英語四六級閱讀理解習題

精選文庫The standard of living of any country means the average persons share of the goods and services which the country produces. A countrys standard of living, therefore, depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth. Wealth in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money but on things that money can buy: goods such as food and clothing, and services such as transport and entertainment.A countrys capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of which have an effect on one another. Wealth depends to a great extent upon a countrys natural resources, such as coal, gold, and other minerals, water supply and so on. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have a fertile soil and a favorable climate; other regions possess perhaps only one of these things, and some regions possess none of them. The U. S. A is one of the wealthiest regions of the world because she has vast natural resources within her borders, her soil is fertile, and her climate is varied. The Sahara Desert, on the other hand, is one of the least wealthy.Next to natural resources comes the ability to turn them to use. China is perhaps as well off as the U. S. A. in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and external wars, and for this and other reasons was. unable to develop her resources. Sound and stable political conditions, and freedom from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well served by nature but less well ordered. Another important factor is the technical efficiency of a countrys people. Old countries that have, through many centuries, trained up numerous skilled craftsmen and technicians are better placed to produce wealth than countries whose workers are largely unskilled. Wealth also produces wealth. As a country becomes wealthier, its people have a large margin for saving, and can put their savings into factories and machines which will help workers to turn out more goods in their working day.1. A countrys wealth depends upon_. ,A. its standard of livingB. its moneyC. its ability to provide goods and servicesD. its ability to provide transport and entertainment2. The word foremost means_.A. most importantly B. firstlyC. largely D. for the most part3. The main idea of the second paragraph is that_.A. a countrys wealth depends on many factorsB. the U. S. A. is one of the wealthiest countries in the worldC. the Sahara Desert is a very poor regionD. natural resources are an important factor in the wealth or poverty of a country4. The third paragraph mentions some of the advantages which one country may have over another in making use of its resources. How many such advantages are mentioned in this paragraph?A. 2 B. 3考試大論壇C. 4 D. 55. The second sentence.in Paragraph 3 is_.A. the main idea of the paragraphB. an example supporting the main idea of the paragraphC. the conclusion of the paragraphD. not related to the paragraph1. C 2. A 3. A 4. B 5. BSugar is so much a part of our modern life that we only really think about it when, for some _1_ , we cannot obtain it. It has been known to man for at least 3,000 years, but has _2_ into common use only in _3_times. Until quite recently it was considered as a medicine and as a luxury for the very rich only.Sugar is, then, _4 _to our civilization. But what_5_ is it? Of course, most of us recognize sugar immediately as the sweet material which we put in coffee or cakes. This common form of sugar is derived from two plants: the sugar cane (a type of grass which grows to a height of twenty feet) and the sugar beet (which grows under ground). But there are in fact many types of sugar, and the chemist recognizes hundreds of different _6_ , each coming from a different source.About 90% of the sugar is produced as food. Only 10% is used in industry for _7_other than food production. Yet sugar has great possibilities for use as the basis of chemicals. It can even be used for making plastics. In the future these potential uses will certainly be developed more than in the past.來源：考試大的美女編輯們There are many reasons why we should _8_the production of sugar. Most important is that it is one of the most highly concentrated of energy foods.Thus sugar cane and beet produce an average of 7,000,000 calories per acre. In this way they have the advantage over potatoes which give only 4, 000, 000, while the_9_ for wheat and beans is 2 ,000,000 each. So three acres of land growing wheat, beans and potatoes give only _10_more energy than one acre of sugar.A. slightly B. intention C. reason D. modernE. strongly F. figure G. come H. significantI. exactly J. increase K. proposals L. turnM. purposes N. varieties O. seriousI. C 2. G 3. D 4. H 5. I 6. N 7. M 8. J 9. F 10. APronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language; but few people are even moderately proficient at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the fundamental reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and consequently never set about tackling it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skillone that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be acquired by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to neglect, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and should get the student to feel that here is a matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be occasions when other aspects of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be obtained from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic theory. It is also possible in this way to get a clear mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time wasted.26. What does the writer actually say about pronouncing foreign languages?A. Only a few people are really proficient.B. No one is really an expert in the skill.C. There arent many people who are even fairly good.D. There are even some people who are moderately proficient.27. The writer argues that going about the problem of pronunciation in the wrong way isA. an obvious cause of not grasping the problem correctlyB. a fundamental consequence of not speaking wellC. a consequence of not grasping the problem correctlyD. not an obvious cause of speaking poorly28. The best way of learning to speak a foreign language, he suggests, is by_.A. picking it up naturally as a childB. learning from a native speakerC. not concentrating on pronunciation as suchD. undertaking systematic work考試大全國最大教育類網(wǎng)站(wwwE)29. The value the student puts on correct speech habits depends upon_.A. how closely he attends to the matterB. whether it is English that is being taughtC. his teachers approach to pronunciationD. the importance normally given to grammar and spelling30. How might the teacher find himself wasting lesson time?A. By spending lesson time on pronunciation.B. By making ill-informed comments upon pronunciation.C. By not using books on phonetics in the classroom.D. By not giving students a clear mental picture of the difference between sounds.26. C 27. C 28. D 29. CAn industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily dependant on certain essential services: for instance, electricity supply, water, rail and road transport, the harbors. The area of dependency has widened to include removing rubbish, hospital and ambulance services, and, as the economy develops, central computer and information services as well. If any of these services ceases to operate, the whole economic system is in danger.It is this interdependency of the economic system that makes the power of trade unions such an important issue. Single trade unions have the ability to cut off many economic blood supplies. This can happen more easily in Britain than in some other countries, in part because the labor force is highly organized. About 55 per cent of British workers belong to unions, compared to under a quarter in the United States. For historical reasons, Britains unions have tended to develop along trade and occupational lines, rather than on an industry-by-industry basis, which makes wage policy, democracy in industry and the improvement of procedures for fixing wage levels difficult to achieve.There are considerable strains and tensions in the trade union movement, some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure. Some unions have lost many members because of industrial changes. Others are involved in arguments about who should represent workers in new trades. Unions for skilled trades are separate from general unions, which means that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feeling between unions. In traditional trades which are being pushed out of existence by advancing technologies, unions can fight for their members disappearing jobs to the point where the jobs of other unions members are threatened or destroyed. The printing of newspapers both in the United States and in Britain has frequently been halted by the efforts of printers to hold on to their traditional highly-paid jobs.1. Why is the question of trade union power important in Britain?A. The economy is very much interdependent.B. Unions have been established a long time.C. There are more unions in Britain than elsewhere.D. There are many essential services.2. Because of their out-of-date organization some unions find it difficult to_.A. change as industries change B. get new members to join themC. learn new technologies D. bargain for high enough wages3. Disagreements arise between unions because some of themA. try to win over members of other unionsB. ignore agreementsC. protect their own members at the expense of othersD. take over other unions jobs來源：4. It is difficult to improve the procedures for fixing wage levels because_.A. some industries have no unionsB. unions are not organized according to industriesC. only 55 per cent of workers belong to unionsD. some unions are too powerful5. Which of the following is NOT TRUE?A. There are strains and tensions in the trade union movement.B. Some unions have lost many members.C. Some unions exist in the outdated structure.D. A higher percentage of American workers belong to unions than that of British workers.1. A 2. A 3. C 4. B 5. DI have never attended a large companys board meeting in my life, but I feel certain that the discussion often takes the following lines. The _1_ of producing a newfor exampletoothpaste would make 8 Op the decent price for it, so we will market it at l. 20. It is not a bad toothpaste (not specially good either, but not bad) , and as people like to try new things it will sell well to start with; but the _2_ of novelty soon fades, so sales will _3_ . When that starts to happen we will reduce the price to l. 15. And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it, whereupon people will rush to buy it even though it still costs about forty-three percent more than its _4 _price.Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but lp OFF. What a shame to advertise lp OFF your soap or washing powder or dog food or whatever. Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an insult, but he doesnt. A bargain must not be _5_ To be offered a gift of one penny is like being invited to dinner and offered one single pea (tastily cooked), and nothing else. Even if it represented a _6_ reduction it would be an insult. Still, people say, one has to have washing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny cheaper. When I was a boy in Hungary a man was _7_ of murdering some?one for the sake of one pengo, the equivalent of a shilling, and pleaded_8_ The judge shouted _9_ : To kill a man for a shilling! What can you say in your _10_ ? The murderer replied: A shilling here. . . a shilling there. . . And thats what todays shopper says, too: A penny here. a penny there. . . A. missed B. defense C. real D. cost考試大全國最大教育類網(wǎng)站(wwwE)E. anxiously F. attraction G. fair H. expenseI. fall J. angrily K. dismissed L. accusedM. guilty N. faulty O. securityI. D 2. F 3. I 4. G 5. A 6. C 7. L 8. M 9. JPutting the Sun to WorkIts a hot summer day, and you, your family, and friends decide to drive to the beach for a cookout.When you get to the beach, the sand and the rocks are so hot that they hurt your bare feet. You put on sneakers in a hurry. The water is so bright and shining in the sun that you can hardly look at it. While the charcoal (木炭) fire is starting to burn in the cookout stove, every one goes for a swim. The water feels goodwarm at the top, but cooler down around your toes.A little wind is blowing when you come out. The fire isnt quite ready for cooking yet, so you play tag (兒童捉人游戲) or read.For lunch there are hot dog, corn, salad and rolls, sodas, fruit, and coffee for the adults. By the time the coffee water boils and the corn and hot dogs are cooked, all the bathing suits are dry. So are the towels spread out on the rocks, in the sun.Lunch is good. Just as you are finishing, it starts to rain so you pack up and run. But nobody minds the rain. It will cool things off.At the same time you were having fun at the beach, work was being done. Energy from the sun was doing work. Energy, in one form or another, does all the work in the world.Heat energy from the sun dried the towels. It heated the sand and the rocks, the water and the air. It even made the rain and the wind. Heat from the sun does small work and big work, all over the earth.Light energy from the sun was working on the beach too. It supplied the daylight.It lit the earth and made the sand bright and the water sparkling.The sun also supplied the energy that grew the food you ate.Plants use light energy from the sun to make food for themselves. The food is a kind of sugar. It is also a kind of energy called chemical energy. Green plants change light energy from the sun into chemical energy.Plants use some of that energy for everyday living and growing. They store the rest in their leaves and seeds, in fruit, roots, stems, and berries.The salad and the corn, the rolls, fruit, and coffee all came from plants. You and all animals depend on plants for food.The charcoal you used for cooking began as a plant too. Once, that charcoal was a living tree that used sunlight to make food and then stored part of the food it made. The energy in this stored food remained, even after the tree died. You used that energy when you burned the charcoal.The gasoline you used for driving to the beach began with energy from the sun, too. It was made from oil.Oil was formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived on earth millions of years ago. The remains of ancient living things are called fossils. This is why oil is called a fossil fuel. Coal and natural gas are fossil fuels, too.Now fossil fuels are beginning to be used up.Thats why people worry about running out of energy.But as long as the sun shines, the earth will not run out of energy. The sun pours more energy on earth than we can ever use. Most of that energy comes to us as heat and light. Energy from the sun is called solar energy.Solar energy is a safe kind of energy. It doesnt make pollution or have dangerous leftovers. That is why scientists and inventors are experimenting with ways of harnessing the sun to do some of the jobs fossil fuels have been doing.But to make the sun do work like that, they have to solve some problems.They have to collect the suns energy. Collecting sunshine isnt easy, unless you are a plant.Sunshine isnt easy to store, either. You cant fill a tank with it or put it in the wood box. You cant move it through a pipe or a wire. You cant turn it on.Still, people have been using solar energy to help do their work for a long time. There are old ways and new ways of catching sunshine and putting it to work.Suppose you were living in a cold place and going to spend the winter in a cave. Would you choose a cave that faced the winter sun or a cave that faced away from it?You might make the same choice if you were building a house in a cold place. You would probably build the house, so