2009年12月英语四级听力考试全真模拟题(5)

　　Passage Two

　　Crime has its own cycles, a magazine reported some years ago. Police records show a surprising relation between changes in the season and crime patterns.

　　The pattern of crime has changed very little over a long period of years. Murder reaches its high during July and August, as do other violent attacks. Murder, in addition, is more than seasonal; it is a weekend crime. It is also a nighttime crime: 62 percent of murders are committed between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. One is most likely to be robbed between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. on a Saturday night in December, January, or February. Except for one strange statistic, May is the least criminal month of all.

　　Apparently our intellectual season cycles are completely different from our criminal patterns. Professor Huntington made a lot of studies to discover the seasons when people read serious books, attend scientific meetings, and make the highest scores on examinations. In all examples, he found a spring peak and an autumn peak separated by a summer low. On the other hand, Professor Huntington’s studies showed that June is the peak month for suicides and for admitting patients to mental hospital. June is also a peak month for marriages!

　　Possibly, high temperature and humidity bring on our strange and surprising summer actions, but police officers are not so sure. “There are, of course, no proof of a relation between humidity and murder”, they say. “Why murder’s high time should come in the summer time we really don’t know”.

　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. What is the passage mainly about?

　　【解析】选[D]。根据选项的概括性强、信息密集可知，本题考查短文主旨。文章开头的Police records show a surprising relation between changes in the season and crime patterns为短文主题句，故[D]为答案。

　　30. Which is the safest season?

　　【解析】选[B]。文章明确提到May is the least criminal month of all，表明五月是犯罪率最低的月份，也就是说五月最安全，故选项[B]正确。

　　31. What did Professor Huntington’s research show?

　　【解析】选[C]。推断题。文章讲到，Professor Huntington调查人们读严肃小说、出席科技会议和考试得高分的季节，所有数据表明在春季和秋季是高峰，而夏季却是低峰，排除[B]、[D];另外短文中听到June出现最多的地方提到了两个peak, 他们分别是自杀和医院接收精神病患者数目最高峰以及结婚的高峰，由此可以排除[A]项，得出答案[C]。