2017年上半年公共英語考試開始備考啦，為了提高大家學習的'積極性，以下是yjbys網小編整理的關於公共英語四級閱讀備考材料，供大家備考閱讀。
公共英語四級閱讀材料一：魔鏡
A loving person lives in a loving world.
A hostile person lives in a hostile world.
Everyone you meet is your mirror.
Mirrors have a very particular function.
They reflect the image in front of them.
Just as a physical mirror serves as the vehicle to reflection,
so do all of the people in our lives.
When we love someone, it’s a reflection of loving ourselves.
Oftentimes, when we meet someone new, we feel as if we’ve known each other for a long time.
That feeling can come from sharing similarities.
We are comfortable because part of ourselves is being reflected.
Just as the ‘mirror’ or other person can be a positive reflection,
it is more likely that we’ll notice it when it has a negative connotation.
Frequently, when we dislike qualities in other people, ironically,
it’s usually the mirror that’s speaking to us.
Example: Several years ago, I joined a friend who had invited several other friends as well.
One woman, ‘Laura’ continuously dominated the conversation.
It was particularly annoying as I felt there was little opportunity to get to know the other people.
It wasn’t until several weeks had passed
that I questioned and couldn’t understand why was I so disturbed by Laura’s behavior
as I didn’t have to be friends or spend more time with her.
Finally, it hit me! I saw aspects of those same traits in me.
I realized that the reason we met was for me to hold up the ‘mirror’
and see myself behaving in an unfavorable manner.
So I began questioning myself further each time I encountered someone that I didn’t particularly like.
Each time, I asked myself "What is it about that person that I don’t like?"
And then "Is there something similar in me?”
In every instance, and sometimes I had to really get very introspective,
I could see a piece of that quality in me.
At times we meet someone new and feel distant, disconnected, or disgusted.
Although we don’t want to believe it—and it’s not easy or desirable to look further
—it can be a great learning lesson to figure out what part of the person is being reflected in you.
It’s simply just another way to create more self-awareness.
公共英語四級閱讀材料二：The Price of Perfection
Gold may depreciate, stocks rise or fall,
and business values change so as to leave the market in panic,
but every man on the street or in the store knows that one value forever remains permanent, unvarying,
and that is character.
Every other asset may be swept away and success still achieved if this remain;
every other aid may be at its best
and failure only await him who lacks the wealth of character.
Character is that of which reputation is but the echo, often mistaken and misleading.
Character is the last, the ultimate, value of life.
It is the trend of the whole being towards the best.
It is the passion and power that holds one true despite all persuasion.
It is the one thing worth having, because upon it all other values depend.
This asset comes not to a man by accident.
He who is rich in character,
whose success in many ways is built upon his resources in this way,
does not just simply happen to be good, true, and square.
There is a price to character;
it costs more than any other thing, for it is worth more than all other things.
Essentially it never is inherited,
but always acquired by processes often slow and toilsome and at great price.
If you would be perfect you must pay the price of perfection.
Unless the passion of life is this perfection it never will be your possession.
Dreams of ideal goodness only waste the hours in which it might have been achieved.
No man ever finds character in his sleep.
The education of the heart is a thing even more definite than the education of the head.
The school of character has an infinite variety of courses and an unending curriculum.
This does not mean that this prize of eternity falls
only to those who devote themselves wholly to self-culture,
to the salvation of their own souls.
The best lives have thought little of themselves,
but they have lived for the ends of the soul, to help men to better living,
to save them from the things that blight and damn the soul.
Like the Leader of men they have found the life unending by laying down their lives,
paying the full price, selling all in order that right and truth and honour and purity,
love and kindness and justice might remain to man.
