1、大学英语四级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 17及答案与解析 Section B 0 Small Schools Rising A)This years list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, those with fewer students are flourishing. B)Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the
2、 thousands. As baby boomers came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency. A greater choice of courses, and better football teams. C)Only years later, we did understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracies, the difficulty of forging personal conne
3、ctions between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping in 1963; today, on average, 30% of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50% in poor urban neighborhoods. D)While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards as set in No Child Left Beh
4、ind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary(and some middle)schools, high schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress. E)Size isnt everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable counter trend toward smaller schools. F)This has be
5、en due, in part, to the Bilfand Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools most of them with about 400 kids each, with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade, About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts al
6、l over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as No. 1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high schoolers and 18 graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, su
7、ch as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engineering Magnet, with 383, which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, N.Y., which grew out of volunteer evening seminars for students. And it includes alternative schools with student
8、s selected by lottery(碰运气的事 ), such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. G)And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted thousands of students al
9、l marching to the same band. H)Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif, is one of those, ranking No. 423 among the top 2% in the country on Newsweeks annual ranking of Americas top high schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek list b
10、ased on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007. I)Although many o
11、f Hillsdale s students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990s average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname(绰号 )“Hillsdail. “Jeff Gilbert. A Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of
12、 a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, “How did that student graduate?“ J)So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three “houses,“ romantically named Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly(随机地 )assigned to one of the houses, where th
13、ey will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of “advisory“ classes. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discuss
14、ions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students success. K)“We re constantly talking about one another s advisees,“ says English teacher Chris Crockett. “
15、If you hear that yours isnt doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the deans office, its like a personal failure.“ Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95. “It was rough for some. But by senior year,
16、 two-thirds have moved up to physics,“ says Gilbert, “Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them.“ But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution. L)T
17、he Newsweek list of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years past, according to a single metric(度量标准 ), the proportion of students taking college-level exams. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: its easy fo
18、r readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic(算术 )for their own schools if they d like. M)Ranking schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents(地区教育主管 )from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation. “It is impossible to know whic
19、h high schools are the best in the nation,“ their letter read, in part, “Determining whether different schools do or dont offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college, and
20、 taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities.“ N)In the end, the superintendents agreed to provide the data we sought, which is, after all, public information. There is, in our view, no real dispute here. We are all seeking the same things, which are schools that better serve our
21、 children and our nation by encouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps a list wont be necessary. 1 The only metric of Newsweek list of top U.S. high schools is the proportion of students taking colleg
22、e-level exams. 2 Some schools do better after downsizing, but not all schools show advances. 3 Advisers in Hillsdale meet students and keep in touch with parents, to invested students success. 4 The most noticeable phenomenon is that large urban and suburban high schools have split up into smaller u
23、nits. 5 The size of a school is not everything, but it does matter. 6 Fifty years ago, big, modern high schools were the latest thing. 7 High quality of education needs to be seen at many different measures. 8 Big schools have difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students.
24、 9 Ten years ago, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes no larger than 100 students. 10 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools in opening nearly 1,000 small schools. 10 Animals on the Move A)It looked like a scene from “Jaws“ but w
25、ithout the dramatic music. A huge shark was lowly swimming through the water, its tail swinging back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. B)Suddenly sensitive nerve ending in the shark s skin picked up vibrations of a struggling fish. The shark was immediately transformed into a deadly, efficient
26、 machine of death. With muscles taut, the shark knifed through the water at a rapid speed. In a flash the shark caught its victim, a large fish, in its powerful jaws. Then, jerking its head back and forth, the shark tore huge chunks of flesh from its victim and swallowed them. Soon the action was ov
27、er. Moving to Survive C)In pursuing its prey, the shark demonstrated in a dramatic way the important role of movement, or locomotion, in animals. D)Like the shark, most animals use movement to find food. They also use locomotion to escape enemies, find a mate, and explore new territories. The method
28、s of locomotion include crawling, hopping, slithering, flying, swimming, or walking. E)Humans have the added advantage of using their various inventions to move about in just about any kind of environment. Automobiles, rockets, and submarines transport humans from deep oceans to as far away as the m
29、oon. However, for other animals movement came about naturally through millions of years of evolution. One of the most successful examples of animal locomotion is that of the shark. Its ability to quickly zero in on its prey has always impressed scientists. But it took a detailed study by Duke Univer
30、sity marine biologists S. A. Wainwright, F. Vosburgh, and J. H. Hebrank to find out how the sharks did it. In their study the scientists observed sharks swimming in a tank at Marine land in Saint Augustine, Fla. Movies were taken of the sharks movements and analyzed. Studies were also made of shark
31、skin and muscle. Skin Is the Key F)The biologists discovered that the skin of the shark is the key to the animals high efficiency in swimming through the water. The skin contains many fibers that crisscross like the inside of a belted radial tire. The fibers are called collagen fibers. These fibers
32、can either store or release large amounts of energy depending on whether the fibers are relaxed or taut. When the fibers are stretched, energy is stored in them the way energy is stored in the string of a bow when pulled tight. When the energy is released, the fibers become relaxed. G)The Duke Unive
33、rsity biologists have found that the greatest stretching occurs where the shark bends its body while swimming. During the bodys back and forth motion, fibers along the outside part of the bending body stretch greatly. Much potential energy is stored in the fibers. This energy is released when the sh
34、ark s body snaps back the other way. H)As energy is alternately stored and released on both sides of the animal s body, the tail whips strongly back and forth. This whip-like action propels the animal through the water like a living bullet. Source of Energy I)What causes the fibers to store so much
35、energy? In finding the answer the Duke University scientists learned that the sharks similarity to a belted radial tire doesnt stop with the skin. Just as a radial tire is inflated by pressure, so, too, is the area just under the sharks collagen “radials“. Instead of air pressure, however, the press
36、ure in the shark may be due to the force of the blood pressing on the collagen fibers. J)When the shark swims slowly, the pressure on the fibers is relatively low. The fibers are more relaxed, and the shark is able to bend its body at sharp angles. The animal swims this way when looking around for f
37、ood or just swimming. However, when the shark detects an important food source, some fantastic involuntary changes take place. K)The pressure inside the animal may increase by 10 times. This pressure change greatly stretches the fibers, enabling much energy to be stored. L)This energy is then transf
38、erred to the tail, and the shark is off. The rest of the story is predictable. Dolphin Has Speed Record M)Another fast marine animal is the dolphin. This seagoing mammal has been clocked at speeds of 32 kilometers(20 miles)an hour. Biologists studying the dolphin have discovered that, like the shark
39、, the animal s efficient locomotion can be traced to its skin. A dolphin s skin is made up in such a way that it offers very little resistance to the water flowing over it. Normally when a fish or other object moves slowly through the water, the water flows smoothly past the body. This smooth flow i
40、s known as laminar flow. However, at faster speeds the water becomes more turbulent along the moving fish. This turbulence muses friction and slows the fish down. N)In a dolphin the skin is so flexible that it bends and yields to the waviness of the water. O)The waves, in effect, become tucked into
41、the skins folds. This allows the rest of the water to move smoothly by in a laminar flow. Where other animals would be slowed by turbulent water at rapid speeds, the dolphin can race through the water at record breaking speeds. Other Animals Less Efficient P)Not all animals move as efficiently as sh
42、arks and dolphins. Perhaps the greatest loser in locomotion efficiency is the slug. The slug(鼻涕虫 ), which looks like a snail without a shell, lays down a slimy(黏滑的 )trail over which it crawls. It uses so much energy producing the slimy mucus(黏液 )and crawling over it that a mouse traveling the same d
43、istance uses only one twelfth as much energy. Q)Scientists say that because of the slugs inefficient use of energy, its lifestyle must be restricted. That is, the animals are forced to confine themselves to small areas for obtaining food and finding proper living conditions. Have humans ever been fa
44、ced with this kind of problem? 11 Most animals like sharks, use locomotion to escape enemies and find a mate. 12 When the shark swims slowly, the fibers are relaxed and pressure of them is low. 13 Slugs inefficient use of energy confines them to small areas. 14 During the bodys back and forth motion
45、, much potential energy will be stored in the fibers. 15 The high efficiency in swimming of sharks largely dues to its skin. 16 Different kinds of inventions make human move around in nearly any kind of environment. 17 The tail whips, because the energy on each side of the body is different. 18 Ten
46、times increase of pressure stretches fibers, and much energy will be stored in the process. 19 A dolphin s skin has very little resistance to flowing water. 20 Other animals would be slowed by turbulent water, while dolphin can race through at a high speed. 20 A Few Aspects of American Life Travel A
47、)Its summer time. For many Americans, this is the season to travel. Why? Because school is over and the weather is great. And most of all, they believe they deserve a break. When Americans take a break, they often head for their favorite vacation spot. B)Throughout their history, Americans have been
48、 people on the move. The early immigrants had to travel to get to the New World. Once they arrived, they settled along the East Coast. But they werent content to stay here. Explorers and traders journeyed to the unknown western territories. Later, settlers moved west to develop new areas. As a resul
49、t of this west movement, Americans eventually occupied the whole continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Even today, Americans seem unable to stay put. Research says that average American moves every five years. C)Americans are used to traveling. Some people make long-distance commuting to work daily. Their jobs may even require them to take frequent business trips. Most companies provide an annual vacation for their employees, and people often use that time to travel. Some people just visit friend or relatives in
