4. Passage Fifteen Big data can be defined as information that is too big or complex to be contained or processed by any one machine or person. As a student at the University of Sussex， Julian Dailly had two majors——English and philosophy. When he completed his studies， Dailly wondered how he would ever earn a living in a world filled with machines and technology. Now， he is part of the big data industry that includes Google and Facebook. Dailly’s research company， Morar Consulting， started three years ago with five employees. The company’s earnings have increased by 25% each year. It now employs 90 people. “What we do here is we try to discover what’s meaningful for people and link that to their economic behavior，” Dailly said. He noted the importance of working with people with different skills. “We have people from traditional research backgrounds， in addition to some in social sciences， economics， people from tech backgrounds， and salespeople，” Dailly said. Companies like Dailly’s employ recent college graduates. The industry profits from the ideas of these young men and women. New forms of data also make it possible for some observers to predict the future. They are more valuable to companies than the traditional forms of data recording or reporting. “We have access to the core information inside people’s heads，” Dailly said， “They tell you what people are going to do as opposed to what they’ve done. That helps people take proper action in advance. This makes it much more useful for strategy.” Julian Dailly dismisses concerns that computers have finally taken control of our daily lives. “Some may worry that humans will be allowed to be replaced by machines. I think it’s a fantasy.” The company is aimed at making use of the information to help people ( ) .

1. Passage Sixteen Justin was always prepared. His motto was “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” His bedroom was so full of flat bicycle tires， bent tennis rackets， deflated basketballs， and games with missing pieces that you could barely get in the door. His parents asked him to clean out his room. “What use is a fish tank with a hole in the bottom?” his father asked. But Justin simply smiled and repeated his motto， “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” When Justin was away from home， he always carried his blue backpack. He liked to think of it as a smaller version of his bedroom——a place to store the many objects that he collected. It was so worn and stretched that it hardly resembled a backpack anymore. It was full of the kind of things that seemed unimportant， but when used with a little imagination， might come in handy. Justin had earned a reputation for figuring things out and getting people out of otherwise hopeless situations. Many of his classmates and neighbors sought him out when they needed help with a problem. On the first day of school， his friend Kenny， came looking for Justin. “Do you think you have something in your bag that could help me remember my locker code?” he asked. “I lost the paper it was written on. I have science class in two minutes and if I’m late on the first day it’ll make me look bad for the rest of the year.” Kenny looked genuinely worried. “Relax，” Justin said， taking his backpack off and opened it. “Remember how you borrowed my notebook in hometown to write the code down? Well， I know how we can recover what you wrote. ” He took the notebook and a soft lead pencil out of his bag. The page that Kenny had written on had left faint indentations (旧凹痕) on another page in the notebook. Justin held the pencil on its side and rubbed it lightly over the indentations. Slowly but surely the numbers of the locker code appeared in white， set off by the gray pencil rubbings. “That’s amazing!” Kenny said. “I owe you one.” And he dashed off to open his locker. Why is Justin’s room such a mess?

A. He always forgets to clean it.

B. He never throws anything away.

C. He has no time to clean it.

D. He shares a room with Kenny.

45. You can eat food free in my restaurant (_____)_ you like.

A. 　whenever

B. 　 wherever

C. 　 whatever

D. 　 however

32. Things might have been much worse if the mother (_____)_ on her right to keep the baby.

A. 　 has been insisting

B. 　 had insisted

C. 　 would insist

D. 　 insisted

40. He wrote a letter to me (_____)_ that his trip to Japan had been put off because of the bad weather

A. 　 inform

B. 　 informing

C. 　 informed

D. 　 being informed

48. If you associate with such people, I' m afraid you(_____)serious trouble.

A. 　 are heading for

B. 　 are making

C. 　 are avoiding

D. 　 are creating

38. They found the lecture hard (_____)_.

A. 　 to be understood

B. 　 to understand

C. 　 for understanding

D. 　 to have been understood

4. Passage Twenty-Three Washington Irving was America’s first man of letters to be known internationally. His works were received enthusiastically both in England and in the United States. He was， in fact， one of the most successful writers of his time in the country， and at the same time winning the admiration of fellow writers like Scott in Britain and Poe and Hawthorne in the United States. The respect in which he was held was partly owing to the man himself， with his warm friendliness， his good sense， his urbanity， his gay spirits， his artistic integrity， his love of both the Old World and the New. Thackery described Irving as “a gentleman， who， though himself born in no very high sphere， was most finished， polished， witty; socially the equal of the most refined Europeans. ” In England he was granted an honorary degree from Oxford—an unusual honor for a citizen of a young， uncultured nation—and he received the medal of the Royal Society of Literature. America made him ambassador to Spain. Irving’s background provides little to explain his literary achievements. A gifted but delicate child， he had little schooling. He studied law， but without zeal， and never did practice seriously. He was immune to his strict Presbyterian home environment， frequenting both social gatherings and the theatre. Which of the following best describes the effect of Irving’s personal qualities on his literary success?

A. His personal qualities were entirely responsible for his literary success.

B. His personal qualities were primarily responsible for his literary success.

C. His personal qualities had some effects on his literary success.

D. His personal qualities had no effects on his literary success.

35. People who won’t work should be made (_____)_.

A. 　 to work

B. 　 work

C. 　 has been done

D. 　 to be working

1. Passage Five The appeal of advertising to buying motives can have both negative and positive effects. Consumers may be convinced to buy a product of poor quality or high price because of an advertisement. For example， some advertisers have appealed to people’s desire for better fuel economy for their cars by advertising automotive products that improve gasoline mileage. Some of the products work. Others are worthless and a waste of consumers’ money. Sometimes advertising is intentionally misleading. A few years ago， a brand of bread was offered to dieters with the message that there were fewer calories in every slice. It turned out that the bread was not dietetic， but just regular bread. There were fewer calories because it was sliced very thin， but there were the same number of calories in every loaf. On the positive side， emotional appeals may respond to a consumer’s real concerns. Consider fire insurance. Fire insurance may be sold by appealing to fear of loss. But fear of loss is the real reason for fire insurance. The security of knowing that property is protected by insurance makes the purchase of fire insurance a worthwhile investment for most people. If consumers consider the quality of the insurance plans as the message in the ads， they will benefit from the advertising. Each consumer must evaluate her or his own situation. Are the benefits of the product important enough to justify buying it? Advertising is intended to appeal to consumers， but it does not force them to buy the product. Consumers still control the final buying decision. Advertising can persuade the consumer to buy worthless products by ( ) .

A. stressing their high quality

B. convincing him of their low price

C. maintaining a balance between quality and price

D. appealing to his buying motives

2. Passage Two When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party， they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong. Instead，the research finds， the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to examine carefully a lot of information， often to its long-term benefit. Some brains do deteriorate with age. But for most aging adults， researchers say， much of what occurs is a gradually widening focus of attention that makes it more difficult to get hold of just one fact. Although that can be frustrating， it is often useful. “It may be that distractibility is not， in fact， a bad thing，” said Shelley H. Carson， a psychology researcher at Harvard. “It may increase the amount of information available to the conscious mind. ” For example， in studies where subjects are asked to read passages that are interrupted with unexpected words or phrases， adults 60 and older work much more slowly than college students. Although the students plow through the texts at a consistent speed regardless of what the out-of-place words mean， older people slow down even more when the words are related to the topic at hand. That indicates that they are not just stumbling (结结巴巴地念) over the extra information， but are taking it in and processing it. When both groups were later asked questions for which the out-of-place words might be answers， the older adults responded much better than the students. “For the young people， it’s as if the distraction never happened，” said a researcher of the review， Lynn Hasher， a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. “But for older adults， because they’ve retained all this extra data， they’re now suddenly the better problem solvers. They can transfer the information they’ve soaked up from one situation to another.” Such tendencies can yield big advantages in the real world， where it is not always clear what information is important， or will become important. For instance， a seemingly irrelevant point or suggestion in a memo can take on new meaning if the original plan changes. What does Shelley H. Carson mean by saying “. .. distractibility is not， in fact， a bad thing”【Line 1， Para. 3】?

A. It is not important to concentrate on one thing.

B. Distractibility can improve people＇s brainpower.

C. Being distracted means taking in more information.

D. People often worry about distractibility.