大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案(四)

1、大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案（四）十六Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of suchreasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that moredama

2、ge results from d oing it unnecessarily than from l eaving the tree to grow in its own way.First, pruning may be d one to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of smallside branches which will t

3、hicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the ce

4、ntre and so preventing the free movement of air.精选文库One result of pruning is that an open wound is left onthe tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the d esease as to whether the tree will live or die,so that

5、there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should bethe aim of every gardener to reduce which has been prunedsmooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down byroughness. You shoul d allow the cut surface to dry for a fewhurs and then paint it with one of the substances availablefrom garden sho

6、ps produced especially for this purpose.Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves andalso it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If thisdoes happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly.1.Pruning shoul d be done to _.a.make the tree grow tall erb.improve the

7、 shape of the treec.get rid of the small branchesd.make the small branches thicker2.Trees become unhealthy if the gardener _.-2精选文库a.allows too many branches to grow in the middleb.does not protect them from windc.forces them to grow too quicklyd.damages some of the small side branches3.Why is a spe

8、cial substance painted on the tree?a.To make a wound smoothb.To prevent disease entering a woundc.To cover a rough surfaced.To help a wound to dry4.A good gardener prunes a tree_.a.at intervals throughout the yearb.as quickly as possibl ec.occasionally when necessaryd.regular every winter5.What was

9、the author's purpose when writing thispassage?-3精选文库a.To give pratical instruction for pruning a tree.b.To give a general d escription of pruningc.To explain how trees d evelop diseasesd.To discuss different methods of pruning.答案： babca十七On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Carke, dressed for going out,to

10、ok herhandbag withher money and her key in it, pulled the door behind her to lock it and went to the over 60s Club. She always went there on Thursdays. It was a nice outing for an old woman who lived alone.At six o'clock she cane home, let herself in and at once smelt cigarette smoke. Cigarette

11、smoke in her house? How? How? Had someone got in? She checked the backdoor and the windows. All were locked or fastened, as usual. There was no sign of forced entry.Over a cup of teashe wondered whethersomeone might have a key thatfittedherfront door-"a master key"perhaps. So she stayed at

12、 home the following Thursday.Nothinghappened. Was anyone watchingher movements? On theThursdayafterthatshewent outat herusualtime,dressedasusual,butshe didn'tgo to theclub.Insteadshe tooka shortcuthome again,lettingherselfin throughher gardenand thebackdoor. She settled down to wait.It was just

13、after four o'clock when the front door bell rang.Mrs. Clarke wasmaking a cup of tea at the time.The bellrang again,and then she heard her letter-boxbeing pushed open. With the kettle of boiling water in her hand, she moved quietlytowards the front door. A long piece of wire appeared through the

14、letter-box, andthen a hand. The wireturnedand caught around the knob on the door-lock.Mrs. Clarkeraised the kettle and poured the water over the hand. There was a shout outside,and the skinseemed to drop offthe fingerslikea glove.The wirefellto the floor,the hand was pulled back, and Mrs. Clarke hea

15、rd the sound of running feet.-4精选文库1.Mrs. Clarke looded forward to Thursday because_.a.she worked at a club on the dayb.she said visitors on Thursdaysc.she visited a club on Thursdayd.a special visitor came on Thursday2.If someone had made a forced entery,_.b.he or she was still in the housec.things

16、 would have been thown aboutd.he or she would have needed a master key3.On the third Thursday Mrs. Clarke went out_.a.because she didn't want to miss the club againb.to see if the thief was hnging about outsidec.to the club but then changed her mindd.in an attempt to trick the thief4.The lock on

17、 the front door was one which_.a.needed a piece of wire to open itb.could he opened from inside without a keyc.could't be opened without a keyd.used a knob instead of a key5.The wire feel to the floor_.-5精选文库a.because Mrs.Clarke refused to open the doorb.when the man's glove dropped offc.bec

18、ause it was too hot to holdd.because the man justwanted to get away答案： cadbd十八Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow l

19、ight" .The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not causesnowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a man's eyes frequentlyfind nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So hisgaze continuallyshiftsand jumps back and for

20、thover the entirelandscapein searchof tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotpsearchingand the eyeballsbecome sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsetsthisirritationby producingmore and fluidwhich covers the eyeball.The fluidcoverstheeyeball in increasing quan

21、tity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the resultis total, even though temporary,snowblindness.Experimentsled theArmy to a simple methodof overcoming this problem.Scoutsahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes,creating a dotted line as they cross completel

22、y snow-covered landscape,Even thescouts themselves throwlightweight, dark colored objectsahead on which theytoocan focus . The men following can then see something.Theirgaze is arrested. Theireyes focus on a bush and having found something to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusin

23、g their attention on one object at a time,the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome.1.To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark glasses are_.-6精选文库a.indis

24、pensibleb.usefulc.ineffectived.available2.When the eyes are sore tears are produced to _.a.clear the visionb.remedy snowblindnessc.ease the irritationd.loosen the muscles3.Snowblindness may be avoided by_.a.concentrating to the solid white terrainb.searching for something to look at in snow-covered

25、viding the eyes with something to foucs ond.covering the eyeballs with fluid4.The scouts shake snow from evergreen bushes in order to _.a.bive the men behind something to seeb.beautify the landscapec.warm themselves in the coldd.prevent the men behind from losing their way5.A suitable ti

26、tle for this passage would be _.a.snowblindness and how to overcome it-7精选文库b.natrue's cure for snowblindnessc.soldiers in the snowd.snow vision答案： CCCAA十九Water problems in the future will become nore intense and more complex. Ourincreasingpopulationwill tremendouslyincreaseurban wastes,primaril

27、ysewage. Onthe other hand, increasing demands for water will decease substantialy the amountof wateravailable fordilutingwastes.Rapidlyexpandingindustrieswhichinvolvemore and more complex chemicalprocesseswill producelargevolumesofliquidwastes,and many of these will contain chemicals which are noxio

28、us. To feed our rapidlyexpanding population, agriculture will have to be intensified. This will involveever-increasingquantitiesofagriculturalchemicals,From this , itisapparent thatdrastic steps must be taken immediately to develop corrective measures for the pollution problem.There are two ways by

29、which this pollution problem can be dwindled. The firstrelatesto the treatmentof wastes to decrease theirpollutionhazard.This involvesthe processingof solidwastes "priorto " disposaland the treatmentof liquidwastes,or efflunets,to permit the reuse of the water or minimize pollution upon fi

30、nal disposal.A second approach isto develop an economicuse forallor a part ofthe wastes.Farm manure isspreadinfieldsas a nutrient ororganicsupplement . Effluents fromsewage disposal plants are used in some areas both for irrigation and for thenutrients contained. Efflunets from other processing plan

31、ts may also be used as asupplementalsourceof water. Many industries,such as meat and poultryprocessingplants, are currentlyconvertingformer waste productsintomarketablebyproducts.Other industries are potential eonomic uses for waste products.1.The purpose of this passage is _.a.to alert the reader t

32、o the dwindling water supply-8精选文库b.to explain industrial uses of waterc.to acquaint the reader with water pollution problemsd.to demostrate various measures to solve the pollution problem2.Which of the following points is NOT INCLUDED in the passage?a.In dustrial development incudes the simplificat

33、ion of complex chemical processes.b.Diluting wastes needs certain amount of waterc.Demands for water will go up along with the expanding populationd.Intensive cultivation of land requires more and more chemicals3.The reader can conclued that_.a.countries of the world will work together on polution p

34、roblemsb.byproducts from wastes lead to a more prosperous marketplacec.science is making great progress on increasing water suppliesd.some industries are now ,aking economic use of wastes4.The author gives substance to the passage through the use of _.erviews with authorities in the field of wa

35、ter controlsb.opinions and personal observationsc.definitions which clarify important termsd.strong arguments and persuasions5.The words "prior to "(para.2) probably mean_.a.afterb.during-9精选文库c.befored.beyond答案 :cadbc二十One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingn

36、ess to admit one's mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like "I was wrong about that," and it is even harder to say, "I was wrong , and you were right about that."I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a mistake fi

37、fteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocerystore in the neighbourhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and Ibegan to remember vaguely the incident he was describing.I was about eight years old atthe time, and I

38、 hadgome into thestore with maymother todo the weekly groceryshopping.On thatparticularday,I must have foundmy way to the dairy food department where the incident tood place.There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was animpressivedisplayof eggs indozenand half-dozencartons

39、.The cartonswere stackedthree or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire thestacks.Justthen a womancame by pushingher grocerycartand knocked offthe stacksof cartons.For some reason,I decideditwas up to me to put the displayback together,so I want to work.The manager heard the moise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the