2010年9月公共英语四级考试真题及答案

2010 年 9 月公共英语四级考试真题及答案 Section I Listening Comprehension (30 minutes) 听力 1-20 略 Section II Use of English (15 minutes) 英语常识 In 1942, the HMS Edinburgh was sunk in the Barents Sea. It was on its 21 back to Britain with ninety-one boxes of Russian gold. 22 thirty-nine years it lay there, too deep for divers to 23 . No one was allowed to explode it, either, since the bodies of sixty of the crew also lay in the 24 . Then, in 1981, an ex-diver called Jessop decided to try using new diving techniques. 25 he could not afford to finance the 26 which was going to cost four million pounds, he had to look for people who were 27 to take the risk. 28 , they were not even sure the gold was going to be there! First a Scottish diving company, then a German shipping company agreed to join in the retrieval 29 . Not long after that, Jessop 30 a fourth company to take a 31 Since the gold was the 32 of the British and the Soviet governments, they both hoped to make a 33 , too! The biggest problem was how to get 34 the gold. Fortunately, they were able to examine the Edinburgh's sister ship, the HMS Belfast, to 35 out the exact location of the bomb room, 36 the gold was stored. They knew it was to be an extremely difficult and dangerous undertaking. To reach the gold,they would have to cut a large square 37 the body of the ship, go through the empty fuel tank and down to the bomb room. After twentyeight dives, they 38 to find the first bar. Everyone worked 39 the clock, helping to clean and stack the gold, 40 as to finish the job as quickly as possible. 第 21 题： A．road B．path C．way D．passage 第 22 题： A．During B．For C．At D．Since 第 23 题： A．find B．discover C．dive D．reach 第 24 题： A．wreck B．ruin C．relic D．waste 第 25 题： A．Although B．Unless C．As D．If 第 26 题： A．research B．operation C．movement D．search 第 27 题： A．willing B．luckly C．committed D．engaged 第 28 题： A．All in all B．In addition C．In case D．After all 第 29 题： A．assignment B．temptation C．attempt D．commission 第 30 题： A．introduced B．persuaded C．associated D．stimulated 第 31 题： A．chance B．look C．measure D．choice 第 32 题： A．business B．estate C．obligation D．property 第 33 题： A．profit B．benefit C．success D．welfare 第 34 题： A．about B．around C．to D．from 第 35 题： A．get B．take C．work D．try 第 36 题： A．which B．where C．here D．there 第 37 题： A．on B．in C．among D．along 第 38 题： A．managed B．achieved C．succeeded D．fulfilled 第 39 题： A．before B．by C．with D．round 第 40 题： A．that B．much C．far D．so Section III Reading Comprehension (60 minutes) 阅读理解 A Competition for admission to the country's top private schools has always been tough, but this year Elisabeth realized it had reached a new level. Her wake-up call came when a man called the Dalton School in Manhattan, where Elisabeth is admissions director, and inquired about the age cutoff for their kindergarten program. After providing the information, she asked about the age of his child. The man paused for an uncomfortably long time before answering. "Well, we don't have a child yet. We're trying to figure out when to conceive a child so the birthday is not a problem. " Worries are spreading from Manhattan to the rest of the country. Precise current data on private schools are unavailable, but interviews with representatives of independent schools all told the same story: an oversupply of applicants, higher rejection rates. "We have people calling us for spots two years down the road, "said Marilyn of the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. "We have grandparents calling for pregnant daughters. " Public opinion polls indicate that Americans' No. 1 concern is education. Now that the long economic boom has given parents more disposable income, many are turning to private schools, even at price tags of well over $10,000 a year. "We're getting applicants from a broader area geographically than we ever have in the past," said Betsy of the Latin School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent increase in applications this year. The problem for the applicants is that while demand has increased, supply has not. "Every year, there are a few children who do not find places, but this year, for the first time that I know of, there are a significant number without places," said Elisabeth. So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old an edge? Schools know there is no easy way to pick a class when children are so young. Many schools give preference to children of their graduates. Some make the choice by drawing lots. But most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best identify developmental maturity and cognitive potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings. They also want a diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list simply because their birthdays fall at the wrong time of year, or because too many applicants were boys. The worst thing a parent can do is to pressure preschoolers to perform--for example, by pushing them to read or do math exercises before they're ready. Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for alternatives. Another year in preschool may be all that's needed. 41、From this text we learn that it is A．harder to make a choice between public and private schools. B．harder to go to private schools this year than before. C．more difficult to go to public schools than to private schools. D．as difficult to go to private schools this year as before. 42、The sentence "We have people...down the road" ( Line 3 - 4, Paragraph 2) probably means A．we have people calling us for parking space two years ahead of time. B．people callde us for permission to use the places two years ago. C．we received calls from people down the road two years ago. D．people called us for school vacancies two years in advance. 43、The text indicates that private schools are very selective because they A．have no reliable methods to pick students for a class. B．want a good mixture of boys and girls for classes. C．encounter more demand than they can cope with. D．prefer to enroll children of their relatives. 44、From the text, we can infer that the author A．favors the idea of putting children on a waiting list. B．agrees to test preschooler's cognitive potentials. C．thinks children should be better prepared academically D．disapproves of the undue pressure on preschoolers. 45、Which of the following can serve as a title of this text? A．Hard Time for the Preschoolers B．Prosperity of Private Schools C．The Problem for Public Schools D．Americans's No. 1 Concern