1、专业英语四级（听力）模拟试卷 15及答案与解析 SECTION B PASSAGES Directions: In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow. 1 What was salt used to do in Egypt thousands of years ago? （ A） To punish people who had broken the law. （ B） To keep d
2、ead bodies from decay. （ C） To make chemicals. （ D） To make fish soup. 2 How would a man be punished if he took more than his share of salt in the 16m century? （ A） Lose all his salt. （ B） Be thrown into prison. （ C） Lose an ear. （ D） Lose an eye. 3 What is the passages main idea? （ A） Thousands of
3、people were punished because of salt （ B） The uses and importance of salt in history. （ C） Salt was important in history. （ D） Nobody knows when salt began to be used. 4 What is the tour for today mainly about? （ A） Urban fire fighting. （ B） American fire fighting innovations. （ C） The history of fi
4、re. （ D） The Great San Francisco Fire fighting. 5 What was used to power the water pump on the Joe Ross? （ A） Gas. （ B） Horses. （ C） Steam motor. （ D） Oil motor. 6 What did Daniel Hayes invent? （ A） A single-engine fire truck. （ B） A water-powered fire truck. （ C） A record player. （ D） A circular la
5、dder holder. 7 What happens during the natural growth of a tree each year? （ A） Their rings become lighter in color. （ B） They have one more ring of wood. （ C） They become more precious. （ D） Their rings get closer and closer. 8 What may lead to the differences among the rings of the same tree? （ A）
6、 The weather. （ B） The exposure to sunlight. （ C） The nutrition provided by the soil. （ D） The time span. 9 Why are the archaeologists interested in dendrochronology? （ A） They can measure constructions. （ B） It helps them study past society. （ C） It provides a time tracing procedure. （ D） They can
7、build more buildings. 10 Daniel Defoe began to write Robinson Crusoe when he was （ A） in his sixties. （ B） in his fifties. （ C） over sixty. （ D） sixty. 11 What was the first part of Robinson Crusoe talking about? （ A） His lonely life. （ B） His characters. （ C） His journeys by sea. （ D） His fame and
8、wealth. 12 What was Defoes contribution to the English literature? （ A） He wrote a very interesting story. （ B） He made people happy while reading his story. （ C） He set a milestone of the modern English novel. （ D） He was active in politics and was against capitalism. 13 What should be done in orde
9、r to feed a large population? （ A） Inferior land must be cultivated. （ B） Good land must be worked intensively. （ C） Each person must produce less. （ D） both A and B 14 According to the passage, a large population can produce a chance for the development of （ A） agriculture. （ B） transport system. （
10、 C） industry. （ D） national economy. 15 One of the difficulties in carrying out worldwide birth control is that （ A） official attitudes to population and birth control vary from country to country. （ B） different countries have different customs and practices on birth control. （ C） decreasing birth
11、rate may lead to unemployment in some countries. （ D） in some countries people think that they enjoy the right to have as many children as they like. 16 The government of the developed countries may prefer （ A） a stable population. （ B） a slowly-increasing population. （ C） a fast-increasing populati
12、on. （ D） a declining population. 17 According to the passage, what do people often think about astronomers? （ A） They spend most of their time looking through telescopes. （ B） They are constantly analyzing data. （ C） They often live near observatories. （ D） They devote a lot of time to theoretical p
13、roblems. 18 What is the advantage of photographing the skies? （ A） The cost of equipment needed is reduced. （ B） Fewer data need to be analyzed. （ C） The images can be studied by different astronomers. （ D） The natural colors of astronomical objects can be captured. 19 What do astronomers use photog
14、raphic plate for? （ A） Decreasing the time it takes to photograph objects. （ B） Avoiding using a telescope. （ C） Sharpening the color of what they observe. （ D） Obtaining images of distant objects. 20 What is the one reason astronomers make long time exposures? （ A） To spend less time at their teles
15、copes. （ B） To overcome the problem of weak light. （ C） To take more photographs. （ D） To photograph astronomical objects without using a telescope. 专业英语四级（听力）模拟试卷 15答案与解析 SECTION B PASSAGES Directions: In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer
16、 the questions that follow. 1 【听力原文】 We have no idea about when men first began to use salt, but we do know that it has been used in many different ways throughout history. For example, it has been recorded in many history books that people who lived over three thousand years ago ate salted fish. Th
17、ousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used to preserve the dead. In some periods of history, a person who stole salt was thought to have broken the law. Take the eighteenth century for example. If a person was caught stealing salt, he would be thrown into prison. History also records that only in
18、England about ten thousand people were put into prison during that century for stealing salt! About four hundred and fifty years ago, in the year 1553, if a man took more than his share of salt, he would be thought to have broken the law and would be seriously punished, and his ear would be cut off.
19、 Salt was an important item on the dinner table of a king. It was always placed in front of the king when he sat down to eat. Important guests at the kings table were seated near the salt. Less important guests were given seats farther away from it. 1 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节题。文中指出几千年前的埃及人用盐保存死尸，故 B项正确。 【
20、知识模块】 短文听力 2 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文章说到在 1553年如果一个人拿了多于他应得的盐就会被认为违反了法律，他的耳朵会被割除。故 C项正确。在听文章时应密切关注各个时间内发生的不同事件，此题的选项 B具有很强的干扰性，但如果听到时间标志就会发现 B项的内容是文章在讲 18世纪的时候提到的，故不对。 【知识模块】 短文听力 3 【正确答案】 B 【试题 解析】 主旨题。全篇文章主要讲了两点：一是盐的不同用途 (可以保存尸体等 )；二是它在历史上非同寻常的重要性 (偷盐会受到严厉惩罚等 )。 B项概括完整，为正确选项。 【知识模块】 短文听力 4 【听力原文】 Man
21、y of the innovations in fire fighting that we will be seeing today were developed right here in America. As you can see from these photos, one of the earliest steam powered fire engines, the Joe Ross, was built in 1850 and operated right here in Cincinnati. Driven by four large horses, the ten-ton m
22、achine was steered by a single front wheel that was attached directly to the horse team. The steam motor on the Joe Ross was used to power the water pump that the big machine used to fight fires. Over here, we have an actual truck which was built in 1900 by the Waterous Fire Engine Works of Minneapo
23、lis. This was the very first fire engine to utilize a single steam motor for pulling the engine as well as pumping the water. As you may notice at the top of the truck, there is a circular platform that holds one end of a long ladder; the revolving platform operates almost like a record turntable in
24、 order to make it easier for ladder-operators to access buildings from difficult angles. The idea of the ladder turntable is credited to a San Francisco fireman by the name of Daniel Hayes. Hayes lifesaving invention, when combined with the relatively quick response time of the single engine, helped
25、 to bring fire fighting into the modern era. 4 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 主旨题。文章开头便介绍说 “我们今天将观看的是美国在消防方面的一些发明创新 ”。故 B选项正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 5 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文中讲到蒸汽发动机被用来开动水泵，故 C项符合题意。 【知识模块】 短文听力 6 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 细节题 。文章后面讲到在一辆 (消防 )卡车顶端有一个圆形的旋转平台，平台上立着一架云梯，这个发明源自 Daniel Hayes。故 D项正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 7 【听力原文】 Dur
26、ing this century, archaeologists have discovered that trees can be a valuable tool for measuring time. In scientific terms, this method is called dendrochronology. Dendrochronology is based on the scientific discovery that each year a tree grows a new layer of wood. When you cut down a tree, for exa
27、mple, you can see and count the layers of concentric circles. The layers vary in color and in thickness. These variations are a result of differing climate conditions from year to year that affects the growth of the annual rings. Cold weather, for example, creates thinner and lighter rings while hot
28、 weather produces thicker and darker rings. All trees that grow in the same region will have roughly the same pattern of annual rings, and this can be used as a source of comparison and measurement. Early in this century, archaeologists began using the rings to date ruined structures and figures bui
29、lt in the southwestern United States. They did this by comparing the rings of the wood found in the ruins with the rings of recently cut trees. Slowly but surely, the system was extended backwards in time to measure older ruins. The heavy forestry of the United States, coupled with the relative yout
30、h of its history, led to a fairly uncomplicated study. 7 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节题。文中指出每年树木都会长粗一圈，即会多一圈年轮，故 B项意思正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 8 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 细节题。文章说到树木的年轮圈各不相同，主要是由于不同的气候条件会影响每个年轮圈的生长。故选项 A是正确的。 【知识模块】 短文听力 9 【正 确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节归纳题。文中介绍考古学家利用树木的年轮来推断美国西南部的一些遗迹的年代，故 C项表意正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 10 【听力原文】 Danie
31、l Defoe(about 1660-1731)was an important novelist in the English literature. When he was young, he served as a soldier and had been to Spain, Italy, France and Germany. At the same time, he went in for politics. He cared much about the development of capitalism. He wrote a lot of articles against it
32、 and he was put into prison twice for that. It was not until he was nearly sixty that he began to write the famous novel Robinson Crusoe, which was published in May, 1719. It spread so rapidly that the story was known to every household very soon. Robinson Crusoe can be divided into three parts. The
33、 first part is about Crusoes three voyages, the second about his hunting, hiding in caves, farming and his hard struggles against nature on a small deserted island, the third is about the things which happened after his return from the deserted island. The second part is the body of the novel, in wh
34、ich Robinsons characters are clearly shown. Defoe wrote his novel in a simple style and his language is easy to understand. His novel writing set a milestone of the modern English novel. In his later part of life, he was in poor health and lived very poorly. 10 【正确答案】 B 【试 题解析】 细节题。文章说到 “直到他快 60岁了，他
35、才开始写那本著名的小说。 ”也就是说他是在五十多岁时写的鲁滨逊漂流记，故 B项正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 11 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文中介绍到小说的第 1部分描写了鲁滨逊的 3次海上旅行，故应选 C项。 journeys by sea是 voyages的同义替换。 【知识模块】 短文听力 12 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文章最后说他的小说写作为现代英国小说树立了一个里程碑，故选 C项。 【知识模块 】 短文听力 13 【听力原文】 The advantages and disadvantages of a large population have lon
36、g been a subject of discussion among e-conomists. It has been argued that the supply of good land is limited. To feed a large population, inferior land must be cultivated and the good land worked intensively. Thus, each person produces less and this means a lower average income that could be obtaine
37、d with a smaller population. Other economists have argued that a large population gives more scope for specialization and the development of facilities such as ports, roads and railways, which are not likely to be built unless there is a big demand to justify them. One of the difficulties in carryin
38、g out a worldwide birth control program lies in the fact that official attitudes to population growth vary from country to country depending on the level of industrial development and the availability of food and raw materials. In a developing country where a vastly expanded population is pressing h
39、ard upon the limits of food, space and natural resources, it will be the first concern of government to place a limit on the birthrate. In a highly industrialized society the problem may be more complex. A decreasing birthrate may lead to unemployment. When the pressure of population on housing decl
40、ines, prices also decline and the building industry is weakened. Faced with considerations such as these, the government of a developed country may well prefer to see a slowly increasing population, rather than one which is stable or in decline. 13 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 细节题。文章开头讲到由于人口数量大，对土质不好的田地也要进行耕作，对良
41、田地更要集约耕种， A和 B的答案均符合题意，故选 D。 【知识模块】 短文听力 14 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节归纳题。文中说到由于有了巨大的人口数才有了修建便利设施的需要，例如修建港口，道路和铁路，这几个例子都可归人交通系统，故答案 B是正确的。 【知识模块】 短文听力 15 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 细节题。作者介绍说对于世界范围的人口数量进行控制的项目 是有困难的因为各个国家政府对于人口增长的态度不一致。故 A项表达正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 16 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节题。文章最后指出了发达国家对人口增长的态度，即人口能够缓慢增长。以此解决失业和经济
42、不景气的问题。故选 B。 【知识模块】 短文听力 17 【听力原文】 Most people think of astronomers as people who spend their time in cold observatories peering through telescopes every night. In fact, a typical astronomer spends most of his/her time analyzing data and may only be at the telescope for a few weeks of the year. Some
43、 astronomers work on purely theoretical problems and never use a telescope at all. You might not know how rarely images are viewed directly through telescopes. The most common way to observe the skies is to photograph them. The process is very simple. First a photographic plate is coated with a ligh
44、t-sensitive material. The plate is positioned so that the image received by the telescope is recorded on it. Then the image can be developed, enlarged and published so that many people can study it. Because most astronomical objects are very remote, the light we receive from them is rather feeble. B
45、ut by using a telescope as a camera, 1ong time exposures can be made. In this way, objects that are a hundred times too faint to be seen can be photographed by just looking through a telescope. 17 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 细节题。原文说 “大部分人都认为天文学家就是每个晚上都在冰冷的天文台用望远 镜观察天空的人 ”。故 A项符合题意。 【知识模块】 短文听力 18 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文章指出通过对天空拍照，照片可以被冲洗出来，并被放大和发表，这样就可以有很多人来参与研究。故选 C项。 【知识模块】 短文听力 19 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 细节归纳题。文中说照相平盘可以记录下由望远镜捕捉到的物体，然后把其拍成照片，故 D项意思正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力 20 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节题。文章后面讲到由于大部分天体距离 很远，所以我们能捕捉到的它们所发出的光线也很微弱，但如果用望远镜充当照相机就可以进行长时间曝光，以此将物体拍下来。故 B项正确。 【知识模块】 短文听力
