专四阅读真题test 2

T est T woText ASince the mid-1970s, when it became clear that the number of births was resolutely declining, Japanese governments have made efforts to encourage people to have more babies. But for all that they have increased child benefits and provided day-care centres in the past 30 years, the birth rate has remained stubbornly low. One reason is that in Japan, unlike in the West, marriage is still more or less a prerequisite for having children. Only 2% of births take place out of wedlock. And weddings cost a lot of money. The more elaborate sort may involve renting a chocolate-box “church” and hiring or buying at least three bridal outfits.Having gone to all that trouble, married couples do, in fact, have an average of slightly more than two children, just above what is needed for births to exceed deaths. The trouble is that fewer and fewer people get married. Women wait ever longer and increasingly do not bother at all. According to the NIPSSR, six out of ten women in their mid- to late 20s, which used to be the peak child-bearing age, are still unwed.But the cost of weddings may be the least of the reasons why the Japanese are increasingly putting off marriage or avoiding it altogether. One weightier one is that employment rates among women have increased but private companies implicitly discourage mothers from returning to their old jobs. Toshiaki Tachibanaki, an economist who has written on inequality among Japanese women, finds that about 80% of female civil servants return to their old jobs after having children because they get reasonable maternity benefits and help with child care. But in private companies they are typically less well looked after, and only about a third go back to work.It does not help that unemployment is high and incomes are low among the young—especially among young men, who increasingly give up even looking for jobs. One of Japan’s most prominent sociologists, Masahiro Y amada of Chuo University, thinks that most young Japanese women still want to be housewives, but are struggling to find a breadwinner who earns enough to support them. He points out that half the young people of prime marrying age—20-34—still live with their parents. In the 1990s he coined the term “parasite singles” to describe them. They seemed to be getting a good deal, saving money on rent and spending it on foreign travel and luxury goods instead. If they wanted privacy, they could always go to one of Japan’s ubiquitous love hotels.81.The word “prerequisite” in Paragraph One probably meansA.premise.B.requirement.C.request.D.result.82.It can be inferred that the low birth rate may be partially attributed toA.the deficiency of child benefits.B.the increase of divorce rate.C.the high cost of wedding.D.the decline of economy.83.We can infer from the passage thatA.Japanese men tend to be particular about their marriage.B.Japanese women tend to become more independent.C.Japanese women tend to live longer than men do.D.Japanese women prefer to marry in their thirties.84.It CANNOT be included from the passage thatA.women generally enjoy job security in administrative divisions.B.married women prefer to work in private companies for higher salary.C.unmarried women postpone their marriage due to various reasons.D.some mothers are deprived of the opportunity to return to old jobs.85.Masahiro Y amada’s attitude towards the young people living with their parents seems to beA.disapproving.B.enthusiastic.C.contemptuous.D.worried.Text B[1]As I sat perched in the second-floor window of our brick schoolhouse that afternoon, my heart began to sink further with each passing car. This was a day I'd looked forward to for weeks: Miss Pace's fourth-grade, end-of-the-year party. Miss Pace had kept a running countdown on the blackboard all that week, and our class of nine-year-olds had bordered on rebellion by the time the much-anticipated "party Friday" had arrived.[2]I had happily volunteered my mother when Miss Pace requested cookie volunteers. Mom's chocolate chips reigned supreme on our block, and I knew they'd be a hit with my classmates. But two o'clock passed, and there was no sign of her. Most of the other mothers had already come and gone, dropping off their offerings of punch, crackers, cupcakes and brownies. My mother was missing in action.[3]"Don't worry, Robbie, she'll be along soon," Miss Pace said as I gazed forlornly down at the street. I looked at the wall clock just in time to see its black minute hand shift to half-past.[4]Around me, the noisy party raged on, but I wouldn't leave my window watch post. Miss Pace did her best to coax me away, but I just stayed there, holding out hope that the familiar family car would round the corner, carrying my rightfully embarrassed mother with a tin of her famous cookies tucked under her arm.[5]The three o'clock bell soon jolted me from my thoughts and I gloomily grabbed my book bag from my desk and shuffled out the door for home.[6]On the walk to home, I plotted my revenge. I would slam the front door upon entering, refuse to return her hug when she rushed over to me, and vow never to speak to her again. The house was empty when I arrived and I looked for a note on the refrigerator that might explain my mother's absence, but found none. My chin quivered with a mixture of heartbreak and rage. For the first time in my life, my mother had let me down.[7]I was lying face-down on my bed upstairs when I heard her come through the front door.[8]"Robbie," she called out a bit urgently. "Where are you?"[9]When she entered my room and sat beside me on my bed, I didn't move but instead stared blankly into my pillow refusing to acknowledge her presence.[10]"I'm so sorry, honey," she said. "I just forgot. I got busy and forgot—plain and simple."[11]I still didn't move.[12]My mother began to cry. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I let you down. I let my little boy down."[13]She sank down on the bed and began to weep like a little girl. I was dumbstruck. I had never seen my mother cry. To my understanding, mothers weren't supposed to.[14]I desperately tried to recall her own soothing words from times past when I'd skinned knees or stubbed toes, times when she knew just the right thing to say.[15]"It's okay, Mom," I stammered as I reached out and gently stroked her hair. "We didn't even need those cookies. There was plenty of stuff to eat. Don't cry. It's all right. Really."86.We can infer from the first paragraph thatA.Miss Pace got on well with her students.B.the author was particular about the party.C.all the students did something for the party.D.the party hold a great appeal for the students.87.The author volunteered his mother to be a cookie volunteer becauseA.she wished to do something for her son.B.she was expert in cooking various dishes.C.he wanted to show off in front of his classmates.D.he wanted to leave a good impression on Miss Pace.88.The word “forlornly” in Paragraph 3 meansA.indifferently.B.unhappily.C.angrily.D.calmly.89.When going back home, the author felt all the following EXCEPTA.desperate.B.indignant.C.sorrowful.D.disappointed.90.One of the author’s character isA.forgiving.B.generous.C.earnest.D.easygoing.Text CIn the digital realm, things seem always to happen the wrong way round. Whereas Google has hurried to scan books into its digital catalogue, a group of national libraries has begun saving what the online giant leaves behind. Although search engines such as Google index the web, they do not archive it. Many websites just disappear when their owner runs out of money or interest. Adam Farquhar, in charge of digital projects for the British Library, points out that the world has in some ways a better record of the beginning of the 20th century than of the beginning of the 21st.In 1996 Brewster Kahle, a computer scientist and internet entrepreneur, founded the Internet Archive, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving websites. He also began gently harassing national libraries to worry about preserving the web. They started to pay attention when several elections produced interesting material that never touched paper.In 2003 eleven national libraries and the Internet Archive launched a project to preserve “born-d igital” information: the kind that has never existed as anything but digitally. But the task is impossible. One reason is the sheer amount of data on the web. The groups have already collected several petabytes of data.Another issue is ensuring that the data is stored in a format that makes it available in centuries to come. Ancient manuscripts are still readable. But much digital media from the past is readable only on a handful of fragile and antique machines, if at all. The project has set a single format, making it more likely that future historians will be able to find a machine to read the data. But a single solution cannot capture all content. Web publishers increasingly serve up content-rich pages based on complex data sets. Audio and video programmes based on proprietary formats such as Windows Media Player are another challenge. What happens if Microsoft is bankrupt and forgotten in 2210?The biggest problem, for now, is money. The British Library estimates that it costs half as much to store a digital document as it does a physical one. But there are a lot more digital ones. America’s Library of Congress enjoys a specific mandate, and budget, to save the web. The British Library is still seeking one.So national libraries have decided to split the task. Each has taken responsibility for the digital works in its national top-level domain (web-address suffixes such as “.uk” or “.fr”). In countries with larger domains, such as Britain and America, curators cannot hope to save everything. They are concentrating on material of national interest, such as elections, news sites and citizen journalism or innovative uses of the web.91.We can infer from the first paragraph thatA.there is no record of many websites that have disappeared.B.Google are expected to be engaged in indexing more websites.C.national libraries are trying to win over Google in some aspects.D.the British Library begins to scan books as well as other publications.92.National libraries began to care about preserving the web whenA.Brewster Kahle urged them to do so.B.some materials needed to be preserved.C.the Internet Archive invited them to do it.D. a project to preserve information is under way.93.The project has encountered all the following problems EXCEPTA. a lack of fund.B.storage format.C.data volume.D.manpower shortage.94.To read the data in the future,A. a mixed format has been used.B. a new format has been created.C.ancient manuscripts are made use of.D.historians have voiced their opinion.95.The passage aims to inform us thatA.national libraries start to preserve the web.B.national libraries cannot save everything.C.national libraries have found a solution.D.America’s Library of Congress has a budget.Text DA young man gazes intently at his mobile device, to which he is listening through earphones. He is so engrossed in his film, his television show, his computer game or whatever he is watching that he does not notice he is blocking the door of the train. Other passengers glare at him. “Do it at home,” counsels the bright yellow poster on the Tokyo metro.In 2009 some 43% of Japan’s population watched TV on mobile phones. It is the only country apart from South Korea where the platform has become commonplace. But mobile television in Japan is not all that mobile. When broadcasts began in 2005, people were expec ted to use their toys to while away long commutes by train or to kill time while waiting for the bus. Instead they mostly choose to play with them at home.Imagine a teenage girl who wants to watch an episode of her favourite soap opera. The living-room television is being monopolised by her father, who is watching sport. Her brother is using the computer. What does she do? If she is an American, living in a reasonably affluent household, she simply switches on another television. There is probably one in her bedroom. If she is South Korean or Japanese, on the other hand, she is more likely to live in a high-rise flat with only one set. She settles down in her tiny bedroom, pulls a mobile phone out of her pocket and turns it on. The screen is small but adequate.When asked why people watch mobile television in their homes, Japanese and South Korean media executives tend to make the same gesture. They clutch their mobile phone to their chests, signifying “mine”. The appeal of mobile television is not so much that it is portable but that it is personal. When it proves impossible to reach agreement with other television-watchers in a household, mobile TV is a reasonable fall-back option. It is also a dismal business.In both Japan and South Korea practically everybody gets their mobile television free. The service was supposed to be supported by advertising, but the prop is weak. Although many Japanese and South Koreans watch television on their phones, they tend to do so briefly and erratically, so programmes often attract small audiences. If mobile TV is not used enough to make money from advertising, it is also not essential enough to persuade lots of people to pay.Even before it catches on elsewhere, mobile television is failing in the two countries where it seemed most likely to succeed. The experience of Japan and South Korea suggests that people will watch TV on tiny screens if they have to. But those countries also provide a reminder that popularity does not always translate into business success. Old-fashioned TV wins again.96.It can be inferred from the first paragraph thatA.one absorbed in a mobile device might get in others’ way.B.the young man is aware of other passenger s’ displeasure.C.passengers dislike such a man absorbed in a mobile device.D.the young man is warned that he should not block the door.97.Which of the following statements about mobile television is TRUE?A.Most people use it on a train in South Korea.B.Most people tend to use it at home in Japan.C.Some people choose to use it on a train in America.D.Many people dislike using it on bus in South Korea.98.We can draw the conclusion from Paragraph 3 that the popularity of mobile televisionA.is spurred by the popularity of soap operas.B.is welcome by young people of many countries.C.has something to do with the living condition.D.has resulted from the advancement of high-tech.99.The future of mobile TV seems to beA.bleak.B.promising.C.uncertain.D.unknown.100.The purpose of the passage is to tell us thatA.television is better than mobile television.B.mobile television is unlikely to take off.C.mobile television has been outdated.D.new device will replace mobile TV.PART V READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]Text A短文大意本文围绕日本人口出生率下降问题展开分析。