2015年6月大学英语四级临考提分卷（四）_第2页

　　Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:

　　There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedicated to keeping orderly records of governmental units (state and statistics come from the same Latin root, status) and a gentlemanly gambling father who relied on mathematics to increase his skill at playing the odds in games of chance. The influence of the mother on the offspring, statistics, is represented by counting, measuring, describing, tabulating, ordering, and the taking of censuses—all of which led to modern descriptive statistics. From the influence of the father came modern inferential statistics, which is based squarely on theories of probability.

　　?Descripitive statistics involves tabulating, depicting, and describing collections of data. These data may be either quantitative, such as measures of height, intelligence, or grand level—variables that are characterized by an underlying continuum—or the data may represent qualitative variables, such as sex, college major, or personality type. Large masses of data must generally undergo a process of summarization or reduction before they are comprehensible. Descriptive statistics is a tool for describing or summarizing or reducing to comprehensible from the properties of an otherwise unwieldy mass of data.

　　?Inferential statistics is a formalized body of methods for solving another class of problems that present great difficulties for the unaided human mind. This　general class of problems characteristically involves attempts to make prediction using a sample of observations. For example, a school superintendent wishes　to determine of the proportion of children in a large school system who come to school without breakfast, have been vaccinated for flu, or whatever. Having a little knowledge of statistics, the superintendent would know that it is unnecessary　and inefficient to question each child; the proportion for the entire district could be estimated fairly accurately from a sample of as few as 100 children. Thus, the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or estimate characteristics of a population from a knowledge of the characteristics of only a sample of the population.

　　?36.With what is the passage mainly concerned?

　　?A.The drawbacks of descriptive and inferential statistics.

　　?B.Applications of inferential statistics.

　　?C.The development and use of statistics.

　　?D.How to use descriptive statistics.

　　?37.Why does the author mention the “mother” and “father” in the first paragraph?

　　?A.To point out that parents can teach their children statistics.

　　?B.To introduce inferential statistics.

　　?C.To explain that there are different kinds of variables.

　　?D.To present the background of statistics in a humorous and understandable way.

　　?38.Which of the following is NOT given as an example of qualitative variable?

　　?A.Gender. B.Height.

　　?C.College major. D.Type of personality.

　　?39.Which of the following statements about descriptive statistics is best supported by the passage?

　　?A.It simplifies unwieldy masses of data.

　　?B.It leads to increased variability.

　　?C.It solves all numerical problems.

　　?D.It changes qualitative variables to quantitative variables.

　　?40.According to the passage which is the purpose of examining a sample of a population?

　　?A.To compare different groups.

　　?B.To predict characteristics of the entire population.

　　?C.To consider all the quantitative variables.

　　?D.To tabulate collections of data.

　　?Part Ⅲ Vocabulary and Structure (20 minutes)?

　　Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A),B),C) and D). Choose the one answer that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.

　　?41.He is among those lucky students who have won ____ to first rate university.

　　?A.permission B.admittance C.profession D.admission

　　?42.Mathematics as well as other subjects ____ a science.

　　?A.was B.is C.are D.belong to

　　?43.We should ____ our human and material resources if we are to succeed　in the joint venture.

　　?A.pour B.plunge C.pool D.pick

　　?44.I would appreciate ____ it a secret.

　　?A.your keeping B.that you keep

　　?C.you to keep D.that you will keep

　　?45.Some old people don’t like pop songs because they can’t ____ so much noise.

　　?A.resist B.tolerate C.sustain D.undergo

　　?46.I’ll lend you my cassette recorder ____ I’ve done with it.

　　?A.every time B.the moment C.until D.lest

　　?47.I ____ several interesting facts about Mexico in that book.

　　?A.came to B. came into C.came over D.came across

　　?48.The seeing?eye dog was the blind man’s ____ companion.

　　?A.continual B.consistent C.constant D.continuous

　　?49.Getting up is an everyday ____.

　　?A.happening B.occurrence C.incident D.event

　　?50.We are not ____ to veto(否定) our own proposals.

　　?A.likely B.possible C.probable D.potential

　　?51.This is ____ the first time you have been late.

　　?A.under no circumstances B.on no account

　　?C.by no means D.for no reason

　　?52.Can you ____ me on the phone by the sound of my voice?

　　?A.make up B.make over C.make out D.make off

　　?53.The mechanic examined the car engine ____ but could find nothing wrong with it.

　　?A.throughout B.exactly C.thoroughly D.altogether

　　?54.Mr. Smith used to work the night ____ in a power plant.

　　?A.stretch B.shift C.time D.turn

　　?55.I broke my relationship with Anne because she always found ____.

　　?A.error B.mistake C.flaw D.fault

　　?56.He failed again in the driving test. I don’t know why ____ he was so nervous.

　　?A.in the earth B.on the earth

　　?C.in earth D.on earth

　　?57.Sally’s score on the exam is the lowest in the class. She ____ hard.

　　?A.should have studied B.must have to study

　　?C.must have studied D.needn’t have studied

　　?58.If you ____ in taking this attitude, we’ll have to ask you to leave.

　　?A.insist B.keep C.resist D.persist

　　?59.In Britain, the best season of the year is probably ____ spring.

　　?A.latter B.later C.last D.late

　　?60.____ he was a regular customer, the boss allowed 10% discount off the prices of the goods.

　　?A.Giving B.Given that

　　?C.Giving that D.To give that

　　?61.Like the old, ____ respected in our country.

　　?A.the female is B.a female is

　　?C.the female are D.female is

　　?62.It was difficult to tell what her ____ to the news could be.

　　?A.impression B.comment C.reaction D.opinion

　　?63.American women were ____ the right to vote until 1920.

　　?A.ignored B.denied C.rejected D.refused

　　?64.No one can behave ____, completely regardless of social conventions.

　　?A.at will B.at random C.on purpose D.on easy

　　?65.____ the advances of science, the discomforts of old age will no doubt always be with us.

　　?A.As for B.Except C.In spite D.Despite

　　?66.In his poems, he compared his little daughter ____ a flower.

　　?A.by B.to C.for D.as

　　?67.All flights ____ because of the heavy storm, we decided to take the train.

　　?A.having canceled B.being canceled

　　?C.having been canceled D.canceled

　　?68.Mother hopes her son will ____ doing anything rash.

　　?A.keep from B.avoid from C.ask from D.protect from

　　?69.This story is not real; it is ____.

　　?A.imaginative B.imaginary

　　?C.imaginable D.imagining

　　?70.He slept in the ____ of the trees on such a hot day.

　　?A.shade B.shelter C.shadow D.shield