英語四級長閱讀練習題及答案
英語四級長篇閱讀作爲四級閱讀理解題中的難點，需要考生又快速閱讀的能力，因此在考前加強長閱讀的練習十分重要。下面本站小編爲大家帶來英語四級長篇閱讀練習題，歡迎大家閱讀訓練!
The Perfect Essay
A) Looking back on too many yearsof education, I can identify one truly impossible teacher. She cared about me,and my intellectual life, even when I didn’t. Her expectations were highimpossibly so. She was an English teacher. She was also my mother.
B) When good students turn in anessay, they dream of their instructor returning it to them in exactly the samecondition, save for a single word added in the margin of the final page:”Flawless.” This dream came true for me one afternoon in the ninth grade. Ofcourse, I had heard that genius could show itself at an early age, so I wasonly slightly taken aback that I had achieved perfection at the tender age of14. Obviously, I did what any professional writer would do; I hurried off tospread the good news. I didn’t get very far. The first person I told was mymother.
C) My mother, who is just shy offive feet tall, is normally incredibly soft-spoken, but on the rare occasionwhen she got angry, she was terrifying. I am not sure if she was more upset bymy hubris(得意忘形) or by the fact that my Englishteacher had let my ego get so out of hand. In any event, my mother and her redpen showed me how deeply flawed a flawless essay could be. At the time, I amsure she thought she was teaching me about mechanics, transitions(過渡), structure, style and voice. But what I learned, and what stuckwith me through my time teaching writing at Harvard, was a deeper lesson aboutthe nature of creative criticism.
D) Fist off, it hurts. Genuinecriticism, the type that leaves a lasting mark on you as a writer, also leavesan existential imprint(印記) on you asa person. I have heard people say that a writer should never take criticismpersonally. I say that we should never listen to these people.
E) Criticism, at its best, isdeeply personal, and gets to the heart of why we write the way we do. Theintimate nature of genuine criticism implies something about who is able togive it, namely, someone who knows you well enough to show you how your mentallife is getting in the way of good writing. Conveniently, they are also thepeople who care enough to see you through this painful realization. For me ittook the form of my first, and I hope only, encounter with writer’s block—I wasnot able to produce anything for three years.
F) Franz Kafka once said:” Writingis utter solitude(獨處), the descentinto the cold abyss(深淵) ofoneself. “My mother’s criticism had shown me that Kafka is right about the coldabyss, and when you make the introspective (內省的) decent that writing requires you are out always pleased by whatyou find.” But, in the years that followed, her sustained tutoring suggestedthat Kafka might be wrong about the solitude. I was lucky enough to find acritic and teacher who was willing to make the journey of writing with me. “Itis a thing of no great difficulty,” according to Plutarch, “to raise objectionsagainst another man’s speech, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a betterin its place is a work extremely troublesome.” I am sure I wrote essays in thelater years of high school without my mother’s guidance, but I can’t recallthem. What I remember, however, is how we took up the “extremely troublesome”work of ongoing criticism.
G) There are two ways to interpretPlutarch when he suggests that a critic should be able to produce “a better inits place.” In a straightforward sense, he could mean that a critic must bemore talented than the artist she critiques(評論). My mother was well covered on this count. But perhaps Plutarch issuggesting something slightly different, something a bit closer to MarcusCicero’s claim that one should “criticize by creation, not by finding fault.”Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to become better onthis own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but also almostalways meaningful.
H) My mother said she would helpme with my writing, but fist I had myself. For each assignment, I was write thebest essay I could. Real criticism is not meant to find obvious mistakes, so ifshe found any—the type I could have found on my own—I had to start fromscratch. From scratch. Once the essay was “flawless,” she would take an eveningto walk me through my errors. That was when true criticism, the type thatchanged me as a person, began.
I) She criticized me when Iincluded little-known references and professional jargon(行話). She had no patience for brilliant but irrelevant figures ofspeech. “Writers can’t bluff(虛張聲勢) theirway through ignorance.” That was news to me—I would need to find another way tostructure my daily existence.
J) She trimmed back my flowerylanguage, drew lines through my exclamation marks and argued for the value ofrestraint in expression. “John,” she almost whispered. I learned in to hearher:”I can’t hear you when you shout at me.” So I stopped shouting andbluffing, and slowly my writing improved.
K) Somewhere along the way I setaside my hopes of writing that flawless essay. But perhaps I missed somethingimportant in my mother’s lessons about creativity and perfection. Perhaps thepoint of writing the flawless essay was not to give up, but to never willinglyfinish. Whitman repeatedly reworded “Song of Myself” between 1855 and atedly. We do our absolute best wiry a piece of writing, and come as closeas we can to the ideal. And, for the time being, we settle. In critique,however, we are forced to depart, to give up the perfection we thought we hadachieved for the chance of being even a little bit better. This is the lesson Itook from my mother. If perfection were possible, it would not be motivating.
英語四級長閱讀練習題選項46. The author was advised against theimproper use of figures of speech.
47. The author’s mother taught him avaluable lesson by pointing out lots of flaws in his seemingly perfect essay.
48. A writer should polish his writingrepeatedly so as to get closer to perfection.
49. Writers may experience periods of timein their life when they just can’t produce anything.
50. The author was not much surprised whenhis school teacher marked his essay as “flawless”.
51. Criticizing someone’s speech is said tobe easier than coming up with a better one.
52. The author looks upon his mother as hismost demanding and caring instructor.
53. The criticism the author received fromhis mother changed him as a person.
54. The author gradually improved hiswriting by avoiding fact language.
55. Constructive criticism gives an authora good start to improve his writing.
英語四級長閱讀練習題答案46. I，根據關鍵信息“figures of speech”定位到I段，原文中該詞組前面的形容詞是“irrelevant”，和句中的“improper”爲同義替換關係。
47. C，根據關鍵信息“flaws”可定位至C段，同義替換關係句“my mother and her red pen showed me how deeply flawed a flawlessessay could be.”
48. K，該句意思爲“爲了達到完美，作家應該反覆地修改他的文章”，對應K段中的“Perhaps the point of writing theflawless essay was not to give up, but to never willingly finish.”
49. E，該句大意爲“某些時間段裏，作家可能會感覺什麼都寫不出來了”，對應E段中的“I was not able to produceanything for 3 years.”。
50. B， 該句意爲“當老師認爲作者的文章沒有瑕疵時，他並不驚訝”，對應B段的“so I was only slightly takenaback that I had achieved perfection at the tender age of 14.”該句中的“taken aback”意爲“驚訝”。
51. F，該句意爲“對別人的演講品頭論足總比自己做一個更棒的演講容易”，對應F段的“It is a thing of no greatdifficulty,” according to Plutarch, “to raise objections against another man’sspeech, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is awork extremely troublesome.”。
52. A，該句意爲“作者視其母爲最嚴格和最細心的老師”，對應A段的“She cared about me, and my intellectual life, even when I didn’ expectations were high impossibly so. She was an English teacher. She wasalso my mother.”。
53. H，該句意爲“作者從其母處得到的批評改變了作者的人格”，對應H段的“That was when true criticism, thetype that changed me as a person, began.”。
54. J，該句意爲“作者通過避免使用華而不實的語言慢慢地提升自己的作品”，對應J段的“So I stopped shouting and bluffing,and slowly my writing improved.”。
55. G，該局意爲“有建設性的評判能讓作家在提升作品方面有一個好的開始”，對應G段“Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to becomebetter on this own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but alsoalmost always meaningful.
