英語四級沖刺閱讀練習(xí)題及答案

1、英語四級沖刺閱讀練習(xí)題及答案WhenonelooksbackuponthefifteenhundredyearsthatarethelifespanoftheEnglishlanguage,heshouldbeabletonoticeanumberofsignificanttruths.Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange-attimesaslow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesaviolentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.Ourlang

2、uagehasalwaysbeenalivinggrowingorganism,ithasneverbeenstatic.Anothersignificanttruththatemergesfromsuchastudyisthatlanguageatalltimeshasbeenthepossessionnotofoneclassorgroupbutofmany.Atoneextremeithasbeenthepropertyofthecommon,ignorantfolk,whohaveuseditinthedailybusinessoftheirliving,muchastheyhaveu

3、sedtheiranimalsorthekitchenpotsandpans.JAttheotherextremeithasbeenthetreasureofthosewhohaverespecteditasaninstrumentandasignofcivilization,andwhohavestruggledbywritingitdowntogiveitsomepermanence,order,dignity,andifpossible,alittlebeauty.Asweconsiderourchanginglanguage,weshouldnoteheretwodevelopment

4、sthatareofspecialandimmediateimportancetous.OneisthatsincethetimeoftheAnglo-Saxonstherehasbeenanalmostcompletereversalofthedifferentdevicesforshowingtherelationshipofwordsinasentence.Anglo-SaxonoldEnglishwasalanguageofmanyinflections.ModernEnglishhasfewinflections.Wemustnowdependlargelyonwordorderan

5、dfunctionwordstoconveythemeaningsthattheolderlanguagedidbymeansofchangesintheformsofwords.Functionwords,youshouldunderstand,arewordssuchasprepositions,conjunctions,andafewothersthatareusedprimarilytoshowrelationshipsamongotherwords.Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.Andwhensomewordinflectionscomei

6、ntoconflictwithwordorder,theremaybetroublefortheusersofthelanguage,asweshallseelaterwhenweturnourattentiontosuchmatersasWHOorWHOMandMEorI.Thesecondfactwemustconsideristhataslanguageitselfchanges,ourattitudestowardlanguageformschangealso.Theeighteenthcentury,forexample,producedfromvarioussourcesatend

7、encytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite1. Incontrasttotheearlierlinguists,modernlinguiststendto.A. attempttocontinuethestandardizationofthelanguageB. evaluatela

8、nguagepracticesintermsofcurrentspeechratherthanstandardsorproperpatternsC. bemoreconcernedabouttheimprovementofthelanguagethanitsanalysisorhistoryD. bemoreawareoftherulesofthelanguageusage2. Choosetheappropriatemeaningfortheword“inflection“usedinline4ofparagraph2.A. Changesintheformsofwords.B. Chang

9、esinsentencestructures.C. Changesinspellingrules.D. Wordsthathavesimilarmeanings.3Whichofthefollowingstatementsisnotmentionedinthepassage?A.Itisgenerallybelievedthattheyear1500canbesetasthebeginningofthemodernEnglishlanguage.B. SomeotherlanguageshadgreatinfluenceontheEnglishlanguageatsomestagesofits

10、development.C. TheEnglishlanguagehasbeenandstillinastateofrelativelyconstantchange.D. ManyclassesorgroupshavecontributedtothedevelopmentoftheEnglishlanguage.4.Theauthoroftheseparagraphsisprobablyaan.A. historianB.philosopherC.anthropologistD.linguist5Whichofthefollowingcanbebestusedasthetitleofthepa

11、ssage?A.ThehistoryoftheEnglishlanguage.B. OurchangingattitudetowardstheEnglishlanguage.C. Ourchanginglanguage.D. SomecharacteristicsofmodernEnglish.l.B細節(jié)題。根據(jù)題干回原文中定位，閱讀文章時注意首末段及各段開頭的句子，這往往都是考點所在。這篇文章講的主要是英語語言演變的一些特點，指出了古英語與現(xiàn)代英語的不同，以及語言學(xué)家態(tài)度的轉(zhuǎn)變。本題問的正是現(xiàn)代語言學(xué)家與早期語言學(xué)家不同的傾向。根據(jù)文章末尾Theeighteenthcentury,forex

12、ample,producedfromvarioussourcesatendencytofixthelanguageintopatternsnotalwayssetinandgrew,untilatthepresenttimethereisastrongtendencytorestudyandre-evaluatelanguagepracticesintermsofthewaysinwhichpeoplespeakandwrite.現(xiàn)代語言學(xué)家傾向廣根據(jù)人們說和寫的方式評價語言實踐，而不是像早期的語言學(xué)家根據(jù)一定的模式評價語言。選項B符合文章的意思。2. A詞匯題。要根據(jù)上下文的信息判斷單詞的意

13、思。文章在第二段中間再次提到inflection時說，Afewinflections,however,havesurvived.后面文章乂舉了WHO/WHOM和ME/I為例說明inflection,這是一篇關(guān)于語言學(xué)的文章，從例子可以看出inflection的意思應(yīng)該是“單詞的變形”，選項A正確。3. A細節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章的內(nèi)容，選項A“普遍認為1500年是現(xiàn)代英語的起點”在文章中沒有提及，故為正確答案。文章第二句說Thehistoryofourlanguagehasalwaysbeenahistoryofconstantchange-attimesaslow,almostimperceptiblechange,atothertimesaviolentcollisionbetweentwolanguages.我們語言的歷史是一個不斷變化的歷史一一在一些時間里緩慢得幾乎難以察覺，在另一些時間里則是兩種語言的激烈碰撞。由此可以推斷一些其他的語言對英語的發(fā)展有重大影響，選項B符合文章的意思。4. D詞匯題。此題考查考生的推測能力和詞匯量，文章講述的是