1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 152及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief account of the picture below and then elaborate the importance of exercise for human beings. You should wri
2、te at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） Julias friends dont call her very often. （ B） Julia doesnt like talking with her friends. （ C） Julia likes chatting on the phone with her friends. （ D） Julia doesnt have many friends. （ A） In a library. （ B） In a book store. （ C） In a
3、card store. （ D） In a 17th century building. （ A） Bring his ID card to buy the ticket. （ B） Go to Los Angeles by train. （ C） Get a ticket from other airlines. （ D） Buy the ticket at the airlines counter. （ A） He didnt work as hard as he was supposed to. （ B） He didnt pass the physics exam. （ C） He d
4、id better in an earlier exam. （ D） He found something wrong with the exam. （ A） It was disconnected due to late payment. （ B） It was broken by the man. （ C） It was taken back by the phone company. （ D） Its line was cut off. （ A） He used to be her doctor. （ B） There are better doctors than him in tow
5、n. （ C） Its difficult to meet him. （ D） He is a good doctor. （ A） The band members have been working hard. （ B） The band members are being paid to play. （ C） The band will perform better in the future. （ D） The band has never performed wonderfully. （ A） He left his notes at home. （ B） He doesnt know
6、 where his notes are. （ C） He doesnt want to lend his notes to her. （ D） He agrees to lend her his notes. （ 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.
7、（ D） Having interview 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
8、 to help the woman with 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
9、 his professor. （ C） 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.
10、 （ B） He worked on a 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 countrysid
11、e. （ D） The decline in 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 r
12、elationship between brain 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. （
13、D） Women are generally 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.
14、（ B） Laughing at others. （ 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 If you wipe a finger across a household surface that hasnt b
15、een cleaned in the last few days, chances are youll【 B1】 _ with dust. Look around and youll find the stuff everywhere, from the particles【 B2】 _ in the sunlight to the fine【 B3】_ of dirt coating TV screens, bookshelves, and car dashboards. Dust comes from everything and, like death and taxes, you ca
16、nt avoid it. When thingsshoes, rocks, plants, socks, anything at allbegin to【 B4】 _, they release tiny pieces of themselves into the air. These【 B5】 _ bits settle everywhere, and because matter is always coming apart, dust production is a never-ending business. In a typical household, dust【 B6】 _ ma
17、inly of things such as dead insect parts, sheets of skin, food particles, and pieces of fabric. But not all dust is the product of natural【 B7】 _; we create amazing quantities of dust everyday. For example, a single puff(吸 )of a cigarette contains an estimated four billion large dust particles. Indu
18、stry of all sorts, from the【 B8】 _ of a piece of wood to large-scale steel manufacturing, creates particular kinds of dust. In short, dust is all around, ever, in the air we breathe. Because its particles are so small, dust is highly【 B9】 _. Westward winds regularly blow dust from the Sahara desert
19、across the Atlantic and into the【 B10】 _ above American coastal towns, where it contributes to some thrilling sunsets. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 New research shows that children born after unplanned pregnancies develop mor
20、e slowly than children whose parents had planned their pregnancy. However, once the results are adjusted to take into【 C1】 _socioeconomic【 C2】 _, these differences disappear. A team from the University of Oxford used data from the Millennium Cohort Study to【 C3】 _the effect of pregnancy planning on
21、childhood development. The Millennium Cohort Study collected【 C4】 _from parents of children born between 2000 and 2001 in the U. K. when the children were 9 months old, and then revisited them at age 3, 5 and 7. The researchers, led by Claire Carson of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the
22、 university, found that children whose parents had not planned to have a baby had worse verbal and non-verbal skills, and spatial【 C5】 _, than their planned counterparts,【 C6】 _behind by around five months at age 5. The team also looked at the development of children born as a result of IVF treatmen
23、t and found that they were three to four months ahead in terms of their development than children who had been planned. These differences didnt【 C7】 _disappear when the results were adjusted for the familys【 C8】 _but it follows that more privileged families are more likely to be able to afford expen
24、sive IVF treatment. Other advantages associated with a【 C9】 _socioeconomic position include more highly educated parents and more parental involvement. “ At the other end of the spectrum, “ the authors write, “ children born after mistimed or unplanned pregnancies might have【 C10】 _to fewer educatio
25、nal resources, such as books, puzzles, trips to library. “ A)access B)account C)awareness D)beneficial E)benevolent F)circumstances G)data H)distinguish I)factors J)investigate K)involving L)lagging M)surveyed N)totally O)unexpectedly 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44
26、 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Genetically Modified FoodsFeed the World? A)If you want to spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic of genetically modified foods. For many people, the concept of genetically altered, high-tech crop production raises all kinds of environmenta
27、l , health, safety and ethical questions. Particularly in countries with long agrarian traditions and vocal green lobbiesthe idea seems against nature. B)In fact, genetically modified foods are already very much a part of our lives. A third of the corn and more than half the soybeans and cotton grow
28、n in the U.S. last year were the product of biotechnology, according to the Department of Agriculture. More than 65 million acres of genetically modified crops will be planted in the U.S. this year. The genetic is out of the bottle. C)Yet there are clearly some very real issues that need to be resol
29、ved. Like any new product entering the food chain, genetically modified foods must be subjected to rigorous testing. In wealthy countries, the debate about biotech is tempered by the fact that we have a rich array of foods to choose fromand a supply that far exceeds our needs. In developing countrie
30、s desperate to feed fast-growing and underfed populations, the issue is simpler and much more urgent: do the benefits of biotech outweigh the risks? D)The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the worlds population reached 6 billion. And by 2050, the U. N. estimates, i
31、t will probably near 9 billion. Almost all that growth will occur in developing countries. At the same time, the worlds available cultivable land per person is declining. Arable land has declined steadily since 1960 and will decease by half over the next 50 years, according to the International Serv
32、ice for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications(ISAAA). E)The U. N. estimates that nearly 800 million people around the world are undernourished. The effects are devastating. About 400 million women of childbearing age are iron deficient, which means their babies are exposed to various birth de
33、fects. As many as 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of blindness. Tens of millions of people suffer from other major ailments and nutritional deficiencies caused by lack of food. F)How can biotech help? Biotechnologists have developed genetically modified rice th
34、at is fortified with beta-carotenewhich the body converts into vitamin Aand additional iron, and they are working on other kinds of nutritionally improved crops. Biotech can also improve farming productivity in places where food shortages are caused by crop damage attribution to pests, drought, poor
35、 soil and crop viruses, bacteria or fungi(真菌 ). G)Damage caused by pests is incredible. The European corn borer, for example, destroys 40 million tons of the worlds corn crop annually, about 1% of the total. Incorporating pest-resistant genes into seeds can help restore the balance. In trials of pes
36、t-resistant cotton in Africa, yields have increased significantly. So far, fears that genetically modified, pest-resistant crops might kill good insects as well as bad appear unfounded. H)Viruses often cause massive failure in staple crops in developing countries. Two years ago, Africa lost more tha
37、n half its cassava(木薯 )cropa key source of caloriesto the mosaic virus. Genetically modified , virus-resistant crops can reduce that damage, as can drought-tolerant seeds in regions where water shortages limit the amount of land under cultivation. Biotech can also help solve the problem of soil that
38、 contains excess aluminum, which can damage roots and cause many staple-crop failures. A gene that helps neutralize aluminum toxicity in rice has been identified. I)Many scientists believe biotech could raise overall crop productivity in developing countries as much as 25% and help prevent the loss
39、of those crops after they are harvested. J)Yet for all that promise, biotech is far from being the whole answer. In developing countries, lost crops are only one cause of hunger. Poverty plays the largest role. Today more than 1 billion people around the globe live on less than $ 1 a day. Making gen
40、etically modified crops available will not reduce hunger if farmers cannot afford to grow them or if the local population cannot afford to buy the food those farmers produce. K)Nor can biotech overcome the challenge of distributing food in developing countries. Taken as a whole, the world produces e
41、nough food to feed everyonebut much of it is simply in the wrong place. Especially in countries with undeveloped transport infrastructures, geography restricts food availability as dramatically as genetics promises to improve it. L)Biotech has its own “distribution“ problems. Private-sector biotech
42、companies in the rich countries carry out much of the leading-edge research on genetically modified crops. Their products are often too costly for poor farmers in the developing world, and many of those products wont even reach the regions where they are most needed. Biotech firms have a strong fina
43、ncial incentive to target rich markets first in order to help them rapidly recoup the high costs of product development. But some of these companies are responding to needs of poor countries. A London-based company, for example, has announced that it will share with developing countries technology n
44、eeded to produce vitamin-enriched “golden rice“. M)More and more biotech research is being carried out in developing countries. But to increase the impact of genetic research on the food production of those countries, there is a need for better collaboration between government agenciesboth local and
45、 in developed countriesand private biotech firms. The ISAAA, for example, is successfully partnering with the U. S. Agency for International Development, local researches and private biotech companies to find and deliver biotech solutions for farmers in developing countries. N)Will “frankenfoods“ fe
46、ed the world? Biotech is not a panacea, but it does promise to transform agriculture in many developing countries. If that promise is not fulfilled, the real losers will be their people, who could suffer for years to come. 47 It is predicted that the growth population from now to 2050 is nearly all
47、in developing countries. 48 Better cooperation between government agencies of developing countries and private biotech firms will help boost the impact of genetic research on the food production. 49 Genetically modified crops can help to improve nutrient contents and farming productivity. 50 Inserti
48、ng pest-resistant genes into seeds can help increase the yields without killing good insects. 51 It has already been proved that a gene can help alleviate aluminum toxicity in rice. 52 Majority of people believe genetically modified crop causes environmental problems. 53 Over fifty percent of the so
49、ybeans planted in the U. S. last year were genetically modified. 54 People in the developing world, though in urgent need of biotech, cannot afford it. 55 The debate on genetically modified foods is more heated in developing countries because of the rapid growth of malnourished populations. 56 The most important factor that leads to hunger in developing countries is poverty. Section C 56 In todays economy, its tough enough being a restaurant ow
