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 such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more d
2、amage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way.First, pruning may be done 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 small side branches which will
3、thicken 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 c
4、entre and so preventing the free movement of air.One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the 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 desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that th
5、ere is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden s
6、hops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly.1.Pruning should be done to _.a.make the tree grow tallerb.improve
7、the shape of the treec.get rid of the small branchesd.make the small branches thicker2.Trees become unhealthy if the gardener _.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 specia
8、l 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 possiblec.occasionally when necessaryd.regular every winter5.What was the
9、authors purpose when writing this passage?a.To give pratical instruction for pruning a tree.b.To give a general description of pruningc.To explain how trees develop diseasesd.To discuss different methods of pruning.答案：babca十七 On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Carke, dressed for going out, took her handbag
10、with her 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 oclock she cane home, let herself in and at once smelt cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke in her house
11、? How? How? Had someone got in? She checked the back door and the windows. All were locked or fastened, as usual. There was no sign of forced entry.Over a cup of tea she wondered whether someone might have a key that fitted her front door-“a master key“perhaps. So she stayed at home the following Th
12、ursday. Nothing happened. Was anyone watching her movements? On the Thursday after that she went out at her usual time,dressed as usual, but she didnt go to the club. Instead she took a short cut home again, letting herself in through her garden and the back door. She settled down to wait.It was jus
13、t after four oclock when the front door bell rang.Mrs. Clarke was making a cup of tea at the time. The bell rang again, and then she heard her letter-box being pushed open. With the kettle of boiling water in her hand, she moved quietly towards the front door. A long piece of wire appeared through t
14、he letter-box, and then a hand. The wire turned and caught around the knob on the door-lock. Mrs. Clarke raised the kettle and poured the water over the hand. There was a shout outside, and the skin seemed to drop off the fingers like a glove. The wire fell to the floor, the hand was pulled back, an
15、d Mrs. Clarke heard the sound of running feet.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,_.a.Mrs.Clarke would have found a
16、 broken door or windowb.he or she was still in the housec.things 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 didnt want to miss the club againb.to see if the thief was hnging about outsidec.to the club but then chan
17、ged her mindd.in an attempt to trick the thief4.The lock on the front door was one which_.a.needed a piece of wire to open itb.could he opened from inside without a keyc.couldt be opened without a keyd.used a knob instead of a key5.The wire feel to the floor_.a.because Mrs.Clarke refused to open the
18、 doorb.when the mans glove dropped offc.because 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,wh
19、en exposed to several hours of “snow light“ .The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country.Rather, a mans eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continua
20、lly shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball
21、. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness.Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen
22、 bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape,Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight , dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus . The men following can then see something.Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found somethi
23、ng to see,stop scouring the snow-blanketed lanscape. By focusing 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
24、 caused by the glare from snow, dark glasses are_.a.indispensibleb.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 ter
25、rainb.searching for something to look at in snow-covered terrainc.providing 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.pr
26、event the men behind from losing their way5.A suitable title for this passage would be _.a.snowblindness and how to overcome itb.natrues 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. Our increasing populati
27、on will tremendously increase urban wastes,primarily sewage. On the other hand, increasing demands for water will decease substantialy the amount of water available for diluting wastes. Rapidly expanding industries which involve more and more complex chemical processes will produce large volumes of
28、liquid wastes, and many of these will contain chemicals which are noxious. To feed our rapidly expanding population, agriculture will have to be intensified. This will involve ever-increasingquantities of agricultural chemicals, From this , it is apparent that drastic steps must be taken immediately
29、 to develop corrective measures for the pollution problem.There are two ways by which this pollution problem can be dwindled. The first relates to the treatment of wastes to decrease their pollution hazard. This involves the processing of solid wastes “prior to “ disposal and the treatment of liquid
30、 wastes, or efflunets,to permit the reuse of the water or minimize pollution upon final disposal.A second approach is to develop an economic use for all or a part of the wastes. Farm manure is spread in fields as a nutrient or organic supplement . Effluents from sewage disposal plants are used in so
31、me areas both for irrigation and for the nutrients contained. Efflunets from other processing plants may also be used as a supplemental source of water. Many industries, such as meat and poultry processing plants, are currently converting former waste products into marketable byproducts. Other indus
32、tries are potential eonomic uses for waste products.1.The purpose of this passage is _.a.to alert the reader to the dwindling water supplyb.to explain industrial uses of waterc.to acquaint the reader with water pollution problemsd.to demostrate various measures to solve the pollution problem2.Which
33、of the following points is NOT INCLUDED in the passage?a.In dustrial development incudes the simplification 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
34、 more chemicals3.The reader can conclued that_.a.countries of the world will work together on polution problemsb.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 aut
35、hor gives substance to the passage through the use of _.a.interviews with authorities in the field of water controlsb.opinions and personal observationsc.definitions which clarify important termsd.strong arguments and persuasions5.The words “prior to “(para.2) probably mean_.a.afterb.duringc.befored
36、.beyond答案:cadbc二十 One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit ones 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 rece
37、ntly with someone admitting to me that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store 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
38、 he was describing.I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gome into the store with may mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident tood place.There must have been a special sale on eggs that da
39、y because there was an impressive display of eggs indozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reaso
40、n, I decided it was up to me to put the display back 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 cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the culprit. He severely reprimanded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not.
