1、公共英语四级-145 及答案解析(总分：63.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Section Use of Eng(总题数：1，分数：20.00)The United States is presently facing serious water problems. Rain and snow do not fall 1 across the country. The Northwest receives an abundance of rain, more than 80 inches each year in some areas. 2 , parts of the West and S
2、outhwest 3 less than ten inches per year. The Northeast and Midwest 4 have had sufficient supplies of water, but recently both regions have begun to experience water 5 . 6 one point, while New Yorkers were worrying about having enough water in which to bathe, farmers in Iowa prayed that their crops
3、would 7 the hot summer months. One area that has been hit especially 8 by the increasing shortage of water is the Southwest. Cacti flourish across its deserts, but crops cannot grow in the dry, sandy 9 10 there is extensive irrigation. In some areas, farmland is 11 to desert because the life-giving
4、water has run out or become too 12 to pump from deep underground. The Southwest receives its water from 13 two sources: large, underground reserves of water, called aquifers, and the 1, 400-mile-long Colorado River. The aquifers, which were formed over thousands of years ago, are being consumed slow
5、ly 14 surely. More water is taken out than nature can 15 . The aquifers receive only 8 percent of the total precipitation; the 16 92 percent either evaporates or flows 17 into the ocean. The Ogallala Aquifer stretches 800 miles form western Texas to northen Nebraska. This underground 18 of fresh wat
6、er, containing enough water to fill Lake Huron, is perhaps the largest in the world. 19 , its water level is 20 dropping. If water consumption continues at the present rate, the Ogallala may be dry in 40 more years.（分数：20.00）A.equallyB.beforeC.evenlyD.averagelyA.HoweverB.In contrastC.ComparativelyD.
7、In generalA.receiveB.rainC.acceptD.obtainA.traditionallyB.proportionallyC.evenlyD.averagelyA.problemsB.troublesC.lossesD.shortagesA.OnB.InC.AtD.ForA.shortenB.passC.lastD.surviveA.heavilyB.hardC.thorouglyD.severelyA.earthB.soilC.areaD.fieldA.whenB.untilC.unlessD.althoughA.turningB.changingC.returning
8、D.becomingA.expensiveB.littleC.difficultD.valuableA.generallyB.initiallyC.entirelyD.primarilyA.andB.yetC.butD.orA.replaceB.provideC.renewD.substituteA.restB.remainingC.otherD.mostA.wastedB.uncheckedC.unusedD.obstructedA.aquiferB.treasureC.riverD.reserveA.FurthermoreB.HoweverC.NeverthelessD.In additi
9、onA.steadilyB.slowlyC.graduallyD.quickly二、Section Reading Co(总题数：0，分数：0.00)四、Passage 1(总题数：1，分数：5.00)The demoralizing environment, decrepit (老朽的) building and minimal materials make the high school experience for these children an uphill battle. Merely graduating from such a high school is difficult
10、, much less becoming a high-caliber science or engineering student. Schools with students from a higher socioeconomic level would not tolerate the obstacles I encountered dally. Improvements need to be made efficiently and made soon, or the divisions among people in this country will only become mor
11、e extreme. Of course, there are things that concerned citizens can do to help. Get involved with a school, especially one in a poor area. Volunteer to give a presentation or just to spend time with the children. My students were excited to talk to an insurance salesperson who came to give a career e
12、xploration lecture. They not only were genuinely interested in the opportunities he described but also were amazed that such a man would donate an afternoon to them. Although those measures can help, they are not enough. For teaching to be effective, the entire environment of the inner city needs to
13、 be changed. Teaching someone the difference between velocity and acceleration is irrelevant if the person is hungry and scared. Programs that educate parents in child-rearing, organize low-income groups into cooperative units, fight drug trafficking and help to clean up the ghettos physically will
14、improve the life in the community. The small alterations and “new“ proposals currently filling the newspapers are certainly not strong enough to transform a decaying and demoralized school structure that has been disintegrating for decades. Inner-city schools need so much more, and the children dese
15、rve so much more than our society is willing to give. Like many other people, I entered the teaching profession eager to investigate change and found many institutionalized obstacles in my way. It should not be so difficult to make a difference.（分数：5.00）(1).By saying “an uphill battle“, the author m
16、eans（分数：1.00）A.a tough task.B.a easy job.C.an upgrade class.D.climbing a hill.(2).We can learn from the text that（分数：1.00）A.the political circle will offer the help to the high schools.B.giving a presentation is beneficial to students.C.teaching methods have to be changed.D.students are afraid to ta
17、lk to strangers.(3).The author believes that（分数：1.00）A.the divisions among people result from their property.B.a high-caliber science student graduates from a ordinary high school.C.the small alterations should be done immediately.D.the society“s help to inner-city schools is inadequate.(4).It is th
18、e author“s opinion that _ will improve the life of inner city people.（分数：1.00）A.offering more education programs to studentsB.helping to clean up the ghettos physicallyC.taking measures to help extreme poor studentsD.bringing up more engineering students(5).It can be concluded from the author“s rema
19、rks that（分数：1.00）A.we should educate more high schools students.B.the obstacles in teachers“ way should be moved away.C.the decaying school buildings should be reconstructed.D.we should build up more high schools in Our city.五、Passage 2(总题数：1，分数：4.00)Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no em
20、otiona world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive, knowing neither joy nor pleasure, neither anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them a
21、s acts that were beneficial. They could not learn: they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear: people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist
22、: in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds among members of groups. Society“s economic underpinnings would be destroyed: since earning 10 million would be more pleasant than earning 10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there
23、 would be no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them. In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in imp
24、ortant ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object“s physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to ushurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorization
25、s coloured by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are “good“ and others are “bad“, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social lifefrom
26、 what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society exploits our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, pride, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individua
27、ls when perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes ort of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal and penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.（分数：4.00）(1).The reason why people might not be able to s
28、tay alive in a world without emotion is that _.（分数：0.80）A.they would not be able to tell the texture of objectsB.they would not know what was beneficial and what was harmful to themC.they would not be happy with a life without loveD.they would do things that hurt each other“s feeling(2).According to
29、 the passage, people“s learning activities are possible because they _.（分数：0.80）A.believe that emotions are fundamental for them to stay aliveB.benefit from rewarded for doing the right thingC.know what is vital to progress of societyD.enjoy being rewarded for doing the right thing(3).It can be infe
30、rred from the passage that the economic foundation of society is dependent on _.（分数：0.80）A.the ability to make moneyB.the will to work for pleasureC.the capacity to enjoy incentivesD.the categorizations of our emotional experiences(4).Emotions are significant for man“s survival and adaptation becaus
31、e _.（分数：0.80）A.they provide the means by which people view the size or shape of objectsB.they are the basis for the social feeling of agreement by which society is maintainedC.they encourage people to perform dangerous achievementsD.they generate more love than hate among people(5).The emotional asp
32、ects of an object are more important than its physical aspects in that they _.（分数：0.80）A.help society exploit its members for profitB.encourage us to perform important tasksC.help to perfect the legal and penal systemD.help us adapt our behaviour to the world surrounding us六、Passage 3(总题数：1，分数：4.00)
33、What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some advantages of its own to stand still in the fierce competitive battle field of the commerce. And this is quite true. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work f
34、orce skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as the centre to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired/rented at
35、 the lowest possible cost-must as one buys raw materials or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate pecking order. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human resource manag
36、ement is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer. By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central-usually th
37、e second most important executive, after the CEO, is the firm“s hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact, they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also m
38、ore highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new techn
39、ologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Ger many than it is i
40、n the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end
41、the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can“t effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.（分数：4.00）(1).Which of the following applies to the hum
42、an resource management of American companies?（分数：0.80）A.They hire people with the least possible money regardless of their skills.B.They see skill gaining as their employees“ own business.C.They prefer to hire self-trained workers.D.They only hire skilled workers because of keen employment competiti
43、on.(2).What is the position of the executive of human resource management in an American firm?（分数：0.80）A.He is one of the most important executives of the firm.B.His post is likely to disappear when new technologies have been introduced.C.He has no say in making important decisions of the firm.D.He
44、is directly under the chief financial executive.(3).The money most American firms put in work force training mainly goes on_.（分数：0.80）A.technological and managerial staffB.workers who will run new equipmentC.workers who lack basic background skillsD.top executives(4).Why is there a slow pace of tech
45、nological change in American firms?（分数：0.80）A.New equipment in America is more expensive.B.American firms don“t pay enough attention to on-the-job training of their work.C.The decision-making process in American firms makes them less responsive to techno logical changes.D.The professional staff of A
46、merican firms are less paid and so less creative.(5).What is the main idea of the passage?（分数：0.80）A.American firms“ human resource management strategies affect their competitive capacity.B.Human resource management is a key factor in a firm“s survival.C.The cost of work training in America is highe
47、r than that in Japan and Germany.D.American firms are different from Japanese and German firms in human resource management.七、Passage 4(总题数：1，分数：5.00)Our analysis therefore suggests that the real problem facing the black community lies in the educational obstacles prior to the Ph. D. programs rather
48、 than in the pour-in of foreign students. Equally, our analysis suggests that we ought to treat foreign students as an important source of brain gain for us and that we ought to facilitate, rather than hinder, their arrival and their entry into our work force. How could this be done? There is a long
49、-standing provision in our immigration laws under which those who bring in a certain amount of financial capital (which will “create jobs“) are allowed to immigrate: A foreigner who invests one million dollars in a commercial enterprise established in a high-unemployment area, which creates jobs for at least ten Americans, is automatically given immigrant status (i.e., a green card). We suggest extending the idea from financial to human capital. Currently, graduate students who wish to stay on in the United States after their Ph. D. s must be spons
