1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 196及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then comment on the inheritance of traditions in modern life. You should write at
2、 least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） Stone flakes were made by early humans. （ B） Stone flakes may not be made by early humans. （ C） Stone flakes were used by monkeys to crack open nuts. （ D） Stone flakes were used by ancient humans to cut bones. （ A） The flakes made by early
3、humans are more complex. （ B） The flakes made by monkeys are used as tools. （ C） The flakes used by early humans are made by monkeys. （ D） The flakes made by monkeys have cut-marks. （ A） The reason for ending the production of diesel cars. （ B） The technology of producing electric cars. （ C） The con
4、dition of air pollution in London. （ D） The comparison between diesel vehicles and electric vehicles. （ A） The incident that made people understand how harmful diesel vehicles are. （ B） The scandal that made all automakers want to produce electric cars. （ C） The incident that Volkswagen attempted to
5、 promote its vehicles illegally. （ D） The scandal that Volkswagen attempted to cheat on emissions tests on its vehicles. （ A） It is Chinas first time to send two astronauts into space. （ B） It marks the beginning of the worlds longest human space flight. （ C） The carrier rocket was fired from a Sate
6、llite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. （ D） The carrier rocket was built by an independent space expert. （ A） A part of a space vehicle that can operate by itself. （ B） An indispensable part of a space vehicle. （ C） A central part of a carrier rocket. （ D） A part of the centre of a new space statio
7、n. （ A） Land a rover vehicle on Mars. （ B） Finish building a new space station. （ C） Land a probe on the moon. （ D） Complete five manned space missions. Section B （ A） Looking for a job. （ B） Looking for a house. （ C） Looking for a roommate. （ D） Looking for an agent. （ A） A roommate who does not sn
8、ore. （ B） A roommate who does not smoke. （ C） A roommate who is very tidy. （ D） A roommate who loves studying. （ A） A flat with two bedrooms. （ B） An unfurnished apartment. （ C） A well-decorated apartment. （ D） A furnished bedroom in a shared flat. （ A） Do the cleaning. （ B） Bargain with the landlor
9、d. （ C） Agree to share with others. （ D） Sign a contract for two years. （ A） The university provides three types of accommodation. （ B） Students must apply early since the places are limited. （ C） A student may choose from university-owned or private accommodation. （ D） Most students prefer self-cat
10、ering accommodation. （ A） About 37.86. （ B） About 5.41. （ C） About 52. （ D） About 7.43. （ A） Before the end of the month. （ B） At the beginning of the year. （ C） Next month. （ D） Any time. （ A） Self-catering accommodation is very far from the university. （ B） If a student wants a private accommodati
11、on, he may call the Students Union. （ C） A student may live where he or she likes. （ D） There are limited places in university-owned accommodation. Section C （ A） Indicate our lifestyles and values. （ B） Improve our communicative skills. （ C） Cultivate our values. （ D） Determine our lifestyles and v
12、alues. （ A） They cared little about clothing. （ B） They had poor taste in clothing. （ C） They were very conscious of clothing. （ D） They were proud of womens clothes. （ A） They cared more about clothing than white-collar workers. （ B） They were manipulated by white-collar workers. （ C） They scoffed
13、white-collar workers for their clothing. （ D） They conformed to the accepted pattern of clothing. （ A） Dressing patterns of workers. （ B） Mans attitude towards dress. （ C） The importance of clothing. （ D） The styles of clothing. （ A） It doesnt work as expected. （ B） It can do harm to children. （ C）
14、It can find out serious injuries. （ D） It can provide a detailed image of the brain. （ A） A child aged two should receive a CT scan even if he has no broken bones. （ B） A child aged two should receive a CT scan if he has severe headache. （ C） A child aged eight should receive a CT scan even if he ha
15、s consciousness. （ D） A child aged eight should receive a CT scan if he has slight headache. （ A） A new treatment for brain injury in children. （ B） A new study on the use of CT scans in children. （ C） The causes of brain injury. （ D） The importance of CT scans in brain injury. （ A） The four seasons
16、 of New York are very similar. （ B） There is a sharp difference of the seasons. （ C） Each season has its beautiful image. （ D） The autumn leaves are beautiful pinks and oranges. （ A） He finds himself sensitive to temperature changes. （ B） He finds it hard to bear the constant heat of summer. （ C） He
17、 is desperate about his sensitive body. （ D） He loves winter more than he does summer. （ A） Because in April people can enjoy April Fools Day. （ B） Because it is warm in April. （ C） Because April is the month that all flowers begin to blossom. （ D） Because in April people can expect real heat and wa
18、rm days to come. Section A 26 We are high in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of North Carolina. It is very early in the morning. We have been【 C1】 _ in the mountains for almost one week. Each night we sleep in a small cloth【 C2】 _ called a tent. We carry the tent, sleeping bags, clothes, food
19、and water with us in our【 C3】 _ . The air this morning is fresh and clear. It smells like green trees and wild flowers. Our【 C4】 _ are dark green. We have been deep in the forest for many kilometers.【 C5】 _ light reaches here. It is so【 C6】 _ with trees we cannot see the sky. At last we come to a【 C
20、7】 _ area. We can see the sky and the land around us. When we look across to other mountains it is easy to see why they were【 C8】 _ the “ Blue Ridge Mountains“. The early morning air in the distance looks like thick smoke. It makes the color of the mountains a deep ocean blue. This color is caused b
21、y the amount of water in the air. It is almost like【 C9】 _ . When the sun rises higher, some of the water in the air will be burned away. Then the mountains will【 C10】 _ turn dark green. It is beautiful here. We can see many kilometers down and across the valley floor. A)backpacks I)rainbow B)clear
22、J)shelter C)covering K)slowly D)fog L)surroundings E)immediately M)thick F)Little N)trucks G)named O)walking H)outskirts 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Creative Destruction of Higher Education A)Higher education is one of the g
23、reat successes of the welfare country. What was once the privilege of a few has become a middle-class entitlement, thanks mainly to government support. Some 3. 5 million Americans and 5 million Europeans will graduate this summer. In the modern world universities are developing rapidly: China has ad
24、ded nearly 30 million places in 20 years. Yet the business has changed little since Aristotle taught at the Athenian Lyceum(雅典学园 ): young students still gather at a specific time and place to listen to the wisdom of scholars. B)At present, a revolution has begun, thanks to three forces: rising costs
25、, changing demand and new technology. The result will be the complete change of the university. While the prices of cars, computers and much else have greatly fallen, universities have been able to charge ever more for the same service because they are protected by public funding and the high value
26、employers place on degrees. For two decades the cost of going to college in America has risen by 1.6 percentage points more than inflation every year. C)For most students, the university remains a great deal. The total lifetime income from obtaining a college degree, in net-present-value(净现值 )terms,
27、 can increase as much as $590,000. But an increasing number of students have gone deep into debt, especially the 47% in America and 28% in Britain who do not complete their course. As for them, the degree by no means values for that sum of money. And the government becomes more and more unwilling to
28、 fund the university. In America government funding per student fell by 27% between 2007 and 2012, while average tuition fees, adjusted for inflation, rose by 20% . In Britain, tuition fees close to zero two decades ago can reach $15,000 a year. D)The second factor resulting in change is the labor m
29、arket. In the standard model of higher education, people go to university in their 20s. A degree is an entry ticket to the professional classes. But automation is beginning to have the same effect on white-collar jobs as it has on blue-collar ones. According to a study from Oxford University, 47% of
30、 occupations are at risk of being automated in the next few decades. As innovation wipes out some jobs and changes others, people will need to top up their human capital all through their lives. E)By themselves, these two forces would be pushing change. A third technologyensures it. The internet, wh
31、ich has turned businesses from newspapers through music to book sale upside down, will turn over higher education. Now the MOOC, or “ Massive Open Online Course“, is offering students the chance to listen to star lecturers and get a degree for a fraction of the cost of attending a university. MOOCs
32、started in 2008: however, they have so far failed to live up to their promise. Largely because there is no formal system of accreditation(认证 ), drop-out rates have been high. But this is changing as private investors and existing universities are drawn in. One provider, Coursera, claims over 8 milli
33、on registered users. Though its courses are free, it received its first $ 1 million in incomes last year after introducing the option to pay a fee of between $ 30 and $ 100 to have course results certified. Another, Udacity, has teamed up with AT&T and Georgia Tech to offer an online masters degree
34、in computing, at less than a third of the cost of the traditional version. Harvard Business School will soon offer an online “pre-MBA“ for $ 1,500. Starbucks has offered to help pay for its staff to take online degrees with Arizona State University. F)MOOCs will destroy different universities in dif
35、ferent ways. Not all will suffer. Oxford and Harvard could benefit. People of great ambition will always want to go to the best universities to meet each other, and the digital economy tends to favor a few large institutions in charge of its operation. The big names will be able to sell their MOOCs
36、around the world. But ordinary universities may suffer the fate of many newspapers. Were the market for higher education to perform in future as that for newspapers has done over the past decade or two, universities incomes would fall by more than half, employment in the industry would drop by nearl
37、y 30% and more than 700 institutions would shut their doors. The rest would need to adjust themselves to survive. G)Like all revolutions, the one taking place in higher education will have victims. Many towns and cities rely on universities. In some ways MOOCs will further make the difference both a
38、mong students and among teachers. The talented students will be much more comfortable than the weaker outside the structured university environment. Superstar lecturers will earn a fortune, to the anger of their less charming colleagues. H)Politicians will come under pressure to halt this revolution
39、. They should remember that state spending should benefit society as a whole, not protect professors from competition. The change of universities will benefit many more people than it hurts. Students in the rich world will have access to higher education at lower cost and greater convenience. The fl
40、exible nature of MOOCs appeals to older people who need training. EdX, another provider, says that the average age of its online students in America is 31. In the modern world online courses also offer a way for countries like Brazil to go ahead Western ones and supply higher education much more che
41、aply. And education has now become a global market: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered Battushig Myanganbayar, a remarkably talented Mongolian teenager, through an online electronics course. I)Rather than maintaining the old model, governments should make the new one work better. T
42、hey can do so by supporting common standards for accreditation. In Brazil, for instance, students completing courses take a government-run exam. In most Western countries it would likewise make sense to have a single, independent organization that certifies exams. Changing an ancient institution wil
43、l not be easy. But it does promise better education for many more people. Rarely have need and opportunity so neatly come together. 37 The introduction of automation affects the labor demand and then brings about the revolution of higher education. 38 The weaker students and the less attractive teac
44、hers will suffer from the innovation of higher education. 39 MOOCs are improving in that private investors and existing universities are engaged in them. 40 As for those students who do not complete their course, the university degree is definitely not worth $590,000. 41 Despite a rapid increase in
45、the number of university graduates, higher education has had little difference since its beginning. 42 Governments are supposed to support common standards to certify online courses of higher education. 43 In order to avoid the failure, ordinary universities need to adapt themselves to the digital e
46、conomy. 44 Thanks to online courses, students may approach higher education much more cheaply and conveniently. 45 Due to the protection of public funding and the employers emphasis on degrees, university students in America pay for a rising expense. 46 Mostly because of the lack of formal recogniti
47、on, the rates of quitting on MOOCs have been high. Section C 46 It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the quick pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters behind the wheel. It is all very well,
48、again, to have a tiger in the tank, but to have one in the drivers seat is another matter altogether. You might tolerate the odd road-hog(妨碍其他车辆行驶的司机 ), the rude and inconsiderate driver, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the situation calls for a “Be Kind
49、 to Other Drivers“ campaign: otherwise it may get completely out of hand. Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most coolheaded and good-tempered drivers to resist the temptation to revenge when subjected to uncivilized behaviors. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards relieving the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgment in response to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of goodwill and tolerance so necessary i
