1.2023年上半年英语四级阅读练习 篇一
Some People Are Born With ConfidenceSome people are born with the belief that they are masters of their own lives. Others feel they are at the mercy of1 fate.
New research shows that part of those feelings are in the genes. Psychologists have long known that people confident in their ability to control their destinies are more likely to adjust well to growing old than those who feel that they drift on the currents of fate2 .
Two researchers who questioned hundreds of Swedish twins report that such confidence, or lack of it, is partly genetic and partly drawn from experience. They also found that the belief in blind luck — a conviction that coincidence plays a big role in life is something learned in life and has nothing to do with heredity.
The research was conducted at the Karolinska Institute — better known as the body that annually awards the Nobel Prize for medicine — by Nancy Pedersen of the Institute and Margaret Gatz, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Their results were recently published in the United States in the Journal of Gerontology.
People who are confident of their ability to control their lives have an"internal locus of control, "and have a better chance of being well adjusted in their old age, said Pedersen. An" external locus of control", believing that outside forces determine the course of life, has been linked to depression in latter years, she said.
"We are trying to understand what makes people different. What makes some people age gracefully and others have a more difficult time ?"she said. The study showed that while people have an inborn predilection toward independence and self-confidence, about 70 percent of this personality trait3 is affected by a person's environment and lifetime experiences.
Pedersen's studies, with various collaborators, probe the aging process by comparing sets of twins, both identical and fraternal, many of whom were separated at an early age.
The subjects were drawn from a roster first compiled about 30 years ago registering all twins born in Sweden since 1886. The complete list, which was extended in 1971, has 95,000 sets of twins.
练习题：
Ⅰ. Multiple choice:
1. Researchers questioned of Swedish twins report that such confidence is partly genetic .
A. hundreds B. thousands C. dozens D. 95, 000 sets
2. People who are confident of their ability to control their lives have a better chance of being well adjusted in their .
A. old age B. jobs C. family
3. By comparing sets of twins, Pedersen’s studies focus on .
A. the age process B. the social justice C. the social environment
4. The"internal locus of control"means .
A. self-constructive forces to maintain the balance of the mind
B. self-motivated power to achieve consciousness
C. inside forces determine the course of life
Ⅱ. Explain the following words:
1. blind luck
2. external locus of control
2.2023年上半年英语四级阅读练习 篇二
Is GM Food Safe To Eat ?Traditional plant breeding involves crossing varieties of the same species in ways they could cross naturally. For example, disease-resistant varieties of wheat have been crossed with high-yield wheat to combine these properties. This type of natural gene exchange is safe and fairly predictable.
Genetic engineering ( GE) involves exchanging genes between unrelated species that cannot naturally exchange genes with each other. GE can involve the exchange of genes between vastly different species — e.g. putting scorpion toxin genes into maize or fish antifreeze genes into tomatoes. It is possible that a scorpion toxin gene, even when it is in maize DNA1, will still get the organism to produce scorpion toxin — but what other effects may it have in this alien environment? We are already seeing this problem — adding human growth hormone genes to pigs certainly makes them grow — but it also gives them arthritis and makes them cross-eyed, which was entirely unpredictable.
It will be obvious, for example, that the gene for human intelligence will not have the same effect if inserted into cabbage DNA as it had in human DNA— but what side-effect would it have? In other words, is GM food2 safe to eat? The answer is that nobody knows because long-term tests have not been carried out.
Companies wanting a GM product approved in the UK or USA are required to provide regulatory bodies with results of their own safety tests. Monsanto’s3 soya beans were apparently fed to fish for 10 weeks before being approved. There was no requirement for independent testing, for long-term testing, for testing on humans or testing for specific dangers to children or allergic4 people.
The current position of the UK Government is that"There is no evidence of long-term dangers from GM foods."In the US, the American Food and Drug Administration5 is currently being prosecuted for covering up research that suggested possible risks from GM foods.
练习题：
Ⅰ. Match the words with their Chinese quivalents:
1. disease-resistant A. 掩盖( 真相)
2. side-effect B. 高产的
3. long-term dangers C. 长期危害
4. cover up D. 副作用
5. high-yield E. 抗病的
Ⅱ. Question:
What do companies wanting a GM product approved in the UK or USA do?
3.2023年上半年英语四级阅读练习 篇三
Pots Of PromiseMedieval noblewomen swallowed arsenic and dabbed on bats blood to improve their complexions; 18 th century Americans prized the warm urine of young boys to erase their freckles; Victorian ladies removed their ribs to give themselves a wasp waist. The desire to be beautiful is as old as civilization, as is the pain that it can cause.
The pain has not stopped the passion from creating a 160 billion-a-year global industry,encompassing make -up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills. Americans spend more each year on beauty than they do on education.
Such spending is not mere vanity. Being pretty — or just not ugly — confers1 enormous genetic and social advantages. Attractive people ( both men and women) are judged to be more intelligent and sexy; they earn more and they are more likely to marry.
Basic instinct keeps the beauty industry powerful. In medieval times, recipes for homemade cosmetics were kept in the kitchen right beside those used to feed the family.
But it was not until the start of the 20 th century, when mass production coincided with mass exposure to an idealized standard of beauty ( through photography, magazines and movies) that the industry first took off.
In 1909, Eugene Schueller founded the French Harmless Hair Coloring Co., which later became L'Oreal2— today's industry leader. Two years later, a Hamburg pharmacist, developed the first cream to bind oil and water. Today, it sells in 150 countries as Nivea, the biggest personal-care brand in the world.
But it was the great rivalry between two women in America that made the industry what it is today. Elizabeth Arden opened the first modern beauty salon in 1910 , followed a few years later by Helena Rubinstein, a Polish immigrant. The two took cosmetics out of household pots and pans and into the modern era . Both thought beauty and health were interlinked. They combined facials with diets and exercise classes in a holistic approach that the industry is now returning to.
The emerging beauty industry played on3 the fear of looking ugly as much as on the pleasure of looking beautiful, drawing on the new science of psychology to convince women that an inferiority complex4 could be cured by a dab of lipstick.
练习题：
Ⅰ. Matching:
1. In medieval time ( ) . 2. In 1910 ( ) .
3. In 1909 ( ) . 4. In 1911 ( ) .
A. Swallow arsenic to improve their complexion.
B. Recipes for homemade cosmetics were kept in the kitchen.
C. Eugene Schueller found the French Harmless Hair Coloring Co.
D. A Hamburg Pharmacist developed the first cream that now sells to 150 countries.
E. Elizabeth Arden opened the first modern beauty salon.
Ⅱ. Questions:
1. What are the advantages of being pretty according to the passage ?
2. What’s your opinion about beauty? Is it really so important?
