2014北外网院专升本入学考试英语题目汇编阅读理解4(含答案)

阅读理解4

Passage One

Impatience characterizes young knowledge workers. They want to make their mark fast. So it’s important to get across to them in a challenging manner the idea that big achievements rarely come easily and quickly. Point out that the little successes are essential. Show that they in turn become the foundation on which reputations are built and from which more important tasks can be attacked.

A variety of job assignments, including job or project rotation, also keep a job from becoming dull. Whereas it’s natural for some individuals to want to move ahead immediately to more difficult assignments, under proper guidance they can continue to learn and to gain versatility by working on a number of jobs that are essentially of the same complexity. This way they gain breadth, if not depth.

Probably the greatest offense to guard against when dealing with younger specialists is to reject ideas out of hand. You must listen –and listen objectively –to their suggestions. Avoid being overcritical. You want to nurture an inquiring mind with a fresh approach. You’ll discourage it quickly if you revert too often to “We’ve tried that before and it won’t work here.”

One sure way to disenchant young college graduates is flagrantly misuse their talents. Expe ct them to do some routine work, of course. But don’t make their daily work just one long series of errands. This includes such break-in assignments as performing routine calculations, digging up reference material, and operating reproduction equipment. One large manufacturing company recently interviewed a number of promising engineers who had left them. The company found that the overwhelming complaint was that the company not only did not provide work that was challenging but also expected far too little from them in the way of performance.

Questions 1-5: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

1. The main idea of the first paragraph is that __________.

A. young workers shouldn’t expect to accomplish a lot overnight

B. young workers are usually impatient and so can’t achieve much in their work

C. little successes are more important than big achievements

D. it is important to challenge the young workers from time to time

2. The u nderlined word “they” in the first paragraph refers to __________.

A. young workers

B. big achievements

C. reputations and important tasks

D. little successes

3. In order to gain “breadth” (Para. 2), young workers should __________.

A. stick to one job for a sufficiently long period of time

B. change their jobs as frequently as possible

C. try some other jobs at more or less the same level

D. move to more difficult assignments as early as possible

4 From the third paragraph we can conclude that the writer believes that __________.

A. young workers are usually very difficult to deal with

B. some administrators tend to trust in young workers’ creativity

C. young workers’ suggestions are usually objectively evaluated

D. administrators should encourage all the suggestions put forward by the young

workers

5 In order to stimulate young workers’ enthusiasm, administrators __________.

A. should not ask them to do routine work

B. should not let them keep doing the break-in assignments

C. should try to prevent them from leaving the company

D. should encourage them to do some tough jobs

Passage Two

Every mom and dad can tell you that keeping children busy helps stave off cries of boredom –now there is scientific backing to prove it. Dr. Anthony Chaston has proven th at time really does fly when you’re having fun. Or, at least, it flies when your attention is engaged.

Working in the University of Alberta, Chaston devised a test that required subjects to find specific items in various images. However, before the subjects started the test, they were told that once they had completed it they would be asked to estimate how much time had passed during their test.

There were seven levels of difficulty among the tests. In some cases, the items were easy to find because they were of different colors. In the more difficult tests, the items were placed among many similar looking items, or they didn’t even exist in the image. “The harder the search tasks were, the smaller the estimates became,” said Chaston.

There are two kinds of time estimations, Chaston added, and there’s generally a big difference between the two. There’s prospective time estimation, which means the

estimator knows in advance that he or she will be asked to make an estimate after a task is completed. Then the re’s retrospective, which means someone has been asked to provide a time estimate after the task has been completed.

Chaston said, “In our society, we’re pretty good with prospective estimates. Most of us wear watches, and we’re pretty good at keeping tra ck of the time because we have to for most of our regular, daily lives.” For this reason, Chaston is pleased that the results of his study showed such a powerful effect of attention on prospective time estimates. “This really shows that even if you know in advance that you’re going to have to estimate the time of a task, the more attention the task requires, the faster time flies.”

Questions 6 – 10: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。6“Stave off” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. prevent

B. encourage

C. support

D. worsen

7The second paragraph is centered on __________.

A. the difficulty of the test

B. the procedure of the test

C. Dr. Chaston’s expected res ult

D. Dr. Chaston’s theory

8Dr. Chaston’s tests show that __________.

A. the easier task needs less time to make the estimation

B. the harder task needs less time to make the estimation

C. the easier task results in less correct time estimation

D. the harder task results in less correct time estimation

9The major difference between prospective and retrospective time estimation lies in __________.

A. different test results

B. different groups of estimators

C. different items used in the tests

D. different instructions to the estimators

10“For this reason, Chaston is pleased” in the last paragraph, what does “this reason” refer to?

A. Most of us wear watches.

B. We have to keep track of time.

C. We are good with prospective estimation.

D. We work hard in most of our regular, daily lives.

Passage Three

Every day now, when the tide was out, I went on board the ship. Gradually I brought away all the sails, the ropes and chains. I even brought some iron cables, but these proved to be too heavy for my raft. On the way back to the shore, it turned over and the cables fell into the sea. However, when the tide was out I was able to recover the cables one by one. On one of my trips I was very pleased to discover some more food, including sugar, flour and bread.

Very soon I had been on the island for a fortnight and had made eleven trips to the ship. On my last trip of all I noticed a cupboard which I had previously overlooked. In it were three razors, a large pair of scissors and a dozen good knives. There was also some European money, worth about thirty-six pounds in all.

By now I had taken everything from the ship, which was of value to me, and I began to consider where I should live on the island. My tent was on rather low ground heart to the sea and I did not think that it would be healthy to live there for very long. There were four points that I had to bear in mind in choosing the site of my home. First of all, I needed to find a place which would be healthy and near some flesh water. Secondly, there ought to be protection from the heat of the sun. Thirdly, I had to be safe from attacks by wild animals. Last of all, I needed to have a view of the sea so that, if any ship should chance to come near to the island, I would not miss it. Questions 11 – 15: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

11What did the sailor do when the tide was out?

A. He got back all the cables.

B. He got back some cables.

C. He found one of the cables.

D. He found two cables beside each other.

12On his last trip of all he noticed a cupboard which he had __________.

A. noticed previously but had no time to look into

B. noticed previously but not thought worth looking into

C. not noticed previously

D. looked into earlier

13On one of his trips he was pleased to discover __________.

A. some more flour and bread

B. a large amount of daily food

C. some sugar and some bread covered in flour

D. some sugar, bread, and flour

14Why were the things he had taken from the ship of value to him?

A. They were things he had bought earlier.

B. They would help him to live on the island.

C. They were things he liked.

D. He could sell them later on.

15Why did he want a view of the sea?

A. To see a ship if one came near.

B. To avoid any ships that came near.

C. To see the ship that was coming to rescue him.

D. It woul dn’t matter if he missed seeing a ship.

Passage Four

Tim Berners-Lee is the brilliant British physicist and computer scientist who in 1991 invented the World Wide Web. But the great breakthrough engineered by this icon of cyberspace did occur, in part, by chance. Berners-Lee was trying to find a way to organize his research files, so he developed a software program that, as he puts it, was “really useful for keeping track of all the random associations one comes across in real life. Brains are supposed to be so good at remembering –but sometimes mine wouldn’t.” It worked so well, creating effective linkages between huge amounts of information. It eventually became the basis for the revolution we now casually refer to as the Web. “It would be akin to a car penter building a little cabinet for himself and suddenly discovering he could store the entire world inside the thing. There was quite a bit of luck in it,” says Arthur Molella from the National Museum of American History.

The element of chance has also helped produce many of the most important innovations in modern life. Take Percy Lebaron Spencer, a hero of World War II for his work in developing radar. One day shortly after the war, he was walking through his lab when he stopped briefly by a magnetron –the tube that produces the high-frequency microwaves that power radar. But just that second he got a strange feeling. He realized that a candy bar in his pocket had melted. Odd, Spencer thought. Immediately, he performed an experiment. He put some popcorn in front of the magnetron and popcorn was soon popping all over the place. Right away Percy Spencer was thinking about what this could be used for –a microwave oven.

Questions 16 – 20: Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. 从A, B, C, D选项中选择一个正确的答案写在答题卷上。

16The word “icon” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. follower

B. idol

C. teacher

D. newcomer

17Berners-Lee’s new way of organizing files was intended to __________.

A. made up for his imperfect memory

B. provide information for people to share

C. promote his newly-developed computer program

D. made it easy for him to communicate with others

18Percy Spencer thought about inventing a microwave oven __________.

A. at the time he was developing radar

B. as wartime people needed a new cooking device

C. when a candy bar melted in his pocket

D. after he did experiment with the popcorn

19We can know from the passage that Percy Spencer had all the following characteristics EXCEPT __________.

A. realistic

B. experienced

C. observant

D. creative

20The passage emphasizes the importance of __________ in innovations.

A. hard work

B. pioneering spirit

C. unexpected luck

D. great knowledge

阅读理解4

1. A 6. A 11. A 16. B

2. D 7. B 12. C 17. A

3. C 8. D 13. D 18. D

4. D 9. D 14. B 19. A

5. B 10. C 15. A 20. C