關於英語四級閱讀短文

　　大學英語四級考試是用來測試我國非英語專業大學生英語水平的大規模的考試。小編整理了，歡迎閱讀!

　　篇一

　　According to Charles Harper, Chairman of ConAgra, the Healthy Choice line of frozen dinners began with his own heart attack. It has been brought on by years of eating anything he could get his hands on. As he lay in the hospital recovering, Harper imagined the line of healthy frozen foods that tasted good.

　　康尼格拉集團總裁查爾斯·哈珀表示，冷凍餐的健康選擇是從他的心臟病開始著手的。多年以來，他一直都是有什麼吃什麼。哈珀躺在醫院裡逐漸康復時，想到了好吃又健康的冷凍食物。

　　The Healthy Choice product line was carefully tested with consumers before being introduced to the general public. ConAgra's research and development staff spent a year working under the instruction "Whatever the cost, don't sacrifice taste." The first test market results surprised even the ConAgra team. The low-sodium, low-fat frozen dinners sold much better than expected. According to the firm's vice-president of marketing and sales, "We benefited from low expectations. The products were much better than people thought they would be."

　　健康的選擇產品線在面向公眾銷售前，由目標消費者進行了仔細測試。康尼格拉集團的研發員工在“不論成本多高，不要犧牲掉味道”這一準則下進行了一年的開發。首個市場測試結果令康尼格拉團隊都感到驚訝。這種低鈉、低脂冷凍餐的銷售成績遠好於預期。該集團市場銷售部副總表示，“我們從低預期中受益。這個產品比人們預期的要好的多。”

　　This finding supported ConAgra's decision to position the product against other high-quality frozen dinners rather than as a diet or health food. The new product's brand name and packaging were an important part of the development process. The name Healthy Choice was chosen for the positive implication it held for consumers. Because ConAgra felt the product would be an impulse purchase, it was important to make the item stand out in the freezer case. This was accomplished through the dark green packaging that not only differed from the competitors but also suggested freshness and richness in vitamins.

　　這一結果支援康尼格拉集團對該產品定位的決定，即用該產品去和其他高質量冷凍餐競爭，而不是和減肥食品或健康食品競爭。新產品的品牌名稱和包裝是開發過程的重點內容。最終決定命名為“健康的選擇”是因為這個名字向消費者傳達了積極的內涵。因為康尼格拉集團認為這個產品會是一種衝動消費，所以讓其在冷凍餐裡脫穎而出非常重要。他們通過深綠色的包裝完成了這一目標，因為這種包裝不僅不同於其他競爭者，而且也暗含該產品含有新鮮豐富的維他命這個意義。

　　篇二

　　In the United States, 36 states currently allow capital punishment for serious crimes such asmurder. Americans have always argued about the death penalty. Today, there is a seriousquestion about this issue: Should there be a minimum age limit for executing criminals? Inother words, is it right for convicted murderers who kill when they are minors — that is, underthe age of 18 — to receive the death penalty?

　　目前美國有36個州允許對謀殺等嚴重犯罪處以死刑。美國人一直為死刑判罰爭論不休。現在重要的問題是：處決罪犯是否應該有最小年齡限制?換句話說，不滿18歲的未成年人犯謀殺罪是否要被處以死刑?

　　In most other countries of the world, there is no capital punishment for minors. In the UnitedStates, though, each state makes its own decision. Of the 36 states that allow the deathpenalty, 30 permit the execution of minors. In the state of South Carolina, a convictedmurderer was given the death penalty for a crime he committed while he was a minor.

　　世界上大部分國家的未成年人判罰中都不包括死刑。但是在美國，每個州可以自行決定。美國36個州中有30個州允許對未成年人處以死刑。在南卡羅來納州，一名未成年人因犯謀殺罪被處以死刑。

　　In 1977, when he was 17 years old, James Terry Roach and two friends cruelly murdered threepeople. Roach's lawyer fought the decision to execute him. The young murderer remained onDeath Row for ten years while his lawyer appealed to the governor. The lawyer argued that it iswrong to execute a person for a crime he committed while he was a minor. In the UnitedStates, the governor of a state has the power to change a sentence from the death penalty tolife in prison. Nonetheless, the governor of South Carolina refused to stop the execution.Roach was finally executed in 1986.

　　1977年，17歲的詹姆斯·特瑞·羅奇和兩個朋友殘忍地殺害了三個人。羅奇的律師反對死刑判決。他的律師向州長提出上訴，上訴的10年時間裡這名年輕的謀殺犯被關在死囚牢房裡。律師認為，因未成年時犯下的罪行而被處以死刑是錯誤的。美國各州州長有權將死刑判罰改為終身監禁。但是，南卡羅來納州州長拒絕阻止死刑。羅奇最終在1986年被執行死刑。

　　篇三

　　A typical large supermarket offers around 17 000 to 20 000 items for sale and it wants tomake sure that its customers see as many of them as possible. That's why you'll only findessential goods like bread, vegetables and meat in completely different parts of the store.

　　典型的大型超市出售的商品約有1.7萬件至2萬件，超市要確保顧客儘可能看到大部分商品。這就是超市把麵包、蔬菜、肉類等必需品放在完全不同的區域的原因。

　　Products with a high profit margin are always placed on shelves within easy reach of thecustomer, while lower margin items like sugar or flower are on the top or bottom shelves. Manypeople make shopping lists before they visit supermarkets. But even so, around 60% of allsupermarket purchases are the result of decisions that are taken in the store. For this reason,supermarkets try to attract their customers by placing certain kinds of products next to eachother.

　　高利潤商品通常會放在顧客方便拿到的貨架上，而糖、鮮花等低利潤商品通常會放在貨架最上層或最下層。許多人在去超市購物前會列購物清單。不過即使有清單，超市消費中有60%是在超市內做出的決定。基於這個原因，各超市將某些種類的產品擺放在一起，希望藉此來吸引顧客。

　　In the UK, beer will often be found next to items for babies because research shows thatfathers of babies buy them on their way home from work and will buy beer at the same time.Research has also shown that this kind of impulse buy happens more frequently when no salesassistants are nearby. Supermarkets have made selling such a fine art that their customersoften lose all sense of time. When interviewed, customers normally guess they've only spenthalf an hour in the supermarket even when they have been there for over 45 minutes. But thatshouldn't be too surprising. Any witty profitable supermarket knows that it should keep itsclocks well hidden.

　　在英國，啤酒通常會擺放在嬰兒產品旁邊，因為調查發現，嬰兒的父親在回家路上購買嬰兒用品時，會順便買啤酒。調查還發現，附近沒有售貨員的時候，這種衝動購買的發生頻率更高。超市讓銷售變成了一種藝術，因為顧客在超市裡經常會忘記時間。調查發現，顧客認為他們只在超市裡待了半個小時的時間，而實際上他們在超市的時間已經超過45分鐘了。不過這不足為奇。所有營利的超市都知道，要把時鐘藏好。