大学英语四级分类模拟题372及答案解析.doc

1、大学英语四级分类模拟题 372及答案解析(总分：100.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：0，分数：0.00)二、Section A(总题数：1，分数：30.00)As if you needed another reason to hate your alarm clock. A new study suggests that, by disrupting (扰乱) your body“s 1 rhythms, your buzzing, blaring friend could be making you overweight. The st

2、udy concerns a phenomenon called “social jetlag (社交时差)“. That“s the 2 to which our natural sleep patterns are not consistent with our school or work schedules. Take the weekends: many of us wake up hours later than we do during the week, only to 3 our early schedules coming Monday morning. It“s enou

3、gh to make your body feel like it“s 4 the weekend in one time zone and the week in another. But is social jetlag 5 bad for your health? To investigate, Till Roenneberg and his colleagues collected data from tens of thousands of 6 to an Internet survey on sleep patterns and other behaviors. Some clue

4、s have been yielded from 7 work with such data. “We have shown that if you live against your body clock, you“re more likely to smoke, to drink alcohol, and drink far more coffee,“ says Roenneberg. In the new study, the team measured the social jetlag of people aged 16 to 65 by 8 the differences betw

5、een sleep times on workdays and non-workdays. They then constructed a mathematical model that gauged (衡量) how well 9 factors, such as age, gender, sleep duration, and social jetlag could predict body weight. They found that the first three factors were important 10 of body weight for all people. In

6、addition, for people who are already on the heavy side, greater social jetlag corresponded to greater body weight. A. actually F. extent K. previous B. advocating G. finally L. responses C. biological H. issues M. resume D. calculating I. normal N. spending E. distant J. predictors O. survey（分数：30.0

7、0）三、Section B(总题数：1，分数：40.00)Google“s Google ProblemA. Google is killing Google Reader. Use of Google Reader, a tool, by the way, for reading online content via RSS was concentrated among a small group of relatively intense users. As it happens, that small group includes quite a lot of people who wr

8、ite for or as part of their living. And so Google Reader has been mourned over, angrily at times, a bit more than the many other Google services that have come and gone. B. It isn“t that hard to imagine what Google was thinking when it made this decision. It“s a big company, but even big companies h

9、ave finite resources, and devoting those precious resources to something that isn“t making money and isn“t judged to have much in the way of development potential is not an attractive option. Dropping Reader isn“t going to hurt the company“s business. C. Yet this little contretemps (令人尴尬的事) may sugg

10、est bigger trouble ahead for Google and big changes for the Internet. One immediate effect is relatively easy to anticipate. John Hempton makes a nice point here: Google is in the process of abandoning its mission. Google“s stated mission is to organize all the world“s information and make it univer

11、sally accessible and useful. Google no longer cares. It seems what they care about is mass-markets. D. Google has asked us to build our lives around it: to use its e-mail system, its search engines, its maps, its calendars, its cloud-based apps and storage services, its video- and photo-hosting serv

12、ices, and on and on and on. Google wants us to use its services in ways that provide it with interesting and valuable information, and eyeballs. If a particular Google experiment isn“t cutting it in that category, then Google may feel justified in axing it. E. But that makes it increasingly difficul

13、t for Google to have success with new services. Why commit to using and coming to rely on something new if it might be pulled away at some future date? This is especially problematic for “social“ apps that rely on network effects. Even a bad social service may thrive if it obtains a critical mass. Y

14、anking away services beloved by early adopters almost guarantees that critical masses can“t be obtained: not, at any rate, without the provision of an incentive or commitment mechanism to protect the would-be users from the risk of losing a vital service. F. There may be bigger implications still, h

15、owever. As I said, Google has asked us to build our lives around it, and we have responded. This response entails (需要) a powerful self-reinforcement mechanism: Both providers and users of information and other services change their behavior as a result of the availability of a Google product. You ca

16、n see this on a small scale with Reader. People design their websites and content based on the assumption that others, via an RSS reader, will come across and read that content in a certain way. And readers structure their reading habits, and ultimately their mental models of what information is ava

17、ilable and where, based on the existence of this tool. If you then pull away the product at the heart of that system, you end up causing significant disruption (混乱), assuming there aren“t good alternatives available. G. The issue becomes a bit more obvious when you think about something like search.

18、 Many of us now operate under the assumption that if we want to find something we will be able to do so quickly and easily via Google search. If I want an idea for a unique gift for someone, I can put in related search terms and feel pretty confident that I“ll get back store websites and blogs and P

19、interest pages and newspaper stories and pictures all providing possible matches. H. If I“m a researcher, I know 1 can quickly find relevant academic papers, data, newspaper accounts, expert analysis, and who knows what else related to an enormous range of topics. Once we all become comfortable with

20、 that state of affairs we quickly begin optimizing (优化) the physical and digital resources around us. And once we all become comfortable with that, we begin rearranging our mental architecture. We stop memorising key data points and start learning how to ask the right questions. We begin to think di

21、fferently. We stop keeping a mental model of the physical geography of the world around us, because why bother? We can call up an incredibly detailed and accurate map of the world, complete with satellite and street-level images, whenever we want. The bottom line is that the more we all participate

22、in this world, the more we come to depend on it. I. What Google has actually done is create a powerful infrastructure (基础设). The shape of that infrastructure influences everything that goes online. And it influences the allocation of mental resources of everyone who interacts with the online world.

23、But there isn“t much to the real human world that isn“t shaped by the mental activity of the people in it! That“s a lot of power to put in the hands of a company that now seems interested, mostly, in identifying core mass-market services it can use to maximize its return on investment. Now in the sh

24、ort run, that may mostly be a problem for all of us. To the extent that we become worried about this phenomenon, we may go out and find back-up services or other alternatives. This will be less convenient and more costly, in terms of time and money, but those sufficiently foresighted (预见的) might fee

25、l it“s a better option than opening up gmail one clay to read that the e-mail service, and the 10-year“s worth of communication it holds, will soon be gone. J. But in the long run that“s a problem for Google. Because we tend not to entrust (委托) this sort of critical public infrastructure to the priv

26、ate sector. Network externalities are all fine and good to ignore so long as they mainly apply to the sharing of news and pictures from a weekend trip with college friends. Once they concern large amount of economic output and the cognitive activity of millions of people, it is difficult to keep the

27、 government out. Maybe that obstacle will be sufficient to keep Google providing its most heavily used products. But maybe not. K. I find myself thinking again of the brave new world of the industrial city. when new patterns of interaction led to enormous changes in economic activity, in culture and

28、 personal behavior, and in the way we think. We upgraded ourselves, in terms of education and social norms, to maximize the return to urban life. I think we, meaning users of the web and the companies that provide its blood and bones, arc only beginning to deal with the implications of a world awash

29、 (充斥的) in information.（分数：40.00）(1).Once we become comfortable with optimizing the physical and digital resources around us, we will start rearranging our mental architecture.（分数：4.00）(2).A bad social service may become successful provided that it gets a critical mass.（分数：4.00）(3).In the long term,

30、people are not inclined to put critical public infrastructure into the hands of the private sector like Google.（分数：4.00）(4).Google decided to shut clown Google Reader because it was not profitable or promising.（分数：4.00）(5).Everything on the Internet can be influenced by the powerful infrastructure c

31、reated by Google.（分数：4.00）(6).The availability of a Google product changes the behavior of the providers and users of information and other services.（分数：4.00）(7).According to John Hempton, now Google seems to be more concerned with mass-markets than its stated mission.（分数：4.00）(8).Nowadays, many of

32、us assume that if we would like to search for something quickly and easily, we can Google it.（分数：4.00）(9).The big changes in economic activity, culture, individual behavior and thinking mode resulted from new patterns of interaction.（分数：4.00）(10).If a service cannot offer interesting and valuable in

33、formation and eyeballs, Google will think it right to close it down.（分数：4.00）四、Section C(总题数：0，分数：0.00)五、Passage One(总题数：1，分数：15.00)If you are trying to do your bit for sustainability and savc water by taking shorter showers, then a new report on sustainability reveals for the first time that there

34、are more effective ways that our everyday choices can have a positive impact on the environment. For example, the glass of juice you have for breakfast might have used the same amount of water in its production as the amount you have just saved by cutting your shower from 10 to 5 minutes. The milk o

35、n your cereal might have used even more. Balancing Act, a world first that has been developed for the Australia economy by scientists from CSIRO (澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织) and the University of Sydney, looks across 135 industry sectors of the Australian economy and quantifies the impacts and contributions ac

36、ross ten social, environmental, and financial indicators. Report co-author CSIRO scientist, Barney Foran, says that sustainability for Australia is a balancing act as we try to make decisions and trade-offs in the face of often-competing economic, social and environmental attributes. “We still need

37、to eat and showerand it is still worth taking shorter showers to save our stressed urban water suppliesbut now consumers have a new tool to help us make more informed choices about different types of products based on a new sustainability rating,“ says Foran. Different to other studies because of it

38、s detailed observation of the full production chain, this report is able to show the full effectsboth direct and indirectof the production of an individual commodity or service, cappuccinos (卡布奇诺咖啡) or haircuts. It highlights sustainability challenges for different industries and points out areas in

39、 the production chain where a focused effort would make a significant difference. All effects are referenced back to a consumption dollarroughly the dollar spent by a consumer in everyday life. It also shows that each consumption dollar is quite differentsome dollars are positive and create employme

40、nt, or suck in imports or generate government revenue. Other consumption dollars are less positive through their high use of water or production of greenhouse gas emissions. This relatively simple presentation of highly complex issues makes this a powerful tool for people who are interested in susta

41、inability to move beyond decisions based on dollars and cents and enables them to make decisions based on a contribution to society, environment, and economy.（分数：15.00）(1).The new report on sustainability _.（分数：3.00）A.suggests that saving water by taking shorter showers is ineffectiveB.provides more

42、 effective daily ways that can protect environmentC.indicates that drinking juice wastes more water than taking a long showerD.reveals that milk uses definitely more water in its production than juice does(2).According to the passage, Balancing Act _.（分数：3.00）A.is developed for 135 industry sectors

43、of the Australian economyB.is the first environmental protection organization developed by scientistsC.quantifies the environmental impact of ten social and financial indicatorsD.helps maintain sustainability of Australia“s economy, society and environment(3).What benefit does Barney Foran think con

44、sumers can get from the new report?（分数：3.00）A.It urges people to take shorter showers to save water.B.It enables people to be wiser in selecting products.C.It saves the urban water supplies for people to take showers.D.It informs people of a fresh sustainability rating.(4).According to the passage,

45、what makes the new report special?（分数：3.00）A.It observes the full production chain in detail.B.It informs consumers of a new sustainability rating.C.It shows the indirect effects of an individual product.D.It stresses the challenges different industries face.(5).By using “a consumption dollar“, the

46、report authors _.（分数：3.00）A.help people make decisions based on dollars and centsB.simplify the complex issue of greenhouse gas emissionsC.discuss economy“s contribution to society and environmentD.show different impacts and contributions of our daily consumption六、Passage Two(总题数：1，分数：15.00)Marriage

47、 emerged as the most popular institution throughout history primarily because it was an effective arrangement to improve the care and upbringing of children. Marriage is not necessary to have children, but it has been of enormous importance in the rearing of children. With the sharp declines in birt

48、h rates since 1970 in Western and other rich countries, including much larger fractions of adults who do not have any children, both men and women have significantly increased their ages at marriage, and sharply raised their tendencies to divorce. In 1950, a typical woman and man married at ages 20.

49、3 and 22.8 respectively, whereas now the typical marital ages are 26.0 and 27.7. These changes in age at marriage are related to reduced demand for many children, increased college education of both men and women but especially of women, much greater labor force participation of married and divorced women, and the narrowing of the gender gap in earnings. The most important economic and social concerns due to low marriage rates are the effects on rearing of children. These effects are not due to lower marriage rates alone, but rather to the close connection between these lo