期末复习题 重要.zip

2023-2024-1 学期《大学英语 A（II）》课程

四级真题打印资料

Unit 1 专项：快速阅读

2020 年 12 月（一）

The Place Where the Poor Once Thrived

A)This is the land of opportunity. If that weren’t already implied by the landscape-rolling green

hills palm trees, sun-kissed flowers-then it’s evident in the many stories of people who grew up

economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues from Harvard and Berkeley. That number--12.9

percent-may not seem remarkable, but it was: Kids in San Jose whose families fell in the bottom

quintile(五分位数)of income nationally had the best shot in the country at reaching the top

quintile.

C)By contrast, just 4.4 percent of poor kids in Charlotte moved up to the top; in Detroit the

figure was 5.5percent. San Jose had social mobility comparable to Denmark’s and Canada’s

and higher than other progressive cities such as Boston and Minneapolis.

D)The reasons kids in San Jose performed so well might seem obvious. Some of the world’s

most innovative companies are located here, providing opportunities such as the one seized by

a 12-year-old Mountain View resident named Steve Jobs when he called William Hewlett to

possible to drive in a matter of minutes from sleek(光亮的)office towers near the airport where

people pitch ideas to investors, to single-family homes with orange trees in their yards, or to a

Vietnamese mall. The libraries here offer programs in 17 languages, and there are areas filled

with small businesses owned by Vietnamese immigrants, Mexican immigrants, Korean

immigrants, and Filipino immigrants, to name a few.

F)But researchers aren’t sure exactly why poor kids in San Jose did so well. The city has a low

prevalence of children growing up in single-parent families, and a low level of concentrated

poverty, both factors that usually mean a city allows for good intergenerational mobility. But

San Jose also performs poorly on some of the measures correlated with good mobility. It is one

of the most unequal places out of the741 that the researchers measured, and it has high degrees

Jose area of the 1980s.Whether the city still allows for upward mobility of poor kids today,

though, is up for debate. Some of the indicators such as income inequality, measured by the

Equality of Opportunity Project for the year 2000, have only worsened in the past 16 years.

H)Some San Jose residents say that as inequality has grown in recent years, upward mobility

has become

much more difficult to achieve. As Silicon Valley has become home to more successful

companies, the flood of people to the area has caused housing prices to skyrocket. By most

measures, San Jose is no longer a place where low-income, or even middle-income families,

can afford to live. Rents in San Jose grew 42.6 percent between 2006 and 2014, which was the

largest increase in the country during that time period. The city has a growing homelessness

problem, which it tried to address by shutting down “The Jungle,” one of the largest homeless

encampments(临时住地)in the nation,in2014.Inequality is extreme. The Human Development

disappeared. Given this, the future for the region’s poor doesn’t look nearly as bright as it once

did.

I)Leaders in San Jose are determined to make sure that the city regains its status as a place

where even poor kids can access the resources to succeed. With Silicon Valley in its backyard,

it certainly has the chance to do so. “I think there is a broad consciousness in the Valley that we

can do better than to leave thousands of our neighbors behind through a period of extraordinary

success,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

J)But in today’s America a land of rising inequality, increasing segregation, and stagnating(不

增 长 的 ) middle-class wages can the San Jose region really once again become a place of

opportunity?

1.According to some people living in San Jose, it has become much harder for the poor to get

ahead due to the increased inequality

4.San Jose was among the best cities in America for poor kids to move up the social ladder.

5.Whether poor kids in San Jose today still have the chance to move upward is questionable.

in life

7.San Jose appears to manifest some of the best features of America

8.As far as social mobility is concerned, San Jose beat many other progressive cities in America.

9.Due to some changes like increases in housing prices in San Jose, the prospects for its poor

people have dimmed.

10.Researchers do not have a clear idea why poor children in San Jose achieved such great

success several decades ago.

答案：HDKBGIECHF

2020 年 12 月（二）

to focusing attention on solutions and building ladders of opportunity.

C)Today’s faces of income inequality and lack of opportunity look like all of us. It’s Anna

Landre, a disabled Georgetown University student fighting to keep health benefits that allow

her the freedom to live her life. It’s Tiffanie Standard, a counselor for young women of color

in Philadelphia who want to be tech entrepreneurs-but who must work multiple jobs to stay

afloat. It’s Ken Outlaw, a welder in rural North Carolina whose dream of going back to school

at a local community college was dashed by Hurricane Florence-just one of the extreme weather

events that have tipped the balance for struggling Americans across the nation.

the Mothering Justice organizers went to the office of a state representative to talk about the

lack of affordable childcare the vestiges(兆迹)of a system that expected mothers to stay home

into account economic need beyond that absolute measure, the Institute for Policy Studies found

that 140 million people are poor or low income. That’s almost half the U.S. population.

G)Whatever the measure, within that massive group, poverty is extremely diverse. We know

that some people are more affected than others, like children, the elderly, people with

It even reaches into the middle classes, as real wages have stagnated(不增长)for all but the

very wealthy and temporary spells of financial instability are not uncommon.

it. The big American myth is that you can pull yourself up by your own efforts and change a

bad situation into a good one. The reality is that finding opportunity without help from families,

friends, schools, and community is virtually impossible. And the playing field is nothing close

to level.

J)The Frame Works Institute, a research group that focuses on public framing of issues, has

give a false picture of reality. “When people enter into that pattern of thinking,” says Kendall-

Taylor, “it’s cognitively comfortable to make sense of issues of poverty in that way. It creates

a kind of cognitive blindness-all of the factors external to a person’s drive and choices that

they’ve made become invisible and fade from view.”

L)Those external factors include the difficulties accompanying low-wage work or structural

discrimination based on race, gender, or ability. Assumptions get worse when people who are

poor use government benefits to help them survive. There is a great tension between “the poor”

and those who are receiving what has become a dirty word: “welfare.”

M)According to the General Social Survey, 71 percent of respondents believe the country is

spending too little on “assistance to the poor.” On the other hand,22 percent think we are

lives. Indeed, people tend to dip in and out of poverty, perhaps due to unexpected obstacles like

losing a job, or when hours of a low-wage job fluctuate.

P)Something each of us can do is to treat each other with the dignity and sympathy that is

have made the wrong decisions.

5.Under the old system in America, a mother was supposed to stay home and take care of her

children.

6.It was found that nearly 50% of Americans are poor or receive low pay.

7.Americans usually overestimate the number of blacks receiving welfare benefits.

9.Nowadays, it seems none of us can get away from income inequality.

10.Assumptions about poor people become even more negative when they live on welfare.

答案：EHMJDFNICL

2020 年 12 月（三）

The History of the Lunch Box

A)It was made of shiny, bright pink plastic with a Little Mermaid sticker on the front, and I