2014年12月六级考试真题（第一套）
Part III Reading comprehension
Section A
Directions:In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one word for each blank from a list 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 Sheet2with a single Line through the centre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions36to45are based on the following passage.
His future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one might expect.They laughed aloud in1986when the heir to the British(36)________told a TV reporter that he talked to his plants at his country house,Highgrove,to stimulate their growth.The Prince was being humorous—“My sense of humor will get me into trouble one day,”he said to the aides(随从)—but listening to Charles Windsor can indeed prove stimulating.The royal(37)________that been promoting radical ideas for most of his adult life, some of his(38)_________which once sounded a hit weird were simply ahead of their time.Now,finally,the world seems to be catching up with him.
Take his views on farming.Prince Charles’Duchy Home Farm went(39)___________back to1996.when most shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemish-free(无瑕疵的)Vegetables and(40) __________large chickens piled high in supermarkets.
His warnings on climate change proved farsighted;too Charles began(41)_________action on global warming in1990and says he has been worried about the(42)____________of man on the environment since he was a teenager.
Although he has gradually gained international(43)__________as one of the a world’s leading conservationists,many British people still think of him as an(44)____________person who talks to plants This year,as it happens,South Korean scientists proved that plants really do(45)__________to sound.So Charles was ahead of the game there,too.
A.conform I.recognition
B.eccentric J.respond
C.environmentalist K.subordinate
D.expeditions L.suppressing
E.impact M.throne
F.notions N.unnaturally
https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,anic O.urging
H.originally
Section B
Directions:In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement con tains information given in one of the paragraphs Identify the paragraphfrom which the information is derived.Yo u may choose a paragraph more than once.Eachparagraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by mar king the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet2.
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 purported 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 are many excellent single-sex schools out there,but as these careful research reviews have
demonstrated,it is not their single-sex composition that makes them excellent.It is 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 https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,missioned by the National Coalition of Girls'Schools,the raw findings look pretty good for the flinders—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 that 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 A)our schools,and there are literally hundreds of schools caught up in the fad 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 a long 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 that fails to support single-sex schooling and indeed suggests the practice is actually harmful:social-developmental psychology.
[K]It is 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 late1990s.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.
Section C
Directions:There are2passages in this section.Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statem ents.For each of them there are four choices marked A),B),C)and D).You should decide on the best choice and m ark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet2with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions56to60are 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 a65%reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the10years prior to2010.By 2007,DuPont was saving$2.2billion a year through energy efficiency,the same as its total declared profits that year.General Electric aims to reduce the energy intensity of its operation by50%by2015.They have invested heavily in projects designed to change the way of using and conserving energy.
Companies like Toyota and Wal-Mart arc not committing to environmental goals out of the goodness of their hearts.The reason for their actions is a simple yet powerful realisation that the environmental and economic footprints fit well together.When M&S launched its"Plan A"sustainability programme in2007,it was believed that it would cost over￡200million in the first five years.However,the initiative had generated ￡105million by2011/12.
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 is 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 environ-mental 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.The3%Report recently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbon emissions in the US economy is $780billion between now and2020,It suggests that one of the biggest levers for delivering this opportunity is "increased efficiency through management and behavioural change"—in other words,lean and green management.
Some50studies show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste,zero harmful emissions,and zero use of noon-renewable resources are financially outperforming their competitors.Conversely, it was found that climate disruption is already costing SI.2trillion annually,cutting global GDP by1.6%. Unaddressed,this will double by2030.
56.What does the author say about some leading-edge companies?
A)They operate in accordance with government policies.
B)They take initiatives in handling environmental wastes.
C)They are key drivers in their nations'economic growth.
D)They are major contributors to environmental problems.
57.What motivates Toyota and Wal-Mart to make commitments to environmental protection?
A)The goodness of their hearts.B)A strong sense of responsibility.
C)The desire to generate profits.D)Pressure from environmentalists.
58.Why are so many companies reluctant to create an environment-friendly business system?
A)They are bent on making quick money.
B)They do not have the capital for the investment.
C)They believe building such a system is too costly.
D)They lack the incentive to change business practices.
59.What is said about the lean and green model of business?
A)It helps businesses to save and gain at the same time.
B)It is affordable only for a few leading-edge companies.
C)It is likely to start a new round of intense competition.
D)It will take a long time for all companies to embrace it.
60.What is the finding of the studies about companies committed to environmental goals?
A)They have greatly enhanced their sense of social responsibility.
B)They do much better than their counterparts in terms of revenues.
C)They have abandoned all the outdated equipment and technology.
D)They make greater contributions to human progress than their rivals.
Passage Two
Questions61to65are 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 measured should be measured;that data is a transparent and reliable lens that allows us to filter out emotionalism and ideology;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 the2006election,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 and some visual;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 lames 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)Transform people's cultural identity.B)Change the way future events unfold.
C)Get a firm grip on the most important issues.D)Eliminate emotional and ideological bias
62.What do people running for political office think they can do?
A)Use data analysis to predict the election result.B)Win the election if they can raise enough funds.
C)Manipulate public opinion with favorable data.D)Increase the chances of winning by foul means.
63.Why do many teachers favor the idea of tailoring their presentations to different students?
A)They think students prefer flexible teaching methods.B)They will be able to try different approaches.
C)They believe students'learning styles vary.D)They can accommodate students with special needs.
64.What does James Pennebaker reveal in The Secret Life of Pronouns?
A)The importance of using pronouns properly.
B)Repeated use of first-person pronouns by self-centered people.
C)Frequent use of pronouns and future tense by young people.
D)A pattern in confident people's use of pronouns.
65.Why is the author skeptical of the data revolution?
A)Data may not be easily accessible.B)Errors may occur with large data samples.
C)Data cannot always do what we imagine it can.D)Some data may turn out to be outdated.
2014年12月六级考试真题（第二套）
Part III Reading Comprehension
Section A
Directions:In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one word for each blank from a list 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 Sheet2with a single Line through the centre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions36to45are based on the following passage.
Children are natural-born scientists.They have36minds,and they aren’t afraid to admit they don’t know something.Most of them,37lose this as they get older.They become self-conscious and don’t want to appear stupid.Instead of finding things out for themselves they make38that often turn out to be wrong.
So it’s not a case of getting kids interested in science.You just have to avoid killing the39for learning that they were born with.It’s no coincidence that kids start deserting science once it becomes formalised.Children naturally have a blurred approach to40knowledge.They see learning about science or biology or cooking as all part of the same act—it’s all learning.It’s only because of the practicalities of education that you have to start breaking down the curriculum into specialist subjects.You need to have specialist teachers who41what they know.Thus once they enter school,children begin to define subjects and erect boundaries that needn’t otherwise exist.
Dividing subjects into science,maths,English,etc.is something we do for42.In the end it’s all learning, but many children today43themselves from a scientific education.They think science is for scientists,not for them.
Of course we need to specialise44.Each of us has only so much time on Earth,so we can’t study everything. At5years old,our field of knowledge and45is broad,covering anything from learning to walk to learning to
count.Gradually it narrows down so that by the time we are45,it might be one tiny little comer within science.
A)accidentally I)formulas
B)acquiring J)ignite
C)assumptions K)impart
D)convenience L)inquiring
E)eventually M)passion
F)exclude N)Provoking
G)exertion O)unfortunately
H)exploration
Section B
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 Sheet2.
Meaning Is Healthier Than Happiness
[A]For at least the last decade,the happiness craze has been building.In the last three months alone,over1,000 books on happiness were released on Amazon,including Happy Money,Happy-People-Pills For All,and,for those just starting out,Happiness for Beginners.
[B]One of the consistent claims of books like these is that happiness is associated with all sorts of good life outcomes,including-most promisingly-good health.Many studies have noted the connection between a happy mind and a healthy body-the happier you are,the better health outcomes we seem to have.In a meta-analysis(overview)of150studies on this topic,researchers put it like this:“Inductions of well-being lead to healthy functioning,and inductions of ill-being lead to compromised health.”
[C]But a new study,just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS)challenges the rosy picture.Happiness may not be as good for the body as researchers thought.It might even be bad.
[D]Of course,it’s important to first define happiness.A few months ago,I wrote a piece called“There’s More to Life Than Being Happy”about a psychology study that dug into what happiness really means to people.It specifically explored the difference between a meaningful life and a happy life.
[E]It seems strange that there would be a difference at all.But the researchers,who looked at a large sample of people over a month-long period,found that happiness is associated with selfish“taking”behavior and that having a sense of meaning in life is associated with selfless“giving”behavior.
[F]"Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow,self-absorbed or even selfish life,in which
things go well,needs and desire are easily satisfied,and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided,"the authors of the study wrote."If anything,pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need.”While being happy is about feeling good,meaning is derived from contributing to others or to society in a bigger way.As Roy Baumeister,one of the researchers,told me,"Partly what we do as human beings is to take care of others and contribute to others.This makes life meaningful but it does not necessarily make us happy.”[G]The new PNAS study also sheds light on the difference between meaning and happiness,but on the biological level.Barbara Fredrickson,a psychological researcher at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,and Steve Cole,a genetics and psychiatriy（精神病学）researcher at UCLA,examined the self-reported levels of happiness and meaning in80research subjects.
[H]Happiness was defined,as in the earlier study,by feeling good.The researchers measured happiness by asking subjects questions like“How often did you feel happy?”“How often did you feel interested in life?”and “How often did you feel satisfied?”The more strongly people endorsed these measures of“hedonic（享乐主义的）well-being,”or pleasure,the higher they scored on happiness.
[I]Meaning was defined as an orientation to something bigger than the self.They measured meaning by asking questions like“How often did you feel that your life has a sense of direction or meaning to it?”,“How often did you feel that you had something to contribute to society?”,and“How often did you feel that your life has a sense of direction or meaning to it?”How often did you fell that you had something to contribute to society?”The more people endorsed these measures of“eudaimonic(幸福论的)well-being”-or,simply put, virtue-the more meaning they felt in life.
[J]After noting the sense of meaning and happiness that each subject had,Fredrickson and Cole,with their research colleagues,looked at the ways certain genes expressed themselves in each of the participants.Like neuroscientists who use fMRI(功能磁共振成像)scanning to determine how regions in the brain respond to different stimuli,Cole and Fredrickson are interested in how the body,at the genetic level,responds to feelings of happiness and meaning.
[K]Cole’s past work has linked various kinds of chronic adversity to a particular gene expression pattern.When people feel lonely,are grieving the loss of a loved one,or are struggling to make ends meet,their bodies go into threat mode.This triggers the activation of a stress-related gene pattern that has two features:an increase in the activity of pro-inflammatory（促炎症的）genes and a decrease in the activity of genes involved in anti-viral responses.
[L]Cole and Fredrickson found that people who are happy but have little to no sense of meaning in their lives-proverbially,simply here for the party-have the same gene expression patterns as people who are responding to and enduring chronic adversity.That is,the bodies of these happy people are preparing them for bacterial threats by activating the pro-inflammatory response.Chronic inflammation is,of course,associated with major illnesses like heart disease and various cancers.
[M]“Empty positive emotions”-like the kind people experience during manic（狂喜的）episodes or artificially induced euphoria（欣快）from alcohol and drugs–“are about as good for you for as adversity”,says Fredrickson.
[N]It’s important to understand that for many people,a sense of meaning and happiness in life overlap;many people score jointly high(or jointly low)on the happiness and meaning measures in the study.But for many others,there is a dissonance(不一致)-they feel that they are low on happiness and high on meaning or that their lives are very high in happiness,but low in meaning.This last group,which has the gene expression pattern associated with adversity,formed a whopping75percent of study participants.Only one quarter of the study participants had what the researchers call“eudaimonic predominance”-that is,their sense of meaning outpaced their feelings of happiness.
[O]This is too bad given the more beneficial gene expression pattern associated with meaningfulness.People whose levels of happiness and meaning line up,and people who have a strong sense of meaning but are not necessarily happy,showed a deactivation of the adversity stress response.Their bodies were not preparing them for the bacterial infections that we get when we are alone or in trouble,but for the viral infections we get when surrounded by a lot of other people.
[P]Fredrickson’s past research,described in her two books,Positivity and Love2.0,has mapped the benefits of positive emotions in individuals.She has found that positive emotions broaden a person’s perspective and buffers people against adversity.So it was surprising to her that hedonistic well-being,which is associated with positive emotions and pleasure,did so badly in this study compared with eudaimonic well-being.
[Q]“It’s not the amount of hedonic happiness that’s a problem,”Fredrickson tells me,“It’s that it’s not matched by eudaimonic well-being.It’s great when both are in step.But if you have more hedonic well-being than would be expected,that’s when this[gene]pattern that’s akin to adversity emerged.”
[R]The terms hedonism and eudemonism bring to mind the great philosophical debate,which has shaped Western civilization for over2,000years,about the nature of the good life.Does happiness lie in feeling good, as hedonists think,or in doing and being good,as Aristotle and his intellectual descendants,the virtue
ethicists(伦理学家),think?From the evidence of this study,it seems that feeling good is not enough.People need meaning to thrive.In the words of Carl Jung,“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”Jung’s wisdom certainly seems to apply to our bodies,if not also to our hearts and our minds.
46.The author’s recent article examined how a meaningful life is different from a happy life.
47.It should be noted that many people feel their life is both happy and meaningful.
48.According to one survey,there is a close relationship between hedonic well-being measures and high scores
on happy.
49.According to one of the authors of a new study,what makes life meaningful may not make people happy.
50.Experiments were carried out to determine our body’s genetic expression of feelings of happiness and
meaning.
51.A new study claims happiness may not contribute to health.
52.According to researchers,taking makes for happiness while giving adds meaning to life.
53.Evidence from research shows that it takes meaning for people to thrive.
54.With regard to gene expression patterns,happy people with little or no sense of meaning in life are found to
be similar to those suffering from chronic adversity.
55.Most books on happiness today assert that happiness is beneficial to health.
Section C
Directions:There are2passages 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 Sheet2with a single line through the centre.
Passage one
Questions56to60are based on the following passage.
Nothing succeeds in business books like the study of success.The current business-book boom was launched in1982by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman with“In Search of Excellence”.It has been kept going ever since by a succession of gurus and would-be gurus who promise to distil the essence of excellence into three(or five or seven)simple rules.
“The Three Rules”is a self-conscious contribution to this type;it even includes a bibliography of“success studies”.Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed work for a consultancy,Deloitte,that is determined to turn itself into more of a thought-leader and less a corporate repairman.They employ all the tricks of the success genre. They insist that their conclusions are“measurable and actionable”-guide to behavior rather than analysis for its own sake.Success authors usually serve up vivid stories about how exceptional business-people stamped their personalities on a company or rescued it from a life-threatening crisis.MessrsRaynor and Ahmed are happier chewing the numbers:they provide detailed appendices on“calculating the elements of advantage”and “detailed analysis”.
The authors spent five years studying the behaviour of their344“exceptional companies”,only to come up at first with nothing.Every hunch(直觉)led to a blind alley and every hypothesis to a dead end.It was only when they shifted their attention from how companies behave to how they think that they began to make sense of their voluminous material.
Management is all about making difficult tradeoffs in conditions that are always uncertain and ever-changing.But exceptional companies approach these trade-offs with two simple rules in mind,sometimes consciously,sometimes unconsciously.First:better before https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,panies are more likely to succeed in the long run if they compete on quality or performance than on price.Second:revenue before https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,panies have more to gain in the long run from driving up revenue than by driving down costs.
Most success studies suffer from two faults.There is“the halo(光环)effect”,whereby good performance leads commentators to attribute all manner of virtues to anything and everything the company does.These
virtues then suddenly become vices when the company fails.Messrs Raynor and Ahmed work hard to avoid these mistakes by studying large bodies of data over several decades.But they end up embracing a different error:stating the obvious.Most businesspeople will not be surprised to learn that it is better to find a profitable niche(缝隙市场)and focus on boosting your revenues than to compete on price and cut your way to success. The difficult question is how to find that profitable niche and protect it.There,The Three Rules is less useful.
56.What kind of business books are most likely to sell well?
A)Books on excellence C)Books on business rules.
B)Guides to management.D)Analyses of market trends.
57.What does the author imply about books on success so far?
A)They help businessmen on way or another.B)They are written by well-recognised experts.
C)They more or less fall into the same stereotype.D)They are based on analyses of corporate leaders.
58.How does The Three Rules different from other success books according to the passage?
A)It focuses on the behavior of exceptional businessmen.
B)It bases its detailed analysis on large amount of data.
C)It offers practicable advice to businessmen.
D)It draws conclusion from vivid examples.
59.What does the passage say contributes to the success of exceptional companies?
A)Focus on quality and revenue.B)Management and sales promotion.
C)Lower production costs and competitive prices.D)Emphasis on after-sale service and maintenance.
60.What is the author’s comment on The Three Rules?
A)It can help to locate profitable niches.B)It has little to offer to businesspeople.
C)It is noted for its detailed data analysis.D)It fails to identify the keys to success.
Passage Two
Questions61to65are based on the following passage.
Until recently,the University of Kent prided itself on its friendly image.Not any more.Over the past few months it has been working hard,with the help of media consultants,to play down its cosy reputation in favour of something more academic and serious.
Kent is not alone in considering an image revamp.Changes to next year's funding regime are both forcing universities to justify charging students up to$9,000in fees.
Nowadays universities putting much more of a focus on their brands and what their value propositions are. While in the past universities have often focused on student social life and attractions of the university town in recruitment campaigns,they are now concentrating on more tangible attractions,such as employment prospects, engagement with industry,and lecturer contact hours,making clear exactly what students are going to get for their money.
The problem for universities is that if those benefits fail to materialise,students notice.That worries Rob Behrens,chief executive of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator(OIA),which deals with student complaints. "Universities need to be extremely careful that…they describe the reality of what's going to happen to students,"he says."Because competition is going to get greater for attracting students,there is a danger that universities will go the extra mile."
One university told prospective engineering students they would be able to design a car and race it at Brands Hatch,which never happened,he says."If universities spent as much money on handling complaints and appeals appropriately as they spend on marketing,they would do better at keeping students,and in the National Student Survey returns,"he says.
Ongoing research by Heist tracking prospective2012students suggests that they are not only becoming more sophisticated in thinking about what they want from a university,but are also spending more time researching evidence to back up institutional claims.
Hence the growing importance of the student survey.From next September,all institutions will also be expected to publish on their websites key information sets,allowing easier comparison between institutions-and between promises and reality-of student satisfaction levels,course information,and the types of jobs and salaries graduates go on to.
As a result,it is hardly surprising that universities are beginning to change the way they market themselves. While the best form of marketing for institutions is to be good at what they do,they also need to be clear about how they are different from others.
And it is vital that once an institution claims to be particularly good at something,it must live up to it.The moment you position yourself,you become exposed because you have played your joker,and if you fail in that you are in trouble.
61.What was the University of Kent famous for?
A.Its comfortable campus life.
B.Its up-to-date course offerings.
C.Its distinguished teaching staff.
D.Its diverse academic programs.
62.What are universities trying to do to attract students?
A.Improve their learning environment.
B.Upgrade their campus facilities.
C.Offer more scholarships to the gifted.
D.Present a better academic image.
63.What does Rob Behrens suggest universities do in marketing themselves?
A.Publicise the achievements of their graduates.
B.Go to extra lengths to cater to students’needs.
C.Refrain from making promises they cannot honour.
D.Survey the expectations of their prospective students.
64.What is students’chief consideration in choosing a university?
A.Whether it promises the best job prospects.
B.Whether it is able to deliver what they want.
C.Whether is ranks high among similar institutions.
D.Whether is offers opportunities for practical training.
65.What must universities show to win recruitment campaigns?
A.They are positioned to meet the future needs of society.
B.They are responsible to students for their growth.
C.They are ever ready to improve themselves.
D.They are unique one way or another.
2014年12月六级考试真题（第三套）
Part III Reading comprehension
Section A
Directions:In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one word for each blank from a list 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 Sheet2with a single Line through the centre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions36to45are based on the following passage.
It was10years ago,on a warm July night,that a newborn lamb with 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 a single 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 that first little 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 degrees of genetic__41__.That may come as a shock to people who have paid thousands of dollars to clone a pet cat only to discover that the baby cat looks and behaves__42__like their beloved pet—with a 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 I)nothing
B)completely J)ordinary
C)deserted K)overturning
D)duplication L)separated
E)everything M)surrounding
F)identical N)systematically
G)increasingly O)tempting
H)miniature
Section B
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 Sheet2.
[A]In this month's Atlantic cover article,"The Case Against High-School Sports,"Amanda Ripley argues that
school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut.She writes that,unlike most countries that outperform the United States on international assessments,American schools put too much of an emphasis on athletics.“Sports are embedded in American schools in a way they are not almost anywhere else,"she writes.“Yet this difference hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America'international mediocrity（平庸）in education
[B]American student-athletes reap many benefits from participating in sports,but the costs to the schools could
outweigh their benefits,she argues.In particular,Ripley contends that sports crowd out the academic missions of schools:America should learn from South Korea and Finland and every other country at the top level of international test scores,all of whom emphasize athletics far less in school.“Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports,”she writes,citing a2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics.
[C]It might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schools than in other countries.But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the argument against school athletics.Indeed,our own research and that of others lead us to make the opposite case.School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase,not detract（减少）from,academic success.
[D]Ripley indulges a popular obsession（痴迷）with international test score comparisons,which show wide and frightening gaps between the United States and other countries.She ignores,however,the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries.A2011report from Harvard University shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland,while Mississippi scores are closer to Trinidad and Tobago.Ripley’s thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact.Schools in Massachusetts provide sports programs while schools in Finland do not.Schools in Mississippi may love football while in Tobago interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent.Sports cannot explain these similarities in performance.They can’t explain international differences either.
[E]If it is true that sports undermine the academic mission of American schools,we would expect to see a negative relationship between the commitment to athletics and academic achievement.However,the University of Arkansas’s Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actually find the opposite.They examine this relationship by analyzing schools’sports winning percentages as well as student-athletic participation rates compared to graduation rates and standardized test score achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in Ohio.Controlling for student poverty levels,demographics（人口统计状况）,and district financial resources,both measures of a school's commitment to athletics are significantly and positively related to lower dropout rates as well as higher test scores.
[F]On-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random—it requires focus and dedication to athletics.One might think this would lead schools obsessed with winning to deemphasize academics.Bowen and Greened results contradict that argument.A likely explanation for this seemingly counterintuitive（与直觉相反的）result is that success in sports programs actually facilitates or reflects greater social capital within a school's community.
[G]Ripley cites the writings of renowned sociologist James Coleman,whose research in education was groundbreaking.Coleman in his early work held athletics in contempt,arguing that they crowded out schools’academic missions.Ripley quotes his1961study,The Adolescent Society,where Coleman writes,“Altogether, the trophy（奖品）case would suggest to the innocent visitor that he was entering an athletic club,not an educational institution.”
[H]However,in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly dependent on what he termed social capital,“the norms,the social networks,and the relationships between adults and children that are of value for the child’s growing up.”
[I]According to a2013evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago,a program called Becoming a Man—Sports Edition creates lasting improvements in the boys’study habits and grade point averages.During the first year of the program,students were found to be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime.A year after the program,participants were less likely to have had an encounter with the juvenile justice system.
[J]If school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorrow,many American students would still have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere,much like they do in countries such as Finland, Germany,and South Korea.The same is not certain when it comes to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds.In an overview of the research on non-school based after-school programs,researchers find that disadvantaged children participate in these programs at significantly lower rates.They find that low-income students have less access due to challenges with regard to transportation,non-nominal fees,and off-campus safety.Therefore,reducing or eliminating these opportunities would most likely deprive disadvantaged students of the benefits from athletic participation,not least of which is the opportunity to interact with positive role models outside of regular school hours.
[K]Another unfounded criticism that Ripley makes is bringing up the stereotype that athletic coaches are typically lousy（蹩脚的）classroom teachers.“American principals,unlike the vast majority of principals around the world,make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind,which does not always end well for students,”she https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,cators who seek employment at schools primarily for the
purpose of coaching are likely to shirk（推卸）teaching responsibilities,the argument goes.Moreover,even in the cases where the employee is a teacher first and athletic coach second,the additional responsibilities that come with coaching likely come at the expense of time otherwise spent on planning,grading,and communicating with parents and guardians.
[L]The data,however,do not seem to confirm this stereotype.In the most rigorous study on the classroom results of high school coaches,the University of Arkansas’s Anna Egalite finds that athletic coaches in Florida mostly tend to perform just as well as their non-coaching counterparts,with respect to raising student test
scores.We do not doubt that teachers who also coach face serious tradeoffs that likely come at the expense of time they could dedicate to their academic obligations.However,as with sporting events,athletic coaches gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving as mentors（导师）that potentially help students succeed and make up for the costs of coaching commitments.
[M]If schools allow student-athletes to regularly miss out on instructional time for the sake of traveling to athletic competitions,that’s bad.However,such issues would be better addressed by changing school and state policies with regard to the scheduling of sporting events as opposed to total elimination.If the empirical evidence points to anything,it points towards school-sponsored sports providing assets that are well worth the costs.
[N]Despite negative stereotypes about sports culture and Ripley’s presumption that academics and athletics are at odds with one another,we believe that the greater body of evidence shows that school-sponsored sports programs appear to benefit students.Successes on the playing field can carry over to the classroom and vice versa（反之亦然）.More importantly,finding ways to increase school communities’social capital is imperative to the success of the school as a whole,not just the athletes.
46.Students from low-income families have less access to off-campus sports programs.
47.Amanda Ripley argues that America should learn from other countries that rank high in international tests
and lay less emphasis on athletics.
48.According to the author,Amanda Ripley fails to note that students，performance in exams varies from state
to state.
49.Amanda Ripley thinks that athletic coaches are poor at classroom instruction.
50.James Coleman’s later research makes an argument for a school’s social capital.
51.Researchers find that there is a positive relationship between a school’s commitment to athletics and
academic achievements.
52.A rigorous study finds that athletic coaches also do well in raising students’test scores.
53.According to an evaluation,sports programs contribute to students’academic performance and character
building.
54.Amanda Ripley believes the emphasis on school sports should be brought up when trying to understand why
American students are mediocre.
55.James Coleman suggests in his earlier writings that school athletics would undermine a school’s image. Section C
Directions:There are2passages in this section.Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statem ents.For each of them there are four choices marked A),B),C)and D).You should decide on the best choice and m ark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet2with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions56to60are based on the following passage.
It is easy to miss amid the day-to-day headlines of global economic recession,but there is a less conspicuous kind of social upheaval（剧变）underway that is fast altering both the face of the planet and the way human beings live That change is the rapid acceleration of urbanization.In2008,for the first time in human history,more than half the world’s population was living in towns and cities.And as a recently published paper shows,the process of urbanization will only accelerate in the decades to come—with an enormous impact on biodiversity and potentially on climate change.
As Karen Seto,the lead author of the paper,points out,the wave of urbanization isn’t just about the migration of people into urban environments,but about the environments themselves becoming bigger to accommodate all those people.The rapid expansion of urban areas will have a huge impact on biodiversity hotspots and on carbon emissions in those urban areas.
Humans are the ultimate invasive species—when they move into new territory,they often displace the
wildlife that was already living there.And as land is cleared for those new cities—especially in the dense tropical forests—carbon will be released into the atmosphere as well.It’s true that as people in developing nations move from the countryside to the city,the shift may reduce the pressure on land,which could in turn be good for the environment.This is especially so in desperately poor countries,where residents in the countryside slash and bum forests each growing season to clear space for farming.But the real difference is that in developing nations, the move from rural areas to cities often leads to an accompanying increase in income—and that increase leads to an increase in the consumption of food and energy,which in turn causes a rise in carbon emissions.Getting enough to eat and enjoying the safety and comfort of living fully on the grid is certainly a good thing—but it does carry an environmental price.
The urbanization wave can’t be stopped—and it shouldn’t be.But Seto’s paper does underscore the importance of managing that transition.If we do it the right way,we can reduce urbanization’s impacts on the environment.“There's an enormous opportunity here,and a lot of pressure and responsibility to think about how we urbanize,”says Seto.“One thing that’s clear is that we can’t build cities the way we have over the last couple of hundred years.The scale of this transition won’t allow that.”We’re headed towards an urban planet no matter what,but whether it becomes heaven or hell is up to us.
56.What issue does the author try to draw people’s attention to?
A)The shrinking biodiversity worldwide.B)The rapid increase of world population.
C)The ongoing global economic recession.D)The impact of accelerating urbanization.
57.In what sense are humans the ultimate invasive species?
A)They are much greedier than other species.B)They are a unique species born to conquer.
C)They force other species out of their territories.D)They have an urge to expand their living space.
58.In what way is urbanization in poor countries good for the environment?
A)More land will be preserved for wildlife.B)The pressure on farmland will be lessened.
C)Carbon emissions will be considerably reduced.D)Natural resources will be used more effectively.
59.What does the author say about living comfortably in the city?
A)It incurs a high environmental price.B)It brings poverty and insecurity to an end.
C)It causes a big change in people’s lifestyle.D)It narrows the gap between city and country.
60.What can be done to minimize the negative impact of urbanization according to Seto?
A)Slowing down the speed of transition.B)Innovative use of advanced technology.
C)Appropriate management of the process.D)Enhancing people’s sense of responsibility.
Passage Two
Questions61to65are based on the following passage.
When Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html, in Feb.2004,even he could not imagine the forces it would let loose.His intent was to connect college students.Facebook,which is what this website rapidly evolved into,ended up connecting the world.
To the children of this connected era,the world is one giant social network.They are not bound—as were previous generations of humans—by what they were taught.They are only limited by their curiosity and ambition.During my childhood,all knowledge was local.You learned everything you knew from your parents, teachers,preachers,and friends.
With the high-quality and timely information at their fingertips,today’s children are rising above the fears and biases of their parents.Adults are also participating in this revolution.India’s normally tame middle class is speaking up against social ills.Silicon Valley executives are being shamed into adding women to their boards. Political leaders are marshalling the energy of millions for elections and political causes.All of this is being done with social media technologies that Facebook and its competitors set free.
As does every advancing technology,social media has created many new problems.It is commonly
addictive and creates risks for younger users.Social media is used by extremists in the Middle East and elsewhere to seek and brainwash recruits.And it exposes us and our friends to disagreeable spying.We may leave our lights on in the house when we are on vacation,but through social media we tell criminals exactly where we are,when we plan to return home,and how to blackmail（敲诈）us.
Governments don’t need informers any more.Social media allows government agencies to spy on their own citizens.We record our thoughts,emotions,likes and dislikes on Facebook;we share our political views, social preferences,and plans.We post intimate photographs of ourselves.No spy agency or criminal organization could actively gather the type of data that we voluntarily post for them.
The marketers are also seeing big opportunities.Amazon is trying to predict what we will order.Google is trying to judge our needs and wants based on our social-media profiles.We need to be aware of the risks and keep working to alleviate the dangers.
Regardless of what social media people use,one thing is certain:we are in a period of accelerating change.The next decade will be even more amazing and unpredictable than the last.Just as no one could predict what would happen with social media in the last decade,no one can accurately predict where this technology will take us.I am optimistic,however,that a connected humanity will find a way to uplift itself.
61.What was the purpose of Facebook when it was first created?
A)To help students connect with the outside world.B)To bring university students into closer contact.
C)To help students leam to live in a connected era.D)To combine the world into an integral whole.
62.What difference does social media make to learning?
A)Local knowledge and global knowledge will merge.B)Students will become more curious and ambitious.
C)People are able to learn wherever they travel.D)Sources of information are greatly expanded.
63.What is the author’s greatest concern with social media technology?
A)Individuals and organizations may use it for evil purposes.
B)Government will find it hard to protect classified information.
C)People may disclose their friends’information unintentionally.
D)People’s attention will be easily distracted from their work in hand.
64.What do businesses use social media for?
A)Creating a good corporate image.B)Anticipating the needs of customers.
C)Conducting large-scale market surveys.D)Minimizing possible risks and dangers.
65.What does the author think of social media as a whole?
A)It will enable human society to advance at a faster pace.
B)It will pose a grave threat to our traditional ways of life.
C)It is bound to bring about another information revolution.
D)It breaks down the final barriers in human communication.
最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！ 洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程：https://www.doczj.com/doc/4215607106.html,/ielts/xd.html（报名网址） Unit 10 Part ⅡReading Comprehension (35 minutes) Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage: More and more, the operations of our businesses, governments, and financial institutions are controlled by information that exists only inside computer memories. Anyone clever enough to modify this information for his own purposes can reap substantial rewards. Even worse, a number of people who have done this and been caught at it have managed to get away without punishment. It's easy for computer crimes to go undetected if no one checks up on what the computer is doing. But even if the crime is detected, the criminal may walk away not only unpunished but with a glowing recommendation from his former employers. Of course, we have no statistics on crimes that go undetected. But it's disturbing to note how many of the crimes we do know about were detected by accident, not by systematic inspections or other security procedures. The computer criminals who have been caught may be the victims of uncommonly bad luck. For example, a certain keypunch (键盘打孔) operator complained of having to stay overtime to punch extra cards. Investigation revealed that the extra cards she was being asked to punch were for dishonest transactions. In another case, dissatisfied employees of the thief tipped off (向……透露) the company that was being robbed. Unlike other lawbreakers, who must leave the country, commit suicide, or go to jail, computer criminals sometimes escape punishment, demanding not only that they not be charged but that they be given good recommendations and perhaps other benefits. All too often, their demands have been met. Why? Because company executives are afraid of the bad publicity that would result if the public found out that their computer had been misused. They hesitate at the thought of a criminal boasting in open court of how he juggled (耍弄) the most confidential records right under the noses of the company's executives, accountants,
大学英语六级阅读理解专题训练 2016年下半年英语四六级迫在眉睫，同学们准备得如何了?下面是网提供给大家关于大学阅读理解专题训练，希望对大家的备考有所帮助。 What is it about Americans and food? We love to eat, but we feel 1 about it afterward. We say we want only the best, but we strangely enjoy junk food. We’re 2 with health and weight loss but face an unprecedented epidemic of obesity(肥胖). Perhaps the 3 to this ambivalence(矛盾情结) lies in our history. The first Europeans came to this continent searching for new spices but went in vain. The first cash crop(经济作物) wasn’t eaten but smoked. Then there was Prohibition, intended to prohibit drinking but actually encouraging more 4 ways of doing it. The immigrant experience, too, has been one of inharmony. Do as Romans do means eating what “real Americans” eat, but our nation’s food has come to be 5 by imports—pizza, say, or hot dogs. And some of the country’s most treasured cooking comes from people who arrived here in shackles. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that food has been a medium for the nation’s defining struggles, whether at the Boston Tea Party or the sit ins at southern lunch counters. It is integral to our concepts of health and even morality whether one refrains from alcohol for religious reasons or evades meat for political 6 . But strong opinions have not brought 7 . Americans are ambivalent about what they put in their mouths. We have become 8 of our foods, especially as we learn more about what they contain. The 9 in food is still prosperous in the American consciousness. It’s no coincidence, then, that the first Thanksgiving holds the American imagination in such bondage(束缚). It’s w hat we eat—and how we 10 it with friends, family, and strangers—that help define America as a community today. A. answer I. creative B. result J. belief C. share K. suspicious D. guilty L. certainty E. constant M. obsessed F. defined N. identify
新浪微博@尹延@名师天团四六级阅读讲师 优化六级的考试流程 14:40—15:00 考生入场 15:00—15:10 发答题卡I、II和试卷册 15:10—15:40 作文 15:40—16:10 听力 16:10—16:15 收答题卡I（作文+听力） 16:15—17:25 选词填空（5%） 匹配题（10%） 仔细阅读（20%） 翻译（15%） 优化阅读的做题流程 一．扫读题干1’ 二．处理文章4’ 三．对比做答4-7’
经典例文分析 Passage One Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. Picture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you'll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women – the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrolment is female. You will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country. It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But, increasingly, this apparent diversity is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skin tones and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future. Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According to Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmes recruit their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school's picture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to find out what really makes an applicant succeed, to create a class which also contains diversity of attitude and approach – arguably the only diversity that, in a business context, really matters. Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional sectors such as banking, consultancy and industry. They should also be seeking individuals who have backgrounds in areas such as political science, the creative arts, history or philosophy, which will allow them to put business decisions into a wider context. Indeed, there does seem to be a demand for the more rounded leaders such diversity might create. A study by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that, while the bully-boy chief executive of old may not have been eradicated completely, there is a definite shift in emphasis towards less tough styles of management – at least in America and Europe. Perhaps most significant, according to Mannaz, is the increasing interest large companies have in more collaborative management models, such as those prevalent in Scandinavia, which seek to integrate the hard and soft aspects of leadership and encourage delegated responsibility and accountability.
二年级语文理解词语 教学目标：学习理解词语并能运用。 教学重、难点：学会四种方法。 教学过程： 一、谜语猜猜猜。 二、小明当家。 1、拆合法 如：劝告 劝说告知 劝说并告知 2、形容法 如：凋谢 形容花朵凋谢，枯萎。 3、借用法 （1）借用近义词 如：听了小松鼠的话，小马立刻收住了脚步。 立刻换成“马上”“立即” （2）借用反义词 如:“陌生”就是不熟悉。 4、联系法（一） 如：狐假虎威 可以联系《狐假虎威》最后一段话：“原来，狐狸是借着老虎的威风把百兽
吓跑的。”来理解。 联系法（二） 如：螳螂捕蝉 可以联系文中一段话：“花园里有一颗树，树上有一只蝉。蝉高高在上， 悠闲地叫着，自由自在地喝着露水，却不知道有只螳螂在它的身后。那螳螂弓着身子，举起前爪，要去捕蝉，却不知道有只黄雀在自己的身后。”来理解。 三、练习达人。 用拆合法理解“面红耳赤”和“羞愧难当 面红耳赤 羞愧难当 红色 红色 害羞 惭愧、内疚 承受 整张脸都红了起来 既害羞又惭愧内疚得难以承受 形容情绪很激动，或者很害羞。 用于意识到自己做了错事，而悔恨不已。 四、快乐阅读。 鱼和青蛙 鱼和青蛙同住在一个小池塘里。 鱼尽情地在水里嬉戏。青蛙在水里游一会儿，就到陆地上去学爬、学跳。鱼看到后，讥讽道：“这么大的池塘还住下去吗？为什么偏要到陆地上去学跳呢？” 青蛙回答：“用多余的时间多练点本领，我想这样没有什么坏处的。” “自寻烦恼，”鱼不以为然地说：“有福不会享，却偏要浪费。”
青蛙没有再说什么，还是照样练习水里和陆地上的本领。鱼还是整天无忧地在池塘中玩耍。 这一年，天气大旱。人们不断地去池塘取水浇田，池塘里的水一天天在减少，最后见到了底。 这时，青蛙跳上了岸，开始了陆地上的生活。 鱼离开水就不能生活了，只好张大嘴巴，不久便失去了生命。 1、文中共有（）个自然段。 2、请你用阅读锦囊中的“拆合法”解释下面的词语。 嬉戏：嬉（）戏（） 嬉戏（） 3、“这么大的池塘还住不下你吗？为什么偏要到陆地上去学跳呢？” “用多余的时间多练点本领，我想这样是没有什么坏处的。” 这是（）和（）的对话。我认为（）说的话是对的。 3、你认为小鱼失去生命的原因什么？试着写一写。 乌龟和水井 一（）乌龟在陆地上悠闲地散步，路过一（）水井，想到井边喝水。水井提醒乌龟：“喂，伙计，请离得远一点，掉到我这儿是很危险的！” 乌龟笑着说：“什么样的江河湖海我没见过。还害怕你这小小的水井？”水井对乌龟说：“我这儿的环境与那儿不同。”“什么相同不相同，还不都是水。我下去给你看看。”说着，乌龟“扑通”一声跳下了井。 乌龟跳到了井里，一会儿就明白了，他再也无法爬上来了。 1、在文中括号内填上恰当的量词。
2006年12月英语六级真题(B卷) Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes) Passage One Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage. Each summer, no matter how pressing my work schedule, I take off one day exclusively for my son. We call it dad-son day. This year our third stop was the amusement park, where he discovered that he was tall enough to ride one of the fastest roller coasters(过山车) in the world. We blasted through face-stretching turns and loops for ninety seconds. Then, as we stepped off the ride, he shrugged and, in a distressingly calm voice, remarked that it was not as exciting as other rides he’d been on. As I listened, I began to sense something seriously out of balance. Throughout the season, I noticed similar events all around me. Parents seemed hard pressed to find new thrills for indifferent kids. Surrounded by ever-greater stimulation, their young faces wore looking disappointed and bored. Facing their children’s complaints of “nothing to do”. Parents were shelling out large numbers of dollars for various forms of entertainment. In many cases the money seemed to do little more than buy transient relief from the terrible moans of their bored children. This set me pondering the obvious question: “How can it be so hard for kids to find somethi ng to do when there’s never been such a range of stimulating entertainment available to them?” Why do children immersed in this much excitement seem starved for more? That was, I realized, the point. I discovered during my own reckless adolescence that what creates excitement is not going fast, but going faster. Thrills have less to do with speed than changes in speed. I’m concerned about the cumulative effect of years at these levels of feverish activity. It is no mystery to me why many teenagers appear apathetic (麻木的) and burned out, with a “been there, done that”air of indifference toward much of life. As increasing numbers of friends’ children are prescribed medications-stimulants to deal with inattentiveness at school or anti-depressants to help with the loss of interest and joy in their lives-l question the role of kids boredom in some of the diagnoses. My own work is focused on the chemical imbalances and biological factors related to behavioral and emotional disorders. These are complex problems. Y et I’ve been reflecting more and more on how the pace of life and the intensity of stimulation may be contributing to the rising rates of psychiatric problems among children and adolescents in our society. 21. The author felt surprised in the amusement park at the face that________. A) his son was not as thrilled by the roller coaster ride as expected B) his son blasted through the turns and loops with his face stretched C) his son appeared distressed but calm while riding the roller coaster D) his son could keep his balance so well on the fast-moving roller coaster 22. According to the author, children are bored _________. A) unless their parents can find new thrills for them B) when they don’t have any access to stimulating fun games C) when they are left alone at weekends by their working parents D) even if they are exposed to more and more kinds of entertainment
六级阅读包括：快读阅读（占全卷10%），简短回答（占全卷5%），精读（占全卷20%）。六级精读共包括两篇文章，做题时间为20分钟左右，最多勿超过25分钟。六级精读词汇量大、句子结构复杂，因而准确解答关键在于两点：定位和理解。通常采用的解题方法是：（1）阅读题干，推断文章主题；（2）确定题型，找出关键词；（3）浏览文章，圈定关键词；（4）理解区域，对比选项。 请在12分钟内完成以下题目： The percentage of immigrants (including those unlawfully present) in the United states has been creeping upward for years. At 12.6 percent, it is now higher than at any point since the mid1920s. We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about inferior races polluting America’s bloodstream. But once again we are wondering whether we have too many of the wrong sort newcomers. Their loudest critics argue that the new wave of immigrants cannot, and indeed do not want to, fit in as previous generations did. We now know that these racist views were wrong. In time, Italians, Romanians and members of other so-called inferior races became exemplary Americans and contributed greatly, in ways too numerous to detail, to the building of this magnificent nation. There is no reason why these new immigrants should not have the same success. Although children of Mexican immigrants do better, in terms of educational and professional attainment, than their parents UCLA sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don’t continue. Indeed, the fouth generation is marginally worse off than the third James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a similar trend among black Caribbean immigrants, Tells fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks-that large parts of the community may become mired（陷入）in a seemingly permanent state of poverty and Underachievement. Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to (降入)segregated, substandard schools, and their dropout rate is the highest for any ethnic group in the country. We have learned much about the foolish idea of excluding people on the presumption of the ethnic/racial inferiority. But what we have not yet learned is how to make the process of Americanization work for all. I am not talking about requiring people to learn English or to adopt American ways; those things happen pretty much on their own, but as arguments about immigration hear up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader question about assimilation, about how to ensure that people , once outsiders , don’t forever remain marginalized within these shores. That is a much larger question than what should happen with undocumented workers, or how best to secure the border, and it is one that affects not only newcomers but groups that have been here for generations. It will have more impact on our future than where we decide to set the admissions bar for the latest ware of would-be Americans. And it would be nice if we finally got the answer right. 1. How were immigrants viewed by U.S. Congress in early days? A) They were of inferior races. B) They were a Source of political corruption. C) They were a threat to the nation’s security. D) They were part of the nation’s bloodstream. 2. What does the author think of the new immigrants? A) They will be a dynamic work force in the U.S. B) They can do just as well as their predecessors. C) They will be very disappointed on the new land. D) They may find it hard to fit into the mainstream. 3. What does Edward Telles’ research say about Mexican-Americans? A) They may slowly improve from generation to generation. B) They will do better in terms of educational attainment. C) They will melt into the African-American community. D) They may forever remain poor and underachieving. 4. What should be done to help the new immigrants? A) Rid them of their inferiority complex. B) Urge them to adopt American customs. C) Prevent them from being marginalized. D) Teach them standard American English. 5. According to the author, the burning issue concerning immigration is_______. A) How to deal with people entering the U.S. without documents B) How to help immigrants to better fit into American society C) How to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border D) How to limit the number of immigrants to enter the U.S.
2011年文都英语四六级冲刺讲义 一．Listening Comprehension： Part 1 .Short Conversation 几种思维 1．主题思维：上文提到一件事情（用一般疑问句进行提问），这就是对话主题。 下文是肯定或者是否定的回答。掌握肯定和否定的表达方法。 2．否定思维：评价性否定；事实性否定；邀请性否定 3．听到什么不选什么的思维：安全感的获得 例题：Eg1. A) Taking photographs .B) Enhancing images. C) Mending cameras. D) Painting pictures. 听力原文：W: Do you let people know when you're taking pictures of them? M: I try not to. You know any picture of a person who poses for the camera would look dull and unnatural. Q: What are the speakers talking about? Eg2 . A) Get some small change. B) Find a shopping center. C) Cash a check at a bank. D) Find a parking meter. 听力原文：M: Excuse me, do you have change for a ten-dollar note? I need to pay the parking meter. W: I'm sorry, but I think you can get it through the money changer in the shopping center across the street. Q: What is the man trying to do? Eg3 .A) Shopping with his son. B) Buying a gift for a child. C) Promoting a new product. D) Bargaining with a salesgirl. 听力原文：M: Can you recommend something that a school boy of 7 or 8 will really like? W: I'd suggest this toy train, sir. It's an excellent brand, very popular all over the world these days. Q: What is the man doing? Eg4. A) He moved to Baltimore when he was young. B) He can provide little useful information. C) He will show the woman around Baltimore. D) He will ask someone else to help the woman. 听力原文
英文写作模板 包含：图表类作文模板、原因分析类作文模板、议论性文字作文模板。据王晓艳老师课堂讲义整理 结构：P1：描述图表；P2：分析图表；P3：结论 P1：描述图表 As is shown in the 图表类型above, dramatic changes have taken place in the 变量的名称-名词短语. The most obvious change was the 上升/下降变量,which had increased nearly by % ,while 下降/上升变量decreased roughly by % . The percentage if the remained stable between and . P2：分析图表； There are numerous reasons accounting for the phenomenon and I would like to explore a few of most important ones here. Above all, development of technique and knowledge in native company stimulate the vitality of 变量-名词短语. What’s more,(culture influence) 原因2is an important reason of the decline/increase if the 变量-名词短语. Finally, 原因3. P3：结论 Based on what has been discussed above, we may reasonably conclude that the tendency described in graph will continue for quite a long time. Hopefully, government could offer more friendly policies to . 比如交通事故原因分析及解决方案 结构：P1：改写课题；P2：原因分析；P3：解决方案；P4：预测、总结 P1：改写课题 Recently, there is a heated debate on the issue of . A recent study conducted by 机构名称revealed that 现象. Hence, it is of paramount importance that we ascertain the cause of 事件and identify the effective remedies of this phenomenon. P2：原因分析 As I see it, the cause of 现象are manifold. Firstly, 原因1. Secondly, 原因2. Last but not the least, 原因3 . P3：解决方案 Given the severity of , we have no alternative but to take vigorous measure to address this thorny issue. To begin with, 解决方案1. Further, 解决方案2. Lastly, 解决方案3. P4：预测、总结 To summarize, the cause of 现象are multiple. I just point out some of them. But if government, scientist and individual work together to resolve the problem, the 现象will fall/increase immediately. 第1页，共2页