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 questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
真题一
The Changes Facing Fast Food
[A] Fast-food firms have to be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly criticise them severely for selling food that makes people fat. Critics even complain that McDonald’s, whose logo symbolises calorie excess, should not have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope with. But not perhaps for much longer. The burger business faces more pressure from regulators at a time when it is already adapting strategies in response to shifts in the global economy.
[B] Fast food was once thought to be recession-proof. When consumers need to cut spending, the logic goes, cheap meals like Big Macs and Whoppers become even more attractive. Such "trading down" proved true for much of the latest recession, when fast-food companies picked up customers who could no longer afford to eat at casual restaurants. Traffic was boosted in America, the home of fast food, with discounts and promotions, such as $1 menus and cheap combination meals.
[C] As a result, fast-food chains have weathered the recession better than their more expensive competitors. In 2009 sales at full-service restaurants in America fell by more than 6%, but total sales remained about the same at fast-food chains. In some markets, such as Japan, France and Britain, total spending on fast food increased. Same-store sales in America at McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food company, did not decline throughout the downturn. Panera Bread, an American fast-food chain known for its fresh ingredients, performed well, too, because it offers higher-quality food at lower prices than restaurants.
[D] But not all fast-food companies have been as fortunate. Many, such as Burger King, have seen sales fall. In a severe recession, while some people trade down to fast food, many others eat at home more frequently to save money. David Palmer, an analyst at UBS, a bank, says smaller fast-food chains in America, such as Jack in the Box and Carl’s Jr., have been hit particularly hard in this downturn because they are competing with the global giant McDonald's, which increased spending on advertising by more than 7% last year as others cut back.
[E] Some fast-food companies also sacrificed their own profits by trying to give customers better value. During the recession companies set prices low, hoping that once they had tempted customers through the door they would be persuaded to order more expensive items. But in many cases that strategy did not work. Last year Burger King franchisees(特许经营人)sued(起诉)the company over its double-cheeseburger promotion, claiming it was unfair for them to be required to sell these for $ 1 when they cost $1.10 to make. In May a judge ruled in favour of Burger King. Nevertheless, the company may still be cursing its decision to promote cheap choices over more expensive ones because items on its "value menu" now account for around 20% of all sales, up from 12% last October.
[F] Analysts expect the fast-food industry to grow modestly this year. But the downturn is making companies rethink their strategies. Many are now introducing higher-priced items to entice(引诱)consumers away from $1 specials. KFC, a division of Yum! Brands, which also owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, has launched a chicken sandwich that costs around $5. And in May Burger King introduced barbecue(烧烤)pork ribs at $7 for eight.
[G] Companies are also trying to get customers to buy new and more items, including drinks. McDonald’s started selling better coffee as a challenge to Starbucks. Its "McCaé" line now accounts for an estimated 6% of sales in America. Starbucks has sold rights to its Seattle’s Best coffee brand to Burger King, which will start selling it later this year.
[H] As fast-food companies shift from "super size" to "more buys", they need to keep customer traffic high throughout the day. Many see breakfast as a big opportunity, and not just for fatty food. McDonald's will start selling porridge(粥)in America next year. Breakfast has the potential to be very profitable, says Sara Senatore of Bernstein, a research firm, because the margins can be high. Fast-food companies are also adding midday and late-night snacks, such as blended drinks and wraps. The idea is that by having a greater range of things on the menu, "we can sell to consumers products they want all day," says Rick Carucci, the chief financial officer of Yum! Brands.
[I] But what about those growing waistlines? So far, fast-food firms have cleverly avoided government regulation. By providing healthy options, like salads and low-calorie sandwiches, they have at least given the impression of doing something about helping to fight obesity(肥胖症). These offerings are not necessarily loss-leaders, as they broaden the appeal of outlets to groups of diners that include some people who don’t want to eat a burger. But customers cannot be forced to order salads instead of fries.
[J] In the future, simply offering a healthy option may not be good enough. ‘‘Every packaged-food and restaurant company I know is concerned about regulation right now," says Mr. Palmer of UBS. America’s health-reform bill, which Congress passed this year, requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to put the calorie-content of items they serve on the menu. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which tracked the effects on Starbucks of a similar calorie-posting law in New York City in 2007, found that the average calorie-count per transaction fell 6% and revenue increased 3% at Starbucks stores where a Dunkin Donuts outlet was nearby—a sign, it is said, that menu-labeling could favour chains that have more healthy offerings.
[K] In order to avoid other legislation in America and elsewhere, fast-food companies will have to continue innovating(创新).Walt Riker of McDonald’s claims the change it has made in its menu means it offers more healthy items than it did a few years ago. "We probably sell more vegetables, more milk, more salads, more apples than any restaurant business in the world," he says. But the recent proposal by a county in California to ban McDonald’s from including toys in its high-calorie "Happy Meals", because legislators believe it attracts children to unhealthy food, suggests there is a lot more left to do.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. Some people propose laws be made to stop McDonald’s from attaching toys to its food specials for children.
47. Fast-food firms may not be able to cope with pressures from food regulation in the near future.
48. Burger King will start to sell Seattle’s Best coffee to increase sales.
49. Some fast-food firms provide healthy food to give the impression they are helping to tackle the obesity problem.
50. During the recession, many customers turned to fast food to save money.
51. Many people eat out less often to save money in times of recession.
52. During the recession, Burger King's promotional strategy of offering low-priced items often proved ineffective.
53. Fast-food restaurants can make a lot of money by selling breakfast.
54. Many fast-food companies now expect to increase their revenue by introducing higher-priced items.
55. A newly-passed law asks big fast-food chains to specify the calorie count of what they serve on the menu.
真题二
Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break
[A] Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program. And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.
[B] EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated (自动的) software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.
[C] The new service will bring the educational consortium (联盟) into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education. Although automated grading systems for multiple-choice and true-false tests are now widespread, the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet received widespread acceptance by educators and has many critics.
[D] Anant Agarwal, an electrical engineer who is president of EdX, predicted that the instant-grading software would be a useful teaching tool, enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers. He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system, where students often wait days or weeks for grades. “There is a huge value in leaning with instant feedback,” Dr. Agarwal said. “Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback.”
[E] But skeptics(怀疑者)say the automated system is no match for live teachers. One longtime critic, Les Perelman, has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks. He has also been highly critical of studies claiming that the software compares well to human graders.
[F] He is among a group of educators who last month began circulating a petition(呼吁)opposing automated assessment software. The group, which calls itself Professsionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment, has collected nearly 2,000 signatures, including some from famous people like Noam Chomsky.
[G] “Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s statement reads in part. “Computers cannot ‘read’. They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical(伦理的)position, convincing argument, meaningful organization, and clarity, among others.”.
[H] But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities. It offers free online classes from Harvard, MIT and the University of Californian-Berkeley; this fall, it will add classes from Wellesley, Georgetown and the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities participate in EdX, which offers certificates for course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year, including adding international schools.
[I] The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or graders, to first grade 100 essays or essay questions. The system then uses a variety of machine-learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantly. The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher, whether it is a letter grade or numerical(数字的)rank.
[J] EdX is not the first to use the automated assessment technology, which dates to early computers in the 1960s. There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers, and four states—Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia—are using some form of the technology in secondary schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some cases the software is used as a “second reader,”to check the reliability of the human graders.
[K] But the growing influence of the EdX consortium to set standards is likely to give the technology a boost. On Tuesday, Stanford announced that is would work with EdX to develop a joint educational system that will make use of the automated assessment technology.
[L] Two start-ups, Coursera and Udacity, recently founded by Stanford faculty members to create “massive open online courses,”or MOOCs, are also committed to automated assessment systems because of the value of instant feedback. “It allows students to get immediate feedback on their work, so that learning turns into a game, with students naturally gravitating (吸引) toward resubmitting the work until they get it right,” said Daphne Koller, a computer scientist and a founder of Coursera.
[M] Last year the Hewlett Foundation, a grant-making organization set up by one of the Hewlett-Packard founders and his wife, sponsored two $100,000 prizes aimed at improving software that grades essays and short answers. More than 150 teams entered each category. A winner of one of the Hewlett contests, Vik Paruchuri, was hired by EdX to help design its assessment software.
[N] “One of our focuses is to help kids learn how to think critically,”said Victor Vuchic, a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation. “It’s probably impossible to do that with multiple-choice tests. The challenge is that this requires human graders, and so they cost a lot more and they take a lot more time.”
[O] Mark D. Shermis, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, supervised the Hewlett Foundation’s contest on automated essay scoring and wrote a paper about the experiment. In his view, the technology—though imperfect—has a place in educational settings.
[P] With increasingly large classes, it is impossible for most teachers to give students meaningful feedback on writing assignments, he said. Plus, he noted, critics of the technology have tended to come from the nation’s best universities, where the level of teaching is much better than at most schools.
[Q]“Often they come from very famous institutions where, in fact, they do a much better job of providing feedback than a machine ever could,”Dr. Shermis said. “There seems to be a lack of appreciation of what is actually going on in the real world.”
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. Some professionals in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to automated essay grading.
47. Using software to grade students’ essays saves teachers time for other work.
48. The Hewlett contests aim at improving essay grading software.
49. Though the automated grading system is widely used in multiple-choice tests, automated essay grading is still criticized by many educators.
50. Some people don’t believe the software grading system can do as good a job as human graders.
51. Critics of automated essay scoring do not seem to know the true realities in less famous universities.
52. Critics argue many important aspects of effective writing cannot be measured by computer rating programs.
53. As class size grows, most teachers are unable to give students valuable comments as to how to improve their writing.
54. The automated assessment technology is sometimes used to double check the work of human graders.
55. Students find instant feedback helps improve their learning considerably.
真题三
Reaping the Rewards of Risk-Taking
[A] Since Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive of Apple, much has been said about him as a peerless business leader who has created immense wealth for shareholders, and guided the design of hit products that are transforming entire industries, like music and mobile communications.
[B] All true, but let’s think different, to borrow the Apple marketing slogan of years back. Let’s look at Mr. Jobs as a role model.
[C] Above all, he is an innovator(创新者). His creative force is seen in products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, and in new business models for pricing and distributing music and mobile software online. Studies of innovation come to the same conclusion: you can’t engineer innovation, but you can increase the odds of it occurring. And Mr. Jobs' career can be viewed as a consistent pursuit of improving those odds, both for himself and the companies he has led. Mr. Jobs, of course, has enjoyed singular success. But innovation, broadly defined, is the crucial ingredient in all economic progress一higher growth for nations, more competitive products for companies, and more prosperous careers for individuals. And Mr. Jobs' many experts say, exemplifies what works in the innovation game.
[D] "We can look at and learn from Steve Jobs what the essence of American innovation is," says John Kao, an innovation consultant to corporations and governments. Many other nations, Mr. John Kao notes, are now ahead of the United States in producing what are considered the raw materials of innovation. These include government financing for scientific research, national policies to support emerging industries, educational achievement, engineers and scientists graduated, even the speeds of Internet broadband service.
[E] Yet what other nations typically lack, Mr. Kao adds, is a social environment that encourages diversity, experimentation, risk-taking, and combining skills from many fields into products that he calls "recombinant mash-ups(打碎重组)," like the iPhone, which redefined the smartphone category. "The culture of other countries doesn’t support the kind of innovation that Steve Jobs exemplifies, as America does," Mr. John Kao says.
[F] Workers of every rank are told these days that wide-ranging curiosity and continuous learning are vital to thriving in the modem economy. Formal education matters, career counselors say, but real-life experience is often even more valuable.
[G] An adopted child, growing up in Silicon Valley, Mr. Jobs displayed those traits early on. He was fascinated by electronics as a child, building Heathkit do-it-yourself projects, like radios. Mr. Jobs dropped out of Reed College after only a semester and traveled around India in search of spiritual enlightenment, before returning to Silicon Valley to found Apple with his friend, Stephen Wozniak, an engineering wizard(奇才). Mr. Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985, went off and founded two other companies, Next and Pixar, before returning to Apple in 1996 and becoming chief executive in 1997.
[H] His path was unique, but innovation experts say the pattern of exploration is not unusual. "It’s often people like Steve Jobs who can draw from a deep reservoir of diverse experiences that often generate breakthrough ideas and insights," says Hal Gregersen, a professor at the European Institute of Business Administration.
[I] Mr. Gregersen is a co-author of a new book, The Innovator’s DNA, which is based on an eight-year study of 5,000 entrepreneurs(创业者)and executives worldwide. His two collaborators and co-authors are Jeff Dyer, a professor at Brigham Young University, and Clayton Christensen, a professor at the Harvard Business School, whose 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma popularized the concept of "disruptive(颠覆性的)innovation."
[J] The academics identify five traits that are common to the disruptive innovators: questioning, experimenting, observing, associating and networking. Their bundle of characteristics echoes the ceaseless curiosity and willingness to take risks noted by other experts. Networking, Mr, Hal Gregersen explains, is less about career-building relationships than a consistent search for new ideas. Associating, he adds, is the ability to make idea-producing connections by linking concepts from different disciplines.
[K] "Innovators engage in these mental activities regularly,” Mr. Gregersen says. "It’s a habit for them." Innovative companies, according to the authors, typically enjoy higher valuations in the stock market, which they call an "innovation premium(溢价)." It is calculated by estimating the share of a company’s value that cannot be accounted for by its current products and cash flow. The innovation premium tries to quantify(量化)investors' bets that a company will do even better in the future because of innovation.
[L] Apple, by their calculations, had a 37 percent innovation premium during Mr. Jobs' first term with the company. His years in exile resulted in a 31 percent innovation discount. After his return, Apple’s fortunes improved gradually at first, and improved markedly starting in 2005, yielding a 52 percent innovation premium since then.
[M] There is no conclusive proof, but Mr. Hal Gregersen says it is unlikely that Mr. Jobs could have reshaped industries beyond computing, as he has done in his second term at Apple, without the experience outside the company, especially at Pixar一the computer-animation(动画制作)studio that created a string of critically and commercially successful movies, such as "Toy Story" and "Up."
[N] Mr. Jobs suggested much the same thing during a commencement address to the graduating class at Stanford University in 2005. "It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me," he told the students. Mr. Jobs also spoke of perseverance(坚持)and will power. "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick," he said. "Don't lose faith”
[O] Mr. Jobs ended his commencement talk with a call to innovation, both in one’s choice of work and in one’s life. Be curious, experiment, take risks, he said to the students. His advice was emphasized by the words on the back of the final edition of The Whole Earth Catalog, which he quoted: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." "And," Mr. Jobs said, "I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.”
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. Steve Jobs called on Stanford graduates to innovate in his commencement address.
47. Steve Jobs considered himself lucky to have been fired once by Apple,
48. Steve Jobs once used computers to make movies that were commercial hits.
49. Many governments have done more than the US government in providing the raw materials for innovation.
50. Great innovators are good at connecting concepts from various academic fields.
51. Innovation is vital to driving economic progress.
52. America has a social environment that is particularly favorable to innovation.
53. Innovative ideas often come from diverse experiences.
54. Real-life experience is often more important than formal education for career success.
55. Apple’s fortunes suffered from an innovation discount during Jobs’ absence.
【参考答案】
真题一：
46. K
47. A
48. G
49. I
50. B
51. D
52. E
53. H
54. F
55. J
真题二：
46.F he is among a group
47.B EdX, the nonprofit
48.M Last year
49.C The new service
50.E but skeptics
51.Q often they come from
52.G let’s face
53.P with increasingly large
54.J EdX is not the first
55.D Anant Agarwal
真题三：
46. Steve Jobs called on Stanford graduates to innovate in his commencement address.
O) Mr. Jobs ended…
47. Steve Jobs considered himself lucky to have been fired once by Apple.
N) Mr. Jobs suggested…
48. Steve Jobs once used computers to make movies that were commercial hits.
M) There is no conclusive proof…
49. Many governments have done more than the US government in providing the raw materials for innovation.
D) "We can look at…"
50. Great innovator are good at connecting concepts from various academic fields.
J) "The academics identify five traits that…"
51. Innovation is vital to driving economic progress.
C) "Above all, …"
52. America has a social environment that is particularly favorable to innovation.
E) "Yet what other nations typically lack, …"
53. Innovative ideas often come from diverse experiences.
H) "His path was unique, …"
54. Real-life experience is often more important than formal education for career success.
F) "Workers of every rank are told…"
55. Apple's fortunes suffered from an innovation discount during Job's absence.
L) "Apple, by their calculations, …"
【参考解析】
本次长篇阅读将话题投向了乔布斯，并着重围绕“创新”二字展开。
从题目设置来看，出现了一两道题干关键词并不能直接在原文复现的题，如47题题干中的lucky，在原文中的表达为“It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me"，需要考生正确理解这句话背后的意思才能解题，这对于四级长篇阅读来说并不多见，也确实是本次试题难度有所增加的体现。从做题技巧看，建议考生先将有把握的题做对，在有余力的情况下，最后完成这种起到“拉分”作用的难题。
【综合分析】
四级阅读无论什么题型，主要考查的是同学们的眼力和对应信息的能力，长篇阅读尤是。
长篇阅读难点有以下几点，一。由于长篇阅读篇幅长，大概1200词左右，包含的信息量大，而且多生词难词。要在15分钟内完成题目，必然不能通读全文。这就要求我们要仔细阅读选项，通过选项找到对应段落。二。有些段落会出现复选现象。也就是说，在做题的过程中有可能出现一段信息对应若干选项的现象。具体对应几个选项，大纲并未给出明确数值，但按照往年考试情况，最多不超过两个。在今年的考试中，第一套卷的46/47两个选项就同时对应了N段落。这样就降低了我们用排除法做题的几率，变相增加了试题难度。三。题文乱序原则。长篇阅读有违传统阅读的题文同序原则，不能按照“首段首题，末段末题，夹中间段原则”来做题目。
那这些难题我们该如何解决呢?以第一套卷的54.Real-life experience is often more important than formal education for career success. 在读懂题目之前，我们要先做一项重要的工作就是寻找关键词，关键词的特征就是明显。那么大写专有名词、长难词以及特殊单词就是我们要寻找的对象。在54题中，最明显的词就是Real-life，通过这个词我们瞬间就定位到了F段落，而在F段落中大家除了能够找到real-life之外，还出现了一处同义替换，选项中的is often more important在原文中的形式是is often even more valuable.大家看到这的时候，其实答案就可以确定为F了。怎么样，其实只要掌握了做题方法，长篇阅读也不是很难。
但是在寻找关键词的过程中，大家要注意一定要寻找低频词。比如46/47/48当中都出现了同一个大写专有名词Steve Jobs，像这种词就叫做高频词，而我们在阅读文章的过程中也会发现Steve Jobs是全文的核心词汇，在文章多段落中反复出现。如果同学不幸将这样的词当做定位用的关键词，那么做题的压力就会非常的大。所以在寻找关键词这一步骤中，明显、低频的词才是我们解决长篇阅读的钥匙。
除了定位这一步骤，上文我们还提到了同义替换这一概念。同义替换主要考察同学对于词汇和句型的敏感度，这个只能通过同学们努力背单词，反复练习真题，熟悉真题中出现的各类词的同义替换，才能在考试中做到胸有成竹。不过这里小编要提醒大家，同义替换分为两种，一种是同义词的替换，比如在四六级考试中曾多次考察了benefit和be good for之间的转换;另一种是词性的转换，比如innovate和innovation，graduate与graduating之间的转换。
同学们刚开始做长篇阅读的时候，一定会觉得查找起来有点困难，这是正常的现象。但是功夫不负有心人，只要勤于练习就会熟能生巧。大家加油!
