1、大学英语四级模拟试卷 25及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 For this part, you are allowed to write a composition on the topic Private Cars in Ordinary Chinese Families. You should write at least 120 words and you should base your composition on the outline. 1. 小轿车开始进入越来越多的中国普通家庭。 2. 对这一社会现象人们的两种截然相反的观点。 3
2、. 我的看法。 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 the information given in
3、 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 Learning a language When Do We Learn a Language? Children begin learning languages at birth(infants pay attention to their parents voices,
4、as opposed to random noises or even other languages), and havent really mastered the subtleties before the age of ten years. Indeed, we never really stop learning our language. This isnt exactly the sort of behavior(like foals walking an hour after birth) that we call “instinct“ in animals. Do We Le
5、arn When We Dont Have to? But at least its effortless, isnt it? Well, no, as we can see when children have a choice of languages to learn. Whats found is that, to be frank, children dont learn a language if they can get away with not learning it. Many an immigrant family in the U.S. intends to teach
6、 their child their native language; and for the first few years it goes swimmingly so much so that the parents worry that the child wont learn English. Then the child goes to school, picks up English, and within a few years the worry is reversed: the child still understands his parents, but responds
7、 in English. Eventually the parents may give up, and the home language becomes English. Peoples Influence A child is likely to end up as a fluent speaker of a language only if there are significant people in her life who speak it: a nanny who only speaks Spanish, a relative who doesnt speak English,
8、 etc. Once a child discovers that his parents understand English perfectly well, hes likely to give up on the home language, even in the face of strong disapproval from the parents. Its a myth that children learn to speak mainly from their parents. They dont: they learn mostly from their peers. This
9、 is most easily seen among children of immigrants, whether they come from differing language backgrounds or merely different dialect areas: the children invariably come to speak the dialect of their neighborhood and school, not that of their parents.( I found a neat example of this in my colleges al
10、umni magazine: A liberal family in Mississippi sent their daughter to the public schools, which except for her were all black. She grew up speaking fluent African-American Vernacular English.) Do We Need Grammar? Supporters of the “language instinct“ make much of the fact that children learn to spea
11、k without formal instruction indeed, they notoriously ignore explicit corrections. Very little of what we learn is through formal instruction. Children arent schooled in video games, either, yet they pick them up with the same seeming ease. The apparent effortlessness is largely an illusion caused b
12、y psychological distance. We just dont remember how hard it was to learn language. (In fact, theres some studies suggesting that memory is tied to language, so that we cant remember the language learning process.) The perception of effortlessness should be balanced, anyway, by the universal amusemen
13、t(which some cartoonists have been mining for nearly half a century) over childrens language mistakes. Do Children Learn Faster? One may fall back on the position that languages may be hard for children to learn, but at least they do it better than adults. This, however, turns out to be surprisingly
14、 difficult to prove. Singleton examined hundreds of studies, and found them resoundingly ambiguous. Quite a few studies, in fact, find that adult learners progress faster than children. Even in phonetics, sometimes the last stronghold of the kids-learn-free position, there are studies finding that a
15、dults are better at recognizing and producing foreign sounds. Now, I think Singleton misses a key point in understanding this discrepancy: the studies he reviews compare children vs. adults who are learning languages. Thats quite reasonable, and indeed its hard to imagine an alternative approach; bu
16、t the two groups are not really comparable! All children have to learn at least one language; but few adults do. So the studies compare the situation of all children with that of the minority of adults motivated to formally learn other languages. Why? Why do children learn languages well, when even
17、adults who want to learn them have trouble with them? Innate abilities aside, children have a number of powerful advantages: They can devote almost their full time to it. Adults consider half an hours study a day to be onerous. Their motivation is intense. Adults rarely have to spend much of their t
18、ime in the company of people they need to talk to but cant; children can get very little of what they want without learning language(s). Their peers are nastier. Embarrassment is a prime motivating factor for human beings(I owe this insight to Marvin Minskys The Society of Mind, but it was most memo
19、rably expressed by David Berlinski in Black Mischief, p. 129, who noted that of all emotions, from rage to depression to first love, only embarrassment can recur, decades later, with its full original intensity). Dealing with a French waiter is nothing compared with the vicious reception in store fo
20、r a child who speaks funny. If adults could be placed in a similar situation, they might well learn languages as readily as children. The closest such situation is cross-cultural marriage. And indeed, this works quite well. My wife, for instance, a native Spanish speaker who came here in her late 20
21、s, has learned exceptional English, since we speak it at home. By contrast, some of her Spanish-speaking friends of the same age, married to other Spanish speakers, speak English haltingly and with a strong accent. 2 The passage gives a general explanation about the benefits of a cross-cultural marr
22、iage. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 3 According to the author, children dont learn another language if they dont have to. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 4 Unless children have other people in their lives who speak another language, they wont become fluent speakers in that language. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 5 Children d
23、ont learn to speak another language from their parents because at times, children dont get along with their parents. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 6 Nearly everything we learn is through formal instruction. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 7 Few studies find that adult language learners progress faster than children.
24、（ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 8 Some studies say that adults are better at learning phonetics than children. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 9 Singletons studies compare the situation of all children with that of the _ of adults motivated to formally learn other languages. 10 Three advantages that children have over
25、adults in language learning include: _, _, and _. 11 The closest situation to that of a childrens environment for adults is _. 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 abo
26、ut what was said. Both the 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） He spent almost all his money. （ B） He didnt lived with his
27、brother. （ C） He didnt have any scholarship. （ D） He saved a large sum of money. （ A） His classmates know the womans mum. （ B） His classmates sends him the letters. （ C） He already promised to introduce his classmates to the womans mum. （ D） He already promised to save the stamps for his classmates.
28、 （ A） She has already found her topic. （ B） She wont sleep tonight so as to figure out her topic. （ C） She is going to have a sound sleep tonight. （ D） She will think about her essay tomorrow. （ A） She is beautiful. （ B） She earns a lot. （ C） She is a full-time worker at the Red Cross. （ D） She mana
29、ges her time efficiently. （ A） The meeting is going on in Room 241. （ B） The meeting is cancelled. （ C） The meeting is about space technology. （ D） The meeting is held in the conference room. （ A） The train will arrive on time. （ B） The train has already arrived thirteen minutes ago. （ C） The train
30、will arrive in thirteen minutes. （ D） The train will be late for thirty minutes. （ A） He doesnt know Jack. （ B） He forgets to ask Jack. （ C） Jack knows a lot about digital camera. （ D） Jack probably knows nothing about digital camera. （ A） He doesnt work hard enough. （ B） He doesnt really enjoy play
31、ing computer games. （ C） He shows equal enthusiasm on computer games and his job. （ D） He loves his job more than computer games. （ A） The rooms are smaller and darker than those in the other flat they looked at. （ B） The rooms are larger and darker than those in the other flat they looked at. （ C）
32、The rooms are brighter and smaller than those in the other flat they looked at. （ D） The rooms are brighter and larger than those in the other flat they looked at. （ A） One of them has a part-time job. （ B） They like climbing stairs because it helps them keep fit. （ C） The man is more concerned abou
33、t money than the woman. （ D） They will ride their bicycles to university. （ A） The rent. （ B） Redecorating the flat. （ C） How they can use the extra room. （ D） There is no landlady. （ A） You might not get into your first choice university. （ B） Something might change at your first choice university.
34、 （ C） There may be change in the ranking of your first choice university. （ D） Your first choice should be in your city and your back up in another city. （ A） Its in her city. （ B） She has family there. （ C） Its accounting course is highly regarded. （ D） London has good nightlife and culture. （ A） I
35、ts far from London. （ B） Edinburgh hosts cultural events. （ C） The universitys ranking. （ D） The universitys climbing club. （ A） The man is more concerned about money than the woman. （ B） The woman is more concerned about money than the man. （ C） They are equally concerned about money. （ D） Neither
36、of them is very concerned about money. Section B Directions: In this section, you 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 fou
37、r choices marked A, B, C and D. （ A） From three to five months. （ B） Three months. （ C） Five months. （ D） Four months. （ A） Watch traffic. （ B） Obey commands. （ C） Cross streets safely. （ D） Guard the doer. （ A） Three weeks. （ B） Two weeks. （ C） Four weeks. （ D） Five weeks. （ A） Three minutes. （ B）
38、Two Minutes. （ C） One minutes. （ D） Five minutes. （ A） To win a competition. （ B） To break a record. （ C） To deliver the news of victory. （ D） To win the first prize. （ A） Because he surpasses the fellow runners. （ B） Because he still can run. （ C） Because he overcomes fatigue with his will-power. （
39、 D） Because he wins the prize. （ A） A state of confusion, lacking any order. （ B） Chaos theory. （ C） An apparent lack of order in a system. （ D） Obeys particular laws or rules. （ A） Hurricanes. （ B） Cloud. （ C） Frog. （ D） Snow. （ A） One day. （ B） A few days. （ C） Half a month. （ D） A month. （ A） Sli
40、ghtest variation. （ B） Motion of the air. （ C） The butterfly effect. （ D） The atmosphere. 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
41、 time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered 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 The youn
42、g man was a French 【 B1】 _, the son of one of the richest and most important 【 B2】 _ of France. He had heard about the revolution taking place in America. He wanted to go and help. He was only eighteen years old. He was tall, handsome, and a familiar 【 B3】 _ in the high society of Paris. His family
43、tried to stop him. They asked the King of France to throw him into jail in order to stop him, but the young nobleman had al ready 【 B4】_ his own ship and 【 B5】 _ some young friends to go with him. He 【 B6】_ and came to America. The young man was the Marquis de Lafayette. Upon his arrival, he 【 B7】 _
44、 that no one knew him here. He had been 【 B8】_ that he would be an officer in the American army, 【 B9】 _. He could not go back to France. Instead, he offered to serve as a volunteer without pay. Congress accepted. Later Lafayette met Washington. 【 B10】 _.Lafayette became Washingtons personal aide. O
45、nce toward the end of the war, 【 B11】 _. Lafayette asked Congress for new uniforms. Congress had no money with which to buy uniforms. Using his own personal credit, Lafayette went to the merchants of Baltimore and, at his own expense, bought a new uniform for each man m two thousand in all. In this
46、way, his men were able to go on fighting. 37 【 B1】 38 【 B2】 39 【 B3】 40 【 B4】 41 【 B5】 42 【 B6】 43 【 B7】 44 【 B8】 45 【 B9】 46 【 B10】 47 【 B11】 Section A Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questi
47、ons or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. 48 It is self-evident that vehicles as the means of transport are playing more and more important part in modem life. But with increasing number of cars, many problems have to do with the control of man-made hazards created by cars. Traffi
48、c accidents are the most serious problem caused by vehicle. All over the world thousands upon thousands of people are killed or injured every year. Cars are the one of the greatest killers to city people. Also the car is helping to destroy the ozone layer which protects us from the harmful rays. Now
49、, we are more likely to get cancer from the sunrays. Besides, living in big cities with numerous running cars, buses, trucks, peoples health is being endangered by the harmful gases and terrible noise. As a result, city people tend to have more odd illness and get diseases in hearing and in breathing system. Moreover, vehicles add much to city peoples depression and tension. It is already very difficul
