1998年06月英语四级试题（阅读）

Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Direction: There are 4 passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived （被剥夺）of cigarettes through a series of tests.
In the first test, each subject （试验对象） sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and non-smokers performed equally well.
The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non -smokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine（尼古丁）, active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.
In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.
The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non- smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details.
“As our tests became more complex.” Sums up Spilich, “non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins” He predicts, “smokers might perform adequately at many jobs-until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.”
21. The purpose of George Spilich’s experiments is ________.
A) to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers
B) to show how smoking damages people’s mental capacity
C) to prove that smoking affects people’s regular performance
D) to find out whether smoking helps people’s short-term memory

22. George Spilich’s experiment was conducted in such a way as to __________.
A) compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details
B) put the subjects through increasingly complex tests
C) check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers
D) register the prompt responses of the subjects

23. The word “bested” (Line 3, Para.5) most probably means _________.
A) beat
B) envied
C) caught up with
D) made the best of

24. Which of the following statements is true?
A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.
B) Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.
C) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.
D) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.

25. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.
A) smokers should not expect to become airline pilots
B) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness
C) no airline pilots smoke during flights
D) smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases

 

Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to
understand that the internal-combustion engine （内燃机）27. In the second paragraph “violin-making” is mentioned to show that _________.
A) programming a computer is as interesting as making a violin
B) our society needs experts in different fields
C) violin-making requires as much skill as computer programming
D) people who can use a computer don’t necessarily have to know computer programming

28. Learning to use a computer is getting easier all the time because _________.
A) programs are becoming less complicated
B) programs are designed to be convenient to users
C) programming is becoming easier and easier
D) programs are becoming readily available to computer users

29. According to the author, the phrase “learning to use a computer” (Lines3-4, Para.3) means learning ___________.
A) a set of rules
B) the fundamentals of computer science
C) specific programs
D) general principles of programming

30. The author’s purpose in writing this passage is _________.
A) to stress the impact of the computer on society
B) to explain the concept of the computer literacy
C) to illustrate the requirements for being competent citizens of tomorrow.
D) to emphasize that computer programming is an interesting and challenging job

32. Raising children, in the author’s opinion, is _________.
A) a moral duty
B) a thankless job
C) a rewarding task
D) a source of inevitable pain

33. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________.
A) hatred
B) misunderstanding
C) prejudice
D) ignorance

34. To understand what true happiness is one must ____________.
A) have as much run as possible during one’s lifetime
B) make every effort to liberate oneself from pain
C) put up with pain under all circumstances
D) be able to distinguish happiness from fun

35. What is the author trying to tell us?
A) Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.
B) One must know how to attain happiness.
C) It is important to make commitments.
D) It is pain that leads to happiness.

 

New York where the campus had doubled its minority population in the last six years. I talked with an African American who has been a professor there for a long time, and she remembers that when she first joined the community, there were fewer than a handful of minorities on campus. Now, all of us feel the university is better because of the diversity. So where we hear this debate is primarily in political circles and in the media-not in corporate board rooms or on college campuses.
36. The word “imperative” (Line 5, Para.1) most probably refers to something _______.
A) superficial
B) remarkable
C) debatable
D) essential

37. Which of the following groups of people still differ in their views on diversity?
A) Minorities.
B) Politicians.
C) Professors.
D) Managers.

38. High corporate leaders seem to be in favor of promoting diversity so as to _________.
A) lower the rate of unemployment
B) win equal political rights for minorities
C) be competitive in the world market
D) satisfy the demands of a growing population

39. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
A) meritocracy can never be realized without diversity
B) American political circles will not accept diversity
C) it is unlikely that diversity will occur in the U.S. media
D) minorities can only enter the fields where no debate is heard about diversity.

40. According to the passage diversity can be achieved in American society by ________.
A) expanding the pool of potential employees
B) promoting policies that provide skills to employees
C) training more engineers, scientists lawyers and business managers
D) providing education for all regardless of race or sex