1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 204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) The village of Lentshin was tiny a sandy market-p
2、lace where the peasants of the area met once a week. It was surrounded by little huts with thatched roofs or shingles green with moss. The chimneys looked like pots. Between the huts there were fields, where the owners planted vegetables or pastured their goats. (2) In the smallest of these huts liv
3、ed old Berl, a man in his eighties, and his wife, who was called Berlcha (wife of Berl). Old Berl was one of the Jews who had been driven from their villages in Russia and had settled in Poland. In Lentshin, they mocked the mistakes he made while praying aloud. He spoke with a sharp “r“. He was shor
4、t, broad-shouldered, and had a small white beard, and in summer and winter he wore a sheepskin hat, a padded cotton jacket, and stout boots. He walked slowly, shuffling his feet. He had a half acre of field, a cow, a goat, and chickens. (3) The couple had a son, Samuel, who had gone to America forty
5、 years ago. It was said in Lentshin that he became a millionaire there. Every month, the Lentshin letter carrier brought old Berl a money order and a letter that no one could read because many of the words were English. How much money Samuel sent his parents remained a secret. Three times a year, Be
6、rl and his wife went on foot to Zakrocaym and cashed the money orders there. But they never seemed to use the money. What for? The garden, the cow, and the goat provided most of their needs. Besides, Berlcha sold chickens and eggs, and from these there was enough to buy flour for bread. (4) No one c
7、ared to know where Berl kept the money that his son sent him. There were no thieves in Lentshin. The hut consisted of one room, which contained all their belongings: the table, the shelf for meat, the shelf for milk foods, the two beds, and the clay oven. Sometimes the chickens roosted in the woodsh
8、ed and sometimes, when it was cold, in a coop near the oven. The goat, too, found shelter inside when the weather was bad. The more prosperous villagers had kerosene lamps, but Berl and his wife did not believe in newfangled gadgets (新奇的玩意儿 ). What was wrong with a wick in a dish of oil? Only for th
9、e Sabbath would Berlcha buy three tallow candles at the store. In summer, the couple got up at sunrise and retired with the chickens. In the long winter evenings, Berlcha spun flax at her spinning wheel and Berl sat beside her in the silence of those who enjoy their rest. (5) Once in a while when Be
10、rl came home from the synagogue after evening prayers, he brought news to his wife. In Warsaw there were strikers who demanded that the czar abdicate. A heretic by the name of Dr. Herzl had come up with the idea that Jews should settle again in Palestine. Berlcha listened and shook her bonneted head
11、. Her face was yellowish and wrinkled like a cabbage leaf. There were bluish sacks under her eyes. She was half deaf. Berl had to repeat each word he said to her. She would say, “The things that happen in the big cities.“ (6) Here in Lentshin nothing happened except usual events; a cow gave birth to
12、 a calf, a young couple had a circumcision party, or a girl was born and there was no party. Occasionally, someone died. Lentshin had no cemetery, and the corpse had to be taken to Zakroczym. Actually, Lentshin had become a village with few young people. The young men left for Zakroczym, for Nowy Dw
13、or, for Warsaw, and sometimes for the United States. Like Samuels, their letters were illegible, the Yiddish (意第绪语 ) mixed with the languages of the countries where they were now living. They sent photographs in which the men wore top hats and the women fancy dresses like squiresses. (7) Berl and Be
14、rlcha also received such photographs. But their eyes were failing and neither he nor she had glasses. They could barely make out the pictures. Samuel had sons and daughters with Gentile names and grandchildren who had married and had their own offspring. Their names were so strange that Berl and Ber
15、lcha could never remember them. But what difference do names make? America was far, far away on the other side of the ocean, at the edge of the world. A Talmud teacher who came to Lentshin had said that Americans walked with their heads down and their feet up. Berl and Berlcha could not grasp this.
16、How was it possible? But since the teacher said so it must be true. Berlcha pondered for some time and then she said, “One can get accustomed to everything.“ 1 In Lentshin, people mocked old Berl for _. （ A） his funny pronunciation mistake （ B） his small white beard （ C） praying aloud （ D） his way o
17、f walking 2 It can be concluded from Para.3 that _. （ A） people in Lentshin didnt speak English （ B） old Berl kept secrets from others （ C） Berl and his wife liked to go hiking （ D） Berl and his wife had no money 3 Why did Berl and Berlcha believe the Talmud teachers saying about the way Americans w
18、alked even though they find it hard to grasp? （ A） They knew the Talmud teacher well. （ B） They trusted teachers with high reliability. （ C） They had seen people walk that way. （ D） They thought Americans were strange. 3 (1) In his book In Defence of Food: An Eaters Manifesto, Michael Pollan urged p
19、eople to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.“ Although a paltry 2.7% of Americans have a “healthy lifestyle“, according to the Mayo Clinic, their diets are improving. A recent study by researchers at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy (TUFSNSP), tracking changes
20、 in eating habits between 1999 and 2012, suggests that Americans are nibbling more whole fruits, nuts and seeds, and gulping fewer sugary drinks, than they were in the fairly recent past. But the study also revealed that the gap between the diets of rich and poor seems to be widening. (2) That rich
21、Americans eat more healthily than poor ones is not a new revelation. Low-income places are less likely to have full-service grocery stores or farmers markets, let alone organic stuff. Poor people often have no cars, so they have to shop at the sort of convenience stores that offer crisps and doughnu
22、ts rather than fresh produce. And fruit and vegetables are heavy to lug home. In Newark, New Jersey, Renee Fuller, an elderly woman who walks with a stick, has to go to the next town, West Orange, to shop. “You want a banana, you have to travel. Theres not many supermarkets. Theres nothing convenien
23、t.You have bodegas and corner stores that sell cold cuts and sandwiches, but not many vegetables. I get my food stamps once a month. I cant stock up on fruits for the whole month.“ Low-income urban areas that are at least a mile from the nearest supermarket, and rural areas that are at least ten mil
24、es from any grocery store, are considered “food deserts“. In 2009 the Department of Agriculture calculated that 115m people, or 4.1% of Americas population, live in such deserts. (3) If fresh food becomes more available, though, it will not necessarily get eaten. In Morrisania, a deprived neighbourh
25、ood in New Yorks unhealthiest county (and, until recently, a food desert), the launch of a supermarket did not markedly change eating habits. Kelly Brownell, the dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, says that makes sense: “Supermarkets offer more choice of healthy foods, b
26、ut also ice creams and salty snacks.“ In a survey conducted in 2012, over half of Americans claimed ignorance: working out their income tax, they said, was easier than knowing how to eat healthily. (4) Employees at City Seed, a food-based charity based in New Haven, Connecticut, agree that availabil
27、ity is only part of the puzzle. By hosting farmers markets that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme benefits, formerly known as food stamps, the groups founders wanted to improve access to fresh foods where it “was easy enough to find pizza, but next to impossible to locate a fresh to
28、mato“. Nicole Berube, the executive director of City Seed, not only hopes to bring healthy food closer, but also to build on the skills of people who know how to choose it and cook it skills that exist even in deprived places. (5) Rising income inequality may also help to explain why American diets
29、are becoming less equal. Adam Drewnowski, a professor of epidemiology (流行病学 ) at the University of Washingtons School of Public Health, estimates that the difference between eating healthily and poorly in America is $150 a day. For a family of five, that is over $2,700 a year. Dariush Mozaffarian, a
30、 doctor and one of the authors of the eating-habits study, thinks time constraints are even more important. “Low-income individuals might have to work two jobs to support their families, or make long commutes. Such commitments might get in the way of cooking healthy meals.“ (6) Dr. Mozaffarian belie
31、ves it is crucial to change cultural attitudes towards nutrition. The tobacco industry offers a useful example. As smoking has become less socially acceptable, smoking rates have declined. If people could come to view inhaling cheesecake or Big Macs in the same way, Americans waistlines would shrink
32、 along with their health-care bills. (7) Over one-third of American adults are not just overweight, but obese. Past research suggests obesity and the preventable chronic diseases that go with it cost the country between $147 billion and $210 billion a year. Dr Mozaffarian believes the economic toll
33、is even higher, and yet nutrition is not tracked in most electronic health records. “This should be a top national priority,“ he says, “up there with terrorism.“ 4 A recent study by researchers at TUFSNSP finds all the following changes in Americans eating habits between 1999 and 2012 EXCEPT that _.
34、 （ A） they eat more whole fruits, nuts and seeds than before （ B） they tend to have fewer sugary drinks than they used to （ C） the dietary difference between the rich and the poor is getting larger （ D） they now eat mostly plants and dont eat too much 5 Rural areas that are considered as food desert
35、s are places where _. （ A） people have to go to the next town to shop （ B） supermarkets and grocery stores are nowhere near （ C） its less likely to have full-service grocery stores （ D） people have no cars and have to shop on foot 6 What would truly help in building up healthy eating habits? （ A） To
36、 bring healthy food closer. （ B） To launch more supermarkets. （ C） To teach people how to eat healthily. （ D） To work out Americans income tax. 7 Why does the author mention “The tobacco industry“ in Para.6? （ A） To indicate that attitude matters. （ B） To show the low smoking rates. （ C） To express
37、the concerns on obesity. （ D） To present the big health-care bills. 7 (1) Family planning has been a huge success. The global fertility rate has crashed, from 5.1 babies per woman in 1964 to 2.5 today. The average Bangladeshi woman can now expect to have about the same number of children as the aver
38、age French woman. Only in sub-Saharan Africa are big families still in vogue, and even there they are shrinking. This is welcome. It suggests that women have gained more control over their bodies and that parents no longer reproduce frantically for fear that some of their children will die. Cutting
39、the birth rate also leaves countries with fewer dependants per worker, at least for a time, making them better off. (2) But this triumph conceals a growing problem. For more and more couples, the greatest source of anguish is that they have fewer children than they want, or none at all. With GlobeSc
40、an, a consultancy, The Economist polled 19 countries, asking people how many children they would like and how many they expect to have. In every rich country we surveyed, couples expect to be less fertile than they would like, and many in developing countries suffer the same sorrow. On average, Gree
41、ks think the ideal family contains 2.6 children but believe they will end up with 1.7. (3) Medical infertility is part of the problem, not just in rich countries, where couples put off having children until it is rather late, but also in poor countries, where health care is worse. By one global esti
42、mate, at least 48m couples have been trying for a child for the past five years but have not succeeded, up from 42m in 1990. But the main reason for the shortfall, according to our poll, is money. From Brooklyn to Beijing, the cost of housing and education is so high that many young people say they
43、cannot afford as many children as they want. (4) Malthusians (马尔萨斯人口控制论者 ) will rejoice. The population is growing fast enough already, they will argue. Besides, cant infertile couples just adopt children? In fact, population growth today largely reflects longer lives and will eventually go into rev
44、erse. It is not clear that there are too many people; and it is callous to ask couples who might want children to forgo that joy simply because some of their neighbours would prefer a less populous planet. And adoption, though admirable, is neither the sole responsibility of the childless nor a perf
45、ect substitute for procreation. (5) The pain of having no or fewer children than you desire is often extreme. It can cause depression and in poor countries can be a social catastrophe. Couples impoverish themselves pursuing ineffective treatments; women who are thought to be barren are divorced, ost
46、racised or worse. Last month a childless Kenyan tailor was charged with attempted murder, having allegedly attacked his wife with a machete. (6) In wealthy countries, where maternity wards are quiet partly because the young are so economically insecure, governments can help by doing things they shou
47、ld be doing anyway: liberalising labour markets that shut the young out of jobs, relaxing planning rules to make housing cheaper and promoting child-friendly policies in the workplace. Across the world, education is important, both to warn women about how fertility declines with age and, especially
48、in Africa, about preventable infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea. (7) Most important, however, is medical innovation. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) (试管婴儿 ) has become better over the years but is still horribly expensive. Some couples remortgage their homes in the hope of conceiving. Research
49、 into more frugal technology is staggeringly rare, given the demand for it. Would lower, cheaper doses of IVF drugs work as well for some people? No one knows. Will a shoe-box-sized IVF laboratory developed in America work reliably? Trials are only now under way. (8) More money for research would help, as it generally does. But perhaps not as much as more attention. Governments and aid agencies have turned family planning into a wholly one-sided campaign, dedicated to minimising teenage pregnancies and unwanted births; it has come to mean
