2016年6月英语四级仔细阅读优先复习训练题

2016

年

6

月英

语

四

级

仔

细阅读优

先复

习

（

训练题

）

Newspapers often tell us of floods in some parts of the United States.

Nearly every year on the great central drainages heavy rains and melting snow cause the

waters to pour out the mountains and plains, to turn brooks into torrents, and to swell

quiet streams into wild uncontrolled rivers. From Cairo to New Orleans, and from Pittsburgh

to Paducah, the cry

sometimes become too high or too swift to be controlled communities are flooded, families

flee from their homes, croplands are washed out, and transportation comes to a halt. Hunger,

disease, and death follow the wild waters.

Although given less publicity, the agricultural damage done by the many smaller, more

frequent floods usually far exceeds the losses caused by the very grand ones. In the

Central States, ditches and drains cause the flows from spring rains and melting snow to

run far more rapidly than in the days before white men settled on the land. Once, excess

spring flood waters emptied into lakes and swampy lands, there to be detained for slow

release into stream and rivers. Now, systematic drainage has actually eliminated these

natural reservoirs.

In the more rolling sections of the East, spring runoff was formerly absorbed and held

temporarily in the porous soils beneath the unbroken expanse of forest. When large areas

were converted to farm use, removal of the forest and the practice of up-and-down hill

plowing deprived the soils of much of their ability to catch and store water.

The effects of eliminating the natural forest cover are shown in the gullied farm lands

and widened stream channels found in some densely settled areas. Partly because the stream

channels are more or less filled with material washed down from the uplands, and partly

because storm runoff has increased, the channels are today no longer able to carry all the

flow from heavy rains. This explains why the streams overtop banks far more often than in

the days before settlement.

26. The best title for the selection would be______.

A. River Rising! River Rising! B. Forests and Floods

C. Flooding in the U. S. D. The Results of Flooding

27. All of the following cause floods EXCEPT______.

A. heavy rain B. melting snow

C. increasing storm runoff D. porous soil

28. The author states that______.

A. lakes and swamps once acted like natural reservoirs

B. up-and-down hill plowing catches and stores water

C. stream channels are the best carriers of water

D. floods are easily prevented and controlled

29. According to the selection, streams overtop their banks partly because______.

A. material from higher land is washed into them

B. ditches and drains lead into them

C. rivers become too swift

D. snow melts more rapidly nowadays

30. The floods which are given most publicity______.

A. cause no damage

B. cause the most damage

C. cause less agricultural damage than the many smaller, more frequent floods

D. far exceed the smaller, more frequent floods in agricultural loss

The world has become a world of cities. With the present rate of urban growth(3. 8% in the

Third World) , the majority of the population of the world will be living in cities by the

year 2000. This will transform the rural-urban equation which has marked the history of

mankind up to now and will call for new example and a great deal of innovation to face this

phenomenon.

This being so, one must accept the fact that for some years to come, no policy will be

capable of stopping or reversing the present migratory trend from the rural areas to the

cities in the Third World. In Africa, the urban population will reach 330 million people by

the end of the century as against 150 million in 1995.

The number of people living in shanty-towns (

贫

富窟

) will inevitably increase in spite

of the efforts to improve housing conditions. Africa alone needs to build 12 million

housing units between now and the year 2000 to meet its most basic needs. In an ILO study,

M. S. V. Sethuraman estimates that in 70 Third

living in shanty-towns varies from 15% to 70% and that about US $$ 116 billion is required

to give minimum comfort to these people by the turn of the century

—

less than US $$ 10

billion per year.

The world population is growing at a rate of about 90 million people per year, with the

Third World accounting for 80 million of them. The pressure on cities can only go on

increasing. The urban population of the developing countries will exceed 2 billion people

by the year 2000 and since the main reason for the high demographic (

人口

统计

的

) growth is

poverty, the additional population will be mostly made of people of very limited means.

21. If the urban population of the developing countries exceeds 2 billion people by the

year 2000, the main problem the additional people will face is______.

A. housing B. food

C. poverty D. limited land

22. According to the passage,

comfort to these people by the turn of the century

—

less than US $$ 10 billion per year.

Do you think which year was the article written by saying

by the turn of the century?

A. 1985. B. 1990.

C. 1988. D. 2000.

23. The mankind should face the phenomenon that the world has become a world of cities

with______.

A. a lot of difficulties

B. efforts to improve housing condition

C. pressure of the basic needs

D. new models and a great deal of transformation of ideas and methods

24. In Africa, people in cities will be______by the end of the century.

A. almost twice as much as in 1985 B. doubled than that in 1985

C. over twice as much as in 1985 D. 300 million

25. In spite of the efforts to improve housing condition, the number of people living

in shanty- towns will increase because______.

A. houses in shanty-towns are cheap

B. shanty-towns could provide people with minimum comfort

C. no policy will be capable of stopping or changing the present immigrant tendency

from the rural areas to the cities in the Third World

D. the Third Word population is growing at a rate of about 80 million people per year

Southern Californians would love to find some way of knowing a month in advance whether a

11 earthquake will likely strike. One meteorologist suggests atmospheric pressure patterns

might provide some 12 . Jerome Namias of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La

Jolla, Calif. , proposed this 13 in 1988 when he reported that an unusually strong high-

pressure system developed in the North Pacific before quakes struck southern California in

1986 and 1987. Now Namias has 14 expanded his analysis by studying the summers between 1947

and 1987.

From a 15 of all southern California earthquakes with magnitudes of 4- 5 or greater

during that period, Namias 16 out the summers with many quakes and those with no quakes.

His analysis of the meteorology during these summers shows that quakes were more 17 under a

particular set of conditions; a stronger-than-normal North Pacific high pressure, a low-

pressure ridge over the 18 interior. Summers with no quakes usually had a weak Pacific high

and a poorly developed continental high, he reports in the Dec. 10 JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL

RESEARCH. Namias cannot 19 the apparent correlation between pressure and seismicity, but he

20 that variations in seafloor pressure or in sea-surface temperature might influence both

the atmospheric pressure and the ground stress in California.

A. damaging

B. idea