英语四级段落信息匹配题技巧

英语四级段落信息匹配题

一、英语四级段落信息匹配题是什么？

原快速阅读理解调整为长篇阅读理解，篇章长度和难度不变。篇章后附有10个句子，每句一题。每句所含的信息出自篇章的某一段落，要求考生找出与每句所含信息相匹配的段落。有的段落可能对应两题，有的段落可能不对应任何一题。四级考试需要各位同学做的是，大家需要去看十个左右的段落，然后去匹配十个信息点。但是到六级当中，我们的难度就要增加了，我们见到的情况是六级当中变成了15个段落，去匹配十个信息点。但总体来看，不管题型怎么变，其实学习方法没变，还是仍旧需要大家提高阅读的能力，比如说读文章的时候，是不是直接拿英语读，如果读快速阅读的时候，还是拿中文边翻译边读的话，会发现阅读速度一直会比较慢，所以那么长的文章很难找到细节，所以大家一定要养成拿英语直接阅读的这样一种习惯，这样才能保证我们的阅读真正速度又快又准。

二、样题：

Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Universities Branch Out

A) As never before in their long history, universities have become instruments of national competition as well as instruments of peace. They are the place of the scientific discoveries that move economies forward, and the primary means of educating the talent required to obtain and maintain competitive advantage. But at the same time, the opening of national borders to the flow of goods, services, information and especially people has made universities a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and geopolitical stability.

B) In response to the same forces that have driven the world economy, universities have become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent the entire range of cultures and values, sending their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers, offering courses of study that address the challenges of an interconnected world and collaborative (合作的) research programs to advance science for the benefit of all humanity.

C) Of the forces shaping higher education none is more sweeping than the movement across borders. Over the past three decades the number of students leaving home each year to study abroad has grown at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, from 800,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in 2004. Most travel from one developed nation to another, but the flow from developing to developed countries is growing rapidly. The reverse flow, from developed to developing countries, is on the rise, too. Today foreign students earn 30 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded in the United States and 38 percent of those in the United Kingdom. And the number crossing borders for undergraduate study is growing as well, to 8 percent of the undergraduates at Am erica’s best institutions and 10 percent of all undergraduates in the U.K. In the United States, 20 percent of the newly hired professors in science and engineering are foreign-born, and in China

many newly hired faculty members at the top research universities received their graduate education abroad.

D) Universities are also encouraging students to spend some of their undergraduate years in another country. In Europe, more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmus program each year, taking courses for credit in one of 2,200 participating institutions across the continent. And in the United States, institutions are helping place students in summer internships (实习) abroad to prepare them for global careers. Yale and Harvard have led the way, offering every undergraduate at least one international study or internship opportunity—and providing the financial resources to make it possible.

E) Globalization is also reshaping the way research is done. One new trend involves sourcing portions of a research program to another country. Yale professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Tian Xu directs a research center focused on the genetics of human disease at Shanghai’s Fudan University, in collaboration with faculty colleagues from both schools. The Shanghai center has 95 employees and graduate students working in a 4,300-square-meter laboratory facility. Yale faculty postdoctors and graduate students visit regularly and attend videoconference seminars with scientists from both campuses. The arrangement benefits both countries; Xu’s Yale lab is more productive, thanks to the lower costs of conducting research in China, and Chinese graduate students, postdoctors and faculty get on-the-job training from a world-class scientist and his U.S. team.

F) As a result of its strength in science, the United States has consistently led the world in the commercialization of major new technologies, from the mainframe computer and the integrated circuit of the 1960s to the Internet infrastructure (基础设施) and applications software of the 1990s. The link between university-based science and industrial application is often indirect but sometimes highly visible: Silicon Valley was intentionally created by Stanford University, and Route 128 outside Boston has long housed companies spun off from MIT and Harvard. Around the world, governments have encouraged copying of this model, perhaps most successfully in Cambridge, England, where Microsoft and scores of other leading software and biotechnology companies have set up shop around the university.

G) For all its success, the United States remains deeply hesitant about sustaining the research-university model. Most politicians recognize the link between investment in science and national economic strength, but support for research funding has been unsteady. The budget of the National Institutes of Health doubled between 1998 and 2003, but has risen more slowly than inflation since then. Support for the physical sciences and engineering barely kept pace with inflation during that same period. The attempt to make up lost ground is welcome, but the nation would be better served by steady, predictable increases in science funding at the rate of long-term GDP growth, which is on the order of inflation plus 3 percent per year.

H) American politicians have great difficulty recognizing that admitting more foreign students can greatly promote the national interest by increasing international understanding. Adjusted for inflation, public funding for international exchanges and foreign-language study is well below the levels of 40 years ago. In the wake of

September 11, changes in the visa process caused a dramatic decline in the number of foreign students seeking admission to U.S. universities, and a corresponding surge in enrollments in Australia, Singapore and the U.K. Objections from American university and business leaders led to improvements in the process and a reversal of the decline, but the United States is still seen by many as unwelcoming to international students.

I) Most Americans recognize that universities contribute to the nation’s well-being through their scientific research, but many fear that foreign students threaten American competitiveness by taking their knowledge and skills back home. They fail to grasp that welcoming foreign students to the United States has two important positive effects: first, the very best of them stay in the States and—like immigrants throughout history—strengthen the nation; and second, foreign students who study in the United States become ambassadors for many of its most cherished (珍视) values when they return home. Or at least they understand them better. In America as elsewhere, few instruments of foreign policy are as effective in promoting peace and stability as welcoming international university students.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡 2 上作答。

46. American universities prepare their undergraduates for global careers by giving them chances for international study or internship.

47. Since the mid-1970s, the enrollment of overseas students has increased at an annual rate of 3.9 percent.

48. The enrollment of international students will have a positive impact on America rather than threaten its competitiveness.

49. The way research is carried out in universities has changed as a result of globalization.

50. Of the newly hired professors in science and engineering in the United States, twenty percent come from foreign countries.

51. The number of foreign students applying to U.S. universities decreased sharply after September 11 due to changes in the visa process.

52. The U.S. federal funding for research has been unsteady for years.

53. Around the world, governments encourage the model of linking university-based science and industrial application.

54. Present-day universities have become a powerful force for global integration.

55. When foreign students leave America, they will bring American values back to their home countries.

三、匹配题做题技巧1

（一）信息段落匹配题

信息段落匹配题也可称为信息包含题,即which paragraph contains the following information?

这个题在很多考生眼里是难题中的难题，往往会选择性放弃。其实通过练习这种题型，对外文阅读有很大的帮助。

（二）两套方案

1.低目标学生实事就是

如果阅读考试目标为6分的同学，这种题型可以放到最后做。一是通过做其它题目，可以推断出一两个答案所在段落；二是客观题，可以通过一些技巧性的推测，争取拿分。譬如，关于overview的信息往往在首段，句子包含aim, suggestion. future 等信息则较大概率在文章后半段。

2.高目标的学生正面攻破

既然是难题，那攻克这种题型对于想考高分的同学（尤其是想得到7分以上）意义会更大。

如果遇到文章偏科普，中心句不明显，建议考生还是放到最后再做。但大部分此类题型的文章还是逻辑清晰，可以正面攻破。

（三）解决步骤：

1. 扭转做题思维

正面攻破先要扭转做题思维，不是找到句子答案所在，而是判断这句话在哪一段会出现。做过大量判断题和匹配题的练习之后，我们往往形成定向思维，认为文中一定有固定答案点。然而信息段落匹配题里的信息题干并非完全的同义转换文中句子。所以我们首要明确，考官出这个题是要考察我们什么阅读能力，我认为不是细节阅读能力，而是对文章框架思路的把握能力。

例1 how cinema teaches us about other cultures? 如果找到句子包含的信息，即how 的内容，那是相当费时间的，而且答案差不多涵盖整段内容。而其实我们只要知道哪段话讲文化传播就可以，并不需要知道方式即所谓的how。

2．预览题干，明确判断词

所谓判断词，不等同于定位词。判断词是指这句话独一无二的信息点。例1中应着眼于culture，而不要着眼于how .如题the effects of the introduction of electronic delivery. 第一轮预览时不要被effect 所干扰，而要对electronic 留下印象。再如题details of the range of family types involved in an education program 判断题是family types 而先不要在意details.

3．快速掌握文章脉络

既然不找，那怎么样判断呢？那就是通过阅读中心句快速掌握文章脉络。中心句一般出现在首位句，转折词如but 或者因果关系联接词如as a result 引领的第二句，或者问句后面的答句。一般建议在找到中心句后，读一下末句，可以更精确地掌控段意。若无特别明显的中心句，首尾句的阅读也有助于理解段意。阅读过程当中，有的信息点明确可直接先去选出答案。这里我们也要明确要多看外文，掌握外文的行文思路。一般而言剑桥里的文章组织有三大类。一是按时间，如货物运输，这是最简单的。二是按观点—原因—发展—瓶颈—措施—目标的布局来分析一件事物。三是偏科普的夹杂很多不同派别的理论，这个相对而言比较难。

4．判断信息所在段落

最后当然是判断信息所在段落，能够迅速找到信息所在句子当然是最好的。但其实这难度较大而且不一定是必须一步。譬如题reason why an education programme failed. 如果带着找到reason 所在句子的思维的话就要把c段的段落看完。其实通过通览全文，只要知道只有c部分才讲到一个失败的计划，而c第二段中心句第二句很明确指明这段将作出失败原因的解释。所以可以通过failed 就可以推断出c段。

5．充分利用信息段落匹配题节省回读时间

有同学会认为把全文中心句看了有必要吗？如果只为了4或5道信息段落匹配题，信价比的确不高。但往往其他题目题干信息答案点都出现在中心句或段落首位句，所以可以节省大量的信息搜索时间，考生可以通过上述的几篇文章得到答案。那有同学会问，与其这样，还不如反过来先做别的题型，这样也是一种方法，但不利于对文章思路整体性的把握。

四、匹配题出题特点及应试技巧

匹配类题型有很多种，常见的种类有：1. 人名-观点匹配；2. 地名-描述匹配；

3. 句子-句子匹配；

4. 分类题(Classification)；

5. 段落-标题匹配；

6. 段落-细节匹配。其中前四种做题方法比较类似，而后两种相对较复杂。这里将阐述前四种题型的做题方法。

首先，还是让我们来看一下这四种匹配题的出题特点：

I. 所考内容全部为细节

和后两种题型考察主旨不一样，前四种题型主要考察的是考生对于文章细节的把握和理解。因此，这些题型的解题方法主要是先用Scan的方法定位出关键的段落。

II. 出题不一定遵循顺序原则

上述四种匹配题型中，除了句子匹配题肯定按照顺序原则出题之外，其它的题型有些是讲顺序原则的，有些则不讲。大体上说来，如果一道题目的定位词很明确，很容易在原文中找到信息，那么该题就讲顺序原则；反之亦然。

其次，匹配题的解题步骤和方法：

1. 划出句子中的关键词

很多考生习惯于冲上来首先去找定位词，但是这种方法是不对的。因为在有专有名词的匹配题里，定位词是显而易见的，寻找之前看一下即可；而在句子匹配题中，因为题干是按顺序出题的，所以应当先把选项读完，再看题干。由于人的短期记忆能力是有限的，在短时间内无法记下所有的句子。因此需要寻找选项中的一些在最大程度上概括整个选项的关键词。

2. 找出定位词

既然这些匹配题和判断、填空、选择等题目一样考察的是考生对于细节的理解，那么这就决定了其做题方法：定位—阅读—做题。在读完选项之后，接下来就是寻找定位词。对于人名-观点和地名-描述这两种题目来说，定位词就是人名和地名。

而对于句子匹配题来说，定位词相对比较难找。很多同学倾向于把题干和选择项里面的句子都划出定位词，但是殊不知选择项是一个彻底的同义替换，而且里面肯定会有一些干扰项，因此选择项并不能帮助定位，只有题干里的定位词才会有用。因为句子匹配题讲顺序原则，因此完全可以从最后一题着手，因为人名是这里最保险的定位词。找到最后一题所在段落后，再根据顺序原则逆推。

3.阅读原文，选出答案

这是选出答案的最后一步，也是最重要的一步。要注意，正确选项一定是原文的同义转换，因此必须识别它们之间的转换关系。匹配题选项里的同义转换和选择题选项里的同义转换有很大的相似之处，除了大家比较熟悉的同义词和同义句型转换之外，还有一种同义转换方式需要引起大家的注意，那就是名词性从句和名词短语之间的转换。

4.检查答案

这是针对句子匹配题而言的。很多考生在选完答案后都没有这一步，导致很多低级错误的产生。其实，只要对选出的答案和题干连在一起进行通读，那么很多错误都是可以避免的。

五、匹配题做题技巧3

长篇阅读要求考生的阅读速度要快，辨别信息的能力要强，当然，掌握一定的答题技巧也会对考试有所帮助。考生在做题时需要注意以下几个方面：

1.缩小寻找范围。首先要读懂所给的句子，找到句子的关键词，带着这些关键

词去浏览全篇文章，找到它们所涉及的相关内容后，再研读细节，最终确定此句是否和该段匹配，这样可以减少阅读量，节省时间。

2.注意字句的形式变化。在长篇阅读中寻找相关信息的难度很大程度上取决于

考生对字句形式变化的辨识能力。需要注意三种变化形式：题干只对原文中个别单词或词组进行同义改写或转述；题干对原文中整句话进行同义改写或转述；题干对原文中几句话或整段内容进行综合概括或推断。这就对考生的单词量、对某一单词多重释义的了解以及对句意的概括或推断能力提出了新要求。

3.在首次阅读的过程中如果不能确定某些单句是否与该段落相匹

配，最好做个记号，以便第二次阅读时更有针对性。第二次阅读的目的：一是检查已初步确定的段落与单句是否确实匹配；二是完成第一遍阅读中尚未解答的题目。

4.注意时间的合理使用，不要为确定某个细节问题而浪费大量的时间。

六、2013英语四级考试改革：长篇阅读解题方法

四六级考试改革后，原来的快速阅读调整为长篇阅读段落信息匹配题题型，关于这一题型的备考，不少同学可能不知道如何下手。在英语教研看来，该题型的解题基本思路是：先快速地将题干读一下，划出关键词;然后采用skimming和scan ning的方式通读原文，匹配信息。本文将结合英语四六级改革样卷深入探讨如何判断关键词，为同学们指点迷津。

【如何判断关键词】

什么是关键词呢?关键词是用来帮助我们定位信息的词汇。最理想的情况是：我们依靠所划的关键词迅速定位到信息所在的段落，从而得到答案。这就要求我们所划的关键词是独一无二的，它只出现在原文的某一个段落。那么什么样的词才有这个特点呢?我们结合英语四六级改革样卷来总结一下关键词的类型。

表1—四级样卷长篇阅读

表2—六级样卷长篇阅读

【关键词的类型】

1. 一些拼写较长的词，比如如：internship，competitiveness，globalization，integration，sustainability，innovative，immigration等。这些词属于低频词，一般不会大篇幅地出现。利用这些词可以高效地查找匹配段落。另外，这些词有时会作为生词在文中标注出来，像internship，在原文中用斜体印刷，并以括号备注中文。我们选它做关键词，瞬间就能找到原文出处了。

2. 数字，包括年代、百分比、特殊事件等。如四级样卷中的：mid-1970s,

3.

9 percent，20 percent，September 11等。教研君利用这些数字进行定位，测得的准确率是100%哦!

3. 以连字符连接的特殊词汇。如：university-based，one-child。这些词是由两个(或三个)单词连接的新词，一般当成形容词使用。三个单词的例子如：hard-to-grasp难以理解的。这些词也属于低频词，一般不会大篇幅出现。需要注意的是有时候我们需要将这些词拆开来定位，如one-child在原文中是没有的，原文是这样的“They often compromise by having just one child. ”这里的one child 就不是整体作为形容词使用了。

4. 研究、报告、书籍型词汇，如：report，study，books等。一般来说研究、报告等内容都是易考点，这些信息经常出现在特定的段落里，所以根据这些词汇作为关键词也很容易定位。

5. 最高级，如best，worst，most等。如六级第54题，关键词之一为the b est solution。然而仅凭此关键词我们可能无法迅速地找到答案，因为原文的表述是the most effective method，用的词汇是完全不一样的。这时，我们还需要增加一个关键词pension，帮助我们定位。这就提醒我们在平常的阅读中应多关注最高级出现的地方，因为它常常是考点。

6. 除了以上所列的承载主要信息的名词，形容词等。如：funding，unsteady , values，employers，older workers，reforms，shortage，war，immigration，rich countries等。这些词的判断需要大家多加练习与体会。

七、信息匹配题做题技巧4

难点分析

段落—信息匹配题之所以让考生闻之色变，主要在于这种题目打破了解答阅读题目的一贯思路，具体体现在如下四个方面。

1. 考生难以按照阅读题一贯遵循的“顺序原则”解题。由于这一题型要求

考生把细节信息与其所在的段落进行匹配，因此细节信息的排列绝对是

“乱序的”，这就意味着考生从文章开头到结尾按顺序定位的方法是行不

通的。

2. 题干信息复杂，考生难以迅速抓住要领。题干中的细节信息通常是极

复杂和繁琐的名词短语或长难句，考生往往在寻找到合适的定位词之前，就已经被题干信息的复杂表述弄得晕头转向了。

3. 考生难以寻找到合适的定位词。即使考生能够读懂题干中晦涩难懂的

细节信息，但也会在寻找定位词时遇到很大障碍。因为题干提供的细节

信息中往往不会出现非常明显的定位词(如数字、时间、地点、人物、特

殊字体和特殊符号等)。即使考生能够找到一个定位词，这一定位词也通

常和文章主题密切相关，会在文章中多次出现，因而也没有太大的意义。

4. 考生难以按照惯常的排除法来排除选项。一般来说，英语类考试中的

搭配题多是一对一进行搭配的，考生如果能够成功选出一对，那么就可

以排除一个选项。但在段落—信息匹配题中，题目中通常还包含这样一

条要求：“You may choose a paragraph more than once. ”这也就是说，题

干中所列举的不同的细节信息可能对应的是原文中的同一个段落。这样

的话，即使考生已经判断出某一条细节信息对应原文的B段，但在对其

他细节信息进行匹配时，也无法排除答案B。而且通常来说，只要题干

中出现这条提示，那么往往都会出现两条细节信息对应原文同一段的情

况。

从上述的四个特点不难看出，命题人的思路是希望考生能够从头到尾读一遍原文，从宏观和微观两个方面全面把握原文的结构和细节信息，然后再开始解题。

题型新特点

虽然从表面上看，命题人似乎把解答段落—信息匹配题的方法之“门”堵死了，但事实上，他们还是善解人意地为考生打开了一扇解题之“窗”。这一题型固然有着不同于传统阅读解题方法的种种特点，但同时也有一些可以为考生所利用的新特点。下面我们就来分析这些新特点。

1. 题干中的细节往往会反映文章主旨或段落主题，考生可据此了解原文

内容。在段落—信息匹配题中，题干中的信息虽然陈述的都是文章中的

细节，但其内容基本都是围绕文章主题或是某一段落的主题进行描述的。

通过快速阅读题干中的若干条细节信息，考生可以迅速了解原文的主旨

大意，从而能够在回头阅读原文时加快阅读速度，节省定位时间。

2. 题干提供的细节信息中往往暗含一些说明文所必须的逻辑关系，考生可以利用这种关系预先对一些表述进行排序。

3. 题干提供的信息表述中通常会出现一些具有特殊意义的指示性词汇，

这类词汇虽然不是通常意义上的定位关键词，但其特殊含义可将考生的

注意力指向原文的开头、结尾或是某个具有特殊特征的段落。

这些词通常包括如下三类：①能够指示开头段的词汇(如overview、introduction、initiation、main idea、definition等)；②能够指示结尾段的词(如overview、future、solution、conclusion、suggestion、summary等)；③能够帮助考生回原文定位的特殊词汇(如rate、ratio、proportion、percentage等词往往对应含“%”的段落；number、figure、statistical demographics等词往往对应数字集中的段落；financial、income、revenue、salary等词往往对应含诸如“$”“￥”等货币符号的段落)。考生能够通过这些指示性词汇缩小回原文定位的范围，从而快速判定

4. 题干中的细节信息往往会和原文的其他阅读题目联系密切，考生可通

过先解答原文的其他题目来获得解答段落—信息匹配题的线索和提示性

信息。

八，匹配题解题技巧5

根据上述的这些特点分析，考生可以采用一些有针对性的解题技巧，以化繁为简、有效解题。

1. 在做段落—信息匹配题时，考生首先要仔细阅读原文的主标题、副标

题或者题目给出的相关图片，迅速掌握文章主题。接下来，考生要快速

浏览题干中提供的若干条细节信息，划出关键词(以名词和形容词为主)，进一步了解文章大意以及所要寻找的细节信息。最后，在可能的情况下，考生可以根据说明文常有的逻辑顺序对细节信息进行分类和位置预判。

2. 如果段落—信息匹配题为阅读部分的第一道题目，考生可先做其他题

型的题目，然后再回头做段落—信息题。考生在预览题干提供的细节信

息时，要寻找是否有在已经阅读段落范围内的细节信息，先完成这部分

题目；然后再根据细节信息表述当中可能出现的指示性用词找到相对应

的段落，解答相关的题目。

3. 对于那些答题线索较少的题干细节信息，考上可留在最后解答。在解

答这部分题目时，考生可快速阅读原文中仍未选过的段落的主题句(通常

为第一句、第二句或最后一句），之后根据段落大意与题干中的细节信

息进行匹配。

四级新题型---信息匹配题模拟题

Passage One

Universities Branch Out

A) As never before in their long history, universities have become instruments of national competition as well as instruments of peace. They are the place of the scientific discoveries that move economies forward, and the primary means of educating the talent required to obtain and maintain competitive advantage. But at the same time, the opening of national borders to the flow of goods, services, information and especially people has made universities a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and geopolitical stability.

B) In response to the same forces that have driven the world economy, universities have become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent the entire range of cultures and values, sending their own students abroad to prepare them for global careers, offering courses of study that address the challenges of an interconnected world and collaborative (合作的) research programs to advance science for the benefit of all humanity.

C) Of the forces shaping higher education none is more sweeping than the movement across borders. Over the past three decades the number of students leaving home each year to study abroad has grown at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, from 800,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in 2004. Most travel from one developed nation to another, but the flow from developing to developed countries is growing rapidly. The reverse flow, from developed to developing countries, is on the rise, too. Today foreign students earn 30 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded in the United States and 38 percent of those in the United Kingdom. And the number crossing borders for undergraduate study is growing as well, to 8 percent of the undergradu ates at America’s best institutions and 10 percent of all undergraduates in the U.K. In the United States, 20 percent of the newly hired professors in science and engineering are foreign-born, and in China many newly hired faculty members at the top research universities received their graduate education abroad

D) Universities are also encouraging students to spend some of their undergraduate years in another country. In Europe, more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmus program each year, taking courses for credit in one of 2,200 participating institutions across the continent. And in the United States, institutions are helping place students in summer internships (实习) abroad to prepare them for global careers. Yale and Harvard have led the way, offering every undergraduate at least one international study or internship opportunity—and providing the financial resources to make it possible.

E) Globalization is also reshaping the way research is done. One new trend involves sourcing portions of a research program to another country. Yale professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Tian Xu directs a research center focused on the genetics of human disease at Shanghai’s Fudan University, in collaboration with faculty colleagues from both schools. The Shanghai center has 95 employees and graduate students working in a 4,300-square-meter laboratory facility. Yale faculty, postdoctors and graduate students visit regularly and attend videoconference seminars with scientists from both campuses. The arrangement benefits both countries; Xu’s Yale lab is more productive, thanks to the lower costs of conducting research in China, and Chinese graduate students, postdoctors and faculty get on-the-job training from a world-class scientist and his U.S. team.

F) As a result of its strength in science, the United States has consistently led the world in the commercialization of major new technologies, from the mainframe

computer and the integrated circuit of the 1960s to the Internet infrastructure (基础设施) and applications software of the 1990s. The link between university-based science and industrial application is often indirect but sometimes highly visible: Silicon Valley was intentionally created by Stanford University, and Route 128 outside Boston has long housed companies spun off from MIT and Harvard. Around the world, governments have encouraged copying of this model, perhaps most successfully in Cambridge, England, where Microsoft and scores of other leading software and biotechnology companies have set up shop around the university.

G) For all its success, the United States remains deeply hesitant about sustaining the research-university model. Most politicians recognize the link between investment in science and national economic strength, but support for research funding has been unsteady. The budget of the National Institutes of Health doubled between 1998 and 2003, but has risen more slowly than inflation since then. Support for the physical sciences and engineering barely kept pace with inflation during that same period. The attempt to make up lost ground is welcome, but the nation would be better served by steady, predictable increases in science funding at the rate of long-term GDP growth, which is on the order of inflation plus 3 percent per year.

H) American politicians have great difficulty recognizing that admitting more foreign students can greatly promote the national interest by increasing international understanding. Adjusted for inflation, public funding for international exchanges and foreign-language study is well below the levels of 40 years ago. In the wake of September 11, changes in the visa process caused a dramatic decline in the number of foreign students seeking admission to U.S. universities, and a corresponding surge in enrollments in Australia, Singapore and the U.K. Objections from American university and business leaders led to improvements in the process and a reversal of the decline, but the United States is still seen by many as unwelcoming to international students.

I) Most Ameri cans recognize that universities contribute to the nation’s well-being through their scientific research, but many fear that foreign students threaten American competitiveness by taking their knowledge and skills back home. They fail to grasp that welcoming foreign students to the United States has two important positive effects: first, the very best of them stay in the States and—like immigrants throughout history—strengthen the nation; and second, foreign students who study in the United States become ambassadors for many of its most cherished (珍视) values

when they return home. Or at least they understand them better. In America as elsewhere, few instruments of foreign policy are as effective in promoting peace and stability as welcoming international university students.

1. American universities prepare their undergraduates for global careers by giving them chances for international study or internship.

2. Since the mid-1970s, the enrollment of overseas students has increased at an annual rate of

3.9 percent.

3. The enrollment of international students will have a positive impact on America rather than threaten its competitiveness.

4. The way research is carried out in universities has changed as a result of globalization.

5. Of the newly hired professors in science and engineering in the United States, twenty percent come from foreign countries.

6. The number of foreign students applying to U.S. universities decreased sharply after September 11 due to changes in the visa process.

7. The U.S. federal funding for research has been unsteady for years.

8. Around the world, governments encourage the model of linking university-based science and industrial application.

9. Present-day universities have become a powerful force for global integration.

10. When foreign students leave America, they will bring American values back to their home countries.

Passage Two

Into the unknown

A) Until the early 1900s nobody thought much about the whole populations getting older. UN had the foresight to convene a “world assembly on ageing” back in 1982, but that came and went. By 1994 the World Bank had noticed that something big was happening. In a report entitled “Averting the Old Age Crisis”, it argued that pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.

B) For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, surrounded by the alarm. They had titles like Young vs. Old, Gray Dawn and The Coming Generational Storm, and their message was blunt: health-care systems were heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and soon there would be intergenerational warfare.

C) Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is known about the subject. Books, conferences and research papers have multiplied.

International organizations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports. Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO summits. The World Economic Forum plans to consider the future of pensions and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media, including the newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.

D) Whether all that attention has translated into sufficient action is another question. Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.

E) The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal (财政的) meltdown, public pensions and health-care provision will have to be reined back severely and taxes may have to go up. By far the most effective method to restrain pension spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may even keep them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP’s head of policy and strategy, points to studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have lower death rates than their retired peers.

F) Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the labor force, increasing employers’ choice. But the reservoir of women able and willing to take up paid work is running low, and the baby-boomers are going grey.

G) In many countries immigrants have been filling such gaps in the labor force as have already emerged (and remember that the real shortage is still around ten years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing Western Europe for about 90%.

H) On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have lots of young people in the need of jobs, many rich countries need helping hands that will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few decades

labor forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe’s most youthful countries, and three times in the older ones. Japan would need a large multiple of the few immigrants it has at present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think that immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.

I) To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, “old” countries would have to rejuvenate (使年轻) themselves by having more of their own children. A number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care. Modern urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just one child.

J) And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will become a different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more strongly disinclined to take risks than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over 50—and older people turn out to vote in much greater numbers than younger ones. Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their power at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.

K) Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Mannheim University found that 85% of them lived within 25km of each other and the majority of them were in touch at least once a week.

L) Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts of other ways too. Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of Amer ica’s CSIS, in a thoughtful book called The Graying of the Great Powers, argue that, among other things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious security implications. M) For example, the shortage of young adults is likely to make countries more reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050, America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world’s

defense effort. Because America’s population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically (地缘政治上).

N) There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to live with it. But some of the consequences can be alleviated. Many experts now believe that given the right policies, the effects, though grave, need not be catastrophic. Most countries have recognized the need to do something and beginning to act.

O) But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening now is historically unprecedented. The director of Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California, Berkeley, puts it briefly and clearly: “We don’t really know what population ageing will be like, because nobody has done it yet.”

1. Employers should realize it is important to keep older workers in the workforce.

2. A recent study found that most old people in some European countries had regular weekly contact with their adult children.

3. Few governments in rich countries have launched bold reforms to tackle the problem of population ageing.

4. In a report published some 20 years ago, the sustainability of old-age pension systems in most countries was called into doubt.

5. Countries that have a shortage of young adults will be less willing to send them to war.

6.One-child families are more common in ageing societies due to the stress of urban life and the difficulties of balancing families and cancer.

7. A series of books, mostly authored by Americans, warned of conflicts between the older and younger generations.

e02173e6b9f3f90f76c61b51pared with younger ones, older societies tend to be less innovative and take

fewer risks.

9. The best solution to the pension crisis is to postpone the retirement age.

10. Immigration as a means to boost the shrinking labour force may meet with resistance in some rich countries.

Passage Three

Hate Your Job? Here’s How to Reshape It

A) Once upon a time, if you hated your job, you either quit or bit your lip. These days, a group of researchers is trumpeting a third option: shape your job so ifs more fruitful than futile.

B) "We often get trapped into thinking about our job as a list of things to do and a list of responsibilities," says Amy Wrzesniewski, an associate professor at the Yale School of Management. "But what if you set aside that mind-set?" If you could adjust what you do, she says, "who would you start talking to, what other tasks would you take on, and who would you work with?"

C) To make livelihoods more lively, Wrzesniewski and her colleagues Jane Dutton and Justin

Berg have developed a methodology they call job-crafting. They’re working with Fortune 500 companies, smaller firms and business schools to change the way Americans think about work. The idea is to make all jobs--even mundane (平凡的) ones---more meaningful by empowering employees to brainstorm and implement subtle but significant workplace adjustments.

Step 1: Rethink Your Job--Creatively

D) "The default some people wake up to is dragging themselves to work and facing a list of things they have to do," says Wrzesniewski. So in the job-crafting process, the first step is to think about your job holistically. You first analyze how much time, energy and attention you devote to your various tasks. Then you reflect on that allocation( 分配). See I0 perfect jobs for the recession--and after.

E) Take, for example, a maintenance technician at Burt’s Bees, which makes personal-care products. He was interested in process engineering, though that wasn’t part of his job description. To alter the scope of his day-to-day activities, the technician asked a supervisor if he could spend some time studying an idea he had for making the firm’s manufacturing procedures more energy-efficient. His ideas proved helpful, and now process engineering is part of the scope of his work.

F) Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says it’s crucial for people to pay attention to their wor kday emotions. "Doing so," she says, "will help you discover which aspects of your work are most life-giving-and most life-draining."

G) Many of us get stuck in ruts (惯例). Berg, a Ph.D. student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who helped develop the job-crafting methodology, says we all benefit from periodically rethinking what we do. "Even in the most constraining jobs, people have a certain amount of wiggle room," he says. "Small changes can have a real impact on life at work."

Step 2: Diagram Your Day

H) To lay the groundwork for change, job-crafting participants assemble diagrams detailing their workday activities. The first objective is to develop new insights about what you actually do at work. Then you can dream up fresh ways to integrate what the job-crafting exercise calls your "strengths, motives and passions" into your daily routine. You convert task lists into flexible building blocks. The end result is an "after" diagram that can serve as a map for specific changes.

I) lna Lockau-V ogel, a management consultant who participated in a recent job-crafting workshop, says the exercise helped her adjust her priorities. "Before, 1 would spend so much time reacting to requests and focusing on urgent tasks that I never had time to address the real important issues." As part of the job-crafting process, she decided on a strategy for delegating and outsourcing (外包) more of her administrative responsibilities.

J) In contrast to business books that counsel, managers to influence workers through incentives, job-crafting focuses on what employees themselves can do to re-envision and adjust what they do every day. Given that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it now takes the average job seeker more than six months to find a new position, it’s crucial to make the most of the job you’ve got.

Step 3: Identify Job Loves and Hates

K) By reorienting (使适应) how you think about your job, you free yourself up for new ideas about how to restructure your workday time and energy. Take an IT worker who hates dealing with technologically incompetent callers. He might enjoy teaching more than customer

service. By spending more time instructing colleagues--and treating help-line callers as curious students of tech--the disgruntled IT person can make the most of his 9-to-5 position.

L) Dutton, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, says she has seen local auto-industry workers benefit from the job-crafting process. "They come in looking worn down, but after spending two hours on this exercise, they come away thinking about three or four things they can do differently."

M) "They start to recognize they have more control over their work than they realized," says Dutton, who parmered with Wrzesniewski on the original job-crafting research.

Step 4: Put Your Ideas into Action

N) To conclude the job-crafting process, participants list specific follow-up steps: Many plan a one-0n-one meeting with a supervisor to propose new project ideas. Others connect with colleagues to talk about trading certain tasks. Berg says as long as their goals are met, many managers are happy to let employees adjust how they work.

O) Job-crafting isn’t about revenue, per se, but juicing up ( 活跃) employee engagement may end up beefing up the bottom line. Amid salary, job and benefit cuts, more and more workers are disgruntled. Surveys show that more than 50% aren’t happy with wha t they do. Dutton, Berg and Wrzesniewski argue that emphasizing enjoyment can boost efficiency by lowering turnover rates and jacking up productivity. Job-crafting won’t rid you of a lousy boss or a subpar salary, but it does offer some remedies for job di ssatisfaction. If you can’t ditch or switch a job, at least make it more likable.

1. A long time ago when a person hated his/her job, he/she will resign or bear it.

2. Amy Wrzesniewski think job could be adjusted.

3. Your first thing to do in the job-crafting process is to think about your job wholly.

4. The idea of a maintenance technician at Burt’s Bees turned out to b e helpful and energy-efficient.

5. Berg’s suggestion about work is to rethink and make small changes.

6. According to Ina Lockau-V ogel, the benefit from job-crafting is that it helps her set priorities properly.

7. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the situation in job market is ---it is difficult to find

a job.

8. Dutton has seen that local auto-industry workers profit from the job-crafting process.

9. According to Berg, if the job-crafting process is successful, the supervisors are willing to let employees adjust what to do.

10. If you can’t quit your job, using job-crafting may at least offer some remedies for job dissatisfaction.

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