1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 220及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled There Is No End to Learning by commenting on the famous saying, “Education is not complete with graduation.“ You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 w
2、ords. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. There Is No End to Learning Section A （ A） Sixteen people drowned. （ B） It stopped in a Greek island. （ C） There were 15 people on board. （ D） It started from Turkey. （ A） They crossed Europe to Africa. （ B） They went to Europe by sea. （ C） Many of them migr
3、ate from countries in the East. （ D） Thousands of them already made the trip. （ A） Serena Williams won a tennis champion. （ B） Serena Williams was pronounced Sportsperson of the year. （ C） Serena Williams decided to work in a sports magazine. （ D） Serena Williams was facing a lot of challenges. （ A）
4、 They challenged Serena Williamss ethnicity. （ B） They followed the role model of Serena Williams. （ C） They raised a number of complaints. （ D） They warmly welcomed the announcement. （ A） It would improve job market. （ B） It would cause too much inflation. （ C） It would damage economy. （ D） It woul
5、d keep prices steady. （ A） Less than 11%. （ B） Above 11%. （ C） Less than 1%. （ D） Above 1%. （ A） The economy would react badly. （ B） It would delay any rate increase. （ C） The inflation would be too serious. （ D） Foreign markets share would decrease. Section B （ A） In a drugstore. （ B） In a supermar
6、ket. （ C） On the phone. （ D） On the Internet. （ A） She is going to have dinner with the man. （ B） She is going back home for her parents anniversary. （ C） She is going to visit her friends in New Orleans. （ D） She is going to work over time in the office. （ A） It is the womans hometown. （ B） The wom
7、ans parents will have celebration there. （ C） The woman went to university there. （ D） The womans relatives will take a trip there. （ A） The woman should be alert to heavy traffic. （ B） Many people go to the countryside at the weekend. （ C） The woman should guard against robbers on the way. （ D） Giv
8、e him a call when the woman arrives home. （ A） To free his mind off work. （ B） To enrich himself. （ C） To make new friends. （ D） To kill the time. （ A） Expensive. （ B） Unusual. （ C） Interesting. （ D） Relaxing. （ A） She started collecting stamps from her childhood. （ B） A good stamp collection can be
9、 built in a short time. （ C） A rare set of stamps is worth a lot of money. （ D） It is nearly impossible to collect a rare set of stamps. （ A） Electronics. （ B） Collecting umbrellas. （ C） Collecting stamps. （ D） Playing golf or tennis. Section C （ A） They can help take pictures of cars on highways. （
10、 B） They can help send fines to speedy motorists. （ C） They can help catch cars breaking traffic rules. （ D） They can help make the traffic run smoother. （ A） It takes pictures only. （ B） It can not do paperwork. （ C） It needs someone to issue fines. （ D） It takes pictures and does paperwork. （ A） I
11、t can help catch stolen cars. （ B） It can package food. （ C） It makes cars run faster. （ D） It gives information to the drivers. （ A） There are 250 million plants eaten by insects. （ B） There are fewer plants than 250 million years ago. （ C） They have their way of guarding against insects. （ D） They
12、 have a better immune system than before. （ A） Using less insecticide. （ B） Giving the plants up. （ C） Spraying crops frequently. （ D） Trying other insecticide. （ A） Changing the way of spraying crops. （ B） Buying some outdoor insect lamps. （ C） Using a combination of three insecticide. （ D） Trying
13、to attract new insects onto the crops. （ A） They are supported by the local government. （ B） They are named after the cities where they live. （ C） Their players gathered from all over the country. （ D） They play professional basketball games in November only. （ A） During the summer months. （ B） Duri
14、ng the spring months. （ C） During the winter months. （ D） During the autumn months. （ A） Basketball. （ B） Football. （ C） Baseball. （ D） Golf. （ A） Both require strength and specialized skills. （ B） Both require height and responsibility. （ C） Both require enthusiasm and hard work. （ D） Both require
15、flexibility and good health. Section A 26 Could the reason for the worlds economic misfortunes all come down to finger length? Although certainly an oversimplification of our【 C1】 _ troubles, scientists have shown that financial traders who lose the biggest dollars are more【 C2】 _ to have shorter ri
16、ng fingers than index fingers. Former Wall Street trader and scientist John Coates of the University of Cambridge wondered whether finger ratio really correlated with trader success. His team【 C3】_ that traders with the lowest index-to-ring-finger ratios made the most money over a 20-month period, e
17、ven when the researchers controlled for years of experience. They averaged the【 C4】 _ of $1,232,590, nearly six times more than that of men with【 C5】 _ ratios. “I almost fell off my chair,“ says Coates. “I, could not believe what I was seeing.“ Tim Harford, a columnist for the Financial Times and au
18、thor of The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World, calls the study “fascinating.“ He says hes glad to see that economists have【 C6】 _ looking at financial markets in terms of natural【 C7】 _ instead of looking at them in terms of rational people making rational decisions. Coate
19、s,【 C8】 _ , says it is important to note that this study【 C9】 _ on only one type of trading, and increased confidence and quick reactions may in fact be an obstacle to those trading over long periods of time, like investors at hedge funds and investment banks. “Each【 C10】 _ of trading may require a
20、different set of traits,“ he says. A) focuses E) strengthens I) high M) moreover B) started F) likely J) conventional N) selection C) however G) equivalent K) found O) current D) figure H) style L) studied 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Sec
21、tion B 36 Why Money Doesnt Buy Happiness What do the experts say? A All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to the eternal question“Does money buy happiness?“from people who practice whats called the gloomy science. For when economists tackled the question, they started from the
22、 observation that when people put something up for sale they try to get as much for it as they can, and when people buy something they try to pay as little for it as they can. Both sides in the transaction, the economists noticed, are therefore behaving as if they would be more satisfied, or happier
23、, dare we say, if they ended up receiving more money (the seller) or holding on to more money (the buyer). Hence, more money must be better than less, and the only way more of something can be better than less of it is if it brings you greater satisfaction. The economists conclusion: the more money
24、you have, the happier you must be. B Suicidal CEOs, miserable magnates (大资本家 ) and other unhappy rich folks arent the only ones giving the lie to this. “Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness,“ writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert and the
25、y have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of extreme poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter. C That flies in the face of intuition (直觉 ), not to mention economic theory. According to standard economic
26、s, the most important commodity you can buy with additional wealth is choice. If you have $20 in your pocket, you can decide between steak and peanut butter for dinner, but if you have only $1 youd better hope you already have a jar of jelly at home. Additional wealth also lets you satisfy additiona
27、l needs and wants, and the more of those you satisfy the happier you are supposed to be. D The trouble is, choice is not all its cracked up to be. Studies show that people like selecting from among maybe half a dozen kinds of food at the grocery store but find 27 choices overwhelming, leaving them h
28、abitually on edge that they could have chosen a better one than they did. And wants, which are nice to be able to afford, have a bad habit of becoming needs. Satisfying needs brings less emotional well-being than satisfying wants. What do the common people say? E The nonlinear (非线性的 ) nature of how
29、much happiness money can buy comes through clearly in global surveys that ask people how satisfied they feel with their lives. In a typical survey people are asked to rank their sense of well-being or happiness on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means “not at all satisfied with my life“ and 7 means “comp
30、letely satisfied.“ Of the American multimillionaires who responded, the average happiness score was 5.8. Homeless people in Calcutta came in at 2.9. But before you assume that money does buy happiness after all, consider who else rated themselves around 5.8: the Inuit of northern Greenland, who do n
31、ot exactly lead a life of luxury, and the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, whose huts have no electricity or running water. And proving Gilberts point about money buying happiness only when it lifts you out of extreme poverty, slum dwellers in Calcuttaone economic rung above the homelessrate themselve
32、s at 4.6. F Studies tracking changes in a populations reported level of happiness over time have also dealt a death blow to the money-buys-happiness claim. Since World War II the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has tripled in the United States. But peoples sense of well-being has barely been
33、 altered. Japan has had an even more dramatic rise in GDP per capita since its postwar misery, but measures of national happiness have been flat, as they have also been in Western Europe during its long postwar boom, according to social psychologist Ruut Veenhoven. An analysis of more than 150 studi
34、es on wealth and happiness concluded that “economic indicators have obvious shortcomings“ as approximations of well-being across nations. G Thats partly because in an expanding economy, in which former luxuries such as washing machines become necessities, the newly well-off people dont feel the same
35、 joy in having a machine do the laundry that their grandparents, suddenly freed from washboards, did. They just take the machines for granted. Another reason is that an expanding paycheck, especially in an expanding economy, produces expanding aspirations and a sense that there is always one more co
36、ol thing out there that you absolutely have to have. If money doesnt buy happiness, what does? H Grandma was right when she told you to value health and friends, not money and stuff. Researchers add fulfillment, a sense that life has meaning, belonging to civil and other groups, and living in a demo
37、cracy that respects individual rights and the rule of law. If a nation wants to increase its populations sense of well-being, says Veenhoven, it should make “less investment in economic growth and more in policies that promote good governance, liberties, democracy, trust and public safety.“ I Curiou
38、sly, although money doesnt buy happiness, happiness can buy money. Young people who describe themselves as happy typically earn higher incomes, years later, than those who said they were unhappy. It seems that a sense of well-being can make you more productive and more likely to show initiative and
39、other traits that lead to a higher income. Contented (知足的 ) people are also more likely to marry and stay married, as well as to be healthy, both of which increase happiness. J If more money doesnt buy more happiness, then the behavior of most Americans looks downright insane, as we work harder and
40、longer, decade after decade. But what is insane for an individual is crucial for a national economythat is, ever more growth and consumption. Gilbert again: “Economies can blossom and grow only if people are deceived into believing that the production of wealth will make them happy. Economies thrive
41、 when individuals strive, but because individuals will strive only for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well-being.“ In other words, if you want to do your part for your countrys economy, forget all of the above abo
42、ut money not buying happiness. 37 Based on standard economics, additional wealth can provide more options. 38 According to Veenhoven, a nation can increase its populations sense of well-being by making more effort to promote good governance. 39 Most American work harder and longer for decades becaus
43、e they believe more money buys more happiness. 40 Global surveys prove Gilberts point that money increases happiness only when it relieves the utmost poverty. 41 According to the economists, more money buys more happiness. 42 It is necessary for people to believe producing and consuming are routes t
44、o personal well-being for a thriving economy. 43 Initiative that leads to a higher income is usually motivated by a sense of well-being. 44 Some unhappy rich folks, like suicidal CEOs, show richness does not necessarily make people happy. 45 In an expanding economy, the former luxuries are taken for
45、 granted by the new generation. 46 Too many choices may be negative in that people may regret about what they bought. Section C 46 Thoreau said education often made straight-cut ditches out of twisting small streams. But not at the EcoDorm, which houses 36 undergraduates and is the spiritual heart o
46、f Warren Wilson College, a liberalarts school of fewer than 1,000 students in Swannanoa, N.C. In recent years, colleges like Warren Wilson took a leading role in the sustainability movement, which seeks to develop a durable human relationship with the environment. More than 600 U.S. colleges and uni
47、versities have signed up for a pledge to become carbon neutral. Ninety dorms are now LEED certified, the most widely accepted national standard for 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 dec
48、ade ago. Undergraduates on the planning committee initially suggested that it be built with corncobs or straw. The design, by Asheville-based Samsel Architects, required compromisesas well as a number of creative solutions. The wood used for building the walls was harvested from campus trees that we
49、re 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 the second floor; students shovel (铲 ) in wood chips after they use them. The EcoDorm consumes nearly two-thirds less electricity than would a conventional building of the same size.
