英语四级真题阅读理解(带翻译)

Passage1 Reading leadership literature you d sometimes think that everyone has the potential to be an effective leader 读领导文学 你有时会认为每个人都有可能成为一个有效的领导者 I don t believe that to be true In fact I see way fewer truly effective leaders than I see people stuck in positions of leadership who arc sadly incompetent and seriously misguided about their own abilities 我不相信这是真的 事实上 我认为真正有效的领导者的方式比我看到的人 都陷在领导的职位上 遗憾的是他们自己的能力不称职 严重误导了他们 Part of the reason this happens is a lack of honest self assessment by those who aspire to 追 求 leadership in the first place 对产生这种现象的原因一部分是由那些渴望缺乏诚实的自 我评估 追求 放在首位的领导 We ve all met the type of individual who simply must take charge Whether it s a decision making session a basketball game or a family outing they can t help grabbing the lead dog position and clinging on to it for dear life They believe they re natural born leaders 我们都遇到了个人的类型 他们必须负责 无论是决策会议 篮球比赛 还是家庭外出 他们都不能不抓住领导的狗的地位 并紧紧抓住它 因为亲爱的生命 他们相信他们是天 生的领袖 Truth is they re nothing of the sort True leaders don t assume that it s their divine 神圣的 right to take charge every time two or more people get together Quite the opposite A great leader will assess each situation on its merits and will only take charge when their position the situation and or the needs of the moment demand it 事实是 他们没有什么样的 真正的领导者不认为这是他们的神圣 神圣的 负责每次两 个或两个以上的人在一起吧 恰恰相反 一个伟大的领导者会对每一个情况进行评估 并 在他们的位置 情况和 或需要的情况下 只会负责 Many business executives confuse leadership with action They believe that constant motion somehow generates leadership as a byproduct Faced with any situation that can t be solved by the sheer force of activity they generate a dust cloud of impatience Their one leadership tool is volume if they think you aren t working as hard as they think you should their demands become increasingly louder and harsher 许多企业高管把领导与行动混为一谈 他们认为 不断运动以某种程度上产生领导的副产 品 面对任何无法解决的纯粹的力量的情况 他们产生了一个不耐烦的尘埃云 他们的一 个领导的工具是量 如果他们认为你不做他们认为你应该努力 他们的要求越来越高和严 厉的 True leaders understand the value of action of course but it isn t their only tool In fact it isn t ever their primary tool Great leaders see more than everyone else answers solutions patterns problems opportunities They know it s vitally important to do but they also know that thinking understanding reflection and interpretation are equally important 真正的领导者明白行动的价值 当然 但这不是他们唯一的工具 事实上 它不是他们的 主要工具 伟大领袖们看到的比其他人更多 答案 解决方案 模式 问题 机会 他们 知道这是非常重要的 但他们也知道 思想 理解 反思和解释同样重要 If you re too concerned with outcomes to the extent that you manipulate and intimidate others to achieve those outcomes then you aren t leading at all you re dictating A true leader is someone who develops his or her team so that they can and do hit their targets and achieve their goals 如果你太关注结果的程度 你的操纵和恐吓他人来达到这些目标 那么你不是领导时 你 决定 一个真正的领导者是一个发展他或她的团队的人 这样他们就可以打他们的目标 达到他们的目标 Passage2 Have you ever felt your mind falling into disorder after a sleepless night You couldn t come up with an original thought no matter how hard you tried 你有过一个无眠的夜晚 你是否感到你的精神陷入混乱 不管你怎么努力 你 都不能想出一个原创的想法 You were probably right if you thought that was caused by a lack of sleep Dr Horne a sleep researcher in England studied 24 college students One group got their normal eight hours of sleep The other group didn t get the smallest amount of sleep they stayed awake all night The next day Dr Horne tested the students He asked them questions that required creative and original thinking One of the questions was How many uses can a cardboard box be put to 你可能是对的 如果你认为这是由于缺乏睡眠造成的 Horne 博士 在英国睡眠研究 者研究了 24 名大学生 一组八小时的睡眠正常 另一组人没有得到最小的睡眠 他们 整夜都睡不着觉 次日 Dr Horne 测试的学生 他要求他们提出的问题 需要创造性 和创造性思维 其中的一个问题是 有多少用纸板箱可以装 The result The wide awake students did well on the test The tired students did poorly 结果 考试大的学生考得很好 累的学生成绩不好 Research has already shown that tired people can do OK on tests of habitual thinking like simple addition But Dr Horne tested creative thinking only 研究已经表明 疲劳的人可以做测试的习惯性思维 如简单的加法 但是 Dr Horne 测试创造性思维只有 As part of his study he offered an amount of money as a reward to the sleepy students if they did well But even this encouragement wasn t enough to help the students conquer their tiredness They did poorly Dr Horne believes that the part of the brain where thinking takes place may get worn out during waking hours Sleep may help to repair the brain Without any sleep he emphasized even if you pay closer attention you cannot do better 作为他的研究的一部分 他提供了一个数 额的钱 作为奖励给困倦的学生 如果他们做得很好 但即使是这种鼓励也不 足以帮助学生克服疲劳 他们做得很差 霍恩博士认为发生在思维的那部分大 脑会磨损在醒着的时候 睡眠可能有助于修复大脑 没有任何睡眠 他强调 即使你付出更密切的关注 你也不能做得更好 This study gives people something to think about especially people like hospital workers who must stay awake all night and then make quick decisions 这项研究给人们一些思考 特别是像医院工作者的工作人员必须保持清醒 并 作出快速决定 Passage3 Researchers have established that when people are mentally engaged biochemical changes occur in the brain that allow it to act more effectively in cognitive 认知的 areas such as attention and memory This is true regardless of age 研究人员发现 当人们心理活动时 大脑中发生的生化变化 使它在认知 活动更为有效 认知的 等方面的注意和记忆 这是真实的 不论年龄 People will be alert 警觉的 and receptive 接受能力强的 if they are faced with information that gets them to think about things they are interested in And someone with a history of doing more rather than less will go into old age more cognitively sound than someone who has not had an active mind 人们将警报 警觉 的 和接受 接受能力强的 如果他们面对的信息使他们思考自己感兴趣的事 物 有人用历史做更多而不是更少的进入老年的人比没有活跃的思维认知的声 音 Many experts are so convinced of the benefits of challenging the brain that they are putting the theory to work in their own lives The idea is not necessarily to learn to memorize enormous amounts of information says James Fozard associate director of the National Institute on Aging Most of us don t need that kind of skill Such specific training is of less interest than being able to maintain mental alertness Fozard and others say they challenge their brains with different mental skills both because they enjoy them and because they are sure that their range of activities will help the way their brains work 许多专家都这么认为 他们在给自己的生活中工 作 挑战他们的大脑的好处 是不是一定要学会记忆大量的信息 说 杰姆 斯 Fozard 国立老化研究所的副所长 我们中的大多数人都不需要这种技能 这种特别的培训比能够保持精力充沛 不感兴趣 Fozard 和其他人说他们挑 战他们的大脑不同的心智技能 这是因为他们喜欢他们 因为他们相信他们的 活动范围将有助于他们的大脑的工作方式 Gene Cohen acting director of the same institute suggests that people in their old age should engage in mental and physical activities individually as well as in groups Cohen says that we are frequently advised to keep physically active as we age but older people need to keep mentally active as well Those who do are more likely to maintain their intellectual abilities and to be generally happier and better adjusted The point is you need to do both Cohen says intellectual activity actually influences brain cell health and size 基因科恩 同一研究所的代理主任 建议在他们的老年人应该从事的精神和身 体活动 以及个人的团体 科恩说 我们经常被建议保持身体活跃 因为我们 的年龄 但老年人需要保持精神上积极的 那些做的是更可能保持自己的智力 能力和更幸福和更好的调整 这一点是 你需要做的 科恩说 智力活动实 际上影响了脑细胞的健康和大小 Passage 4 English is one of the great thieves It is constantly borrowing It started out taking words from Latin Greek French and German 英语是一个伟大的小偷 这 是不断借 它开始从拉丁语 希腊语 法语和德语中取词 Then English went on to borrow words from more than 50 different languages From Italian it took cameo stanza and violin for example From Spanish and Portuguese it borrowed the words alligator canyon and sombrero From Native Americans it got raccoon and wigwam Peru contributed llama and quinine The Caribbean islands gave English barbecue and cannibal From Africa came chimpanzee and zebra from India came bandanna curry and punch and from Australia came kangaroo and boomerang 然后 英语就从 50 多个不同的语言借 用了词汇 来自意大利 花浮雕 节 和小提琴 例如 从西班牙和葡萄牙 它借用了鳄鱼 峡谷的话 和草帽 从土著美国人 它得到了浣熊和棚屋 秘 鲁贡献了骆驼和奎宁 加勒比群岛给英语烧烤和食人族 从非洲来的黑猩猩和 斑马线 从印度来的大手帕 咖喱 和冲床 和从澳大利亚来的袋鼠和飞镖 Science caused an explosion in words Some words in science combine parts of Greek and Latin words They include penicillin stethoscope and supersonic Others were borrowed from languages spoken today Robot comes from a Czech word 引起爆炸的话 科学的一些词结合起来的希腊和拉丁词的部分 他们包 括青霉素 听诊器 超声 其他人被借用的语言今天发言 机器人来自捷克词 语 The English language has been stealing words for more than 1 500 years The most complete dictionary of the English language contains a whopping 600 000 words 英语的语言已经超过 1500 年了 最全的英语词典包含了 600000 个字 Passage 5 There is no doubt that a common language used throughout the world would do much to bring countries closer to each other Though it is becoming increasingly easy to move from place to place our inability to communicate with one another gives rise to numerous misunderstandings and makes real contact between people of differing nationalities impossible Many attempts have been made to overcome this problem and they have all failed The fear of foreign influence and domination rules out the universal acceptance of any one of the existing major languages Aware of this difficulty many linguists have constructed artificial languages which could have no possible political overtones They have argued that a language of this sort would perform much the same service as Latin did in the Middle Ages 毫无疑问 世界上 使用的一种通用语言 可以使各国彼此接近 虽然它变得越来越容易从地方移 动到地方 我们无法与人沟通 产生了许多误解 使不同民族的人之间的真正 接触不可能 许多尝试已经克服了这个问题 他们都失败了 外国势力和统治 的恐惧 排除了普遍接受的任何一个现有的主要语言 意识到这一困难 许多 语言学家人工语言 不可能有可能的政治色彩 他们认为 这种语言的一种语 言 将履行与拉丁在中世纪的相同的服务 Although linguists succeeded in making their artificial languages extremely simple so that they would be easy to learn their efforts seemed doomed from the start The reason for this is that there is no real incentive to learn an artificial language There is nothing to guarantee that everybody is willing to make the effort there is no assurance that the learner will have any adequate return for his toil When people today undertake to learn a foreign language they are not interested only in speaking it Mastery of a language makes available to the learner a great deal of worthwhile literature and many current publications This is the biggest stumbling block of all for the artificially constructed tongue Having no literature of its own all it can offer is a limited of translations which are valueless in themselves Nor can it acquire any literature for it would have to be used for a great many generations before this could become possible Moreover constant use over a long period would bring into being many national dialects and the language would thus defeat its own purpose 虽然语 言学家们成功地使他们的人工语言非常简单 所以他们很容易学 他们的努力 似乎从一开始就注定了 之所以这样 是没有真正的动机去学习一种人工语言 没有任何东西能保证每个人都愿意付出努力 学习者将有足够的回报为自己的 辛勤工作是没有保证的 当人们今天进行外语学习时 他们不感兴趣 掌握一 种语言 使学习者获得大量的有价值的文献和许多当前的出版物 这是所有人 为构造的舌头的最大障碍 没有自己的文学作品 它可以是一个有限的翻译 这是没有价值的自己 它也不可能获得任何文学作品 因为在这一可能成为可 能的前几代人将要使用它 此外 长期的使用会带来许多 国家 的方言和语 言 从而击败它自己的目的 Another serious objection is the fact that a language is shaped by use and not by design It is a living thing which is forever growing and changing It takes hundreds of years before it can acquire richness and depth In an artificial language however the meanings of words are rigidly defined Inflexibility makes for an absence of subtlety so that no really fine meaning can be conveyed Though this quality might be admirable for scientific publications it greatly impedes the formation of any significant literature Latin was ideal in this respect for it was a dead language with a literature an artificial one is dead from the start This makes it likely that existing language barriers will remain with us for a very long time 另一个严重的反 对意见是一种语言是由使用而不是设计 它是一种生活的东西 它永远在成长 和改变 它需要数百年才能获得丰富和深度 然而 在人工语言中 词的含义 是严格定义的 缺乏灵活性 使微妙的缺失 所以没有很好的传达意思 虽然 这种质量可能是令人钦佩的科学出版物 它大大阻碍了任何重要的文献的形成 拉丁语在这方面是理想的 因为这是一种 死 的语言 一种文学作品 一种 是从一开始就 死 的 这使得它可能存在的语言障碍将留在我们很长一段时 间 Passage 6 If you want to stay young sit down and have a good think This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise and as a result we are aging unnecessarily soon 如果你想保持年 轻 坐下来好好想想 这是一组日本医生的研究结果 他说 大部分大脑都没 有得到足够的锻炼 因此我们很快就不必要了 Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age and how the process of aging could be slowed down 教授想找出为什么 日本北部的健康农民失去了他们认为在相对年轻的年龄和能力的原因 如何减 缓衰老过程的方法 With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations 他在东京国立大学的一组同事中 对一千名不同年龄和不同职业的 人进行了大脑体积的测量 Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain which relate to intellect 智 能 and emotion and determine the human character The rear section of the brain which controls functions like eating and breathing does not contract with age and one can continue living without intellectual or emotional faculties 计算机技术帮助 研究人员获得了大脑前部和侧面部分的容量的精确测量 其中涉及到智力 智 能 和情感 决定着人的性格 大脑的后部 它控制着进食和呼吸等功能 不与年龄增长 人们可以继续生活在没有智力或情绪的能力 Contraction of front and side parts as cells die off was observed in some subjects in their thirties but it was still not evident in some sixty and seventy year olds 前部和侧部的 收缩随着细胞的死亡在三十多岁时就能观察到一些人 但 仍没有明显一些六十 七十岁 Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age using the head Matsuzawa 从他的测试有 一个简单的补救办法通常与年龄相关的收缩 用头 The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns Those least at risk says Matsuzawa are lawyers followed by university professors and doctors While collar workers doing routine work in government offices are however are likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker bus driver and shop assistant 研究结果表明 在全国的人比在 城镇的大脑开始收缩的一般条款 那些最危险 松泽说 是律师 其次是大学 教授和医生 然而 尽管在政府部门做日常工作的白领很可能会像农场工人 公共汽车司机和商店店员一样有大脑萎缩的大脑 Matsuzawa s findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from shrinking Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells need The best way to maintain good blood circulation is through using the brain he says Think hard and engage in conversation Don t rely on pocket calculators 的 调查显示思考可以防止大脑萎缩 血液必须在头部循环 以供应新鲜的氧气 脑细胞需要 他说 保持良好的血液循环的最好方法是用大脑 他说 想一想 并进行交谈 不要依赖于袖珍计算器 Passage 7 Across the rich world well educated people increasingly work longer than the less skilled Some 65 of American men aged 62 74 with a professional degree are in the workforce compared with 32 of men with only a high school certificate This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well educated well off and the unskilled poor Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled The consequences for individuals and society are profound 在富裕的世界 受过良好教育的人们的工作时间比不那么 熟练的人要长 约 65 的美国男性老年 62 74 拥有专业学位的在职场中 与只 有高中文凭的人相比 32 这一差距是一个不断加深的鸿沟之间的良好的教 育小康和不熟练的穷人 快速的技术进步提高了高技术水平的收入 同时也提 高了非技术性的 对个人和社会的影响是深远的 The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people And they will live longer than ever before Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double from 600 million to 1 1 billion The experience of the 20th century when greater longevity 长寿 translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems 世界正面临着一个惊人的增长 在老百姓的 数量 他们将比以往任何时候都活得更长 在未来 20 年中 65 岁以上的人口 将几乎翻一倍 从 6 亿岁到 11 亿岁 第二十世纪的经验 当更长寿 长寿 转 化为退休后的生活而不是工作中的更多时间 很多观察家认为这一转变将导致 经济增长放缓 而激增的养老金将建立政府预算问题 But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people whereas older skilled folk are working longer The divide is most extreme in America where well educated baby boomers 二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人 are putting off retirement while many less skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce 但在工作的年 轻人和空闲的老错过了一个新的趋势 技术和非技术之间的差距不断扩大的概 念的概念 年轻的非技术人群中的就业率正在下降 而老年人则在工作时间更 长 分歧最明显的是美国 在那里受过良好教育的婴儿潮一代 二战后生育高 峰期出生的美国人 正在推迟退休 而许多缺乏技能的年轻人已经退出了劳动 力大军 Policy is partly responsible Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early Rising life expectancy 预期寿 命 combined with the replacement of generous defined benefit pension plans with less generous defined contribution ones means that even the better off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement But the changing nature of work also plays a big role Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding generation Technological change may well reinforce that shift the skills that complement computers from management knowhow to creativity do not necessarily decline with age 政策部分责任 许多欧洲国家的政 府已经放弃了鼓励人们提前退休的政策 预期寿命的上升 预期寿命 加之 慷慨的养老金计划和固定缴费的更换 就意味着更好的工作时间必须有一个舒 适的退休生活 但工作的性质的变化也发挥了很大作用 为受过高等教育的人 支付的工资已经急剧上升 而那些继续从老年人中获得丰厚回报的人 因为这 些天受教育的老年人比前一代人更有生产力 技术上的变化会增强这一趋势 技能 计算机的补充 从管理技术创新 不一定会随着年龄的增长而下降 Passage 8 Some of the world s most significant problems never hit headlines One example comes from agriculture Food riots and hunger make news But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world s major crops A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where and how far this decline is occurring 一些世 界上最重要的问题从未得到重视 一个例子来自农业 粮食骚乱和饥饿成为新 闻 但在这些问题背后的趋势很少被讨论 那就是一些世界主要作物产量增长 减缓 明尼苏达大学和蒙特利尔麦克吉尔大学的一项新研究着眼于这种下降所 发生的地点及程度 The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops rice wheat corn and soyabeans 大豆 They find that on between 24 and 39 of all harvested areas the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s 作者大量研究了四种最重要的作物的数据 水稻 小麦 玉米和大豆 大豆 他们发现 在 24 39 的收获区域之间 20 世纪 80 年代的产量增长快于 20 世纪 90 年代和 21 世纪 There are two worrying features of the slowdown One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world s most populous 人口多的 countries India and China Their ability to feed themselves has been an impor