1、专业英语四级-60及答案解析 (总分：100.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Passage 1(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Every year thousands of people are arrested and taken to court for shop-lifting. In Britain alone, about HK$3,000,000s worth of goods are stolen from shops every week. This amounts to something like H
2、K$150 million a year, and represents about 4 per cent of the shops total stock. As a result of this shrinkage as the shops call it, the honest public has to pay higher prices. Shop-lifters can be divided into three main categories: the professionals, the deliberate amateurs, and the people who just
3、cant help themselves. The professionals do not pose much of a problem for the store detectives, who, assisted by closed circuit television, two-way mirrors and various other technological devices, can usually cope with them. The professionals tend to go for high value goods in parts of the shops whe
4、re security measures are tightest. And, in any case, they account for only a small percentage of the total losses due to shop-lifting. The same applies to the deliberate amateur who is, so to speak, a professional in training. Most of them get caught sooner or later, and they are dealt with severely
5、 by the courts. The real problem is the person who gives way to a sudden temptation and is in all other respects an honest and law-abiding citizen. Contrary to what one would expect, this kind of shop-lifter is rarely poor. He does not steal because he needs the goods and cannot afford to pay for th
6、em. He steals because he simply cannot stop himself. And there are countless others who, because of age, sickness or plain absent-mindedness, simply forget to pay for what they take from the shops. When caught, all are liable to prosecution, and the decision whether to send for the police or not is
7、in the hands of the store manager. In order to prevent the quite incredible growth in shop-lifting offences, some stores, in fact, are doing their best to separate the thieves from the confused by prohibiting customers from taking bags into the store. However, what is most worrying about the whole p
8、roblem is, perhaps, that it is yet another instance of the innocent majority being penalized and inconvenienced because of the actions of a small minority. It is the aircraft hijack situation in another form. Because of the possibility of one passenger in a million boarding an aircraft with a weapon
9、, the other 999,999 passengers must subject themselves to searches and delays. Unless the situation in the shops improves, in ten years time we may all have to subject ourselves to a body-search every time we go into a store to buy a tin of beans!（分数：20.00）(1).Why does the honest public have to pay
10、higher prices when they go to the shops?（分数：4.00）A.There is a shrinkage in market values.B.Many goods are not available.C.Goods in many shops lack variety.D.There are many cases of shop-lifting.(2).The third group of people steal things because they _.（分数：4.00）A.are mentally illB.are quite absent-mi
11、ndedC.can not resist the temptationD.can not afford to pay for goods(3).According to the passage, law-abiding citizens _.（分数：4.00）A.can possibly steal things because of their povertyB.can possibly take away goods without payingC.have never stolen goods from the supermarketsD.are difficult to be caug
12、ht when they steal things(4).Which of the following statements is NOT true about the main types of shop-lifting?（分数：4.00）A.A big percentage of the total losses are caused by the professionals.B.The deliberate amateurs will be punished severely if they get caught.C.People would expect that those who
13、cant help themselves are poor.D.The professionals dont cause a lot of trouble to the store detectives.(5).The aircraft hijack situation is used in order to show that _.（分数：4.00）A.the professionals do not pose much of a problem for the storesB.some people simply forget to pay for what they take from
14、the shopsC.the honest public has to pay higher pricesD.the third type of shop-lifters are dangerous people三、Passage 2(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Video games have become increasingly popular in both arcades and the average American home. People of all ages and from all walks of life are enjoying hours of enterta
15、inment by feeding their time and quarters into these flashing, beeping machines. Many skeptics as well as prospective arcade owners have asked what it is that gives Pac Man, Centipede, and a multitude of other popular games their magnetic appeal to millions of players. As a video player myself, I be
16、lieve there are many answers to that question but three are outstanding. Before a full-scale attack is launched against young video players for throwing away their quarters, one should first consider the rising costs of more traditional forms of entertainment. For instance, eighteen holes of miniatu
17、re golf or ten frames of bowling will cost the player at least two dollars, and one movie costs four bucks. For just two dollars, a video player can get at least eight games, and the better he gets, the longer he can play. Compare that record with the game of miniature golf, where the better one bec
18、omes, the shorter amount of time he gets to play. Not only are the games less expensive than other forms of entertainment, but they are also more in tune with the important issues of the day. Even those people who have never been interested in science are beginning to appreciate how much science inf
19、luences our lives today. Video games, which are the products of advanced technology and uncontrolled imagination, have brought todays youth closer than ever to the exciting world of science by games. In fact, there are even cartridges which teach garners how to program computers. It is exciting to b
20、e involved with the most up-to-date ideas of the day, and video games help provide people with the opportunity to be involved. Besides the fact that they help people to get involved in technology, video games also provide an outlet for the emotions and the ego. If a man gets frustrated with his boss
21、, for example, he can go to the arcade after work to destroy enemy cruisers rather than drown his anxieties in liquor. Also, for those who feel they are not capable of excelling at anything, the games provide challenges which are easily mastered with patience and practice. It gives a person a good f
22、eeling to know that he has broken his own record or that of someone else.（分数：20.00）(1).It can be inferred that Pac Man and Centipede are _.（分数：4.00）A.traditional video gamesB.home video gamesC.popular game machinesD.prevalent video games(2).What can we learn about miniature golf from the second para
23、graph?（分数：4.00）A.The more advanced the game is, the longer time the player can play.B.The more advanced the game is, the more holes the player can play.C.The better the player plays, the shorter time the game lasts.D.The better the player plays, the less he pays for the game.(3).It is implied in the
24、 third paragraph that video games are appealing because _.（分数：4.00）A.they expand the garners horizon of imaginationB.they help the players to keep up with the scientific worldC.they are the most convenient way of learning about scienceD.they teach the players to write computer programs by themselves
25、(4).The last paragraph points out that playing video games can help people _.（分数：4.00）A.fulfill themselvesB.relieve psychological hardshipC.develop patienceD.confront any challenges in life(5).What is the authors purpose of writing the passage?（分数：4.00）A.To justify the advantages of video games.B.To
26、 promote the popularity of video games.C.To contrast video games and traditional entertainment.D.To list interesting facts in the research of video games.四、Passage 3(总题数：1，分数：20.00)The idea of a vacuum cleaner originates from the 19th century. The first vacuum cleaners had to be operated manually. T
27、wo persons were needed for this: one to operate the bellows and the other to move the mouthpiece over the floor. The dust was blown into the air. On August 30th 1901 Hubert Cecil Booth, a British engineer, received a British patent for a vacuum cleaner. It took the form of a large, horse-drawn, petr
28、ol-driven unit which was parked outside the building to be cleaned with long hoses being fed through the windows. Until then vacuum cleaners blew the dust away, but Booth came up with the idea of sucking away dust, instead of blowing. Furthermore Booth equipped his cleaner with a filter, which kept
29、the dust in the machine. All modem vacuum cleaners are based on Booths principle. As Hubert Booth, demonstrated his vacuuming device in a restaurant in 1901, two Americans introduced variations on the same theme. Corinne Dufour invented a device that sucked dust into a wet sponge. David E. Kenneys h
30、uge machine was installed in the cellar and connected to a network of pipes leading to each room in the house. A corps of cleaners moved the machine from house to house. In 1903 wealthy society ladies threw vacuum cleaner parties. Guests sipped their tea and lifted their feet for Booths uniformed at
31、tendants to vacuum the carpet. After giving a vacuum demonstration at the Royal Mint, Booth, on leaving, was promptly stopped by the police. He had forgotten to empty the dust bag, which contained a large quantity of gold dust from the Mint. In 1910 Professor Stanley Kent of University College, Bris
32、tol found 355,500,000 living organisms in just one gramme of dust extracted from Marlborough House, the home of HRH The Princess of Wales. In 1907, James Murray Spangler, a janitor in a Canton, Ohio department store, deduced that the carpet sweeper he used was the source of his cough. He tinkered wi
33、th an old fan motor and attached it to a soap box stapled to a broom handle. Using a pillow case as a dust collector on the contraption, Spangler invented a portable electric vacuum cleaner. He then improved his basic model the first to use both a cloth filter bag and cleaning attachments, and recei
34、ved a patent in 1908, and formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. One of the first buyers was a cousin, whose husband, William H. Hoover, later became the president of the Hoover Company, with Spangler as superintendent. Hoovers improvements resembled a bagpipe attached to a cake box, but they
35、worked. Sluggish sales were given a kick by Hoovers 10 day, free home trial, and eventually there was a Hoover vacuum cleaner in nearly every home. John Thurman started a horse drawn (door to door service) vacuum system in St. Louis, similar to Booths. His vacuuming services were priced at $4 per vi
36、sit in 1903. He invented his gasoline powered vacuum cleaner, in 1899 and some historians consider it the first motorized vacuum cleaner. Thurmans machine was patented on October 3, 1899 (patent #634,042).（分数：20.00）(1).Long hoses were needed because Booths vacuum cleaner _.（分数：4.00）A.was manually-op
37、eratedB.was drawn by horseC.stayed outdoorsD.sucked away dust(2).According to the passage, it involved the most manpower to put _ to work.（分数：4.00）A.the first vacuum cleanerB.Booths vacuum cleanerC.Dufours vacuum cleanerD.Kenneys vacuum cleaner(3).The author mentions the demonstration at the Royal M
38、int in order to illustrate that Booths vacuum cleaner _.（分数：4.00）A.amazed the upper classB.could work efficientlyC.was once very popularD.needed improvement(4).What was found by Stanley Kent is most similar to that was discovered by _.（分数：4.00）A.BoothB.SpanglerC.HooverD.Thurman(5).The Hoover Company
39、 began to prosper after _.（分数：4.00）A.it used the free-home-trial strategyB.it hired Spangler as superintendentC.a vacuum cleaner suitable for every family was madeD.Hoover improved Spanglers electric vacuum cleaner五、Passage 4(总题数：1，分数：20.00)Depending on which player you ask, the Fevernova ball that
40、sports equipment maker Adidas says provides the ultimate soccer experience is uncontrollable, too big or just simply stupid. The ball also has its fans, like Englands David Beckham, but so far they seem to have been outnumbered by critics. Adidas says the ball, splashed with gold coloring, is quite
41、simply the best around25 percent more accurate than the ball used at France 98 thanks to meticulous testing by scientists in Germany. The tongue-twisting nature of its contents confirms that the World Cup ball has come a long way from the leather-and-laces variety that was common as recently as the
42、1960s. The Fevernovas secret, Adidas says, is its radically improved Syntactic foam and unique knitted Raschel fabric. Given that this is supposed to make the ball faster and provide the free-kick specialists like Beckham with more power, it may not be surprising that goalkeepers like Buffon are unh
43、appy. Spain goalkeeper Pedro Contreras said the ball acts strangely, while Danish keeper Thomas Sorensen admitted gloomily that it would probably result in more spectacular goals. As a goalkeeper, you have to live with the fact that the makers create balls for the benefit of strikers, he said before
44、 leaving Copenhagen for South Korea. But outfield players have also weighed in with criticism, many saying the ball is too light and therefore hard to control. Its big and its too light, Japans Jiji news agency quoted Brazilian forward Edilson as saying earlier this month, while striker Rivaldo said
45、 it soared too far when kicked. Journalists at the main press centre in Yokohama have been given the chance to try out the Fevernova from the penalty spot, with the aim of hitting special targets in the goal. So far, few have been able to score more than five out of ten, although this may have littl
46、e to do with the quality of the ball. Putz admits that the ball is on the light side of FIFAs 420 to 445 gram weight requirement, but says it is no bigger than previous balls. The controversy over the ball also has an off-pitch dimension. Industry insiders say it may be no coincidence that players f
47、rom Brazil, sponsored by Adidas rival Nike, have been among the balls most vociferous critics. The same might go for the praise dished out for the ball by Beckham, one of the main players used to promote Adidas equipment.（分数：20.00）(1).How does Adidas describe the Fevernova ball?（分数：4.00）A.The experi
48、ence provided by the ball is the best so far.B.The ball is almost impossible to control because of its large size.C.The ball has gone through a long way of development.D.The experience provided by the ball is most welcome by strikers.(2).What does the author think about the Syntactic foam and unique Raschel fabric that are used to make the ball?（分数：4.00）A.The materials have long been used in history.B.The materials do not sound familiar.C.The materials are new and advanced.D.The m
