1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 179及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “ Punctuality is one of the cardinal business virtues. “ You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of punctuality. You should write at least 120 wo
2、rds but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） Around 15 percent of annual revenue. （ B） Less than 20 percent of annual revenue. （ C） Probably 25 percent of annual revenue. （ D） Over 30 percent of annual revenue. （ A） It will open early to attract shoppers. （ B） It will stay open longer to attract s
3、hoppers. （ C） It will compete with retailer Nordstrom and Costco. （ D） It will not stay open for business at all. （ A） Change in the global temperature. （ B） More extreme weather events. （ C） Impact on peoples health. （ D） Change in the way of diseases spreading. （ A） It is caused by changing season
4、al temperatures. （ B） It is caused by a type of bacterium carried by deer ticks. （ C） It has caused a lot of death in Africa. （ D） It is caused by the change of disease eco-systems. （ A） This storm was one of the biggest storms seen by the city. （ B） This storm would crack the whole city down. （ C）
5、There was not much snow that fell on the ground. （ D） Lights on the Broadway were all broken down. （ A） New York. （ B） New Jersey. （ C） Maryland. （ D） Washington. （ A） 2013. （ B） 2014. （ C） 2015. （ D） 2016. Section B （ A） She put it in one of her bags. （ B） She put it in the suitcase. （ C） She left
6、it behind in the taxi. （ D） She probably has lost her passport. （ A） He suggested the woman find the passport in an hour. （ B） He suggested the woman go in their own car. （ C） He suggested the woman find her passport in the airport. （ D） He suggested the woman find her passport before leaving. （ A）
7、They are going to a very cold place. （ B） Their plane will take off in one hour. （ C） The woman is going to bring more than one case. （ D） They are going to spend the summer in their destination. （ A） Theyve got too many bags and the bags are too heavy. （ B） The plane will take off very soon. （ C） H
8、e has something else to do at the airport. （ D） The taxi driver is waiting. （ A） She gets tired of her job. （ B） She finds her job too hard. （ C） She was declined from a promotion. （ D） She wants to find a perfect job. （ A） She got the information from her friend. （ B） She found the information by h
9、erself in a newspaper. （ C） She got the information from an agency. （ D） She was told by the man about the information. （ A） Just the same amount of her present salary. （ B） No less than her present salary. （ C） Much more than her present salary. （ D） She doesnt care how much she will make. （ A） App
10、licants education and experience. （ B） Applicants ability and performance. （ C） Applicants length of service in the company. （ D） Applicants social and communication skills. Section C （ A） A big lake. （ B） A large ocean. （ C） A huge volcano. （ D） A deep cave. （ A） Water, heat and basic chemicals. （
11、B） Water, light, and certain chemicals. （ C） Basic chemicals, heat, and light. （ D） Heat, light, and water. （ A） There are basic chemicals there. （ B） There is little light there. （ C） Bacteria has been found there. （ D） Light is net essential to life forming. （ A） He was burned for the second time.
12、 （ B） He has recovered already. （ C） He was undergoing a major operation. （ D） He could stay at home until next operation. （ A） They didnt hear the instructions as it was noisy. （ B） They have no basic medical knowledge. （ C） They didnt listen to the doctor carefully. （ D） They dont care about the i
13、nstructions at all. （ A） Speakers often speak in a fast pace. （ B） Not all speakers can clearly express themselves. （ C） Messages conveyed by speech do not last long. （ D） Speakers dont know the right way to communicate. （ A） They have higher leadership abilities. （ B） They are much more healthy tha
14、n ordinary men. （ C） They must be very interested in sports. （ D） They are more charming and attractive. （ A） They have no difference with the ordinary women. （ B） They are more capable than men. （ C） They are super women with higher leadership. （ D） They are more charming and attractive. （ A） They
15、are all strong men with physical strength. （ B） They are all sports fans who do exercising frequently. （ C） They have some common facial features. （ D） They are all much taller than ordinary people. （ A） There are many links. （ B） There is no link at all. （ C） Its not referred. （ D） Its hard to know
16、. Section A 26 These are not easy times for booksellers, borders, a big American one. ditched its boss in January and has closed stores, but is still at risk of【 C1】 _, some analysts say. The British chain of the same name, which it once owned, failed last year. Barnes & Noble, the worlds biggest bo
17、okseller, appointed a new boss last month to help it【 C2】_the triple threat of the recession, increased competition and e-books. The struggles of booksellers can be explained in part by a surge in competition. More than half of book sales in America take place not in bookshops but at big【 C3】_such a
18、s Wal-Mart and Target, which compete to peddle(散播 )bestsellers at ever steeper discounts. Online retailers, too, are wreaking havoc. Booksellers are labouring to raise their【 C4】 _online and win back the customers they have lost. Barnes & Nobles online sales rose by 32% to $ 210m in the quarter endi
19、ng in January, compared with a year earlier. It has started selling its own e-reader, called the “Nook“ , and digital books to go with it. Will bookshops disappear completely, as music shops seem to be doing? Most are【 C5】 _their hopes on giving people more reasons to come inside. “ Consumers will n
20、eed some entity to help them make sense of the morass,“ says William Lynch, the new boss of Barnes & Noble, which plans to put a renewed【 C6】 _on service, including advice on e-books. Many shops have started to offer【 C7】 _internet access to keep customers there longer and to enable them to download
21、 e-books. Other survival strategies include hosting book clubs or other community groups and selling a wider【 C8】 _of goods, such as wrapping paper, jewellery , cards and toys. Independent bookshops face a【 C9】 _serious threat, because they are unable to match bigger rivals prices. Many are branchin
22、g out by offering new services, such as creative-writing classes. BookPeople, a bookshop in Austin, Texas, runs a literary summer camp for around 450 children. Steve Bercu, the shops co-owner, says that independent booksellers can still thrive,【 C10】 _they “ reinvent(重新使用 )themselves“. A)affordable
23、B)bankruptcy C)confront D)consequently E)emphasis F)free G)particularly H)pinning I)profile J)provided K)retailers L)shopper M)variety N)supposed O)matching 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Shock treatment A)The objective of Amer
24、icas Affordable Care Act of 2010 commonly known as Obamacare was to ensure that the 40m-plus Americans who lacked health insurance could get it. Less widely appreciated, but at least as important, are the incentives and penalties the law introduced to make the countrys hideously(可怕的 )expensive and p
25、oorly performing health services safer and more efficient. Economists are debating how much credit Obamacare should get for a recent moderation in the growth of health costs, and for a fall in the number of patients having to be readmitted to hospital. Whatever the answer, many companies see the dis
26、ruption unleashed by the reforms as the business opportunity of a lifetime. B)One of the biggest shifts under way is to phase out the “fee for service“ model, in which hospitals and doctors surgeries are reimbursed for each test or treatment with no regard for the outcome, encouraging them to put pa
27、tients through unnecessary and expensive procedures. Since Obamacare they are increasingly being paid by results a flat fee for each successful hip replacement(髋关节置换 ), say. There are also incentives for providers which meet cost or performance targets, and new requirements for hospitals to disclose
28、 their prices. C)Millions of people are now looking for health insurance on the new public exchanges set up under the reforms. And Obamacare has come into effect at a time when American employers, who often provide health cover for their workers, are seeking to cut its cost by encouraging them to sh
29、op around on private exchanges, and by offering less generous plans. D)The upshot(结果 )is that there are growing numbers of consumers seeking better treatment for less money. Existing health-care providers will have to adapt, or lose business. All sorts of other businesses, old and new, are seeking e
30、ither to take market share from the conventional providers, or to provide the software and other tools that help hospitals, doctors, insurers and patients make the most of this new world. E)Patients are increasingly having to pay higher “ deductibles(免赔额 )“ out of their own pockets, before the insur
31、ance kicks in, to keep the cost of the cover down. So for minor ailments and simple tests, it makes sense for such patients to go to one of the increasing numbers of walk-in clinics, staffed by well-qualified muses, on the premises of retail pharmacies such as Walgreens(沃尔格林 ). The prices are clear,
32、 the care is cheap and the service is quick. Walgreens has a partnership with Theranos, a diagnostics firm, which offers customers a range of tests from a tiny drop of blood. Walmart, a giant supermarket chain with many in-store pharmacies, also intends to become one of the leading sellers of afford
33、able health services, says Alex Hurd, its product-development chief. F)For injuries and illnesses that are more serious but not immediately life-threatening, lots of “urgent-care centres“ are being opened as an alternative to going to a hospital emergency unit. Private-equity firms are pouring money
34、 into independent chains of centres. Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm, reckons that between them, these chains now have just over 1 ,500 urgent-care centres, up from about 1 ,300 at the start of 2013. The market is still fragmented but a national brand could emerge from one of the largest chains
35、, such as Concentra or MedExpress. G)Some hospital operators, seeking to cut their costs of care, and choosing to be among the disrupters rather than the disrupted, are also opening urgent-care centres. Aurora Health Care, a Wisconsin-based chain of hospitals and clinics, now has more than 30 of the
36、m. H)Hospital operators are now facing a classic “innovators dilemma“ , as described by Clay Christensen, a Harvard business professor. If they persist with their high-cost business model even as their customers discover that cheaper alternatives are good enough, they will be in trouble. According t
37、o Strata Decision Technology, an analytics firm, many hospital groups saw what was coming and started to cut their costs well before the provisions of Obamacare started to bite. One of the fastest movers is Advocate Health Care, a hospital operator from Illinois, which says it now earns two-thirds o
38、f its revenues from value-based payments. I)The largest chains of for-profit hospitals, such as Tenet Healthcare, HCA and Community Health Systems, are rather profitable. They have trimmed their costs, been conservative with capital and, thanks to Obamacare raising the number of Americans with healt
39、h insurance, now have more patients and fewer bad debts. However, credit-rating agencies are worried about the prospects for the not-for-profit hospitals, which are 60% of the total. With lower margins, and less capital to make investments, they have become targets for takeover, says Jim Bonnette of
40、 The Advisory Board Company, another consulting outfit. J)As a result further consolidation in the hospital business is likely. This could mean greater efficiency and lower costs. But if antitrust authorities are not vigilant, it may lead to a concentration of market power. If so, the benefits from
41、the efficiencies being wrung out of the hospital system may end up in the pockets of shareholders rather than saving patients and insurers money. K)Obamacare is also encouraging the creation of all sorts of health-related advisory and intermediary companies that help care providers, insurers and pat
42、ients save money. A company called Vitals approaches employees on behalf of their companys health plan, and offers them cash rewards, and a taxi, if they agree to be treated at a cheaper provider. The sums to be saved can be astonishing: a new cost-comparison tool created by Blue Cross Blue Shield,
43、a big alliance of private health insurers, has found that a colonoscopy(结肠镜检查 )with a biopsy costs $ 8,489 at one clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but just $ 928 at another provider in Greensboro, only 50 miles(80km)or so awav. L)Cohealo offers a “sharing economy“ solution for hospitals and cl
44、inics wanting io make the best use of expensive equipment, in much the same way as Airbnb helps people with spare rooms fill them with paying guests. Doximity is trying to be a Facebook for doctors, letting them refer patients and discuss treatments securely without the blizzard of faxes they rely o
45、n today. Grand Rounds is a sort of medical Match, com: an online matchmaker that pairs patients with specialists. As in other industries, administrators are being tempted to switch to renting software and data storage in the online “cloud“: Athe-nahealth, a seller of medical back-office software, is
46、 trying to get doctors and hospitals to move patients health records onto its cloud-based service. M)Preliminary diagnosis for supporters of Obamacare, it is clear that the reforms are empowering patients, driving public and private health insurers to achieve better value, forcing existing providers
47、 to shape up and providing opportunities for disruptive newcomers. Digital technology is also helping to increase transparency about prices, making it easier to share information and increase efficiency. For some analysts it all adds up to a “new health economy“ as PwC, a consulting firm, puts it th
48、e most significant re-engineering of the American health system, by far the worlds costliest, since employers began providing cover for their workers in the 1930s. N)And the revolution has only just begun. The Obama administration recently set a target of making 50% of Medicare payments value-based,
49、 rather than fee for service, by the end of 2018. Americas largest private payers have a target of 75% by 2020. So hospitals do not have long to shape up. Some will have their profits squeezed, and customers stolen by new rivals. Some may close, or be taken over. But for other businesses, from supermarket and pharmacy chains to digital-health startups, there will be billions to be made. 37 Digital technology helps make the cost of health care more transparent, contributes to the sharing of informati
