历年英语四级阅读真题全解析(2003.6-Passage Three)

　　Passage Three
　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
　　Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).
　　One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme,” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly failures.”
　　Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—probably because they were more reliable reporters.
　　A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.
　　31. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________.
　　A) to keep track of people who tend to forget things
　　B) to report their embarrassing lapses at random
　　C) to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically
　　D) to keep a record of what they did unintentionally（B）
　　32. Professor Smith discovered that ________.
　　A) certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents
　　B) many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
　　C) men tend to be more absent-minded than women
　　D) absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness（D）
　　33. “Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people ________.
　　A) often fail to programme their routines beforehand
　　B) tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
　　C) unconsciously change the sequence of doing things
　　D) are likely to mess things up if they are too tired（D）
　　34. We learn from the third paragraph that ________.
　　A) absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day
　　B) women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods
　　C) women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness
　　D) men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations（A）
　　35. It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
　　A) people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses
　　B) hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at
　　C) people should be careful when programming their actions
　　D) lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration（A）
　　这篇材料为我们讲述了一个有趣的实验。第一段首先交代了实验的基本信息。Smith教授劝使35个人在两周内记录自己全部的心不在焉的行为（absent-minded actions），在分析实验结果时，他发现这些行为大体可以归为几个类别（all of them fell into a few groupings），而它们的出现也并不是随机的。
　　第二段举了一个具体的例子。一个女人在早上上班前把狗食当作了耳坠，而把自己的耳坠喂给了狗（threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear）。对这一行为的解释是：在做某种活动的时候，人的大脑像计算机一样程式化，女人的程式是先喂狗食而后戴耳坠，而这一次她的行为由于某种原因出现了颠倒（threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear）。
　　例子解说完毕，作者开始介绍该实验的研究结果。首先，在一天之中，行为发生谬误的情况具有时间特征，且往往以两个小时为阶段，比如下午4到6点就是发生荒唐可笑行为的高峰期之一。其次，对于男人来说，荒唐行为多发期常常是在生活内容的转换阶段，比如下班后与上班前之间的时间段（between going to and from work）。关于女人的平均犯错率为何比男人高的现象，研究者是这么解释的：they were more reliable reporters，也即女人在记录犯错事件时更为诚实一些。
　　最后一段还介绍了一个研究发现：the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled。这句话比较难于理解，因为它是典型的英语思维方式，动作性质或形容词性质的意义完全由名词来表达（如absent-minded activity，hazard），与汉语完全不同。结合后文可以知道这里实际上是说我们在做擅长的事情时，会为了避免出现谬误而精神过度集中，而这常常会带来危险。
　　31. B
　　题目问Smith教授在他的实验中要求受试者做什么事。注意这里的subjects并不是通常的意思，而是受实验者的意思。
　　A，记录爱丢三落四的人们身上发生的事情。Keep track of是追踪、记录的意思。文中第一段第一句：to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight，用日记记录他们的心不在焉的行为，这里的their应该指的是受试者自己。而A是说要受试者去记录别人的行为，并不正确。
　　B，报告他们令人尴尬的随心谬误。第一段第二句：When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report，当他撰写科学报告来分析他们令人尴尬的行为谬误时。这里的embarrassing lapses与B的说法一致。
　　C，对他们的尴尬经历进行科学分析。从第一段可知，进行科学分析的是Smith教授，而不应是受试者。
　　D，记录他们无意识所作的事情。what they did unintentionally 与文中的absent-minded actions意义类似，但在文中还用embarrassing lapses对absent-minded actions做了进一步限定，指的是因心不在焉而导致的令人尴尬的谬误。这样的话，what they did unintentionally所涵盖的行为就显得过于宽泛了。
　　32. A
　　这道题问Smith教授发现了什么。
　　A，可以把所记录的事件归纳为某种类型。第一段写到教授在分析实验数据时——he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings，groupings是分组的意思，them是指所记录的心不在焉的行为，那么教授的发现就是几乎所有心不在焉行为都可以分为某种组别。也就是某几种行为归为一个类型，另外几种行为又归为一个类型，这与A的说法一致。
　　B，许多人不好意思承认他们的心不在焉行为。这是一个迷惑选项，因为第一段When he came to analyse their embarrassinglapse一句里出现了embarrassing，这个题支就用embarrassed来迷惑考生。其实原文很好理解，embarrassinglapse就是指的心不在焉行为本身，至于是否不好意思承认则没有说明。不过，这些行为都是被受试者记录下来提交给研究者的，可见受试者并没有不愿承认，否则就不会记录并提交了。
　　C，男人比女人更加心不在焉。Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—probably because they were more reliable reporters一句与此相关。从数据来看，男人比女人的心不在焉行为更少，所以C的说法不对。
　　D，心不在焉是一种可以原谅的人类弱点。文中没有提到类似的说法。
　　33. C
　　这道题问文中的Programme assembly failures是指发生在人们身上的哪种现象。
　　A，常常不能预先设计好他们的例行程式。
　　B，匆忙行事时往往会犯错。
　　C，无意识地颠倒做事情的先后次序。
　　D，身体过于疲惫时常会将事情搞糟。
　　Programme assembly failures出现在第二段末尾，而第二段前面部分所叙述的就是Programme assembly failures的具体例子。这个例子讲一个女人按照自己的例行程式，应该是先喂狗而后戴耳坠，而这天早晨她却把耳坠喂了狗，把狗食当成了耳坠。从这个例子来看，她是有自己的例行程式的，所以A不对。她犯错的原因在文中没有给出，只提到是somehow，某种原因，那么B和D为犯错特别加了前提条件就不对了。答案是C。
　　34. A
　　这道题问我们能从第三段得知什么。
　　A，心不在焉行为常在一天中的某些小时发生。第三段中有There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest一句，前半句是说一天中有一些高峰期，后半句的at our zaniest直译是“我们最愚蠢的时候”，也就是最容易犯错的时候。这句后面的一句例举出这种高峰期往往是下午4-6点这样的时间段。A的说法与这二句的意思一致。
　　B，女人在谬误多发期会非常小心地行事。
　　C，女人的谬误多发期更多。
　　D，男人的心不在焉行为经常导致搞笑的情形发生。
　　B、C、D三种情形在第三段都完全找不到相似内容。
　　35. D
　　题目问从这篇材料可以得出什么结论。
　　A，人们应该避免在谬误多发期做重要的事情。第三段提到了谬误多发期，不过没有直接说是否应该避免在这个时候做重要的事情，我们也不能妄下结论。
　　B，人们在做擅长的事情时可以避免危险。根据篇章分析中关于最后一段的内容，人们在做擅长的事情时会因为精神更为集中而使事情变得更糟（trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse），可见B的说法不正确。
　　C，人们在为自己的行动设计程式时应该多加小心。本文讨论的不是程式设计问题（比如第二段的例子中女人的程式本身是没有问题的），而是心不在焉行为会使程式出错，因此C的说法不对。
　　D，谬误并不总是由注意力缺失造成。最后一段指出注意力过于集中也可能带来危险，说明谬误并不总是由注意力缺失造成，也可以由注意力过于集中造成。D是正确的。

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大学英语四、六级考试 --- 四级真题