专四阅读

快乐周末

哈哈乐园

Insane asylum

Late one night at the insane asylum one inmate shouted, “I am Napoleon!”

Another one said, “How do you know?”

The first inmate said, “God told me!”

Just then, a voice from another room shouted, “I did not!”

疯人院

一天晚上，在疯人院里，一个病人说：“我是拿破仑！”另一个说：“你怎么知道？”第一个人说：“上帝对我说的！”一会儿，一个声音从另一个房间传来：“我没说！”

Make Sure

“We are gathered h ere today,” the priest said, “to pay final homage to a good man. He was a kind man, a man whom everyone loved, a man who treasured his family as his family treasure him.”

The widow of the deceased leaned over and whispered to her grandson, “Go up and make sure it’s Grandpa in the c offin.”

弄清楚

“今天我们聚在这里，”牧师说，“是为了向一位好人表达最后的敬意。他是一个好心肠的男人，一个人人爱戴的人，一个珍爱他的家庭同时也被他的家庭所珍爱的人。”

死者的遗孀这时屈身向她的孙子低声说道：“上前去看看，棺材里到底是不是你爷爷。”

Two stoves

A smart housewife was told that there was a kind of stove which would only consume half of the coal she was burning.

She was very excited, and said: “That'll be terrific! Since one stove can save half of the coal, if I buy two, no coal will be needed!”

两个炉子

一位精明的家庭主妇听人说有一种炉子用起来可以比她现在用的炉子省一半的煤。

她听了大为兴奋，说：“那太好了！一个炉子可以省一半的煤，那么如果我买两个炉子的话，不就可以把煤全都省下来了吗？”

I’ll see to the rest

A guard was about to signal his train to start when he saw an attractive girl standing on the

platform by an open door, talking to another pretty girl inside the carriage.

“Come on, miss!”he shouted. “Shut the door, please!”

“Oh, I just want to kiss my sister goodbye,”she called back.

“You just shut that door, please,”called the guard, “and I'll see to the rest.”

其余的事由我负责

一位车上的列车员刚发出信号让火车启动，这时他看见一位很漂亮的姑娘站在站台上一节打开的车厢门旁边，跟车厢里另一位漂亮姑娘在说话。

“快点，小姐!”他喊道：“请把门关上。”

“噢，我还没有和妹妹吻别呢。”她回答道。

“请把门关上好了，”列车员说：“其余的事由我负责。”

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

历年专四阅读参考答案

历年专四阅读部分答案 02年 TEXT A 短文大意：这篇文章讲的是现代的日用家电产品的缺陷，它们只是改变了家务劳动的方式，而不能真正节省时间，且其商业广告具有很强的误导性和迷惑性。 66．答案：B 【参考译文】根据短文，许多被认为可以解放妇女的家电产品如何？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】本题可从文中第二、三句找到答案“Machines have a certain novelty value… but the time saved does not really amount to much… ”即家用电器具有一定的新颖的价值，但是并不能节省多少时间。故选项B为正确答案。 67．答案：A 【参考译文】根据上下文，capital investment指的是什么钱？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】短文第四句话说“It would be more liberating to pack it all off to alaundry… since no capital investment is required．”即与其在家使用洗衣机这么麻烦，还不如直接把衣服送到洗衣店。那样也不需要基本投资。由此可知，capital investment指购买洗衣机所需的花费。故选项A为正确答案。 68. 答案：D 【参考译文】在女性杂志上做广告的产品的真正目的什么？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】文中在提到女性杂志上的广告时讲到“on no account hint at the notion that a woman could get herself a job，but instead foster her sense of her own usefulness，emphasizing the creative aspect of her function as a housewife．”即决不要使家庭主妇意识到那将会多一份劳动，反而要使她感觉自己很能干，强调她作为家庭主妇的创造才能。这说明这些广告都利用了家庭主妇的心理弱点，给她们造成了一种虚假的满足感。故选项D为正确答案。 TEXT B 短文大意：这篇文章首先介绍了决定一个国家生活水平高低的主要因素，还详细论述了影响国内财富生产能力的因素。 69. 答案：C 【参考译文】一个国家的生活标准是由什么决定的？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】短文第一段第二句说“A country’s standard of living，therefore，depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth。”即生活标准的高低最主要的取决于国内生产财富的能力。故选项C为正确答案。 70. 答案：A 【参考译文】下列哪一项不是一个国家的财富生产能力的决定因素？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】文中第三段提到“… the ability to turn them to use… Sound and stable political conditions, and freedom from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, … the technical efficiency of a country’s people”故选项B、C、D都是决定一个国家财富生产能力的因素，只有选项A不是决定因素，故为正确答案。 71. 答案：D 【参考译文】根据短文，在决定一个国家的生活水平高低这一点上扮演同样重要角色的是什么？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】短文最后一段提说“A country’s standard of living does not only depend upon the wealth that is produced and consumed within its own borders，but also upon what is indirectly produced through international trade．”即生活标准不仅取决于国内财富生产能力，也取决于通过国际贸易获取财富的能力。国际贸易能力也就是进出口能力，故选项D为正确答案。 TEXT C 短文大意：这篇有关时尚的文章介绍了不断变化发展的时尚，包括媒体的宣传，促使时尚变化的因素以及时尚的循环模式等，指出了现在人们追求时尚更加随意和自由。 72. 答案：C 【参考译文】作者认为人们怎样？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】短文第一段第二句说“Few of us are con tent to accept ourselves as we are，and few are brave enough to ignore the trends of fashion．”即人们都不会满足于自己的现状，并且都不会忽视对于时尚趋势的关注。由此可知，作者认为很少有人忽视时尚潮流。 73. 答案：A 【参考译文】时尚杂志和电视广告似乎将时尚与什么联系在一起？ 【试题分析】本题为细节题。 【详细解答】短文第二段说“they tell us，we will be able to meet new people with confidence and deal with every situation confidently and without embarrassment。”由此可见，时尚杂志和电视广告是把时尚与自信联系在一起。 74. 答案：B

英语专业四级考试真题及答案(完整版)

英语专业四级考试真题及答案（完整版） TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2013) —GRADE FOUR— TIME LIMIT: 135 MIN PART I DICTATION [15 MIN] Listen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be done at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be done at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work. You will then be given 2 minutes to check through your work once more. Please write the whole passage on ANSWER SHEET ONE. PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION [20 MIN] In Sections A, B and C you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the best answer to each question on Answer Sheet Two. SECTION A CONVERSATIONS In this section you will hear several conversations. Listen to the conversations carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.

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,

专四阅读理解题型分解要点

专四考前阅读冲刺要点 练习以全真题为主 注意控制时间 严格按照阅读理解解题步骤 做完后总结得失、避免再犯同类错误 总之：适量练习、多体会、多总结 阅读理解五步法 第一步:预览全文了解大意 (高度的概括能力:弄清文章的topic,thesis,structure) 第二步:扫描题干确定关键 (确定题干关键词有助于在阅读时忽略大量细节,提高阅读速度) 第三步:通读全文定位出处 (快速的定位能力:定位significant details) 第四步:缩小范围仔细研读 (准确的推断能力:记住每个答案必在文中找到根据) 第五步:平均用力适当放弃 (当机立断,迷惑性太大的题目凭第一直觉,不要犹豫不决,不要花太多时间) 专四阅读理解题型分析及应对策略 1．主旨类 (1)What is the main idea (subject) of this passage ? (2)What does this passage mainly (primarily)concerned ? (3)The main theme of this passage is ___________. (4)The main point of the passage is__________. (5)Which of the following is the best title for the passage ? (6)The title that best expresses the theme of the passage is ___________. (7)On which of the following subject would the passage most likely be found in a textbook ? (8)The purpose of the writer in writing this passage _________. (9)Which of the following best describes the passage as a whole ? 应对策略：跳读（skimming）文章的开头、结尾及段落的首句和尾句。主旨应该是宏观的，但有不能失之空泛。 2．态度类 (1)What's the writer's attitude to …? (2)What's the tone of the passage? (3)The author's view is _______ (4)The writer's attitude of .this passage is apparently _________- (5)The author suggests that _________ (6)According to author __________ 应对策略：有的文章观点明确，基调清楚，这时跳读（skimming）文章的开头、结尾及段落的首句和尾句。而另一些则需要阅读时对某些细节仔细琢磨。尤其应注意有些表明作者观点词汇，如形容词、副词等。

专业四级考试阅读理解模拟练习试题

专业四级考试阅读理解模拟练习试题 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 remarkably1 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 defense2 against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them pueblos3 , which is Spanish for town. The people of the pueblos raised what are called the three sisters - corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery4 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.

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．

专八阅读理解练习题

passage One (Violence Can Do Nothing to Diminish Race Prejudice) In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has so come to be taken for granted as a means of solving differences, that it is not even questioned．There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging．Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor of violence – as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other．What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all．We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged．The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing．We have still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute．The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing．No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us． The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder to get a hearing．They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement．If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living-standards and providing education and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving at a solution．Our strength is sapped by having to mop up the mess that violence leaves in its wake．In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill the ideals of a stable social programme．The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutions are everywhere apparent in the world around us．Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible, providing we work within the framework of the law． Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we must appreciate each other’s problems．And to do this, we must learn about them: it is a simple exercise in communication, in exchanging information．'Talk, talk, talk,’the advocates of violence say,‘all you ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser．’It’s rather like the story of the famous barrister who painstakingly explained his case to the judge．After listening to a lengthy argument the judge complained that after all this talk, he was none the wiser．‘Possible, my lord,’the barrister replied,‘none the wiser, but surely far better informed．’Knowledge