2007英语四级篇章词汇阅读篇NO.14

Passage 14
Britain is not just one country and one people; even if some of its inhabitants think so. Britain is, in fact, a nation which can be divided into several __1__ parts, each part being an individual country with its own language, character and cultural __2__. Thus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not claim to __3__ to "England" because their inhabitants are not __4__ "English". They are Scottish, Irish or Welsh and many of them prefer to speak their own native tongue, which in turn is __5__ to the others.

These cultural minorities(少数民族) have been Britain's original inhabitants. In varying degrees they have managed to __6__ their national characteristics, and their particular customs and way of life. This is probably even more ture of the __7__ areas where traditional ife has not been so affected by the __8__ of industrialism as the border areas have been. The Celtic races are said to be more emotional by nature than the English. An Irish temper is legendary. The Scots could rather __9__ about their reputation for excessive thrift and prefer to be remembered for their folk songs and dances, while the Welsh are famous for their singing. The Celtic __10__ as a whole produces humorous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Burns, and the Welsh Dylan Thomas, to mention but a few.

[A]incomprehensible    [B]temper    [C]remote    [D]separate   
[E]understandable    [F]forget    [G]generally    [H]temperament 
[I]preserve    [J]strictly    [K]traditional    [L]reserve
[M]growth    [N]apply    [O]belong

Answers:
1.选D）。
此处应填形容词，修饰名词parts。文章首句即提出观点Britain is not just one country and one people“英国不只是一个国家和一个民族”，又从后文的invided into, each part以及Individual country可知英国被分成几个分离的部分，选项中只有separate表达了这个意思，故D）正确。
2.选K）。
此处应填名词。选项中有四个词temper, temperament, traditions和growth,语言等是一个民族的文化传统，故这里应该填K）traditions，其他几个名词不符合上下文。
3.选O）。
此处应填动词原形。前文中说明英国被分成独立的几部分，各自保存自己的文化传统；后文中because...说明苏格兰、北爱尔兰以及威尔士的居民不承认自己是“English”，说明他们并不承认自己属于“England”，故这里应该选择O）belong。apply也可以和to连用，但apply to表示“将...应用于”，不符合上下文意思。
4.选J）。
此处应填形容词或副词。选项中的副词有generally和strictly，文中要表达的意思是因为这几个部分都有自己的语言和文化传统，所以严格来说，他们不是“English”，但他们都属于English。故J）strictly符合文意。generally“一般地，大体地”放在原文意义上不够严谨。三个形容词不能使语义通顺。
5.选A）。
从前文中prefer to speak their own native tongue即苏格兰语、苏格兰语和威尔士语，那么这些语言对the others（见注释1）来说是陌生的，听不懂的。那么就不难从选项中的incomprehensible和understandable中选择前者，故A）incomprehensible“不能理解的”正确。
6.选I）。
由manage to结构可知此处要填的是动词原形。选项中的动词原形还有forget，preserve和reserve。从下文中traditional life has not been so affected,可知他们成功地保存了自己的传统，排除forget；reserve和presserve都有“保存”的意思，前者指存留起来以派别的用场，后者指想办法保持原样，强调抵制破坏因素，故I）preserve符合文意。
7.选C）。
此处应填形容词。从后文where traditional life has not been so affected by the ... of industrialis"人们的传统生活受工业化...的影响没有那么大的地方"可以推知，这些地方是比较偏远的地方，选项中的C）remote“偏僻的，遥远的”符合上下文意思。
8.选M）。
border area“边界地区”的工业化发展的比remote area要快，所以此处要填的词是表示上升、增长的词，表示工业化的发展，选项M）growth“增长，发展”符合上下文意思。
9.选F）。
would rather和prefer意思相同，后面是宁愿让人记住他们的好的东西：民歌，舞蹈等。前面说的是过分节俭的坏名声，所以填入动词的意思应该与remember意思相反，选项中的F）forget符合上下文意思。
10.选H）。
此处应填名词。选项中的名词还有temper和temperament。前者指脾气，指情绪上的主要特征，后者指特征、气质，尤指带感情色彩的个性和在社交上的个性。这里指的是整个凯尔特民族的特征，故H）temperament正确。