英語四級考試閱讀試題(一)

　　It is such colleges, thriving but threatened, I worry about. Low enrollment is not their chiefproblem. Even with full enrollments, they may go under. Efforts to save them, and preferably tokeep them private, are a national necessity. There is no basis for arguing that private schoolsare inherently (固有地)better than public schools. Examples to the contrary abound. Anyonecan name state universities and colleges that rank as the finest in the nation and the world. Itis now inevitable that public institutions will be dominant, and therefore diversity is anational necessity. Diversity in the way we support schools tends to give us a healthydiversity in the forms of education. In an imperfect society such as ours, uniformity ofeducation throughout the nation could be dangerous. In an imperfect society, diversity is apositive good. Enthusiastic supporters of public higher education know the importance ofsustaining private higher education.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.According to the author's opinion, schools are bad businesses because of _______.

　　A. mismanagement

　　B. too few students

　　C. financial squeeze

　　D. their characteristics

　　2.The author used the phrase “go under" in Para. 3 to mean "_______".

　　A. get into difficulties

　　B. have low enrollment

　　C. have little money

　　D. bring in more money

　　3.We can reasonably conclude from this passage that the author made an appeal tothe public in order to support_____

　　A. public institution

　　B. private schools

　　C. uniformity of education

　　D. diversity of education

　　4.Which of the following is NOT mentioned about private schools?

　　A. High-quality private schools deserve to be saved.

　　B. If the tuition of the private schools is raised, the enrollment goes down.

　　C. There are many cases to show that public schools are better than private schools.

　　D. Private schools are more profitable than public schools.

　　5.Which of the following ways could possibly save private schools?

　　A. Raising tuition.

　　B. Full enrollment.

　　C. National awareness and support.

　　D. Reduction of rising costs.

　　英語四級考試閱讀試題答案

　　1.[D] 事實細節題。本題考查因果關系。第2段倒數第3句中的“not because of... but because of...”指出了nature就是原因所在，characteristics是nature的近義詞，故D正確。

　　2.[A] 詞義理解題。通過go under所在句子中的Even with......可知，該句與上一句形成對比，這兩句中的enrollment是相對應的，所以go under應該也與上文的problem相對應，由此可推斷，go under就是have problem/ difficulty之義。本題最具干擾性的是C，但文中并無細節具體說明即使入學人數滿額學校收人也很少的問題，因此C把problem定義得過細，不如A恰當。

　　3.[B] 推理判斷題，也是主旨大意題。文章一開頭就指出“許多私立髙等學校都處于危險之中”，引起讀者的關注，結尾句明確倡議支持公立髙等教育的人們應該同樣支持私立髙等教育，由此可見,B是本文的目的。本題最具干擾性的是D，D的說法在最后一段中多次提到，但是作者提出辦學多樣性是為了說明私立教育的重要性，故D只是本文主題(私立教育)的支持性細節，并非本文的中心話題。

　　4.[D] 事實細節題。可用排除法找出答案。A可從第1段推斷得出;B可在第2段第3句中找到;C可從最后一段中間找到。

　　5.[C] 推理判斷題。可用排除法找出答案，根據原文，第2段第3句可證明A不可行;最后一段第3句證明B不可行;第2段第2句也指出D行不通。本文的目的是為了提高公眾對私立教育的關注，由此可見，只有C是拯救私立高校的可行性方法。

　　英語四級考試閱讀試題(二)

　　One of the bitterest and most time-worm debates in student union bars up and down thecountry is resolved as academic research confirms that in financial terms at least, arts degreesare a complete waste of time.Getting through university boosts students’earnings by 25%, on aweighted average, or $220,000 over theirlifetime, according to Professor Ian Walker of WarwickUniversity-but if they study Shakespeare or the peasants’revolt instead of anatomy of contractlaw, those gains are likely to be completely wiped out.

　　The government is about to allow universities to charge students up to $3,000 a year for theirdegrees, arguing that it’s a small price to pay compared with the financial rewards graduatesreap later in life. But Prof. Walker’s research shows there are sharp variations in returnsaccording to which subject a student takes.

　　Law, medicine and economics or business are the most lucrative choices, making their averageearnings 25% higher, according to the article, published in the office for nationalstatistics’monthly journal. Scientists get 10-15% extra. At the bottom of the list are artssubjects, which make only a “small ”differenceto earnings- a small negative one, in fact. Justahead are degrees in education-which leave hard pressed teachers anaverage of 5% better off ayear than if they had left school at 18.

　　“it’s hard to resist the conclusion that what students learn does matter a lot; and somesubject areas givemore modest financial returns than others,” Prof. Walker said. As aneconomist, he was quick to point outthat students might gain non-financial returns from artsdegrees:”Studying economics might be very dull, forexample, and studying post-modernismmight be a lot of fun.”

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.What is the best title for the passage?

　　A.Professor Walker’s Research

　　B.How to Make Big Money.

　　C.Differences Between Science and Arts Degrees.

　　D.Studying Arts Has Negative Financial Outcome.

　　2.Universities charge students a rather high tuition mainly because_____

　　A.they provide the students with very prosperous subjects to learn

　　B.they assume that their graduates can earn much more than they had paid

　　C.they don’t get financial support from the government

　　D.they need much revenue to support the educational expenses

　　3.The word “lucrative”(Line 1, Para. 4) most probably means _____

　　A.sensible

　　B.creative

　　C.profitable

　　D.reliable

　　4.Law, medical and business graduates could earn 25% more than ______

　　A.education graduates

　　B.arts graduates

　　C.those who had not studied at the university

　　D.the average income

　　5.We can safely conclude that the author ______

　　A.regards arts degrees as meaningless

　　B.finds this result disappointing and unfair

　　C.wants the students to think twice before they decide what to learn in college

　　D.holds that arts degrees are still rewarding despite its scarce financial returns

　　英語四級考試閱讀試題答案

　　1.[D] 主旨大意題。本文為Walker教授的研究成果，旨在說明不同專業的畢業生有不同的經濟回報，并非要傳授發財心得或者比較文理科的異同。文章首句即為本題解題關鍵，故D正確。

　　2.[B] 事實細節題。定位至第3段第1句。本文只有這一句與收取學費有關，后一個分句即前一個分句的理由，抓住其中隱含的因果關系就不難找到正確答案。

　　3.[C] 詞義理解題。通過下文數據earnings 25% higher和get 10-15% extra可以推測lucrative大意應為“給人帶來豐厚收入的”,故選C。

　　4.[C] 事實細節題。第4段中出現了幾個比較數字，考題要求找到此段首句提到的收人增加25%的參照點。第2段第1句中的Getting through university 表明這類學生收人增加25%的參照對象是沒讀大學的人，且從第4段第3句中的the list和第4句即可以確定這一段是在比較大學畢業與18歲畢業(即沒讀大學)收入的不同，因此C正確。

　　5.[D] 推理判斷題。結論往往出現在文章結尾,要想答對此題,一定要仔細體會本文末句。本文雖然重點討論文科沒有經濟效益，但是作者并沒有做出主觀判斷，故A、B、C都不正確，而作者在文章最后講到了人文學科雖然經濟效益不佳但學習過程更有趣，故D符合作者意思。

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