1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 20及答案与解析 0 Ensuring access to quality basic education is critical for removing children from hazardous labor, UNICEF said today. An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labor, with nearly 70 percent of them(about 171 million)working in hazardous conditions, including wo
2、rking in mines and quarries, working with chemicals and pesticides or with dangerous machinery. “Children as young as five are forced to spend long hours doing back-breaking labor, often in harsh weather and without access to health care, “ UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said Friday, in ad
3、vance of World Day Against Child Labor on Sunday. “Children mining rock, gold, coal, diamonds and precious metals in Africa, Asia and South America are at constant risk of dying on the job, being injured or becoming chronically ill. Instead, children should be getting a quality education, which offe
4、rs their best chance of escaping a life of poverty and hardship, Veneman said. Today , UNICEF is joining the International Labor Organization(ILO)in a specific call to prevent and eliminate child-labor in mines and quarries, considered one of the worst forms of child labor. The ILO estimates that on
5、e million children worldwide work in small-scale mining and quarrying, a number that is rising in some parts of the world. In addition to facing safety and health risks from lifting heavy loads, children working in rock quarries inhale hazardous dust and particles and use dangerous tools and crashin
6、g equipment. Working with governments, UNICEF is piloting projects throughout the world designed to make it possible for children to be removed from hazardous labor and enrolled in school. For example : In Bangladesh, UNICEF helped establish centers that provide schooling, recreational activities an
7、d health services for girls who had been chipping bricks with their mothers. A key component of the program entails persuading parents to support the education of girls and to recognize the future benefits of training them in such things as technology. In Morocco, UNICEF has helped to remove hundred
8、s of children from exploitative work in the ceramics, carpet weaving and leather industries. In an initiative backed by their former employers and the local government, the children are enrolled in NGO-run centers that provide health services, recreation, vocational training and community-based educ
9、ation. In Burkina Faso, UNICEF and partners led a project in three gold mining areas to educate families and communities on the dangers of child mining, resulting in the removal of 150 children. Families were offered a package of interventions including income-generating alternatives, skills trainin
10、g and basic education. UNICEF works in these and other countries affected by child labor to build a protective environment for children a safety net that is created when governments and all members of society work together to protect children from all forms of exploitation. At the international leve
11、l, UNICEF continues to advocate for the ratification and implementation of ILO Convention No. 182, which aims to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. “ We must end exploitation of children in the workplace, “ Veneman said. “ Getting more children into school is our best defense against child la
12、bor today and for the next generation. “ 1 The central topic of the passage is_. （ A） UNICEFs program （ B） the problem of child labor （ C） quality basic education （ D） ILO Convention No. 182 2 Children should get_, which offers their best chance of escaping a life of poverty and hardship. （ A） food
13、and shelter （ B） health insurance （ C） an equal pay job （ D） a quality education 3 Which is considered one of the worst forms of child labor? （ A） Child labor in the leather factory. （ B） Child labor in the carpet weaving. （ C） Child labor in mines and quarries. （ D） Child labor in the ceramics. 4 I
14、n_, families were offered a package of interventions including income-generating alternatives, skills training and basic education. （ A） Bangladesh （ B） Morocco （ C） South Africa （ D） Burkina Faso 5 What can we infer from the last paragraph? （ A） Education is best defense to child labor. （ B） There
15、is not much effect in releasing child labor. （ C） We must eliminate the worst forms of child labor. （ D） Advocating the fight against child labor is important. 5 At some point, most homeowners find that their home no longer suits their lifestyle needs. You may have purchased your home when there wer
16、e just two in your family and now there are four. Or perhaps youre working at home more and need space for a home office. A question that often comes to mind is whether its better to remodel your existing home to fit your new lifestyle, or sell the home and buy another one. The decision is an easy o
17、ne if youre not satisfied with your current neighborhood. If the local public schools dont work for your children, and you cant afford the cost of private schooling, it probably makes sense to move to an area with good public schools rather than spend money to remodel your existing home. If your nei
18、ghborhood works for you, start researching whether your home can be modified to suit you for a price thats affordable. Make a list of the features your current home lacks as well as those features that you want and need. Ask friends who remodeled recently, or your real estate agent, to recommend arc
19、hitects to you. Meet with an architect you may want to interview several to discuss the feasibility of the project you have in mind. This will also give you an opportunity to see if an architect is someone with whom youd like to work. Make sure you talk with local architects who know the ins and out
20、s of the local zoning and permitting departments. You may want to have preliminary drawings done, but dont spend money on a complete set of architectural plans until youre sure you want to move forward. Once you know the renovation is practicable, consult with contractors to get ballpark estimates o
21、f how much the project will cost. Homeowners often make the mistake of assuming that theyll recoup the full cost of a major renovation when they sell. This is rarely the case, unless you own the property for a significant time after the renovations are completed. So dont undertake a major remodel un
22、less you plan to stay in your home for the long run. Its a good idea to talk to your real estate agent to make sure that the renovations youre contemplating wont over-improve your home relative to other homes in the neighborhood. For example, one couple needed a larger home for their growing family.
23、 They lived in a residence zone where homes were the same size and approximately the same value. Creating a larger home in a neighborhood of small homes would have been a mistake financially because the most expensive home in the neighborhood usually sells at a discount. Instead of remodeling, these
24、 homeowners bought a larger home in a more prosperous neighborhood. This house also needs renovations, but the neighborhood easily supports making this kind of investment. To ensure you make the right choice, weigh your decision to move or remodel carefully based on the cost, the work necessary, the
25、 location and nature of your neighborhood and surrounding homes. No matter what your decision may be, with all the information at hand, youll make a better investment in the end. 6 Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage before you remodel your home? （ A） Thinking out your ideal home.
26、 （ B） Consulting some experienced architects for some advice. （ C） Learning others experience of remodeling. （ D） Discussing remodeling plan with family members. 7 What can we learn from the passage? （ A） A talk with other architects may annoy the one you have chosen. （ B） If your home is exclusive
27、in your residence region, you cannot get along well with your neighbors. （ C） You should consider the issue of whether to move or to remodel from financial aspect. （ D） You will always take back the whole expense of remodeling when you sell the current home. 8 What does the word “feasibility“in Para
28、graph 4 mean according to the context? （ A） Possibility to realize. （ B） General design. （ C） Complete plan. （ D） Charge required. 9 When making a decision to move or remodel, you should take the following into considerations EXCEPT_. （ A） the cost for remodeling you should afford （ B） the distance
29、between your home and your work place （ C） the time you should spend on remodeling （ D） the environment around your current home 10 The writer probably thinks that_. （ A） moving is much more troublesome than remodeling （ B） remodeling is much more economical than moving （ C） whether remodeling is be
30、tter than moving depends on different situations （ D） the issue of whether remodeling is better than moving is determined by financial factors 10 Its impossible to write about how human activities are altering the climate without bringing protests that such a thing is impossible, that puny humanity
31、cannot possibly alter such a gargantuan system through loading the atmosphere with additional carbon dioxide. Unfortunately for the denialists, examples of how human activities can alter climate keep accumulating. The latest has nothing to do with the greenhouse effect but underlines the fact that o
32、rdinary activities can have unexpected meteorological(气象的 )consequences. To wit; large dams seem to be altering rainfall patterns. Geophysicists have suspected as much for years, notes a team of scientists in a paper in the Dec. 1 issue of Eos, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. But it
33、 is becoming clearer that in addition to providing lots of water to evaporate and then return to the ground as rainfall, as scientists at MIT described in a 1996 study, dams also make local meteorological conditions more conducive to precipitation(降水 ). In particular, explained Faisal Hossain of Ten
34、nessee Technological University, dams increase atmospheric instabilities in the vertical profile of temperature and humidity. Those instabilities arise because the presence of a dam specifically, the reservoir it creates increases evaporation and therefore atmospheric moisture. That enhances the amo
35、unt of con-vective(对流的 )energy in the air above the reservoir. The end result; more precipitation. Weather records support this theoretical reasoning. For one thing, there are more thunderstorms in the vicinity of a large dam compared with before the dam was built. For another, large dams are contri
36、buting to the “when it rains, it pours“ phenomenon; longer periods without precipitation punctuated by drenching, flood-inducing downpours. Extreme precipitation events around large dams have increased significantly, as Hossain describes in an upcoming paper; 99th-percentile downpours in the region
37、of a large dam have increased 4 percent per year after a large dam was built, especially in southern Africa, India, the western United States, and Central Asia. Other studies have shown how changes in land cover as seemingly innocuous as irrigating fields and draining swamps can alter local precipit
38、ation patterns, as this paper as well as this one have described. The significance of dams altering local weather is not merely another example of the power of human activities to change the climate. There is also a more practical issue. When dams are constructed, engineers make assumptions about ho
39、w frequently large floods will occur, and they build the dam to withstand them. But if the proverbial 100-year flood occurs more frequently because of the very presence of a dam, that calculation is wrong, and the dam may be subjected to more frequent and more extreme flood-inducing downpours. A “fl
40、ood-safe“ dam may not be. As the Eos authors warn, “ it is therefore possible that a large dam may be found years later to actually have been designed for a flood with a much lower recurrence interval than originally expected because the frequency of extreme precipitation events has increased due to
41、 the reservoirs presence. Such a possibility raises concerns about dam safety. That risk is compounded by the fact that conventional dam and reservoir design over the past century has been one-way , with no acknowledgment of the possible feedback mechanisms“ between the presence of a dam and rainfal
42、l. “ Indeed, dam design protocol in civil engineering continues to assume unchanging patterns of extreme precipitation events. “ The risk is also compounded by the age of dams: some 85 percent of large dams in the United States will be more than 50 years old by 2020. 11 According to the first paragr
43、aph, the protesters argue that_. （ A） ordinary human activities are not altering the climate （ B） the atmosphere has been loaded with additional carbon dioxide （ C） examples of how human activities alter climate keep increasing （ D） large dams seem to be altering rainfall patterns 12 What does the p
44、hrase “this theoretical reasoning“ in Paragraph 4 refer to? （ A） The reasoning of why reservoir increases evaporation in the air above. （ B） The reasoning of why dams cause more precipitation. （ C） The reasoning of why there are more thunderstorms near a large dam. （ D） The reasoning of why large da
45、ms contribute to “when it rains, it pours“ phenomenon. 13 According to the fifth paragraph, a more practical issue is that_. （ A） dams are altering the local weather （ B） extreme precipitation events have increased （ C） a “flood-safe“ dam may not be safe any more （ D） engineers calculation of flood
46、frequency is wrong 14 The Eos authors claim all of the following EXCEPT that_. （ A） the possible higher frequency of flood raises concerns about dam safety （ B） conventional dam design hasnt realized the possible feedback mechanisms （ C） dam design protocol shouldnt assume unchanging extreme precipi
47、tation events （ D） the dams function has been weakened mainly because it is getting older 15 What is the main idea of the passage? （ A） Human activities are changing the climate. （ B） Dams make local meteorological conditions worse. （ C） Dams alter local weather and make themselves unsafe. （ D） Extr
48、eme precipitation events around large dams have increased. 15 There are a number of methods of joining metal articles together, depending on the type of metal and the strength of the joint which is required. Soldering gives a satisfactory joint for light articles of steel, copper or brass, but the s
49、trength of a soldered joint is rather less than a joint which is brazed, riveted or welded. These methods of joining metal are normally adopted for strong permanent joints. The simplest method of welding two pieces of metal together is known as pressure welding. The ends of metal are heated to a white heat for iron, the welding temperature should be about 1 , 300 in a flame. At this temperature the metal becomes plastic. The ends are then pressed or hammered together, and the joint is smoothed off. Care must be
