历年四级真题阅读理解2.docx

1、历年四级真题阅读理解2历年四级真题阅读理解（2）2003年6月Passage OneQuestions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as s

2、occer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls lag half that time. All in all, however, childrens leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%.“Children are affected by t

3、he same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,” says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of childrens timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner” households spent comparabl

4、e amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,”

5、 says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidl

6、y decreasing “free time” watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If theyre spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids arent replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children

7、 spent just over an hour a week reading. Lets face it, whos got the time?21. By mentioning “the same time crunch” (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means _.A) children have little time to play with their parentsB) children are not taken good care of by their working parentsC) both parents and childr

8、en suffer from lack of leisure timeD) both parents and children have trouble managing their time22. According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is _.A) quite convincing B) partially trueC) totally groundless D) rather confusing23. According to the author a child

9、develops better if _.A) he has plenty of time reading and studyingB) he is left to play with his peers in his own wayC) he has more time participating in school activitiesD) he is free to interact with his working parents24. The author is concerned about the fact that American kids _.A) are engaged

10、in more and more structured activitiesB) are increasingly neglected by their working mothersC) are spending more and more time watching TVD) are involved less and less in household work25. We can infer from the passage that _.A) extracurricular activities promote childrens intelligenceB) most childr

11、en will turn to reading with TV sets switched offC) efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitfulD) most parents believe reading to be beneficial to childrenPassage TwoQuestions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:Henry Ford, the famous U.S. inventor and car manufacturer, once

12、 said, The business of America is business.” By this he meant that the U.S. way of life is based on the values of the business world.Few would argue with Fords statement. A brief glimpse at a daily newspaper vividly shows how much people in the United States think about business. For example, nearly

13、 every newspaper has a business section, in which the deals and projects, finances and management, stock prices and labor problems of corporations are reported daily. In addition, business news can appear in every other section. Most national news has an important financial aspect to it. Welfare, fo

14、reign aid, the federal budget, and the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank are all heavily affected by business. Moreover, business news appears in some of the unlikeliest places. The world of arts and entertainment is often referred to as “the entertainment industry” or “show business.”The positiv

15、e side of Henry Fords statement can be seen in the prosperity that business has brought to U.S. life. One of the most important reasons so many people from all over the world come to live in the United States is the dream of a better job. Jobs are produced in abundance (大量地) because the U.S. economi

16、c system is driven by competition. People believe that this system creates more wealth, more jobs, and a materially better way of life.The negative side of Henry Fords statement, however, can be seen when the word business is taken to mean big business. And the term big businessreferring to the bigg

17、est companies, is seen in opposition to labor. Throughout U.S. history working people have had to fight hard for higher wages, better working conditions, and the right to form unions. Today, many of the old labor disputes are over, but there is still some employee anxiety. Downsizingthe laying off o

18、f thousands of workers to keep expenses low and profits high - creates feelings of insecurity for many.26. The united States is a typical country _.A) which encourages free trade at homes and abroadB) where peoples chief concern is how to make moneyC) where all businesses are managed scientificallyD

19、) which normally works according to the federal budget27. The influence of business in the U.S. is evidenced by the fact that _.A) most newspapers are run by big businessesB) even public organizations concentrate on working for profitsC) Americans of all professions know how to do businessD) even ar

20、ts and entertainment are regarded as business28. According to the passage, immigrants choose to settle in the U.S., dreaming that _.A) they can start profitable businesses thereB) they can be more competitive in businessC) they will make a fortune overnight thereD) they will find better chances of e

21、mployment29. Henry Fords statements can be taken negatively because _.A) working people are discouraged to fight for their rightsB) there are many industries controlled by a few big capitalistsC) there is a conflicting relationship between big corporations and laborD) public services are not run by

22、the federal government30. A companys efforts to keep expenses low and profits high may result in _.A) reduction in the number of employeesB) improvement of working conditionsC) fewer disputes between labor and managementD) a rise in workers wagesPassage ThreeQuestions 31 to 35 are based on the follo

23、wing passage:Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings.

24、Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People progr

25、amme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the womans custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme.” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly fa

26、ilures.”Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a sm

27、aller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain programmes occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses 12.5 compared with 10.9 for men probably because they were more reliable reporters.A sta

28、rtling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse even dangerous.31. In

29、 his study Professor Smith asked the subjects _.A) to keep track of people who tend to forget thingsB) to report their embarrassing lapses at randomC) to analyse their awkward experiences scientificallyD) to keep a record of what they did unintentionally32. Professor Smith discovered that _.A) certa

30、in patterns can be identified in the recorded incidentsB) many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindednessC) men tend to be more absent-minded than womenD) absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness33. “Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para.2) refers to the phenomenon tha

31、t people _.A) often fail to programme their routines beforehandB) tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurryC) unconsciously change the sequence of doing thingsD) are likely to mess things up if they are too tired34. We learn from the third paragraph that _.A) absent-mindedness tends to occur du

32、ring certain hours of the dayB) women are very careful to perform actions during peak periodsC) women experience more peak periods of absent-mindednessD) mens absent-mindedness often results in funny situations35. It can be concluded from the passage that _.A) people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapsesB) hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good atC) people should