1、大学英语四级模拟试卷 17及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a message for one of your parents on the occasion of his/her birthday using no more than 120 words. Base your writing on the following outline: 1. 向父亲或母亲祝贺节日 ; 2. 从一件难忘的事情记述父亲或母亲的无私奉献； 3. 如何回报父亲或母
2、亲。 Best Wishes on Your Birthday 二、 Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions attached to the passage. For questions 1-7, mark： Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with
3、the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. 2 How to Be an Employee Most of you graduating today will be employees all your working life, working for somebody el
4、se and for a paycheck. And so will most, if net all, of the thousands of other young Americans graduating this year in all the other schools and colleges across the country. Ours has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one out of every five Americans at work was employed, i
5、.e., worked for somebody else. Today only one out of five is not employed but working for himself. And whereas fifty years ago “being employed“ meant working as a factory laborer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holdin
6、g a professional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills. Indeed, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: the middle and upper classes have become employees, and middle-class and upper-class employees have been the fastest growing groups in
7、 our working population growing so fast that the industrial worker, that oldest child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance despite the expansion of industrial production. This is one of the most profound social changes any country has ever undergone. It is, however,
8、a perhaps even greater change for the individual young man about to start. Whatever he does, in all likelihood he will do it as an employee; wherever he aims, he will have to try to reach it through being an employee. Yet you will find little if there is anything written on what it is to be an emplo
9、yee. You can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to get a job or how to get a promotion. You can also find a good deal of advice on work in a chosen field, whether it be metallurgy(冶金学 ) or salesmanship, the machinists trade or bookkeeping. Every one of these trades requires different sk
10、ills, sets different standards, and requires a different preparation. Yet they all have employeeship in common. And increasingly, especially in the large business or in government, employeeship is more important to success than the special professional knowledge or skill. Certainly more people fail
11、because they do not know the requirements of being an employee than because they do not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher you climb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work, the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization rather th
12、an on technical competence or professional knowledge. Being an employee is thus the one common characteristic of most careers today. The special profession or skill is visible and clearly defined, and a well-laid-out sequence of courses, degrees, and jobs leads into it. But being an employee is the
13、foundation. And it is much more difficult to prepare for it. Yet there is no recorded information on the art of being an employee. The first question we might ask is: what can you learn in college that will help you in being an employee? The schools teach a great many things of value to the future a
14、ccountant, the future doctor, or the future electrician. Do they also teach anything of value to the future employee? The answer is: “Yes they teach the one thing that is perhaps most valuable for the future employee to know. But very few students bother to learn it.“ This one basic skill is the abi
15、lity to organize and express ideas in writing and in speaking. As an employee you work with and through other people. This means that your success as an employee will depend on your ability to communicate with people and to present your own thoughts and ideas to them so they will both understand wha
16、t you are driving at and be persuaded. The letter, the report or memorandum, the ten-minute spoken “presentation“ to a committee are basic tools of the employee. If you work as a soda jerker you will, of course, not need much skill in expressing yourself to be effective. If you work on a machine you
17、r ability to express yourself will be of little importance. But as soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to communicate with others through the spoken or me written word. And the further away your job is from manual work, the larger the organization
18、 of which you are an employee, the more important it will be that you know how to convey your thoughts in writing or speaking. In the very large organization, whether it is the government, the large business corporation, or the Army, this ability to express oneself is perhaps the most important of a
19、ll the skills a man can possess. Of course, skill in expression is not enough by itself. You must have something to say in the first place. The popular picture of the engineer, for instance, is that of a man who works with a slide rule, T square(丁字尺 ), and compass. And engineering students reflect t
20、his picture in their attitude toward the written word as s6mething quite irrelevant to their jobs. But the effectiveness of the engineer depends as much on his ability to make other people understand his work as it does on the quality of the work itself. Expressing ones thoughts is one skill that th
21、e school can really teach, especially to people born without natural writing or speaking talent. Many other skills can be learned later in this country there are literally thousands of places that offer training to adult people at work. But the foundations for skill in experience in organizing ideas
22、 and data, in brushing aside the irrelevant, in wedding outward form and inner content into one structure; and above all, the habit of verbal expression. If you do not lay these foundations during your school years, you may never have an opportunity again. If you were to ask me that strictly vocatio
23、nal courses there are in the typical college curriculum, my answer now that the good old habit of the “theme a day“ has virtually disappeared would be: the writing of poetry and the writing of short stories. Not that I expect many of you to become poets or short-story writers far from it. But these
24、two courses offer the easiest way to obtain some skill in expression. They force one to be economical with language. They force one to organize thought. They demand of one that he give meaning to every word. They train the ear for language, its meaning, its precision, its overtones and its pitfalls(
25、陷阱 ). Above all they force one to write. I know very well that the typical employer does not understand this as yet, and that he may look with suspicion on a young college graduate who has majored, let us say, in short-story writing. But the same employer will complain and with good reason that the
26、young men whom he hires when they get out of college do not know how to write a simple report, do not know how to tell a simple story, and are in fact virtually illiterate. And he will conclude rightly that the young men are not really effective, and certainly not employees who are likely to be succ
27、essful. 2 Most Americans used to work for themselves rather than for others. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 3 According to the author, the art of being a better employee can be acquired mostly through experience. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 4 A person who is poor in expressing thoughts can never be a successful em
28、ployer. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 5 According to the author, a college student who is unable to write a simple report will not be effective as an employee. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 6 It is useless for a manual worker to possess the ability to express ideas clearly. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 7 According to the
29、anther, an engineer who is very skillful needs to develop the ability to express herself/himself too. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 8 To an employee, organizing and expressing ideas in writing and speaking are needed because without these skills one can only do simple work. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 9 According
30、 to the author, one of the dramatic social changes that have taken place in the U.S. over the past fifty years is that _ have become employees. 10 To most people, one way to follow their career is to _. 11 It is important that youve been taught skills in expressing your thoughts during your school y
31、ears because peoples writing or speaking talent is not _ and you may never have an opportunity again. Section A Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both th
32、e conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. （ A） Two blocks. （ B） Five blocks. （ C） Three blocks. （ D） Four blocks. （ A） He suggests t
33、hat she buy the sweater in another color. （ B） He suggests that she buy a jacket instead of the sweater. （ C） He suggests that she buy the sweater at its original price. （ D） He suggests that she buy the sweater on Friday. （ A） It was cleaned. （ B） There was a large sale. （ C） The employees had to w
34、ork very late. （ D） There was a robbery. （ A） Be a bad boy. （ B） Eat too fast. （ C） Go to a game. （ D） Skip his lunch. （ A） A salesman. （ B） A telephone repairman （ C） A plumber. （ D） An electrician. （ A） She didnt understand what Eva was saying. （ B） Eva should have been more active. （ C） Eva didnt
35、 seem to be nervous at all during her presentation. （ D） Eva needs training in public speaking lessons. （ A） Whether to change his job. （ B） Asking for a higher salary. （ C） Accepting a new secretary. （ D） Getting a better position. （ A） He could help her with the problems. （ B） He could go out toge
36、ther with her. （ C） She should go out for a while. （ D） She should do the problems herself. （ A） Her colleagues. （ B） Her neighbors. （ C） Her friends. （ D） Her schoolmates. （ A） At supper-time. （ B） Before Jane went to bed. （ C） Around eleven. （ D） After midnight. （ A） To watch the night scenes. （ B
37、） To look up at the stars. （ C） To clean up the roof. （ D） To show their visitor the view. （ A） The man is learning how to use a computer. （ B） The woman is showing the man how to put page numbers on a document. （ C） The man is printing a document. （ D） The man is using his computer to do mathematic
38、al functions. （ A） He needs to press F7 to return to the document before he prints it. （ B） He has to print the document to see the page numbers. （ C） The printer is not working correctly. （ D） The numbers are on the screen but they dont print out. （ A） She wants the man to listen to the instruction
39、s and observe. （ B） She wants the man to watch while she performs the operations. （ C） She wants the man to ask questions so that she can help him. （ D） She wants the man to try to do it while she gives him instructions. （ A） F8. （ B） F7. （ C） Enter. （ D） P. Section B Directions: In this section, yo
40、u will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. （ A） Have to buy a special electronic ticket. （
41、B） Have to travel a long way to visit the university. （ C） Need art expensive device designed especially for the museum. （ D） Need a computer linked to a telephone. （ A） Provide a place for computer artists to show their work. （ B） Sell the art works more easily. （ C） Save space of museums for other
42、 purposes. （ D） Provide more fun for the artists. （ A） It helps a computer artist to record his pictures electronically. （ B） It helps a computer artist to send his pictures to others. （ C） It helps a computer artist to prim pictures on paper. （ D） It helps a computer artist to connect his computer
43、to the art museum. （ A） 4 years （ B） 5 years （ C） 8 years （ D） at least 9 years （ A） biology （ B） chemistry （ C） philosophy （ D） medicine （ A） Each student must pass a national examination. （ B） Students who do best in the studies have a greater chance. （ C） They can seek to enter a number of medica
44、l schools. （ D） Chances to gain the entrance are many. （ A） The people are not in regular communication with the rhythm of nature. （ B） The people cant enjoy sunshine and fresh air. （ C） Modern cities offer better schools, more chances of employment. （ D） Traffic fumes pollute the air. （ A） Because
45、city-dwellers are obliged to adopt a wholly unnatural way of life. （ B） Because the sun was hidden from view by tall buildings. （ C） Because the noise made by traffic never stops. （ D） Because large modern cities are too big to control. （ A） Living conditions. （ B） Sunshine and fresh air. （ C） Air-c
46、onditioned houses. （ D） A few flowers and a few leaves. （ A） Large modern cities are not good to live in. （ B） Living in large modern cities has so many disadvantages. （ C） All the simple, good things of life are imposed on the people who inhabit large cities. （ D） Many things that are going on in n
47、ature are connected with large cities. Section C Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbe
48、red from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the 37 According to the evolutionary theory of sleep, evolution 【
49、B1】 _ us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking. The theory does not 【 B2】 _ that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that 【 B3】 _ has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be 【 B4】_ and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of 【 B5】_ we might walk into; it does not 【 B6】 _ us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well in a 【 B7】 _, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if
