英語四級文章閱讀
閱讀理解是英語專業四級考試中的一項重要測試內容,要求學生能夠運用閱讀技能從閱讀語境中準確獲取信息和推導語篇意義。下面是本站小編帶來的英語四級文章閱讀，歡迎閱讀!
英語四級文章閱讀1
Economy Will Drive Workout Habits
省錢健身新趨勢
Money or the lack of it, changes everything, and that includes how people will be working out in 2010.
有錢或者沒錢能夠改變一切，這其中包括在2010年人們鍛鍊身體的方式。
(1) In these belt -tightening times, cost-conscious workouts at home and at the gym topped the list of fitness trends for this year in a survey, followed by shorter, more time-efficient regimens, such as boot camp and circuit training.
(1)一項針對今年健身流行趨勢的調查顯示，在當下需要勒緊褲腰帶過日子的時期，人們將在家和健身房用省錢的方法健身列爲首選，其次是強力瘦身訓練和循環訓練這種更省時間的強化鍛鍊方式。
"People are looking for ways to accomplish as much as possible with as little time and money as necessary," said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which conducted the online poll of fitness professionals.
美國鍛鍊協會對健身領域的專業人士開展了這一在線調查。該協會的科技總監塞德里克·布萊恩特說：“人們希望能儘量少花時間、少花錢，達到最好的效果。”
"Last year "budget-conscious" was on the list but this year the majority of the respondents put it as one of the top," he added.
他說：“去年，‘預算’被列爲需要考慮的因素，但今年大部分受訪者將其列爲最重要的考慮因素之一。”
Bryant said some 600 ACE-certified fitness professionals responded to the annual poll, which the non-profit organization has been conducting for a decade.
布萊恩特說，約600名經美國鍛鍊協會認證的專業人士參與了這一年度調查。這一非盈利機構開展該調查已有10年的歷史。
Other money-saving measures, such as the shift from personal training sessions to small group training classes and in-home workouts using smaller, more portable equipment, also made the list.
受訪者列出的其他省錢辦法包括從私教課程轉爲集體課，以及使用更小更便攜的器材在家鍛鍊等。
"Personal trainers are seeing they've got to respond to market needs. Working with two to four clients at a time they can charge less but still get their hourly fee," Bryant said.
布萊恩特說：“私人教練覺得必須跟上市場形勢。他們可以一次同時輔導2-4個客戶，這樣可以降低收費，但仍可以保證收入。”
(2) Boot-camp workouts and circuit training, both of which burn calories while building strength and endurance, will be among the most popular trends in 2010, as time-constrained consumers seek shorter, more intense regimens.
(2)由於人們時間緊迫，耗時少、強度大的健身方式更受青睞，2010年最受歡迎的健身項目將是強力瘦身訓練和循環訓練，這兩種方式既可以燃燒脂肪，又可以增強力量和耐力。
One bright spot is the rise of exergaming-type systems, like Nintendo's Wii Sports, Wii Fit and the PC-based Dancetown. Bryant says the fitness-based video games are turning up in health clubs and senior centers.
健身遊戲的興起成爲其中的一個亮點，如任天堂的Wii運動遊戲、Wii Fit平衡板和需在電腦上使用的Dancetown遊戲。布萊恩、特說，健身類視頻遊戲越來越多地出現在健康俱樂部和老人中心。
Functional training workouts, which are geared to improving the quality of life and the ability to perform everyday tasks, will remain strong, and the use of computerized tracking and online training and scheduling tools will increase in the coming year.
以功能性訓練爲目的的健身將繼續保持強勁勢頭，這種鍛鍊方式主要是爲了提高生活質量和完成日常工作的能力，此外，計算機眼蹤、在線訓練和排程工具的使用在來年也會增加。
英語四級文章閱讀2
Checking International Airline's Safety
如何查看國際航班安全
You can check fares, fees and flight schedules for just about any airline in the world with a few keystrokes or a single phone call. But checking the safety of an international airline is a much more complicated task.
如果你想查看世界上任何航空公司的票價、收費以及航班安排，只需點擊幾下鼠標或者打個電話就行。但是，如果你想知道某個國際航空公司的安全係數，那可要複雜得多。
(1) European and US regulators evaluate aviation safety, and the airline industry itself has a world-wide safety-audit program, but it's difficult for travelers to check airline safety when buying tickets. There's no restaurant-inspector's score posted on the airplane door or government crash-test star rating printed on your ticket.
(1)歐洲和美國的監管機構都會評估航空公司的安全性，航空業本身也有一套全球安全審查系統，但是，旅客在購買機票的時候很難了解到航空公司的安全性。機艙門口可沒有貼着類似餐館檢驗機構評分的東西，旅客的機票上也沒有印着政府失事概率測試的星級評級。
That's unfortunate, since interest in airline safety is high. (2) It's been a bad year for aviation fatalities, with more than 700 people killed in 16 crashes around the world so far in 2009. Many involved little-known airlines---some already on watch lists for safety concerns.
這是一個很不幸的事實，因爲大衆對航空公司安全性的關注度非常高。(2)2009年是航空災難記錄非常糟糕的一年，全球共發生飛機失事事故16起，超過700人死亡。許多事故都與名不見經傳的航空公司有關，其中一些因其安全顧慮已經被列入觀察名單。
"There's no perfect solution at the moment, but it's undoubtedly getting better," said Geoff Want, principal adviser on airline safety at Rio Tinto Group, a global mining company that has its own list of carriers approved for employee travel.
礦業公司力拓集團負責航空安全的主管顧問傑夫·華恩特表示，目前還沒有完美的解決辦法，但是情況無疑正在好轉。力拓集團有一份航空公司名單，員工旅行只選擇這個名單上航空公司的航班。
Government regulators in Europe and the US take different approaches to aviation safety.
歐洲和美國的政府監管部門對航空安全則採取了不同的方式。
The European Union evaluates airlines and their planes and publishes a "blacklist" of unacceptable carriers, most recently updated just two weeks ago. The EU blacklist is available on the Internet at (click on "Air," then "List of airlines banned within the EU")
歐盟會對航空公司及其機隊進行評估，並會發佈一個不合格的航空公司的"黑名單"，就在兩週前剛剛更新過一次。歐盟的黑名單可以通過互聯網在上查到(點擊“航空”，接着就是“歐盟禁飛的航空公司名單”)。
Be prepared, it's long and complex: 233 airlines are completely banned, and eight are allowed to operate under restrictions and conditions. (3) Though its focus started as an airline-by-airline evaluation, the EU has moved more toward building the blacklist on evaluations of entire countries -all airlines from 15 countries have a blanket ban from the EU and are among the 233 cited.
不過要有心理準備，這個名單很長，也很複雜：共有233家航空公司被完全禁飛，八家航空公司被允許在某些限制和條件下飛行。(3)雖然歐盟的關注點開始是對航空公司逐個進行評估，但是歐盟近來已經更多地通過對整個國家的評估來構建黑名單一→其中有15個國家的所有航空公司收到的都是歐盟的全面禁令，它們也在上述233家航空公司之列。
The US Federal Aviation Administration evaluates countries, not carriers. US inspectors decide if a country's aviation infrastructure is up to snuff by counting the number of inspectors watching over airlines, assessing air-traffic-control procedures and evaluating funding and legal authority of aviation regulators. The FAA evaluation is based largely on standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations-chartered group. (US airlines are required to meet or exceed international safety standards.)
美國航空管理局評估的對象是各個國家、而不是航空公司。美國監管機構通過計算航空業監管機構配備的人員數量、評估航空運輸量的控制流程以及航空監管機構的融資和法律權限，來決定一個國家的航空業是否會進入“黑名單”。美國聯邦航空管理局的評估大多數基於聯合國下屬專門機構國際民用航空組織制定的標準(美國航空公司必須達到或者超過國際安全標準)。
The FAA says 101 countries have been assessed; 79 have Category 1 status, meaning the US believes the country meets international standards, and 22 fall into Category 2. Category 2 doesn't mean airlines from that country are banned, only that any new service and airline passenger-sharing ties are frozen. That can have economic impact on a country and its airlines, and the threat of a Category 2 downgrade can prompt improvement.
美國航空管理局表示，已經對101個國家進行了評估179個國家爲一類，表示美國認爲這些國家已經達到國際安全標準;22個國家爲二類。二類並不表示來自這些國家的航空公司會被禁飛，只是說明任何新服務和航空公司乘客分享關係將被凍結。這會對一個國家及其航空公司產生經濟影響，而二類國家會面臨降級的威脅，這可以促使航空公司改善其安全性。
An FAA spokeswoman says its International Aviation Safety Assessments list, is "one tool a consumer can use to decide on air travel."
美國航空管理局一位發言人表示，其國際航空安全評估名單可以在上找到，這是“消費者可以用來決定航空旅行選擇的一個工具”。
There's surprisingly little overlap between the FAA and EU lists. Airlines from Angola, Benin, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Rwanda and Zambia are banned on the EU blacklist, but those countries aren't evaluated at all by the FAA. B0th EU and US regulators share concerns on Congo, Indonesia and Swaziland. The FAA rates Zimbabwe, Israel, the Philippines, Serbia and Montenegro plus several Latin American and Caribbean nations, including Belize, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, in Category 2, but not the EU.
出人意料的是，美國航空管理局和歐盟的名單很少有重合。來自安哥拉、貝寧、哈薩克斯坦、吉爾吉斯、利比亞、加蓮、塞拉利昂、蘇丹、阿富汗、柬埔寨、盧旺達和贊比亞的航空公司都在歐盟禁飛名單之上，但是這些國家甚至都沒有被美國航空管理局評估過。歐盟和美國的監管機構都對剛果、印度尼西亞和史瓦濟蘭的航空公司表示顧慮。美國航空管理局將贊比亞、以色列、菲律賓、塞爾維亞和黑山，還有幾個拉美和加勒比海國家，包括伯利茲、海地、洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜，列爲二類國家，但是歐盟並未對國家有類似的評級。
The airline industry has come up with its own list of sorts, and it can be useful to travelers. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry's world-wide trade group, began working on a standard auditing regimen nine years ago, and it has evolved into an extensive safety check now required of all airlines to be a member of IATA. Passing the audit became mandatory for membership earlier this year; 21 airlines didn't and were removed.
航空業也有自己林林總總的名單，可能會對旅客有所幫助。航空業的全球行業團體國際航空運輸協會(International Air Transport Association，簡稱IATA)早在9年前就開始着手安全標準審查工作，現在已經演變爲一個覆蓋範圍很大的安全檢查體系，凡是IATA的成員航空公司都要遵照執行。今年年初，通過安全標準審查已經是IATA成員的必備條件;有21家沒有通過安全標準審查的航空公司已被除名。
IATA says 330 airlines around the world have passed its audit. Of those, 230 are IATA members-another 100 airlines wanted to be certified even if not IATA members. (4) US and EU regulators accept IOSA certification to meet requirements that airlines funneling passengers to each other through code-sharing agreements audit each other for safety issues. And a few countries -Egypt is one -require IOSA certifìcation for any airline flying there. IATA表示，全球有330家航空公司已經通過其安全標準審查。其中230家爲
IATA成員，另外 100家航空公司在即便還不是IATA成員的情況下也希望獲得認證。(4)美國和歐盟的監管機構均接受IOSA認證，滿足通過代碼共享協議互相提供客源的航空公司必須就安全問題互相審查的要求。有少數幾個國家——包括埃及，要求任何飛往該國的航空公司均要通過IOSA認證。旅客可以在找到相關名單。
英語四級文章閱讀3
When the Kids' Favorite Toy Is Daddy's iPhone
何時老爸手機成了兒童玩具了
Yesterday, my toddler broke another toy. But this wasn't an inexpensive, plastic doo-dad. It was my husband's iPhone.
昨天，我家寶寶又弄壞了一個玩具。但這可不是便宜的塑料小玩意兒。那是我丈夫的iPhone手機。
Like many parents these days, my husband and I sometimes band over our smartphones to our son to soothe him or keep him entertained. It's partly laziness on our party---no other toy, it seems, can captivate him like the iPhone or BlackBerry. He's fascinated by the buttons and touchscreen, the sounds and lights. He hold it up to his ear and pretends he's making an important business call (or arranging a playdate with his best friend.) He somehow even managed to reprogram my BlackBerry to autotype in the Catalan language.
跟當前的許多父母一樣，我們兩口子有時會把自己的智能手機給兒子玩，以此來哄他或者逗他。在我們來說這樣做一部分是因爲懶——似乎沒有別的玩具能像iPhone或黑莓一樣讓他着迷。他被手機上的按鍵、觸摸屏和聲光深深吸引。他將手機舉在耳邊，假裝在打一個重要的商業電話(或是跟好朋友約好一起去玩)。他甚至還不知怎麼將我的黑莓手機調成了加泰羅尼亞語的輸入模式。
(1) When we take away the BlackBerry or iPhone he wails; no other plaything even a pretty realistic toy cellphone satisfies him as much. (The marketing copy for the toy phone says "This authentic looking play phone will surely distract your child from getting a hold of your cell phone!" Ha! I wish.)
(1)要是我們拿走黑莓或者iPhone，他就會大哭;別的任何玩具都沒法像手機一樣滿足他，即便是相當逼真的玩具手機也不例外。(這個玩具手機的宣傳頁上寫着“這部看上去跟真的一模一樣的玩具手機肯定能轉移孩子的注意力，讓他們不再染指你的手機!”哈!但願如此。)
We often hide our phones-we don't want him to ruin them or grow too dependent on them but be almost always tracks them down once he hears the ring or the buzz of an incoming message. (Hiding a phone is tough, however, for those parents who need to have phones handy in case they're on call or the office beckons.) (2) And when we pick up the phone or check messages, that only makes our son want the phone more, since he always wants whatever is in our hands.
我們常常將於機藏起來，不想讓他給弄壞了或是對手機太過依賴，但只要他聽到鈴聲或信息提示音，他總能找到。(但有些父母需要將手機放在手邊以備隨時待命或公司有事，在這樣的情況下很難藏起手機。)(2)而當我們接電話或是查看信息時，小傢伙只會更想拿到手機，因爲我們手裏不管拿着什麼他都想要。
Invariably, my son sticks the phone in his mouth and it ends up slobbery and pocked with bitemarks. Or when be eventually tires of the phone, he'll toss it aside, which is how my husband's iPhone met its recent doom.
我兒子無可避免地會將手機放進嘴裏，最後手機上就會沾滿了口水，還滿是牙印。或者等他終於玩膩了，他就會將手機亂扔，我丈夫的iPhone不久前就是這樣慘遭不幸的。
We're not alone in using our cellphones as high-tech rattles. (3) The AP recently ran a story on how more parents are downloading kid-friendly apps, such as white noise and rattle sounds and easy video games, to their cellphones. And according to a recent NPR report, one parent to encourage his 11-month-old baby to crawl, waves his Blackberry so the baby will crawl toward the gadget.
拿手機當高科技玩具的並不是只有我們兩個。(3)美聯社(AP)不久前的一篇報道稱，越來越多的父母往手機裏下載適合孩子的應用程序，比如白噪音和鈴鼓的聲音，還有簡單的視頻遊戲。美國國家公共電臺(NPR)最近的一則報道說，一位父親爲了鼓勵11個月大的孩子爬，就揮動他的黑莓手機，這樣孩子就會朝手機那邊爬去。
Readers, do you ever resort to handing over your smartphones to your kids? Any horror stories? Any good kid-friendly apps to recommend?
讀者們，你們有沒有拿手機當玩具哄過孩子?有沒有什麼慘痛的故事?有什麼適合孩子的應用程序可以推薦嗎?
