urk2017年12月英语四级阅读真题及答案 第1-3套

2021年1月20日发(作者：expert)
2017
年
12
月英语四级阅读真题及答案

第
1
套

选词填空

A rat or pigeon might not be the obvious choice to tend to someone who is sick, but these creatures have some
__26__ skills that could help the treatment of human diseases.

Pigeons are often seen as dirty birds and an urban __27__ , but they are just the latest in a long line of animals
that have been found to have abilities to help humans. Despite having a brain no bigger than the __28__ of your
index finger, pigeons have a very impressive __29__ memory. Recently it was shown that they could be trained to be
as accurate as humans at detecting breast cancer in images.

Rats are often __30__ with spreading disease rather than __31__ it, but this long
-
tailed animal is highly __32__ .
Inside a rat's nose are up to 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors (
嗅觉感受器
), whereas humans only have
100 to 200 types. This gives rats the ability to detect __33__ smells. As a result, some rats are being put to work to
detect TB (
肺结核
). When the rats detect the smell, they stop and rub their legs to __34__ a sample is infected.

Traditionally, a hundred samples would take lab technicians more than two days to __35__ , but for a rat it takes
less than 20 minutes. This rat detection method doesn't rely on specialist equipment. It is also more accurate—the
rats are able to find more TB infections and, therefore, save more lives.


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Do In
-
Class Exams Make Students Study Harder?

Research suggests they may study more broadly for the unexpected rather than search for answers.


[A]I have always been a poor test
-
taker. So it may seem rather strange that I have returned to college to finish
the degree I left undone some four decades ago. I am making my way through Columbia University, surrounded by
students who quickly supply the verbal answer while I am still processing the question.


[B]Since there is no way for me to avoid exams, I am currently questioning what kind are the most taxing and
ultimately
beneficial.
I
have
already
sweated
through
numerous
in
-
class
midterms
and
finals,
and
now
I
have
a
professor who issues take
-
home ones. I was excited when I learned this, figuring I had a full week to do the research,
read the texts, and write it all up. In fact, I was still rewriting my midterm the morning it was due. To say I had lost the
thread is putting it mildly.


[C]As I was suffering through my week of anxiety, overthinking the material and guessing my grasp of it, I did
some of my own polling among students and professors. David Eisenbach, who teaches a popular class on U.S.
presidents
at
Columbia,
prefers
the
in
-
class
variety.
He
believes
students
ultimately
learn
more
and
encourages
them to form study groups.
pressure of an in
-
class exam,
-
class exams force students to learn how to perform
under pressure, an essential work skill.


[D]He also says there is less chance of cheating with the in
-
class variety. In 2012, 125 students at Harvard
were caught up in a scandal when it was discovered they had cheated on a take
-
home exam for a class entitled

get into these schools, you are either smart enough to get around any codes or hopefully, too ethical to consider
doing so. As I sat blocked and clueless for two solid days, I momentarily wondered if I couldn't just call an expert on
the subject matter which I was tackling, or someone who took the class previously, to get me going.


[E]Following
the
Harvard
scandal,
Mary
Miller,
the
former
dean
of
students
at
Yale,
made
an
impassioned
appeal to her school's professors to refrain from take
-
home exams.
performance in other end
-
of
-
term work, when faculty offers take
-
home exams without clear, time
-
limited boundaries,
she told me.
term better enhance learning and retention.


[F]Most
college
professors
agree
the
kind
of
exam
they
choose
largely
depends
on
the
subject.
A
quantitative
-
based one, for example, is unlikely to be sent home, where one could ask their older brothers and sisters
to
help.
Vocational
-
type
classes,
such
as
computer
science
or
journalism,
on
the
other
hand,
are
often
more
research
-
oriented
and
lend
themselves
to
take
-
home
testing.
Chris
Koch,
who
teaches

of
Broadcast
Journalism
at
Montgomery
Community
College
in
Rockville,
Maryland,
points
out
that
reporting
is
about
investigation rather than the memorization of minute details.

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how
to
find
out,
says
Koch.

is
way
too
much
information,
and
more
coming
all
the
time,
for
anyone
to
remember. I want my students to search out the answers to questions by using all the resources available to them.


[G]Students'
test
-
form
preferences
vary,
too,
often
depending
on
the
subject
and
course
difficulty.

prefer
take
-
home essays because it is then really about the writing, so you have time to edit and do more research,
Elizabeth Dresser, a junior at Barnard. Then there is the stress factor. Francesca Haass, a senior at Middlebury, says,

-
class ones are more stressful in the short term, but there is immediate relief as you swallow information
like mad, and then you get to forget it all. Take
-
homes require thoughtful engagement which can lead to longer term
stress as there is never a moment when the time is up.
hardly even considers take
-
homes true exams.
说出
)
your thoughts, they should be a breeze.


[H]How students ultimately handle tests may depend on their personal test
-
taking abilities. There are people
who always wait until the last minute, and make it much harder than it needs to be. And then there are those who, not
knowing what questions are coming at them, and having no resources to refer to, can freeze. And then there are we
rare folks who fit both those descriptions.


[I]Yes, my advanced age must factor
into the equation (
等式
), in part because of my inability to access the
information as quickly. As another returning student at Columbia, Kate Marber, told me,
this information, but essentially how to learn again. Our fellow students have just come out of high school. A lot has
changed since we were last in school.


[J]If nothing else, the situation has given my college son and me something to share. When I asked his opinion
on this matter, he responded,
-
class exams because the time is already reserved, as opposed to using my
free time at home to work on a test,
questions a day or two in advance, and then doing the actual test in class with the ticking clock overhead.


[K]Better yet, how about what one Hunter College professor reportedly did recently for her final exam: She
encouraged
the
class
not
to
stress
or
even
study,
promising
that,

is
going
to
be
a
piece
of
cake.
the
students came in, sharpened pencils in hand, there was not a blue book in sight. Rather, they saw a large chocolate
cake and they each were given a slice.


y students find it hard to keep up with the rapid changes in education.

believe take
-
home exams may affect students' performance in other courses.

n professors believe in
-
class exams are ultimately more helpful to students.


-
class exams are believed to discourage cheating in exams.

author was happy to learn she could do some exams at home.

ts who put off their work until the last moment often find the exams more difficult than they actually are.

ent students may prefer different types of exams.

professors agree whether to give an in
-
class or a take
-
home exam depends on type of course being taught.

author dropped out of college some forty years ago.

students think take
-
home exams will eat up their free time.


Passage One

That people often experience trouble sleeping in a different bed in unfamiliar surroundings is a phenomenon
known
as
the

-
night
effect.
If
a
person
stays in
the
same
room
the
following
night
they
tend
to
sleep
more
soundly. Yuka Sasaki and her colleagues at Brown University set out to investigate the origins of this effect.

Dr. Sasaki knew the first
-
night effect probably has something to do with how humans evolved. The puzzle was
what benefit would be gained from it when performance might be affected the following day. She also knew from
previous work conducted on birds and dolphins that these animals put half of their brains to sleep at a time so that
they can rest while remaining alert enough to avoid predators (
捕食者
). This led her to wonder if people might be
doing
the
same
thing.
To
take
a
closer
look,
her
team
studied
35
healthy
people
as
they
slept
in
the
unfamiliar
environment of the university's Department of Psychological Sciences. The participants each slept in the department
for two nights and were carefully monitored with techniques that looked at the activity of their brains. Dr. Sasaki found,
as expected, the participants slept less well on their first night than they did on their second, taking more than twice
as
long
to
fall
asleep
and
sleeping
less
overall.
During
deep
sleep,
the
participants'
brains
behaved
in
a
similar

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manner seen in birds and dolphins. On the first night only, the left hemispheres (
半球
) of their brains did not sleep
nearly as deeply as their right hemispheres did.

Curious if the left hemispheres were indeed remaining awake to process information detected in the surrounding
environment, Dr. Sasaki re
-
ran the experiment while presenting the sleeping participants with a mix of regularly timed
beeps (
蜂鸣声
) of the same tone and irregular beeps of a different tone during the night. She worked out that, if the
left hemisphere was staying alert to keep guard in a strange environment, then it would react to the irregular beeps
by stirring people from sleep and would ignore the regularly timed ones. This is precisely what she found.


did researchers find puzzling about the first
-
night effect?

what extent it can trouble people.

role it has played in evolution.

circumstances may trigger it.

what way it can be beneficial.


do we learn about Dr. Yuka Sasaki doing her research?

found birds and dolphins remain alert while asleep.

found birds and dolphins sleep in much the same way.

got some idea from previous studies on birds and dolphins

conducted studies on birds' and dolphins' sleeping patterns.


did Dr. Sasaki do when she first did her experiment?

monitored the brain activity of participants sleeping in a new environment.

recruited 35 participants from her Department of Psychological Sciences.

studied the differences between the two sides of participants' brains.

tested her findings about birds and dolphins on human subjects.


did Dr. Sasaki do when re
-
running her experiment?

analyzed the negative effect of irregular tones on brains.

recorded participants' adaptation to changed environment.

exposed her participants to two different stimuli.

compared the responses of different participants.


did Dr. Sasaki find about the participants in her experiment?

tended to enjoy certain tones more than others.

tended to perceive irregular beeps as a threat.

felt sleepy when exposed to regular beeps.

differed in their tolerance of irregular tones.


Passage Two

It's time to reevaluate how women handle conflict at work. Being overworked or over
-
committed at home and on
the job will not get you where you want to be in life. It will only slow you down and hinder your career goals.

Did you know women are more likely than men to feel exhausted? Nearly twice as many women than men ages
18
-
44 reported feeling

This may not be surprising given that this is the age range when women have children. It's also the age range
when many women are trying to balance careers and home. One reason women may feel exhausted is that they
have a hard time saying
--
volunteer for school parties or cook delicious
meals
--
and so their answer to any request is often

Women
struggle
to
say

in
the
workplace
for
similar
reasons,
including
the
desire
to
be
liked
by
their
colleagues. Unfortunately, this inability to say

At the workplace, men use conflict as a way to position themselves, while women often avoid conflict or strive to
be the peacemaker, because they don't want to be viewed as aggressive or disruptive at work. For example, there's

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a problem that needs to be addressed immediately, resulting in a dispute over who should be the one to fix it. Men
are more likely to face that dispute from the perspective of what benefits them most, whereas women may approach
the same dispute from the perspective of what's the easiest and quickest way to resolve the problem
--
even if that
means doing the boring work themselves.

This difference in handling conflict could be the deciding factor on who gets promoted to a leadership position and
who
does
not.
Leaders
have
to
be
able
to
delegate
and
manage
resources
wisely
--

including
staff
expertise.
Shouldering more of the workload may not earn you that promotion. Instead, it may highlight your inability to delegate
effectively.

does the author say is the problem with women?

are often unclear about the career goals to reach.

are usually more committed at home than on the job.

tend to be over
-
optimistic about how far they could go.

tend to push themselves beyond the limits of their ability.


do working women of child
-
bearing age tend to feel drained of energy?

struggle to satisfy the demands of both work and home.

are too devoted to work and unable to relax as a result.

do their best to cooperate with their workmates.

are obliged to take up too many responsibilities.


may hinder the future prospects of career women?

unwillingness to say

desire to be considered powerful.

underestimate of their own ability.

D.A lack of courage to face challenges.


and woman differ in their approach to resolving workplace conflicts in that ______.

tend to be easily satisfied

are generally more persuasive

tend to put their personal interests first

are much more ready to compromise


is important to a good leader?

A.A dominant personality.

ability to delegate.

courage to admit failure

D.A strong sense of responsibility.


26.K

27.D

28.M

29.O

30.A

31.F

32.H

33.I

34.C

35.B

36.I

37.E

38.C

39.D

40.B

41.H

42.G

43.F

44.A

45.J

Passage one

46.D47.C48.A49.C50.B

Passage two

51.D52.A53.A54.C55.B









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2017
年
12
月英语四级阅读真题及答案

第
2
套

选词填空

We all know there exists great void (
空白
) in the public educational system when it comes to __26__ to STEM
（
Science,
Technology,
Engineering
Mathematics)
courses.
One
educator
named
Dori
Roberts
decided
to
do
something to change this system. Dori taught high school engineering for 11 years. She noticed there was a real void
in quality STEM education at all __27__ of the public educational system. She said,
(EFK) after noticing a real lack of math, science and engineering programs to __28__ my own kids in.

She
decided
to
start
an
afterschool
program
where
children
__29__
in
STEM
-
based
competitions.
The
club
grew quickly and when it reached 180 members and the kids in the program won several state __30__ , she decided
to devote all her time to cultivating and __31__ it. The global business EFK was born.

Dori began operating EFK out of her Virginia home, which she then expanded to __32__ recreation centers.
Today, the EFK program __33__ over 144 branches in 32 states within the United States and in 21 countries. Sales
have
doubled
from $$5 million in
2014
to
$$10
million
in
2015,
with
25
new
branches
planned
for
2016. The
EFK
website states,
understand that engineering is a great __35__ .


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ipated

Why aren't you curious about what happened?


[A]
suspended
Ray
Rice
after
our
video,
a
reporter
from
TMZ
challenged
National
Football
League
Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day.
赌场
) yourself?
The implication of the question is that a more curious commissioner would have found a way to get the tape.


[B]The
accusation
of
incuriosity
is
one
that
we
hear
often,
carrying
the
suggestion
that
there
is
something
wrong
with
not
wanting
to
search
out
the
truth.

have
been
bothered
for
a
long
time
about
the
curious
lack
of
curiosity,
attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard question about
the
George
Washington
Bridge
traffic
scandal.

the
mainstream
media
the
least
bit
curious
about
what
happened?
wrote
conservative
writer
Jennifer
Rubin
earlier
this
year,
referring
to
the
attack
on
Americans
in
Benghazi, Libya.


[C]The implication, in each case, is that curiosity is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a problem. Are such
accusations simply efforts to score political points for one's party? Or is there something of particular value about
curiosity in and of itself?


[D]The journalist Ian Leslie, in his new and enjoyable book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future
Depends on It, insists that the answer to that last question is 'Yes'. Leslie argues that curiosity is a much
-
overlooked
human virtue, crucial to our success, and that we are losing it.


[E]We
are
suffering,
he
writes,
from
a

deficit.
The
word

was
coined
by
Horace
Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who
they were not in search of.
has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures. No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through
fields of knowledge, ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.


[F]Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.
We will see unimaginative governments and dying corporations make disastrous decisions. We will lose a vital part of
what has made humanity as a whole so successful as a species.


[G]Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious.
In the U.S and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside
the reader's borders. But not everything is to be blamed on technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also
one of the causes identified by Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, make us more curious.


[H]Moreover,
in
order
to
be
curious,

have
to
be
aware
of
a
gap
in
your
knowledge
in
the
first
place.
Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we don't know,
he's surely right to point out that the problem is growing:
have definite answers.


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[I]Indeed,
Google,
for
which
Leslie
expresses
admiration,
is
also
his
frequent
whipping
body
(
替罪羊
).
He
quotes Google co
-
founder Larry Page to the effect that the
mean and give me back exactly what I want.
the thirst of curiosity altogether.


[J]Somewhat nostalgically (
怀旧地
), he quotes John Maynard Keynes's justly famous words of praise to the
bookstore:
eye. To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon's entertainment.
only!


[K]Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive (
认知的
) scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdom that
academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent and hard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third
key factor
—
and a difficult one to preserve. If not cultivated, it will not survive:
between child and adult. The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone.


[L]School education, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious. Children of educated
and upper
-
middle
-
class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at early ages, than children of working class
and lower class families. That lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is
difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on


[M]Although Leslie's book isn't about politics, he doesn't entirely shy away from the problem. Political leaders,
like
leaders of other organizations, should
be
curious. They should ask questions at crucial moments. There are
serious consequence, he warns, in not wanting to know.


[N]He presents as an example the failure
of the George W. Bush administration to prepare properly for the
after
-
effects
of
the
invasion
of
Iraq.
According
to
Leslie,
those
who
ridiculed
former
Defense
Secretary
Donald
Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the
Leslie writes,


[O]All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christie case and Benghazi. Each critic in those examples is
charging, in a different way, that someone in authority is intentionally being curious. I leave it to the reader's political
preference to decide which, if any, charges should stick. But let's be careful about demanding curiosity about the
other side's weaknesses and remanding determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue
knowledge for its own sake—even when what we find out is something we didn't particularly want to know.


be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don't know.

ing to Leslie, curiosity is essential to one's success.

should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge's sake.

cal leaders' lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.

are often accusations about politicians' and the media's lack of curiosity to find out the truth

less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.

is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.

ng a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.

the rise of the Internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to people's declining curiosity.

d wouldn't be so innovative without curiosity.


Passage One

Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a
thing a

On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and
that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging
itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.

Biophysicist
Alex
Zhavoronkov
believes
that
aging
should
be
considered
a
disease.
He
said
that
describing
aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.


制药的
.industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not
just the side effects,



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