1、大学英语四级（2013 年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 237及答案解析(总分：118.00，做题时间：90 分钟)一、Writing(总题数：2，分数：4.00)1.Part I Writing（分数：2.00）_2.For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief account of peoples practice of forwarding best wishes m
2、essages and then express your views on this practice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. （分数：2.00）_二、Listening Comprehens(总题数：12，分数：50.00)3.Part II Listening Comprehension_4.Section A_A.Happy life the seniors enjoy nowadays.B.Problems of the aging population.C.A survey a
3、bout economic growth.D.The rapid pace of retirements now.A.5.B.6.C.20.D.34.A.Fewer meat products will go to developed countries.B.Both environment and public health will be threatened.C.Peoples income will decrease in developing countries.D.The pace of urbanization will slow down a bit.A.Consumer cl
4、ass rises in developing countries.B.Four-footed livestock are easier to raise.C.Farm animals often provide nutrients.D.People are fond of milk, cheese and meat.A.They had an exact man-like appearance.B.They were more intelligent than humans.C.They could finish most housework for us.D.They could do m
5、any things like people.A.Its arms and hands have great strength.B.It can learn complicated operations by itself.C.It can play soccer with elementary students.D.It can teach students knowledge of robotics.A.They train children to learn integrated subjects.B.They improve students learning interest and
6、 efficiency.C.They can be used as suitable learning tools for children.D.They can free children from their daily homework.5.Section B_A.An international drivers license.B.An Arizona drivers license.C.A regular license.D.A limited license.A.A written exam and an oral exam.B.A road test with a paralle
7、l parking test.C.A thorough physical check-up.D.A traffic regulation test.A.A regular license will cost much more money.B.A regular license has a shorter effective period.C.A five-year license is much easier to get for students.D.A five-year license is more popular among students.A.An Italian studen
8、t studies for two years.B.An Italian immigrant resides for ever.C.A Spanish tourist is on a visit for half a year.D.A Spanish teacher teaches for three years.A.Someone phoned.B.Someone came.C.The woman went out.D.The woman phoned the man.A.She didnt take Mr. Cooper to the restaurant.B.She didnt phon
9、e him when Mr. Cooper came.C.She has lost the card he had given to her.D.She made an excurse for her fault.A.An information card of a restaurant.B.His own business card.C.Mr. Coopers business card.D.A note of what to do.A.A student and a teacher.B.The secretary and the boss.C.A salesgirl and a custo
10、mer.D.The wife and the husband.6.Section C_A.He ran a village shop.B.He worked on a farm.C.He worked in an advertising agency.D.He was a gardener.A.It was stressful.B.It was colorful.C.It was peaceful.D.It was boring.A.His desire to start his own business.B.The crisis in his family life.C.His dream
11、of living in the countryside.D.The decline in his health.A.The relationship between brain size and intelligence is unquestionable.B.People with small brains may be highly intelligent as well.C.Einstein was the only exception of the brain size and intelligence relationship.D.It is meaningless to stud
12、y the relationship between brain size and intelligence.A.In the 1830s.B.In the 1930s.C.In the 1860s.D.In the 1960s.A.Adults and women tend to be more intelligent.B.Women on average have the same mental level with men.C.Women tend to score lower than men in intelligence tests.D.Women are generally mo
13、re intelligent than men.A.Children were more likely to drink too much soda.B.Attention problems had nothing to do with age and sex.C.Drinking soda might lead to aggressive behaviors.D.Signs of aggression were shown mainly by boys.A.Taking part in fights.B.Laughing at others.C.Consuming soft drinks.D
14、.Attacking animals.A.Childrens friends.B.Parenting styles.C.Sleeping habits.D.Learning conditions.A.Caffeine.B.Sex.C.Sweets.D.Characters.三、Reading Comprehensio(总题数：8，分数：60.00)7.Part III Reading Comprehension_8.Section A_If youre in charge of Christmas dinner, with all its interconnected tasks and ch
15、allenges of timing when to preheat the oven, whether to put the potatoes in before the eggswhy not write down every 1that 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
16、importance of checklist when hospital doctors are 2to 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 3because staff were compelled to work through a checklist of
17、no-brainer items, such as 4their hands. A more recent study, which included UK hospitals, suggested that wider use of checklists might 540% of deaths during treatment. Unlike in medicine, the 6uses of checklists in everyday lifea list for holiday packing, for instance, arent usually matters of life
18、and death. The idea of making a checklist is so stupidly obvious that it seems impossible it could have so 7an effect. But the truth is that all life, not just medicine, is 8complex: if highly trained intensive-care specialists can forget a 9step, its sure that anyone might. Besides, the step-by-ste
19、p structure of checklists can narrow your 10to the next action. All you have to remember is to “do the next right thing“. Then the next, and the next.A) action E) increasingly I) request M) subjectB) crucial F) normally J) required N) vastC) focus G) potential K) shaking O) washingD) gradual H) prev
20、ent L) simply（分数：20.00）填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_填空项 1:_10.Section B_What Your iPad Knows About YouA Youve finally finished the book your co-worker recommended, so what to read next? If it is 5 a,m., chances are that youre reaching for a romance novelespecially i
21、f youre 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 t
22、hat offer unlimited e-book rentals for a monthly subscription fee. Scribd, Oyster and Entitle Bookswhich just launched in Decemberare tracking reader behavior in hopes of figuring out recommendations of exactly what youll want to pick up next.C About 50% of the U.S. population owns a dedicated e-rea
23、der, 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 av
24、ailable on Amazons Kindle Fire and Kindle Paperwhite. After running exclusively on Apples 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
25、 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 moneys worth, she adds. In addition, people might try to save money by buying a cheaper b
26、ook 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 didnt cause the buyers sense of guilty he experienced when purchasing Kindle e-books. “Youve already paid for the service, so you can read as much as
27、 you want,“ he says. “With other models, theres that little financial bite each time you want to buy a book and you worry that its going to be worthless.“ Mr. Konash, who has been picking books based on the sites suggestions, predicts hell read up to 10 more books a year beyond his usual 25.E An all
28、-access subscription “lowers the activation energy for reading,“ says Oyster CEO Eric Stromberg. Reading often has a high “activation energy“ because theres 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
29、on your tablet, you can hear about the book and then read it right there,“ says Willem van Lancker, Oysters 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 wh
30、at theyre 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,
31、“ 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
32、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 dont 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
33、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 spe
34、ed up as they get closer to finishingcorrelates with higher average rating for a book. One of the highest acceleration factors comes from Kurt Vonneguts “Cats Cradle,“ which readers start speeding through at the halfway mark, Mr. Friedman says. All three companies allow users to hide their reading b
35、ehavior from other customers, but users cant 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-
36、trotting memoirs“ or “bad role models“ that copy racks at the front of bookstores, Scribds 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
37、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 doesnt just analyze behavior signals, but “reads“ through a books text to pull out different topics, genres and subjects, says Bryan Batten, chief
38、 executive of Entitle. Theres 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 Hellers “Catch-22“ and Leo Tolstoys “Anna Karenina“ is Fyodor Dostoevskys “The Brothers Kar
39、amazov“ 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 kee
40、p 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 Associations Digital Content Working Group, says demand has incr
41、eased significantly in the past 18 months. He says he doesnt see the startups as a threat.L While libraries budget for e-books has been growing, licensing restrictions mean that popular titles often arent available, says Laura Girmscheid, research manager for the trade publication Library Journal, w
42、hich 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. “Its just not convenient for instant access,“ Ms. Girmscheid says.（分数：20.00）(1).Subscribers cant stop e-book provide
43、r from collecting information about their reading behavior.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(2).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.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(3).The biggest problem for publication is how to raise readers int
44、erests in a new book.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(4).Passive signals, like click rates, are more honest indications of reading behavior.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(5).Some e-book rental websites track subscribers reading behavior so as to offer proper book recommendations.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(6).Subscribers of Entitle can kee
45、p e-books they have bought even after they cancel the service.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(7).Inconvenience for instant access to popular e-books prevents people from using library e-books.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(8).About four-fifth readers of self-help books fail to complete their reading.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(9).When purchasing paper books, people might give up the one they want and choose a cheaper one in order to save money.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_(10).Personalized recommendations are more efficient in boosting books browsing rates than traditional best-sale lists based on different themes.（分数：2.00）填空项 1:_
