2020年12月英语四级仔细阅读试题解析第一套 Part C（新东方）

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　　Passage One

　　Boredom has, paradoxically, become quite interesting to academics lately. In early May, London’s Boring Conference celebrated seven years of delighting in dullness. At this event, people flocked to talks about weather, traffic jams and vending-machine sounds, among other sleep-inducing topics.

　　What, exactly, is everybody studying? One widely accepted definition of boredom is "the distasteful experience of wanting, but being unable. to engage in satisfying activity.” But how can you quantify a person's boredom level and compare it with someone else’s? In 1986, psychologists introduced the Boredom Proneness Scale, designed to measure an individual’s overall tendency to feel bored. By contrast, the Multidimensional State Boredom scale, developed in 2008, measures a person's felings of boredom in a given situation.

　　Boredom has been linked to behavior issues including inattentive driving, mindless snacking, excessive drinking, and addictive gambling. In fact, many of us would choose pain over boredom. One team of psychologists discovered that two-thirds of men and a quarter of women would rather self-administer electric shocks than sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Researching this phenomenon, another team asked volunteers to watch boring, sad, or neutar films, during which they could self-administer elecric shocks. The bored volunteers shocked themselves more and harder than the sad or neutral ones did.

　　But boredom isn't all bad. By encouraging self-reflection and daydreaming, it can spur activity. An early study gave participants abundant time to complete problem-solving and word-association exercises. Once all the obvious answers were exhausted, participants gave more and more incentive answers to combat boredom. A British study took these findings one step further, asking subjects to complete a creative challenge (coming up with a list of alternative uses for a household item). One group of subjects did a boring activity first, while the others went straight to the creative task. Those whose boredom pumps had been primed were more productive.

　　.In our always-connected world, boredom may be a hard-to-define state, but it is a fertile one. Watch paint dry or water boil, or at least put away your smartphone for a while, and you might unlock your next big idea.

　　46. When are people likely to experience boredom, according to an accepted psychological definition?

　　A) When they don’t have the chance to do what they want.

　　B) When they don’t enjoy the materials they are studying.

　　C) When they experience something unpleasant.

　　D) When they engage in some routine activities.

　　47. What does the author say boredom can lead to?

　　A) Determination

　　B) Mental deterioration

　　C) Concentration

　　D) Harmful conduct

　　48. What is the findings of one team of psychologists in their experiment?

　　A) Volunteers prefer watching a boring movie to sitting alone deliberating.

　　B) Many volunteers choose to hurt themselves rather than endure boredom.

　　C) Male volunteers are more immune to the effects of boredom than females.

　　D) Many volunteers are unable to resist boredom longer than fifteen minutes.

　　49. Why does the author say boredom isn’t all bad?

　　A) It stimulates memorization.

　　B) It may promote creative thinking.

　　C) It allows time for relaxation.

　　D) It may facilitate independent learning.

　　50. What does the author suggests one do when faced with a challenging problem?

　　A) Stop idling and think big.

　　B) Unlock one’s smartphone.

　　C) Look around oneself for stimulation.

　　D) Allow oneself some time to be bored.

　　【答案】ADBBD

　　46. A)When they don’t have the chance to do what they want.

　　【解题思路】根据题干关键词 an accepted psychological definition定位到第二段第二句。句中“being unable to engage”与A选项中“don't have the chance to do”为同义改写;“satisfying activity”与A选项中的“what they want”为同义改写。A 选项忠于原文信息，故选A。

　　【干扰排除】B选项中的“studying materials”;C选项中的“experience unpleasant”;原文中没有提到，属于无中生有。D选项中的 “engage in”出现在定位句中，但“routine activities”答案句中未出现。

　　47. D) Harmful conduct

　　【解题思路】题干问作者认为“boredom”会导致什么，定位第三段第一句。该句中“inattentive driving， mindless snacking， excessive drinking ”等都是由无聊引起的不良行为，对应选项D的harmful conduct，即有害的行为。

　　【干扰排除】ABC 选项意思分别为：决心、注意力和智力衰退，与答案句不符。

　　48.B)Many volunteers choose to hurt themselves rather than endure boredom.

　　【解题思路】根据题干关键词“findings”“team of psychologists”和“experiment”定位到第三段第二句。第三段提及的实验表明：许多志愿者宁愿“self-administer electric shocks”也不愿忍受无聊，该部分与B选项完全吻合， 故选B。

　　【干扰排除】选项A意为“志愿者宁愿看无聊电影也不愿独自无聊地思考”，与答案句意义相反。C选项中的男女志愿者的比较文中没有提到，为无中生有。D选项意为“多数志愿者不能忍受无聊超过15分钟”，答案句中并未提及，故排除。

　　49. B) It may promote creative thinking.

　　【解题思路】根据题干定位到第四段第五句，该段首句表明“无聊并非一无是处，无聊可以刺激活动。”在该段下面的论述中，实验人员证明了“boredom”促使志愿者完成“creative challenge”，该句与B选项为同义改写， 故选B

　　【干扰排除】选项A意为“刺激记忆”，未提及。选项词意为“无聊带来放松和时间”，同样未提及。D选项中的“facilitate independent learning”在答案句中并未出现。

　　50. D)Allow oneself some time to be bored.

　　【解题思路】根据题干中的关键词“a challenging problem”定位第五段。第五段首句表明“无聊是有益处的”;该段第二句中的“watch paint dry or water boil”均为作者的建议，这些“无聊”的行为也许能帮助人们想出解决问题的妙招。故D选项复合题意。

　　【干扰排除】AB选项与答案句意思相反;C选项文章并未提到，故均可排除。

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