四级英文文章阅读

大学英语四级考试已成为我国最普遍、最权威的英语水平考核标准。我精心收集了关于英语4级短文，供大家欣赏学习!

科学家寻找矿物的专属区域

Flying over a desert area in an airplane, two scientists looked down with trained eyes at trees and bushes. After an hour's 11 one of the scientists wrote in his book, "Look here for 12 metal. " Scientists in another airplane, flying over a mountain region, sent a 13 to other scientists on the ground, "Gold possible. " Walking across hilly ground, four scientists reported, "This ground should be searched for metals. " From an airplane over a hilly wasteland a scientist sent back by radio one word, "Uranium. "

None of the scientists had X-ray eyes: they had no 14 powers for looking down below the earth's surface. They were 15 putting to use one of the newest methods of 16 minerals in the ground—using trees and plants as 17 that certain minerals may lie beneath the ground on which the trees and plants are growing.

This newest method of searching for minerals is 18 on the fact that minerals deep in the earth may 19 the kind of bushes and trees that grow on the surface.

At Watson Bar Creek, a brook six thousand feet high in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, a mineral search group gathered bags of tree seeds. Boxes were filled with small branches from the trees. Roots were dug and put into boxes. Each bag and box was 20 marked. In a scientific laboratory the parts of the forest trees were burned to ashes and tested. Each small part was examined to learn whether there were minerals in it.

人类大脑智力的决定因素

There are two factors which determine an individual's intelligence. The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ considerably , some being more capable than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor is what happens to the individual— the sort of environment in which he is brought up. If an individual is handicapped(不利) environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop and he will never attain the level of intelligence of which he is capable.

The importance of environment in determining an individual's intelligence can be demonstrated by the case history of the identical twins, Peter and Mark. Being identical, the twins had identical brains at birth, and their growth processes were the same. When the twins were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in separate foster(抚养) homes. Peter was raised by parents of low intelligence in an isolated community with poor educational opportunities. Mark was reared in the home of well-to-do parents who had been to college. He was read to as a child, sent to good schools, and given every opportunity to be stimulated intellectually. This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence. Mark's I. Q. was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his identical brother. Given equal opportunities, the twins, having identical brains, would have tested at roughly the same level.

我的朋友索菲亚布伦特

Sophy Brent came to visit me nearly every day. She made me feel uneasy most of the time. She smoked 11 and never used an ashtray. She followed me into the kitchen while I made tea or coffee or supper and 12 herself to the children's orange juice. She made a great hit with my two-year-old daughter Flora, who would 13 about her for hours and refer to her lovingly as "sofa", and she was always talking about my husband and asking me where he was.

I could not decide why she chose my 14 , although I realized that nobody else paid her very much attention. Her situation was very difficult in that she was 15 out of drama school and only nineteen, but being 16 to play a leading part in a company of fairly 17 and experienced actors. They would not have liked her much even if she had been good, and as, from all accounts, she was not good so they took every 18 to run her down. I think she thought that I was the only person around who was both unconnected with the theatre and tolerably 19 . To associate with me was not, at any rate, to step down the scale. And for my part, although I felt troubled by her I did not dislike her. There was something genuinely outstanding in her personality, and she had such physical 20 that with me she could get away with anything. She was nice to have around, like flowers or a bowl of fruit.

四级英语长篇阅读技巧如下

四级长篇阅读是整个阅读题里面最长的一篇。而标准答题时长只有13分钟左右。

基本要求是：选择十句话中每一句所表达的意思分别来自文章的哪个段落。理论上“you may choose the paragraph more than once” 你可以多次选择同一段，但是实际上看，顶多两句话会有相同的段落，而且这种情况也不是经常出现。

先分析下阅读题里三种题型的侧重：选词填空侧重词汇把握和上下文理解；细节阅读侧重细分析和权衡；而长篇阅读特别考查的是快速阅读并且检索关键信息的能力。

三种题型的优先级是：首先细节阅读（双倍分值），其次长篇，再次选词。选词填空的残酷之处在于，15词需要认知，否则无法处理。而另外两种则不同以经验来看，很多时候，长篇阅解题甚至不需要理解，答题过程主要是围绕着浏览和检索和比对展开。本文会特别对长篇阅读的答题过程和技巧做出总结。

第一、1分钟左右的时间浏览全文。这一次的浏览主要价值在于观察文章特征：包括题材体裁（如果是常见的论述文和说明文则比较好把握）；包括写作结构（标题、小标题、分段情况等。如果小标题划分明确，则容易很多。）；

还有就是在快速扫读中顺便勾画出比较抢眼的词汇（专有、大写、人民，地名和数字等）。所有这一切都是给后面的答题做好提前准备工作。

第二、1分钟分析10句话，找出最简单的。历年经验，如果出题规范，这10句，4-5句简单好找，2-3句稍有难度，1-2句难度很大。因此，没有必要按照顺序答题，要是恰好先碰到困难的，就会耗费很长时间，得不偿失。

有鉴于此，可以先去观察10句话中带有醒目词汇的这几句，带有醒目词汇的简单好找，一般情况会有4-5句（除非那一年这题很难，几乎没有，建议可以直接跳过先去做后面细节阅读）。这类醒目词汇包括：人名，地名，专有名词，年代数字，生僻词和带有特殊符号的词汇等等。

千万不能找的是：文章里面的主题词。比方说文章讲的是Venice的旅游，就不能找Venice了，因为文章到处都是它。

比如18年一套真题。

1. The passing cruise ships will undermine the foundations of the ancient buildings in Venice.

2. The Italian government has just reached an agreement with UNESCO to take measures to protect its cultural heritage.

3. The heritage situation in Venice has been deteriorating in the past few years.

这三句话里首选是第2句。1和3虽然有Venice 但是文章主题就是它，所以不能选。

第三、5分钟左右完成上一步这几个简单题。

带着定位词去文中快速搜寻定位。由于词汇的特殊性，应该比较容易找到在文中的位置。找到后不要着急下结论。再去比较这句话跟你所怀疑的这一段，看看有没有更多的重合词。如果还有，应该就是正确答案；如果没有，还要继续寻找包含该定位词的其他段落，然后进行同样的比对。

比如第二步中的例子。第2题里，我们定位词选择是Italian government和UNESCO，在原文中，出现UNESCO的地方不止一处，但是和Italian government 协同出现的段落可就没几处了。因而能一步步缩小范围，最终确定答案。

第四、5分钟左右确定剩余问题答案。

首先我们要确定的现实是，大多数人可能无法拿到满分。出题者也并不希望所有答题者都能拿到满分，他们要设置难度梯度。这种情况适用于所有考试的所有题型。所以我们要接受这个阅读题里，有那么1-2题是找不到的。

所以剩下的这几个题目，一旦寻找发现大难题，直接跳过，去锁定稍有难度的3-4个，保证正确率，最终本题能拿到70%-80%的正确率。对于剩下的问题，因为没有特殊定位词，只好选择句子中的名词词组。因为名词词组可替换性弱，稳定性强，回到文中，同义替换的可能性较小。