1、2011年12月英语四级考前10天冲刺试卷及答案(8)2011年12月英语四级完型填空精练(12.6)首发通知：2011年12月英语四级考试试题及答案首发通知2011年12月英语四级考前10天冲刺试卷及答案(7)Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Universities Taking Donations. You should write at least 120 words according to
2、the outline given below. 1. 目前大学接受社会捐赠现象很普遍 2. 人们对这一现象看法不同 3. 我的看法 Universities Taking DonationsPart II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questio
3、ns 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage. Social media presents challenge to universities Universities have a new weapon in the battle to protect their reputations: the friendly
4、 student blogger A few days ago, Vshuf, an international student, posted a message on the Student Room discussion site. He/she wanted to know which university Glasgow, Birmingham, Warwick, Nottingham or the Institution (sic) of Education would be the best place to study business. The academic reputa
5、tion of the institution was important, but there was another consideration. “How are people like in these universities?” the post asked. “I have watched some videos about Warwick on YouTube and it seems to me that the people are snobby and arrogant in contrast to those from Nottingham.” Members were
6、 quick to defend Warwick, but Vshuf remained unconvinced. The thread highlights the difficulty that universities face in the age of social media. At a time when reputation is more important than ever because of higher student fees and greater global competition, the ability to manage their reputatio
7、ns is increasingly falling out of their hands. How to reach an increasingly networked generation that is more inclined to trust the opinion of their anonymous peers on the internet than official bodies such as universities was a problem discussed at last weeks Youth Strategy Marketing Conference 201
8、1. Helen Pennack, head of marketing communications at the University of Leicester, says students now post queries on Facebook or the Student Room about open days or where to find their timetables, rather than simply contact the university directly. “When we do relationship marketing communications,
9、we are trying to strike up a two-way dialogue with students and they are taking the conversation away from us and having it with other people,” she says. “How we make ourselves part of that conversation again is quite a challenge.” Her university has responded by setting up a system that allows stud
10、ents to sync (与同步) communications from Leicester with their Facebook account. But she says universities also need to be present in other web spaces used by students, such as Twitter. Warwick, which appointed a digital and online communications manager last year, knows well the benefits of having a s
11、ocial media presence. “A year ago, an applicant tweeted, Oh, no. I hear the University of Warwick is closing, what am I going to do?” says Warwicks spokesman, Peter Dunn. While this tweet could have caused huge problems if spread, the university was able to tweet back, “Were still here, honest”. He
12、says the communications team check what is being said about the university on social media once or twice a day, and responds if someone is confused or asking for information. But it depends on the forum. “If they are on the Student Room we assume they want to bitch (抱怨) about us behind our backs,” h
13、e says. “If it is on a much more public space like Twitter or Facebook, someone like us can see it and respond.” The challenge for universities is not only to know where to respond but when, and getting the tone right. “We are always careful about proactively intervening (主动干涉) in the conversation b
14、ecause that would be seen as rude,” says Pennack. “What is much more effective is if one of our students wades in there and puts somebody straight.” Some universities have already responded to this, she says, by having a group of students “primed to some extent to join the conversation and correct p
15、eople where it is appropriate to do so”. It is not something Leicester has tried yet, but, she says, “we may consider it”. While Imperial College does not prime students, it does recruit a team of official student bloggers to write regularly about their experiences at the university. They are not pa
16、id or moderated, and are free to blog about whatever they like. But there are occasional prizes for the most frequent bloggers. Pamela Agar, head of digital media at Imperial, says the college could potentially ask them to blog on a particular subject, but had not done so yet. “They can and do say n
17、egative things about us,” she says. “When they do, its useful feedback.” It can also make the blogs more authentic, she says something that is particularly important to the social media generation. Chris Fonseka, a third-year information systems student at Imperial, says he applied for a student blo
18、gger role because he was attracted by the idea of having a voice around campus. He blogs about his general activities at the university. He also receives regular emails from students and prospective (未来的) students anxious to put queries about accommodation or finances to a real student. He says he h
19、as never felt restricted in what he writes. “If I honestly felt negative about Imperial, I would write about it,” he says. Tom Ridgewell went a step further. While studying media at the University of Lincoln, he decided to create a television advertisement for the university and put it up on YouTube
20、. “I labelled the videos as banned simply because its funnier to imagine that I actually showed them to a board of directors and got thrown out of the room. Also, videos generally do a little better with an exaggerated title.” Ian Richards, press officer at Lincoln, says the university only became a
21、ware of the advertisements once they were an online hit and Google alerts showed people were blogging about them. “We didnt know what to make of them, but when students were talking about them on open days we felt it was something totally left field, but a bit of a blessing for us.” Ridgewell has si
22、nce been commissioned to carry out work for the marketing department. How far universities should try to control what members of their community say about them on social media is something some have already faced with academic bloggers. In 2006, Erik Ringmar resigned from his lecturing post at the L
23、ondon School of Economics after the university objected to him posting a speech critical of the university on his blog. But, while institutions are paying increasing attention to what is said about them on the web, most recognise that there is little they can do about it. “Is it realistic to control
24、 every word thats out there about us?” asks Richards. “I dont think so.” 1. In the post, Vshuf asked about several institutions _. A) competitive strength C) academic reputation B) tuition fees D) social activities 2. What do we learn about universities in the age of social media? A) They are seekin
25、g cooperation of foreign schools. B) They find it harder to manage their reputation. C) They have difficulty in balancing their budget. D) They are able to recruit more international students. 3. When having questions about things like their timetables, students tend to _. A) communicate with their
26、instructors directly B) contact the public office set by the university C) call or email another student for the information D) post messages and seek help on the internet 4. According to Helen Pennack, to respond to the challenge, universities need to _. A) have a social media presence C) restrict
27、the use of social media B) own a Facebook or Twitter account D) talk with students face-to-face 5. Peter Dunn assumes those who post messages on the Student Room intend to _. A) get an immediate response from a real student B) update the information about their universities C) help establish a good
28、reputation for their universities D) complain about universities without their knowing 6. What is said about the official student bloggers recruited by Imperial College? A) They will correct people if they are wrong. B) They are not restricted in what they write. C) They are asked to blog on a parti
29、cular subject. D) They get low pay for sharing their experiences. 7. Pamela Agar holds that official student bloggers saying negative things about Imperial can _. A) turn off prospective students C) make the blogs more trustworthy B) ruin the universitys reputation D) draw an angry response from the
30、 viewer 8. Chris Fonseka wanted to be a student blogger because blogging about his university was an _ idea to him. 9. The University of Lincoln only noticed the ads when they were _ and provoked peoples discussion. 10. Erik Ringmar quit the job at the London School of Economics due to his blog whic
31、h _ the university.Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) 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 of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through c
32、arefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. Questions 47 to 56 are based on the followi
33、ng passage. Distance learning has moved far away from the traditional correspondence course, aimed at the individual student working 47 . The global reach of the Internet makes it possible to 48 geographically-scattered students in a 49 classroom. Methods such as multimedia, video-conferencing and t
34、he Internet will 50 allow students both to proceed at their own pace, and to interact with one another and their teachers. Even without taking the technology to its limits, the idea of education as a lifelong process is catching on throughout the 51 world. Already, working adults who pursue their st
35、udies part-time make up roughly half of students taking college courses in the United States. However, there is 52 in scholarly circles about how far the new technology should be used for teaching academic subjects in which personal contacts between teacher and students are still vital. Britains Ope
36、n University, for example, a world leader in distance education, has embraced information technology 53 , believing it to be no 54 for books and the exchange of ideas at live tutorials and summer schools. But the Open University is also moving with the tide. It has set up a “knowledge media institut
37、e” to explore ways of adopting information technology. Some teachers are concerned about this trend, arguing that the heavy investment that students are 55 to make in computer and communications equipment 56 the concept of “open”. Cost, of course, is an important factor in many developing countries,
38、 where few people have computers or even phones. Rather than uniting the world, the new technologies could lead to societies of information haves and have-nots.Section B Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of
39、 them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. In an experiment published last month, researchers
40、 from the University of Illinois recruited schoolchildren, ages 9 and 10 and asked them to run on a treadmill, hoping to learn more about how fitness affects the immature human brain. The researchers sorted the children, based on their treadmill runs, into highest-, lowest- and median-fit categories
41、. Only the most- and least-fit groups continued in the study (to provide the greatest contrast). Both groups completed a series of cognitive (认知的) challenges. Finally, the childrens brains were scanned, using MRI technology to measure the volume of specific areas. Previous studies found that fitter
42、kids generally scored better on such tests. And in this case, too, those children performed better on the tests. But the MRIs provided a clearer picture of how it might work. They showed that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attent
43、ion and “executive control”. Since both groups of children had similar socioeconomic backgrounds, body mass index and other variables, the researchers concluded that being fit had enlarged that portion of their brains. The findings arrive at an important time. For budgetary and administrative reason
44、s, school boards are reducing physical education, while on their own, children grow increasingly sluggish (懒散的). Roughly a quarter of children participate in zero physical activity outside of school. At the same time, evidence accumulates about the positive impact of even small amounts of aerobic (有
45、氧的) activity. Past studies found that “just 20 minutes of walking” before a test raised childrens scores, even if the children were otherwise unfit or overweight. But its the neurological (神经的) impact of sustained aerobic fitness in young people that is especially compelling. A years-long Swedish st
46、udy published last year found that, among more than a million 18-year-old boys who joined the army, better fitness was correlated with higher IQs, even among identical twins. The fittest of them were also more likely to go on to profitable careers than the least fit, rendering them less likely to li
47、ve in their parents basements. No correlation was found between muscular strength and IQ scores. Theres no evidence that exercise leads to a higher IQ, but the researchers suspect that aerobic exercise, not strength training, produces specific growth factors and proteins that stimulate the brain. 57
48、. The purpose of the University of Illinois experiment was to figure out . A) schoolchildrens cognitive development B) the fitness levels of todays school children C) the effect of exercise on childrens brains D) the structure of immature human brains 58. The University of Illinois experiment was different from previous studies in that .
