四级阅读真题

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1、四级阅读真题第一篇Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it?It wouldnt besurprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because youcouldn t reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make aSilicon Valley?It s the rightpeople. If you coul

2、d get the right ten thousand people to move from SiliconValley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley.You only needtwo kinds of people to create a technology hub （中心）:rich people and nerds （痴迷科研的人）.Observationbears this out. Within the US, towns have become startup hubs if and only ifthey h

3、ave both rich people and nerds. Few startups happen in Miami, forexample, because although it s full of rich people, it has few nerds. It s notthe kind of place nerds like.WhereasPittsburg has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no rich people. Thetop US Computer Science departments are said

4、to be MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, andCarnegie-Me 11 on. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded SiliconValley. But what did Carnegie-Melion yield in Pittsburgh? And whathappened in Ithaca, home of Cornell University, which is also high on the list.I grew up inPittsburgh and went to college

5、 at Cornell, so I can answer for both. Theweather is terrible, particularly in winter, and theres no interesting oldcity to make up for it, as there is in Boston. Rich people don t want to livein Pittsburgh or Ithaca. So while there are plenty of hackers （电脑迷）who could start startups, there s no one

6、 to invest in them.Do you reallyneed the rich people? Wouldn t it work to have the government invest the nerds?No, it would not. Startup investors are a distinct type of rich people. Theytend to have a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. Thishelps them pick the right startups, a

7、nd means they can supply advice andconnections as well as money. And the fact that they have a personal stake inthe outcome makes them really pay attention.56. What do welearn about Silicon Valley from the passage?A) Its success is hard to copy any where else.B) It is the biggest technology hub in t

8、he US.C) Its fame in high technology is incomparable.D) It leads the world in information technology.57. What makesMiami unfit to produce a Silicon Valley?A) Lack of incentive for investments.B) Lack of the right kind of talents.C) Lack of government support.D) Lack of famous universities.58. In tha

9、t way is Carneg i e-Me lion different from Stanford, Berkeley and MIT?A) Its location is not as attractive to rich peopleB) Its science department are not nearly as goodC) It does not produce computer hackers and nerdsD) It does not pay much attention to business startups59. What doesthe author impl

10、y about Boston?A) It has pleasant weather all year round.B) It produces wealth as well as high-tech C) It is not likely to attract lots of investor and nerds.D) It is an old city with many sites of historical interest.60. What doesthe author say about startup investors?A) They are especially wise in

11、 making investments.B) They have good connections in the government.C) They can do more than providing money.D) They are enough to invest in nerds.参考答案：56. A此题难度不大，根据题干中的Silicon Valley” 可定位第一段,第一段尾句is there something unique about it?”直接把答案引向第二段。精 读第二段it wouldn t be surprising if it were hard to repr

12、oduce in othercountries, 可知该句与 A选项“Its success is hard to copy anywhere else.”为同义替换关系，故选A,其 他三项均为无中生有。57. B此题难度不大，根据题干中“Miami”可定位至 原文第五段，该段表明迈阿密只有有钱人，而缺 少“痴迷于技术的人”，所以无法成为科技中心, 该含义对应B选项，为统一替换关系，选项中的 “the right kind of talents 替换了原文的 “nerds” 。58. A此题难度不高，根据题干中的“Carnegie-Mellon 和Stanford”，“Berkeley” ,

13、“MIT”容易定位到原文第六段,第六段段位抛出问题，所以顺势往第七段找答 案。第七段中详细描述了卡内基梅隆大学所在的 匹兹堡的不同之处：The weather is terrible , rich people don t want to live in Pittsburgh or Ithaca”,这些信息都指向 了 A选项，为高度概括关系。59. D该题难度较高，根据题干中的“Boston”可定位 至原文的第七段。原文提到Boston的句子为“asthere is in Boston” , as在这里表对比，意 为“波士顿却有”，那么前文一定指出了匹兹堡 没有某物，所以关键句在于具体是什么，

14、故往前 文查找，发现前文提到的是“and there s no interesting old city to make up for it”, 意思是匹兹堡不仅天气恶劣，而且也没有有趣的 老城区，但是波士顿却与之相反，固选择D,表 示“波士顿有着很多历史古迹”。60. C本题难度不高，根据核心名词概念“startupinvestors可定位到原文最后一段，原文清晰 地表述了， startup investors不仅能够提供资 金帮助，还能提供很多建议，所以C选项“他们 不仅能提供资金”是最好的答案，和原文关系为 高度概括。第一篇 源一It s nice to have people of l

15、ike mindaround. Agreeable people boost your confidence and allow you to relax and feelcomfortable. Unfortunately, thatcomfort can hinder the very learning that canexpand your company and your career.It s nice to have people agree, but youneed conflicting perspectives to dig out the truth. If everyon

16、e around you hassimilar views, your work will suffer from confirmation bias.（偏颇）Take a look at your own network. Do youcontacts share your point of view on most subjects? It yes, it s time to shakethings up. As a leader, it can be challenging to create an environment in whichpeople will freely disag

17、ree and argue, but as the saying goes: Fromconfrontation comes brilliance.It s not easy for most people to activelyseek conflict. Many spend their lives trying to avoid arguments. There s noneed to go out and find people you hate, but you need to do someself-assessment to determine where you have be

18、come stale in your thinking. Youmay need to start byencouraging your current network to help you identify yourblind spots.Passionate, energetic debate does notrequire anger and hard feelings to be effective. But it does require moralstrength. Once you have worthing opponents, set some ground rules s

19、o everyoneunderstandsresponsibilitiesand boundaries. The objective of this debatinggame is not to win but to get to the truth that will allow you to move faster, and better.Fierce debating can hurt feelings, particularly when strong personalities are involved. Make sure your check inwith your oppone

20、nts so that they are not carrying the emotion of the battlesbeyond the battlefield. Break the tension with smiles and humor to reinforcethe idea that this is friendlydiscourse and that all are working toward acommon goal.Reword all those involved in the debatesufficient1y when the goals are reached.

21、 Let your sparring partners (拳击 陪练)know how much you appreciate their contribution. The more theyfeel appreciated, the more they 11 be willing to get into the ring next time.61. What happens when you have like-mindedpeople around you all the while?A) It will help your companyexpand more rapidly.B) I

22、t will be create a harmoniousworking atmosphere.C) It may prevent your businessand career from advancing.D) It may make you fell uncertainabout your own decision.62. What does the author suggest leaders do?A) Avoid arguments with businesspartners.B) Encourage people to disagreeand argue.C) Build a w

23、ide and strongbusiness network.D) Seek advice from their worthycompetitors.63. What is the purpose of holding a debate?A) To find out the truth about anissue.B) To build up people s moralstrength.C) To remove mi sunderstandings.D) To look for worthy opponents.64. What advice does the author give top

24、eople engaged in a fierce debate?A) They listen carefully to theiropponents views.B) They slow due respect for eachother s beliefs.C) They present their viewsclearly andexplicitly.D) They take care not to hurt eachother feelings.65. How should we treat our rivals after asuccessful debate?A) Try to m

25、ake peace with them.B) Try to make up the differences.C) Invite them to the ring nexttime.D) Acknowledge their contribution.参考答案：61. C该题难度不大，根据alike-minded people定 位到首段，首段指出这类人可以给人信息并令人 感到舒服，后面用“unfortunately”表转折， 后面的表述“这种舒服会让你意识不到你可以扩 大你的公司和事业”，对应C选项，同义替换。62. B本题不难。根据核心名词“leaders”定位到第 三段，作者给leader的

26、建议是“虽然建立一个 自由言论的环境不容易，但是俗话说灵感从争论中迸发”，意思是领导者需要建立这样能的环境, 固选择B项，高度概括。63. A本题难度不大。根据关键信息“purpose of holding adebate”定位到原文倒数第三段，原 文“objective”对应purpose,后面跟的即 为答案：isnot to win but to get the truth that will allow you to move faster, farther, and better.，对应 A 选项。64. D该题难度较大。根据关键信息“fierce debate”定位到原文倒数第二段，

27、原文给出观点“用微笑 和幽默表明这是一个友好的讨论，大家的目标都 是一样的”，对应D选项，该题强干扰项为B, B选项中的“respect”容易让同学们产生好感 从而错选B,而实际上B选项错在“other，sbeliefs上，原文并没有提到尊重他人的信念和观点，属于无中生有。65. D根据题干“rival ”对应到最后一段的“ sparr ing partners,原文给出“让他们知道对他们的付 出你很感激”，对应D选项“肯定他们的付出”， 为同义替换关系。Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.The w

28、allet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shoppingwhere you hand over notes and count out change in return now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pin

29、t of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail storesVictoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instanceyou dont go and stand at any kind of ca

30、sh register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on asofa.Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I m just old-fashioned. But

31、earning money isn t quick or easy for most of us. Isn t it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink （眨眼）of an eye? Doesn, t a wallet that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness一represent something that matters?But I 11 leave the economics to the experts.

32、What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet一the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and p

33、rinted cinema ticketsis the very opposite of what our world is becoming.The opposite of a wallet is a smartphone of an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right.

34、No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.56. What is happening to the wallet?A) It is disappearing. C) it is becoming costly.B) It is being fattened. D) It is changing in style.57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?A) I

35、ndividually. C) In the abstract.B) Electronically. D) Via a cash register.58. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling isfading.C) Earning money is getting more difficult.D) Spending money is so fast and ea

36、sy.59. Why does the author choose to write about what s happening to the wallet?A) It represents a change in the modern world.B) It has something to do with everybody s life.C) It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition.D) It is the concern of contemporary economists.60. What can we infer from th

37、e passage about the author?A)He is resistant to social changes.B)He is against technological progress.C)He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.D)He fells insecure in the ever-changing modern world.参考答案56. Ait isdisappearing57. BElectronically58. DSpending money isso fastandeasy59. AI

38、t represents achangeinthemodernworld60. DHe feels insecurein ever-changingmodern worldPassage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.Everybody sleeps, but what people stay up late to catchor wake up early in order not to missvaries by culture. From data collected, it seems the thin

39、gs that cause us to lose the most sleep, on average, are sporting events, time changes, and holidays.Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir

40、Putin shifted the country permanently to “winter time starting on October 26.Russia s other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year s Eve, Russians have the world s latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 am.Russians also get up an hour later on Int

41、ernational Womens Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.Similarly, Americans late nights late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day weekends.Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey （冰球）final.The World Cup is also chiefly res

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

43、in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns

44、, in some of these nations, it s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that s the case, though, the above findings are still striking, If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in

45、 our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?61. What does the author say about people s sleeping habits?A) They are culture-related C)They change with the seasons.B) They affect peoples health. D) They vary from person to person.62. What do we learn about the R

46、ussians regarding sleep?A) They don t fall asleep until very late.B) They don t sleep much on weekends.C) They get less sleep on public holidays.D) They sleep longer than people elsewhere.63. What is the major cause for Europeans loss of sleep?A) The daylight savings time.B) The colorful night life.

47、C) The World Cup.D) The summertime.64. What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their patterns?A) They have trouble falling asleep.B) They want to get sufficient sleep.C) They are involved in a sleep research.D) They want to go to bed on regular hours.65. What

48、does the author imply in the last paragraph?A) Sleeplessness does harm to people s health.B) Few people really know the importance of sleep.C) It is important to study our sleep patterns.D) Average people probably sleep less than the rich.56 C It might have anegative effect on creative work.57 A The

49、y combineclock-basedand task basedplanning58 D They tend to be moreproductive.59、 B Itdoes not attach enough importance to task-basedpractice.60、 D Ascientific standard should be adopted in a jobevaluation.61、A Her past record mightstand in her way to a new life.62、 B They are deprived of chancesto

50、turn over a new leaf63 C They are marginalized insociety64 D A lot of them have negativeeffects on society65 B To appeal for changes inAmerica s criminal justice system.Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the followingpassage.Across the rich world, well-educated peopleincreasingly work longer

51、 tha n the less-skilled. Some65% of Ame rican men aged 62-74 with aprofessi onal degree are in the workforce, co mparedwith 32/o of men with only a high-school certificate.This gap is p art of a deepening divide between th ewell-educated well-off and the uns killed poor. Rapidtechnological adva nee

52、has raised the incomes of thehig hly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals andsociety, are profoun d.The world is facing an astonishing ri se in the number of old people. And they will live longerthan ever before -Over the next 20 years the global p opulat

53、ion of those aged 65 or more willalmost double, from 600 million t o 1.1 billion. The experience of the 2 Oth century, when greaterlongevity （长 寿）translated into more years in reti rement rather than more years at w ork, haspersuaded many observers t hat this shift will lead to slower eco nomic grow

54、th, while the swellingran ks of pensioners will create governm ent budget problems.But the notion of a sharp division be tween the working young and the idl e old misses a newtrend, the growin g gap between the skilled and the u nskilled. Employment rates are fallin gamong younger unskilled people,

55、w hereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide ismost extreme i n America, where well-educated bab yboomers（二战后生育高峰期出生的美国A)areputting off retirement while m any less-skilled younger people hav e dropped out of theworkforce.Policy is partly responsible. Many Eu ropean governments have aba

56、ndone d policies that used toencourage peopie to retire early. Rising life expect ancy（预期寿命），combined with thereplacement o f generous defined-benefit pension plans with less generous defined-co ntribution ones, means that even th e better-off must work longer to hav e a comfortableretirement. But t

57、he c hanging nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for th ehighly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into ol d age because thesedays the educat ed elderly are more productive than the preceding generation. Technolog icalchange may well reinforce that s hif

58、t: the skills that complement com putersz frommanagement knowhow to creativity do not necessarily decli ne with age.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。56. What is happening in the workforce in rich countries?A) Younger people are replacing the elderly.B) Well-educated people tend to wor k longer.C) Unemployment rate

59、s are rising ye ar after year.D) People with no college degree do not easily find work.57. What has helped deepen the divi de between the well-off and the poo r?A) Longer life expectancies.B) A rapid technological advance.C) Profound changes in the workforc e.D) A growing number of the well-ed ucate

60、d.58. What do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th century?A) Economic growth will slow down.B) Government budgets will increas e.C) More people will try to pursue hig her education.D) There will be more competition in the job market.59. What is the result of policy chan ges

61、in European countries?A) Unskilled workers may choose to retire early.B) More people have to receive in-se rvice training.C) Even wealthy people must work I onger to live comfortably in retireme n匕D) People may be able to enjoy gene rous defined-benefits from pension plans.60. What is characteristic

62、 of work in the 21st century?A) Computers will do more complica ted work.B) More will be taken by the educate d young.C) Most jobs to be done will be creat ive ones.D) Skills are highly valued regardles s of age.考试采取”多题多卷模式，试题顺序不统一，请 依据试题进行核对。56. B) Well-educated people tend to work longer.57. B) A

63、rapid technological advance.58. A) Economic growth will slow do wn.59. C) Even wealthy people must wo rk longer to live comfortably in retir ement.60. D) Skills are highly valued regar dless of age.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the followingpassage.Some of the worlds most significantpro

64、blems neverhit headlines. One e xample comes from agriculture.Food riots and hunger make news. But th e trendlying behind these matters is rarely talked about.This is the declin e in the growth in yields of some oft he worlds major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University inMontreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is o ccurring.The authors take a vast number of d ata points for the four most imports nt crops: rice, wheat,corn and soyab eans（大豆）. They find that on between 240/o and 39% of all harveste