1、专业英语四级-242及答案解析 (总分：100.05，做题时间：90分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：2，分数：100.00)SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS PASSAGE ONE A century ago in the United States, when an individual brought suit against a company, public opinion tended to protect that company. But perhaps this phenomenon was most strik
2、ing in the case of the railroads. Nearly half of all negligence cases decided through 1896 involved railroads. And the railroads usually won. Most of the cases were decided in state courts, when the railroads had the climate of the times on their sides. Government supported the railroad industry; th
3、e progress railroads represented was not to be slowed down by requiring them often to pay damages to those unlucky enough to be hurt working for them. Court decisions always went against railroad workers. Mr. Farrell, an engineer, lost his right hand when a switchmans negligence ran his engine off t
4、he track. The court reasoned, that since Farrell had taken the job of an engineer voluntarily at good pay, he had accepted the risk. Therefore the accident, though avoidable had the switchmen acted carefully, was a pure accident. In effect a railroad could never be held responsible for injury to one
5、 employee caused by the mistake of another. In one case where a Pennsylvania Railroad worker had started a fire at a warehouse and the fire had spread several blocks, causing widespread damage, a jury found the company responsible for all the damage. But the court overturned the jurys decision becau
6、se it argued that the railroads negligence was the immediate cause of damage only to the nearest buildings. Beyond them the connection was too remote to consider. As the century wore on, public sentiment began to turn against the railroadsagainst their economic and political power and high fares as
7、well as against their callousness toward individuals. PASSAGE TWO It was the worst tragedy in maritime history, six times more deadly than the Titanic. When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes fired from a Russian submarine in the final winter of World War II, more than 10,0
8、00 peoplemostly women, children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germanywere packed aboard. An ice storm had turned the decks into frozen sheets that sent hundreds of families sliding into the sea as the ship tilted and began to go down. Others desperately tried to put lifebo
9、ats down. Some who succeeded fought off those in the water who had the strength to try to claw their way aboard. Most people froze immediately. Ill never forget the screams, says Christa Ntitzmann, 87, one of the 1,200 survivors. She recalls watching the ship, brightly lit, slipping into its dark gr
10、aveand into seeming nothingness, rarely mentioned for more than half a century. Now Germanys Nobel Prize-winning author Gtinter Grass has revived the memory of the 9,000 dead, including more than 4,000 childrenwith his latest novel Crab Walk, published last month. The book, which will be out in Engl
11、ish next year, doesnt dwell on the sinking; its heroine is a pregnant young woman who survives the catastrophe only to say later: Nobody wanted to hear about it, not here in the West (of Germany) and not at all in the East. The reason was obvious. As Grass put it in a recent interview with the weekl
12、y Die Woche: Because the crimes we Germans are responsible for were and are so dominant, we didnt have the energy left to tell of our own sufferings. The long silence about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was probably unavoidableand necessary. By unreservedly owning up to their countrys monstrou
13、s crimes in the Second World War, Germans have managed to win acceptance abroad, marginalize the neo-Nazis at home and make peace with their neighbors. Todays unified Germany is more prosperous and stable than at any time in its long, troubled history. For that, a half century of willful forgetting
14、about painful memories like the German Titanic was perhaps a reasonable price to pay. But even the most politically correct Germans believe that theyve now earned the right to discuss the full historical record. Not to equate German suffering with that of its victims, but simply to acknowledge a ter
15、rible tragedy. PASSAGE THREE Three years ago, Joseph J. Ellis, one of the most widely read American historians, ran into a career crisis of his own strange devising. Just months after his book, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation won the Pulitzer Prize and planted itself for a long run o
16、n the best-seller list, it emerged that Ellis, who spent the Vietnam War years doing graduate work at Yale and teaching history at West Point, had been offering his students at Mount Holyoke College wholly invented accounts of his days as a platoon leader in Vietnam. After his tall tales were expose
17、d in the Boston Globe, Ellis was suspended without pay for a year and compelled to relinquish his endowed chair. But even after the story broke, his book continued to sell briskly. And why not? No one ever accused him of falsifying his scholarship, and his probing biographies remain some of the most
18、 psychologically penetrating portraits of the Founding Fathers that we have. His supple new book, His Excellency: George Washington (Knopf; 320 pages), is another in that line, full of subtle inroads into the man Ellis calls the most notorious model of self-control in all of American history, the or
19、iginal marble man. The Washington Ellis gives us is not the customary figure operating serenely above the fray but a man constantly seeking to govern his own passions. Ironically, telling Washingtons story truthfully requires Ellis to occasionally cast doubt on the great mans honesty. Washington cou
20、ld lie when he needed tofor instance, by misrepresenting for posterity his role in the disastrous engagement at Fort Necessity during the French and Indian War. And throughout his career, he feigned a lack of ambition as cover for a relentless impulse to move upward in the world. Washington had no m
21、ore than a grade-school education, but he had an early grasp of issues that would be crucial to Americas future, such as westward expansion and the vexing matter of slavery. He eventually concluded that slavery must be abolished, though his own slaves were freed only after his death. He also underst
22、ood precisely what his role in the new nation should be. Washington emerged from the War of Independence as a kind of god. Like Caesar before him and Napoleon after, he might easily have parlayed military glory into imperial power. But he performed his greatest service to his country by refusing to
23、yield to that temptation. At the end of his second Administration, he turned down a third term, thereby establishing an enduring example of limited presidential tenure. Washington was willing to refuse a crown, but he was exasperated by Thomas Jeffersons and James Madisons aversion to federal power.
24、 His experience during the war with Britain, when a rudderless Continental Congress left his army chronically short of supplies, convinced him of the need for a government strong enough to pursue national purposes. But as Ellis sees it, Washingtons views were also projections onto the national scree
25、n of the need for the same kind of controlling authority he had orchestrated within his own personality. The Father of His Country had first to prevail as master of himself. PASSAGE FOUR The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, youd expect greater understanding to develop betwee
26、n the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each others countries at a moderate cost. What was once the grand tour, reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybodys grasp. The package tour and chartered f
27、lights are not to be sneered at. Modem travelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldnt have dreamed of. But whats the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other? Many tourist orga
28、nizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modem tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels, where he eats his international food and sips his in
29、ternational drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organizers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own; and anywa
30、y, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way. At its very worst, this leads to a new and hideous kind of colonization. The summer quarters of the inhabitants of the Cite Universitaire are temporarily reestablished on the island of Corfu. Blackpool is recreated
31、 at Torremolinos where the traveler goes not to eat paella, but fish and chips. The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We dont see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are. You can test
32、 this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned,
33、these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. You come away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites and that Latin peoples shout a lo
34、t. You only have to make a few foreign friends to understand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you? Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations stir up racial
35、hatred and blind us to the basic facthow trite it soundsthat all people are human. We are all similar to each other and at the same time all unique.（分数：47.55）(1).Which of the following is NOT true in Farrells case? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.17）A.Farrell was injured because he negligently ran his engine off
36、 the track.B.Farrell would not have been injured if the switchman had been more careful.C.The court argued that the victim had accepted the risk since he had willingly taken his job.D.The court decided that the railroad should not be held responsible.(2).What must have happened after the fire case w
37、as settled in court? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.17）A.The railroad compensated for the damage to the immediate buildings.B.The railroad compensated for all the damage by the fire.C.The railroad paid nothing for the damaged building.D.The railroad worker paid for the property damage himself.(3).What does the
38、passage mainly discuss? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.17）A.Railroad oppressing individuals in the US.B.History of the US railroads.C.Railroad workers working rights.D.Law cases concerning the railroads.(4).Hundreds of families dropped into the sea when -|_|- (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.17）A.a strong ice storm tilted th
39、e ship.B.the cruise ship sank all of a sudden.C.the badly damaged ship leaned toward one side.D.the frightened passengers fought desperately for lifeboats.(5).How does Gunter Grass revive the memory of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.17）A.By presenting the horrible scene of the torp
40、edo attack.B.By describing the ships sinking in great detail.C.By giving an interview to the weekly Die Woche.D.By depicting the survival of a young pregnant woman.(6).It can be learned from the passage that Germans no longer think that -|_|- (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.17）A.they will be misunderstood if the
41、y talk about the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy.B.the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy is a reasonable price to pay for the nations past misdeeds.C.Germany is responsible for the horrible crimes it committed in World War .D.it is wrong to equate their sufferings with those of other countries.(7).According to Elli
42、s, Washington succeeded in his career due to his -|_|- (PASSAGE THREE)（分数：3.17）A.education.B.self-control.C.honesty.D.lack of ambition.(8).Which of the following is the main idea of the last paragraph? (PASSAGE THREE)（分数：3.17）A.Thomas Jefferson and James Madison did not like to be President.B.Washin
43、gtons views of a government reflected his controlling authority of his own personality.C.A government is necessary to pursue national purposes.D.Washington realized his ambition to be the leader of America.(9).The best title for this passage is -|_|- (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.17）A.Tourism Contributes Noth
44、ing to Increasing Understanding Between Nations.B.Tourism Is Tiresome.C.Conducted Tour Is Dull.D.Tourism Really Does Something to Ones Country.(10).The purpose of the authors criticism is to point out -|_|- (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.17）A.conducted tour is disappointing.B.the way of touring should be chang
45、ed.C.when traveling, you notice characteristics which confirm preconception.D.national stereotypes should be changed.(11).SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS According to the passage, what aroused public resentment against the railroads? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.17）(12).Why was the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy l
46、ittle talked about for more than half a century? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.17）(13).Whats the main purpose of Ellis new book about Washington? (PASSAGE THREE)（分数：3.17）(14).What is the authors attitude toward tourism? (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.17）(15).According to the passage, why do the travelers at Torremolinos
47、eat fish and chips? (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.17）SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS PASSAGE ONE Students of United States history, seeking to identify the circumstances that encouraged the emergence of feminist movements, have thoroughly investigated the mid-nineteenth- century American economic and soci
48、al conditions that affected the status of women. These historians, however, have analyzed less fully the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the same period. Furthermore, the ideological origins of feminism in the United States have been obscured because, even when historians did take into account those feminist ideas and activities occurring within the United States, they failed to recognize that feminism was then a truly international movement actually centered in Europe. American feminist activists who have been described
