2017年上半年全國英語等級考試報名即將在11月份開始，報名前可提前備考複習。下面是yjbys網小編提供給大家關於公共英語四級閱讀材料，希望對大家的備考有所幫助。
公共英語四級閱讀材料：It’s Never Too Late to Change
Age is no criterion when it comes to changing your life.
In fact, it might be just the opposite.
The older we get, the more we must change.
Change is what keeps us fresh and innovative.
Change is what keeps us from getting stale and stuck in a rut.
Change is what keeps us young.
This is not easy.
When we are young it's easy to change and experiment with different things.
The older we get the more set in our ways we become.
We've found out what our comfort level is, and we all want to stay in it.
We don't want to be risk takers anymore, because risk frightens us,
and simply not changing seems so easy.
We must fight through this.
We must look fear straight in the eye and take it on.
We must tell ourselves that we have too much talent, too much wisdom,
too much value not to change.
I believe that Jim, who is on my staff,
is one of the best assistant coaches in the country.
But I almost didn't hire him three years ago
because I thought that psychologically he was too "old,"
that he had lost the drive and passion that an assistant coach needs.
Three years ago he was forty, and I thought
he might have spent too many Saturday afternoons at the country club,
that he wasn't going to get in the trenches anymore,
like the younger assistant coaches do.
But Jim told me that he couldn't wait to get down in the trenches again.
So I hired him, and he's been an integral part of our success.
There is a conventional wisdom in coaching that once you've been a head coach
you can't enthusiastically go back to being an assistant again
and still have the same passion as before.
Jim didn't buy into that.
He didn't let his "old age" get in his way.
He was ready when opportunity came calling.
He reestablished a work ethic second to none with the eagerness of a person right out of college.
And I'm thankful for what he did,
because he played such an essential role in our championship season.
This is what we all must do.
We must realize that it's never too late to begin making changes
that can transform our life.
公共英語四級閱讀材料：Sorrow of the Millionaire
The unfortunate millionaire has the responsibility of tremendous wealth without the possibility of enjoying himself more than any ordinary rich man.
Indeed, in many things he cannot enjoy himself more than many poor men do, nor even so much, for a drum major is better dressed, a trainer’s stable lad often rides a better horse;the first-class carriage is shared by office boys taking their young ladies out for the evening; everybody who goes down to Brighton for Sunday rides in the Pullman car; and for what use is it to be able to pay for a peacock’s brain sandwich when there is nothing to be had but ham or beef?
The injustice of this state of things has not been sufficiently considered.
A man with an income of ￡25 a year can multiply his comfort beyond all calculation by doubling his income.
A man with ￡50 a year can at least quadruple his comfort by doubling his income.
Probably up to even ￡250 a year doubled income means doubled comfort.
After that the increment of comfort grows less in proportion to the increment of income until a point is reached at which the victim is satiated and even surfeited with everything that money can purchase.
To expect him to enjoy another hundred thousand pounds because men like money, is exactly as if you were to expect a confectioner’s shopboy to enjoy two hours more work a day because boys are fond of sweets.
What can the wretched millionaire do that needs a million?
Does he want a fleet of yachts, a Rotten Row full of carriages, an army of servants, a whole city of town houses, or a continent for a game preserve?
Can he attend more than one theatre in one-evening, or wear more than one suit at a time, or digest more meals than his butler?
And yet there is no sympathy for this hidden sorrow of plutocracy.
The poor alone are pitied.
Societies spring up in all directions to relieve all sorts of comparatively happy people, but no hand is stretched out to the millionaire,except to beg.
In all our dealings with him lies implicit, the delusion that he has nothing to complain of, and that he ought to be ashamed of rolling in wealth whilst others are starving.
