新東方：大學(xué)英語四級考試閱讀講義(九)

　　四、簡答題全真題 ��

　　Short Answer Questions ��

　　(15 minutes)��

　　Directions: In this part there is a short passage with five questionsor incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questionsor complete the statements in the fewest possible words (not exceeding 10 words).�� ��

　　I once knew a dog named Newton who had a unique sense of humour. Whenever I tossed out a Frisbee(飛碟) for him to chase, he'd take off in hot pursuit but then seem to lose track of it. Moving back and forth only a yard or two from the toy, Newton would look all around, even up into the trees. He seemed genuinely puzzled. Finally, I'd give up and head into the field to help him out. But no sooner would I get within 10 ft. of him than he would run invariably straight over to the Frisbee, grab it and start running like mad, looking over his shoulder with what looked suspiciously like a grin.��

　　Just about every pet owner has a story like this and is eager to share it with anyone who will listen. On very short notice, TIME reporters came up with 25 stories about what each is convinced is the smartest pet in the world. Among them: the cat who closes the door behind him when he goes into the bathroom; the cat who uses a toilet instead of a litter box … and flushes it afterward; the dog who goes wild when he sees his owner putting on blue jeans instead of a dress because jeans mean it is time to play; and the cat who used to wait patiently at the bus stop every day for a little girl, then walk her the six blocks home, and so on.��

　　These behaviours are certainly clever, but what do they mean? Was Newton really deceiving? Can a cat really desire privacy in the toilet? In short, do household pets really have a mental and emotional life? Their owners think so, but until recently, animal behaviour experts would have gone mad on hearing such a question. The worst sin in their moral vocabulary was anthropomorphism(擬人化), projecting human traits onto animals. A dog or a cat might behave as if it were angry, lonely, sad, happy or confused, but that was only in the eye of the viewer.What was going on, they insisted, was that the dog or cat had been conditioned, through a perhaps unintentional series of punishments and rewards, to behave in a certain way. The behaviour was a mechanical result of the training.��

　　Questions: ��

　　1. What did Newton seem puzzled about?��

　　2. Why does the author say Newton had unique sense of humour?��

　　3. What made it possible for the �玊IME�� reporters to come up with so many interesting stories about pets?��

　　4. What belief about pet behaviour was unacceptable to experts of animal behaviour?��

　　5. What is the explanation of animal-behaviour experts for the “clever” behaviour of pets?��

　　Unit 2 ��

　　Part Ⅳ Short Answer Questions ��

　　(15 minutes)��

　　Directions: In this part there is a short passage with five questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words (not exceeding 10 words).����

　　One summer my wife Chris and I were invited by friends to row down the Colorado River in a boat. Our expedition included many highly successful people — the kind who have staffs to take care of life's daily work. But in the wilder rapids, all of us naturally set aside any pretenses (矯飾) and put out backs into every stroke to keep the boat from tumbling over. At each night's encampment, we all hauled supplies and cleaned dishes. After only two days in the river, people accustomed to being spoiled and indulged had become a team, working together to cope with the unpredictable twists and turns of the river.��

　　I believe that in life — as well as on boat trips — teamwork will make all our journeys successful ones. The rhythms of teamwork have been the rhythms of my life. I played basketball alongside famous players, and the team I now coach, the New York Knicks, has recovered from years of adversity to become a major contender in the 1990s.��

　　I'm persuaded that teamwork is the key to making dreams come true. We all play on a number of teams in our lives—as part of a family, as a citizen, as a member of an agreement, written or unwritten. It contains the values and goals for every team member.��

　　For example, in the late 1970s a General Motors plant in Fremont, Calif, was the scene of constant warfare between labor and management. Distrust ran so high that the labor contract was hundreds of pages of tricky legal terms. GM spent millions trying to keep the facility up to date, but productivity and quality were continually poor. Absenteeism (曠工) was so out of control that the production line couldn't even start up on some mornings. Finally in the early 1980s, GM shut down the plant.��

　　GM became convinced that it had to create new production systems based on teamwork. In the mid-1980s it reopened the Fremont plant with Toyota, starting from scratch (從零開始) with a much simpler and shorter labor contract. It promised that executive salaries would be reduced and jobs performed by outside sellers would be given to employees before any layoffs were considered. Over a hundred job classifications were cut to just two. Instead of doing one boring job over and over, workers agreed to be part of small teams, spending equal time on various tasks.��