2014年6月大学英语六级阅读练习5

    阅读文章：

　　Which is safer-staying at home， traveling to work on public transport， or working in the office? Surprisingly， each of these carries the same risk， which is very low. However， what about flying compared to working in the chemical industry? Unfortunately， the former is 65 times riskier than the latter! In fact， the accident rate of workers in the chemical industry is less than that of almost any of human activity， and almost as safe as staying at home.

　　The trouble with the chemical industry is that when things go wrong they often cause death to those living nearby. It is this which makes chemical accidents so newsworthy. Fortunately， they are extremely rare. The most famous ones happened at Texas City (1947)，Flixborough (1974)， Seveso (1976)， Pemex (1984) and Bhopal (1984)。

　　Some of these are always in the minds of the people even though the loss of life was small. No one died at Seveso， and only 28 workers at Flixborough. The worst accident of all was Bhopal， where up to 3，000 were killed. The Texas City explosion of fertilizer killed 552. The Pemex fire at a storage plant for natural gas in the suburbs of Mexico City took 542 lives， just a month before the unfortunate event at Bhopal.

　　Some experts have discussed these accidents and used each accident to illustrate a particular danger. Thus the Texas City explosion was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate(硝酸铵)，which is safe unless stored in great quantity. The Flixborough fireball was the fault of management， which took risks to keep production going during essential repairs. The Seveso accident shows what happens if the local authorities lack knowledge of the danger on their doorstep. When the poisonous gas drifted over the town， local leaders were incapable of taking effective action. The Pemex fire was made worse by an overloaded site in an overcrowded suburb. The fire set off a chain reaction os exploding storage tanks. Yet， by a miracle， the two largest tanks did not explode. Had these caught fire， then 3，000 strong rescue team and fire fighters would all have died.

　　1.Which of the following statements is true?

　　A.Working at the office is safer than staying at home.

　　B.Traverlling to work on public transport is safer than working at the office.

　　C.Staying at home is safer than working in the chemical industry.

　　D.Working in the chemical industry is safer than traveling by air.

　　2.Chemical accidents are usually important enough to be reported as news because ____.

　　A.they are very rare

　　B.they often cause loss of life

　　C.they always occur in big cities

　　D.they arouse the interest of all the readers

　　3.According to passage， the chemical accident that caused by the fault of management happened at ____.

　　A.Texas city B.Flixborough C.Seveso D.Mexico City

　　4.From the passage we know that ammonium nitrate is a kind of ____.

　　A.natural gas， which can easily catch fire

　　B.fertilizer， which can't be stored in a great quantity

　　C.poisonous substance， which can't be used in overcrowded areas

　　D.fuel， which is stored in large tanks

　　5.From the discussion among some experts we may coclude that ____.

　　A.to avoid any accidents we should not repair the facilities in chemical industry

　　B.the local authorities should not be concerned with the production of the chemical industry

　　C.all these accidents could have been avoided or controlled if effective measure had been taken

　　D.natural gas stored in very large tanks is always safe

　　答案：DBABC

 

2014年6月大学英语六级阅读练习的延伸阅读——英语六级阅读考前必备技巧

 

　　1．语言的障碍。Readingis a comprehensive skill because it concerns the recognition of configuration， pronunciation， grammatical inflexion and the comprehension of words， sentences and paragraphs.（魏立明，孙长顺：2001 ）由于有的单词往往有几种甚至几十种意思，而一个词的确切含义只有在具体的文章之中根据上下文才能确定。因此，词义的转换和搭配仍是阅读中的障碍。所以要避免进入见词就查字典的误区。

　　2．文化背景知识的障碍。因为文化背景知识是阅读的无形障碍。由于不了解英语国家的文化背景，因此有时很难做出判断。People believe that both visual and non-visual information is involved in reading comprehension. As a matter of fact， it seems that the more non-visual information the reader possess， the less visual information is needed.（魏立明，孙长顺：2001 ）。 所以多做泛读的训练将有所帮助。

关于这两个障碍的排除在本文的以下部分中也有较详尽的论述。

3．阅读技巧的障碍。而这一障碍又是多方面的。如找中心思想，推断文章中有没有直接说明的意思，确定作者的语气等。本文将就这一方面进行重点论述。