1、大学英语四级模拟试卷 874及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing (30 minutes) 1 (1) 人们有各种各样的出国理由； (2) 很多人理由太片面； (3) 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. Fo
2、r questions 1-7, mark： Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with 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 Lessons from the Titanic From the comfort of our mo
3、dern lives we tend to look back at the mm of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travelers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of t
4、he time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanics maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. Her builders, crew a
5、nd passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her. The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who ha
6、d paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. And with nine decks, she was as high as an eleven- storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first-class, 285 second-class and 710 third-class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very e
7、xperienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried enough food to feed a small town. RMS Titanic was believed to be unsinkable because the hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these compartments flooded, the ship could still float. The ships owners could not imagin
8、e that, in the case of an accident, the Titanic would not be able to float until she was rescued. It was largely as a result of this confidence in the ship and in the safety of ocean travel that the disaster could claim such a great loss of life. Iceberg Locations Not Plotted In the ten hours prior
9、to the Titanics fatal collision with an iceberg at 11:40 pm, six warnings of icebergs in her path were received by the Titanics wireless operators. Only one of these messages was formally posted on the bridge, the others were in various locations across the ship. If the combined information in these
10、 messages of iceberg positions had been plotted, the ice field which lay across the Titanics path would have been apparent. Instead, the lack of formal procedures for dealing with information from a relatively new piece of technology, the wireless, meant that the danger was not known until too late.
11、 This was not the fault of the Titanic crew. Procedures for dealing with warnings received through the wireless had not been familiarized across the shipping industry at the time. The fact that the wireless operators were rather contracted workers from a wireless company, made their role in the ship
12、s operation quite unclear. Captains Over-confidence Captain Smiths seemingly casual attitude in increasing the speed on that day to a dangerous 22 knots or 41 kilometers per hour, can then be partly explained by his ignorance of what lay ahead. But this only partly accounts for his actions, since th
13、e spring weather in Greenland was known to cause huge chunks of ice to break off from the glaciers (冰河 ). Captain Smith knew that these icebergs would float southward and had already acknowledged this danger by taking a more southerly route than at other times of the year. So why was the Titanic tra
14、veling at high speed when he knew? Captain Smith was following the practices accepted on the North Atlantic, practices which had coincided with forty years of safe travel. He believed, wrongly as we now know, that the ship could turn or stop in time if an iceberg was sighted by the lookouts. There w
15、ere around two and a half hours between the time the Titanic rammed into the iceberg and its final submersion. At this time 705 people were loaded into the twenty lifeboats. There were 473 empty seats available on lifeboats while over 1,500 people drowned. These figures raise two important issues. F
16、irstly, why there were not enough lifeboats to seat every passenger and crew member on board. And secondly, why the lifeboats were not full. Low Priority Placed on Safety The Titanic had sixteen lifeboats and four collapsible boats which could carry just over half the number of people on board her m
17、aiden voyage and only a third of the Titanics total capacity. Regulations for the number of lifeboats required were based on outdated British Board of Trade regulations written in 1894 for ships a quarter of the Titanics size, and had never been revised. Under these requirements, the Titanic was onl
18、y obliged to carry enough lifeboats to seat 962 people. At design meetings in 1910, the shipyards managing director, Alexander Carlisle, had proposed that forty-eight lifeboats be installed on the Titanic, but the idea had been quickly rejected as too expensive. Ignorance of the Impending Disaster T
19、he belief that the Titanic was unsinkable was so strong that passengers and crew alike clung to the belief even as she was actually sinking. This attitude was not helped by Captain Smith, who had not acquainted his senior officers with the full situation. For the first hour after the collision, the
20、majority of people aboard the Titanic, including senior crew, were not aware that she would sink, that there were insufficient lifeboats or that the nearest ship responding to the Titanics distress (遇险信号 ) calls would arrive two hours after she was on the bottom of the ocean. As a result, the office
21、rs in charge of loading the boats received a very halfhearted response to their early calls for women and children to board the lifeboats. People felt that they would be safer, and certainly warmer, aboard the Titanic than perched in a litde boat in the North Adantic Ocean. Not realizing the magnitu
22、de of the coming disaster themselves, the officers allowed several boats to be lowered only half full. Inadequate Training Procedures again were at fault, as an additional reason for the officers reluctance to lower the lifeboats at full capacity was that they feared the lifeboats would buckle under
23、 the weight of 65 people. They had not been informed that the lifeboats had been fully tested prior to departure. Such procedures as assigning passengers and crew to lifeboats and lifeboat loading drills were simply not part of the standard operation of ships nor were they included in crew training
24、at that time. As the Titanic sank, another ship, believed to have been the Californian, was seen motionless less than twenty miles away. The ship failed to respond to the Titanics eight distress rockets. Although the officers of the Californian tried to signal the Titanic with their flashing Morse l
25、amp, they did not wake up their radio operator to listen for a distress call. After the Titanic sank, investigations were held in both Washington and London. In the end, both inquires decided that no one could be blamed for the sinking. However, they did address the fundamental safety issues which h
26、ad contributed to the enormous loss of life. As a result, international agreements were drawn up to improve safety procedures at sea. The new regulations covered 24 hour wireless operation, crew training, proper lifeboat drills, lifeboat capacity for all on board and the creation of an international
27、 ice patrol. 2 The enormous loss of life on the Titanic was primarily caused by inadequate equipment, training and procedures. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 3 Nobody had thought of installing enough lifeboats to accommodate all the passengers and crew in the event of an emergency. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 4 Ca
28、ptain Smith didnt inform his officers of the tree situation because he didnt want to cause a panic. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 5 The lifeboats would have buckled if they had been fully loaded. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 6 The number of lifeboats on the Titanic met the regulations for much smaller ships but no
29、t the Titanic. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 7 The Captain of the Californian could have brought his ship to safety if he had realized that the Titanic was sinking. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 8 Standard operating procedure is most at fault for the magnitude of the Titanic disaster. （ A） Y （ B） N （ C） NG 9 Passen
30、ger ships across the North Atlantic Ocean had had an excellent safety record in the _. 10 The Titanics owners were _ that even if the Titanic was letting in water, she would float indefinitely until help arrived. 11 The Titanics safety feature, which convinced most people that she wouldnt sink, was
31、her sixteen _. 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 the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there wi
32、ll 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） The centre has just opened. （ B） Hes looking forward to using the centre. （ C） The door to the fitness centre is locked. （ D） There are long lines to get into the centre. （
33、 A） The woman is mailing them to Garys old address. （ B） The post office is sending them to the womans house. （ C） They are being held to Garys apartment. （ D） They are being held at the post office. （ A） She has gotten behind in her work. （ B） Her computer is the latest model. （ C） She keeps her co
34、mputer at home. （ D） She doesnt have a computer. （ A） Dan isnt a very good violinist. （ B） Someone else should make the introductions. （ C） There will be other musicians to be introduced. （ D） Its rather late to ask Dan to slow down. （ A） Writing an article. （ B） Studying for a chemistry test. （ C）
35、Shopping for shoes. （ D） Reading a magazine. （ A） Stop bothering the woman. （ B） Take the womans book with him. （ C） Show the woman how to get to the library. （ D） Ask someone else to go to the library. （ A） He has bad study habits. （ B） He sleeps too much. （ C） He wakes up early. （ D） Hes an excell
36、ent student. （ A） The library is closed tonight. （ B） He doesnt know how to get to the library. （ C） Jean is using his car. （ D） He wont be able to help the woman. （ A） Searching for reference material. （ B） Watching a film of the 1930s. （ C） Writing a course book. （ D） Looking for a job in a movie
37、studio. （ A） It s too broad to cope with. （ B） It s a bit outdated. （ C） It s controversial. （ D） It s of little practical value. （ A） At the end of the online catalogue. （ B） At the Reference Desk. （ C） In The New York Times. （ D） In the Reader s Guide to Periodical Literature. （ A） Buying a pair o
38、f Adidas tennis shoes. （ B） Asking her father about Adidas shoes. （ C） Discussing with her father about Adidas shoes. （ D） Joining the tennis club in school. （ A） They dont help sports players at all. （ B） They don t live up to their fame. （ C） They may be comfortable but are too expensive. （ D） The
39、y are good for track and field sports but not for ball games. （ A） He and his friends have never worn Adidas. （ B） Adidas is just for great sports players like the Chicago Bulls. （ C） Adidas helps sports players do better. （ D） He has always wanted to wear Adidas shoes. （ A） He thinks Adidas would c
40、ost him quite a lot of money. （ B） He doesnt think Joyce will run. （ C） He doesnt think the shoes will help Joyce in the games. （ D） He doesnt think Joyce will play sports for long. Section B Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some
41、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） Wednesday. （ B） Monday. （ C） Friday. （ D） Sunday. （ A） They become increasingly cheerful from Friday to Saturday. （ B） T
42、hey are as depressed on Wednesday as expected. （ C） Most of them thought they felt lowest on Monday. （ D） They thought they felt happiest on Sunday. （ A） Mondays are as depressing as they have feared. （ B） Fridays and Saturdays are as exciting as predicted. （ C） Their mood almost stays the same thro
43、ughout the week. （ D） Their mood depends on how to spend their time. （ A） Whether they should take the child home. （ B） What Dr. Myers instructions exactly were. （ C） Who should take care of the child at home. （ D） When the child would completely recover. （ A） She encourages them to ask questions wh
44、en in doubt. （ B） She makes them write down all her instructions. （ C） She has them act out what they are to do at home. （ D） She asks them to repeat what they are supposed to do. （ A） It lacks the stability of the printed word. （ B） It contains many grammatical errors. （ C） It is heavily dependent
45、on the context. （ D） It facilitates interpersonal communication. （ A） Because women do much work than men. （ B） Because people think women weaker than men. （ C） Because sport is easier for men than for women. （ D） Because in sport the two sexes are always separate. （ A） They want to please women. （
46、B） They want to tell the truth. （ C） They think women are as good as men. （ D） They think women are as strong as men. （ A） The European women who live until the age of seventy-four. （ B） Some of the teenage girls. （ C） The women swimmers who are given hormone injections. （ D） The woman athlete who s
47、wam 400 meters within 4 minutes and 59.1 seconds. （ A） At Olympics, sport has been ruined. （ B） At Olympics, doctors must be taken in the sports with the athlete. （ C） At Olympics, some athletes are not honest. （ D） At Olympics, female sex is very complicated. Section C Directions: In this section,
48、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 numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbere
49、d 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 These days people who do manual work often receive far more money than people who work in offices. People who work in offices are【 B1】 referred to as “white-collar workers“ for the simple reason that they usually wear a【 B2】 and tie to go to work. Such is human【 B3】 , that a great many people are often willing to【 B4】 higher pay f
