英语四级阅读理解练习及参考答案

　　下面是学习啦小编整理的英语四级阅读理解练习及参考答案，希望对大家有帮助。

　　英语四级阅读理解练习及参考答案：

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A ),B., C. andD. . You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

　　Educators today are more and more often heard to say that computer literacy is absolutely necessary for college students. Many even argue that each incoming freshman should have permanent access to his or hcr own microcomputer. What advantages do computers offer the college students?

　　Any student who has used a word processor will know one compelling reason to use a computer: to write papers. Although not all students feel comfortable composing on a word processor, most find revising and editing much easier on it. One can alter, insert, or delete just by pressing a few keys, thus eliminating the need to rewrite or re-type. Furthermore, since the revision process is less burdensome, students are more likely to revise as often as is necessary to end up with the best paper possible. For these reasons, many freshman English courses require the use of a word processor.

　　Computers are also useful in the context of language courses, where they are used to drill students in basic skills. Software programs reinforce ESL(English as a Second Language ) instruction, as well as instruction in French, German, Spanish, and other languages. By using these programs on a regular basis, students can improve their proficiency in a language while proceeding at their own pace.

　　Science students take advantage of computers in many ways. Using computer graphic capabilities, for example, botany students can represent and analyze different plant growth patterns. Medical students can learn to interpret computerized images of internal body structures. Physics students can complete complex calculations far

　　more quickly than they could without the use of computer.

　　Similarly, business and accounting students find that computer spreadsheet programs are all but indispensable to many aspects of their work, while students pursuing careers in graphic arts. marketing, and public relations find that knowledge of computer graphic is important. Education majors learn to develop grading systems using computers, while social science students use computers for analyzing and graphically displacing their research results.

　　It is no wonder, then, that educators support the purchase and use of microcomputers by students. A versatile tool, the computer can help students learn. And that is, after all, the reason for going to college.

　　56. The word "literacy" (Line 1, Paragraph 1) means__________.

　　A. the ability to read and write

　　B. the ability to use

　　C. literature

　　D. the knowledge of language

　　57. The main purpose of this passage is to __________.

　　A. persuade the educators to increase computer use in their own classroom

　　B. analyze advantages and disadvantages of computer use among college students

　　C. identify some of the ways that computers benefit college students

　　D. describe how computers can be used to teach foreign languages

　　58. According to the author, a word processor can be used to __________.

　　A. revise papers

　　B. retype papers

　　C. reduce the psychological burden of writing papers

　　D. improve the writing skills of a student

　　59. In this passage, the writer's argument is developed primarily through the use of __________.

　　A. cause-effect analysis

　　B. comparison and contrast

　　C. induction

　　D. examples

　　60. According to the author, the reason for students to go to college is__________.

　　A. to learn something

　　B. to perfect themselves

　　C. to improve computer skills

　　D. to make the best use of computers
 

　　英语四级阅读理解练习及参考答案：

　　Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　Language is, and should be, a living thing, constantly enriched with new words and forms of expression. But there is a vital distinction between good developments, which add to the language, enabling us to say things we could not say before, and bad developments, which subtract from the language by rendering it less precise. A vivacious, colorful use of words is not to be confused with mere slovenliness. The kind of slovenliness in which some professionals deliberately indulge is perhaps akin to the cult (迷信) of the unfinished work, which has eroded most of the arts in our time. And the true answer to it is the same that art is enhanced, not hindered, by discipline. You cannot carve satisfactorily in butter.

　　The corruption of written English has been accompanied by an even sharper decline in the standard of spoken English. We speak very much less well than was common among educated Englishmen a generation or two ago.

　　The modem theatre has played a baneful (有害的) part in dimming our appreciation of language. Instead of the immensely articulate dialogue of, for example, Shaw (who was also very insistent on good pronunciation),audiences are now subjected to streams of barely literate trivia, often designed, only too well, to exhibit 'lack of communication', and larded (夹杂) with the obscenities (下流的话) and grammatical errors of the intellectually impoverished. Emily Post once advised her readers: "The theatre is the best possible place to hear correctly-enunciated speech. " Alas, no more. One young actress was recently reported to be taking lessons in how to speak badly, so that she should fit in better.

　　But the BBC is the worst traitor. After years of very successfully helping to raise the general standard of spoken English, it suddenly went into reverse. As the head of the Pronunciation Unit coyly (含蓄地) put it, "In the 1960s the BBC opened the field to a much wider range of speakers." To hear a BBC disc jockey talking to the latest ape-like pop idol is a truly shocking experience of verbal squalor. And the prospect seems to be of even worse to come. School teachers are actively encouraged to ignore little Johnny's incoherent grammar, atrocious spelling and haphazard punctuation, because worrying about such things might inhibit his creative genius.

　　61. The writer relates linguistic slovenliness to tendencies in the arts today in that they both __________.

　　A. occasionally aim at a certain fluidity

　　B. appear to shun perfection

　　C. from time to time show regard for the finishing touch

　　D. make use of economical short cuts

　　62. "Art is enhanced, not hindered, by discipline" (Lines 6～7, Paragraph 1 ) means __________.

　　A. an artist's work will be finer if he observes certain aesthetic standards

　　B. an unfinished work is bound to be comparatively inferior

　　C. the skill of certain artists conceals their slovenliness

　　D. artistic expression is inhibited by too many roles

　　63. Many modem plays, the author finds, frequently contain speech which__________.

　　A. is incoherent and linguistically objectionable

　　B. is far too ungrammatical for most people to follow

　　C. unintentionally shocks the audience

　　D. tries to hide the author's intellectual inadequacies

　　64. The author says that the standard of the spoken English of BBC__________.

　　A. is the worst among all broadcasting networks

　　B. has raised English-speaking up to a new level

　　C. has taken a turn for the worse since the 1960s

　　D. is terrible because of a few popular disc jockeys

　　65. Teachers are likely to overlook the linguistic lapses in their pupils since__________.

　　A. they find that children no longer respond to this kind of discipline nowadays

　　B. they fear the children may become less coherent

　　C. more importance is now attached to oral expression

　　D. the children may be discouraged from expressing their ideas