专四阅读详解 2

星期2 TuesdayHappiness is nearly always a rebound from hard work.辛勤工作的报酬几乎总是幸福。

Beauty is a curious phenomenon, one of permeable, shifting boundaries. We may think we understand it, since we sense it effortlessly. In fact, it is a bundle of mysteries researchers are still uncovering.Consider the ancient proverb: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Until about 30 years ago it seemed too obvious for scientists to bother with. When they finally tested it, their results startled them.On the one hand, the maxim is false. Facial beauty is the same throughout the world. In every tribe and culture, individuals will consider Marilyn Monroe, say, an attractive woman. It goes further. Males can identify good-looking men, and females charming women. Old and young, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, all agree on who is beautiful. So do people of every class and personality type.We don’t learn this response. We’re born with it. In one recent study, babies just 20 hours old recognized attractive faces and preferred them. So beauty is in our DNA. The eye of the beholder doesn’t matter.On the other hand, and this is where it gets interesting, the facial shell is just the foundation of beauty. We see the self in the face, every day, all the time, and we can’t distinguish the two.This blurring means that we gift the attractive with a large number of virtues. They seem more competent, likeable, happier, blessed with better lives and personalities. In one experiment, people predicted happier marriages and better jobs for them, and rated them lower on only one aspect: their caliber as parents. Another study found people consider them more amiable, happy, flexible, pleasure-seeking, serious, candid, outspoken, perceptive, confident, assertive, curious and active. They exert more control over their destiny, subjects felt, while the homely endure the world’s sudden change.It is calle d the “beautiful is good” stereotype, and it grants the attractive a parade of boons. Teachers consider them smarter and give them higher grades. Bosses promote them faster. In one tale in The Thousand and One Nights, a thief steals a coin-bag, and when the victim accuses him, people protest: “No, he’s such a handsome youth. He wouldn’t steal anything!” In fact, attractive people can shoplift with greater ease, since witnesses are less likely to report them. And when they do stand before the court, juries acquit them more readily and judges give them lighter penalties.1. The proverb “beauty is in the eye of beholder” means[A] that beauty can only be admitted when most people recognize it.[B] whether somebody is beautiful depends on the person who is looking.[C] that beauty can be measured according to the attractive eyes.[D] that beauty can be judged only by grown-ups.2. Which of the following can best substitute the word “caliber” in Para. 6?[A] Desire. [B] Curiosity. [C] Habit. [D] Competence.3. Which of the following is true about the beauty?[A] The beauty is more likely to shoplift.[B] The beauty inside is more important than facial beauty.[C] The beauty may still commit the same crime as the commons.[D] The beauty usually leads unpleasant life.4. The author’s attitude towards “beautiful is good” is[A] objective. [B] approving.[C] questioning. [D] critical.Text BIt’s Saturday afternoon and you would love to play a few rounds of golf, but fear that you might not get enough tee (高尔夫球座) time at the closest public links. Instead, you decide to go down to the athletic club a few blocks away. There, you enter a private room, press a button, and look at the large screen on the wall in front of you. The screen flickers, blinks, and presto(转眼间) — you are suddenly on one of the world’s great golf courses, perhaps St. Andrews in Scotland. You tee off on the plastic turf whacking your ball against the screen. A blurred copy of the ball slices or hooks down the fairway(平坦球道). Computers, infrared beams, and photo-optical detectors track the ball’s spin, speed, and direction. You are totally immersed in the three-dimensional computer generated world.Virtual reality is created by using display and control technology to surround its users with an artificial environment that mimics real life. Through the use of visual and sound effects, things that don’t exist can be made to appear to exist. Virtual realty allows users to manipulate objects on the screen so they can become full participants in the three-dimensional setting that envelops them.Already, virtual reality systems have many practical applications. Most notably, the technology is being used to make simulations of cars or buildings during the design phase, to provide instruction in technical subjects like engineering, and to introduce new surgical techniques. But this technology’s most advanced applications at the moment are in entertainment such as virtual reality golf and the virtual reality arcade game rooms sprouting up all over the world.The idea of using computers to render artificial but useful environments began as early as the 1960s, but the computer power needed to generate 3-D graphics was so costly that only government agencies such as U.S. national Aeronautics and Space Administration, along with a few university labs, could afford it. The field began to grow in the mid 1980s when Jaron Lanier coined the term “virtual reality” and founded VPI Research Inc., the first high-tech company dedicated to the virtual reality field. Since then companies world wide have come to recognize the technology’s commercial potential and have entered the market. In the U.S. for example, the aerospace giant Boeing has organized a company-wide steering committee to explore virtual reality’s potential applications.Current virtual reality research shows numerous potential applications of the interactive technology:EDUCATION: Educators say virtual reality can offer alternatives to the way students learn.Some educators, in fact, are already using virtual reality systems in the classroom. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, architectural students move around in an animated image of the Parthenon, examining that noble structure’s roof and columns.DESIGN: Architects are expected to be the biggest users of virtual reality design applications. One experimental system now allows an architect to move through the design of a virtual hospital in a virtual wheelchair to test access to doors, hallways, light switches, and other design elements.MEDICINE: Virtual reality is giving scientists the ability to work surrounded by images of molecules and other objects that once required an electronic microscope study. Researchers predict that surgeons in training will be able to practice on electronic corpses while experienced surgeons will benefit from new techniques developed from virtual reality applications.“Virtual reality offers another window, but one that a scientist can climb through to interact directly with scientific abstractions,” says Howard Rheingold, author of Virtual Reality. “Virtual reality has the potential to become a microscope of the mind.”5. By citing the example of golf, the author intends to[A] indicate that people love to play golf on Saturday afternoon.[B] suggest that people go to athletic clubs to play golf.[C] show how people play golf on the three-dimensional world.[D] introduce the topic of virtual reality.6. People can fully participate in the three-dimensional world because virtual reality makes[A] things which don’t exist app ear to exist.[B] users fall into an illusion.[C] it possible to manipulate objects on the screen.[D] users surrounded by an artificial environment.7. Now the most advanced applications of virtual reality are in[A] design. [B] entertainment.[C] education. [D] surgery.8. Why did the field of virtual reality begin to develop only in the mid 1980s?[A] The computer equipment needed in this field was so expensive.[B] Computer technology just started to grow at that time.[C] The idea didn’t occur to people’s mind at an earlier time.[D] J aron Lanier coined the term “virtual reality” then.9. According to passage, which of the following is NOT true?[A] Jaron Lanier contributed much to the development of virtual reality.[B] Students can learn in a new way through the application of virtual reality in education.[C] Virtual reality is supposed to be applied most widely in car designing.[D] Scientists are able to work in an artificial environment through virtual reality applications.Text CThomas Hardy’s impulses as a writer, all of which he indulged in his novels, were numerous and divergent, and they did not always work together in harmony. Hardy was to some degree interested in exploring his characters’psychologies, though impelled less by curiosity than by sympathy. Occasionally he felt the impulse to comedy (in all its detached coldness) as well as the impulse to farce, but he was more often inclined to see tragedy and record it. He was also inclined to literary realism in several senses of that phrase. He wanted to describe ordinary human beings: he wanted to speculate on their dilemmas rationally (and, unfortunately, even schematically); andhe wanted to record precisely the material universe. Finally, he wanted to be more than a realist. He wanted to transcend what he considered to be triviality of solely recording things exactly and to express as well his awareness of the mysterious and the strange.In his novels these various impulses were sacrificed to each other often inevitably. As Hardy did not care in the way that novelists such as Flaubert or James cared, therefore he took paths of least resistance. Thus one impulse often surrendered to a fresher one and, unfortunately, instead of exacting a compromise, simply disappeared. A desire to throw over reality a light might give way abruptly to the desire on the part of what we might consider a novelist-scientist to record exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower. In this instance, the new impulse was at least an energetic one, and thus its indulgence did not result in a relaxed style. But on other occasions Hardy abandoned a perilous, risky and highly energizing impulse in favor of what was for him the fatally relaxing impulse to classify and schematize abstractly. When a relaxing impulse was indulged, the style —that sure index of an author’s literary worth —was certain to become verbose. Hardy’s weakness derived from his apparent inability to control the comings and goings of these divergent impulses and from his unwillingness to cultivate and sustain the energetic and risky ones. He submitted to the first one and then another, and the spirit blew where it listed; hence the unevenness of any of his novels. His most controlled novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, prominently exhibits two different but reconcilable impulses — a desire to be a realist-historian and a desire to be a psychologist of love — but the slight interlocking of plot are not enough to bind the two completely together. Thus even this book splits into two distinct parts.10. Thomas Hardy wanted to do all the following EXCEPT[A] explore his characters’ psycholog y.[B] describe ordinary human beings.[C] take pains to effect a compromise among various impulses.[D] express his awareness of the mysterious and the strange.11. According to the passage, a writer’s style is[A] a reliable means to measure his/her literary merit.[B] most apparent in those parts of his/her works that are not realistic.[C] problematic when he/she attempts to follow perilous or risky impulses.[D] shaped primarily by his/her desire to classify and schematize.12. Which of the following methods is NOT used by the author in analyzing Hardy’s novels?[A] Comparing Hardy with other famous novelists.[B] Analyzing the development of Hardy’s impulses.[C] Affirming Hardy’s success while pointing out imbalance in his novels.[D] Trying to prove Hardy is a total failure as a writer.13. What’s the author’s view on Hardy’s novel Under the Greenwood Tree?[A] It shows Hardy’s novelistic im pulses more successfully than his other novels.[B] It is Hardy’s most thorough investigation of the psychology of love.[C] It does not exhibit any harsh or risky impulse.[D] It reveals Hardy’s interest in the ordinary human beings.14. Which of the following is the most appropriate title?[A] Under the Greenwood Tree: Hardy’s Ambiguous Triumph.[B] The Real and the Strange: The Novelist’s Shifting Realms.[C] Energy versus Repose: The Role of Ordinary People in Hardy’s Fiction.[D] Hardy’s Novelistic Impulses: The Problem of Control.Text DTony Ronzone likes to boast that he knows a word or two in several foreign languages. He might be better off if he didn’t try to use them all at once. A few weeks ago, Ronzone, director of international scouting for the NBA champion Detroit Pistons, appeared at a basketball clinic in Mexico, where he attempted to teach a young Spanish-speaking prospect how best to position himself around the rim. “Demand the qiu!” Ronzone shouted. “Get your cerveza under the basket!” Qiu is Chinese for ball. Cerveza means beer in Spanish. Ronzone may have confused cerveza with cabeza, Spanish for head, though he admits, “I’m not sure I knew that.”The irony that the world’s best international basketball scout is also the world’s worst student of foreign languages is not lost on Ronzone’s peers. “He can’t speak any language at all,” laughs John Hammond, the Pistons’vice president of basketball operations. “Yet he travels to those obscure places and builds lasting relationships with all kinds of people. It’s amazing.” Adds Donn Nelson, the president of basketball operations for the Dallas Mavericks and one of Ronzone’s old friends: “Tony’s success is a tribute to his personality. He’s just —I guess the word is unembarrassable.”Most people think of scouting as the ability to recognize talent. This —it turns out —is relatively easy. Good basketball players are usually quite tall, quite fast and quite skillful at shooting a basketball. The difficult part in a world of 6 billion people is actually finding those who are tall, fast and coordinated, and the extremely difficult part is finding them before the competition does. Ronzone has conquered this problem despite his afflicted tongue by building a global network of coaches, journalists and friends who tip him off to the location of the world’s most gifted young players.In order to stay in touch with more than 400 people on five continents in a meaningful way, one has to have a certain natural enthusiasm. “An uptight guy would not succeed at this job,” says Pistons president Joe Dumars. “Tony will try every single food and drink. He’ll smile. He’ll laugh. He’s easy to like.” It’s true. When Ronzone arrives in a country — friendless and unannounced —his strategy for expanding his network frequently consists of walking up to people, saying hello and starting to talk about basketball in his train-wreck sentences. More often than not, they talk back.As a rule, Ronzone looks for the same things most scouts look for: hand skills, shooting and footwork. Unlike most scouts, though, he never takes notes while evaluating players and usually refrains from asking a coach questions until a third or fourth meeting. “The big reason is respect,” he says, “Some guys go to practices and they focus on one pla yer and scribble a bunch of notes; it comes off arrogant.”With so many people helping him find talent and keep secrets, Ronzone now spends as much time maintaining contacts as scouting players. Some of the favors he does are fairly minor. When an Israeli journalist he knows asks for an interview with a Pistons player, Ronzone sets it up instantly. “It’s easy for me to do,” he says, “and there are a couple of players over there I really like. This guy could help me find out their contact info, or at least g et me some good falafel.”15. The example of cerveza is to show that Ronzone[A] can speak Chinese well, but he knows little Spanish.[B] is not sure he knew that.[C] can’t speak foreign languages well.[D] feels ashamed of his poor Spanish.16. According to Donn Nelson, Ronzone[A] never feels self-conscious.[B] is over-talkative.[C] is a boastful person.[D] likes traveling and meeting people.17. The hardest thing for a basketball scout is that[A] he must build a global network of coaches, journalists and friends.[B] he has to have the ability to recognize talent.[C] he must travel all over the world to look for the promising young players.[D] he has to find the gifted young players before they are found by other scouts .18. Ronzone is different from most basketball scouts in that[A] he is not a good foreign language learner.[B] he keeps in touch with many coaches all over the world.[C] he likes talking with people about basketball.[D] he makes a point of respecting players.19. Which of the following statements is NOT true?[A] An unsociable person is not suitable for Ronzone’s job.[B] When Ronzone talks with strangers about basketball, they often talk back.[C] Ronzone is so busy that he hardly has time to help his friends.[D] With the help of Ronzone, the Israeli journalist interviewed the Pistons player.20. What’s the author’s attitude towards Ronzone?[A] Critical. [B] Praiseful.语境词汇Text A1. maxim n.格言，座右铭2. gift sb with sth. 赋予某人某物，向某人赠送某物3. caliber n.才干；口径4. candid a.坦白的，率直的5. homely a.相貌平平的，平常的；使人感到舒适的6. a parade of boons 一系列的恩泽Text B1. tee time 开球的时间2. flicker v.闪动，闪烁3. presto int.转眼间4. tee off 开球5. turf n.草皮vt.用草皮覆盖；扔掉；赶走6. slice v.打削球，打斜切球；可切成薄片7. virtual reality 虚拟现实8. mimic v.模仿；戏弄，嘲弄a.模仿的，假装的9. simulation n.模拟，仿真10. arcade game 电子游戏11. sprout v.迅速出现；发芽n.新芽12. interactive technology 交互技术Text C1. indulge v.纵容；沉迷于2. divergent a.分开的，叉开的；有分歧的，不同的3. to some degree 在一定程度上4. farce n.笑剧，闹剧5. transcend v.超出，超越(经验、信念、描写能力等)的范围；胜过，优于6. triviality n.琐事7. compromise n.妥协，折中方法8. perilous a.危险的9. verbose a.冗长的，啰唆的10. reconcilable a.可调和的Text D1. better off 情况更好2. scout n.物色人才者；童子军；侦察员3. rim n.篮圈；(圆形物的)边缘v.给…装边框4. tribute n.颂词，称赞；贡品5. tip off 给…警告或暗示6. more often than not 多半，通常7. refrain from 忍住，节制8. come off 表现；结果；发生，举行9. contact info 联系信息，联系方式10. falafel n.沙拉三明治难句突破Text A1. On the other hand, and this is where it gets interesting, the facial shell is just the foundation of beauty.【分析】并列复合句。