考试专家编写了一些练习并配有答案与详解供大家学习.
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 1
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Hardly a week goes by without some advance in technology that would have seemed incredible 50 years ago.And we can expect the rate of change to accelerate rather than slow down within our lifetime.The developments in technology are bound to have a dramatic effect on the future of work.By 2010, new technology will have revolutionized communications.People will be transmitting messages down telephone lines that previously would have been sent by post.Not only postmen but also clerks and secretaries will vanish in a paper-free society.All the routine tasks they perform will be carried on a tiny silicon chip so that they will be as obsolete as the horse and cart after the invention of the motor car.One change will make thousands,if not millions,redundant.
Even people in traditional professions,where expert knowledge has been the key,are unlikely to escape the effects of new technology.Instead of going to a solicitor,you might go to a computer which is progammed with all the most up-to-date legal information.Doctors,too,will find that an electronic competitor will be able to carry out a much quicker and more accurate diagnosis and recommend more efficient courses of treatment.In education,teachers will be largely replaced by teaching machines far more knowledgeable than any human being.Most learning will take place in the home via video conferencing.Children will still go to school though ,until another place is created where they can make friends and develop social skills.
What can we do to avoid the threat of unemployment?We shouldn’t hide our heads in the sand.Unions will try to stop change but they will be fighting a losing battle.People should get computer literate as this just might save them from professional extinction.After all,there will be a few jobs left in law,education and medicine for those few individuals who are capable of writing and programming the software of the future.Strangely enough,there will still be jobs like rubbish collection and cleaning as it is tough to programme tasks which are largely unpredictable.
21.According to the writer,the rate of change in technology ____.
A)will remain the same
B)will slow down
C)will speed up
D)can not be predicted
22.The writer expects that by 2010 new technology will have revolutionized communications and ____.
A)bookshops will not exist
B)the present postal system will have disappeared
C)people will no longer send letters
D)the postmen will have been replaced by the motor car
23.From the passage,we can infer that ____.
A)professionals won’t be affected by new techonology
B)doctors won’t be as efficient as computers
C)computers can not replace lawyers
D)experts will know less in the future
24.The passage tells us that in the future____.
A)children will not be taught in schools
B)no teachers will be needed
C)teachers will be less knowledgeable
D)children will learn life skills at school
25.In the writer’s view,____ .
A)people should be prepared for the future
B)there exists no threat of unemployment
C)unions can stop the unfavourable change
D)people had better become cleaners
Passage 2
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
The World Health Organization says as many as 10 million persons worldwide may have the virus(病毒) that causes AIDS.Experts believe about 350 thousand persons have the disease.And one million more may get it in the next five years.In the United States,about 50,000 persons have died with AIDS.The country’s top medical official says more than 90 percent of all Americans who had the AIDS virus five years ago are dead.
There is no cure for AIDS and no vaccine(疫苗) medicine to prevent it. However,researchers know much more about AIDS than they did just a few years ago.We now know that AIDS is caused by a virus.The virus invades healthy cells including white blood cells that are part of our defense system against disease.It takes control of the healthy cell’s genetic(遗传的) material and forces the cell to make a copy of the virus. The cell then dies.And the viral particles move on to invade and kill more healthy cells.
The AIDS virus is carried in a person’s body fluids.The virus can be passed sexually or by sharing instruments used to take intravenous(静脉内的) drugs.It also can be passed in blood products or from a pregnant woman with AIDS to her developing baby.
Many stories about the spread of AIDS are false.You cannot get AIDS by working or attending school with someone who has the disease.You can not get it by touching,drinking glasses or other objects used by such persons.Experts say no one has gotten AIDS by living with,caring for or touching an AIDS patient.
There are several warning signs of an AIDS infection.They include always feeling tired,unexplained weight loss and uncontrolled expulsion of body wastes(大小便失禁). Other warnings are the appearance of white areas on the mouth ,dark red areas of skin that do not disappear and a higher than normal body temperature.
26.Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A)As many as 350 thousand persons have AIDS.
B)The AIDS virus is carried in a person’s body fluids.
C)There’s no vaccine medicine to prevent AIDS.
D)The AIDS virus is not spread by mosquitoes.
27.Concerning the ways the AIDS virus can be passed,which of the following statements is wrong?
A)An AIDS mother can pass on the virus to her unborn child.
B)The AIDS virus can be passed on through infected blood.
C)The AIDS virus can be passed on by shaking hands and sharing belongings.
D)The AIDS virus is passed sexually.
28.The expression “a pregnant woman”(Para. 3) means____ .
A)a woman who has an unborn child in the body
B)a woman who is taking drug
C)a woman who has the AIDS virus
D)an unmarried mother
29.The fifth paragraph is mainly about____ .
A)the results of an AIDS infection
B)the possible symptoms of an AIDS infection
C)how the AIDS virus is spread
D)the diseases AIDS patients easily have
30.When the AIDS virus attacks our defense system____ .
A)it starts to destroy our white blood cells
B)we begin to feel tired
C)it means we will die very soon
D)our white blood cells can control it
Passage 3
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
For some time past it has been widely accepted that babies—and other creatures—learn to do things because certain acts lead to “rewards”;and there is no reason to doubt that this is true.But it used also to be widely believed that effective rewards,at least in the early stages,had to be directly related to such basic physiological(生理的) “drives”as thirst or hunger.In other words,a baby would learn if he got food or drink or some sort of physical comfort ,not otherwise.
It is now clear that this is not so.Babies will learn to behave in ways that produce results in the world with no reward except the successful outcome.
Papousek began his studies by using milk in the normal way to “reward” the babies and so taught them to carry out some simple movements,such as turning the head to one side or the other.Then he noticed that a baby who had had enough to drink would refuse the milk but would still go on making the learned response with clear signs of pleasure.So he began to study the children’s responses in situations where no milk was provided.He quickly found that children as young as four months would learn to turn their heads to right or left if the movement “switched on ”a display of lights —and indeed that they were capable of learning quite complex turns to bring about this result,for instance,two left or two right,or even to make as many as three turns to one side.
Papousek’s light display was placed directly in front of the babies and he made the interesting observation that sometimes they would not turn back to watch the lights closely although they would “smile and bubble”when the display came on.Papousek concluded that it was not primarily the sight of the lights which pleased them,it was the success they were achieving in solving the problem,in mastering the skill,and that there exists a fundamental human urge to make sense of the world and bring it under intentional control.
31.According to the author,babies learn to do things which____ .
A)are directly related to pleasure
B)will meet their physical needs
C)will bring them a feeling of success
D)will satisfy their curiosity
32.Papousek noticed in his studies that a baby____ .
A)would make learned responses when it saw the milk
B)would carry out learned movements when it had enough to drink
C)would continue the simple movements without being given milk
D)would turn its head to right or left when it had enough to drink
33.In Papousek’s experiment babies make learned movements of the head in order to ____.
A)have the lights turned on
B)be rewarded with milk
C)please their parents
D)be praised
34.The babies would “smile and bubble” at the lights because____ .
A)the lights were directly related to some basic “drives”
B)the sight of the lights was interesting
C)they need not turn back to watch the lights
D)they succeeded in “switching on” the lights
35.According to papousek’s,the pleasure babies get in achieving something is a reflection of ____.
A)a basic human desire to understand and control the world
B)the satisfaction of certain physiological needs
C)their strong desire to solove complex problem
D)a fundamental human urge to display their learned skills
Passage 4
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
The pollution of Hong Kong’s beaches by oil from a damaged tanker last year recalls a similar incident which took place in Britain in 1967 when the Torrey Canyon,a huge oil tanker,split in two and caused disaster in coastal areas.Shoals of fishes were killed,sea birds hopelessly fouled with oil and coastal holiday resorts put out of business for several weeks. As a result of this particular incident scientists are becoming restless at the thought of Britain’s inability to cope with national disasters on a large scale.The reason for their concern is that technology is rapidly outstripping(超越)man’s ability to control it.
Oil tankers,for instance,have been allowed to get bigger and bigger without sufficient thought being given to emergency braking and manoeuvring arrangement.Collisions at sea continue,but little effect has been made to develop safety devices as effective as those used for aircraft.
Scientists were outspoken in expressing their concern during a recent meeting of the British Association.Unanimous approval was voiced when the leading speaker urged that a permanent national rescue services should be established,equipped for any emergency and ready to move off immediately.
Of all the possible disasters mentioned,the one promoting most discussion was a major release of radioactivity from a nuclear power station.One does not need a particularly vivid imagination to visualize the other possibilities discussed.What would be the effect of a jumbo-jet crashing on a large chemical plant handling destroying liquids?Could the tapping of natural gas lead to any form of collapse?Suppose a lorry full of a highly poisonous chemical crashed unseen into a large reservoir?Dams can burst,abnormal conditions can lead to massive electrical blackouts.
An intensive study of such possibilities could at least reduce the effects of future disasters.For example,it would mean that a number of technical alternatives (such as the choice between detergent or chalk for dispersing oil) could be examined and tested in advance so that specially trained expert would know exactly what action was needed in a given emergency.
36.The main idea of the second paragraph is that ____.
A)safety precautions in aircraft are not as effective as those used on ships
B)modern oil tankers can stop or turn easily in spite of their size
C)there are now fewer collisions at sea because of modern safety devices
D)oil tankers are so big that special devices are needed
37.The idea of a permanent national rescue service was welcomed by ____ of those present at the meeting of the British Association.
A)all B)the most outspoken C)some D)most
38.In the fourth paragraph the writer states that ____ .
A)on one occasion radioactivity escaped from a nuclear power station
B)an areoplane carrying destroying liquids might crash into chemical plant
C)a lorry once crashed into a reservoir
D)a terrible accident could happen in a nuclear power station
39.The main idea of the final paragraph is that ____.
A)in an emergency all the technical alternations should be studied
B)experts should be specially trained to determine the exact difference between detergent and chalk
C)we ought to decide what measures to take before a disaster occurs
D)technical experts should be examined and tested to see whether they are c
apable of selecting the right course of action in a future emergency
40.Of the following suggested titles the one most accurately summing up the passage is ____ .
A)The Dangers of Modern Technology
B)The Problem of Oil Pollution
C)Some Interesting Accidents
D)A Meeting of the British Association
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