2013年英语四级阅读试题及答案21

　　Passage Three

　　It is, everyone agrees, a huge task that the child performs when he learns to speak, and the fact that he does so in so short a period of time challenges explanation.

　　Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking,and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

　　Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their repertoire (能发出的全部声音). This self-imitation leads on to deliberate (有意识的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

　　A) the wonderland one often dreams about B) the bright future that one is looking forward to

　　C) the state of uncertainty before one's final goal is reached D) a world that exists only in one's imagination

　　[答案及分析]：[C]词义理解题。问文章最后一句shadowland是什么意思。我们从两方面来推测该词的含义：(1)词的构成。shadow意为“影，阴影：大小或形状不定的阴影”，land为“土地，领域”，由此可知shadowland应该是一个不太光明，理想的状态、地方：(2)从句意及前的睦，shadowland是用This来指代，而this意指上文：it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure(生活前途不定，害怕失败)。据此已不难判断答案。

　　这是一篇说明文，主要讲的是幼儿学习发音、说话的问题。

　　61. By "... challenges explanation" (Line 2, Para.1) the author means that ______.

　　A) no explanation is necessary for such an obvious phenomenon B) no explanation has been made up to now

　　C) it's no easy job to provide an adequate explanation D) it's high time that an explanation was provided

　　[答案及分析]：[C]词义理解题。问第一段第二行的“challenges explanation(对解释提出质疑、挑战)”是什么意思。该句话的意思是：“他在如此短的时间就如此做的事实(指孩子学习说话)向原有的解释提出了质疑、挑战。”可见，对儿童学习说话这一问题已有解释，但该解释不能令人信服，因而受到质疑。所以都不正确，只有[C]合适。

　　62. The third paragraph is mainly about _____.

　　A) the development of babies' early forms of language B) the difficulties of babies in learning to speak

　　C) babies' strong desire to communicate D) babies' intention to communicate

　　[答案及分析]：[A]主旨题。问第三段主要是说什么。通读全段可知该段主要是在“trace the development from the noise babies make to their first spoken words.”[A]项正是此意。

　　63. The author's purpose in writing the second paragraph is to show that children _______.

　　A) usually obey without asking questions B) are passive in the process of learning to spea

　　C) are born cooperative D) learn to speak by listening

　　[答案及分析]：[C]主旨题。问作者写第二段的目的是为了表明什么。该段的中心句是第一句话：Language learning begins with listening.[D]项正确。

　　64. From the passage we learn that ______.

　　A) early starters can learn to speak within only six months B) children show a strong desire to communicate by making noises C) imitation plays an important role in learning to speak D) children have various difficulties in learning to speak

　　[答案及分析]：[C]事实辨认题。问从文章中我们可以得到下述哪项结论。[A]项意为“早学者可以在仅仅六个月内学会说话”，[B]项意为“幼儿对用发出声音进行交流表现出强烈的愿望”，[C]项意为“在学习说话的过程中模仿很重要”，[D]项是说：“幼儿学习说话有许多困难”。[A]、[B]、[C]三项的意思在文章中都找不到，[C]项与文章原意一致。

　　65. The best title for this passage would be ______.

　　A) How Babies Learn to Speak B) Early Forms of Language C) A Huge Task for Children D)Noise Making and language Learning [答案及分析]：[A]主旨题。问下列哪个标题最适合本文。[A]“婴儿如何学说话”，[B]“语言的早期形式”，[C]孩子的一大任务”，[D]“发音和语言学习”。显然[A]项合适。