2016年6月大学英语四级考试模拟题及答案(10)

　　In their determination to read Dickinson’s life in terms of a traditional romantic plot, biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life—her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce’s 1976 play, the Belle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1850’s transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion was not the result of a failed love affair, but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for selfsovereignty, carried on an argument with the puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of “true womanhood”.

　　26.What’s the author’s main purpose in the passage?

　　A.To interpret Emily Dickinson’s eccentric behavior.

　　B.To promote the popular myth of Emily Dickinson.

　　C.To discuss Emily Dickinson’s failed love affair.

　　D.To describe the religious climate in Emily Dickinson’s time.

　　27.Which of the following is not mentioned as being one of Emily Dickinson’s eccentricities?

　　A.Refusing to eat. B.Wearing only white.

　　C.Avoiding visitors. D.Staying in her room.

　　28.According to the passage, biographers of Emily Dickinson have traditionally ____.

　　A.criticized most of her poems

　　B.ignored her innocence and emotional fragility

　　C.seen her life in romantic terms

　　D.blaming her parents for restricting her activities

　　29.The author implies that many people attribute Emily Dickinson’s seclusion to ____.

　　A.physical illness B.a failed love affair

　　C.religious fervor D.her dislike of people

　　30.It can be inferred from the passage that Emily Dickinson lived in a society that was characterized by ____.

　　A.strong Puritan beliefs

　　B.equality of men and women

　　C.the encouragement of nonconformity

　　D.the appreciation of poetic creativity

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

　　The railroad industry could not have grown as large as it did without steel. The first rails were made of iron. But iron rails were not strong enough to support heavy trains running at high speeds. Railroad executives wanted to replace them with steel rails because steel was ten or fifteen times stronger and lasted twenty times longer. Before the 1870’s, however, steel was too expensive to be widely used. It was made by a slow and expensive process of heating, stirring and reheating iron ore.

　　Then the inventor Henry Bessemer discovered that directing a blast of air at melted iron in a furnace would burn out the impurities that made the iron brittle. As the air shot through the furnace, the bubbling metal would erupt in showers of sparks. When the fire cooled, the metal had been changed, or converted to steel. The Bessemer converter made possible the mass production of steel. Now three to five tons of iron could be changed into steel in a matter of minutes.

　　Just when the demand for more and more steel developed, prospectors discovered huge new deposits of iron ore in the Mesabi Range, a 120long region in Minnesota near Lake Superior. The Mesabi deposits were so near the surface that they could be mined with steam shovels.