1999年英语专业四级真题试卷及其参考答案

Part ⅥREADING COMPREHENSION  [30 MIN.]

SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION   [25 MIN.]

In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer. Mark your choice on your answer sheet.

TEXT A

Surprisingly, no one knows how many children receive education in English hospitals, still less the content or quality of that education. Proper records are jus t not kept. We know that more than 850.000 children go through hospital each year, and that every child of school age has a legal right to continue to receive education while in hospital. We also know there is only one hospital teacher to every 1,000 children in hospital.

Little wonder the latest survey concludes that the extent and type of hospital teaching available differ a great deal across the country. It is found that half the hospitals in England which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter has only a part-time teacher. The special children’s hospitals in major cities do best; general hospitals in the country and holiday areas are worst off. From this survey, one can estimate that fewer than one in five children have some contact with a hospital teacher—and that contact may be as little as two hour s a day. Most children interviewed were surprised to find a teacher in hospital at all. They had not been prepared for it by parents or their own school. If the re was a teacher they were much more likely to read books and do math or number work; without a teacher they would only play games.

Reasons for hospital teaching range from preventing a child falling behind and m maintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is often all the teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summed up when parents referred to them as “the library lady” or just “the helper”. Children tend to rely on concerned school friends to keep in touch with school work. Several parents spoke of requests for work being ignored or refused by the school. Once back at school children rarely get extra teaching, and are told to catch up as best they can.

Many short-stay child-patients catch up quickly. But schools do very little to e ase the anxiety about falling behind expressed by many of the children interview ed.

66．The author points out at the beginning that___.

A. every child in hospital receives some teaching

B. not enough is known about hospital teaching

C. hospital teaching is of poor quality

D. the special children’s hospitals are worst off

67. It can be inferred from the latest survey that___.

A. hospital teaching across the country is similar

B. each hospital has at least one part-time teacher

C. all hospitals surveyed offer education to children

D. only one-fourth of the hospitals have full-time teachers

68. Children in hospital usual1y turn to___in order to catch up with their school work.

A. hospital teachers   

B. schoolmates 

C. parents   

D. school teachers

69.  We can conclude from the passage that the author is___.

A. unfavorable towards children receiving education in hospitals

B. in favor of the present state of teaching in hospitals

C. unsatisfied with the present state of hospital teaching

D. satisfied with the results of the latest survey

TEXT B

Computer people talk a lot about the need for other people to become “computer-l iterate”, in other words, to learn to understand computers and what makes them tick. Not all experts agree, however, that is a good idea.

One pioneer, in particular. who disagrees is David Tibbett, the founder of Computer town UK. Although many people see this as a successful attempt to bring people e closer to the computer, David does not see it that way. He says that Computer own UK was formed for just the opposite reason, to bring computers to the people and make them “people-literate”.

David first got the idea when he visited one of America’s best-known computer “guru” figure, Bob Albrecht，in the small university town of Palo Alto in Northern California. Albrecht had started a project called Computer town USA in the local library, and the local children used to call round every Wednesday to borrow some time on the computers there, instead of borrowing library books. Albrecht was always on hand to answer any questions and to help the children discover about computers in their own way.

Over here, in Britain, Computer towns have taken off in a big way，and there are now about 40 scattered over the country. David Tibbett thinks they are most successful when tied to a computer club. He insists there is a vast and important difference between the two, although they complement each other. The clubs cater f or the enthusiasts, with some computer knowledge already, who get together arid eventually form an expert computer group. This frightens away non-experts, who a re happier going to Computer towns where there are computers available for them t o experiment on, with experts available to encourage them and answer any questions; they are not told what to do, they find out.

David Tibbett finds it interesting to see the two different approaches working side by side. The computer experts have to learn not to tell people about computers, but have to be able to explain the answers to the questions that people really want to know. In some Computer towns there are question sessions, rather like radio phone-ins, where the experts listen to a lot of questions and then try to work out some structure to answer them. People are not having to learn computer jargons, but the experts are having to translate computer mysteries into easily understood terms; the computers are becoming “{people-literate”.

70. According to David Tibbett, the purpose of Computer town UK is to__

A. train people to understand how computers work

B. make more computers available to people

C. enable more people to fix computers themselves

D. help people find out more about computers 

71. We learn from the passage that Computer town USA was a ___.

A. town     

B. project     

C. library     

D. school

72.  Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?

A. Computer towns in the UK have become popular.

B. Compute rtowns and clubs cater for different people.

C. Computer towns are more successful than clubs.

D. It’s better that computer towns and clubs work together. 

73. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer towns?

A. Experts give lectures and talks on computers.

B. Experts are on hand to answer people’s questions.

C. People are left to discover computers on their own.

D. There are computers around for people to practice on.

TEXT C

There must be few questions on which responsible opinion is so utterly divided a s on that of how much sleep we ought to have. There are some who think we can leave the body to regulate these matters for itself. “The answer is easy,” says Dr. A. Burton. “With the right amount of sleep you should wake up fresh and alert five minutes before the alarm rings.” If he is right many people must be under sleeping, including myself. But we must remember that some people have a greater I inertia than others. This is not meant rudely. They switch on slowly, and they a re reluctant to switch off. They are alert at bedtime and sleepy when it is time to get up, and this may have nothing to do with how fatigued their bodies are, or how much sleep they must take to lose their fatigue.

Other people feel sure that the present trend is towards too little sleep. To quote one medical opinion, thousands of people drift through life suffering from the effects of too little sleep; the reason is not that they can’t sleep. Like a advancing colonists, we do seem to be grasping ever more of the land of sleep for our waking needs, pushing the boundary back and reaching, apparently, for a point in our evolution where we will sleep no more. This in itself, of course, need not be a bad thing. What could be disastrous, however, is that we should press too quickly towards this goal, sacrificing sleep only to gain more time in which to jeopardize our civilization by actions and decisions made weak by fatigue. Then, to complete the picture, there are those who believe that most people are persuaded to sleep too much. Dr H. Roberts, writing in Every Man in Health, asserts: “It may safely be stated that, just as the majority eat too much, so the ma jurist sleep too much.” One can see the point of this also. It would be a pity t o retards our development by holding back those people who are gifted enough to work and play well with less than the average amount of sleep, if indeed it does them no harm. If one of the trends of evolution is that more of the life span i s to be spent in gainful waking activity, then surely these people are in the van n of this advance.

74.The author seems to indicate that___.

A. there are many controversial issues like the right amount of sleep

B. among many issues the right amount of sleep is the least controversial

C. people are now moving towards solving many controversial issues

D. the right amount of sleep is a topic of much controversy among doctors

75. The author disagrees with Dr. Burton because___.

A. few people can wake up feeling fresh and alert

B. some people still feel tired with enough sleep

C. some people still feel sleepy with enough sleep

D. some people go to bed very late at night 

76. In the last paragraph the author points out that___.

A. sleeping less is good for human development

B. people ought to be persuaded to sleep less than before

C. it is incorrect to say that people sleep too little

D. those who can sleep less should be encouraged

77. We learn from the passage that the author___.

A. comments on three different opinions

B. favours one of the three opinions

C. explains an opinion of his own

D. revises someone else’s opinion