1、专业英语四级（阅读）-试卷159及答案解析 (总分：30.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：11，分数：30.00)1.PART V READING COMPREHENSION_2.SECTION AIn this section there are several passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. For each question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one th
2、at you think is the best answer._The communications explosion is on the scale of the rail, automobile or telephone revolution. Very soon youll be able to record your entire life electronicallyanything a microphone or a camera can sense youll be able to store. In particular, the number of images a pe
3、rson captures in a lifetime is set to rise exponentially. The thousand images a year I take of my children on a digital camera are all precious to me. In a generations time, my childrens children will have total image documentation of their entire livesa visual log of tremendous personal value. By t
4、hen well be wrestling with another question: how we control all the electronic devices connected to the Internet: trillions of PCs, laptops, palmpilots, cell phones and other gadgets. In Cambridge, were already working on millimeter-square computing and sensing devices that can be linked to the Inte
5、rnet through the radio net work. This sort of connectivity will expand dramatically as microscopic communications devices become dirt-cheap and multiply. Just imagine what the paint on the wall could do if it had this sort of communications dust in it: change color, play music, show movies or even s
6、peak to you. Falling costs raise other possibilities too. Because launching space vehicles is about to become very much cheaper, the number of satellites is likely to go up exponentially. Theres lots of space up there so we could have millions of them. And if you have millions of low-orbit satellite
7、s you can establish a global communications network that completely does away with towers and masts. If the satellites worked on the cellular principle so you got spatial reuse of frequencies, system capacity would be amazing. Speech is so flexible that I expect voice communication to become almost
8、free eventually: youll pay just a monthly fixed charge and be able to make as many calls as you want. By then people will also have fixed links with business contacts, friends and relatives. One day I anticipate being able to keep in touch with my family in Poland on a fibreoptic audio-video link; w
9、ell be able to have a little ceremony at supper-time, open the curtains and sit down together to eat. Cars are an interesting IT-platform because they have big batteries and lots of so far unconnected digital devices. Soon each one will be an entity on the Internet so your children can play interact
10、ive games while youre traveling and your partner can deal with their email. And every lamppost could be on the Internet tooeach one with sensors to monitor light, pollution, air quality and traffic flow.（分数：6.00）(1).Which of the following is NOT among the functions of the communications dust accordi
11、ng to the passage?（分数：2.00）A.To monitor light.B.To change color.C.To show movies.D.To play music.(2).The future global communications network will be completely free of_.（分数：2.00）A.any breakdownB.costsC.towers and mastsD.manual operation(3).Which of the following is INCORRECT according to the passag
12、e?（分数：2.00）A.Voice communication becomes almost free eventually.B.Your children can play interactive games in the car.C.Spatial reuse of frequencies will be in trouble.D.Lamppost could monitor pollution and air flow.It may be one of the worlds great shopping destinations, but Londons Regent Street i
13、s failing the fashion test, according to the Crown Estate, which holds the lease on shops in the famous thoroughfare. And for some of its most venerable tenants that means one thing: eviction. A retail renaissance is needed in the capital, the owners believe, and are looking to top U. S. brands and
14、the hip labels of European fashion to stem a tide of shoppers flooding towards the super-malls dotted around the M25. That means the end of the road for Regent Street legends such as Dickens & Jones and Laura Ashley, while the arrival of Apple computers and U. S. surfwear giant Quiksilver signals th
15、e areas new image. With rents rocketing as 500m is spent upgrading buildings, it is expected that more stalwarts of old Regent Street will be forced out. Yet, despite the price hikes, emerging giants of global retailing are being lined up to replace stores your grandparents might have frequented. Th
16、e sought-after swanky new image is represented by the likes of Nike, the U. S. sportswear manufacturer, which set the tone with its Niketown store. House of Fraser recently announced that it would close the 170-year-old Dickens & Jones department store with the loss of 500 jobs. The rent had been fi
17、xed in 1957 at 250, 000 a year. But following a review it soared to 4. 5m. Planning permission is about to be submitted to turn the space into a modern location for three flagship stores. On top will perch luxury residential apartments. Last week Laura Ashley, famed for its floral skirts and wall co
18、verings, announced it would also leave the street. Its site is said to have been snapped up by the upmarket nursery brand Mamas & Papas, a favourite with thirty something professional parents. The wind of change is being blown by the Crown Estate, the Queens 4. 5bn property portfolio which owns swat
19、hes of prime freehold across the country, including Regent Street. It has realised that to remain a leading shopping destination. Regent Street has to work with the brands being talked about in cappuccino bars and Internet chatrooms. A spokesman for the Crown Estate said, It wasnt quite a world-clas
20、s environment. Thats what were trying to work towards. The spokesman said the Crown Estates catchwords for the area are quality, heritage, success and style. Our guys use that when assessing retailers. He added that prospective leaseholders had been turned away for not meeting the new criteria. The
21、next phase in the redevelopment of Regent Street will focus on the lower part, known as the Quadrant. Retailers currently in situ include McDonalds and various cut-price luggage companies. The Crown Estate hopes to pedestrianise some of the streets leading off the Quadrant and to completely rebuild
22、the block that houses the Atlantic Bar & Grill. The spokesman said the restaurant and its Art Deco fittings would not be affected. Income from the Crown Estate goes to the Treasury, under the terms of a deal struck in the 18th century. In return, the government agreed to pay the sovereign an annual
23、feenow known as the Civil List.（分数：6.00）(1).Which of the following signals the areas new image?（分数：2.00）A.Cappuccino bars.B.Quadrant.C.Dickens & Jones department store.D.U. S. surfwear giant Quiksilver.(2).We can infer from the passage that_.（分数：2.00）A.Londons Regent Street is seeking its renaissanc
24、eB.some old famous stores will be rebuiltC.the rent will be decreasedD.all the streets here will be pedestrianised(3).Which of the following is INCORRECT according to the passage?（分数：2.00）A.McDonalds and various cut-price luggage companies are located in the lower parts.B.Nursery brand Mamas & Papas
25、 has taken the place of Laura Ashley.C.The old Regent Street will be forced out.D.All the changes are the result of the government policy regulation.Modern theatre audiences are less able to understand classical plays than previous generations because of a declining knowledge of literature and histo
26、ry, Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, believes. Hytner called for the study of history to be made compulsory for 14-to 16-year-olds and warned that important cultural resonances were being lost as the influence of traditional classical education receded. He said: Generation by gener
27、ation.people are being cheated of something thats really good to know. Hytner, who is best known for his direction of Adrian Lester in Henry V, made his comments yesterday during a discussion with the writer Alar Bennett about his play The History Boys. He told an audience of history and English tea
28、chers at the fourth annual Prince of Wales education summer school in Dartington, Devon, that history should be studied until at least age 16. He said people had been lamenting the demise of classical education since he had been a schoolboy. But he added that as a director he had also noted the impa
29、ct of the decline of basic British historical knowledge among audiences. I knew that Henry IV usurped Richard II and was then murdered. It was something I had been taught and simply knew. But theres very little you can rely on now even with National Theatre audiences. We have a very metropolitan aud
30、ience but theres very little you can rely on an audience knowing. Fifty years ago you could put on classics and it v/ould have a different resonance for people. But now, except for people who have had a classical education, you get no frisson when Agamemnon behaves like a pig. You get around it but
31、generation by generation the feeling I get is that people are being cheated of something thats really good to know. Certainly it makes life harder, if you produce work 50 percent of which is from a classical repertoire, if people do not have an overview of English literature and English history. Stu
32、dents are currently required only to study history until the age of 14. Some English literature must be studied until 16 but pupils are not required to sit a full GCSE in the subject. Asked whether history should be made compulsory until 16, Bennett said, I tend to think that it didnt do me any harm
33、. I did history because I liked doing it so it was never a burden. I certainly think English should be compulsory and I think history should be too. Bennetts play The History Boys, which recently finished a run at the National, considers what constitutes a good education as it follows the fortunes o
34、f a class of A-level historians who are being prepared for Oxbridge entrance exams by teachers with very different philosophies towards learning and passing exams. Hytner said he originally thought the text would not have widespread appeal. I was wrong. It turned out to have the widest appeal of any
35、 play at the National.（分数：4.00）(1).The central idea of the passage is that_.（分数：2.00）A.history should be made compulsory for the 16-year-oldsB.history should be made compulsory for the 14-year-oldsC.people are being cheated of something thats really good to knowD.audiences lack education to understa
36、nd classical plays(2).Which of the following is INCORRECT according to the passage?（分数：2.00）A.Bennetts play The History Boys has widespread appeal.B.Bennett is the director of the National Theatre.C.Hytner is best known for his direction of Adrian Lester in Henry V.D.Pupils are not required to sit a
37、 full GCSE in some English literature.I live in a street of enormous late-Victorian houses. Most have been converted into flats, but quite a number are now private prep schools. The result is traffic mayhem. At 8:30 every term time morning, and at 3:30 every afternoon, our otherwise moderately busy
38、road becomes a hooting, shouting nose-to-tail hell of jostling SUVs desperate to take possession of one of the few parking slots, deposit or retrieve their child, and escape before one of the many hovering par-king wardens can get them. 11 years ago my daughter started school in Bedford, a town whos
39、e main industry is education, with four large private schools, five state upper schools, two sixth-form colleges, three universities, and countless junior, middle and first schools. We lived 12 miles away, and during term time the traffic jams often began 10 miles out. Timing was hair-trigger: if th
40、e school bus left at 7:40, the children got to school at 8:20; if it left at 7:50, they wouldnt arrive until after 9. Every morning, the town was within an ace of gridlock. One disastrous day the local train company decided to discontinue the schoolkids trains on a local branch line. It was the last
41、 straw: the resulting extra cars meant that the whole place seized up, and no one got anywhere until mid-morning. A perfect demonstration of the virtues of rail travel. Its hard to pinpoint the moment when driving your child to school became the norm. Personally, I either cycled or walked, calling f
42、or a friend en route. Only one of the children in my class came by car, an event so exceptional that I still remember the registration number. But now no sane parent would let a city kid cycle; and if you want to let a first-schooler walk unsupervised, even in the most tranquil community, you must r
43、un the gauntlet of other parents. My daughter knew her way to school from the age of five: it was a 10-minute walk, I crossed her over the biggest road and let her go. Arent you frightened? one outraged mum demanded. What of? Paedophiles behind the hedge? Drivers on the pavement? She didnt, probably
44、 couldnt, specify. But her bogey-ridden world is todays norm. So everyone feels they must accompany young children to school. And how else to do that but by car? I cant get to school on time without the car, said one mother picking up her child near our house. What she means, of course, is its easie
45、r. She coud get up earlier, and walk or take the bus. But cars change our perception of what is possible, and of what we are entitled to. And it is this mindset that makes the reduction of transport emissions, vital if we are to stop global warming, so problematic. Meanwhile, heres an idea. Why not
46、make the provision of school buses mandatory for all schools, state or private, that accept children outside a walkable catchment area? That would be safe, reliable, environmentally better than hundreds of individual cars, and less nerve-racking for all. In the private sector, it would be cheaper an
47、d less wearing than a daily parking fine. And it might even begin to make local state schools truly local.（分数：4.00）(1).Whats the suggestion of the mother at last?（分数：2.00）A.To make the provision of school buses mandatory for all schools.B.To let children go to school by bus themselves.C.To have more
48、 branch lines.D.To build more local schools.(2).It can be inferred from the passage that the author had to_.（分数：2.00）A.send her daughter to school by car every dayB.send her daughter to school by bus every dayC.send her daughter to school by train every dayD.send her daughter to school on foot every day3.SECTION BIn this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer the questions with No more than TEN words
