2013年12月英语四级考试阅读训练(二)

2013年12月大学英语四级（第二套）考试真题答案解析写作导航: On the Overuse of the Mobile Phone第1段：描述图片，概述生活中出现过度使用手机的现象Having a cell phone in hand and at the ready, growing increasing dependent on their mobile phones第2段：详细介绍过度使用手机产生的不良后果trigger many health problemsan Immediate threat to their Iife, health and pro property less chance offace-to-face interactions第3段：进行总结，并提出建议use them appropriately and rationally参考范文On the Overuse of the Mobile Phone 【1】As is shown in the picture, having a mobile phone in hand and at the ready is the default mode while walking on the streets. 【2】What this cartoon symbolically reveals is that people nowadays, especially young people, are growing increasingly dependent on their mobile phones.1【3】It is true that the mobile phone has brought great convenience to people's life. However, just as is illustrated in the picture, the overuse of it may lead to several bad consequences. 【4】To begin with, there is evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation may trigger many health problems, such as insomnia, headaches and even cancers.【5】In addition, when people immerse themselves in the mobile phone, they tend to pay less attention to their surroundings, posing an immediate threat to their life, health and property.【6】Last but not least, excessive use of mobile phones means much less chance offace-to-face interactions with the people who populate their real lives.【7】In conclusion, while mobile phones have contributed a lot to making our life more convenient, we should use them appropriately and rationally.【1】开门见山,对图片进行简单描述。

（一）As she walked round the huge department store,Edith reflected how difficult it was to choose a suitable Christmas present for her father.She wish that he was as easy to please as her mother, who was always delighted with perfume Besides,shoppong at this time of the year was a most disgreeableexperience :people trod on your toes,poked you with their elbows and almost knocked you overin their haste to get to a bargain ahead of you.Partly to have a rest, Edith paused in front of a counter where some attracive ties were on display. "They are real silk," the assistant assured her, trying to tempt her. "Worth double the price." But edit knew from past experience that her choice of ties hardly ever pleased her father.She moved on reluctantly and then quite by chance, stopped where a small crowd of man had gathered round a counter. She found some good quality pipes on sale-----and the prices were very reasonable. Edith did not hesitate for long : although her father only smoked a pipe occasionally, she knew that this was a present which was bund to please him.When she got home,with her small well-chosen present concealed in her handbag, her parents were already at the supper table. Her mother was in an especially cheerful mood, "Your father has at last to decided to stop smoking." She informed her daughter.1.Edith's father _______.a.did not like presentb.never got presentc.preferred tiesd.was difficult to choose a present for2.The assistant spoke to Edith because she seemed_______.a.attractiveb.interested in tiesc.tiredd.in need of comfort3.Edith stopped at the next counter_________.a.puroselyb.suddenlyc.unwillinglyd.accidentally4.Edith's father smoked a pipe_______.a.when he was obligedb.on social occasionsc.from time to timed.when he was delighted5.Shopping was very disagreeable at that time of the year because_______.a.coustomers trod on each other's toesb.coustomers poked each other with their elbowsc.customers knocked each otherd.customers were doing their shopping in a great hurry（二）There are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey.A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. ‘Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens.’① They tell you it’s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that glorifies “the hit”.By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close ups. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won’t do it for you.Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. ‘But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or bring the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman’s position.’② Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.1. The passage is mainly concerned with ______。

2013年12月四级考试真题（第二套）Part IIIReading ComprehensionSection ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in thebank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item onAnswer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of thewords in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.题源分析结构剖析词汇分类试题精解词汇点拨题目解析36. O) worsens先来分析句子结构和词性，36题位于as引导的原因状语从句里，这句话缺少谓语动词，因此36空填一个用作谓语的动词，这个从句后面的主句是现在时态，而且这个从句的主语（nursing shortage）是单数，36空应该填一个第三人称单数、现在时的动词，应该从F(explores)、G(graduates)、J(qualifies)、O(worsens)里挑选。

再来分析句子意思和逻辑关系，“因为缺少护士这一情况_____，越来越多的学校和医院都建立了‘快速通道’来加快对护士的培养。

2013年12月大学英语四级考试真题及详解（第二套）Part I Writing(30minutes)Directions:For this part,you are allowed30minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below.You should start your essay with a brief account of the increasing use of themobile phone in people’s life and then explain the consequences of overusing it.Youshould write at least120words but no more than180words.People are crossing the street looking at their cell phones and using walking sticks in order to see.【审题构思】从漫画下面的说明可以看出，人们走路时视线都不愿意离开手机，而依靠导盲棍来行走。

人们越来越多的依赖手机，一方面手机可以给我们带来一定便利，但是手机的滥用也会给我们带来很多不好的后果，如危害身体健康，分散我们的注意力等。

因此我们需要合理使用手机。

【参考范文】On the Overuse of Mobile Phone(1)As is shown in the above picture,many people are walking across the street with a mobile phone in their hand and using walking sticks in order to see,which reflects that people nowadays, especially young people,are increasingly dependent on their mobile phones.(2)It is undoubtedly that mobile phones,(3)with its extraordinary functions and unmatched convenience,have exerted great influence on people’s life.However,just as is demonstrated in the picture,the overuse of it may result in several bad consequences.To begin with，there is evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted from mobile may trigger many health problems.Besides,when people are immersed in the use of mobile phone,they tend to pay less attention to the surroundings,which(4)poses a threat to their life and property.with people in real life.(5)In brief,we should rationally and appropriately use the mobile phone as it(6)contributes to the convenience of our life while bringing about potential threat.【行文点评】(1)本段使用了which引导的非限制性定语从句，用了一个复合句便描述出了图片内容并直接点明了图片揭示的社会现象。

2013年12月大学英语四级考试阅读理解真题及答案（全套）幸福就好我亦安2013年12月大学英语四级考试阅读理解真题(一)【阅读】Sectio n CDirectio ns : There are 2 passages in this sect ion. Each passage is followed by some questi ons or unfini shed stateme nts. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresp onding letter on An swer Sheet 2 with a sin gle line through the cen tre.Passage OneQuesti ons 56 to 60 are based on the follow ing passage.In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food in take are in flue need by a large nu mber of factors besides our biological n eed forenergy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.Studies have show n, for in sta nee, that eati ng in front of the TV (or a similardistract ion) can in crease both hun ger and the amount of food con sumed. Even simplevisual cues, like plate size and light ing, have bee n show n to affect portion size and con sumpti on.A new study suggested that our short-term memoryalso mayplay a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they ' d eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them —in other words, how much they remembered eati ng.This disparity (盖弃) suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger in flue nee on our appetite tha n the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brun strom, a professor of experime ntal psychology at the Uni versity of Bristol."Hun ger isn't con trolled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. Wehave identified an independent role for memory for that meal，" Brunstrom says."This shows that the relati on ship betwee n hun ger and food in take is more complex than we thought."These findings echo earlier research that suggests our percepti on of food can sometimes trick our body' s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instanee, people who drank the same3S0-calorie (卡路里)milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙),depending on whetherthe shake' s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.What does this mean for our eat ing habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eati ng less, the new findings do highlight the ben efits offocus ing on our food and avoidi ng TV and multitask ing while eat ing.The so-called min dful-eat ing strategies can fight distract ions and help us con trol our appetite, Brun strom says.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

Part ⅢReading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Is College a Worthy Investment?A）Why are we spending so much money on college? And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious （大不敬的）：is all this investment in college education really worth it?B）The answer, I fear, is no. For an increasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.C）For my entire adult life, a good education has been the most important thing for middle-class households. My parents spent more educating my sister and me than they spent on their house, and they’re not the only ones…and, of course, for an increasing number of families, most of the cost of their house is actually the cost of living in a good school district. Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning the value of happiness, or fun.D）The average price of all goods and services has risen about 50 percent. But the price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is the education that today’s students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice as smart? Have they become somehow massively more expensive to educate?E）Perhaps a bit. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, says, “I look at the data, and I see college costs rising faster than inflation up to the mid-1980s by 1 percent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation. What has happened? The federal government has started dropping money out of airplanes.”Aid has increased, subsidized （补贴的）loans have become available, and “the universities have gotten the money.”Economist Bryan Caplan, who is writing a book about educa tion, agrees: “It’s a giant waste of resources that will continue as long as the subsidies continue.”F）Promotional literature for colleges and student loans often speaks of debt as an “investment in yourself.”But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off the loans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that do not require a degree, and the amount of student-loan debt carried by households has increased more than five times since 1999. These graduates were told that a diploma was all they needed to succeed, but it won’t even get them out of the spare bedroom at Mom and Dad’s. For many, the most visible result of their four years is the loan payments, which now average hundreds of dollars a month on loan balances in the tens of thousands.G）It’s true about the money—sort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people who have only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, the wage premium （高出的部分）for an outstanding school seems to be even higher. But th at’s nottrue of every student. It’s very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature and come out no more employable than you were before you went in. Conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make almost four times the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.H）James Heckman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individuals with different backgrounds and levels of ability. “Even with these high prices, you’re still finding a high return for individuals wh o are bright and motivated,” he says. On the other hand, “if you’re not college ready, then the answer is no, it’s not worth it.” Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today, but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and more of the potential return. For borderline students, tuition （学费）rise can push those returns into negative territory.I）Everyone seems to agree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest in higher education—and that employers need to rethink the increasing use of college degrees as crude screening tools for jobs that don’t really require college skills. “Employers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to fill jobs are just adding that requirement,”says Vedder. “In fact, a college degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bar-tender.”J）We have started to see some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many students to cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives any balance after 25 years. But of course, that doesn’t control the cost of education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduates to choose lower-paying careers, which reduces the financial return to education sti ll further. “You’re subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth,” says Heckman. “You may think that’s a good thing, or you may not.” Either way it will be expensive for the government.K）What might be a lot cheaper is putting more kids to work. Caplan notes that work also builds valuable skills—probably more valuable for kids who don’t naturally love sitting in a classroom. Heckman agrees wholeheartedly:“People are different, and those abilities can be shaped. That’s what we’ve learned, and public policy should recognize that.”L）Heckman would like to see more apprenticeship-style （学徒式）programs, where kids can learn in the workplace—learn not just specific job skills, but the kind of “soft skills,”like getting to work on time and getting along with a team, that are crucial for career success. “It’s about having mentors （指导者）and having workplace-based education,”he says. “Time and again I’ve seen examples of this kind of program working.”M）Ah, but how do we get there from here? With better public policy, hopefully, but also by making better individual decisions. “Historically markets have been able to handle these things,”says Vedder, “and I think eventually markets will handle this one. If it doesn’t improve soon, people are going to wake up and ask, ‘Why am I going to college?’”注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

2013年12月英语四级考试真题及答案(第二套)Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay. You should start your essay with a brief account of the increasing use of the mobile phone in people's life and then explain the consequences of overusing it. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上。

______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________PartⅡListening Comprehension(30 minutes)Section ADirections:In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause.During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1with a single line through the centre.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

2013年12月英语四级仔细阅读答案（庐江版）阅读仔细阅读第一部分：56. A. How we perceive the food we eat.57. D. You would not feel so hungry.58. B. Food labels may influence our body's response to food.59. A. Trick ourselves into eating less.60. B. Psychological factors influence our hunger levels.点评本文出自Time的文章Hungry Again? Your Memory May Be to Blame。

Time 是美国知名媒体，历年四六级考试中，不少阅读文章取自于Time。

在此，建议考生平时经常浏览这类外国主流网站，熟悉英语国家人士的行文表达习惯，以便做阅读时胸有成竹。

本篇阅读涉及的是考生熟悉的饮食问题，文章主要探讨了影响人们饮食摄入量的各种因素。

文章指出，人体的饥饿感不仅仅是由能量缺失引起的，诸多因素对食物摄入量造成影响，并援引相关科学实验加以论证这些影响因素，如对食物的记忆，食物包装上的标签以及自身的心理暗示等。

文章本身话题和语言难度不高，五道题目中，第一、二、四题考查了细节归纳，第三、五题考查的分别是细节推断和主旨大意。

前四道题的题序同文章的顺序是一致的，因此，建议考生无需通读全文，而是带着问题回到原文，首先大致定位答案点、接着阅读答案点附近的句子、最终快速勾选出答案。

该篇阅读重在考查考生快速提取信息、概括提炼的能力，有一定难度。

四级阅读仔细阅读2（第一版）答案61. B) It prepares students to meet the future needs of society.62. D) Creating the highest dropout rate in the developed world.63. C) New positions are constantly created that require people to keep learning.64. C) Basic skills needed for change and lifelong learning.65. D) Avoiding too much intervention in their children's education.【点评】本文出自The New York Times的文章Preparation for Work。

We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. Onthe contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel thatthere are many disadvantages in streaming(委......梓嬬薦蛍萎) pupils. It doesnot take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It canhave a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, itcan be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!Besides, it is rather unreal tograde people just according to their intellectual ability. This isonly one aspect of their totalpersonality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to thefull, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities andsocial skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all theseaspects of learning.In our classrooms, we work invarious ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunityto learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They alsolearn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, tomake decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. Thepupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.Sometimes the pupils work inpairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can dothis at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this isappropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them theskills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can doadvanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupilsto do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement toattain this goal.1. In the passage the author's attitude towards"mixed-ability teaching" is_______ .A) critical B)questioningC) approving D)objective2. By "held back" (Line I) the authormeans ______ .A) made to remain in the same classesB) forced to study in the lower classesC) drawn to their studiesD) prevented from advancing3. The author argues that a teacher's chief concernshould be the development of thestudent's _______ .A) personal qualities and social skillsB) total personalityC) learning ability and communicative skillsD) intellectual ability4. Which of the following is NOT MENTIONED in thethird paragraph?A) Group work gives pupils the opportunity tolearn to work together with others.B) Pupils also learn to develop their reasoningabilities.C) Group work provides pupils with theopportunity to learn to be capable organizers.D) Pupils also learn how to participate inteaching activities.5. The author's purpose in writing this passage isto _______ .A) argue for teaching bright andnot-so-bright pupils in the same classB) recommend pair work and group work forclassroom activitiesC) offer advice on the proper use of thelibraryD) emphasize the importance of appropriateformal classroom teaching園辞容呪・。

2013年12月大学英语四级仔细阅读习题（一）Judging from recent surveys,most experts in sleep behavior agree that there is virtually an epidemic (流行病) of sleepiness in the nation. “I can't think of a single study that hasn't found Americans getting less sleep than they ought to,” says Dr. David. Even people who think they are sleeping enough would probably be better off with more rest.The beginning of our sleep-deficit (睡眠不足) crisis can betraced to the invention of the light bulb a century ago. From diary entries and other personal accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours anight. “The best sleep habits once were forced on us, when we had nothing to do in the evening down on t he farm, and it was dark.” By the 1950s and 1960s, that sleep schedule had been reduced dramatically, to between 7.5 and eight hours,and most people had to wake to an alarm clock. “People cheat on their sleep,and they don't even realize they're doing it,” says Dr. David. "They think they're okay because they can get by on 6.5hours, when they really need 7.5, eight or even more to feel ideally vigorous."Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep,researchers say, is the complexity of the day. Whenever pressures from work,family, friends and community mount, many people consider sleep the least expensive item on his programme. 'In our society, you're considered dynamic if you say you only need 5.5 hours' sleep. If you've got to get 8.5 hours, people think you lack drive and ambition."To determine the consequences of sleep deficit,researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier. "We've found that if you're in sleep deficit, performance suffers," says Dr. David. “Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate.”1. People in the 18th and 19th centuries used to sleep about 9.5 hoursa night because theyhad _______ .A) no drive and ambition B) noelectric lightingC) the best sleep habits D)nothing to do in the evening2. According to Dr. David, Americans _______ .A) are ideally vigorous even under the pressure of lifeB) of ienneglect the consequences of sleep deficitC) do not know how to relax themselves properlyD) can get by on 6.5 hours of sleep3. Many Americans believe that _______ .A) sleep is the first thing that can be sacrificed when one is busyB) they need more sleep to cope with the complexities of everyday lifeC) to sleep is something one can do at any time of the dayD) enough sleep promotes people's drive and ambition4. The word “subjects” (Line 1, Para. 4) refers to______ .A) the performance tests used in the study of sleep deficitB) special branches of knowledge that are being studiedC) people whose behavior or reactions are being studiedD) the psychological consequences of sleep deficit5. It can be concluded from the passage that one should sleep as many hours as is necessary to ______ .A) improve one's memory dramaticallyB) be considered dynamic by other peopleC) maintain one's daily scheduleD) feel energetic and perform adequately2013年12月大学英语四级仔细阅读习题（二）We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. Onthe contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel thatthere are many disadvantages in streaming(把......按能力分班) pupils. It doesnot take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It canhave a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, itcan be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!Besides, it is rather unreal tograde people just according to their intellectual ability. This isonly one aspect of their totalpersonality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to thefull, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities andsocial skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all theseaspects of learning.In our classrooms, we work invarious ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunityto learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They alsolearn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, tomake decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. Thepupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.Sometimes the pupils work inpairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can dothis at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this isappropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them theskills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can doadvanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupilsto do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement toattain this goal.1. In the passage the author's attitude towards"mixed-ability teaching" is _______ .A) critical B)questioningC) approving D)objective2. By "held back" (Line I) the authormeans ______ .A) made to remain in the same classesB) forced to study in the lower classesC) drawn to their studiesD) prevented from advancing3. The author argues that a teacher's chief concernshould be the development of thestudent's _______ .A) personal qualities and social skillsB) total personalityC) learning ability and communicative skillsD) intellectual ability4. Which of the following is NOT MENTIONED in thethird paragraph?A) Group work gives pupils the opportunity tolearn to work together with others.B) Pupils also learn to develop their reasoningabilities.C) Group work provides pupils with theopportunity to learn to be capable organizers.D) Pupils also learn how to participate inteaching activities.5. The author's purpose in writing this passage isto _______ .A) argue for teaching bright andnot-so-bright pupils in the same classB) recommend pair work and group work forclassroom activitiesC) offer advice on the proper use of thelibraryD) emphasize the importance of appropriateformal classroom teaching2013年12月大学英语四级仔细阅读习题（三）What has thetelephone done to us, or for us, in the hundred years of its existence? A feweffects suggest themselves at once. It has saved lives by getting rapid word ofillness, injury, or fire from remote places. By joining with the elevator tomake possible the multi-story residence or office building, it has madepossible for better or worse -- the modem city. By bringing about a great leapin the speed and ease with which information moves from place to place, it hasgreatly accelerated the rate of scientific and technological changes and growthin industry. Beyond doubt it has seriously weakened if not killed the ancientart of letter writing. It has made living alone possible for persons withnormal social impulses (冲动) ; by so doing, it has played a role in one of thegreatest social changes of this century, the breakup of the multi-generationalhousehold. It has made the war chillingly more efficient than formerly.Perhaps, though not provably, it has prevented wars that might have arisen outof intemational misunderstanding caused by written communication. Or perhaps―again not provably―by magnifying (扩大) and extendingirrational personal conflicts based on voice contact, it hascaused wars.Certainly it has extended the scope of human conflicts, since it impartially (不偏不倚) disseminates (传播)the useful knowledge of scientists andthe nonsense of the ignorant, the affection of the affectionate and the malice (恶意) of the malicious.1. What is the main idea of this passage?A) Thetelephone has helped to save people from illness and fire.B) Thetelephone has helped to prevent wars and conflicts.C) Thetelephone has made the modern city neither better nor worse.D) Thetelephone has had positive as well as negative effects on us.2. According to the passage, it is the telephonethat _______ .A) has madeletter writing an artB) hasprevented wars by avoiding written communicationC) has madethe world different from what it wasD) hascaused wars by magnifying and extending human conflicts3. The telephone hasintensified conflicts among people because ______ .A) itincreases the danger of warB) itprovides services to both the good and the maliciousC) it makesdistant communication easierD) it breaksup the multi-generational household4. The author describes thetelephone as impartial because it _______ .A) saveslives of people in remote placesB) enablespeople to live alone if they want toC) spreadsboth love and ill willD) replacesmuch written communication5. The writer's attitudetowards the use of the telephone is _______A) affectionate B)disapprovingC) approving D)neutralIt is hard to predict howscience is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossibleto predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definitionunknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either havescience or you don't, and if you have it you are obliged to accept thesurprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat andpromptly useful bits.The only solid piece ofscientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundlyignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the pasthundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating (启发) piece of news.It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment (启蒙运动) to be told byany of us how little we know and how bewildering (迷惑) seems the wayahead. It is this sudden confrontation (对抗) with the depth and scopeof ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th centuryscience to the human intellect. In earlier times, weeither pretended tounderstand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up storiesto fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are gettingglimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered.Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you aretotally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality ofignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no truelight at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.But we are making abeginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably noquestions we can think up that can't be answered, sooner or later, includingeven the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions wecan't think up, ever, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, butthat is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our waythrough to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.1. According to the author, really good science_______ .A) wouldsurprise the brightest minds of the 18th century EnlightenmentB) willproduce results which cannot be foreseenC) will helppeople to make the right choice in advanceD) willbring about disturbing results2. It can be inferred from the passage thatscientists of the 18th century .A) thought that they knew a great deal andcould solve most problems of scienceB) wereafraid of facing up to the realities of scientific researchC) knew thatthey were ignorant and wanted to know more about natureD) did moreharm than good in promoting man's understanding of nature3. Which of thefollowing statemcnts is NOT true of scientists in earlier times?A) Theyinvented false theories to explain things they didn't understand.B) Theyfalsely claimed to know all about nature.C) They didnot believe in results from scientific observation.D) They paidlittle attention to the problems they didn't understand.4. What is theauthor's attitude towards science?A) He isdepressed because of the ignorance of scientists.B) He isdoubtful because of the enormous difficulties confronting it.C) He is confidentthough he is aware of the enormous difficulties confronting it.D) He is delighted because of theilluminating scientific findings.5. The authorbelieves that ______ .A) man canfind solutions to whatever questions concerning nature he can think upB) man can not solve all the problems he canthink up because of the limits of human intellectC) sooner or later man canthink up all the questions concerning nature and answer themD) questions concerningconsciousness are outside the scope of scientific research1．B答案见第2段第1句。