四级预测试卷3.doc

四级考前冲刺试题三Working to Improve the Conditions of Everglades National ParkWhen many people think of Florida, images of sandy coastlines or theme park rides come to mind. But about an hour south of Miami lies a natural wilderness (野生地) different from anywhere else in the United States.Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the country. The park is home to several rare and endangered species. It is also the third largest national park in the lower forty-eight states, after Death Valley and Yellowstone. More than one million people visit the Everglades each year.Wildlife ReservesThe Everglades is considered one of the great biological wonders of the world. The expansive wetlands stretch across more than 600,000 hectares (公顷). It is a place where plants and animals from the Caribbean Sea share an ecosystem (生态系统) with native North American species.Unlike most other national parks, Everglades National Park was created to protect an ecosystem from damage. The Everglades is home to 36 species that are considered threatened or protected. They include the Florida panther, the American crocodile (鳄鱼) and the West Indian manatee. In addition, more than 350 bird species and 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish live within the park. The Everglades is also home to forty species of mammals (哺乳动物) and fifty reptile (爬行动物) species.Exotic plants can also be found in the Everglades. They include what is said to be the largest growth of mangrove trees in the western half of the world. Gumbo-limbo trees, known for their peeling red skin, strangler figs and royal palms are also among the areas plant life. The Everglades is also home to the countrys largest living mahogany tree. Saw grass grows in some areas of the park. Be careful it is very sharp, with teeth just like a saw. It can grow up to four meters tall.With about 1.5 meters of rainfall each year, plants and trees never stop growing in the Everglades. Want to visit it?The dry, winter season is the favorite of most visitors, when insects like mosquitoes are less of a problem. The rainy season lasts from June to November.There are many ways to explore the Everglades. Visitors could see alligators (an American crocodile) while hiking the Anhinga Trail. The Everglades is the only place on Earth where freshwater crocodiles and saltwater crocodiles live in the same area. Visitors using canoes or airboats are likely to see large groups of wading birds (涉水鸟) like the wood stork or great blue heron. It is even possible to see flamingos (火烈鸟) in the Everglades.Some might enjoy riding bicycles through Shark Valley, while others may want to move slowly through shallow waters where insects and wildlife can be seen up-close. Park guides also lead visitors on tours with tram cars.This spring, Everglades National Park launched a visitation (探访) program to what was once a highly restricted military base. Park officials are working to recover a missile base used in the 1960s. The base played a part in the nuclear tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.The government built the Florida base shortly after the discovery of Soviet missiles about 300 kilometers away, on the island of Cuba. Tensions were high during the Cuban missile crisis. But missiles stored at the American base were never fired.The base was closed and all missile equipment was removed in the 1970s. Today only the buildings remain.This year, the historic area had many visitors, including former American service members who remember the missile crisis. The park hopes to offer more trips next spring, to help support the history for those who lived through it and for future generations.Threats it faces Experts say changes to the Everglades are threatening several different kinds of wildlife. They say the threats are a result of actions the United States government began more than fifty years ago, and settlers began even earlier.The National Park Service says early colonial settlers and land developers thought the Everglades had little value. The settlers had plans to remove water from the area and in the 1880s developers began digging drainage canals. At the time, they did not understand the complexity of the Everglades ecosystem. As a result, they were not prepared for all the work and caused environmental problems. The ecosystem, however, was able to survive.Even larger efforts to drain the wetlands continued between 1905 and 1910. Large areas were changed to farmland. This led to increased development, with more people moving to the Everglades and also more visitors.More changes came in 1948, when Congress approved the Central and South Florida Project. As part of the plan, the Army Corps of Engineers built roads, canals and water-control systems throughout South Florida. The aim of the project was to provide water and flood protection for developed areas and agriculture. Workers built a huge system of waterways and pumping stations to control the overflow of Lake Okeechobee, north of the Everglades.Today, fifty percent of south Floridas early wetland areas no longer exist. Populations of wading birds have been reduced by ninety percent. Whole populations of animals are in danger of disappearing. The endangered creatures include the manatee, the Miami blackhead snake, the wood stork and the Florida panther.In recent years, environmental experts have learned about the damage to the Everglades. They say the natural balance of plants and animals has been destroyed. Recently, the Obama administration promised $360,000,000 to pay for Everglades restoration this year. The administration is also asking that Congress approve an additional $278,000,000 for next year.The money will help to support projects approved by the government nine years ago. The projects include improving wetlands in the Picayune Strand in Southwest Florida and repairs to Lake Okeechobees dam. Until now, the state of Florida has spent the most money on the project.Another threat biologists have been battling for years in the Everglades is the areas population of Burmese pythons. Officials believe there are as many as 150,000 of these large snakes in the Everglades. But the snakes are a foreign species, native to Southeast Asia. Owners of pythons left their unwanted snakes in the Everglades years ago.Biologists say adult pythons are able to eat small deer and bobcats. When pythons are found in the Everglades, they are often killed. Scientists are now experimenting with other ways to remove the snakes, including trapping methods and offering payments to hunters.The future of the Everglades is not clear. However, efforts to protect the area are continuing so that people from all over the world may continue visiting this biological treasure.1. What do we know about Everglades National Park from the first two paragraphs?A) Its open to visitors all through the year.B) It owns most of the endangered animals.C) Its a unique wilderness in America.D) It covers a larger area than Yellowstone.2. Why was Everglades National Park created according to the passage?A) To attract more visitors to the area.B) To make room for more exotic plants.C) To better develop the wasted land.D) To save the wilderness and its species.3. Visitors to the Everglades should watch out for saw grass because . A) its very poisonousB) it may hurt them C) it can bite themD) it falls down easily4. Winter is the best season to visit the Everglades because in winter .A) visitors will suffer less from insectsB) the park offers more programsC) many rare animals are more activeD) plants and trees grow much faster5. According to the passage, the Everglades is unique on Earth for its .A) wading birds B) airboats C) crocodiles D) flamingos6. What does the author say about the military base in the Everglades?A) It was the first missile base built in the United Sates.B) Many of the stored missiles were launched during the crisis.C) It was discovered recently by former US military officials.D) It has become a place of historical interest open to visitors.7. According to experts, the ecosystem of the Everglades was first threatened by actions of .A) former governmentB) increasing visitors C) early colonial settlersD) military forces8. The Central and South Florida Project was carried out to ensure the water supply and protect people from _.9. Recently, environmental experts found that years of development have _ the ecosystem balance in the Everglades.10. Burmese pythons originated from Southeast Asia have become _ in the Everglades for many years.Part IV Section AHonestly, Ive never really understood the appeal of coupons (优惠券). I was once 47 by Entertainment Book, a thick $30 book of hundreds of coupons at restaurants, Web sites, retail stores and service firms. I thought that since I was paying for the coupons, theyd be a bit more 48 than what you find in the Sunday newspaper. In Entertainment Book, youll find everything from 20 percent off goods to renting one video and getting the second free. Entertainment Book makes them 49 to the area you live in so the Washington one is 50 with coupons for local restaurants and stores. And you have one year to use all the coupons.Ive used the coupon as a 51 on a nice gift basket I sent to a friend who got married. I was really excited to use another coupon, worth $5 toward a 52 at the Smoothie store, but I was stopped dead in my tracks when a notice was 53 near the cash register, stating the coupon was not authorized (授权) to be included in the book and therefore wouldnt be 54 in the store. Failure! Other than a handful of other coupons I plan to use before the end of this year, the book seems 55 to me. Once again I think coupons, even ones you pay for, make you spend money on things you 56 dont buy.A) purchaseB) uselessC) sale D) discountE) accepted F) valuable G) specialH) normally I) filledJ) posted K) completely L) specific M) bargain N) attractedO) pricelessSection B Passage Oneexcessive alcohol consumption each year. Oddly, this has triggered a new movement to lower the drinking age. In America, young people can vote, drive, marry, divorce, hunt and go to war before alcohol is legally allowed to touch their lips. Many states once set their minimum drinking-age at 18. But in 1984 Ronald Reagan oversaw the passage of the “21 law”, which requires states to set 21 as the minimum drinking-age or risk losing 10% of their highway funds. Now campaigners want to move it back.In the past, states have been too financially timid (胆怯的) to challenge the 21 law. But calls for change are growing louder. Two local judges in South Carolina recently ruled that banning 18- to 20-year-olds from drinking or possessing alcohol is unconstitutional. Public officials, including the former attorney general of South Dakota, have called the 21 law a failure. The about-face of Morris Chafetz, a doctor who served on the commission that recommended increasing the drinking age to 21, has also raised eyebrows. This week he called it the most regrettable decision of his career.Supporters of existing status, including the organisation Mothers Against Drunk Driving, say that the law has helped avoid thousands of deaths. But doubters point out that other countries, like Canada, have seen similar declines, even though their drinking-age is 18. They also argue that barring young people from drinking does not stop them from consuming alcohol: it just makes them drink more quickly.John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, is part of the Amethyst Initiative, a group of educators who are pushing for 18-year-olds to be allowed to drink. “Those who have graduated from high school, have a clean record and completed an alcohol-education programme should qualify for a drinking licence,” he says, “in the same way that people who go to driving school receive a licence to operate a vehicle.”This is not the first time that Americans have desired a change in alcohol policy during a period of economic distress. Franklin Roosevelt lifted prohibition in 1933 amid the trouble of a depression.57. According to the passage, why did the U.S. states follow the “21 law” in the past?A) Fewer people consumed alcohol before.B) Citizens believed it helped eliminate drunk driving.C) Its passage was supervised by honorable Reagan.D) They couldnt afford to take the financial risk.58. We learn from the passage that Morris Chafetz .A) made a terrible mistake many years agoB) supports lowering the drinking age nowC) insists that the 21 law not be changedD) regrets that few people support the 21 law59. What happened in Canada where the legal drinking age is set at 18?A) Fewer people die from drunk driving. B) Many people want it to be increased to 21.C) Drunk driving causes more road deaths.D) Young people learn to drink more quickly.60. The Amethyst Initiative member John McCardell suggests that .A) young people should qualify to drink as long as they reach 18B) 18-year-olds should learn for a license before they can drinkC) schools should make programmes on drinking compulsory for studentsD) drinking licences should be issued to stop excessive alcohol consumption61. It can be inferred from the passage that the change of alcohol policy mainly depends on .A) presidential preferenceB) political powersC) economic situationD) public opinionPassage TwoMen are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity chefs (名人厨师) like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University. The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cookery a more manly image, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality, to mean men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.According to research by Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961. Prof. Gershuny said: “The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of gender equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come.” Women, who a generation ago spent a fraction under two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes a dramatic fall, but they still spend far more time at the stove than men. Some critics say men have been inspired to pick up a spatula (锅铲) by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.The report, commissioned by frozen food company Birds Eye, also makes clear that the family meal is limping (缓慢前进) on in far better health than some have suggested, thanks in part to a resurgence (复兴) in cooking by some consumers. Two-thirds of adults claim that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table.Anne Murphy, general manager at Birds Eye, said: “The evening meal is still clearly central to family life and with some saying family time is on the increase and the appearance of a more frugal (节俭的) consumer, we think the return to tradition will continue as a trend.” However, Prof. Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table with many “family meals” in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by completely different members of the family. “The family meal has changed very substantially, and few of us eat as I did when I was a child at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format.”62. What is one force behind the trend that men spend more time cooking than before?A) The influence of popular female chefs. B) The development of sexual equality campaign.C) The improvement of cooks economic status. D) The change of females view on cooking.63. What does the author say about the time men and women spend on cooking?A) Women spend much less time on cooking now compared with some 25 years ago.B) That men spend more time cooking than women has become a social trend.C) There is a sharp decline in the time men spend on cooking compared with 1961. D) It will take 40 years before men spend more time at the stove than women.64. Another conclusion from the Birds Eye-commissioned report is that .A) more and more families enjoy eating outB) families prepare healthier food nowadaysC) the dinning room table has become unnecessaryD) family members share more meals than suggested65. Anne Murphy suggested the return to tradition can be attributed to .A) the decrease of shared meals B) the shrinking of modern kitchensC) consumers becoming more economicalD) parents greater tolerance to childrens eating habits66. How did Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny see the family meal according to the passage?A) It has become a thing of the past. B) It is beneficial to the stability of the family.C) It is very different from what it used to be.D) It shouldnt be advocated in modern times.Part V Mothers really do favor their “precious first-borns” over the children they have later, a research hasfound. Among examples of much 67 on the “Precious First