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2013 年 1 2 月四级考试阅读真题（第二套）
PartIII ReadingComprehension
SectionA
Directions: In this section, thereis a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each blank
from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before
making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for
eachitemonAnswerSheet2withasinglelinethroughthecentre. Youmaynotuseanyofthewordsinthebank
morethanonce.
Questions36to45arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
What does it take to be a well-trained nurse? The answer used to be two-year associate’s or four-year
bachelor’s degree programs. But as the nursing shortage 36. ______, a growing number of schools and hospitals
are establishing “fast-track programs” that enable college graduates with no nursing 37. ______to become
registerednurseswithonlyayearorsoof38.______training.
In 1991, there were only 40 fast-track curricula; now there are more than 200. Typical is Columbia
University’s Entry to Practice program. Students earn their bachelor of science in nursing in a year. Those who
stayonforan39.______twoyearscanearnamaster’sdegreethat40.______ themasnursepractitioners（执
业护士）orclinicalnursespecialists.
Many students are recent 41. ______; others are career switchers. Rudy Guardron, 32, a 2004 graduate of
Columbia’s program, was a premedical student in college and then worked for a pharmaceutical（药物的）
research company.At Columbia, he was 42. ______ as a nurse practitioner, “I saw that nurses were in high 43.
______anditlookedlikeareallygoodopportunity,”hesays.“Also,Ididn’twanttobeinschoolforthatlong.”
The fast-track trend fills a need, but it’s also creating some 44. ______ between newcomers and veterans.
“Nurses that are still at the bedside 45. ______ these kids with suspicion,” says Linda Pellico, who has taught
nursingatYaleUniversityfor18years,“Theywonder,howcantheydoitquicker?”Theansweristheydon’t,
A)additional I)promote
B)applied J)qualifies
C)demand K)specialized
D)excessive L)tension
E)experience M)trained
F)explores N)view
G)graduates O)worsens
H)operations
SectionB
Directions: 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
questionsbymarkingthecorrespondingletteronAnswerSheet2.
Theriseofthesharingeconomy
A)LAST 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 byAirbnb, a firm based in San
Francisco.Since itslaunchin2008morethan4mpeoplehaveusedit—2.5millionof themin2012alone.Itis the
most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other
assetsdirectlyfromeachother,co-ordinatedviatheinternet.
淘宝店铺：https://shop499712503.taobao.com/ 店主旺旺：慧园文化B)Youmight think this is nodifferentfrom runninga bed-and-breakfast（家庭旅店）,owning atimeshare
（分时度假房） 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
availabilityofmoredataaboutpeopleandthings, whichallowsphysicalassetstobedisaggregatedandconsumed
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;socialnetworks provide a way to checkup on people andbuild trust; and onlinepayment systems handle
thebilling.
What’smineisyours,forafee
C)Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals
actasanadhoc（临时的） taxiservice,car-hirefirmorboutiquehotel（精品酒店） asandwhenitsuitsthem.
Justgoonlineordownloadanapp.Themodelworksforitemsthatareexpensivetobuyandarewidelyownedby
people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also
rentcampingspacesinSweden,fields inAustralia andwashingmachinesin France.Asproponentsofthesharing
economyliketoputit,accesstrumps（胜过） ownership.
D)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
hardlya spare fixed asset) or putting a solar panelon your roof and selling power backto the grid (电网).And it
is notjustindividuals:the webmakes iteasier for companies to rentoutspareoffices andidle machines, too.But
thecoreofthesharingeconomyispeoplerentingthingsfromeachother.
E)Such “collaborative（合作的） 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 hotelor car-hire firm. (It is notsurprising 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
makingthem.
F)Forsociablesouls,meetingnewpeoplebystayingintheirhomesispartofthecharm.Curmudgeon（s 倔脾
气的人） whoimaginethateveryrenterisNormanBatescanstillstayatconventionalhotels.Forothers,theweb
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
remarkablethingishowwellthesystemusuallyworks.Peeringintothefuture
Peeringintothefuture
G)The 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 dominated 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
rentthemout,forexample.
H)Existing rental businesses are getting involved too.Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in a sharing rival. So
doGMandDaimler,twocarmakers.Infuture,companiesmaydevelophybrid（混合的） models,listingexcess
capacity(whethervehicles, equipmentorofficespace)onpeer-to-peerrentalsites. In thepast, newways ofdoing
淘宝店铺：https://shop499712503.taobao.com/ 店主旺旺：慧园文化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
andmore.
I)The main worry is regulatory uncertainty (see Technology Quarterly article). Will room-renters be subject
to hotel taxes, for example? InAmsterdam officials are usingAirbnb 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
destroycompetition. Peoplewhorentoutrooms shouldpaytax, of course, buttheyshouldnotberegulated likea
Ritz-Carltonhotel.Thelighterrulesthattypicallygovernbed-and-breakfastsaremorethanadequate.
J)The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet„s value to consumers. This emerging model is
nowbiganddisruptive（颠覆性的）enoughforregulatorsandcompaniestohavewokenuptoit.Thatisasignof
itsimmensepotential.Itistimetostartcaringaboutsharing.
46.Sharingitemssuchascarsdoesgoodtotheenvironment.
47.Airbnb’ssuccessclearlyillustratestheemergenceofahugesharingeconomy.
48.Themajorconcernaboutthesharingeconomyishowthegovernmentregulatesit.
49.Themostfrequentlyshareditemsarethoseexpensivetobuybutnotfullyused.
50.Thesharingeconomyhasapromisingfuture.
51.Onlinesharingwillchangethewaybusinessisdoneintransportation,travel,rentals,etc.
52.Airbnbisawebsitethatenablesownersandrenterstocompletetransactionsonline.
53.Thesharingeconomyislikelytogothewayofonlineshopping.
54.Oneadvantageofsharingisthatownersearnmoneyfromrentingoutitemsnotmadefulluseof.
55.Sharingappealstothesociableinthattheycanmeetnewpeople.
SectionC
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished
statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best
choiceandmarkthecorrespondingletteronAnswerSheet2withasinglelinethroughthecentre.
PassageOne
Questions56t060arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a
large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our
perceptionofthefoodinfrontofus.
Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both
hunger andtheamount offoodconsumed. Even simple visualcues,like plate size andlighting, have beenshown
toaffectportionsizeandconsumption.
A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play 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
seeninfrontofthem—inotherwords,howmuchtheyrememberedeating.
Thisdisparity(差异)suggeststhememoryofourpreviousmealmayhaveabiggerinfluenceonourappetite
than the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the
UniversityofBristol.
“Hunger isn’t controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an
independent role for memory for that meal,” Brunstrom says. “This shows that the relationship between hunger
andfoodintakeismorecomplexthanwethought.”
These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body’s
response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie (卡路里)
milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending
on whether the shake’s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling
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What does this mean for our eating habits?Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating
less, the new findings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while
eating.
The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control our appetite, Brunstrom
says.
56.Whatissaidtobeafactoraffectingourappetiteandfoodintake?
A)Howweperceivethefoodweeat. B)Whatingredientsthefoodcontains.
C)Whenweeatourmeals. D)Howfastweeatourmeals.
57.Whatwouldhappenatmealtimeifyourememberedeatingalotinthepreviousmeal?
A)Youwouldprobablybemorepickyaboutfood.
B)Youwouldnotfeellikeeatingthesamefood.
C)Youwouldhaveagoodappetite.
D)Youwouldnotfeelsohungry.
58.Whatdowelearnfromthe2011study?
A)Foodlabelsmaymisleadconsumersintheirpurchases.
B)Foodlabelsmayinfluenceourbody’sresponsetofood.
C)Hungerlevelsdependonone’sconsumptionofcalories.
D)Peopletendtotakeinalotmorecaloriesthannecessary.
59.WhatdoesBrunstromsuggestwedotocontrolourappetite?
A)Trickourselvesintoeatingless. B)Choosefoodwithfewercalories.
C)Concentrateonfoodwhileeating. D)Pickdishesoftherightsize.
60.Whatisthemainideaofthepassage?
A)Eatingdistractionsoftenaffectourfooddigestion.
B)Psychologicalfactorsinfluenceourhungerlevels.
C)Ourfoodintakeisdeterminedbyourbiologicalneeds.
D)Goodeatinghabitswillcontributetoourhealth.
PassageTwo
Questions61to65arebasedonthefollowingpassage.
As a society we might want to rethink the time and money spent on education, so that these resources can
benefit a greater percentage of the population. Ideally,both high schools and colleges can prepare individuals for
theever-changingrolesthatarelikelytobeexpectedofthem.
High school degrees offer far less in the way of preparation for work than they might, or than many other
nations currently offer, creating a growing skills gap in our economy.We encourage students to go on to college
whether they are prepared or not, or have a clear sense of purpose or interest, and now have the highest college
dropoutrateintheworld.
We might look to other countries for models of how high schools can offer better training, as well as the
development of a work ethic (勤奋工作的美德) and the intellectual skills needed for continued learning and
development.IrecommendHarvard’s2011“Pathways toProsperity”reportformoreattentiontothe“forgotten
half”(thosewhodonotgoontocollege)andideasabouthowtoaddressthisissue.
Simultaneously, the liberal arts become more important than ever. In a knowledge economy where
professional roles change rapidly and many college students are preparing for positions that may not even exist
yet,theskillsetneededisonethatpreparesthemforchangeandcontinuedlearning.
Learning to express ideas well in both writing and speech, knowing how to find information, and knowing
howto do research are allsolid backgroundskills for awide variety of roles, andsuch training is more important
than any particular major in a liberal arts college. We need to continue to value broad preparation in thinking
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Students also need to learn to work independently and to make responsible decisions. The lengthening path
to adulthood appears exacerbated (恶化) by parental involvement in the college years. Given the rising
investment in college education, parental concern is notsurprising, but learning where andwhen to intervene (干
预)willhelpstudentstakemoreownershipoftheoutcomesoftheseincreasinglycostlyeducations.
61.Whatkindofeducationdoestheauthorthinkisideal?
A)Itbenefitsthegreatmajorityofthegeneralpopulation.
B)Itpreparesstudentstomeetthefutureneedsofsociety.
C)Itencouragesstudentstolearnthroughouttheirlives.
D)Itensuresthatstudents’expectationsaresuccessfullyfulfilled.
62.Whatdoestheauthorsayistheproblemwithpresenthighschooleducation?
A)Ignoringtheneedsofthosewhodon’tgotocollege.
B)Teachingskillstobeusedrightaftergraduationonly.
C)Givinglittleattentiontothosehavingdifficultylearning.
D)Creatingthehighestdropoutrateinthedevelopedworld.
63.Whatcharacterizesaknowledgeeconomyaccordingtothepassage?
A)Peoplehavetoreceivehighereducationtoqualifyforaprofessionalposition.
B)Studentsmajoringinliberalartsusuallyhavedifficultysecuringajob.
C)Newpositionsareconstantlycreatedthatrequirepeopletokeeplearning.
D)Collegesfindithardtoteachstudentshowtocopewiththechangingeconomy.
64.Whatdoestheauthorthinkaliberalartscollegeshouldfocuson?
A)Solidbackgroundknowledgeinaparticularfield.
B)Practicalskillsurgentlyneededincurrentsociety.
C)Basicskillsneededforchangeandlifelonglearning.
D)Usefulthinkingskillsforadvancedacademicresearch.
65.Whatsuggestiondoestheauthoroffertoparents?
A)Rethinkingthevalueofhighereducation.
B)Investingwiselyintheirchildren’seducation.
C)Helpingtheirchildrentobringtheirtalentintofullplay.
D)Avoidingtoomuchinterventionintheirchildren’seducation.
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