1、大学英语四级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 272及答案解析(总分：60.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：6，分数：60.00)1.Part III Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_2.Section C（分数：10.00）_On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and
2、 participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, childrens leisure time dropped from 40
3、% of the day in 1981 to 25%. “Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,“ says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of childrens timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-
4、income and “male breadwinner“ households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.) All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful
5、way a child explores the world and learns about himself,“ says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged i
6、n it. The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time“ watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If theyre spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids arent replacing it with reading. Despite
7、efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Lets face it, whos got the time?（分数：10.00）(1).By mentioning “the same time crunch“ (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means _.（分数：2.00）A.children have little time to play with their parentsB.children ar
8、e not taken good care of by their working parentsC.both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure timeD.both parents and children have trouble managing their time(2).According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is _.（分数：2.00）A.quite convincingB.partially tr
9、ueC.totally groundlessD.rather confusing(3).According to the author a child develops better if_.（分数：2.00）A.he has plenty of time reading and studyingB.he is left to play with his peers in his own wayC.he has more time participating in school activitiesD.he is free to interact with his working parent
10、s(4).The author is concerned about the fact that American kids _.（分数：2.00）A.are engaged in more and more structured activitiesB.are increasingly neglected by their working mothersC.are spending more and more time watching TVD.are involved less and less in household work(5).We can infer from the pass
11、age that _.（分数：2.00）A.extracurricular activities promote childrens intelligenceB.most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched offC.efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitfulD.most parents believe reading to be beneficial to childrenPeople become quite illogical when the
12、y try to decide what can be eaten and what cannot. If you lived in the Mediterranean, for instance, you would consider octopus (章鱼) a great delicacy (美味佳肴). You would not be able to understand why some people find it repulsive. On the other hand, your stomach would turn at the idea of frying potatoe
13、s in animal fatthe normally accepted practice in many northern countries. The sad truth is that most of us have been brought up to eat certain foods and we stick to them all our lives. No creature has received more praise and abuse than the common garden snail. Cooked in wine, snails are a great lux
14、ury in various parts of the world. There are countless people who, ever since their early years, have learned to associate snails with food. My friend, Robert, lives in a country where snails are looked down upon. As his flat is in a large town, he has no garden of his own. For years he has been ask
15、ing me to collect snails from my garden and take them to him. The idea never appealed to me very much, but one day, after a heavy shower, I happened to be walking in my garden when I noticed a huge number of snails taking a walk on some of my prize plants. Acting on a sudden impulse (冲动), I collecte
16、d several dozen, put them in a paper bag, and took them to Robert. Robert was delighted to see me and equally pleased with my little gift. I left the bag in the hall and Robert and I went into the living room where we talked for a couple of hours. I had forgotten all about the snails when Robert sud
17、denly said that I must stay to dinner. Snails would, of course, be the main dish. I did not fancy the idea and I reluctantly followed Robert out of the room. To my surprise, we saw that there were snails everywhere, they had escaped from the paper bag and had taken complete possession of the hall. I
18、 have never been able to look at a snail since then.（分数：10.00）(1).The word “repulsive“ (Line 3, Para. l)most probably means “ _“.（分数：2.00）A.disgustingB.pleasantC.acceptableD.delicious(2).We can infer from the second paragraph that when collecting the snails, the author_.（分数：2.00）A.was glad that he c
19、ould share them with his friendB.was angry because they might damage his beloved plantsC.was excited about being able to give his friend a surpriseD.was depressed because it was hard to extinguish them all(3).The author finds that snails _.（分数：2.00）A.are as delicious as octopusB.are disliked in his
20、hometownC.are the most controversial foodD.are as popular as fried potatoes(4).The best title of this passage might be “_“.（分数：2.00）A.One Mans Meat is Another Mans PoisonB.Foods and CulturesC.Snail and OctopusD.People Are Illogical in Front of Delicacies(5).As indicated in the passage, people love d
21、ifferent foods mainly because _.（分数：2.00）A.they live in different placesB.they learn to eat certain foods in their familiesC.they have different understandings of delicacyD.they are too illogical to explainA detailed and thorough research project undertaken by the Open University recently reported t
22、hat their evidence appears to show that competition between nearby schools does not significantly improve academic standards. Indeed, their report inclines to the opposite outcome: the exam results may actually decline where competition is fiercest. When the further education sector was “privatized“
23、 a few years ago, competition between colleges became truly fierce, at least in urban areas where potential students could choose between several of them. Colleges appointed highly paid marketing directors and gave them large budgets; some even “bribed“ interested students with promises of hundreds
24、of pounds if they completed certain courses satisfactorily. Fully competitive markets being a philosophical foundation of Britains recent governments, it was no surprise to hear claims that many educational developments of the 1990s would move us towards a free market in secondary educationgiving yo
25、ungsters and their parents a free choice of where to study. However, the secondary sector did not become particularly competitive while, admittedly, the consumers have been given more information, which is one aspect of a truly free market. It is very rare that two nearby schools with at least some
26、empty places are similar enough to be comparable yet different enough to be rankable; only where that occurs can there be true competition. The Open University research was probably not flawedbut its conclusions are. This is because the team did not really compare areas having true competition (as j
27、ust defined) with areas that do not. But, let us all breathe a sigh of relief. Secondary schools had started of late to move in the marketing directionconsidering allocating scarce resources of staff and money to persuading the pupils that their schools are the best in the area. No schools could aff
28、ord to do that properly, so it is a relief to realize this research tells us we dont have to. Competition? We havent got time for it! Lets spend our small budget in teaching and learning, not in competing and marketing.（分数：10.00）(1).It is indicated in the passage that competition between schools res
29、ults in _.（分数：2.00）A.higher enrollment rateB.lower academic standardC.higher marketing expensesD.privatization of further education(2).Real competition can happen only when _.（分数：2.00）A.academic standard is improved by the education sectorB.there are comparable schools with different educational qua
30、litiesC.students have different interests in different coursesD.schools of all areas have sufficient budget for their development(3).According to the passage, the free market in secondary education _.（分数：2.00）A.only provides consumers with more informationB.is more competitive than the higher educat
31、ion marketC.means there will be more intensive competition than in collegesD.is a real surprise to Britains recent government(4).The author of the passage feels relieved that_.（分数：2.00）A.secondary schools have to market themselvesB.most secondary schools have scarce resources of staff and moneyC.the
32、 research proves most secondary schools are the bestD.schools neednt prove that they are the best(5).What might be the authors attitude towards competitions between nearby schools?（分数：2.00）A.The author is in favor of various kinds of competition.B.The author is indifferent to any competition and its
33、 result.C.The author is not certain of the effect of competitions.D.The author is against inter-collegiate competitions.The number of speakers of English in Shakespeares time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native languag
34、e, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language, as well as various levels of usage that are employed b
35、oth in its spoken and written forms. It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purposes for which English is learned and the situations in which such learning takes place
36、are so varied that it is difficult to define and still more difficult to assess what constitutes an adequate working knowledge for each situation. The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the infinite needs of its native
37、 speakers, English is a language in which some of the most important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and the disseminatio
38、n (传播) of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such
39、 matters as government, commerce industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for access to the scientific and technological development in the West.（分数：10.00）(1).There are about 260 million people who can speak_.（分数：2.00）A.English in its regional varietyB.English in it
40、s standard varietyC.English as a second languageD.English as a working language(2).According to this passage, the English language might be used _.（分数：2.00）A.for only one reason that English is becoming an international languageB.mainly by people from the American continent and the European continen
41、tC.as an official language in an international conference on the American cultureD.in science and technology as well as in cultural and historical studies of all countries(3).The author seems to be wondering _.（分数：2.00）A.what makes up ones adequate working knowledge of EnglishB.why English can serve
42、 so many needs of various peopleC.how to relate the technological problems in airport communicationsD.when English became so widely used(4).“these countries“ (line 7, Para. 3) most probably refers to _.（分数：2.00）A.the developing countries which used to be coloniesB.the former British colonies which n
43、ow are developingC.the colonized countries which become as strong as BritainD.the developing countries which are still colonized by Britain(5).A common language is necessary for some multi-lingual countries _.（分数：2.00）A.for both internal and international communicationsB.for access to the developmen
44、t in other countriesC.for higher efficiency of the government and better life of the publicD.for wider communications among colonial nations大学英语四级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 272答案解析(总分：60.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：6，分数：60.00)1.Part III Reading Comprehension（分数：10.00）_解析：2.Section C（分数：10.00）_解析：On a
45、verage, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boy
46、s now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, childrens leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%. “Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,“ says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent s
47、tudy of childrens timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner“ households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast,
48、children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.) All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,“ says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engage
