四级阅读真题

第一篇

Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it?

It wouldn’t besurprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because youcouldn’t reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make aSilicon Valley?

It’s the rightpeople. If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from SiliconValley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley.

You only needtwo kinds of people to create a technology hub （中心）:rich people and nerds （痴迷科研的人）.

Observationbears this out. Within the US, towns have become startup hubs if and only ifthey have both rich people and nerds. Few startups happen in Miami, forexample, because although it’s full of rich people, it has few nerds. It’s notthe kind of place nerds like.

WhereasPittsburg has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no rich people. Thetop US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, andCarnegie-Mellon. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded SiliconValley. But what did Carnegie-Mellon yield in Pittsburgh? And whathappened in Ithaca, home of Cornell University, which is also high on the list.

I grew up inPittsburgh and went to college at Cornell, so I can answer for both. Theweather is terrible, particularly in winter, and there’s no interesting oldcity to make up for it, as there is in Boston. Rich people don’t want to livein Pittsburgh or Ithaca. So while there are plenty of hackers （电脑迷）who could start startups, there’s no one to invest in them.

Do you reallyneed the rich people? Wouldn’t it work to have the government invest the nerds?No, it would not. Startup investors are a distinct type of rich people. Theytend to have a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. Thishelps them pick the right startups, and means they can supply advice andconnections as well as money. And the fact that they have a personal stake inthe outcome makes them really pay attention.

56. What do welearn about Silicon Valley from the passage?

A) Its success is hard to copy any where else.

B) It is the biggest technology hub in the US.

C) Its fame in high technology is incomparable.

D) It leads the world in information technology.

57. What makesMiami unfit to produce a Silicon Valley?

A) Lack of incentive for investments.

B) Lack of the right kind of talents.

C) Lack of government support.

D) Lack of famous universities.

58. In that wayis Carnegie-Mellon different from Stanford, Berkeley and MIT?

A) Its location is not as attractive to rich people

B) Its science department are not nearly as good

C) It does not produce computer hackers and nerds

D) It does not pay much attention to business startups

59. What doesthe author imply about Boston?

A) It has pleasant weather all year round.

B) It produces wealth as well as high-tech

C) It is not likely to attract lots of investor and nerds.

D) It is an old city with many sites of historical interest.

60. What doesthe author say about startup investors?

A) They are especially wise in making investments.

B) They have good connections in the government.

C) They can do more than providing money.

D) They are enough to invest in nerds.

参考答案：

56. A

此题难度不大，根据题干中的“Silicon Valley”可定位第一段，第一段尾句“is there something unique about it?”直接把答案引向第二段。精读第二段“it wouldn’t be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in othercountries”，可知该句与A选项“Its success is hard to copy anywhere else.”为同义替换关系，故选A，其他三项均为无中生有。

57. B

此题难度不大，根据题干中“Miami”可定位至原文第五段，该段表明迈阿密只有有钱人，而缺少“痴迷于技术的人”，所以无法成为科技中心，该含义对应B选项，为统一替换关系，选项中的“the right kind oftalents”替换了原文的“nerds”。

58. A

此题难度不高，根据题干中的“Carnegie-Mellon”和“Stanford”，“Berkeley”，“MIT”

容易定位到原文第六段，第六段段位抛出问题，所以顺势往第七段找答案。第七段中详细描述了卡内基梅隆大学所在的匹兹堡的不同之处：“The weather is terrible”，“rich people don’t want to live in Pittsburgh or Ithaca”，这些信息都指向了A选项，为高度概括关系。

59. D

该题难度较高，根据题干中的“Boston”可定位至原文的第七段。原文提到Boston的句子为“as there is in Boston”，as在这里表对比，意为“波士顿却有”，那么前文一定指出了匹兹堡没有某物，所以关键句在于具体是什么，故往前文查找，发现前文提到的是“and there’s no interesting old city to make up for it”，意思是匹兹堡不仅天气恶劣，而且也没有有趣的老城区，但是波士顿却与之相反，固选择D，表示“波士顿有着很多历史古迹”。

60. C

本题难度不高，根据核心名词概念“startup investors”可定位到原文最后一段，原文清晰地表述了，startup investors不仅能够提供资金帮助，还能提供很多建议，所以C选项“他们不仅能提供资金”是最好的答案，和原文关系为高度概括。

第二篇

It’s nice to have people of like mindaround. Agreeable people boost your confidence and allow you to relax and feelcomfortable. Unfortunately, that comfort can hinder the very learning that canexpand your company and your career.

It’s nice to have people agree, but youneed conflicting perspectives to dig out the truth. If everyone around you hassimilar views, your work will suffer from confirmation bias. (偏颇)

Take a look at your own network. Do youcontacts share your point of view on most subjects? It yes, it’s time to shakethings up. As a leader, it can be challenging to create an environment in whichpeople will freely disagree and argue, but as the saying goes: Fromconfrontation comes brilliance.

It’s not easy for most people to activelyseek conflict. Many spend their lives trying to avoid arguments. There’s noneed to go out and find people you hate, but you need to do someself-assessment to determine where you have become stale in your thinking. Youmay need to start by encouraging your current network to help you identify yourblind spots.

Passionate, energetic debate does notrequire anger and hard feelings to be effective. But it does require moralstrength. Once you have worthing opponents, set some ground rules so everyoneunderstands responsibilities and boundaries. The objective of this debatinggame is not to win but to get to the truth that will allow you to move faster,and better.

Fierce debating can hurt feelings,particularly when strong personalities are involved. Make sure your check inwith your opponents so that they are not carrying the emotion of the battlesbeyond the battlefield. Break the tension with smiles and humor to reinforcethe idea that this is friendly discourse and that all are working toward acommon goal.

Reword all those involved in the debatesufficiently when the goals are reached. Let your sparring partners (拳击陪练) know how much you appreciate their contribution. The more theyfeel appreciated, the more they’ll be willing to get into the ring next time.

61.What happens when you have like-mindedpeople around you all the while?

A) It will help your companyexpand more rapidly.

B) It will be create a harmoniousworking atmosphere.

C) It may prevent your businessand career from advancing.

D) It may make you fell uncertainabout your own decision.

62.What does the author suggest leaders do?

A) Avoid arguments with businesspartners.

B) Encourage people to disagreeand argue.

C) Build a wide and strongbusiness network.

D) Seek advice from their worthycompetitors.

63.What is the purpose of holding a debate?

A) To find out the truth about anissue.

B) To build up people’s moralstrength.

C) To remove misunderstandings.

D) To look for worthy opponents.

64.What advice does the author give topeople engaged in a fierce debate?

A) They listen carefully to theiropponents’ views.

B) They slow due respect for eachother’s beliefs.

C) They present their viewsclearly and explicitly.

D) They take care not to hurt eachother’s feelings.

65.How should we treat our rivals after asuccessful debate?

A) Try to make peace with them.

B) Try to make up the differences.

C) Invite them to the ring nexttime.

D) Acknowledge their contribution.

参考答案：

61. C

该题难度不大，根据“like-minded people”定位到首段，首段指出这类人可以给人信息并令人感到舒服，后面用“unfortunately”表转折，后面的表述“这种舒服会让你意识不到你可以扩大你的公司和事业”，对应C选项，同义替换。

62. B

本题不难。根据核心名词“leaders”定位到第三段，作者给leader的建议是“虽然建立一个自由言论的环境不容易，但是俗话说灵感从争论中迸发”，意思是领导者需要建立这样能的环境，固选择B项，高度概括。

63. A

本题难度不大。根据关键信息“purpose of holding adebate”定位到原文倒数第三段，原文“objective”对应“purpose”，后面跟的即为答案：“isnot to win but to get the truth that will allow you to move faster, farther,and better.”，对应A选项。

64. D

该题难度较大。根据关键信息“fierce debate”定位到原文倒数第二段，原文给出观点“用微笑和幽默表明这是一个友好的讨论，大家的目标都是一样的”，对应D选项，该题强干扰项为B，B选项中的“respect”容易让同学们产生好感从而错选B，而实际上B选项错在“other’s beliefs”上，原文并没有提到尊重他人的信念和观点，属于无中生有。

65. D

根据题干“rival”对应到最后一段的“sparring partners”，原文给出“让他们知道对他们的付出你很感激”，对应D选项“肯定他们的付出”，为同义替换关系。

Passage One

Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping－where you

hand over notes and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters，like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance —you don’t go and stand at any kind of cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa.

Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. But earning money isn’t quick or easy for most of us. Isn’t it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink (眨眼) of an eye? Doesn’t a wallet—that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something that matters?

But I’ll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed cinema tickets—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smartphone of an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.

56. What is happening to the wallet?

A) It is disappearing. C) it is becoming costly.

B) It is being fattened. D) It is changing in style.

57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?

A) Individually. C) In the abstract.

B) Electronically. D) Via a cash register.

58. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?

A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.

B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading.

C) Earning money is getting more difficult.

D) Spending money is so fast and easy.

59. Why does the author choose to write about what’s happening to the wallet?

A) It represents a change in the modern world.

B) It has something to do with everybody’s life.

C) It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition.

D) It is the concern of contemporary economists.

60.What can we infer from the passage about the author?

A)He is resistant to social changes.

B)He is against technological progress.

C)He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.

D)He fells insecure in the ever-changing modern world.

参考答案

56.A——it isdisappearing

57.B——Electronically

58.D——Spending money isso fast and easy

59.A——It represents achange in the modern world

60.D——He feels insecurein ever-changing modern world

Passage Two

Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Everybody sleeps,but what people stay up late to catch—or wake up early in order not to miss—varies by culture.From data collected,it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep,onaverage,are sporting events,timechanges,and holidays.

Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to “winter time”starting on October 26.

Russia’s other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year’s Eve, Russians have the world’s latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 am.

Russians also get up an hour later on International Women’s Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.

Similarly, Americans’ late nights late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day weekends.

Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey(冰球）final.

The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation(剥夺）, The worst night for sleep in the U.K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely

sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.

It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns, in some of these nations, it’s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that’s the case, though, the above findings are still striking, If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?

61. What does the author say about people’s sleeping habits?

A) They are culture-related C)They change with the seasons.

B) They affect people’s health. D)They vary from person to person.

62.What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep?

A) They don’t fall asleep until very late.

B) They don’t sleep much on weekends.

C) They get less sleep on public holidays.

D) They sleep longer than people elsewhere.

63.What is the major cause for Europeans’ loss of sleep?

A) The daylight savings time.

B) The colorful night life.

C) The World Cup.

D) The summertime.

64.What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their patterns?

A) They have trouble falling asleep.

B) They want to get sufficient sleep.

C) They are involved in a sleep research.

D) They want to go to bed on regular hours.

65. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?

A) Sleeplessness does harm to people’s health.

B) Few people really know the importance of sleep.

C) It is important to study our sleep patterns.

D) Average people probably sleep less than the rich.

56、C It might have anegative effect on creative work.

57、A They combineclock－basedand task－basedplanning

58、D They tend to be moreproductive.

59、B Itdoes not attach enough importance to task-basedpractice.

60、D Ascientific standard should be adopted in a jobevaluation.

61、A Her past record mightstand in her way to a new life.

62、B They are deprived of chancesto turn over a new leaf

63、C They are marginalized insociety

64、D A lot of them have negativeeffects on society

65、B To appeal for changes inAmerica’s criminal justice system.

Passage One

Questions 56 to 60 are based on the followingpassage.

Across the rich world, well-educated peopleincreasingly work longer than the l ess-skilled. Some65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degr ee are in the workforce, comparedwith 32% of men with only a high-school ce rtificate.This gap is part of a deepening divide between thewell-educated well-off and the unskilled poor. Rapidtechnological advance has raised the incom es of thehighly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequen ces, for individuals andsociety, are profound.

The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people. And the y will live longerthan ever before. Over the next 20 years the global populat ion of those aged 65 or more willalmost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billio n. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长

寿) translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, haspersuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic gro wth, while the swellingranks of pensioners will create government budget pr oblems.

But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are fallingamong younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide ismost extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers(二战后生育高峰期出生的美国

人)areputting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have drop ped out of theworkforce.

Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned poli cies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy(预期寿

命), combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension p lans with less generous defined-contribution ones, means that even the b etter-off must work longer to have a comfortableretirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for thehighly educ ated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because th esedays the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding gener ation. Technologicalchange may well reinforce that shift: the skills that com plement computers, frommanagement knowhow to creativity, do not neces sarily decline with age.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

56. What is happening in the workforce in rich countries?

A) Younger people are replacing the elderly.

B) Well-educated people tend to work longer.

C) Unemployment rates are rising year after year.

D) People with no college degree do not easily find work.

57. What has helped deepen the divide between the well-off and the poor?

A) Longer life expectancies.

B) A rapid technological advance.

C) Profound changes in the workforce.

D) A growing number of the well-educated.

58. What do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th century?

A) Economic growth will slow down.

B) Government budgets will increase.

C) More people will try to pursue higher education.

D) There will be more competition in the job market.

59. What is the result of policy changes in European countries?

A) Unskilled workers may choose to retire early.

B) More people have to receive in-service training.

C) Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retirement.

D) People may be able to enjoy generous defined-benefits from pension pla ns.

60. What is characteristic of work in the 21st century?

A) Computers will do more complicated work.

B) More will be taken by the educated young.

C) Most jobs to be done will be creative ones.

D) Skills are highly valued regardless of age.

考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对。

56. B) Well-educated people tend to work longer.

57. B) A rapid technological advance.

58. A) Economic growth will slow down.

59. C) Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retiremen t.

60. D) Skills are highly valued regardless of age.

Passage Two

Questions 61 to 65 are based on the followingpassage.

Some of the world’s most significant problems neverhit headlines. One examp le comes from agriculture.Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lyi ng behind these matters is rarely talked about.This is the decline in the grow th in yields of some ofthe world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University inMontreal looks at where, and how far, thi s decline is occurring.

The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important cr ops: rice, wheat,corn and soyabeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the impr ovement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990 s and 2000s.

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been part icularly sharp inthe world’s most populous(人口多的)countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselveshas been an im portant source of relative stability both within the countries and on world fo odmarkets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.

Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soy beans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as fo ods, accounting for around halfof all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authorsnote that “we have preferentia lly focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals andcars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of theworld.”

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that theworld will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050,as the Food and Agriculture Organisatio n has argued.

Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughe d up for cropsmight be able to revert(回返)to forest or wilderness.This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

61. What does the author try to draw attention to?

A) Food riots and hunger in the world.

B) News headlines in the leading media.

C) The decline of the grain yield growth.

D) The food supply in populous countries.

62. Why does the author mention India and China in particular?

A) Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.

B) Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.

C) Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.

D) Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.

63. What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?

A) They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.

B) They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.

C) They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.

D) They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.

64. What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation say about world food productionin the coming decades?

A) The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.

B) The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with c aution.

C) The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.

D) The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.

65. How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agricultu re Organisation?

A) It is built on the findings of a new study.

B) It is based on a doubtful assumption.

C) It is backed by strong evidence.

D) It is open to further discussion.

考试采取“多题多卷”模式，试题顺序不统一，请依据试题进行核对。

61. C) The decline of the grain yield growth.

62. A) Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.

63. D) They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grain s.

64. D) The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmla nd.

65. B) It is based on a doubtful assumption.