英语四级阅读训练

Section 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.A University Degree No Longer Confers Financial SecurityA．Millions of school-leavers in the rich world are about to bid a tearful goodbye to their parents and start a new life at university. Some are inspired by a pure love of learning. But most also believe that spending three or four years at university--and accumulating huge debts in the process--will boost their chances of landing awell-paid and secure job.B．Their elders have always told them that education is the best way to equip themselves to thrive in a globalised world. Blue-collar workers will see their jobs outsourced and automated, the familiar argument goes. School dropouts will have to cope with a life of cash-strapped (资金紧张的) insecurity. But the graduate elite will have the world at its feet. There is some evidence to support this view. A recent study from Georgetown University's Centre on Education and the Workforce argues that"obtaining a post-secondary credential ( 证书) is almost always worth it." Educational qualifications are tightly correlated with earnings: an American with a professional degree can expect to pocket $3.6m over a lifetime; one with merely a high- school diploma can expect only $1.3m. The gap between more- andless-educated earners may be widening. A study in 2002 found that someone with a bachelor's degree could expect to earn 75% more over a lifetime than someone with only a high-school diploma. Today the disparity is even greater.C．But is the past a reliable guide to the future? Or are we at the beginning of a new phase in the relationship between jobs and education? There are good reasons for thinking that old patterns are about to change--and that the current recession-driven downturn (衰退) in the demand for Western graduates will morph (改变) into something structural. The strong wind of creative destruction that has shaken so many blue-collar workers over the past few decades is beginning to shake the cognitive elite as well.D．The supply of university graduates is increasing rapidly. The Chronicle of Higher Education calculates that between 1990 and 2007 the number of students going to university increased by 22% in North America, 74% in Europe, 144% in Latin America and 203% in Asia. In 2007 150m people attended university around theworld, including 70m in Asia. Emerging economies—specially China--are pouring resources into building universities that can compete with the elite of America and Europe. They are also producing professional- services firms snch as Tata Consulting Services and Infosys that take fresh graduates and turn them into world-class computer programmers and consultants. The best and the brightest of the rich world must increasingly compete with the best and the brightest from poorer countries who are willing to work harder for less money.E. At the same time, the demand for educated labor is being reconfigured (重新配置) by technology, in much the same way that the demand for agricultural labor was reconfigured in the 19th century and that for factory labor in the 20th. Computers can not only perform repetitive mental tasks much faster than human beings. They can also empower amateurs to do what professionals once did: why hire a flesh-and-blood accountant to complete your tax return when Turbotax (a software package ) will do the job at a fraction of the cost? And the variety of jobs that computers can do is multiplying as programmers teach them to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity.F.Several economists, including Paul Krugman, have begun to argue thatpost-industrial societies will be characterized not by a relentless rise in demand for the educated but by a great "hollowing out", as mid-level jobs are destroyed by smart machines and high-level job growth slows. David Autor, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), points out that the main effect of automation in the computer era is not that it destroys blue-collar jobs but that it destroys any job that can be reduced to a routine. Alan Blinder of Princeton University, argues that the jobs graduates have traditionally performed are if anything more "offshorable" thanlow-wage ones. A plumber or lorry-driver's job cannot be outsourced to India. A computer programmer's can.G. A university education is still a prerequisite for entering some of the great industries, such as medicine, law and academia (学术界), that provide secure and well-paying jobs. Over the 20th century these industries did a wonderful job of raising barriers to entry--sometimes for good reasons (nobody wants to be operated on by a barber) and sometimes for self-interested ones. But these industries are beginning to bend the roles. Newspapers are fighting a losing battle with the blogosphere. Universities are replacing tenure-track professors with non-tenured staff. Law firms are contracting out routine work such as"discovery" (digging up documents relevant to a lawsuit) to computerized-search specialists such as Blackstone Discovery. Even doctors are threatened, as patients find advice online and treatment in Walmart's new health centers.H.Thomas Malone of MIT argues that these changes--automation, globalizafionand deregulation--may be part of a bigger change: the application of the division of labor to brain-work. Adam Smith's factory managers broke the production of pins into 18 components. In the same way, companies are increasingly breaking the production of brain-work into ever tinier slices. TopCoder chops up IT projects into bite-sized chunks and then serves them up to a worldwide workforce of freelance coders.I.These changes will undoubtedly improve the productivity of brain-workers. They will allow consumers to sidestep (规避) the professional industries that have extracted high rents for their services. And they will empower many brain-workers to focus on what they are best at and contract out more tedious tasks to others. But the reconfiguration of brain-work will also make life far less cozy and predictable for the next generation of graduates.46. The creative destruction that has happened to blue-collar workers in the past also starts to affect the cognitive elite.47. For the next generation of graduates, life will be far less comfortable and predictable with brain-work reconfigured.48. After computers are taught by programmers to deal with tone and linguistic ambiguity, the variety of jobs they can do will increase dramatically.49. Most school-leavers believe that, despite the huge debts they owe, going to university will increase their chances of getting secure jobs with high salaries.50. Modern companies are more likely to break the production of intellectual work into ever tinier slices.51. A scholar of Princeton University claims that the jobs traditionally taken by graduates are more likely to be offshored than low-wage ones.52. The income gap between an American professional degree holder and an American high-school graduate shows income is closely related to educational qualifications.53. The changes in the division of brain-work will save consumers some high service fees the professional organizations charge.54. Some students have always been told that. to achieve success in a globalised world, it is most advisable to equip themselves with education.55. Emerging economies are providing a lot of resources to build universities to compete with the elite of America and Europe.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each 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.Section 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.Addicted, Really?A．Mental-health specialists disagree over whether to classify compulsive online behaviour as addiction---and how to treat it. Craig Smallwood, a disabled American war veteran, spent more than 20,000 hours over five years playing an online role-playing game called "Lineage II". When NCsoft, the South Korean firm behind the game, accused him of breaking the game's rules and banned him, he was plunged into depression, severe paranoia (偏执) and hallucinations (幻想). He spent three weeks in hospital. After that, he sued NCsoft for fraud and negligence (过失), demanding over $ 9m in damages and claiming that the company acted negligently by failing to warn him of the danger that he would become "addicted" to the game.B. But does it make sense to talk of addiction to online activity? Mental-health specialists say three online behaviors can become problematic for many people: video games, pornography ( 色情作品) and messaging via e-mail and social networks. But there is far less agreement about whether any of this should be called "Internet addiction"--or how to treat it.C．Some mental-health specialists wanted "Internet addiction" to be included in the fifth version of psychiatry's bible, the"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", known as DSM-V, which is currently being overhauled (全面修订). The American Medical Association endorsed (赞成) the idea in 2007, only tobacktrack( 放弃) days later. The American Journal of Psychiatry called Internet addiction a "common disorder" and supported its recognition. Last year the DSM-V drafting group made its decision: lnteruet addiction would not be included as a "behavioral addiction"--only gambling made the cut--but it said further study was necessary.D．Skeptics say there is nothing uniquely addictive about the Internet. Back in 2000, Joseph Walther, a communications professor at Michigan State University,co-wrote an article in which he suggested, tongue in cheek, that the criteria used to call someone an Internet addict might also show that most professors were "addicted"to academia (学术活动). He argued that other factors, such as depression, are the real problem.He stands by that view today. "No scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that lnternet use is a cause rather than a consequence of some other sort of issue," he says. "Focusing on and treating people for Internet addiction, rather than looking for underlying clinical issues, is definitely unwise."E. Others disagree. "That would be wrong," says Kimberly Young, a researcher and therapist who has worked on Interact addiction since 1994. She insists that the Internet, with its powerfully immersive environments, creates new problems that people must learn to navigate(应对). Otherwise, the changing lifestyle will affect the development of the society.F.No one disputes that online habits can turn toxic. Take South Korea, where widespread broadband means that the average high-school student plays video games for 23 hours each week. In 2007 the government estimated that around 210,000 children needed treatment for Internet addiction. In 2010 newspapers around the globe carried the story of a South Korean couple who fed their infant daughter so little that she starved to death. Instead of caring for the child, the couple spent most nights at an Internet cafe, sinking hours into a role- playing game in which they raised, fed and cared for a virtual daughter. And several South Korean men have died from exhaustion after marathon, multi-day gaming sessions.G. The South Korean government has since asked game developers to adopt a gaming curfew (宵禁) for children, to prevent them playing between midnight and 8 a.m. At the same time, it has also opened more than 100 clinics for Internet addiction and sponsored an "Internet rescue camp" for serious cases.H. But compulsive behaviour is not limited to garners. E-mail or web-use behaviours can also show signs of addiction. Getting through a business lunch in which no one pulls out a phone to check their messages now counts as a minor miracle in many quarters. A deluge (泛滥) of self-help books, most recently "Alone Together" by Sherry Turlde, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offer advice on how to unplug (去除障碍).I.Pornography is hardly new, either, but the Internet makes accessing it much easier than ever before. When something can be summoned in an instant via broadband, whether it is a game world, an e-mail inbox or pornographic material, it is harder to resist. New services lead to new complaints. When online auction sites first became popular, talk of "eBay addiction" soon followed. Dr. Young says women complain to her now about addiction to Facebook--or even to "FarmVille", a game playable only within Facebook.J.Treatment centres have popped up around the world with the popularity of online games. In 2006 Amsterdam's Smith & Jones facility billed itself as "the first and, currently, the only residential video-game treatment program in the world". In America the reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program claims to treat Internet addiction, gaming addiction, and even "texting addiction". In China, meanwhile, military-style "boot camps" are the preferred way to treat Internet problems.K. Yet many people like feeling permanently connected. As Arikia Millikan, an American blogger, once put it, "If I could be jacked in at every waking hour of the day, I would, and I think a lot of my peers would do the, same." Bob LaRose, an Internet specialist at Michigan State University, doesn't believe her. In his research on college students, he found that most sense when they are "going overboard and restore self-control". Less than1% have a pathological(病态的) problem, he adds. For most people, Internet use "is just a habit--and one that brings us pleasure."46. According to Joseph Walther, it is unwise to emphasize the treatment of Internet addiction instead of seeking for potential clinical issues.47. As online games become popular, treatment centres have sprung up all over the world.48. After playing online games continuously for days, several South Korean men were exhausted to death.49. Smallwood sued NCsoft and claimed a huge compensation for fraud and its negligence of warning him of the danger of game addiction.50. In South Korea, a gaming curfew for children was adopted to prevent children playing after midnight.5l. Internet addiction still needs to be further studied though the DSM-V did not categorize it as a "behavioral addiction".52. An lnternet specialist found that most college students could realize when they are going too far and restore self-control.53. According to mental-health specialists, for many people, video games, pornography and messaging via e-mail and social networks can become problematic online behaviors.54. People regard it as a small miracle if nobody takes out a phone to read the messages at a business lunch.55. Kimberly Young insists that people must learn to deal with new problems brought about by the Interact.Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statementsattached 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 para'graph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Green GrowthA．The enrichment of previously poor countries is the most inspiring development of our time. It is also worrying. The environment is already under strain. What willhappen when the global population rises from 7 billion today to 9.3 billion in 2050, as demographers(人口统计学家) expect, and a growing proportion of these people can'afford goods that were once reserved for the elite? Can the planet support so much economic activity?B .Many policymakers adopt a top-down and Western-centfic approach to such planetary problems. They discuss ambitious regulations in global forums, or look to giant multinationals and well-heeled (富有的) NGOs to set an example. But since most people live in the emerging world, it makes sense to look at what successful companies there are doing to make growth more sustainable.C． A new study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) identifies 16 emerging-market firms that they say are turning eco-consciousness into a source of competitive advantage. These highly profitable companies (which the study calls "the new sustainability champions") are using greenery to reduce costs, motivate workers and forge relationships. Their home-grown ideas will probably be easier for their peers to copy than anything cooked up in the West.D．The most outstanding quality of these companies is that they turn limitationsof resources, labor and infrastructure) into opportunities. Thus, India's Shree Cement, which has tong suffered from water shortages, developed the world's most water-efficient method for making cement, in part by using air-cooling rather than water-cooling. Manila Water, a utility in the Philippines, reduced the amount of water it was losing, through wastage and illegal tapping, from 63% in 1997 to 12% in 2010 by making water affordable for the poor.Broad Group, a Chinese maker of air conditioners, taps the waste heat from buildings to power its machines. Zhangzidao Fishery Group, a Chinese aquaculture (水产养殖) company, recycles uneaten fish feed to fertilize crops.E.Setting green goals is a common practice. Sekem, an Egyptian food producer, set itself the task of reclaiming ( 开垦) desert land through organic farming. Florida Ice & Farm, a Costa Rican food and drink company, has adopted strict standards for the amount of water it can consume in producing drinks.F.These firms measure themselves by their greenery, too. Florida Ice & Farm, for example, links 60% of its boss's pay to the triple bottom line of "people, planet and profit". The sustainability champions also encourage their workers to come up with green ideas. Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company, gives bonuses to staff who find ways to reduce the firm's impact on the environment. Masisa, a Chilean forestry company, invites employees to "imagine unimaginable businesses" aimed at poorer consumers. Woolworths, a South African retailer, claims that many of its best green ideas have come from staff, not bosses.G.In emerging markets it is hard for companies to stick to one specialism, because they have to worry about so many wider problems, from humble infrastructure to unreliable supply chains. So the sustainability champions seek to shape the business environment in which they operate. They lobby (游说) regulators: Grupo Balbo, a Brazilian organic-sugar producer, is working with the Brazilian government to establish a certification system for organic products. They form partnerships with governments and NGOs. Kenya's Equity Bank has formed an alliance with groups such as The International Fund for Agricultural Development to reduce its risks when lending to smallholders. Natura has worked with its suppliers to produce sustainable packaging, including a new "green" plastic derived from sugar cane.H. The firms also work hard to reach and educate poor consumers, often sacrificing short-term profits to create future markets. Masisa organizes local carpenters into networks and connects them to low-income furniture buyers. Broad Group has developed a miniature device for measuring air pollution that can fit into mobile phones. Jain Irrigation, an Indian maker of irrigation systems, uses dance and song to explain the benefits of drip irrigation to farmers who can't read. Suntech, a Chinese solar-power company, has established a low- carbon museum to celebrate ways of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.Rich became green, or green became rich?I.One could quibble (争辩)with BCG's analysis. Phil Rosenzweig of Switzerland's IMD business school has argued that management writers are prone to "the halo effect": they treat the temporary success of a company as proof that it has discovered some eternal principle of good management. The fact that some successful companies have embraced greenery does not prove that greenery makes a firm successful. Some firms, having prospered, find they can afford to splurge ( 挥霍) on greenery. Some successful firrns pursue greenery for public-relations purposes. And for every sustainable emerging champion, there are surely 100 firms that have prospered by belching ( 喷出) fumes into the air or pumping toxins into rivers.J.Nonetheless, the central message of the WEF-BCG study--that some of the best emerging-world companies are combining profits with greenery--isthought-provoking. Many critics of environmentalism argue that it is a rich-world luxury: that the poor need adequate food before they need super-clean air. Some even see greenery as a rich-world conspiracy ( 阴谋): the West grew rich by industrializing (and polluting ), but now wants to stop the rest of the world from following suit. The WEF-BCG report demonstrates that such fears are overblown. Emerging-world companies can be just as green as their Western rivals. Many have found that, when natural resources are scarce and consumers are cash-strapped ( 资金短缺的), greenery can be a lucrative(利润丰厚的) business strategy.46. An air-conditioner manufacturer uses the waste heat from buildings to supply its machines with power.47. Many critics of environmentalism hold the view that greenery is a rich-world luxury because that's not what the poor people badly want.48. Workers of the sustainability champions are motivated to bring forward green ideas.49. It is meaningful to study what successful companies in the emerging world are doing to achieve more sustainable growth, since most people live there.50. It's difficult for companies in emerging markets to keep focusing on one specific problem because they have many wider problems to worry about.51. Although some successful firms have embraced greenery, it doesn't mean that greenery will lead to the success of a firm.52. It will probably be easier for companies to follow the home-grown ideas than those invented in the West.53. It has been found that greenery can be profitable when natural resources are scarce and consumers are short of cash.54. Sekem, which produces food in Egypt, set a goal to reclaim desert land through organic farming.55. To create future markets, the firms also make effort to reach and educate poor consumers, often at the cost of short-term profits.Section 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.How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and HealthA．Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggests so. The structure of languages affects our judgments and decisions about the future and this might have dramatic long-term consequences.B. There has been a lot of research into how we deal with the future. For example, the famous marshmallow ( 棉花糖)studies of Walter Mischel and colleagues showed that being able to resist temptation is predictive of future success. Four-year-old kids were given a marshmallow and were told that if they do not eat that marshmallow and wait for the experimenter to come back, they will get two marshmallows instead of one. Follow-up studies showed that the kids who were able to wait for the bigger future reward became more successful young adults.C．Resisting our impulses for immediate pleasure is often the only way to attain the outcomes that are important to us. We want to keep a slim figure but we also want that last slice of pizza. We want a comfortable retirement, but we also want to drive that dazzling car, go on that dream vacation, or get those gorgeous shoes.Some people are better at delaying gratification ( 满足) than others. Those people have a better chance of accumulating wealth and keeping a healthy life style. They are less likely to be impulse buyers or smokers, or to engage in unsafe sex.D．Chen's recent findings suggest that an unlikely factor, language, strongly affects our future-oriented behavior. Some languages strongly distinguish the present and the future. Other languages only weakly distinguish the present and the future. Chen's recent research suggests that people who speak languages that weakly distinguish the present and the future are better prepared for the future. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to maintain their health. The way these people conceptualize the future is similar to the way they conceptualize the present. As a result, the future does not feel very distant and it is easier for them to act in accordance with their future interestS.E. Different languages have different ways of talking about the future. Some languages, such as English, Korean, and Russian, require their speakers to refer to the future explicitly ( 明确地). Every time English-speakers tall about the future, they have to use future markers such as "will" or "going to." In other languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese, and German, future markers are not obligatory (强制性的). The future is often talked about similar to the way present is talked about and the meaning is understood from the context. A Mandarin speaker who is going to go to a seminar might say "Wo qu ting jiangzuo," which translates to "I go listen seminar." Languages such as English constantly remind their speakers that future events are distant. Forspeakers of languages such as Mandarin future feels closer. As a consequence, resisting immediate impulses and investing for the future is easier for Mandarin speakers.F.Chert analyzed individual-level data from 76 developed and developing countries. This data includes people's economic decisions, such as whether they saved any money last year, the languages they speak at home, demographics (人口统计资料), and cultural factors such as "saving is an important cultural value for me."He also analyzed individual-level data on people's retirement assets, smoking and exercising habits, and general health in older age. Lastly, he analyzed national-level data that inchides national savings rates, country GDP and GDP growth rates, country demographics, and proportions of people speaking different languages.G. People's savings rates are affected by various factors such as their income, education level, age, religious connection, their countries' legal systems, and their cultural values. After those factors were accounted for, the effect of language on people's savings rates turned out to be big. Speaking a language that has obligatory future markers, such as English, makes people 30 percent less likely to save money for the future. This effect is as large as the effect of unemployment. Being unemployed decreases the likelihood of saving by about 30 percent as well.H. Similar analyses showed that speaking a language that does not have obligatory future markers, such as Mandarin, makes people accumulate more retirement assets, smoke less, exercise more, and generally be healthier in older age. Countries' national savings rates are also affected by language. Having a larger proportion of people speaking languages that does not have obligatory future markers makes national savings rates higher.I.At a more practical level, researchers have been looking for ways to help people act in accordance with their long-term interests. Recent, findings suggest that making the future feel closer to the present might improve future-oriented behavior. For instance, researchers recently presented people with renderings of their future selves made using age-progression algorithms (算法) that forecast how physical appearances would change over time. One group of participants saw a digital representation of their current selves in a virtual mirror, and the other group saw an age-morphed version of their future selves. Those participants who saw the age- morphed version of their future selves allocated more money toward a hypothetical savings account. The intervention brought people's future to the present and as a result they saved more for the future.J.Chen's research shows that language structures our future-related thoughts. Language has been used before to alter time perception with surprising effects. Ellen。