2017 年 06 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 2 套）

Questions __26__ to __35__ are based on the following passage.

America's Internet is faster than ever before, but people still complain about their Internet being too slow.

New York's Attorney General's office __26__ an investigation in the fall into whether or not Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner are delivering broadband that's as fast as the providers __27__ it is. Earlier this month, the office asked for the public's help to measure their speed results, saying consumers __28__ to get the speeds they were promised. "Too many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another," the Attorney General said.

If the investigation uncovers anything, it wouldn't be the first time a telecom provider got into __29__ over the broadband speeds it promised and delivered customers. Back in June, the Federal Communications Commission fined AT&T $ 100 million over __30__ that the carrier secretly reduced wireless speeds after customers consumed a certain amount of __31__.

Even when they stay on the right side of the law, Internet providers arouse customers' anger over bandwidth speed and cost. Just this week, an investigation found that media and telecom giant Comcast is the most __32__ provider. Over 10 months, Comcast received nearly 12,000 customer complaints, many __33__ to its monthly data cap and overage (超过额度的) charges.

Some Americans are getting so __34__ with Internet providers they're just giving up. A recent study found that the number of Americans with high-speed Internet at home today __35__ fell during the last two years, and 15% of people now consider themselves to be "cord-cutters."

The Urbanization — migration away from the suburbs to the city center — will be the biggest real estate trend in 2015, according to a new report.

The report says America's urbanization will continue to be the most significant issue affecting the industry, as cities across the country imitate the walkability and transit-oriented development making cities like New York and San Francisco so successful.

As smaller cities copy the model of these "24-hour cities," more affordable versions of these places will be created. The report refers to this as the coming of the "18-hour city," and uses the term to refer to cities like Houston, Austin, Charlotte, and Nashville, which are "positioning themselves as highly competitive, in terms of livability, employment offerings, and recreational and cultural facilities."

Another trend that looks significant in 2015 is that America's largest population group, Millennials (千禧一代), will continue to put off buying a house. Apartments will retain their appeal for a while for Millennials, haunted by what happened to home-owning parents.

This trend will continue into the 2020s, the report projects. After that, survey respondents disagree over whether this generation will follow in their parents' footsteps, moving to the suburbs to raise families, or will choose to remain in the city center.

Another issue affecting real estate in the coming year will be America's failing infrastructure. Most roads, bridges, transit, water systems, the electric grid, and communications networks were installed 50 to 100 years ago, and they are largely taken for granted until they fail.

The report's writers state that America's failure to invest in infrastructure impacts not only the health of the real-estate market, but also our ability to remain globally competitive.

Apart from the specific trends highlighted above, which cause some investors to worry, the report portrays an overall optimism borne by the recent healthy real-estate "upcycle" and improving economy. Seventy-four percent of the respondents surveyed report a "good to excellent" expectation of real-estate profitability in 2015. While excessive optimism can promote bad investment patterns, resulting in a real- estate "bubble," the report's writers downplay that potential outcome in that it has not yet occurred.

The brain is a seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime's knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity?

The answer is no, because brains are more sophisticated than that. Instead of just crowding in, old information is sometimes pushed out of the brain for new memories to form.

Previous behavioural studies have shown that learning new information can lead to forgetting. But in a new study, researchers demonstrated for the first time how this effect occurs in the brain.

In daily life, forgetting actually has clear advantages. Imagine, for instance, that you lost your bank card. The new card you receive will come with a new personal identification number (PIN). Each time you remember the new PIN, you gradually forget the old one. This process improves access to relevant information, without old memories interfering.

And most of us may sometimes feel the frustration of having old memories interfere with new, relevant memories. Consider trying to remember where you parked your car in the same car park you were at a week earlier. This type of memory (where you are trying to remember new, but similar information) is particularly vulnerable to interference.

When we acquire new information, the brain automatically tries to incorporate (合并) it within existing information by forming associations. And when we retrieve (检索) information, both the desired and associated but irrelevant information is recalled.

The majority of previous research has focused on how we learn and remember new information. But current studies are beginning to place greater emphasis on the conditions under which we forget, as its importance begins to be more appreciated.

A very small number of people are able to remember almost every detail of their life. While it may sound like an advantage to many, people with this rare condition often find their unusual ability burdensome.

In a sense, forgetting is our brain's way of sorting memories, so the most relevant memories are ready for retrieval. Normal forgetting may even be a safety mechanism to ensure our brain doesn't become too full.