1、 1 目 录 2010年6月四级真题阅读理解 2 2010年12月四级真题阅读理解 6 2011年6月四级真题阅读理解 10 2011年12月四级真题阅读理解 14 2012年6月四级真题阅读理解 18 2 2010年6月四级真题阅读理解 Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for eac
2、h 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 the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You
3、 may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage. When we think of green buildings, we tend to think of new ones the kind of high-tech, solar-paneled masterpieces that make the covers of architecture magazines. But the U.S. has more than
4、 100 million existing homes, and it would be _47_ wasteful to tear them all down and _48_ them with greener versions. An enormous amount of energy and resources went into the construction of those houses. And it would take an average of 65 years for the _49_ carbon emissions from a new energy-effici
5、ent home to make up for the resources lost by destroying an old one. So in the broadest _50_, the greenest home is the one that has already been built. But at the same time, nearly half of U. S. carbon emissions come from heating, cooling and _51_ our homes, offices and other buildings. “You cant de
6、al with climate change without dealing with existing buildings,“ says Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust. With some _52_, the oldest homes tend to be the least energy-efficient. Houses built before 1939 use about 50% more energy per square foot than those built after 2000, mainly due t
7、o the tiny cracks and gaps that _53_ over time and let in more outside air. Fortunately, there are a _54_ number of relatively simple changes that can green older homes, from _55_ ones like Lincolns Cottage to your own postwar home. And efficiency upgrades (升级) can save more than just the earth; the
8、y can help _56_ property owners from rising power costs. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 A) accommodations B) clumsy C) doubtful D) exceptions E) expand F) historic G) incredibly H) powering I) protect J) reduced 3 K) replace L) sense M) shifted N) supplying O) vast Section B Directions: There are 2 passages in
9、this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One Questions 5
10、7 to 61 are based on the following passage. You never see him, but theyre with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast youre traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like someth
11、ing out of a comic book. Theyre known as the black box. When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the devices homing
12、signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed. In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mod
13、e for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane the area least subject to impact from its original position in the landing
14、 wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility. Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors
15、 fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircrafts final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000. When subm
16、erged, theyre also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say theyre still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 3
17、0 years, only one planes black boxes were never recovered. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 57. What does the author say about the black box? A) It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane. B) The idea for its design comes from a comic book. C) Its ability to ward off disasters is incredible. D) It is an ind
18、ispensable device on an airplane. 58. What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner? A) Data for analyzing the cause of the crash. 4 B) The total number of passengers on board. C) The scene of the crash and extent of the damage. D) Homing signals sent by the pilot before
19、the crash. 59. Why was the black box redesigned in 1965? A) New materials became available by that time. B) Too much space was needed for its installation. C) The early models often got damaged in the crash. D) The early models didnt provide the needed data. 60. Why did the Federal Aviation Authorit
20、y require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow? A) To distinguish them from the color of the plane. B) To caution people to handle them with care. C) To make them easily identifiable. D) To conform to international standards. 61. What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 44
21、7? A) There is still a good chance of their being recovered. B) There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed. C) They have stopped sending homing signals. D) They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. Passage Two Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage. The $11 billion self-hel
22、p industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like “I never do anything right“ into positive ones like “I can succeed.“ But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking? Researchers in Canada just published a study in the jou
23、rnal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are. The studys authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick,
24、begin by citing older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your dim friend that he has the potential of an Einstein, youre just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychol
25、ogist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written. In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students self-esteem. The participa
26、nts were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, “I am lovable.“ Those with low self-esteem didnt feel better after the forced self-affirmation. In fact, their mo
27、ods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who werent urged to think positive thoughts. The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not
28、only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more 5 realistic perspective. Call it the power of negative thinking. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2 上作答。 62. What do we learn from the first paragraph about the self-help in
29、dustry? A) It is a highly profitable industry. B) It is based on the concept of positive thinking. C) It was established by Norman Vincent Peale. D) It has yielded positive results. 63. What is the finding of the Canadian researchers? A) Encouraging positive thinking many do more harm than good. B)
30、There can be no simple therapy for psychological problems. C) Unhappy people cannot think positively. D) The power of positive thinking is limited. 64. What does the author mean by “ youre just underlining his faults“ (Line 4, Para. 3)? A) You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough. B) You are
31、 pointing out the errors he has committed. C) You are emphasizing the fact that he is not intelligent. D) You are trying to make him feel better about his faults. 65. What do we learn from the experiment of Wood, Lee and Perunovic? A) It is important for people to continually boost their self-esteem
32、. B) Self-affirmation can bring a positive change to ones mood. C) Forcing a person to think positive thoughts may lower their self-esteem. D) People with low self-esteem seldom write down their true feelings. 66. What do we learn from the last paragraph? A) The effects of positive thinking vary fro
33、m person to person. B) Meditation may prove to be a good form of psychotherapy. C) Different people tend to have different ways of thinking. D) People can avoid making mistakes through meditation. 6 2010年12月四级真题阅读理解 Part Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A Directions: In
34、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 the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the co
35、rresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage. What determines the kind of person you are? What factors make you more or less bold, intellige
36、nt, or able to read a map? All of these are influenced by the interaction of your genes and the environment in which you were 47 . The study of how genes and environment interact to influence 48 activity is known as behavioral genetics. Behavioral genetics has made important 49 to the biological rev
37、olution, providing information about the extent to which biology influences mind, brain and behavior. Any research that suggests that 50 to perform certain behaviors are based in biology is controversial. Who wants to be told that there are limitations to what you can 51 based on something that is b
38、eyond your control, such as your genes? It is easy to accept that genes control physical characteristics such as sex, race and eye color. But can genes also determine whether people will get divorced, how 52 they are, or what career they are likely to choose? A concern of psychological scientists is
39、 the 53 to which all of these characteristics are influenced by nature and nurture(养育), by genetic makeup and the environment. Increasingly, science 54 that genes lay the groundwork for many human traits. From this perspective, people are born 55 like undeveloped photographs: The image is already ca
40、ptured, but the way it 56 appears can vary based on the development process. However, the basic picture is there from the beginning. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 A) abilities I) extent B) achieve J) indicates C) appeal K) proceeds D) complaints L) psychological E) contributions M) raised F) displayed N) smart
41、 G) essentially O) standard H) eventually Section B Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some 7 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding l
42、etter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. It is pretty much a one-way street. While it may be common for university researchers to try their luck in the commercial world, there is very little traffic in the oppos
43、ite direction. Pay has always been the biggest deterrent, as people with families often feel they cannot afford the drop in salary when moving to a university job. For some industrial scientists, however, the attractions of academia (学术界) outweigh any financial considerations. Helen Lee took a 70% c
44、ut in salary when she moved from a senior post in Abbott Laboratories to a medical department at the University of Cambridge. Her main reason for returning to academia mid-career was to take advantage of the greater freedom to choose research questions. Some areas of inquiry have few prospects of a
45、commercial return, and Lees is one of them. The impact of a salary cut is probably less severe for a scientist in the early stages of a career. Guy Grant, now a research associate at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge, spent two years working for a pharmaceu
46、tical (制药的) company before returning to university as a post-doctoral researcher. He took a 30% salary cut but felt it worthwhile for the greater intellectual opportunities. Higher up the ladder, where a pay cut is usually more significant, the demand for scientists with a wealth of experience in in
47、dustry is forcing universities to make the transition (转换) to academia more attractive, according to Lee. Industrial scientists tend to receive training that academics do not, such as how to build a multidisciplinary team, manage budgets and negotiate contracts. They are also well placed to bring so
48、mething extra to the teaching side of an academic role that will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in manufacturing practice or product development. “Only a small number of undergraduates will continue in an academic career. So someone leaving university who al
49、ready has the skills needed to work in an industrial lab has far more potential in the job market than someone who has spent all their time on a narrow research project.” 注意： 此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 57. By “a one-way street” (Line 1, Para. 1), the author means _. A) university researchers know little about the commercial world B) there is little exchange between industry and academia C) few industrial scientists would quit to work in a university D) few university pro
