(完整版)大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案(四)

大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案（四）

十六

Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more

damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way.

First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air.

One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint

them properly.

1.Pruning should be done to ______.

a.make the tree grow taller

b.improve the shape of the tree

c.get rid of the small branches

d.make the small branches thicker

2.Trees become unhealthy if the gardener ______.

a.allows too many branches to grow in the middle

b.does not protect them from wind

c.forces them to grow too quickly

d.damages some of the small side branches

3.Why is a special substance painted on the tree?

a.To make a wound smooth

b.To prevent disease entering a wound

c.To cover a rough surface

d.To help a wound to dry

4.A good gardener prunes a tree______.

a.at intervals throughout the year

b.as quickly as possible

c.occasionally when necessary

d.regular every winter

5.What was the author's purpose when writing this

passage?

a.To give pratical instruction for pruning a tree.

b.To give a general description of pruning

c.To explain how trees develop diseases

d.To discuss different methods of pruning.

答案：babca

十七

On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Carke, dressed for going out, took her handbag with her money and her key in it, pulled the door behind her to lock it and

went to the over 60s Club. She always went there on Thursdays. It was a nice outing for an old woman who lived alone.

At six o'clock she cane home, let herself in and at once smelt cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke in her house? How? How? Had someone got in? She checked the back door and the windows. All were locked or fastened, as usual. There was no sign of forced entry.

Over a cup of tea she wondered whether someone might have a key that fitted her front door-"a master key"perhaps. So she stayed at home the following Thursday. Nothing happened. Was anyone watching her movements? On the Thursday after that she went out at her usual time,dressed as usual, but she didn't go

to the club. Instead she took a short cut home again, letting herself in

through her garden and the back door. She settled down to wait.

It was just after four o'clock when the front door bell rang.Mrs. Clarke was making a cup of tea at the time. The bell rang again, and then she heard

her letter-box being pushed open. With the kettle of boiling water in her hand, she moved quietly towards the front door. A long piece of wire appeared through the letter-box, and then a hand. The wire turned and caught around the knob on the door-lock. Mrs. Clarke raised the kettle and poured the water over the hand. There was a shout outside, and the skin seemed to drop off the fingers like a

glove. The wire fell to the floor, the hand was pulled back, and Mrs. Clarke heard the sound of running feet.

1.Mrs. Clarke looded forward to Thursday because_______.

a.she worked at a club on the day

b.she said visitors on Thursdays

c.she visited a club on Thursday

d.a special visitor came on Thursday

2.If someone had made a forced entery,_______.

a.Mrs.Clarke would have found a broken door or window

b.he or she was still in the house

c.things would have been thown about

d.he or she would have needed a master key

3.On the third Thursday Mrs. Clarke went out_______.

a.because she didn't want to miss the club again

b.to see if the thief was hnging about outside

c.to the club but then changed her mind

d.in an attempt to trick the thief

4.The lock on the front door was one which_______.

a.needed a piece of wire to open it

b.could he opened from inside without a key

c.could't be opened without a key

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/6b18075919.html,ed a knob instead of a key

5.The wire feel to the floor_______.

a.because Mrs.Clarke refused to open the door

b.when the man's glove dropped off

c.because it was too hot to hold

d.because the man justwanted to get away

答案：cadbd

十八

Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" .

The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the

entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour

after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.

Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see

something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome.

1.To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark glasses are_____.

a.indispensible

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/6b18075919.html,eful

c.ineffective

d.available

2.When the eyes are sore tears are produced to ________.

a.clear the vision

b.remedy snowblindness

c.ease the irritation

d.loosen the muscles

3.Snowblindness may be avoided by_______.

a.concentrating to the solid white terrain

b.searching for something to look at in snow-covered terrain

c.providing the eyes with something to foucs on

d.covering the eyeballs with fluid

4.The scouts shake snow from evergreen bushes in order to _______.

a.bive the men behind something to see

b.beautify the landscape

c.warm themselves in the cold

d.prevent the men behind from losing their way

5.A suitable title for this passage would be _______.

a.snowblindness and how to overcome it

b.natrue's cure for snowblindness

c.soldiers in the snow

d.snow vision

答案：CCCAA

十九

Water problems in the future will become nore intense and more complex. Our increasing population will tremendously increase urban wastes,primarily sewage. On the other hand, increasing demands for water will decease substantialy the amount of water available for diluting wastes. Rapidly expanding industries which involve more and more complex chemical processes will produce large volumes of liquid wastes, and many of these will contain chemicals which are noxious. To feed our rapidly expanding population, agriculture will have to be intensified. This will involve ever-increasingquantities of agricultural chemicals, From this , it is apparent that drastic steps must be taken immediately to develop corrective measures for the pollution problem.

There are two ways by which this pollution problem can be dwindled. The

first relates to the treatment of wastes to decrease their pollution hazard. This involves the processing of solid wastes "prior to " disposal and the treatment of liquid wastes, or efflunets,to permit the reuse of the water or minimize pollution upon final disposal.

A second approach is to develop an economic use for all or a part of the wastes. Farm manure is spread in fields as a nutrient or organic supplement . Effluents from sewage disposal plants are used in some areas both for

irrigation and for the nutrients contained. Efflunets from other processing plants may also be used as a supplemental source of water. Many industries, such as meat and poultry processing plants, are currently converting former waste products into marketable byproducts. Other industries are potential eonomic uses for waste products.

1.The purpose of this passage is ______.

a.to alert the reader to the dwindling water supply

b.to explain industrial uses of water

c.to acquaint the reader with water pollution problems

d.to demostrate various measures to solve the pollution problem

2.Which of the following points is NOT INCLUDED in the passage?

a.In dustrial development incudes the simplification of complex chemical processes.

b.Diluting wastes needs certain amount of water

c.Demands for water will go up along with the expanding population

d.Intensive cultivation of land requires more and more chemicals

3.The reader can conclued that________.

a.countries of the world will work together on polution problems

b.byproducts from wastes lead to a more prosperous marketplace

c.science is making great progress on increasing water supplies

d.some industries are now ,aking economic use of wastes

4.The author gives substance to the passage through the use of _______.

a.interviews with authorities in the field of water controls

b.opinions and personal observations

c.definitions which clarify important terms

d.strong arguments and persuasions

5.The words "prior to "(para.2) probably mean______.

a.after

b.during

c.before

d.beyond

答案:cadbc

二十

One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit one's mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like "I was wrong about that," and it is even harder to say, "I was wrong , and you were right about that."

I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made

a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store in the neighbourhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and Ibegan to remember vaguely the incident he was describing.

I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gome into the store with may mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident tood place.

There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of eggs indozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I want to work.

The manager heard the moise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the culprit. He severely reprimanded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not.

1.How old was the author when he wrote this article?

a.about 8

b.about 18

c.about 23

d.about 15

2.Who was to blame for knocking off the stacks of cartons?

a.The author

b.The manager

c.A woman

d.The author's mother

3.Which of the following statements is not true?

a.The woman who knocked off the stacks of cartons was seriously criticized by the mananger

b.The author was severely critizized by the manager.

c.A woman carelessly knocked off the stacks of cartons

d.It was the author who put the display back together

4.Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?

a.Its Harder to Admit One's Mistake

b.I was once the culprit

c.I remember an incident

d.A case of mistaken identity

5.The tone of the article expresses the author's_______.

a.admiration for the manager's willingness to admit mistakes

b.anger to the manager for his wrong accusation

c.indignation against the woman who knocked off the stacks of cartons

d.reget for the mistake the made in the store

答案：ccada