1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 148及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Education Fever based on the statistics provided in the chart below(Family Spending on Education in China). Please give a brief description of the chart first and then
2、 make comments on it. You should write at least120 words but no more than 180 words. Family Spending on Education in China Source: iResearch, Jefferies Education Fever Section A （ A） He enjoys phoning home every week. （ B） He never fails to phone home weekly. （ C） He phones home more often now. （ D）
3、 He has been asked to phone home every week. （ A） She has got an appointment. （ B） She has to go to school. （ C） She has to work. （ D） She wants to eat in a new restaurant. （ A） The teacher postponed the meeting. （ B） There wont be an exam this afternoon. （ C） The students will be attending the meet
4、ing. （ D） The students will have a physical examination. （ A） On the whole, the woman liked the film. （ B） The woman didnt see the film. （ C） The film was very exciting. （ D） The film wasnt as good as the womand expected. （ A） The man wants to go to Tokyo. （ B） The man wants to go to Shanghai. （ C）
5、There are 4 flights to Tokyo for the rest of the day. （ D） There are two direct flights to Tokyo within the next 4 hours. （ A） He went to see his cousin. （ B） He was held up in traffic. （ C） His car ran out of gas. （ D） He had a traffic accident. （ A） The woman should have finished her project by no
6、w. （ B） The woman should work on her work for one more week. （ C） The woman shouldnt have spent a week on her project. （ D） The woman has been working at a very slow pace. （ A） He got his two tickets back from Jim yesterday. （ B） He was fined for violating traffic rules twice. （ C） He was late for w
7、ork because he went back twice. （ D） He didnt see the sign because of the dim light. （ A） Read the papers. （ B） Sort out letters. （ C） Go for a jog. （ D） Have a meeting. （ A） Having regular morning meetings. （ B） Going shopping with his wife. （ C） Having evening dinner at home. （ D） Having interview
8、 with journalists. （ A） Have monthly board meetings with shareholders. （ B） Have a dinner engagement with customers. （ C） Plan the agenda for the next few days. （ D） Have weekly management committee meetings. （ A） He wants to find out their professors phone number. （ B） He wants to help the woman wi
9、th her math homework. （ C） He wants to seek help in doing his math homework. （ D） He wants to know what the math assignment is. （ A） Tonight. （ B） In two hours. （ C） Tomorrow. （ D） In a few minutes. （ A） He didnt expect the assignment to be so hard. （ B） He has already consulted his professor. （ C）
10、He and the woman often work together. （ D） He is generally a good student. （ A） She thinks its too late to help him. （ B） She agrees to work with him. （ C） She offers to do the assignment for him. （ D） She will ask help from their professor. Section B （ A） He ran a village shop. （ B） He worked on a
11、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 of living in the countryside. （ D） The decline i
12、n 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 study the relationship between b
13、rain 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 generall
14、y more 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 othe
15、rs. （ C） Consuming soft drinks. （ D） Attacking animals. （ A） Childrens friends. （ B） Parenting styles. （ C） Sleeping habits. （ D） Learning conditions. （ A） Caffeine. （ B） Sex. （ C） Sweets. （ D） Characters. Section C 26 In many countries seat belts are now compulsory for the driver and the front seat
16、 passenger at least. Doctors believe that seat belts save people from being seriously hurt in a【 B1】_, but there are some people who still think it is more dangerous to wear a seat belt than not to wear one. They think that seat belts may【 B2】 _ people in a car that is burning, or that has fallen in
17、to the water, so that they are burnt to death or【 B3】 _. But less than half of one percent of car accidents lead to fire or【 B4】 _, and in any case, a seat belt may easily save a person from being knocked【 B5】 _in an accident, so that he or she is able to undo the seat belt immediately and【 B6】 _ th
18、e automobile. Some people say that it is an attack on their【 B7】 _ to force them to wear a seat belt. But even in【 B8】 _ countries there are many things people are denied the right to do though they want to do them. How does this affect seat belts? In what way does it【 B9】 _the rights of others if s
19、omeone refuses to wear a seat belt? Well, 【 B10】 _sense tells us that a driver without a seat belt has less control of a car if there is an accident. In that case, the driver is more likely to be a danger to others, who after all also have the right to be protected as much as possible from accidents
20、. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 What do dieting and energy policy have in common? The SnackWell effect. The name comes from those tasty little cookies that are【 C1】 _as being lower in fat and sugar. But they often lead dieters
21、 to eat more of them than【 C2】 _cookies and then wonder why theyre not losing weight. It turns out theres a SnackWell effect for energy use too and it may make it tougher for us to cut back on carbon. When【 C3】 _conscious consumers buy an energy-efficient dishwasher, for example, they may feel less
22、guilty about【 C4】 _the machine more often and as a result may not end up saving much on their utility bills. Likewise, studies indicate that people who 【 C5】 _more-energy-efficient lights lose 5% to 12% of the expected savings by leaving them on longer. Much like dieters eating too many SnackWells,
23、we can fail in our attempts to save energy and money. So resist the【 C6】 _to raise your thermostat(恒温器 )after you buy a more efficient furnace; lower the temperature by a degree and shave another 1% off your heating bill. But even if we do what Jimmy Carter did and wear a 70s-style sweater all winte
24、r, we may end up spending those energy savings somewhere else like on a plane【 C7】_to Bermuda. A report estimated that【 C8】 _, this effect could reduce the savings from energy efficiency by 10% or more. That doesnt mean energy-efficiency measures are【 C9】 _ or that we should never go on vacation. Bu
25、t it does mean that cutting back on energy【 C10】 _, like dieting, is not an excuse to stuff ourselves on less guilty pleasures. A)ride B)urge C)saving D)special E)regular F)advertised G)install H)environmentally I)globally J)route K)acting L)running M)consumption N)operated O)useless 37 【 C1】 38 【 C
26、2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Designing for sustainability: what are the challenges behind green materials? A)Learning to surf in Californias icy breakers, Todd Copeland, a design master at the Patagonia clothing company, concluded that wets
27、uits(潜水服 )werent cutting it. Sure, a traditional Neoprene(氯丁橡胶 )suit could keep him warm, but the suits material could be synthesised only from non-renewable, energy-intensive resources such as petroleum. B)In spring 2008, Copeland blogged about the need for a truly green alternative. And, later tha
28、t summer, his cry found its way to Yulex, an Arizona-based company working to bring back a low-energy, low-poison recipe for rubber from guayule(银胶菊 ), a desert bush native to North America. Research on the plant peaked during the Second World War but was then shelved. Yulex had restarted the work a
29、round 2000 and was making hypo-allergenic(低过敏的 )surgical gloves, but was seeking a new market. It saw Copelands post, and soon its representatives came knocking. C)Yulexs efforts are set to pay off later this fall, when Patagonia releases a full wetsuit made from a 60:40 blend of guayule and convent
30、ional Neoprene, five years after Copeland initiated the search. “We hope to get that to 100% guayule, but it takes time to learn a new material,“ says Copeland, now Patagonias environmental product specialist. D)This lucky match between designer and material maker is, unfortunately, a rare exception
31、. The tale of Patagonias eco-wetsuit offers a lesson of the larger challenge facing green materials on the path from lab to market. The process remains a complex web that few materials survive. But a recent survey of design leaders reveals that while eco-materials still face a tougher journey than t
32、heir conventional peers, the process of green technology transfer is making progress. E)Though spotty, statistics on green materials markets are all pointing up. The building industry is one of the largest shifting towards lower-impact practices. In the US, the green construction market is worth rou
33、ghly $100bn, a ten-fold rise since 2006, according to the 2013 Dodge Construction Green Outlook. As a share, green construction now accounts for 44% of total US commercial and institutional construction, up from near zero a decade ago. F)Evidence suggests that big corporations are deepening their co
34、mmitment to these priorities, as well. For example, Green adoption has also been accelerating at Ford. A decade ago, engineers at the No. 2 US automaker were distrustful of the cost and performance benefits of alternatives. Today, following a storm of successful material substitutions, design engine
35、ers are required to evaluate and pick green candidates where they equal or exceed conventional materials. G)Fords shift didnt come quickly. “We were kicked out of conference rooms,“ laughs Debbie Mielewski, technical leader for Plastics Research at Ford Motor Co, recalling her efforts in the early 2
36、000s to pitch bio-based plastics to the car makers internal development engineers. “They saw only risk and additional cost,“ she says. But thanks to the protection of Bill Ford Jr, the companys then CEO, Fords bio-plastics R&D program had the time and funding to mature new offerings to the point whe
37、re today soy-based polyurethane foams(大豆聚氨酯泡沫塑料 )are used in the seat cushions, backs, and headrests of all vehicles built in North America. A focus on value and performance has helped reverse early disbelief. “Our goal has always been to match the price and performance of any material were hoping t
38、o replace,“ she says. H)As its commitment to recover and re-use waste carpet materials started to take root in the 1990s, Atlanta-based Interface, a $lbn-per-year manufacturer of carpet used primarily in commercial spaces, recognised it could push this goal only as quickly as a key fibre supplier, I
39、talys Aquafil, was able to develop and scale-up processes to harvest fibers from recovered carpets and to then re-melt them for use in new carpeting. “This was more of us pushing recycled materials,“ by Interface, “rather than a pull“ from the market, says Nigel Stansfield, Interfaces vice president
40、 and chief innovations officer. “We had to overcome a perception that recycled was more costly, or performed less well.“ I)Interface also faced a reverse logistics(物流 )challenge: it had to work with existing and new partners to learn how to capture and truck tons of carpet back to its partner plants
41、. “To make this work, weve had to focus on all parts of the products life cycle at once,“ Stansfield says. At the installation phase, for example, this has meant educating flooring installers to abandon long-standing practices of gluing carpets down, which damages the material at the later recovery
42、stage. Interface instead relies on gravity and strong gluey patches to link its carpet tile and keep carpets locked down. And at the end-of-use stage, the move has meant developing reverse logistics flows, to steer carpet waste away from landfills, and back to re-processors such as Aquafil. J)Design
43、ers are widely frustrated by a lack of consistent, reliable services that can verify green materials virtues. The industry needs a “greenwash monitor(漂绿监控 ),“ Patagonias Copeland says. There has been some movement toward this goal, with efforts including Nikes MAKING app, Material Connexion, and the
44、 Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Green materials can fail an evaluation for many reasons. A few years ago, Patagonia became interested in bamboo-based fabrics. The cultivation of fast-growing bamboo was appealing as a sustainable raw material. But on deeper investigation, Patagonia passed on the ne
45、w fabrics because the process to convert bamboo into fibres proved just as poisonous as the standard method. K)“Most clients think that sustainable design is simply a case of switching existing material for a greener option,“ says Chris Sherwin, head of sustainability at Seymourpowell, a London-base
46、d design advisor. “Same product, new material: thats wrong on many grounds.“ Sherwin argues that its critical to understand that the stuff from which a product is made often accounts for only a tiny fraction of the impact of the use-phase of a products lifetime. Hence, its smarter for laundry soap m
47、akers to improve the performance of their cleansers in cold water rather than focus solely on revising packaging. “We should start with more fundamental product redesign,“ Sherwin says. “We must start by asking, how will the consumers needs best be satisfied, and design accordingly.“ 47 Even though
48、the process of green technology transfer is hard, its improving. 48 Bamboo failed the green material evaluation not because of the material itself but because of its process to convert into fibres. 49 The research on guayule wasnt at its height when Yulex started its work on it. 50 Taking factors li
49、ke the cost and performance benefits into consideration, engineers at Ford didnt trust green materials about ten years ago. 51 Interface started committing to using recycled materials in the 1990s. 52 Nearly half of the US commercial and institutional construction is now green. 53 Most clients view that sustainable design means producing the same products with green material is wrong. 54 The focus on risk and additional cost nearly got Fords bio-plas
