全國英語等級考試四級歷年真題及答案

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2017全國英語等級考試四級歷年真題及答案

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2017全國英語等級考試四級歷年真題及答案

　　Read the following three texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.

　　Text 1

　　In the last 30 years, science and technology have had a truly dramatic impact on sports. There are three major reasons for this. First, new artificial materials have appeared and been used in

　　many sports--sometimes to revolutionary effect. Second, our design expertise has improved, partly through the development of computers and other technical tools. We know more and can plan and predict more accurately in many critical areas. The third reason why science and technology have had an increasing impact is that there is now the money and the motivation for them to do so. In a variety of ways, sport has become very big business, and in the matter of winning or losing, very large amounts of money may be at stake.

　　Technology has influenced specific sports in many ways. Wherever a commercial mass market is involved, technical change may be promoted largely for the sake of change, to make this season's product seem different from that of last season. An example of this trend is in the endless search for the perfect sports shoe. Anatomically precise support for the heel and ankle, air sacs for extra spring and comfort each year bring apparent new refinements. Even in retirement, basketball's Michael Jordan remains one of sport's biggest earners because of the deal he signed endorsing the Air Jordan shoe; and one of the richest sportspeople of all, though his winnings these days are minimal, is the veteran golfer Arnold Palmer, thanks to his endorsements of the latest in golf technology.

　　More significant still in modem sports have been more general effects of technological advance. It has provided the means for timing athletes to thousandths of a second--and the means of replaying an event to check who won or to see if a break-rule occurred. It has put sport on television, so millions can watch without moving from their own homes. It has provided the means for testing for illegal drugs. It has also, for better or worse, given sportsmen and women a new attitude towards their own bodies encouraged also by the high stakes, the sponsorship and the fevered media attention. Technology helps them plan the best diet and exercise regimes; it has created heart and lung monitors that measure stress and oxygen intake; and it allows athletes to keep a constant check on their own physical problems and progress. In terms of nutrition (fuel) and training (maintenance), the modem sportsperson is treated--and treats himself or herself--like a machine.

　　36. According to the author, sport has become very big business in the sense that

　　A it needs high-tech materials.

　　B it requires business management.

　　C it involves the wide use of computers.

　　D it seems a matter of big money.

　　37. The example of sports shoes suggests that the technological advances in modem sports are

　　A encouraged by commercial interests.

　　B supported by famous sportspeople.

　　C attributed to basketball performance.

　　D subjected to computer technology.

　　38. The text suggests that some of the rich sportsmen

　　A cooperate with companies to develop high-tech sports products.

　　B are interested in promoting the development of science and technology.

　　C are selfishly earning money by promoting new sports products.

　　D play a positive role in promoting high-tech sports products.

　　39. By saying “the modern sportsperson is...like a machine”, the author emphasizes the sense of

　　A rigidity. B inhumanity. C preciseness.

　　D automation.

　　40. The statement that best summarizes the text is

　　A sportspeople seek high-tech products for better performance.

　　B science and technology have played a significant role in sports.

　　C science and technology have helped improve the sports environment.

　　D some sportspeople have benefited financially from new technology.

　　Text 2

　　Most of us Americans have a vague, uneasy sense of wicked wastefulness. We throw out the never-opened pack of food that's past its sell-by date before answering a call on the fourth mobile phone we have had in five years. We gaze around our living space groaning at the sheer quantity of little-used clothing, blocking it up like a blood clot in an arterial vein.

　　Our despair is genuine at the way we are running out of the earth's resources and at the fact that we have so much when two-thirds of the world's population only just get enough to eat and drink. Yet we feel completely powerless to do anything about it, too busy, irritable and tired to focus on practical steps.

　　For the problem goes even deeper than material wastefulness: We know we are wasting our time, our being, our lives. We have compromised in our choice of career, lovers, friends ; we put on a face to meet the faces that we meet. Trapped in marketing characters, not only in our office politics but in our intimate relationships, too, we play too many games.

　　Deep down, we know that it's time to "get a life", to stop being distracted by pointless consumerism, unreal relationships, and "Affluenza-infected" career ambitions.

　　The first step to salvation is to understand how much it is not your fault. If you read Vance Packard's 1958 book about the advertising industry, The Hidden Persuaders, it proves that long ago retailers were devising ways to deliberately deceive us into confusing mixed wants with true needs in order to keep the consumption bandwagon rolling. In recent years, manufacturers have intention- ally speeded up the rate at which electronic goods become obsolescent and instead of the proper re- pair customer services that used to exist, there are merely expensive help-lines, When your toaster or printer or MP3 music device breaks down after only a year, it is no accident that there is no one who will repair them--" it'd cost more than buying a new one, love".

　　So this is a selfish capitalist system which is designed to maximize profits through rapid turn- over of "newer, better" goods that break down sooner and are designed to be irreparable. It's not your fault !

　　What you can do is withdraw as much as possible from the consumption game. Every time you are about to buy something ask yourself, "do I need this, or do I just want it.'?"

　　41. Most Americans, according to the author, feel uneasy about

　　A depending too much on modern technology.

　　B failing to solve problems in their lives.

　　C having too little living space.

　　D wasting too many resources.

　　42. By saying "we play too many games", the author wants to show

　　A we are wasting our lives.

　　B we make too many mistakes.

　　C we do not take our life seriously.

　　D I we are too busy enjoying ourselves.

　　43. To make ourselves feel better, we should first

　　A figure out whom to blame for our excessive consumption.

　　B avoid making unnecessary purchases in our daily life.

　　C pick out misleading messages in the advertisement.

　　D exercise caution when making a big purchase.

　　44. We learn from Paragraph 5 that

　　A the quality of goods is getting worse recently.

　　B customers are more often misled nowadays.

　　C we are deceived into making a purchase.

　　D advertisers have become very clever.

　　45. The author advises us to buy

　　A more than we need. B only what we want.

　　C more than we want. D only what we need.

　　Text 3

　　Susan Baroness Greenfield is a British institution. In a country that perceives its scientists as white-coated eccentrics, and probably male, Lady Greenfield is fashionable, extravagant, and female. At least, that is the image she has sought to project as a populariser of science. She is accused, though, of bringing another British institution, the Royal Institution (RI), to the verge of bankruptcy. The RI, of which she was director from 1998 until last Friday (January 8th), has made her job redundant. She says she plans to respond with a suit for sexual discrimination.

　　Lady Greenfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, was recruited to shake up the two century old institution because she had made a name for herself, particularly on television, as one of the popular faces of science. The RI is, in part, a members' club famous for its Christmas lectures "adapted to a juvenile audience", which are broadcast on television every year, and its Friday evening discourses (black ties, please, gentlemen), in which prominent scientists chat about their work for precisely an hour--no more and no less--before everyone is served tea and chocolate cake. But it is also a serious research laboratory (one of the longest-established in the world), looking into things like the medical applications of nanotechnology.

　　Lady Greenfield's offence, if offence it be, was to modernize the RI's headquarters in May- fair, one of the most stylish parts of London, without proper cost control. The redecoration included a high-class bar and restaurant that are open to the general public. Sadly, these opened for business in October 2008--the least favorable moment imaginable for such a venture.

　　The redecoration, which cost ——22m, much of which was raised by selling the institution's shares of property, has left the RI —— 3m in debt, and the trustees have decided that one way to cut costs is to cut the job of director. Lady Greenfield, the first female director in a line that stretches back through Michael Faraday to Humphry Davy, seems to suspect that financial considerations were not the only ones when this decision was made.

　　Instead of a director, the RI is to be led by a newly-invented chief executive officer, in the person of Chris Rofe. Mr. Rofe, who was appointed in April 2009, has a degree in business administration, not science. Given the debt, though, perhaps an alchemist, a person who devotes himself to turning ordinary metals into gold, would be the most appropriate person for the job.

　　46. By saying Lady Greenfield is "a British institution", the author means

　　A she is well-known in Britain.

　　B she owns a British association.

　　C she is suing a British institution.

　　D she is accused by a British institution.

　　47. Which of the following is true of the RI?

　　A It provides one-hour-long club activities for famous scientists.

　　B It offers special annual Christmas lectures for young people.

　　C It enjoys a long history of scientific research in medicine.

　　D It makes a name for popularizing science on television.

　　48. Lady Greenfield was blamed for

　　A misunderstanding the significance of the RI's modernization.