历年英语四级考试的阅读理解部分5

　　Passage One

　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

　　Suppose we built a robot to explore the planet Mars. We provide the robot with seeing detectors to keep it away from danger. It is powered entirely by the sun. Should we program the robot to be equally active at all times? No. The robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any. So we would probably program it to cease its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning.

　　According to the evolutionary theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason. The theory does not deny that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it does not protect us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well when we are in familiar, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all, when we fear that bears will nose into the tent.

　　The evolutionary theory accounts well for differences in sleep among creatures. Why do cats, for instance, sleep so much, while horses sleep so little? Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do. But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and are unlikely to be attacked while they sleep. Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value. Moreover, they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival depends on their ability to run away from attackers.

　　21. The author uses the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us ______.

　　the differences between robots and men about the need for robots to save power

　　the reason why men need to sleep about the danger of men working at night

　　22. Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night chiefly to help him ______.

　　maintain a regular pattern of life avoid danger and inefficient labor

　　prevent trouble that comes looking for him restore his bodily functions

　　23.According to the author, we cannot sleep well when we _____.

　　are worrying about our safety are in a tent

　　are overworked are away from home

　　24.Cats sleep much more than horses do partly because cats _____.

　　need more time for restoration

　　are unlikely to be attackers

　　are more active than horses when they are awake

　　spend less time eating to get enough energy

　　25.Which of the following is the main idea of the passage? ______.

　　Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking.

　　The study of sleep is an important part of the evolutionary theory.

　　Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots.

　　The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.

　　 Congratulations, Mr. Jones, its a girl.

　　Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning and bring forth a different response from every man who hears these words. Some feel pride when they receive the news, while others worry, wondering whether they will be good father. Although there are some men who like children and may have had considerable experience with them, others do not particularly care for children and spend little time with them. Many fathers and mothers have been planning and looking forward to children for some time. For other couples, pregnancy was an accident that both husband and wife have accepted willingly or unwillingly.

　　Whatever the reaction to the birth of a child, it is obvious that the shift from the role of husband to that of father is a difficult task. Yet, unfortunately, few attempts have been made to educate fathers in this resocialization process. Although numerous books have been written about American mothers, only recently has literature focused on the role of a father.

　　It is argued by some writers that the transition to the fathers role, although difficult, is not nearly as great as the transition the wife must make to the mothers role. The mothers role seems to require a complete transformation in daily routine and highly innovative adaptation, on the other hand, the fathers role is less demanding and immediate. However, even though we mentioned the fact that growing numbers of women are working outside the home, the father is still thought by many as the breadwinner in the household.

　　26. According to the author, being a father _____.

　　brings a feeling of excitement to some men

　　has a different meaning for those who have daughters

　　makes some men feel proud and others uneasy

　　means nothing but more responsibilities

　　27. It is stated in the passage that _____.

　　some parents are not prepared to have a child

　　young couples do not like children at all

　　working couples do not have much time to take care of their children

　　many parents look forward to having a boy as their first child

　　28. In the second paragraph, the author ______.

　　criticizes fathers for not taking enough responsibilities in bringing up their children

　　excuses the American writers for ignoring the difficulties of being a father

　　supports the idea that the chief role of a father is to earn money for the family

　　complains about the lack of social programs to help husbands adjust themselves to being a father

　　29. The transition to the mothers role requires that the wife ______.

　　change her life style in a highly innovative way

　　make a complete change in her everyday life to deal with the new situation

　　stay at home to take care of the baby

　　help her husband in his resocialization process

　　30. Some writers argue that with respect to the change of roles, fathers, compared with mothers, _____.

　　have to shoulder more burdens have an easier job to do

　　have to make more difficult adaptations can usually do a better job

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　Reading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gets answers. In the light of these he puts further questions, and so on.

　　For most of the time this conversation goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become aware of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between expectations and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced, our questioning of the text continues at the unconscious level.

　　Different people converse with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page; others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is written in the text. The latter represents higher levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers.

　　There is another conversation which from our point of view is equally important, and that is to do not with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a process conversation as opposed to a content conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the strategies we employ in reading. If we are an advanced reader our ability to hold a process conversation with a text is usually pretty well developed. Not so our ability to hold a content conversation. It is precisely this kind of conversation that is of importance when we are seeking to develop our reading to meet the new demands being placed upon us by studying at a higher level.

　　31. Reading as a kind of conversation between the reader and the text becomes conscious only when _____.

　　the readers expectations agree with what is said in the text

　　the reader has trouble understanding what the author says

　　the reader asks questions and gets answers

　　the reader understands a text very well

　　32. At a lower level of comprehension, readers tend to _____.

　　read a text slowly interpret a text in their own way

　　read without thinking hard concentrate on the meaning of words only

　　33. A process conversation has to do with ______.

　　the application of reading strategies

　　matching our expectations with the meaning of a text

　　the development of our ability to check the details

　　determining the main idea of a text

　　34. According to the passage, it is of great importance for readers at a higher level to maintain a balance between ______.

　　conscious and unconscious levels of comprehension

　　the readers expectations and the meaning of a text

　　lower and higher levels of comprehension

　　interpreting and criticizing a text

　　35. If we want to develop our reading ability at an advanced level, we should ______.

　　learn to use different approaches in reading different texts

　　make our reading process more conscious

　　pay more attention to the content of a text

　　take a critical attitude towards the authors idea

　　Passage Four

　　Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.

　　Although April did not bring us the rains we all hoped for, and although the Central Valley doesnt generally experience the atmospheric sound and lightning that can accompany those rains, its still important for parents to be able to answer the youthful questions about thunder and lightning.

　　The reason these two wonders of nature are so difficult for many adults to explain to children is that they are not very well understood by adults themselves. For example, did you know that the lightning we see flashing down to the earth from a cloud is actually flashing up to a cloud from the earth? Our eyes trick us into thinking we see a downward motion when its actually the other way around. But then, if we believed only what we think we see, wed still insist that the sun rises in the morning and sets at night.

　　Most lightning flashes take place inside a cloud, and only a relative few can be seen jumping between two cloud or between earth and a cloud. But, with about 2,000 thunderstorms taking place above the earth every minute of the day and night, theres enough activity to produce about 100 lightning strikes on earth every second.

　　Parents can use thunder and lightning to help their children learn more about the world around them. When children understand that the light of the lightning flashing reaches their eyes almost at the same moment, but the sound of the thunder takes about 5 seconds to travel just one mile, they can begin to time the interval between the flash and the crash to learn how close they were to the actual spark.

　　36. According to the author, in the area of the Central Valley, ______.

　　rains usually come without thunder and lightning

　　it is usually dry in April

　　children pay no attention to natural phenomena

　　parents are not interested in thunder and lightning

　　37. We believe that lightning is a downward notion because ______.

　　we were taught so by our parents from our childhood

　　we are deceived by our sense of vision

　　it is a common natural phenomenon

　　it is a truth proved by science

　　38. What is TRUE about lightning according to the passage?

　　Only a small number of lightning flashes occur on earth.

　　Lightning travels 5 minutes faster than thunder.

　　Lightning flashes usually jump from one cloud to another.

　　There are far more lightning strikes occurring on earth than we imagine.

　　39. The word activity is most closely related to the word _____.

　　cloud lightning flashes

　　lightning strikes thunderstorms

　　40. It can be concluded from the passage that ______.

　　we should not believe what we see or hear

　　things moving downward are more noticeable

　　people often have wrong concepts about ordinary phenomena

　　adults are not as good as children in observing certain natural phenomena