high school engineering for 11 years. Shenoticed there was a real void in quality STEM education at all 27 ofthe public educational system. She said, “I started Engineering For Kids (EFK)after noticing a real lack of math, science and engineering programs to 28 myown kids in.”
She decided to start an afterschool programwhere children 29 in STEM-based competitions. The clubgrew quickly and when it reached 180 members and the kids in the program wonseveral state 30 , she decided to devote all her time tocultivating and 31 it. The global business EFK was born.
Dori began operating EFK out of her Virginiahome, which she then expanded to 32 recreation centers. Today, the EFK program 33 over 144 branches in 32 states within theUnited States and in 21 countries. Sales have doubled from $5 million in 2014to $10 million in 2015, with 25 new branches planned for 2016. The EFK websitestates, “Our nation is not 34 enough engineers. Our philosophy is to inspirekids at a young age to understand that engineering is a great 35 .”
26. G exposure 27. L levels 28. F enroll 29. O participated 30. C championships 31. E developing 32. M local 33. N operates 34. J graduating 35. B career
匹配题
36. To be curious, we need to realize first of all thatthere are many things we don’t know.
H）Moreover,in order to be curious , ” you have to aware of a gap in your knowledge in thefirst place.” Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending thatmost of us
are unaware of how much we don’t know, he’s surely right to pointout that the problem is growing:”Google can give us the powerful illusion thatall questions have definite answers.”
37. According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to one’ssuccess.
D) Thejournalist Ian Leslie, in his new and enjoyable book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It,insists that the answer to that last question is “Yes”. Leslie argues thatcuriosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and thatwe are losing it.
38. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge forknowledge’s sake.
O) All of which brings us back to Goodelland the Christie case and Benghazi. Each critic in those examples is charging,in a different way, that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious.I leave it to the reader's political preference to decide which, if any,charges should stick. But let’s be careful about demanding curiosity about theother side’s weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. Weshould be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sake—even when what we findout is something we didn't particularly want to know.
39. Political leaders’ lack of curiosity will result inbad consequences.
M) AlthoughLeslie’s book isn’t about politics, he doesn’t entirely shy away from theproblem. Political leaders, like leaders of other organizations, should becurious. They should ask questions at crucial moments. There are seriousconsequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.
40. There are often accusations about politicians’ andthe media’s lack of curiosity to find out the truth.
B) Theaccusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often, carrying the suggestionthat there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. “I havebeen bothered for a long time about the curious lack of curiosity,” said aDemocratic member of the New Jersey legislature back in July, referring to aninsufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New JerseyGovernor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the GeorgeWashington Bridge traffic scandal. “Isn’t the mainstream media the least bitcurious about what happened?” wrote conservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlierthis year, referring to the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
41. The less curious a child is, the less knowledge thechild may turn out to have.
L) Schooleducation, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious.Children of educated and upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far morecurious, even at early ages, than children of working class and lower classfamilies. That lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and thelack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.
42. It is widely accepted that academic accomplishmentlies in both intelligence and diligence.
K) Citingthe work of psychologists and cognitive（认知的）scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdomthat academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent andhard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factor—and a difficult one topreserve. If not cultivated, it will not survive：“Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between childand adult. The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone.”
43. Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be agood way to entertain ourselves.
J) Somewhatnostalgically（怀旧地），he quote John Maynard Keynes’s justlyfamous words of praise to the bookstore:”One should enter it vaguely, almost ina dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye. Towalk the rounds of the
bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should bean afternoon’s entertainment.” If only!
44. Both the rise of the Internet and reduced appetitefor literary fiction contribute to people’s declining curiosity.
G) Lesliepresents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a wholeis growing less curious. In the U.S. and Europe, for example, the rise of theInternet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader’sborders. But not everything is to be blamed on technology. The decline ininterest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie.Reading literary fiction, he says, make us more curious.
45.Mankind wouldn’t be so innovative without curiosity.
F) Why isthis a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovationand entrepreneurship. We will see unimaginative governments and dyingcorporations make disastrous decisions. We will lose a vital part of what hasmade humanity as a whole so successful as a species.
仔细阅读
46. What do we learn from the passage about cities in sub-Saharan Africa? B）They are growing fast without becoming richer
47. What does the author imply about urbanisation in other parts of the world?
B) It started when people’s income was relatively high.
48. Why is sub-Saharan Africa unappealing to investors?
A) It lacks adequate transport facilities.
49. In what way does author say African cities are different?
C) They have developed at the expense of nature.
50. What might be a solution to the problems facing African cities?
D) A more responsible government
51. It used to be commonly acknowledged that to succeed in America, one had to have___.
B) an ambition to get ahead
52. What is the finding of the latest National Journal poll concerning the American dream?
C) Americans’ idea of it has changed over the past few decades.
53. What do Americans now think of the role of college education in achieving success? A) It still remains open to debate.
54. How do some people view college education these days? D) It helps broaden their minds.
2017年12月大学英语四级真题及答案解析（全三套）
