英语四级长篇阅读专项训练题
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷16(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷16(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.Why aren’t you curious about what happened?A) “You suspended Ray Rice after our video,” a reporter from TMZ challenged National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. “Why didn’t you have the curiosity to go to the casino (赌场) yourself?” The implication of the question is that a more curious commissioner would have found a way to get the tape.B) The accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often, carrying the suggestion that there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. “I have been bothered for a long time about the curious lack of curiosity,”said a Democratic member of the New Jersey legislature back in July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal. “Isn’t the mainstream media the least bit curious about what happened?” wrote conservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlier this year, referring to the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.C) The implication, in each case, is that curiosity is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a problem. Are such accusations simply efforts to score political points for one’s party? Or is there something of particular value about curiosity in and of itself?D) The journalist Ian Leslie, in his new and enjoyable book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, insists that the answer to that last question is ‘Yes’. Leslie argues that curiosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and that we are losing it.E) We are suffering, he writes, from a “serendipity deficit.”The word “serendipity” was coined by Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who “were always making discoveries, by accident, of things they were not in search of. “ Leslie worries that the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures. No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through fields of knowledge, ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.F) Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We will see unimaginative governments and dying corporations make disastrous decisions. We will lose a vital part of what has made humanity as a whole so successful as a species.G) Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious. In the U. S. and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader’s borders. But not everything is to be blamed on technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, makes us more curious.H) Moreover, in order to be curious, “you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in the first place.”Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we don’t know, he’s surely right to point out that the problem isgrowing: “Google can give us the powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers.”I) Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping boy (替罪羊). He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the “perfect search engine” will “understand exactly what I mean and give me back exactly what I want.” Elsewhere in the book, Leslie writes:” Google aims to save you from the thirst of curiosity altogether. “J) Somewhat nostalgically (怀旧地), he quotes John Maynard Keynes’s justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: “One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye. To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon’s entertainment.” If only!K) Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive (认知的) scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdom that academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent and hard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factor—and a difficult one to preserve. If not cultivated, it will not survive:” Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between child and adult. The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone. “L) School education, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious. Children of educated and upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at early ages, than children of working class and lower class families. That lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.M) Although Leslie’s book isn’t about politics, he doesn’t entirely shy away from the problem. Political leaders, like leaders of other organizations, should be curious. They should ask questions at crucial moments. There are serious consequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.N) He presents as an example the failure of the George W. Bush administration to prepare properly for the after-effects of the invasion of Iraq. According to Leslie, those who ridiculed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the “unknown unknowns”were mistaken. Rumsfeld’s idea, Leslie writes, “wasn’t absurd—it was smart.” He adds, “The tragedy is that he didn’t follow his own advice.”O) All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christie case and Benghazi. Each critic in those examples is charging, in a different way, that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious. I leave it to the reader’s political preference to decide which, if any, charges should stick. But let’s be careful about demanding curiosity about the other side’s weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sake—even when what we find out is something we didn’t particularly want to know.1．To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don’t know.正确答案：H解析：H段第一句指出，为了变得好奇，“你首先应该认识到自身知识的欠缺。
大学英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案
四六级阅读是⼀个考验理解能⼒的部分，但是⼜是最容易涨分的⼀个部分，只要童鞋们平时多做练习，阅读拿⾼分是没有问题的。
以下是yjbys⽹店铺整理的关于长篇阅读练习题及答案，供⼤家备考。
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. Endangered Peoples A) Today, it is not distance, but culture that separates the peoples of the world. The central question of our time may be how to deal with cultural differences. So begins the book, Endangered Peoples, by Art Davidson. It is an attempt to provide understanding of the issues affecting the world's native peoples. This book tells the stories of 21 tribes, cultures, and cultural areas that are struggling to survive. It tells each story through the voice of a member of the tribe .Mr. Davidson recorded their words. Art Wolfe and John Isaac took pictures of them. The organization called the Sierra Club published the book. B) The native groups live far apart in North America or South America, Africa or Asia. Yet their situations are similar. They are fighting the march of progress in an effort to keep themselves and their cultures alive. Some of them follow ancient ways most of the time. Some follow modern ways most of the time. They have one foot in ancient world and one foot in modern world. They hope to continue to balance between these two worlds. Yet the pressures to forget their traditions and join the modern world may be too great. C) Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, offers her thoughts in the beginning of the book Endangered Peoples. She notes that many people claim that native people are like stories from the past. They are ruins that have died. She disagrees strongly. She says native communities are not remains of the past. They have a future, and they have much wisdom and richness to offer the rest of the world. D) Art Davidson traveled thousands of miles around the world while working on the book. He talked to many people to gather their thoughts and feelings. Mr. Davidson notes that their desires are the same. People want to remain themselves~ he says. They want to raise their children the way they were raised. They want their children to speak their mother tongue, their own language. They want them to have their parents' values and customs. Mr. Davidson says the people's cries are the same: "Does our culture have to die? Do we have to disappear as a people?" E) Art Davidson lived for more than 25 years among native people in the American state of Alaska. He says his interest in native peoples began his boyhood when he found an ancient stone arrowhead. The arrowhead was used as a weapon to hunt food. The hunter was an American Indian, long dead. Mr. Davidson realized then that Indians had lived in the state of Colorado, right where he was standing. And it was then, he says, that he first wondered: "Where are they? Where did they go? "He found answers to his early question. Many of the native peoples had disappeared. They were forced off their lands. Or they were killed in battle. Or they died from diseases brought by new settlers. Other native peoples remained, but they had to fight to survive the pressures of the modern world. F) The Gwich'in are an example of the survivors. They have lived in what is now Alaska and Canada for 10,000 years. Now about 5,000 Gwich'in remain. They are mainly hunters. They hunt the caribou, a large deer with big horns that travels across the huge spaces of the far north. For centuries, they have used all parts of the caribou: the meat for food, the skins for clothes, the bones for tools. Hunting caribou is the way of life of the Gwich'in. G) One Gwich'in told Art Davidson of memories from his childhood. It was a time when the tribe lived quietly in its own corner of the world. He spoke to Mr. Davidson in these words: "As long as I canremember, someone would sit by a fire on the hilltop every spring and autumn. His job was to look for caribou. If he saw a caribou, he would wave his arms or he would make his fire to give off more smoke. Then the village would come to life! People ran up to the hilltop. The tribes seemed to be at its best at these gatherings. We were all filled with happiness and sharing!" H) About ten years ago, the modern world invaded the quiet world of the Gwich' in. Oil companies wanted to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. This area was the please where the caribou gave birth to their young. The Gwich'in feared the caribou would disappear. One Gwich' in woman describes the situation in these words: "Oil development threatens the caribou. If the caribou are threatened, then the people are threatened. Oil company official and American lawmakers do not seem to understand. They do not come into our homes and share our food. They have never tried to understand the feeling expressed in our songs and our prayers. They have not seen the old people cry. Our elders have seen parts of our culture destroyed. They worry that our people may disappear forever." I) A scientist with a British oil company dismisses (驳回，打消) the fears of the Gwich'in. He also says they have no choice. They will have to change. The Gwich' in, however, are resisting. They took legal action to stop the oil companies. But they won only a temporary ban on oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. Pressures continue on other native people, as Art Davidson describes in his book. The pressures come from expanding populations, dam projects that flood tribal lands, and political and economic conflicts threaten the culture, lands, and lives of such groups as the Quechua of Peru, the Malagasy of Madagascar and the Ainu of Japan. J) The organization called Cultural Survival has been in existence for 22 years. It tries to protect the rights and cultures of peoples throughout the world. It has about 12,000 members. And it receives help from a large number of students who work without pay. Theodore MacDonald is director of the Cultural Survival Research Center. He says the organization has three main jobs. It does research and publishes information. It works with native people directly. And it creates markets for goods produced by native communities. K) Late last year, Cultural Survival published a book called State of the Peoples: a Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger. The book contains reports from researchers who work for Cultural Survival, from experts on native peoples, and from native peoples themselves. The book describes the conditions of different native and minority groups. It includes longer reports about several threatened societies, including the Penan of Malaysia and the Anishina be of North American. And it provides the names of organizations similar to Cultural Survival for activists, researchers and the press. L) David May bury-Lewis started the Cultural Survival organization. Mr. May bury-Lewis believes powerful groups rob native peoples of their lives, lands, or resources. About 6,000 groups are left in the world. A native group is one that has its own langue. It has a long-term link to a homeland. And it has governed itself. Theodore MacDonald says Cultural Survival works to protect the rights of groups, not just individual people. He says the organization would like to develop a system of early warnings when these rights are threatened .Mr. MacDonald notes that conflicts between different groups within a country have been going on forever and will continue. Such conflicts, he says, cannot be prevented. But they do not have to become violent. What Cultural Survival wants is to help set up methods that lead to peaceful negotiations of traditional differences. These methods, he says, are a lot less costly than war. 46. Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, writes preface for the book Endangered Peoples. 47. The book Endangered Peoples contents not only words, but also pictures. 48. Art Davidson's initial interest in native people was aroused by an ancient stone arrowhead he found in his childhood, which was once used by an American Indian hunter. 49. The native groups are trying very hard to balance between the ancient world and the modern world. 50. By talking with them, Art Davidson finds that the native people throughout the world desire to remain themselves. 51. Most of the Gwich'in are hunters, who live on hunting caribou. 52. Cultural Survival is an organization which aims at protecting the rights and cultures of peoples throughout the world. 53. According to Theodore MacDonald, the Cultural Survival organization .would like to develop a system of early warnings when a society's rights are to be violated. 54. The book State of the Peoples: a Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger describes the conditions of different native and minority groups. 55. The Gwich' in tried to stop oil companies from drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve for fear that it should drive the caribou away。
英语四级长篇阅读模拟练习
英语四级长篇阅读模拟练习英语四级长篇阅读模拟练习：A: What do we mean by being talented or gifted? The most obvious way is to look at the work someone does and if they are capable of significant success, label them as talented. The purely quantitative route —percentage definition— looks not at individuals, but at simple percentages, such as the top five percent of the population, and labels them — by definition — as gifted. This definition has fallen from favor, eclipsed by the advent of IQ tests, favored by luminaries such as Professor Hans Eysenck, where a series of written or verbal tests of general intelligence leads to a score of intelligence.B: The IQ test has been eclipsed in turn. Most people studying intelligence and creativity in the new millennium now prefer a broader definition, using a multifaceted approach where talents in many areas are recognized rather than purely concentrating on academic achievement. If we are therefore assuming that talented, creative or gifted individuals may need to be assessed across a range of abilities, does this mean intelligence can run in families as genetic or inherited tendency? Mental dysfunction — such as schizophrenia — can, so is an efficient mental capacity passed on from parent to child?C: Animal experiments throw some light on this question, and on the whole area of whether it is genetics, the environment or a combinationof the two that allows for intelligence and creative ability. Different strains of rats show great differences in intelligence or rat reasoning. If these are brought up in normal conditions and then run through a maze to reach a food goal, the bright-strain make far fewer wrong turns that the dull-ones. But if the environment is made dull and boring the number of errors becomes equal. Return the rats to an exciting maze and the discrepancy returns as before — but is much smaller. In other words, a dull rat in a stimulating environment will almost do as well as bright rat who is bored in a normal one. This principle applies to humans too — someone may be born with innate intelligence, but their environment probably has the final say over whether they become creative or even a genius.D: Evidence now exists that most young children, if given enough opportunities and encouragement, are able to achieve significant and sustainable levels of academic or sporting prowess. Bright or creative children are often physically very active at the same time, and so many receive more parental attention as a result — almost by default — in order to ensure their safety. They may also talk earlier, and this, in turn, breeds parental interest. This can sometimes cause problems with other siblings who may feel jealous even though they themselves may be bright. Their creative talents may be undervalued and so never come to fruition. Two themes seem to run through famously creative families as a result. The first is that the parents were able to identify the talents of each child, and nurture and encourage these accordingly but in an even handed manner. Individual differences were encouraged, and friendly sibling rivalry was not seen as particular problem. If the father is, say, a famous actor, there is no undue pressure for his children to follow himonto the boards, but instead their chosen interests are encouraged. There need not even by any obvious talent in such a family since there always needs to be someone who sets the family career in motion, as in the case of the Sheen acting dynasty.E: Martin Sheen was the seventh of ten children born to a Spanish immigrant father and an Irish mother. Despite intense parental disapproval he turned his back on entrance exams to university and borrowed cash from a local priest to start a fledgling acting career. His acting successes in films such as Badlands and Apocalypse Now made him one of the most highly-regarded actors of the 1970s. Three sons — Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez and Charlie Sheen — have followed him into the profession as a consequence of being inspired by his motivation and enthusiasm.F: A stream seems to run through creative families. Such children are not necessarily smothered with love by their parents. They feel loved and wanted, and are secure in their home, but are often more surrounded by an atmosphere of work and where following a calling appears to be important. They may see from their parents that it takes time and dedication to be master of a craft, and so are in less of a hurry to achieve for themselves once they start to work.G: The generation of creativity is complex: it is a mixture of genetics, the environment, parental teaching and luck that determines how successful or talented family members are. This last point — luck — is often not mentioned where talent is concerned but plays an undoubted part. Mozart, considered by many to be the finest composer of all time, was lucky to be living in an age that encouraged the writing of music. He was broughtup surrounded by it, his father was a musician who encouraged him to the point of giving up his job to promote his child genius. Mozart himself simply wanted to create the finest music ever written but did not necessarily view himself as a genius — he could write sublime music at will, and so often preferred to lead a hedonistic lifestyle that he found more exciting than writing music to order.H: Albert Einstein and Bill Gates are two more examples of people whose talents have blossomed by virtue of the times they were living in. Einstein was a solitary, somewhat slow child who had affection at home but whose phenomenal intelligence emerged without any obvious parental input. This may have been partly due to the fact that at the start of the 20th century a lot of the Newtonian laws of physics were being questioned, leaving a fertile ground for ideas such as his to be developed. Bill Gates may have had the creative vision to develop Microsoft, but without the new computer age dawning at the same time he may never have achieved the position on the world stage he now occupies.1. We can label someone who are capable of significant success as talented.2. Most people studying intelligence and creativity in the new millennium now prefer a broader definition.3. Animal experiments are contributed to whether it is genetics, the environment or a combination of the two that allows for intelligence and creative ability.4. Bright or creative children are often physically very active at the same time.5. Children in creative families feel loved and wanted, and are secure in their home.6. The generation of creativity is not simple.7. Bill Gates is an example of people whose talents have blossomed by virtue of the times they were living in.8. Evidence shows that bright or creative children are often physically very active and thus receive more parentalattention to ensure their safety.9. Luck is often not mentioned but an undoubted part of a person how creative or talented.10. Albert Einsteins and Bill Gates significant success may be due to thetimes they were living in.1. A2. B3. C4. D5. F6. G7. H8. D9. G10.H英语四级长篇阅读模拟练习：Education Study Finds U. S. FallingBehindA Teachers in the United States earn less relative tonational income than their counterparts in many industrialized countries, yet they spend far more hours in front of the classroom, according to a major newinternational study.B The salary differentials are part of apattern of relatively low public investment in education in the United States compared with other member nationsof the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group in Paris that compiled thereport. Total government spending on educational institutions in the United Statesslipped to 4.8 percent of gross domestic product in 1998, falling under theinternational average — 5 percent — for the first time.C “The whole economy has grown faster thanthe education system,”Andreas Schleicher, one of the reports authors,explained. “The economy has done very well, but teachers have not fullybenefit.” The report, due out today, is the sixth on education published since1991 by the organization of 30 nations, founded in 1960, and now covering muchof Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.D In addition to the teacher pay gap, thereport shows the other countries have begun to catch up with the United Statesin higher education: college enrollment has grown by 20 percent since 1995across the group, with one in four young people now earning degrees. For thefirst time, the United States college graduation rate, now at 33percent, is not the worldshighest. Finland,the Netherlands, New Zealand and Britain have surpassed it.E The United States is also producingfewer mathematics and science graduates than most of the other member states.And, the report says, a college degree produces a greater boost in income herewhile the lack of a high school diploma imposes a bigger income penalty. “The number of graduates is increasing, but that stimulates even more of a demand —there is no end in sight,” Mr. Schleicher said. “The demand for skill, clearly,is growing faster than the supply that is coming from schools and colleges.”F The report lists the salary for a highschool teacher in the United Stateswith 15 years experience as $36,219, above the international average of $31,887but behind seven other countries and less than 60 percent of Switzerlands$62,052. Because teachers in the Unites States have a heavier classroom load —teaching almost a third more hours than their counterparts abroad — theirsalary per hour of actual teaching is $35, less than the international averageof $41 (Denmark, Spain and Germany pay more than $50 per teaching hour, SouthKorea $77). In 1994, such a veteran teacher in the United States earned 1.2 times theaverage per capita income whereas in 1999 the salary was just under thenational average. Only the Czech Republic, Hungary,Iceland and Norway pay their teachers less relative tonational income; in South Korea, teachers theactual teaching salary earn 2.5 times the nationalaverage. Teacher pay accounts for 56 percent of what the United Statesspends on education, well below the 67 percent average among the group ofcountries.G The new data come as the United Statesfaces a shortage of two million teachers over the next decade, with questions oftraining, professionalism and salaries being debated by politicians local andnational. Joost Yff, an international expert at the American Association ofColleges of Teacher Education, said training for teachers is comparable amongmost of the nations in the study, and that they are all dealing with similarissues of raising standards and increasing professionalism.H Though the United States lags behind in scores on standardized tests in science and mathematics, students here get more instruction in those subjects, the report shows. The average 14-year-oldAmerican spent 295 hours in math and science classes in 1999, far more than the229 international average; only Austria(370 hours), Mexico (367)and New Zealand(320) have more instruction in those subjects. Middle-schoolers here spend less time thantheir international counterparts studying foreign languages and technology, butfar more hours working on physical education and vocational skills. High schoolstudents in the United Statesare far more likely to have part-time jobs: 64 percent of Americans ages 15 to19 worked while in school, compared with an international average of 31 percent(only Canada and the Netherlands, with 69 percent, and Denmark,with 75 percent, were higher).I One place the United States spends more money is on special services for the disabled and the poor. More than one infour children here are in programs based on income — only five other countriesserve even 1 in 10— and nearly 6 percent get additional resources based on physical or mental handicaps, twice or three times the rate in other countries.J The report shows a continuing shift inwhich the United Statesis losing its status as the most highly educated among the nations. The UnitedStates has the highest level of high school graduates ages 55 to 64, but fallsto fifth, behind Norway, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic andSwitzerland, among ages 25 to 34. Among college graduates, it leads in theolder generation but is third behind Canada and Japan in the younger cohort (一群). While the portion of Americans with high schooldiplomas remains at 88 percent across age groups, the average age among membercountries is rising. It has gone from 58 percent of those ages 45 to 54, to 66percent of those ages 35 to 44 and 72 percent of those ages 25 to 34. A higherpercentage of young people in Norway,Japan, South Korea, the CzechRepublic and Switzerland have degrees than in the United States.K “The U.S. has led the development incollege education and making education sort of accessible for everyone,” Mr.Schleicher said. “Its now becoming the norm.”1. Compared with their counterparts in many industrialized countries, the U.S. teachers work longer.2. The U.S. government spent 4.8% of its GDP on education in 1998.3. From the passage we learn about Finland surpassesthe U.S.in college graduation rate.4. When the number of graduates in the U.S.increases, the demand for them is rising.5. The new study shows that the actual teaching salary per hour in the U.S. is $35.6. In the report, the U.S.students study of science and mathematics get most instruction in those subjects in the OECD.7. Compared with those in other OECD countries, high school students in the U.S. spend more time in in physical education and vocational skills.8. It is for the special services for thedisabled and the poor that the United States pays more money than other OECD countries.9. Those who have high school diplomas in the U. S. account for 88percent ofthe Americans of all ages.10. According toMr. Schleicher, the U.S.is becoming the norm in making education accessible for everyone and collegeeducation.1.A2.B3.D4.E5.F6.H7.H8.I9.J10.K。
英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案解析
英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案解析四级长篇阅读练习题：Promote Learning and Skills for Young People and AdultsA) This goal places the emphasis on the learning needs of young people and adults in the context of lifelong learning.It calls for fair access to learning programs that are appropriate，and mentions life skills particularly.B)Education is about giving people the opportunity to develop their potential，their personality and their strengths.This does not merely mean learning new knowledge，but also developing abilities to make the most of life.These are called life skills——including the inner capacities and the practical skills we need.C)Many of the inner capacities——often known as psych0—social skills——cannot be taught as subjects.They are not the same as academic or technical learnin9.They must rather be modeled and promoted as part of learning，and in particular by teachers.These skills have to do with the way we behave—towards other people，towards ourselves，towards the challenges and problems of life.They include skills in communicating，in making decisions and solving problems，in negotiating and expressing ourselves，in thinking critically and understanding our feelings.D)More practical life skills are the kinds of manual skills we need for the physical tasks we face.Some would include vocational skills under the heading of life skills——the ability to lay bricks.sew clothes，catch fish or repair a motorbike.These are skills by which people may earn their livelihood and which are often available to young people leaving school.In fact，very often young people learn psycho-social skills as they learn more practical skills.Learning vocational skills can be a strategy for acquiring both practical and psycho-social skills.E)We need to increase our life skills at every stage of life，so learning them may be part of early child—hood education.of primary and secondary education and of adult learning groups.Life skills can be put into the categories that the Jacques Delors report suggested;it spoke of four pillars of education，which correspond to certain kinds of life skills —Learning to know：Thinking abilities：such as problem—solving，critical thinking，decision making，understanding consequences.Learning to be：Personal abilities：such as managing stress and feelings，self-awareness，self-confidence.Learning to live together：Social abilities：such as communication，negotiation，teamwork.Learning to do： Manual skills：practicing know-how required for work and tasks.F)In todays world all these skills are necessary, in order to face rapid change in society.This means that it is important to know how to go on learning as we require new skills for life and work.In addition，we need to know how to cope with the flood of information and turn it in to useful knowledge.We also need to learn how to handle change in society and in our own lives.G)Life skills are both concrete and abstract—practical skills can be learned directly, as a subject.For example, a learner can take a course in laying bricks and learn that skill.Other life skills，such asself-confidence，self-esteem，and skills for relating to others or thinking critically cannot be taught in such direct ways.They should be part of any learning process，where teachers or instructors are concerned that learners should not just learn about subjects，but learn how to cope with life and make the most of their potential.H)So these life skills may be learnt when learning other things.For example：Learning literacy may have a big impact on self-esteem，on critical thinking or on communication skills;Learning practical skills s ach as drivin9，healthcare or tailoring may increase self-confidence，teach problem—solving processes or help in understanding consequences.I) Whether this is true depends on the way of teachin9—what kinds of thinkin9，relationship building and communication the teacher or facilitator models themselves and promotes among the learners.It would require measuring the individual and collective progress in making the most of learning and of life，or assessing how far human potential is being realized，or estimating how well people cope with change.It is easier to measure the development of practical skills，for instance by counting the number of students who register for vocational skills courses.However, this still may not tell us how effectively these skills are being used.J)The psych0.social skills cannot easily be measured by tests and scores，but become visible in Chang behavior.Progress in this area has often been noted by teachers on reports which they make to the parentsof their pupils.The teachers experience of life，of teaching and of what can be expected from education in the broadest sense serve as a standard by which the growth and development of individuals can be assessed to some extent.This kind of assessment is individual and may never appear in international tables and charts.K)The current challenges relate to these difficulties：We need to recognize the importance of life skillsboth practical and psycho-socialas part of education which leads to the full development of human potential and to the development of society.The links between psycho—social skills and practical skills must be more clearly spelled out，so that educators can promote both together and find effective ways to do this.Since life skills are taught as part of a wide range of subjects，teachers need to have training in how to put them across and how to monitor learnersgrowth in these areas.In designing curricula and syllabuses for academic subjects，there must be a balance between content teaching and attention to the accompanying life skills.A more conscious and deliberate effort to promote life skills will enable learners to become more active citizens in the life of society.L) Governments should recognize and actively advocate for the transformational role of education in realizing human potential and in socio—economic development.Ensure that curricula and syllabuses address life skills and give learners the opportunity to make real-life applications of knowledge，skills and attitudes.Show how life skills of all kinds apply in the world of work，for example，negotiating and communication skills，as well practical skills.Through initial andin-service teacher training，increase the use of active and participatory learning/teaching approaches.Examine and adapt the processes and content of education so that there is a balance between academic input and life skills development.Make sure that education inspectors look not only for academic progress through teaching and learning，but also progress in the communication， modeling and application of life skills.Advocate for the links between primary and(early)secondary education because learning life skills needs eight or nine years and recognize that the prospect of effective secondary education is an incentive to children，and their parents，to complete primary education successfully.M)Funding agencies should support research，exchange anddebate.nationally and regionally,on ways of strengthening life skills education.Support innovative(创新的)teacher training in order to combine life skills promotion into subjects across the curriculum and as a fundamental part of what school and education are about.Recognize the links between primary and secondary education in ensuring that children develop strong life skills.Support，therefore，the early years of secondary education as part basic education.N) As support to governments and in cooperation with other international agencies，UNESC0：Works to define life skills better and clarify what it means to teach and learn them.Assists education. policy makers and teachers to develop and use a life skills approach to education.Advocates for the links between a life skills approach to education and broader society and human development.46.The recognition of life skills as part of education will promote the development of human potential and society.47.The abilities to make the most of life consist of the inner capacities and the practical skills.48.The progress in psycho—social skills can be measured by changed behavior.ernments should examine and adapt the processes and content of education so as to balance the academic input and life skills development.50.According to Jacques Delors，four pillars of education include learning to know, learning to be， learning to live together and learning to do.51.The funding agencies should link primary education and secondary education to make sure that children develop strong life skills.52.Learning literacy may exert an influence on self-esteem，critical thinking and communication skills.53.One function of UNESCO is to help educational policy makers and teachers to develop and use a life skills approach to education.54.Learning vocational skills can be an approach to acquiring both practical and psycho—social skills.55.The abilities to manage stress and feelings，self-awareness，self-confidence are personal abilities.答案解析：【解析】J)。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷26(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷26(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a BreakA)Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send”button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program. And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.B)EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated(自动的)software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.C)The new service will bring the educational consortium(联盟)into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education. Although automated grading systems for multiple-choice and true-false tests are now widespread, the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet received widespread acceptance by educators and has many critics.D)Anant Agarwal, an electrical engineer who is president of EdX, predicted that the instant-grading software would be a useful teaching tool, enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers. He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system, where students often wait days or weeks for grades. “There is a huge value in learning with instant feedback,” Dr. Agarwal said. “Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback. “E)But skeptics(怀疑者)say the automated system is no match for live teachers. One longtime critic, Les Perelman, has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks. He has also been highly critical of studies claiming that the software compares well to human graders.F)He is among a group of educators who last month began circulating a petition(呼吁)opposing automated assessment software. The group, which calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment, has collected nearly 2,000 signatures, including some from famous people like Noam Chomsky.G)”Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s statement reads in part. “ Computers cannot ‘read. ‘They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical(伦理的)position, convincing argument, meaningful organization, and clarity, among others. “H)But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities. It offers free online classes from Harvard, MIT and the University of California-Berkeley: this fall, it will add classes from Wellesley, Georgetown and the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities participate in EdX, which offers certificatesfor course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year, including adding international schools.I)The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or graders, to first grade 100 essays or essay questions. The system then uses a variety of machine-learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantly. The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher, whether it is a letter grade or numerical(数字的)rank.J)EdX is not the fust to use the automated assessment technology, which dates to early computers in the 1960s. There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers, and four states—Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia—are using some form of the technology in secondary schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some cases the software is used as a “second reader,” to check the reliability of the human graders.K)But the growing influence of the EdX consortium to set standards is likely to give the technology a boost. On Tuesday, Stanford announced that it would work with EdX to develop a joint educational system that will make use of the automated assessment technology.L)Two start-ups, Coursera and Udacity, recently founded by Stanford faculty members to create “massive open online courses,”or MOOCs, are also committed to automated assessment systems because of the value of instant feedback. “ It allows students to get immediate feedback on their work, so that learning turns into a game, with students naturally gravitating(吸引)toward resubmitting the work until they get it right,” said Daphne Roller, a computer scientist and a founder of Coursera.M)Last year the Hewlett Foundation, a grant-making organization set up by one of the Hewlett-Packard founders and his wife, sponsored two $100,000 prizes aimed at improving software that grades essays and short answers. More than 150 teams entered each category. A winner of one of the Hewlett contests, Vik Paruchuri, was hired by EdX to help design its assessment software.N)”One of our focuses is to help kids learn how to think critically,”said Victor Vuchic, a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation. “ It’s probably impossible to do that with multiple-choice tests. The challenge is that this requires human graders, and so they cost a lot more and they take a lot more time. “ O)Mark D. Shermis, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, supervised the Hewlett Foundation’s contest on automated essay scoring and wrote a paper about the experiment. In his view, the technology—though imperfect—has a place in educational settings. P)With increasingly large classes, it is impossible for most teachers to give students meaningful feedback on writing assignments, he said. Plus, he noted, critics of the technology have tended to come from the nation’s best universities, where the level of teaching is much better than at most schools. Q)” Often they come from very famous institutions where, in fact, they do a much better job of providing feedback than a machine ever could,” Dr. Shermis said. “There seems to be a lack of appreciation of what is actually going on in the real world. “1．Some professionals in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to automated essay grading.正确答案：F解析：F)段提到，一个教育工作者团体从上个月起开始散发反对自动化评估软件的请愿书。
英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案解析
英语四级长篇阅读练习题及答案解析四级长篇阅读作为阅读理解的重要题型，所占总分的比重高，需要获得超高的正确率，才能不给阅读理解乃至总分拖后腿，因此需要考生在考前重视长篇阅读的练习。
下面店铺为大家带来英语四级长篇阅读练习题，欢迎同学们阅读练习。
英语四级长篇阅读练习题原文：Endangered PeoplesA) Today, it is not distance, but culture that separates the peoples of the world. The central question of our time may be how to deal with cultural differences. So begins the book, Endangered Peoples, by Art Davidson. It is an attempt to provide understanding of the issues affecting the world's native peoples. This book tells the stories of 21 tribes, cultures, and cultural areas that are struggling to survive. It tells each story through the voice of a member of the tribe .Mr. Davidson recorded their words. Art Wolfe and John Isaac took pictures of them. The organization called the Sierra Club published the book.B) The native groups live far apart in North America or South America, Africa or Asia. Yet their situations are similar. They are fighting the march of progress in an effort to keep themselves and their cultures alive. Some of them follow ancient ways most of the time. Some follow modern ways most of the time. They have one foot in ancient world and one foot in modern world. They hope to continue to balance between these two worlds. Yet the pressures to forget their traditions and join the modern world may be too great.C) Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, offers her thoughts in the beginning of the book Endangered Peoples. She notes that many people claim thatnative people are like stories from the past. They are ruins that have died. She disagrees strongly. She says native communities are not remains of the past. They have a future, and they have much wisdom and richness to offer the rest of the world.D) Art Davidson traveled thousands of miles around the world while working on the book. He talked to many people to gather their thoughts and feelings. Mr. Davidson notes that their desires are the same. People want to remain themselves~ he says. They want to raise their children the way they were raised. They want their children to speak their mother tongue, their own language. They want them to have their parents' values and customs. Mr. Davidson says the people's cries are the same: "Does our culture have to die? Do we have to disappear as a people?"E) Art Davidson lived for more than 25 years among native people in the American state of Alaska. He says his interest in native peoples began his boyhood when he found an ancient stone arrowhead. The arrowhead was used as a weapon to hunt food. The hunter was an American Indian, long dead. Mr. Davidson realized then that Indians had lived in the state of Colorado, right where he was standing. And it was then, he says, that he first wondered: "Where are they? Where did they go? "He found answers to his early question. Many of the native peoples had disappeared. They were forced off their lands. Or they were killed in battle. Or they died from diseases brought by new settlers. Other native peoples remained, but they had to fight to survive the pressures of the modern world.F) The Gwich'in are an example of the survivors. They have lived in what is now Alaska and Canada for 10,000 years. Now about 5,000 Gwich'in remain. They are mainly hunters. They huntthe caribou, a large deer with big horns that travels across the huge spaces of the far north. For centuries, they have used all parts of the caribou: the meat for food, the skins for clothes, the bones for tools. Hunting caribou is the way of life of the Gwich'in.G) One Gwich'in told Art Davidson of memories from his childhood. It was a time when the tribe lived quietly in its own corner of the world. He spoke to Mr. Davidson in these words: "As long as I can remember, someone would sit by a fire on the hilltop every spring and autumn. His job was to look for caribou. If he saw a caribou, he would wave his arms or he would make his fire to give off more smoke. Then the village would come to life! People ran up to the hilltop. The tribes seemed to be at its best at these gatherings. We were all filled with happiness and sharing!"H) About ten years ago, the modern world invaded the quiet world of the Gwich' in. Oil companies wanted to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. This area was the please where the caribou gave birth to their young. The Gwich'in feared the caribou would disappear. One Gwich' in woman describes the situation in these words: "Oil development threatens the caribou. If the caribou are threatened, then the people are threatened. Oil company official and American lawmakers do not seem to understand. They do not come into our homes and share our food. They have never tried to understand the feeling expressed in our songs and our prayers. They have not seen the old people cry. Our elders have seen parts of our culture destroyed. They worry that our people may disappear forever."I) A scientist with a British oil company dismisses (驳回，打消) the fears of the Gwich'in. He also says they have no choice. They will have to change. The Gwich' in, however, are resisting. Theytook legal action to stop the oil companies. But they won only a temporary ban on oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. Pressures continue on other native people, as Art Davidson describes in his book. The pressures come from expanding populations, dam projects that flood tribal lands, and political and economic conflicts threaten the culture, lands, and lives of such groups as the Quechua of Peru, the Malagasy of Madagascar and the Ainu of Japan.J) The organization called Cultural Survival has been in existence for 22 years. It tries to protect the rights and cultures of peoples throughout the world. It has about 12,000 members. And it receives help from a large number of students who work without pay. Theodore MacDonald is director of the Cultural Survival Research Center. He says the organization has three main jobs. It does research and publishes information. It works with native people directly. And it creates markets for goods produced by native communities.K) Late last year, Cultural Survival published a book called State of the Peoples: a Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger. The book contains reports from researchers who work for Cultural Survival, from experts on native peoples, and from native peoples themselves. The book describes the conditions of different native and minority groups. It includes longer reports about several threatened societies, including the Penan of Malaysia and the Anishina be of North American. And it provides the names of organizations similar to Cultural Survival for activists, researchers and the press.L) David May bury-Lewis started the Cultural Survival organization. Mr. May bury-Lewis believes powerful groups rob native peoples of their lives, lands, or resources. About 6,000groups are left in the world. A native group is one that has its own langue. It has a long-term link to a homeland. And it has governed itself. Theodore MacDonald says Cultural Survival works to protect the rights of groups, not just individual people. He says the organization would like to develop a system of early warnings when these rights are threatened .Mr. MacDonald notes that conflicts between different groups within a country have been going on forever and will continue. Such conflicts, he says, cannot be prevented. But they do not have to become violent. What Cultural Survival wants is to help set up methods that lead to peaceful negotiations of traditional differences. These methods, he says, are a lot less costly than war.英语四级长篇阅读练习题选项：46. Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, writes preface for the book Endangered Peoples.47. The book Endangered Peoples contents not only words, but also pictures.48. Art Davidson's initial interest in native people was aroused by an ancient stone arrowhead he found in his childhood, which was once used by an American Indian hunter.49. The native groups are trying very hard to balance between the ancient world and the modern world.50. By talking with them, Art Davidson finds that the native people throughout the world desire to remain themselves.51. Most of the Gwich'in are hunters, who live on hunting caribou.52. Cultural Survival is an organization which aims at protecting the rights and cultures of peoples throughout the world.53. According to Theodore MacDonald, the Cultural Survivalorganization .would like to develop a system of early warnings when a society's rights are to be violated.54. The book State of the Peoples: a Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger describes the conditions of different native and minority groups.55. The Gwich' in tried to stop oil companies from drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve for fear that it should drive the caribou away.英语四级长篇阅读练习题答案解析：46. Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1992, writes preface for the book Endangered Peoples. 1992年诺贝尔和平奖的得主Rigoberta Menchu女士为《濒危民族》这本书作序。
英语四级阅读长篇阅读练习1
英语四级阅读长篇阅读练习1四级阅读长篇阅读练习1：A University Degree No Longer Confers Financial Securitylions 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 a well-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 Universitys 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- and less-educated earners may be widening. A study in 2002 found that someone with a bachelors degree could expect to earn75% 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 manyblue-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 the world, 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 andthat 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 aflesh-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 that post-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" than low-wage ones. A plumber or lorry-drivers job cannot be outsourced to India. A computer programmers 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 Walmarts new health centers.H.Thomas Malone of MIT argues that these changes--automation, globalizafion and deregulation--may be part of a bigger change: the application of the division of labor to brain-work. Adam Smiths 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 ofbrain-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 ina 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.【参考译文】大学文凭不再提供铁饭碗A.发达国家的数百万高中毕业生将要含泪告别他们的父母，开始全新的大学生活。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷6(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷6(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.As Tourists Crowd Out Locals, Venice Faces “Endangered”List [A] On a recent fall morning, a large crowd blocked the steps at one of Venice’ s main tourist sites, the Rialto Bridge. The Rialto Bridge is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal. It is the oldest bridge across the canal, and was the dividing line between the districts of San Marco and San Polo. But on this day, there was a twist; it was filled with Venetians, not tourists. [B] “ People are cheering and holding their carts in the air,”says Giovanni Giorgio, who helped organize the march with a grass-roots organization called Generazione ‘90. The carts he refers to are small shopping carts—the symbol of a true Venetian. “ It started as a joke,” he says with a laugh. “The idea was to put blades on the wheels! You know? Like Ben Hur. Precisely like that, you just go around and run people down. “[C] Venice is one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world. But that’s a problem. Up to 90,000 tourists crowd its streets and canals every day—far outnumbering the 55,000 permanent residents. The tourist increase is one key reason the city’ s population is down from 175,000 in the 1950s. The outnumbered Venetians have been steadily fleeing. And those who stick around are tired of living in a place where they can’ t even get to the market without swimming through a sea of picture-snapping tourists. Imagine, navigating through 50,000 people while on the way to school or to work.[D] Laura Chigi, a grandmother at the march, says the local and national governments have failed to do anything about the crowds for decades, because they’re only interested in tourism—the primary industry in Venice, worth more than $3 billion in 2015. “Venice is a cash cow,” she says, “and everyone wants a piece. “[E] Just beyond St. Mark’s Square, a cruise ship passes, one of hundreds every year that appear over their medieval (中世纪的) surroundings. Their massive wake creats waves at the bottom of the sea, weakening the foundations of the centuries-old buildings themselves. “ Every time I see a cruise ship, I feel sad,” Chigi says. “You see the mud it drags; the destruction it leaves in its wake? That hurts the ancient wooden poles holding up the city underwater. One day we’ll see Venice break down. “[F] For a time, UNESCO, the cultural wing of the United Nations, seemed to agree. Two years ago, it put Italy on notice, saying the government was not protecting Venice. UNESCO considers the entire city a World Heritage Site, a great honor that means Venice, at the cultural level, belongs to all of the world’s people. In 2014, UNESCO gave Italy two years to manage Venice’s flourishing tourism or the city would be placed on another list—World Heritage In Danger, joining such sites as Aleppo and Palmyra, destroyed by the war in Syria. [G] Venice’ s deadline passed with barely a murmur (嘟哝) this summer, just as UNESCO was meeting in Istanbul. Only one representative, Jad Tabet from Lebanon, tried to raise the issue. “For several years, the situation of heritage in Venice has been worsening, and it has nowreached a dramatic situation,” Tabet told UNESCO. “We have to act quickly, there is not a moment to waste. “[H] But UNESCO didn’ t even hold a vote. “ It’ s been postponed until 2017 ,”says Anna Somers, the founder and CEO of The Art Newspaper and the former head of Venice in Peril, a group devoted to restoring Venetian art. She says the main reason the U.N. cultural organization didn’ t vote to declare Venice a World Heritage Site In Danger is because UNESCO has become “ intensely politicized. There would have been some back-room negotiations. “[I] Italy boasts more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country in the world, granting it considerable power and influence within the organization. The former head of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, which oversees heritage sites, is Francesco Bandarin, a Venetian who now serves as UNESCO’s assistant director-general for culture. [J] Earlier this year, Italy signed an accord with UNESCO to establish a task force of police art detectives and archaeologists (考古学家) to protect cultural heritage from natural disasters and terror groups, such as ISIS. The accord underlined Italy’s global reputation as a good steward of art and culture. [K] But adding Venice to the UNESCO endangered list—which is dominated by sites in developing and conflict-ridden countries—would be an international embarrassment, and could even hurt Italy’ s profitable tourism industry. The Italian Culture Ministry says it is unaware of any government efforts to pressure UNESCO. As for the organization itself, it declined a request for an interview. [L] The city’ s current mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, has ridiculed UNESCO and told it to mind its own business, while continuing to support the cruise ship industry, which employs 5, 000 Venice residents. [M] As for Venetians, they’ re beyond frustrated and hoping for a solution soon. “ It’ s a nightmare for me. Some situations are really difficult with tourists around,”says Giorgio as he navigates around a swelling crowd at the Rialto Bridge. “There are just so many of them. They never know where they are going, and do not walk in an orderly manner. Navigating the streets can be exhausting. “[N] Then it hits him; This crowd isn’ t made up of tourists. They’re Venetians. Giorgio says he’s never experienced the Rialto Bridge this way in all his 22 years. “ For once, we are the ones who are blocking the traffic,” he says delightedly. “ It feels unreal. It feels like we’ re some form of endangered species. It’ s just nice. The feeling is just pure. “But, he worries, if tourism isn’t managed and his fellow locals continue to move to the mainland, his generation might be the last who can call themselves native Venetians.1．The passing cruise ships will undermine the foundations of the ancient buildings in Venice.正确答案：E解析：该段前两句提到，在圣马可广场旁，一艘游轮经过，每年都会有数百艘像这样的游轮出现在这种中世纪环境中。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷17(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷17(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.The Health Benefits of KnittingA) About 15 years ago, I was invited to join a knitting group. I agreed to give it a try.B) My mother had taught me to knit at 15, and I knitted in class throughout college and for a few years thereafter. Then decades passed without my touching a knitting needle. But within two Mondays in the group, I was hooked, not only on knitting but also on crocheting (钩织), and I was on my way to becoming a highly productive crafter.C) I’ve made countless baby blankets, sweaters, scarves, hats, caps for newborns. I take a knitting project with me everywhere, especially when I have to sit still and listen. As I discovered in college, when my hands are busy, my mind stays focused on the here and now.D) It seems, too, that I’m part of a national renewal of interest in needle and other handicrafts (手工艺). The Craft Yam Council reports that a third of women ages 25-35 now knit or crochet. Even men and schoolchildren are swelling the ranks, among them my friend’s three small grandsons. Last April, the council created a “Stitch Away Stress” campaign in honor of National Stress Awareness Month. Dr. Herbert Benson, a pioneer in mind/body medicine and author of The Relaxation Response, says that the repetitive action of needlework can induce a relaxed state like that associated with meditation (沉思) and yoga. Once you get beyond the initial learning curve, knitting and crocheting can lower heart rate and blood pressure.E) But unlike meditation, craft activities result in tangible and often useful products that can enhance self-esteem. I keep photos of my singular accomplishments on my cellphone to boost my spirits when needed.F) Since the 1990s, the council has surveyed hundreds of thousands of knitters and crocheters, who routinely list stress relief and creative fulfillment as the activities’main benefits. Among them is the father of a prematurely born daughter who reported that during the baby’s five weeks in the intensive care unit, “learning how to knit infant hats gave me a sense of purpose during a time that I felt very helpless. It’s a hobby that I’ve stuck with, and it continues to help me cope with stress at work, provide a sense of order in hectic (忙乱的) days, and allow my brain time to solve problems. “G) A recent email from the yarn (纺纱) company Red Heart titled “Health Benefits of Crocheting and Knitting” prompted me to explore what else might be known about the health value of activities like knitting. My research revealed that the rewards go well beyond replacing stress and anxiety with the satisfaction of creation.H) For example, Karen Hayes, a life coach in Toronto, conducts knitting therapy programs, including Knit to Quit to help smokers give up the habit, and Knit to Heal for people coping with health crises, like a cancer diagnosis or serious illness of a family member. Schools and prisons with craft programs report that they have a calming effect and enhance social skills. And having to follow instructions on complex craft projects can improve children’s math skills.I) Some people find that craftwork helps them control their weight. Just as it’s challenging to smoke whileknitting, when hands are holding needles and hooks, there’s less snacking and mindless eating out of boredom.J) I’ve found that my handiwork with yarn has helped my arthritic (患关节炎的) fingers remain more dexterous (灵巧的) as I age. A woman encouraged to try knitting and crocheting after developing an autoimmune disease that caused a lot of hand pain reported on the Craft Yarn Council site that her hands are now less stiff and painful.K) A 2009 University of British Columbia study of 38 women with an eating disorder who were taught to knit found that learning the craft led to significant improvements. Seventy-four percent of the women said the activity lessened their fears and kept them from thinking about their problem.L) Betsan Corkhill, a wellness coach in Bath, England, and author of the book Knit for Health & Wellness, established a website, Stitchlinks, to explore the value of what she calls therapeutic knitting. Among her respondents, 54 percent of those who were clinically depressed said that knitting made them feel happy or very happy. In a study of 60 self-selected people with persistent pain, Ms. Corkhill and colleagues reported that knitting enabled them to redirect their focus, reducing their awareness of pain. She suggested that the brain can process just so much at once, and that activities like knitting and crocheting make it harder for the brain to register pain signals. Perhaps most exciting is research that suggests that crafts like knitting and crocheting may help to keep off a decline in brain function with age. In a 2011 study, researchers led by Dr. Yonas Geda at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester interviewed a random (随机的) sample of 1,321 people ages 70-89, most of whom were cognitively (在认知方面) normal, about the cognitive activities they engaged in late in life. The study, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, found that those who engaged in crafts like knitting and crocheting had a diminished chance of developing mild cognitive disorder and memory loss.M) Although it is possible that only people who are cognitively healthy would pursue such activities, those who read newspapers or magazines or played music did not show similar benefits. The researchers speculate that craft activities promote the development of nerve pathways in the brain that help to maintain cognitive health. N) In support of that suggestion, a 2014 study by Denise C. Park of the University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues demonstrated that learning to knit or do digital photography enhanced memory function in older adults. Those who engaged in activities that were not intellectually challenging, either in a social group or alone, did not show such improvements. O) Given that sustained social contacts have been shown to support health and a long life, those wishing to maximize the health value of crafts might consider joining a group of like-minded folks. I for one try not to miss a single weekly meeting of my knitting group.1．When the author was a college student, she found that knitting helped her concentrate.正确答案：C解析：C段末句提到，正如我在大学时发现的那样，当我的双手忙碌时，我的头脑就会专注于当下。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷14(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷14(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.How to Eat WellA)Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk(垃圾)and should really carry warning labels?B)It’s not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer more variety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers’ markets in the U. S. as there were 20 years ago. Nor is it for lack of available information. There are plenty of recipes(食谱), how-to videos and cooking classes available to anyone who has a computer, smartphone or television. If anything, the information is overwhelming.C)And yet we aren’t cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like most Americans, you probably get at least a third of your daily calories(卡路里)outside the home. Nearly two-thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25% of our daily calories from snacks. So we’re eating out or taking in, and we don’t sit down—or we do, but we hurry.D)Shouldn’t preparing—and consuming —food be a source of comfort, pride, health, well-being, relaxation, sociability? Something that connects us to other humans? Why would we want to outsource(外包)this basic task, especially when outsourcing it is so harmful?E)When I talk about cooking, I’m not talking about creating elaborate dinner parties or three-day science projects. I’m talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed themselves. That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach people to cook food that’s good enough to share with family and friends.F)Perhaps a return to real cooking needn’t be far off. A recent Harris poll revealed that 79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30% “love it” : 14% admit to not enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won’t go near the stove at all. But this doesn’t necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn’t surprise anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week: only a third of young people do.G)Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Mom cooked virtually every night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much universal. Most people couldn’t afford to do otherwise.H)Although frozen dinners were invented in the ‘40s, their popularity didn’t boom until televisions became popular a decade or so later. Since then, packaged, pre-prepared meals have been what’s for dinner. The microwave and fast-food chains were the biggest catalysts(催化剂), but the big food companies—which want to sell anything except the raw ingredients that go into cooking—made the home cook an endangered species.I)Still, I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals at home regularly. Isn’t this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and champions craft cooking? And isn’t this the generation who say they’re concerned about their health and the well-being of the planet? If these are truly the values of many young people, then their behavior doesn’t match their beliefs.J)There have been half-hearted but well-publicized effortsby some food companies to reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still the polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant-based diet that just about every expert says we should be eating. Considering that the government’s standards are not nearly ambitious enough, the picture is clear: by not cooking at home, we’re not eating the right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate.K)To help quantify(量化)the costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate this impact in terms of a most famous food, the burger(汉堡包). I concluded that the profit from burgers is more than offset(抵消)by the damage they cause in health problems and environmental harm.L)Cooking real food is the best defense—not to mention that any meal you’re likely to eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a restaurant.M)To those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop the grocery store, since that’s where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy are. And to save money and still eat well you don’t need local, organic ingredients: all you need is real food. I’m not saying local food isn’t better: it is. But there is plenty of decent food in the grocery stores.N)The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned goods. Frozen produce is still produce: canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just make sure you’re getting real food without tons of added salt or sugar. Ask yourself, would Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in nature? It’s pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable foodlike objects.O)You don’t have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance of skill. Since fewer than half of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level and only 20% describe their cooking skills as advanced, the crisis is one of confidence. And the only remedy for that is practice. There’s nothing mysterious about cooking the evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and redefine what qualifies as dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more: every time you cook, you advance your level of skills. Someday you won’t even need recipes. My advice is that you not pay attention to the number of steps and ingredients, because they can be deceiving. P)Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must adjust your priorities to find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the kitchen and watch your favorite shows while you’re standing at the sink. No one is asking you to give up activities you like, but if you’re watching food shows on TV, try cooking instead.1．Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another.正确答案：D2．Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.正确答案：B3．Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.正确答案：F4．Cooking skills can be improved with practice.正确答案：O5．In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.正确答案：G6．Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and their family.正确答案：E7．Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.正确答案：J8．To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it themselves.正确答案：M9．We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.正确答案：C10．The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.正确答案：H。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷3(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷3(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.Food-as-Medicine Movement Is Witnessing Progress[A] Several times a month, you can find a doctor in the aisles of Ralph’ s market in Huntington Beach, California, wearing a white coat and helping people learn about food. On one recent day, this doctor was Daniel Nadeau, wandering the cereal aisle with Allison Scott, giving her some idea on how to feed kids who persistently avoid anything that is healthy. “ Have you thought about trying fresh juices in the morning?” he asked her. “The frozen oranges and apples are a little cheaper, and fruits are really good for the brain. Juices are quick and easy to prepare, you can take the frozen fruit out the night before and have it ready the next morning. “[B] Scott is delighted to get food advice from a physician who is program director of the nearby Mary and Dick Allen Diabetes Center, part of the St. Joseph Hoag Health alliance. The center’s “Shop with Your Doc” program sends doctors to the grocery store to meet with any patients who sign up for the service, plus any other shoppers who happen to be around with questions.[C] Nadeau notices the pre-made macaroni (通心粉) -and-cheese boxes in Scott’s shopping cart and suggests she switch to whole grain macaroni and real cheese. “So I’d have to make it?” she asks, her enthusiasm fading at the thought of how long that might take, just to have her kids reject it. “I’m not sure they’ d eat it. They just won’ t eat it. “[D] Nadeau says sugar and processed foods are big contributors to the rising diabetes rates among children. “ In America, over 50 percent of our food is processed food,” Nadeau tells her. “ And only 5 percent of our food is plant-based food. I think we should try to reverse that. “ Scott agrees to try more fruit juices for the kids and to make real macaroni and cheese. Score one point for the doctor, zero for diabetes.[E] Nadeau is part of a small revolution developing across California. The food-as-medicine movement has been around for decades, but it’ s making progress as physicians and medical institutions make food a formal part of treatment, rather than relying solely on medications (药物). By prescribing nutritional changes or launching programs such as “Shop with Your Doc” , they are trying to prevent, limit or even reverse disease by changing what patients eat. “There’ s no question people can take things a long way toward reversing diabetes, reversing high blood pressure, even preventing cancer by food choices,”Nadeau says.[F] In the big picture, says Dr. Richard Afable, CEO and president of St. Joseph Hoag Health, medical institutions across the state are starting to make a philosophical switch to becoming a health organization, not just a health care organization. That feeling echoes the beliefs of the Therapeutic Food Pantry program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which completed its pilot phase and is about to expand on an ongoing basis to five clinic sites throughout the city. The program will offer patients several bags of food prescribed for their condition, along with intensive training in how to cook it. “ We really want to link food and medicine, and not just give away food,”says Dr. RitaNguyen, the hospital’s medical director of Healthy Food Initiatives. “We want people to understand what they’re eating, how to prepare it, the role food plays in their lives. “[G] In Southern California, Loma Linda University School of Medicine is offering specialized training for its resident physicians in Lifestyle Medicine—that is a formal specialty in using food to treat disease. Research findings increasingly show the power of food to treat or reverse diseases, but that does not mean that diet alone is always the solution, or that every illness can benefit substantially from dietary changes. Nonetheless, physicians say that they look at the collective data and a clear picture emerges: that the salt, sugar, fat and processed foods in the American diet contribute to the nation’ s high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of deaths from heart disease and stroke are caused by high blood pressure, tobacco use, elevated cholesterol and low consumption of fruits and vegetables.[H] “It’ s a different paradigm (范式) of how to treat disease,” says Dr. Brenda Rea, who helps run the family and preventive medicine residency program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. The lifestyle medicine specialty is designed to train doctors in how to prevent and treat disease, in part, by changing patients’ nutritional habits. The medical center and school at Loma Linda also has a food cupboard and kitchen for patients. This way, patients not only learn about which foods to buy, but also how to prepare them at home.[I] Many people don’t know how to cook, Rea says, and they only know how to heat things up. That means depending on packaged food with high salt and sugar content. So teaching people about which foods are healthy and how to prepare them, she says, can actually transform a patient’ s life. And beyond that, it might transform the health and lives of that patient’ s family. “ What people eat can be medicine or poison,” Rea says. “As a physician, nutrition is one of the most powerful things you can change to reverse the effects of long-term disease. “[J] Studies have explored evidence that dietary changes can slow inflammation (炎症) , for example, or make the body inhospitable to cancer cells. In general, many lifestyle medicine physicians recommend a plant-based diet—particularly for people with diabetes or other inflammatory conditions.[K] “As what happened with tobacco, this will require a cultural shift, but that can happen,”says Nguyen. “In the same way physicians used to smoke, and then stopped smoking and were able to talk to patients about it, I think physicians can have a bigger voice in it. “1．More than half of the food Americans eat is factory-produced.正确答案：D解析：该段第二句提到，在美国超过50％的食品是加工食品。
四级长篇阅读专题练习附答案
四级长篇阅读专题练习附答案A) Once upon a time, if you hated your job, you either quit or bit your lip. These days, a group of researchers is trumpeting a third option: shape your job so ifs more fruitful than futile.B) We often get trapped into thinking about our job as a list of things to do and a list of responsibilities, says Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor at the Yale School of Management. But what if you set aside that mind-set If you could adjust what you do, she says, who would you start talking to, what other tasks would you take on, and who would you work withC) To make livelihoods more lively, Wrzesniewski and her colleagues Jane Dutton and Justin Berg have developed a methodology they call job-crafting. Theyre working with Fortune 500 companies, smaller firms and business schools to change the way Americans think about work. The idea is to make all jobs--even mundane (平凡的) ones---more meaningful by empowering employees to brainstorm and implement subtle but significant workplace adjustments.Step 1: Rethink Your Job--CreativelyD) The default some people wake up to is dragging themselves to work and facing a list of things they have to do, says Wrzesniewski. So in thejob-crafting process, the first step is to think about your job holistically. You first analyze how much time, energy and attention you devote to your various tasks. Then you reflect on that allocation( 分配). See I0 perfect jobs for the recession--and after.E) Take, for example, a maintenance technician at Burts Bees, which makes personal-care products. He was interested in process engineering, though that wasnt part of his job description. To alter the scope of hisday-to-day activities, the technician asked a supervisor if he could spend some time studying an idea he had for making the firms manufacturing procedures more energy-efficient. His ideas proved helpful, and now process engineering is part of the scope of his work.F) Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says its crucial for people to pay attention to their workday emotions. Doing so, she says, will help you discover which aspects of your work are most life-giving-and most life-draining.G) Many of us get stuck in ruts (惯例 ). Berg, a Ph.D. student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who helped develop the job-crafting methodology, says we all benefit from periodically rethinking what we do. Even in the most constraining jobs, people have a certain amount of wiggle room, he says. Small changes can have a real impact on life at work.Step 2: Diagram Your DayH) To lay the groundwork for change, job-crafting participants assemble diagrams detailing their workday activities. The first objective is to develop new insights about what you actually do at work. Then you can dream up fresh ways to integrate what the job-crafting exercise calls your strengths, motives and passions into your daily routine. You convert task lists into flexible building blocks. The end result is an after diagram that can serve as a map for specific changes.I) lna Lockau-Vogel, a management consultant who participated in a recent job-crafting workshop, says the exercise helped her adjust her priorities. Before, 1 would spend so much time reacting to requests and focusing on urgent tasks that I never had time to address the real important issues. As part of the job-crafting process, she decided on a strategy for delegating and outsourcing (外包) more of her administrative responsibilities.J) In contrast to business books that counsel, managers to influence workers through incentives, job-crafting focuses on what employees themselves can do to re-envision and adjust what they do every day. Given that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it now takes the average job seeker more than six months to find a new position, its crucial to make the most of the job youve got.Step 3: Identify Job Loves and HatesK) By reorienting (使适应 ) how you think about your job, you free yourself up for new ideas about how to restructure your workday time and energy. Take an IT worker who hates dealing with technologically incompetent callers. He might enjoy teaching more than customer service. By spending more time instructing colleagues--and treating help-line callers as curious students of tech--the disgruntled IT person can make the most of his 9-to-5 position.L) Dutton, a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, says she has seen local auto-industry workers benefit from the job-crafting process. They come in looking worn down, but after spending two hours on this exercise, they come away thinking about three or four things they can do differently.M) They start to recognize they have more control over their work than they realized, says Dutton, who parmered with Wrzesniewski on the original job-crafting research.Step 4: Put Your Ideas into ActionN) To conclude the job-crafting process, participants list specific follow-up steps: Many plan a one-0n-one meeting with a supervisor to propose new project ideas. Others connect with colleagues to talk about trading certain tasks. Berg says as long as their goals are met, many managers are happy to let employees adjust how they work.O) Job-crafting isnt about revenue, per se, but juicing up ( 活跃 ) employee engagement may end up beefing up the bottom line. Amid salary, job and benefit cuts, more and more workers are disgruntled. Surveys show that more than 50% arent happy with what they do. Dutton, Berg and Wrzesniewski argue that emphasizing enjoyment can boost efficiency by lowering turnover rates and jacking up productivity. Job-crafting wont rid you of a lousy boss or a subpar salary, but it does offer some remedies for job dissatisfaction. If you cant ditch or switch a job, at least make it more likable.四级长篇阅读专题练习选项1. A long time ago when a person hated his/her job, he/she will resign or bear it.2. Amy Wrzesniewski think job could be adjusted.3. Your first thing to do in the job-crafting process is to think about your job wholly .4. The idea of a maintenance technician at Burts Bees turned out to be helpful and energy-efficient.5. Bergs suggestion about work is to rethink and make small changes.6. According to Ina Lockau-Vogel, the benefit from job-crafting is that it helps her set priorities properly.7. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the situation in job market is ---it is difficult to find a job.8. Dutton has seen that local auto-industry workers profit from the job-crafting process.9. According to Berg, if the job-crafting process is successful, the supervisors are willing to let employees adjust what to do.10. If you cant quit your job, using job-crafting may at least offer some remedies for job dissatisfaction.四级长篇阅读专题练习答案1. A根据题干信息词hated和job定位到文章首句：从前，如果你讨厌你的工作，要么辞职，要么掩饰自己的不满，bite ones lip意为努力掩饰某人的怒火或不满。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷13(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷13(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.The Perfect EssayA)Looking back on too many years of education, I can identify one truly impossible teacher. She cared about me, and my intellectual life, even when I didn’t. Her expectations were high—impossibly so. She was an English teacher. She was also my mother.B)When good students turn in an essay, they dream of their instructor returning it to them in exactly the same condition, save for a single word added in the margin of the final page: “Flawless. “ This dream came true for me one afternoon in the ninth grade. Of course, I had heard that genius could show itself at an early age, so I was only slightly taken aback that I had achieved perfection at the tender age of 14. Obviously, I did what any professional writer would do: I hurried off to spread the good news. I didn’t get very far. The first person I told was my mother.C)My mother, who is just shy of five feet tall, is normally incredibly soft-spoken, but on the rare occasion when she got angry, she was terrifying. I am not sure if she was more upset by my hubris(得意忘形)or by the fact that my English teacher had let my ego get so out of hand. In any event, my mother and her red pen showed me how deeply flawed a flawless essay could be. At the time, I am sure she thought she was teaching me about mechanics, transitions(过渡), structure, style and voice. But what I learned, and what stuck with me through my time teaching writing at Harvard, was a deeper lesson about the nature of creative criticism.D)First off, it hurts. Genuine criticism, the type that leaves a lasting mark on you as a writer, also leaves an existential imprint(印记)on you as a person. I have heard people say that a writer should never take criticism personally. I say that we should never listen to these people.E)Criticism, at its best, is deeply personal, and gets to the heart of why we write the way we do. The intimate nature of genuine criticism implies something about who is able to give it, namely, someone who knows you well enough to show you how your mental life is getting in the way of good writing. Conveniently, they are also the people who care enough to see you through this painful realization. For me it took the form of my first, and I hope only, encounter with writer’s block—I was not able to produce anything for three years.F)Franz Kafka once said:”Writing is utter solitude(独处), the descent into the cold abyss(深渊)of oneself. “My mother’s criticism had shown me that Kafka is right about the cold abyss, and when you make the introspective(内省的)descent that writing requires you are not always pleased by what you find. But, in the years that followed, her sustained tutoring suggested that Kafka might be wrong about the solitude. I was lucky enough to find a critic and teacher who was willing to make the journey of writing with me. “It is a thing of no great difficulty,”according to Plutarch, “to raise objections against another man’s speech, it is a very easy matter: but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome. “ I am sure I wrote essays in the later years of high school without my mother’s guidance, but I can’t recall them. What I remember, however, is how shetook up the “extremely troublesome”work of ongoing criticism.G)There are two ways to interpret Plutarch when he suggests that a critic should be able to produce “ a better in its place. “In a straightforward sense, he could mean that a critic must be more talented than the artist she critiques(评论). My mother was well covered on this count. But perhaps Plutarch is suggesting something slightly different, something a bit closer to Marcus Cicero’s claim that one should “ criticize by creation, not by rinding fault. “ Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to become better on his own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but also almost always meaningful.H)My mother said she would help me with my writing, but first I had to help myself. For each assignment, I was to write the best essay I could. Real criticism is not meant to find obvious mistakes, so if she found any—the type I could have found on my own—I had to start from scratch. From scratch. Once the essay was “ flawless,” she would take an evening to walk me through my errors. That was when true criticism, the type that changed me as a person, began.I)She criticized me when I included little-known references and professional jargon(行话). She had no patience for brilliant but irrelevant figures of speech. “Writers can’t bluff(虚张声势)their way through ignorance. “That was news to me—I would need to find another way to structure my daily existence.J)She trimmed back my flowery language, drew lines through my exclamation marks and argued for the value of restraint in expression. “ John,” she almost whispered. I leaned in to hear her: “I can’t hear you when you shout at me. “So I stopped shouting and bluffing, and slowly my writing improved.K)Somewhere along the way I set aside my hopes of writing that flawless essay. But perhaps I missed something important in my mother’s lessons about creativity and perfection. Perhaps the point of writing the flawless essay was not to give up, but to never willingly finish. Whitman repeatedly reworked “Song of Myself between 1855 and 1891. Repeatedly. We do our absolute best with a piece of writing, and come as close as we can to the ideal. And, for the time being, we settle. In critique, however, we are forced to depart, to give up the perfection we thought we had achieved for the chance of being even a little bit better. This is the lesson I took from my mother: If perfection were possible, it would not be motivating.1．The author was advised against the improper use of figures of speech.正确答案：I2．The author’s mother taught him a valuable lesson by pointing out lots of flaws in his seemingly perfect essay.正确答案：C3．A writer should polish his writing repeatedly so as to get closer to perfection.正确答案：K4．Writers may experience periods of time in their life when they just can’t produce anything.正确答案：E5．The author was not much surprised when his school teacher marked his essay as “flawless”.正确答案：B6．Criticizing someone’s speech is said to be easier than coming up with a better one.正确答案：F7．The author looks upon his mother as his most demanding and caring instructor.正确答案：A8．The criticism the author received from his mother changed him as a person.正确答案：H9．The author gradually improved his writing by avoiding fancy language.正确答案：J10．Constructive criticism gives an author a good start to improve his writing.正确答案：G。
英语四级长篇阅读真题练习
英语四级长篇阅读真题练习阅读理解历来都是大学英语四级考试中的重心,也是考生们失分比较多的一个题型,所以大有得阅读者得天下这一说。
接下来就一起分享小编为大家整理的英语四级长篇阅读真题练习吧!英语四级长篇阅读真题练习一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 Grassroots RemedyA) Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. To this end, we walk the dog, play golf, go fishing, sit in the garden, drink outside rather than inside the pub, have a picnic, live in the suburbs, go to the seaside, buy a weekend place in the country. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. And when joggers (慢跑者) jog, they don't run the streets. Every one of the minstinctively heads to the park or the river. It is my profound belief that not only do we all need nature, butwe all seek nature, whether we know we are doing so or not.B) But despite this, our children are growing up nature-deprived ( 丧失) , I spent my boyhood climbing trees on Stratham Common, south London. These days, children are robbed of these an cientfreedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and odd new perceptions about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.C) The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the U.S. families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD -- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( 多动症) .Those whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.D) A study in Sweden indicated that kindergarten children who could play in a natural environment had less illness and greater physical ability than children used only to a normal playground. A U.S. study suggested that when a school gave children access to a natural environment, academic levels were raised across the entire school.E) Another study found that children play differently in a natural environment. In playgrounds, children create a hierarchy (等级) based on physical abilities, with the tough ones taking the lead. But when a grassy area was planted with bushes, the children got much more into fantasyplay, and the social hierarchy was now based on imagination and creativity.F) Most bullying (持枪凌弱) is found in schools where there is a tarmac (柏油碎石) play ground; the least bullying is in a natural area that the children are encouraged to explore. This reminds mean pleasantly of Sunny hill School in Stratham, with its harsh tarmac, where I used to hang about incomers fantasizing about wildlife. The children are frequently discouraged from involvement with natural spaces, for health and safety reasons, for fear that they might get dirty or that they might cause damage. So, instead, the damage is done to the children themselves: not to their bodies but to their souls.G) One of the great problems of modem childhood is ADHD, now increasingly and expensively treated with drugs. Yet one study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.H) The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing emphasis for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality.I) In wider and more difficult areas of life, there is evidence to indicate that natural surroundingsim prove all kinds of things. Even problems withcrime and aggressive behavior are reduced when there is contact with the natural world. Dr. William Bird, researcher from the Royal Society for the Protection of birds, states in his study, “A natural environment can reduce violent behavior because its restorative process helps reduce anger and impulsive behavior." Wild places need encouraging for this reason, no matter how small their contribution.J) We tend to look on nature conservation as some kind of favor that human beings are granting to the natural world. The error here is far too deep: not only do humans need nature for themselves, but the very idea that humanity and the natural world are separable things is profoundly damaging. Human beings are a species of mammals (哺乳动物) . For seven million years they lived on the planet as part of nature. Our ancestral selves miss the natural world and long for contact with nonhuman life. Anyone who has patted a dog, stoked a cat, sat under a tree with a pint of beer, given or received a bunch of flowers or chosen to walk through the park on a nice day, understands that. We need the wild world. It is essential to our well-being, our health, our happiness. Without the wild world we are not more but less civilized. Without other living things around us we are less than human.K) Five Ways to Find Harmony with the Natural World Walk: Break the rhythm of permanently being under a roof. Get off a stop earlier, make a circuit of the park at lunchtime, walk the child to and from school, get adog, feel yourself moving in moving air, look, listen, absorb.Sit: Take a moment, every now and then, to be still in an open space. In the garden, anywhere that's not in the office, anywhere out of the house, away from the routine. Sit under a tree, look at water, feel refreshed, ever so slightly renewed.Drink: The best way to enjoy the natural world is by oneself; the second best way is in company. Take a drink outside with a good person, a good gathering: talk with the sun and the wind with bird-song for background.Learn: Expand your boundaries. Leam five species of bird, five butterflies, five trees, five bird songs. That way, you see and hear more: and your mind responds gratefully to the greater amount of wildness in your life.Travel: The places you always wanted to visit: by the seaside, in the country, in the hills. Take a week-end break, a day-trip, get out these and do it: for the scenery, for the way through the woods, for the birds, for the bees. Go somewhere special and bring specialness home. It lasts forever, after all.46. The study in Sweden shows that more access to nature makes children less likely to fall ill.47. The author's profound belief is that people instinctively seek nature in different ways.48. It can be very helpful to provide more green spaces for children with ADHD.49. Elderly people will enjoy a life of better quality when they contact more with nature.50. Nowadays, people think things that can be bought are best for children, rather than things that can be found.51. Dr. William Bird suggests in his study that access to nature contributes to the reduction of violence.52. According to a study in the U. S. Children with ADHD whose accommodation had more natural views showed much better improvement.53. Children who have chances to explore natural areas are less likely to be involved in bullying.54. We can find harmony with the natural world in various ways, among which there are walking,sitting, drinking, learning and traveling.55. It is extremely harmful to think that humanity and the natural world can be separated.英语四级长篇阅读真题练习答案解析Section B大自然疗法A)我们中的大多数人都套花时间寻求与大自然亲近。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷29(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷29(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn’t Better...It’s BrutalA)Young graduates are in debt, out of work and on their parents’ couches. People in their 30s and 40s can’t afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning near-zero interest on their savings.B)In the current listless (缺乏活力的)economy, every generation has a claim to having been most injured. But the Labor Department’s latest jobs reports and other recent data present a strong case for crowning baby boomers (二战后生育高峰期出生的人)as the greatest victims of the recession and its dreadful consequences.C)These Americans in their 50s and early 60s—those near retirement age who do not yet have access to Medicare and Social Security—have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their household incomes 10 percent below what they made when the recovery began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis company. Their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst possible time: just before they needed to cash out. They are supporting both aged parents and unemployed young-adult children, earning them the unlucky nickname “Generation Squeeze. “D)New research suggests that they may die sooner, because their health, income security and mental well-being were battered (重创)by recession at a crucial time in their lives. A recent study by economists at Wellesley College found that people who lost their jobs in the few years before becoming qualified for Social Security lost up to three years from their life expectancy (预期寿命), largely because they no longer had access to affordable health care.E)Unemployment rates for Americans nearing retirement are far lower than those for young people, who are recently out of school, with fewer skills and a shorter work history. But once out of a job, older workers have a much harder time finding another one. Over the last year, the average duration of unemployment for older people was 53 weeks, compared with 19 weeks for teenagers, according to the Labor Department’s jobs report released on Friday.F)The lengthy process is partly because older workers are more likely to have been laid off from industries that are downsizing, like manufacturing. Compared with the rest of the population, older people are also more likely to own their own homes and be less mobile than renters, who can move to new job markets.G)Older workers are more likely to have a disability of some sort, perhaps limiting the range of jobs that offer realistic choices. They may also be less inclined, at least initially, to take jobs that pay far less than their old positions.H)Displaced boomers also believe they are victims of age discrimination, because employers can easily find a young, energetic worker who will accept lower pay and who can potentially stick around for decades rather than a few years.I)In a survey of older workers who were laid off during the recession, just one in six had found another job, and half of that group had accepted pay cuts. 14% of the re-employed said the pay in their new job was less than half what they earned in theirprevious job. “I just say to myself;’Why me? What have I done to deserve this?’“said John Agati, 56, whose last full-time job, as a product developer, ended four years ago when his employer went out of business. That position paid $90,000, and his resume lists jobs at companies like American Express, Disney and USA Networks. Since being laid off, though, he has worked a series of part-time, low-wage, temporary positions, including selling shoes at Lord & Taylor and making sales calls for a car company.J)The last few years have taken a toll not only on his family’s finances, but also on his feelings of self-worth. “ You just get sad,” Mr. Agati said. “ I see people getting up in the morning, going out to their careers and going home. I just wish I was doing that. Some people don’t like their jobs, or they have problems with their jobs, but at least they’re working. I just wish I was in their shoes. “ He said he cannot afford to go back to school, as many younger people without jobs have done. Even if he could afford it, economists say it is unclear whether older workers like him benefit much from more education.K)”It just doesn’t make sense to offer retraining for people 55 and older,”said Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor. “ Discrimination by age, long-term unemployment, and the fact that they’re now at the end of the hiring queue just don’t make it sensible to invest in them. “L)Many displaced older workers are taking this message to heart and leaving the labor force entirely. The share of older people applying for Social Security early rose quickly during the recession as people sought whatever income they could find. The penalty they will pay is permanent, as retirees who take benefits at age 62 will receive as much as 30% less in each month’s check for the rest of their lives than they would if they had waited until full retirement age (66 for those bom after 1942).M)Those not yet qualified for Social Security are increasingly applying for another, comparable kind of income support that often goes to people who expect never to work again. disability benefits. More than one in eight people in their late 50s is now on some form of federal disability insurance program, according to Professor Mark Duggan at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.N)The very oldest Americans, of course, were battered by some of the same ill winds that tormented (折磨)those now nearing retirement, but at least the most senior were cushioned by a more readily available social safety net. More important, in a statistical twist, they may have actually benefited from the financial crisis in the most fundamental way: longer lives.O)Death rates for people over 65 have historically fallen during recessions, according to a November 2011 study by economists at the University of California, Davis. Why? The researchers argue that weak job markets push more workers into accepting relatively undesirable work at nursing homes, leading to better care for residents.1．Greater mobility puts younger people at an advantage in seeking new jobs.正确答案：F解析：该段第二句指出，与其他年龄段的就业者相比，年长者往往有自己的住所，所以比能够转战新的就业市场的租房者的流动性要差由此推断，年轻人往往没有自己的房子，所以流动性更强，可以转战新的就业市场，这使得他们更容易找到新工作，这是他们的优势题于中的mobility对应原文中的mobile，题干中的puts…at an advantage in seeking new jobs与原文中的can move to new job markets意思一致，故答案为F。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷22(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷22(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.The Blessing and Curse of the People Who Never Forget A handful of people can recall almost every day of their lives in enormous detail—and after years of research, neuroscientists are finally beginning to understand how they do it.[A] For most of us, memory is a mess of blurred and faded pictures of our lives. As much as we would like to cling on to our past, even the saddest moments can be washed away with time.[B] Ask Nima Veiseh what he was doing for any day in the past 15 years, however, and he will give you the details of the weather, what he was wearing, or even what side of the train he was sitting on his journey to work. “My memory is like a library of video tapes, walk-throughs of every day of my life from waking to sleeping,” he explains.[C] Veiseh can even put a date on when those tapes started recording: 15 December 2000, when he met his first girlfriend at his best friend’s 16th birthday party. He had always had a good memory, but the thrill of young love seems to have shifted a gear in his mind: from now on, he would start recording his whole life in detail. “I could tell you everything about every day after that.”[D] Needless to say, people like Veiseh are of great interest to neuroscientists (神经科学专家) hoping to understand the way the brain records our lives. A couple of recent papers have finally opened a window on these people’s extraordinary minds. And such research might even suggest ways for us all to relive our past with greater clarity.[E] “Highly superior autobiographical memory”(or HSAM for short) , first came to light in the early 2000s, with a young woman named Jill Price. Emailing the neuroscientist and memory researcher Jim McGaugh one day, she claimed that she could recall every day of her life since the age of 12. Could he help explain her experiences?[F] McGaugh invited her to his lab, and began to test her: he would give her a date and ask her to tell him about the world events on that day. True to her word, she was correct almost every time. [G] It didn’t take long for magazines and documentary film-makers to come to understand her “total recall”, and thanks to the subsequent media interest, a few dozen other subjects (including Veiseh) have since come forward and contacted the team at the University of California, Irvine. [H] Interestingly, their memories are highly self-centred: although they can remember “autobiographical” life events in extraordinary detail, they seem to be no better than average at recalling impersonal information, such as random (任意选取的) lists of words. Nor are they necessarily better at remembering a round of drinks, say. And although their memories are vast, they are still likely to suffer from “false memories”. Clearly, there is no such thing as a “perfect” memory—their extraordinary minds are still using the same flawed tools that the rest of us rely on. The question is, how? [I] Lawrence Patihis at the University of Southern Mississippi recently studied around 20 people with HSAM and found that they scored particularly high on two measures: fantasy proneness (取向) and absorption. Fantasy proneness could be considered atendency to imagine and daydream, whereas absorption is the tendency to allow your mind to become fully absorbed in an activity—to pay complete attention to the sensations (感受) and the experiences. “I’m extremely sensitive to sounds, smells and visual detail,” explains Nicole Donohue, who has taken part in many of these studies. “I definitely feel things more strongly than the average person.” [J] The absorption helps them to establish strong foundations for recollection, says Patihis, and the fantasy proneness means that they revisit those memories again and again in the coming weeks and months. Each time this initial memory trace is “replayed”, it becomes even stronger. In some ways, you probably go through that process after a big event like your wedding day—but the difference is that thanks to their other psychological tendencies, the HSAM subjects are doing it day in, day out, for the whole of their lives. [K] Not everyone with a tendency to fantasise will develop HSAM, though, so Patihis suggests that something must have caused them to think so much about their past. “Maybe some experience in their childhood meant that they became obsessed (着迷) with calendars and what happened to them,” says Patihis. [L] The people with HSAM I’ve interviewed would certainly agree that it can be a mixed blessing. On the plus side, it allows you to relive the most transformative and enriching experiences. Veiseh, for instance, travelled a lot in his youth. In his spare time, he visited the local art galleries, and the paintings are now lodged deep in his autobiographical memories. [M] “ Imagine being able to remember every painting, on every wall, in every gallery space, between nearly 40 countries,” he says. “That’s a big education in art by itself.” With this comprehensive knowledge of the history of art, he has since become a professional painter. [N] Donohue, now a history teacher, agrees that it helped during certain parts of her education: “I can definitely remember what I learned on certain days at school. I could imagine what the teacher was saying or what it looked like in the book.” [O] Not everyone with HSAM has experienced these benefits, however. Viewing the past in high definition can also make it very difficult to get over pain and regret. “It can be very hard to forget embarrassing moments,”says Donohue. “You feel the same emotions—it is just as raw, just as fresh...You can’t turn off that stream of memories, no matter how hard you try.”Veiseh agrees: “It is like having these open wounds—they are just a part of you,” he says.[P] This means they often have to make a special effort to lay the past to rest. Bill, for instance, often gets painful “flashbacks”, in which unwanted memories intrude into his consciousness, but overall he has chosen to see it as the best way of avoiding repeating the same mistakes. “Some people are absorbed in the past but not open to new memories, but that’s not the case for me. I look forward to each day and experiencing something new.”1．People with HSAM have the same memory as ordinary people when it comes to impersonal information.正确答案：H解析：该段第一句提到“尽管他们能够非常详细地回忆起‘自传体式的’生活事件，但在回忆非个人信息比如任意选取的单词表时，他们并没有比普通人做得好”。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷27(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷27(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.The Changes Facing Fast FoodA)Fast-food firms have to be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly criticise them severely for selling food that makes people fat. Critics even complain that McDonald’s, whose logo symbolises calorie excess, should not have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope with. But not perhaps for much longer. The burger business faces more pressure from regulators at a time when it is already adapting strategies in response to shifts in the global economy.B)Fast food was once thought to be recession-proof. When consumers need to cut spending, the logic goes, cheap meals like Big Macs and Whoppers become even more attractive. Such “trading down” proved true for much of the latest recession, when fast-food companies picked up customers who could no longer afford to eat at casual restaurants. Traffic was boosted in America, the home of fast food, with discounts and promotions, such as $1 menus and cheap combination meals.C)As a result, fast-food chains have weathered the recession better than their more expensive competitors. In 2009 sales at full-service restaurants in America fell by more than 6% , but total sales remained about the same at fast-food chains. In some markets, such as Japan, France and Britain, total spending on fast food increased. Same-store sales in America at McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food company, did not decline throughout the downturn. Panera Bread, an American fast-food chain known for its fresh ingredients, performed well, too, because it offers higher-quality food at lower prices than restaurants.D)But not all fast-food companies have been as fortunate. Many, such as Burger King, have seen sales fall. In a severe recession, while some people trade down to fast food, many others eat at home more frequently to save money. David Palmer, an analyst at UBS, a bank, says smaller fast-food chains in America, such as Jack in the Box and Carl’s Jr. , have been hit particularly hard in this downturn because they are competing with the global giant McDonald’s, which increased spending on advertising by more than 7% last year as others cut back.E)Some fast-food companies also sacrificed their own profits by trying to give customers better value. During the recession companies set prices low, hoping that once they had tempted customers through the door they would be persuaded to order more expensive items. But in many cases that strategy did not work. Last year Burger King franchisees(特许经营人)sued(起诉)the company over its double-cheeseburger promotion, claiming it was unfair for them to be repuired to sell these for $1 when they cost $1.10 to make. In May a judge ruled in favour of Burger King. Nevertheless, the company may still be cursing its decision to promote cheap choices over more expensive ones because items on its “value menu” now account for around 20% of all sales, up from 12% last October.F)Analysts expect the fast-food industry to grow modestly this year. But the downturn is making companies rethink their strategies.Many are now introducing higher-priced items to entice(引诱)consumers away from $1 specials. KFC, a division of Yum! Brands, which also owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, has launched a chicken sandwich that costs around $5. And in May Burger King introduced barbecue(烧烤)pork ribs at $7 for eight.G)Companies are also trying to get customers to buy new and more items, including drinks. McDonald’s started selling better coffee as a challenge to Starbucks. Its “McCafe”line now accounts for an estimated 6% of sales in America. Starbucks has sold rights to its Seattle’s Best coffee brand to Burger King, which will start selling it later this year.H)As fast-food companies shift from “super size” to “more buys” , they need to keep customer traffic high throughout the day. Many see breakfast as a big opportunity, and not just for fatty food. McDonald’s will start selling porridge(粥)in America next year. Breakfast has the potential to be very profitable, says Sara Senatore of Bernstein, a research firm, because the margins can be high. Fast-food companies are also adding midday and late-night snacks, such as blended drinks and wraps. The idea is that by having a greater range of things on the menu, “ we can sell to consumers products they want all day,” says Rick Carucci, the chief financial officer of Yum! Brands.I)But what about those growing waistlines? So far, fast-food firms have cleverly avoided government regulation. By providing healthy options, like salads and low-calorie sandwiches, they have at least given the impression of doing something about helping to fight obesity(肥胖症). These offerings are not necessarily loss-leaders, as they broaden the appeal of outlets to groups of diners that include some people who don’t want to eat a burger. But customers cannot be forced to order salads instead of fries.J)In the future, simply offering a healthy option may not be good enough. “Every packaged-food and restaurant company I know is concerned about regulation right now,” says Mr. Palmer of UBS. America’s health-reform bill, which Congress passed this year, requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to put the calorie-content of items they serve on the menu. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which tracked the effects on Starbucks of a similar calorie-posting law in New York City in 2007, found that the average calorie-count per transaction fell 6% and revenue increased 3% at Starbucks stores where a Dunkin Donuts outlet was nearby—a sign, it is said, that menu-labelling could favour chains that have more healthy offerings. K)In order to avoid other legislation in America and elsewhere, fast-food companies will have to continue innovating(创新). Walt Riker of McDonald’s claims the change it has made in its menu means it offers more healthy items than it did a few years ago. “We probably sell more vegetables, more milk, more salads, more apples than any restaurant business in the world,”he says. But the recent proposal by a county in California to ban McDonald’s from including toys in its high-calorie “Happy Meals” , because legislators believe it attracts children to unhealthy food, suggests there is a lot more left to do.1．Some people propose laws be made to stop McDonald’s from attaching toys to its food specials for children.正确答案：K解析：该段说明在快餐业进行创新和改良的大环境下，麦当劳也对其食品进行了改良，提供了更多健康食品，但是高热最食品仍然存在，为促销其儿童“快乐套餐”，麦当劳会在卖套餐的同时附赠玩具，立法者认为这种做法会引诱孩子吃不健康的食物，因此提议立法禁止该行为。
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷20(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语四级长篇阅读专项强化真题试卷20(题后含答案及解析) 题型有：1.Team Spirit[A] Teams have become the basic building blocks of organisations. Recruitment advertisements routinely call for “team players”. Business schools grade their students in part on their performance in group projects. Office managers knock down walls to encourage team building. Teams are as old as civilisation, of course; even Jesus had 12 co-workers. But a new report by Deloitte, “Global Human Capital Trends”, based on a survey of more than 7,000 executives in over 130 countries, suggests that the fashion for teamwork has reached a new high. Almost half of those surveyed said their companies were either in the middle of restructuring or about to embark on (开始) it; and for the most part, restructuring meant putting more emphasis on teams.[B] Companies are abandoning conventional functional departments and organising employees into cross-disciplinary teams that focus on particular products, problems or customers. These teams are gaining more power to run their own affairs. They are also spending more time working with each other rather than reporting upwards. Deloitte argues that a new organisational form is on the rise: a network of teams is replacing the conventional hierarchy (等级体制).[C] The fashion for teams is driven by a sense that the old way of organising people is too rigid for both the modern marketplace and the expectations of employees. Technological innovation places greater value on agility (灵活性). John Chambers, chairman of Cisco Systems Inc., a worldwide leader in electronics products, says that “we compete against market transitions (过渡), not competitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years; now they take one or two.” Digital technology also makes it easier for people to co-ordinate their activities without resorting to hierarchy. The “millennials”(千禧一代) who will soon make up half the workforce in rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups.[D] The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE and IBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reorganised its medical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas; consultants, nurses and others collaborate closely instead of being separated by speciality (专业) and rank. The US Army has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the army’s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stages of the Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralising authority to self-organising teams.[E] A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on a management bandwagon (追随一种管理潮流), it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson of Kellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, “Teams are not always the answer—teams may provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independently cannot; but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decision-making.” The late Richard Hackman of Harvard Universityonce argued, “I have no question that when you have a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing something extraordinary... But don’t count on it.”[F] Hackman (who died in 2013) noted that teams are hindered by problems of co-ordination and motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. High-flyers (能干的人) who are forced to work in teams may be undervalued and free-riders empowered. Group-think may be unavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough to define a team’s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still.[G] Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best if their members have a strong common culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now the case in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamwork improves with time: America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of the incidents in its civil-aviation database occurred on a crew’s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, organisations increasingly use “team” as a verb rather than a noun; they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them.[H] The least that can be concluded from this research is that companies need to think harder about managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism (感情用事) : the most successful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediate action. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be more “inclusive” is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss, says that “If I see more than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.” They need to immunise teams against group-think: Hackman argued that the best ones contain “deviants” (离经叛逆者) who are willing to do something that may be upsetting to others.[I] A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furniture-maker which also does consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are “engaged”is to give them more control over where and how they do their work—which may mean liberating them from having to do everything in collaboration with others.[J] However, organisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Team-building skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives they contacted feel they understand the way people work together in networks and only 21% feel confident in their ability to build cross-functional teams. Loosely managed teams can become hotbeds of distraction—employees routinely complain that they can’t get their work done because they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or compelled to work in noisy offices. Even in the age of open-plan offices and social networks some work is best left to the individual.1．Successful team leaders know exactly where the team should go and are able to take prompt action.正确答案：H解析：该段第二句提到“成功的团队要有这样的领导人，他们能够制定总体方向并立即采取行动”，题干是对原文的同义转述，故答案为H。
英语四级长篇阅读专项练习题
原文How Your Language Affect Your Wealth and HealthA. Doe the language we peak determine how healthy and rich we will be New reearch by Keith Chen of Yale Buine School ugget o. The tructure of language affect our judgment and deciion about the future and thi might have dramatic long-term conequence.Some people are better at delaying gratification ( 满足 ) than other. Thoe people have a better chance of accumulating wealth and keeping a healthy life tyle. They are le likely to be impule buyer or moker, or to engage in unafe e某.D. Chen recent finding ugget that an unlikely factor, language, trongly affect our future-oriented behavior. Some language trongly ditinguih the preent and the future. Other language only weakly ditinguih the preent and the future. Chen recent reearch ugget that people who peak language that weakly ditinguih the preent and the future are better prepared for the future. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to maintain their health. The way thee people conceptualize the future i imilar to the way they conceptualize the preent. A a reult, the future doe not feel very ditant and it i eaier for them to act in accordance with their future interetS.He alo analyzed individual-level data on people retirement aet, moking and e某erciing habit, and general health in older age. Latly, he analyzed national-level data that inchide national aving rate, country GDP and GDP growth rate, country demographic, and proportion of people peaking different language.H. Similar analye howed that peaking a language that doe not have obligatory future marker, uch a Mandarin, make people accumulate more retirement aet, moke le, e某ercie more, and generally be healthier in older age. Countrie national aving rate are alo affected by language. Having a larger proportion of people peaking language that doe not have obligatory future marker make national aving rate higher.选项47. The tructure of language influence u when we are making a judgment or deciion about the future.48. Speaking a language that ha obligatory future marker and being unemployed nearly hare the ame percentage of decreaing the likelihood of aving.49. According to the well-known marhmallow tudie, people who can reit temptation tend to be ucceful in the future.50. People who peak language like Englih are more likely to feel that the future event are ditant.51. National aving rate of countrie are influenced by language a well.52. In Chen recent reearch, people who peak language in which the preent and the future are weakly ditinguihed are more prepared for the future.53. Recent finding how that it i poible to improve future-oriented behavior through making the future feel cloer to the preent.54. Through imple intervention, Ellen Langer and colleague made the phyical health of the older people changed for the better.55. Chen made an analyi of individual-level tatitic from 76 developed and developing nation.答案46.C47.A解析：题干意为，语言结构会在我们做出一个关乎未来的判断或决定时对我们产生影响。
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英语四级长篇阅读专项训练题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 globalpopulation 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 peoplecan'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 andwell-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 ofcompetitive 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 sufferedfrom 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 2021 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 Chineseaquaculture 水产养殖 company, recycles uneatenfish 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 CostaRican 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". Thesustainability 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 theenvironment. Masisa, a Chilean forestry company, invites employees to "imagine unimaginable businesses" aimed at poorer consumers. Woolworths, a South African retailer, claims that many of itsbest 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. Sothe 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 theBrazilian 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 asThe 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 organizeslocal carpenters into networks and connectsthem 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 irrigationsystems, uses dance and song to explain the benefits of drip irrigationto farmers who can't read. Suntech, a Chinese solar-power company, has established a low- carbon museum to celebrate waysof 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 temporarysuccess 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 makesa 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 everysustainable 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--is thought-provoking. Many critics ofenvironmentalism 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 grewrich 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-worldcompanies 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 arich-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.46.D解析：题干意为，一家空调制造商利用建筑物中的废热来为机器提供动力。