专四阅读+详解(2)
星期2 Tuesday
Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.不要小题大做。
Text A
Becket not only traveled light, he lived light. In the entire world he owned just the clothes he stood up in, a full suitcase and a bank account. Arriving anywhere with these possessions, he might just as easily put up for a month or a year as for a single night. For long stays, not less than a month, he might take a furnished flat, sometimes even a house. But whatever the length, he rarely needed anything he did not have with him. He was, he liked to think, a self-contained person.
Becket had one occasional anxiety: the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case. The feeling, when it comes, was the signal for him to throw something away or just leave it lying about. This was automatic fate of his worn-out clothes, for example. Having no use for choice or variety, he kept just a raincoat, a suit, a pair of shoes and a few shirts, socks and so on; no more in the clothing line. He bought and read many books and left them where he happened to be sitting when he finished them. They quickly found new owners.
Becket was a professional traveler, interested and interesting. He was not one to do a country in a week or a city in three days. He liked to get a feel of a place by living in it, reading its newspapers, watching its TV; discussing its affairs. He always tried to make a few friends —if necessary even by stopping a suitable-looking person in the street and talking to him. It worked well almost in nine cases out of ten. Though Beck et’s health gave him no cause for alarm, he made a point of seeing a doctor as soon as he arrived anywhere. “A doctor knows a place and its people better than anyone,” he used to say. He never went to see a doctor; he always sent for one; that, he found, was the quickest way to confidences, which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
Becket was an artist as well. He painted pictures of his places and, when he had gathered enough information, he wrote about them. He sold his work, through an agent, to newspapers and magazines. It was an agreeable sort of life for a good social mixer, and as Becket never stayed anywhere for long, he enjoyed the satisfying advantages of paying little in taxes.
1. What do we know about Be cket’s possessions?
[A] He had enough baggage to stay for only one night.
[B] He carried all of them around with him.
[C] He often threw or gave them away.
[D] He left most of his things at home when he traveled.
2. Becket took over a flat when
[A] there were no suitable hotels.
[B] he meant to stay somewhere for several nights.
[C] he was sure of staying a year or more.
[D] he expected not to move on for a month at least.
3. If anything worried Becket, it was
[A] the thought of having too much baggage.
[B] his habit of leaving things lying about.
[C] the fact that he owned so little.
[D] the poor state of his clothes.
4. What was the usual result when Becket talked to strangers in the street?
[A] He made many new friends in that way.
[B] People thought he was ill and sent for a doctor.
[C] The people he spoke to felt annoyed with him.
[D] He usually turned out to be disappointed at the talking.
5. Which of the following about Becket is NOT true?
[A] He never stayed anywhere for too long a time.
[B] He was good at dealing with people.
[C] He was satisfied with his mobile life.
[D] He never forgot to visit a doctor wherever he went.
6. How did Becket feel about taxation?
[A] It worried him, so he kept moving from place to place.
[B] He hated it, so he broke the tax laws.
[C] He was pleased he could honestly avoid it.
[D] He felt ashamed of not paying taxes.
Text B
America’s city dwellers are a mobile people. The decennial censuses provided documentation in their redundant accounts of rapid changes and growth in most of our great cities. But statistical evidence is hardly needed. The changes in our cities have occurred so rapidly that the perception of mobility is an integral part of every urban dweller’s experience. Hometowns are transformed in the intervals between visits. The neighborhoods of our childhood present alien appearances and the landmarks that anchored our memories have disappeared.
How do these dramatic changes in residential areas come about? In part, industry and commerce in their expansion encroach upon land used for residences. But, in larger part, the changes are mass movements of families — the end results of countless thousands of residence shifts made by the urban Americans every year. Compounded in the mass, the residence shifts of urban households produce most of the change and flux of urban population structures.
Some of the mobility is an expression of the growth of our population. Every new family started ordinarily means another household formed. But the mobility that occurs is much greater than can be accounted for only by the addition of new households to our population. The high level of mobility implies that established households are involved in a large-scale game of “musical chairs” in which housing is exchanged from time to time.
Residential shifts often accompany the dissolution of households, although not as consistently as in the case of the formations of new household. A divorce or separation forces at least one to move, and often both husband and wife shift residence. Mortality sometimes precipitates a move on the part of the remaining members of the household. But, neither divorce
nor mortality, when added to new household formation, can account for more than a very small part of the American mobility rate.
Another part of the high residential mobility rate might be traced to change occurring in the labor force. American workers change jobs frequently and some of the residential mobility might be viewed as a consequence of job shifts. But most residential shifts do not involve long-distance movements. About three fourths of such shifts do not cross country boundaries and many of them take place within smaller areas. Neither can job shifts account for the overall picture of mobility, much of which is kind of “milling about” within small areas of the city.
7. At the end of Para. 1 the author implies that
[A] Americans forget the landmarks of their hometowns easily.
[B] Americans don’t usually notice the rapid changes around them.
[C] On returning to their hometowns, Americans may not recognize their childhood friends.
[D] Upon visiting their hometowns, Americans may feel unfamiliar about the new appearances.
8. The addition of new households can’t account for the mobility because
[A] they are expressions of population growth.
[B] new families are unstable and therefore unreliable.
[C] new households are exchanging houses from time to time.
[D] the previously established households also keep changing houses.
9. Americans who change their jobs usually
[A] like to live near their working places.
[B] prefer small towns to big cities.
[C] dislike moving to far away places.
[D] think it worthwhile to move to a foreign country.
10. Which of the following can account for a larger part of the high American mobility rate?
[A] Expansion of industry and commerce.
[B] Not mentioned in the passage.
[C] Divorce and mortality.
[D] Changes occurring in the labor force.
Text C
There’s a dark little joke exchanged by educators with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices pinned to their ears. Young people sit at home on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Older folk defy death and disability with metronomes (节拍器) in their chests and with hips made of metal and plastic. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls — every place Rip goes just puzzles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school,” he declares. “We used to have these black in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.”
American school s aren’t exactly frozen in time, but considering the pace of change in other areas of life, our public schools tend to feel like throwbacks. Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed. A yawning chasm (with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside.
For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math
tests and closing the “achievement gap” between social classes. This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get “left behind” but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English.
This week the conversation will burst onto the front page, when the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a high-powered, bipartisan(代表两党的)assembly of Education Secretaries, government and other education leaders releases a blueprint for rethinking American education from pre-K to 12 and beyond to better prepare students to thrive in the global economy. While that report includes some controversial proposals, there is nonetheless a remarkable consensus among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century.
Right now w e’re aiming too low. Competency in reading and math —the focus of so much No Child Left Behind testing —is the meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise, utterly necessary but insufficient. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills. Here’s w hat they are: knowing more about the world, thinking outside the box, becoming smarter about new sources of information, developing good people skills.
Can our public schools, originally designed to educate workers for agrarian(土地的)life and industrial-age factories, make the necessary shifts? The state of Michigan, admitting that it can no longer count on the unwell auto industry to absorb its poorly educated and low-skilled workers, is retooling its high schools, instituting what are among the most rigorous graduation requirements in the nation. Elsewhere, organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Asia Society are pouring money and expertise into model programs to show the way.
11. The purpose of the dark little joke in the first paragraph was
[A] to describe the modern life.
[B] to introduce the present situation of American schools.
[C] to introduce Rip Van Winkle.
[D] to explain how the old man knows where he is.
12. What is the aut hor’s i mpression of today’s American school children?
[A] Their school life is definitely isolated from the outside.
[B] They can hand in their homework by internet.
[C] They no longer use the textbook in the class.
[D] Their school life seems the same as their great-grandparents.
13. In the aut hor’s op inion, the big public conversation will
[A] focus on closing the achievement gap between social classes.
[B] focus on the teaching method and educational curriculum.
[C] determine whether the children will lose in the world economic development.
[D] determine whether the children can speak a second language other than English.
14. What has been agreed on in the report of the New Commission?
[A] A conversation between the bipartisan representative members.
[B] The release of a blueprint for rethinking American education.
[C] Proposals on better the student to thrive in the world economy.
[D] The necessity to change the present teaching content and method.
15. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
[A] American school is developing to some degree.
[B] No Child Left Behind testing focuses on the reading and math capability of children.
[C] The graduation requirement of Michigan is very liberal.
[D] Our public schools designed to culture workers for farms and industrial factories at first.
Text D
Mom always said milk was good for you. But Mom hasn’t been heeding her own advice. For decades, milk consumption has trickled downward while that of cola has nearly tripled. Among beverages, milk ranks fourth in popularity after soft drinks, coffee and beer.
Pepsi is trying to raise milk’s profile by applying the marketing tactics that have spread cola to all parts of the globe. The company is starting smaller, test marketing a beverage called Smooth Moos Smoothies in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. It is a 2% fat dairy shake package in old-fashioned milk bottles, and it comes in such flavors as double chocolate and banana. The product gives consumers 25% of their daily calcium requirement and keeps retailers happy with a shelf life(保质期) of nine months. “Here was an opportunity to take something traditionally thought of as a commonplace and make it fun and dynamic,” says April Thornton, director of new products at Pep si. Don’t look for Cindy Crawford endorsement: at about 250 calories, Smooth Moos tops a can of Pepsi by 100 calories.
Italy’s milk giant Parmalat also has cola on its mind. The company makes boxed, ultra-heated milk, popular in Italy that has a shelf life of up to six months. In the U.S. market, Parmalat has introduced boxed and fresh varieties and is spending $25 million on advertising in an effort to make itself “the Coca-Cola of milk”.
The milk mustache campaign, with such notables as Christie Brinkley, Jennifer Aniston and Lauren Becall sporting white upper lips and exclaiming, “Milk, what a surprise!” has been running since last January. The National Fluid Milk Processor Board has also joined forces with its California counterpart to license a series o f TV spots called “Got Milk?” The theme is that people only think about milk when they haven’t got it. “For the first time the industry is focusing on milk as a beverage,” says Gordon McDonald, senior vice president at the American Dairy Association. “Usin g beverage-marketing tactics can work for milk. Milk products, packaging and advertising haven’t changed in 25 years, but now we are taking a look at all these things to make milk more competitive.”
Is it? The answer may well be yes. Boosted by the campaigns, milk sales have increased for the first time in decades, up 9% over last year. That’s not enough to strain the dairy herd, and milk’s not going to be replacing Chardonnay at Hollywood parties. But for a product that’s been in a 30-year funk (怯懦), it’s not a bad start to a comeback.
16. At the beginning of the passage, it is implied that
[A] milk is good for children.
[B] milk is a household necessity.
[C] milk consumption has declined because of cola.
[D] milk consumption has fallen behind that of soft drinks.
17. What is NOT true about Smooth Moos Smoothies?
[A] It was developed by Pepsi.
[B] It was a new kind of cola.
[C] It has a longer self life than traditional milk products.
[D] Some people won’t like its high calor ies.
18. By “For the first time…as a beverage”, Gordon McDonald implies that
[A] milk used to be thought of as non-beverage.
[B] milk used to be consumed by drinkers only.
[C] the industry intends to reformulate milk’s image.
[D] the industry is bringing out a cartful of new milk beverages.
19. From the last paragraph we know that
[A] Milk has little possibility to become more competitive.
[B] Milk sales have been increasing for decades.
[C] Milk will someday take the place of other beverages.
[D] Milk products have seen depression for 30 years.
20. What’s the author’s attitude towards the milk campaign?
[A] Objective and actual.
[B] Cynical and indifferent.
[C] Serious and pessimistic.
[D] Argumentative and optimistic.
语境词汇
Text A
1. light ad.轻装地n.光v.点燃
2. self-contained a.独立的；沉默寡言的
3. automatic a.必然的；自动的；无意识的
4. confidence n.知心话；信任；信心
5. agreeable a.惬意的；易相处的；适宜的
6. mixer n.善于或者不善于交际的人；搅拌机
Text B
1. census n.人口调查
2. interval n.间隔，空隙；幕间休息；中断
3. anchor v.使固定；抛锚泊船n.铁锚
4. dissolution n.解散，解除；溶解，液化
5. mortality n.死亡率，死亡数目
6. precipitate v.突然地发生；使陷入
Text C
1. dissident n.&a.持异议的（人），持不同政见的（人）
2. pin vt.使固定；（用别针）别住n.别针；胸针
3. scribble v.潦草地书写；乱涂n.乱涂乱写的东西
4. yawn vi.裂开，豁开；打哈欠，欠身n.呵欠；裂口
5. chasm n.分歧，隔阂；（地壳的）裂隙，断层
6. meager a.贫乏的；少量的；瘦的
Text D
1. heed vt.听某人的劝告，听从
2. beverage n.饮料
3. shake n.奶昔
4. package vt.将…加以包装n.包装
5. endorsement n.赞同，支持
6. notable n.名人，要人a.显著的，著名的
7. sport vt.＆vi.炫耀；嬉戏n.运动
8. exclaim vt.＆vi.呼喊，惊叫，大声说
9. boost vt.推动；提高n.帮助；提高
难句突破
Text A
1. Becket had one occasional anxiety: the suspicion that he owned more than would fit comfortably into the case.
【分析】复合句。冒号后的suspicion是anxiety的同位语；that引导同位语从句，对suspicion 进行解释说明。
【译文】贝克特偶尔也会有焦虑：就是怀疑自己的东西多到以至于可能无法自在地将它们装进手提箱里。
2. He never went to see a doctor; he always sent for one; that, he found, was the quickest way to confidences, which came out freely as soon as he mentioned that he was a writer.
【分析】并列复合句。该句由两个分号连接的三个并列分句组成。第三个分句中he found 前的that是代词，指代he always sent for one这件事；he found是插入成分；which引导非限制性定语从句，修饰confidences；该从句中as soon as引导时间状语从句，其中又包含一个that引导的宾语从句。
【译文】他从来都不是上医生那儿，而是把医生请来；他发现，那样是引发知心话的最好方法，尤其是当他提到自己是作家的时候，这些话更容易吐露出来。
Text B
1. The high level of mobility implies that established households are involved in a large-scale game of “musical chairs” in which housing is exchanged from time to time.
【分析】复合句。that引导宾语从句，作implies的宾语；which引导定语从句，修饰musical chairs，因先行词与in构成介宾搭配，故which前加介词in。
【译文】这么高的流动性表明很多建立的家庭都在玩大规模的变换居住地的游戏，因而不时地换住房。
2. But, neither divorce nor mortality, when added to new household formation, can account for more than a very small part of the American mobility rate.
【分析】复合句。neither… nor连接两个并列名词作主句主语；when引导让步状语从句，作插入成分，when后省略了it is。
【译文】但是，尽管离婚或死亡使新家庭的建立增多了，但其所能解释的美国人口流动率也只是占很小的一部分。
Text C
1. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get “left behind” but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English.
【分析】复合句。句子的主干是This is a story。about…education为介词短语作后置定语，其中the nation is…education是省略关系词的定语从句，修饰conversation；the one作conversation的同位语，其中that引导定语从句，修饰the one；此定语从句中，not merely…but also是并列平行结构，它连接了两个由whether引导的从句，这两个宾语从句都作determine 的宾语；because引导原因状语从句，对两个宾语从句的内容进行原因分析。
【译文】我们要说的是举国上下针对教育问题尚未兴起的一场公共大讨论。这场讨论最终不仅将关系到我们的一部分孩子是否会“掉队”，而且还关系到整整一代孩子是否会在全球化经济中落败，而掉队或失败的原因是他们理不清抽象问题，无法参与团队工作，对资讯良莠不辨，或是除了英语再不会说第二种语言。
2. The state of Michigan, admitting that it can no longer count on the unwell auto industry to absorb its poorly educated and low-skilled workers, is retooling its high schools, instituting what are among the most rigorous graduation requirements in the nation.
【分析】复合句。句子的主干是The state of Michigan is retooling its high schools。admitting…是现在分词作伴随状语，其后的that引导宾语从句；instituting…也是现在分词短语作伴随状语，其后的what引导宾语从句。
【译文】密歇根州坦言不能再期待从境况不佳的汽车业吸收其素质差且技能低下的工人了。而今它正着手改造州立高中，制定的毕业政策也是全国最严格的毕业政策之一。
Text D
1. The milk mustache campaign, with such notables as Christie Brinkley, Jennifer Aniston and Lauren Becall sporting white upper lips and exclaiming, “Milk, what a surprise!” has been running since last January.
【分析】简单句。主干是The milk mustache campaign has been running。with的复合结构在句中表示伴随，其中Milk, what a surprise是直接引语，作exclaiming的宾语。
【译文】随着像克里斯蒂·布林克里，珍妮弗·安尼斯顿和罗伦·贝卡尔这样的名人炫耀着他们沾着白色液体的上嘴唇并惊叹道：“牛奶，好大的惊喜！”，牛奶胡子广告运动从去年一月就开始进行了。
2. The theme is that people only think about milk when they haven’t got it.
【分析】复合句。that引导表语从句，其中又嵌套一个when引导的时间状语从句。
【译文】其主题就是人们只有在没有喝牛奶的时候才会想起喝牛奶。
英语专业四级阅读理解练习四附答案解析
PART Ⅱ READING COMPREHENSION ［25 MIN.］ In this section there are four passages followed by fifteen questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.Mark your choice on your ANSWER SHEET. TEXT A As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe－sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with storerooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them “pueblos”, which is Spanish for town.The people of the pueblos raised what are called “the three sisters”—corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain. The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou. The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents and tipis. 16. What does the passage mainly discuss? A. The architecture of early American Indian buildings. B. The movement of American Indians across North America. C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians. D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America. 17. It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were ___ A. very small B. highly advanced C. difficult to defend D. quickly constructed TEXT B Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth’s surface. But earthquakes can and do occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as high as 100 in a month, but the yearly average does not vary much. In comparison with the total number of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small.[JP] The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a toy house with an erect set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it completely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done
英语专业四级考试阅读理解考前最后冲刺技巧上
英语专业四级考试阅读理解解题步骤 1．浏览试题，明确目标 在进行阅读之前，首先浏览短文后面的题目。看完试题题干和四个选项后，分析掌握每道试题考查的内容和题型（如是主旨大意题、细节理解题，还是推理分析题等），以便带着问题有目标地阅读短文，按照相应的解题技巧寻找正确答案。 2．略读全文，掌握大意 有效的阅读是先掌握全局，再寻求细节。略读（skimming）又称跳读（reading and skipping）或浏览(glancing)，是一种专门而实用的快速阅读方法，主要特点是选择性地阅读。拿到一篇500字左右的文章时，应先用30秒左右的时间进行略读，其目的一是：以尽可能快的速度获取文章主旨大意或中心思想；二是辨识文章体裁，掌握结构（如果是记叙文，就需要了解故事发生的时间、地点、背景和人物活动等主要线索；如果是议论文，就要弄清文章的中心论点以及论述内容）。略读完成后就去看题干，这时有关文章主旨大意题已经有了答案，而对细节题要根据题目的具体要求回到文章中再进行快速扫读以找到相应的信息。 【真题示例】（2009） Nowadays, a cellphone service is available to everyone, everywhere. Probably thousands of people have already been using it, but I just discovered it, so I’m going to claim it and also name it: Fake Foning. The technology has been working well for me at the office, but there are infinite applications. Virtually in any public space. Say you work at a big university with lots of talky faculty members buzzing about. Now, say you need to use the restroom. The trip down the hall will take approximately one hour, because a person can’t walk into those talky people without getting pulled aside for a question, a bit of gossip, a new read on a certain line of Paradise Lost. So, a cellphone. Any cellphone. Just pick it up. Don’t dial. Just h old that phone to your face and start talking. Walk confidently down the hall engaged in fake conversation, making sure to tailor both the topic and content to the person standing before you whom you are trying to evade. For standard colleague avoidance, I suggest fake chatting about fake business: “Yes, I’m glad you called, because we really need to hammer out the details. What’s that? Yes, I read Page 12, but if you look at the bottom of 4, I think you can see the problem begins
2007英语专业四级阅读理解答案及详解
TEXT A If you like the idea of staying with a family, living in house (guest house 1. 小旅馆2. （大房子旁供客人居住的）客房) might be the answer.[81]Good landladies (a woman from whom you rent a room, a house, etc. 女房东；女地主; a woman who owns or manages a pub or a guest house （酒吧或招待所的）女店主，老板娘)---those who are superb cooks and launderers (洗衣工. thunderer 怒喝的人大声说话的人. blunderer 犯大错的人), are figures as popular in fiction as the bad ones who terrorize（to frighten and threaten people so that they will not oppose something or will do as they are told 恐吓；恫吓；威胁）their guest and overcharge （to make somebody pay too much for something 多收（某人的）钱）them at the slightest opportunity. The truth is probably somewhere between the two extremes. If you are lucky, the food will be adequate, some of your laundry may be done for you and you will have a reasonable amount of comfort and companionship. For the less fortune, house rules may restrict the freedom to invite friends to visit, and shared cooking and bathroom facilities can be frustrating and row-provoking (/ra?/ a serious disagreement between people, organizations, etc. about something 严重分歧；纠纷; a noisy argument between two or more people 吵架；争吵) if tidy and untidy guest (a person who is staying at a hotel, etc. 旅客；房客) are living under the same roof. // [82]The same disadvantages can apply to flat sharing, with the added difficulties that arise from deciding who pays for what, and in what proportion. One person may spend hours on the phone, while another rarely makes calls. If you want privacy with guest, how do you persuade the others to go out; how do you persuade them to leave you in peace, especially if you are student and want to study? [83]Conversely, flat sharing can be very cheap, there will always
专四阅读理解练习
专四阅读理解练习1 As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe－sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with store rooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town. The people of the pueblos raised what are called"the three sisters" - corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain. The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou. The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison,
专四阅读详解 2
星期2 Tuesday Happiness is nearly always a rebound from hard work.辛勤工作的报酬几乎总是幸福。 Beauty is a curious phenomenon, one of permeable, shifting boundaries. We may think we understand it, since we sense it effortlessly. In fact, it is a bundle of mysteries researchers are still uncovering. Consider the ancient proverb: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Until about 30 years ago it seemed too obvious for scientists to bother with. When they finally tested it, their results startled them. On the one hand, the maxim is false. Facial beauty is the same throughout the world. In every tribe and culture, individuals will consider Marilyn Monroe, say, an attractive woman. It goes further. Males can identify good-looking men, and females charming women. Old and young, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, all agree on who is beautiful. So do people of every class and personality type. We don’t learn this response. We’re born with it. In one recent study, babies just 20 hours old recognized attractive faces and preferred them. So beauty is in our DNA. The eye of the beholder doesn’t matter. On the other hand, and this is where it gets interesting, the facial shell is just the foundation of beauty. We see the self in the face, every day, all the time, and we can’t distinguish the two. This blurring means that we gift the attractive with a large number of virtues. They seem more competent, likeable, happier, blessed with better lives and personalities. In one experiment, people predicted happier marriages and better jobs for them, and rated them lower on only one aspect: their caliber as parents. Another study found people consider them more amiable, happy, flexible, pleasure-seeking, serious, candid, outspoken, perceptive, confident, assertive, curious and active. They exert more control over their destiny, subjects felt, while the homely endure the world’s sudden change. It is calle d the “beautiful is good” stereotype, and it grants the attractive a parade of boons. Teachers consider them smarter and give them higher grades. Bosses promote them faster. In one tale in The Thousand and One Nights, a thief steals a coin-bag, and when the victim accuses him, people protest: “No, he’s such a handsome youth. He wouldn’t steal anything!” In fact, attractive people can shoplift with greater ease, since witnesses are less likely to report them. And when they do stand before the court, juries acquit them more readily and judges give them lighter penalties. 1. The proverb “beauty is in the eye of beholder” means [A] that beauty can only be admitted when most people recognize it. [B] whether somebody is beautiful depends on the person who is looking.
英语专业四级英语阅读的技巧
书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟英语专业四级英语阅读的技巧 一段文章的中心思想常常由主题句(Topic Sentence)表达。主题句常 常位于段首或段尾处，间或出现在段落中间。同样，一篇文章的中心思 想也常常在开始或结尾段点出。因此在阅读中，我们要特别注意文章的 开头或结尾。例四： English is clearly an international language.It is spoken by pilots and airport control operators on all the airways of the world.Over 70 percent of the worlds radio programs are in English. 本段主题句为首句，其后的内容句均说明首句。例五： Some students prefer a strict teacher who tells them exactly what to do.Others prefer to be left to work on their own.Still others like a democratic discussion type of class.No one teaching method can be devised to satisfy all students at the same time. 本段中心思想在结尾句得到体现，它是此段内容的结论。例六： For adults a cold is not that serious.However，this is not the case for children.Cold symptoms in children may be signs of more serious diseases and should be given prompt medical attention. 本段主题句为第二句，因为在however 后面才是作者真正的看 法，并在下文中进一步作了说明。 然而，我们也常常发现，有的主题思想并非直接由一、二个句子 表述，而是在文中间接暗示着。这就需要读者根据文中细节进行概括与 归纳，找出主题思想。 tips:感谢大家的阅读，本文由我司收集整编。仅供参阅！
专四阅读理解
4) For a long time, researchers have tried to nail down just what shapes us--or what, at least, shapes us most. And over the years, they've had a lot of exclamation moments. First it was our parents, particularly our mothers. Then it was our genes. Next it was our peers, who show up last but hold great sway. And all those ideas were good ones--but only as far as they went. Somewhere, there was a sort of temperamental dark matter exerting an invisible gravitational pull of its own. More and more, scientists are concluding that this unexplained force is our siblings. From the time we are born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They are our scolds, protectors, goads, tormentors, playmates, counselors, sources of envy, objects of pride. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to; how to conduct friendships and when to walk away from them. Sisters teach brothers about the mysteries of girls; brothers teach sisters about the puzzle of boys. Our spouses arrive comparatively late in our lives; our parents eventually leave us. Our siblings may be the only people we'll ever know who truly qualify as partners for life. "Siblings," says family sociologist Katherine Conger, "are with us for the whole journey." Within the scientific community, siblings have not been wholly ignored, but research has been limited mostly to discussions of birth order．Older sibs were said to be strivers；younger ones rebels；middle kids the lost souls．The stereotypes were broad，if not entirely untrue，and there the discussion mostly ended． But all that’s changin9．At research centers in the U．S．，Canada，Europe and elsewhere，investigators are launching a wealth of new studies into the sibling dynamic，looking at ways brothers and sisters steer one another int0—or away from--risky behavior how they form a protective buffer(减震器)against family upheaval；how they educate one another about the opposite sex；how all siblings compete for family recognition and come to terms--or blows--over such impossibly charged issues as parental favoritism． From that research，scientists are gaining intriguing insights into the people we become as adults．Does the manager who runs a harmonious office call on the peacemaking skills learned in the family playroom? Does the student struggling with a professor who plays favorites summon up the coping skills acquired from dealing with a sister who was Daddy’s girl? Do husbands and wives benefit from the inter—gender negotiations they waged when their most important partners were their sisters and brothers? All that is under investigation．“Siblings have just been o ff the radar screen until now，”says Conger．But today serious work is revealing exactly how our brothers and sisters influence us．1．The beginning of the passage indicates that A．researchers have found out what shapes us．B．our peer is the last factor influencing us． C．what researchers found contributes in a limited way． D．what researchers found is good and trustworthy．2．In the third paragraph, the author tries to demonstrate that our siblings A．offer us much useful information． B．have great influences on us． C．are the ones who love us completely． D．accompany us throughout our life． 3．In scientific community, previous research on siblings A．mostly focused on the sibling order． B．studied the characteristics of the kids． C．studied the matter in a broad sense． D．wasn’t believable and the discussion ended． 4．Which of the following is NOT sibling dynamic? A．A brother cautions his sister against getting into trouble． B．Sisters have quarrels with each other． C．Siblings compete for parental favoritism． D．Older kids in a family try hard to achieve． 5．From the last paragraph，we can conclude that A．managers learned management skills from the family playroom． B．spouses learned negotiation skills from their siblings． C．studies on siblings are under the way。 D．studies on siblings need thorough investigation． 5) What comes to mind when you hear the word--diversity? Issues of race or gender may spring to mind．Equal rights? Or minority issues? I encourage people to look at a much wider definition of the word．1 would tend to say diversity is “differentness” in any form．A good example of this kind of diversity has been experienced by every person who ever left behind the comforts of home and moved into uncharted territory．Issues of diversity are informed not only by your cultural background and context，but also by your religion，age，field of work，family situation，personality，and countless other factors that make us unique．Diversity affects everyone．
2008年专四阅读详解
PART V READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN] In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. Mark your answers on your answer sheet. TEXT A 1 When the sun is up in Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands sits quietly on the Amstel River. You can rent a bicycle, visit the Van Gogh or Anne Frank museum, or take a water taxi. 2 But when the sun goes down, the partying begins. In the big clubs and in coffee shops, tourists gather to hang out, talk politics and smoke. 3 Several areas of the city clearly show the two worlds that rule Amsterdam. And they're all within a short cab ride of each other. 81. At the beginning of the passage, the author indicates that A. Amsterdam is generally known as a quiet city. B. parties go on all day long in Amsterdam, C. Amsterdam presents two different pictures. D. Amsterdam attracts many daytime visitors. Notice the linking word “but” to indicate the contrast “When the sun is up” and “when the sun goes down”. 梵高美术馆或安妮弗兰克博物馆，酒吧和咖啡馆 81. C. (Paras.1~2)可见阿姆斯特丹给人的感觉是，白天夜晚完全不同，故选C。 4 For example, Dam Square attracts daytime sightseers to its festivals, open markets, concerts and other events. Several beautiful and very popular hotels can be found there. And there is the Royal Palace and the Magna Plaza shopping mall. 5 But as evening descends on Dam Square so do the party-seekers. Hip pop or funk music begins blaring嘟嘟声，巨响from Club Paradiso and Club Melkweg. These are two of the most popular clubs in Europe. So if you come, be ready to dance. The clubs don't shut down until 4 am. 82. Which tourist attraction is cited for elaboration in Paragraphs Four and Five? A. Royal Palace. B. Dam Square. 大坝广场 C. Club Paradiso. 天堂篇，神曲中的一篇 D. Magna Plaza. 82. Ｂ. (Paras.4~5) For example, Dam Square attracts daytime sightseers to its festivals, open markets, concerts and other events. But as evening descends on Dam Square so do the party-seekers. 在这两段中，作者着力阐述Dam Square具有两重娱乐性。 6 And while you are there, check out the various inexpensive ways to tour the city. Don't worry about getting lost. Although Dutch is the official language, most people in Amsterdam speak English and are happy to help you with directions. 7 And you'll notice that half the people in the streets are on bicycles. They rent for US$17 to $20 for a whole day. 83. According to the passage, the local people have all the following characteristics EXCEPT A. they are party goers. B. they show hospitality. C. they can speak English. D. they are fond of cycling.