四级阅读训练（三）

Passage One
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.
In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Negative events like " serious illness of a family member" were high on the list, but so were some positive life-changing events, like marriage. When you take the Holmes-Rahe test you must remember that the score does not reflect how you deal with stress―it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you handle these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy.
By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports. Somehow, the research got boiled down to a memorable message. Women's magazines ran headlines like "Stress causes illness!" If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events.
But such simplistic advice is impossible to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many―like the death of a loved one―are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all stressful events is a prescription (处方) for staying away from opportunities as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never marry, have a child, take a new job or move.
The notion that all stress makes you sick also ignores a lot of what we know about people. It assumes we're all vulnerable (脆弱) and passive in the face of adversity (逆境)But what about human initiative and creativity? Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental vigor than they had before. We also know that a long time without change or challenge can lead to boredom, and physical and mental strain.

1. The result of Holmes-Rahe's medical research tells us ______.
A) the way you handle major events may cause stress
B) what should be done to avoid stress
C) what kind of event would cause stress
D) how to cope with sudden changes in life
2. The studies on stress in the early 1970's led to ______.
A) widespread concern over its harmful effects
B) great panic over the mental disorder it could cause
C) an intensive research into stress-related illnesses
D) popular avoidance of stressful jobs
3. The score of the Holmes-Rahe test shows ______.
A) how much pressure you are under
B) how positive events can change your life
C) how stressful a major event can be
D) how you can deal with life-changing events
4. Why is "such simplistic advice" (Line 1 ,Para. 3) impossible to follow?
A) No one can stay on the same job for long.
B) No prescription is effective in relieving stress.
C) People have to get married someday.
D) You could be missing opportunities as well.
5. According to the passage people who have experienced ups and downs may become _____.
A) nervous when faced with difficulties
B) physically and mentally strained
C) more capable of coping with adversity
D) indifferent toward what happens to them

Passage Two
Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.
Most episodes of absent-mindedness―forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room―are caused by a simple lack of attention, says Schacter. "You're supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded it deeply."
Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impact on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create annoying situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don't pay attention to what you did because you're involved in a conversation, you'll probably forget that the plume is in the jacket now hanging in your wardrobe (衣柜)"Your memory itself isn't failing you, "says Schacter. "Rather, you didn't give your memory system the information it needed. "
Lack of interest can also lead to absent-mindedness. "A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago," sys Zelinski," may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox. "Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory relies on just that.
Visual cues can help prevent absent-mindedness, says Schacter. "But be sure the cue is clear and available, "he cautions. If you want to remember to take a medication (药物) with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table―don't leave it in the medicine chest and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.
Another common episode of absent-mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you're there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. "Everyone does this from time to time, "says Zelinski. The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you'll likely remember.

6. Why does the author think that encoding properly is very important?
A) h helps up understand our memory system better.
B) h enables us to recall something from our memory.
C) It expands our memory capacity considerably.
D) It slows down the process of losing our memory.
7. One possible reason why women have better memories than men is that _____.
A) they have a wider range of interests
B) they are more reliant on the environment
C ) they have an unusual power of focusing their attention
D) they are more interested in what's happening around them
8. A note in the pocket can hardly serve as a reminder because _____.
A) it will easily get lost
B) it's not clear enough for you to read
C) it's out of your sight
D) it might get mixed up with other things
9. What do we learn from the last paragraph?
A) If we focus our attention on one thing, we might forget another.
B) Memory depends to a certain extent on the environment.
C) Repetition helps improve our memory.
D) If we keep forgetting things, we'd better return to where we were.
10. What is the passage mainly about?
A) The process of gradual memory loss.
B) The causes of absent-mindedness.
C) The impact of the environment on memory.
D) A way of encoding and recalling.

Passage Three
Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.
It is hard to track the blue whale, the ocean's largest creature, which has almost been killed off by commercial whaling and is now listed as an endangered species. Attaching radio devices to it is difficult, and visual sightings are too unreliable to give real insight into its behavior.
So biologists were delighted early this year when, with the help of the Navy, they were able to track a particular blue whale for 43 days, monitoring its sounds. This was possible because of the Navy's formerly top-secret system of underwater listening devices spanning the oceans.
Tracking whales is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system built over the decades to track the ships of potential enemies.
Earth scientists announced at a news conference recently that they had used the system for closely monitoring a deep-sea volcanic eruption (爆发) for the first time and that they plan similar studies.
Other scientists have proposed to use the network for tracking ocean currents and measuring changes in ocean and global temperatures.
The speed of sound in water is roughly one mile a second―slower than through land but faster than through air. What is most important, different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sounds, focusing them in the same way a stethoscope (听诊器) does when it carries faint noises from a patient's chest to a doctor's ear. This focusing is the main reason that even relatively weak sounds in the ocean, especially low-frequency ones, can often travel thousands of miles.

11. The passage is chiefly about _____.
A) an effort to protect an endangered marine species
B) the civilian use of a military detection system
C) the exposure of a U. S. Navy top-secret weapon
D) a new way to look into the behavior of blue whales
12. The underwater listening system was originally designed ______.
A) to trace and locate enemy vessels
B) to monitor deep-sea volcanic eruptions
C) to study the movement of ocean currents
D) to replace the global radio communications network
13. The deep-sea listening system makes use of _____.
A) the sophisticated technology of focusing sounds under water
B) the capability of sound to travel at high speed
C) the unique property of layers of ocean water in transmitting sound
D) low-frequency sounds travelling across different layers of water
14. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.
A) new radio devices should be developed for tracking the endangered blue whales
B) blue whales are no longer endangered with the use of the new listening system
C) opinions differ as to whether civilian scientists should be allowed to use military technology
D) military technology has great potential in civilian use
15. Which of the following is true about the U. S. Navy underwater listening network?
A) It is now partly accessible to civilian scientists.
B) It has been replaced by a more advanced system.
C) It became useless to the military after the cold war.
D) It is indispensable in protecting endangered species.

Passage Four
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.
The fitness movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s centered around aerobic exercise (有氧操). Millions of individuals became engaged in a variety of aerobic activities, and literally thousands of health spas developed around the country to capitalize (获利) on this emerging interest in fitness, particularly aerobic dancing for females. A number of fitness spas existed prior to this aerobic fitness movement, even a national chain with spas in most major cities. However, their focus was not on aerobics, but rather on weight-training programs designed to develop muscular mass, strength, and endurance in their primarily male enthusiasts. These fitness spas did not seem to benefit financially from the aerobic fitness movement to better health, since medical opinion suggested that weight-training programs offered few, if any health benefits. In recent years, however, weight training has again become increasingly popular for males and for females. Many current programs focus not only on developing muscular strength and endurance but on aerobic fitness as well.
Historically, most physical-fitness tests have usually included measures of muscular strength and endurance, not for health-related reasons, but primarily because such fitness components have been related to performance in athletics. However, in recent years, evidence has shown that training programs designed primarily to improve muscular strength and endurance might also offer some health benefits as well. The American College of Sports Medicine now recommends that weight training be part of a total fitness program for healthy Americans. Increased participation in such training is one of the specific physical activity and fitness objectives of Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives.

16. The word "spas" (Line 3, Para. 1) most probably refers to _____.
A) sports activities                  B) places for physical exercise
C) recreation centers                 D) athletic training programs
17. Early fitness spas were intended mainly for ______.
A) the promotion of aerobic exercise
B) endurance and muscular development
C) the improvement of women's figures
D) better performance in aerobic dancing
18. What was the attitude of doctors towards weight training in health improvement?
A) Positive. B) Indifferent.C) Negative.D) Cautious.
19. People were given physical fitness tests in order to find out _____.
A) how well they could do in athletics
B) what their health condition was like
C) what kind of fitness center was suitable for them
D) whether they were fit for aerobic exercise
20. Recent studies have suggested that weight training _____.
A) has become an essential part of people's life
B) may well affect the health of the trainees
C) will attract more people in the days to come
D) contributes to health improvement as well

参考答案与详解
1．[C推断题。答案在文章第1句和第4句话，尤其是第4句破折号后的部分。文章的第1句话指出，在上世纪60年代，医学研究人员ThomasHolmas和Richard Rahe为会给人造成压力的事件列了一个表，这说明他们的研究成果就是列出了哪些事件能够产生压力，所以C为正确答案。第1段第4句意为：你进行Holemes-Rahe测试的得分并不反映你该如何处理压力――它仅仅表明了你必须处理多少压力。而A、B和D项都有如何处理、如何面对压力的意思，与该句话的意思正好相反，所以都不正确。

2．[B]推断题。答案在第2段，该段第2句话说：成千上万工作和生活在压力下的美国人都在因为该项实验的结果而忧虑。一女性杂志直接就用了“压力会带来烦恼”来做文章标题，提醒人们远离压力，这都与B所指的panic相吻合。B项的panic对应文中的worry about。第2段第1句说有许多类似的studies，但这里的studies是关于哪些事件是stressful events的，和C项的关于stress-related illnesses的studies(study=research)并非是一回事，故C错；D项的错误在于将杂志的建议(avoid stressful events)等同于实际上的avoidance，故D不对；将A项内容放人题干，可知its harmful effects的its指代的是题干中的Stress'，其实，文中说人们关注的是会引起stress的events，而非stress的harmful effects。本题较难，不少书上都认为答案为A，可见A项干扰性极强。

3．[A]细节题。同第21题差不多，第1段第4句破折号后面的部分就是答案。B项与压力无关，不是实验的内容。这一实验就是在认定任何事件都有压力的前提下，来研究究竟能有多大的压力，而不是研究某一事件是否有压力，所以C错。由第21题可以排除D。考生要注意原文中的only一词，它实际上已经肯定了A而否定了B、C、D。

4．[D]细节题。第3段的第1句话提出题干中的“such simplistic advice impossible to follow”，D项对应于文中的staying away from opportunities as well as trouble．随后几句就是在解释其原因。文章更多在于说明压力与机会同在，完全不要压力也就意味着失去机会，这与那些排解压力的方法是否可行没有关系，故B不对。

5．[C]细节题。题干中的people who have experienced ups and downs是原文倒数第2句的Many come through periods of stress的同义改写；C项是more physical and mental vigor than had before的同义改写；最后一段最后两句说明一个人在承受无数磨难过后，会比以前在身心方面都更为坚强有力，也就能更好地应对不利局面，所以C对。A、B两项和文章最后一句意思恰好相反，注意原文中的without。D项中的

indifferent有“不关心、漠视”的意思，与文章中的vigor(活力，精力)不符，所以错误。命题规律对比处常考。Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental vigor than they had before．答案特征C)more capable of coping with adversity(比较结构是答案)

6．[B]细节题。第2段的第1句话表明encoding是指用特殊的方式去注意某一件事，留下深刻印象，以便后来能回忆起来，所以正确地encoding能让我们从记忆里先回忆起某种事情，因此B正确。注意原文中的定语从句that has a major importance on recalling it later(对事后记忆有重要的影响)。其 它几项文章都没有提到。

7．[D]细节题。第3段第3句话because后面的部分就是答案，文中的environment同what's happening around them是一个意思。A项文章中没有提到，文章只是说女性对周围环境更注意，但并没有说他们兴趣更
广泛。文中没有B项的意思，且B项与事实不符，人对环境的依赖应该是同等的。文中也没有地方可以看出关于C的内容正确。

8．[C]细节题。我们先来寻找试题出处：a note in the pocket是第4段所举的一个例子，例子是为了说明主题，该段的主题是第4段的前两句话。如果考生看懂了这两句话，答案是显而易见的。

9. [A]推断题。文章最后一段第2句话表明，走进一个房间却想不起你为什么要进这个房子，其原因很可能是你当时在思考某一件事，这也就是说，当你把注意力集中于一件事上的时候，就很有可能忘了别的事，所以A对。最后一句的真正意思在于让你的思绪和注意力回到走进房间之前的状态，这与环境没有太大关系，也不是要你再重复一遍先前的过程，所以B、C项都不对。D项望文生意，文章只是就某一具体情形来说的，且from time to time与keep forgetting也差的太远。本题较难，尤其是B项干扰性极强，甚至连许多老师都选B。

10．[B]主旨题。文章首句便是主旨句：Most episodes of absent mindedness are caused by a simple lack of attention．随后几段分别探讨了导致精力不集中的各种原因，所以选B。文章中没有谈到A。C项虽然在文章中被提及，但不是文章的主旨。文中提到encoding是一种paying attention to an event的方式(way)，但没有谈论encoding的方式(way)，D项显然不对。

11．[B]主旨题。回答主旨题的关键在于弄清文章结构大意。本文第1段说由于运用了海军的水下监听系统，使得追踪蓝鲸研究其习性成为可能；第2段说：这仅是该项军用技术部分公开后转为民用的一个例子而已；第3、4段则接着例举了earth scientists和other scientists对此技术的运用；最后一段则讲了该技术的原理。由此可见B正确。本文的主旨句为第3段的…as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system…。注意文中的but one example。A项中所提到的保护海洋濒危动物只是一个引子，用以引出海军军事技术，而不是文章的主旨，所以不能雪C项内容太大了，这只是某一项技术转为民用，谈不上机密武器的爆光，更何况文中第3段还提到partly uncower，也与exposure不符。D项只是一个用来说明主旨的实例，不是文章重心。答案特征B)the civilian use of a military detection system(体现主旨的是答案)

12．[A]细节题。第3段的不定式to track the ships of potential enemies作目的状语．即是答案。其中的track就有trace和locate的意思。B和C都是转为民用以后，才有的用途，与originally不符。D项文中没有提到，此干扰项是对第3段uncover its global network of underwater listening system的错误理解。

13．[C]细节题。文章的最后两句说明海水的多层次性为声音的传播提供了多个频道，把声音集中起来，这和听诊器把心脏微弱的声音传到医生的耳朵里的原理是一样的，正是这种集中使得海洋里微弱的声音，特别低频率的声音传到数千公里以外，所以，这一系统的设计利用的正是海水的多层性，C正确。C项是对最后一段第2句话的抽象、概括。A项中the technology of focusing早已运用于听诊器，谈不上sophisticated，重要的是different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sound，故A不对。B“声音高速传播的特性”并不是该技术的原理，而且该项和第3段第1句话不符，注意该句中的slower。D项实际上也属于layers of water in transmitting sound的一项property，C对则D不对，一道题不可能有两个答案，且相比之下，C的概括、抽象表达的更全面、准确。本题主要难在对D的分析上。请读者仔细体会C与D的差异。

14．[D]推断题。文章主要就是讲军事科技转为民用的，并以海军的水下监听系统在保护海洋生物和监控深海火山爆发等方面的运用为例说明了这方面存在的巨大潜力，所以D正确。文中只是在首段末句提到了原来的天线电装置缺陷很多，没有提到改进，事实上有了更好的方法，再去对原来的设备做改进也不合情理，所以A错。新的设备只是有利于对蓝鲸的保护，但这不意味着蓝鲸的濒危局面就一定会改善，所以B错。从文章中得不出C项的结论，该干扰项的设计依据为第3段的partly一词，但仔细看――下该句便不难排除C项。命题规律注意but表示强调，强调处常考。…is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system…答案特征D)military technology has great potential in civilian use(体现主旨的选项是答案)

15．[A]推断题。第3段可以知道A是正确的，partly uncover和partly accessible意思相近。B项没有提到，且明显与文章不符。文章只说该设备是冷战期间研制出来的，且没有说冷战过后就对军方没有用了，恰恰相反，它转为民用后用途极广，故C不对。D项明显错误，这项技术在保护蓝鲸上有很大作用。

16．[B]词义题。本题属有些难度的词义理解题。我们可用排除法解答：根据上下文可知spa可能是健身场所或健身运动，故C项明显不对；若为健身运动，A和D都可成为答案，但不可能有两个答案；剩下的就只有B了。

17．[B]细节题。第1段第4句的后半部分，说明早期的健身场所主要是一些身体训练，以锻炼肌肉和耐力的主要目标，所以B对。该句的前半部分正好否定了A和D，C与该句结尾的male enthusiast矛盾。

18．[C]第2段第5句的后半部分说医生认为这种健身训练对人的身体健康好处不多，即使有也是很少的，所以应该选C(否定的)。而A(肯定的)和B(不关心的)明显错误。D(谨慎的)则不够准确。答案特征BIndifferent．(作者的态度永远不会是漠不关心)

19．[A]细节题。第2段的第1句话说以前的体能测试主要包括力量和耐力测试，主要是因为这些内容与运动联系的比较紧密――而非健康原因(not for health-related reasons)――直接关系到人们在运动中的表现，所以印证了A而排除B。文中没有提到C项。D项是对原文的曲解。

20. [D]第2段第2句说近年的研究表明，致力于力量和耐力训练的健身项目同样对身体健康有一些的好处，所以D为正确答案。D项中的weight training就是文中的“training programs designed…endurance”，contributes to对应于文中的offer…benefits。文章没有提到A，且A过于绝对。B中的affect没有说明是坏的还是好的影响，所以不如D项准确、恰当。C项只是医学界的希望或建议，而不一定会成为事实。