2013年英语四级阅读试题及答案23

　　The fridge is considered a necessity. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food first appeared with the label:"store in the refrigerator."

　　In my fridgeless fifties childhood, I was fed well and healthily. The milkman came daily, the grocer, the butcher(肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times a week. The Sunday meat would last until Wednesday and surplus (剩余) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.

　　The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food

　　preservation. A vast way of well-tried techniques already existed--natural cooling, drying, smoking salting, sugaring, bottling...

　　What refrigeration did promote was marketing--marketing hardware and electricity,

　　marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around the globe in search of a good price.

　　Consequently, most of the world's fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the wealthy countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside an artificially? heated house-while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge.

　　The fridge's effect upon the environment has been evident, while its contribution to human happiness has been insignificant, If you don't believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and turn off your fridge next winter. You may miss the hamburgers (汉堡包), but at least you'll get rid of that terrible hum.

　　这是一篇议论文。本文主要介绍的电冰箱的产业及发展情况，同时作者也阐明了本人对电冰箱的观点。文章第一段作者介绍了电冰箱产生的时间;第十段作者从自己的亲身经验谈及过去没有电冰箱的生活经历。最后作者谈了电冰箱出现后给人们带来的方便的同时，也给人们带来了害处。

　　11. The statement "In my fridgeless fifties childhood, I was fed well and heal healthily." ( Line 1, Para. 2) suggests that _______.

　　A) the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties

　　B) the author was not accustomed to use fridges even in his fifties

　　C) there was no fridge in the author's home in the 1950s.

　　D)the fridge was in its early stage of development in the 1950s

　　[答案及分析]：[C]。辨认事实题。问第二自然段的第一句话说明了什么深刻含义。该题主要目的是测试学生对该句的真正完整意思的理解。四个答案中，表面上看，A好像与原句相似，但它只说出了原句的表面意思;B和D与原题信息不符。答案C说出了原句的深刻含义“In my fridgeless Fifties childhood,…(在五十年代我是少年，当时没有电冰箱，……)”故C为正确答案。

　　12. Why does the author say that nothing was wasted before the invention of fridges?

　　A)People would not buy more food than was necessary.

　　B) Food was delivered to people two or three times a week.

　　C)Food was sold fresh and did not get rotten easily.

　　D)People had effective ways to preserve their food.

　　[答案及分析]：[D]推论题。问为什么作者说在电冰箱发明出来之前，食品也没有被浪费掉。文章中谈到各种食品商人每周送货来2-3次，对吃不完的且可能放不住的食品，人们将其重新加工可延长使用期。如：…and surplus bread and milk became all kinds of cakes故D为正确答案。B原文中虽被提及，但不是主要意思。A和C与原文不符。

　　13. Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?

　　A) Inventors B) Consumers

　　C) Manufacturers D) Traveling salesmen

　　[答案及分析]：[B]辨认事实题。问使用电冰箱之后谁的受益最小。本文作者观点很明确，“The fridge's effect upon the environment has been evident,while its contribution to human happiness has been insignificant.”故答案B是正确的：A、C、D与问题不符。

　　14. Which of the following phrases in the fifth paragraph indicates the fridge's

　　negative effect on the environment?

　　[答案及分析]：[A]。辨认事实题。问哪个词组能表达电冰箱给人类带来的副作用。在第五段中，作者指出:Every winter,millions of fridges hum away continuously,...(每年冬天，数以百万计的电冰箱在不断嗡嗡作响……)”，这是指电冰箱运转时发出噪音。很明显，这就是电冰箱给环境造成的逼作用。故A为正确答案;B、C、D意思与原文不符。

　　15. What is the author's overall attitude toward fridges?

　　A) Neutral B) Critical C) Objective D) Compromising

　　[答案及分析]：[B]。推断题。问作者对电冰箱的总的态度如何。通读全文可知，作者对电冰箱持批评态度。如在第三段中，“The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little...”，在第五段中“Every winter,millions of fridges' hum away continuously...”，在第六段中“The fridge's effect upon...insignificant.”由此右可知B为正确答案。A、C、D与本文不符。