2023年级阅读理解真题.doc

　2023年四级
　Passage one
　　Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
　　As Artificial Intelligence(AI) becomes increasingly sophisticated, there are growing concerns that robots could become a threat. This danger can be avoided, according to computer science professor Stuart Russell, if we figure out how to turn human values into a programmable code.
　　Russell argues that as robots take on more complicated tasks, it’s necessary to translate our morals into AI language.
　　For example, if a robot does chores around the house, you wouldn’t want it to put the pet cat in the oven to make dinner for the hungry children. “You would want that robot preloaded with a good set of values,” said Russell.
　　Some robots are already programmed with basic human values. For example, mobile robots have been programmed to keep a comfortable distance from humans. Obviously there are cultural differences, but if you were talking to another person and they came up close in your personal space, you wouldn’t think that’s the kind of thing a properly brought-up person would do.
　　It will be possible to create more sophisticated moral machines, if only we can find a way to set out human values as clear rules.
　　Robots could also learn values from drawing patterns from large sets of data on human behavior. They are dangerous only if programmers are careless.
　　The biggest concern with robots going against human values is that human beings fail to so sufficient testing and they’ve produced a system that will break some kind of taboo（禁忌）.
　　One simple check would be to program a robot to check the correct course of action with a human when presented with an unusual situation.
　　If the robot is unsure whether an animal is suitable for the microwave, it has the opportunity to stop, send out beeps(嘟嘟声), and ask for directions from a human. If we humans aren’t quite sure about a decision, we go and ask somebody else.
　　The most difficult step in programming values will be deciding exactly what we believe in moral, and how to create a set of ethical rules. But if we come up with an answer, robots could be good for humanity.
　　46.What does the author say about the threat of robots?
　　A)It may constitute a challenge to computer progranmers.
　　B)It accompanies all machinery involving high technology.
　　C)It can be avoided if human values are translated into their language.
　　D)It has become an inevitable peril as technology gets more sophisticated.
　　47.What would we think of a person who invades our personal space according to the author?
　　A)They are aggressive.
　　B)They are outgoing.
　　C)They are ignorant.
　　D)They are ill-bred.
　　48.How do robots learn human values?
　　A)By interacting with humans in everyday life situations.
　　B)By following the daily routines of civilized human beings.
　　C)By picking up patterns from massive data on human behavior.
　　D)By imitating the behavior of property brought-up human beings.
　　49.What will a well-programmed robot do when facing an unusual situation?
　　A)keep a distance from possible dangers.
　　B)Stop to seek advice from a human being.
　　C)Trigger its built-in alarm system at once.
　　D)Do sufficient testing before taking action.
　　50.What is most difficult to do when we turn human values into a programmable code?
　　A)Determine what is moral and ethical.
　　B)Design some large-scale experiments.
　　C)Set rules for man-machine interaction.
　　D)Develop a more sophisticated program.
　　Passage Two
　　Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
　　Why do some people live to be older than others? You know the standard explanations: keeping a moderate diet, engaging in regular exercise, etc. But what effect does your personality have on your longevity（长寿）?Do some kinds of personalities lead to longer lives? A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looked at this question by examining the personality characteristics of 246 children of people who had lived to be at least 100.
　　The study shows that those living the longest are more outgoing, more active and less neurotic (神经质旳) than other people. Long-living women are also more likely to be sympathetic and cooperative than women with a normal life span. These findings are in agreement with what you would expect from the evolutionary theory: those who like to make friends and help others can gather enough resources to make it through tough times.
　　Interestingly, however, other characteristics that you might consider advantageous had no impact on whether study participants were likely to live longer. Those who were more self-disciplined, for instance, were no more likely to live to be very old. Also, being open to new ideas had no relationship to long life, which might explain all those bad-tempered old people who are fixed in their ways.
　　Whether you can successfully change your personality as an adult is the subject of a longstanding psychological debate. But the new paper suggests that if you want long life, you should strive to be as outgoing as possible.
　　Unfortunately, another recent study shows that your mother’s personality may also help determine your longevity. That study looked at nearly 28,000 Norwegian mothers and found that those moms who were more anxious, depressed and angry were more likely to feed their kids unhealthy diets. Patterns of childhood eating can be hard to break when we’re adults, which may mean that kids of depressed moms end up dying younger.
　　Personality isn’t destiny(命运), and everyone knows that individuals can learn to change. But both studies show that long life isn’t just a matter of your physical health but of your mental health.
　　51. The aim of the study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society is____.
　　A)to see whether people’s personality affects their life span
　　B)to find out if one’s lifestyle has any effect on their health
　　C)to investigate the role of exercise in living a long life
　　D)to examine all the factors contributing to longevity
　　52. What does the author imply about outgoing and sympathetic people?
　　A)They have a good understanding of evolution.
　　B)They are better at negotiating an agreement.
　　C)They generally appear more resourceful.
　　D)They are more likely to get over hardship.
　　53. What finding of the study might prove somewhat out of our expectation?
　　A)Easy-going people can also live a relatively long life.
　　B)Personality characteristics that prove advantageous actually vary with times.
　　C)Such personality characteristics as self-discipline have no effect on longevity.
　　D)Readiness to accept new ideas helps one enjoy longevity.
　　54. What does the recent study of Norwegian mothers show?
　　A)Children’s personality characteristics are invariably determined by their mothers.
　　B)People with unhealthy eating habits are likely to die sooner.
　　C)Mothers’ influence on children may last longer than fathers’.
　　D)Mothers’ negative personality characteristics may affect their children’s life spans.
　　55.What can we learn from the findings of the two new studies?
　　A)Anxiety and depression more often than not cut short one’s life span.
　　B)Longevity results from a combination of mental and physical health.
　　C)Personality plays a decisive role in how healthy one is.
　　D)Health is in large part related to one’s lifestyle.

2023年6级阅读理：
　Passage One
　　Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
　　Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of “Friends”, a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston’s with a few taps on their remote control.“It’s been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,”says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
　　So the news that Cablevision, and American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism. During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. Cablevision hopes to allow customers to buy things with their remote controls early next year.
　　Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year. The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. Some are turning to the Internet, which is cheaper and offers concrete measurements like click-through rates—especially important at a time when marketing budgets are tight. With the launch of interactive advertising,“many of the dollars that went to the Internet will come back to the TV,”says David Kline of Cablevision. Or so the industry hopes.
　　In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant(除臭剂)，which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
　　The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. Magna, an advertising agency, reckons it will be worth about $138 million this year. That falls far short of the billions of dollars people once expected it to generate. But DirecTV, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have all invested in it. A new effort led by Canoe Ventures, a coalition of leading cable providers, aims to make interactive advertising available across America later this year. BrightLine iTV, Which designs and sells interactive ads, says interest has surged: it expects its revenues almost to triple this year. BSkyB, Britain’s biggest satellite-television service, already provides 9 million customers with interactive ads.
　　Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a“lean back”medium, crave interaction. Click-through rates have been high so far(around 3-4%, compared with less than 0.3% online), but that may be a result of the novelty. Interactive ads and viewers might not go well together.
　　46.What does Colin Dixon mean by saying“It’s been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years”(Lines 4-5, Para.1)?
　　A)Interactive television advertising will become popular in 10-12 years.
　　B)Interactive television advertising has been under debate for the last decade or so.
　　C)Interactive television advertising is successful when incorporated into situation comedies.
　　D)Interactive television advertising has not achieved the anticipated results.
　　47.What is the public’s response to Cablevision’s planned interactive TV advertising program?
　　A)Pretty positive.
　　B)Totally indifferent.
　　C)Somewhat doubtful.
　　D)Rather critical.
　　48.What is the impact of the wide use of digital video recorders on TV advertising?
　　A)It has made TV advertising easily accessible to viewers.
　　B)It helps advertisers to measure the click-through rates.
　　C)It has placed TV advertising at a great disadvantage.
　　D)It enables viewers to check the sales items with ease.
　　49.What do we learn about Unilever’s interactive campaign?
　　A)It proves the advantage of TV advertising.
　　B)It has done well in engaging the viewers.
　　C)It helps attract investments in the company.
　　D)it has boosted the TV advertising industry.
　　50.How does the author view the hitherto high click-through rates?
　　A)They may be due to the novel way of advertising.
　　B)They signify the popularity of interactive advertising.
　　C)They point to the growing curiosity ofTV viewers.
　　D)They indicate the future direction of media reform.
　　Passage Two
　　Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
　　What can be done about mass unemployment? All the wise heads agree: there’re no quick or easy answers. There’s work to be done, but workers aren’t ready to do it—they’re in the wrong places, or they have the wrong skills, Our problems are“structural,”and will take many years to solve.
　　But don’t bother asking for evidence that justifies this bleak view. There isn’t any. On the contrary, all the facts suggest that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand. saying that there’re no easy answers sounds wise. But it’s actually foolish: our unemployment crisis could be cured very quickly if we had the intellectual clarity and political will to act. In other words, structural unemployment is a fake problem, which mainly serves as an excuse for not pursing real solutions.
　　The fact is job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three states. With a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5%. So the evidence contradicts the claim that we’re mainly suffering from structural unemployment. Why, then, has this claim become so popular?
　　Part of the answer is that this is what always happens during periods of high unemployment—in part because experts and analysts believe that declaring the problem deeply rooted, with no easy answers, makes them sound serious.
　　I’ve been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the workforce is“unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer.”A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs—and suddenly industry was eager to employ those“unadaptable and untrained”workers.
　　But now, as then, powerful forces are ideologically opposed to the whole idea of government action on a sufficient scale to jump-start the economy. And that, fundamentally, is why claims that we face huge structural problems have been multiplying: they offer a reason to do nothing about the mass unemployment that is crippling out economy and our society.
　　So what you need to know is that there’s no evidence whatsoever to back these claims. We aren’t suffering from a shortage of needed skills, We’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve. As I said, structural unemployment isn’t a real problem, it’s an excuse—a reason not to act on America’s problems at a time when action is desperately needed.
　　51.What does the author think is the root cause of mass unemployment in America?
　　A)Corporate mismanagement.
　　B)Insufficient demand.
　　C)Technological advances.
　　D)Workers’ slow adaptation.
　　52.What does the author think of the experts’ claim concerning unemployment?
　　A)Self-evident.
　　B)Thought-provoking.
　　C)Irrational.
　　D)Groundless.
　　53.What does