发布时间 : 星期二 文章2014年英语专四真题与答案更新完毕开始阅读
For parents who send their kids off to college saying, “These will be the best years of your life,” it would be very appropriate to add, “If you can handle the stress of college life.”
Freshmen are showing up already stressed out, according to the latest research study that reported students’ emotional health levels at their lowest since the survey started in 1985. While in school, more students are working part-time and near-full-time jobs. At graduation, only 29 percent of seniors have jobs lined up. Pressure to excel often creates stress, and many students are not learning how to effectively handle this stress. Let me show five facts that I believe every college student should know about stress.
First, stress can make smart people do stupid things. Stress causes what brain researchers call “cortical inhibition.” In simple terms, stress inhibits a part of the brain responsible for decision-making and reaction time and can adversely affect other mental abilities as well.
Second, the human body doesn’t discriminate between a big stressful event and a little one. Any stressful experience will create about 1,400 biochemical events in your body. If any amount of stress is left unchecked, many things can occur within the body, including premature aging, impaired cognitive function and energy drain.
Third, stress can become your new pattern. When you regularly experience negative feelings and high amounts of stress, your brain recognizes this as your normal state. This then becomes the new norm, or baseline for your emotional state.
Fourth, stress can be controlled. Countless studies demonstrate that people can restructure their emotional state using emotion-refocusing techniques. These techniques help you recognize how you are feeling and shift to a more positive emotional, mental and physical state.
One technique involves slowing your thoughts and focusing on your heartbeat, breathing slowly and deeply, and focusing on the positive feeling that you receive. Finally, stress can be lessened by loving what you study. Barbara Frederickson, a leading international authority on the importance of positive emotions, says humans are genetically programmed to seek positive emotions such as love and joy. It's suggested to choose a major or career path you love and enjoy. Otherwise, you could end up fighting against your own biology.
86. The author cites the latest research study in order to show that ________.
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A. students are studying harder in college B. most students have part-time job now C. stress continues to the time of graduation D. students only feel stressed while in school
87. According to the passage, stress might cause all the following negative effects EXCEPT ________.
A. social B. mental C. emotional D. physical
88. In the author’s opinion, stress can be controlled by ________. A. doing what you prefer B. identifying your present emotional state first C. finding a more positive feeling first D. focusing on your emotional state 89. According to the context, what does “your own biology” mean in the last paragraph?
A. Your current major. B. Your future job. C. Your future research. D. Your preference.
90. Which of the following is the best as the title of the passage?
A. Causes of Stress. B. Type of Stress. College C. Life and Stress. D. Stress and Control Methods.
TEXT C
For anyone who doubts that the texting revolution is upon us, consider this: The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month—more than 100 per day, according to the Nielsen Co., the media research firm. Adults are catching up. People from ages 45 to 54 sent and received 323 texts a month in the second quarter of 2010, up 75% from a year ago, Nielsen says.
Behind the texting explosion is a fundamental shift in how we view our mobile devices. That they are phones is increasingly beside the point.
Part of what's driving the texting surge among adults is the popularity of social media. Sites like Twitter, with postings of no more than 140 characters, are creating and reinforcing the habit of communicating in micro-bursts.
Economics has much to do with texting’s popularity. Text messages cost carriers less than traditional mobile voice transmissions, and so they cost users less. Sprint
Nextel has reconceived its Virgin Mobile brand to cater to heavy texters in a difficult economy. For $25 per month, users get unlimited texting, email, social networking and 300 talk minutes; for another $15, they get an additional 900 talk minutes. The name of the brand's new wireless plan: “Beyond Talk.”
Texting’s rise over conversation is changing the way we interact, social scientists and researchers say. We are now inclined to text to relay difficult information. We stare at our phone when we want to avoid eye contact. Rather than make plans in advance, we engage in what research have named “micro-coordination”—”I’ll txt u in 10mins when I know wh/ restrnt.”
Texting saves us time, but it steals from quiet reflection. “When people have a mobile device and have even a little extra time, they will communicate with someone in their life,” says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. And the phone conversation will never be completely obsolete. Deal makers and other professionals still spend much of the day on the phone. Researchers say people are more likely to use text-based communications at the preliminary stages of projects. The phone comes into play when there are multiple options to consider or important decisions to be made.
91. At the beginning of the passage, the author uses figures for the purpose of ________.
A. introduction B. comparison C. explanation D. transition
92. According to the context, which of the following is closest in meaning to “beside the point”?
A. Unimportant. B. Unacknowledged. C. Underestimated. D. Undeniable. 93. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause for texting’s popularity? A. Promotion of cheaper wireless packages. B. Increase in the number of adult texters.
C. Redesign of mobile devices. D. Rise of social media.
94. According to the passage, texting can help people to ________.
A. face difficult situations B. make appointments in advance C. communicate wish strangers D. avoid awkward situations
95. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Texting’s popularity and effect. B. Role of texting in business. C. Preference to texting over thinking. D. Innovation of mobile devices. TEXT D
The healthy adolescent boy or girl likes to do the real things in life, to do the things that matter. He would rather be a plumber’s mate and do a real job that requires doing than learn about hydrostatics sitting at a desk, without understanding what practical use they are going to be. A girl would rather look after the baby than learn about child care. Logically we should learn about things before doing them and that is presumably why the pundits enforce this in our educational system. But it is not the natural way-nor, I venture to think, the best way. The adolescent wants to do things first for only then does he appreciate the problems involved and want to learn more about them.
They do these things better in primitive life, for there at puberty the boy joins his father in making canoes, patching huts, going out fishing or hunting. He is serving his apprenticeship in the actual accomplishments of life. It is not surprising that anthropologists(人类学家) find that the adolescents of primitive communities do not suffer from the same neurotic(神经质的) “difficulties” as those of civilized life. This is not, as some assume, because they are permitted more sexual freedom, but because they are given more natural outlets for thei-r native interests and powers and are allowed to grow up freely into a full lif-e of responsibility in the community.
In the 19th century this was recognized in the apprenticeship system, which allowed the boy to go out with the master carpenter, or ploughman, to engage in the actual work of carpentry or roof-mending, and so to learn his trade. In some agricultural colleges at the present time young men have to do a ye-ar’s work on a farm before their theoretical training at college. The great advantageof this system is that it lets the apprentice see the practical problems before he sets to work learning how to solve them, and he can therefore take a more intelligent interest in his theoretical work.
Since more knowledge of more things is now required in order to cope with the adult world, the period of growing-up to independence takes much longer than it did in a more primitive community, and the responsibility for such education, which formerly was in the hands of the parents, is now necessarily undertaken by experts at school. But that should not make us lose sight of the basic principle, namely the need and the desire of the adolescent to engage responsibly in the real pursuits of life and then to learn how — to learn through responsibility, not to learn before responsibility.
96. According to the author, what is the natural way of education?