专业英语四级分类模拟69
READING COMPREHENSION
TEXT A
An Indian website, ipaidabribe, set up last summer by anti-corruption activists, reveals just how greedy officials can be. It has documented over 8,500 instances of bribery adding up to nearly 375m rupees. These include 100 rupees to get a policeman to register a complaint about a stolen mobile phone and 500 rupees for a clerk to hand over a marriage certificate. The amounts are much larger to facilitate income-tax refunds, where the standard "charge" is 10%; sums between 5,000 and 50,000 rupees change hands.
But such initiatives can do little beyond allowing people to vent their anger about corruption. Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser to India's finance ministry, suggests that this may be partly because the law treats both bribe-giving and bribe-taking as crimes. This makes it hard to blow the whistle on corrupt officials, because the bribe-giver has also broken the law. In a provocative paper based on game theory, Mr Basu argues for the legalisation of some kinds of bribe-giving. His proposal has caused a furious debate in India, with television channels even assembling panels to discuss it.
Some thunder that the economist is condoning (宽恕) corruption. But Mr Basu makes clear that paying an official to bend the rules in one's favour should continue to be illegal. The category of payments he would like to legalise are "harassment bribes", made by a person to get things to which he is legally entitled. In such cases, Mr Basu argues, the giver should be granted immunity (豁免) from prosecution and a proven complaint should result not only in punishment for the corrupt official but also in a "refund" for the bribe-giver. These steps, he believes, will give bribery victims the confidence to lodge complaints and encouraging them to hang on to evidence of bribery. Fear of being caught should make officials more wary of asking for bribes in the first place.
This sounds promising in theory. But India's courts are notoriously slow. Jean Dregraveze, an Indian development economist, thinks that the di fficulty of pursuing a legal case against a corrupt official may mean that few will complain. If so, Mr Basu's idea may unintentionally result in an increase in the incidence of corruption. At least some people who would earlier have refused when asked for a bribe, Mr Dregraveze thinks, would now pay up.    Yet when the bribes are for things that are their due, refusal to pay is unrealistic for most people. The tone of those posting on the bribe-reporting website suggest that people are keen to strike back at corrupt officials. Because Mr Basu's idea should make this easier, it is worth considering. So are steps such as moving more transactions online, to reduce contact with officials. Fighting corruption will need more than one clever idea.
1、 The author points out that ipaidabribe may NOT be effective in ______.
A. revealing the phenomenon of corruption
B. exposing the greedy officials to the public
C. expressing people's anger over corruption
D. getting the greedy officials punished by law
2、 In Para. 2, Mr Basu suggests that some kinds of bribe-giving should be ______.
A. strongly condemned
B. encouraged by the government
C. punished slightly
D. exempted from
prosecution
3、 The "harassment bribes" are the bribes that are made in order to ______.
A. bend the rules in one's favor
B. get what is entitled by law
C. obtain some privileges
D. cause trouble for the officials
4、 Jean Dregraveze most probably agrees that Mr Basu's idea is ______.
A. unreasonable
B. thoughtless
C.
impractical    D. ridiculous
5、 As it is mentioned in the last paragraph, most people don't refuse to give
a bribe when ______.
A. they are denied what they deserve
B. they are forced to do so
C. their complaints will be handled quickly
D. other people do the same
I was in nay third year of teaching creative writing at Ralph McKee Vocational School in Staten Island, New York, when one of my students, 16-year-old Mikey, gave me a note from his mother. It explained his absence from class the day before.
I had seen Mikey writing the note at his desk, using his left hand to disguis e his handwriting. I said nothing. Most parental-excuse notes I received back in those days were penned by my students. They'd been forging excuse notes since they learned to write, and if I were to confront each forger I'd be busy 24 hours a day.
I threw Mikey's note into a desk drawer along with dozens of other notes. While my classes took a te
st, I decided to read all the notes I'd only glanced at before. I made two piles, one for the genuine ones written by mothers, the other for forgeries. The second was the larger pile, with writing that ranged from imaginative to lunatic.
I was having an idea.
Isn't it remarkable, I thought, how the students complained and said it was hard putting 200 words together on any subject? But when they forged excuse notes, they were brilliant. The notes I had could be turned into a collection of Great American Excuses. They were samples of talent never mentioned in song, story or study.
How could I have ignored these gems of fiction and fantasy? Here was American high school writing at its best—raw, real, urgent, brief, and lying. I read:    "The stove caught fire and the wallpaper went up and the fire department kept us out of the house all night."
"Arnold was getting off the train and the door closed on his school bag and the train took it away. He yelled to the conductor who said very vulgar things as the train drove away."
"His sister's dog ate his homework and I hope it chokes him."
The writers of these notes didn't realize that honest excuse notes were usually dull: "Peter was late because the alarm clock didn't go off."
One day I typed out a dozen excuse notes and distributed them to my senior classes. The students read them silently, intently. "Mr. McCourt, who wrote these?" asked one boy.
"You did," I said. "I omitted names to protect the guilty. They're supposed to be written by parents, but you and I know the real authors. Yes, Mikey?"    "So what are we supposed to do?"
"This is the first class to study the art of the excuse note—the first class, ever, to practice writing them. You're so lucky to have a teacher like me who has taken your best writing and turned it into a subject worthy of study."
Everyone smiled as I went on, "You didn't settle for the old alarm clock
story. You used your imaginations. So try it now. Imagine you have a 15-year-old who needs an excuse for falling behind in English."
The students produced excuses, ranging from a 16-wheeler crashing into a house to a severe case of food poisoning blamed on the school cafeteria. They said, "More, more. Can we do more?"
So I said, "I'd like you to write—" And I finished, "'An Excuse Note from Adam to God' or 'An Excuse Note from Eve to God.'" Heads went down. Pens raced across paper.
Before long the bell rang. For the first time ever I saw students so immersed in their writing they had to be urged to go to lunch by their friends.
6、 What was the author's attitude towards students' forging excuse notes?
A. He found it quite understandable.
B. He was indifferent to this phenomenon.
C. He was aware of its prevalence.
D. He regarded it as a minor mistake.
7、 By saying that "I was having an idea" (Para. 4), the author means that ______.
A. he began to realize the students' writing talent
B. he began to understand the students' complaints
C. he would read all the excuse notes to the whole class
D. he would incorporate the excuse notes into his class
8、 Mikey was mentioned by the author ______.
A. as an example of those who forged excuse notes
B. as a warning to those who forged excuse notes
C. because Mikey wasn't good at writingunderstandable
D. because Mikey didn't admit his fault
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A. the importance of being honest
B. how to write excuse notes skillfully
C. the merits of creative writing
D. how to be creative in writing
TEXT B
One August afternoon, Peaches gave birth to 14 puppies. The kids were thrilled. But it crossed my mind once or twice that I had no idea how we'd find good homes for so many adorable mutts.
The father was a purebred golden retriever (寻回猎犬). And not until now had I wondered why Roberta, who gave Peaches to us, had named her in the plural. Peaches didn't resemble a peach, either. She was jet black with long retriever hair, an agreeable blend of many breeds. But she was indeed a peach, although once when her round pups were lined against her tummy, we affectionately called her "Pea Pod," and that name pretty much stuck.
The kids and I had a blast with the pups, but as our cuddly friends grew, the cleanup job on the back
yard lawn increased as well. I usually ended up with the chore after the kids had left for school in the morning, and after eight weeks the job was getting old. Besides, the time had come to start to get them settled into permanent homes.
So one weekend the kids and I piled into the van, puppies in the rear,
playfully biting each other's ears and tails, and we headed for the local humane society. But in northern California at that time, shelters were full of animals, and if they weren't adopted quickly they were put to sleep. I tried stifling that bit of information, but it wouldn't stay submerged; I cried the whole way.
When we arrived at the shelter, I dried my tears and smoothed my puffy eyes. I walked alone up to the counter and cheerfully announced I had 14 wonderful puppies for them. The woman, without looking up from her paperwork, roared, "We don't take puppies." I cried all the way home, this time with tears of relief.
So I placed an ad for "free puppies" in the newspaper. I don't think we got a single phone call. In the meantime, the kids and pups grew more inseparable. Only Happy and Callie, our two cats, were allowed to spend the nights inside, but from the giggling and the look of the blankets in the morning,
some pups had been overlooked at bedtime.
The gate on our backyard fence opened onto the elementary school's grass field. Every afternoon, scores of kids arrived to play soccer. The children loved it when their games were over, for then I would open the floodgate, releasing 14 roly-poly, tail-wagging puppies for them to play with. Surely a parent wouldn't mind taking one or two home? The parents loved the pups, too; but their disciplined ability to decline our offering amazed me.
Certainly the divine plan could not have been for us to keep all 14 puppies, even if they had been given perfect names.
I desperately searched the heavens for a solution. The odd idea came to put another ad in the paper, this time asking $10 for each puppy. It worked.    Placing a value on the mutts somehow had an effect. I made a deal with the kids: If they would prepare the puppy food and clean up the yard every day until all the puppies had homes, I would give them each, in turn, $10 for every pup sold. When he was about 11 weeks old, the last puppy—Boots, with four white socks—had gone. It was a sad day; the yard was much too quiet. So Saturday morning I had the kids get their money jars out. They proudly carried their savings as I drove them to their favorite place—the toy store.    The dog pound might have seemed easier. But I liked this ending much better.
11、 As it is mentioned in the passage, "Peaches" ______.
A. was the name of a purebred golden retriever
B. included a group of new-born puppies
C. got her name for an unknown reason
D. was one of the two dogs the author had
12、 By saying "The kids and I had a blast with the pups", the author means that ______.
A. the pups were a burden to the family
B. the pups kept the family occupied
C. the family quarreled over how to deal with the pups
D. the family was delighted with the birth of the pups
13、 The author cried on the way home to the local humane society because ______.
A. she hated to have to send away the dogs
B. the dogs might end up being killed in the shelters
C. the shelters might refuse to take the dogs
D. the new owners might maltreat the dogs
14、 What happened when some pups were overlooked at bedtime?
A. They would spend the night in the house.
B. They would be separated from the kids.
C. They would fight with the two cats.
D. They would mess up the blankets.
15、 How many times had the author failed before she was able to send away
all the pups?
A. Once.
B. Twice.
C. Three times.
D. Four times.
16、 The author rewarded the kids with money because ______.
A. they thought out the best idea
B. they helped look after the pups
C. the pups were their inseparable friends
D. the money equaled the value of each pup
The use of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas during childbirth fell out of favor in the United States decades ago, and just two hospitals—one in San Francisco and one in Seattle—still offer it. But interest in returning the dentist office staple to the delivery room is growing: respected hospitals inclu
ding Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center plan to start offering it, the federal government is reviewing it, and after a long break, the equipment needed to administer it is expected to hit the market soon.
Lori Rowell, due to give birth to her second child in June, is interested in the option.
"I would definitely think about it, and read about and talk to my doctor about it," said Rowell, 36, of Concord. "It is nice to know that it doesn't affect the baby."
Though laughing gas is commonly used for labor pain relief in Canada, Great Britain and other countries, it's been all but abandoned in the United States in favor of other options, said Judith Bishop, a certified nurse midwife at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and leader in the effort to reintroduce laughing gas for labor.
"In this country, most people when they hear about laughing gas, they think it sounds pretty retro (重新流行的), that it sounds very old-fashioned and they're sure there's something bad or dangerous about it and we must've chosen to eliminate it. But I think we eliminated it because we went for the more specialized, higher-tech options," said Bishop, who will be among the speakers Monday at a conference for New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine hospital officials.
She and other advocates of reintroducing laughing gas emphasize that it is no silver bullet—it "takes the edge off" pain rather than eliminates it. But they say it should be among the options offered to women, particularly those who give birth at small or rural hospitals that lack round-the-clock anesthesiologists (麻醉师). Laughing gas is easy for women to self-administer, takes effect quickly, and can be used late in labor.
"It's not fight for everybody, but it's something that for many women will offer a certain amount of relief," Bishop said.
17、 Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is going to ______.
A. reintroduce nitrous oxide to the dentist office
B. remove nitrous oxide from the dentist office to the delivery room
C. apply nitrous oxide in the delivery room
D. limit the use of nitrous oxide in the dentist office
18、 According to Judith Bishop, laughing gas was abandoned in the United States mainly because other options are ______.
A. less dangerous
B. more effective
C. less
disputable        D. more advanced
19、 By saying that "it is no silver bullet" (Para. 6), Judith Bishop means that ______.
A. laughing gas cannot eliminate pain
B. laughing gas cannot relieve much pain
C. laughing gas is not as dangerous as most people imagine
D. laughing gas is not as expensive as other options
20、 As it is suggested in the passage, laughing gas can NOT be used pro perly

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