1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 15及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then express your views on the necessity of reducing waste on campus. You should write at least 120 word
2、s hut no more than 180 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） She has trouble getting along with the professor. （ B） She knows that the professor has run into trouble. （ C） She knows that the professor has been very busy this term. （ D） She regrets having taken up much of the prof
3、essors time. （ A） He is used to the cold weather. （ B） He expected the weather to be warmer. （ C） He has never liked the weather in April. （ D） He didnt see the forecast for next week. （ A） He wont go shopping without a guard. （ B） He left his room key in a shop. （ C） He cant get into the guard room
4、. （ D） He couldnt find his room key. （ A） Wait for a taxi. （ B） Buy some food. （ C） Take a train. （ D） Book train tickets. （ A） She feels uncomfortable in water. （ B） She prefers swimming to sailing. （ C） She is also excited about sailing. （ D） She isnt sure how she feels about sailing. （ A） The lec
5、tures are usually crowded. （ B） The lecture has already started. （ C） It is easy for them to get seats. （ D） The lecture may be canceled. （ A） He will finish the paper after playing basketball. （ B） He hasnt finished doing his assignment yet. （ C） He stays in the dormitory with his roommates. （ D） H
6、e is playing basketball with his roommates. （ A） Meet him at the cafeteria. （ B） Go to the cafeteria without him. （ C） Bring him something from the cafeteria. （ D） Wait for a while until he becomes hungry. （ A） How to persuade others to do car wash. （ B） How to organize the Thanksgiving party. （ C）
7、How to get the raising-money message out. （ D） How to show the interesting things to others. （ A） Get materials to make a big banner. （ B） Print a large number of posters. （ C） Hang the banner before the student center. （ D） Have an article published in the school paper. （ A） She is good at writing
8、articles. （ B） She is very helpful. （ C） She is the smartest girl in the class. （ D） She does a good job in English class. （ A） Keeping out the cold. （ B） Keeping out the heat. （ C） Avoiding air pollution. （ D） Preventing the dust. （ A） They are light. （ B） They are water-proof. （ C） They are warm.
9、（ D） They are cheap. （ A） They have become popular. （ B） They are likely to be made. （ C） They are in use now. （ D） They will not be made. （ A） By searching information on paper. （ B） By attending a presentation on paper. （ C） By consulting experts on paper. （ D） By giving a presentation on papers.
10、Section B （ A） It started out as a soft drink. （ B） It was first a cure for headaches. （ C） It tasted bitter and no one liked it. （ D） It was sold to patients only. （ A） Heat it. （ B） Add oil to it. （ C） Shake it gently. （ D） Mix it with water. （ A） It tasted bitter. （ B） It tasted good. （ C） It was
11、 strange. （ D） It was sweet. （ A） It tastes the same as the past. （ B） It is not refreshing now. （ C） It cant cure headaches. （ D） It is much cheaper than before. （ A） Convenient. （ B） Clean. （ C） Crowded. （ D） Lovely. （ A） There are too many people. （ B） People are impolite. （ C） The streets are no
12、t wide enough. （ D） Every one is in a rush. （ A） People tend to be asleep on the trains. （ B） People usually read newspapers there. （ C） They always leave and arrive on time. （ D） There are always not enough trains. （ A） Enjoyed the wine and delicious foods. （ B） Listened to the stories of friends.
13、（ C） Sat alone and waited someone to come up. （ D） Talked to the interesting looking people. （ A） Its a good way to know each other. （ B） People care nobody except themselves. （ C） People are not interested in public affairs. （ D） People care more about themselves. （ A） We need to learn the skills o
14、f talking. （ B） Listening is easier than talking. （ C） Being a listener is more important than a talker. （ D） We need interesting topics in a party. Section C 26 Everybody wants to get wealthy. In todays【 B1】 _ world, making money or becoming wealthy symbolizes a persons success and capability. Many
15、 people just make every effort, pay any price to 【 B2】 _ greater wealth. With money, they can buy nice, large【 B3】_ in nice neighborhoods; with money they can own stately【 B4】 _ cars. Wealth seems to bring all happiness in life. But is wealth the only road to happiness? Not really. There are many th
16、ings in the world which are beyond【 B5】 _ money, such as friendship, love, health and knowledge. Many people are so preoccupied with【 B6】 _ money that they have no time or would not take the time to form or maintain friendship. What happiness can they feel living as lonely,【 B7】 _ creatures with no
17、true love or friends in the world, even if they【 B8】 _ tremendous wealth? In my opinion, people cant do anything without money, but money is not everything. What money will bring you depends on your personal【 B9】 _ and goal in life. If you are kind enough to help others, especially the poor, money i
18、s a good thing for you. With it, you can do much more for the benefit of people and your country, and it will【 B10】 _ your own happiness. If you want money just for your own needs, youll never be satisfied or happy. In a word, only if you are generous can money be the source of your happiness. 27 【
19、B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 A paper, Anatomy(剖析 )of a Large Scale Social Search Engine, laying out a strategy for social search has been getting a good deal of attention in tech circles. It was written by Damon Horowitz and Sepan
20、dar Kamvar of Aardvark, one of several companies【 C1】 _on creating social search engines. Social search【 C2】 _to connect people with questions to people who can answer those questions. By contrast, regular Web searches take questions, break them into keywords, and then find Web sites that have the m
21、ost【 C3】 _to these keywords. The idea has been floating around tech circles for years. Yahoo, among others, has tried to develop social search as a way to【 C4】 _Google. The idea has gained impulse with the increased use of Twitter and Facebook, where people【 C5】 _on their networks for information, b
22、lasting questions to their social networks and, getting useful, personalized【 C6】 _. Aardvark and its competitors are trying to create better tools for people with questions to connect to people with answers. Some people think social search has the potential to go beyond Google and【 C7】 _change the
23、way people use the Internet. From a technical standpoint, Aardvarks task is easier than Googles. But there are also some【 C8】 _shortcomings to Aardvarks approach. Getting answers through social search requires someone else to do something, so it cannot produce the【 C9】 _satisfaction that comes from
24、typing something into a Web search box and watching a page of results appear. For Aardvark to be successful, it needs to enlist the participation of【 C10】 _answerers. A)working B)researches C)aims D)responses E)fundamentally F)specializing G)constant H)primarily I)competent, J)significant K)relevanc
25、e L)instant M)relation N)challenge O)rely 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Work-life Balance: Flex Appeal A)Georgina Blizzard and Nicky Imrie decided they needed to find a more flexible working pattern when they became mothers. H
26、aving had jobs in public relations, which involved long hours and a lot of pressure, they felt their old style of working would not suit their new responsibilities and decided to find a way to make the work they enjoyed fit in with their changed lives. They launched the PR Network in 2005, when Bliz
27、zards eldest daughter, Isabella was just three months old. Both women work a three-day week, and built the running of the company around the sort of flexibility they needed. They offer the same level of flexibility to the freelance(自由职业的 )associates, matching companies of all sizes looking for freel
28、ance support with workers with the right skill set who are happy to take on contracts that fit in with their preferred pattern of hours. B)While technology now enables many workers to do their things from anywhere, at any time, recently developed forms of “extremely flexible“ working are providing a
29、 way into the workplace for more people with lifestyles that cant easily accommodate a regular working pattern. Shaking up the workplace does not just help individuals. Wingham Rowan, founder of Slivers-of-Time, a social enterprise that has devised a system allowing people to sell their available wo
30、rking time through an online marketplace, believes extremely flexible working could hold the key to a brighter future for employment in the UK. “We have to start thinking in terms of work, not jobs,“ says Rowan. C)Slivers-of-Time developed a web-based system to allow people to sell their time online
31、 to employers in tiny blocks of two hours or more, on days that suit them. More geared up for in-house staff than home workers, Slivers workers post their CV and their availability and employers can book them to cover busy periods or do a temporary piece of work. Ideal for carers, parents and anyone
32、 who wanted to use a few spare hours to earn money but found it difficult to hold down a regular job with one employer because of personal commitments, it was awarded government funding as a means to tackle worklessness. D)“The system has been particularly embraced by smaller companies,“ says Rowan.
33、 Smaller firms enjoy the opportunity to take on workers to cover small bits of time, minimising costs and enabling them to cover busy periods. “There is an office supplies company that knows the best time to call potential buyers is between certain times on a Tuesday and Wednesday, so it books staff
34、 to cover those times. Then theres a T-shirt printing company that books extra staff if they have a big order to fulfill. And the City of London has found that library inquiries are busier during the school holidays, so it takes on staff to cover those periods.“ E)The model works well for small comp
35、anies, but Slivers now has a number of large household names using its system. Helen Turner, recruitment and development manager for John Lewis in Cambridge, used Slivers-of-Time to cover the extremely busy Christmas period. “Slivers-of-Time meant we could cover gaps as small as two hours,“ Turner s
36、ays. “Once they were hired they worked various hours across the week, depending on their circumstances. We were able to call on extra resources quickly and they supported our partners.“ She says many of the staff were students, while some were carers, and the flexible model suited both the store and
37、 the staff well. F)Flexible hiring also works well for another household name, Adobe, which uses PR Networks associates to support its existing analyst relations team. Timothy Brook, senior manager of analyst relations at Adobe, says: “We were looking for skilled, knowledgeable and motivated individ
38、uals who could work without the day-to-day management or direction often required by an agency model, and who could work directly with senior management within Adobe in the UK on a number of projects.“ PR Network is in the enviable position of having grown during a recession, but although the downtu
39、rn has pushed a higher number of people into self-employment, organisations involved in flexible working practices say it cant take all the credit. G)Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder of PeoplePerHour(PPH), an online service that allows freelance workers to bid for contracts offered by businesses, says t
40、he movement towards extremely flexible working for all skill levels was already under way when the recession took hold. PPH was launched in 2007, and now has 35,000 freelancers registered on its books, and 43,000 businesses, mostly small. Thrasyvoulou says the changes in working practice are “not ju
41、st a recessionary effect“. “What is happening is a longer-term trend which has been accelerated by the recession, and one that is led by small businesses which are always more creative.“ H)Both the public sector and small businesses in the private sector are moving towards flexible styles of working
42、, according to Andy Lake, editor of the online journal flexibility.co.uk. “In the public sector, more and more contractors are being taken on,“ Lake says. “Theres evidence that things are working in different ways. In the private sector, the biggest growth area is small businesses, which are keen to
43、 grow turnover but not personnel.“ Even larger firms echo this opinion. As Adobes Brook says: “Due to the uncertain economy, we wanted the ability to dial up and dial down our commitment based on available budgets and levels of work.“ This “flexing up and down“ of the workforce may be key to the fut
44、ure of industry, opening doors for more people to pursue extremely flexible styles of working. I)According to the Confederation of British Businesss Shape of Business report, published last November, organisations will increasingly “move to a new employment model where the core of permanent staff is
45、 smaller and a greater number of freelancers, consultants and temporary workers are used“. All in all, its good news for people hoping for greater control of their work-life balance. “More organisations have adopted flexible working practices as a way of saving jobs during the recession,“ says Gilli
46、an Nissim, founder of Workingmums.co.uk. “We hope this will not just be a stop-gap measure to save money but will bring lasting changes to the UKs working culture, making it easier for women and men to balance work and family life and giving employers the diverse and committed workforce they need to
47、 thrive.“ 47 Shaking up the workplace not only helps individuals but is the key to a brighter future for employment in the UK. 48 PR Network may be envied because it has grown even in economic downturn. 49 The benefit of hiring temporary workers for small companies is to cover the busiest time with
48、minimum cost. 50 The key to the future of industry may lie in “flexing up and down“ of the workforce. 51 Working mothers would consider jobs in public relations not suitable for them because that kind of job often involves long working hours. 52 It is hoped that the flexible working practice would b
49、ring diverse and committed staff to employers. 53 The UK government offered financial assistance to Slivers-of-Time so as to decrease the unemployment rate. 54 Organisations will move to a new employment model in which the number of temporary workers will increase while the number of permanent staff will fall down. 55 Both the public sector and small businesses in the private sectors are increasingly willing to adopt flexible working style. 56 The mov
