2017年12月大学英语四级阅读真题及答案(第二套)
Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension ( 40 minutes )
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
We all know there exists great void(空白)in the public educational system when it comes to 26 to STEM(Science,Technology,Engineering Mathematics),One educator named Dori Roberts decided to do something to change this system. Dori taught high school engineering for 11 years.She noticed there was a real void in quality stem education at all 27 of the public educational system. she said,“I started Engineering for kids (EFK)after noticing a real lack of math, science and engineering programs to 28 my own kids in”
She decided to start an after school program where children 29 in STEM-based competitions.The club grew quickly and when it reached 180 members and the kids in the program won several state 30 . she decided to devote all her time to cultivating and 31 it The global business EFK was born.
Dori began operating EFK out of her Virginia home, which she then expanded to 32 recreation centers. Today, the EFK program 33 over 144 branches in 32 states within the United States and in 21 countries. Sales have doubled from $5 million in 2014 to $10 million in 2015,with 25 new branches planned for 2016. the EFK website states, “Our nation is not 34 enough engineers. Our philosophy is to inspire kids at a young age to understand that engineering is a great 35 .”
参考答案：
26. G)exposure
27. L)levels
28. F)enroll
29. O)participated
30. C)championships
31. E) developing
32. M)local
33. N)operates
34. I)feeding
35. B)career
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.
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 curosity to go to the casino ( 5 ) yourself? "the implication of the question is that a more curious.
B) the accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often carying the suggestion that there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. " 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 the george washington bridge traffic scandal " the mainstream media the least curious about what happened? "wrote conservative writer jennifer rubin earlier this year terring 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 here something of particular value about curiosity in and of itself.
D) the journalist lan leslie. in his new and enjoyable book curious: the desire to know and whyYour fatter 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" deficit" the word""was coined by horace walpole in an 1854 letter from a tale of three princes whowere always making
discoveries by accident, of things they were not in search of, " worries that the rise of the intemet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures no longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through tields of knowledges, 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 govemments and dying corporations make disas-trous 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 techeology.The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie.Reading literary fiction,he says ,make 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 is growing: "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 body(替罪羊). he quotes Google co-founder larry page to the effect that theperfect search engine willunderstand 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 curiosity dictates, should be an afternoons entertainment. "if only!
K) Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive( 认知的)scientists, leslie criticizes the re-ceived 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 The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone.
L) School education, he wams, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious chil-dren 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 arelative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compen. sate for later on
M)although leslie's book isn't about politics, he doesn't entirely toast cucial moments. there are serious consequence, be ba i 2 Political leaders, like leaders of other organizations, should betheTheyare serious conesquences.he warns, in not wanting to know
N) he presents as an example the failure of the george w bush administration to prepare prop-erly 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 un-known unknownswere mistaken. rumsfeld's idea leslie writes, " 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 curious. i leave it to the reader's political preference to decide which, if any charges should 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
36. to be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we dont know.
37. according to leslie, curiosity is essential to one's success.
38. we should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge's sake.
39. political leaders' lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.
40. there are often accusations about politicians' and the media's lack of curiosity to find out the truth
41, the less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.
42. it is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.
43. visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.
44. both the rise of the internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to peoples declining curiosity
45. mankind wouldn't be so innovative without curosity.
参考答案：
36 H)to be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don' t know.
37. D). according to leslie, curiosity is essential to one s success.
38. O)we should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge s sake
39 M)political leaders' lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.
40. B) there are often accusations about.politicians and the media s lack of curiosity to find out the truth
41. L)the less curious a child is , the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.
42. k) it is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.
43. J) a bookshop as curiosity eads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.
44. G)both the rise of the internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to people' s declining curiosity.
45. F)mankind wouldn' t be so innovative without curiosity.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage one
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage
Aging happens to all of us ,and is generylly thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a "disease".on the other hand,scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things,and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease,cancer and many more. in that light,aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.
Biophysicist alex zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. he said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.
"It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical(制药的)industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects, "he said。
"Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can't control "he said. "in academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. the medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range."
But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, "it would attract funding and change the way we do health care. what matters is understanding that aging is curable. "
"it was always known that the body accumulates damage, "he added. "the only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. i think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.
Leonard hayflick, a professor at the university of califomia, san francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. hayflick is not among them.
" There 're many people who recover from cancer, stroke or heart disease. but they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease, " said."even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years."
46. what do people generally believe about aging?
a) it should cause no alarm whatsoever.
b)they just cannot do anything about it.
c) it should be regarded as a kind of disease
d)they can delay it with advances in science
47. how do many scientists view aging now?
a) it might be prevented and treated
c) results from a vitamin deficiency
b)it can be as risky as heart disease
d)it is an irreversible biological proces
48. what does alex zhavoronkov think ofdescribing aging as a discase?
a) it will prompt people to take aging more seriously.
b) it will greatly help reduce the side effects of aging
c) it will free pharmacists from the conventional beliefs about aging
d)it will motivate doctors and pharmacists to find ways to treat aging
49. what do we learn about the medical community?
a) they differ from the academic circles in their view on aging.
c)they can contribute to people's health only to a limited extent.
d) they have ways to intervene in people's aging process
50. what does professor leonard hayflick believe?
a)the human lifespan cannot be prolonged.
b)aging is hardly separable from disease
c) few people live up to the age of 92
d) heart disease is the major cause of aging
参考答案：
46-50：BADCA
Passage two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage
Female applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences were nearly half as likely to receive excellent letters of recor ompared with their male counterparts. christopher intagliata report.
As in many other fields, gender bias is widespread in the sciences. men score higher starting salaries, have more mentoring (指导), and have better odds of being hired. studies nigher starting also perceived as more competent than women in stem(science, technology, enging,and Mathematics) fields. and new research reveals that men are more likely to receive excellent letters of
recommendation, too.
"Say, you know, this is the best student I've ever had, "says kuheli dutt, a social scientist and diversity officer at columbia university's lamont campus.
"compare those excellent letters with a merely good letter: 'the candidate was productive, or intelligent, or a solid scientist or something that's clearly.solid praise, 'but nothing that singles out the candidate as exceptional ot one of a kind."
Dutt and her colleagues studied more than 1,200 letters of recommendation for postdoctor at positions in geoscience.they were all edited for gender and other idetifying information,so dutt and her team could assign them a scoer without knowing the gender of the student. they found that and women, th udes letters of recommendation from all over the world, and written by, yes,he findings are in the ioumal nature geoscience.
Dutt says they were not able to evaluate the actual scientific qualificati
f the apsing the data in the files. but she says the results still suggest women in geoscience are at apotential disadvantage from the very beginning of their careers starting with those less than out-standing letters of recommendation.
3we re not trying to assign blame or criticize anyone or call anyone conscious
Its of this study to open up meaningful dialogues on implicit gender bias.
be it at a departmental level or an institutional level or even a discipline level "which may lead to some recommendations for the letter writers themselves
51. what do we learn about applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences?
a) there are many more men applying than women
b)chancers for women ti get the positin are scare.
c) more males than females are likely to get outstanding letters of recommendation.
d) male applicants have more interest in these positions than their female counterparts.
52. what do studies about men and women in scientific research show?
a women engaged in postdoctoral work are quickly catching up
b) fewer women are applying for postdoctoral positions due to gender bias
c) men are believed to be better able to excel in stem disciplines.
d)women who are keenly interested in stem fields are often exceptional
53.What do the studies find about the recommendation letters for women applicants?
a)they are hardly ever supported by concrete examples.
b)they contain nothing that distinguishes the applicants
c) they provide objective information without exaggerat
d)they are often filled with praise for exceptional applicants
54.What did dutt and her colleagues do with the more than 1, 200 letters of recommendation?
a)they asked unbiased scholars to evaluate them dit them
b)they invited women professionais to edit them.
c)them assigned them randomly to reviewers
d) they deleted all information about gende
55. what does dutt aim to do with her study?
a) raise recommendation writers' awareness of gender bias in their letters
b)open up fresh avenues for women post-doctors to join in research work
c) alert women researchers to all types of gender bias in the stem disciplines
d) start a public discussion on how to raise womens status in academic circles
参考答案：
51-55:CCBDD
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