2009年12月六级考试快速阅读题解
2009年12月英语四级阅读理解真题与答案详解
Passage OneQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and how they’ll change America. Rightly so, but selfishly, I’m more fascinated by Michelle Obama and what she might be able to do, not just for this country, but for me as an African-American woman. As the potential First Lady, she would have the world’s attention. And that means that for the first time people will have a chance to get up close and personal with the type of African-American woman they so rarely see.Usually, the lives of black women go largely unexamined. The prevailing theory seems to be that we’re all hot-tempered single mothers who can’t keep a man. Even in the world of make-believe, black women still can’t escape the stereotype of being eye-rolling, oversexed females raised by our never-married, alcoholic (酗酒的) mothers.These images have helped define the way all women are viewed, including Michelle Obama. Before she ever gets the chance to commit to a cause, charity or foundation as First Lady, her most urgent and perhaps most complicated duty may be simple to be herself.It won’t be easy. Because few mainstream publications have done in-depth features on regular African-American women, little is known about who we are, what we think and what we face on a regular basis. For better or worse, Michelle will represent us all.Just as she will have her critics, she will also have millions of fans who usually have little interest in the First Lady. Many African-American blogs have written about wh at they’d like to see Michelle bring to the White House—mainly showing the world that a black woman can support her man and raise a strong black family. Michelle will have to work to please everyone—an impossible task. But for many African-American women like me, just a little of her poise (沉着), confidence and intelligence will go a long way in changing an image that’s been around for far too long.57. Why does Michelle Obama hold a strong fascination for the author?A) She serves as a role model for African women.B) She possesses many admirable qualities becoming a First Lady.C) She will present to the world a new image of African-American women.D) She will pay closer attention to the interests of African-American women.58. What is the common stereotype of African-American women according to the author?A) They are victims of violence. B) They are of an inferior violence.C) They use quite a lot of body language. D) They live on charity and social welfare.59. What do many African-Americans write about in their blogs?A) Whether Michelle can live up to the high expectations of her fans.B) How Michelle should behave as a public figure.C) How proud they are to have a black woman in the White House.D) What Michelle should do as wife and mother in the White House.60. What does the author say about Michelle Obama as a First Lady?A) However many fans she has, she should remain modest,B) She shouldn’t disappoint the African-American community.C) However hard she tries, she can’t expect to please everybody.D) She will give priority to African-American women’s concerns.61. What do many African-American women hope Michelle Obama will do?A) Help change the prevailing view about black women.B) Help her husband in the task of changing America.C) Outshine previous First Lady.D) Fully display her fine qualities.Passage TwoQuestions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they’ll be joined by a new face; Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost (教务长) of Yale, who’ll become Oxford’s vice-chancellor—a position equivalent to university president in America.Hamilton isn’t the only educator crossing the Atlantic. Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc, have also recently made top-level hires from abroad. Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many businesses, it’s gone global. Yet the talent flow isn’t universal. High-level personnel tend to head in only one direction: outward from America.The chief reason is that American schools don’t tend to seriously consider looking abroad. For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of th e university’s budget. “We didn’t do any global consideration,” says Patricia Hayes, the board’s chair. The board ultimately picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist (活动家) who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a distinctively American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations. The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding. But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student number. The decline in government support has made funding-raising an increasing necessary ability among administrators and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.In the past few years, prominent schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job s he had overseen “a major strengthening of Yale’s financial position.”Of course, fund-raising isn’t the only skill outsiders offer. The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international experience of some kind of promote international programs and attract a global student body.Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective on established practices.62. What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the passage?A) Institutions worldwide are hiring administrators from the U.S.B) A lot of political activists are being recruited as administrators.C) American universities are enrolling more international students.D) University presidents are paying more attention to funding-raising.63. What is the chief consideration of American universities when hiring top-level administrators?A) The political correctness. B) Their ability to raise funds.C) Their fame in academic circles. D) Their administrative experience.64. What do we learn about European universities from the passage?A) The tuitions they charge have been rising considerably.B) Their operation is under strict government supervision.C) They are strengthening their position by globalization.D) Most of their revenues come from the government.65. Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard as its vice-chancellor chiefly because _____.A) she was known to be good at raising moneyB) she could help strengthen its ties with YaleC) she knew how to attract students overseasD) she had boosted Yale’s academic status66. In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?A) They can enhance the university’s image.B) They will bring with them more international faculty.C) They will view a lot of things from a new perspective.D) They can set up new academic disciplines.参考答案：Passage One文章大意：本文是一篇议论文，选自《新闻周刊》2008年11月刊，题目为MICHELLE OBAMA IS A BLACK SKINNED BEAUTY!。
英语学习_2009年12月英语六级真题及答案_必备
弃我去者，昨日之日不可留乱我心者，今日之日多烦忧2009年12月大学英语六级考试真题Part ⅠWriting (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes? Y ou should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.1. 现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班2. 对这种做法有人表示支持，也有人并不赞成3. 我认为……Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes? Part ⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given inthe passage.B osses Say “Y es” to Home Work Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office—all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.For the small business, there are additional benefits too—staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive advantage, especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but don t have the budget to offer huge salaries.While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.Y et this is now changing. When communications provider Inter Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small and medium sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen agrowing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.“If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,”says Andy Poulton, e business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.Y et while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading (伪装) as business friendly broadband. “Broadband is available for as little as ￡15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,”says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, aninternet service provider based in the north east of England. “Providers offering broadband for rock bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.”Such services don t cost too much—quality services can be found for upwards of ￡30 a month. The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet based backup or even internet based phone services. Internet based telecoms, or V oIP (V oice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is mis leading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker—facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.By law, companies must “consider seriously” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with youngchildren that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.Marketing director Jack O Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity—now she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices (whether that s from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life.O Hern says: “Although most of our work is client based and must fit around this, we can t see any reason why a parent can t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the abilityto complete a project later in the day.”Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources. Although Wright Vigar hasn t yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee earners a substantial amount of “dead”time in their working days.That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds.The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her company s data management over to a remote hosting company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the company sconsultants over broadband internet connections.It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didn t need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11 year old,”says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off site meetings, we didn t need our offices at all. We re now saving ￡16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention wh at would have been spent on commuting.”1. What is the main topic of this passage?A) How business managers view hi tech. B) Relations between employers and employees.C) How to cut down the costs of small businesses.D) Benefits of the practice of teleworking.2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter Tel, we learn that .A) more employees work to full capacity at homeB) employees show a growing interest in small businessesC) more businesses have adopted remote working solutionsD) attitudes toward IT technology have changed3. What development has made flexible working practices possibleaccording to Andy Poulton?A) Reduced cost of telecommunications.B) Improved reliability of internet service.C) Availability of the V oIP service. D) Access to broadband everywhere.4. What is Neil Stephenson s advice to firms contracting internet services?A) They look for reliable business only providers.B) They contact providers located nearest to them.C) They carefully examine the contract.D) They contract the cheapest provider.5. Internet based telecoms facilitates remote working by .A) offering sophisticated voice servicesB) giving access to emailing in real timeC) helping clients discuss business at homeD) providing calls completely free of charge6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to .A) present a positive image to prospective customersB) support its employees with children to take care ofC) attract young people with IT expertise to work for itD) reduce operational expenses of a second office7. According to marketing director Jack O Hern, teleworking enabledthe company to .A) enhance its market image B) reduce recruitment costsC) keep highly qualified staffD) minimise its office space8. Wright Vigar s practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits the company but helps improve employees .9. With fast, wireless internet connections, employees can still be while traveling.10. Single mother Lynne Hargreaves decided to work at home mainly to .Part ⅢListening Comprehension (35 minutes)Section A Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.11. A) They would rather travel around than stay at home.B) They prefer to carry cash when traveling abroad.C) They usually carry many things around with them.D) They don t like to spend much money on traveling.12. A) The selection process was a little unfair.B) He had long dreamed of the dean s position.C) Rod was eliminated in the selection process.D) Rod was in charge of the admissions office.13. A) Applause encourages the singer. B) She regrets paying for the concert.C) Almost everyone loves pop music.D) The concert is very impressive.14. A) They have known each other since their schooldays.B) They were both chairpersons of the Students Union.C) They have been in close touch by email.D) They are going to hold a reunion party.15. A) Cook their dinner.B) Rest for a while.C) Get their car fixed.D) Stop for the night.16. A) Newly launched products.B) Consumer preferences.C) Survey results.D) Survey methods.17. A) He would rather the woman didn t buy the blouse.B) The woman needs blouses in the colors of a rainbow.C) The information in the catalog is not always reliable.D) He thinks the blue blouse is better than the red one.18. A) The course is open to all next semester.B) The notice may not bereliable.C) The woman has not told the truth.D) He will drop his course in marketing.Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.19. A) A director of a sales department. B) A manager at a computer store.C) A sales clerk at a shopping center.D) An accountant of a computer firm.20. A) Handling customer complaints. B) Recruiting and training new staff.C) Dispatching ordered goods on time.D) Developing computer programs.21. A) She likes something more challenging.B) She likes to be nearer to her parents.C) She wants to have a better paid job.D) She wants to be with her husband.22. A) Right away. B) In two months.C) Early next month.D) In a couple of days.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.23. A) It will face challenges unprecedented in its history.B) It is a resolute advocate of the anti global movement.C) It is bound to regain its full glory of a hundred years ago.D) It will be a major economic power by the mid 21st century.24. A) The lack of overall urban planning.B) The huge gap between the haves and have nots.C) The inadequate supply of water and electricity.D) The shortage of hi tech personnel.25. A) They attach great importance to education.B) They are able to grasp growth opportunities.C) They are good at learning from other nations.D) They have made use of advanced technologies.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.26. A) She taught chemistry and microbiology courses in a college.B) She gave lectures on how to become a public speaker.C) She helped families move away from industrial polluters.D) She engaged in field research on environmental pollution.27. A) The job restricted her from revealing her findings.B) The job posed a potential threat to her health.C) She found the working conditions frustrating.D) She was offered a better job in a minority community.28. A) Some giant industrial polluters have gone out of business.B) More environmental organizations have appeared.C) Many toxic sites in America have been cleaned up.D) More branches of her company have been set up.29. A) Her widespread influence among members of Congress.B) Her ability to communicate through public speaking.C) Her rigorous training in delivering eloquent speeches.D) Her lifelong commitment to domestic and global issues.Passage TwoQuestions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.30. A) The fierce competition in the market.B) The growing necessity of staff training.C) The accelerated pace of globalisation.D) The urgent need of a diverse workforce.31. A) Gain a deep understanding of their own culture.B) Take courses of foreign languages and cultures.C) Share the experiences of people from other cultures.D) Participate in international exchange programmes.32. A) Reflective thinking is becoming critical.B) Labor market is gettingglobalised.C) Knowing a foreign language is essential. D) Globalisation will eliminate many jobs.Passage ThreeQuestions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.33. A) Red haired women were regarded as more reliable.B) Brown haired women were rated as more capable.C) Golden haired women were considered attractive.D) Black haired women were judged to be intelligent.34. A) They are smart and eloquent.B) They are ambitious and arrogant.C) They are shrewd and dishonest.D) They are wealthy and industrious.35. A) They force people to follow the cultural mainstream.B) They exaggerate the roles of certain groups of people.C) They emphasize diversity at the expense of uniformity.D) They hinder our perception of individual differences.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact wordsyou have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words.Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.The ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called mnemonics. The name is (36) from their Goddess of memory “Mnemosyne”. In the ancient world, a trained memory was an (37) asset, particularly in public life. There were no (38) devices for taking notes, and early Greek orators(演说家) delivered long speeches with great (39) because they learned the speeches using mnemonic systems.The Greeks discovered that human memory is (40) an associative process—that it works by linking things together. For example, think of an apple. The (41) your brain registers the word “apple”, it (42) the shape, color, taste, smell and (43) of that fruit. All these things are associated in your memory with the word “apple”.(44) . An example could be when you think about a lecture you have had. This could trigger a memory about what you re talking about through that lecture, which can then trigger another memory.(45) . An example given on a website I was looking at follows: Do you remember the shape of Austria, Canada, Belgium, or Germany? Probably not. What about Italy, though? (46) . Y ou made an association withsomething already known, the shape of a boot, and Italy s shape could not be forgotten once you had made the association.PartⅣReading Comprehension(Reading in Depth)(25 minutes) Section ADirections: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorist s hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a “hands free”device can divert a driver s attention to an alarming extent.Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick, and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kunar and Horowitz report, those who were making the equivalent of a hands free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not.That, they calculate, would add 5.7 metres to the braking distance of a car travelling at 100kph. They also found that the group using the hands free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking.To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, members of a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had to think of a word that began with the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the same as those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worse reaction times—an average of 480 milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information they hear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.Punishing people for using hand held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerous because it seriously distracts .48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handlea series of moving tasks which were considered .49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of a hands free call took to react than those who were not.50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they are required to do .51. The author believes persuasion, rather than , might be the only way to stop people from using mobile phones while driving.Section BDirections: 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). Y ou should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over educated, eco conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality around the nation s schools singled out those in the smugly（自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turnedstudents into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists（活跃分子）and various parent teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus children s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe—whether it s possible to keep them safe—in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in o ur time, “safe” could even mean.“There s no way around the uncertainty,”says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means youaren t going to know if they do.”A2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It s the dangers parents can t—and may never—quantify that occur all of sudden. That s why I ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer causing substance, but although I ve lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still haven t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.52. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?A) Heavy metals in lab tests threaten children s health in Berkeley.B) Berkeley residents are quite contented with their surroundings.C) The air quality around Berkeley s school campuses is poor.D) Parents in Berkeley are over sensitive to cancer risks their kids face.53. What response did USA Today s report draw?A) A heated debate.B) Popular support.C) Widespread panic.D) Strong criticism.54. How did parents feel in the face of the experts studies?A) They felt very much relieved.B) They were frightened by the evidence.C) They didn t know who to believe.D) They weren t convinced ofthe results.55. What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics?A) It is important to quantify various concrete hazards.B) Daily accidents pose a more serious threat to children.C) Parents should be aware of children s health hazards.D) Attention should be paid to toxic chemical exposure.56. Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from .A) the uncertainB) the quantifiableC) an earthquake D) unhealthy foodPassage TwoQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.Crippling health care bills, long emergency room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries （老年医保受惠人）. The startling finding was that the average Medicarepatient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30 minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trendresults in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.How do we fix this problem?It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳地) managing their diseases and practicing evidence based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.We re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.Who will be there to treat them?57. The author s chief concern about the current U.S. health care system is .A) the inadequate training of physiciansB) the declining number of doctorsC) the shrinking primary care resourcesD) the ever rising health care costs58. We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that .。
2009年12月六级考试真题
2009年12月六级考试真题Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled ShouldParents Send Their Kids to Art Classes?You should write at least 150words following theoutline given below.现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班1. 对这种做法有人表示支持2. 有人并不赞成3. 我认为……Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)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. Identifythe paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose aparagraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer thequestions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Bosses Say ‘Yes’ to Home WorkA) Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition thatworkers have lives beyond the office — all are strong arguments for letting staff work fromhome. For the small business, there are additional benefits too — staff are more productive,and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide a competitive advantage, especially when small businesseswant to attract new staff but don‟t have t he budget to offer huge salaries.B) While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have donelittle about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacitywithout supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.C) Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small- and medium-sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago. The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.D) Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake. “If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an Internet connection,” says Andy Poulton, e-business adviso r at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.” One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.E) Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading(伪装) as business-friendly broadband. “Broadband is available for as little as £15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,” say Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service provider based in the north-east of England. “Providers offering broadband for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested(拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business-only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.” Such services don‟t cost too much — quality services can be found for upwards of £30 a month.F) The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based backup or even internet-based phone services. Internet-based telecoms, or VoIP (Voice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working, not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker — facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.G) By law, companies must “consider seriously” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure(基础设施) to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time. Marketing director Jack O‟Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are pa rents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. Byoffering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity — now she works a day a week from home and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”H) For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum pro ductivity when away from the offices (whether that‟s from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life. O‟Hern says: “Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we can‟t see any reason why a parent can‟t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project late in the day.”I) Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources. Although Wright Vigar hasn‟t yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of “dead” time in their working days.J) That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi-Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds. The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations (翻新) soon.K) Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her company‟s data management over to a remote hosting company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the company‟s consultants over broadband internet connections. It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didn‟t need t hem any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off-site meeting s, we didn‟t need our offices at all. We‟re now saving £16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”1. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to support itsemployees with children to take care of.2. The access to broadband everywhere has made flexible working practices possibleaccording to Andy Poulton.3. Internet-based telecoms facilitate remote working by offering sophisticated voice services.4. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel, we learn that morebusinesses have adopted remote working solutions.5. According to marketing director Jack O‟Hern, teleworking enabled the company to keephighly qualified staff.6. For companies, the cost of letting employees work at home was at least 10% higher thanthat of traditional working approach.7. Wright Vigar‟s practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits thecompany but helps improve employees‟ home life.8. Employees can still be productive while traveling with fast and wireless Internetconnections.9. Neil Stephenson suggested the firms contracting Internet services that they look for reliablebusiness-only providers.10. One of the reasons why many company managers are reluctant to let their workers work athome is that they think their workers will work harder under their eyes.Part III Listening Comprehension(35 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D], and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 witha single line through the centre.11. [A] They prefer to carry cash when traveling abroad.[B] They usually carry many things around with them.[C] They would rather travel around than stay at home.[D] They don‟t like to spend much money on traveling.12. [A] The selection process was a little unfair. [B] Rod was in charge of the admissions office.[C] Rod was eliminated in the selection process.[D] He had long dreamed of the dean‟sposition.13. [A] The concert is very impressive. [B] Almost everyone loves pop music.[C] She regrets paying for the concert. [D] Applause encourages thesinger.14. [A] They were both chairpersons of the students‟ union.[B] They have known each other since their schooldays.[C] They are going to hold a reunion party.[D] They have been in close touch by email.15. [A] Cook their dinner. [B] Get their car fixed. [C] Rest for a while. [D] Stop for the night. 16. [A] Survey results. [B]Newly-launched products.[C] Survey methods. [D] Consumerpreferences.17. [A] The woman needs blouses in the colors of a rainbow.[B] The information in the catalog is not always reliable.[C] He thinks the blue blouse is better than the red one.[D] He would rather the woman didn‟t buy the blouse.18. [A] He will drop his course in marketing. [B] The woman has not told the truth.[C] The notice may not be reliable. [D] The course is open to allnext semester.Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have justheard.19. [A] An accountant of a computer firm. [B] A director of a salesdepartment. [C] A sales clerk at a shopping center.[D] A manager at a computer store.20. [A] Handling customer complaints. [B] Recruiting and training newstaff.[C] Developing computer programs. [D] Dispatching ordered goodson time.21. [A] She likes something more challenging. [B] She likes to be nearer to her parents.[C] She wants to be with her husband. [D] She wants to have abetter-paid job.22. [A] In a couple of days.[B] Right away. [C] In two months. [D] Early next month.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.23. [A] It is bound to regain its full glory of a hundred years ago.[B] It will be a major economic power by the mid-21st century.[C] It is a resolute advocate of the anti-global movement.[D] It will face challenges unprecedented in its history.24. [A] The inadequate supply of water and electricity.[B] The lack of overall urban planning.[C] The shortage of hi-tech personnel.[D] The huge gap between the haves and have-nots.25. [A] They are good at learning from other nations.[B] They are able to grasp growthopportunities.[C] They attach great importance to education. [D] They have made use of advancedtechnologies.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.26. [A] She engaged in field research on environmental pollution.[B] She helped families move away from industrial polluters.[C] She taught chemistry and microbiology courses in a college.[D] She gave lectures on how to become a public speaker.27. [A] The job restricted her from revealing her findings.[B] She was offered a better job in a minority community.[C] The job posed a potential threat to her health.[D] She found the working conditions frustrating.28. [A] More branches of her company have been set up.[B] Many toxic sites in America have been cleaned up.[C] More environmental organizations have appeared.[D] Some giant industrial polluters have gone out of business.29. [A] Her rigorous training in delivering eloquent speeches.[B] Her lifelong commitment to domestic and global issues.[C] Her widespread influence among members of Congress.[D] Her ability to communicate through public speaking.Passage TwoQuestions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.30. [A] The urgent need of a diverse workforce. [B] The growing necessity of stafftraining.[C] The fierce competition in the market. [D] The accelerated pace ofglobalisation.31. [A] Take courses of foreign languages and cultures.[B] Gain a deep understanding of their own culture.[C] Participate in international exchange programmes.[D] Share the experiences of people from other cultures.32. [A] Globalisation will eliminate many jobs. [B] Reflective thinking is becomingcritical.[C] The labour market is getting globalised. [D] Knowing a foreign language isessential.Passage ThreeQuestions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.33. [A] Red-haired women were regarded as more reliable.[B] Brown-haired women were rated as more capable.[C] Golden-haired women were considered attractive.[D] Black-haired women were judged to be intelligent.34. [A] They are shrewd and dishonest. [B] They are wealthy andindustrious.[C] They are smart and eloquent. [D] They are ambitious andarrogant.35. [A] They exaggerate the roles of certain groups of people.[B] They force people to follow the cultural mainstream.[C] They hinder our perception of individual differences.[D] They emphasize diversity at the expense of uniformity.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.The ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called Mnemonics. The name is (36) ____ from their Goddess of Memory, Mnemosene. In the ancient world, a trained memory was an (37) ____, particularly in public life. There were no (38) ____ for taking notes and early Greek orators (演说家) delivered long speeches with great (39) ____ because they learned the speeches using Mnemonic systems.The Greeks discovered that human memory is (40) ____ an associative process — that it works by linking things together. For example, think of an apple. The (41) ____ your brain registers the word …apple‟, it (42) ____ the shape, colour, tas te, smell and (43) ____ of that fruit. All these things are associated in your memory with the word …apple‟.This means that any thought about a certain subject will often bring up more memories that are related to it. An example could be when you think about a lecture you have had. This could (44) ____ about what you were talking about through that lecture, which can then trigger another memory.This means that any thought about a certain subject will often bring up more memories that are related to it. An example given on the (45) ____ I was looking at follows: Do you remember the shape of Austria, Canada, Belgium, or Germany? Probably not. What about Italy, though? If you remember the shape of Italy, it is because you have been told at some time that Italy is (46) ____ like a boot. You made an association with something already known, the shape of a boot, and Italy‟s shape could not be forgotten once you had made the association.Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand-held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorist‟s hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a “hands-free” device can divert a driver‟s attention to an alarming extent.Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick, and Todd Horowitz of Harvard MedicalSchool ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kunar and Horowitz report, those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 metres to the braking distance of a car travelling at 100kph. They also found the group using the hands-free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking.To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, members of a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had to think of a word that began with the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the same as those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worse reaction times — an average of 480 milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information they hear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.Punishing people for using hand-held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerousbecause it seriously distracts ____________.48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handle a series of movingtasks which were considered ____________.49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of ahands-free call took ____________ to react than those who were not.50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they arerequired to do ____________.51. The author believes persuasion, rather than ____________, might be the only way to stoppeople from using mobile phones while driving.Section BDirections: 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 OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.Crippling health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries (老年医保受惠人). The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors —two primary care physicians and five specialists — in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you doesn‟t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he‟s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient‟s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.Medical students aren‟t blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who chooses primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.How do we fix this problem?It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳地) managing their disease and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.We‟re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.Who will be there to treat them?52. The author‟s chief concern about the current U.S. health care system is ______.[A] the inadequate training of physicians [B] the declining number of doctors[C] the ever-rising health care costs [D] the shrinking primary careresources53. We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that ______.[A] seeing more doctors may result in more diagnostic errors[B] visiting doctors on a regular basis ensures good health[C] the more doctors taking care of a patient, the better[D] the more costly the medicine, the more effective the cure54. Faced with the government threats to cut reimbursements indiscriminately, primary carephysicians have to ______.[A] see more patients at the expense of quality [B] improve their expertise and service[C] make various deals with specialists [D] increase their income byworking overtime55. Why do many new medical graduates refuse to choose primary care as their career?[A] They think working in emergency rooms tedious.[B] The current system works against primary care.[C] They find the need for primary care declining.[D] Primary care physicians command less respect.56. What suggestion does the author give in order to provide better health care?[A] Extend primary care to patients with chronic diseases.[B] Recruit more medical students by offering them loans.[C] Reduce the tuition of students who choose primary care as their major.[D] Bridge the salary gap between specialists and primary care physicians.Passage TwoQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over-educated, eco-conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality around the nation‟s schools singled out those in the smugly (自鸣得意地) green village of Berkeley, C alif., as being among the worst in the country. The city‟s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory‟s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists (活跃分子) and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus ch ildren‟s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmen talists, this latest drama is a trial for how today‟s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe —whether it‟s possible to keep them safe — in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe” could even mean.“There‟s no way around the uncertainty,” says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children‟s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren‟t going to know if they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It‟s the dangers parents can‟t — and may never — quantify that occur all of a sudden. That‟s why I‟ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer-causing substance, but although I‟ve lived blocks from a major fault line (地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still haven‟t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.57. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?[A] Parents in Berkeley are over-sensitive to cancer risks their kids face.。
2009年12月英语六级真题及答案解析(标准完整版)
2009年12月英语六级考试真题Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes? You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.1. 现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班2. 对这种做法有人表示支持，也有人并不赞成3. 我认为……Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes?Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Directions:In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Bosses Say “Yes” to Home WorkRising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office—all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.For the small business, there are additional benefits too—staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive advantage, especially when small busine sses want to attract new staff but don’t have the budget to offer huge salaries.While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, skeptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small and medium sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.“If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet c onnection,” says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link forBerkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading (伪装) as business friendly broadband.“Broadband is available for as little as ￡15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,” says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service provider based in the northeast of England. “Providers offering broadband for rock bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.” Such services don’t cost too much—quality services can be found for upwards of ￡30 a month.The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet based backup or even internet based phone services.Internet based telecoms, or V oIP (V oice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker—facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.By law, companies must “consider seriously” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.Marketing director Jack O Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity—now she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices (whether that’s from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life.O’Hern says: “Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we can’t see any reason why a parent can’t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project later in the day.”Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources.Although Wright Vigar hasn’t yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of “dead” time in their working days.That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi-Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds.The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved hand ing her company’s data management over to a remote hosting company, Dataset, so it can be accessible by all the company’s consultants over broadband internet connections.It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realization that it just didn’t need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11 year old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is d one on the phone, email and at offsite meetings, we didn’t need our offices at all. We’re now saving ￡16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”1. What is the main topic of this passage?A) How business managers view hi-tech.B) Relations between employers and employees.C) How to cut down the costs of small businesses.D) Benefits of the practice of teleworking.2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel, we learn that .A) more employees work to full capacity at homeB) employees show a growing interest in small businessesC) more businesses have adopted remote working solutionsD) attitudes toward IT technology have changed3. What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton?A) Reduced cost of telecommunications.B) Improved reliability of internet service.C) Availability of the V oIP service.D) Access to broadband everywhere.4. What is Neil Stephenson’s advice to firms contracting internet services?A) They look for reliable business-only providers.B) They contact providers located nearest to them.C) They carefully examine the contract.D) They contract the cheapest provider.5. Internet-based telecoms facilitates remote working by .A) offering sophisticated voice servicesB) giving access to emailing in real timeC) helping clients discuss business at homeD) providing calls completely free of charge6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to .A) present a positive image to prospective customersB) support its employees with children to take care ofC) attract young people with IT expertise to work for itD) reduce operational expenses of a second office7. According to mark eting director Jack O’Hern, teleworking enabled the company to .A) enhance its market imageB) reduce recruitment costsC) keep highly qualified staffD) minimize its office space8. Wright Vigar’s practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits the company but helps improve employees’ _________.9. With fast, wireless internet connections, employees can still be_______ while traveling.10. Single mother Lynne Hargreaves decided to work at home mainly to______..Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes) Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.11. A) They would rather travel around than stay at home.B) They prefer to carry cash when traveling abroad.C) They usually carry many things around with them.D) They don’t like to spend much money on traveling.12. A) The selection process was a little unfair.B) He had long dreamed of the dean’s position.C) Rod was eliminated in the selection process.D) Rod was in charge of the admissions office.13. A) Applause encourages the singer.B) She regrets paying for the concert.C) Almost everyone loves pop music.D) The concert is very impressive.14. A) They have known each other since their schooldays.B) They were both chairpersons of the Students’ Union.C) They have been in close touch by email.D) They are going to hold a reunion party.15. A) Cook their dinner.B) Rest for a while.C) Get their car fixed.D) Stop for the night.16. A) Newly-launched products. B) Consumer preferences.C) Survey results. D) Survey methods.17. A) He would rather the woman didn’t buy the blouse.B) The woman needs blouses in the colors of a rainbow.C) The information in the catalog is not always reliable.D) He thinks the blue blouse is better than the red one.18. A) The course is open to all next semester.B) The notice may not be reliable.C) The woman has not told the truth.D) He will drop his course in marketing.Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.19. A) A director of a sales department. B) A manager at a computer store.C) A sales clerk at a shopping center. D) An accountant of a computer firm.20. A) Handling customer complaints. B) Recruiting and training new staff.C) Dispatching ordered goods on time. D) Developing computer programs.21. A) She likes something more challenging. B) She likes to be nearer to her parents.C) She wants to have a better-paid job. D) She wants to be with her husband.22. A) Right away. B) In two months.C) Early next month. D) In a couple of days.Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.23. A) It will face challenges unprecedented in its history.B) It is a resolute advocate of the anti-global movement.C) It is bound to regain its full glory of a hundred years ago.D) It will be a major economic power by the mid-21st century.24. A) The lack of overall urban planning.B) The huge gap between the haves and have-nots.C) The inadequate supply of water and electricity.D) The shortage of hi-tech personnel.25. A) They attach great importance to education.B) They are able to grasp growth opportunities.C) They are good at learning from other nations.D) They have made use of advanced technologies.Section BDirections:In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.26. A) She taught chemistry and microbiology courses in a college.B) She gave lectures on how to become a public speaker.C) She helped families move away from industrial polluters.D) She engaged in field research on environmental pollution.27. A) The job restricted her from revealing her findings.B) The job posed a potential threat to her health.C) She found the working conditions frustrating.D) She was offered a better job in a minority community.28. A) Some giant industrial polluters have gone out of business.B) More environmental organizations have appeared.C) Many toxic sites in America have been cleaned up.D) More branches of her company have been set up.29. A) Her widespread influence among members of Congress.B) Her ability to communicate through public speaking.C) Her rigorous training in delivering eloquent speeches.D) Her lifelong commitment to domestic and global issues.Passage TwoQuestions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.30. A) The fierce competition in the market. B) The growing necessity of staff training.C) The accelerated pace of globalization. D) The urgent need of a diverse workforce.31. A) Gain a deep understanding of their own culture.B) Take courses of foreign languages and cultures.C) Share the experiences of people from other cultures.D) Participate in international exchange programmes.32. A) Reflective thinking is becoming critical. B) Labor market is getting globalised.C) Knowing a foreign language is essential. D) Globalization will eliminate many jobs. Passage ThreeQuestions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.33. A) Red-haired women were regarded as more reliable.B) Brown-haired women were rated as more capable.C) Golden-haired women were considered attractive.D) Black-haired women were judged to be intelligent.34. A) They are smart and eloquent.B) They are ambitious and arrogant.C) They are shrewd and dishonest.D) They are wealthy and industrious.35. A) They force people to follow the cultural mainstream.B) They exaggerate the roles of certain groups of people.C) They emphasize diversity at the expense of uniformity.D) They hinder our perception of individual differences.Section CDirections:In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.The ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called mnemonics. The name is (36) from their Goddess of memory “Mnemosyne”. In the ancient world, a traine d memory was an (37) asset, particularly in public life. There were no (38) devices for taking notes, and early Greek orators(演说家) delivered long speeches with great (39) because they learned the speeches using mnemonic systems.The Greeks discovered that human memory is (40) an associative process—that it works by linking things together. For example, think of an apple. The (41) your brain registers the word “apple”, it (42) the shape, color, taste, smell and (43) of that fruit. All these things are a ssociated in your memory with the word “apple”.(44) . An example could be when you think about a lecture you have had. This could trigger a memoryabout what you’re talking about through that lecture, which can then trigger another memory.(45) . An example given on a website I was looking at follows: Do you remember the shape of Austria, Canada, Belgium, or Germany? Probably not. What about Italy, though? (46) . You made an association with something already known, the shape of a boot, and Italy’s sha pe could not be forgotten once you had made the association.Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section ADirections:In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand-held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorist’s hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a “hands-free” device can divert a driver’s attention to an alarming extent.Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kumar and Horowitz report, those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 metres to the braking distance of a car travelling at 100kph. They also found that the group using the hands-free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking.To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, members of a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had to think of a word that began with the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the same as those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worse reaction times—an average of 480 milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information they hear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.Punishing people for using handheld gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerous because it seriouslydistracts _______________________.48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handle a series of moving tasks which wereconsidered _______________________.49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call took_______________________ to react than those who were not.50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they are required to do_______________________.51. The author believes persuasion, rather than _______________________, might be the only way to stoppeople from using mobile phones while driving.Section BDirections: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 OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over-educated, eco-conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality aroun d the nation’s schools singled out those in the smugly（自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city’s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory’s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists（活跃分子）and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus children’s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today’s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe—whether it’s possible to keep them safe—in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe” could even mean.“There’s no way around the uncertainty,” says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children’s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren’t going to know if they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It’s the dangers parents can’t—and may never—quantify that occur all of sudden. That’s why I’ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential cancer-causing su bstance, but although I’ve lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still haven’t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall.52. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?A) Heavy metals in lab tests threaten chil dren’s health in Berkeley.B) Berkeley residents are quite contented with their surroundings.C) The air quality around Berkeley’s school campuses is poor.D) Parents in Berkeley are over-sensitive to cancer risks their kids face.53. What response did USA Today’s report draw?A) A heated debate. B) Popular support.C) Widespread panic. D) Strong criticism.54. How did parents feel in the face of the experts’ studies?A) They felt very much relieved. B) They were frightened by the evidence.C) They didn’t know who to believe. D) They weren’t convinced of the results.55. What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics?A) It is important to quantify various concrete hazards.B) Daily accidents pose a more serious threat to children.C) Parents should be aware of children’s health hazards.D) Attention should be paid to toxic chemical exposure.56. Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from .A) the uncertain B) the quantifiableC) an earthquake D) unhealthy foodPassage TwoQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.Crippling health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries（老年医保受惠人）. The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don’t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors.How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he’s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30 minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient’s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements; physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.How do we fix this problem?It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳地) managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.We’re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the。
2009年12月大学英语四级考试真题及答案详解
But with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years, some schools are re-examining whether that aid, typically known as “merit aid”, is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars.
Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but many families who don’t meet need eligibility(资格)have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school.
1. 建设绿色校园很重要
2. 绿色校园不仅指绿色的环境??
3. 为了建设绿色校园，我们应该??
Creating a Green Campus
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)
Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage uickly and answer the uestions on Answer Sheet 1. For uestions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For uestion 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
2009年12月英语四级阅读理解真题与答案详解
Passage OneQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and how they 'lcl hange America. Rightly so, but selfishly, I 'mm ore fascinated by Michelle Obama and what she might be able to do, not just for this country, but for me as an African-American woman. As the potential First Lady, she would have the world ' s attention. And that means that for the first time people will have a chance to get up close and personal with the type of African-American woman they so rarely see.Usually, the lives of black women go largely unexamined. The prevailing theory seems to be that we ' re- taellm hpoet red single mothers who can 't keep a man. Even in the world of make-believe, black women still can'et scape the stereotype of being eye-rolling, oversexed females raised by our never-married, alcoholic ( 酗酒的) mothers.These images have helped define the way all women are viewed, including Michelle Obama. Before she ever gets the chance to commit to a cause, charity or foundation as First Lady, her most urgent and perhaps most complicated duty may be simple to be herself.It won't be easy. Because few mainstream publications have done in -depth features on regular African-American women, little is known about who we are, what we think and what we face on a regular basis. For better or worse, Michelle will represent us all.Just as she will have her critics, she will also have millions of fans who usually have little interest in the First Lady. Many African-American blogs have written about what they 'ldik e to see Michelle bring to the White House—mainly showing the world that a black woman can support her man and raise a strong black family. Michelle will have to work to please everyone—an impossible task. But for many African-American women like me, just a little of her poise (沉着), confidence and intelligence will go a long way in changing an image that ' s been around for far too long.57.Why does Michelle Obama hold a strong fascination for the author?A)She serves as a role model for African women.B)She possesses many admirable qualities becoming a First Lady.C)She will present to the world a new image of African-American women.D)She will pay closer attention to the interests of African-American women.58.What is the common stereotype of African-American women according to the author?A)They are victims of violence. B) They are of an inferior violence.C) They use quite a lot of body language. D) They live on charity and social welfare.59.What do many African-Americans write about in their blogs?A)Whether Michelle can live up to the high expectations of her fans.B)How Michelle should behave as a public figure.C)How proud they are to have a black woman in the White House.D)What Michelle should do as wife and mother in the White House.60.What does the author say about Michelle Obama as a First Lady?A)However many fans she has, she should remain modest,B)She shouldn 't disappoint the Afri-cAamn erican community.C)However hard she tries, she can 't expect to please everybody.D) She will give priority to African- American women's concerns.61.What do many African-American women hope Michelle Obama will do?A)Help change the prevailing view about black women.B)Help her husband in the task of changing America.C)Outshine previous First Lady.D)Fully display her fine qualities.Passage TwoQuestions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.When next year 's crop of hig-hschool graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they 'll be joinende wby f a c e; Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-oldprovost (教务长) of Yale, who' ll become Oxford 'svi ce-chancellor—a position equivalent to university president in America.Hamilton isn 't the only educator crossing the Atlantic. Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc, have also recently made top-level hires from abroad. Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many businesses, it 's gone global. Yet the talent flow isn '-lte uvneilv peersrsaol. nHnieglh tend to headin only one direction: outward from America.The chief reason is that American schools don'tt end to seriously consider looking abroad. For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of the university b'uds get. “Wed idn 'dto any global consideration, sa”ys Patricia Hayes, the board 'csh air. The board ultimately picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist (活动家) who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a distinctively American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations. The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding. But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student number. The decline in government support has made funding-raising an increasing necessary ability among administrators and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.In the past few years, prominent schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job she had overseen “a major strengthening of Yale 's financial position.Of course, fund- raising isn 't the only skill outsiders offer. The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international experience of some kind of promote international programs and attract a global student body.Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective on established practices.62.What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the passage?A)Institutions worldwide are hiring administrators from the U.S.B) A lot of political activists are being recruited as administrators.C)American universities are enrolling more international students.D)University presidents are paying more attention to funding-raising.63.What is the chief consideration of American universities when hiring top-level administrators?A)The political correctness. B) Their ability to raise funds.C) Their fame in academic circles. D) Their administrative experience.64.What do we learn about European universities from the passage?A)The tuitions they charge have been rising considerably.B)Their operation is under strict government supervision.C)They are strengthening their position by globalization.D)Most of their revenues come from the government.65.Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard as its vice-chancellor chiefly because .A) she was known to be good at raising moneyB)she could help strengthen its ties with YaleC)she knew how to attract students overseasD)she had boosted Yale 's academic status66.In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?A) They can enhance the university 's image.B)They will bring with them more international faculty.C)They will view a lot of things from a new perspective.D)They can set up new academic disciplines.参考答案：Passage One 文章大意：本文是一篇议论文，选自《新闻周刊》2008年11月刊，题目为MICHELLE OBAMA IS A BLACK SKINNED BEAUTY! 。
2009年12月大学英语六级考试真题+听力原文+答案详解
2009年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案Part Ⅰ Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes? You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.1. 现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班现在有不少家长送孩子参加各种艺术班2. 对这种做法有人表示支持，也有人并不赞成3. 我认为……我认为……Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes? Part ⅡReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer thequestions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices markedA), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in thepassage.Bosses Say “Yes Yes”” to Home Work Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office —all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home. For the small business, there are additional benefits too —staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide provide competitive competitive competitive advantage, advantage, advantage, especially especially especially when when when small small small businesses businesses businesses want want want to to to attract attract attract new new new staff staff staff but but but don don don’’t have the budget to offer huge salaries. While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about about it, it, it, sceptical sceptical sceptical of of of whether whether whether they they they could could could trust trust trust their their their employees employees employees to to to work work work to to to full full full capacity capacity capacity without without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business. Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small-and-medium-sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago. The The UK UK UK network network network of of of Business Business Business Links Links Links confirms confirms confirms that that that it it it too too too has has has seen seen seen a a a growing growing growing interest interest interest in in in remote remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses businesses that that that come come come through through through its its its doors doors doors now now now offer offer offer some some some form form form of of of remote remote remote working working working support support support to to to their their workforces. Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake. “If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,” says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). “This is the enabler,” Poulton says. Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading (伪装) as business-friendly broadband. “Broadband is available for as little as ￡15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,” says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet internet service service service provider provider provider based based based in in in the the the north-east north-east north-east of of of England. England. England. ““Providers Providers offering offering offering broadband broadband broadband for for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) ) networks. networks. networks. It It It is is is always always always advisable advisable advisable for for for businesses businesses businesses to to to look look look beyond beyond beyond the the the price price price tag tag tag and and and look look look for for for a a business-only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.” Such services don ’t cost too much —quality services can be found for upwards of ￡30 a month. The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based backup or even internet-based phone services. Internet-based telecoms, or V oIP (V oice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker —facilities such as voicemail and and call call call forwarding, forwarding, forwarding, which which which provide provide provide a a a continuity continuity continuity of of of the the the company company company image image image for for for customers customers customers and and and business business partners. By law, companies must “consider seriously ” requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with with young young young children children children that that that motivated motivated motivated accountancy accountancy accountancy firm firm firm Wright Wright Wright Vigar Vigar Vigar to to to begin begin begin promoting promoting promoting teleworking teleworking recently. The company, which needed to to upgrade upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) ) to to to provide provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time. Marketing Marketing director director director Jack Jack Jack O O ’Hern Hern explains explains explains that that that the the the company company company has has has a a a relatively relatively relatively young young young workforce, workforce, many many of of of whom whom whom are are are parents: parents: parents: ““One One of of of the the the triggers triggers triggers was was was when when when one one one of of of our our our tax tax tax managers managers managers returned returned returned from from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office office due due due to to to childcare. childcare. childcare. By By By offering offering offering her her her the the the ability ability ability to to to work work work from from from home, home, home, we we we have have have doubled doubled doubled her her capacity capacity——now she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and fo us as we retain someone highly qualified.”For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices (whether that ’s from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life. O ’Hern says: “Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we can ’t see any reason why a parent can ’t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project later in the day.”Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources. Although Although Wright Wright Wright Vigar Vigar Vigar hasn hasn hasn’’t t yet yet yet quantified quantified quantified the the the business business business benefits, benefits, benefits, it it it claims claims claims that, that, that, in in in addition addition addition to to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of “dead dead”” time in their working days. That That staff staff staff can can can do do do this this this without without without needing needing needing a a a fixed fixed fixed telephone telephone telephone line line line provides provides provides even even even more more more efficiency efficiency savings. “With Wi-Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds. The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon. Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her company ’s data management over to a remote remote hosting hosting hosting company, company, company, Datanet, Datanet, Datanet, so so so it it it can can can be be be accessible accessible accessible by by by all all all the the the company company company’’s s consultants consultants consultants over over broadband internet connections. It It has has has enabled enabled enabled the the the company company company to to to dispense dispense dispense with with with its its its business business business premises premises premises altogether, altogether, altogether, following following following the the realisation that it just didn ’t need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off-site meetings, we didn ’t need need our our our offices offices offices at at at all. all. all. W W e ’re re now now now saving saving ￡16,000 16,000 a a a year year year on on on rent, rent, rent, plus plus plus the the the cost cost cost of of of utilities, utilities, utilities, not not not to to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”1. What is the main topic of this passage? A) How business managers view hi-tech. B) Relations between employers and employees. C) How to cut down the costs of small businesses. D) Benefits of the practice of teleworking. 2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel, we learn that . A) more employees work to full capacity at home B) employees show a growing interest in small businesses C) more businesses have adopted remote working solutions D) attitudes toward IT technology have changed 3. What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton? A) Reduced cost of telecommunications. B) Improved reliability of internet service. C) Availability of the V oIP service. D) Access to broadband everywhere. 4. What is Neil Stephenson ’s advice to firms contracting internet services? A) They look for reliable business-only providers. B) They contact providers located nearest to them. C) They carefully examine the contract. D) They contract the cheapest provider. 5. Internet-based telecoms facilitates remote working by __________. A) offering sophisticated voice services B) giving access to emailing in real time C) helping clients discuss business at home D) providing calls completely free of charge 6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to __________. A) present a positive image to prospective customers B) support its employees with children to take care of C) attract young people with IT expertise to work for it D) reduce operational expenses of a second office 7. According to marketing director Jack O ’Hern, teleworking enabled the company to __________. A) enhance its market image B) reduce recruitment costs C) keep highly qualified staff D) minimise its office space 8. Wright Vigar ’s s practice practice practice of of of allowing allowing allowing for for for more more more flexible flexible flexible working working working hours hours hours not not not only only only benefits benefits benefits the the company but helps improve employees ’ . 9. With fast, wireless internet connections, employees can still be __________ while traveling. 10. Single mother Lynne Hargreaves decided to work at home mainly to __________. Part Ⅲ Listening Comprehension (35 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.11. A) They would rather travel around than stay at home. B) They prefer to carry cash when traveling abroad. C) They usually carry many things around with them. D) They don’t like to spend much money on traveling. 12. A) The selection process was a little unfair. B) He had long dreamed of the dean’s position. C) Rod was eliminated in the selection process. D) Rod was in charge of the admissions office. 13. A) Applause encourages the singer. B) She regrets paying for the concert. C) Almost everyone loves pop music. D) The concert is very impressive. 14. A) They have known each other since their schooldays. ’ Union. B) They were both chairpersons of the StudentsC) They have been in close touch by email. D) They are going to hold a reunion party. 15. A) Cook their dinner. B) Rest for a while. C) Get their car fixed. D) Stop for the night. 16. A) Newly-launched products. B) Consumer preferences. C) Survey results. D) Survey methods. ’t buy the blouse. 17. A) He would rather the woman didnB) The woman needs blouses in the colors of a rainbow. C) The information in the catalog is not always reliable. D) He thinks the blue blouse is better than the red one. 18. A) The course is open to all next semester. B) The notice may not be reliable. C) The woman has not told the truth. D) He will drop his course in marketing. Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.19. A) A director of a sales department. B) A manager at a computer store. C) A sales clerk at a shopping center. D) An accountant of a computer firm. 20. A) Handling customer complaints. B) Recruiting and training new staff. C) Dispatching ordered goods on time. D) Developing computer programs. 21. A) She likes something more challenging. B) She likes to be nearer to her parents. C) She wants to have a better-paid job. D) She wants to be with her husband. 22. A) Right away. B) In two months. C) Early next month. D) In a couple of days. Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.23. A) It will face challenges unprecedented in its history. B) It is a resolute advocate of the anti-global movement. C) It is bound to regain its full glory of a hundred years ago. D) It will be a major economic power by the mid-21st century. 24. A) The lack of overall urban planning. B) The huge gap between the haves and have-nots. C) The inadequate supply of water and electricity. D) The shortage of hi-tech personnel. 25. A) They attach great importance to education. B) They are able to grasp growth opportunities. C) They are good at learning from other nations. D) They have made use of advanced technologies. Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.26. A) She taught chemistry and microbiology courses in a college. B) She gave lectures on how to become a public speaker. C) She helped families move away from industrial polluters. D) She engaged in field research on environmental pollution. 27. A) The job restricted her from revealing her findings. B) The job posed a potential threat to her health. C) She found the working conditions frustrating. D) She was offered a better job in a minority community. 28. A) Some giant industrial polluters have gone out of business. B) More environmental organizations have appeared. C) Many toxic sites in America have been cleaned up. D) More branches of her company have been set up. 29. A) Her widespread influence among members of Congress. B) Her ability to communicate through public speaking. C) Her rigorous training in delivering eloquent speeches. D) Her lifelong commitment to domestic and global issues. Passage TwoQuestions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.30. A) The fierce competition in the market. B) The growing necessity of staff training. C) The accelerated pace of globalisation. D) The urgent need of a diverse workforce. 31. A) Gain a deep understanding of their own culture. B) Take courses of foreign languages and cultures. C) Share the experiences of people from other cultures. The ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called mnemonics. The name is 大36家The Greeks discovered that human memory is 大40家大家Austria, Canada, Belgium, or Germany? Probably not. What about Italy, though? 大46家can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls. 47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerous because it seriously distracts . 48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handle a series of moving tasks which were considered . 49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call took to react than those who were not. 50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they are required to do . 51. The The author author author believes believes believes persuasion, persuasion, persuasion, rather rather rather than than than , , , might might might be be be the the the only only only way way way to to to stop stop stop people people people from from from using using mobile phones while driving. Section BDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions orunfinished 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 linethrough the centre.Passage OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.There There is is is nothing nothing nothing like like like the the the suggestion suggestion suggestion of of of a a a cancer cancer cancer risk risk risk to to to scare scare scare a a a parent, parent, parent, especially especially especially one one one of of of the the over-educated, over-educated, eco-conscious eco-conscious eco-conscious type. type. type. So So So you you you can can can imagine imagine imagine the the the reaction reaction reaction when when when a a a recent recent recent USA USA USA Today Today investigation of air quality around the nation ’s schools singled out those in the smugly （自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city ’s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory ’s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus. Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists （活跃分子）and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs jobs versus versus versus children children children’’s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today ’s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe —whether it’s possible to keep them safe —in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, “safe safe”” could even mean. “There There’’s s no no no way way way around around around the the the uncertainty,uncertainty,uncertainty,”” says says Kimberly Kimberly Kimberly Thompson, Thompson, Thompson, president president president of of of Kid Kid Kid Risk, Risk, Risk, a a nonprofit group that studies children ’s health. “That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren ’t t going to know if they do.going to know if they do.” A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It ’s the dangers parents can can’’t —and and may may may never never —quantify quantify that that that occur occur occur all all all of of of sudden. sudden. sudden. That That That’’s s why why why I I ’ve ve rid rid rid my my my cupboard cupboard cupboard of of microwave microwave food food food packed packed packed in in in bags bags bags coated coated coated with with with a a a potential potential potential cancer-causing cancer-causing cancer-causing substance, substance, substance, but but but although although although I I ’ve lived lived blocks blocks blocks from from from a a a major major major fault fault fault line(line(地质断层) ) for for for more more more than than than 12 12 12 years, years, years, I I I still still still haven haven haven’’t t bolted bolted bolted our our bookcases to the living room wall. 52. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal? A) Heavy metals in lab tests threaten children ’s health in Berkeley. B) Berkeley residents are quite contented with their surroundings. C) The air quality around Berkeley ’s school campuses is poor. D) Parents in Berkeley are over-sensitive to cancer risks their kids face. 53. What response did USA Today ’s report draw? A) A heated debate. B) Popular support. C) Widespread panic. D) Strong criticism. 54. How did parents feel in the face of the experts ’ studies? A) They felt very much relieved. B) They were frightened by the evidence. C) They didn ’t know who to believe. D) They weren ’t convinced of the results. 55. What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics? A) It is important to quantify various concrete hazards. B) Daily accidents pose a more serious threat to children. C) Parents should be aware of children ’s health hazards. D) Attention should be paid to toxic chemical exposure. 56. Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from __________. A) the uncertain B) the quantifiable C) an earthquake D) unhealthy food Passage TwoQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.Crippling Crippling health health health care care care bills, bills, bills, long long long emergency-room emergency-room emergency-room waits waits waits and and and the the the inability inability inability to to to find find find a a a primary primary primary care care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily. Primary Primary care care care should should should be be be the the the backbone backbone backbone of of of any any any health health health care care care system. system. system. Countries Countries Countries with with with appropriate appropriate primary primary care care care resources resources resources score score score highly highly highly when when when it it it comes comes comes to to to health health health outcomes outcomes outcomes and and and cost. cost. cost. The The The U.S. U.S. U.S. takes takes takes the the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician. A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries （老年医保受惠人）. The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors —two primary care physicians and five specialists —in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care care of of of you you you don don don’’t t guarantee guarantee guarantee better better better care. care. care. Actually, Actually, increasing increasing fragmentation fragmentation fragmentation of of of care care care results results results in in in a a corresponding rise in cost and medical errors. How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid paid whenever whenever whenever they they they perform perform perform a a a medical medical medical service. service. service. The The The more more more a a a physician physician physician does, does, does, regardless regardless regardless of of of quality quality quality or or outcome, outcome, the the the better better better he he he’’s s reimbursed reimbursed reimbursed ((返还费用). ). Moreover, Moreover, Moreover, the the the amount amount amount a a a physician physician physician receives receives receives leans leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient patient’’s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income. Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care. Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors. How do we fix this problem? It It starts starts starts with with with reforming reforming reforming the the the physician physician physician reimbursement reimbursement reimbursement system. system. system. Remove Remove Remove the the the pressure pressure pressure for for for primary primary care care physicians physicians physicians to to to squeeze squeeze squeeze in in in more more more patients patients patients per per per hour, hour, hour, and and and reward reward reward them them them for for for optimally optimally optimally ((最佳地) managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical medical students students students by by by forgiving forgiving forgiving student student student loans loans loans for for for those those those who who who choose choose choose primary primary primary care care care as as as a a a career career career and and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries. e W e’’re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade. Who will be there to treat them? 57. The author ’s chief concern about the current U.S. health care system is __________. 。
2009年12月英语四级真题精讲：快速阅读
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For question 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Colleges taking another look at value of merit-based aidGood grades and high tests scores still matter-a lot-to many colleges as they award financial aid.But with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years, some schools are re-examining whether that aid, typically known as "merit aid", is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars.George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for example, said last week that it would cut the value of its average merit scholarships by about one-third and reduce the number of recipients（接受者）, pouring the savings, about $2.5 million, into need-based aid. Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., made a similar decision three years ago.Now, Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., says it will phase out merit scholarships altogether. No current merit-aid recipients will lose their scholarships, but need-based aid alone will be awarded beginning with students entering in fall 2008.Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but many families who don't meet need eligibility（资格）have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school.For small regional colleges that struggle just to fill seats, merit aid can be an important revenue-builder because many recipients still pay enough tuition dollars over and above the scholarship amount to keep the institution running.But for rankings-conscious schools in between, merit aid has served primarily as a tool to recruit top students and to improve their academic profits. "They're trying to buy students," says Skidmore College economist Sandy Baum.Studies show merit aid also tends to benefit disproportionately students who could afford to enroll without it."As we look to the future, we see a more pressing need to invest in need-based aid," says Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, which has offered meritscholarships for 10 years. During that time, it rose in US News & World Report's ranking of the best liberal arts colleges, from 25 to 17.Merit aid, which benefited about 75 students a year, or about 4% of its student body, at a cost of about $ 1 million a year, "served us well," Inzer says, but "to be discounting the price for families that don't need financial aid doesn't feel right any more."Need-based aid remains by far the largest share of all student aid, which includes state, federal and institutional grants. But merit aid, offered primarily by schools and states, is growing faster, both overall and at the institutional level.Between 1995-96 and 2003-04, institutional merit aid alone increased 212%, compared with 47% for need-based grants. At least 15 states also offer merit aid, typically in a bid to enroll top students in the state's public institutions.But in recent years, a growing chorus（异口同声）of critics has begun pressuring schools to drop the practice. Recent decisions by Hamilton and others may be "a sign that people are starting to realize that there's this destructive competition going on," says Baum, co-author of a recent College Report that raises concerns about the role of institutional aid not based on need.David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, says many of his schools would like to reduce their merit aid but fear that in doing so, they would lose top students to their competitors."No one can take one-sided action," says Laird, who is exploring whether to seek an exemption（豁免）from federal anti-trust laws so member colleges can discuss how they could jointly reduce merit aid, "This is a merry-go-round that's going very fast, and none of the institutions believe they can sustain the risks of trying to break away by themselves."A complicating factor is that merit aid has become so popular with middle-income families, who don't qualify for need-based aid, that many have come to depend on it. And, as tuitions continue to increase, the line between merit and need blurs.That's one reason Allegheny College doesn't plan to drop merit aid entirely."We still believe in rewarding superior achievements and know that these top students truly value the scholarship," says Scott Friedhoff, Allegheny's vice president for enrollment.Emory University in Atlanta, which boasts a $4.7 billion endowment（捐赠）, meanwhile, is taking another approach. This year, it announced it would eliminate loans for needy students and cap them for middle-income families. At the same time, it would expand its 28-year-old merit program."Yeah, we're playing the merit game," acknowledges Tom Lancaster, associate dean for undergraduate education. But it has its strong point, too, he says. "The fact of the matter is, it's not just about the lowest-income people. It's the average American middle-class family who's being priced out of the market."＊A few words about merit-based aid:Merit-based aid is aid offered to students who achieve excellence in a given area, and is generally known as academic, athletic and artistic merit scholarships.Academic merit scholarships are based on students' grades, GPA and overall academic performance during high school. They are typically meant for students going straight to college right after high school. However, there are scholarships for current college students with exceptional grades as well. These merit scholarships usually help students pay tuition bills, and they can be renewed each year as long as the recipients continue to qualify. In some cases, students may need to be recommended by their school or a teacher as part of the qualification process.Athletic merit scholarships are meant for students that excel（突出）in sports of any kind, from football to track and field events. Recommendation for these scholarships is required, since exceptional athletic performance has to be recognized by a coach or a referee （裁判）. Applicants need to send in a tape containing their best performance.Artistic merit scholarships require that applicants excel in a given artistic area. This generally includes any creative field such as art, design, fashion, music, dance or writing. Applying for artistic merit scholarships usually requires that students submit a portfolio （选辑）of some sort, whether that includes a collection of artwork, a recording of a musical performance or a video of them dancing.1. With more and more low-income students pursuing higher education, a number of colleges are ________.A) offering students more merit-based aid B) revising their financial aid policiesC) increasing the amount of financial aid D) changing their admission processes2. What did Allegheny College in Meadville do three years ago?A) It tried to implement a novel financial aid program.B) It added $ 2.5 million to its need-based aid program.C) It phased out its merit-based scholarships altogether.D) It cuts its merit-based aid to help the needy students.3. The chief purpose of rankings-conscious colleges in offering merit aid is to ______.A) improve teaching quality B) boost their enrollmentsC) attract good students D) increase their revenues4. Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, believes ______.A) it doesn't pay to spend $ 1 million a year to raise its rankingB) it gives students motivation to award academic achievementsC) it's illogical to use so much money on only 4% of its studentsD) it's not right to give aid to those who can afford the tuition5. In recent years, merit-based aid has increased much faster than need-based aid due to ______.A) more government funding to colleges B) fierce competition among institutionsC) the increasing number of top students D) schools' improved financial situations6. What is the attitude of many private colleges toward merit aid, according to David Laird?A) They would like to see it reduced.B) They regard it as a necessary evil.C) They think it does more harm than good.D) They consider it unfair to middle-class families.7. Why doesn't Allegheny College plan to drop merit aid entirely?A) Raising tuitions have made college unaffordable for middle-class families.B) With rising incomes, fewer students are applying for need-based aid.C) Many students from middle-income families have come to rely on it.D) Rising incomes have disqualified many students for need-based aid.8. Annual renewal of academic merit scholarships depends on whether the recipients remain ______.9. Applicants for athletic merit scholarships need a recommendation from a coach or a referee who ______ their exceptional athletic performance.10. Applicants for artistic merit scholarships must produce evidence to show their ______ in a particular artistic field.篇章结构核心词汇1. aid n. ①帮助，援助②助手v. 帮助，援助【用】financial aid经济援助；merit aid/ Merit-based奖学金；need-based aid助学金或经济资助；foreign aid外援，对外援助；hearing aid助听器；aids and appliances用具，设备【搭】in aid to用来帮助，起......作用；lead one's aid (to)援助，给予帮助；in aid of 作为援助......之用【拓】aidance n. 协助，帮助；aidant a. 帮助的；aided a. 辅助的2. project v. ①设计②发射n. 事业，计划，工程【用】Project Hope希望工程；project manager项目经理；project plan项目规划；project budget项目预算，工程预算【拓】projection n. 突出，发射；projecting a. 突出的3. selective a. 选择性的【用】selective analysis重点分析；selective breeding选择育种，选择性繁殖【拓】select v. 挑选，选拔a. 精选的；selection n. 选择，挑选，选集4. package n. 包裹；套装软件，程序包a. 一揽子的【用】package design包装设计；package agreement一揽子安排，一揽子方案；package holiday （旅行社安排一切的）一揽子旅游；package tour包办旅行（路线、地点、时间和费用等均作统一规定和安排的旅游）；package program组装程序【拓】pack n.包装，背包v. 包装，压紧；packaged a. 袋装的；packager n. 打包机5. ranking a. 头等的；n. 等级，地位【用】ranking list排名；ranking method等级法，排序法【拓】rank n. 等级；队列；v. 排列，列队6. grant v. ①授予②承认；n. ①授予物②拨款【用】grant of a patent授予专利权【搭】take...for granted认为......是理所当然； Granted/Granting that即使......（也）【拓】grants n. 补助金，津贴（grant的复数）7. enrol v. 登记，入学，参军，注册【搭】enrol in选课，参加【拓】enrollment n. 登记，入伍；enrollee n. 入学者，入伍者8. eliminate v. 消除，排除【用】eliminate illiteracy扫盲；eliminate poverty消除贫困；eliminate noise 消除噪声【拓】eliminate 是指把已进入者从中排除；exclude v. 指把想进入者拒之门外9. qualify v. 使具有资格，证明......合格【用】qualifying examination资格考试，初试；qualifying competition预选赛，资格赛【搭】qualify as 取得......资格，作为......合适；qualify for有......的资格，合格【拓】qualified a. 有资格的，合格的10. excel v. 胜过，优于，擅长n. [计算机] 软件名称【搭】to excel in/at (在某方面)胜过(或超过)别人；to excel in music 擅长音乐【拓】 excellent a. 极好的，卓越的；excellence n. 优秀，长处11. submit v. 使服从，提交【用】submit oneself to discipline遵守纪律；submit registration提交登记表，提交注册【搭】submit to 服从；submit...to 将......呈交给【拓】 submission n. 服从，投降试题详解1. 【原题译文】随着越来越多的低收入学生追求高等教育，一些学院＿＿。