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2013年12月英语四级考试阅读真题及答案

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is apassage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blankfrom a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bankis identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each itemon Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any ofthe words in the bank more than once.

　　Questions 36 to 45 are based on thefollowing passage.What does it take to be a well-trainednurse? The answer used to be two-year associate’s or four-year bachelor’sdegree programs. But as the nursing shortage 36, a growing number of schoolsand hospitals are establishing “fast-track programs” that enable collegegraduates with no nursing 37 to become registered nurses with only a year or soof 38 training.In 1991, there were only 40 fast-trackcurricula; now there are more than 200. Typical is Columbia University’s Entry to Practice program. Students earn their bachelor of sciencein nursing in a year. Those who stay on for an 39 two years can earn a master’s degree that 40 them as nurse practitioners (执业护士) orclinical nurse specialists.Many students are recent 41; others are careerswitchers. Rudy Guardron, 32, a 2004 graduate of Columbia’s program, was a premedical student in college and then worked for apharmaceutical (药物的) research company. At Columbia, he was 42 as a nurse practitioner. “I saw thatnurses were in high 43 and it looked like a really good opportunity,” he says. “Also, I didn’t want to be in school for that long.”The fast-track trend fills a need, but it’s alsocreating some 44 between newcomers and veterans. “Nurses that arestill at the bedside 45 these kids with suspicion,” says LindaPellico, who has taught nursing at Yale University for 18 years. “They wonder,how can they do it quicker?” The answer is they don’t.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　A) additional

　　B) applied

　　C) demand

　　D) excessive

　　E) experienceF) explores

　　G) graduates

　　H) operations

　　I) promote

　　J) qualifiesK) specialized

　　L) tension

　　M) trained

　　N) view

　　O) worsens

　　参考答案

　　36~40 OEKAJ

　　41~45 GMCLN

　　SectionB

　　Directions:In this section, you are going to read a passagewith ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information givenin one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information isderived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is markedwith a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 2.

　　The rise of the sharing economy

　　A) Last night 40 000 people rentedaccommodation from a service that offers 250 000 rooms in 30 000 cities in 192countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But theirbeds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts andguests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since itslaunch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—2.5 million of them in2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, inwhich people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other,co-ordinated via the internet.

　　B)You might think this is no different fromrunning a bed-and-breakfast (家庭旅店), owninga timeshare (分时度假房) or participating in a car pool. But technology has reducedtransaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—andtherefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availabilityof more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to bedivided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, apower tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usuallymore trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, RelayRides andSnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people seewhere the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way tocheck up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle thebilling.

　　What’s mineis yours, for a fee

　　C)Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharingsites let individuals act as an ad hoc (临时的) taxi service,car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店) as and when itsuits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items thatare expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use ofthem. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rentcamping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France.As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps (胜过)ownership.

　　D)Rachel Botsman, the author of a book onthe subject, says the consumer peer-to-peerrental market alone is worth $26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharingeconomy include peer-to-peer lending or putting asolar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid (电网). And itis not just individuals: the web makes it easier for companies to rent outspare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy ispeople renting things from each other.

　　E)Such “collaborative (合作的)consumption” is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money fromunderused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homesdo so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $9 300. Car owners who renttheir vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month; somemake more than $1 000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if theybought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotelor car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a carwhen you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required andfewer resources must be devoted to making them.

　　F)For sociable souls, meeting new people bystaying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons (倔脾气的人) whoimagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels.For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried outby platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by bothparties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By usingFacebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out andidentify friends (or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user had herapartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the systemusually works.

　　Peering into the future

　　G)The sharing economy is a little likeonline shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people wereworried about security. But having made a successful purchase from, say,Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try otherofferings. Next, consider eBay. Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated byprofessional “power sellers”(many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users). The same mayhappen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise.Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.

　　H)Existing rental businesses are gettinginvolved too. Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in asharing rival. So do GM and Daimler, two carmakers. In future, companies maydevelop hybrid (混合的) models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles, equipment oroffice space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In thepast, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely.But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport,tourism, equipment-hire and more.

　　I)The main worry is regulatory uncertainty.Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? InAmsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels.In some American cities, peer-to-peertaxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. Thedanger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers fromharm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy competition. People whorent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated likea Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate.

　　J)The sharing economy is the latest exampleof the internet’s value to consumers. This emerging model is nowbig and disruptive (*性的) enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. Thatis a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　46. Sharing items such as cars does good tothe environment.

　　47. Airbnb’ssuccess clearly illustrates the emergence of a huge sharing economy.

　　48. The major concern about the sharingeconomy is how the government regulates it.

　　49. The most frequently shared items arethose expensive to buy but not fully used.

　　50. The sharing economy has a promisingfuture.

　　51. Online sharing will change the waybusiness is done in transportation, travel, rentals, etc.

　　52. Airbnb is a website that enables ownersand renters to complete transactions online.

　　53. The sharing economy is likely to go theway of online shopping.

　　54. One advantage of sharing is that ownersearn money from renting out items not made full use of.

　　55. Sharing appeals to the sociable in thatthey can meet new people.

　　参考答案

　　46~50 EAICJ

　　51~55 HAGEF

? Section C

　　Directions: There are 2 passages in thissection. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements.For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You shoulddecide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre.

　　Section C Passage One

　　Questions56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

　　In recent years, a growing body of researchhas shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number offactors besides our biological need for energy, including our eatingenvironment and our perception of the food in front of us.Studies have shown,for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) canincrease both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues,like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size andconsumption.A new study suggested that our short-termmemory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people’s hunger levels were predicted not by how much they’d eaten but rather by how much food they’d seenin front of them—in other words, how much they remembered eating.This disparity (差异) suggeststhe memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetitethan the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor ofexperimental psychology at the University of Bristol.“Hunger isn’t controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recentmeal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal,” Brunstromsays. “This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake ismore complex than we thought.”These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception offood can sometimes trick our body’s response to the fooditself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie (卡路里) milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels ofhunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending on whether the shake’s labelsaid it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reportedfeeling more full when they thought they’dconsumed a higher-calorie shake.What does this mean for our eatinghabits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less,the new findings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoidingTV and multitasking while eating.The so-calledmindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control ourappetite, Brunstrom says.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　56. What is said to be a factor affectingour appetite and food intake?

　　A) How we perceive the food we eat.C) Whenwe eat our meals.

　　B) What ingredients the food contains.D)How fast we eat our meals.

　　57. What would happen at meal time if youremembered eating a lot in the previous meal?

　　A) You would probably be more picky aboutfood.

　　B) You would not feel like eating the samefood.

　　C) You would have a good appetite.

　　D) You would not feel so hungry.

　　58. What do we learn from the 2011 study?

　　A) Food labels may mislead consumers intheir purchases.

　　B) Food labels may influence our body’s response to food.

　　C) Hunger levels depend on one’s consumption of calories.

　　D) People tend to take in a lot morecalories than necessary.

　　59. What does Brunstrom suggest we do tocontrol our appetite?

　　A) Trick ourselves into eating less.C)Concentrate on food while eating.

　　B) Choose food with fewer calories.D) Pickdishes of the right size.

　　60. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　A) Eating distractions often affect ourfood digestion.

　　B) Psychological factors influence ourhunger levels.

　　C) Our food intake is determined by ourbiological needs.

　　D) Good eating habits will contribute toour health.

　　参考答案

　　56~60 ADBCB

　　Section C Passage Two

　　Questions61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　As a society we might want to rethink thetime and money spent on education, so that these resources can benefit agreater percentage of the population. Ideally, both high schools and collegescan prepare individuals for the ever-changing roles that arelikely to be expected of them.High school degrees offer far less in the way ofpreparation for work than they might, or than many other nations currentlyoffer, creating a growing skills gap in our economy. We encourage students to goon to college whether they are prepared or not, or have a clear sense ofpurpose or interest, and now have the highest college dropout rate in theworld.We might look to other countries for models of how high schools can offerbetter training, as well as the development of a work ethic (勤奋工作的美德) andthe intellectual skills needed for continued learning and development. Irecommend Harvard’s 2011 “Pathways toProsperity” report for more attention to the “forgotten half” (those whodo not go on to college) and ideas about how to address thisissue.Simultaneously, the liberal arts become more important than ever. In aknowledge economy where professional roles change rapidly and many collegestudents are preparing for positions that may not even exist yet, the skill setneeded is one that prepares them for change and continued learning.Learning toexpress ideas well in both writing and speech, knowing how to find information,and knowing how to do research are all solid background skills for a widevariety of roles, and such training is more important than any particular majorin a liberal arts college. We need to continue to value broad preparation inthinking skills that will serve for a lifetime.Students also need to learn towork independently and to make responsible decisions. The lengthening path toadulthood appears exacerbated (恶化) by parental involvement in the college years. Given the risinginvestment in college education, parental concern is not surprising, butlearning where and when to intervene (干预) will helpstudents take more ownership of the outcomes of these increasingly costlyeducations.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　61. What kind of education does the authorthink is ideal?

　　A) It benefits the great majority of thegeneral population.

　　B) It prepares students to meet the futureneeds of society.

　　C) It encourages students to learnthroughout their lives.

　　D) It ensures that students’ expectations are successfully fulfilled.

　　62. What does the author say is the problemwith present high school education?

　　A) Ignoring the needs of those who don’t go to college.

　　B) Teaching skills to be used right aftergraduation only.

　　C) Giving little attention to those havingdifficulty learning.

　　D) Creating the highest dropout rate in thedeveloped world.

　　63. What characterizes a knowledge economyaccording to the passage?

　　A) People have to receive higher educationto qualify for a professional position.

　　B) Students majoring in liberal artsusually have difficulty securing a job.

　　C) New positions are constantly createdthat require people to keep learning.

　　D) Colleges find it hard to teach studentshow to cope with the changing economy.

　　64. What does the author think a liberalarts college should focus on?

　　A) Solid background knowledge in aparticular field.

　　B) Practical skills urgently needed incurrent society.

　　C) Basic skills needed for change andlifelong learning.

　　D) Useful thinking skills for advancedacademic research.

　　65. What suggestion does the author offerto parents?

　　A) Rethinking the value of highereducation.

　　B) Investing wisely in their children’s education.

　　C) Helping their children to bring theirtalent into full play.

　　D) Avoiding too much intervention in theirchildren’s education.

　　参考答案

　　61~65 BDCCD

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