2016 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 3 套）

When someone commits a criminal act, we always hope the punishment will match the offense. But when it comes to one of the cruelest crimes—animal fighting—things __26__ work out that way. Dog-fighting victims are __27__ and killed for profit and "sport," yet their criminal abusers often receive a __28__ sentence for causing a lifetime of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animal fighters only get probation (缓刑).

Some progress has been made in the prosecution (起诉) of animal fighters. But federal judges often rely heavily on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines when they __29__ penalties, and in the case of animal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and extremely __30__.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which __31__ these sentencing guidelines, is revisiting them, proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6-12 to 21-27 months. This is a step in the right __32__, but we'd like to see the U.S. Sentencing Commission make further changes to the guidelines.

Along with this effort, we're working with animal advocates and state and federal lawmakers to __33__ anti-cruelty laws across the country, as well as supporting laws and policies that assist because the high animal __34__ that care for animal fighting victims. This help is __35__ important because the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major factor that prevents people from getting involved in cruelty cases in the first place.

Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain

students and keep younger faculty members from going elsewhere.

It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task

it is to "solve problems-real or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three

different colleges, the actual problems in educating our young people and older

students have deepened, while the number of people hired- not to teach but to hold

meetings- has increased significantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an

administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title, the

center is a clearing house (信息交流中心) for using in classrooms and in online

courses. It's an administrative sham (欺诈) of the kind that has multiplied over the

last 30 years.

I offer a simple proposition in response: Many of our problems- class attendance,

educational success, student happiness and well-being-might be improved by cutting

down the bureaucratic (官僚的) mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army

of good teachers. If we replaced half of our administrative staff with classroom

teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20 or fewer students

per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actually

knew each other.

The teachers must be free to teach in their own way- the curriculum should be

flexible enough so that they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the

course. Additionally, they should be allowed to teach, and be rewarded for doing it

well. Teachers are not people who are great at and consumed by research and happen

to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are not exclusive, but they are

also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft, talent and practice; it is

not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that people

do not recognize this, despite the fact that pretty much anyone who has been a student

can tell the difference between their best and worst teachers.

The secret to eating less and being happy about it may have been cracked years

ago-by McDonald's. According to a new study from Cornell University's Food and

Brand Lab, small non-food rewards-like the toys in McDonald's happy

meals-stimulate the same reward centers in the brain as food does.

The researchers, led by Martin Reimann, carried out a series of experiments to

see if people would choose a smaller meal if it was paired with a non-food item.

They found that the majority of both kids and adults opted for a half-sized

portion when combined with a prize. Both options were priced the same.

Even more interesting is that the promise of a future reward was enough to make

adults choose the smaller portion. One of the prizes used was a lottery ticket, with a

$10, $50 or $100 payout, and this was as effective as a tangible gift in persuading

people to eat less.

"The fact that participants were willing to substitute part of a food item for the

mere prospect of a relatively small monetary award is interesting," says Reimann.

He theorizes that it is the emotional component of these intangible prizes that make

them more effective than options with hard odds included.

"One explanation for this finding is that possible awards may be more

emotionally provoking than certainty awards," says Reimann. "The uncertainty of

winning provides added attraction and desirability through emotional 'thrills'. The

possibility of receiving an award also produces a state -of hope-a state that is in itself

psychologically rewarding." In other words, there's a reason why people like to

gamble.

How might this knowledge be used to help people eat more healthily?

One possibility is a healthy option that offers the chance to win a spa weekend.

Or maybe the reward of a half-sized dessert to be claimed only on a future date. That

would get you back in the restaurant-and make you eat a little less.