1、大学英语四级改革适用（阅读）模拟试卷 129及答案与解析 Section A 0 Getting a university degree isnt just good for your mind its good for your heart, says a new study in the journal BMC(British Medical Council)Public Health. The longer you spend in education, the lower your blood pressure is likely to be. This is【 C1】_true fo
2、r women. Scientists from the US, Canada, UK and Australia examined 30 years of【 C2】_from 3 890 people who were being followed as part of the Framingham Offspring Study, which【 C3】 _the education and medical histories of 3 890 people. Researchers divided subjects into three groups, low education(12 y
3、ears or less),【 C4】_education(13 to 16 years)and high education(17 years or more). They then【 C5】_the average systolic(收缩的 )blood pressure for the 30-year period. Women with low education had a blood pressure 3.26 mmHg higher than those with a high【 C6】 _of education. In men the difference was 2.26
4、mmHg. Lead author Eric Loucks, assistant professor of【 C7】 _health at Brown University, said the analysis may【 C8】 _a well-known association in the developed world between education and heart disease. Uneducated people tend to【 C9】 _up in demanding jobs that give workers little control, which have b
5、een associated with high blood pressure, said researchers. The effect is greater in women, said Loucks, because “women with【 C10】 _education are more likely to be experiencing depression, they are more likely to be single parents, more likely to be living in impoverished areas and more likely to be
6、living below the poverty line. “ A)calculated F)explain K)particularly B)community G)less L)pressure C)data H)level M)strangely D)end I)life N)study E)essential J)middle O)tracked 1 【 C1】 2 【 C2】 3 【 C3】 4 【 C4】 5 【 C5】 6 【 C6】 7 【 C7】 8 【 C8】 9 【 C9】 10 【 C10】 Section B 10 Farewell, Libraries A)Ama
7、zon, corns recent announcement that sales of e-books at the online megastore had overtaken sales of hardcover books came as no surprise. It had to happen sometime. But the news did conjure quite an interesting mental image: libraries that from now on will look smaller and less crowded. B)For the mom
8、ent, lets not argue with the proposition that people will read as much as they ever have, no matter whether they read an actual book or a book on a screen. The habits of readers may not change(if anything, people may read more, or at least buy more several stories have quoted e-book owners who say t
9、hey buy more titles for their e-readers than they did when they were buying hardcover books). But if readers arent changing, their environments will. Rooms that once held books will well, whatever they hold from now on, it wont be books, or not as many books. Theoretically, your space will be more s
10、pare, more serenely uncluttered. Thats the theory, at least. My experience is that stuff expands to fill the space available. But you can dream. C)All of this has already happened big time in the music business, where downloads have gradually but surely replaced CDs. I dont know how many people Ive
11、overheard crowing because they managed to transfer their entire music collections onto their computers. All those CDs taking up space on the wall have gone -All those CDs that travel from car to kitchen to bedroom to living room, with the CD and the case getting separated somewhere along the way a p
12、roblem no more in the digital age. From now on, well own what might be described as the idea of stuff, since the actual physical thingsrecords, tapes, photographs, CDs. and now books have been as good as vaporized, with the information contained therein stored away on a hard drive. D)This, of course
13、, is merely collateral damage(附带损害 )in the digital revolution, if damage it is. Theres as yet no way to tell if this transition is good, bad, both, or neither, but surely the absence of a physical library, be it musical or literary, marks a fundamental shift in the way we live and think about things
14、. In music, for example, the rise of iTunes, Pandora, YouTube. and all the other online music players has quickly eroded our devotion to the long-playing album as the principal means of organizing music. After a half century of neglect, the lowly single is back on top. Most immediately this has cons
15、equences for artists, maybe not so much for the people who buy their music. But who knows? E)With books, the absence of packaging does nothing to the contents. I can buy a hardcover copy of Moby-Dick or download it onto an e-reader, and Melville is still Melville. But I grew up loving Rockwell Kents
16、 illustrations of that novel, and later Barry Mosers. Its hard to think of the book without them. I can do that, certainly, but some little thing is lost. F)Paperbacks and public libraries made books cheap or free but certainly available to millions who might otherwise not have been able to afford t
17、hem, and all that happened long before I was born. Nevertheless, I was brought up by people who had been taught- and who taught me that books were valuable things, things to be cared for and cherished, and I have owned some volumes for close to half a century(almost none of them, I should point out,
18、 qualify as “collectible“ or valuable to an antiquarian book collector; owning a rare book makes me nervous. I like books I can hold, read, and even here my mother is spinning in her grave write in). G)I come from a generation for whom the books and records on the shelf signaled, in some way, who yo
19、u were(starting with the fact that you were a person who owned books or records or CDs). If you visited a friend, you took the first chance you had to secretly scan that friends shelves to get a handle on the person. I suppose I could sneak a peek at a friends Kindle, but is that the same? And try t
20、hat kind of snooping on a bus or in a coffee shop and youll probably get arrested. H)The stuff of our lives is a comfort. We look up at the shelves and we see old friends. Yes, there are books on my shelves that arent my friends, that I havent finished or even started, but someday I will, I promise
21、my home library is a physical manifestation of ambivalence. There is comfort in the continuity of seeing the same books year after year. I guess there might be some of the same pleasure in scrolling through a digital library or music playlist, but somehow I think something will be lost. I)For years
22、audiophiles(高保真度录音爱好者 )have tried to persuade more casual music fans that a vinyl record played on a decent sound system sounds better than a digital record played on the same system. Digital sound is not as warm, not as seductive to the ear. The resurgence, albeit modest, of vinyl, especially among
23、 young listeners and musicians, proves that this argument is not generational. Its not, in other words, just old fogies versus young hipsters. J)Something of the same argument might be made for books, or for the tactile(触觉的 )pleasure of holding and reading a well-made book. At its simplest, a book i
24、s a tool, or an information-delivery system, if you will, and it does what it does supremely well. To conceive of a world without physical books is to conceive of a world somehow diminished. It may be more efficient yes, you can take a “stack“ of books on vacation with an e-reader. It may spare quit
25、e a few forests from the ax. But efficiency is no substitute for pleasure. The future may be less cluttered. It may also be less fun. 11 When scanning friends books and records on their shelves, we could know something about their personality. 12 The popularity of e-books may change the domestic env
26、ironment of the e-book owners. 13 If there isnt a physical library, our lifestyle and way of thinking will change. 14 According to the authors experience, the room originally for books will be filled with other things. 15 Reading books with an e-reader is likely to be quite efficient and friendly to
27、 the environment, but it cannot offer the same pleasure. 16 In the music business, CDs, to a large degree, have been replaced by downloads from the Internet. 17 There is something valuable lost in the e-books without the favorable illustrations. 18 It was not surprising that A announced that e-books
28、 shared a larger market than traditional hardcover books. 19 I was taught the idea that books were valuable for people to collect and treasure. 20 E-books cannot fully function as books on the shelves, which are just like old friends and can make our life comfortable. Section C 20 The first bicycles
29、 were made of wood. Cycle manufacturers then switched to steel tubes. These days, for high-end bikes where weight is at a premium, they use aluminium alloys(铝合金 )or even carbon fibre. But Izhar Gafni, an amateur cyclist who owns a number of such fancy bikes, wonders whether the original inventors ha
30、d a point. He proposes to go back to using wood or, rather, a derivative(衍生物 )of wood, namely cardboard. Mr. Gafni, who is based in Ahituv, Israel, spent years trying to work out how to make a cardboard bicycle able to support the weight of a human being. The trick is twofold. First, he folds the ca
31、rdboard commercial-grade material, made from recycled paper to increase its strength. Then, once it is folded, he treats the result with a proprietary resin(树脂 )that holds it in shape and stiffens it, before cutting it into the form of the component required. A second application of resin renders th
32、e component waterproof, and a lick of lacquer(漆 )makes it look good. The result, Mr. Gafni claims, is stronger than carbon fibre. The bikes frame, wheels, handlebars and saddle are all made of cardboard in this way, and then fitted together. The tyres again harking back to the early days of cycling
33、are composed of solid rubber, which is recycled from old car tyres. That makes the ride a little harder than if the tyres were pneumatic(充气轮胎的 ), but means they cannot be punctured. The chain is also made from car-tyre rubber. The pedals are plastic recycled from bottles and the brakes are recycled
34、too, though Mr. Gafni is not yet ready to disclose the details. The finished product weighs 9kg, a bit less than an ordinary bike, and can carry a rider weighing 220kg. Mr. Gafnis target market is the poorer countries of the world. Because manufacturing the cardboard bike will, he reckons, cost $ 9-
35、12 a unit, his design is far more affordable than a steel-framed bike. But people in rich countries may be interested too. In Tel Aviv, the commercial capital of Mr. Gafnis native land, 2 000 stolen bikes were recently put on display by police, for their owners to claim. If bicycles cost less than t
36、he locks that chained them to lampposts, thieves might not think it worthwhile to steal them. 21 What does Izhar Gafni think of the materials bicycles are made of? （ A） He believes that materials like wood also have their advantages. （ B） He feels the modern materials for bicycles are too fancy. （ C
37、） He hopes to develop cheaper high-tech materials for bicycles. （ D） He wonders why the original inventors choose wood for bicycles. 22 What effect does the proprietary resin have on the cardboard? （ A） It makes the bicycle even lighter. （ B） It helps the cardboard to maintain its shape. （ C） It mak
38、es the cardboard easy to fold. （ D） It gives the bicycle a good look. 23 What is the major reason for having solid rubber tyres for the cardboard bicycle? （ A） They help lower the cost. （ B） They are environment-friendly. （ C） They ensure the safety of the rider. （ D） They are more endurable. 24 Wha
39、t can be learned about the brakes of Mr. Gafnis bicycle? （ A） They contain some car technology. （ B） They are made of plastic from recycled bottles. （ C） Their details are still unknown to the public. （ D） They can bear a weight of 220kg. 25 What is the competitive advantage of a cardboard bike? （ A
40、） It is much lighter than a steel-framed bike. （ B） It is cheaper than a steel-framed bike. （ C） It has specially designed anti-theft lock. （ D） It can bear a unique look designed by its owner. 25 One fine day about 74 000 years ago, a giant volcano on Sumatra blew its top. The volcano, named Toba,
41、may have ejected(喷射 )1 000 times more rock and other material than Mount St. Helens in Washington state did in 1980. In the process, it cooled the climate by at least 10C, causing a global famine. Paleoclimate(古气候 )evidence suggests that the Toba eruption, which occurred during the last ice age, emi
42、tted lots of sulfur dioxide vastly more than Mount St. Helens did. The eruption also seems to have coincided with the start of a 1 000-year period of even colder temperatures. Some scientists have suggested that Toba caused the deep freeze and that perhaps such an event happening today could bring o
43、n a new ice age. But models developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, argue otherwise. Researchers led by climatologist Alan Robock of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, ran scenarios that featured
44、eruptions producing up to several times more sulfur dioxide than Toba. The result, published 27 May in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, was a cooler climate that lasted only a few decades. So the 1 000-year cold spell was probably part of the natural cycle that has produced more than
45、 a dozen ice ages over the past couple of million years. “The results virtually eliminate mega(非常大的 )volcanic eruptions as one of the key drivers of global-scale glaciation,“ says climatologist Ellen Mosley-Thompson of Ohio State University in Columbus, who was not involved in the study. So, paleocl
46、imatologists should focus on more likely climate coolers, she says, such as changes in ocean circulation or cyclical variations in Earths orbit around the sun. Still, if Toba erupted today like it did in the past, the results would be catastrophic. Although the volcano isnt expected to blow its top
47、for thousands of years, Robock and colleagues estimate a megaeruption could lower global temperatures by as much as 17C for several years, followed by a recovery to normal conditions that could take decades. That would hit the human population with the double whammy of dramatically reduced agricultu
48、ral production and widespread loss of vegetation, leading to widespread food shortages and starvation. 26 What is the disastrous consequence of Toba eruption? （ A） The low temperature made global people freeze to death. （ B） The rock and other material caused by the eruption buried numerous people.
49、（ C） The great change of climate resulted in the food shortage. （ D） The flames caused by volcano eruption burned down Sumatra. 27 What can be learned about the time of the Toba eruption? （ A） The eruption coincided with the end of the last ice age. （ B） A new ice age triggered off Toba eruption. （ C） The eruption occurred when the earth was at its coldest time. （ D） The eruption happened when a 1 000-year period of colder temperatures began. 28 Which view did Alan Robo
