大学英语四级-96 (总分100,考试时间90分钟)
Reading Comprehension
It\"s very interesting to note where the debate aboutdiversity(多样化) is taking place. It is taking place primarily in political circles. Here at the College Fund, we have a lot of contact with topcorporate(公司的) leaders; none of them is talking about getting rid of those instruments that produce diversity. In fact, they say that if **panies are to compete in the global village and in the global market place, diversity is an imperative. They also say that the need for talented, skilled Americans means we have to expand the pool of potential employees. And in looking at where birth rates are growing and at where the population is shifting, corporate America understands that expanding the pool means promoting policies that help provide skills to more minorities, more women and more immigrants. Corporate leaders know that if that doesn\"t occur in our society, they will not have the engineers, the scientists, the lawyers, or the business managers they will need.
Likewise, I don\"t hear people in the academy saying. \"Let\"s go backward. Let\"s go back to the good old days, when we had ameritocracy(不拘一格选人才)\" (which was never true—we never had a meritocracy, although we\"ve come closer to it in the last 30 years). I recently visited a great little college in New York where the campus has doubled its minority population in the last six years. I talked with an African American who has been a professor there for a long time, and she remembers that when she first joined **munity, there were fewer than a handful of minorities on campus. Now, all of us feel the university is better because of the diversity. So where we hear this debate is primarily in political circles and in the media—not in corporate board rooms or on college campuses.
1. The word \"imperative\" (Line 5, Para. 1) most probably refers to something ______. A. superficial B. remarkable C. debatable D. essential
2. Which of the following groups of people still differ in their views on diversity? A. Minorities. B. Politicians. C. Professors. D. Managers.
3. High corporate leaders seem to be in favor of promoting diversity so as to ______. A. lower the rate of unemployment
B. win equal political rights for minorities C. be competitive in the world market
D. satisfy the demands of a growing population 4. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. meritocracy can never be realized without diversity B. American political circles will not accept diversity C. it is unlikely that diversity will occur in the U.S. media
D. minorities can only enter the fields where no debate is heard about diversity
5. According to the passage diversity can be achieved in American society by ______. A. expanding the pool of potential employees
B. promoting policies that provide skills to employees
C. training more engineers, scientists lawyers and business managers D. providing education for all regardless of race or sex
There is no denying that students should learn something about **puters work, just as we expect them at least to understand that **bustion engine(内燃机 )has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases andpistons(活塞) being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers **puter\"s impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. **puter literacy is not a form of literacy; it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art.
Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that **petent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making.
Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more \"user-friendly\". Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase \"learning to use a computer\" mean? It sounds like \"learning to drive a car\definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer.
In fact, \"learning to use a computer\" is much more like \"learning to play a game\rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished. 6. To be **petent citizens of tomorrow, people should ______. A. try to lay a solid foundation in computer science
B. be aware of how the things that they use do what they do C. learn to use a computer by acquiring a certain set of skills
D. understand that programming a computer is more essential than repairing a car
7. In the second paragraph \"auto repair\" and \"violin-making\" are mentioned to show that ______. A. programming a computer is as interesting as making a violin B. our society needs experts in different fields
C. violin-making requires as much skill as computer programming
D. people who can use a computer don\"t necessarily have to **puter programming 8. Learning to use a computer is getting easier all the time because ______. A. programs are becoming **plicated
B. programs are designed to be convenient to users C. programming is becoming easier and easier
D. programs are becoming readily available to computer users
9. According to the author, the phrase \"learning to use a computer\" (Line 3, Para 3) means learning ______.
A. a set of rules
B. the fundamentals of computer science C. specific programs
D. general principles of programming
10. The author\"s purpose in writing this passage is ______. A. to stress the impact of **puter on society B. to explain the concept of computer literacy
C. to illustrate the requirements for **petent citizens of tomorrow
D. to emphasize **puter programming is an interesting and challenging job
On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer andballet(芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, children\"s leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%. \"Children are affected by the same timecrunch(危机) that affects their parents,\" says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children\"s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and \"male breadwinner\" households **parable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)
All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. \"Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,\" says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.
The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing \"free time\" watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they\"re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren\"t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let\"s face it, who\"s got the time?
11. By mentioning \"the same time crunch\" (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means ______. A. children have little time to play with their parents
B. children are not taken good care of by their working parents C. both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time D. both parents and children have trouble managing their time
12. According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is ______. A. quite convincing B. partially true C. totally groundless D. rather confusing
13. According to the author a child develops better if ______. A. he has plenty of time reading and studying
B. he is left to play with his peers in his own way C. he has more time participating in school activities D. he is free to interact with his working parents
14. The author is concerned about the fact that American kids ______. A. are engaged in more and more structured activities B. are increasingly neglected by their working mothers C. are spending more and more time watching TV D. are involved less and less in household work 15. We can infer from the passage that ______.
A. extracurricular activities promote children\"s intelligence B. most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off C. efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful D. most parents believe reading to be beneficial to children
People become quite illogical when they try to decide what can be eaten and what cannot. If you rived in the Mediterranean, for instance, you would consideroctopus(章鱼) a greatdelicacy(美味佳肴). You would not be able to understand why some people find it repulsive. On the other hand, your stomach would turn at the idea of frying potatoes in animal fat—the normally accepted practice in many northern countries. The sad truth is that most of us have been brought up to eat certain foods and we stick to them all our lives.
No creature has received more praise and abuse than **mon garden snail. Cooked in wine, snails are a great luxury in various parts of the world. There are countless people who, ever since their early years, have learned to associate snails with food. My friend, Robert, lives in a country where snails are looked down upon. As his flat is in a large town, he has no garden of his own. For years he has been asking me to collect snails from my garden and take them to him. The idea never appealed to me very much, but one day, after a heavy shower, I happened to be walking in my garden when I noticed a huge number of snails taking a walk on some of my prize plants. Acting on a suddenimpulse(冲动), I collected several dozen, put them in a paper bag, and took them to Robert. Robert was delighted to see me and equally pleased with my little gift. I left the bag in the hall and Robert and I went into the living room where we talked for a couple of hours. I had forgotten all about the snails when Robert suddenly said that I must stay to dinner. Snails would, of course, be the main dish. I did not fancy the idea and I reluctantly followed Robert out of the room. To my surprise, we saw that there were snails everywhere, they had escaped from the paper bag and had **plete possession of the hall. I have never been able to look at a snail since then. 16. The word \"repulsive\" (Line 3, Para. 1) most probably means \"______\". A. disgusting B. pleasant C. acceptable D. delicious
17. We can infer from the second paragraph that when collecting the snails, the author ______. A. was glad that he could share them with his friend
B. was angry because they might damage his beloved plants C. was excited about being able to give his friend a surprise D. was depressed because it was hard to extinguish them all 18. The author finds that snails ______. A. are as delicious as octopus B. are disliked in his hometown
C. are the most controversial food D. are as popular as fried potatoes
19. The best title of this passage might be ______. A. One Man\"s Meat is Another Man\"s Poison B. Foods and Cultures C. Snail and Octopus
D. People Are Illogical in Front of Delicacies
20. As indicated in the passage, people love different foods mainly because ______. A. they live in different places
B. they learn to eat certain foods in their families C. they have different understandings of delicacy D. they are too illogical to explain
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