2013年12月大学英语四级考试长篇阅读原文
2013年12月英语四级作文题及范文
2013年12月英语四级作文题及范文English:In December 2013, the English CET-4 essay topic was "The Importance of Reading." Here is a sample essay:Reading is an indispensable part of our life. As the saying goes, “Books are the ladder of human progress.” It is through reading that we accumulate knowledge, broaden our horizons, and cultivate our thinking ability. First and foremost, reading equips us with knowledge. Books are reservoirs of human wisdom, and by reading, we can learn about history, acquire new skills, and gain insights into various subjects. Moreover, reading broadens our horizons. Through reading, we can travel to different times and places, experiencing different cultures and lifestyles without leaving our home. This not only enriches our inner world but also fosters empathy and understanding towards others. Additionally, reading enhances our thinking ability. It stimulates our imagination, improves our analytical skills, and encourages critical thinking. As we delve into a book, we are prompted to think, to question, and to form our own opinions,which is essential for personal growth and intellectual development.In conclusion, reading plays a vital role in our personal and intellectual development. It enriches our knowledge, broadens our horizons, and enhances our thinking ability, making us better equipped to face the challenges of the modern world.中文翻译:阅读是我们生活中不可或缺的一部分。
2013年12月大学英语四级考试阅读理解真题及答案详解(全套)
2013年12月大学英语四级考试阅读理解真题及答案（全套）幸福就好我亦安2013年12月大学英语四级考试阅读理解真题(一)【阅读】Sectio n CDirectio ns : There are 2 passages in this sect ion. Each passage is followed by some questi ons or unfini shed stateme nts. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresp onding letter on An swer Sheet 2 with a sin gle line through the cen tre.Passage OneQuesti ons 56 to 60 are based on the follow ing passage.In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food in take are in flue need by a large nu mber of factors besides our biological n eed forenergy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.Studies have show n, for in sta nee, that eati ng in front of the TV (or a similardistract ion) can in crease both hun ger and the amount of food con sumed. Even simplevisual cues, like plate size and light ing, have bee n show n to affect portion size and con sumpti on.A new study suggested that our short-term memoryalso mayplay a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they ' d eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them —in other words, how much they remembered eati ng.This disparity (盖弃) suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger in flue nee on our appetite tha n the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brun strom, a professor of experime ntal psychology at the Uni versity of Bristol."Hun ger isn't con trolled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. Wehave identified an independent role for memory for that meal，" Brunstrom says."This shows that the relati on ship betwee n hun ger and food in take is more complex than we thought."These findings echo earlier research that suggests our percepti on of food can sometimes trick our body' s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instanee, people who drank the same3S0-calorie (卡路里)milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙),depending on whetherthe shake' s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.What does this mean for our eat ing habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eati ng less, the new findings do highlight the ben efits offocus ing on our food and avoidi ng TV and multitask ing while eat ing.The so-called min dful-eat ing strategies can fight distract ions and help us con trol our appetite, Brun strom says.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
2013年12月四级作文
2013年12月四级作文英文回答：In the realm of education, the significance of liberal arts cannot be overstated. Embracing a multifaceted approach, liberal arts education cultivates critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, effective communication, and a profound understanding of humanhistory and culture. It empowers individuals to becomewell-rounded and adaptable in a rapidly evolving world.Firstly, liberal arts foster critical thinking and analytical skills. Through exposure to diverse perspectives and methodologies, students develop the ability to decipher complex information, evaluate arguments, and form informed opinions. This cognitive prowess is essential for navigating the intricate complexities of the modern world.Secondly, liberal arts enhance problem-solving capabilities. By tackling challenges from variousdisciplinary domains, students acquire the adaptability and creativity necessary to solve problems in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts. This ingenuity is vital for success in both professional and personal endeavors.Thirdly, liberal arts promote effective communication. Students engage in written and oral discourse, honing their ability to articulate their thoughts clearly and persuasively. This mastery of language is crucial for effective leadership, collaboration, and the dissemination of knowledge.Lastly, liberal arts provide a comprehensive understanding of human history and culture. By studying the works of great thinkers, artists, and writers, students gain insights into the human condition and its diverse manifestations. This knowledge fosters empathy, tolerance, and a deep appreciation for the richness of human civilization.In conclusion, liberal arts education plays a pivotal role in shaping well-rounded individuals equipped with theintellectual tools to thrive in an ever-changing world. Its enduring relevance lies in its ability to cultivatecritical thinking, problem-solving abilities, effective communication, and a profound understanding of humanhistory and culture.中文回答：自由艺术教育在教育领域中具有举足轻重的意义。
2013年12月英语四级作文真题及范文
2013年12月英语四级作文真题及范文As the drawing presents, there is a man walking across the street absorbedly focusing on his cell phone without noticing the surroundings. This sort of phenomenon is not uncommon and rare in some metropolis, especially among the youngsters.What the picture illustrates is the prevailing situation that has long existed in today's China. That is the mobile phone obsession. With the advent of information age, people are becoming increasingly fascinated on the electronic products, especially the cell phones. Not surprisingly, you could easily notice that most of us are obsessed in sending messages, playing online games with their mobile phones. It cannot be denied that this phenomenon may negatively impact the relationship among people, and therefore they will become estranged and isolated.Personally, in view of the overuse of mobile phones, I hold that we individuals should raise the necessary awareness that good relationship are reinforced by sincere and face-to-face communication.•作文预测：•作文模板：• CET4考试：•成绩查询：• CET4真题：• CET4答案：。
2013年12月英语四级阅读真题及答案kj140331103107
Part ⅢReading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Is College a Worthy Investment?A）Why are we spending so much money on college? And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe it’s time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious （大不敬的）：is all this investment in college education really worth it?B）The answer, I fear, is no. For an increasing number of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.C）For my entire adult life, a good education has been the most important thing for middle-class households. My parents spent more educating my sister and me than they spent on their house, and they’re not the only ones…and, of course, for an increasing number of families, most of the cost of their house is actually the cost of living in a good school district. Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning the value of happiness, or fun.D）The average price of all goods and services has risen about 50 percent. But the price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is the education that today’s students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice as smart? Have they become somehow massively more expensive to educate?E）Perhaps a bit. Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, says, “I look at the data, and I see college costs rising faster than inflation up to the mid-1980s by 1 percent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation. What has happened? The federal government has started dropping money out of airplanes.”Aid has increased, subsidized （补贴的）loans have become available, and “the universities have gotten the money.”Economist Bryan Caplan, who is writing a book about educa tion, agrees: “It’s a giant waste of resources that will continue as long as the subsidies continue.”F）Promotional literature for colleges and student loans often speaks of debt as an “investment in yourself.”But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off the loans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that do not require a degree, and the amount of student-loan debt carried by households has increased more than five times since 1999. These graduates were told that a diploma was all they needed to succeed, but it won’t even get them out of the spare bedroom at Mom and Dad’s. For many, the most visible result of their four years is the loan payments, which now average hundreds of dollars a month on loan balances in the tens of thousands.G）It’s true about the money—sort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people who have only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, the wage premium （高出的部分）for an outstanding school seems to be even higher. But th at’s nottrue of every student. It’s very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature and come out no more employable than you were before you went in. Conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make almost four times the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.H）James Heckman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individuals with different backgrounds and levels of ability. “Even with these high prices, you’re still finding a high return for individuals wh o are bright and motivated,” he says. On the other hand, “if you’re not college ready, then the answer is no, it’s not worth it.” Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today, but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and more of the potential return. For borderline students, tuition （学费）rise can push those returns into negative territory.I）Everyone seems to agree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest in higher education—and that employers need to rethink the increasing use of college degrees as crude screening tools for jobs that don’t really require college skills. “Employers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to fill jobs are just adding that requirement,”says Vedder. “In fact, a college degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bar-tender.”J）We have started to see some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many students to cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives any balance after 25 years. But of course, that doesn’t control the cost of education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduates to choose lower-paying careers, which reduces the financial return to education sti ll further. “You’re subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth,” says Heckman. “You may think that’s a good thing, or you may not.” Either way it will be expensive for the government.K）What might be a lot cheaper is putting more kids to work. Caplan notes that work also builds valuable skills—probably more valuable for kids who don’t naturally love sitting in a classroom. Heckman agrees wholeheartedly:“People are different, and those abilities can be shaped. That’s what we’ve learned, and public policy should recognize that.”L）Heckman would like to see more apprenticeship-style （学徒式）programs, where kids can learn in the workplace—learn not just specific job skills, but the kind of “soft skills,”like getting to work on time and getting along with a team, that are crucial for career success. “It’s about having mentors （指导者）and having workplace-based education,”he says. “Time and again I’ve seen examples of this kind of program working.”M）Ah, but how do we get there from here? With better public policy, hopefully, but also by making better individual decisions. “Historically markets have been able to handle these things,”says Vedder, “and I think eventually markets will handle this one. If it doesn’t improve soon, people are going to wake up and ask, ‘Why am I going to college?’”注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
英语学习资料：2013年12月大学英语四级考试听力原文Passage3
英语学习资料：2013年12月大学英语四级考试听力原文Passage32013年12月大学英语四级考试听力原文Passage 3Passage 3On March 13th, while on duty Charles Mclocklin, a very careless driver employed by the pany Lummis was involved in another accident. The accident occurred in Riverside California. Not paying attention to his driving, Mclocklin turned right on main street and 33rd street and hit Volkswagen rabbit. This caused minor damage to his truck and serious damage to the car. On the basis of the police report, the Lummis accident mittee correctly determined that Mclocklin had been quite careless. As a result of the mittee’s conclusion, the branch manager Mr. David Rossi reported that he had talked with Mclocklin about his extremely poor driving record. Further evidence of Mclocklin’s irresponsibility occurred on May 6th when he was returning from his shift. That day he ran into a roll-up door at the Lummis facility in Valero, causing significant damage to the door. Damage to the truck, however, was minor. Finally, on June 7th, Mclocklin once again demonstrated his carelessness by knocking down several mail boxes near the edge of the pany’s parking lot. There was damage to the mailboxes and minor damage to the truck. Mr. David Rossi stated that he had spoken with Mclocklin on several occasions about his driving record. He added that he had warned Mclocklin that three preventable accidents in one year could lead to his discharge, as indeed it should.23. What did the Lummis accident mittee find out about the accident that occurred on March 13th?24. What did Mclocklin do on June 7th near the edge of thepany’s parking lot?25. What is most probably going to happen to Mclocklin?。
四级资料(阅读) 2013年12月
It’s hard to get too worked up about dust. Yes, it’s a nuisance, but it’s hardly one that causes us much anxiety —and our language itself suggests as much. We call those clumps of the stuff under the bed dust bunnies after all, not, say, dust vermin.to get worked up 为某件事生气；不开心clumps of 一团一团的dust bunny 积尘；灰兔子（关于灰尘的比较萌的说法）But there’s a higher ick factor to dust than you might think. And there’s a science to how it gets around —a science that David Layton and Paloma Beamer, professors of environmental policy at the University of Arizona, are exploring.get around 传播；散播Layton and Beamer, whose latest study has been accepted for fall publication in the journal Environmental Science &Technology, knew a lot about their subject even before they set to work. Historically, everyone from chemists to homemakers has tried to figure out just what dust is made of, and the Arizona researchers drew their preliminary data mostly from two studies of household dust conducted in the Netherlands and the U.S. The American survey in particular was a big one, covering six Midwestern states. Layton and Beamer also included a localized study in Sacramento, Calif., that focused particularly on lead contamination. What all those surveys showed was decidedly unappetizing.figure out 理解；解决；计算The specific dust mix in any household differs according to climate, age of the house and the number of people who live in it —not to mention the occupants’cooking, cleaning and smoking habits. But nearly everywhere, dust consists of some combination of shed bits of human skin, animal fur, decomposing insects, food debris, lint and organic fibers from clothes, bedding and other fabrics, tracked-in soil, soot, particulate matter from smoking and cooking, and, disturbingly, lead, arsenic and even DDT."There are more [components]," Beamer says. "Dust is a hodgepodge of all sorts of things. It would probably be impossible to make a list of all the possible items."But dust’s ingredient label is not the whole story, since all of those flecks and bits behave differently and present different levels of health risk. To investigate those factors more closely, Layton and Beamer developed a computer algorithm that looked at the size, source and toxicity of dust particles as well as how easily they enter the house, if they ever exit and, if so, by what route. That information, by extension, can provide at least a rough sense of the dust load in your own home.As a general rule, the majority of household dust —about 60% —comes from outside, through windows, doors, vents and, significantly, on the soles of your shoes. Smaller dust particles —from 28 to 49 microns, or thousandths of a millimeter —tend to stay on your shoes. The rest is shaken off inside. A higher share of the dust that floats in the air gets deposited, but again, there’s a lot that determines how much any one home will get."Here in Arizona," says Beamer, "where we leave our windows open most of the year and have an arid climate, we would probably have a higher ratio." Industrial centers or sooty cities have plenty of dust too, though for different reasons.arid adj. 干旱的；不毛的ratio n. 比例There’s not much to fret about in simple particles of dirt or organic materials such as pollen(though they can trigger allergies), but lead, arsenic and DDT can be a more serious matter. About one-third of the arsenic in the atmosphere comes from natural sources —volcanoes principally. The rest comes from mining, smelting, burning fossil fuels and other industrial processes. Even in relatively low concentrations, arsenic is not without risk, especially to small children who play on the floor and routinely transfer things from their hands to their mouths. The same is true for lead, which comes less from wall paint —the source most people would expect —than from auto exhaust, smelting and soil deposits. "Lead loading on floors is a key determinant of blood-lead levels in children," Layton and Beamer wrote in their paper.fret about 因……焦急；为……烦恼particle n. 颗粒；微粒pollen n. 花粉low concentration 低浓度determinant adj. 决定性的n. 决定因素The fact that DDT is still in house dust is a surprise to most people, since the pesticide was banned in the U.S. in 1972. But a house is a little like a living organism: once it absorbs a contaminant, it may never purge it completely. "Dust in our homes," says Beamer, "especially deep dust in our carpets and furniture, is a conglomerate of substances over the life of the home and can provide a historical record of chemicals that have entered it."contaminant n. 污染物；致污物purge v. 净化；清除The mess that originates within the home is a lot easier to measure and control. The more people who live there, the more skin that’s going to be shed, the more pets, the more animal fur. And, as Mom always warned, the more you walk around the house while eating, the more food debris you’ll drop on the floor —which also attracts more insects that will die, decompose and add their own special zest to your dust. Cooking smoke and tobacco smoke, which are the most obvious contributors when they’re being produced, actually make only a small contribution to what winds up on floors and surfaces. The tiny size of the particles makes them likelier to rise and adhere to other surfaces or simply remain in the air than to settle.shed v. 散发；流出wind up 卷起；扬起It goes without saying that your home will never be dust-free, but there are ways to reduce your own dust loading —and it’s important that you try. Dust mites, which feed on shed skin, produce allergens that are known triggers for people suffering from asthma. Same goes for cockroach dust, especially in cities. No one needs much convincing about the wisdom of getting rid of arsenic, and the good news is that about 80% of it can be removed simply by cleaning floor dust regularly.it goes without saying 不言而喻；不消说allergen 过敏原；反应原None of this means that dust poses a clear and present danger or that you need to take any extraordinary measures. Just clean regularly, don’t smoke, eat at the table —and try not to freak out. Dust bunnies are still only bunnies; you may just want fewer of them.freak out 吓坏了；崩溃Question time:1. How does dust come into our houses?2. What’s the key factor of blood-lead levels in children according to Layton and Beamer’papaer?3. How to get rid of the dust in house?参考答案1. Generally, the majority of household dust —about 60% —comes from outside, through windows, doors, vents and on the soles ofour shoes.2. Lead loading on floors.3. It’s important that you try, just clean regularly, don’t smoke, eat at the table —and try not to freak out.Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.ONE stereotype of wisdom is a wizened Zen-master smiling benevolently at the antics of his pupils, while referring to them as little grasshoppers or some such affectation, safe in the knowledge that one day they, too, will have been set on the path that leads to wizened masterhood. But is it true that age brings wisdom? A study two years ago in North America, by Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo, in Canada, suggested that it is. In as much as it is possible to quantify wisdom, Dr Grossmann found that elderly Americans had more of it than youngsters. He has, however, now extended his investigation to Asia—the land of the wizened Zen-master—and, in particular, to Japan. There, he found, in contrast to the West, that the grasshoppers are their masters’equals almost from the beginning.stereotype n. 刻板印象；老套benevolent adj. 仁慈的；亲切的；仁爱的quantify v. 量化；为……定量Dr Grossmann’s study, just published in Psychological Science, recruited 186 Japanese from various walks of life and compared them with 225 Americans. Participants were asked to read a series of pretend newspaper articles. Half described conflict between groups, such as a debate between residents of an impoverished Pacific island over whether to allow foreign oil companies to operate there following the discovery of petroleum. (Those in favour viewed it as an opportunity to get rich; those against feared the disruption of ancient ways and potential ecological damage.) The other half took the form of advice columns that dealt with conflicts between individuals: siblings, friends and spouses. After reading each article, participants were asked “What do you think will happen after that?”and “Why do you think it will happen this way?”Their responses were recorded and transcribed.walks of life 各界；各行各业impoverished adj. 穷困的；用尽了的，无创造性的in favor 赞同；偏向disruption n. 破坏；毁坏sibling n. 兄弟姐妹spouse n. 配偶transcribe v. 转录；抄写Dr Grossmann and his colleagues removed age-related information from the transcripts, and also any clues to participants’nationalities, and then passed the edited versions to a group of assessors. These assessors were trained to rate transcribed responses consistently, and had beentested to show that their ratings were statistically comparable with one another.The assessors scored participants’responses on a scale of one to three. This attempted to capture the degree to which they discussed what psychologists consider five crucial aspects of wise reasoning: willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better.compromise n. 妥协perspective n. 观点A score of one on any aspect indicated a participant gave no consideration to it. A score of two indicated some consideration. A score of three indicated a great deal of consideration. Each participant’s scores were then added up and mathematically transformed to create an overall value within a range of zero to 100 for both interpersonal and intergroup wisdom.The upshot was that, as Dr Grossmann had found before, Americans do get wiser with age. Their intergroup wisdom score averaged 45 at the age of 25 and 55 at 75. Their interpersonal score similarly climbed from 46 to 50. Japanese scores, by contrast, hardly varied with age. Both 25-year-olds and 75-year-olds had an average intergroup wisdom of 51. For interpersonal wisdom, it was 53 and 52.Taken at face value, these results suggest Japanese learn wisdom faster than Americans. One up, then, to the wizened Zen-masters. But they also suggest a paradox. Generally, America is seen as an individualistic society, whereas Japan is quite collectivist. Yet Japanese have higher scores than Americans for the sort of interpersonal wisdom you might think would be useful in an individualistic society. Americans, by contrast—at least in the maturity of old age—have more intergroup wisdom than the purportedly collectivist Japanese. Perhaps, then, you need individual skills when society is collective, and social ones when it is individualistic. All of which goes to show that the real root of wisdom is this: do not assume, little grasshopper, that your prejudices are correct.paradox n. 悖论；似是而非的观点Question time:1. What’s the finding of Dr Grossmann’s research?2. What are the crucial aspects of wise reasoning?参考答案1. Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start.2. willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise; recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get betterDo today’s kids make terrible entry-level workers? That’s a question much on employers’minds as graduation season kicks off and young adults begin their first full-time jobs. We’ve all heard the stories: assistants who won’t assist, new workers who can’t set an alarm, employees who can’t grasp institutional hierarchies.Bosses who toiled in the pre-self-esteem era salt mines have little patience for these upstarts.A popular advice columnist had some choice words last week for a young employee who dismissively waved her sandwich at a superior requesting backup during a critical meeting; the young woman explained that she was on her lunch break and was merely “setting boundaries”with a “disrespectful colleague who sorely needs them.”Moreover, she noted, being “errand girl”wasn’t in her job description.It’s easy to laugh off these anecdotes, but there are some complex reasons for the lack of familiarity with work norms. For one thing, many 20-something adults have never held a menial summer job, once considered training wheels for adult life in the American middle class.It was once common to see teenagers mowing lawns, waiting tables, digging ditches and bagging groceries for modest wages in the long summer months. Summer employment was a social equalizer, allowing both affluent and financially strapped teenagers to gain a foothold on adulthood, learning the virtues of hard work, respect and teamwork in a relatively low-stakes atmosphere. But youth employment has declined precipitously over the years, and young people are losing a chance to develop these important life skills in the process.In 2010, the latest year for which numbers are available, less than half of the nation’s youths (ages 16 to 24) were employed during the month of July, traditionally the peak of summer employment, the lowest percentage since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data in 1948 and almost 20 points lower than the peak in 1989. There’s little indication of that number improving. Teenagers and 20-somethings are the least skilled and most expendable members of the workforce, so it’s not surprising that they would be edged out in a recession by more reliable full-time workers such as senior citizens, immigrants and other adults who need those jobs.But other long-term factors are at play. Life is more competitive than ever before, and kids —or perhaps their parents —worry about wasting time on jobs that won’t yield career dividends. On Harvard’s campus, where I work, students feel crushing pressure to build their résumés the instant they arrive, eschewing unskilled summer jobs for unpaid internships with nonprofit organizations, political campaigns and research labs. Others spend the summer studying foreign languages or preparing for grueling graduate-admissions exams.The same pattern is found at the secondary-school level, where teen employment has been on a downward trend since 2000. Tougher graduation standards have created a threefold increase in summer-school attendance over the past 20 years. And students feel the need to pad their college applications with unique life experiences as the admissions process has grown more selective. High schools also now routinely require public service —surely a good thing —that can further limit the available hours to work for pay.Many of these social changes are a sign of a healthy, and upwardly mobile, society. But there’s a problem when more than 50% of the nation’s young workforce has never held a basic, paying job. We may be postponing their entry into adulthood. One paradox of contemporary life is that the lengthening of adolescence has not better prepared young people for what comes next. Despite unprecedented technological and cultural sophistication, this generation’s 20-year-olds lack some of the soft skills that are necessary to move up the professional ladder: perseverance, humility, flexibility and commitment.In the end, though, it’s their elders who are responsible, and we shouldn’t demonize young people for our own failings. Most graduates embarking on their first job are eager to perform well and desperately need the income. It’s grownups, not teenagers, who have honed the values, expectations and opportunities from which our nation’s youth develop their work habits. If wewant a more respectful and industrious workforce, we need to do a better job creating one. What’s the benefits of summer jobs according to the author?2. What are the soft skills necessary for work?Be happy. Live longer.No, it’s not that simple, but new research says happy lives are longer —by 35%.The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that those who reported feeling happiest had a 35% reduced risk of dying compared with those who reported feeling least happy.Rather than rely on recollections about their feelings of happiness as in earlier studies, this British study of 3,853 participants ages 52-79 rated their feelings at different times on one particular day. Five years later, researchers recorded the number who died and controlled for a variety of factors, including age, gender, health, wealth, education and marital status.rely on 依靠；依赖This approach "gets closer to measuring how people actually feel" rather than relying on recollections or general questions about well-being, says epidemiologist Andrew Steptoe, a psychology professor at University College in London, who co-authored the study.epidemiologist n. 流行病学家How happy a person is at any point in time, he says, is a product of "some background disposition; some people tend to be happier than others," but also "what they are doing, who they are with, and other features of that point in time. Both are important.""It’s perfectly true that someone’s happiness over a single day will be affected by what happens to them over that period," Steptoe says. "However, survey experts and psychologists have come to the view that in many ways, this is a better approach to understanding how people actually feel than asking them general questions about how happy they are. Responses to general questions are influenced strongly by personality, by what people think they ’ought’to say and by recollections that might not be quite accurate," Steptoe says.What’s not clear, he says, is whether happy feelings are the key to longevity or if it’s something else that causes extended life. "We can’t draw the kind of final conclusion that the happiness is leading directly to better survival," he says.longevity n. 长寿；寿命draw a conclusion 下结论Others who have done research in this area but haven’t read the study say this link between a one-day measure and mortality is important."The fact that positive emotions in one day predicted survival is pretty amazing," says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside."We do know that happiness is associated with an extended life span," she says. If we can get people to be happier, would that extend the lifespan? We don’t know that yet. Future research can definitely try to show that."Arthur Stone, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Stony Brook University in New York, who has used measurements over the course of a day in his research, says the fact that the researchers "got a relationship with mortality means that the relationship must be fairly robust because they only had 3,800 people and they were only measuring the one day."psychiatry n. 精神病学robust adj. 强健的；健康的And what if some who were measured on that one day were just having a bad day?"A ’bad day’should weaken the relationship," Stone says. "What it’s saying is there are enough people here that people having odd days didn’t really matter very much. Some people had bad days and some had good days. If they had been able to measure several days with these techniques, one would guess that the relationship would be even stronger."Laura Kubzansky, an associate professor in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health, at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Boston, says there’s a "burgeoning body of work that suggests positive psychological functioning benefits health," and this study is significant because it "adds to the arsenal.""It could say to people, you should take your mood seriously," Kubzansky says. "I think people sort of undervalue emotional life anyway. This highlights the idea that if you are going through a period where you’re consistently distressed, it’s probably worth paying attention to how you feel —it matters for both psychological and physical health."sort of 有点儿；稍稍highlight v. 突出；强调；使显著distressed adj. 痛苦的；忧虑的This study asked participants to rate how happy, excited and content they felt at four points during a single day —7 a.m., 7 p.m. and a half-hour after each. They used a rating scale from 1 ("not at all") to 4 ("extremely")."Generally, they were less happy when they woke up and most happy at 7 p.m.," Steptoe says.Question time:1. What matters to how happy a person is?2. When do people feel happiest during a single day?参考答案1. Some background disposition; some people tend to be happier than others, And what they are doing, who they are with, and other features of that point in time.2. 7 p.m.The future of out-of-home advertising is rosy, and digital.ROADSIDE billboards, posters on buses and subway escalators, ads in airport terminals—a type of publicity known as out-of-home advertising—used to be the dull end of the industry. No more. The falling price and improving quality of flat-screen displays mean that static posters printed on paper are being replaced by snazzy digital commercials with moving pictures, sound and sometimes interactive features. As some advertising media, especially newspapers, see their audiences fade, streets, airports and other public spaces are becoming crowded with more potential viewers than ever, as people continue moving to cities and travel more.MagnaGlobal, a media researcher, predicts that worldwide spending on out-of-home advertising will expand by 8.3% in 2011 to about $26.4 billion, faster growth than that seen for other non-internet forms of advertising. Spending on digital billboards and posters is expected to double in the next five years, to $5.2 billion. William Eccleshare, who runs the international operations of Clear Channel, an American firm which is one of the largest out-of-home adcompanies, thinks that in some countries more than 90% of its business will be digital by the decade’s end.His arch-rival, Jean-Charles Decaux, the boss of France’s JCDecaux, agrees that there will be a significant switch to digital, but mainly inside airports, railway stations, shopping malls and other controlled environments. Ads in bus shelters and other outdoor spots at risk of vandalism will take a lot longer to move away from paper, Mr Decaux thinks. Digital displays already account for about one-quarter of his company’s sales in transport hubs, but for less than 5% in street furniture and billboards.The pace of the switch to digital is but the least of several areas of disagreement between the two men. JCDecaux boasted in February that it had overtaken Clear Channel to become the world’s largest out-of-home ad company, with revenues of €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) last year. “It is rare that a European media company is bigger than an American one,”says Mr Decaux. Because his group is less indebted than the others, Mr Decaux says it could consider buying the American operations of CBS Outdoor, the world number three, or indeed those of Clear Channel itself, if the opportunity arose.Mr Eccleshare dismisses such provocative talk, noting that Mr Decaux has repeatedly talked of big acquisitions in America—where it is a weak number four in the market—without anything happening. He acknowledges that there will be consolidation in the highly fragmented industry, though he expects it to take place within, rather than across, national borders. For instance, China has 60,000 out-of-home advertising firms, many of them microbusinesses with one or two signs, and is clearly ripe for rationalisation.Clear Channel is so optimistic about digital posters because it believes they offer enormous potential for making advertisements more effective. Advertisers can tailor their pitch to the time of day: McDonald’s can advertise its sausage and egg McMuffin at breakfast time, change to its regular Big Mac fare at lunch and follow that with ads for apple pie and ice cream during teatime. They can also react to events as they happen: when Spain won the football World Cup last year, digital billboards in Madrid, sponsored by Nike, showed the result within seconds.Advertisers constantly talk about wanting to “engage”with consumers, so they are taking great interest in the potential for interactivity that digital technology will bring. JCDecaux, for example, is offering a free iPhone application called U snap: when a consumer sees a poster (paper or digital) for something that attracts his interest and takes a photo of it on his phone, the app recognises it, gives him product information and discount vouchers and directs him to the nearest retailer.Then there is “gladvertising”and “sadvertising”, a rather sinister-sounding idea in which billboards with embedded cameras, linked to face-tracking software, detect the mood of each consumer who passes by, and change the advertising on display to suit it. The technology matches movements of the eyes and mouth to six expression patterns corresponding to happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise and disgust. An unhappy-looking person might be rewarded with ads for a sun-drenched beach or a luscious chocolate bar while those wearing an anxious frown might be reassured (some might say exploited) with an ad for insurance.Such Big Brotherish software would no doubt detect a satisfied grin on the faces of out-of-home advertising bosses as they contemplate the next 18 months, in which a string of big events will boost their business: the Rugby World Cup, the American presidential election, the Euro 2012 football championship and the London Olympics. Wherever you go—the street, thesubway, the airport or the bus station—there will be no escape from ads linked to these events, and the out-of-home advertising firms will be raking it in.Question time:1. What is out-of-home advertising?2. Why Clear Channel takes a positive attitude for digital posters?Nature photography appeals to our nostalgia for a time when we were more in harmony with the planet.The old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" needs to be rethought. More importantly, a picture can have the power to move a thousand hearts and change a thousand minds. Often, photographs bring to our eyes what we may have seen many times before, but not noticed. They can shed new light on the everyday and the ordinary. They can redirect the course of our vision, so that we see, think, imagine and even, perhaps, act differently.No doubt, one of the most pressing campaigns of our times is that for sustainability and environmental awareness. In the ruthless course of modernity, our approach to nature has been one of extraction and use. We urgently need to alter how we relate to the world around us and to re-educate ourselves in terms of the larger planetary scheme, hung, as it is, on a delicate ecological balance that is being dangerously disturbed by our many modern machinations in the name of science, technology, development and progress –and, dare I say it, capital.Nature photography has become a potent tool in this struggle. Through it, we learn of the many others –the wondrous diversity of flora and fauna –with whom we cohabit on this planet. It is also, as the Guardian’s nature photography project reveals, a medium taken up by professionals and amateurs alike. So, what role does photography play in defining our relationship with nature? What do images of nature and wildlife tell us and why do we feel compelled to view them? Who among us has never been moved to snap a sunset on the horizon, a flowing river, a blossom in spring?Our zeal for visually representing nature has a long and complex history. The advent of photography was celebrated as a milestone in the modernist quest to capture nature better. For early photography was largely devoted to documentary purposes and, in the apparent fidelity of its representations, the camera in the 19th century exceeded the naturalist drives of painters who, during the Renaissance and early modern period, tried to explore, and so tame, nature by rendering it into art.Photography, however, is poised on a fine borderline between documentary and art. Never just one or the other, photographs can exceed the set frame. Moreover, the photographic frame can reveal the unsettling ability to extend and include us in its space. Photography is inclusive in its mediatory role. It extends covenants.Often, nature photography calls on modern humanity’s sense of nostalgia for a harmony between man and the environment. As John Berger has rightly stated, the way we see is conditioned by our history, and so it is that we may look at nature in terms of loss. As with the many images of the recent oil spill off the coast of Florida, this can be founded in fact and so provoke a sense of culpability, a sudden awareness or questioning of our precepts and actions.。
2013年12月全国大学英语四级真题及答案解析
2013年12月份全国大学英语四级考试试卷一：中餐【真题原文】许多人喜欢中餐，在中国，烹饪不仅被视为一种技能，而且也被视为一 种艺术。
精心准备的中餐既可口又好看，烹饪技艺和配料在中国各地差别很大。
但好的烹 饪都有一个共同点，总是要考虑到颜色、味道、口感和营养(nutrition)。
由于食物对健康至 关重要，好的厨师总是努力在谷物、肉类和蔬菜之间取得平衡，所以中餐既味美又健康。
【翻译答案】Most people like Chinese food. In China, cooking is considered as not only a skill but also an art. The well-prepared Chinese food is both delicious and good-looking. Although cooking methods and food ingredient vary wildly in different places of China, it is common for good cuisine to take color, flavor, taste and nutrition into account. Since food is crucial to health, a good chef is insistently trying to seek balance between cereal, meat and vegetable, and accordingly Chinese food is delicious as well as healthy.试卷二：信息技术【真题原文】信息技术(Information Technology)，正在飞速发展，中国公民也越来越 重视信息技术，有些学校甚至将信息技术作为必修课程，对这一现象大家持不同观点。
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2013年12月大学英语四级考试长篇阅读原文Peer-to-peer rental: The rise of the sharing economyLAST night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4m people have used it—2.5m of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast, owning a timeshare or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be disaggregated and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing. What…s mine is yo urs, for a feeJust as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As proponents of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps ownership.Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to- peer lending (though cash is hardly a spare fixed asset) or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid (though that looks a bit like becoming a utility). And it is not just individuals: the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.Such “collaborative consumption” is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $9,300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month; some make more than $1,000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. (It is not surprising that many sharing firms got going during the financial crisis.) And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.For sociable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons who imagine that every renter is Norman Bates can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot lousy drivers, bathrobe-pilferers and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends (or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works. Peering into the futureThe sharing economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successful purchase from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay. Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now d ominated by professional “power sellers” (many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users). The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise. Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.Incumbents are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in a sharing rival. So do GM and Daimler, two carmakers. In future, companies may develop hybrid models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles, equipment or office space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Walmart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more. The main worry is regulatory uncertainty (see Technology Quarterly article). Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, incumbents will try to destroy competition. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate.The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet…s value to consumers (see Free exchange). This emerging model is now big and disruptive enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.。