星火：2008年12月英語四級模擬試卷樣題及解析

　　30. What might be the reason for the application of written examination?

　　A)。文中提到it came into existence with the great increase in population and the development of modern industry，隨著人口增長和現(xiàn)代工業(yè)的發(fā)展，筆試產(chǎn)生了。學(xué)生越來越多，A room full of candidates，筆試也就進而得到發(fā)展和更廣泛的應(yīng)用。所以答案為A)。

　　31. What can we learn from the passage?

　　C)。四個選項中都提到了objective test，可推斷這是聽音的重點。短文最后一段提到(objective test) is intended to deal with facts,not personal opinions，排除A)，隨后指出客觀考試中the teacher writes a series of questions,each of which has only one correct answer，可知C)正確。B)和D)是關(guān)于written state examination的內(nèi)容。

　　Passage Three

　　The first postal service in North America began in New England in the 17th century. All mail arriving in Massachusetts colony was sent to the home of appointed official in Boston. In turn, the mail would be delivered from Boston on horseback to its destination, receiving one penny for each good article of mail. Later in the century postal services were established between Philadelphia and Delaware. In 1691,(33) (34) the British crown appointed the first postmaster general to have charge of the mail for all the colonies in North America. Later, Benjamin Franklin served as the postmaster general for the British government and then (35) was made postmaster by the newly formed United States' postal systems on a permanent basis. He increased the number of post office, introduced the use of stagecoaches to carry mail, and started a package service system. They were used to carry mail into the towns. Some communities, especially those out west, were far from the services of transportation. To serve them, the post office developed a system called"star routes".Private contractors paid to deliver mail to the communities from railways by horse and wagon.(32) The postal service, which was started 3 centuries ago, has developed into an extensive government service with post offices in every city, town, and village in the United States.

　　32. What is the main topic of this passage?

　　B)。這是一道主旨題。文章通篇出現(xiàn)了postal service,mail等詞匯，全文最后一句話是總結(jié)。從關(guān)鍵詞started...developed into都可以看出，本文講述了美國郵政業(yè)的發(fā)展史。

　　33. What is the task of the first North America postal general?

　　B)。根據(jù)選項可推斷這是一道表示任務(wù)或目的的題目。關(guān)于the first North American postal general，短文只提到了一句：the British crown appointed the first postmaster general to have charge of the mail for all the colonies in North America，答案為B)。A)是first postal service的內(nèi)容;C)是Benjamin Franklin采取的措施;而D)則是star routes的內(nèi)容。

　　34. Who appointed the first postmaster general?

　　A)。四個選項均為名詞短語，可推斷這是一道細節(jié)題，答案在文章中間的部分In 1691,the British crown appointed...。其中British crown指"英國政府"，crown本是指"皇冠"，這里代表government，后面的 postmaster general表示"郵政部長"。

　　35. Why did Benjamin Franklin deserve credit?

　　D)。題干中的credit表示"信任，稱贊"，F(xiàn)ranklin當上新成立的美國政府郵政部長后，負責(zé)建立美國的郵政系統(tǒng)，因此做了許多事，例如增加郵局的數(shù)量、運用馬車運送郵件等。他得到大家贊譽的原因就在于他建立了美國的郵政系統(tǒng)。

　　Section C

　　36. values

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)上文reflect和下文culture可知此處可能為"特點/價值"。

　　37. opportunities

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)下文"for education, employment, and entertainment"，可知此處為"機會"。

　　38. poverty

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)上文"violent crime, racial conflict"可知此處為同一性質(zhì)的"貧窮"。

　　39. space

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)下文"They moved out of their apartments... buy their own homes"可知此處為"空間"。

　　40. suburbs

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)下文"near a city"可知此處為"郊區(qū)"。

　　41. areas

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)上文"where people live"可知該處為"地區(qū)"。

　　42. adults

　　[聽前猜測]根據(jù)上文"children... are now..."可知該處為"成年人"。

　　43. executives