2015年英语专业四级真题及答案(阅读理解)

2015年英语专业四级真题及答案(阅读理解)
TEXT A
After breakfast the boys wandered out into the play-ground. Here the day-boys
were gradually assembling. They were sons of the local clergy, of the
officers at the Depot, and of such manufacturers or men of business as the old
town possessed. Presently a bell rang, and they all trooped into school. This
consisted of a large, long room at opposite ends of which two under-masters
conducted the second and third forms, and of a smaller one, leading out of it,
used by Mr. Watson, who taught the first form. To attach the preparatory to the
senior school these three classes were known officially, on speech days and in
reports, as upper, middle, and lower second. Philip was put in the last. The
master, a red-faced man with a pleasant voice, was called Rice; he had a jolly
manner with boys, and the time passed quickly. Philip was surprised when it
was a quarter to eleven and they were let out for ten minutes' rest.
The whole school rushed noisily into the play-ground. The new boys were told to
go into the middle, while the others stationed themselves along opposite walls.
They began to play Pig in the Middle. The old boys ran from wall to wall while the
new boys tried to catch them: when one was seized and the mystic words said
- one, two, three, and a pig for me - he became a prisoner and, turning sides,
helped to catch those who were still free. Philip saw a boy running past and tried
to catch him, but his limp gave him no chance; and the runners, taking their
opportunity, made straight for the ground he covered. Then one of them had the
brilliant idea of imitating Philip's clumsy run. Other boys saw it and began to
laugh; then they all copied the first; and they ran round Philip, limping
grotesquely, screaming in their treble voices with shrill laughter. They lost
their heads with the delight of their new amusement, and choked with helpless
merriment. One of them tripped Philip up and he fell, heavily as he always fell, and cut his knee. They laughed all the louder when he got up. A boy pushed him
from behind, and he would have fallen again if another had not caught him. The
game was forgotten in the entertainment of Philip's deformity. One of them
invented an odd, rolling limp that struck the rest as supremely ridiculous, and
several of the boys lay down on the ground and rolled about in laughter: Philip
was completely scared. He could not make out why they were laughing at
him. His heart beat so that he could hardly breathe, and he was more frightened
than he had ever been in his life. He stood still stupidly while the boys ran round
him, mimicking and laughing; they shouted to him to try and catch them; but he
did not move. He did not want them to see him run any more. He was using all
his strength to prevent himself from crying.
TEXT B
For parents who send their kids off to

college saying, “These will be the best
years of your life,” it would be very appropriate to add, “If you can handle the
stress of college life.”
Freshmen are showing up already stressed out, according to the latest
CIRP Freshman Survey that reported students' emotional health levels at their
lowest since the survey started in 1985. While in school, more students are
working part-time and near-full-time jobs. At graduation, only 29 percent of
seniors have jobs lined up.
Pressure to excel often creates stress, and many students are not learning how
to effectively handle this stress.
1) Stress can make smart people do stupid things: Stress causes what
brain researchers call “cortical inhibition.” In simple terms, stress inhibits a part
of the brain responsible for decision-making and reaction time and can
adversely affect other mental abilities as well.
2) The human body doesn't discriminate between a big stressful event
and a little one: Any stressful experience will create a cascade of 1,400
biochemical events in your body. If any amount of stress is left unchecked,