1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 194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) How they toiled and sweated to get the hay in! Bu
2、t their efforts were rewarded, for the harvest was an even bigger success than they had hoped. (2) Sometimes the work was hard; the implements had been designed for human beings and not for animals, and it was a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool that involved standing on his hin
3、d legs. But the pigs were so clever that they could think of a way round every difficulty. As for the horses, they knew every inch of the field, and in fact understood the business of mowing and raking far better than Jones and his men had ever done. The pigs did not actually work, but directed and
4、supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. Boxer and Clover would harness themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake and tramp steadily round and round the field with a pig walking behind and calling out “Gee up, comrade!“ or “Whoa bac
5、k, comrade!“ as the case might be. And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the hay and gathering it. Even the ducks and hens toiled to and fro all day in the sun, carrying tiny wisps of hay in their beaks. In the end, they finished the harvest in two days less time than it had usuall
6、y taken Jones and his men. Moreover, it was the biggest harvest that the farm had ever seen. There was no wastage whatever; the hens and ducks with their sharp eyes had gathered up the very last stalk. And not an animal on the farm had stolen so much as a mouthful. (3) All through that summer the wo
7、rk of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. With the worth
8、less parasitical (寄生的 ) human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat. There was more leisure too, inexperienced though the animals were. They met with many difficulties for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away
9、 the chaff with their breath, since the farm possessed no threshing machine but the pigs with their cleverness and Boxer with his tremendous muscles always pulled them through. Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Joness time, but now he seemed more like three hor
10、ses than one; there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlie
11、r than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labor at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular days work began. His answer to every problem, every setback, was “I will work harder!“ which he had adopted as his personal motto. (4) But everyone worked according to his capacity. The
12、 hens and ducks, for instance, saved five bushels of corn at the harvest by gathering up the stray grains. Nobody stole, nobody grumbled over his rations, the quarrelling and biting and jealousy which had been normal features of life in the old days had almost disappeared. Nobody shirked or almost n
13、obody. Mollie, it was true, was not good at getting up in the mornings, and had a way of leaving work early on the ground that there was a stone in her hoof. And the behavior of the cat was somewhat peculiar. It was soon noticed that when there was work to be done the cat could never be found. She w
14、ould vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal-times, or in the evening after work was over, as though nothing had happened. But she always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions. Old Benjamin, the donkey, seem
15、ed quite unchanged since the Rebellion. He did his work in the same slow obstinate (顽固的；倔强的 ) way as he had done it in Joness time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either. About the Rebellion and its results he would express no opinion. When asked whether he was not happier now
16、that Jones was gone, he would say only “Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey,“ and the others had to be content with this cryptic (神秘的；含义模糊的 ) answer. 1 What is the moral implied in the first two paragraphs? （ A） God helps those who help themselves. （ B） All beings are c
17、reated equal. （ C） Facts speak louder than words. （ D） Slow and steady wins the race. 2 To gain a bigger harvest, the animals mainly overcame difficulties in the aspect of_. （ A） physical capacity （ B） tool application （ C） experience accumulation （ D） intelligence level 3 What attitude does the don
18、key hold towards the Rebellion? （ A） Pessimistic. （ B） Wait-and-see. （ C） Fervent. （ D） Sarcastic. 3 (1) When Kelly Dilworth applied for a Discover card in July, she was happy to learn that her spending limit was $ 13,000 a level most card companies dont offer unless a customer is in the highest cre
19、dit tier. Then she found out the cards annual percentage rate (APR) was 21. 24 percent, a level that used to be reserved for people with shabby credit. (2) Like most credit card companies, Discover didnt reveal to Dilworth what her APR would be until after it had issued her card. Dilworth notes she
20、could just cancel the card, but that likely would temporarily hurt her credit score, which is well above 700. Instead, she says, shes keeping the card for its travel rewards. “Its becoming a lot harder to find a regular credit card with a good interest rate,“ she says, “ even if you have good credit
21、. “ She doesnt understand, however, why financial institutions are increasingly offering loads of credit but tying it to high APRs while refusing to offer less extreme options. (3) Dilworth isnt the only one whos puzzled. While U. S. interest rates remain below 1 percent, some of the same financial
22、institutions allowed to borrow money from the government at historic lows are quietly jacking up rates on even people with commendable credit. This summer, the lowest available APRs offered on new credit cards topped 15 percent on average, marking a five-year high, according to CreditCards. com. Wit
23、h the Federal Reserve signaling plans to raise interest rates going into next year, experts believe credit card companies will follow, as they did last December. (4) While credit card APRs are expected to rise with future rate hikes, they did not plunge with U. S. mortgages and other types of loans
24、when the Fed slashed its rates to nearly zero during the financial crisis. This is partly because, in 2009, Congress introduced a law to restrict the card industrys payment and fee practices, says James Chessen, chief economist for the American Bankers Association. To compensate, card issuers found
25、other ways to profit, by either boosting existing rates or refusing to lower rates on new cards. (5) For the average American credit card user, these higher rates are already having an effect; The debt of those carrying balances has risen every quarter since early 2015 and, as of this spring, the av
26、erage household carrying credit card debt owed more than $ 16,000 the highest level on record since Congress enacted (制定 ; 颁布 ) the credit card reform act. (6) But rising APRs will hurt millennials (千禧一代 ) the most. They tend to have shorter credit histories and mountains of student loan debt factor
27、s that can weigh heavily on their credit rating, leading to higher interest rates and potentially hurting their ability to pay off monthly balances. (7) Dilworth says wider spreads have been proliferating over the past few years, with the lowest available rates hardly budging and the upper limits cr
28、eeping inexorably higher. As she points out, there are legal limits on certain card fees, but there is no limit on APRs. No one knows who, if anyone, is being offered the lowest interest rates, Dilworth says, because the credit card industry doesnt need to report that information. “Its really a tran
29、sparency (透明度 ) issue,“ she says. “What people are really paying and their APR levels, no one knows that. Not even the Federal Reserve. “ (8) The upshot? Millennials, who make up the largest population segment in U. S. history, are abandoning credit cards, according to Princeton Survey Research Asso
30、ciates International, a New Jersey consultancy. In a study this year of more than 1,000 people aged 18 to 29 many of whom came of age during the 2008 -2009 financial crisis only 33 percent reported using credit cards. By contrast, 55 percent of those surveyed aged 30 to 49 carried cards, while more
31、than 60 percent of those aged 50 and up carried them. If credit card companies cant win over millennials, experts say it could very well erode their long-term earnings potential. (9) To make up for lost growth, credit card companies could further raise rates on everyone else. But that approach has p
32、itfalls. In its latest monthly complaints report, the U. S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau noted that one of the biggest gripes from credit card users is that the industry isnt fair or transparent enough in calculating and assigning APRs. If climbing interest rates are any measure of customer
33、ire and card companies dont offer more visibility in their decision-making the number of complaints is likely to rise. 4 What perplexed Dilworth most after she got her new credit card? （ A） The possible consequence of cancelling the card. （ B） The exact measures to get her travel rewards. （ C） The c
34、ontradiction between her APR and credit score. （ D） The appropriate standard of her cards APR. 5 According to the author, the legal act enacted by the Congress_. （ A） shouldnt limit the pay and fee of card companies （ B） was undermined by the credit card companies （ C） directly led to a soaring inte
35、rest rate of credit card （ D） had failed to play its positive role as expected 6 The phrase “ win over“ in Para. 8 is closest in meaning to_. （ A） attract （ B） defeat （ C） delight （ D） neglect 7 All the following may help credit card companies profit more EXCEPT_. （ A） sticking to the current strate
36、gy （ B） becoming more far-sighted （ C） being opener when setting APRs （ D） offering more rational rates 7 (1) The robots in movies and science fiction books that rise up to take over the world generally are able to do so because we have placed them in charge of missiles, defense systems and other mi
37、litary technology. (2) We never see a disgruntled (不满的；不高兴的 ), order-taking bot working at McDonalds or Dominos cast off its virtual hairnet to gain sentience and overthrow its fast-food overlord. But fast food, along with shipping warehouses, has become a hotbed for robots and other automated techn
38、ology. McDonalds has been testing ordering kiosks, Dominos has numerous ways to place an order that do not involve talking with a human being, and Starbucks has used technology to shift employees away from order taking to put them into production. It may not be a fantastic Utopia where Rosie from Th
39、e Jetsons does our laundry, but robot/automated technology has clearly infiltrated (潜入；渗入 ) fast food. (3) Its not a question of whether automation will come; its one of whether it will make stores more efficient or allow them to get rid of human workers. Starbucks, for example, has used automation
40、to allow it to move workers into making drinks rather than taking orders, but it has not yet cut its workforce in any meaningful way. (4) CollegeRecruiter. corns Steven Rothberg, whose company works to find jobs for students and college graduates, believes that fast-food robots are coming, but he do
41、es not think they will supplant traditional workers. “ Many of the students and some of the recent grads who use our site are employed by fast food restaurants,“ he said. “Theres no doubt that automation will continue to impact the number and types of jobs in fast food restaurants but I dont buy the
42、 argument that automated methods will replace human workers in fast food restaurants. Just look at banks. Have ATMs reduced the need for human tellers? Absolutely. But have ATMs come close to eliminating the need for human tellers? Absolutely not. “ (5) Timothy Carone, an IT professor, believes that
43、 automation will happen in restaurants, but not quickly or necessarily to the detriment (伤害；危害 ) of flesh-and-blood workers. The professor does believe that the path toward robot workers will be a slow one. He said that the idea that restaurants are automating due to labor costs is only partially tr
44、ue. (6) “Automation would occur at much lower labor costs than exist today or in the future but automation costs money,“ he said, noting that the expense will lower over time. “ Whether a restaurant becomes partially or fully automated should depend on its customers and locations. Fast-food franchis
45、es located anywhere are finding their customers value automation. Restaurants at airports or similar locations that provide a captive audience but no loyalty except for brand loyalty will find automation necessary and valued by customers faster is better. “ (7) Donald Mazzela, a board member of the
46、nonprofit National Robotics Education Foundation, said his group has been looking at the issue of robots in restaurants for three years, noting that robotic interaction is being taught in culinary (厨房的；烹调用的 ) and hospitality courses throughout the world. “In our latest study, we estimate the average
47、 fast food establishment will switch 1.2 workers from counter service to other tasks as remote order taking, delivery by robotic applications grow,“ he wrote. (8) He expects the tipping point will be by 2020. The industry, he explained, needs time to educate customers, but that will happen, he said,
48、 because the benefits are simply too strong. He cited machines counting change, sensors, and other tools making inventory (库存；清单 ) more precise and the ability to relay orders directly to the prep area as a way to decrease waste. Its going to be a gradual change, but its going to happen, Mazzela wro
49、te. (9) A change is coming and Fred Goff, CEO of Jobcase, a social media platform helping workers without college degrees find meaningful jobs, believes workers should embrace it. He said that robots will perform some jobs typically done by humans, but that will also create opportunity for flesh-and-blood workers. “Concerns about technology displacing jobs has been a constant Luddite theme throughout the Information Revolution, and in fact since the Industrial Revolution,“ he wrote. Goff explained in his e-mail tha
