1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 188及答案与解析 SECTION A In 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 that you think is the best answer. 0 (1) Jim and Irene Wescott were the kind of people who
2、 seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports in college alumni bulletins. They were the parents of two young children, they had been married nine years, they lived on the twelfth floor of an apartment house near Sutton P
3、lace, they went to the theater on an average of 10.3 times a year, and they hoped someday to live in Westchester. Irene Wescott was pleasant, rather plain girl with soft brown hair, and a wide, fine forehead upon which nothing at all had been written, and in the cold weather she wore a coat of fitch
4、 skins dyed to resemble mink. You could not say that Jim Westcott looked younger than he was, but you could at least say of him that he seemed to feel younger. He wore his graying hair cut very short, he dressed in the kind of clothes his class had worn at Andover, and his manner was earnest, veheme
5、nt, and intentionally naive. The Westcotts differed from their friends, their classmates, and their neighbors, only in an interest they shared in serious music. They went to a great many concerts although they seldom mentioned this to anyoneand they spent a deal of time listening to music on the rad
6、io. (2) Their radio was an old instrument, sensitive, unpredictable, and beyond repair. Neither of them understood the mechanics of radio or when the instrument faltered, Jim would strike the side of the cabinet with his hand. This sometimes helped. One Sunday afternoon, in the middle of a Schubert
7、quartet, the music faded away altogether. Jim struck the cabinet repeatedly, but there was no response; the Schubert was lost to them forever. He promised to buy Irene a new radio, and on Monday when he came home from work he told her that he had got one. He refused to describe it, and said it would
8、 be a surprise for her when it came. (3) The radio was delivered at the kitchen door the following afternoon, and with the assistance of her maid and the handyman Irene uncrated it and brought it into the living room. She was struck at once with the physical ugliness of the large gumwood cabinet. Ir
9、ene was proud of her living room, she had chosen its furnishings and colors as carefully as she chose her clothes, and now it seemed to her that her new radio stood among her intimate possessions like an aggressive intruder. She was confounded by the number of dials and switches on the instrument pa
10、nel, and she studied them thoroughly before she put the plug into a wall socket and turned the radio on. The dials flooded with a malevolent green light, and in the distance she heard the music of a piano quartet. The quintet was in the distance for only an instant; it bore down upon her with a spee
11、d greater than light and filled the apartment with the noise of music amplified so mightily that it knocked a china ornament from a table to the floor. She rushed to the instrument and reduced the volume. The violent forces that were snared in the ugly gumwood cabinet made her uneasy. Her children c
12、ame home from school then, and she took them to the Park. It was not until later in the afternoon that she was able to return to the radio. (4) The maid had given the children their suppers and was supervising their baths when Irene turned on the radio, reduced the volume, and sat down to listen to
13、a Mozart quintet that she knew and enjoyed. The music came through clearly. The new instrument had a much purer tone, she thought, than the old one. She decided that tone was most important and that she could conceal the cabinet behind the sofa. But as soon as she had made her peace with the radio,
14、the interference began. A crackling sound like the noise of a burning powder fuse began to accompany the singing of the strings. Beyond the music, there was a rustling that reminded Irene unpleasantly of the sea, and as the quintet progressed, these noises were joined by the many others. She tried a
15、ll the dials and switches but nothing dimmed the interference, and she sat down, disappointed and bewildered, and tried to trace the flight of the melody. The elevator shaft in her building ran beside the living-room wall, and it was the noise of the elevator that gave her a clue to the character of
16、 the static. The rattling of the elevator cables and the opening and closing of the elevator doors were reproduced in her loudspeaker, and, realizing that the radio was sensitive to electrical currents of all sorts, she began to discern through the Mozart the ringing of telephone bells, the dialing
17、of phones, and the lamentation of a vacuum cleaner. By listening more carefully, she was able to distinguish doorbells, elevator bells, electric razors, and Waring mixers, whose sounds had been picked up from the apartments that surrounded hers and transmitted through her loudspeaker. The powerful a
18、nd ugly instrument, with its mistaken sensibility to discord, was more than she could hope to master, so she turned the thing off and went into the nursery to see her children. 1 The Westcotts showed no difference from their friends, classmates and neighbors EXCEPT that_. （ A） they shared an interes
19、t in serious music （ B） Irene Wescott had soft brown hair （ C） they hoped someday to live in Westchester （ D） Jim Westcott seemed to feel younger 2 What would the Westcotts do if their old radio faltered? （ A） Jim would promise to buy Irene a new radio. （ B） Jim would strike the cabinet repeatedly w
20、ith his hand. （ C） They would go to work on Monday to listen to the radio. （ D） They would go to a great many concerts of a Schubert quartet. 3 All of the following can be concluded from Para. 3 EXCEPT_. （ A） the new radio was physically quite large （ B） the new radio didnt fit the living room （ C）
21、the new radio was complicated to operate （ D） the new radio was placed next to a china ornament 3 (1) If a prize were to be awarded for the worlds clunkiest prose, the paragraphs of indecipherable text that make up “terms of use“ agreements would surely win. These legal thickets are designed to prot
22、ect companies from litigious online shoppers and users of web services. Some firms require agreement, as when users are asked to click a box before creating an Apple ID. Other sites explain their policies without seeking customers explicit consent. Few consumers read these terms, let alone understan
23、d them. Because they involve no negotiation between customer and company, firms often insert language conferring broad protections to lower their risk of liability. But in a new twist, legal disclaimers designed to limit lawsuits are now unleashing litigation. (2) A surge of lawsuits in America clai
24、ms that companies online agreements violate consumers rights. Consumers are banding together in class actions against targets including Apple, Avis, Bed Bath payrolls swelled by an average of 190,000 a month between May and July. Competition for workers is pushing up wages. The median pay rise in th
25、e year to July was 3. 4% , according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Americans are spending that cash; in the second quarter, consumption per person grew at an annual pace of 5.5% , equaling its fastest growth in a decade. Yet real GDP is expanding by only 1.2% a year. The culprit seems to b
26、e business investment, which has fallen for three consecutive quarters. If firms are hiring and consumers are spending, why is investment weak? (2) There are three potential explanations for this widespread reluctance to invest. The first is weak demand for the firms goods. This explains exporters r
27、estraint, given lacklustre global demand and a pricey dollar. But it makes less sense at home, with consumer spending strong, and firms happy to hire and to raise wages. (3) The second is tighter credit. Since the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December, the average rate banks charge firms
28、 to borrow is up by about half a percentage point. After five years of loosening standards, more banks have tightened than eased credit standards for business lending in 2016, according to a Fed survey. In February, financial-market turmoil caused credit spreads in bond markets, the best measure of
29、credit conditions, to surge. (4) Yet it is unlikely that slightly tighter credit has substantially crimped investment, because American firms are flush with cash. At the end of last year they had $1.7 trillion on hand, enough to pay for Hillary Clintons infrastructure plan six times over (though muc
30、h of this cash is held overseas for tax reasons). Indeed, firms are accumulating cash at the fastest rate since July 2011, according to the Association for Finance Professionals, an industry group. (5) That leaves the third explanation; that in spite of strong spending, slow trend growth is reducing
31、 opportunities for profitable long-term investments. On this view, the recent downturn in business investment was less of a cyclical blip than a sign of things to come. (6) Economies get bigger when they add people or get more from their existing workforce. America is doing less of both. The Bureau
32、of Labour Statistics projects that the labour force will grow by an average of 0.5% a year from 2014 to 2024, down from 1. 2% annually from 1994 to 2004, because of ageing baby-boomers and low fertility. And productivity growth has stalled. From 2005 to 2015, output per hour worked grew by only 1.3%
33、 a year, down from growth of 3% a year between 1995 and 2005. In the year to the second quarter of 2016, productivity actually fell, by 0.4%. (7) Optimists argue that this is part of a lengthy hangover from the recession, which should soon end. One contributor to productivity is the amount of capita
34、l for example, machinery or computers that each worker has at their disposal. The recession sent this ratio soaring as firms laid off workers and left machines sitting idle. Why would firms invest again before they had replenished their payrolls? But this explanation is becoming less convincing. The
35、 capital-to-worker ratio returned to its long-run trend in 2014 (the last year for which data are available). It is past time for productivity growth to have recovered; instead, it is sinking further. (8) Pessimists think the productivity problem is chronic. Technological advances, they say, are eve
36、r-less revolutionary: Uber is less of an advance than the car itself, the smartphone has not changed office work the way the PC did. Nonsense, reply “techno-optimists“ , who foresee huge advances in machine learning and robotics. (9) For now, the data support the pessimists. The best measure of tech
37、nological advance is total factor productivity, which measures output after controlling for both the number of workers and the amount of capital. In 2015 it grew by just 0. 2% , compared with an average of 1. 1% in the two decades prior to the financial crisis. (10) Businesses anticipating slower lo
38、ng-term growth cannot be expected to invest much. And politicians cannot easily conjure up technological progress. But they can boost competition, simplify taxes and regulation, and invest in infrastructure and education, all of which would help to raise American productivity. 8 Which evidence did t
39、he author use to retort “ tighter credit“ as a potential explanation for the widespread reluctance to invest? （ A） Strong domestic consumer spending. （ B） Good job opportunities and wage raise. （ C） Fast cash accumulation rate of American firms. （ D） Reduced opportunities for investments. 9 Why do p
40、essimists think productivity fall is chronic? （ A） High tech doesnt make better changes. （ B） It is part of the economic recession. （ C） Productivity growth has stalled. （ D） Productivity actually fell by 0.4% . 10 The following are all ways for politicians to raise American productivity EXCEPT_. （
41、A） boosting competition （ B） simplifying taxes and regulation （ C） investing in infrastructure and education （ D） conjuring up technological progress SECTION B In this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. Answer the questions with No more than TEN words i
42、n the space provided. 10 PASSAGE ONE Why did the girl play basketball over and over again? 11 Where would Irene probably put the ugly new radio? 12 Why was there interference to the new radio from time to time? 13 PASSAGE TWO 13 What can be inferred about the TCCWNA cases in the last paragraph? 13 P
43、ASSAGE THREE 14 How do the optimists explain productivity fall? 15 Whats the authors attitude towards the three potential explanations for the widespread reluctance to invest? 专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 188答案与解析 SECTION A In this section there are several passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. For
44、each question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer. 【知识模块】 阅读 1 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第一段倒数第二句提到 “The Westcotts differed from their friends， their classmates， and their neighbors， only in an interest they shared in serious music ”，因
45、此 A为正确答案， B、 C和 D都符合文中提到的细节，但不能将他们与其他人区别开来，故均排除。 【知识模块】 阅读 2 【正确答案】 B 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第二段第二句提到 “when the instrument faltered ，Jim would strike the side of the cabinet with his hand ”，故 B为正确答案，同时排除 A、 C和 D。 【知识模块】 阅读 3 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 推断题。文章第三段第一句提到 “and with the assistance of her maid and the handyman
46、Irene uncrated it and brought it into the living room ”，由此可知，收音机体积比较大；第三句提到： “and now it seemed to her that her new radio stood among her intimate possessions like an aggressive intruder ”，由此可知，收音机与客厅风格不搭配；第四句提到 “She was confounded by the number of dials and switches on the instrument panel， and she
47、 studied them thoroughly before she put the plug into a wall socket and turned the radio on ”，由此可知，收音机操作比较复杂。本题为反选题，因此 A、 B、 C均可排除；第三段虽然提到瓷器装饰品被收音机的声音震到了地上，但无法推断收音机被放在瓷器的旁边，故 D为答案。 【知识模块】 阅读 【知识模块】 阅读 4 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第一段最 后两句提到 “firms often insert language conferring broad protections to low
48、er their risk of liabilitylegal disclaimers designed to limit lawsuits are now unleashing litigation ”，由此可见，公司设置免责声明来降低赔偿的风险，而现在这种方法正不断招来诉讼，故 D为正确答案。A、 B和 C都是文中提到的细节，并不符合题意，故排除。 【知识模块】 阅读 5 【正确答案】 C 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第三段第二句提到 “This was intended to prevent companies that do business in the state from usin
49、g contracts， notices or signs to limit consumer rights protected by law ”，由此可知，这些法案是为了保护消费者的应有权益而颁布的，故 C为答案。 A、 B和 D均不符合题意，故排除 。 【知识模块】 阅读 6 【正确答案】 A 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第五段第三句提到 “Moreover， the lawsuits are aimed not only at firms headquartered in New Jersey but all manner of companies that merely do business in the state ”，由此可知， A“在新泽西州境内从事商业活动的所有公司 ”为答案。 B“使消费者受损害或损失的公司 ”、 C“只是总 公司设在新泽西州境内的公司 ”、 D“能出具受损证据的起诉人 ”都与原文意思相反，因此排除。 【知识模块】 阅读 7 【正确答案】 D 【试题解析】 细节题。文章第六段第二句提到 “Whatever the outcome
