2016年6月大学英语四级考试翻译真题
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Why do some people live to be older than others? You know the standard explanations: keeping a moderate diet, engaging in regular exercise, etc. But what effect does your personality have on your longevity(长寿)? Do some kinds of personalities lead to longer lives? A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looked at this question by examining the personality characteristics of 246 children of people who had lived to be at least 100.
The study shows that those living the longest are more outgoing, more active and less neurotic (神经质的) than other people. Long-living women are also more likely to be sympathetic and cooperative than women with a normal life span. These findings are in agreement with what you would expect from the evolutionary theory: Those who like to make friends and help others can gather enough resources to make it through tough times.
Interestingly, however, other characteristics that you might consider advantageous had no impact on whether study participants were likely to live longer. Those who were more self-disciplined, for instance, were no more likely to live to be very old. Also, being open to new ideas had no relationship to long life, which might explain all those bad-tempered old people who are fixed in their ways.
Whether you can successfully change your personality as an adult is the subject of a longstanding psychological debate. But the new paper suggests that if you want long life, you should strive to be as outgoing as possible.
Unfortunately, another recent study shows that your mother’s personality may also help determine your longevity. That study looked at nearly 28,000 Norwegian mothers and found that those moms who were more anxious, depressed and angry were more likely to feed their kids unhealthy diets. Patterns of childhood eating can be hard to break when we’re adults, which may mean that kids of depressed moms end up dying younger.
Personality isn’t destiny(命运), and everyone knows that individuals can learn to change. But both studies show that long life isn’t just a matter of your physical health but of your mental health.
(1).The aim of the study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society is ______.
A.to see whether people’s personality affects their life span.
B.to find out if one’s lifestyle has any effect on their health.
C.to investigate the role of exercise in living a long life.
D.to examine all the factors contributing to longevity.
参考答案：A
解题思路：
由题干中的aim和Journal of the American Geriatrics Society定位到文章第一段。第一段第四句提到，《美国老年病学期刊》上的一项最新研究对这个问题进行了调查，他们调查了246个孩子的性格特征。这些孩子的父母至少活到100岁。通过前一句中提到两个问题：你的性格对你的长寿有什么影响?是否有一些性格有助于长寿?可知，这项研究主要是调查性格和长寿的关系。因此正确答案为A项。
(2).What does the author imply about outgoing and sympathetic people?
A.They have a good understanding of evolution.
B.They are better at negotiating an agreement.
C.They generally appear more resourceful.
D.They are more likely to get over hardship.
参考答案：D
解题思路：
由题干中的outgoing、sympathetic和imply定位到文章第二段。第二段的第二句提到，长寿的女人和寿命一般的女人比起来更加具有同情心和合作精神。第三句和第四句提到，这些发现和你从进化论中所预料到的是一致的：那些喜欢交朋友并且乐于助人的人能够聚集足够的资源度过困难的时刻。由此可知，长寿的女人通常是外向而且富有同情心、有合作精神的。他们更容易渡过难关。因此正确答案为D项。
(3).What finding of the study might prove somewhat out of our expectation?
A.Easy-going people can also live a relatively long life.
B.Personality characteristics that prove advantageous actually vary with times.
C.Such personality characteristics as self-discipline have no effect on longevity.
D.Readiness to accept new ideas helps one enjoy longevity.
参考答案：C
解题思路：
由题干中的out of our expectation定位到文章第三段。第三段中提到，然而，有趣的是，其他你认为是优点的性格特征对研究参与者是否长寿没有什么影响。例如，那些更自律的人并没有活得很久。同样地，乐于接受新想法跟长寿也没有关系。因此正确答案为C项。
(4).What does the recent study of Norwegian mothers show?
A.Children’s personality characteristics are invariably determined by their mothers.
B.People with unhealthy eating habits are likely to die sooner.
C.Mothers’ influence on children may last longer than fathers’.
D.Mothers’ negative personality characteristics may affect their children’s life spans.
参考答案：D
解题思路：
由题干中的Norwegian mothers定位到文章第五段。第五段中的第二句和第三句提到，那项研究调查了将近28,000位挪威母亲，然后发现那些更加焦虑、消极、易怒的母亲更容易用不健康的饮食喂养孩子。童年时期的饮食模式很难在我们成年后进行改变，这可能意味着那些抑郁的母亲生的孩子寿命更短。由此可知，性格消极的母亲会影响孩子的寿命。因此正确答案为D项。
(5).What can we learn from the findings of the two new studies?
A.Anxiety and depression more often than not cut short one’s life span.
B.Longevity results from a combination of mental and physical health.
C.Personality plays a decisive role in how healthy one is.
D.Health is in large part related to one’s lifestyle.
参考答案：B
解题思路：
由题干中的the two new studies定位到文章最后一段。最后一段第二句提到，两项研究都表明，长寿不仅仅与你的身体健康状况有关，而且也与你的精神健康状况有关。因此正确答案为B项。
考生们要抓紧时间好好复习啦！
更多大学英语四级考试试题在这里>>>大学英语四级考试题库
