最新 2014年12月英语六级仔细阅读练习题(4)-精品
2014年12月大学英语四级阅读练习题及答案
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage． Until recently,I had liale idea what palm oil(棕榈油)is and why some people consider it one of the most controversial ingredients found in nearly half of our supermarket products．But when I found out why people were upset，1 was moved to take action． The Southeast Asian country of Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of palm oil，which has been both a blessing and a curse．It's a massive industry,providing income for thousands of workers，but palm oilis also the largest driver of the mass destruction of Indonesia’s rain forests．The consequences of this destruction are significant：the loss of biodiversity,conflicts with communities who depend on the forest for their own livelihoods，and increasing emissions of greerthouse gases that cause climate change． Forests are home to countless species．There are as few as 400 Sumatran tigers left in Indonesia,and their time on earth is running out．Greenpeace has released research showing that the expansion of oil palm and pulpwood plantations was responsible for nearly two-thirds of the destruction of Sumatran tiger habitat from 2009 to 20 11．Sumatrantigers，forced to flee from the destruction of their homes,also find themselves in direct contact with humans．Many are killed or maimed as local residents try to protect themselves from the scared animals． The decline of Sumatlan tigers is a measure of the loss of rain forest，biodiversity and also climate stability．If the tigers disappear,then we are facing all environmentA. tragedy． If you eat chocolate，wash your hair or your clothes，there’s a good chance you are being made a part of this cycle of destruction．And not by choice．Palm oil can and must make a genuine contribution to Indonesia and its people．And part of the solution rests with global brands that make the products we consume daily．Palm oil that results from forest destruction is traded around the world．But together we can say enough is enough．It’s time big brands guarantee you and me that forest destruction is not a part of their products．We are all a part of the future，and together we can ensure these magnificent animals are．too．56．Why is the great export of palm oil both a blessing and a curse?A.Because every coin has two sides，without the exception of export of palm oil．B.Because it is both a stimulation of economy increase and climate warming．C.Because it both makes contribution to climate improvement and economy decline．D.Because it is both the driver of large income and huge destruction of forests．57．Which one is not included in the negative consequences of rain forests destruction?A.The dramatic decrease of biological diversity in rain forests．B.Huge profits benefit from the great exportation of palm oil．C.Frequent clashes with people who live on those rain forests．D. Increasing release of a great deal of greenhouse gases．58．What is responsible for the destruction of Sumatlan tiger habitat?A. People who killed or maimed those scared animals．B.People who cut down the rain forests in abundance．C.The extension of oil palm and pulpwood cultivation．D. The loss of lain forests owing to palm plantations．59．What advice does the author give to the productive process of global brands?A.Global brands should not be at cost of forest destruction．B.They should guarantee the protection of lain forests．C.They should pay attention to law materials of products．D、They should not demand anything from rain forests．60．What is the attitude of author to plentiful palm oil production?A.Critical．B.Positive．C.Partial．D.Negative． Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage Room for all，for now． But there are signs that the sharing site(住房分享站)is starting to threaten budget hotels．Even as they lobby regulators to crack down on residential sharing services，hoteliers play down the threat such companies pose to their industry．The top brass at the Four Seasons and Hilton chains have all said that these firms do not compete for their core market；a vice-president of The Ritz-Carlton group recently claimed she had not even heard of Airbnb．And Airbnb itself agrees，arguing that it does not displace existing lodging but is creating new demand．“I’m optimistic that there isn’t going to be a war”with hotels．Brian Chesky,its boss，said in January． A recent study seems to confirm that，for now at least，Airbnb is only nibbling at influence from Airbnb on business and luxury hotels．But in places where it has established a presence，it cut the revenues of budget hotels by 5％in the two years to December 2013． If Airbnb were to keep growing at its current rate，the Texas study suggests that by 20 1 6 the dent in budgethotels’takings will be 10％．Wim their high fixed costs，that could push many ofthem into the red．of course．Airbnb may hit me limits of either supply or demand before then，but smaller hotels are already blaming it for their woes．“I see a directcorrelation between our revenues going down and Airbnb’s going up，”says Vijay Dandapani，the president of Apple Core Hotels in New York．“We had continued growth until Airbnb．”The financing round that Airbnb has iust closed，valuing it at more than all but the four largest global hotel groups，suggests that investors agree． Concur,a travel-and expense-management firm．has seen its corporate clients’Airbnb bookings grow from a rounding error at the start of 2012 to more than lmillion so far this year．If Airbnb can integrate with online travel agencies such as Expedia and increase the share of its hosts that provide instant booking coniirmation．business hotels may find themselves with a surprisingly unignorable competitor．61．What is the reaction of other competitors to the appearance of Airbnb?A. They highlight the threat it poses to their industries．B.They never pay attention to this unworthy competitor．C.They did not obviously worry about the appearance of Airbnb．D.TheY are optimistic about their close cooperation in future．62．What does the Texas study show about the future ofAirbnb in Para．47A.Airbnb will never swallow the whole of hotel industry’s lunch．B. Airbnb may threaten the status of luxury and business hotels．C.Airbnb had cut a great deal of the revenues of budget hotels．D. Airbnb probably has a bright future among its competitors．63．What can we infer from the statements ofPara．57A. Airbnb will become a powerful competitor in the future market．B. Airbnb should be responsible for the woe of smA.ler hotels．C.Airbnb’s going up correlates with others’going down．D.Airbnb would capture 10％takings ofbudget hotels by 2016．64．What can Airbnb do to be a surprisingly unignorable competitor?A.Willingly collaborating with the four largest global hotel groups．B. Cooperating with online travel agencies and increasing the share of its hosts．C.Beating against all the potential rivals to gain its market shares．D.Expanding its online bookings by the help of online travel agencies．65．What’s the meaning of“Room for all．for now．”?A. Everyone will have a private room as soon as possible．B. The online travel agencies will offer us a room quickly．C.It is quite convenient for people to book rooms on sharing site．D. The information on sharing site is useful for us to book rooms．56．Why is the great export ofpalm oil both a blessing and a curse?为什么说棕榈油的出⼝既是福⾳⼜是诅咒?A.Because every coin has two sides，without the exception ofexport ofpalm oil．因为事物都具有两⾯性，棕榈油也不例外。
2014年12月英语六级真题及答案(全套)
2014年12月英语六级真题及答案（文字版）考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对Part I WritingDirections: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following t opic. You should write at least 180 words but no more than 200 words.作文题一：学历歧视作文部分：【学历歧视：参考范文】In the modern society, with competition becomes increasingly fierce, to find a job is to o difficult for the young generation. Academic qualification, as a job a stepping-stone, is a n essential factor during the job hunting.Some people think that the highly educated must be able to find a good job, because education can prove that a person has a good capacity. Therefore, it is commonly believethat a job seeker with a master degree must be easier to find a promising job than a un dergraduate. However, now the company interviewers generally prefer to required a even h igher academic qualification, like a doctor degree. Otherwise, the applicants, even though h e or she has tremendous potential, will be refused relentlessly.As far as I am concerned, education should not be the single standard in an interview. As for the companies, it is not necessarily a good principle as well. Now the whole comm unity often talk about working ability and efficiency. For example, some people may have high academic qualification, but actually his ability is very limited. So both the individual a nd the community ought to change their attitude on academic qualification. We should rea lize that it is the operationalPart II ListeningSection ADirections：In this section，you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was sai d. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question t here will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D)，and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Ans wer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.Question 1A.At a groceryB.In a parking lotC.In a car showroomD.At a fast food restaurantQuestion 2A.Have a little nap after lunchB.Get up and take a short walkC.Change her position now and thenD.Stretch legs before standing upQuestion 3A.The students should practice long-distance runningB.He doesn’t quite believe what the woman saysC.The students’ physical condition is not desirableD.He thinks the race is too hard for the students Question 4A.They do not want to have a baby at presentB.They cannot afford to get married right nowC.They are both pursuing graduate studiesD.They will get their degrees in two years Question 5A.Twins usually have a lot in commonB.He must have been mistaken for JackC.Jack is certainly not as healthy as he isD.He has not seen Jack for quite a few daysQuestion 6A.The man will take the woman wo the museumB.The man knows where the museum is locatedC.The woman is asking the way at the crossroadsD.The woman will attend the opening of the museumQuestion 7A.They cannot ask the guy to leaveB.The guy has been coming in for yearsC.They should not look down upon the guyD.The guy must be feeling extremely lonelyQuestion 8A.Collect timepiecesB.Become time-consciousC.Learn to mend locksD.Keep track of his daily activitiesQuestions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 9A.It winds its way to the seaB.It is quickly risingC.It is eating into its banksD.It is wide and deepQuestion 10A.Get the trucks over to the other side of the riverB.Take the equipment apart before being ferriedC.Reduce the transport cost as much as possibleD.Try to speed up the operation by any meansQuestion 11A.Ask the commander to send a helicopterB.Halt the operation until further ordersC.Cut trees and build rowing boatsD.Find as many coats as possibleQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 12A.Help him join an Indian expeditionB.Talk about his climbing experiencesC.Give up mountain climbing altogetherD.Save money to buy climbing equipmentQuestion 13A.He was very strict with his childrenB.He climbed mountains to earn a livingC.He had an unusual religious backgroundD.He was the first to conquer Mt. QomolangmaQuestion 14A.They are like humansB.They are sacred placesC.They are to be protectedD.They are to be conqueredQuestion 15A.It was his father’s training that pilled him throughB.It was a milestone in his mountain climbing careerC.It was his father who gave him the strength to succeedD.It helped him understand the Sherpa view of mountainsSection BDirections：In this section，you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage，you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only onc e. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices mar ked A), B), C)and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single l ine through the centrePassage OneQuestion 16A. By reviewing what he has said previouslyB.By comparing memorandums with lettersC.By show ing a memorandum’ s structureD.By analyzing the organization of a letterQuestion 17A.They spent a lot of time writing memorandumsB.They seldom read a memorandum through to the endC.They placed emphasis on the format of memorandumsD.They ignored many of the memorandums they received Question 18A.Style and wordingB.Structure and lengthC.Directness and clarityD.Simplicity and accuracyPassage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard. Question 19A.Accurate datingB.Professional lookC.Direct statement of purposeD.Inclusion of appropriate humorQuestion 20A.They give top priority to their work efficiencyB.They make an effort to lighten their workloadC.They never change work habits unless forced toD.They try hard to make the best use of their timeQuestion 21A.Self-confidenceB.Sense of dutyC.Work efficiencyD.Passion for workQuestion 22A.They are addicted to playing online gamesB.They try to avoid work whenever possibleC.They find to pleasure in the work they doD.They simply have no sense of responsibilityPassage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard. Question 23A.He lost all his propertyB.He was sold to a circusC.He was forced into slaveryD.He ran away from his familyQuestion 24A.A carpenterB.A businessmanC.A master of hisD.A black drummerQuestion 25A.It named its town hall after Solomon NorthupB.It declared July 24 Solomon Northup DayC.It freedom all blacks in the town from slaveryD.It hosted a reunion for the Northup familySection CDirections：In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is re ad for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is r ead for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you h ave just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.Section CIntolerance is the art of ignoring any views that differ from your own. It(26)_____ itself a hatred. Stereotypes, prejudice, and(27)_____.Once it intensifies in people, intolerance is nea rly impossible to overcome. But why would anyone want to be labeled intolerant. Why wo uld people want to be (28)_____about the world around them? Why would one want to be part of the problem in America, instead of the solution?There are many explanations for intolerant attitudes, some (29)_____ childhood. It is like ly that intolerant folks grew up (30)_____ intolerant parents and the cycle of prejudice has s imply continued for (31)_____. Perhaps intolerant people are so set in their ways that they f ind it easier to ignore anything that might not (32)_____ their limited view of life. Or mayb e intolerant students have simply never been (33)_____ to anyone different form themselves. But none of these reason is an excuse for allpwing the intolerance to continue.Intolerance should not be confused with disagreement.It is,of course,possible as diasgree with an opinion without being intolerant of it.If you understand a belief but still don't b elieve in that specific belief,that's fine.You are (34)_____ your opinion.As a matter of fact.(35) _____ disseniers(持异议者)are important for any belief.If we all believed the same things.we w ould never grow,and we would never learn about the world around us,does not stem frim disagreement.It stems from fear,And fear stems from fear.And fear stems from ignorance. Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section AHis future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one X XXX expect. They laughed aloud in 1986 when the heir to the British(36)_____ told a TV rep orter that he talked to his plants at his country house, Highgrove, to stimulate their growt h. The Prince was being humorous- “My sense of humor will get me into trouble one day”, he said to his aids(随从)-but listening to Charles Windsor can indeed prove stimulating. Th e royal(37)_____ has been promoting radical ideas for most of his adult life. Some of his(38) _____, which once sounded a bit weird, were simply ahead of their time. Now, finally, the w orld seems to be catching up with him.Take his views on farming. Prince Charles’ Duchy Home Farm went(39)_____ back in 19 86. When most shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemish-free (无瑕疵的) vegetables and(40)_____ large chickens piled high in supermarkets.His warnings on climate change proved farsighted,too.Charles began(41)_____ action in warming in 1990 and says he has been worried about the(42)_____ of man on the environ ment same be was a teenger.Although he was gradually gained international(43)_____ as one of the world's lending conservationists,many British people still think of him as an(34)_____ person who talks to pla nts.This year,as it happens,South Korean scientists proved that plants really do(45)_____ to r ound.So Charles was ahead of the game there,too.A.conformB.eccentricC.environmentalistD.expeditionsE.impactF.notionsanicH.originallyI.recognitionJ.respondK.subordinateL.suppressingM.throneN.unnaturallyO.urgingSection BDirections: In this section，you are going to read a passage with ten statements attache d to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than o nce. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the correspo nding letter on Answer Sheet 2. High School Sports Aren’t Killing AcademicsA)In this month’s Atlantic cover article, “The Case Against High-School Sports,” Ama nda Ripley argues that school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut. She writ es that, unlike most countries that outperform the United States on international assessme nts, American schools put too much of an emphasis on athletics, “ Sports are embedded i n American schools in a way they are not almost any where else,” she writes, “Yet this dif ference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America’s international mediocrit y(平庸)in education.”B)American student-athletes reap many benefits from participating in sports, but the co sts to the schools could outweigh their benefits, she argues, In particular, Ripley contends t hat sports crowd out the academic missions of schools: America should learn from South K orea and Finland and every other country at the top level of international test scores, all o f whom emphasize athletics far less in school. ”Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports,”she writes, citing a 2010 stud y published in the Journal of Advanced Academics.C)It might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schools than in other countries. But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the arg ument against school athletics. Indeed, our own research and that of others lead us to make the opposite case. School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to inc rease, not detract(减少)from, academic success.D)Ripley indulges a popular obsession(痴迷)with international test score comparisons, w hich show wide and frightening gaps between the United States and other countries. She i gnores, however, the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries. A 2011 report from Harvard University shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland, while Mississippi scores are closer to Trinid ad and Tobago. Ripley’s thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact. Schools in Mas sachusetts provide sports programs while schools in Finland do not. Schools in Mississippi may love football while in Tobago interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent. Sp orts cannot explain these similarities in performance. They can’t explain international differ ences either.E)If it is true that sports undermine the academic mission of American schools, we wou ld expect to see a negative relationship between the commitment to athletics and academi c achievement. However, the University of Arkansas’s Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actuall y find the opposite. They examine this relationship by analyzing sch ools’ sports winning p ercentages as well as student-athletic participation rates compared to graduation rates and standardized test score achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in Ohio. Controlling for student poverty levels, demographics(人口统计状况), and district financi al resources, both measures of a school’s commitment to athletics are significantly and po sitively related to lower dropout rates as well as higher test scores.F)On-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random-it requires focus and dedication to athletics. One might think this would lead schools obsessed with winning to deemphasize academics. Bowen and Greene’s results contradict that argument. A likely explanation for this seemingly counterintuitive(与直觉相反的)result is that success in sports programs actually facilitates or reflects greater social capital within a school’s community.G)Ripley cites the writings of renowned sociologist James Coleman, whose research in education was groundbreaking. Coleman in his early work held athletics in contempt, argui ng that they crowded out schools’ academic missions. Ripley quotes his 1961 study, The Adolescent Society, where Coleman writes, “Altogether, the trophy(奖品)case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution.”H)However, in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly dependent on what he termed social capital, “the social networks, and the relationships b etween a dults and children that are of value for the child’s growing up.”I)According to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chic ago, a program called Becoming a Man-Sports Edition creates lasting improvements in the boys’study hab its and grade point averages. During the first year of the program, student s were founds to be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime. A year after the program, participants were less likely to have had an encounter with the juvenile justice system.J)If school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorrow, many American stud ents would still have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere, much like they do in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Korea. The same is not certain when it comes to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In an overview of the research on non-school based after-school programs, researchers find that disadvantaged c hildren participate in these programs at significantly lower rates. They find that low-income students have less access due to challenges with regard to transportation, non-nominal fe es, and off-campus safety. Therefore, reducing or eliminating these opportunities would mo st likely deprive disadvantaged students of the benefits from athletic participation, not least of which is the opportunity to interact with positive role models outside of regular school hours.K)Another unfounded criticism that Ripley makes is bringing up the stereotype that ath letic XX are typically lousy(蹩脚的)classroom teachers. “American principals, unlike the XX X X of principals around the world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mi nd, which does not always end well for students,” she writes. Educators who seek em ploy ment at schools primarily for the purpose of coaching are likely to shirk(推卸)teaching resp onsibilities, the argument goes. Moreover, even in the cases where the employee is a teach er first and athletic coach second, the additional responsibilities that come with coaching li kely comes at the expense of time otherwise spent on planning, grading, and communicati ng with parents and guardians.L)The data, however, do not seem to confirm this stereotype. In the most rigorous stu dy on the classroom results o f high school coaches, the University of Arkansas’s Anna Ega lite finds that athletic coaches in Florida mostly tend to perform just as well as their non-coaching counterparts, with respect to raising student test scores. We do not doubt that tea chers who also coach face serious tradeoffs that likely come at the expense of time they c ould dedicate to their academic obligations. However, as with sporting events, athletic coac hes gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving as mentors(导师)that pote ntially help students succeed and make up for the costs of coaching commitments.M)If schools allow student-athletes to regularly miss out on instructional time for the s ake of traveling to athletic competitions, that’s bad. However, such issues would be better addressed by changing school and state policies with regard to the scheduling of sporting events as opposed to total elimination. If the empirical evidence points to anything, it poin ts towards school sponsored sports providing assets that are well worth the costs.N)Despite negative stereotypes about sports culture and Ripley’s presumption that aca demics and athletics are at odds with one another, we believe that the greater body of evi dence shows that school-sponsored sports programs appear to benefit students. Successes on the playing field can carry over to the classroom and vice versa(反之亦然). More importa ntly, finding ways to increase school communities’ social capital is imperative to the succe ss of the school as whole, not just the athletes.46.Stunets from low-income families have less access to off-campus sports programs.47.Amanda Ripley argues that America should learn from other countries that rank high in international tests and lay less emphasis on athletics.48.According to the author,Amanda Ripley fails to note that stunents'performance in exams varies from state to state.49.Amanda Ripley thinks that athletic coaches are poor at classroom instruction.50.James Coleman's later resrarch make an argument for a school's social capital.51.Reaearchers find that there is a ppsitive relationship between a school's commitment to athletics and academic achievements.52.Aa rigorous study finds that athletic coaches also do well in raising students'test scores.53.According to an evaluation,spograms contribute to students's academic preformance and character building.54.Amanda Ripley believes the emphasis on school sports shuold be brought up when tryi ng to understand why Aamerican students are mediocre.55.James Coleman suggests in his earlier writings that school athletics would undermine a school's image.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some que stions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C a nd D. . You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answe r Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage oneIt is easy to miss amid the day-to-day headlines of global economic recession, but ther e is a less conspicuous kind of social upheaval(剧变)underway that is fast altering both the face of the planet and the way human beings live. That change is the rapid acceleration of urbanization. In 2008, for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population was living in towns and cities. And as a recently published paper shows, the proces s of urbanization will only accelerate in the decades to come—with an enormous impact o n biodiversity and potentially on climate change.As Karen Seto, the led aut hor of the paper, points out, the wave of urbanization isn’t just about the migration of people into urban environments, but about the environments t hemselves becoming bigger to accommodate all those people. The rapid expansion of urba n areas will have a huge impact on biodiversity hotspots and on carbon emissions in those urban areas.Humans are the ultimate invasive species—when the move into new territory, the often displace the wildlife that was already living there. And as land is cleared for those new cit ies—especially in the dense tropical forests—carbon will be released into the atmosphere a s well. It’s true that as people in developing nations move from the countryside to the cit y, the shift may reduce the pressure on land, which could in turn be good for the environ ment. This is especially so in desperately poor countries, where residents in the countryside slash and burn forests each growing season to clear space for farming. But the real differ ence is that in developing nations, the move from rural areas to cities often leads to an ac companying increase in income —and that increase leads to an increase in the consumpti on of food and energy, which in turn causes a rise in carbon emissions. Getting enough to eat and enjoying the safety and comfort of living fully on the grid is certainly a good thi ng —but it does carry an environmental price.The urbanization wave can’t be stopped —and it shouldn’t be. But Seto’s paper d oes underscore the importance of managing that transition. If we do it the right way, we can reduce urbanization’s impact on the environment. “There’s an enormous opportunity here, and a lot of pressure and responsibility to think about how we urbanize,”says Seto. “One thing that’s clear is that we can’t build cities the way w e have over the last coupl e of hundred years. The scale of this transition won’t allow that.” We’re headed toward s an urban planet no matter what, but whether it becomes heaven or hell is up to us.56. What issue does the author try to draw people’s atten tion to?A. The shrinking biodiversity worldwide.B. The rapid increase of world population.C. The ongoing global economic recession.D. The impact of accelerating urbanization.57. In what sense are humans the ultimate invasive species?A. They are much greedier than other species.B. They are a unique species born to conquer.C. They force other species out of their territories.D. They have an urge to expand their living space.58. In what way is urbanization in poor countries good for the environment?A. More land will be preserved for wildlife.B. The pressure on farmland will be lessened.C. Carbon emissions will be considerably reduced.D. Natural resources will be used more effectively.59. What does the author say about living comfortably in the city?A. It incurs a high environmental price.B. It brings poverty and insecurity to an end.C. It causes a big change in people’s lifestyle.D. It narrows the gap between city and country.60. What can be done to minimize the negative impact of urbanization according to Seto?A. Slowing down the speed of transition.B. Innovative use of advanced technology.C. Appropriate management of the process.D. Enhancing people’s sense of responsibility.Passage TwoWhen Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched in Feb. 2004, even he could not imagine the forces it would let loose. His intent was to connect college stude nts. Facebook, which is what this website rapidly evolved into, ended up connecting the w orld.To the children of this connected era, the world is one giant social network. They are not bound —as were previous generations of humans —by what they were taught. They are only limited by their curiosity and ambition. During my childhood, all knowledge was l ocal. You learned everything you knew from your parents, teachers, preachers, and friends.With the high-quality and timely information at their fingertips, today’s children are ri sing normally tame middle class is speaking up against social ills. Silicon Valley executives are being shamed into adding women to their boards. Political leaders are marshalling the energy of millions for elections and political causes. All of this is being done with social media technologies that Facebook and its competitors set free.As does every advancing technology, social media has created many new problems. It i s commonly addictive and creates risks for younger users. Social media is used by extremis ts in the Middle East and elsewhere to seek and brainwash recruits. And it exposes us and our friends to disagreeable spying. We may leave our lights on in the house when we are on vacation, but through social media we tell criminals exactly where we are, when we pl an to return home, and how to blackmail(敲诈)us.Governments do n’t need informers any more. Social media allows government agencie s to spy on their own citizens. We record our thoughts, emotions, likes and dislikes on Fac ebook; we share our political views, social preferences, and plans. We post intimate photog raphs of ourselves. No spy agency or criminal organization could actively gather the type o f data that we voluntarily post for them.The marketers are also seeing big opportunities. Amazon is trying to predict what we will order. Google is trying to judge our needs and wants based on our social-media profil es. We need to be aware of the risks and keep working to alleviate the dangers. Regardless of what social media people use, one thing is certain: we are in a period of acc elerating change. The next decade will be even more amazing and unpredictable than the l ast. Just as no one could predict what would happen with social media in the last decade, no one can accurately predict where this technology will take us. I am optimistic, however, that a connected humanity will find a way to uplift itself.61. What was the purpose of Facebook when it was first created?A. To help students connect with the outside world.B. To bring university students into closer contact.C. To help students learn to live in a connected era.D. To combine the world into an integral whole.62. What difference does social media make to learning?A. Local knowledge and global knowledge will merge.B. Student will become more curious and ambitious.C. People are able to learn wherever they travel.D. Sources of information are greatly expanded.63. What is the author’s greatest concern with social media technology?A. Individuals and organizations may use it for evil purposes.B. Government will find it hard to protect classified information.C. People may disclose their friends’ information unintentionally.D. People’s attention will be easily distractedfrom their work in hand.64. What do businesses use social media for?A. Creating a good corporate image.B. Conducting large-scale market surveys.C. Anticipating the needs of customers.D. Minimizing possible risks and dangers.65. What does the author think of social media as a whole?A. It will enable human society to advance at a faster pace.B. It will pose a grave threat to our traditional ways of life.。
2014年12月四级深度阅读真题详解
2014年12月大学英语四级深度阅读真题答案解析第一套Passage OneQuestion 56 to 60 are based on the following passage. 56-60 ACBDBChildren are a delight(=hapiness/joy). They are our future. (56)But sadly, hiring someone to take care of them while you go to work is getting more expensive by the year.Earlier this month, it was reported that the cost of enrolling an infant or small kid at a childcare center rose 3% in 2012, faster than the overall cost of living. There are now large strip s(狭长地带) of the country where daycare for an infant costs more than a tenth of the average married couple's income.(57)This is not necessarily a new trend,but it is a somewhat puzzling one. The price of professional childcare has been rising since the 1980s. Yet during that time, pay for professional childcare workers has stood still. Actually(=in fact) caregivers make less today, in real terms(扣除物价因素；按实质计算), than they did in 1990. Considering that labor costs are responsible for up to 80% of a daycare center's expenses, one would expect flat wages to have meant flat prices.So who's to blame for higher childcare costs?Childcare is a carefully regulated industry. States lay down rules about how many children each employee is allowed to watch over, the space care centers need per child, and other minute details. (58)And the stricter the regulation s, the higher the costs. If it(保育中心) has to hire a caregiver for every two children, it can't really achieve any economics of scale on labor to save money (通过压缩劳动力成本来省钱)when other expenses go up. (59) In Massachusetts, where childcare centers must hire one teacher for every three infant s, the price of care averaged more than $16,000 per year. In Mississippi, where centers must hire one teacher for every five infant s, the price of care averaged less than $5,000.Unfortunately, I don't have all the daycare-center regulations handy. (60)But I wouldn't be surprised if as the rules have become more elaborate, prices have risen. The trade off(交换)might be worth it in some cases; after all, the health and safety of children should probably come before cheap service. (60)But certainly, it doesn't seem to be an accident that some of the cheapest daycare available is in the least regulate d(=rule/manage) South.56. What problem do parents of small kids have to face?A) The ever-rising childcare prices. B) The budgeting of family expenses.C) The balance between work and family. D) The selection of a good daycare center.57. What does the author feel puzzled about?A) Why the prices of childcare vary greatly from state to state.B) Why increased childcare prices have not led to better service.C) Why childcare workers' pay has not increased with the rising childcare costs.D) Why there is a severe shortage of childcare professionals in a number of states.58. What prevents childcare centers from saving money?A) Steady increase in labor costs. B) Strict government regulations.C) Lack of support from the state. D) High administrative expenses.【解析】infant['?nf?nt]n.baby/child 婴/幼儿；未成年人59. Why is the average cost of childcare in Mississippi much lower than in Massachusetts?A) The overall quality of service is not as good. B) Payments for caregivers there are not as high.C) Living expenses there are comparatively low. D) Each teacher is allowed to care for more kids.view on daycare service?60. What is the author’sA)Caregivers should receive regular professional training. B) Less elaborate rules about children might lower costs.C) It is crucial to strike a balance between quality and costs. D) It is better for different states to learn from each other.【解析】elaborate[?'l?b?r?t]adj. complicated/complex/detailed/full精心制作/复杂/详尽/煞费苦心的Passage TwoQuestions 61-65 are based on the following passage. 61-65DDCBC(61)Alex Pang's amusing new book The Distraction Addiction (分心成瘾)addresses(v.向…讲话) those of us who feel panic without a cellphone or computer. And that, he claims, is pretty much all of us. When we're not online, where we spendthe dangers of our computing overdose(过度使用) and a historical overview(历史性概述) of how technologicaladvances(科技进步) change consciousness(意识). A “professional futurist”, Pang urges an approach which he calls “contemplative (沉思的) comput ing.” He asks that you pay full attention to “how your mind and body interact wit computers and how your attention and creativity are influenced by technology.”(63)Pang's first job is to free you from the common misconception(常见的错误认识) that doing two things at onceallows you to get more done（同时做两件事效率更高）. What is commonly called multitasking(多重任务) is, in fact,switch-tasking, and its harmful effects on productivity are well documented(有据可查的). Pang doesn't advocate returning生态的) view of your relationships withto a pre-Internet world. Instead, he asks you to “take a more ecological (technologies and look for ways devices or media may be making specific tasks easier or faster but at the same time makingyour work and life harder.”The Distraction Addiction is particularly fascinating on how technologies have changed certain fields of labor—oftenfor the worse. (64)For architects, computer-aided design has become essential but in some ways has cheapened the design process. As one architect puts it, “Architecture is first and foremost about thinking...and drawing is a more productive way-aided design. Somewhat less amusing are Pang's solutions for kicking the Internet habit. (65)Heof thinking” than computerrecommends the usual behavior-modification approaches(常见的行为矫正法), familiar to anyone who has completed aquit-smoking program. Keep logs to(记录下上网日志) study your online profile(上网概况) and decide what you canknock out(剔除), download a program like Freedom that locks you out of your browser, or take a “digitabath (安息-department doctor, you'll discover that your world doesn't fall apart when you日)”: “Unless you're a reporter or emergencygo offline.”61. Alex Pang's new book is aimed for readers who________.A) find their work online too stressful B) go online mainly for entertainmentC) are fearful about using the cellphone or computerD) can hardly tear themselves away from the Internet(很难让自己远离互联网)【解析】tear oneself away from: reluctant to leave ([r?'l?kt?nt])舍不得离开,爱不释手62. What does Alex Pang try to do in his new book?A) Offer advice on how to use the Internet effectively. B) Warn people of the possible dangers of internet use.C) Predict the trend of future technological development. D) Examine the influence of technology on the human mind.63. What is the common view on multitasking?A) It enables people to work more efficiently. B) It is a way quite similar to switch-tasking.C) It makes people's work and life even harder. D) It distracts people's attention from useful work.64. What does the author think of computer-aided design?A) It considerably cuts down the cost of building design. B) It somewhat restrains architects' productive thinking.C) It is indispensable in architects' work process. D) It can free architects from laborious drawing.【解析】restrain /r??stre?n/vt. restrict/control/stop/prevent抑/控制；约束；制止first and foremost/?f???m??s t/首先；首要地/的是productive thinking有成效的思维方式65. What is Ales Pang's recommendation for Internet users?A) They use the Internet as little as possible. B) They keep a record of their computer use time.C) They exercise self-control over their time online. D) They entertain themselves online on off-days only.【解析】keep logs to保存日志/聊天记录第二套Passage oneQuestions 56 to 60are based on the following passage.(1)New Yorkers are gradually getting used to more pedaling (骑车) passengers on those blazing blue Citi Bikes. Butwhat about local bike shops? Is Citi Bike rolling up(increase) riders at their expense(在损害他们的利益/情况下)？(2)At Gotham Bikes in Tribeca, a manager W. Ben said the shop has seen an increase in its overall sales(总销售额)due to(=as a result of) the bike-share program. "It's getting more people on the road" he said. (5)James Ryan, anemployee at Danny's Cycles in Gramercy also said Citi Bike is a good option(=choice) for people to ease into biking in a city famed for its traffic jams and and aggressive(好斗的) drivers. "They can try out a bike without committing to buying one," he said.Rentals are not a big part of the business at either Gotham Bikes or Danny's Cycles.(3) But for Frank's Bike Shop, a small business on Grand St., the bike-share program has been bad news. Owner Frank Arroyo said his rental business has decreased by 90% since the Citi Bikes were rolled out(=come out) last month. Arroyo's main rental customers are European tourists, who have since been drawn away by Citi Bikes.However,(5) Ben said the bike-share is good for bike sales at his shop. "People have used the bike-share and realized how great it is to bike in the city, then decide that they want something nicer for themselves," he noted.(5) Christian Farrell of Waterfront Bicycle Shop, on West St. just north of Christopher St., said initially(=at first) he was concerned about(=worried about)bike-share, though, he admitted, "I was happy to see people on bikes. "(5) Farrell's early concerns were echoed (随声附和,认同) by Andrew Crooks, owner of NYC Velo, at 64 SecondAve.(4)"It seemed like a great idea, but one that would be difficult to implement," Crooks said of Citi Bike. He said he worried about (be concerned about)inexperienced riders' lack of awareness(知道，认识) of biking rules and backlash(强烈反对) from non-cyclists. However, he said, it's still too early to tell if his business has been impact ed(=influence).While it's possible bike-share will cause a drop in business, Crooks allowed that the idea is a positive step forward forNew York City.56 . What is the author's chief concern about the increasing use of Citi Bikes in New York?A How non-cyclists will respond to it.B Whether local bike shops will suffer.C Whether local bike businesses will oppose it.D How the safety of bike riders can be ensured.57 . What happened to Gotham Bikes as a result of (due to)the bike-share program?A It found its bike sales unaffected.B It shifted its business to rentals.C It saw its bike sales on the rise.D It rented more bikes to tourists.58 . Why is the bike-share program bad news for Frank's Bike Shop?A It cannot meet the demand of the bike—share program.B Its customers have been drawn away by (被吸引走了)CitiBikes.C Its bike prices have to be lowered again and again.D It has to compete with the city's bike rental shops.59. Why did Andrew Crooks think that the bike—share program would be difficult to execute(=implement)?A inexperienced riders might break biking rules.B Conflicts might arise among bike rental shops.C Traffic conditions might worsen in the downtown area.D There are not enough lanes to accommodate the bikes.【解析】execute vt. carry out/put into practice/implement实/执行；处死/决60 . What is the general attitude(总体态度) of local bike shops towards Citi Bike?A Wait-and-see(等待并观望).B Negative(消极否定的).C Indifferent(漠不关心的).D Approving(认可的). Passage TwoQuestions 61to 65 are based on the following passage. 61-65 CBCAD(61)Various studies have shown that increased spending on education has not led to measurable improvements(带来显著提高) in learning. Between 1980 and 2008,staff and teachers at U.S. public schools grew roughly twice as fast as students. Yet students showed no additional learning in achievement tests.Universities show similar trends of increased administration personnel and costs without greater learning, as documented in Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's recent book Academically Adrift Limited Learning on College Campuses.A survey shows that 63% of employers say that recent college graduates don't have the skills they need to succeed and 25% of employers say that entry-level writing skills are lacking.(62)Some simplistically attribute the decline in our public education system to the drain of the skilled students by private schools, but far more significant events were at work.Public schools worked well until about the 1970s. In fact, until that time, public schools provided far better education than private ones. It was the under performing students who were threw out of public schools and went to private ones.(63)A prominent reason public schools did well was that many highly qualified women had few options for working outside the house other than being teachers or nurses. They accepted relatively low pay, difficult working conditions, and gave their very best.Having such a large supply of talented women teachers meant that society could pay less for their services. (64) Women's liberation opened up new professional(职业/专门的) opportunities for women, and, over time, some of the best left teaching as a career option, bringing about a gradual decline(逐渐下降) in the quality of schooling.(65)Also around that time, regulations, government, and unions came to dictate pay(规定工资), prevent adjustments, and introduce bureaucratic( /?bj??r??kr?t?k/官僚的) standard for advancement. Large education bureaucracies and unions came to dominate(=rule/control) the landscape, confusing activity with achievement. Bureaucrats regularly rewrite curriculums,talk nonsense about the theories of education, and require ever more administrators. The end result had been that, after all the spending, students have worse math and reading skills than both their foreign peer s(同龄人) and earlier generations spending far less on education—as all the accumulating evidence now documents.61. What do we learn from various studies on America's public education?A Achievement tests have failed to truly reflect the quality of teaching.B Public schools lack the resources to compete with private schools．C Little improvement in education has resulted from increased spending．D The number of students has increased much faster than that of teachers62. How do some people explain the decline in public education?A Government investment does not meet schools' needs．B Skilled students are moving to private schoolsC Qualified teachers are far from adequately paidD Training of students' basic skills is neglected．【解析】attribute … to…([?'tr?bju?t]=due to) 把……归因于……drain/dre?n/ n. flow out/consume/use up(资源/资金的) 外流; 消耗63. What was a significant contributor(重大的贡献/重要因素) to the past glory of public schools?A Well-behaved students.B Efficient administration.C Talented women teachers.D Generous pay for teachers.【解析】prominent['pr?m?n?nt]adj. obvious/excellent /remarkable /brilliant/outstanding/marked突出/显著/杰出/卓越的64. Why did some of the best women teachers leave teaching?A New career opportunities were made available to them by women's liberation.B Higher academic requirements made it difficult for them to stay in their jobs.C They were unhappy with the bureaucratic administration in their schools.D The heavy teaching loads left them little time and energy for family life.65. What does the author think is one of the results of government involvement in education?A Increasing emphasis on theories of education.B Highly standardized teaching methods.C Students' improved academic performance.D An ever-growing number of administration(管理，监管).【解析】dictate vt.rule/set；order/command/instruct规定,命令；指示;口述；听写第三套56—60BBCAD 61—65 BCBADPassage one56. The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable inimpact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access tovastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connectedmobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impacts has only just begun.“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciti ng social, cultural, and political transformations inhistory, 57. and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in theirnew book. The New Digital Age.Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internetaccess get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. 58. But i f the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors do spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these weeping changes.In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes — and more importantlypredicts — how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, 59.and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.At the core of the book is the idea that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using point, 60.the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy(对立观点)that hascharacterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In aninterview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects ofut the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online,the Internet,they’re also realistic aboparticularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视).56、In what way is the rise of the Internet similar to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph?A.It transforms human history.B.It facilitates daily communication.C.It is adopted by all humanity.D.It revolutionizes people's thinking.【解析】transformative developments[tr?ns'f?:m?tiv]革命性的发展57、How do Schmidt and Cohen describe the effects of the Internet?A.They are immeasurable.B.They are worldwide.C.They are unpredictable.D.They are contaminating.58、In what respect is the book The New Digital Age considered inadequate?A.It fails to recognize the impact of the Internet technology.B.It fails to look into the social implications of the Internet.C.It lacks an objective evaluation of the role of Internet businesses.D.It does not address the technical aspects of Internet communication.59、What will the future be like when everybody gets online?A.People will be living in two different realities.B.People will have equal access to information.to see the world.C.People don’t have to travelD.People don’t have to communicate face to face.60、What does the passage say about the authors of The New Digital Age?A.They leave many questions unanswered concerning the Internet.B.They are optimistic about the future of the Internet revolution.C.They have explored the unknown territories of the virtual world.D.They don’t take sides in analyzing the effects of the Internet.Passage two61. In 1950, a young man would have found it much easier than it is today to get and keep a job in the auto industry. And in that year the average autoworker could meet monthly mortgage(抵押贷款)payments on an average home with just 13.4 percent of his take-home pay. Today a similar mortgage would claim more than twice that share of his monthly earnings.be less inclined to tried the present for the past. His62. Other members of the autoworker’s family, however mightretired parents would certainly have had less economic security back then. Through-out much of the 1960s,more than a quarter of men and women and women age 65 and older lived below the poverty level, compared to less than 10 percentin 2010.In most stales, his wife could not have taken out a loan or a card in her own name. In 42 states, a homemaker had no legal claim on the earnings of her husband. And nowhere did a wife have legal protection against family violence.63. Most black workers would not want to return to a time when, on average they earned 40 percent less than their white counterparts(职位相当的人),white racially restrictive agreements largely prevented them from buying into the suburban neighborhoods being built for white working –class families.Today, new problems have emerged in the process of resolving old ones, but the solution is not to go back to the past.64. Some people may long for an era when divorce was still hard to come by. The spread of no -fault divorce has reduced the bargaining power of whichever spouse is more interested in continuing the relationship. And the breakup of such marriages has caused pain for many families.65. The growing diversity of family life comes with new possibilities as well as new challenges. According to arecent poll, more than 80 percent of Americans believe that their current family is as close as the one in which they grew up, or closer. Finding ways to imaginary golden age.61、What do we learn about American autoworkers in 1950?A.They had less job security than they do today.B.It was not too difficult for them to buy a house.C.Their earnings were worth twice as much as today.D.They were better off than workers in other industries.62、What does the author about retired people today?A.They invariably long to return to the golden past.B.They do not depend so much on social welfare.C.They feel more secure economically than in the past.D.They are usually unwilling to live with their children.【解析】be less inclined to不倾向于,就不会那么想,更不想however might be less inclined to tried the present for the past.但是可能更倾向于尝试现在而不是过去。
2014年12月大学英语六级考试真题（附答案）
2014年12⽉⼤学英语六级考试真题（附答案）2014年12⽉⼤学英语六级考试真题⼀（附答案）Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then discuss what qualities an employer should look for in job applicant. You should give sound arguments to support your views and write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section A1. A) In a parking lot.B) At a grocery.C) At a fast food restaurant.D) In a car showroom.2. A) Change her position now and then.B) Stretch her legs before standing up.C) Have a little nap after lunch.D) Get up and take a short walk.3. A) The students should practice long-distance running.B) The students’ physical condition is not desirable.C) He doesn’t quite believe what the woman says.D) He thinks the race is too hard for the students.4. A) They will get their degrees in two years.B) They are both pursuing graduate studies.C) They cannot afford to get married right now.D) They do not want to have a baby at present.5. A) He must have been mistaken for Jack.B) Twins usually have a lot in common.C) Jack is certainly not as healthy as he is.D) He has not seen Jack for quite a few days.6. A) The woman will attend the opening of the museum.B) The woman is asking the way at the crossroads.C) The man knows where the museum is located.D) The man will take the woman to the museum.7. A) They cannot ask the guy to leave. B) The guy has been coming in for years.C) The guy must be feeling extremely lonely. D) They should not look down upon the guy.8. A) Collect timepieces. B) Become time-conscious.C) Learn to mend clocks. D) Keep track of his daily activities.9. A) It is eating into its banks. B) It winds its way to the sea.C) It is wide and deep. D) It is quickly rising.10. A) Try to speed up the operation by any means.B) Take the equipment apart before being ferried.C) Reduce the transport cost as much as possible.D) Get the trucks over to the other side of the river.11. A) Find as many boats as possible.B) Cut trees and build rowing boats.C) Halt the operation until further orders.D) Ask the commander to send a helicopter12. A) Talk about his climbing experiences. B) Help him join an Indian expedition.C) Give up mountain climbing altogether. D) Save money to buy climbing equipment.13. A) He was the first to conquer Mt. Qomolangma.B) He had an unusual religious background.C) He climbed mountains to earn a living.D) He was very strict with his children.14. A) They are to be conquered. B) They are to be protected.C) They are sacred places. D) They are like humans.15. A) It was his father’s training that pulled him throug h.B) It was a milestone in his mountain climbing career.C) It helped him understand the Sherpa view of mountains.D) It was his father who gave him the strength to succeed.Section BPassage One16. A) By showing a memorandum’s structure. B) By analyzing the organization of a letter.C) By comparing memorandums with letters. D) By reviewing what he has said previously.17. A) They ignored many of the memorandums they received.B) They placed emphasis on the format of memorandums.C) They seldom read a memorandum through to the end.D) They spent a lot of time writing memorandums.18. A) Style and wording. B) Directness and clarity.C) Structure and length. D) Simplicity and accuracy.19. A) Inclusion of appropriate humor. B) Direct statement of purpose.C) Professional look. D) Accurate dating.20. A) They give top priority to their work efficiency.B) They make an effort to lighten their workload.C) They try hard to make the best use of their time.D) They never change work habits unless forced to.21. A) Sense of duty. B) Self-confidence.C) Work efficiency. D) Passion for work.22. A) They find no pleasure in the work they do. B) They try to avoid work whenever possible.C) They are addicted to playing online games. D) They simply have no sense of responsibility.Passage Three23. A) He lost all his property. B) He was sold to a circus.C) He ran away from his family. D) He was forced into slavery.24. A) A carpenter. B) A master of his.C) A businessman. D) A black drummer.25. A) It named its town hall after Solomon Northup. B) It freed all blacks in the town from slavery.C) It declared July 24 Solomon Northup Day. D) It hosted a reunion for the Northup family.Section CIntolerance is the art of ignoring any views that differ from your own. It (26)________ itself in hatred, stereotypes, prejudice, and (27)________ . Once it intensifies in people, intolerance is nearly impossible to overcome. But why would anyone want to be labeled intolerant? Why would people want to be (28) ________ about the world around them? Why would one want be part of the problem in America, instead of the solution?There are many explanations for intolerant attitudes, some (29) ________ childhood. It is likely that intolerant forks grew up (30) ________ intolerant parents and the cycle of prejudice has simply continued for (31) ________ . Perhaps intolerant people are so set in their ways that they find it easier to ignore anything that might not (32) ________ their limited view of life. Or maybe intolerant students have simply never been (33)________ to anyone different from themselves. But none of these reasons is an excuse for allowing the intolerance to continue.Intolerance should not be confused with disagreement. It is, of course, possible to disagree with an opinion without being intolerant of it. If you understand a belief but still don’t believe in that specific belief, that’s fine. You are (34) ________ your opinion. As a matter of fact, (35) ________ dissenters（持异议者）are important for any belief. If we all believed the same things, we would never grow, and we would never learn about the world around us. Intolerance does not stem from disagreement. It stems from fear. And fear stems from ignorance.Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section AIt was 10 years ago, on a warm July night, that a newborn lamb took her first breath in a small shed in Scotland. From the outside, she looked no different from thousands of other sheep born on 36 farms. But Dolly, as the world soon came to realize, was no 37 lamb. She was cloned from a single cell of an adult female sheep, 38 long-held scientific dogma that had declared such a thing biologically impossible.A decade later, scientists are starting to come to grips with just how different Dolly was. Dozens of animals have been cloned since that first lamb—mice, cats, cows and, most recently, a dog—and it’s becoming 39 clear that they are all, in one way or another, defective.It’s 40 to think of clones as perfect carbon copies of the original. It turns out, though, that there are various degrees of genetic 41. That may come as a shock to people who have paid thousands of dollars to clone a pet cat only to discover that the baby cat looks and behaves 42 like their beloved pet—with a different- color coat of fur, perhaps, or a 43 different attitude toward itsAnd these are just the obvious differences. Not only are clones 44 from the original template（模板）by time, but they are also the product of an unnatural molecular mechanism that turns out not to be very good at making 45 copies. In fact, the process can embed small flaws in the genes of clones that scientists are only now discovering.A) abstractB) completelyC) desertedD) duplicationE) everythingF) identicalG) increasinglyH) miniatureI) nothingJ) ordinaryK) overturningL) separatedM) surroundingN) systematicallyO) temptingSection BShould Single-Sex Education Be Eliminated?[A] Why is a neuroscientist here debating single-sex schooling? Honestly, I had no fixed ideas on the topic when I started researching it for my book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. But any discussion of gender differences in children inevitably leads to this debate, so I felt compelled to dive into the research data on single-sex schooling. I read every study I could, weighed the existing evidence, and ultimately concluded that single-?sex education is not the answer to gender gaps in achievement—or the best way forward for today’s young people. After my book was published, I met several developmental and cognitive psychologists whose work was addressing gender and education from different angles, and we published a peer-reviewed Education Forum piece in Science magazine with the provocative title, “The Pseudoscience ofSingle-Sex Education.”[B] We showed that three lines of research used to justify single-sex schooling—educational, neuroscience, and social psychology—all fail to support its alleged benefits, and so the widely-held view that gender separation is somehow better for boys, girls, or both is nothing more than a myth.The Research on Academic Outcomes[C] First, we reviewed the extensive educational research that has compared academic outcomes in students attending single-sex versus coeducational schools. The overwhelming conclusion when you put this enormous literature together is that there is no clear academic advantage of sitting in all-female or all-male classes, in spite of much popular belief to the contrary. I base this conclusion not on any individual study, but on large- scale and systematic reviews of thousands of studies conducted in every major English-speaking country.[D] Of course, there’re many excellent single-sex schools out there, but as these careful research reviews have demonstrated, it’s not their single-sex composition that makes them excellent. It’s all the other advantages that are typically packed into such schools, such as financial resources, quality of the faculty, and pro-?academic culture, along with the family background and pre-selected ability of the students themselves that determine their outcomes.[E] A case in point is the study by Linda Sax at UCLA, who used data from a large national survey of college freshmen toevaluate the effect of single-sex versus coeducational high schools. Commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls’Schools, the raw findings look pretty good for the funders—higher SAT scores and a strongeracademic orientation among women who had attended all girls' high schools (men weren’t studied). However, once the researchers controlled for both student and school attributes—measures such as family income, parents’ education, and school resources—most of these effects were erased or diminished.[F] When it comes to boys in particular, the data show that single-sex education is distinctly unhelpful for them. Among the minority of studies that have reported advantages of single-sex schooling, virtually all of them were studies of girls. There’re no rigorous studies in the United States that find single-sex schooling is better for boys, and in fact, a separate line of research by economists has shown both boys and girls exhibit greater cognitive growth over the school year based on the “dose” of girls in a classroom. In fact, boys benefit even more than girls from having larger numbers of female classmates. So single-sex scho oling is really not the answer to the current “boy crisis” in education.Brain and Cognitive Development[G] The second line of research often used to justify single-sex education falls squarely within my area of expertise: brain and cognitive development. It's been more than a decade now since the “brain sex movement” began infiltrating（渗⼊）our schools, and there are literally hundreds of schools caught up in the fad（新潮）. Public schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and many other states now proudly declare on their websites that they separate boys and girls because “research solidly indicates that boys and girls learn differently,” due to “hard-wired” differences in their brains, eyes, ears, autonomic nervous systems, and more.[H] All of these statements can be traced to just a few would-be neuroscientists, especially physician Leonard Sax and therapist Michael Gurian. Each gives lectures, runs conferences, and does a lot of professional development on so-called “gender-specific learning.” I analyzed their various claims about sex differences in hearing, vision, language, math, stress responses, and “learning styles” in my book and a long peer-reviewed paper. Other neuroscientists and psychologists have similarly exposed their work. In short, the mechanisms by which our brains learn language, math, physics, and every other subject don’t differ between boys and girls. Of course, learning does vary a lot between individual students, but research reliably shows that this variance is far greater within populations of boys or girls than between the two sexes.[I] The equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits separation of students by sex in public education that’s based on precisely this kind of “overbroad generalizations about the different talents, capacities, or preferences of males and females.” And the reason it is prohibited is because it leads far too easily to stereotyping and sex discrimination.Social Developmental Psychology[J] That brings me to the third area of research which fails to support single-sex schooling and indeed suggests the practice is actually harmful: social-developmental psychology.[K] It’s a well-proven finding in social psychology that segregation promotes stereotyping and prejudice, whereas intergroup contact reduces them—and the resultsare the same whether you divide groups by race, age, gender, body mass index, sexual orientation, or any other category. What’s more, children are especially vulnerable to this kind of bias, because they are dependent on adults for learning which social categories are important and why we divide people into different groups.[L] You don’t have to look far to find evidence of stereotyping and sex discrimination in single-sex schools. There was the failed single-sex experiment in California, where six school districts used generous state grants to set up separate boys' and girls' academies in the late 1990s. Once boys and girls were segregated, teachers resorted to traditional gender stereotypes to run their classes, and within just three years, five of the six districts had gone back to coeducation.[M] At the same time, researchers are increasingly discovering benefits of gender interaction in youth. A large British study found that children with other-sex older siblings（兄弟姐妹）exhibit less stereotypical play than children with same-sex older siblings, such as girls who like sports and building toys and boys who like art and dramatic play. Another study of high school social networks found less bullying and aggression the higher the density of mixed-sex friendships within a given adolescent network. Then there is the finding we cited in our Science paper of higher divorce and depression rates among a large group of British men who attended single-sex schools as teenagers, which might be explained by the lack of opportunity to learn about relationships during their formative years.[N] Whether in nursery school, high school, or the business world, gender segregation narrows our perceptions of each other, facilitating stereotyping and sexista ttitudes. It’s very simple: the more we structure children and adolescents’ environment around gender distinctions andseparation, the more they will use these categories as the primary basis for understanding themselves and others.[O] Gender is an important issue in education. There are gaps in reading, writing, and science achievement that should be narrower. There are gaps in career choice that should be narrower—if we really want to maximize human potential and American economic growth. But stereotyping boys and girls and separating them in the name of fictitious（虚构的）brain differences is never going to close these gaps.46. Hundreds of schools separate boys from girls in class on the alleged brain and cognitive differences.47. A review of extensive educational research shows no obvious academic advantage of single-sex schooling.48. The author did not have any fixed ideas on single-sex education when she began her research on the subject.49. Research found men who attended single-sex schools in their teens were more likely to suffer from depression.50. Studies in social psychology have shown segregation in school education has a negative impact on children.51. Reviews of research indicate there are more differences in brain and cognitive development within the same sex than between different sexes.52. The findings of the national survey of college freshmen about the impact of single-sex schooling fail to take into account student and school attributes.53. It wasn’t long before most of the school dis tricts that experimented with single-sex education abandoned the practice.54. Boys from coeducational classes demonstrate greater cognitive abilities according to the economists' research.55. As careful research reviews show, academic excellence in some single-sex schools is attributed to other factors than single-sex education.Section CPassage OneInternational governments' inaction concerning sustainable development is clearly worrying but the proactive（主动出击的）approaches of some leading-edge companies are encouraging. Toyota, Wal-Mart, DuPont, M&S and General Electric have made tackling environmental wastes a key economic driver.DuPont committed itself to a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the 10 years prior to 2010. By 2007, DuPont was saving $2.2 billion a year through energy efficiency, the same as its total declared profits that year. General Electric aims to reduce the energy intensity of its operations by 50% by 2015. They have invested heavily in projects designed to change the way of using and conserving energy.Companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart are not committing to environmental goals out of the goodness of their hearts. The reason for their actions is a simple yet powerful realisation that the environmental and economic footprints fit well together. When M&S launched its “Plan A” sustainability programme in 2007, it was believedthat it would cost over ￡200 million in the first five years. However, the initiative had generated ￡105 million by 2011/12.When we prevent physical waste, increase energy efficiency or improve resource productivity, we save money, improve profitability and enhance competitiveness. In fact, there are often huge “quick win” opportunities, thanks to years of neglect.However, there is a considerable gap between leading-edge companies and the rest of the pack. There are far too many companies still delaying creating a lean and green business system, arguing that it will cost money or require sizable capital investments. They remain stuck in the “environment is cost” mentality. Being environmentally friendly does not have to cost money. In fact, going beyond compliance saves cost at the same time that it generates cash, provided that management adopts the new lean and green model.Lean means doing more with less. Nonetheless, in most companies, economic and environmental continuous improvement is viewed as being in conflict with each other. This is one of the biggest opportunities missed across most industries. The size of the opportunity is enormous. The 3% Report recently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbon emissions in the US economy is $780 billion between now and 2020. It suggests that one of the biggest levers for delivering this opportunity is “increased efficiency through management and behavioural change”—in other words, lean and green management.Some 50 studies show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of non-renewable resources arefinancially outperforming their competitors. Conversely, it was found that climate disruption is already costing $1.2 trillion annually, cutting global GDP by 1.6%. Unaddressed, this will double by 2030.56. What does the author say about some leading-edge companies?A) They operate in accordance with government policies.B) They take initiatives in handling environmental wastes.C) They are key drivers in their nations，economic growth.D) They are major contributors to environmental problems.57. What motivates Toyota and Wal-Mart to make commitments to environmental protection?A) The goodness of their hearts. B) A strong sense of responsibility.C) The desire to generate profits. D) Pressure from environmentalists.58. Why are so many companies reluctant to create an environment-friendly business system?A) They are bent on making quick money. B) They do not have the capital for the investment.C) They believe building such a system is too costly. D) They lack the incentive to change business practices.59. What is said about the lean and green model of business?A) It helps businesses to save and gain at the same time.B) It is affordable only for a few leading-edge companies.C) It is likely to start a new round of intense competition.D) It will take a long time for all companies to embrace it.60. What is the finding of the studies about companies committed to environmental goals?A) They have greatly enhanced their sense of social responsibility.B) They do much better than their counterparts in terms of revenues.C) They have abandoned all the outdated equipment and technology.D) They make greater contributions to human progress than their rivals.Passage TwoIf you asked me to describe the rising philosophy of the day, I'd say it is data-ism. We now have the ability to gather huge amounts of data. This ability seems to carry with it certain cultural assumptions—that everything that can be measured should be measured; that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology; that data will help us do remarkable things—like foretell the fixture.Over the next year, I’m hoping to get a better grip on some of the questions raised by the data revolution: In what situations should we rely on intuitive pattern recognition and in which situations should we ignore intuition and follow the data? What kinds of events are predictable using statistical analysis and what sorts of events are not?I confess I enter this in a skeptical frame of mind, believing that we tend to get carried away in our desire to reduce everything to the quantifiable. But at the outset let me celebrate two things data does really well.First, it's really good at exposing when our intuitive view of reality is wrong. For example, nearly every person who runs for political office has an intuitive sense that they can powerfully influence their odds of winning the election if they can just raise and spend more money. But this is largely wrong.After the 2006 election, Sean Trende constructed a graph comparing the incumbent（在任者的）campaign spending advantages with their eventual margins of victory. There was barely any relationship between more spending and a bigger victory.Likewise, many teachers have an intuitive sense that different students have different learning styles: some are verbal andsome are visual; some are linear, some are holistic（整体的）.Teachers imagine they will improve outcomes if they tailor their presentations to each student. But there’s no evidence to support this either.Second, data can i lluminate patterns of behavior we haven’t yet noticed. For example, I've always assumed people who frequently use words like “I,” “me,” and “mine” are probably more self-centered than people who don't. But as James Pennebaker of the University of Texas notes in his book, The Secret Life of Pronouns, when people are feeling confident, they are focused on the task at hand, not on themselves. High-status, confident people use fewer “I” words, not more.Our brains often don’t notice subtle verbal patterns, but Pennebaker’s computers can. Younger writers use more negative and past-tense words than older writers who use more positive and future-tense words.In sum, the data revolution is giving us wonderful ways to understand the present and the past. Will it transform our ability to predict and make decisions about the future? We’ll see.61. What do data-ists assume they can do?A) Transform people’s cultural identity. B) Change the way future events unfold.C) Get a firm grip on the most important issues. D) Eliminate emotional and ideological bias.62. What do people running for political office think they can do?A) Use data analysis to predict the election result. B) Win the election if they can raise enough funds.C) Manipulate public opinion with favorable data. D) Increase the chances of winning by foul means.63. Why do many teachers favor the idea of tailoring their presentations to different students?A) They think students prefer flexible teaching methods.B) They will be able to try different approaches.C) They believe students，learning styles vary.D) They can accommodate students with special needs.64. What does James Pennebaker reveal in The Secret Life of Pronouns?A) The importance of using pronouns properly.B ) Repeated use of first-person pronouns by self-centered people.C) Frequent use of pronouns and future tense by young people.。
2014年英语六级阅读真题及答案解析(第四套)
2014年英语六级阅读真题及答案解析（第四套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay explaining why it is unwise to judge a person by their appearance. You can give examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once, After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
2014年12月英语六级真题及答案汇总
【编辑寄语】2014年12月英语六级考试将于12月20日举行，无忧考会在考后第一时间为大家公布2014年12月英语六级真题及答案，敬请期待！！！无忧考四六级 频道预祝广大考生顺利通过2014年12月英语六级考试！
2014年 12月英语六级真题及答案汇总
不断更新中 ......敬请期待！！无忧考四六级考试频道
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2014年12月大学英语6级考试真题及答案范文
2014年12月大学英语6级考试真题及答案（整理总结版）（一）听力部分真题和答案：短对话：1.M: Before we play again, I’m going to buy a good tennis racket.W: Your shoes aren’t in a very good shape either.Q: What does the woman mean?2.M: Barbara, I’d like you could assist me in the lab demonstration. But aren’t you supposed to go to Dr. Smith’s lecture today?W: I ask Cathy to take notes for me.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?3.W: Steve invi ted me to the dinner party on Sunday evening. Have you received your invitation yet? M: Yes, he found me this morning and told me he wanted all his old classmates to come to the reunion.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?4.W: I’m afraid I’m a little bit s easick. I feel dizzy.M: Close your eyes and relax. You’ll be all right as soon as we come at shore.Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?5.W: I wonder what’s happened to our train. It should have been here twenty minutes ago according to the timetable. But it’s already 9:30.M: There’s no need to get nervous. The announcement says it’s forty minutes late.Q: When is the train arriving?6.M: John is handsome and wealthy. Believe it or not, he is still a bachelor.W: He is a notorious g uy in many girls’ eyes. I’m sick of hearing his name.Q: What does the woman mean?7.M: Cars had lined up bumper to bumper. And I’ve been held up on the express way for the entire hour.W: Really? It must be a pain in the neck. But be patient, anyway, you can do nothing but wait. Q: What do we learn about the man?8.W: Yesterday I was surprised to see Mary using that washing machine you’re going to throw away. M: Yes, it’s quite old and in a very poor condition. Frankly speaking, that she got it working amazes me a lot.Q: What does the man imply about Mary?答案：1. B. The man should get a pair of new shoes.2. A. The woman will skip Dr. Smith’s lecture to help the man.3. D. The speakers and Steve used to be classmates.4. C. In a boat.5. B. 9:50.6. A. She does not like John at all.7. D. He is trapped in a terrible traffic jam.8. A. She is good at repairing things.长对话：Conversation 1M: A recent case I heard was of a man accused and found guilty of breaking into a house and stealing some money.W: Well, was he really guilty, judge?M: He admit ted that he’d done it, and there were several witnesses saying that he had indeed done it. So I can only assume that he was guilty.W: Why did he do it?M: Well, the reasons were little muddied, probably at least it seemed in a trial that he did it to get some money to feed his family. You see, he’d been out of work for some time.W: Well, he’d been out of work and he chose to break into a ho use to get money for his family and apparently in front of people that, err... could see him do it.M: His attorney presented testimony that he had indeed applied for jobs and was listed with several employment agencies, including the state employment agency, but they weren’t any jobs.W: And he had no luck!M: He had no luck and it’d been some time. He had two children and both of them were needing food and clothing.W: So he was in desperate circumstances. Did you sentence him?M: Yes.W: But what good do es it do to put the man into jail when he’s obviously in such need?M: This particular fellow has been in prison before.W: For the same thing?M: No, for a different sort of crime.W: Huh?M: But he did know about crime, so I suppose there are folks that just have to go back to prison several times.9. What did the judge say about the case he recently heard?10. What do we learn about the man at the time of crime?11. What did the judge say about the accused?Conversation 2M: Ah, how do you do, Ms. Wezmore?W: How do you do?M: Do sit down.W: Thank you.M: I’m glad you’re interes ted in our job. Now, let me explain it. We plan to increase our advertising considerably. At present, an advertising agency handles our account, but we haven’t been too pleased with the results lately and we may give our account to another agency.W: What would my work entail?M: You’d be responsible to me for all advertising and to Mr. Grunt for public rel ations.You’d brief the agency whoever it is on the kind of advertising campaign we want. You’d also be responsible for getting our leaflets, brochures and catalogs designed.W: I presume you advertise in the national press as well as the trade press.M: Yes, we do.W: Have you thought about advertising on television?M: We don’t think it’s a suitable medium for us. And it’s much too expensive.W: I can just imagine a scene with a typist sitting on an old-fashioned typing chair, her back aching, exhaus ted, then we show her in one of your chairs. Her back properly supported filling full of energy, typing twice as quickly.M: Before you get carried away with your little scene, Ms. Wezmore, I regret to have to tell you again that we are not planning to go into television.W: That’s a shame. I’ve been doing a lot of television work lately and it interests me enormously.M: Then I really don’t think that this is quite the right job for you here, Ms. Wezmore.12. What does the man think of their present advertising agency?13. What would the woman be responsible for to Mr. Grunt?14. What is the woman most interested in doing?15. What does the man think of the woman applicant?答案：Conversation 19. C. The accused was found guilty of stealing.10. B. He was unemployed.11. A. He had been in jail before.Conversation 212. B. Unsatisfactory.13. C. Public relations.14. D. Making television commercials.15. D. She is not suitable for the position.短文1Many foreign students are attrac ted not only to the academic programs at a particular U.S. college but also to the larger community, which affords the chance to soak up the surrounding culture. Few foreign universities put much emphasis on the cozy communal life that characterizes American campuses from clubs and sports teams to student publications and drama societies. “The campus and the American university have bec ome identical in people’s minds,” says Brown University President Vartan Gregorian. “In America it is assumed that a student’s daily life is as important as his learning experience.”F oreign students also come in search of choices. America’s menu of options—research universities, state institutions, private liberal-arts schools, community colleges, religious institutions, military academies—is unrivaled. “In Europe,” says history profes sor Jonathan Steinberg, who has taught at both Harvard and Cambridge, “there is one system, and that is it.” While students overseas usually must demonstrate expertise in a specific field, whether law or philosophy or chemistry, most American universities insist that students sample natural and social sciences, languages and literature before choosing a field of concentration.Such opposing philosophies grow out of different traditions and power structures. In Europe and Japan, universities are answerable only to a ministry of education, which sets academic standards and distributes money.While centralization ensures that all students are equipped with roughly the same resources and perform at roughly the same level, it also discourages experimentation. “When they make mistakes, they make big ones,” says Robert Rosenzweig, president of the Association of American Universities. “They set a system in wrong directions, and it’s like steering a supertanker.”问题：16. What does the speaker say characterizes American campuses?17. What does Brown University president Vartan Gregorian say about students' daily life?18. In what way is the Uni ted States unrivaled according to the speaker?19. What does the speaker say about universities in Europe and Japan?答案：16. What does the speaker say characterizes American campuses?答案：(A) The cozy communal life.【点评】：细节题。
2014年12月大学英语四级考试备考资料《阅读理解-长篇阅读(匹配)》最新练习题及答案
2014年12月大学英语四级考试备考资料《阅读理解-长篇阅读（匹配）》最新练习题及答案Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section B(原快速阅读理解调整为长篇阅读理解，篇章长度和难度不变。
篇章后附有10个句子，每句一题。
每句所含的信息出自篇章的某一段落，要求考生找出与每句所含信息相匹配的段落。
有的段落可能对应两题，有的段落可能不对应任何一题。
)Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Beauty and Body Image in the Media[A] Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts —sell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they’ll have it all—the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career.[B] Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it’s 6no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight,for sure they’re all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Women’s Health in its 2001 report. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with.[C] The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U.S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90% to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight). On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls.[D ] The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative (泻药)abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young girls: the Canadian Women’s Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by girls as young as 5 and 6. American statistics are similar. Several studies, such as one conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled “Appearance Culture in 9- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction,” indicate that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinner, and as a result have engaged in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 percent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 percent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way. Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, “Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of whichmake us feel anxious about our weight.”[ E] Perhaps the most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel.A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea (慢性腹泻)and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad, President of Mattel (whichmanufactures Barbie), estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll. Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarlyunderweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450, 000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder.[F ] Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and overthree-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman’s worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies (“How about wearing a sack?，，)，and 80 percent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter.[G] There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck (才氐制，反抗)the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Chatelaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. In Madrid, one of the world’s biggest fashion capitals, ultra-thin models were banned from the runway in 2006. Furthermore Spain has recently undergone a project with the aim to standardize clothing sizes through using a unique process in which a laser beam is used to measure real life women’s bodies in order to find the most true to life measurement.[ H] Another issue is the representation of ethnically diverse women in the media.A 2008 study conducted by Juanita Covert and Travis Dixon titled “A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women’s Magazines” found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of colour, overall white women were overrepresented in mainstream women’s magazines from 1999 to 2004.[I] The barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells“ordinary” women that they are always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Jean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry’s standards. Women learn to compare themselves toother women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability “effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate.”46. A report in Teen magazine showed that 50% to 70% girls with normal weight think that they need to lose weight.47. On the whole, for 6 years white women had been occupying much more space in mainstream women’s magazines since 1999.48. Some negative effects such as depression and unhealthy eating habits in females are related to their being exposed to images of thin and young female bodies.49. The mass media has helped boost the cosmetic and the diet industries.50. It is reported that there is at least one message about the methods for women to change their bodily appearance on more than three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines.51. Some film and television actresses even faint on the scene due to eating too little.52. Too much concern with appearance makes it impossible to change such abnormal trend.53. Researchers found that a real woman with Barbie-doll proportions would eventually die from malnutrition.54. The Quebec magazine Coup (e Pouce resists the trend by consistently including full-sized women in their fashion pages for several years.5 5. According to some analysts, the fundamental reason of imposing standards of beauty on women is economic profits.PartⅢ Reading ComprehensionSection B46. [D]47. [H]48. [C]49. [B]50. [F]51. [A]52. [I]53. [E]54. [G]55. [B]A: Pizza Hut was started in 1958, by two brothers in Wichita, Kansas. Frank and Dan Carney had the idea to open a pizza parlor. They borrowed $600 from their mother, and opened the very first Pizza Hut. In 1959, the first franchise unit opened in Topeka, Kansas. Almost a decade later, Pizza Hut would be serving one million customers a week in their 310 locations. In 1970, Pizza Hut was put on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PIZ.B: In 1986, Pizza Hut introduced delivery service, something no other restaurant was doing. By the 1990's Pizza Hut sales had reached $4 billion worldwide. In 1998, Pizza Hut celebrated their 40th anniversary, and launched their famous campaign "The Best Pizzas Under One Roof." In 1996, Pizza Hut sales in the United States were over $5 million. Out of all the existing pizza chains, Pizza Hut had the largest market share, 46.4%. However, Pizza Hut's market share has slowly eroded because of intense competition from their rivals Domino's, Little Caesar's and newcomer Papa John's. Home delivery was a driving force for success, especially for Pizza Hut and Domino's.C: However, this forced competitors to look for new methods of increasing their customer bases. Many pizza chains decided to diversify and offer new non-pizza items such as buffalo wings, and Italian cheese bread. The current trend in pizza chains today is the same. They all try to come up with some newer, bigger, better, pizza for a low price. Offering special promotions and new pizza variations are popular today as well. For example, chicken is now a common topping found on pizzas.D: In the past, Pizza Hut has always had the first mover advantage. Their marketing strategy in the past has always been to be first. One of their main strategies that they still follow today is the diversification of the products they offer. Pizza Hut is always adding something new to their menu, trying to reach new markets. For example, in 1992 the famous buffet was launched in Pizza Hut restaurants worldwide. They were trying to offer many different food items for customers who didn't necessarily want pizza.E: Another strategy they used in the past and are still using is the diversification of their pizzas. Pizza Hut is always trying to come up with some innovative way to make a pizza into something slightly different - different enough that customers will think it’s a whole new product. For example, let's look at some of the pizzas Pizza Hut has marketed in the past. In 1983, Pizza Hut introduced their Pan Pizza, which had a guarantee of being ready to eat in 5 minutes when dining at Pizza Hut restaurants. In 1993, they introduced the "BigFoot," which was two square feet of pizza cut into 21 slices. In 1995, they introduced "Stuffed Crust Pizza," where the crust would be filled with cheese. In 1997, they marketed "The Edge," which had cheese and toppings all the way to the edge of the pizza. Currently, they are marketing "The Big NewYorker," trying to bringthe famous New York style pizza to the whole country.F: Another opportunity that Pizza Hut has is their new ordering online system. Anyone with Internet access can order whatever they wish and get it delivered to their house without even speaking to someone. This program has just been started, so we do not have any numbers to support whether or not it will be a success.G: Lastly, Pizza Hut has always valued customer service and satisfaction. In 1995, Pizza Hut began two customer satisfaction programs: a 1-800 number customer hotline, and a customer call-back program. These were implemented to make sure their customers were happy, and always wanted to return. In our plan, we will first give a situation analysis of current and relevant environmental conditions that affect our plan. Next, we will give a brief analysis of the current fast food industry, and any trends or changes that might occur in the future.H: However, the fact that Pizza Hut does have a restaurant to run is also a weakness. Pizza Hut has higher overhead costs, due to the restaurant that other competitors don't have to deal with. Another result of higher overhead costs is higher prices Pizza Hut must charge. Obviously, Pizza Hut is not the low cost producer. They rely on their quality pizza and good service to account for their higher prices.I: An indirect weakness that Pizza Hut has is that they have lost a lot of their customers and market share due to such intense competition with competitors. Pizza Hut's opportunities are almost endless. They can increase revenue with their new innovative pizzas, and increase brand loyalty with good customer service.J: Pizza Hut's number one threats are from their competitors. Currently, their closest competitor is Domino's Pizza. Domino's main competitive advantage over Pizza Hut is their price. It is generally lower than Pizza Hut. Also, Domino's was very profitable when they ran the promotional deal of delivering a pizza within 30 minutes. However, many lawsuits have been filed against Domino's in the past for reckless driving by their drivers, so Domino's withdrew the promotion. Little Caesar's is another one of Pizza Hut's competitors, right behind Domino's in market share. Little Caesar's is famous for offering large quantities of pizza for less money. Other competitors include Papa John's, Sbarro, and Pizza Inn.K: A problem facing all of the pizza chains is that each of their individual competitive advantages are pretty much everyone's competitive advantages. Most if not all the top pizza chains offer free delivery, and always have some sort of promotional deal offering large pizzas at reduced prices. Other competitors to take into consideration are frozen pizzas and make-it-yourself pizzas that are purchased in grocery stores. Some examples of these are Tombstone Pizzas, Boboli, and Di'Gornio pizzas.1. Pizza Hut expanded its business into many parts of the country by the time of 1969.2. Pizza Hut has not always dominated the market.3. buffalo wings, and Italian cheese bread are now commonly served at pizza restaurants.4. The diversification strategy is not to be the first mover.5. In Pizza Hut, a Pan Pizza was guaranteed to serve in 5 minutes.6. If you want a pizza from Pizza Hut delivered directly to your house, you have to have Internet access in the first place.7. In order to make sure their customers were happy, Pizza Hutintroduced two customer satisfaction programs.8. The higher overhead costs of Pizza Hut obviously accounted for higher prices of their pizzas.9. The reason why Domino’s withdrew their promotion was that they suffered legally from reckless driving by their drivers.10. Major pizza makers have to face the problem that their competitive advantages are the same.答案：1.A2. B3. C4. D5. E6. F7. G8. H9. J10. KHow to Make Attractive and Effective PowerPoint PresentationsA) Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic and business presentations are made. This article outlines few tips on making more effective and attractive PowerPoint presentations.The TextB) Keep the wording clear and simple. Use active, visual language. Cut unnecessary words—a good rule of thumb is to cut paragraphs down to sentences, sentences into phrases, and phrases into key words.Limit the number of words and lines per slide. Try the Rule of Five-five words per line, five lines per slide. If too much text appears on one slide, use the AutoFit feature to split it between two slides. Click within the placeholder to display the AutoFit Options button (its symbol is two horizontal lines with arrows above and below), then click on the button and choose Split Text between Two Slides from the submenu.C) Font size for titles should be at least 36 to 40, while the text body should not be smaller than e only two font styles per slide —one for the title and the other for the text. Choose two fonts that visually contrast with each other. Garamond Medium Condensed and Impactare good for titles, while Garamond or Tempus Sans can be used for the text body.D) Embed the fonts in your presentation, if you are not sure whether the fonts used in the presentation are present in the computer that will be used for the presentation. To embed the fonts: (1) On the File menu, click Save As. (2) On the toolbar, click Tools, click Save Options, select the Embed TrueType Fonts check box, and then select Embed characters in use only.E) Use colors sparingly; two to three at most. You may use one color for all the titles and another for the text body. Be consistent from slide to slide. Choose a font color that contrasts well with the background.F) Capitalizing the first letter of each word is good for the title of slides and suggests a more formal situation than having just the first letter of the first word capitalized. In bullet point lines, capitalize the first word and no other words unless they normally appear capped. Upper and lower case lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Moreover, current styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting. If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles.G) Use bold or italic typeface for emphasis. Avoid underlining, it clutters up the presentation.Don’t center bulleted lists or text. It is confusing to read. Left align unless you have a good reason not to. Run ‚spell check‛ on your show when finished.The BackgroundH) Keep the background consistent. Simple, light textured backgrounds work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to read. If you are planning to use many clips in your slides, select a white background. Ifthe venue of your presentation is not adequately light-proof, select a dark-colored background and use any light color for text. Minimize the use of ‚bells and whistles‛ such as sound effects, ‚flying words‛ and multiple transitions. Don’t use red in any fonts or backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming color that is difficult to see and read.The ClipsI) Animations are best used subtly; too much flash and motion can distract and annoy viewers. Do not rely too heavily on those images that were originally loaded on your computer with the rest of Office. You can easily find appropriate clips on any topic through Google Images. While searching for images, do not use long search phrases as is usually done while searching the web-use specific words.J) When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than two megabytes and are in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show. Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible. Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience can then immediately pick up the relationships.The PresentationK) If you want your presentation to directly open in the slide show view, save it as a slide show file using the following steps. Open the presentation you want to save as a slide show. On the File menu, click Save As. In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Show. Your slide show file will be saved with a ppt file extension. When you double-click on this file, it will automatically start your presentation in slide show view. When you’re done, PowerPoint automatically closes and you return to the desktop. If you want to edit the slide show file, you can always open it from PowerPoint by clicking Open on the File menu.L) Look at the audience, not at the slides, whenever possible. If using a laser pointer, don’t move it too fast. For example, if circling a numberon the slide, do it slowly. Never point the laser at the audience. Black out the screen (use ‚B‛ on the keyboard) after the point has been made, to put the focus on you. Press the key again to continue your presentation.M) You can use the shortcut command [Ctrl]P to access the Pen tool during a slide show. Click with your mouse and drag to use the Pen tool to draw during your slide show. To erase everything you’ve drawn, press the E key. To turn off the Pen tool, press [Esc] once.MiscellaneousN) Master Slide Set-Up: The ‚master slide‛ will allow you to make changes that are reflected on every slide in your presentation. You can change fonts, colors, backgrounds, headers, and footers at the ‚master slide‛ level. First, go to the ‚View‛ menu. Pull down the ‚Master‛menu. Select the ‚slide master‛ menu. You may now make changes at this level that meet your presentation needs.1. The ways in which academic and business presentations are made have been changed by Microsoft PowerPoint.2. When making the PowerPoint, the wording of the text should not be complicated.3. In each slide, the font styles for the title and the text should contrast with each other.4. A more formal situation is capitalizing the first letter of the first word.5. Centering bulleted lists or text can not help to read.6. Sound effects should be used as less frequently as possible.7. When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than two megabytes.8. When making the presentation, you should look at the audience as possible as you can.9. Pressing the E key can help you to erase everything you've drawn.10. In order to meet your presentation needs, you can make changes at the ‚slide master‛ level.答案：1.A2.B3.C4.F5.G6.H7.J8.L9.M10.NPaper--More than Meets the EyeA)We are surrounded by so much paper and card that it is easy to forget just how complex it is. There are many varieties and grades of paper materials, and whilst it is fairly easy to spot the varieties, it is far more difficult to spot the grades.B)It needs to be understood that most paper and card is manufactured for a specific purpose, so that whilst the corn-flake packet may look smart, it is clearly not something destined for the archives. It is made to look good, but only needs a limited life span. It is also much cheaper to manufacture than high grade card.C)Paper can be made from an almost endless variety of cellulose-based material which will include many woods, cottons and grasses or which papyrus is an example and from where we get the word "paper". Many of theseare very specialized, but the preponderance of paper making has been from soft wood and cotton or rags, with the bulk being wood-based.Paper from WoodD) In order to make wood into paper it needs to be broken down into fine strands. Firstly by powerful machinery and then boiled with strong alkalies such as caustic soda, until a fine pulp of cellulose fibers is produced. It is from this pulp that the final product is made, relying on the bonding together of the cellulose into layers. That, in a very small nutshell, is the essence of paper making from wood. However, the reality is rather more complicated. In order to give us our white paper and card, the makers will add bleach and other materials such as china clay and additional chemicals.E) A further problem with wood is that it contains a material that is not cellulose. Something called lignin. This is essential for the tree since it holds the cellulose fibres together, but if it is incorporated into the manufactured paper it presents archivists with a problem. Lignin eventually breaks down and releases acid products into the paper. This will weaken the bond between the cellulose fibers and the paper will become brittle and look rather brown and careworn. We have all seen this in old newspapers and cheap paperback books. It has been estimated that most paper back books will have a life of not greater than fifty years. Not what we need for our archives.F)Since the lignin can be removed from the paper pulp during manufacture, the obvious question is "why is it left in the paper?" The answer lies in the fact that lignin makes up a considerable part of the tree. By leaving the lignin in the pulp a papermaker can increase his paper yield from a tree to some 95%. Removing it means a yield of only 35%. It is clearly uneconomic to remove the lignin for many paper and card applications.G) It also means, of course, that lignin-free paper is going to be more expensive, but that is nevertheless what the archivist must look for in his supplies. There is no point whatsoever in carefully placing our valuable artifacts in paper or card that is going to hasten their demise. Acid is particularly harmful to photographic materials, causing them to fade and is some cases simply vanish!H)So, how do we tell a piece of suitable paper or card from one that is unsuitable? You cannot do it by simply looking, and rather disappointingly, you cannot always rely on the label. "Acid-free" might be true inasmuch as a test on the paper may indicate that it is a neutral material at this time. But lignin can take years before it starts the inevitable process of breaking down, and in the right conditions it will speed up enormously.I)Added to this, as I have indicated earlier, paper may also contain other materials added during manufacture such as bleach, china clay, chemical whiteners and size. This looks like a bleak picture, and it would be but for the fact that there are suppliers who will guarantee the material that they sell. If you want to be absolutely sure that you are storing in, or printing on, the correct material then this is probably the only way.J)Incidentally, acids can migrate from material to material. Lining old shoe boxes with good quality acid-free paper will do little to guard the contents. The acid will get there in the end.Paper from RagK) Paper is also commonly made from cotton and rag waste. This has the advantage of being lignin-free, but because there is much less cotton and rag than trees, it also tends to be much more expensive than wood pulp paper. You will still need to purchase from a reliable source though, since even rag paper and card can contain undesirable additives.L) A reliable source for quality rag papers is a recognized art stockiest. Many water color artists insist on using only fine quality rag paper and board.M) The main lesson to learn from this information is that you cannot rely on purchasing archival materials from the high street. The only safe solution is to purchase from specialist suppliers. It may cost rather more, but in the end you will know that your important and valuable data and images have the best home possible.1. The corn-flake packet is cheaper than high grade card.2. There are a lot of materials which can be used for making paper, but the superiority ones are soft wood, cotton and rags.3. During the whole manufacturing process, the final product is made from a pulp of cellulose fibres.4. In order to make white paper and card, the makers will add bleach.5. Liguin is essential for the tree but it will make paper easy to break.6. Many paper producers will preserve lignin during manufacture, because leaving the lignin will make more paper from a tree.7. Acid is particularly harmful to photographic materials.8. If the lignin is removed from the paper, the paper will be more。
2014年英语四级阅读真题及答案解析(12月)
2014年英语四级阅读真题及答案解析（12月）Part I WritingDirections: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a shor t essay on the following topic. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.作文题一：印象最深的活动AA campus activity that has benefited most.作文题二：印象最深的课程A course that has impressed you most in college.作文题三:印象最深的同学A classmate of yours who has influenced you most in college．Part II ListeningSection ADirections： In this section，you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D)， and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.Question 1A.The man is not good at balancing his budget.B.She will go purchase the gift herself.C.The gift should not be too expensive.D.They are gonging to Jane's house-warming party.Question 2A.He is quite willing to give the woman a hand.B.It takes patience to go through the statistics.C.He has prepared the statistics for the woman.D.The woman should take a course in statistics.Question 3A.Page 55 is missing from the woman's scripts.B.They cannot begin their recording right away.C.The woman does not take the recording seriously.D.The man wants to make some changes in the scripts.Question 4A.The date of Carl's wedding.B.The birthday of Carl's bride.C.A significant event in July.D.Preparation for a wedding.Question 5A.The woman forgot to tell the man in advance.B.The man was absent from the weekly meeting.C.The woman was annoyed at the man's excuse.D.The man was in charge of scheduling meetings.Question 6A.The woman is a marvelous cook.B.The woman has just bought an oven.C.The man has to leave in half an hour.D.The man cannot want for his meal.Question 7A.How she can best help the man.B.Where the man got the bad news.C.What items sell well in the store.D.Whether the man can keep his job.Question 8A.The woman can sign up for a swimming class.B.He works in the physical education department.C.The woman has the potential to swim like a fish.D.He would like to teach the woman how to swim.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 9A.He teaches in a law school.B.He loves classical music.C.He is a diplomat.D.He is a wonderful lecturer.Question 10A.Went to see a play.B.Watched a soccer game.C.Took some photos.D.Attended a dance.Question 11A.She decided to get married in three years.B.Her mother objected to Eric’s flying lessons.C.She insisted that Eric pursue graduate studies.D.Her father said she could marry Eric right away.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 12A.Editor.B.Teacher.C.JournalistD.Typist.Question 13A.The beautiful Amazon rainforests.B.A new railway under construction.C.Big changes in the Amazon valley.D.Some newly discovered scenic spot.Question 14A.In news weeklies.B.In newspapers' Sunday editions.C.In a local evening paper.D.In overseas editions of U.S. magazines.Question 15A.To be employed by a newspaper.B.To become a professional writer.C.To sell her articles to a news service.D.To get her life story published soon.Section BDirections：In this section，you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage，you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question，you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 16A.Nodding one's head.B.Waving one's hand.C.Holding up the forefinger.D.Turning the right thumb down.Question 17A.Looking away from them.B.Forming a circle with fingers.C.Bowing one's head them.D.Waving or pointing to them.Question 18A.Looking one's superior in the eye.B.Keeping one's arms folded while talking.C.Showing the sole of one's foot to a guest.ing a lot of gestures during a conversation.Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 19A.They had to beg for foot after the harvest.B.They grew wheat and corn on a small farm.C.They shared a small flat with their relatives.D.The children walked to school on dirt roads.Question 20A.Tour Ecuador's Andes Mountains.B.Earn an annual income of $2800.C.Purchase a plot to build a home on.D.Send their children to school.Question 21A.The achievements of the Trickle Up Program.B.A new worldwide economic revolution.C.Different forms of assistance to the needy.D.The life of poor people in developing countries.Passage ThreeQuestions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 22A.They are highly sensitive to cold.B.They are vitally important to our life.C.They are a living part of our body.D.They are a chief source of our pain.Question 23A.It has to be removed in time by a dentist.B.It is a rare oral disease among old people.C.It contains many nerves and blood vessels.D.It is sticky and colorless film on the teeth.Question 24A.It can change into acids causing damage to their outer covering.B.It greatly reduces their resistance to the attacks of bacteria.C.It makes their nerves and blood vessels more sensitive to acid food.D.It combines with food particles to form a film on their surface.Question 25A.Food particles.B.Gum disease.C.Unhealthy living habits.D.Chemical crosion.Section CStunt people(替身演员) are not movie stars, but they are the hidden heroes of many movies.They were around long before films. Even Shakespeare may have used them in fight scenes. To be good, a fight scene has to look real. Punches must (26)______ enemies' jaws. Sword fights must be fought with(27)______ swords. Several actors are usually in a fight scene. Their moves must be set up so that no one gets hurt. It is almost like planning a dance performance.If a movie scene is dangerous, stun people usually(28)______the stars. You may think you see Tom Cruise running along the top of a train. But it is(29)______ his stunt double. Stunt people must(30)______ the stars they stand in for. Their height and build should be about the same. But when close-ups are needed, the film(31)______ the star.Some stunt people(32)______ in certain kinds of scenes. For instance, a stunt woman named Jan Davis does all kinds of jumps. She has leapt from planes and even off the top of a waterfall. Each jump required careful planning and expert(33)______.Yakima Canutt was a famous cowboy stunt man. Among other stunts, he could jump from a second story window onto a horse's back. He(34)______ the famous trick of sliding under a moving stagecoach. Canuttalso(35)______ a new way to make a punch look real. He was the only stunt man ever to get an Oscar.Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section ADirections：In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.For decades, Americans have taken for granted the XXXX development of new technologies. The innovations(创新)XXXX opment during World War II and afterwards were(36)_____ to the prosperity of the nation in the second half of the 20th century. Those innovations, upon which virtually all aspects of(37)_____ society now depend, were possible because the United States then(38)_____ the world in mathematics and science education. Today, however, despite increasing demand for workers with strong skills in mathematics and science, the(39)_____ of degrees awarded in science, math, and engineering are decreasing.The deeling in degree production in what are called the STEM disciplines(science, technology, engineering, and math.)seems tobe(40)_____related to the comparatively weak performance by U.S. schoolchildren on international assessments of math and science. Manystudents entering college have weak skills in mathematics. According to the 2005 report of the Business Higher Education Forum, 22 percent of college freshmen must take remediat(补习的)math(41)_____, and less than half of the students who plan to major in science orengineering(42)_____complete a major in those fields.The result has been a decrease in the number of American college graduates who have the skills, (43)_____ in mathematics, to power a workforce that can keep the country at the forefront(前言)of innovation and maintain its standard of living. With the(44)_____ performance of American students in math and science has come increased competition from students from other countries that have strongly supported education in these areas. Many more students earn(45)_____ in the STEM disciplines in developing countries than in the United States.A.acceleratingB.actuallyC.closelyD.contemporaryE.coursesF.criticalG.decliningH.degreesI.especiallyJ.futureK.ledL.metM.proceduresN.proportionsO.sphetesSection BDirections：In this section，you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Ban sugary drinks that will add fuel to the obesity war[A] On a train last Thursday, I sat opposite a man who was so fat he filled more than one seat. He was pale and disfigured and looked sick to death, which he probably was: obesity(肥胖的)leads to many nasty ways of dying. Looking around the carriage, I saw quite a few people like him,including a couple of fatty children with swollen checks pressing against their eyes. These people are part of what is without exaggeration an epidemic(流行病)of obesity.[B] But it is quite unnecessary: there is a simple idea- far from new- that could spare millions of such people a lifetime of chronic(长期的)ill health, and at the same time save the National Health Service(NHS)at least ￡14 billion a year in England and Wales. There would, you might think, be considerable public interest in it. This simple idea is that sugar is as good- or as bad- as poison and should be avoided. It is pure, white and deadly, as Professor John Yudkin described it 40 years ago in a revolutionary book of that name. The subtitle was How Sugar Is Killing Us.[C] In its countless hidden forms, in ready meals, junk food and sweet drinks, sugar leads to addiction(瘾), to hormonal upsets to the appetite, to metabolic(新陈代谢的)malfunctions and obesity and from there to type 2 diabetes(糖尿病)and its many horrible complication. If people really grasped that, they would try to kick the habit, particularly as Britain is the “ fat man of Europe” . They might even feel driven to support government measures to prevent people from consuming this deadly stuff. Yet so far this idea has met little but resistance.[D] It is not difficult to imagine the vested interests(既得利益集团)lined up against any sugar control- all the food and drink manufacturers, processors, promoters and retailers who make such easy pickings out of the magic powers of sugar. Then there are the liberals, with whom I would normally side, who protest that government regulation would be yet another instance of interference in our lives.[E]That is true, but people should realize that you cannot have a welfare state without a nanny state(保姆国家), to some degree. If we are all to be responsible for one another’s health insurance, through socialized medicine, then we are all closely involved in one another’s health, including everyone’s eating and drinking. That has already been admitted, finally, with smoking. But it has yet to be admitted with overeating, even though one in four adults in this country is obese and that number is predicted to double by the year 2050.Quite apart from anything else, obesity will cripple the NHS.[F]Recently, though, there have been signs that the medical establishment is trying to sound the alarm. Last month the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges(AMRC)published a report saying that obesity is the greatest public health issue affecting the UK and urging government to do something.[G]The report offers 10 recommendations, of which the first is imposing a tax of 20 percent on sugary drinks for at least a year, on top of the existing 20 percent value-added tax. That at least would be an excellent start. The amounts of sugar in soft drinks are horrifying, and turn straight to fat. As Professor Terence Stephenson, head of the AMRC, has said, sugary soft drinks are “the ultimate bad food. You are just consuming neat sugar. Your body didn’t evolve to handle this kind of thing.”[H]Precisely. The risks of eating too much fat or salt(which are very different)pale into insignificant compared with the harm done by sugar. And it is everywhere.[I]It is difficult to buy anything in a supermarket, other than plain, unprepared meat, f ish or vegetables, that doesn’t have a large amount of sugar in it. This has come about because the prevailing scientific views of the 1960s and 1970s ignored the evidence about sugar, and instead saw fat as the really serious risk, both to the heart and other organs, as well as the cause of obesity.[J]The fashion was to avoid fat. But finding that food with much of its fat removed is not very appetizing, food producers turned to sugar as a magic alternative flavor enhancer, often in the forms of syrups(糖浆)that had recently been developed from corn, and put it generously into most prepared foods and soft drinks.[K]This stuff is not just fattening. It is addictive. It interferes with the body’s metabolism, possibly via the activity of anappetite-controlling hormone. There’s plenty of evidence for this, for those who will accept the truth.[L]Theoretically, people ought to make “healthy choices” and avoid overeating. But sugar additives are not easy to identify and are hard to avoid. So the snacking, over-drinking and over eating that makes people fat is not really their own fault: obesity is in large part something that is being done to them. It should be stopped, or rather the government should stop it.[M]Going round my local supermarket, I am constantly astonished that it is still legal to sell all the poisons stacked high on the shelves. The problem is that they are worse than useless. They are poisonous. They are known to be addictive. They are known to make people obese. And giving small children sweet drinks or bottles of fake juice all day long is nothing less than child abuse.[N]Clearly, the sale of such stuff ought to be illegal. I hate to think of yet more government regulation. But a bit of tax on sweet soda and a little more health education, a bit of cooking in schools and banning vending machines(自动售货机)here and there — as suggested try the AMRC report —is not going to achieve very much. Labelling is quite inadequate. What is needed is legislation banning high levels of sugary syrups used in foods and drinks.[O]In June 2012, the then minister for public health said the government was not scared of the food industry and had not ruled out legislation, because of the costs of obesity to the NHS. However, nothing has happened yet. Why not have another Jammie Dodger biscuit and forget about it.46、Avoiding over-consumption of sugar can improve people’s health aswell as save medical expenses.47、Laws should be passed to make it illegal to produce overly sweet foodsor drinks.48、Giving small children sweet juices to drink all the time is equal tochild abuse.59、Looking around, the author found obesity quite widespread. 50、The number of obese people is expected to increase quickly in the nextfew decades.51、 If people really understood the horrible consequences of sugary foodsand drinks, they would support government measures against sugarconsumption.52、It would be a very good beginning wo improve an additional tax on sugarydrinks.53、 The government has not yet taken any action to regulate sugar consumption although it indicated its intention to do so some time ago.54、Sugar is far more harmful to health than fat and salt.55、Consumers of sweet foods are not really to blame because they cannottell what food is sugary.Section CDirections：There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage oneThe rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwidenow have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impacts has only just begun.“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book. The New Digital Age.Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. But if the book has one major shortco ming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these weeping changes.In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes —and more importantly predicts —how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.At the core of the book is the ide a that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy(对立观点)that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In an interview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects of the Internet, they’re also realistic about the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online, particularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视).56、In what way is the rise of the Internet similar to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph?A.It transforms human history.B.It facilitates daily communication.C.It is adopted by all humanity.D.It revolutionizes people's thinking.57、How do Schmidt and Cohen describe the effects of the Internet?A.They are immeasurable.B.They are worldwide.C.They are unpredictable.D.They are contaminating.58、In what respect is the book The New Digital Age considered inadequate?A.It fails to recognize the impact of the Internet technology.B.It fails to look into the social implications of the Internet.C.It lacks an objective evaluation of the role of Internet businesses.D.It does not address the technical aspects of Internet communication.59、What will the future be like when everybody gets online?A.People will be living in two different realities.B.People will have equal access to information.C.People don’t have to travel to see the world.D.People don’t have to communicate face to face.60、What does the passage say about the authors of The New Digital Age?A.They leave many questions unanswered concerning the Internet.B.They are optimistic about the future of the Internet revolution.C.They have explored the unknown territories of the virtual world.D.They don’t take sides in analyzing the effects of the Interne t.Passage twoIn 1950, a young man would have found it much easier than it is today to get and keep a job in the auto industry. And in that year the average autoworker could meet monthly mortgage(抵押贷款)payments on an average home with just 13.4 percent of his take-home pay. Today a similar mortgage would claim more than twice that share of his monthly eamings.Other members of the autoworker’s family, however might be less inclined to tried the present for the past. His retired parents would certainly have had less economic security back then. Through-out much of the 1960s,more than a quarter of men and women and women age 65 and older lived below the poverty level, compared to less than 10 percent in 2010.In most stales, his wife could not have taken out a loan or a card in her own name. In 42 states, a homemaker had no legal claim on the earnings of her husband. And nowhere did a wife have legal protection against family violence.Most black workers would not want to return to a time when, on average they earned 40 percent less than their white counterparts(职位相当的人),white racially restrictive agreements largely prevented them from buying into the suburban neighborhoods being built for white working–class families.Today, new problems have emerged in the process of resolving old ones, but the solution is not to go back to the past. Some people may long for an era when divorce was still hard to come by. The spread of no -fault divorce has reduced the bargaining power of whichever spouse is more interested in continuing the relationship. And the breakup of such marriages has caused pain for many families.The growing diversity of family life comes with new possibilities as well as new challenges. According to a recent poll, more than 80 percentof Americans believe that their current family is as close as the one in which they grew up, or closer. Finding ways to imaginary golden age.61、What do we learn about American autoworkers in 1950?A.They had less job security than they do today.B.It was not too difficult for them to buy a house.C.Their earnings were worth twice as much as today.D.They were better off than workers in other industries.62、What does the author about retired people today?A.They invariably long to return to the golden past.B.They do not depend so much on social welfare.C.They feel more secure economically than in the past.D.They are usually unwilling to live with their children.63、Why couldn’t black workers buy a house in a whitc suburba n neighborhood ?A.They lacked the means of transportation.B.They were subjected to racial inequality.C.They were afraid to break the law.D.They were too poor to afford it.64、What is the result of no-fault divorce ?A.Divorce is easier to obtain.B.Domestic violence is lessened.C.It causes little pain to either side.D.It contributes to social unrest.65 、What does the author suggest society do?A.Get prepared to face any new challenges.B.Try to better the current social security.C.Narrow the gap between blacks and whites.D.Improve the lives of families with problemsPart IV TranslationDirections: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.翻译题一：大熊猫是一种温顺的动物，长着独特的黑白皮毛。
最新 2014年12月英语四级仔细阅读练习题(4)-精品
2014年12月英语四级仔细阅读练习题（4）查看汇总：Today ,as in every other day of the year ,more than 3000 U.S. adlescents will smoke their first cigarette on their way to becoming regular smokers as adults. During their lifetime,it can be expected that of these 3000 about 23 will be murdered,30 will die in traffic accidents, and nearly 750 will be killed by a smoking-related disease. The number of deaths attributed to cigarette smoking outweithts all other factors, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a cause of death.Since the late 1970s, when daily smoking among high schoolseniors reached 30 precent , smoking rates among youth have declined . While the decline is impressive ,several important issues must be raised.First, in the past several years,smoking rates among youth have declined very little. Second,in the late 1970s ,smoking among male high school seniors exceeded that among female by nearly 10 percent . The statistic is reversing.Third ,several recent studies haveindicate high school dropouts have excessively high smoking rates, as much as 75 percent .Finally, thouth significant declines in adolescent smoking have occurred in the past decade,no definite reasons for the decline exist. Within this context,the Naional Cancer Instiute (NCI) began itscurrent effort to determine the most effecive measures to reduce smoking levesl among youth.1.According to the author, the deaths among youth are mainly caused by _____.a.traffic accidentsb.smoking-related deseasec.murderd.all of these。
2014年12月英语四级考试阅读真题及答案
2014年12⽉英语四级考试阅读真题及答案 Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section A Directions：In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. For decades, Americans have taken for granted the XXXX development of new technologies. The innovations(创新)XXXX opment during World War II and afterwards were(36)_____ to the prosperity of the nation in the second half of the 20th century. Those innovations, upon which virtually all aspects of(37)_____ society now depend, were possible because the United States then(38)_____ the world in mathematics and science education. Today, however, despite increasing demand for workers with strong skills in mathematics and science, the(39)_____ of degrees awarded in science, math, and engineering are decreasing. The deeling in degree production in what are called the STEM disciplines(science, technology, engineering, and math.)seems to be(40)_____related to the comparatively weak performance by U.S. schoolchildren on international assessments of math and science. Many students entering college have weak skills in mathematics. According to the 2005 report of the Business Higher Education Forum, 22 percent of college freshmen must take remediat(补习的)math(41)_____, and less than half of the students who plan to major in science or engineering(42)_____complete a major in those fields. The result has been a decrease in the number of American college graduates who have the skills, (43)_____ in mathematics, to power a workforce that can keep the country at the forefront(前⾔)of innovation and maintain its standard of living. With the(44)_____ performance of American students in math and science has come increased competition from students from other countries that have strongly supported education in these areas. Many more students earn(45)_____ in the STEM disciplines in developing countries than in the United States. A.accelerating B.actually C.closely D.contemporary E.courses F.critical G.declining H.degrees I.especially J.future K.led L.met M.procedures N.proportions O.sphetes Section B Directions：In this section，you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. Ban sugary drinks that will add fuel to the obesity war [A] On a train last Thursday, I sat opposite a man who was so fat he filled more than one seat. He was pale and disfigured and looked sick to death, which he probably was: obesity(肥胖的)leads to many nasty ways of dying. Looking around the carriage, I saw quite a few people like him, including a couple of fatty children with swollen checks pressingagainst their eyes. These people are part of what is without exaggeration an epidemic(流⾏病)of obesity. [B] But it is quite unnecessary: there is a simple idea- far from new- that could spare millions of such people a lifetime of chronic(长期的)ill health, and at the same time save the National Health Service(NHS)at least ￡14 billion a year in England and Wales. There would, you might think, be considerable public interest in it. This simple idea is that sugar is as good- or as bad- as poison and should be avoided. It is pure, white and deadly, as Professor John Yudkin described it 40 years ago in a revolutionary book of that name. The subtitle was How Sugar Is Killing Us. [C] In its countless hidden forms, in ready meals, junk food and sweet drinks, sugar leads to addiction(瘾), to hormonal upsets to the appetite, to metabolic(新陈代谢的)malfunctions and obesity and from there to type 2 diabetes(糖尿病)and its many horrible complication. If people really grasped that, they would try to kick the habit, particularly as Britain is the ― fat man of Europe‖ . They might even feel driven to support government measures to prevent people from consuming this deadly stuff. Yet so far this idea has met little but resistance. [D] It is not difficult to imagine the vested interests(既得利益集团)lined up against any sugar control- all the food and drink manufacturers, processors, promoters and retailers who make such easy pickings out of the magic powers of sugar. Then there are the liberals, with whom I would normally side, who protest that government regulation would be yet another instance of interference in our lives. [E]That is true, but people should realize that you cannot have a welfare state without a nanny state(保姆国家), to some degree. If we are all to be responsible for one another’s health insurance, through socialized medicine, then we are all closely involved in one another’s health, including everyone’s eating and drinking. That has already been admitted, finally, with smoking. But it has yet to be admitted with overeating, even though one in four adults in this country is obese and that number is predicted to double by the year 2050.Quite apart from anything else, obesity will cripple the NHS. [F]Recently, though, there have been signs that the medical establishment is trying to sound the alarm. Last month the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges(AMRC)published a report saying that obesity is the greatest public health issue affecting the UK and urging government to do something. [G]The report offers 10 recommendations, of which the first is imposing a tax of 20 percent on sugary drinks for at least a year, on top of the existing 20 percent value-added tax. That at least would be an excellent start. The amounts of sugar in soft drinks are horrifying, and turn straight to fat. As Professor Terence Stephenson, head of the AMRC, has said, sugary soft drinks are ―the ultimate bad food. You are just consuming neat sugar. Your body didn’t evolve to handle this kind of thing.‖ [H]Precisely. The risks of eating too much fat or salt(which are very different)pale into insignificant compared with the harm done by sugar. And it is everywhere. [I]It is difficult to buy anything in a supermarket, other than plain, unprepared meat, fish or vegetables, that doesn’t have a large amount of sugar in it. This has come about because the prevailing scientific views of the 1960s and 1970s ignored the evidence about sugar, and instead saw fat as the really serious risk, both to the heart and other organs, as well as the cause of obesity. [J]The fashion was to avoid fat. But finding that food with much of its fat removed is not very appetizing, food producers turned to sugar as a magic alternative flavor enhancer, often in the forms of syrups(糖浆)that had recently been developed from corn, and put it generously into most prepared foods and soft drinks. [K]This stuff is not just fattening. It is addictive. It interferes with the body’s metabolism, possibly via the activity of an appetite-controlling hormone. There’s plenty of evidence for this, for those who will accept the truth. [L]Theoretically, people ought to make ―healthy choices‖ and avoid overeating. But sugar additives are not easy to identify and are hard to avoid. So the snacking, over-drinking and over eating that makes people fat is not really their own fault: obesity is in large part something that is being done to them. It should be stopped, or rather the government should stop it. [M]Going round my local supermarket, I am constantly astonished that it is still legal to sell all the poisons stacked high on the shelves. The problem is that they are worse than useless. They are poisonous. They are known to be addictive. They are known to make people obese. And giving small children sweet drinks or bottles of fake juice all day long is nothing less than child abuse. [N]Clearly, the sale of such stuff ought to be illegal. I hate to think of yet more government regulation. But a bit of tax on sweet soda and a little more health education, a bit of cooking in schools and banning vending machines(⾃动售货机)here and there — as suggested try the AMRC report — is not going to achieve very much. Labelling is quite inadequate. What is needed is legislation banning high levels of sugary syrups used in foods and drinks. [O]In June 2012, the then minister for public health said the government was not scared of the food industry and had notruled out legislation, because of the costs of obesity to the NHS. However, nothing has happened yet. Why not have another Jammie Dodger biscuit and forget about it. 46、Avoiding over-consumption of sugar can improve people’s health as well as save medical expenses. 47、Laws should be passed to make it illegal to produce overly sweet foods or drinks. 48、Giving small children sweet juices to drink all the time is equal to child abuse. 59、Looking around, the author found obesity quite widespread. 50、The number of obese people is expected to increase quickly in the next few decades. 51、If people really understood the horrible consequences of sugary foods and drinks, they would support government measures against sugar consumption. 52、It would be a very good beginning wo improve an additional tax on sugary drinks. 53、The government has not yet taken any action to regulate sugar consumption although it indicated its intention to do so some time ago. 54、Sugar is far more harmful to health than fat and salt. 55、Consumers of sweet foods are not really to blame because they cannot tell what food is sugary.Section C Directions：There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impacts has only just begun. ―Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,‖ Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book. The New Digital Age. Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutions like the news media. But if the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these weeping changes. In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volume to date that describes — and more importantly predicts — how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual. At the core of the book is the idea that ―technology is neutral, but people aren’t.‖ By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy(对⽴观点)that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for society. In an interview with TIME earlier this week, Cohen said although he and his co-author are optimistic about many aspects of the Internet, they’re also realistic about the risks and dangers that lie ahead when the next five billion people come online, particularly with respect to personal privacy and state surveillance(监视). 56、In what way is the rise of the Internet similar to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph? A.It transforms human history. B.It facilitates daily communication. C.It is adopted by all humanity. D.It revolutionizes people's thinking. 57、How do Schmidt and Cohen describe the effects of the Internet? A.They are immeasurable. B.They are worldwide. C.They are unpredictable. D.They are contaminating 58、In what respect is the book The New Digital Age considered inadequate? A.It fails to recognize the impact of the Internet technology. B.It fails to look into the social implications of the Internet. / p > p > 0 0 C . I t l a c k s a n o b j e c t i v e e v a l u a t i o n o f t h e r o l e o f I n t e r n e t b u s i n e s s e s . / p > p > 0 0 D . I t d o e s n o t a d d r e s s t h e t e c h n i c a l a s p e c t s o f I n t e r n e t c o m m u n i c a t i o n . / p > p > 0 0 5 9 0 W h a t w i l l t h e f u t u r e b e l i k e w h e n e v e r y b o d y g e t s o n l i n e ? / p > p > 0 0 A . P e o p l e w i l l b e l i v i n g i n t w o d i f f e r e n t r e a l i t i e s . / p > p > 0 0 B . P e o p l e w i l l h a v e e q u a l a c c e s s t o i n f o r m a t i o n . / p > p > 0 0 C . P e o p l e d o n t h a v e t o t r a v e l t o s e e t h e w o r l d . / p > p > 00 D . P e o p l e d o n t h a v e t o c o m m u n i c a t e f a c e t o f a c e . / p > p > 0 0 6 0 0 W h a t d o e s t h e p a s s a g e s a ya b o u t t h e a u t h o r s o f T h e N e w D i g i t a l A g e ? / p > p > 0 0 A . T h e y l e a v e m a n y q u e s t i o n s u n a n s w e r e d c o n c e r n i n g t h e I n t e r n e t . / p > p > 0 0 B . T h e y a r e o p t i m i s t i c a b o u t t h e f u t u r e o f t h e I n t e r n e t r e v o l u t i o n . / p > p > 0 0 C . T h e y h a v e e x p l o r e d t h e u n k n o w n t e r r i t o r i e s o f t h e v i r t u a l w o r l d . / p > p > 0 0 D . T h e y d o n t t a k e s i d e s i n a n a l y z i n g t h e e f f e c t s o f t h e I n t e r n e t . / p >。
最新 2014年12月英语四级仔细阅读答案(卷三万题库版)-精品
2014年12月英语四级仔细阅读答案（卷三万题库版）Directions：There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the inventionof the printing press and the telegraph. Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly, often using Web-connected mobile devices they carry everywhere. But the Internet’s tremendous impacts has only just begun.“Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the mostexciting social, cultural, and political transformations in history, and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global,” Schmidt and Cohen write in their n ew book. The New Digital Age.Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online. The authors do an excellent job of examining the implications of the Internet revolution for individuals, governments, and institutionslike the news media. But if the book has one major shortcoming, it’s that authors don’t spend enough time applying a critical eye to the role of Internet businesses in these weeping changes.In their book, the authors provide the most authoritative volumeto date that describes — and more importantly predicts — how the Internet will shape our lives in the coming decades. They paint a picture of a world in which individuals, companies, institutions, and governments must deal with two realities, one physical, and one virtual.At the core of the book is the idea that “technology is neutral, but people aren’t.” By using this concept as a starting point, the authors aim to move beyond the now familiar optimist vs. pessimist dichotomy(对立观点)that has characterized many recent debates about whether the rise of the Internet will ultimately be good or bad for。
2014年12月英语六级阅读真题及答案
2014年12⽉英语六级阅读真题及答案 Part IIIreading comprehension Section A His future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one XXXX expect. They laughed aloud in 1986 when the heir to the British(37)_____ told a TV reporter that he talked to his plants at his country house, Highgrove, to stimulate their growth. The Prince was being humorous- “My sense of humor will get me into trouble one day”, he said to his aids(随从)-but listening to Charles Windsor can indeed prove stimulating. The royal(38)_____ has been promoting radical ideas for most of his adult life. Some of his(39)_____, which once sounded a bit weird, were simply ahead of their time. Now, finally, the world seems to be catching up with him. Take his views on farming. Prince Charles’ Duchy Home Farm went(40)_____ back in 1986. When most shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemish-free(⽆瑕疵的) vegetables (单项选择题)_____ A.conform B.eccentric C.environmentalist D.expeditions E.impact F.notions anic H.originally I.recognition J.respond K.subordinate L.suppressing M.throne N.unnaturally O.urging Section B Directions：Directions：In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. High School Sports Aren't Killing Academics A)In this month's Atlantic cover article, "The Case Against High-School Sports," Amanda Ripley argues that school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut. She writes that, unlike most countries that outperform the United States on international assessments, American schools put too much of an emphasis on athletics, "Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere else," she writes, "Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America's international mediocrity(平庸)in education." B)American student-athletes reap many benefits from participating in sports, but the costs to the schools could outweigh their benefits, she argues, In particular, Ripley contends that sports crowd out the academic missions of schools: America should learn from South Korea and Finland and every other country at the top level of international test scores, all of whom emphasize athletics far less in school. "Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kidsspend playing sports," she writes, citing a 2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics. C)It might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schools than in other countries. But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the argument against school athletics. Indeed, our own research and that of others lead us to make the opposite case. School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase, not detract(减少)from, academic success. D)Ripley indulges a popular obsession(痴迷)with international test score comparisons, which show wide and frightening gaps between the United States and other countries. She ignores, however, the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries. A 2011 report from Harvard University shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland, while Mississippi scores are closer to Trinidad and Tobago. Ripley's thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact. Schools in Massachusetts provide sports programs while schools in Finland do not. Schools in Mississippi may love football while in Tobago interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent. Sports cannot explain these similarities in performance. They can't explain international differences either. E)If it is true that sports undermine the academic mission of American schools, we would expect to see a negative relationship between the commitment to athletics and academic achievement. However, the University of Arkansas's Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actually find the opposite. They examine this relationship by analyzing schools' sports winning percentages as well as student-athletic participation rates compared to graduation rates and standardized test score achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in Ohio. Controlling for student poverty levels, demographics(⼈⼝统计状况), and district financial resources, both measures of a school's commitment to athletics are significantly and positively related to lower dropout rates as well as higher test scores. F)On-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random-it requires focus and dedication to athletics. One might think this would lead schools obsessed with winning to deemphasize academics. Bowen and Greene's results contradict that argument. A likely explanation for this seemingly counterintuitive(与直觉相反的)result is that success in sports programs actually facilitates or reflects greater social capital within a school's community. G)Ripley cites the writings of renowned sociologist James Coleman, whose research in education was groundbreaking. Coleman in his early work held athletics in contempt, arguing that they crowded out schools' academic missions. Ripley quotes his 1961 study, The Adolescent Society, where Coleman writes, "Altogether, the trophy(奖品)case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution." H)However, in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly dependent on what he termed social capital, "the social networks, and the relationships between adults and children that are of value for the child’s growing up." I)According to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, a program called Becoming a Man-Sports Edition creates lasting improvements in the boys'study habits and grade point averages. During the first year of the program, students were founds to be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime. A year after the program, participants were less likely to have had an encounter with the juvenile justice system. J)If school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorrow, many American students would still have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere, much like they do in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Korea. The same is not certain when it comes to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In an overview of the research on non-school based after-school programs, researchers find that disadvantaged children participate in these programs at significantly lower rates. They find that low-income students have less access due to challenges with regard to transportation, non-nominal fees, and off-campus safety. Therefore, reducing or eliminating these opportunities would most likely deprive disadvantaged students of the benefits from athletic participation, not least of which is the opportunity to interact with positive role models outside of regular school hours. K)Another unfounded criticism that Ripley makes is bringing up the stereotype that athletic coaches are typicallylousy(蹩脚的)classroom teachers. "American principals, unlike the vast majority of principals around the world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind, which does not always end well for students," she writes. Educators who seek employment at schools primarily for the purpose of coaching are likely to shirk(推卸)teaching responsibilities, the argument goes. Moreover, even in the cases where the employee is a teacher first and athletic coach second, the additional responsibilities that come with coaching likely comes at the expense of time otherwise spent on planning, grading, and communicating with parents and guardians. L)The data, however, do not seem to confirm this stereotype. In the most rigorous study on the classroom results of high school coaches, the University of Arkansas's Anna Egalite finds that athletic coaches in Florida mostly tend to perform just as well as their non-coaching counterparts, with respect to raising student test scores. We do not doubt that teachers who also coach face serious tradeoffs that likely come at the expense of time they could dedicate to their academic obligations. However, as with sporting events, athletic coaches gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving asmentors(导师)that potentially help students succeed and make up for the costs of coaching commitments. M)If schools allow student-athletes to regularly miss out on instructional time for the sake of traveling to athletic competitions, that's bad. However, such issues would be better addressed by changing school and state policies with regard to the scheduling of sporting events as opposed to total elimination. If the empirical evidence points to anything, it points towards school sponsored sports providing assets that are well worth the costs. N)Despite negative stereotypes about sports culture and Ripley's presumption that academics and athletics are at odds with one another, we believe that the greater body of evidence shows that school-sponsored sports programs appear to benefit students. Successes on the playing field can carry over to the classroom and vice versa(反之亦然). More importantly, finding ways to increase school communities' social capital is imperative to the success o f t h e s c h o o l a s w h o l e , n o t j u s t t h e a t h l e t e s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 1 8 " > 0 0 4 7 / p >。
2014年12月英语六级真题及答案(word版).doc
2014年12月英语六级真题及答案（文字版）Part I WritingDirections: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following topic. You should write at least 180 words but no more than 200 words.作文题一：学历歧视From the cartoon given above, we can observe that there is a recruiter talking with an interviewee. When looking at the resume submitted by the candidate, the interviewer says,“Sorry, kid… Your resume looks good, but you only have a Master’s degree…All the other applicants are Ph.D. ! ” Having heard these words, the applicant seems to be quite helpless and embarrassed.The cartoon reveals that the society has been placing a higher value on educational degree. What factors might contribute to this phenomenon? Answers to this question may involve many aspects, and here are a few guesses: for one thing, from the subjective aspect, quite a few employers hold that the higher educational degree people have, the more competent they will be. For another, from the objective aspect, with the professions in modern society becoming increasingly segmented, employees are required to acquire higher degree to fulfill their tasks efficiently.Definitely, higher degrees enjoy obvious advantages. However, it is not advisable that employers judge a person only by his/ her educational backgrounds. Let alone “Degree Discrimination”. As for ourselves, we should not only attach a great importance to educational degree, but also spare no efforts to enhance our comprehensive abilities.About a decade ago, college students could find satisfactory and enviable jobs after they acquire Master’s degree. But now, things are quite different. Today＇s university students usually have much pressure in finding fairly good jobs. They always say disappointedly that goods jobs means high diplomas.Why nowadays university students with lower degrees have so much pressure in finding jobs? For my part, this kind of pressure is mainly caused by three reasons. Firstly, the government is enrolling more and more university students year by year. And the growth of the students＇number has surpassed that of the need of the society. So, when so many students graduate at a time, the chance of finding good jobs becomes tiny. Secondly, today＇s university students, most of them are the "only-child", who are more mentally frail. If their first try fails, they will be frustrated and think that it is really hard to find jobs.This situation can be changed. The university students can join in some extracurricular activities on campus to train their abilities of doing things independently and try to do some part-time jobs during weekends and vacations to gain more social experience.作文题二：科技与学习We can see a teacher and a student in the cartoon above. When the teacher asks the student to answer a question written on the blackboard, the student wants to seek tech support rather than work it out by himself. The picture aims to tell us the problem that young students are highly dependent on high technology, overlooking the importance of independent thinking.A large number of people point out that technology has played an irreplaceable part in learning process, while many others are against it. Those in favor of high technology believe we have benefited a lot from the convenience brought by Information Technology. For instance, our work efficiency has improved because computers can do complex calculations faster and more accurately than men. Also, the Internet has made it much easier to get access to information than before. However, many people claim thatover-dependence on technology has done more harm than good.As one of youngsters, I think as long as we can take advantages of hi-tech reasonably, our learning process will be highly beneficial. At the same time, keep it in mind that independent thinking comes first, while tech support just offers assistance. Only in this way, can we benefit most from our learning process.作文题三：学习没有捷径It is a common phenomenon that a large number of students are pursuing success with a wrong belief that there exists a shortcut to learning. The picture given reveals this factin an ironic way. We can easily notice from the cartoon that a student is asking the teacher in the library how to achieve accomplishment in school without studying, while the teacher is pointing to the fiction section to tell him to work hard.Learning is actually a painstaking process in which both students on campuses and employees of working agencies are struggling to acquire knowledge by sparing great efforts. On the contrary, some people in today’s society aim at studying without hard work, following the so-called “shortcut” ways. From my own perspective, there is no shortcut in the way to learn. First and foremost, learning or obtaining knowledge is based on the accumulation step by step. The famous saying that Rome is not built in one day teaches us that no goal is achieved without persistence and accumulation. In addition, the shortcut to learning is extremely appealing to those who are unwilling to spend time and energy studying because they might win by a fluke. However, students advocating the shortcut is unlikely to win every time. Last but not least, the fickleness and negative attitudes towards exams are responsible for the widespread trend of the shortcut belief, and it surely lead to the failure of study to some students. Taking a look around us, we can find that many agencies and people believe in the prediction of the exams, and students may be indulged in the so-called perditions and pay no attention to studying hard.As has been mentioned, learning without hard work tends to be useless and meaningless, for students cannot have a great chance to grow into all-round intellectuals. The picture makes us college students aware of the great significance of true skill and genuine knowledge. Only by making efforts to learn in and after class can we gain solid and real ability and competence.Part II ListeningSection ADirections：In this section，you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation an d the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, y ou must read the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D)，and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.Question 1A.At a groceryB.In a parking lotC.In a car showroomD.At a fast food restaurantQuestion 2A.Have a little nap after lunchB.Get up and take a short walkC.Change her position now and thenD.Stretch legs before standing upQuestion 3A.The students should practice long-distance runningB.He doesn’t quite believe what the woman saysC.The students’ physical condition is not desirableD.He thinks the race is too hard for the students Question 4A.They do not want to have a baby at presentB.They cannot afford to get married right nowC.They are both pursuing graduate studiesD.They will get their degrees in two yearsQuestion 5A.Twins usually have a lot in commonB.He must have been mistaken for JackC.Jack is certainly not as healthy as he isD.He has not seen Jack for quite a few days Question 6A.The man will take the woman wo the museumB.The man knows where the museum is locatedC.The woman is asking the way at the crossroadsD.The woman will attend the opening of the museum Question 7A.They cannot ask the guy to leaveB.The guy has been coming in for yearsC.They should not look down upon the guyD.The guy must be feeling extremely lonely Question 8A.Collect timepiecesB.Become time-consciousC.Learn to mend locksD.Keep track of his daily activitiesQuestions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 9A.It winds its way to the seaB.It is quickly risingC.It is eating into its banksD.It is wide and deepQuestion 10A.Get the trucks over to the other side of the riverB.Take the equipment apart before being ferriedC.Reduce the transport cost as much as possibleD.Try to speed up the operation by any meansQuestion 11A.Ask the commander to send a helicopterB.Halt the operation until further ordersC.Cut trees and build rowing boatsD.Find as many coats as possibleQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard. Question 12A.Help him join an Indian expeditionB.Talk about his climbing experiencesC.Give up mountain climbing altogetherD.Save money to buy climbing equipmentQuestion 13A.He was very strict with his childrenB.He climbed mountains to earn a livingC.He had an unusual religious backgroundD.He was the first to conquer Mt. QomolangmaQuestion 14A.They are like humansB.They are sacred placesC.They are to be protectedD.They are to be conqueredQuestion 15A.It was his father’s training that pilled him throughB.It was a milestone in his mountain climbing careerC.It was his father who gave him the strength to succeedD.It helped him understand the Sherpa view of mountainsSection BDirections：In this section，you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage，you will he ar some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a questi on, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C)and D). Then mark the cor responding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centrePassage OneQuestion 16A. By reviewing what he has said previouslyB.By comparing memorandums with lettersC.By showing a memorandum’ s structureD.By analyzing the organization of a letterQuestion 17A.They spent a lot of time writing memorandumsB.They seldom read a memorandum through to the endC.They placed emphasis on the format of memorandumsD.They ignored many of the memorandums they receivedQuestion 18A.Style and wordingB.Structure and lengthC.Directness and clarityD.Simplicity and accuracyPassage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 19A.Accurate datingB.Professional lookC.Direct statement of purposeD.Inclusion of appropriate humorQuestion 20A.They give top priority to their work efficiencyB.They make an effort to lighten their workloadC.They never change work habits unless forced toD.They try hard to make the best use of their timeQuestion 21A.Self-confidenceB.Sense of dutyC.Work efficiencyD.Passion for workQuestion 22A.They are addicted to playing online gamesB.They try to avoid work whenever possibleC.They find to pleasure in the work they doD.They simply have no sense of responsibilityPassage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 23A.He lost all his propertyB.He was sold to a circusC.He was forced into slaveryD.He ran away from his familyQuestion 24A.A carpenterB.A businessmanC.A master of hisD.A black drummerQuestion 25A.It named its town hall after Solomon NorthupB.It declared July 24 Solomon Northup DayC.It freedom all blacks in the town from slaveryD.It hosted a reunion for the Northup familySection CDirections：In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the fir st time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, yo u are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage i s read for the third time, you should check what you have written.Section CIntolerance is the art of ignoring any views that differ from your own. It(26)_____ itself a hatred. St ereotypes, prejudice, and(27)_____.Once it intensifies in people, intolerance is nearly impossible to overco me. But why would anyone want to be labeled intolerant. Why would people want to be (28)_____about the world around them? Why would one want to be part of the problem in America, instead of the soluti on?There are many explanations for intolerant attitudes, some (29)_____ childhood. It is likely that intole rant folks grew up (30)_____ intolerant parents and the cycle of prejudice has simply continued for (31)_____. Perhaps intolerant people are so set in their ways that they find it easier to ignore anything that mi ght not (32)_____ their limited view of life. Or maybe intolerant students have simply never been (33)__ ___ to anyone different form themselves. But none of these reason is an excuse for allpwing the intoleran ce to continue.Intolerance should not be confused with disagreement.It is,of course,possible as diasgree with an opini on without being intolerant of it.If you understand a belief but still don't believe in that specific belief,tha t's fine.You are (34)_____ your opinion.As a matter of fact.(35)_____ disseniers(持异议者)are important fo r any belief.If we all believed the same things.we would never grow,and we would never learn about the world around us,does not stem frim disagreement.It stems from fear,And fear stems from fear.And fear s tems from ignorance.Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section AHis future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one XXXX expect. They laughed aloud in 1986 when the heir to the British(36)_____ told a TV reporter that he talked to h is plants at his country house, Highgrove, to stimulate their growth. The Prince was being humorous- “M y sense of humor will get me into trouble one day”, he said to his aids(随从)-but listening to Charles W indsor can indeed prove stimulating. The royal(37)_____ has been promoting radical ideas for most of his adult life. Some of his(38)_____, which once sounded a bit weird, were simply ahead of their time. No w, finally, the world seems to be catching up with him.Take his views on farming. Prince Charles’ Duchy Home Farm went(39)_____ back in 1986. When most shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemish-free(无瑕疵的) vegetables and(4 0)_____ large chickens piled high in supermarkets.His warnings on climate change proved farsighted,too.Charles began(41)_____ action in warming in 1 990 and says he has been worried about the(42)_____ of man on the environment same be was a teenger.Although he was gradually gained international(43)_____ as one of the world's lending conservationist s,many British people still think of him as an(34)_____ person who talks to plants.This year,as it happens, South Korean scientists proved that plants really do(45)_____ to round.So Charles was ahead of the game there,too.A.conformB.eccentricC.environmentalistD.expeditionsE.impactF.notionsanicH.originallyI.recognitionJ.respondK.subordinateL.suppressingM.throneN.unnaturallyO.urgingSection BDirections: In this section，you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each s tatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the infor mation is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.High School Sports Are n’t Killing AcademicsA)In this month’s Atlantic cover article, “The Case Against High-School Sports,” Amanda Ripley arg ues that school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut. She writes that, unlike most countries t hat outperform the United States on international assessments, American schools put too much of an emph asis on athletics, “ Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere els e,” she writes, “Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America’s internation al mediocrity(平庸)in education.”B)American student-athletes reap many benefits from participating in sports, but the costs to the scho ols could outweigh their benefits, she argues, In particular, Ripley contends that sports crowd out the acad emic missions of schools: America should learn from South Korea and Finland and every other country at the top level of internation al test scores, all of whom emphasize athletics far less in school. ”Even in ei ghth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports,” she writes, citing a 2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics.C)It might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schools than in other count ries. But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the argument against school athletics. Indeed, our own research and that of others lead us to make the opposite case. School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase, not detract(减少)from, academic success.D)Ripley indulges a popular obsession(痴迷)with international test score comparisons, which show wid e and frightening gaps between the United States and other countries. She ignores, however, the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries. A 2011 report from Harvard Univer sity shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland, while Mississippi scores are closer to Trinidad and Tobago. Ripley’s thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact. Schools in Massachusetts provide sports programs while schools in Finland do not. Schools in Mississipp i may love football while in Tobago interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent. Sports cannot e xplain these similarities in performance. They can’t explain international differences either.E)If it is true that sports undermine the academic mission of American schools, we would expect to see a negative relationship between the commitment to athletics and academic achievement. However, the University of Arkansas’s Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actually find the opposite. They examine this r ela tionship by analyzing schools’ sports winning percentages as well as student-athletic participation rates co mpared to graduation rates and standardized test score achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in Ohio. Controlling for student poverty levels, demographics(人口统计状况), and district fin ancial resources, both measures of a school’s commitment to athletics are significantly and positively relat ed to lower dropout rates as well as higher test scores.F)On-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random-it requires focus and dedication to athletics. One might think this would lead schools obsessed with winning to deemphasize academics. B owen and Greene’s results contradict that argument. A likely explanation for t his seemingly counterintuitiv e(与直觉相反的)result is that success in sports programs actually facilitates or reflects greater social capita l within a school’s community.G)Ripley cites the writings of renowned sociologist James Coleman, whose research in education was groundbreaking. Coleman in his early work held athletics in contempt, arguing that they crowded out sch ools’ academic missions. Ripley quotes his 1961 study, The Adolescent Society, where Coleman writes, “Altogether, the trophy(奖品)case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic cl ub, not an educational institution.”H)However, in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly dependent o n what he termed social capital, “the social networks, and the relationships between adults and children th at are of value for the child’s growing up.”I)According to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, a progra m called Becoming a Man-Sports Edition creates lasting improve ments in the boys’ study habits and grad e point averages. During the first year of the program, students were founds to be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime. A year after the program, participants were less likely to have ha d an encounter with the juvenile justice system.J)If school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorrow, many American students would stil l have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere, much like they do in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Korea. The same is not certain when it comes to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In an overview of the research on non-school based after-school programs, researc hers find that disadvantaged children participate in these programs at significantly lower rates. They find t hat low-income students have less access due to challenges with regard to transportation, non-nominal fees, and off-campus safety. Therefore, reducing or eliminating these opportunities would most likely deprive d isadvantaged students of the benefits from athletic participation, not least of which is the opportunity to in teract with positive role models outside of regular school hours.K)Another unfounded criticism that Ripley makes is bringing up the stereotype that athletic XX are t ypically lousy(蹩脚的)classroom teachers. “American principals, unlike the XX XX of principals around th e world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind, which does not always end well fo r students,” she writes. Educators who seek employment at school s primarily for the purpose of coaching are likely to shirk(推卸)teaching responsibilities, the argument goes. Moreover, even in the cases where th e employee is a teacher first and athletic coach second, the additional responsibilities that come with coac hing likely comes at the expense of time otherwise spent on planning, grading, and communicating with p arents and guardians.L)The data, however, do not seem to confirm this stereotype. In the most rigorous study on the class room results of high school coac hes, the University of Arkansas’s Anna Egalite finds that athletic coaches in Florida mostly tend to perform just as well as their non-coaching counterparts, with respect to raising student test scores. We do not doubt that teachers who also coach face serious tradeoffs that likely come at the expense of time they could dedicate to their academic obligations. However, as with sporting even ts, athletic coaches gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving as mentors(导师)that poten tially help students succeed and make up for the costs of coaching commitments.M)If schools allow student-athletes to regularly miss out on instructional time for the sake of travelin g to athletic c ompetitions, that’s bad. However, such issues would be better addressed by changing school and state policies with regard to the scheduling of sporting events as opposed to total elimination. If the empirical evidence points to anything, it points towards school sponsored sports providing assets that are well worth the costs.N)Despite negative stereotypes about sports culture and Ripley’s presumption that academics and athle tics are at odds with one another, we believe that the greater body of evidence shows that school-sponsor ed sports programs appear to benefit students. Successes on the playing field can carry over to the classro om and vice versa(反之亦然). More importantly, finding ways to increase school communities’ social capit al is imperative to the success of the school as whole, not just the athletes.46.Stunets from low-income families have less access to off-campus sports programs.47.Amanda Ripley argues that America should learn from other countries that rank high in international te sts and lay less emphasis on athletics.48.According to the author,Amanda Ripley fails to note that stunents'performance in exams varies from sta te to state.49.Amanda Ripley thinks that athletic coaches are poor at classroom instruction.50.James Coleman's later resrarch make an argument for a school's social capital.51.Reaearchers find that there is a ppsitive relationship between a school's commitment to athletics and ac ademic achievements.52.Aa rigorous study finds that athletic coaches also do well in raising students'test scores.53.According to an evaluation,spograms contribute to students's academic preformance and character building.54.Amanda Ripley believes the emphasis on school sports shuold be brought up when trying to understand why Aamerican students are mediocre.55.James Coleman suggests in his earlier writings that school athletics would undermine a school's image.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfi nished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. . You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the c entre.Passage oneIt is easy to miss amid the day-to-day headlines of global economic recession, but there is a less co nspicuous kind of social upheaval(剧变)underway that is fast altering both the face of the planet and the way human beings live. That change is the rapid acceleration of urbanization. In 2008, for the first time i n human history, more than half the world’s population was living in towns and cities. And as a recently published paper shows, the process of urbanization will only accelerate in the decades to come—with an enormous impact on biodiversity and potentially on climate change.As Karen Seto, the led author of the paper, po ints out, the wave of urbanization isn’t just about the migration of people into urban environments, but about the environments themselves becoming bigger to a ccommodate all those people. The rapid expansion of urban areas will have a huge impact on biodiversity hotspots and on carbon emissions in those urban areas.Humans are the ultimate invasive species—when the move into new territory, the often displace the wildlife that was already living there. And as land is cleared for those new cities—especially in the dense tropical forests—carbon will be released into the atmosphere as well. It’s true that as people in developi ng nations move from the countryside to the city, the shift may reduce the pressure on land, which could in turn be good for the environment. This is especially so in desperately poor countries, where residents in the countryside slash and burn forests each growing season to clear space for farming. But the real di fference is that in developing nations, the move from rural areas to cities often leads to an accompanying increase in income —and that increase leads to an increase in the consumption of food and energy, which in turn causes a rise in carbon emissions. Getting enough to eat and enjoying the safety and comfort of living fully on the grid is certainly a good thing —but it does carry an environmental price.The urbanization wave can’t be stopped —and it shouldn’t be. But Seto’s paper does underscore the importance of managing that transition. If we do it the right way, we can reduce urbanization’s impact o n the environment. “There’s an enormous opportunity here, and a lot of pressure and responsibility to thin k about how we urbanize,” says Seto. “One thing that’s clear is that we can’t build cities the way we ha ve over the last couple of hundred years. The scale of this transition won’t allow that.” We’re headed to wards an urban planet no matter what, but whether it becomes heaven or hell is up to us.56. What issue does the author try to draw people’s attention to?A. The shrinking biodiversity worldwide.B. The rapid increase of world population.C. The ongoing global economic recession.D. The impact of accelerating urbanization.57. In what sense are humans the ultimate invasive species?A. They are much greedier than other species.B. They are a unique species born to conquer.C. They force other species out of their territories.D. They have an urge to expand their living space.58. In what way is urbanization in poor countries good for the environment?A. More land will be preserved for wildlife.B. The pressure on farmland will be lessened.C. Carbon emissions will be considerably reduced.D. Natural resources will be used more effectively.59. What does the author say about living comfortably in the city?A. It incurs a high environmental price.B. It brings poverty and insecurity to an end.C. It causes a big change in people’s lifestyle.D. It narrows the gap between city and country.60. What can be done to minimize the negative impact of urbanization according to Seto?A. Slowing down the speed of transition.B. Innovative use of advanced technology.C. Appropriate management of the process.D. Enhancing people’s sense of responsibility.Passage TwoWhen Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched in Feb. 2004, even he could not i magine the forces it would let loose. His intent was to connect college students. Facebook, which is what。
2014年12月英语六级模拟题：仔细阅读
2014年12⽉英语六级模拟题：仔细阅读 Proxemics(空间关系学) is the study of what governs how closely one person stands to another. People who feel close will be close, though the actual distances will vary between cultures. For Amreicans we can discern four main categories of distance: intimate, personal, social and public. Intimate ranges from direct contact to about 45 centimeters. This is for the closest relationships such as those between husband and wife. Beyond this comes personal distance. This stands at between 45 and 80 centimeters. It is the most usual distance maintained for conversations between friends and relatives. Social distance covers people who work together or are meeting at social gatherings. Distances here tend to be kept between 1.30 to 2 meters. Beyond this comes public distance, such as that between a lecturer and his audience. All cultures draw lines between what is an appropriate and what is an inappropriate social distance for different types of relationship. They differ, however, in where they draw these lines. Look at an international reception withrepresentatives from the US and Arabic countries conversing and you will see the Americans pirouetting(快速旋转) backwards around the hall pursued by their Arab partners. The Americans will be trying to keep the distance between themselves and their partners which they have grown used to regarding as “normal”. They probably will not even notice themselves trying to adjust the distance between themselves and their partners, though they may have vague feeling that their Arab neighbors are being a bit “pushy”. The Arab, on the other hand, coming from a culture where much closer distance is the norm, may be feeling that the Americans are being “stand-offish”. Finding themselves happier standing close to and even touching those they are in conversation with they will persistently pursue the Americans round the room trying to close the distance between them. The appropriateness of physical contact varies between different cultures too. One study of the number of times people conversing in coffee shops over a one hour period showed the following interesting variations: London, 0; Florida, 2; Paris, 10; and Puerto Rico 180. Not only dose it vary between societies, however, it also varies between different subcultures within one society. Young people in Britain, for example, are more likely to touch and hug friends than are the older generation. This may be partly a matter of growing older, but it also reflects the fact that the older generation grew up at a time when touching was less common for all age groups. Forty years ago, for example, footballers would never hug and kiss one another on the field after a goal as they do today. 1.In proxemics, ____governs the standing space between two persons.A. distanceB. cultureC. conversationD. relationship 2.The word “stand-offish”(Line 14, Para. 2) could best be replaced by_________.A. cold and distant in behaviourB. ungentlemanlike in behaviourC. inhuman in behaviourD. polite in behaviour 3. In conversation with an American partner at an international reception, an Arab deems that close distant is_________.A. appropriateB. inappropriateC. rashD. impetuous 4. We can infer from the third paragragh that the appropriateness of physical contact also varies with_________.A. timeB. cityC. countryD. people 5. The best title for the passage would be __________.A. ProxemicsB. Appropriateness of Social DistanceC. Appropriateness Relationships Between Two PersonsD. Appropriateness Physical Contact Between Two Persons 答案DAAAA相关推荐：。
12月英语四级仔细阅读真题答案
12月英语四级仔细阅读真题答案12月英语四级仔细阅读真题答案2014年12月英语四级考试于12月20日举行。
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【2014年英语四级仔细阅读原文】Passage 1New Yorkers, albeit many of them grudgingly, are gradually getting used to more pedaling passengers on those blazing blue Citi Bikes.But what about local bike shops? Is Citi Bike rolling up riders at their expense ? At Gotham Bikes in Tribeca, a manager who gave his name as “Ben W.” said the shop has seen an increase in its overall sales due to the bike-share program.“It’s getting more people on the road, more people learning about the sport and getting involved,” he said.An employee at Danny’s Cycles in Gramercy said Citi Bike is a good option for people to ease into biking in a city famed for its vehicular congestion and aggressive drivers.“They can try out a bike without committing to buying one,” James Ryan said. “It makes a more comfortable biking environment in the city becaus e there are a lot more bikes, too.”Business at Danny’s Cycles has increased as well since the advent of bike-share.“A lot of people come in for bike gear, and we’ve sold a lot of helmets,” he noted.Rentals are not a big part of the business at either Gotham Bikes or Danny’s Cycles. But for Frank’s Bike Shop, a small business that has been at its current Lower East Side location on Grand St. since1976, the bike-share program has been bad news.Owner Frank Arroyo said that his rental business has decreased by 90 percent since the Citi Bikes were rolled out last month.Arroyo’s main rental customers are European tourists, a demographic that has since been drawn away by Citi Bikes. Initially, a bike-share station was sited a few doors away from Frank’s Bike S hop on the corner of Grand and Henry Sts. But a petition to relocate the bike station gathered more than 1,000 signatures. The Citi Bike dock was eventually removed —but only temporarily, according to the Citi Bike Twitter account, for utility construction in the street.“I was grateful, and it was quite an honor to see how many people responded on my behalf,” Arroyo said of the petition effort. “It was really nice to see that people care. But they have flooded the place with them,” he said of the Department of Transportation, which installs the bike racks.Removing one station does little since the area is overloaded with Citi Bike stations, said Arroyo.“If you put it in front of a hotel, customers are going to walk of the hotel and use it,” he said.However, Ben said the bike-share is good for bike sales at his shop.“People have used the bike-share and realized how great it is to bike in the city, then decide that they want something nicer for themselves,” he noted.Christian Farrell of Waterfront Bicycle Shop, on West St. just north of Christopher St., said initially he was concerned about bike-share, though, he admitted, “I was happy to see people on bikes.”Consisting of equal parts tourists and locals, his customers get a better rental deal at his shop because, despite charging only$10for a daily rental, the bike-share program requires cyclists to check their bikes in at a bike station every half hour. His store, on the other hand, charges $10 for the first hour, $5 for the second, and $2.50 per hour after that.“Six hours with Waterfront Bicycle Shop will cost a customer $25,” he said. “With Citi Bike, a six-hour rental will cost $126 [if the rider doesn’t re-dock his or her bike at a station every half hour]. Our rentals always inclu de a helmet, a basket and a lock.”Several dozen rental bikes were lined up on Weehawken St. last Sunday behind the store. Benny, who was watching over them, said another advantage over the Citi Bikes is that Waterfront’s bikes are all in good working orde r.Farrell’s early concerns were echoed by Andrew Crooks, owner of NYCVelo, at 64 Second Ave.“It seemed like a great idea, but one that would be difficult to implement,” Crooks said of Citi Bike. He said he worried about inexperienced riders’ lack of awar eness of biking rules and backlash from non-cyclists. However, he said, it’s still too early to tell if his business has been impacted.The actual Citi Bikes themselves have been criticized as “heavy,” “clunky,” even “ugly.” In comparison, Crooks said NYC Velo has bikes that are “lighter, faster and tend to be more comfortable.” Farrell of Waterfront also said his bikes are of “better quality” than the bike-share two-wheelers.While it’s possible bike-share will cause a drop in business in the long run, Crooks allowed that the idea, as a whole, is good for the city.[原文解读]该文节选自The Villager，原题目为Bike store owners put their spin on new bike-share，题材为议论文。
最新 2014年12月英语四级阅读冲刺练习及答案(4)-精品
2014年12月英语四级阅读冲刺练习及答案(4)点击查看：On Thursday afternoon Mrs. Carke, dressed for going out, took her handbag with her money and her key in it, pulled the door behind herto lock it and went to the over 60s Club. She always went there on Thursdays. It was a nice outing for an old woman who lived alone.At six o'clock she cane home, let herself in and at once smelt cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke in her house? How? How? Had someone got in? She checked the back door and the windows. All were locked or fastened, as usual. There was no sign of forced entry.Over a cup of tea she wondered whether someone might have a key that fitted her front door-"a master key"perhaps. So she stayed at home the following Thursday. Nothing happened. Was anyone watchingher movements? On the Thursday after that she went out at her usual time,dressed as usual, but she didn't go to the club. Instead shetook a short cut home again, letting herself in through her gardenand the back door. She settled down to wait.It was just after four o'clock when the front door bell rang.Mrs. Clarke was making a cup of tea at the time. The bell rang again, and then she heard her letter-box being pushed open. With the kettle of boiling water in her hand, she moved quietly towards the front door.A long piece of wire appeared through the letter-box, and then a hand. The wire turned and caught around the knob on the door-lock. Mrs. Clarke raised the kettle and poured the water over the hand. Therewas a shout outside, and the skin seemed to drop off the fingers like a glove. The wire fell to the floor, the hand was pulled back, and Mrs. Clarke heard the sound of running feet.1.Mrs. Clarke looded forward to Thursday because_______.a.she worked at a club on the dayb.she said visitors on Thursdaysc.she visited a club on Thursdayd.a special visitor came on Thursday。
2014下半年英语六级模拟试卷：深度阅读
2014下半年英语六级模拟试卷：深度阅读 Part Ⅳ Reading Comprehension(Reading in Depth)(25 minutes) Section A Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on Answer Sheet 2. Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage. For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the high street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choice. There will, however, be a cost: Protecting the consumer from fraud will be harder. Many governments therefore want to extend high street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation. Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs, or their rights to refund(退款) when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence in their country is on the screen. Other countries have regulators, but the rules of consumer protection differ, as does enforcement. Even where a clear right to compensation exists, the online catalogue customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a dud purchase. One answer is for governments to cooperate more: to recognize each other's rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, an alternative. Let the electronic businesses do the "regulation" themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so. In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines online may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA's rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead. Consumers will need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort-and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain noisily when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more. 47. What can people benefit from the fast-growing development of electronic commerce? _____________________________________________________________________48. When goods are faulty, who do consumers in rich countries tend to think that it is takes responsibility for everything? _____________________________________________________________________ 49. In the author's view, why do businesses place a high premium on honest dealing in the electronic world? _____________________________________________________________________ 50. We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is ______________. 51. We can learn from the passage that ______________ are probably more cautious than consumers of the normal sort when buying things. Section B Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage. Some people say that the study of liberal arts is a useless luxury we can not afford in hard times. Students, they argue, who do not develop salable skills will find it difficult to land a job upon graduation. But there is a problem in speaking of "salable skills". What skills are salable? Right now, skills for making automobiles are not highly salable, but they have been for decades and might be again. Skills are another example of varying salability, as the job market fluctuates. What's more, if one wants to build a curriculum exclusively on what is salable, one will have to make the courses very short and change them very often, in order to keep up with the rapid changes in the job market. But will not the effort be in vain? In very fewthings can we be sure of future salability, and in a society where people are free to study what they want, and work where they want, and invest as they want, there is no way to keep supply and demand in labor in perfect accord. A school that devotes itself totally to salable skills, especially in a time of high unemployment, sending young men and women into the world armed with only a narrow range of skills, is also sending lambs into the lion's den. If those people gain nothing more from their studies than supposedly salable skills, and can't make the sale because of changes in the job market, they have been cheated. But if those skills were more than salable, if study gave them a better understanding of the world around them and greater adaptability in a changing world, they have not been cheated. They will find some kind of job soon enough. Flexibility, and ability to change and learn new things, is a valuable skill. People who have learned how to learn can learn outside of school. That is where most of us have learned to do what we do, not in school. Learning to learn is one of the highest liberal skills. 52. From the passage, we can learn that the author is in favor of ____. A) teaching practical skills that can be sold in the current job market B) a flexible curriculum that changes with the times C) a liberal education D) keeping a balance between the supply and demand in the labor market 53. The word "fluctuate"(Line 5,Para.1) most probably means_______ . A) remain steady B) change in an irregular way C) follow a set pattern D) become worse and worse 54. According to the author, who of the following is more likely to get a job in times of high unemployment? A) A person with the ability to learn by himself. B) A construction worker. C) A car repairman. D) A person with quite a few salable skills. 55. According to the author, in developing a curriculum school should _______. A) predict the salability of skills in the future job market B) take the current job market into consideration C) consider what skills are salable D) focus on the ability to adapt to changes 56. We can learn from the passage that _______. A) liberal arts education is being challenged now B) schools that teach practical skills fare better during hard times C) extracurricular activities are more important than classroom learning D) many students feel cheated by the educational system Passage Two Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. Over the past decade, American companies have tried hard to find ways to discourage senior from feathering their own nests at the expense of their shareholders. The three most popular reforms have been recruiting more outside directors in order to make boards more independent, linking bosses' pay to various performance measures, and giving bosses share options, so that they have the same long-term interests as their shareholders. These reforms have been widely adopted by American's larger companies, and surveys suggest that many morecompanies are thinking of following their lead. But have they done any good? Three papers presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Boston this week suggest not. As is usually the case with boardroom tinkering, the consequences have differed from those intended. Start with those independent boards. On the face of it, dismissing the boss's friends from the board and replacing them with outsiders looks a perfect way to make senior managers more accountable. But that is not the conclusion of a study by Professor James Westphal. Instead, he found that bosses with a boardroom full of outsides spend much of their time building alliances, doing personal favors and generally pleasing the outsiders. All too often, these seductions succeed. Mr.Westphal found that, to a remarkable degree, "independent" boards pursue strategies that are likely to favor senior managers rather than shareholders. Such companies diversify their business, increase the pay of executives and weaken the link between pay and performance. To assess the impact of performance related pay, Mr.Westphal asked the bosses of 103 companies with sales of over $1 billion what measurements were used to determine their pay. The measurements varied widely, ranging from sales to earnings per share. But the researcher's big discovery was that bosses attend to measures that affect their own incomes and ignore or play down other factors that affect a company's overall success. In short, bosses are quick to turn every imaginable system of corporate government to their ad v a n t a g e - w h i c h i s p r o b a b l y w h y t h e y a r e t h e p e o p l e w h o a r e p u t i n c h a r g e o f t h i n g s . H e r e i s a p a r a d o x f o r t h e m a n a g e m e n t t h e o r i s t s : a n y b o s s w h o c a n n o t b e a t a s y s t e m d e s i g n e d t o k e e p h i m u n d e r c o n t r o l i s p r o b a b l y n o t w o r t h h a v i n g . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 2 3 " > 0 0 5 7 . W h a t i s t h e p u r p o s e o f t h e l a r g e c o m p a n i e s i n r e c r u i t i n g o u t s i d e r s a n d p u t t i n g t h e m o n t h e b o a r d o f d i r e c t o r s ? / p > p b d s f i d = "1 2 4 " > 0 0 A ) T o d i v e r s i f y t h e b u s i n e s s o f t h e c o r p o r a t i o n . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 2 5 " > 0 0 B ) T o e n h a n c e t h e c o o p e r a t i o n b e t w e e n t h e s e n i o r m a n a g e r s a n d t h e b o a r d d i r e c t o r s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 2 6 " > 0 0 C ) T o i n t r o d u c e e f f e c t i v e r e f o r m s i n b u s i n e s s m a n a g e m e n t . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 2 7 " > 00 D ) T o p r o t e c t t h e i n t e r e s t s o f t h e s h a r e h o l d e r s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 2 8 " > 0 0 5 8 . W h a t d o e s P r o fe s s o r J a m e s W e s t p h a l ' s s t u d y s u g g e s t ? / p > p b d sf i d = " 1 2 9 " > 0 0 A ) B o a r d r o o m r e f o r m s h a v e f a i l e d t o a c h i e v e t h e d e s i r e d r e s u l t . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 0 " > 0 0 B ) O u t s i d e b o a r d d i r e c t o r s t e n d t o b e m o r e i n d e p e n d e n t . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 1 " > 0 0 C ) W i t h a b o a r d r o o m f u l l o f o u t s i d e r s , s e n i o r m a n ag e r s w o r k m o r e c o n s c i e n t i o u s l y . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 2 " > 0 0 D ) C o o p e r a t i o n b e t w e e n s e n i o r m a n a g e r s a n d b o a r d d i r e c t o r s s u f f e r e d f r o m th e r e f o r m s . / p > p b d s fi d = " 1 3 3 " > 0 0 5 9 . T h e w o r d " s e d u c t i o n " ( L i n e 1 , P a r a . 4 ) p r o b a b l y m e a n s " _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ " . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 4 " > 0 0 A ) e f f o r t s t o c o n q u e r / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 5 " > 0 0 B ) a t t e m p t s t o w i n o v e r / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 6 " > 0 0 C ) e n d e a v o r s t o i n c r e a s e p r o f i t s / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 7 " > 0 0 D ) e x e r t i o n s t o u n d e r s t a n d / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 8 " > 0 0 6 0 . W h i c h o f t h e f o l l o w i n g s t a t e m e n t s i s t r u e ? / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 3 9 " > 0 0 A ) C o r p o r a t e e x e c u t i v e s i n g e n e r a l a r e w o r t h t h e h i g h p a y t h e y r e c e i v e . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 4 0 " > 0 0 B ) T h e i n c o m e o f c o r p o r a t e e x e c u t i v e s i s p r o p o r t i o n a l t o t h e g r o w t h o f c o r p o r a t e p r o f i t s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 4 1 " > 0 0 C ) C o r p o r a t e e x e c u t i v e s t e n d t o t a k e a d v a n t a g e o f t h e i r p o s i t i o n t o e n r i c h t h e m s e l v e s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 4 2 " > 0 0 D ) T h e p e r f o r m a n c e o f c o r p o r a t e e x e c u t i v e s a f f e c t s t h e i r o w n i n t e r e s t s m o r e t h a n t h o s e o f t h e s h a r e h o l d e r s . / p > p b d s f i d = " 1 4 3 " > 0 0 6 1 .H o w d o e s t h e a u t h o r f e e l a b o u t t h e e f f o r t s t o c o n t r o l s e n i o r e x e c u t i v e s ? / p >。
英语四级仔细阅读真题及答案（2014年12月）
英语四级仔细阅读真题及答案（2014年12月）2014年12月英语四级考试在今天上午结束了，小伙伴们考的如何呢？接下来带大家回顾本次英语仔细阅读真题及答案，同时为大家提供2014年12月英语四级真题仔细阅读真题及答案，即使考完了也要记得温故知新哦，希望能帮助到大家！【第一篇：the cost of childcare】真题：答案：56. A The ever-rising children prices57. C Why children workers' pay has not increased with the rising childcare costs58. B Strict government regulations59 D Each teacher is allowed to care for more kids60 B Less elaborate rules about childcare might lower costs【第二篇：Alex Pang‘s new book】真题：答案：61. D can hardly tear themselves away from the Internet62. D Examine the influence of technology on the human mind63. A It enables people to work more efficiently64. B It somewhat restrains architects' productive thinking65. C They exercise self-control over their time online。
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2014年12月英语六级仔细阅读练习题
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查看汇总：
Proxemics(空间关系学) is the study of what governs how closely one person stands to another. People who feel close will be close, though the actual distances will vary between cultures. For Amreicans we can discern four main categories of distance: intimate, personal, social and public. Intimate ranges from direct contact to about 45 centimeters. This is for the closest relationships such as those between husband and wife. Beyond this comes personal distance. This stands at between 45 and 80 centimeters. It is the most usual distance maintained for conversations between friends and relatives. Social distance covers people who work together or are meeting at social gatherings. Distances here tend to be kept between 1.30 to 2 meters. Beyond this comes public distance, such as that between a lecturer and his audience.
All cultures draw lines between what is an appropriate and what
is an inappropriate social distance for different types of relationship. They differ, however, in where they draw these lines. Look at an international reception withrepresentatives from the US and Arabic countries conversing and you will see the Americans pirouetting(快速旋转) backwards around the hall pursued by their Arab partners. The Americans will be trying to keep the distance between themselves and their partners which they have grown used to regarding as “normal”. They probably will not even notice themselves trying to adjust the distance between themselves and their partners, though they may have vague feeling that their Arab neighbors are being a bit “pushy”. The Arab, on the other hand, coming from a culture where much closer distance is the norm, may be feeling that the Americans are being “stand-offish”. Finding themselves happier standing close to and even touching those they are in conversation with they will persistently pursue the Americans round the room trying to close the distance between them.
The appropriateness of physical contact varies between different cultures too. One study of the number of times people conversing in coffee shops over a one hour period showed the following interesting variations: London, 0; Florida, 2; Paris, 10; and Puerto Rico 180. Not only dose it vary between societies, however, it also varies between different subcultures within one society. Young people in。