英语四级阅读真题

Passage One

The predictability of our mortality rates is something that has long puzzled social scientists. After all, there is no natural reason why 2,500 people should accidentally shoot themselves each year or why 7,000 should drown or 55,000 die in their cars. No one establishes a quota for each type of death. It just happens that they follow a consistent pattern year after year.

A few years ago a Canadian psychologist named Gerald Wilde became interested in this phenomenon. He noticed that mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths throughout the Western world have remained oddly static throughout the whole of the century, despite all the technological advances and increases in safety standards that have happened in that time. Wilde developed an intriguing t heory called “risk homeostasis”. According to this theory, people instinctively live with a certain level of risk. When something is made safer, people will get around the measure in some way to reassert the original level of danger. If, for instance, they are required to wear seat belts, they will feel safer and thus will drive a little faster and a little more recklessly, thereby statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers. Other studies have shown that where an intersection is made safer, the accident rate invariably falls there but rises to a compensating level elsewhere along the same stretch of road. It appears, then, that we have an innate need for danger.

In all events, it is becoming clearer and clearer to scientists that the factors influencing our lifespan are far more subtle and complex than had been previously thought. It now appears that if you wish to live a long life, it isn?t simply a matter of adhering to certain precautions … eating the right foods, not smoking, driving with care. You must also have the right attitude. Scientists at the Duke University Medical Center made a 15-year study of500 persons personalities and found, somewhat to their surprise, that people with a suspicious or mistrustful nature die prematurely far more often than people with a sunny disposition. Looking on the bright side, it seems, can add years to your life span.

11. What social scientists have long felt puzzled about is why .

A) the mortality rate can not be predicted

B) the death toll remained stable year after year

C) a quota for each type of death has not come into being

D) people lost their lives every year for this or that reason

12. In his research, Gerald Wilde finds that technological advances and increases in safety standards .

A) have helped solve the problem of so high death rate

B) have oddly accounted for mortality rates in the past century

C) have reduced mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths

D) have achieved no effect in bringing down the number of deaths

13. Acco rding to the theory of “risk homeostasis”, some traffic accidents result from .

A) our innate desire for risk

B) our fast and reckless driving

C) our ignorance of seat belt benefits

D) our instinctive interest in speeding

14. By saying “…statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers” (Para.

2),the author means .

A) wearing seat belts does not have any benefits from the statistic point of view

B) deaths from wearing seat belts are the same as those from not wearing them

C) deaths from other reasons counterbalance the benefits of wearing seat belts

D) wearing seat belts does not necessarily reduce deaths from traffic accidents

15. Which of the following may contribute to a longer life span?

A) Showing adequate trust instead of suspicion of others

B) Eating the food low in fat and driving with great care

C) Cultivating an optimistic personality and never losing heart

D) Looking on the bright side and developing a balanced level of risk

Passage Two

In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货的) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous prices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on.

Gov ernor Gray Davis says,“I?m not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. They?re living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.”

As part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from California?s booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along with demand. And hike them they did.

Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says,” This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to say…help us impose reasonable price caps t o help to keep our market stable.”

Federal regulators did ask for longer-term contracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, released a recent statement defending its position not to re-regulate.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 15,2000: “The commission?s intention is to enable the markets to catch up to current supply and demand problems and not to reintroduce command and control regulation that has helped to produce the current crisis.”

Some energy experts believe that, without temporary price caps, the crisis will continue.

Severin Borenstein of the U.C. Energy Institute says,“Some federal regulators have a blind commitment to making the market work and I think part of the problem is they really don?t understand what?s going on.”

Gary Ackerman of the Western Power Trading Forum says,“He?s dead wrong about that. The federal regulators understand far better than any individual state that, though it might be painful and it

certainly is painful in California, price caps don?t work. They never work.”

16. The battle between Californians and federal regulators is about .

A) control over the price of power

B) necessity of removing price caps

C) hiking the energy prices in California

D) a regulation concerning power supply

17. Governor Gray Davis was dissatisfied with the Federal Regulatory Commission because .

A) they did not know what the real problem was

B) they were living an easy life in an ivory tower

C) they could not experience the life in San Diego

D) they turned a blind eye to the situation in California

18. The Federal Commission uncapped the energy price with the intention to .

A) help California’s economy booming steadily

B) prevent power price from going up any further

C) enable the market to deal with supply and demand problems

D) have contracts signed between power producers and the utilities

19. To help keep prices from going higher, people and groups in California .

A) imposed reasonable price caps

B) beat down the door of federal regulators

C) urged the federal authorities to take action

D) struggled against federal policy to hike prices

20. Energy experts against price caps believe that .

A) the present situation in California will continue unless there is price control

B) the current crisis is partly attributed to previous command and control policy

C) price caps can temporarily solve energy problems an individual state meets with

D) they do understand what is going on in California and will take proper measures

Passage Three

Another cultural aspect of nonverbal communication is one that you might not think about: space. Every person perceives himself to have a sort of invisible shield surrounding his physical body. When someone comes too close, he feels uncomfortable. When he bumps onto someone, he feels obligated to apologize. But the size of a person?s “comfort zone” depends on his cu ltural ethnic origin. For example, in casual conversation, many Americans stand about four feet apart. In other words, they like to keep each other “at arm?s length”,people in Latin or Arab cultures, in contrast, stand very close to each other, and touch each other often. If someone from one of those cultures stands too close to an American while in conversation, the American may feel uncomfortable and back away.

When Americans are talking, they expect others to respond to what they are saying. To Americans, polite conversationalists empathize by displaying expressions of excitement or disgust, shock or sadness. People with a “poker face”, whose emotions are hidden by a deadpan expression, are looked upon with suspicion. Americans also indicate their attentiveness in a conversation by raising their eyebrows, nodding, smiling politely and maintaining good eye contact. Whereas some cultures view

direct eye contact as impolite or threatening, Americans see it as a sign of genuineness and honesty. If a person doe sn?t look you in the eye, American might say, you should question his motives—or assume that he doesn?t like you. Yet with all the concern for eye contact, Americans still consider staring—especially at strangers—to be rude.

21. What the author discussed in the previous section is most probably about .

A) classification of nonverbal communication

B) the reasons why people should think about space

C) the relationship between communication and space

D) some other cultural aspects of nonverbal communication

22. How far people keep to each other while talking is closely associated with their .

A) origin B) culture C) custom D) nationality

23. When an Italian talks to an Arabian on informal occasions,.

A) he stands about four feet away

B) “comfort zone” does not exist

C) keeping close enough is preferred

D) communication barriers may emerge

24. A “poker face” (Line 3,Para. 2) refers to a face which is .

A) attentive B) emotional C) suspicious D) expressionless

25. In a conversation between friends, Americans regard it as sincere and truthful to .

A) maintain direct eye contact

B) hide emotions with a deadpan expression

C) display excitement or disgust, shock or sadness

D) raise their eyebrows,nod and smile politely

Passage Four

We all know that DNA has the ability to identify individuals but, because it is inherited, there are also regions of the DNA strand which can relate an individual to his or her family (immediate and extended), tribal group and even an entire population. Molecular Genealogy (宗谱学) can use this unique identification provided by the genetic markers to link people together into family trees. Pedigrees (家谱) based on such genetic markers can mean a breakthrough for family trees where information is incomplete or missing due to adoption, illegitimacy or lack of records. There are many communities and populations which have lost precious records due to tragic events such as the fire in the Irish courts during Civil War in 1921 or American slaves for whom many records were never kept in the first place.

The main objective of the Molecular Genealogy Research Group is to build a database containing over 100,000 DNA samples from individuals all over the world. These individuals will have provided a pedigree chart of at least four generations and a small blood sample. Once the database has enough samples to represent the world genetic make-up, it will eventually help in solving many issues regarding genealogies that could not be done by relying only on traditional written records. Theoretically, any individual will someday be able to trace his or her family origins through this

database.

In the meantime, as the database is being created, molecular genealogy can already verify possible or suspected relationships between individuals. “For example, if two men sharing the same last name believe that they are related, but no written record proves this relationship, we can verify this possibility by collecting a sample of DNA from both and looking for common markers (in this case we can look primarily at the Y chromosome (染色体)),” explains Ugo A. Perego, a member of the BYU Molecular Genealogy research team.

26. People in a large area may possess the same DNA thread because .

A) DNA is characteristic of a region

B) they are beyond doubt of common ancestry

C) DNA strand has the ability to identify individuals

D) their unique identification can be provided via DNA

27. The possible research of family trees is based on the fact that .

A) genetics has achieved a breakthrough

B) genetic information contained in DNA can be revealed now

C) each individual carries a unique record of who he is and how he is related to others

D) we can use DNA to prove how distant an individual is to a family, a group or a population

28. The Molecular Genealogy Research Group is building a database for the purpose of .

A) offering assistance in working out genealogy-related problems

B) solving many issues without relying on traditional written records

C) providing a pedigree chart of at least four generations in the world

D) confirming the assumption that all individuals are of the same origin

29. If two men suspected for some reason they have a common ancestor, .

A) we can decide according to their family tree

B) we can find the truth from their genetic markers

C) we can compare the differences in their Y chromosome

D) we can look for written records to prove their relationship

30. Which of the following CANNOT be inferred from the passage?

A) We are a walking,living,breathing record of our ancestors

B) Many American slaves did not know who their ancestors were.

C) An adopted child generally lacks enough information to prove his identity.

D) Molecular genealogy can be used to prove a relationship between individuals.

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