[外语类试卷]大学英语四级（2013年12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷144一、Part I Writing1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter of appeal calling for student participation in an aid-education project in Western, areas following the outline given below. You should write at least<u>120</u> words but no more than <u>180</u> words. 1．市教委组织了一次西部支教的活动，学生会呼吁大学生积极参与2．活动的时间、要求及作用Section A（A）The woman has looked for Harry Potter in several bookstores.（B）The woman has found Harry Potter in another bookstore.（C）There is no Harry Potter in other bookstores yet.（D）Harry Potter may be found in other bookstores.（A）A waitress.（B）A cashier.（C）A security.（D）A secretary.（A）He wants to pay.（B）He doesn't want to eat out.（C）He wants to eat somewhere else.（D）He doesn't like Japanese food.（A）At a publishing house.（B）At a bookstore.（C）At a supermarket.（D）In Professor Jordan's office.（A）Check the timetable.（B）Set off earlier.（C）Get on a later flight.（D）Cancel the trip.（A）The smiling faces.（B）The big sunshine.（C）The unhappy residents.（D）The weather.（A）Romantic stories.（B）Books in the library.（C）Love stories.（D）Detective stories.（A）The man didn't want the woman to have her hair cut. （B）The woman followed the man's advice.（C）The woman is wearing long hair now.（D）The man didn't care if the woman had her hair cut. （A）Supportive.（B）Opposed.（C）Pessimistic.（D）Neutral.（A）It has no difference from other cells.（B）It can only become a certain type of cell.（C）It can't become a kidney cell.（D）It maintains and repairs the body.（A）They don't know about the benefits of the research. （B）The research goes against their religious beliefs. （C）The research costs too much money.（D）They insist that the research is against nature. （A）It uses new technology.（B）It is installed with a robot.（C）It is as clever as human.（D）It can talk with people.（A）He does the work of making maps.（B）He is reliable on giving directions.（C）He is a Geographic specialist.（D）He knows more than a computerized map.（A）They will tell drivers the accident on the road ahead.（B）They will remind drivers if there is only a little oil left. （C）They will help drivers sheer off in the opposite direction. （D）They will give an alarm if drivers get too close to other cars. （A）He couldn't find the way.（B）His car ran out of oil.（C）He came at rush hour.（D）His watch was slow.Section B（A）Resolve tough social and economic problems.（B）Raise the major international challenges.（C）Collect different world views together.（D）Encourage people to seek happiness.（A）It will help to look at the role of governments in culture. （B）It will create a new platform to protect environment.（C）It will help society to develop and grow.（D）It will solve the pressing economic, social and environmental issues. （A）Think about how to connect people around the world.（B）To attract large number of international talent together.（C）Discuss how cultural policy can be enriched.（D）To share ideas of tackling cultural problems.（A）It is organized by Scotland's government.（B）It strengthens friendships among nations..（C）It may be the greatest cultural festival.（D）It is a unique gathering in the world.（A）How to paint something.（B）Who the painter Grand Wood was.（C）Why a painting is popular.（D）Simple farmers' living in America.（A）Because the design was too strong.（B）Because the painting looked like a photograph.（C）Because the painting was too simple.（D）Because the painting seemed to laugh at farmers.（A）The painting was making fun of people.（B）The painting was a symbol of the US.（C）The painting expressed an understanding of people.（D）The painting showed the strength of American farmers.（A）All languages have equal values.（B）Some languages need more efforts to learn.（C）Some languages are certainly more important.（D）English is the most important language worldwide.（A）They predominate the English world.（B）They are unable to adapt to the competitive world.（C）They invest more time in learning a foreign language.（D）They may face a depressing economic future.（A）To do business effectively.（B）To meet others' requirement.（C）To improve linguistic skills.（D）To promote proficiency in English.Section C26 A degree from a college or university is often a key that opens doors of【B1】______—doors to a better job and a better life. Without a college degree, many jobs are simply not【B2】_____.Just as the name states, community colleges are local. So, they are easy to get to. Suppose you are 【B3】_____ attending college in the United States. But perhaps youmight not be ready for a university with a four-year program. About 88,000 international students have found a【B4】_____. They are attending US community colleges. Such colleges are sometimes called【B5】_____ colleges. They offer two years of education above the secondary, or high school level.At the end of their study program, they receive a document of【B6】_____called a certificate. Other students work toward an associate degree in traditional【B7】_____subjects like science or history. Some students with associate degrees【B8】_____to attend a four-year college or university. They have only two years of study left before they receive a bachelor's degree.Many【B9】_____experts agree that saving money is a good reason to consider a community college. The American Association of Community Colleges says a public two-year college【B10】_____an average of $3,000 a year. A student at a four-year public college may pay more than $8,500 a year for classes and user fees.27 【B1】28 【B2】29 【B3】30 【B4】31 【B5】32 【B6】33 【B7】34 【B8】35 【B9】36 【B10】Section A36 If you're in charge of Christmas dinner, with all its interconnected tasks and challenges of timing— when to preheat the oven, whether to put the potatoes in before the eggs—why not write down every【C1】_____that needs doing, in order, then do them, checking them off as you go? That can be very helpful.The Checklist Manifesto, written by the journalist and doctor Atul Gawande, shows the importance of checklist when hospital doctors are【C2】_____to tick off items on checklists as they carry out routine but critical procedures. In one trial, the rate of infections from intravenous(静脉内的)drips fell from 11% of all patients to zero【C3】_____because staff were compelled to work through a checklist of no-brainer items, such as【C4】_____their hands. A more recent study, which included UK hospitals, suggested that wider use of checklists might【C5】_____40% of deaths during treatment. Unlike in medicine, the【C6】_____uses of checklists in everyday life—a list for holiday packing, for instance, aren't usually matters of life and death. The idea of making a checklist is so stupidly obvious that it seems impossible it could have so【C7】_____an effect. But the truth is that all life, not just medicine, is【C8】_____complex; if highly trained intensive-care specialists can forget a【C9】_____step, it's sure that anyone might.Besides, the step-by-step structure of checklists can narrow your【C10】_____to the next action. All you have to remember is to "do the next right thing". Then the next, and the next.A)potential B)required C)crucial D)subjectE)vast F)action G)washing H)preventI)simply J)increasingly K)focus L)normallyM)gradual N)request O)shaking37 【C1】38 【C2】39 【C3】40 【C4】41 【C5】42 【C6】43 【C7】44 【C8】45 【C9】46 【C10】Section B46 What Your iPad Knows About YouA)You've finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a.m., chances are that you're reaching for a romance novel—especially if you're in Texas or Georgia. By early morning, thrillers might start to look more appealing. And if Philip K. Dick is your favorite author, books about beer are probably more up your taste than anything about wine or liquor.B)These are some of the insights from Scribd Inc. and Oyster, two startups that offer unlimited e-book rentals for a monthly subscription fee. Scribd, Oyster and Entitle Books—which just launched in December—are tracking reader behavior in hopes of figuring out recommendations of exactly what you'll want to pick up next.C)About 50% of the U.S. population owns a dedicated e-reader, according to a Pew Research study released last month. In addition, 28% read an e-book last year, up from 23% the previous year. The services are expanding. Scribd, a San Francisco-based site that started selling monthly e-book subscriptions last October, announced this month that its app is available on Amazon's Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite. After running exclusively on Apple's operating system, New York-based Oyster plans to expand to Android later this year. And Entitle is considering adding an all-you-can-read feature to complement its current "book of the month"-style subscription service. Subscription services are popular because they "reduce the emotional burden" of purchasing, says Julie Haddon, Scribd vice president of marketing. Buying a book creates pressure to finish and get your money's worth, she adds. In addition, people might try to save money by buying a cheaper book instead of the one they really want.D)Brian Konash, 34, who works at Web startup Squarespace in Manhattan, joined Oyster two months ago because it didn't cause the buyers' sense of guilty he experienced when purchasing Kiridle e-books. "You've already paid for the service, so you can read as much as you want," he says. "With other models, there's that little financial bite each time you want to buy a book and you worry that it's going to be worthless." Mr. Konash, who has been picking books based on the site's suggestions, predicts he'll read up to 10 more books a year beyond his usual 25.E)An all-access subscription "lowers the activation energy for reading," says Oyster CEO Eric Stromberg. Reading often has a high "activation energy" because there's a time gap between wanting to read a book and then actually getting your hands on it, he says. "When you can order a book and instantly get it on your tablet, you can hear about the book and then read it right there," says Willem van Lancker, Oyster's chief product officer.F)"From the publishing perspective, the biggest problem is how to get people to care about a new book," says Otis Chandler, CEO of Goodreads, a site where people share what they're reading and post recommendations. Goodreads, which was acquired by Amazon in March, uses an algorithm(运算法则)that recommends books that users with similar taste have enjoyed.G)Oyster and Scribd ask readers to rate books, what they call an "active signal." They also track "passive signals," such as the percentage of a book that a reader finishes and the click rate, or how many people who are shown a book click through to learn more. The companies use that information among other factors to recommend books. Active signals represent what we wish we read, while passive signals are more honest, says Jared Friedman, Scribd chief technology officer. A lot of people give a 5-star rating to "The Great Gatsby," while they read greedily, but don't necessarily rate, thrillers like "The Da Vinci Code," for example.H)Other findings: Self-help might be a popular market, yet only about 20% of people who start such a book finish it. More than 80% of people who crack the pages of a mystery novel will find out who did it. People read through biographies at 20 pages per hour, while they read at three times that speed for erotica(色情作品). And higher "acceleration factor"—or how much readers speed up as they get closer to finishing—correlates with higher average rating for a book. One of the highest acceleration factors comes from Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," which readers start speeding through at the halfway mark, Mr. Friedman says. All three companies allow users to hide their reading behavior from other customers, but users can't opt out of their behavior being collected by the company itself. Entitle, however, says it keeps track of browsing and download information only.I)Personalized recommendations drive 10 times more browsing traffic than lists based on themes such as "globe-trotting memoirs" or "bad role models" that copy racks at the front of bookstores, Scribd's Mr. Friedman says. The company is interested in combining algorithms with lists to create a list of best sellers that someone would, based on past reading behavior, find interesting. Another possible approach is to suggest different books or genres depending on time of day to take advantage of what the company knows about time-based preferences.J)The algorithm doesn't just analyze behavior signals, but "reads" through a book's text to pull out different topics, genres and subjects, says Bryan Batten, chief executive ofEntitle. There's also a patent-pending(申请专利中的)service called "if these books had a baby," where users can input two books and find a third with similar themes. For example, the "baby" of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" but the product of "Catch-22" and Steve Jobs biography is a book called "Dealers of Lightning," about engineers at Xerox Corp.K)Entitle operates on a tiered model: two books for $9.99 a month(the most popular plan), three for $14.99, and so on. For customers, the upside is being able to keep the e-books, even if they cancel the service. The services, of course, compete with the library. But libraries have had limited e-book offerings and there are often waits for the books. Robert Wolven, co-chair of the American Library Association's Digital Content Working Group, says demand has increased significantly in the past 18 months. He says he doesn't see the startups as a threat.L)While libraries' budget for e-books has been growing, licensing restrictions mean that popular titles often aren't available, says Laura Girmscheid, research manager for the trade publication Library Journal, which recently released its fourth annual report on e-books in libraries. This, combined with holds on e-books, is the largest hurdle preventing people from using library e-books more. "It's just not convenient for instant access," Ms. Girmscheid says.47 Subscribers can't stop e-book provider from collecting information about their reading behavior.48 Due to the time gap between wanting to read a book and actually starting reading, people need high activation energy to read a paper book.49 The biggest problem for publication is how to raise reader's interests in a new book.50 Passive signals, like click rates, are more honest indications of reading behavior.51 Some e-book rental websites track subscriber's reading behavior so as to offer proper book recommendations.52 Subscribers of Entitle can keep e-books they have bought even after they cancel the service.53 Inconvenience for instant access to popular e-books prevents people from using library e-books.54 About four-fifth readers of self-help books fail to complete their reading.55 When purchasing paper books, people might give up the one they want and choose a cheaper one in order to save money.56 Personalized recommendations are more efficient in boosting book's browsing rates than traditional best-sale lists based on different themes.Section C56 Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a profitable operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change. Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke's balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force."Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years," said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke's vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company's supply of sugar cane and sugar beets(甜菜). "When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats."Coke reflects a growing view among American business leaders and mainstream economists who see global warming as a force that contributes to lower GDP's, higher food and commodity costs, broken supply chains and increased financial risk. Their position is at striking odds with the longstanding argument, advanced by the coal industry and others, that policies to curb carbon emissions are more economically harmful than the impacts of climate change.In Washington, the World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, has put climate change at the center of the bank's mission, citing global warming as chief contributor to rising global poverty rates and falling GDP's in developing nations. In Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based club of 34 industrialized nations, has begun to warn of the steep costs of increased carbon pollution.Nike, which has more than 700 factories in 49 countries, many in Southeast Asia, is also speaking out because of extreme weather that is disrupting its supply chain. In 2008, floods temporarily shut down four Nike factories in Thailand, and the company remains concerned about rising droughts in regions that produce cotton, which the company uses in its athletic clothes.Both Nike and Coke are responding internally: Coke uses water-conservation technologies and Nike is using more synthetic material that is less dependent on weather conditions. At Davos and in global capitals, the companies are also lobbying governments to enact environmentally friendly policies.57 Why did Coca-Cola lose the operating license in India in 2004?（A）Its operating license was overdue.（B）It only focused on its economic bottom line.（C）India was lack of water resources.（D）It decided to fight against climate change.58 What can be regarded as a threat according to Jeffrey Seabright?（A）The loss of profitable operating licenses.（B）Natural disaster harmful to supply of ingredients.（C）Mainstream view towards global warming.（D）Inadequate supply of sugar cane.59 How does the coal industry feel about the policies to curb carbon emissions? （A）They are helpful in helping the industry.（B）They are effective in protecting the environment.（C）They contribute to low productivity in the industry.（D）They have a negative impact on economy.60 What does Jim Yong Kim say about the climate change?（A）It makes contribution to rising GDPs in developing countries.（B）It is a dominate reason for the climbing global poverty rates.（C）The World Bank has sent trade mission to deal with it.（D）The cost of controlling it has been increased.61 What actions does Nike take to tackle the problem?（A）Using more man-made materials.（B）Reducing carbon emissions.（C）Enacting environmentally friendly policies.（D）Applying water-conservation technologies.61 The British government recently announced a proposal to introduce health care access fees for migrants and long-term visitors this year. The fees would affect some foreign students, who would for the first time have to pay for medical cover while in Britain. The proposal is part of an immigration bill now going through Parliament and does not expressly target students. But concerns are being voiced that it would set up yet another obstacle for international access to the British education system—one of the most prestigious in the world."As a matter of principle, the charge is unfortunate and unfair," said Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Student Affairs. Foreign students who need to apply for visas—those from countries outside the European Union—will have to pay 150 pounds per year of study when they are issued their visa, according to the plan laid out by the Department of Health.The proposed charge is relatively minor compared with tuition and other costs that for a foreign student in Britain can easily reach ￡20,000 a year. Critics of the plan concede that it is unlikely, by itself, to turn many away. Still, they warn that it will add to a cumulative message that is increasingly unwelcoming.It comes during a controversial campaign for tighter immigration curbs and less than two years after the government eliminated a visa track, known as Tier-1(post-study work), that allowed newly graduated foreigners to stay in Britain to work. "Tier-1 was the hammer blow, but it's just possible that people will see this as one unpleasant thing after another," Mr. Scott said. Daniel Stevens, the international students' officer at the National Union of Students, the country's largest student union, agreed: "You will see a shift in the attitude of international students toward other countries," he said.Daniel Obst, deputy vice president of the Institute of International Education, said he thought it highly unlikely that the fee would cut the number of students going to Britain.Still, "every time you have a new regulation, there is concern," he said. "You have to deal with the perceptions issue."62 What result will the new proposal most probably bring according to the first paragraph?（A）The policy will give a bad impression on potential overseas students.（B）The reputation of British education system will be destroyed.（C）British universities will set up another obstacle for foreign students.（D）International students can't voice their opinions any more.63 What is the impact of the new plan on students from outside the European Union?（A）They will get a better medical care than before.（B）Their cost of studying in the UK will increase.（C）It will be more difficult for them to apply for a visa.（D）They will receive a more unfair treatment on campus.64 According to critics, the new plan proposed by the Department of Health ______.（A）will turn many foreign students away from the UK（B）conveys another unwelcoming message to foreign students（C）is unlikely to pass in Parliament（D）is increasingly welcomed by most foreign students65 What do we know about Tier-1(post-study work)visa from the passage?（A）It aimed to tighten the immigration policy.（B）It helped to eliminate illegal immigrations.（C）It allowed foreign students to pursuit further study.（D）It has been cancelled by the UK government.66 As to proposing a new regulation, what suggestion does Daniel Obst make?（A）Changing the public attitude towards a new regulation.（B）Ignoring the concerns a new regulation causes.（C）Cutting down the number of new regulations.（D）Dealing with the perceptions issue a new regulation causes.二、Part Ⅳ Translation67 <u>元宵节</u>(the Lantern Festival)是中国的传统节日。