2013年英语四级考试每日一练(1月25日)
1. Questions58-32are based on the following passage.I was introduced to the concept of literacy animator in Oladumi Arigbede's (1994) article on high illiteracy rates among women and school dropout rates among girls. According to Arigbede, literacy animators view their role as assisting in the self-
liberating development of people in the world who are struggling for a more meaningful life. Animators are a family of deeply concerned and committed people whose gut-level rejection of mass human pauperization (贫民) compels them to intervene
on the side of the marginalized (使处于社会边缘 ). Their motivation is not derived from a love of literacy as merely another technical life skill, and they accept that literacy is never culturally or ideologically neutral.
Arigbede writes from her experiences as an animator working with women and men in Nigeria. She believes that literacy animators have to make a clear choice about whose culture and whose ideology will be fostered among those with whom they work. Do literacy educators in the United States consider whether the instruction they pursue conflicts with their students' traditional cultures or community, or fosters illiteracies in learners' first or home languages or dialects and in their orality?
Some approaches to literacy instruction represent an ideology of individualism, control, and competition. Consider, for example, the difference in values conveyed and represented when students engage in choral reading versus the practice of
having one student read out loud to the group. To identify as a literacy animator is to choose the ideology of "sharing,
solidarity, love, equity, co-operation with and respect of both nature and other human beings". Literacy pedagogy that matches the animator ideology works on maintaining the languages and cultures of millions of minority children who at present are being forced to accept the language and culture of the dominant group. It might lead to assessment that examines the performance outcomes of a community of literacy learners and the social significance of their uses of literacy, as opposed to measuring what an individual can do as a reader and writer on a standardized test. Shor ( 1993 ) describes literacy animators as problem-posing, community-based, dialogic educators. Do our teacher-education textbooks on reading and language arts promote the idea that teachers should explore problems from a community-based dialogic perspective?
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
A literacy animator is one who ____
A. struggles for a more meaningful life
B. frees people from poverty and illiteracy
C. is committed to marginalize the illiterate
D. is concerned with what is behind illiteracy
2. 根据上述材料回答32-68题:
请回答第1题
3. 回答68-2题:
A) amount
B) number
C) abundance
D) sufficiency
快速阅读1
4. The Right Amount of Energy
We all enjoy being around people with energy. They inspire us. They are stimulating, fun, and uplifting. An energetic person has passion in his voice, a bounce in his step, and a smile on his face. Energy makes a person likable, and likability is a key ingredient in persuasive communications. Many business professionals underestimate the energy level required to generate enthusiasm among their listeners. But electrifying speakers bring it. They have an energy that is several levels higher than the people they are attempting to influence.
Most business professionals could use an energy boost for public speaking situations such as Webinars, podcasts, staff meetings, conference calls, and television and radio interviews. Each of these opportunities requires a higher level of energy than would normally be appropriate if you were just chatting to someone in the hallway. But how do you project the right level of vigor without seeming over the top? By weighing yourself on an energy scale. And on this scale, more is better.
The Energy Scale
Recently I helped an executive prepare for his first major presentation in his new role.
"Tell me where your energy is right now on a scale of one to ten," I asked. "One being fast asleep and ten being Jim Cramer on Mad Money. You know, the guy who's yelling and gesturing wildly on his CNBC show. Where are you now?"
"A three," the speaker replied.
"OK, what would it feel like to be a seven, eight or nine? Give it a try," I suggested.
If they're being honest, most presenters place themselves at a three to six on the energy scale. That means there is plenty of room to boost your energy while not appearing too zany. But keep in mind, once you hit a ten or higher, you could be the next YouTube (GOOG) hit--which is not necessarily your top objective! Here are several surefire strategies to boost your energy presence.
1. Practice leaving your comfort zone.
Record several minutes of your presentation as you would normally deliver it: Play it back, preferably with someone else watching and listening as well. Ask yourself and the observer, where am I on the energy scale? Now try it again. This time,break out of your comfort zone. Ham it up. Raise your voice. Use big gestures. Put a big smile on your face. Get to a point where you would feel slightly awkward and uncomfortable. Now watch it. Most likely your energy level will be far more engaging and still remain appropriate fur the situation.
2. Smile and have fun.
Why do most people seem to enjoy Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson? Because the guy has fun and it shows. He always has a warm, engaging smile on his face. Of course, you can argue that it's easy to walk around with a smile when you're worth $4 billion! But seriously, smile. It won't hurt and it will make you more likable. Most business professionals don't smile as much as they should during presentations. I'm helping some executives prepare for CES, the big Consumer Electronics Show in January where they will announce new products. They get so caught up in the slides and what they're going to say ( as they should during preparation ), they forget that new products bring joy to their consumers. In most cases--with the exception of bad news, of course--the first and last thing you say to yourself before launching into your presentation should be, "Have
3. Get your body moving.
Many people are uncomfortable using expansive hand gestures. Don't be. I spoke to David McNeill at the University of Chicago, who is known for his research into gesture and speech. He says that clear, confident speakers use hand gestures and that the gestures leave a positive impression on listeners.He went on to say that using gestures will help you speak better because for most of us it takes effort not to use gestures.
Don't be afraid of using your hands.
AOL's (TWX) Truveo.com is one of my favorite video search engines. I use it to retrieve clips of business speakers to study their body language. Symantec's (SYMC) John Thompson, Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison, Cisco's (CSCO) John Chambers, and eBay's (EBAY) Meg Whitman are excellent examples of people with confident, energetic body language.
4. Study TV and radio personalities.
Stars of television and radio who score high on the likability scale have high-energy personalities. I had a conversation with Suze Orman over the phone a couple of years ago and remember it to this day. Her energy comes right through the speaker. What you see on her CNBC show is what you get behind the scenes. High energy. The other day I watched Food Network (SSP) star Rachael Ray sign books at a mall where I happened to be shopping. Sometimes critics poke fun at her"perky" personality and phrases like "yum-o," but the fact is she has energy and millions of viewers enjoy it. The networkmorning-show hosts are typically chosen for their energetic personalities. Today's Matt Lauer on NBC (GE) and The EarlyShow's Julie Chen on CBS (CBS) are excellent examples, but there are many others on morning television.
Remember, maintaining an energetic presence is very difficult to do unless you're involved with something you enjoy. If you are truly passionate about your company, product, or service, then show it. Speak with energy and vitality. Your listeners will love you for it.
阅读以上短文,回答 2-2题
From the first paragraph, what is a key point in persuasive communication?
[A] Stimulation.
[B] Uplitting.
[C] Fun.
[D] Likability.
5. Hate Your Job? Here's How to Reshape It
Once upon a time, if you hated your job, you either quit or bit your lip. These days, a group of researchers is trumpeting a third option: shape your job so ifs more fruitful than futile.
"We often get trapped into thinking about our job as a list of things to do and a list of responsibilities," says Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor at the Yale School of Management. "But what if you set aside that mind-set?" If you could adjust what you do, she says, "who would you start talking to, what other tasks would you take on, and who would you work with?"
To make livelihoods more lively, Wrzesniewski and her colleagues Jane Dutton and Justin Berg have developed a methodology they call job-crafting. They're working with Fortune 500 companies, smaller firms and business schools to change the way Americans think about work. The idea is to make all jobs--even mundane (平凡的) ones---more meaningful by empowering employees to brainstorm and implement subtle but significant workplace adjustments.
Step 1: Rethink Your Job--Creatively
"The default some people wake up to is dragging themselves to work and facing a list of things they have to do," says Wrzesniewski. So in the job-crafting process, the first step is to think about your job holistically. You first analyze how much
time, energy and attention you devote to your various tasks. Then you reflect on that allocation( 分配). See I0 perfect jobs for the recession--and after.
Take, for example, a maintenance technician at Burt's Bees, which makes personal-care products. He was interested in process engineering, though that wasn't part of his job description. To alter the scope of his day-to-day activities, the technician asked a supervisor if he could spend some time studying an idea he had for making the firm's manufacturing procedures more energy-efficient. His ideas proved helpful, and now process engineering is part of the scope of his work.
Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, says it's crucial for people to pay attention to their workday emotions. "Doing so," she says, "will help you discover which aspects of your work are most life-giving-and most life-draining."
Many of us get stuck in ruts (惯例 ). Berg, a Ph.D. student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who helped develop the job-crafting methodology, says we all benefit from periodically rethinking what we do. "Even in the most
constraining jobs, people have a certain amount of wiggle room," he says. "Small changes can have a real impact on life at work."
Step 2: Diagram Your Day
To lay the groundwork for change, job-crafting participants assemble diagrams detailing their workday activities. The first objective is to develop new insights about what you actually do at work. Then you can dream up fresh ways to integrate what the job-crafting exercise calls your "strengths, motives and passions" into your daily routine. You convert task lists into flexible building blocks. The end result is an "after" diagram that can serve as a map for specific changes.
lna Lockau-Vogel, a management consultant who participated in a recent job-crafting workshop, says the exercise helped her adjust her priorities. "Before, 1 would spend so much time reacting to requests and focusing on urgent tasks that I never
had time to address the real important issues." As part of the job-crafting process, she decided on a strategy for delegating and outsourcing (外包) more of her administrative responsibilities.
In contrast to business books that counsel, managers to influence workers through incentives, job-crafting focuses on what employees themselves can do to re-envision and adjust what they do every day. Given that according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, it now takes the average job seeker more than six months to find a new position, it's crucial to make the most of the job you've got.
Step 3: Identify Job Loves and Hates
By reorienting (使适应 ) how you think about your job, you free yourself up for new ideas about how to restructure your workday time and energy. Take an IT worker who hates dealing with technologically incompetent callers. He might enjoy
teaching more than customer service. By spending more time instructing colleagues--and treating help-line callers as curious students of tech--the disgruntled IT person can make the most of his 9-to-5 position.
Dutton, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says she has seen local auto-industry workers benefit from the job-crafting process. "They come in looking worn down, but after spending two hours on this exercise, they come away thinking about three or four things they can do differently."
"They start to recognize they have more control over their work than they realized," says Dutton, who parmered with Wrzesniewski on the original job-crafting research.
Step 4: Put Your Ideas into Action To conclude the job-crafting process, participants list specific follow-up steps: Many plan a one-0n-one meeting with a supervisor to propose new project ideas. Others connect with colleagues to talk about trading certain tasks. Berg says as long as their goals are met, many managers are happy to let employees adjust how they work.
Job-crafting isn't about revenue, per se, but juicing up ( 活跃 ) employee engagement may end up beefing up the bottom line. Amid salary, job and benefit cuts, more and more workers are disgruntled. Surveys show that more than 50% aren't happy
with what they do. Dutton, Berg and Wrzesniewski argue that emphasizing enjoyment can boost efficiency by lowering turnover rates and jacking up productivity. Job-crafting won't rid you of a lousy boss or a subpar salary, but it does offer some remedies for job dissatisfaction. If you can't ditch or switch a job, at least make it more likable.
阅读以上短文,回答2-12题
A long time ago when a person hated his/her job, what would he/she do?
[A] Resign or bear it.
[B] Argue with the boss.
[C] Do it well or quit.
[D] Complain every day.
6. __________(应当注意的是)that pollution has become one of the thorniest problems in many big cities.
7. Andrew Heidrich now visits websites that discuss online gaming addiction to ______.
A.improve his online gaming skills
B.curb his desire for online gaming
C.show how good he is at online gaming
D.exchange online gaming experience
8. {MP3://f1.hxen.com/m2/tingli/cet4/lnzt/cet420100619.mp3" width="300" height="56" type="audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin" autostart="false" />
9. When you apply for a job, it' s usually appreciated if you ___________________ (在申请表上贴一张近照).
10.
A.surging
C.slipping
B.stretching
D.shaking