四级单词阅读专题

Passage 1Whether or not to tell the seriously ill about their true condition has long been a ___1___ for medical professionals. Many doctors believe that ___2____the facts from those patients will benefit them psychologically and may help them recover. But new studies show that ____3____ to this widespread belief, the overwhelming majority of patients want to be told the truth, even in the case of ___4___ illnesses. If they are not, they feel ___5___ and misled. As it is, lying makes it difficult for patients to make choices ___6___ their own health. And keeping a dying patient in the dark prevents him from making decisions about the end of his life. Lying can also cause doctors to lose their integrity and credibility and do harm to ___7___ who are honest with their patients. In the long run, lying hurts the entire medical ___8___. As a ___9___ of the current concerns, many hospitals have adopted patients ’ bills of rights, but patients still need to be wary because the days of physicians ___10___ patients are certainly not over yet and may never be.Passage 2Most people ___1___ work with punishment or think of it as a necessary burden. But the truth is work provides people with personal satisfaction and, individual pride, a sense of accomplishment. Aside from offering ___2___ support, work can keep us healthy not only physically but also mentally. For example, patients suffering from depression could often be ___3___ when provided with gainful employment. The ___4___ is alsotrue. Retirement and ___5___ can be harmful to one’s health. People with no chance to work and derive ___6___ from a job may suffer from the symptoms of acute illness even though they are not physically sick. While at work, people tend to enjoy the company of other ___7___ because the relationships among them are not so complicated as those in other ___8___ of life. Besides, people want to work with a winner --- a best work group or in a well-known ___9___ --- rather than a loser, for a successful unit can bring us ___10___ as well as self-confidence.Passage 3Author Mortimer Adler argues that we should mark books---but only when they are our own ___1___. As we all know, we have to “read between the __2___”, but we should also write between them. He points out that we are not really in full owning of a book until we have done so. However, we should not do this to all books. Not, for example, to rare editions or expensive volumes with ___3___ binding or printing, nor to works of popular fiction, which we might pass time for an evening of ___4___ reading. But we do it to great books, which are rich in ideas and raise and try toanswer fundamental questions. He says we do not ___5___ ideas from an important thinker the way we do the songs of a ___6___ singer. As far as great books are concerned, therefore, reading should be active. And the physical act of writing in books brings the words and sentences before our minds and ___7___ them better in our memory. We do this by making ___8___ notes. As we read we record our thoughts and the questions we have, pints of agreement, disagreement, doubt and ___9___. If we should stop reading and continue a week later, there are all the points we made before and we can begin where we ___10___ off. Above all, he expects that active reading is a conversation between author and readers.Passage 4How do we get more people to increase their consumption of iron-rich foods? Many nutritionists __1__ the increase of a number of foods. This may help, but I contend that we should also _2__ our efforts in nutrition education among our young people. I simply do not buy the argument that it is __3___ to try to change eating habits. Once an intelligent person----and this includes adolescents----understands the need for a healthy diet, I think he or she will act __4___. As for specific actions, I suggest that blood should be checked as a __5__ part of a youngster’s yearly physical examination. It should contain at least 11 grams iron per 100 milliliters of blood for a girl and at least 12 grams for a boy. If it is any lower, the physician probably will __6___ an easily absorbed iron supplement. Adolescents ---and everyone else---should cut out highly processed foods and drinks, which may be low in iron and other nutrients. Read the labels for iron ___7___. Especially make sure that all bakery products are made with ___8__ flour or whole grains. Try adding liver (chicken, beef or any other variety) to the weekly ___9___. Finally, even when you are trying to lose weight, always eat a __10___, well-balanced diet made up of a variety of flesh or very lightly processed foods. This way, you stand a good chance of getting not only enough iron, but also adequate amounts of all the other essential nutrients.Many of today’s college students are suffering from a form of shock.Lisa is a good example of a student in shock. She is an attractive, intelligent twenty-year-old college__1___ at a state university. Now, only three years later, Lisa is miserable. She has __2___ her major four times and is forced to hold down two part-time jobs in order to pay her tuition. She suffers from sleeping and eating disorders and has no ___3___friend. Sometimes she bursts out crying for no ___4___reason.What is happening to Lisa happens to millions of college students each year. As a result, roughly one-quarter of the student population at any time will suffer from ___5___ of depression. Half of them will experience depression intense enough to call for __6___help. But many of them ___7___the idea because they don’t want people to think there’s something wrong with them.There are two reasons today’s college students are suffering more than those in earlier generations. First is a weakening family support___8___. Today, with high divorce rate, the traditional family is not always available for support. Another problem is ___9___ pressure. In the last decade tuition cost rose about sixty-six percent at public colleges and ninety percent at private schools. ___10___, most students must work at least part-time. It can be depressing to students to be faced with the added tuition costs.Passage 6Large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller ___1___, faces practically every company trying to develop new products. There can be little prospect of raising the sum needed from friends, and while banks may agree to provide short-term loan, they are generally unwilling to provide money on a ___2___ basis for long-term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to take a share in the business in ___3___for a share in future profits. They do this by ___4___ stocks and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can even put into circulation the ___5___ savings of individuals and institutions abroad.When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he ___6___placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to others.Many of the services needed both by industry and by us are provided by the government or by ___7___ authorities. Without hospitals, roads, electricity etc. , this country could not ___8___. All these require ___9___ spending on new equipment if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than is raised through taxes alone. The government and nationalized industries therefore need to borrow money to ___10___ major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange.In brief, the Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which the savings can reach those who need financial help.For centuries man dreamed of achieving vertical flight. Leonardo da Vinci conceived the first ___1___ apparatus, which could carry a man straight up, but this was only a design and was never tested.The ancient dream was ___2___ realized in 1940 when a Russian aeronautical engineer, piloted a strange-looking craft of steel tubing with a rotating fan on top. It rose awkwardly and vertically into the air from a standing start, hovered a few feet above the ground, went sideways and backwards, and then settled back to earth. That ___3___ was called a helicopter.Imaginations were fired. People ___4___ that vertical flight transports would carry millions of passengers as do the airliners of today. Such ___5___ expectations were not fulfilled. It ___6___ in military missions, carrying troops, guns and strategic instruments where other aircraft cannot go. Corporations use them as airborne offices; many urban areas use them in police work, construction and logging companies, ___7___ them in various advantageous ways. Engineers use them for site selection and surveying, and oil companies use them as the best way to make offshore and remote work stations ___8___ to crews and supplies. Any ___9___ mission to a hard-to-get-to place is a likely task for a helicopter. Among their other ___10___ of uses, they deliver people across town, fly to and from airports, assist in rescue work, and aid in the search for missing or wanted persons. With all these functions, the helicopter has now become an extremely versatile machine.Passage 8Much of Canada’s forestry production goes towards making pulp and paper. According to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Canada ___1___ 34% of the world’s wood pulp and 49% of its newsprint paper. If these paper products could be produced in some other way, Canadian forests could be ___2___. Recently, a possible ___3___ way of producing paper has been suggested by agriculturalists and environmentalists, a plant called hemp.Hemp has been ___4___ by many cultures for thousands of years. It ___5___ fibre which can be made into paper, fuel, oils, textiles, food, and rope. For many centuries, it was ___6___ to the economies of many countries because it was used to make the ropes and cables used on sailing ships; colonial expansion and the establishment of a world-wide trading network would not have been possible without ___7___. Nowadays, ships’ cables are usually made from wire or synthetic fibres, but scientists are now suggesting that the cultivation of hemp should be ___8___ for the production of paper and pulp. According to its ___9___, four times as much paper can be produced from land using hemp rather than trees, and many environmentalists believe that the large-scale cultivation of hemp could ___10___ reduce the pressure on Canada’s forests.A coeducational(男女合校的) school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature(缩影). Boys and girls are given the __47__ to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of __48__ ability, athletic achievement and many of the extracurricular activities which are pail of school life. What a practical __49__ it is (to give just a small example) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense coeducation makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girls or vice versa. When __50__, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its __51__ place.The greatest contribution of coeducation is __52__ the healthy attitude to lilt it encourages. Boys don't grow up believing that women are __53__ creatures. Girls don't grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school remove illusions of this kind. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and __54__ problems involved in growing up. These can better be __55__ in a coeducational environment. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to __56__ society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.A) advantage I) enter B) proper J) mysteriousC) rewarded K) eventually D) emotional L) segregatedE) opportunity M) undoubtedly F) activity N) principleG) overcome O) advocate H) academicPassage 10We can see how the product life cycle works by looking at the introduction of instant coffee. When it was introduced, most people did not like it as well as "regular" coffee and it took several years to gain general __47__(introduction stage). At one point, though, __48__ coffee grew rapidly in popularity and many brands were introduced(stage of rapid growth). After a while people became __49__ to one brand and sales leveled off (stage of maturity). Sales went into a __50__ decline when freeze-dried coffees were introduced (stage of decline). The importance of the product life cycle to marketers is this: Different stages in the product life cycle call for different strategies. The goal is to __51__ product life so that sales and profits do not decline. One strategy is called market modification. It means that __52__ managers look for new users and market sections. Did you know, e.g. that the backpacks that so many students carry today were __53__ designed for the military? Market modification also means searching for __54__ usage among present customers or going for a different market, such as senior citizens. A marketer may re-position the product to __55__ to new market sections. Another product __56__ strategy is called product modification. It involves changing product quality, features, or style to attract new users or more usage from present users. A) attached I) executive B) marketing J ) extensionC) production K) slight D) acceptance L) tremendousE) originally M) finance F) capability N) appealG) instant O) extend H) increasedOceanography has been defined as "the application of all sciences to the study of the sea". Before the 19th century, scientists with an interest in the sea were few and far between.Certainly Newton considered some theoretical aspects of it in his writings, but he was __47__ to go to sea to further his work.For most people the sea was __48__, and with the exception of early __49__ travelers or others who earned a living from the sea, there was little reason to ask many questions about it, let __50__ to ask what lay beneath the surface. The first time that the question "What is at the __51__ of the oceans?" had to be answered with any commercial __52__ was when the laying of a telegraph cable from Europe to America was __53__. The engineers had to know the depth profile(起伏形状) of the route to __54__ the length of cable that had to be manufactured.It was to Maury of the U.S. Navy that the Atlantic Telegraph Company turned, in 1853, for __55__ on this matter. In the 1840s, Maury had been __56__ for encouraging voyages during which soundings (测探) were taken to investigate the depths of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Later, some of his findings aroused much popular interest in his book The Physical Geography of the Sea.A) physical I) informationB) bottom J) intercontinentalC) dived K) apartD) responsible L) remoteE) consequence M) geologyF) reluctant N) proposedG) measurable O) aloneH) estimatePassage 12We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are __47__. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming (按能力分班) pupils. It does not take into __48__ the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both bright and not-so-bright children. After all, it can be quite __49__ to be at the bottom of the top grade!Besides, it is rather __50__ to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total __51__. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their __52__ ability. We also value personal qualities and __53__ skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching __54__ to all these aspects of learning.In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: This gives them the opportunity to learn to __55__, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate __56__. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.A) academic I) unrealB) efficiently J) contributesC) account K) discouragingD) voluntary L) institutionalE) enriched M) socialF) personality N) predictedG) instruction O) effectivelyH) cooperatePassage 13Statuses are marvelous human inventions that enable us to get along with one another and to determine where we "fit" in society. As we go about our everyday lives, we mentally attempt to place people in terms of their statuses. For example, we must judge whether the person in the library is a reader or a __47__, whether the telephone caller is a friend or a salesman, whether the unfamiliar person on our __48__ is a thief or a meter reader, and so on.The statuses we assume often vary with the people we __49__, and change throughout life. Most of us can, at very high speed, assume the statuses that __50__ situations require. Much of social interaction consists of __51__ and selecting among appropriate statuses and allowing other people to assume their statuses in relation to us. This means that we __52__ our actions to those of other people based on a __53__ mental process of appraisal and interpretation. Although some of us find the task more difficult than others, most of us perform it rather __54__.A status has been compared to __55__ clothes. Within certain limits, the buyer can choose style and fabric. But an American is not __56__ to choose the costume of a Chinese peasant or that of a Hindu prince. We must choose from among the clothing presented by our society.A) fit I ) ready-madeB) inappropriately J ) identifyingC) encounter K) raisingD) destiny L) librarianE) effortlessly M) spokesmanF) bound N) variousG) property O) constantH) freePassage 14Humanity uses less than half the water available worldwide. Yet __47__ of shortages and droughts(干旱) are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and __48__ by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world's population is expected to __49__ in the next 50 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a __50__ water crisis. But that doesn't have to be the __51__. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world--if we start __52__ water more than we have in the past. Just as we began to __53__ petroleum more after the 1970s oil crises, today we must start looking at water from a __54__ economic perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a __55__ free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want. Instead, for all uses except the domestic demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its __56__ value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs.Governments should also protect this resource by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound ways. No matter what steps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their institutional and legal approaches to water use and should set up central authorities to coordinate water policy.A) valuing I) virtuallyB) fresh J) doubleC) vacant K) agriculturalD) widespread L) generateE) outcome M) negativeF) potentially N) appreciateG) occurrences O) attackingH) actualPassage 15I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these __47__ might be true, they are practically impossible to prove __48__. Still, I was __49__ by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more __50__ than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children aged 9 to 17 __51__ a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for __52__ illness 50 years ago.Why are America's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing __53__ isolation--brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things--and a growing __54__ that the world is a more dangerous place.Given that we can't turn the clock back. Adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope. At the top of the list is nurturing a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect __55__ against stress.To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can __56__ the plugs on TVs and computers. Your family will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will thank you later.A) physical I) pullB) allergy J) incidenceC) anxious K) scientificallyD) medically L) individualsE) struck M) treatmentF) mental N) perceptionG) resist O) exhibitH) statementsPassage 16It is easier to negotiate initial salary requirement. Because once you are inside, the__47__ constraints influence wage increases. One thing, however, is certain: Your chances of getting the raise you feel you deserve are less if you don't at least ask for it. Men tend to ask for more, and they get more, and this __48__ true with other resources, not just pay increases.It would be nice if we all received __49__ pay increases equal to our merit, but "nice" isn't a quality __50__ to most organizations. If you feel you deserve a significant raise in pay, you'll __51__ have to ask for it.__52__ is your best bargaining chip when you are seeking a raise. You must be able to __53__ that you deserve a raise. __54__ is also a good bargaining chip. If you can give your boss something he or she needs (a new client or a sizable contract, for example) just before merit pay decisions are being made, you are more __55__ to get the raise you want.Use information as a bargaining chip too. Find out what you are worth on the open market. What will someone else pay for your services?Go into the negotiations prepared to place your chips on the table at the __56__ time and prepared to use communication style to guide the direction of the interaction.A) appropriate I) probablyB) Negotiation J) likelyC) organizational K) TimingD) Performance L) acquiredE) awkward M) automaticF) Personality N) demonstrateG) holds O) statesH) attributed。