四级阅读专项练习含答案

1、In 1993 New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage （饮料）containers. Within a year. Consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few coul

2、d figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound up buried in landfills （垃圾填埋场）. The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.  Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled （回收利用）in the United States. The reaso

3、n for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc.As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish.

4、A discard remains a discard until somebody figures out how to give it a second life-and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life value. Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.Shrinking landfill spa

5、ce, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, wh

6、ich, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.36.What regulation was issued by

7、New York State concerning beverage containers?A） Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.B） Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.C） A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.D） Consumers had to pay for bev

8、erage containers and could get their money back on returning them.37.The returned plastic bottles in New York used to _.A） end up somewhere undergroundB） be turned into raw materialsC） have a second-life valueD） be separated from other rubbish38.The key problem in dealing with returned plastic bever

9、age containers is _.A） to sell them at a profitable priceB） how to turn them into useful thingsC） how to reduce their recycling costsD） to lower the prices for used materials39.Recycling ahs become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because _.A） local governments find it easy to manageB） r

10、ecycling ahs great appeal for the joblessC） recycling causes little pollutionD） other methods are more expensive40.It can be concluded from the passage that _.A） rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materialsB） local governments in the U. S. can expect big profits from recyclingC） r

11、ecycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentallyD） landfills will still be widely used for waste disposal答案：36.C 37.D 38.C 39.B 40.AThere are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is that of men, the second of beasts; but as the first method

12、 is often insufficient, one must have recourse to the second. It is, therefore, necessary for a prince to know well how to use both the beast and the man. This was covertly taught to rulers by ancient writers, who related how Achilles and many others of those ancient princes were given to Chiron the

13、 centaur to be brought up and educated under his discipline. The parable of this semianimal, semihuman teacher is meant to indicate that a prince must know how to use both natures, and that the one without the other is not durable.A prince, being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast, must

14、 imitate the fox, and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this. Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interest, and when the r

15、easons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be good ; butas they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them. Nor have legitimate grounds ever failed a prince who wished to show colorable excus

16、e for the nonfulfilment of his promise. Of this one could furnish an infinite number of examples, and show how many times peace has been broken, and how many promises rendered worthless, by the faithlessness of princes, and those that have best been able to imitate the fox have succeeded best. But i

17、t is necessary to be able to disguise this character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler, and men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that the one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.1.The author of the passage does not believe that

18、_.A) people can protect themselvesB) the truth makes men freeC) leaders have to be consistentD) princes are human2.The lion represents those who are _.A) too trusting B) strong and carefulC) reliant on force D) lacking in intelligence3.The fox, in this passage, is _.A) admired for his trickery B) no

19、 match for the lionC) pitied for his trick D) considered worthless4.The writer suggests that a successful leader must _.A) be prudent and faithfulB) cheat and lieC) have principle to guide his actionsD) tell the people the truth about his opponent5.The writer would approve an unsuccessful political

20、candidate _.A) gave up all his opportunitiesB) promised to try again next timeC) overthrew the government by forceD) told the people the truth about his opponent答案与解析：1.D。本文作者并不认为王子们属于人这一类。本题考察对作者意图的理解。因为作者认为 by law是人类所用的斗争方式；by force是动物采用的斗争方式。而这些王子们只会the method of fighting by force，故D)是正确答案。2.C。狮子

21、代表那些力量型的人。本题考察学生对明喻和隐喻的理解能力。在这篇文章的第二段的开头，在狮子与狐狸之间有一个鲜明的对比，狮子不能躲过陷阱，而狐狸逃脱不了被狼袭击的命运，故我们能看出狮子是靠自己的力量。3.A。在本文中，狐狸的狡猾受到称赞。本题考察对作者的意图的理解能力。第二段的开头，作者也提到了狐狸能躲过陷阱和圈套，故狐狸在这篇文章中因为有计谋而受到称赞。4.B。作者提出，一个成功的领导人必须学会欺骗和说谎。本题为推理判断题，需从上下文的含义中找答案。从这篇文章的第二段的后半部分我们能够推断出 B)乃此题之答 案。因为一个成功的领导人必须具备两手：欺骗与说谎。5.C。作者会赞成一个不成功的政治候选

22、人会用武力推翻政府。本题为推理判断题，需根据作者意图去推断出答案。从这篇文章的主题来看，是“文斗”或是“武斗”，对一个落选的政治家来说，文斗已经失败，而只能退而求其次，采取 the struggling method by force也就是要推翻政府，故选C)。The first pre-election poll, or “straw vote”，as it was then called，was conducted by the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian before the 1824 presidential election .This straw vote a

23、nd the many that followed it really registered nothing but local opinion .However, as communications improved and elections were won by closer and closer margins ,newspapers and journals tried desperately to satisfy their readers' curiosity in more reliable ways.Before the 1928 elections ,no few

24、er than eighty-five publications made private inquiries,generally by means of questionnaires(问卷、调查表)sent to subscribers(订户) and by telephone surveys.The principle common to all these inquiries was that they depended on quantity rather than quality;little effort was made to reach representatives of a

25、ll segments(部分) of the population.Still,the erroneous belief persisted that the greater the number of questionnaires,the more accurate the results would be .The record was held by the American monthly Literary Digest,which sent out millions of postcards with short and pointed questions before each e

26、lection,and received many hundreds of thousands of replies.In fact ,in 1932,the Literary Digest's forecast was off by only 1 percent.In view of such striking achievements,it (粗鲁的) for the young American journalist,George Gallup,to claim that large numbers were irrelevant,and that equally accurat

27、e or better predictions could be made with a small but carefully selected sample of the population and a small team of skilled interviewers.In 1936,it took Gallup a long time to convince thirty-five newspaper editors that his system was much cheaper than the customary mass inquiries and that it coul

28、d provide surprisingly accurate predictions.The editors finally agreed,on condition that if Gallup's predictions were less accurate than those obtained by the tried method of the Literary Digest,he would have to refund (赔偿) the entire cost of the investigation.Although the Literary Digest broke

29、its own record by obtaining two million replies to its electoral postcards that year,its prediction was wrong by 19 percent,whereas Gallup's was off by less than 1 percent. 1.From the passage we know that the earliest pre-election polls were _ in reflecting the public opinions.A)meaningful B)ina

30、ccurate C)satisfying D)successful2.All of the following are the characteristics of the inquiries mentioned in the second paragraph except_ .A)a large number of questionnaires were sent outB)quantity rather than quality was emphasizedC)almost no effort was made to interview people from every walk of

31、lifeD)every publication in America got involved3.We can infer from the passage that in the beginning the newspaper editors were_ Gallup's system.A)doubtful of C)displeased withB)enthusiastic about D)indignant at 4.We can infer from the passage that in the early 1930s_A)Gallup was a famous journa

32、listB)the Literary Digest liked to break recordsC)the literary Digest was the biggest monthly in AmericaD)the method of the Literary Digest was popular and well-received5.Gallup's system proved to be_ .A)much cheaper B)a great failureC)a huge success D)much costly答案与解析：1.B 文章的第一段告诉我们，最初的选举前

33、的民意测验反映的仅仅是地方性的局部意见，由此可见它们在反映民意方面是不够准确的。2.D 从文章第二段可知，这些调查共同的特点是重量不重质，错误地认为发出去的问卷越多结果就越准确，而且调查的对象缺乏广泛性。由此可见，A、B、C三项都是这些民意调查的特点，而D项既不符合事实，也谈不上是什么特点。3.A 由文章第四段可知，盖洛普花了很长时间才说服35位报纸编辑采用他的调查方法。由此可断定，对他的方法编辑们起初是持怀疑态度的。B项不符合事实，C项和D项在文中也找不到依据。4.D 盖普洛当时只是个年轻的记者，费了很大劲才说服别人采用他的调查方法，所以A项是不正确的。文中虽然

34、两次提到文摘月刊保持和打破纪录，但也不能由此推断它喜欢破纪录，所以B项也不正确。C项在文中找不到依据，所以也不对。只有D项是正确的推论，因为文章第二段的最后一句告诉我们，文摘对1932年选举的预测误差仅为百分之一，而且第四段又说编辑们给盖洛普提的条件是如果他的预测不如文摘准确，他就得掏钱负担整个调查的费用，可见文摘采用的方法是为大多数人所接受的。5.C 看懂文章的最后一句话即确定正确答案是C。whereas Gallup's was off by less than 1 percent 意为“而盖洛普的预测误差不到百分之一”。Grown-ups know that peopl

35、e and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?To see whether babies know objects are solid. T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion(视觉影像)of a hanging ball. His plan was

36、to first give babies a real ball, one they could be expected to show surprised in their faces and movements, All the 16 to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that

37、if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are abou

38、t 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to re-appear. If the experiment took the train off the table and li

39、fted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The re-searcher substituted(替换) a ball for the train when it went behind the

40、 screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week-old babies did not seem to notice the switch(更换).Thus,the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanenc

41、e related to a particular object.1.The passage is mainly about .A.babiessense of sightB.effects of experiments on babiesC.babiesunderstanding of objectsD.different tests on babiesfeelings2.In Paragraph 3, “object permanence” means that when out of sight, and object .A.still exists B.keeps its shape

42、C.still stays solid D.is beyond reach3.What did Bower use in his experiments?A.A chair B.A screen C.A film D.A box4. 39.Which of the following statements is true?A.The babies didnt have a sense of direction.B.The older babies preferred toy trains to balls.C. The younger babies liked looking for miss

43、ing objectsD.The babies couldnt tell a ball from its optical illusion.答案与解析：1.C.本题考查主旨大意的把握能力。本文通过科学家的研究和对研究结果的解释，旨在说明婴儿对物体的理解。2.A.本题考查词义理解能力。通过对第二项研究情况的阅读和第三段的解释得知“object permanence”意思是“物体依然存在”。3.B.本题考查细节理解能力。第二段和第四段中所述的Bower的两个实验中都用到了screen.4.D.本题考查证误判断能力。第二段中所述实验情况表明：婴儿伸手去摸屏幕上的影像，说明他们事先不能区分一个真正的球

44、和影像的区别。Last Fourth of July, Pete, a 14-year-old boy, was enjoying the lit-up skies and loud booms from the fireworks being set off in his neighborhood. Suddenly, the evening took a terrible turn. A bottle rocket shot into his eye, immediately causing him terrible pain. His family rushed him to the e

45、mergency room for treatment. As a result of the injury, Pete developed glaucoma and cataracts. Today, Pete has permanent vision loss in his injured eye because of his bottle rocket injury.June is Fireworks Eye Safety Awareness Month, and through its EyeSmart campaign the American Academy of Ophthalm

46、ology wants to remind consumers to leave fireworks to professionals. "There is nothing worse than a Fourth of July celebration ruined by someone being hit in the eye with a bottle rocket," said Dr. John C. Hagan, clinical correspondent for the Academy and an ophthalmologist at Discover Vis

47、ion Centers in Kansas City. "A safe celebration means letting trained professionals handle fireworks while you enjoy the show."According to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 9,000 fireworks-related injuries happen each year. Of these, nearly half are head-related inju

48、ries, with nearly 30 percent of these injuries to the eye. One-fourth of fireworks eye injuries result in permanent vision loss or blindness. Children are the most common victims of firework abuse, with those fifteen years old or younger accounting for4 50 percent of fireworks eye injuries in the Un

49、ited States. Dr. Hagan estimates that his practice sees more than 30 injuries each year from fireworks.Even fireworks that many people consider safe represent a threat to the eyes. For children under the age of five, apparently harmless sparklers account for one-third of all fireworks injuries. Spar

50、klers can bum at nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 1 What happened to Pete last Fourth of July?A He was burned in a house fire.B He was caught in a rain. C He was injured in a fight. D He was hit in the eye. 2 The American Academy of Ophthalmology calls on consumers toA celebrate

51、the Fourth of July with fireworks.B leave fireworks to professionals in their celebrations. C stop celebrating the Fourth of July altogether. D set off fireworks together with trained professionals. 3 How many fireworks eye injuries occur in the US each year?A About 9,000.B About 4,50

52、0. C About 1,350. D About 30. 4 Fireworks eye injuries can result in each of the following EXCEPTA blindness.B permanent vision loss. C glaucoma and cataracts. D head-related injuries. 5 Which is NOT true of sparklers?A They are harmless to children.B They are considere

53、d safe by many people. C They are a threat to the eyes. D They can burn at very high degrees.答案：1 D 2 B 3 C 4 D 5 AMany people seem to think that science fiction is typified by the Bug-eyed Monster,embodying every feature that most people find repulsive.This is unfortunate because it degra

54、des a worthwhile literary endeavor. Instead, the basic interest of science fiction lies in the relation between man and his technology and between man and the universe. Science fiction is a literature of change and a literature of the future, and the aspects of human life that it considers make it w

55、ell worth reading and studying for no other literary form does quite the same things. What is science fiction? To begin, the following definition should be helpful: science fiction is a literary subgenre which postulates(以为前提) a change (for human beings) from conditions as we know them implications

56、of these changes to a conclusion.    The first point that science fiction is a literary sub genre-is a very important one, but one which is often overlooked or ignored in most discussions of science fiction. Specifically, science fiction is either a short story or a novel. There are o

57、nly a few dramas which could be called science fiction, the body of poetry that might be labeled science fiction is only slightly larger. To say that science fiction is a subgenre of prose fiction is to say that it has all the basic characteristics and serves the same basic functions in much the sam

58、e way as prose fiction in general, that is, it shares a great deal with all other novels .     Everything that can be said about prose fiction, in general, applies to science fiction. Every piece of science fiction, whether short story or novel, must have a narrator, a story, a plot, the themes of science fiction are concerned with interpreting mans nature and experience in relation to the world around him. Themes in science fiction ar