全国英语四级历年真题2007年12月英语四级考试真题及答案Part IWriting(30 minutes)注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上。Directions:For this part,you are allowed thirty minutes to write a composition on the topicWhat Electives To Choose.You should write at least 120 words according to the1.各学校开了各种各样的选修课2.学生选课有不同的原因3.就我而言What Electives To ChoosePart II卓越(15minutes)Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passsage quickly and answer the questionson Answer Sheet 1.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 thepassage.Univeraities Branch OutAs never before in their long story,universities have become instruments of nationalcompetition as well as instruments of peace.They are the place of the scientific discoveries thatmove economies forward,and the primary means of educating the talent required to obtain andmaintain competitive advantages.But at the same time,the opening of national borders to the flowof goods,services,information and especially people has made universities a powerful force forglobal integration,mutual understanding and geopolitical stability.1/27In response to the same forces that have driven the world economy,universities have becomeMore self-consciousy global:seeking students from around the world who represent the entirerange 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(research programs to advance science for the benefit of all humanity.Of the forces shaping higher education none is more sweeping than the movement across borders.Over thepast three decades the number of students leaving home each year to study abroad has grown at an annualrate of 3.0 percent,from 8000,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in 2994.Most travel from one developed nation toanother,but the flow from developing to developed countries id growing rapidly.The reverse flow,fromdeveloped to developing countries,is on the rise,too.Today foreign students earn 30 percent of thedoctoral degrees awarded in the United States and 38 percent of those in the United Kingdom.And thenumber crossing borders for undergraduate study is growing as well,to 8 percent of the undergraduates atAmerica's best institutions and 10 percent of all undergraduates in the U.K.In the United States,20 percentof the newly hired professors in science and engineering are foreign-bom,and in China many newly hiredfaculty hired faculty members at the top research universities received their graduate education abroad.Universities are also encouraging students to spend some of their undergraduate years in anothercountry.In Europe,more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmusrogram each year,takingcourses for credit in one of 2,2000 participating institutions across the continent.And in the United States,institutions are helping place students in sammer internships《g习)abroad to prepare them for globalcareers.Yale and Harvard have led the way,offering every undergraduate at least one international study or1ng the financial resources to make it possible.Globalization is also reshaping the way research is done.One new trend involves sourcing portions ofa research program to another country.Yale professor and Howard Hughes Medical Shanghai's FudanUniversity,in collaboration with faculty colleagues from both schools.The Shanghai center has 95employees and graduate students working in a 4,300-square-meter laboratory seminars with scientists fromboth campuses.The arrangement benefits both countries;Xu's Yale lab is more productive,thanks to the lower costs of conducing from a word-class scientist and hisU.S.team.As a result of its strength in science,the United States has consistently led of the world in the world inthe commercialization of major new technologies,from the mainframe computer and integrated circuit of2/27全国英语四级历年真题hel960 s to the internet infrastructure(基础设施)and applications software ofthe 1990s.The link between university-based science and industrial application is often indirect butsometimes highly visible:Silicon Valley was intentionally created by Stanford University,andRoute 128 outside Boston has long housed companies spun off from MIT and Harvard.Around theworld ,governments have encouraged copying of his model,perhaps most successfully in Cambridge,England,where Microsoft and scores of other leading software and biotechnology companies have set upshop around the university.For all its success,the United States remains deeply hesitant about sustaining the research universitymodel.Most politician recognize the link between investment in science and nationalEconomic strength,but support for research funding has been unsteady.The budget of the NationalInstitutes of Health doubled between 1998 and 2003,but has risen more slowly than inflations 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 ofinflation plus 3 percent per year.American politicians have great difficulty recognizing that admitting more foreign students can greatlypromote the national interest by increasing international understanding.Adjustedfor inflation,publicfunding for international exchanges and foreign-language studyiwell below the levels of 40 years ago.Inthe wake of September 11,changes in the visa processcaused a dramatic decline in the number of foreignand a corresponding surge in enrollments in Australia,Singapore and the U K.Objeetfrom Americans university and business leaders led to improvements inthe process and a reversal of the decline ,but the United States is still seen by many as unwelcoming tointernational students.Most Americans recognize that universities contribute to the nation's well-being through theirscientific research,but many fear that foreign students threaten American competitiveness by taking theirknowledge and skills back home.They fail to grasp that welcoming foreign students and like immigrantsthroughout history-strength the nation;and second,foreign students who study in the United States becomeambassadors for many of its most cherished()values when they return home.Or at least theyunderstand them better.In America as elsewhere,few Instruments of foreign policy are as effective inpromoting peace and stability as welcoming international university students.3/27