1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 153及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay about your next-door neighbor. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） See a doctor. （ B） Stay in bed for a few days. （ C） Get treatment
2、in a better hospital. （ D） Make a phone call to the doctor. （ A） The 2:00 train will arrive earlier. （ B） The 2:30 train has a dining car. （ C） The woman prefers to take the 2:30 train. （ D） They are going to have some fast food on the train. （ A） Alice didnt seem to be nervous during her speech. （
3、B） Alice needs more training in making public speeches. （ C） The man can hardly understand Alices presentation. （ D） The man didnt think highly of Alices presentation. （ A） Its worse than 30 years ago. （ B） It remains almost the same as before. （ C） There are more extremes in the weather. （ D） There
4、 has been a significant rise in temperature. （ A） He hasnt seen any movie for a long time. （ B） The movie he saw was Gone with the Wind. （ C） It is one of the best movies he has ever seen. （ D） He likes seeing movies very much. （ A） The man can stay in her brothers apartment. （ B） Her brother can he
5、lp the man find a cheaper hotel. （ C） Her brother can find an apartment for the man. （ D） The man should have booked a less expensive hotel. （ A） Priority should be given to listening. （ B） Its most helpful to read English newspapers every day. （ C） Its more effective to combine listening with readi
6、ng. （ D） Reading should come before listening. （ A） Bill is a punctual person. （ B） Bill will come on time tonight. （ C） Bill will be late as usual. （ D） Bill wont come at all. （ A） With computer skill. （ B） With job experience. （ C） With a major in English. （ D） With multiple skills. （ A） He speaks
7、 good English and has interest in business. （ B） He has worked in an import-export company for years. （ C） Some of his classmates have found jobs in that area. （ D） He is familiar with the software Word Perfect. （ A） He will call on the general manager. （ B） His classmates will do him a favor. （ C）
8、The womans friend will help him. （ D） He will find it all by himself. （ A） She was doing housework. （ B） She was reading Jane Eyre. （ C） She was absorbed in a movie. （ D） She was talking with her sisters. （ A） Emily. （ B） Charlotte. （ C） Anne. （ D） Jane. （ A） He might have been spoiled. （ B） He wasn
9、t promoted. （ C） He didnt have his own picture. （ D） He was looked down upon. （ A） Their settings were in the 19th century. （ B） They were stories about inequality. （ C） They settled historical problems. （ D） They were published in pen names. Section B （ A） Resolve tough social and economic problems
10、. （ B） Raise the major international challenges. （ C） Collect different world views together. （ D） Encourage people to seek happiness. （ A） It will help to look at the role of governments in culture. （ B） It will create a new platform to protect environment. （ C） It will help society to develop and
11、grow. （ D） It will solve the pressing economic, social and environmental issues. （ A） Think about how to connect people around the world. （ B） To attract large number of international talent together. （ C） Discuss how cultural policy can be enriched. （ D） To share ideas of tackling cultural problems
12、. （ A） It is organized by Scotlands government. （ B） It strengthens friendships among nations （ C） It may be the greatest cultural festival. （ D） It is a unique gathering in the world. （ A） How to paint something. （ B） Who the painter Grand Wood was. （ C） Why a painting is popular. （ D） Simple farme
13、rs living in America. （ A） Because the design was too strong. （ B） Because the painting looked like a photograph. （ C） Because the painting was too simple. （ D） Because the painting seemed to laugh at farmers. （ A） The painting was making fun of people. （ B） The painting was a symbol of the US. （ C）
14、 The painting expressed an understanding of people. （ D） The painting showed the strength of American farmers. （ A） All languages have equal values. （ B） Some languages need more efforts to learn. （ C） Some languages are certainly more important. （ D） English is the most important language worldwide
15、. （ A） They predominate the English world. （ B） They are unable to adapt to the competitive world. （ C） They invest more time in learning a foreign language. （ D） They may face a depressing economic future. （ A） To do business effectively. （ B） To meet others requirement. （ C） To improve linguistic
16、skills. （ D） To promote proficiency in English. Section C 26 Juice may be tasty, but its not really that nourishing. While orange juice is an【 B1】 _ source of vitamin C, it doesnt contain a significant amount of other minerals and vitamins. Whats more, 【 B2】 _ juice consumption can cause all kinds o
17、f problems. This is especially troubling when you【 B3】 _ that children are the ones drinking most of the juice in this country. When you drink juice, youre getting【 B4】 _ water and carbohydrates(碳水化合物 ). And if you drink too much, the high carbohydrate【 B5】 _ can cause unease. Plus, juice has as man
18、y calories as soda, and, like soda, has been linked to the obesity(肥胖 )epidemic【 B6】 _ in our country. Also, for children, juice often【 B7】 _ milk because it tastes better. Children who dont drink enough milk are more likely to suffer from calcium and vitamin D deficiencies, which, in some parts of
19、the country, are in fact【 B8】 _. Finally, keeping a juice bottle in your mouth for a long time can promote tooth decay. The key to juice intake is moderation. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children under six should not drink more than six ounces of juice a day, and that older chil
20、dren shouldnt drink more than twelve ounces. All children should be【 B9】_ to go straight to the source and eat whole fruit, which contains more nourishing【 B10】 _ than juice, plus other good stuff, like fiber. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】
21、 Section A 36 If you were to tape-record one of David Lettermans comedy routines, memorize it word for word, and stand up before your friends to recite it, would you get the same【 C1】 _Letterman does? Not very likely. And why not? Because you would not【 C2】 _the jokes as Letterman does. Of course, t
22、he jokes are basically funny. But David Letterman brings something extra to the jokes his manner of presentation, his vocal inflections, his【 C3】 _timed pauses, his facial expressions, his gestures. All these are part of a(n) 【 C4】 _delivery. No one expects your speech class to transform you into a
23、multimillion-dollar talk show host. Still, this example demonstrates how important delivery can be to any public speaking situation. Even a mediocre speech will be more effective if it is presented well,【 C5】 _a wonderfully written speech can be ruined by【 C6】 _delivery. This does not mean dazzling
24、delivery will turn a mindless string of nonsense into a triumphant oration. You cannot make a good speech【 C7】 _having something to say. But having something to say is not enough. You must also know how to say it. Speech delivery is an art, not a science. What works for one speaker may【 C8】_for anot
25、her. And what succeeds with todays audience may not with tomorrows. You cannot become a skilled speaker just by following a set of rules in a textbook. In the【 C9】 _run, there is no【 C10】 _for experience. But take heart! A)deliver B)expert C)fail D)long E)perfectly F)poor G)recite H)response I)short
26、 J)substitute K)therefore L)whereas M)with N)without O)use 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 How far can Amazon go? A)WHEN Jeff Bezos left his job in finance and moved to Seattle 20 years ago to start a new firm, he rented a house
27、 with a garage, as that was where the likes of Apple and HP had been born. Although he started selling books, he called the firm Amazon because a giant river reflected the scale of his ambitions. This week the worlds leading e-commerce company unveiled its first smartphone, which Amazon treats less
28、as a communication device than an ingenious shopping platform and a way of gathering data about people in order to make even more accurate product recommendations. B)The smartphone is typical of Amazon. There is the remorseless expansion: if you can deliver books and washing machines, why not a phon
29、e? There is the ability to switch between the real world of atoms and the digital world of bits: Amazon has one of the worlds most impressive physical distribution systems, even as it has branched out into cloud computing, e-books, video streaming and music downloads(see article). There is the drive
30、 for market share over immediate profits. And there is the slightly creepy feeling that Amazon knows too much about its users already. So far its insatiable appetite has helped consumers: but as it grows in size and power the danger is that it will go too far. C)Customers who bought this item also b
31、ought. For the moment, admiration should count for more than fear. Many things the world now takes for granted were introduced by Mr. Bezos. Typing your credit-card number into a web browser was once considered a sign of insanity until Amazon showed how easy and safe buying things online could be. O
32、nce people had bought a book, they tried other things. Today the global e-commerce market is worth $1.5 trillion. D)Amazon also fostered the emergence of customer reviews. From the start it let buyers rate and review books. This still irks some professional critics, and some of the most fulsome five
33、-star ratings may be from spouses of authors. But overall they provide valuable advice to buyers. Today everything from apps to hotels to hoses can be rated online, and retail websites seem incomplete without customer reviews. E)Then there are the industries it has upended. Books came first. Amazon
34、has changed publishing twice first by making any book in the world quickly available and then by making e-books mainstream. Before Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007, e-readers were fiddly gadgets that few people used. The Kindle was easy to use, worked anywhere and allowed instant delivery straight
35、 to the device(rather than via a PC). Amazon also pioneered a new model for cloud computing. In 2006 it began renting out computer capacity by the hour. The option to rent rather than buy computing power greatly reduced the cost and complexity of launching a new company. Amazons cloud services have
36、since been used by startups including Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, Spotify and Airbnb, and have spawned a whole new industry. F)Apple may be better known as an innovator, but Amazon may have had just as big an impact on the workings of the digital world. And it keeps on experimenting. Unconstraine
37、d by a self-image as a company that does a particular thing, Amazon has dabbled in areas from Internet search to robotics to film and television development. G)Indeed,if your glasses are particularly rose-tinted, Amazon seems to have put the “long term“ back into Anglo-Saxon capitalism. At a time wh
38、en Wall Street is obsessed by quarterly results and share buy-backs , Amazon has made it clear to shareholders that, given a choice between making a profit and investing in new areas, it will always choose the latter. While other technology giants sit on record piles of cash, Amazon still has plenty
39、 of ideas about where to invest and innovate. And investors seem happy with it: Amazons price-to-earnings ratio has exceeded 3 ,500 at times. It aligns top executives interests with those of shareholders by paying them largely in stock: its highest salary is $ 175,000 a year. H)Giant selection, tiny
40、 tax bill The problem is that many of these virtues come with accompanying vices. Amazon stands accused of unfair competition of being a lousy employer, dodging tax and bullying its rivals. Amazon says median pay in its American warehouses is 30% higher than in large retail stores. On tax, the pictu
41、re is a little more nuanced. The main reason its tax bill is so low is that it does not make profits, but Amazon has also been extremely aggressive in(legally)booking profits to low-tax countries. Having campaigned against sales taxes for online transactions for many years, it has lately changed its
42、 tune, and now collects sales taxes in a growing number of American states. I)As for bullying competitors, most of this is just the savage magic of capitalism. Amazon has crushed local bookshops but only in the same way that Tesco and Wal-Mart crushed grocers by providing a cheaper, easier way to sh
43、op. However antitrust regulators must ensure it is not abusing its market power, on a case-by-case basis. For instance, Amazons current dispute with Hachette, a large publisher, may largely be a standard tussle between retailer and supplier. But when the dominant seller of e-books removes pre-order
44、buttons and makes delivery times longer for Hachette books, that hardly squares with Mr. Bezoss professed emphasis on customer service. J)Perhaps the biggest concern about Amazon is, paradoxically, a consequence of its long-term vision. It is hard to compete with a company whose shareholders do not
45、expect it to make a profit. Its vast scale and willingness to operate at zero or negative margins represent high barriers to entry for potential competitors. This cannot go on for ever. The concern is that Amazon is merely waiting for rivals to go out of business before raising its prices. If that h
46、appens, regulators should jump on it hard. That would provide an opportunity for another firm Chinas Alibaba, say and some investors might rue the Amazon earnings that never came. But consumers would once again win, as indeed they generally have done as Mr. Bezoss scrappy startup has expanded its re
47、ach into so many aspects of everyday life. 47 Customer reviews have changed many businesses nowadays. 48 Amazon paid its top executives mostly by its stock. 49 Amazons smartphone will be a better online-shopping platform with better data-collecting function. 50 Amazon focuses on investing in new are
48、as much more than making profits. 51 The long-term vision of Amazon can damage competition. 52 On-line credit card paying was once considered too dangerous to be put in use. 53 Renting out computing capacity is much cheaper than buying computers. 54 Amazon has a digital-product trading system as wel
49、l as its powerful physical distribution systems. 55 Its the Kindle that makes the e-books popular. 56 The reason that Amazon pays little tax in America is that it does not make profits. Section C 56 Iron production was revolutionized in the early eighteenth century when coke was first used instead of charcoal(木炭 )for refining iron ore. Previously the poor quality of the iron had restricted its use in architecture to items such as chains and t
