第 1 页：PartⅠ Writing

第 2 页：Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension

第 5 页：Translation

　　Section B

　　Why aren't you curious about what happened?

　　[A]"You suspended Ray Rice after our video," 8 reporter from TMZ challenged National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. "Why didn't you have the curiosity to go to the casino(堵场)yourself? "The implication of the question is that a more curious commissioner would have found a way to get the tape.

　　[B]The accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often, carrying the suggestion that there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. “I have been bothered for a long time about the curious lack of curiosity," said a Democratic member of the New Jersey legislature back in July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose no to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal. "Isn't the mainstream media the least bit curious about what happened?"" wrote conservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlier this year. referring to the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

　　[C]The implication, in each case, is that curiosity is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a problem. Are such accusations simply efforts to score political points for one's party? Or is there something of particular value about curiosity in and of itself?

　　[D]The journalist 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 that curiosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and that we are losing it.

　　[E]We are suffering, he writes, from a "serendipity deficit."The word "serendipity" was coined by Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who "were always making discoveries, by accident, of things they were not in search of."Leslie worries that the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures. No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through fields of knowldges, ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.

　　[F]Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We will see unimaginative governments and dying corporations make disastrous. We will lose a vital part of what has made humanity as a whole so successful as a species.

　　[G]Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious, In the U.S. and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader's borders. But not everyone of the causes identified by Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, makes us more curious.

　　[H]Moreover, in order to be curious, "you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in the first place." Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we don't know, he's surely right to point out that the problem is growing:" Google can give us the powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers."

　　[I]Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping boy(替罪羊).He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the "perfect search engine" will "understand exactly what I mean and give me back exactly what I want." Elsewhere in the book, Leslie writes: "Google aims to save you from the thirst from the thirst of curiosity altogether."

　　[J]Somewhat nostalgically(怀旧地),he quotes John Maynard Keynes's justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: "One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye. To walk the sounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon's entertainment." If only!

　　[K]Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive(认知的)scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdom that academic Success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent and hard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factor and a difficult one to preserve. If not cultivated, it will not survive: "Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between child and adult. The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone."

　　[L] School education, he warms, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious. Children of educated and upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at early ages, than children of working class and lower class families. That lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.

　　[M]Although Leslie's book isn't about politics, he doesn't entirely shy away from the problem. Political leader, like leaders of other organization, should be curious. They should ask questions at crucial moments. There are serious consequences, he warms, in not wanting to know.

　　[N]He presents as an example the failure of the George W. Bush administration to prepare properly for the after-effects of the invasion of Iraq. According to Leslie, those who ridiculed former Defend Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the "unknown unknowns" were mistaken. Rumsfeld's idea, Leslie writes, "The tragedy is that he didn't follow his own advice."

　　[O]All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christmas case and Benghazi. Each critic in those example is changing, 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 the other side's weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sake——even when what we find out is something we didn't particularly want to know.

　　36【题干】To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don't know.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】H

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　37【题干】According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to one's success.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】D

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　38.【题干】We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge's sake.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】O

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　39.【题干】Political leaders' lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】M

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　40【题干】There are often accusations about politicians' and the media's lack of curiosity to find out the truth.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】B

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　41.【题干】The less curious child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】L

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　42【题干】It is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】K

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　43.【题干】Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】J

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　44【题干】Both the rise of the Internet an reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to people's declining curiosity.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】G

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　45【题干】Mankind wouldn't be so innovative without curiosity.

　　【选项】

　　A.A

　　B.B

　　C.C

　　D.D

　　E.E

　　F.F

　　G.G

　　H.H

　　I.I

　　J.J

　　K.K

　　L.L

　　M.M

　　N.N

　　O.O

　　【答案】F

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　Section C

　　Passage One

　　Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

　　Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a "disease."

　　On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.

　　Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.

　　"It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical(制药的)industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects," he said.

　　"Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can't control," he said." In academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range."

　　But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, "It would attract funding and change the way we do health care. What matters is understanding that aging is curable."

　　"It was always known that the body accumulates damage." he added. "The only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions."

　　Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggests is possible. Hayflick is not among them.

　　"There’re many people who recover from cancer, stroke, or heart disease. But they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease,"Hayflick said, "Even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years."

　　46.【题干】What do people generally believe about aging?

　　【选项】

　　A.It should cause no alarm whatsoever.

　　B.They just cannot do anything about it.

　　C.It should be regarded as a kind of disease.

　　D.They can delay it with advances in science.

　　【答案】B

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　47.【题干】How do many scientists view aging now?

　　【选项】

　　A.It might be prevented and treated.

　　B.1t can be as risky as heart disease.

　　C.It results from a vitamin deficiency

　　D.It is an irreversible biological process.

　　【答案】A

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　48【题干】What does Alex Zhavoronkov think of "describing aging as a disease"?

　　【选项】

　　A.It will prompt people to take aging more seriously

　　B.It will greatly help reduce the side effects of aging.

　　C.It will free pharmacists from the conventional beliefs about aging.

　　D.It will motivate doctors and pharmacists to find ways to treat aging.

　　【答案】D

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　49.【题干】What do we learn about the medical community?

　　【选项】

　　A.They now have a strong interest in research on aging.

　　B.They differ from the academic circles in their view on aging.

　　C.They can contribute to people's health only to a limited extent.

　　D.They have ways to intervene in people's aging process.

　　【答案】B

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

　　50.【题干】What does Professor Leonard Hayflick believe?

　　【选项】

　　A.The human lifespan cannot be prolonged.

　　B.Aging is hardly separable from disease

　　C.Few people can live up to the age of 92.

　　D.Heart disease is the major cause of aging.

　　【答案】A

　　【解析】

　　下载四六级万题库>>>       [观看视频解析>>]

 

　　相关推荐：

　　2017年12月英语四六级真题及答案解析※ 关注微信，对答案看解析！

　　四六级评分标准 ※ 最新算分器 ※ 英语四六级万题库估分[手机题库下载]

　　2017年12月四六级成绩查询时间 ※ 微信查分提醒 ※ 四六级合格分数线