专四英语阅读练习含答案.docx
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专四英语阅读练习含答案
（一）
People have been painting pictures for at least30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted bypeople who hunted animals. They used to paintpictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill.Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls ofcaves in France and Spain. No one knows why theywere painted there. Perhaps the painters thoughtthat their pictures would help them to catch theseanimals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use picturesas kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also torepresent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind ofalphabet.The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writingand pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life werepainted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures arelike modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip.But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way ofwriting simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea haddeveloped a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and therewere fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter,represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formedthe letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet isnow used all over the world.
These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But westill need pictures of all kinds:
drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find themeverywhere:
in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where welive and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they canmake a story much more interesting.?
1. Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ?
______?
.?
A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures?
B. the painters were animal lovers?
C. the painters wanted to show imagination?
D. the pictures were thought to be helpful?
2. The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasonsEXCEPT that ?
______.
A. the former was easy to write?
B. there were fewer signs in the former?
C. the former was easy to pronounce?
D. each sign stood for only one sound?
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
?
A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.?
B. The Egyptians liked to write comic?
strip stories.?
C. The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.?
D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.?
4. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ?
______?
.?
A. should be made comprehensible?
B. should be made interesting?
C. are of much use in our life?
D. have disappeared from our life
参考答案：
1. D）根据文章第一段第五行“Perhaps the paintersthought that their pictures would help them to catchthese animals.”可知古代人以为在墙上画画会对他们有所帮助，故选项D为正确答案。
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2. C）在做此类题时要注意题干的要求。
通过阅读文章第四段很清楚就知道选项C “前者容易发音”在文中没有提及，故为正确答案。
?
3. A）可用排除法来做本题。
通过阅读文章很清楚选项B和D为错误陈述。
选项C “罗马字母是从埃及字母发展而来的”根据文章第四段第四，五句可知为错误论述，因此只有选项A为正确答案。
4. C）文章最后一段讲述了图画在今天的用途，故选项C为正确答案。
（二）
As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth?
century North American Colonies, the silversmithand the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it.Only a few silversmiths were available in New Yorkor Boston in the late seventeenth century, but in theeighteenth century they could be found in all majorcolonial cities. No other colonial artisans rivaled thesilversmiths’ prestige. They handled the mostexpensive materials and possessed direct connections to prosperous colonial merchants. Theirproducts, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to theircustomers’ prominence. Silver stood as one of the surest ways to store wealth at a time beforeneighborhood banks existed. Unlike the silver coins from which they were made, silver articleswere readily identifiable. Often formed to individual specifications, they always carried thesilversmith’s distinctive markings and consequently could be traced and retrieved.Customers generally secure the silver for the silver object they ordered. They saved coins, tookthem to smiths, and discussed the type of pieces they desired. Silversmiths complied with theserequests by melting the money in a small furnace, adding a bit of copper to form a strongeralloy, and casting the alloy in rectangular blocks. They hammered these ingots to theappropriate thickness by hand, shaped them and pressed designs into them for adornment.Engraving was also done by hand. In addition to plates and bowls, some customers soughtmore intricate products, such as silver teapots. These were made by shaping or casting partsseparately and then soldering them together. Colonial coppersmithing also come of age in theearly eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities. Copper’s ability to conduct heatefficiently and to resist corrosion contributed to its attractiveness. But because it wasexpensive in colonial America, coppersmiths were never very numerous. Virtually all copperworked by Smiths was imported as sheets or obtained by recycling old copper goods. Copperwas used for practical items, but it was not admired for its beauty. Coppersmiths employed it tofashion pots and kettles for the home. They shaped it in much the same manner as silver ormelted it in a foundry with lead or tin. They also mixed it with zinc to make brass for maritimeand scientific instruments.?
1.According to the passage, which of the following eighteenth century developments had strongimpact on silversmiths?
?
A. A decrease in the cost of silver.?
B. The invention of heat efficient furnaces.?
C. The growing economic prosperity of colonial merchants.?
D. The development of new tools used to shape silver.?
2.In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make silver articles?
?
A. From their own mines.?
B. From importers.?
C. From other silversmiths.?
D. From customers.
3.The passage mentions all of the following as uses for copper in Colonial America EXCEPT ?
______?
.?
A. cooking pots ?
B. scientific instruments ?
C. musical instruments ?
D. maritime instruments
4.According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar inwhich of the following ways?
?
A. The amount of social prestige they had.?
B. The way they shaped the they worked with.?
C. The cost of the goods they made.?
D. The practicality of the goods they made.
参考答案：
1. C）根据文章第一句“As the merchant classexpanded in the eighteenth?
century North AmericanColonies,...”可知，随着在十八世纪的北美殖民地商人阶级膨胀起来，也就是说那时的商人财富有了很大的发展，银匠铜匠们有机会发挥他们的专长了，这与选项C正好相符。
?
2. D）根据文章第十四、五行“Customers generallysecures …object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and...”可知顾客要做银器，首先要积攒银币，然后拿到银匠处加工成他们想要的形状。
选项D“来自客户”与之相符。
3. C）文章末尾在提到铜的用途时惟独没有提到乐器。
?
4. B）根据文章倒数第四行“They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in afoundry with lead or tin.”可知银匠和铜匠在银器和铜器的塑型方式上是一样的，故选项B为正确答案。
（三）
∙
Nature's Gigantic Snow Plough
On January 10,1962, an enormous piece of glacierbroke away and tumbled down the side of amountain in Peru. A mere seven minutes later, whencascading ice finally came to a stop ten miles downthe mountain, it had taken the lives of 4,000 people.
This disaster is one of the most“devastating”examples of a very common event:
an avalanche of snow or ice. Because it isextremely cold at very high altitudes, snow rarely melts. It just keeps piling up higher andhigher. Glaciers are eventually created when the weight of the snow is so great that the lowerlayers are pressed into solid ice. But most avalanches occur long before this happens. As snowaccumulates on a steep slope, it reaches a critical point at which the slightest vibration willsend it sliding into the valley below.
Even an avalanche of light power can be dangerous, but the Peruvian catastrophe wasparticularly terrible because it was caused by a heavy layer of ice. It is estimated that the icethat broke off weighed three million tons. As it crashed down the steep mountainside like agigantic snow plough, it swept up trees, boulders and tons of topsoil, and completely crushedand destroyed the six villages that lay in its path.
At present there is no way to predict or avoid such enormous avalanches, but, luckily, theyare very rare. Scientists are constantly studying the smaller, more common avalanches, to tryto understand what causes them. In the future, perhaps dangerous masses of snow and icecan be found and removed before they take human lives.?
1. The first paragraph catches the reader's attention with a ?
_____?
.
A. first hand report?
B. dramatic description?
C. tall tale?
D. vivid world picture ?
2. In this passage "devastating" means ?
______?
.
A. violently ruinous?
B. spectacularly interesting?
C. stunning?
D. unpleasant ?
3. The passage is mostly about ?
______?
.?
A. avalanches
B. glaciers
C. Peru
D. mountains
参考答案：
1. A）文章的第一段就像一个新闻报道，报道了在秘鲁发生的雪崩的灾难性后果，一下子就吸引了读者的注意力。
?
2. A）根据语境线索可判断出词义为A。
?
3. A）通读全文可知，文章主要是讲述雪崩的形成。
Most of us are taught to pay attention to what issaid—the words. Words do provide us with someinformation, but meanings are derived from so manyother sources that it would hinder our effectivenessas a partner to a relationship to rely too heavily onwords alone. Words are used to describe only asmall part of the many ideas we associate with anygiven message. Sometimes we can gain insight intosome of those associations if we listen for more than words. We don't always say what wemean or
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