大学英语四级阅读专项训练 学生版(4)

4

The other day I heard a few local musicians talking:

―I hate all the terrible pianos in this town. I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They can‘t even understand a bit of music.‖

―I‘m never playing in that club again. Too many drunks and nobody listens to us.‖

But, one younger musician said, ―There are a few clubs that book my band a few nights a month, and I‘m trying to find other places to play. I‘m also looking to book a few summer festivals this year.‖

I‘ve heard that you are the average of the five people whom you spend the most time with, or to put it another way, you are who your friends are.

Attitudes are important. Whether they‘re positive or negative, they‘re rubbing off on you. If you‘re around people who complain about lack of work and about other musicians, or blame (责怪) others, and you play the role of victim (受害者), chances are you will start to as well. So it‘s time to take a look at the people you call ―friends‖.

This is an easy exercise: Make a list of the people who you hang out with, and simply stop spending time with the negative people on your list. Set a new standard (标准) for yourself and don‘t become friends with people who fall below that standard.

Keep successful people around you and your own chances for success will be much better. Ask them how they do it. Ask if they will help you get the work you‘re looking for, or maybe give you some advice to help you on your career path.

1. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A. A friend in need is a friend indeed

B. How to make friendship last for ever

C. You are who your friends are

D. Friends are the most important in one‘s success

2. The underlined sentence ―they‘re rubbing off on you‖ in Paragraph 6 means ______.

A. they‘ll push you ahead

B. they‘ll influence you

C. they‘ll cover your shortcomings

D. they‘ll help you achieve your goal

3. The musicians‘ words at the beginning are written mainly to show ______.

A. the musicians‘ living conditions are quite poor

B. people have poor taste in music

C. people have different attitudes towards the same thing

D. young people have greater chances of succeeding

4. By taking the exercise mentioned in Paragraph 7, you can ______.

A. improve a lot in making more friends

B. come to the right way of making friends

C. develop a better relationship with your friends

D. arrange the time with your friends properly

5. The passage is mainly written for ______.

A. musicians B. managers C. negative people D. people wanting to succeed

5

The Program-Federal Government Helps Minority Business

Federal efforts to aid minority businesses began in the 1960's when the Small Business Administration (SBA) began making federally guaranteed loans and government-sponsored management and technical assistance available to minority business enterprises. While this program enabled many minority entrepreneurs to form new businesses, the results were disappointing, since managerial inexperience, unfavorable locations, and capital shortages led to high failure rates. Even 15 years after the program was implemented, minority business receipts were not quite two percent of the national economy's total receipts.

Recently federal policymakers have adopted an approach intended to accelerate development of the minority business sector by moving away from directly aiding small minority enterprises and toward supporting large, growth-oriented minority firms through intermediary companies. In this approach, large corporations participate in the development of successful and stable minority businesses by making use of government-sponsored venture capital. The capital is used by a