2014年英语四级考试每日一练(12月25日)
1、Questions are based on the following paassage.
Virtually unknown a decade ago, big online teacher education program snow dwarf their traditional competitors, outstripping (超过) even the largeststate university teachers' colleges.
A USA Today analysis of newly released U. S. Department of Education data finds that four big universities, operating mostly online, have quickly become the largest education schools in the USA. Last year the four--three of which are for-profit--awarded one in 16 bachelor' sdegrees and post-graduate awards and nearly one in 11 advanced education awards, including master' sdegrees and doctorates.
A decade ago, in 2001, the for-profit University of Phoenix awarded 72 education degrees to teachers, administrators and other school personnel through its online program, according to federal data. Last year, it awarded nearly 6,000 degrees, more than any other university.
Traditional colleges still produce most of the bachelor's degrees in teaching. But online schools such as Phoenix and Walden University awarded thousands more master's degrees than even the top traditional schools, all of which are pushing to offer online coursework.
"We shouldn't be surprised because the whole industry is moving in that direction," said Robert Pianta, dean of the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. "The thing I would be interested in knowing is the degree to which they are simply pushing these things out in order to generate dollars or whether there's some real innovation in there. "
For-profit universities have been the subject of intense examining in Congress. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, last week released findings from a two-year investigation showing that they cost more than comparable not-for-profit schools and have higher dropout rates. For-profits, the investigation found, enroll about 10% of U. S. college students butaccount for nearly 50% of student loan defaults.
Online education schools, many of which have open-enrollment policies similar to community colleges, say their offerings are high quality.
Meredith Curley, dean of the University of Phoenix College of Education, said many students are returning to complete their education after starting families and changing careers. Their average age is 33, she said, and many work while they attend classes. Becky Lodewyck, Phoenix's associate dean, said teaching candidates must complete at least 100 hours of field experience. She said online classes are "incredibly dynamic" and have the potential to hold students more accountable than face-to-face classes.
"You can't hide," she said. "Everyone participates--everyone has to be fully engaged in the work. "
It can be learned from the second paragraph that four big universities______.
A.have become the largest online schools in the US
B.are the biggest for-profit schools in the US
C.occupy important position in education in the US
D.focus on developing advanced education in the US
2、根据以下资料,回答题:
New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harshconditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the artrecords of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found.Tell el-Amarna was the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh (法老) Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favor of the Aten sun disk andbrought in a new and more expressive style of art.Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt between 1379 and 1362BC, built and lived in Tell el-Amarna in central Egypt for 15 years.The city was largely abandoned shortlyafter his death and the ascendance of the famous boy king Tutankhamun to the throne.Studies on the remains of ordinary ancient Egyptians in a cemetery in Tell el-Amarna showed thatmany of them suffered from anem/a (贫血症 ), fractured bones, stunted growth and high juvenilemortality rates, according to professors Barry Kemp and Jerome Rose, who led the research.Rose, a professor of anthropology (人类学) in the University of Arkansas in the United States, saidadults buried in the cemetery were probably brought there from other parts of Egypt."This means that wehave a period of deprivation in Egypt prior to the Amarna phase.So maybe things were not so good for theaverage Egyptian and maybe Akhenaten said we have to change to make things better," he said.Kemp, director of the Amarna Project which seeks in part to increase public knowledge of Tell el-Amarna and surrounding region, said little attention has been given to the cemeteries of ordinary ancient Egyptians.Rose displayed pictures showing spinal (脊柱) injuries among teenagers, probably because of accidents during construction work to build the city.The study showed that anemia ran at 74 percent among children and teenagers, and at 44 percentamong adults, Rose said.The average height of men was 159 cm (5 feet 2 inches) and 153 cm among women."Adult heights are used as an indicator for overall standard of living," he said."Short statures(身长) reflect a diet deficient in protein...People were not growing to their full potential."
What is the findings of the study mentioned in the passage?
A.The ancient Tell el-Amarna was famous for its art records.
B.The artistic exhibition of ancient Tell el-Amarna was trustworthy.
C.The art records of Tell el-Amarna showed ancient Egyptians' real life.
D.Life was really tough for average Egyptians in ancient Tell el-Amarna.
3、
Questions are based on the following passage.
To get a sense of how women have progressed in science, take a quick tour of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a storied place, the 36 of some of the most important discoveries in modern science--starting with Ernest Lawrence's invention of the cyclotron (回旋加速器.in1931. A generation ago, female faces were 37 and, even today, visitors walking through the first floor of LeConte Hall will see a full corridor of exhibits 38 the many distinguished physicists who made history here, 39 all of them white males.
But climb up to the third floor and you'll see a 40 display. There, among the photos of current faculty members and students, are portraits of the 41 head of the department, Marjorie Shapiro, and four other women whose research 42 everything from the mechanics of the universe to the smallest particles of matter. A sixth woman was hired just two weeks ago. Although they're still only about 10 percent of the physics faculty, women are clearly a presence here. And the real 43 may be in the smaller photos to the right: graduate and undergraduate students, about 20 percent of them female. Every year Berkeley sends its fresh female physics PhDs to the country's top universities. That makes Shapiro optimistic, but also 44 "I believe things are getting better," she says, "but they're not getting better as 45 as I would like.
A.circumstance
B.confidence
C.covers
D.current
E.deals
F.different
G.exposing
H.fast
I.honoring
J.hope
K.presently
L.rare
M.realistic
N.site
O.virtually
第36题应填____
4、根据材料回答题
A.Amazon,by far the largest bookseller in the country,reported on May 19 that it is now selling more books in its electronic Kindle format than in the old paper-and.ink format.That is remarkable,considering that the Kindle has only been around for four years.E-books now account for 14 percent of All book sales in the country and are increasing far faster than overall book sales.E-book sales are up 146 percent over last year,while hardback sales increased 6 percent and paperbacks decreased 8percent.
B.Does this spell the doom of the physical book?Certainly not immediately,and perhaps not at all What it does mean is that the book business will go through a transformation in the next decade or so more profound than any it has seen since Gutenberg introduced printing from moveaB.e type in the 1450s.
C. PhysicA. books will surely become much rarer in the marketplace.Mass market paperbacks,which have been declining for years anyway,will probably disappear,as will hardbacks for mysteries,thrillers,“romance fiction.”etc.Such books,which only rarely end up in permanent collections,either private or
public.will probably only be available as e-books within a few years.Hardback and trade paperbacks for“serious”nonfiction and fiction will surely last longer.Perhaps it will become the mark of an author to reckon with that he or she is still puB.ished in hard copy.
D. As for children’s books,who knows?Children’s books are like dog food in that the purchasers are not the consumers,so the market(and the marketing)is inherently strange.
E.For clues to the book’s future,let’s look at some examples of technological change and see what happened to the old technology.
F. One technology replaces another only because the new technology is better,cheaper,or both.The greater the difference,the sooner and more thoroughly the new technology replaces the old.Printing with moveaB.e type on paper dramatically reduced the cost of producing a book compared with the old-fashioned ones handwritten on vellum,which comes from sheepskin.A Bible-to be sure,a long
Book required vellum made from 300 sheepskins and countless man-hours of labor.Before printing arrived,a BiB.e cost more than a middle-class house.There were perhaps 50.000 books in all of Europe in 1450.By l500there were 10 million.
G.But while printing quickly caused the hand written book to die out,handwriting lingered on(继续存在) well into the l 6th century.Very speciA. books are still occasionA.ly produced on vellum.but they are one—of-a-kind show pieces.
H. Sometimes a new technology doesn’t drive the old one out,but only parts of it while forcing the rest to evolve.The movies were widely predicted to drive live theater out of the marketplace,but they didn’t,because theater turned out to have quA.ities movies could not reproduce.Equally,TV was supposed to replace movies but,again,did not.
I.Movies did,however,fatally impact some parts of live theater.And while TV didn’t kill movies,it did kill second-rate pictures,shorts,and cartoons.
J. Nor did TV kill radio.Comedy and drama shows(“Jack Benny,”“Amos and Andy,” “The Shadow”)all migrated to television.But because you can’t drive a cal ”and watch television at the same time,rushhour became radio’s prime,while music,talk,and news radio greatly enlarged their audiences.Radio is today a very different business than in the late 1940s and a much larger one.
K.Sometimes old technology lingers for centuries because of its symbolic power.Mounted cavalry(骑兵) replaced the chariot(二轮战车)on the battlefield around 1 000 BC.But chariots maintained their place in parades and triumphs right up until the end of the Roman Empire 1,500 years later.The Sword hasn’t had a military function for a hundred years,but is still part of an officer’s full.dress nniforill,precisely because a sword A.ways symbolized“an ofificer and a gentleman.”
L.Sometimes new technology is a little cranky(不稳定的)at first.Television repairman was a common occupation in the 1950s.for instance.And so the old technology remains as a backup.Steamships captured the North Atlantic passenger business from sail in the 1840s because of its much greater
speed.But steamships didn’t lose their sails until the 1880s,because early marine engines had a nasty habit of breaking down.Until ships became large enough(and engines small enough)to mount two engines side by side.they needed to keep sails.(The high cost of steam and the lesser need for speed kept the majority of the world’s ocean freight moving by sail until the early years of the 20th century.)
M.Then there is the fireplace.Central heating was present in every.upper-and middle-class home by the second half of the 1 9th century.But functioning fireplaces remain to this day a powerful selling point in a house or aDartment.I suspect the reason is a deep.rooted love of the fire.Fire was one of the earliest major technological advances for humankind,providing heat,protection,and cooked food(which is much easier to eat and digest).Human control of fire goes back far enough(over a million years)that evolution could have produced a genetic leaning towards fire as a central aspect of human life.
N. Books-especially books the average person could afford-haven’t been around long enough to produce evolutionary change in humans.But they have a powerful hold on many people nonetheless,a hold extending far beyond their literary content.At their best,they are works of art and there is a tactile(触觉的)pleasure in books necessarily lost in e-book versions.The ability to quickly thumb through pages is also lost.And a room with books in it induces,at least in some,a feeling not dissimilar to that of a fire in the fireplace on a cold winter’s night.
0. For these reasons I think physical books will have a longer existence as a commercial product than some currently predict.Like swords,books have symbolic power.Like fireplaces,they induce a sense of comfort and warmth.And,perhaps,similar to sails,they make a usefurback-up for when the lights goout.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
Authors still puB.ished in printed versions will be considered important ones.
填空题
5、
第28题为( )
简答题
6、Directions:For this part,you are A.lowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below.
You should start your essay with a brief account of college students offering aid Education and then illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of this phenomenon.You should write at least 120 words and no more than 180 words.
7、题目一:
Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.
You shoud write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
中国教育工作者早就认识到读书对于国家的重要意义。有些教育工作者2003年就建议设立全民读书日。他们强调,人们应当读好书,尤其是经典著作,通过阅读,人们能更好地学会感恩、有责任心和与人合作,而教育的目的正是要培养这些基本素质。阅读对于中小学生尤为重要,假如他们没有在这个关键时期培养阅读的兴趣,以后要养成阅读的习惯就很难了。
题目二:
Directions:For this part,you are A.lowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.You shouM write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
为了促进教育公平,中国已经投入360亿元,用于改善农村地区教育设施和加强中西部地区农村义务教育。这些资金用于改善教学设施、购买书籍,使16万多所中小学受益。资金还用于购置音乐和绘画器材。现在农村和山区的儿童可以与沿海城市的儿童一样上音乐和绘画课。一些为接受更好教育而转往城市上学的学生如今又回到了本地农村学校就读。
题目三:
Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.You shouM write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
中国应进一步发展核能,因为核电目前只占其总发电量的2%,该比例在所有核国家中居第30位,几乎是的。2011年3月日本核电站事故后,中国的核能开发停了下来,终止审批新的核电站,并开展全国性的核安全检查。到2012年lo月,审批才又谨慎地恢复。随着技术和安全措施的改进,发生核事故的可能性完全可以降低到程度。换句话说,核能是可以安全开发和利用的。
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
8、舞狮子(Lion dance),是我国的民间艺术。每逢元宵佳节或集会庆典,民间都以狮舞前来助兴。这一习俗起源于三国时期,南北朝时开始流行,至今已有一千多年的历史。狮子为百兽之尊,形象雄伟俊武,给人以威严、勇猛之感。古人将它当作勇敢和力量的象征。认为它能驱邪镇妖、保佑人畜平安。所以人们逐渐形成了在元宵节时及其他重大活动里舞狮子的习俗,以祈望生活吉祥如意,事事平安。
9、You should start your essay with a briefdescription of the picture and then express your views on the problem oftrust crisis.
写作导航
1.简要描述图片,指出人们之问缺少信任是一种不良社会现象,会产生严重后果;
2.从政府、社会机构(媒体和学校)和个人三个层面出发阐述了解决办法;
3.进行总结,建议人们从个人做起,谨小慎微,提高诚信意识。
10、