1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 199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) What makes people shun the relative security of f
2、ull-time employment and start up a business themselves? (2) The European Union wants to know, because with entrepreneurship come job creation and growth. For the past five years, the Unions head office has financed an annual poll of more than 21,000 people on both sides of the Atlantic. The most rec
3、ent of these studies, released this week, shows that despite efforts to make the Union more competitive, the majority of its citizens remain consistently less entrepreneurial and more risk-averse than their American counterparts. Thats not necessarily true of all Europeans: The word entrepreneur may
4、 be French, but the poll found that people from smaller countries like Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Latvia were much more enthusiastic about working for themselves. But putting regional variations aside, the bottom line for Europe was that fewer European respondents said they would choose self-empl
5、oyment 45 percent said it was their preference- than their American counterparts, at 61 percent. And the most striking part of the survey was the Europeans explanations of their responses. (3) It has long been assumed here that red tape is holding back Europes entrepreneurial spirit. With shorter wa
6、iting times to register companies and easier procedures for hiring, the argument goes, new European businesses would sprout like tulips in a Dutch greenhouse. The survey told a different story. Europeans essentially said they couldnt be bothered with the effort involved in starting a business; They
7、wanted a regular, fixed income and a stable job. The upshot of this for Europe is that even if governments managed to cut red tape, their citizens might still prefer to have a comfortable job working for someone else. Only 5 percent of Europeans said fear of red tape or reluctance to battle bureaucr
8、acies was holding them back. (4) A corollary to this is the fear of failure in Europe. Half of all European respondents agreed with the statement, “ One should not start a business if there is a risk it might fail. “ Only one-third of Americans agreed. There were an estimated 20. 5 million people wo
9、rking in start-up companies in the United States in 2003, the latest year for which data were available, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a London-based research organization. This is 23 times the number of those working at startups in France far greater than the population differen
10、ces between the two countries. The U. S. number was also 9 times the number of those in Britain and more than 7 times that of Germany. (5) If Europe can successfully diminish the stigma of failure, more people would be willing to start their own businesses. “There is a completely different attitude
11、toward risk,“ said Zourek of the European Commission, comparing Europe with the United States. In Europe, “once you try a venture and you dont succeed, you dont get a second chance, but you get a stigma,“ he said. The European Union, he said, should make bankruptcy procedures less burdensome and mak
12、e getting credit easier for risk-takers, even those who have failed before. (6) In this survey, 55 percent of Europeans aged 15 to 24 said that it would be “desirable“ for them to become self-employed in the next five years. Among those 55 and older, only 18 percent said the same. Young Europeans co
13、uld be the motor of entrepreneurship. But with European countries having some of the lowest birth rates in the developed world, who will take their place? 1 What can we learn from EUs poll? （ A） Some smaller European countries show stronger desire to run their own enterprises. （ B） Less than half Am
14、ericans are risk-oriented. （ C） The great majority of people in European countries prefer stable incomes. （ D） Europeans are afraid of complicated policies of registering new companies. 2 Which of the following is NOT the reason why Europeans and Americans regard “risk“ differently? （ A） According t
15、o related policies, Europeans only have one chance to run new companies. （ B） Failure to try a venture leads to a more serious result in Europe than in the U. S. （ C） European tradition is more conservative than that of America. （ D） The EU doesnt give enough support to European people to open their
16、 own companies. 2 (1) We all have offensive breath at one time or another. In most cases offensive breath emanates from bacteria in the mouth, although there are other, more surprising causes. (2) Until a few years ago, the most doctors could do was to counsel patients with bad breath about oral cle
17、anliness. Now they are finding new ways to treat the usually curable condition. (3) Bad breath can happen whenever the normal flow of saliva slows. Our mouths are full of bacteria feeding on protein in bits of food and shed tissue. The bacteria emit smelling gases, the worst of which is hydrogen sul
18、fide. (4) Mouth bacteria thrive in airless conditions. Oxygen-rich saliva keeps their numbers down. When we sleep, for example, the saliva stream slows, and sulfide producing bacteria gains the upper hand, producing classic “morning breath“. (5) Alcohol, hunger, too much talking, breathing through t
19、he mouth during exerciseanything that dries the mouth produces bad breath. So can stress, though its not understood why. Some peoples breath turns sour every time they go on a job interview. (6) Saliva flow gradually slows with age, which explains why the elderly have more bad breath trouble than yo
20、unger people do. Babies, however, who make plenty of saliva and whose mouths contain relatively few bacteria have characteristically sweet breath. (7) For most of us, file simple, dry-mouth variety of bad breath is easily cured. Eating or drinking starts saliva and sweeps away many of the bacteria.
21、Breakfast often stops morning breath. Those with chronic dry mouth find that it helps to keep gum, hard candy, or a bottle of water or juice around. Brushing the teeth wipes out dry-mouth bad breath because it clears away many of the offending bacteria. (8) Surprisingly, one thing that rarely works
22、is mouthwash. The liquid can mask bad-breath odor with its own smell, but the effect lasts no more than an hour. Some mouthwashes claim to kill the bacteria responsible for bad breath. The trouble is they dont necessarily reach all offending germs. Most bacteria are well protected from mouthwash und
23、er thick layers of mucus. If the mouthwash contains alcohol as most do it can intensify the problem by drying out the mouth. 3 The phrase “emanates from“ in Para. 1 most probably means_. （ A） thrives on （ B） accounts for （ C） originates from （ D） descends from 4 Mouthwashes are not an effective cure
24、 for bad breath mainly because_. （ A） they cant mask the bad odor long enough （ B） they cant get to all the offending bacteria （ C） their strong smell mixes with bad breath and makes it worse （ D） they cant cover the thick layers of mucus 4 (1) Every 101 minutes or so, a Department of Defense imagin
25、g satellite circles the Earth, capturing images from the equator to the polar ice caps. Its that DOD drone (colorfully named the DMSPF-17) that monitors geologic changes, such as the decreasing size of the Arctic and Antarctic ice covers. The images it snaps are the ones most people see of the Earth
26、s two white domes, which have been steadily diminishing for the past decade. (2) Skimming over the top of the world feels a bit like being on a different planet, according to Rick Steiner, a marine conservation researcher at the University of Alaska. For the past two years, Steiner has led research
27、missions flying low over thousands of miles of Arctic seas for a handful of polar climate scientists, some of whom work for the federal government. He times the daylong voyage to coincide with the time of year when sea ice is at a minimum, the exact end of summer melting in mid-September, before the
28、 autumn cool begins to refreeze some of the water. Having lived in Alaska for 30 years, Steiner can tell you in personal detail how the minimum has shrunk from year to year. He calls the voyage his annual “bearing witness to the Arctic crisis“ trip. (3) The crisis has been mapped out in precise deta
29、il in slide shows and research papers, with startling statistics. The past three summers have seen the lowest ice volume ever recorded, according to data released annually by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The sea-ice minimum in 2007 (1.6 million square miles) was the single lowest y
30、ear, with nearly 40 percent less ice than the seasonal average recorded over the past three decades. And the problem is only expected to worsen. As the ice melts, it releases highly concentrated carbon and methane (甲烷 ) that is locked in the permafrost (永冻层 ), creating an accelerating warming loop.
31、An additional compounding factor is that dark oceans absorb more of the suns energy than light-colored ice, which reflects a large portion of it. That means that the more ice melts over the summer, the more open ocean there is, which leads to more absorbed energy and warmer oceans, which means that
32、less ice forms the following winter, which leads to even more open ocean the following year. Early this past summer, researchers thought 2009 would be even worse than 2007 in terms of melting, until a late-arriving wind from the equator brought cool air that prevented even more melting. (4) “When yo
33、ure actually looking out the window and seeing mile after mile of warm ocean water where there used to be sea ice that you once walked around on, it gives you the certainty that something major is going on there,“ says James Overland, a marine environmental researcher with the National Oceanic and A
34、tmospheric Administration. The thickness of the ice and water temperatures which were also measured at disturbingly high levels by Steiner and his team this year are also measurements you cant make by peering at satellite images. 5 According to the passage, ice-melting doesnt lead to_. （ A） highly c
35、oncentrated carbon and methane （ B） an accelerating warming loop （ C） more suns energy absorbed by dark oceans （ D） more open ocean 6 What is the main idea of the passage? （ A） Ice covers have been diminishing in the past decade. （ B） It is DOD drone that monitors geologic changes. （ C） Steiners ann
36、ual voyages bear witness to the Arctic crisis. （ D） Ice-melting is creating an accelerating warming loop. 6 (1) The Fields Medal is the highest scientific award for mathematicians. In fact it is only the unofficial name for the “International medal for outstanding discoveries in mathematics. “ The F
37、ields Medals are presented every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) to two to four deserving mathematicians under the age of 40. The age limit is intended to guarantee that not only past work is rewarded. The Fields Medal is also intended to encourage the winners to mak
38、e further contributions. (2) The prize is named in honor of Professor John Charles Fields (1863-1932), a Canadian mathematician. He was the first significant mathematician at the University of Toronto, and was also internationally known at the time. He was active in such prestigious scientific socie
39、ties as the Royal Society of London. In 1924 he was elected as the president of the 6th International Congress of Mathematicians held in Toronto. (3) Fields did original research in the theory of algebraic functions. However he is best remembered for conceiving the idea of, and for providing funds f
40、or, an international medal for mathematical distinction. The 9th International Congress of Mathematicians at Zurich in 1932 adopted his proposal after his death. The Fields Medal was first awarded at the 10th Congress, held at Oslo in 1936. The fund for the founding of the medals is constituted by F
41、ields donation and balance left over after financing the Toronto Congress held in 1924. Fields wished that the awards should recognize both existing mathematical work and also the promise of future achievement. (4) The medalists are presented with a golden medal together with a prize of 15, 000 Cana
42、dian dollars. Each medal contains at least 200 dollars worth of gold and is probably 7. 5 centimeters in diameter. The obverse of the medal is the head of Archimedes facing right, and together with a quotation (in Latin) attributed to him, “To transcend ones spirit and to take hold of the world. “ T
43、he reverse side bears the inscription (in Latin) , “The mathematicians assembled here from all over the world to pay tribute for outstanding work. “ (5) Compared with the $100,000 of the Nobel Prize, it is only a golden medal. However, the prize winners are selected by the Fields Medal Committee whi
44、ch consists of eight mathematicians appointed by the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union. It is usually regarded as the top prize in mathematics and will only be awarded to researchers who have made pioneering contribution in mathematics, so is often referred to as the “Nobel
45、 Prize for Mathematics“ , since there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. 7 Which of the following may be the best title for the passage? （ A） Fields Medal; the “Noble Prize for Mathematics“. （ B） John Charles Fields, the Great Mathematician. （ C） Noble Prize for Mathematics. （ D） John Charles Fields
46、 and Fields Medal. 8 Fields is mainly remembered for_. （ A） being the first winner of the Fields Medal （ B） being the president of the 6th International Congress of Mathematicians （ C） his achievement in the theory of algebraic functions （ D） being the founder of an international medal for mathemati
47、cal distinction 8 (1) Sprint Corp. launched a pay e-mail service with Yahoo Inc. for its mobile phone customers, as the companies look to tap into the rapidly growing wireless data-service market. (2) Starting Wednesday, Sprint users with select handsets will be able to download a program that great
48、ly speeds up the delivery of Yahoo e-mails through a more user-friendly interface. It will also allow the storage of e-mails onto the phone, so users wont have to constantly go online to review old messages. Both Sprint and Yahoo are banking that consumers will pay the additional $ 2. 99 a month for
49、 the new features. (3) The move by Sprint, which is based in Overland Park, Kan. to offer a premium version of an already-free service is consistent with industry comments regarding the explosive growth of the wireless data business. During an investor conference Tuesday, Verizon Communications Chief Financial Officer Doreen Toben touted the market opportunities for Verizons high-speed wireless data network. (4) “Once again, this adds another brick to the building that people keep discussing thats rising around the world
