【word模板】大学英语四级考试阅读理解-最新.doc

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1、四六级通关秘笈大学英语四级考试阅读理解Passage One (Clinton Is Right)President Clintons decision on Apr.8 to send Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji packing without an agreement on Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization seemed to be a massive miscalculation. The President took a drubbing from much of the press, which h

2、ad breathlessly reported that a deal was in the bag. The Cabinet and Whit House still appeared divided, and business leaders were characterized as furious over the lost opportunity. Zhu charged that Clinton lacked “the courage” to reach an accord. And when Clinton later telephoned the angry Zhu to p

3、ledge a renewed effort at negotiations, the gesture was widely portrayed as a flip-flop.In fact, Clinton made the right decision in holding out for a better WTO deal. A lot more horse trading is needed before a final agreement can be reached. And without the Administrations goal of a “bullet-proof a

4、greement” that business lobbyists can enthusiastically sell to a Republican Congress, the whole process will end up in partisan acrimony that could harm relations with China for years.THE HARD PART. Many business lobbyists, while disappointed that the deal was not closed, agree that better terms can

5、 still be had. And Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, National Economic Council Director Gene B. Sperling, Commerce Secretary William M. Daley, and top trade negotiator Charlene Barshefsky all advised Clinton that while the Chinese had made a remarkable number of concessions, “were not there yet,”

6、according to senior officials.Negotiating with Zhu over the remaining issues may be the easy part. Although Clinton can signal U.S. approval for Chinas entry into the WTO himself, he needs Congress to grant Beijing permanent most-favored-nation status as part of a broad trade accord. And the temptat

7、ion for meddling on Capital Hill may prove over-whelming. Zhu had barely landed before Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) declared himself skeptical that China deserved entry into the WTO. And Senators Jesse A. Helms (R-N.C.) and Emest F. Hollings (D-S. C.) promised to introduce a bill requi

8、ring congressional approval of any deal.The hidden message from these three textile-state Southerners: Get more protection for the U. S. clothing industry. Hoping to smooth the way, the Administration tried, but failed, to budge Zhu on textiles. Also left in the lurch: Wall Street, Hollywood, and De

9、troit. Zhu refused to open up much of the lucrative Chinese securities market and insisted on “cultural” restrictions on American movies and music. He also blocked efforts to allow U. S. auto makers to provide fleet financing.BIG JOB. Already, business lobbyists are blanketing Capitol Hill to presal

10、e any eventual agreement, but what theyve heard so far isnt encouraging. Republicans, including Lott, say that “the time just isnt right” for the deal. Translation: Were determined to make it look as if Clinton has capitulated to the Chinese and is ignoring human, religious, and labor rights violati

11、ons; the theft of nuclear-weapons technology; and the sale of missile parts to Americas enemies. Beijings fierce critics within the Democratic Party, such as Senator Paul D. Wellstone of Minnesota and House Minority leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, wont help, either.Just how tough the lobbyin

12、g job on Capitol Hill will be become clear on Apr. 20, when Rubin lectured 19chief executives on the need to discipline their Republican allies. With business and the White House still trading charges over who is responsible for the defeat of fast-track trade negotiating legislation in 1997, working

13、 together wont be easy. And Republicanswith a winksay that theyll eventually embrace Chinas entry into the WTO as a favor to Corporate America. Though not long before they torture Clinton. But Zhu is out on a limb, and if Congress overdoes the criticism, he may be forced by domestic critics to reneg

14、e. Business must make this much dear to both its GOP allies and the Whit House: This historic deal is too important to risk losing to any more partisan squabbling1. The main idea of this passage is A. The Contradiction between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.B. On Chinas entry into WTO

15、.C. Clinton was right.D. Business Lobbyists Control Capitol Hill.2. What does the sentence “Also left in the lurch: Wall Street, Hollywood, Detroit” convey?A. Premier Zhu rejected their requirements.B. The three places overdid criticism.C. They wanted more protection.D. They are in trouble.3. What w

16、as the attitude of the Republican Party toward Chinas entry into the WTO?A. Contradictory. B.Appreciative.C. Disapproving. D. Detestful.4. Who plays the leading part in the deal in America?A. White House . B. Republicans.C. The Democratic Party. D. Businessmen.5. It can be inferred from the passage

17、that A. America will make concessions.B. America will hold out for a better WTOC. Clinton has the right to signal U. S. approval for Chinas entry.D. Democratic party approve Chinas entry into the WTO.Passage Two (Europes Gypsies, Are They a Nation?)The striving of countries in Central Europe to ente

18、r the European Union may offer an unprecedented chance to the continents Gypsies (or Roman) to be recognized as a nation, albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to achieve that they might even seek some kind of formal placeat least a total population outnumbers that of many of the

19、Unions present and future countries. Some experts put the figure at 4m-plus; some proponents of Gypsy rights go as high as 15m.Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to hark back to. Though their language is related to Hindi, their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held

20、 them to be born on the moon. Other Europeans (wrongly) thought them migrant Egyptians, hence the derivative Gypsy. Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and entertainers who drifted west from India in the 7th century.However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a decade ago, the n

21、otion of Romanestan as a landless nation founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. The International Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more than 30 countries, is fostering the idea of “self-rallying”. It is trying to promote a standard and written form of the language; it waves

22、 a Gypsy flag (green with a wheel) when it lobbies in such places as the United Bations; and in July it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where President Vaclav Havel said that Gypsies in his own country and elsewhere should have a better deal.At the congress a Slovak-born lawyer, Emil S

23、cuka, was elected president of the International Tomany Union. Later this month a group of elected Gypsy politicians, including members of parliament, mayors and local councilors from all over Europe (OSCE), to discuss how to persuade more Gypsies to get involved in politics.The International Romany

24、 Union is probably the most representative of the outfits that speak for Gypsies, but that is not saying a lot. Of the several hundred delegates who gathered at its congress, few were democratically elected; oddly, none came from Hungary, whose Gypsies are perhaps the worlds best organized, with som

25、e 450 Gypsy bodies advising local councils there. The union did, however, announce its ambition to set up a parliament, but how it would actually be elected was left undecided.So far, the European Commission is wary of encouraging Gypsies to present themselves as a nation. The might, it is feared, o

26、pen a Pandoras box already containing Basques, Corsicans and other awkward peoples. Besides, acknowledging Gypsies as a nation might backfire, just when several countries, particularly Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, are beginning to treat them better, in order to qualify for EU membership

27、. “The EUs whole premise is to overcome differences, not to highlight them,” says a nervous Eurocrat.But the idea that the Gypsies should win some kind of special recognition as Europes largest continent wide minority, and one with a terrible history of persecution, is catching on . Gypsies have suf

28、fered many pogroms over the centuries. In Romania, the country that still has the largest number of them (more than 1m), in the 19th century they were actually enslaved. Hitler tried to wipe them out, along with the Jews.“Gypsies deserve some space within European structures,” says Jan Marinus Wiers

29、ma, a Dutchman in the European Parliament who suggests that one of the current commissioners should be responsible for Gypsy affairs. Some prominent Gypsies say they should be more directly represented, perhaps with a quota in the European Parliament. That, they argue, might give them a boost. There

30、 are moves afoot to help them to get money for, among other things, a Gypsy university.One big snag is that Europes Gypsies are, in fact, extremely heterogeneous. They belong to many different, and often antagonistic, clans and tribes, with no common language or religion, Their self-proclaimed leade

31、rs have often proved quarrelsome and corrupt. Still, says, Dimitrina Petrova, head of the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, Gypsies shared experience of suffering entitles them to talk of one nation; their potential unity, she says, stems from “being regarded as sub-human by most majorities i

32、n Europe.”And they have begun to be a bit more pragmatic. In Slovakia and Bulgaria, for instance, Gypsy political parties are trying to form electoral blocks that could win seats in parliament. In Macedonia, a Gypsy party already has someand even runs a municipality. Nicholas Gheorge, an expert on G

33、ypsy affairs at the OSCE, reckons that, spread over Central Europe, there are now about 20 Gypsy MPS and mayors, 400-odd local councilors, and a growing number of businessmen and intellectuals. That is far from saying that they have the people or the cash to forge a nation. But, with the Gypsy quest

34、ion on the EUs agenda in Central Europe, they are making ground.1. The Best Title of this passage is A. Gypsies Want to Form a Nation. B. Are They a Nation.C. EU Is Afraid of Their Growth. C. They Are a Tribe2. Where are the most probable Gypsy territory origins?A. Most probably they drifted west fr

35、om India in the 7th century.B. They are scattered everywhere in the world.C. Probably, they stemmed from Central Europe.D. They probably came from the International Romany Union.3. What does the International Romany lobby for?A. It lobbies for a demand to be accepted by such international organizati

36、ons as EU and UN.B. It lobbies for a post in any international Romany Union.C. It lobbies for the right as a nation.D. It lobbies for a place in such international organizations as the EU or UN.4. Why is the Europe Commission wary of encouraging Gypsies to present themselves as a nation?A. It may op

37、en a Pandoras Box.B. Encouragement may lead to some unexpected results.C. It fears that the Basgnes, Corsicans and other nations seeking separation may raise the same demand.D. Gyspsies demand may highlight the difference in the EU.5. The big problem lies in the fact thatA. Gypsies belong to differe

38、nt and antagonistic clans and tribes without a common language or religion.B. Their leaders prove corrupt.C. Their potential unity stems from “being regarded as sub-human”.D. They are a bit more pragmatic.Passage Three (Method of Scientific Inquiry)Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after

39、their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand yearsand why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may b

40、e justly regarded as the products of our own timesare questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the

41、old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidentsto the influence of conjunctions in circumstances o

42、f which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close e

43、xamination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by veri

44、fication, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deductionby steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.A failure to e

45、mploy or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observationthese are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, wh

46、ether among the ancients or the moderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomen

47、on in the antithesis of “facts” and “theories” or “facts” and “ideas”in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latterproves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts

48、 and theories are not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are factsa particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possib