2016年12月英语四级考试模拟试卷及答案(七)

　　Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

　　Directions: There are four passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.

　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:

　　Television is one of today's most powerful and widespread means of mass communication. It directly influences our lives on both a short and long term basis; it brings worldwide situations into our homes; it affords extensive opportunities for acquiring higher education; and it performs these tasks in a convenient yet effective manner. We are all aware of the popularly accepted applications of television, particularly those relative to entertainment and news broadcasting.

　　Television, however, has also been a vital link in unmanned deep space exploration (such as the Voyager Ⅰ and Ⅱ missions), in providing visions from hazardous areas (such as proximity to radioactive materials or environments) in underwater research, in viewing storms moving across a metropolitan area (the camera being placed in a weather protective enclosure near the top of a tower), etc..The earth's weather satellites also use television cameras for viewing cloud cover and movements from 20,000 miles in space. Infrared filters are used for night views, and several systems include a spinning mirror arrangement to permit wide area views from the camera. Realizing the unlimited applications for today's television, one may thus logically ponder the true benefits of confining most of our video activities to the mass entertainment field.

　　Conventional television broadcasting within the United States centers around free enterprise and public ownership. This requires funding by commercial sponsors,and thus functions in a revenue producing business manner. Television in USSR　subjected areas, conversely, is a governmentowned and maintained arrangement. While such arrangements eliminate the need for commercial sponsorship, it also　has the possibility of limiting the type of programs available to viewers (a number of purely entertainment programs similar to the classic “Bewitched”, however, have been seen on these government controlled networks. All isn't as gray and dismal as the uninformed might unnecessarily visualize).

　　A highly modified form of television called Slow Scan TV is presently being used by many Amateur Radio operators to provide direct visual communications with　almost any area of the world . This unique visual mode recently allowed people　on the tiny South Pacific country of Pitcairn Island to view, for the first time　in their lives, distant areas and people of the world. The chief radio Amateur　and communications officer of Pitcairn, incidentally, is the legendary Tom Christian great, great grandson of Tom Christian of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame. Radio Amateurs in many lands worked together for several months establishing visual capabilities for Pitcairners. The results have proven spectacular, yet the visual capabilities have only been used for health education, or welfare purposes.

　　Commercial TV is still unknown to natives of that tiny country. Numerous other forms of television and visual communication have also been used　on a semi restricted basis. This indicates the many untapped areas of video and　television which may soon be exploited on a more widespread basis. The old cliché of a picture being worth a thousand words truly has merit.

　　21.According to the passage, applications of television are easily accepted　in ____.

　　A) metropolitan area

　　B) deep space exploration

　　C) programs about entertainment and news

　　D) remote areas