2014年英语四级考试模拟试题及答案(第四套)_第9页

　　26.C 语义题。根据上下文可知，作者对Aczel的观点和statistics(数据)持怀疑的态度。而且这里在对Aczel的观点进行描述时，根据前一句“Without one，讧is anybody’s guess how likely this event actually was.”可知因为Aczel的观点不是基于一个令人信服的有关地球生命起源的理论之上的。Out of thin air所在句用的动词为conjure(想像)，所以这里out of thin air应为“无中生有的”、“没有根据的”的意思。故答案为C。

　　27.B 细节题。根据最后一段第四句“SO，until we either discover extraterrestrial life Or understand far more about how at least one form Of life—terrestrial life—first appeared，we can do littlemorethanguessatthelikel~oodthatlifeexistselsewhereintheuniverse，’’大意是：除非我们发现了外星生物，或至少了解一种地球生命的起源，否则我们对外星生命存在的可能性的判断都只能是猜测而已。可知我们现在所缺乏的是a good theory of the origin of life on earth，故答案为B。

　　28.B 细节题。题干问“尽管遭到质疑，Aczel仍然坚信的观点是什么”。根据第一段的描述进行简单的数学计算可知选项A和C均为误。根据第二段最后一句“Aczel conjures...and concludes that the probability Of life existing On at least one other planet is virtually1”, 可知Aczel是坚信其他行星上肯定有生命存在的，但是根据第一段中Some may quarrel with Aczel’s claim that as many as haft of these stars can be presumed to have planets可知这一观点遭到了质疑，故选项B正确。选项D有一定的迷惑性，虽然它是Aczel坚信的观点，但是正如作者所说，few will disagree with his conclusion that there are a very large number Of planets suitable for life，故选项D为误。答案为B。

　　29.C 观点态度题。根据最后一段But statistics cannot substitute for empirical和we should not dressup our interesting speculations朋mathematical certainties可知，作者对基于统计数据的假设是持一种怀疑的态度，故答案为C。

　　30.A 写作意图题。根据文章的主旨、本文的基调以及最后一句：And as long as we’re merely guessing，we should not dress up our interesting speculations as mathematical certainties (只要我们还仅仅是在猜测，我们就不应该用数学意义上的确定性来装饰我们的趣味十足的遐想)，故答案为A。

　　V.译文：

      Dragon totem worship in China has been around for the last 8,000 years. The ancients in China considered the dragon (or loong) a fetish that combines animals including the fish, snake, horse and ox with cloud, thunder, lightning and other natural celestial phenomena. The Chinese dragon was formed in accordance with the multicultural fusion process of the Chinese nation. To the Chinese, the dragon signifies innovation and cohesion.