2013年英语四级考试每日一练(10月11日)
1. 回答63-68题
Language is, and should be, a living thing, constantly enrichedwith new words and forms of expression. But there is a vital distinctionbetween good developments, which add to the language, enabling us to say thingswe could not say before, and bad developments, which subtract from the languageby rendering it less precise. A vivacious, colorful use of words is not to beconfused with mere slovenliness. The kind of slovenliness in which someprofessionals deliberately indulge is perhaps akin to the cult(迷信)of the unfinished work, whichhas eroded most of the arts in our time. And the true answer to it is the samethat art is enhanced, not hindered, by discipline. You cannot carvesatisfactorily in butter.
The corruption of written English has been accompanied by an evensharper decline in the standard of spoken English. We speak very much less wellthan was common among educated Englishmen a generation or two ago.
The modern theatre has played a baneful (有害的)part in dimming ourappreciation of language. Instead of the immensely articulate dialogue of, forexample, Shaw (who was also very insistent on good pronunciation), audiencesare now subjected to streams of barely literate trivia, often designed, onlytoo well, to exhibit 'lack of communication', and larded(夹杂)with the obscenities(下流的话)and grammaticalerrors of the intellectually impoverished. Emily Post once advised her readers:"The theatre is the best possible place to hear correctly-enunciatedspeech. " Alas, no more. One young actress was recently reported to betaking lessons in how to speak
badly, so that she should fit in better.
But the BBC is the worst traitor. After years of very successfullyhelping to raise the general standard of spoken English, it suddenly went intoreverse. As the head of the Pronunciation Unit coyly(含蓄地)put it, "In the 1960s theBBC opened the field to a much wider range of speakers." To hear a BBCdisc jockey talking to the latest ape-like pop idol is a truly shockingexperience of verbal squalor. And the prospect seems to be of even worse tocome. School teachers are actively encouraged to ignore little Johnny'sincoherent grammar, atrocious spelling and haphazard punctuation, becauseworrying about such things might inhibit his creative genius.
The writer relates linguistic slovenliness to tendencies inthe arts today in that they both __________.
A.occasionally aim at a certain fluidity
B.appear to shun perfection
C.from time to time show regard for the finishing touch
D.make use of economical short cuts
2. 请在(83)处填上答案.
A.our
B.your
C.their
D.such a
3. Every year more than half a million American kids have drainage (排泄 ) tubes surgically implanted in their ears to combat persistent infections. The procedure, known as tympanostomy, may not be as 67 as the tonsillectomy was in the 1940s, but it now 68 as the nation's leading childhood 69 and a new study suggests it's being vastly overused. In 70 more than 6,000 scheduled ear tube operations, a team of experts 71 by Harvard pediatrician Lawrence Kleinman found that fewer than half were clearly justified. "Each year", the researchers write in the
current Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), "several hundred thousand children in the United States may be 72 tympanostomy tubes that offer them no demonstrated 73 ...and may place them at increased 74 ."
Tube placement isn't a 75 risky procedure, but it costs $1,000 to $1,500 and sometimes scars the eardrum, causing a partial loss of 76 . Studies show that the
benefits are most likely to 77 the risks ifa child's middle ear has produced sticky fluid 78 more than four months despite treatment 79 antibiotics. For less virulent infections, drug treatment is Usually a(n) 80 , safer alternative (though drugs, too, can be overused). In the new JAMA study, Kleinman's team reviewed the medical charts of 6,429 kids, all under 16, 81 doctors had recommended the procedure. Even making "generous assumptions" about the likely 82 , the researchers found that a quarter of the proposed operations were 83 , since less invasive alternatives were available, 84 another third were as likely to harm the recipients as help them. Parents needn't 85 about ear tubes that are already in place. Once 86 implanted, the tiny devices provide drainage for six months to a year, then come out by reducing health costs by hundreds of millions of dollars every year.根据以上短文,回答{TSE}题
请在(67)处填上答案。
A. rare
B. common
C. general
D. abnormal
翻译题
4. __________ (科学家们将会提出)new methods of increasing the world's food supply.
5. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone in our society,but only____________ (那些做好充分准备并且高度称职的人)can make use of them to achieve purpose.
6. Prices of daily necessities should be adjusted downward because__________(消费与收入不成比例).
7. It was imperative that____________________(秘书在十二点之前把这封电报发到美国).
8. Henry Ford,s introduction of the assembly line____________.(大大减少了制造汽车的时间).
9.
写作
10. 1.许多学校午夜后就把宿舍的电断掉,强制学生休息
2.有人认为这对学生白天的学习有益,有人认为这限制了学生自由安排生活
3.你的看法
Should Electricity in the Dormitory Be Cut Off after Midnight?