2023年PETS4真题.doc

Section III Reading Comprehension (60 minutes) 阅读理解A
21、根据如下内容回答21-40题：
Competition for admission to the country's top private schools has always been tough, but this year Elisabeth realized it had reached a new level. Her wake-up call came when a man called the  Dalton School in Manhattan, where Elisabeth is admissions director, and inquired about the age cutoff for their kindergarten program. After providing the information, she asked about the age of his child. The man paused for an uncomfortably long time before answering. "Well, we don't have a child yet. We're trying to figure out when to conceive a child so the birthday is not a problem. "
Worries are spreading from Manhattan to the rest of the country. Precise current data on private schools are unavailable, but interviews with representatives of independent schools all told the same story: an oversupply of applicants, higher rejection rates. "We have people calling us for spots two years down the road, "said Marilyn of the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. "We have grandparents calling for pregnant daughters. " Public opinion polls indicate that Americans' No. 1 concern is education. Now that the long economic boom has given parents more disposable income, many are turning to private schools, even at price tags of well over $10,000 a year. "We're getting applicants from a broader area geographically than we ever have in the past," said Betsy of the Latin School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent increase in applications this year.
The problem for the applicants is that while demand has increased, supply has not. "Every
year, there are a few children who do not find places, but this year, for the first time that I know
of, there are a significant number without places," said Elisabeth. 
So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old an edge? Schools know there is no easy way to pick a class when children are so young. Many schools give preference to children of their graduates. Some make the choice by drawing lots. But most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best identify developmental maturity and cognitive potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings. They also want a diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list simply because their birthdays fall at the wrong time of year, or because too many applicants were boys.
The worst thing a parent can do is to pressure preschoolers to perform--for example, by pushing them to read or do math exercises before they're ready. Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for alternatives. Another year in preschool may be all that's needed.
From this text we learn that it is
A．harder to make a choice between public and private schools.
B．harder to go to private schools this year than before.
C．more difficult to go to public schools than to private schools.
D．as difficult to go to private schools this year as before.

22、The sentence "We have people...down the road" ( Line 3 - 4, Paragraph 2) probably means
A．we have people calling us for parking space two years ahead of time.
B．people callde us for permission to use the places two years ago.
C．we received calls from people down the road two years ago.
D．people called us for school vacancies two years in advance.

23、The text indicates that private schools are very selective because they
A．have no reliable methods to pick students for a class.
B．want a good mixture of boys and girls for classes.
C．encounter more demand than they can cope with.
D．prefer to enroll children of their relatives.

24、From the text, we can infer that the author
A．favors the idea of putting children on a waiting list.
B．agrees to test preschooler's cognitive potentials.
C．thinks children should be better prepared academically
D．disapproves of the undue pressure on preschoolers.

25、Which of the following can serve as a title of this text?
A．Hard Time for the Preschoolers
B．Prosperity of Private Schools
C．The Problem for Public Schools
D．Americans's No. 1 Concern

26、根据如下内容回答26-45题：
William Shakespeare described old age as" second childishness"--no teeth, no eyes, no taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, have been more perceptive than he realised. A paper in Neurology by Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues at the National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimers's Disease in Italy, shows that frontotemporal dementia can affect musical desires in ways that suggest a regression, if not to infancy ,then at least to a patient's teens.
Frontotemporal dementia, a disease usually found with old people, is caused, as its name
suggests ,by damage to the front and sides of the brain. These regions are concerned with speech, and with such" higher" functions as abstract thinking and judgment.
Two of such patients intrigued Dr Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia--a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning.
About two years after he was first diagnosed, the lawyer, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as "mere noise", started listening to the Italian pop band "883". As his com-mand of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyer's love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in the past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her ll-year-old granddaughter was listening to.
This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimer's patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal-dementia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities are known. And in another case, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs.
Dr Frisoni speculates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behaviour suggest that it is managed by the brain's right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific nervous system that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr Frisoni puts it in his article, there is no accounting for taste.
The writer quotes Shakespeare mainly to
A．praise the keen perception of the great English writer.
B．support Dr. Frisoni's theory about a disease.
C．start the discussion on a brain disease.
D．show the long history of the disease.

27、The word "regression" in the 1 st paragraph is best replaced by
A．backward movement.
B．uncontrolled inclination.
C．rapid advancement.
D．unexpected restoration.

28、After contracting frontotemporal dementia, the 68-year-old lawyer
A．became more dependent on his family.
B．grew fond of classical music.
C．recovered from language incompetence.
D．enjoyed loud Italian popular music.

29、Frontotemporal dementia is a disease
A．identified with loss of memory.
B．causing damage to certain parts of the brain.
C．whose patients may develop new talents.
D．whose symptoms are similar to those of Alzheimer's patients.

30、Dr Frisoni attributed the patients' changing music taste to
A．man's desire to seek novel experience.
B．the damage to the left part of the brain.
C．the shift of predominance from the right lobe to the left.
D．the weakening of some part of the nervous system.
31、根据如下内容回答31-50题：
Who's to blame? The trail of responsibility goes beyond poor maintenance of British railways, say industry critics. Stingy governments--both Labor and Tory--have cut down on investments in trains and rails. In the mid-1990s a Conservative government pushed through the sale of the entire subsidy-guzzling rail network. Operating franchises were parceled out among private companies and a separate firm, Railtrack, was awarded ownership of the tracks and stations. In the future, the theory ran back then, the private sector could pay for any improvements--with a little help from the state--and take the blame for any failings.
Today surveys show that travelers believe privatization is one of the reasons for the railways's failures. They ask whether the pursuit of profits is compatible with guaranteeing safety. Worse, split-ting the network between companies has made coordination nearly impossible. "The railway was torn apart at privatization and the structure that was put in place was...designed, if we are honest, to maximize the proceeds to the Treasury," said Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett before resigning last month in the wake of the Hatfield crash.
Generally, the contrasts with mainland Europe are stark. Over the past few decades the Germans, French and Italians have invested 50 percent more than the British in transportation infrastructure. Asa result, a web of high-speed trains now crisscross the Continent, funded by governments willing to commit state funds to major capital projects. Spain is currently planning 1,000 miles of new high-speed track. In France superfast trains already shuttle between all major cities, often on dedicated lines. And in Britain? When the Eurostar trains that link Pads, London and Brussels emerge from the Channel Tunnel onto British soil and join the crowded local network, they must slow down from 186 mph to a maximum of 100 mph--and they usually have to go even slower.
For once, the government is listening. After all, commuters are voters, too. In a pre-vote
spending spree, the government has committed itself to huge investment in transportation, as well as education and the public health service. Over the next 10 years; the railways should get an extra~60 billion, partly through higher subsidies to the private companies. As Blair acknowledged last month, "Britain has been underinvested in and investment is central to Britain's future. " You don't have to tell the 3 million passengers who use the railways every day. Last week trains to Darlington were an hour late--and crawling at Locomotion No. 1 speeds.
In the first paragraph, the author tries to
A．trace the tragedy to its defective origin.
B．remind people of Britain's glorious past.
C．explain the failure of Britain's rail network.
D．call for impartiality in assessing the situation.

32、Travelers now believe that the root cause for failures of British railway is
A．the pursuit of profit.
B．its inefficient network.
C．the lack of safety guarantees.
D．the lack of safety guarantees.

33、According to Gerald Corbett, British railway is structured
A．for the benefit of commuters.
B．to the advantage of the govemment.
C．for the effect of better coordination.
D．as a replacement of the private system.

34、Comparing British railway with those of Europe, the author thinks
A．trains in Britain can run at 100 mph at least.
B．Britain should build more express lines.
C．rails in Britain need further privatization.
D．British railway is left a long way behind.

35、What does the author think of Blair's acknowledgement?
A．It's too late to improve the situation quickly enough.
B．It's a welcomed declaration of commitment.
C．Blair should preach it to other travelers.
D．Empty words can't solve the problem.

36、根据如下内容回答36-55题：
No man has been more harshly judged than Machiavelli, especially in the two centuries following his death. But he has since found many able champions and the tide has turned. The prince has been termed a manual for tyrants, the effect of which has been most harmful,  But were Machiavelli's doctrines really new? Did he discover them? He merely had the frankness and courage to write down what everybody was thinking and what everybody knew. He merely gives us the impressions he had received from a long and intimate intercourse with princes and the affairs of state. It was Lord Bacon who said that Machiavelli tells us what princes do, not what they ought to do. When Machiavelli takes Caesar Borgia as a model, he does not praise him as a hero at all, but merely as a prince who was capable of attaining the end in view. The life of the state was the primary object. It must be maintained. And Machiavelli has laid down the principles, based upon his study and wide experience, by which this may be accomplished. He wrote from the view-point of the politician-not of the moralist. What is good politics may be bad morals, and in fact, by a strange fatality, where morals and politics clash, the latter generally gets the upper hand. And will anyone contend that the principles set forth by Machiavelli in his Prince or his Discourses have entirely perished from the earth? Has diplomacy been entirely stripped of fraud and duplicity? Let anyone read the famous eighteenth chapter of The Prince:" In what Manner Princes should Keep their Faith," and he will be convinced that what was true nearly four hundred years ago, is quite as true today.
Of the remaining works of Machiavelli the most important is the History of Florence written between 1521 and 1525, and dedicated to Clement VII. This book is merely a rapid review of the Middle Ages, and as part of it the history of Florence. Machiavelli's method has been criticized for adhering at times too closely to the chroniclers of his time, and at others rejecting their testimony without apparent reason, while in its details the authority of his History is often questionable. It is the straightforward, logical narrative, which always holds the interest of the reader, that is the greatest charm of the History.
It can be inferred from the beginning of the text that
A．many people used to think highly of Machiavelli.
B．Machiavelli had been very influential among the rulers.
C．Machiavelli was widely read among his contemporaries.
D．Machiavelli has been a target of criticism throughout history.

37、Lord Bacon's remarks on Machiavelli is quoted as
A．a support for the author's viewpoint.
B．one of the mainstream views on him.
C．a judgment in support of most critics.
D．a modification of the author's previous stand.

38、In the case of Caesar Borgia, the author holds that
A．Machiavelli has been objective.
B．Machiavelli revealed his personality.
C．Caesar Borgia was a deserved model.
D．Machiavelli overvalued Caesar Borgia.

39、According to the author, a politician's morality
A．is no match for his political ambition.
B．has been undervalued by Machiavelli and his likes.
C．is usually of secondary importance.
D．should be taken as a yardstick of his capability.

40、The author's opinion on Machiavelli's History of Florenc