2015年英语四级考试每日一练
When we talk about Americans barely into adulthood who are saddled with uttbearable levels of debt, the conversation is almost always about student loan debt. But there's a growing body of evidence suggesting that today's young adults are also drowning in credit-card debt-and that many of them will take this debt to their graves.
More than 20% overspent their income by more than $100 every single month. Since they haven't built up their credit histories yet, it's a safe bet that theae young adults are paying relatively high interest rates on the resulting credit card debt.
Although many young people blame "Socializing" a~ a barrier to saving money, most of them aren't knocking back $ 20 drinks in trendy ( 时尚的) lounges. They're struggling with much more daily financial demands.
To a disturbingly large extent, the young and the broke are relying on credit cards to make it until their next payday. This obviously isn't sustainable in the long run, and it's going -to put a huge drag on, their spending power even after they reach their peak earning years, becattse they'll sttll be paying interest
on that bottle Of orange juice or box of spaghetti (意式面条) they bOUght a decade earlier.
A new study out of Ohio State University found that young adults are accumulating credit card debt at a more rapid rate than other age groups, and that they're slower at paying it off, "If what we found continues to hold true, we may have more elderly people with substantial financial problems in the future," warns Lucia Duma, professor of economics at Ohio State, "If our persist, we may be
faced with a financial crisis among elderly ,people who can't pay off their credit cards, "
Dunn says a lot of these young people are never going to get out from under their credit card debt."Many people are borrowing on credit cards so heavily that payoff rates at these levels are not sufficient to recover their credit card debt by the end of their life, which could have loss implications for the credit card issuing banks. "
Wilt is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A.Many young Americans will never be able to pay off their debts.
B.Credit cards play an increasingly important role in college life.
C.Credit cards are doing more harm than student loans.
D.The American credit card system is under criticism.
2、根据下列材料，请回答题：
questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
What makes a group intelligent? You might think a group's IQ would t esimply the aveiage intelligence of the group's members, or perhaps the intelligence of the team's smartest participant, But researchers who study groups have found that this isn't so.
Rather, a group's intelligence emerges the interactions that go on Within the group. A teams intelligence can be measured, and like an individual's IQ scere, it can accurately predict the team's performance on a Wide variety of tasks. And just as an individual's intelligence is expandable, a group's intelligence can alsobe increased. Here are five suggestions on how to guide the developttment of smart teams:
Chose team members carefully, The smartest groups are composed of people who are goo at reading one another's social cues, according to a study led by Carnegie Mellon University professor Anita Williams Woolley and published in the journal Science.
Talk about the “how”. Many members of teams don't like to spend time talking about “process”, preferring to get right down to work--but Woolley notes that groups who take the time to discuss how they Will Work together aice ultimately more efficient and effective.
share the floor: In the most intelligent teams, found Woolley, members take turns speaking Participants who dominate the discussion or who hang back and don't say much bring down, the
What do we learn about a group's IQ?
A.It equals the total intelligence of the group members.
B.It determines the interactions among the group members.
C.It can help measure an individual's IQ score in the group.
D.It can help predict the group's performance on various tasks.
3、 Passage Two
Questions are based on the following passage.
Real.time web search—-which scours only the latest updates to services like Twitter—is currently generating quite a buzz because it can provide a glimpse of what people around the world are thinking or doing at any given moment.Interest in this kind of search is so great that，according to recent leaks，Google is considering buying Twitter.
The latest research from the interact search giant，though，suggests that real—time results could be even more powerful—they may reveal the future as well as the present.
Google researchers Hyunyoung Choi and Hal Varian combined data from Google Trends on the popularity of different search terms with models used by economists to predict trends in areas such as travel and home sales.The result? Better forecasts in A.most every case.It works because searches reveal something about people’s intentions.Google has demonstrated before that search data can predict flu outbreaks，and last week World Bank economist Erik Feyen said he could cut errors in a model that forecasts lending to the private sector by 15% using Google search data.
But real-time results could have even more predictive power：knowing what people are actually doing，not just thinking，at a particular instant gives a strong hint of the future consequences.
Johan Bollen of Losalamos National Laboratory and alberto Pepe of the University of California，Los Angeles，applied a mood rating system to the text from over 10，000 Future Me emails sent in 2006 to gauge people’s hopes，fears and predictions for the future.They found that emails directed at 2007 to 2012 were significantly more depressed in tone than messages aimed at the subsequent six years.Could they have predicted the world’s current economic slump?
Without more data，that is no more than an intriguing possibility.So Bollen plans to look at more Future Me emails，as well as Twitter messages，to search for mood swings that foreshadow other economic changes.If he finds any such links.the sanle source might be used to try and predict future economic fluctuations.
So will our online footsteps become a central part of economic forecasting? We’ll have to wait and see——or perhaps do a quick web search.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What is real-time web search.1ike Twitter?
A.It tells us what people did in past days.
B.It generates quite a buzz in recent days.
C.It provides latest news about everything.
D.It informs what people do in the future.
4、Questions are based oB thefollowingpassage.
The unemployment rate continues to improve.It was 10%in the fall of 2009.It was 7.5%at this time last year.It has been fluctuatin9 6.3%and 6.7%for the last couple months.
But before we celebrate.we need to examine the numbers behind the numbers.These can mask deeper problems.
Youth unemployment.is one such problem.Young people face higher hurdles to and in the job market.
They have fewer skills.1ess work experience and smaller networks.
The consequences are devastating and the facts bear this out.
Those with more education do beaer but no group is held harmless.Unemployment rates for recent college graduates increased from 3.1%in 2008 to 8%in 2010.High youth unemployment rates predate the recession.In 2000.the general unemployment rate was approximately 4%.For 15 to 24 year olds it was over9%.
High youth unemployment is not confined to the United States.For the 33“developed”countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD)，combined 2013 youth unemployment was 16%.But more importantly,individuals，society and the economy suffer from a generation hamstrung by pool little or no work experience.
Solutions are complicated because we are part of a global economy and recession，we are shifting to a knowledge-based economy,and unemployment is tied to complex social problems.
But solutions do exist.
Create a“youth guarantee”similar to the one adopted by leaders of the European Union.It states that“all young people under the age of 25 years receive a good-quality offer of employment，continued education，an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemfDloyed or leaving
formal education.”This has had success in some countries.
Require that middle and high school programs greatly strengthen their workplace ties through vocational education，apprenticeships，internships，and teaching ofjob skills.
As the economic recovery continues，we must ensure that we understand the numbers behind the numbers.This means not only paying close attention to the needs of our youn workers but also responding with significant and decisive action.
The United States has a population of over 300 million.of these.120 million are under the age of 30.Their future is Our future.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
What Can we infer from the lines of paragraph two?
A.The reA.problem of youth unemployment is still severe.
B.We can not only concentrate on the surface of numbers.
C.The unemployment rate continues to be improveD.
D.We should not celebrate for the lower unemployment rate.
简答题
5、老龄化对国家财政的影响众所周知——节节高攀的医疗保险和养老金(pension)支出。然而，老龄化的影响远不止于此。在老龄化社会里，劳动力市场、储蓄方式以及人口流动都会发生变化。最令人担忧的是，劳动力短缺，劳动力市场不稳定，生产力下降等问题都会对发展造成严熏威胁。由二于二中囝平均收人水平仍然停留在低收入阶段，这使得中国人口老龄化问题尤其复杂。
6、北京是世界历史文化名城和中国“四大古都”之一(four aRCi entcapital s)。1949年10月1日，毛泽东主席在北京天安门城楼上宣布中华人民共和国的成立。从此，北京成为了新中国的首都。北京是中国的政治、文化和国际交往的中心。北京的名胜古迹多得三天三夜也数不完，不下几千处。在北京也能吃到各式各样的北京小吃，品种多样，价钱也不责。每逢节假日，大批国内外游客来到北京参观游览。
7、“今天你网购了吗?”很可能会成为一句问候语。还没人问你?那你可能落伍了。网络购物，这个在几年以前还是一个比较新鲜时髦的东西，如今，随着互联网的普及，这种消费模式正迅速地在网民中盛行。网络购物在大学校园已经成为一种普遍现象。大学生成为了网购的主要群体之一。网络购物给人们的生活提供了便捷，但也极大地冲击了实体零售店。不少实体店主也准备在实体店(br i ck-and-mortar shop)基础上再开个网店。
8、长江发源于“世界屋脊”——青藏高原的唐古拉山脉(Tanggula Mountai rls or DangI a Mountain Range)。全长6300余千米，比黄河长800余千米，长度仅次于非洲的尼罗河和南美洲的亚马孙河，居世界第三位。长江自然风光优美，历史积淀深厚，也是中国主要的旅游景点，在那里，你可以欣赏到壮丽的三峡和宏伟的三峡大坝。约占全国面积五分之一的长江流域养育了全国三分之一的人口。长江的开发与保护是影响全国社会经济发展的大事。
9、中国被誉为陶瓷之国，景德镇被称为陶瓷之都(the City of ceramics)。瓷器最早出现于商代中晚期。距今已有八千多年的悠久历史。随着时代的发展，瓷器的用途越来越多，既可以用来盛放东西，也可以作装饰之用。多姿多彩的瓷器是中国古代的伟大发明之一。 “瓷器”与“中国”在英文中同为一词。充分说明中国瓷器的精美绝伦完全可以作为中国的代表。
10、随着人口老龄化增长趋势的日益显现，空巢老人中存在的问题也逐渐突出，关爱空巢老人越来越成为人们关注的话题。空巢老人是指那些孩子不在身边、独自居住的老年人。他们缺少家人关爱，生活寂寞。因为孩子们长时间不回家，家庭如同空巢一般。这些老人们很容易产生不良情绪。作为子女，即使远在异地，也应经常通过电话与父母进行感情和思想的交流。