1、专业英语四级（阅读）模拟试卷 47及答案与解析 0 Scottish customs and traditions cover a very wide range of topics. Everything from kilts to golf, bagpipes to whisky, Celtic crosses to Protestant missionary work, the “second sight“ to Nessie. The history of the bagpipes takes us a long way back from today and far away fro
2、m Scotland. Everyone thinks about Scotland when they hear the word “bagpipe“, but this instrument is so old that true age and origin are unknown. In some historical documents it is written that the pipes were first played somewhere around Asia Minor in 1000 BC. Also, it is said, by some, that “Emper
3、or Nero played the Pipes not the fiddle, while Rome burned.“ Some “form“ of bagpipes are used in many European countries but in Scotland they have become an integral part of the countrys culture. Scotland is the ancestral home of the “Great Highland Bagpipes“ known to all as the “Great Pipes“. A Pip
4、e band is one thing that every visitor of Scotland wants to see. These are groups of men(in modern times it can be both men and women); each group has matching skirts, fancy jackets and strange little hats. They march around squeezing the air out of big tartan bags(known as bagpipes)and blowing it i
5、n again through a pipe attached to the bag. This results in a racket known as “the skirl o the pipes“ which is almost indistinguishable from the noise made by the haggis during the mating season. These pipe bands often turn out to be Australians, not Scots at all! The tartan kilt has long been the m
6、ost recognizable cultural tradition of the Highland Scots, but just like the other symbols, kilts have also an unknown origin. One sure fact is that the wearing of the kilt has been developed in the 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria. It had been created for some rational reasons: men w
7、ho wore it could make very quick moves, wade through rivers and shelter in huts, woods and rocks, etc. There is a question which will always linger next to the word “kilt“ and that is: Do people who wear kilts have underwear or not? Even though there are lots of people who consider this immoral, the
8、 tradition says that underwear should not be present if one is dressed in a kilt, the only exception being the participation to some sportive games and the presence of women. In the 50s, soldiers were verified if they wore underwear by their sergeants who used a long stick that had in the top a mirr
9、or. Other two reasons for which Scotland is famous are its traditional food and of course, whisky. No one could argue that traditional Scottish cooking has produced one of the great cuisines of the world. The quality of the ingredients has always been excellent: the worlds finest seafood including s
10、hellfish, lobster and crabs, and varieties of fish too numerous to mention; succulent lamb and beef; soft fruit including raspberries, strawberries and blackberries and a host of locally produced types of cheese, including cheddar from Ayrshire and Galloway. The national dish is the haggis, a type o
11、f food that combines mutton with other ingredients and which is served with turnip and potatoes. Whisky has been produced in Scotland for hundreds of years. It is well known that the Irish created this alcoholic drink, but the Scots were the ones who brought it to the form that we drink today. Whisk
12、y refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from grains and aged in oak casks. The name means water of life. 1 Emperor Nero was mentioned to illustrate （ A） the legendary origin of bagpipes. （ B） the relation between bagpipes and Minor Asia. （ C） the higher importance of b
13、agpipes over fiddles. （ D） the cultural significance of bagpipes. 2 Which of the following descriptions is suitable for the bagpipe performance? （ A） Bagpipe bands used to consist of male Australians only. （ B） Bagpipes are played to imitate the noise of mating haggis. （ C） Bagpipe bands must dress
14、in specific performance costumes. （ D） Bagpipes are too heavy to carry around during the performance. 3 A lot of people consider it “immoral“ to （ A） ask whether people who wear kilts have underwear. （ B） wear a kilt without having underwear. （ C） have underwear when wearing a kilt. （ D） set up such
15、 a privacy-violating rule of kilt-wearing. 4 Ayrshire and Galloway are most probably famous for （ A） their excellent fruit. （ B） their cheese production. （ C） the national dish, the haggis. （ D） the traditional Scottish cooking. 5 The author chose to only introduce bagpipes, kilts, food and whisky b
16、ecause （ A） the author had greatest delight in them. （ B） the author was best-informed about them. （ C） they are more interesting than other customs and traditions. （ D） they are more famous than other customs and traditions. 5 The first day of school one of my classmates began a talk with me that c
17、hanged my life. She said, “Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. Im eighty-seven years old.“ “Why are you in college at such an age?“ I asked. “I always dreamed of having a college education and now Im getting one! she told me. After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milk
18、shake. We became instant friends. At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet and Ill never forget what she taught us. She cleared her throat and began: “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to sta
19、ying young, being happy and achieving success.“ “You have to laugh and find humor each and every day.“ “Youve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and they dont even know it! “ “There is a giant difference between growing older a
20、nd growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and dont do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesnt take any talen
21、t or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.“ “Have no regrets. The elderly usually dont have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.“ She concluded her speech by courageously singing “T
22、he Rose.“ She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At years end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in trib
23、ute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that its never too late to be all you can possibly be. 6 What is the meaning of “We became instant friends“ in Para. 5? （ A） We became friends right after the class. （ B） We never talked to each other after then. （ C） We did not keep our friendship fo
24、r a long time. （ D） We often helped each other after making friends. 7 Rose was invited to speak at the football banquet most probably because （ A） she was a great football fan. （ B） she tried hard to achieve her dreams. （ C） she became more educated than the professors. （ D） she was an outstanding
25、student at the university. 8 Rose will agree with the idea that （ A） growing older means growing up. （ B） one can grow up without doing anything. （ C） it takes ones talent and ability to grow up. （ D） one grows older at the same time when he grows up. 9 According to Rose, people will not fear death
26、when （ A） they fulfill all they want to. （ B） they still have dreams to fulfill. （ C） they become elderly people. （ D） they find the chances in change. 10 The passage is intended to （ A） tell a moving story about Rose. （ B） discuss what to do to grow up. （ C） instruct the readers how to live up to l
27、ives. （ D） teach the readers how to realize their dreams. 10 “Earn $4,000 a month at home,“ boasts the e-mail in my mailbox. Others promise a cure for heart disease, get-rich-quick investments or free travel. All these scams require consumers to send money. Scammers use commercially available softwa
28、re to “harvest“ thousands of e-mail addresses from information on web-site records or from people signing up for on-line contests. Their sole purpose is to generate e-mail lists that are often sold to other scammers and immoral marketers. “Victims of these scams are most often those who can least af
29、ford it,“ says Laforge. When her mother became ill, Linda Russell, 58, found it hard to make ends meet. The teacher from Tennessee was a good typist and searched Internet sites offering assistance in finding work-at-home employment. She found Friends From Home, an Ontario company. For a $40 fee, the
30、y promised her clerk work. She sent the check, which was cashed. When she heard nothing further, she e-mailed the company half a dozen times without response. “Work-at-home schemes are among the most common frauds we see,“ says an official of the Better Business Bureau. “Be suspicious of offers of $
31、4 for stuffing an envelope. They just dont make sense.“ Pyramid schemes, chain letters and false diplomas are other classic scams that have moved from telephones and later fax machines to the Internet. Travel scams are an old way of cheating now showing up on the Net. The assistant director of consu
32、mer affairs with the American Society of Travel Agents says: “Avoid paying a company for travel that wont be ticketed or take place for 12 to 18 months. When it comes time to get your tickets, the dates you want are often not available, restrictions may make it more expensive or the company has disa
33、ppeared.“ Another costly fraud is the telephone scam. An e-mail congratulates you on winning a prize, or offers urgent information about a family member and asks you to call a phone number for details. As they call the number and are put on hold, the victims are unaware that their call charges are u
34、p to $25 a minute. Often, charges of hundreds of dollars appear on next months phone bill. Beware too of on-line games of chance. “Type lotteries into a search engine if you want to see how many such scams are out on the Internet,“ says Gordon Board, corporate security investigator at the B.C. Lotte
35、ry Corporation. “People buy tickets on their credit cards at these false sites, but there is no prize money.“ Never call a 900 number its not a free call to collect a prize. And never send bank information for the deposit of “winnings“ into your account. Rule No. 1 for avoiding scams on-line: If it
36、sounds too good to be true, it usually is. 11 According to Laforge, the victims are usually people who can NOT afford to （ A） send money to the scammers. （ B） buy the commercially available software. （ C） sign up for on-line contests. （ D） generate e-mail lists. 12 Linda Russell intended to find a w
37、ebsite that （ A） would offer her a temporary job. （ B） would help her find a part-time job. （ C） would help her with her job for free. （ D） would find her a job with a better income. 13 What is true about the work-at-home schemes? （ A） They are one of the most profitable scams. （ B） They turned to I
38、nternet users only recently. （ C） They were firstly carried out through telephone. （ D） They are usually highly-paid but undemanding. 14 Which of the following is not done by an honest travel agency? （ A） Offering a long-term travel plan. （ B） Ticketing you when you need it. （ C） Setting up ticketin
39、g restrictions. （ D） Precharging for future services. 15 According to Gordon Board, “lottery“ scams usually offer websites that （ A） turn out to provide commercial on-lines contests. （ B） ask you to call a telephone number for details. （ C） cannot be connected to after you buy tickets. （ D） counterf
40、eit authorized lottery corporations. 15 While the mission of public schools has expanded beyond education to include social support and extra-curricular activities, the academic schedule has changed little in more than a century. Reclaiming the school day for academic instruction and escaping the ti
41、me-bound traditions of education are vital steps in the school-reform process, says a report released today by the National Education Commission on Time and Learning. The commissions report, titled “Prisoners of Time,“ calls the fixed clock and calendar in American education a “fundamental design fl
42、aw“ in desperate need of change. “Time should serve children instead of children serving time,“ the report says. The two-year commission found that holding American students to “world-class standards,“ will require more time for classroom instruction. “We have been asking the impossible of our stude
43、nts that they learn as much as their foreign peers while spending half as much as in core academic subjects,“ it states. The Commission compared the relationships between time and learning in Japan, Germany, and the United States and found that American students receive less than half the basic acad
44、emic instruction that Japanese and German students are provided. On average, American students can earn a high school diploma if they spend only 41 percent of their school time on academics, says the report. American students spend an average of three hours a day on “core“ academics such as English,
45、 math, science, and history, the commission found. Their report recommends offering a minimum of 5.5 hours of academics every school day. The nine-member commission also recommends lengthening the school day beyond the traditional six hours. “If schools want to continue offering important activities
46、 outside the academic core, as well as serving as a hub for family and community services, they should keep school doors open longer each day and each year,“ says John Hodge Jones, superintendent of schools in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and chairman of the commission. The typical school year in American p
47、ublic schools is 180 days. Eleven states allow school years of 175 days or less, and only one state requires more than 180 day. “For over a decade, education reform advocates have been working feverishly to improve our schools,“ says Milton Goldberg, executive director of the commission. “But. if re
48、form is to truly take hold, the six-hour, 180-day school year should be relegated to museums an exhibit from our education past.“ 16 Compared with the academic courses more than a hundred years ago, the academic courses now （ A） include some extra-curricular activities. （ B） focus more on education
49、of social support. （ C） demand students more contribution of time. （ D） remain more or less what they used to be. 17 The researches by the commission mentioned in the passage are most concerned about （ A） the time attributed to academic learning. （ B） the components of school education. （ C） the changes in education in the recent century. （ D） the fashion of education management. 18 As it is mentioned in the passage, schools in the United States do the following except （ A） providing important outside-academic activities. （ B） serving social units such as
