1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 162及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay entitled College Students Booklist based on the statistics provided in(he table below. Please give a brief description of the table first and then make comments on it. You should wr
2、ite at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） A newly open casino nearby. （ B） A mobile phone with Internet access. （ C） A registered account on special sites. （ D） Knowledge of mobile Internet system. （ A） Europe. （ B） Asia. （ C） South Korea.
3、（ D） Japan. （ A） The story of a survivor. （ B） The power of the tsunami. （ C） The rescue of a survivor. （ D） The struggle between man and nature. （ A） A month. （ B） Three weeks. （ C） Three days. （ D） Two days. （ A） Impose penalties to Iran. （ B） Stop the meeting of IAEA （ C） Call for a close-door me
4、eting in London. （ D） Restart Irans nuclear program. （ A） Reaching agreement. （ B） Still being undecided. （ C） Breaking down. （ D） Being controversial. （ A） To convince Russia to give more pressure on Iran. （ B） To refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council. （ C） To impose tough sanctions on Iran. （ D）
5、 To adopt a diplomatic settlement with Iran. Section B （ A） Giving up smoking. （ B） Birth control of the family. （ C） Plan for seeing a doctor. （ D） Arrangement for breaking engagement. （ A） Smoking helps to lessen the pressure. （ B） Smoking helps him fall asleep quickly. （ C） He can get much happin
6、ess from smoking. （ D） Smoking brings more chances to make friends. （ A） See a doctor to get some help. （ B） Read books about the harm of smoking. （ C） Improve his self-controlling abilities. （ D） Receive mental health treatment. （ A） Smoking is the only bad habit the man should change. （ B） She doe
7、snt love the man as deep as before. （ C） She doesnt want to have a baby if the man smokes. （ D） Maybe she will leave the man if he continues to smoke. （ A） It is a house full of cleverly-designed device. （ B） It can help people live a much easier life. （ C） It is the most comfortable house available
8、. （ D） It expresses the newest architectural style. （ A） The door will open with just a touch of the finger. （ B） The refrigerator can figure out how much milk to buy. （ C） The robot can do all the housework very efficiently. （ D） The house can put out a fire in a very short time. （ A） It can do the
9、 washing automatically. （ B） He can do it all by himself. （ C） It can remind him to do it when necessary. （ D） He can ask the robot to do it. （ A） Its too wonderful to be true. （ B） Its too expensive for her. （ C） She considers it nothing fancy. （ D） She is considering buying one. Section C （ A） It
10、Was published in 1608. （ B） It was a list of everyday words. （ C） It included 3,000 important words. （ D） Each word in it was defined by one word. （ A） It was the first dictionary that also included easy words. （ B） It gave good sentences to show the usage of the words. （ C） It was the first English
11、 dictionary. （ D） It contained twenty volumes. （ A） It has a lot of volumes. （ B） It was planned and prepared by scholars. （ C） It gives good meanings to the words. （ D） It traces each words history. （ A） Confident. （ B） Energetic. （ C） Discouraged. （ D） Anxious. （ A） This group exercises regularly
12、in gyms. （ B） This group cares about body image. （ C） This group is more self-aware. （ D） This group tends to feel tired more easily. （ A） Hiking is particularly beneficial. （ B） They should set a time limit to their exercise. （ C） There are other ways to work out. （ D） They had better not do exerci
13、ses in a gym. （ A） The transactions are under close supervision. （ B） Paperwork has been totally replaced by computers. （ C） The transactions are processed only by computers. （ D） There is no reason for the staff to steal money. （ A） It is hard to find evidence and witnesses. （ B） They dont use guns
14、. （ C） Such kind of crimes are usually not detected. （ D） It is hard to catch them. （ A） By transferring money among different accounts. （ B） By replacing the missing money through gambling. （ C） By making computer errors artificially. （ D） By changing the account information. （ A） Laws about comput
15、er crimes are imperfect. （ B） There are many potential criminals hiding in the bank. （ C） Computer crimes committed by minor employees exist widely. （ D） Computer crimes committed by real computer experts exist widely. Section A 26 Next time you enter a username and password, think about the rhythm
16、of your typing. Not only can it be used to identify you, it can reveal if you are in a stressful environment. It has long been known that the rhythms of a persons typing style are【 C1】_over time, leading to suggestions they could be used to【 C2】 _identity or even spot early signs of Alzheimers disea
17、se. But little was known about the effect of stress on typing【 C3】 _, so psychologist Mike Dowman and colleagues at the University of Abertay investigated. They asked 35 people to log into a computer 36 times over three【 C4】_sessions up to a month apart, using the same username and password. People
18、were put into【 C5】 _and relaxed states alternately(交替地 )by listening to a range of sounds known to【 C6】 _particular emotions. The length of time each key was held down and the【 C7】 _between one being released and another pressed was recorded to generate a typing “fingerprint“ for each person. The te
19、am used the data to develop and test software that identifies a person from their typing style【 C8】 _. The data also showed that stress can be【 C9】 _in a persons typing because it changes the pattern of timings. “Theres no question: people do type【 C10】 _under stress,“ says Dowman. He suggests that
20、security systems could be designed to raise the alarm if it seems that a person might be being forced to log into a system. More research will be needed, however, before a system could tell if a person is, say, just having a bad day or being held at gunpoint. A)stressed E)interval I)differently M)no
21、rmally B)alone F)verify J)environments N)patterns C)provoke G)only K)detected O)separate D)stable H)unchangeable L)complete 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Having Kids Makes You Happy? AWhen I was growing up, our former neighbor
22、s, whom well call the Sloans, were the only couple on the block without kids. It wasnt that they couldnt have children: according to Mr. Sloan, they just chose not to. All the other parents, including mine, thought it was odd even tragic. So any bad luck that happened to the Sloans the egging of the
23、ir house one Halloween: the landslide(山崩 )that sent their pool careering to the street below was somehow attributed to that fateful decision theyd made so many years before. “Well,“ the other adults would say, “you know they never did have kids.“ Each time I visited the Sloans, Id search for signs o
24、f insanity, misery or even regret in their super clean home, yet I never seemed to find any. From what I could tell, the Sloans were happy, maybe even happier than my parents, despite the fact that they were childless. BMy impressions may have been swayed by the fact that their candy dish was always
25、 full, but several studies now show that the Sloans could well have been more satisfied than most of the traditional families around them. In Daniel Gilberts 2006 book Stumbling on Happiness, the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreas
26、es dramatically after the birth of the first child and increases only when the last child has left home. He also finds out that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008s Gross National Happiness author, Arthur C. Brooks, find
27、s that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless. CThe most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term “bundle of joy“ may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. “Parents experience low
28、er levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers,“ says Florida State Universitys Robin Simon. “In fact, no group of parents married, single, step or even empty nest reported significantly greater emotional well-being t
29、han people who never had children. Its such an unexpected finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and theyre not.“ DSimon received plenty of hate mail in response to her research, which isnt surprising. Her findings shake the very fou
30、ndation of what weve been raised to believe is true. In a recent Newsweek Poll, 50 percent of Americans said that adding new children to the family tends to increase happiness levels. Only one in six(16 percent)said that adding new children had a negative effect on the parents happiness. But which p
31、arent is willing to admit that the greatest gift life has to offer has in fact made his or her life less enjoyable? EParents may openly complain their lack of sleep, busy schedules and difficulty in dealing with their bad-tempered teens, but rarely will they cop to feeling depressed due to the every
32、day rigors of child rearing. “If you admit that kids and parenthood arent making you happy, its basically blasphemy(亵渎 ),“ says Jen Singer, a stay-at-home mother of two from New Jersey who runs the popular parenting blog MommaS. “From baby-cream commercials that make motherhood look happy and well r
33、ested, to commercials for Disney World where youre supposed to feel like a kid because youre there with your kids, weve made parenthood out to be one extremely happy moment after another, and its disappointing when you find out its not.“ FIs it possible that American parents have always been this di
34、sillusioned? Anecdotal(轶事的 )evidence says no. In pre-industrial America, parents certainly loved their children, but their offspring also served a purpose to work the farm, contribute to the household. Children were a necessity. Today, we have kids more for emotional reasons, but an increasingly com
35、plicated work and social environment has made finding satisfaction far more difficult. A key study by University of Wisconsin-Madisons Sara McLanahan and Julia Adams, conducted some 20 years ago, found that parenthood was perceived as significantly more stressful in the 1970s than in the 1950s: the
36、researchers attribute part of that change to major shifts in employment patterns. The majority of American parents now work outside the home, have less support from extended family and face a worsening education and health-care system, so raising children has not only become more complicated it has
37、become more expensive. Today the U. S. Department of Agriculture estimates that it costs anywhere from $134,370 to $237,520 to raise a child from birth to the age of 17 and thats not counting school or college tuition. No wonder parents are feeling a little blue. GSocietal ills aside, perhaps we als
38、o expect too much from the promise of parenting. The National Marriage Projects 2006 “State of Our Unions“ report says that parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction than nonparents because they experienced more single and child-free years than previous generations. Twenty-five years ago
39、, women married around the age of 20, and men at 23. Today both sexes are marrying four to five years later. This means the experience of raising kids is now competing with highs in a parents past, like career wins or a carefree social life. Sending bad-tempered kids to school or dashing to work wit
40、h spit-up on your favorite sweater doesnt turn out to be romantic. HFor the childless, all this research must certainly feel redeeming(弥补的 ). As for those of us with kids, well, the news isnt all bad. Parents still report feeling a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives than those whove
41、 never had kids. And there are other rewarding aspects of parenting that are impossible to quantify. For example, I never thought it possible to love someone as deeply as I love my son. As for the Sloans, its hard to say whether they had a less meaningful existence than my parents, or if my parents
42、were 7 percent less happy than the Sloans. Perhaps it just comes down to how you see the candy dish half empty or half full. Or at least as a parent, thats what Ill keep telling myself. 37 Now highs in a parents past are being fought by the experience of raising kids. 38 Because of insufficient slee
43、p, busy schedules and difficulty in rearing their bad-tempered teens, parents may complain publicly. 39 Besides societal ills that lower parents satisfaction, the promise of parenting is also too much expected. 40 Our cultural beliefs are that having kids makes parents happy. 41 The Sloans were chil
44、dless because they decided not to have a child. 42 A professor believes that after the last child has left home, parents tend to be happier. 43 Despite the low happiness level, compared with the childless, parents feel a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. 44 Parenthood became more
45、stressful in the 1970s partly due to changes in employment patterns. 45 The author expects to find signs showing the Sloans were miserable in their home. 46 According to the Newsweek Poll, half Americans agreed adding a child has a positive effect on happiness levels. Section C 46 Thoreau said educa
46、tion often made straight-cut ditches out of twisting small streams. But not at the EcoDorm, which houses 36 undergraduates and is the spiritual heart of Warren Wilson College, a liberal-arts school of fewer than 1,000 students in Swannanoa, N.C. In recent years, colleges like Warren Wilson took a le
47、ading role in the sustainability movement, which seeks to develop a durable human relationship with the environment. More than 600 U.S. colleges and universities have signed up for a pledge to become carbon neutral. Ninety dorms are now LEED certified, the most widely accepted national standard for
48、green design. The EcoDorm is one of only two student residences that have LEEDs highest rating. Two Warren Wilson students first proposed the dorm a decade ago. Undergraduates on the planning committee initially suggested that it be built with corncobs or straw. The design, by Asheville-based Samsel
49、 Architects, required compromises as well as a number of creative solutionsThe wood used for building the walls was harvested from campus trees that were suffering from a certain disease. The kitchen cabinets were made from recycled fence posts. Rainwater is collected into a disused railway tanker car and pumped back into the house to clean the low-flow toilets. Two toilets, which convert decaying organic matter to fertilizer, are also available on th
