2009年12月大学英语四级考试模拟试题(三)

　　Part I Writing (30 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the topic “College Students Learning Budgeting”. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:

　　1. 大学生经常生活费不够用;

　　2. 造成这一现象的原因;

　　3. 学会理财很重要，该如何理财?

　　Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)

　　Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

　　Time Off from Work Gains in Importance

　　American workers are saying they need a break. As their number of hours clocked on the job has crept higher, more time off has become a bigger priority. In the past few years, human resources experts say time off has consistently placed among the top three employee concerns, along with compensation and staffing levels, whereas it used to be farther down the list. In a Salary.com poll taken online in November 2004, 39% of workers said if given the choice, they would choose time off over the equivalent in additional base salary. Of course, most of the 4,600 respondents are still opting for the bigger paycheck, but the desire for time off is up almost 20% from just three years ago when Salary.com conducted a similar poll.

　　The reasons for this shift are many and varied. Some have to do with the way a new generation is thinking about work, while others are driven by how companies are responding to recent economic pressures.

　　A New Generation

　　The results may in part represent the needs of a new breed of workers. The average American is working one month (160 hours) more each year than a generation ago. According to recruiting and human capital management expert John Sumser, younger workers work for meaning first and money second. He goes on to warn employers that these are the people who are the foundation for the next workforce and they may not buy the existing paradigm (范例). A study released in late 2004 by the New York-based Families and Work Institute concludes that the new brand of young workers is rejecting the work-centric style of their parents’ generation. The study, which examines changes in the workforce over the past 25 years, found that younger workers are more likely to be “family-centric” or “dual-centric” (with equal priorities on both career and family) rather than “work-centric” when compared to members of the Boomer Generation.