专四阅读详解 2.docx

1、专四阅读详解 2星期2 TuesdayHappiness is nearly always a rebound from hard work.辛勤工作的报酬几乎总是幸福。学习内容题 材词 数建议时间错误统计做题备忘Text A社会现象类3945分钟/4Text B科技应用类5907分钟/5Text C文学人物类4246分钟/5Text D体育人物类5607分钟/6今日练习Text ABeauty is a curious phenomenon, one of permeable, shifting boundaries. We may think we understand it, since

2、 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.

3、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

4、 and ignorant, all agree on who is beautiful. So do people of every class and personality type.We dont learn this response. Were 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 doesnt matter.

5、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 cant distinguish the two.This blurring means that we gift the attractive with a large number of virtues. They seem more competent,

6、 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

7、, serious, candid, outspoken, perceptive, confident, assertive, curious and active. They exert more control over their destiny, subjects felt, while the homely endure the worlds sudden change.It is called the “beautiful is good” stereotype, and it grants the attractive a parade of boons. Teachers co

8、nsider 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, hes such a handsome youth. He wouldnt steal anything!” In fact, attractive people can shoplift wit

9、h 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” meansA that beauty can only be admitted when most people recognize it.B wh

10、ether somebody is beautiful depends on the person who is looking.C that beauty can be measured according to the attractive eyes.D that beauty can be judged only by grown-ups.2. Which of the following can best substitute the word “caliber” in Para. 6?A Desire. B Curiosity. C Habit. D Competence.3. Wh

11、ich of the following is true about the beauty?A The beauty is more likely to shoplift.B The beauty inside is more important than facial beauty.C The beauty may still commit the same crime as the commons.D The beauty usually leads unpleasant life.4. The authors attitude towards “beautiful is good” is

12、A objective. B approving.C questioning. D critical.Text BIts Saturday afternoon and you would love to play a few rounds of golf, but fear that you might not get enough tee (高尔夫球座) time at the closest public links. Instead, you decide to go down to the athletic club a few blocks away. There, you ente

13、r a private room, press a button, and look at the large screen on the wall in front of you. The screen flickers, blinks, and presto(转眼间) you are suddenly on one of the worlds great golf courses, perhaps St. Andrews in Scotland. You tee off on the plastic turf whacking your ball against the screen. A

14、 blurred copy of the ball slices or hooks down the fairway(平坦球道). Computers, infrared beams, and photo-optical detectors track the balls spin, speed, and direction. You are totally immersed in the three-dimensional computer generated world. Virtual reality is created by using display and control tec

15、hnology to surround its users with an artificial environment that mimics real life. Through the use of visual and sound effects, things that dont exist can be made to appear to exist. Virtual realty allows users to manipulate objects on the screen so they can become full participants in the three-di

16、mensional setting that envelops them. Already, virtual reality systems have many practical applications. Most notably, the technology is being used to make simulations of cars or buildings during the design phase, to provide instruction in technical subjects like engineering, and to introduce new su

17、rgical techniques. But this technologys most advanced applications at the moment are in entertainment such as virtual reality golf and the virtual reality arcade game rooms sprouting up all over the world. The idea of using computers to render artificial but useful environments began as early as the

18、 1960s, but the computer power needed to generate 3-D graphics was so costly that only government agencies such as U.S. national Aeronautics and Space Administration, along with a few university labs, could afford it. The field began to grow in the mid 1980s when Jaron Lanier coined the term “virtua

19、l reality” and founded VPI Research Inc., the first high-tech company dedicated to the virtual reality field. Since then companies world wide have come to recognize the technologys commercial potential and have entered the market. In the U.S. for example, the aerospace giant Boeing has organized a c

20、ompany-wide steering committee to explore virtual realitys potential applications.Current virtual reality research shows numerous potential applications of the interactive technology:EDUCATION: Educators say virtual reality can offer alternatives to the way students learn. Some educators, in fact, a

21、re already using virtual reality systems in the classroom. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, architectural students move around in an animated image of the Parthenon, examining that noble structures roof and columns. DESIGN: Architects are expected to be the biggest users of virtual reality desig

22、n applications. One experimental system now allows an architect to move through the design of a virtual hospital in a virtual wheelchair to test access to doors, hallways, light switches, and other design elements. MEDICINE: Virtual reality is giving scientists the ability to work surrounded by imag

23、es of molecules and other objects that once required an electronic microscope study. Researchers predict that surgeons in training will be able to practice on electronic corpses while experienced surgeons will benefit from new techniques developed from virtual reality applications.“Virtual reality o

24、ffers another window, but one that a scientist can climb through to interact directly with scientific abstractions,” says Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Reality. “Virtual reality has the potential to become a microscope of the mind.”5. By citing the example of golf, the author intends toA indic

25、ate that people love to play golf on Saturday afternoon. B suggest that people go to athletic clubs to play golf.C show how people play golf on the three-dimensional world.D introduce the topic of virtual reality.6. People can fully participate in the three-dimensional world because virtual reality

26、makesA things which dont exist appear to exist.B users fall into an illusion.C it possible to manipulate objects on the screen.D users surrounded by an artificial environment.7. Now the most advanced applications of virtual reality are in A design. B entertainment.C education. D surgery.8. Why did t

27、he field of virtual reality begin to develop only in the mid 1980s?A The computer equipment needed in this field was so expensive.B Computer technology just started to grow at that time.C The idea didnt occur to peoples mind at an earlier time.D Jaron Lanier coined the term “virtual reality” then.9.

28、 According to passage, which of the following is NOT true? A Jaron Lanier contributed much to the development of virtual reality.B Students can learn in a new way through the application of virtual reality in education.C Virtual reality is supposed to be applied most widely in car designing.D Scient

29、ists are able to work in an artificial environment through virtual reality applications.Text CThomas Hardys impulses as a writer, all of which he indulged in his novels, were numerous and divergent, and they did not always work together in harmony. Hardy was to some degree interested in exploring hi

30、s characters psychologies, though impelled less by curiosity than by sympathy. Occasionally he felt the impulse to comedy (in all its detached coldness) as well as the impulse to farce, but he was more often inclined to see tragedy and record it. He was also inclined to literary realism in several s

31、enses of that phrase. He wanted to describe ordinary human beings: he wanted to speculate on their dilemmas rationally (and, unfortunately, even schematically); and he wanted to record precisely the material universe. Finally, he wanted to be more than a realist. He wanted to transcend what he consi

32、dered to be triviality of solely recording things exactly and to express as well his awareness of the mysterious and the strange.In his novels these various impulses were sacrificed to each other often inevitably. As Hardy did not care in the way that novelists such as Flaubert or James cared, therefore he took paths of least resistance. Thus one impulse often surrendered to a fresher one and, unfo