1、专业英语四级-245及答案解析 (总分：99.90，做题时间：90分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：2，分数：100.00)SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS PASSAGE ONE Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and how theyll change America. Rightly so. But selfishly, Im more fascinated by Michell
2、e Obama and what she might be able to do, not just for this country, but for me as an African-American woman. As the potential First Lady, she would have the worlds attention. And that means that for the first time people will have a chance to get up close and personal with the type of African-Ameri
3、can woman they so rarely see. Usually, the lives of black women go largely unexamined. The prevailing theory seems to be that were all hot-tempered single mothers who cant keep a man. Even in the world of make-believe, black women still cant escape the stereotype of being eye-rolling, oversexed fema
4、les raised by our never-married, alcoholic mothers. These images have helped define the way all black women are viewed, including Michelle Obama. Before she ever gets the chance to commit to a cause, charity or foundation as First Lady, her most urgent and perhaps most complicated duty may be simply
5、 to be herself. It wont be easy. Because few mainstream publications have done in-depth features on regular African-American women, little is known about who we are, what we think and what we face on a regular basis. For better or worse, Michelle will represent us all. Just as she will have her crit
6、ics, she will also have millions of fans who usually have little interest in the First Lady. Many African-American blogs have written about what theyd like to see Michelle bring to the White House-mainly showing the world that a black woman can support her man and raise a strong black family. Michel
7、le will have to work to please everyonean impossible task. But for many African-American women like me, just a little of her poise, confidence and intelligence will go a long way in changing an image thats been around for far too long. PASSAGE TWO A nine-year-old schoolgirl single-handedly cooks up
8、a science-fair experiment that ends up debunking a widely practiced medical treatment. Emily Rosas target was a practice known as therapeutic touch (TT for short), whose advocates manipulate patients energy field to make them feel better and even, say some, to cure them of various ills. Yet Emilys t
9、est shows that these energy fields cant be detected, even by trained TT practitioners. Obviously mindful of the publicity value of the situation, journal editor George Lundberg appeared on TV to declare, Age doesnt matter. Its good science that matters, and this is good science. Emilys mother Linda
10、Rosa, a registered nurse, has been campaigning against TT for nearly a decade. Linda first thought about TT in the late 80s, when she learned it was on the approved list for continuing nursing education in Colorado. Its 100,000 trained practitioners (48,000 in the U.S.) dont even touch their patient
11、s. Instead, they waved their hands a few inches from the patients body, pushing energy fields around until theyre in balance. TT advocates say these manipulations can help heal wounds, relieve pain and reduce fever. The claims are taken seriously enough that TT therapists are frequently hired by lea
12、ding hospitals, at up to $70 an hour, to smooth patients energy, sometimes during surgery. Yet Rosa could not find any evidence that it works. To provide such proof, TT therapists would have to sit down for independent testingsomething they havent been eager to do, even though James Randi has offere
13、d more than $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate the existence of a human energy field, (Hes had one taker so far. She failed.) A skeptic might conclude that TT practitioners are afraid to lay their beliefs on the line. But who could turn down an innocent fourth-grader? Says Emily: I think they
14、didnt take me very seriously because Im a kid. The experiment was straightforward: 21 TT therapists stuck their hands, palms up, through a screen. Emily held her own hand over one of theirsleft or rightand the practitioners had to say which hand it was. When the results were recorded, theyd done no
15、better than they would have by simply guessing. If there was an energy field, they couldnt feel it. PASSAGE THREE I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know
16、as little of their age as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesting, springtime, or falltime.
17、 A lack of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it. He considered all such inq
18、uires on the part of a slave improper and impertinent. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old. My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the
19、daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing. The means
20、 of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when 1 was but an infantbefore I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth
21、 month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off; and the child is placed under the care of an older woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it was to hinder the development of the childs affection towards its
22、 mother. PASSAGE FOUR As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobesun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modem apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a
23、 thousand people, along with store rooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them pueb
24、los, which is Spanish for town. The people of the pueblos raised what are called the three sisterscorn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and
25、 Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain. The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly
26、 influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of todays Inuit hunted seals, walru
27、ses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou. The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Ro
28、cky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents and tipis.（分数：49.95）(1).Why does Michelle Obama hold a strong fascination for the author? (PA
29、SSAGE ONE)（分数：3.33）A.She serves as a role model for African-American women.B.She possesses many admirable qualities becoming a First Lady.C.She will present to the world a new image of African-American women.D.She will pay closer attention to the interests of African-American women.(2).What is the c
30、ommon stereotype of African-American women according to the author? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.33）A.They are victims of family violence.B.They use quite a lot of body language.C.They are of an inferior social group.D.They live on charity and social welfare.(3).What do many African-Americans write about in t
31、heir blogs? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.33）A.Whether Michelle can live up to the high expectations of her fans.B.How Michelle should behave as a public figure.C.How proud they are to have a black woman in the White House.D.What Michelle should do as wife and mother in the White House.(4).Which of the followi
32、ng is evidence that TT is widely practiced? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.33）A.TT has been in existence for decades.B.Many patients were cured by therapeutic touch.C.TT therapists are often employed by leading hospitals.D.More than 100,000 people are undergoing TT treatment.(5).Why did some TT practitioners ag
33、ree to be the subjects of Emilys experiment? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.33）A.It involved nothing more than mere guessing.B.They thought it was going to be a lot of fun.C.It was more straightforward than other experiments.D.They sensed no harm in a little girls experiment.(6).What can we learn from the passa
34、ge? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.33）A.Some widely accepted beliefs can be deceiving.B.Solid evidence weighs more than pure theories.C.Little children can be as clever as trained TT practitioners.D.The principle of TT is too profound to understand.(7).In the mid-nineteenth century, slaves often -|_|- (PASSAGE
35、THREE)（分数：3.33）A.marked their birthdays by the season.B.did not really care how old they were.C.forgot the exact time when they were born.D.pretended not to know each others birthdays.(8).The authors mother told him -|_|- (PASSAGE THREE)（分数：3.33）A.his father was black.B.nothing about his father.C.hi
36、s father was white.D.his master was his father.(9).9, It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were -|_|- (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.33）A.very small.B.difficult to defend.C.highly advanced.D.quickly constructed.(10).The phrase the three sisters in the second paragraph ref
37、ers to -|_|- (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.33）A.important crops.B.important celebrations.C.Hopi and Zuni women,D.Hopi and Zuni tribes.(11).SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS What do many African-American women hope Michelle Obama will do? (PASSAGE ONE)（分数：3.33）(12).Why did very few TT practitioners respond to t
38、he $1 million offer? (PASSAGE TWO)（分数：3.33）(13).Why didnt the author know exactly when he was born? (PASSAGE THREE)（分数：3.33）(14).What does the passage mainly discuss? (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.33）(15).According to the passage, what was the most important animal to the Plains Indians? (PASSAGE FOUR)（分数：3.3
39、3）SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS PASSAGE ONE Napoleon Bonapartes ambition to control all the area around the Mediterranean sealed him and his French soldiers to Egypt. After losing a naval battle, they were forced to remain there for three years. In 1799, while constructing a fort, a soldier di
40、scovered a piece of stele (stone pillar bearing an inscription) known as the Rosetta stone. This famous stone, which would eventually lead to the deciphering of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics dating to 3100 B.C., was written in three languages: hieroglyphics (picture writing), demotic (a shorthand v
41、ersion of hieroglyphics), and Greek. Scientists discovered that the characters, unlike those in English, could be written from right to left and in other directions as well. Twenty-three years after discovery of the Rosetta stone, Jean Francois Champollion, a French philologist, fluent in several la
42、nguages, was able to decipher the first word Ptolemy name of an Egyptian ruler. This name was written inside an oval called a cartouche. Further investigation revealed that cartouches contained names of important people of that period. Champollion painstakingly continued his search and was able to i
43、ncrease his growing list of known phonetic signs. He and an Englishman, Thomas Young, worked independently of each other to unravel the deeply hidden mysteries of this strange language. Young believed that sound values could be assigned to the symbols, while Champollion insisted that the pictures re
44、presented words. PASSAGE TWO There is a new type of advertisement becoming increasingly common in newspaper classified columns. It is sometimes placed among situations vacant, although it doesnt offer anyone a job, and sometimes it appears among situations wanted, although it is not placed by someon
45、e looking for a job, either. What it does is to offer help in applying for a job. Contact us before writing your application, or Make use of our long experience in preparing your curriculum vitae or job history, is how it is usually expressed. The growth and apparent success of such a specialized se
46、rvice is, of course, a reflection on the current high levels of unemployment. It is also an indication of the growing importance of the curriculum vitae (or job history), with the suggestion that it may now qualify as an art form in its own right. There was a time when job seeker simply wrote letter
47、s of application. Just put down your name, address, age and whether you have passed any exams, was about the average level of advice offered to young people applying for their first jobs when they left school. The letter was really just for openers, it was explained and everything else could and sho
48、uld be saved for the interview. And in those days of full employment the technique worked. The letter proved that you could write and were available for work. Your eager face and intelligent replies did the rest. Later, as you moved up the ladder, something slightly more sophisticated was called for. The advice then was to put something in the letter which would distinguish you from the rest. It might be the aggressive approach. Your search is over. I am the person you are looking for, was a widely used trick that occasionally succeeded. Or it might
