公共英语考试一共有5个等级，PETS-4是中上级。相当于我国学生高中毕业后在大学至少又学习了3-4年的公共英语的水平。为了帮助大家备考，小编分享了一些公共英语四级阅读理解试题，希望能对大家有所帮助!
阅读理解【1】
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition — wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny — must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared; and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition — if not always their own then that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped — with the educated themselves riding on them.
Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs now than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs — the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three-star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
1. It is generally believed that ambition may be well regarded if ____.
A. its returns well compensate for the sacrifices
B. it is rewarded with money, fame and power
C. its goals are spiritual rather than material
D. it is shared by the rich and the famous
2. The last sentence of the first paragraph most probably implies that it is ____.
A. customary of the educated to discard ambition in words
B. too late to check ambition once it has been let out
C. dishonest to deny ambition after the fulfillment of the goal
D. impractical for the educated to enjoy benefits from ambition
3. Some people do not openly admit they have ambition because ____.
A. they think of it as immoral
B. their pursuits are not fame or wealth
C. ambition is not closely related to material benefits
D. they do not want to appear greedy and contemptible
4. From the last paragraph the conclusion can be drawn that ambition should be maintained ____.
A. secretly and vigorously B. openly and enthusiastically
C. easily and momentarily D. verbally and spiritually
参考答案：
ACDB
阅读理解【2】
Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives.
To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so .medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.
Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safe and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat(栖息地)loss and to diminishing biodiversity.
What’s more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050.yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions.
All this means that agriculture in the 21stcentury will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th.thiswill require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be “zero impact”. The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage.
Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons(正反两方面)of all the various way land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity.
What is crucial is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.
1. How do people often measure progress in agriculture?
A) By its productivity C) By its impact on the environment
B) By its sustainability D) By its contribution to economic growth
2. Specialisation and the effort to increase yields have resulted in________.
A) Localised pollution C) competition from overseas
B) the shrinking of farmland D) the decrease of biodiversity
3. What does the author think of traditional farming practices?
A) They have remained the same over the centuries B) They have not kept pace with population growth
C) They are not necessarily sustainable D) They are environmentally friendly
