2016年英语四级考试听力冲刺练习四

　　Section B

　　Passage One

　　Children in the United States are exposed to many influences other than that of their families. Television is the most significant of these influences, because the habit of watching television usually begins before children start attending school. And, by the time that the average child finishes high school, he or she will have spent 18,000 hours in front of a television set as opposed to 12,000 hours in a classroom.

　　Parents are concerned about these figures. They are also concerned about the lack of quality in television progmp3s for children. The degree of violence in many of these shows also worries them.

　　Even if it is unreal — a cartoon cat beating up a cartoon mouse with a baseball bat — this violence may have a negative effect on the young minds exposed to it. Studies indicate that, when children are exposed to violence, they may become aggressive or insecure.

　　Parents are also concerned about the commercials that their children see on television. Many parents would like to see fewer commercials during progmp3s for children. And some parents feel that these shows should not have commercials at all because young minds are not mature enough to deal with the claims made by advertisers.

　　Educational television has no commercials and has progmp3s for children that many parents approve of. The most famous of these is “Sesame Street”, which tries to give preschool children a head start in learning the alphabet and numbers. It also tries to teach children useful things about the world in which they live.

　　Even though most parents and educators give “Sesame Street” and shows like it high marks for quality, some critics argue that all television, whether educational or not, is hamp3ful to children. These critics feel that the habit of watching hours of television a day turns children into bored and passive consumers of their world rather than encouraging them to become active explorers of it.

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　【解析】选[C]。在听录音之前，预览四个选项可知本文与电视带来的负面影响有关。至于是对哪一方面的负面影响，既要根据主题句区分，还需要根据文章内容进行辨别。

　　27. According to the passage, what do you think “Sesame Street” is?

　　【解析】选[B]。预读选项可知此题询问的是电视节目的类型。The most famous of these is “Sesame Street”...为答案的依据，其中的these指的就是educational progmp3s.

　　28. What will be the consequence if a child fomp3s a habit of watching hours of television every day?

　　【解析】选[A]。预读选项可知此题询问的是They将会发生什么行为或变成怎样的状态，需要留意对动作和状态的描述。答案依据为：These critics feel that the habit of watching hours of television day turns children into bored and passive consumers of their world rather than encouraging them to become active explorers of it. 选项[A]中bored ≈ 原文中的dull，passive ≈ inactive。

　　Passage Two

　　Crime has its own cycles, a magazine reported some years ago. Police records show a surprising relation between changes in the season and crime patterns.

　　The pattern of crime has changed very little over a long period of years. Murder reaches its high during July and August, as do other violent attacks. Murder, in addition, is more than seasonal; it is a weekend crime. It is also a nighttime crime: 62 percent of murders are committed between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. One is most likely to be robbed between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. on a Saturday night in December, January, or February. Except for one strange statistic, May is the least criminal month of all.

　　Apparently our intellectual season cycles are completely different from our criminal patterns. Professor Huntington made a lot of studies to discover the seasons when people read serious books, attend scientific meetings, and make the highest scores on examinations. In all examples, he found a spring peak and an autumn peak separated by a summer low. On the other hand, Professor Huntington’s studies showed that June is the peak month for suicides and for admitting patients to mental hospital. June is also a peak month for marriages!

　　Possibly, high temperature and humidity bring on our strange and surprising summer actions, but police officers are not so sure. “There are, of course, no proof of a relation between humidity and murder”, they say. “Why murder’s high time should come in the summer time we really don’t know”.

　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. What is the passage mainly about?

　　【解析】选[D]。根据选项的概括性强、信息密集可知，本题考查短文主旨。文章开头的Police records show a surprising relation between changes in the season and crime patterns为短文主题句，故[D]为答案。

　　30. Which is the safest season?

　　【解析】选[B]。文章明确提到May is the least criminal month of all，表明五月是犯罪率最低的月份，也就是说五月最安全，故选项[B]正确。

　　31. What did Professor Huntington’s research show?

　　【解析】选[C]。推断题。文章讲到，Professor Huntington调查人们读严肃小说、出席科技会议和考试得高分的季节，所有数据表明在春季和秋季是高峰，而夏季却是低峰，排除[B]、[D];另外短文中听到June出现最多的地方提到了两个peak, 他们分别是自杀和医院接收精神病患者数目最高峰以及结婚的高峰，由此可以排除[A]项，得出答案[C]。