一年两次的大学英语四六级考试似乎已经成了各高校学生的常规考试，而每次考完却又都仰天长啸寄希望于下一次的“考神附体”。那如何才能快速地“刷”到高分呢?小编在这里为大家整合了一些备考策略，供大家参考。
　　听力：
　　短对话：在短对话之前会有很久的Direction，这段时间大家有没有好好利用呢?可以在这段“听之无味”的话blabla之际，首先浏览一遍十个短对话的选项，大致推断一下对话的内容，适当地排除一些不可能的选项，这样在对话开始的时候大家也能更好地进入对话情境~
　　长对话：相比较而言，长对话浏览题目的时间就相对紧张一些，但是大家还是要抓紧时间看选项，必要时候划出关键词或者判断该题可能的问题。如果该题所有选项都是数字大家在听得时候就该动笔多记记关键信息啦，好记性不如烂笔头嘛。另外在听的过程中要注意But，First，Because等重要的连接词以及most等强调的词噢!
　　短文理解：这部分的考试策略同长对话比较相似，但是没有了男女之间的对话，加之文章主题可能是经济医疗等专业领域的问题，短文理解这块可能会略显枯燥，这时候大家一定要坚持住!抓紧一切时间浏览选项!努力听懂每一句话，特别是要理解开头和结尾段，有可能关键信息就在这里面哦~
　　短文听写：这是四六级题型改革的一块，与之前的听写句子相比难度相对降低了，但是也不能掉以轻心呐。短文会读三遍，第一遍可以大致记一下熟悉的单词，第二遍慢速的时候尽量全部填写出来，最后一遍是查漏补缺的最后机会，一定要注意时态、单复数、大小写等等，千万不要失分在细节上!如果单词不会拼，那就努力记住单词发音打开你的脑洞吧。
　　听力是考试最不确定的环节，因为你看不到文字，只能靠自己的耳朵来听，这时一定要克服你的紧张情绪，集中注意力，进入旁若无人之境~!
　　选词填空：相信这种类型的题目大家在高中阶段应该有所接触，在此就不赘述了，主要方法是将所给单词分为名词、动词、形容词、副词四类，在通读文章时再根据语法或者上下文确定所填单词。
　　阅读理解：阅读理解的方法因人而异，有人注重正确率而喜欢通读全文，有人注重速度而偏向关键词定位，这里主要介绍一下关键词定位技巧，通过阅读题目中的题干确定关键词，回文章寻找关键词所在段落，并仔细阅读与之相关的内容，注意其中的逻辑关系、句式运用等细节。
　　配对题：这也是改革后的新题型，要在短时间内看完这么长的一篇文章，对大多数的同学来说是有一定难度的，加之题目肯定不会按照文章的顺序出，而且有干扰段，难度也是有了一定的增加。因此，关键词定位还是成为了我们的首选方法，如按照专有名词、数词、长词与不常见的词定位之外，必须提高解题速度，才能以不变应万变。
　　在语文界就流行一句话：”一怕文言文、二怕写作文、三怕周树人“，可见作文对几乎所有人来说都是一件令人头疼的事情，连母语作文都Hold不住，那英语作文该怎么办?!
　　对于英语作文来说同学们可以适当地准备一些模板，也可以有意识地准备一下社会热点、名人名言之类的素材，以备不时之需!
　　翻译题在改革之后难度可谓是有了一个质的提高，小编听说许多童鞋“机智“地用拼音来代替不会的单词呢。
　　从这两次的考题来看翻译题的涉及面非常广泛，这就需要同学们平时有!意!识!地积累词语的正确搭配、减少中式英语的思维、多看英语相关文章啦，修行在个人咯。
　　最后，希望这些备考策略能够对你有所帮助，考出人生高分~!
【】【】【】【】
　　适用对象：
　　听力基础不太扎实，需要大量训练的6级（CET-6）考生；因听力词..
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2014年12月英语六级听力真题 第1套(MP3+试题+答案+原文+解析)
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听力填空If you are attending a local college, especially one without residence halls, you'll probably live at home and commute to classes. This arrangement has a lot of advantages. It's cheaper. It provides a comfortable and familiar setting, and it means you'll get the kind of home cooking you're used to instead of the monotony (单调) that characterizes even the best institutional food.However, commuting students need to go out of their way to become involved in the life of their college and to take special steps to meet their fellow students. Often, this means a certain amount of initiative on your part in seeking out and talking to people in your classes whom you think you might like.One problem that commuting students sometimes face is their parents' unwillingness to recognize that they're adults. The transition from high school to college is a big one, and if you live at home you need to develop the same kind of independence you'd have if you were living away. Home rules that might have been appropriate when you were in high school don't apply. If your parents are reluctant to renegotiate, you can speed the process along by letting your behavior show that you have the responsibility that goes with maturity. Parents are more willing to acknowledge their children as adults when they behave like adults. If, however, there's so much friction at home that it interferes with your academic work, you might want to consider sharing an apartment with one or more friends. Sometimes this is a happy solution when family tensions make everyone miserable
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['militəri]
想一想再看
adj. 军事的n. 军队
[ik.sperimen'teiʃn]
想一想再看
n. 实验，试验
[pə'tikjulə]
想一想再看
adj. 特殊的，特别的，特定的，挑剔的n.
[ə.səusi'eiʃən]
想一想再看
n. 联合，结合，交往，协会，社团，联想
['traiəl]
想一想再看
adj. 尝试性的; 审讯的n. 尝试，努力
[spi'sifik]
想一想再看
adj. 特殊的，明确的，具有特效的n. 特
['sə:tn]
想一想再看
adj. 确定的，必然的，特定的pron.
想一想再看
n. 生产量，投资收益v. 生产，屈服，投降
想一想再看
vt. 暗示，意指，含有 ... 的意义
[.invi'teiʃən]
想一想再看
n. 邀请，招待，邀请函，引诱，招致
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2014年12月大学英语六级考试真题（三）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then discuss whether there is a shortcut to learning. You should give sound arguments to support your views and write at least
words but no more than
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
PartⅡListening Comprehension (30 minutes)
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
1. A) It will reduce government revenues.
B) It will stimulate business activities.
C) It will mainly benefit the wealthy.
D) It will cut the stockholders’ dividends.
2. A) She will do her best if the job is worth doing.
B) She prefers a life of continued exploration.
C) She will stick to the job if the pay is good.
D) She doesn’t think much of job-hopping.
3. A) Stop thinking about the matter.
B) Talk the drug user out of the habit.
C) Be more friendly to his schoolmate.
D) Keep his distance from drug addicts.
4. A) The son.
B) The father.
C) The mother.
D) Aunt Louise.
5. A) Stay away for a couple of weeks.
B) Check the locks every two weeks.
C) Look after the Johnsons’ house.
D) Move to another place.
6. A) He would like to warm up for the game.
B) He didn’t want to be held up in traffic.
C) He didn’t want to miss the game.
D) He wanted to catch as many game birds as possible.
7. A) It was burned down.
B) It was robbed.
C) It was blown up.
D) It was closed down.
8. A) She isn’t going to change her major.
B) She plans to major in tax law.
C) She studies in the same school as her brother.
D) She isn’t going to work in her brother’s firm.
Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. A) Choices faced by conservationists.
B) A recent biology lecture.
C) Topics for a research paper.
D) Current issues in economics.
10. A) Inadequate training in methods of biological research.
B) Difficulties in classifying all of the varieties of owls.
C) A lack of funding for their work with endangered species.
D) A scarcity of jobs in their field.
11. A) Its population is increasing in recent years.
B) It may not survive without special efforts of conservationists.
C) Its role in the chain of evolution has not yet been examined.
D) It has numerous traits in common with the spotted owl.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12. A) How music prevents disease.
B) Studies on the benefits of music.
C) How musicians create music.
D) Training given to music therapists.
13. A) To control brain problems.
B) To prevent heart disease.
C) To relieve depression.
D) In place of physical therapy.
14. A) They solved problems better while listening to music they liked.
B) They preferred classical music.
C) They performed better when they used headphones.
D) They like to have music in the operating room.
15. A) It increased some students' energy level.
B) It improved the students' ability to play musical instruments.
C) It released a natural painkiller in some students' bodies.
D) It increased the students' white blood cell.
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 16 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) She was offered a good job by her neighbour.
B) She wanted to help with the family's finances.
C) Her family would like to see her more involved in social life.
D) She was bored with her idle life at home.
17. A) Looking after her neighbour's children.
B) Reading papers and watching TV.
C) Taking good care of her husband.
D) Doing housework.
18. A) Bill failed to adapt to the new situation.
B) Bill blamed Jane for neglecting the family.
C) The children were not taken good care of.
D) Jane got angry at Bill's idle life.
19. A) Women should have their own careers.
B) Man and wife should share household duties.
C) Parents should take good care of their children.
D) Neighbours should help each other.
Passage Two
Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.
20. A) To limit the destruction that natural disasters may cause.
B) To gain financial support from the United Nations.
C) To propose measures to hold back natural disasters.
D) To predict natural disasters that can cause vast destruction.
21. A) International cooperation can minimize the destructive force of natural disasters.
B) Technology can help reduce the damage natural disasters may cause.
C) Scientists can successfully predict earthquakes.
D) There is still a long way to go before man can control natural disasters.
22. A) The builder didn't observe the building codes of the time.
B) The traffic load went beyond its capacity.
C) It was built according to less strict earthquake resistance standards.
D) There were fatal mistakes in its design.
Passage Three
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
23. A) By estimating the possible loss of lives and property.
B) By estimating the frequency of volcanic eruptions.
C) By judging the possible risks against the likely benefits.
D) By judging to what extent they can eliminate the risks.
24. A) Etna's frequent eruptions have ruined most of the local farmland.
B) Etna's eruptions are frequent but usually mild.
C) There are signs that Etna will erupt again in the near future.
D) One of Etna's recent eruptions made many people move away.
25. A) They will leave this area forever.
B) They will turn to experts for advice.
C) They will seek shelter in nearby regions.
D) They will remain where they are.
Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
Certain phrases one commonly hears among Americans capture their devotion to individualism: "Do you own thing." "I did it my way." "You'll have to decide that for yourself." "You made your bed, now ____26____ in it." "If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will." "Look out for number one."
Closely associated with the value they place on individualism is the importance Americans ____27____ privacy. Americans assume that people “need some time to themselves” or “some time alone” to ___28____ things or recover their spent psychological energy. Americans have great ___29_____ understanding foreigners who always want to be with another person, who dislike being alone.
If the parents can ____30____ it, each child will have his or her own bedroom. Having one's own bedroom, even as an infant, fixes in a person the notion that she ___31_____ a place of her own where she can be by herself, and keep her possessions. She will have her clothes, her toys, her books and so on. These things will be hers and no one else's.
Americans ___32___ that people will have their private thoughts that might never be shared with anyone. Doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, and others have rules governing “confidentiality” that ___33___ prevent information about their clients' personal situations form becoming known to others.
American's attitudes about ___34___ can be hard for foreigners to understand. Americans’ houses, yards, and even their offices can seem open and inviting. Yet in the minds of Americans, there are ___35___ that other people are simply not supposed to cross. When those boundaries are crossed, an American's body will visibly stiffen and his manner will become cool and aloof.
Part III Reading comprehension
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for 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 each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
It was ten years ago, on a warm July night, that a newborn lamb took her first breath in a small shed in Scotland. From the outside, she looked no different from thousands of other sheep born on ___36__ farms. But Dolly, as the world soon came to realize, was no __37__ lamb. She was cloned from one cell of an adult female sheep, ___38___ long-held scientific dogma that had declared such a thing biologically impossible.
A decade later, scientists are starting to come to grips with just how different Dolly was. Dozens of animals have been cloned since the first lamb—mice, cats, cows and most recently, a dog—and it’s becoming ___39___ clear that they are all, in one way or another, defective.
It’s __40__ to think of clones as perfect carbon copies of the original. It turns out, though, that there are various degree of genetic ____41___. That may come as a shock to people who have paid thousands of dollars to clone a pet only to discover that the baby cat looks and behaves ___42___ like their beloved pet—with different color coat of fur, perhaps, or a __43___ different attitude toward its human hosts.
And these are just the obvious differences. Not only are clones ___44___ from the original template (模板) by time, but they are also the product of an unnatural molecular mechanism that turns out not to be very good at making ___45___ copies. In fact, the process can embed small flaws in the genes of clones that scientists are only now discovering.
A. abstract
B. completely
C. deserted
D. duplication
E. everything
F. identical
G. increasingly
H. miniature
I. nothing
J. ordinary
K. overturning
L. separated
M. surrounding
N. systematically
O. tempting
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 lever. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Should Single-Sex Education Be Eliminated?
[A] Why is a neuroscientist here debating single-sex schooling? Honestly, I had no fixed ideas on the topic when I started researching it for my book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. But any discussion of gender differences in children inevitably leads to this debate, so I felt compelled to dive into the research data on single-sex schooling. I read every study I could, weighed the existing evidence, and ultimately concluded that single-sex education is not the answer to gender gaps in achievement—or the best way forward for today’s young people. After my book was published, I met several developmental and cognitive psychologists whose work was addressing gender and education from different angles, and we published a peer-reviewed Education Forum piece in Science magazine with the provocative title, “The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Education.”
[B] We showed that three lines of research used to justify single-sex schooling—educational, neuroscience, and social psychology—all fail to support its alleged benefits, and so the widely-held view that gender separation is somehow better for boys, girls, or both is nothing more than a myth.
The Research on Academic Outcomes
[C] First, we reviewed the extensive educational research that has compared academic outcomes in students attending single-sex versus coeducational schools. The overwhelming conclusion when you put this enormous literature together is that there is no clear academic advantage of sitting in all-female or all-male classes, in spite of much popular belief to the contrary. I base this conclusion not on any individual study, but on large-scale and systematic reviews of thousands of studies conducted in every major English-speaking country.
[D] Of course, there’re many excellent single-sex schools out there, but as these careful research reviews have demonstrated, it’s not their single-sex composition that makes them excellent. It’s all the other advantages that are typically packed into such schools, such as financial resources, quality of the faculty, and pro-academic culture, along with the family background and pre-selected ability of the students themselves that determine their outcomes.
[E] A case in point is the study by Linda Sax at UCLA, who used data from a large national survey of college freshmen to evaluate the effect of single-sex versus coeducational high schools. Commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, the raw findings look pretty good for the funders —higher SAT scores and a stronger academic orientation among women who had attended all girls’ high schools (men weren’t studied). However, once the researchers controlled for both student and school attributes—measures such as family income, parents’ education, and school resources—most of these effects were erased or diminished.
[F] When it comes to boys in particular, the data show that single-sex education is distinctly unhelpful for them. Among the minority of studies that have reported advantages of single-sex schooling, virtually all of them were studies of girls. There’re no rigorous studies in the United States that find single-sex schooling is better for boys, and in fact, a separate line of research by economists has shown both boys and girls exhibit greater cognitive growth over the school year based on the “dose” of girls in a classroom. In fact, boys benefit even more than girls from having larger numbers of female classmates. So single-sex schooling is really not the answer to the current “boy crisis” in education.
Brain and Cognitive Development
[G] The second line of research often used to justify single-sex education falls squarely within my area of expertise: brain and cognitive development. It’s been more than a decade now since the “brain sex movement ” began infiltrating (渗入) our schools, and there are literally hundreds of schools caught up in the fad (新潮). Public schools in Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and many other states now proudly declare on their websites that they separate boys and girls because “research solidly indicates that boys and girls learn differently,” due to “hard-wired” differences in their brains, eyes, ears, autonomic nervous systems, and more.
[H] All of these statements can be traced to just a few would-be neuroscientists, especially physician Leonard Sax and therapist Michael Gurian. Each gives lectures, runs conferences, and does a lot of professional development on so-called “gender-specific learning.” I analyzed their various claims about sex differences in hearing, vision, language, math, stress responses, and “learning styles” in my book and along peer-reviewed paper. Other neuroscientists and psychologists have similarly exposed their work. In short, the mechanisms by which our brains learn language, math, physics, and every other subject don’t differ between boys and girls. Of course, learning does vary a lot between individual students, but research reliably shows that this variance is far greater within populations of boys or girls than between the two sexes.
[I] The equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits separation of students by sex in public education that’s based on precisely this kind of “overbroad generalizations about the different talents, capacities, or preferences of males and females.” And the reason it is prohibited is because it leads far too easily to stereotyping and sex discrimination.
Social Developmental Psychology
[J] That brings me to the third area of research which fails to support single-sex schooling and indeed suggests the practice is actually harmful: social-developmental psychology.
[K] It’s a well-proven finding in social psychology that segregation promotes stereotyping and prejudice, whereas intergroup contact reduces them—and the results are the same whether you divide groups by race, age, gender, body mass index, sexual orientation, or any other category. What’s more, children are especially vulnerable to this kind of bias, because they are dependent on adults for learning which social categories are important and why we divide people into different groups.
[L] You don’t have to look far to find evidence of stereotyping and sex discrimination in single-sex schools. There was the failed single-sex experiment in California, where six school districts used generous state grants to set up separate boys’ and girls’ academies in the late 1990s. Once boys and girls were segregated, teachers resorted to traditional gender stereotypes to run their classes, and within just three years, five of the six districts had gone back to coeducation.
[M] At the same time, researchers are increasingly discovering benefits of gender interaction in youth. A large British study found that children with other-sex older siblings(兄弟姐妹) exhibit less stereotypical play than children with same-sex older siblings, such as girls who like sports and building toys and boys who like art and dramatic play. Another study of high school social networks found less bullying and aggression the higher the density of mixed-sex friendships within a given adolescent network. Then there is the finding we cited in our Science paper of higher divorce and depression rates among a large group of British men who attended single-sex schools as teenagers, which might be explained by the lack of opportunity to learn about relationships during their formative years.
[N] Whether in nursery school, high school, or the business world, gender segregation narrows our perceptions of each other, facilitating stereotyping and sexist attitudes. It’s very simple: the more we structure children and adolescents’ environment around gender distinctions and separation, the more they will use these categories as the primary basis for understanding themselves and others.
[O] Gender is an important issue in education. There are gaps in reading, writing, and science achievement that should be narrower. There are gaps in career choice that should be narrower—if we really want to maximize human potential and American economic growth. But stereotyping boys and girls and separating them in the name of fictitious(虚构的) brain differences is never going to close these gaps.
46. Hundreds of schools separate boys from girls in class on the alleged brain and cognitive differences.
47. A review of extensive educational research shows no obvious academic advantage of single-sex schooling.
48. The author did not have any fixed ideas on single-sex education when she began her research on the subject
49. Research found men who attended single-sex schools in their teens were more likely to suffer from depression.
50. Studies in social psychology have shown segregation in school education has a negative impact on children.
51. Reviews of research indicate there are more differences in brain and cognitive development within the same sex than between different sexes.
52. The findings of the national survey of college freshmen about the impact of single-sex schooling fail to take into account student and school attributes.
53. It wasn’t long before most of the school districts that experimented with single-sex education abandoned the practice.
54. Boys from coeducational classes demonstrate greater cognitive abilities according to the economists’ research.
55. As careful research reviews show, academic excellence in some single-sex schools is attributed to other factors than single-sex education.
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 choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
International governments’ inaction concerning sustainable development is clearly worrying but the proactive(主动出击的) approaches of some leading-edge companies are encouraging. Toyota, Wal-Mart, DuPont, M&S and General Electric have made tackling environmental wastes a key economic driver.
DuPont committed itself to a 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the 10 years prior to 2010. By 2007, DuPont was saving $2.2 billion a year through energy efficiency, the same as its total declared profits that year. General Electric aims to reduce the energy intensity of its operations by 50% by 2015. They have invested heavily in projects designed to change the way of using and conserving energy.
Companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart are not committing to environmental goals out of the goodness of their hearts. The reason for their actions is a simple yet powerful realization that the environmental and economic footprints fit well together. When M&S launched its “Plan A” sustainability program in 2007, it was believed that it would cost over ?200 million in the first five years. However, the initiative had generated ?105 million by 2011/12.
When we prevent physical waste, increase energy efficiency or improve resource productivity, we save money, improve profitability and enhance competitiveness. In fact, there are often huge “quick win” opportunities, thanks to years of neglect.
However, there is a considerable gap between leading-edge companies and the rest of the pack. There are far too many companies still delaying creating a lean and green business system, arguing that it will cost money or require sizable capital investments. They remain stuck in the “environment is cost” mentality. Being environmentally friendly does not have to cost money. In fact, going beyond compliance saves cost at the same time that it generates cash, provided that management adopts the new lean and green model.
Lean means doing more with less. Nonetheless, in most companies, economic and environmental continuous improvement is viewed as being in conflict with each other. This is one of the biggest opportunities missed across most industries. The size of the opportunity is enormous. The 3% Report recently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbon emissions in the US economy is $780 billion between now and 2020. It suggests that one of the biggest levers for delivering this opportunity is “increased efficiency through management and behavioral change” —in other words, lean and green management.
Some 50 studies show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of non-renewable resources are financially outperforming their competitors. Conversely, it was found that climate disruption is already costing $1.2 trillion annually, cutting global GDP by 1.6%. Unaddressed, this will double by 2030.
56. What does the author say about some leading-edge companies?
A. They take initiatives in handling environmental wastes.
B. They are key drivers in their nations’ economic growth.
C. They are major contributors to environmental problems.
D. They operate in accordance with government policies.
57. What motivates Toyota and Wal-Mart to make commitments to environmental protection?
A. A strong sense of responsibility.
B. The desire to generate profits.
C. Pressure from environmentalists.
D. The goodness of their hearts.
58. Why are so many companies reluctant to create an environment-friendly business system?
A. They do not have the capital for the investment.
B. They believe building such a system is too costly.
C. They lack the incentive to change business practices.
D. They are bent on making quick money.
59. What is said about the lean and green model of business?
A. It is affordable only for a few leading-edge companies.
B. It is likely to start a new round of intense competition.
C. It will take a long time for all companies to embrace it.
D. It helps businesses to save and gain at the same time.
60. What is the finding of the studies about companies committed to environmental goals?
A. They do much better than their counterparts in terms of revenues.
B. They have abandoned all the outdated equipment and technology.
C. They make greater contributions to human progress than their rivals.
D. They have greatly enhanced their sense of social responsibility.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
If you asked me to describe the rising philosophy of the day, I’d say it is data-ism. We now have the ability to gather huge amounts of data. This ability seems to carry with it certain cultural assumptions—that everything that can be measure that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emoti that data will help us do remarkable things— like foretell the future.
Over the next year, I’m hoping to get a better grip on some of the questions raised by the data revolution: In what situations should we rely on intuitive pattern recognition and in which situations should we ignore intuition and follow the data? What kinds of events are predictable using statistical analysis and what sorts of events are not?
I confess I enter this in a skeptical frame of mind, believing that we tend to get carried away in our desire to reduce everything to the quantifiable. But at the outset let me celebrate two things data does really well.
First, it’s really good at exposing when our intuitive view of reality is wrong. For example, nearly every person who runs for political office has an intuitive sense that they can powerfully influence their odds of winning the election if they can just raise and spend more money. But this is largely wrong.
After the 2006 election, Sean Trende constructed a graph comparing the incumbent(在任者的) campaign spending advantages with their eventual margins of victory. There was barely any relationship between more spending and a bigger victory. Likewise, many teachers have an intuitive sense that different students have different learning styles: some are verbal some are linear, some are holistic(整体的). Teachers imagine they will improve outcomes if they tailor their presentations to each student. But there’s no evidence to support this either.
Second, data can illuminate patterns of behavior we haven’t yet noticed. For example, I’ve always assumed people who frequently use words like “I,” “me,” and “mine” are probably more self-centered than people who don’t. But as James Pennebaker of the University of Texas notes in his book, The Secret Life of Pronouns, when people are feeling confident, they are focused on the task at hand, not on themselves. High-status, confident people use fewer “I” words, not more.
Our brains often don’t notice subtle verbal patterns, but Pennebaker’s computers can. Younger writers use more negative and past-tense words than older writers who use more positive and future-tense words.
In sum, the data revolution is giving us wonderful ways to understand the present and the past. Will it transform our ability to predict and make decisions about the future? We’ll see.
61. What do data-ists assume they can do?
A. Change the way future events unfold.
B. Get a firm grip on the most important issues.
C. Eliminate emotional and ideological bias.
D. Transform people’s cultural identity.
62. What do people running for political office think they can do?
A. Win the election if they can raise enough funds.
B. Manipulate public opinion with favorable data.
C. Increase the chances of winning by foul means.
D. Use data analysis to predict the election result.
63. Why do many teachers favor the idea of tailoring their presentations to different students?
A. They will be able to try different approaches.
B. They believe students’ learning styles vary.
C. They can accommodate students with special needs.
D. They think students prefer flexible teaching methods.
64. What does James Pennebaker reveal in The Secret Life of Pronouns?
A. Repeated use of first-person pronouns by self-centered people.
B. Frequent use of pronouns and future tense by young people.
C. A pattern in confident people’s use of pronouns.
D. The importance of using pronouns properly.
65. Why is the author skeptical of the data revolution?
A. Errors may occur with large data samples.
B. Data cannot always do what we imagine it can.
C. Some data may turn out to be outdated.
D. Data may not be easily accessible.
Part Ⅳ Translation (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
中国将努力确保到2015年就业者接受过平均13.3年的教育。如果这一目标得以实现，今后大部分进入劳动力市场的人都需获得大学文凭。
在未来几年，中国将着力增加职业学院的招生人数：除了关注高等教育外，还将寻找新的突破以确保教育制度更加公平。中国正在努力最佳地利用教育资源，这样农村和欠发达地区将获得更多的支持。
教育部还决定改善欠发达地区学生的营养，并为外来务工人员的子女提供在城市接受教育的同等机会。
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