【作文】
Education pays 教育回报
图表说明：全英文，无中文翻译和提示
Education Pays, published every three years, presents detailed evidence of the private and public benefits of higher education. It also sheds light on the distribution of these benefits by examining both the increases and the persistent disparities in college participation and completion. In the three years between the publication of Education Pays 2007 and Education Pays 2010, median earnings for four-year college graduates increased more rapidly than those of high school graduates and the gap between the unemployment rates of the two groups grew. In addition to earnings comparisons, the report documents differences in lifestyles, health, and other outcomes for people with and without college education. Differences in enrollment and completion patterns across demographic groups highlight the reality that gaps in educational attainment are explained by a combination of money and other factors.
翻译：教育回报，每隔三年发布一次。它显示了高等教育所能带来的私人和公共利益的详细的证据。同时，通过考查大学入学与毕业方面的增长和长期的差异，它也阐明了由高等教育带来的这些利益的分布状况。在20xx年和20xx年教育回报发布后的中间三年，受过四年大学教育的高校毕业生的平均收入的增长要快于高中毕业生，并且，这两者间的失业率的差距也加大了。除了收入对比之外，这份报告也显示了是否拥有大学学历给人们的生活方式，健康和其他因素造成的差异。人群的教育入学和教育完成模式(是否上大学、是否大学顺利
毕业)的差异强调了一个事实，那就是，教育程度的不同所带来的差距，是可以通过收入和其他多种因素来解释的。
第二篇：20xx年12月份四级真题
同学是上海交大的，从他老师哪里弄来几道题，说是命题组今年出的四级题目。现在分享给大家，不管你信不信，反正我是信了。
david thomson is an electronics technician, trained by the u.s. navy, wrist is surrounded by a force field that can broadcast emotions to other human beings. the ability to receive such force fields, thomson believes, explains how one can sense another's fear, nervousness, aggression, panic, or friendliness.
this theory of emotional communication occurred to thomson when he told a psychiatrist（精神病医生）, dr. jack ward, that he was certain his own hypertension（高血压，过度紧张） made those near him uncomfortable. to demonstrate the theory, thomson constructed a transmitter capable of generating an electromagnetic field similar to that of a man beset by hyper anxiety（过度焦虑）. for a year, with this in his pocket, thomson made people miserable. he would find a hungry man delightedly preparing to eat a steak in a restaurant, turn on the transmitter, and watch as the man became tense and irritable and finally left with his steak uneaten. in another test, thomson cleared a crowded room in fifteen minutes. such an exodus（出去） could not be due, thomson observed, to personality problems alone.
dr. ward, who had become thomson's partner, insisted that there was already misery enough in the world.thomson fashioned a "happiness transmitter," which can duplicate the force field of a contented man. university psychologists in the united states report some encouraging results in current tests of the thomson-and-ward transmitter.
the "happiness machine" has many possibilities. thomson has speculated on its use near disturbed or anxious patients in hospitals, and in unruly crowds. tranquility（平静）, like panic and violence, may be contagions（传染性的）.
1. the theory is based on belief in the existence of .分析与解答 a.complicated equipment
b. individual force fields
c. nervousness
d.aggression
2. the theory occurred to thomson because he was convinced that people near him .分析与解答
a.could hypnotize him
b. could make him feel uncomfortable
c. were reading his thoughts
d were affected by his hypertension
3. for his first demonstrations, thomson chose people who .分析与解答 a.were in a happy mood
b. seemed hyper anxious
c. were aggressive
d.both b and c
4. the thomson-and-ward transmitter was constructed because .分析与解答
a.university psychologists suggested it
b. the "misery machine" had not worked
c. dr. ward felt there was misery enough
d.police forces asked for it
5. thomson has speculated on .分析与解答
a.some helpful uses of a "happiness machine"
b. possible wrongful uses of a "happiness machine"
c. the disadvantages of a tranquil population
d.the final report on the psychologists' tests
just 30 years ago some 700 million people lived in cities. today the number stands at 1,800 million, and by the end of the century it will to 3,000 million—more than half the world's estimated
population. by the year 2000 an estimated 650 million people will
crowd into 60 cities of five million or more—three quarters of them in the developing worl d.only a single first world city—metropolitan tokyo, which will have 24 million people—is expected to be among the global top five; london, ranked second in 1950 with ten million people, will not even make 2000's top 25.in places where rates of natural population increase exceed three per cent annually—meaning much of the third world—that alone is enough to double a city's population within 20 years. but equally powerful are the streams of hopeful migrants from the countryside.
what faces and confuses urban planners is the huge scale of these trends. there have never been cities of 30 million people, let alone ones dependent on roads, sewer and water supplies barely adequate for urban areas a tenth that size. and the flood of new arrivals in swelling third world cities far overtakes the supply of jobs—particularly as modern industries put a premium on technology rather than manpower. so it will be virtually impossible to find permanent employment for 30 to 40 per cent of the 1,000 million new city inhabitants expected by the year 2000.
despite the terrible conditions that the city newcomers face, their numbers are growing at rates as much as twice that of the cities themselves—and every step taken to improve their living conditions in the slums only attracts more migrants.
6. which of the following is the main topic of this passage? 分析与解答
a.the increase of world population.
b. the improvement of urban living conditions.
c. the migrants from the countryside and their unemployment. d.the expansion of cities and its consequences.
7. the author uses tokyo as an example mainly to show that . 分析与解答
a.the biggest cities will still be in first world countries
b. its development speed will be greater than that of london
c. most of the biggest cities will be in the third world countries
d.japanese will keep control of the growth of big cities such as tokyo
8. which of the following is not true according to the passage? 分析与解答
a.over half of the world's population will move to cities by 2000. b. the order of the world's biggest cities will be changed fundamentally by the year 2000.
c. the world population will reach about 6,000 million by 2000.
d.the poor countries will suffer more from the expansion of cities by 2000.
9. according to the last paragraph, all of the following are true except that . 分析与解答
a.development of modern technology will reduce the use of manpower b. urban planers will have no past experiences to borrow
c. the growth of urban population is faster than that of cities d.the improvement of urban living conditions is to attract more
migrants from the countryside 10. the expression “put a premium on" in paragraph 3 can best be replaced by . 分析与解答
a.are in need of
b. devote much attention to
c. have no lack of
d.think little of
for some time past it has been widely accepted that babies—and other creatures—learn to do things because certain acts lead to
“rewards"; and there is no reason to doubt that this is true. but it used also to be widely believed that effective rewards, at least in the early stages, had to be directly related to such basic
physiological “drives" as thirst or hunger. in other words, a baby would learn if he got food or drink, some sort of physical comfort, not otherwise.
it is now clear that this is not so. babies will learn to behave in ways that produce results in the world with no reward except the successful outcome.
papousek began his studies by using milk in the normal way to “reward" the babies and so teach them to carry out some simple movements, such as turning the head to one side or the other. then he noticed that a baby who had had enough to drink would refuse the milk but would still go on making the learned response with clear signs of pleasure. so he began to study the children's response in situation where no milk was provided.he quickly found that children as young as four months would learn to turn their heads to right or left if the movement “switched on" a display of lights - and indeed that they were capable of learning quite complex turns to bring about this result, for instance, two left or two right, or even to make as many as three turns to one side.
papousek's light display was placed directly in front of the babies and he made the interesting observation that sometimes they would turn back to watch the lights closely although they would “smile and bubble" when the display came on. papousek concluded that it was not primarily the sight of the lights that pleased them, it was the success they were achieving in solving the problem, in mastering the skill, and that there exists a fundamental human urge to make sense of the world and bring it under intentional control.
11. according to the author, babies learn to do things which . 分析与解答
a.are directly related to pleasure
b. will meet their physical needs
c. will bring them a feeling of success
d.will satisfy their curiosity
12. papousek noticed in his studies that a baby . 分析与解答 a.would make learned response when it saw the milk
b. would carry out learned movements when it had enough to drink c. would continue the simple movements without being given milk
d.would turn its head to right or left when it had enough to drinkf.
13. in papousek's experiment babies make learned movements of the head in order to . 分析与解答
a.have the lights turned on
b. be rewarded with milk
c. please their parents
d.be praised
14. the babies would “smile and bubble" at the lights because分析与解答
a.the lights were directly related to some basic “drives"
b. the sight of the lights was interesting
c. they need not turn back to watch the lights
d.they succeeded in “switching on" the lights
15. according to papousek, the pleasure babies get in achieving something is a reflection of .分析与解答
a.a basic human desire to understand and control the world b. the satisfaction of certain physiological needs
c. their strong desire to solve complex problems
d.a fundamental human urge to display their learned skills .