2018年英语四级阅读理解题库：测试吸烟

2018年英语四级阅读理解题库：测试吸烟

　　Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived (被剥夺) of cigarettes through a series of tests. In the first test, each subject (试验对象) sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and nonsmokers performed equally well. The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster， but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers. In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers made the fewest errors, but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers. The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Non-smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but al so had trouble separating important information from insignificant details. “As our tests became more complex.”Sums up Spilich,“non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins”He predicts,“smokers might per form adequately at many jobs-until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.”

　　这是一篇说明文，讲的是关于测试吸烟是否有助于思考和集中精力的实验。

　　1. The purpose of George Spilich's experiments is _______.

　　A) to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers

　　B) to show how smoking damages people's mental capacity

　　C) to prove that smoking affects people's regular performance

　　D) to find out whether smoking helps people's short-term memory

　　2. George Spilich's experiment was conducted in such a way as to _______.

　　A) compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details

　　B) put the subjects through increasingly complex tests

　　C) check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers

　　D) register the prompt responses of the subjects

　　3. The word“bested”(Line 3, Para. 5) most probably means _______.

　　A) beat B) envied C) caught up with D) made the best of

　　4. Which of the following statements is true?

　　A) Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.

　　B) Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.

　　C) Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.

　　D) Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.

　　5. We can infer from the last paragraph that _______.

　　A) smokers should not expect to become airline pilots

　　B) smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness

　　C) no airline pilots smoke during flights

　　D) smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases

　　参考答案及解析

　　1、[答案及分析]：[A]事实辨认题，依据是第1段的两句话。

　　2、[答案及分析]：[B]本题问G有S的实验是以下列哪 种方式进行的。文章第2段说the first test是simple test,第3段开头说第2个实验more complex，最后一段开头说“随着测试逐渐变得复杂，不吸烟的人越来越比吸烟者做得好”，由此可见,George Spilich进行这种测试时以由易到难的顺序进行的。因而B项正确。

　　3、[答案及分析]：[A]词义推断题。我们可以看出该被要求推断词 义的词所在的上下文意为：没有被允许吸烟的人忧于那些在测试前片刻吸过烟的人。best在此句中是动词，意思应该是“优于、超过”。而四个选项的意思分别是：beat(击败，战胜)catch up with(赶上)make the best of(充分利用)。可以看出,best和beat意思最为接近。

　　4、[答案及分析]：[C]根据第2段第2句可知C项正确：另外，根据倒数第2段的后两句、第3段第2句可知A、B、D均不正确。

　　5、[答案及分析]：[D]与本题有关的信息在最后一段两句：Spilich认为，吸烟者能胜任并不复杂的工作，但不能胜行复杂的任务。一个吸烟的飞行员不出现任何问题时能称职也驾驶飞机飞行。但是一旦出现问题，吸烟就会损害他的大脑工作能力。