大学英语四级真题完整版含答案文档格式.docx

1、Section AWe all know there exists great void（空白）in the public educational system when it comes to（26）_ to STEM（Science,Technology,Engineering Mathematics）,One educator named Dori Roberts decided to do something to change this system. Dori taught high school engineering for 11 years.She noticed there

2、 was a real void in quality stem education at all（27）_ of the public educational system. she said,“I started Engineering for kids （EFK）after noticing a real lack of math, science and engineering programs to（28）_ my own kids in.”She decided to start an after school program where children（29）_ in STEM

3、-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（

4、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, “Our nation is not（34）_ enough engineers.

5、 Our philosophy is to inspire kids at a young age to understand that engineering is a great（35）_ .”A） attracted B） careerC） championshipsD） degreesE） developingF） enrollG） exposureH） feasibleI） feedingJ） graduatingK） interestL） levelsM） localN） operatesO） participatedSection BWhy arent you curious a

6、bout what happened?A “You suspended Ray Rice after our video，” a reporter from TMZ challenged National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. “Why didnt you have the curiosity to go to the casino （赌场）yourself ?” The implication of the question is that a more curious commissioner w

7、ould 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,” said a Democratic member of the N

8、ew Jersey legislature back in July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal. “Isnt the mainstream media the least bit curious about what

9、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 on

10、es 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-

11、overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and that we are losing it.E We are suffering, he writes, from a “serendipity deficit.” The word “serendipity” was coined by Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who “were always making discoveries, by accident, of things they

12、 were not in search of.” Leslie worries that the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, 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 th

13、e 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

14、 a species.GLeslie 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 readers borders. But not everything is to be blamed on

15、technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, makes us more curious.H Moreover, in order to be curious, you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in the first place. Although Leslie perhaps paints a bi

16、t broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we dont know, hes surely right to point out that the problem is growing: “Google can give us the powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers.”I Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent w

17、hipping boy （替 罪羊） He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the “perfect search engine” will “understand exactly what I mean and give me back exactly what I want.” Elsewhere in the book, Leslie writes: “Google aims to save you from the thirst of curiosity altogether.”JSomewhat nosta

18、lgically （怀旧地），he quotes John Maynard Keyness justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: “One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye. To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoo

19、ns entertainment.” If 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 factorand a difficult one to preserve. I

20、f not cultivated, it will not survive: “Childhood curiosity is a collaboration 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 ou

21、t 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 Leslies book isnt about politics, he doe

22、snt 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 consequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.N He presents as an example the failure of the George W. Bush administrati

23、on 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 “unknown unknowns” were mistaken. Rumsfelds idea, Leslie writes, “wasnt absurd一it was smart.” He

24、adds, “The tragedy is that he didnt follow his own advice.”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 incurious. I leave it to the readers political prefe

25、rence to decide which, if any, charges should stick. But lets be careful about demanding curiosity about the other sides weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sakeeven when what we find out is something we didnt particul

26、arly want to know.36. To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we dont know.37. According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to ones success.38. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledges sake.39. Political leaders lack of curiosity will result in ba

27、d consequences.40. There are often accusations about politicians and the medias lack of curiosity to find out the truth.41. The less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.42. It is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.43

28、. Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.44. Both the rise of the Internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to peoples declining curiosity.45. Mankind wouldnt be so innovative without curiosity.Section CPassage OneAging happens to all o

29、f us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a “disease.”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 dise

30、ase, 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 incent

31、ives to develop treatments.“It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical （制药的）industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects,” he said.Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you cant control: he said. “In academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area