1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 224及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then express your views on the importance of finance management. You should write at least 120 words but no
2、more than 180 words. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） Their death rate is too high to be neglected. （ B） Governments pay little attention to the issue. （ C） They want to win the publics praise. （ D） There are little data about them to do research. （ A） Maternal death. （ B） Various
3、types of injuries. （ C） Infectious disease. （ D） Natural disaster. （ A） The White House warned them not to do now. （ B） The panel of experts objected the proposals. （ C） NASA didnt get adequate money. （ D） It would be too costly to do so. （ A） By loaning money from the state bank. （ B） By cooperatin
4、g with private enterprises. （ C） By resorting to commercial banks. （ D） By intensifying structural adjustment. （ A） LG has exposed new concept TVs. （ B） The market of TVs decreased. （ C） TV will be replaced by computers. （ D） LG is lagging behind in the TV competition. （ A） They will be sold in stor
5、es this year. （ B） They will be mass-produced. （ C） The price of them is not very high. （ D） One of them can be rolled up like a newspaper. （ A） CES technology expo. （ B） Ultra-high definition televisions. （ C） Distinguishable technology. （ D） Creative concepts like LGs. Section B （ A） Where to cele
6、brate the anniversary. （ B） The best style of dinner. （ C） Doing something different. （ D） Which restaurant is best. （ A） It was very successful. （ B） It was a bit boring. （ C） It was different from others. （ D） It was the best. （ A） Its cheaper than others. （ B） It serves delicious food. （ C） There
7、 are fewer people eating there. （ D） Its a large restaurant. （ A） A new French restaurant. （ B） A Chinese restaurant. （ C） A Western restaurant. （ D） A Japanese restaurant. （ A） American literature. （ B） Elementary education. （ C） Developmental psychology. （ D） Childrens literature. （ A） They are pr
8、ofessional storytellers. （ B） They are the parents of young children. （ C） The stories will help improve their vocabulary. （ D） Reading the stories is required for the course. （ A） They are the same person. （ B） They are friends of the speakers. （ C） They are psychology professors. （ D） They are fic
9、tional characters. （ A） It uses an extensive vocabulary. （ B） It is useful as a teaching tool. （ C） Children find it boring. （ D） Its author is unknown. Section C （ A） People who are over 65 years old. （ B） People whose life is different from younger ones. （ C） People who retire from full-time work.
10、 （ D） People who live far away from their family. （ A） Money. （ B） Safety. （ C） Family. （ D） Health. （ A） Communities near their family. （ B） Communities in big cities. （ C） Communities in warm climates. （ D） Communities in the countryside. （ A） The number of senior citizens is increasing rapidly. （
11、 B） The problem of senior citizen becomes more serious. （ C） Senior citizens are less active than before. （ D） More senior citizens are involved in politics. （ A） She was famous for her sharply funny comments. （ B） She served as the governor of Texas for 2 years. （ C） She helped black people to get
12、their rights. （ D） She worked as a teacher of four students. （ A） Deputy Secretary. （ B） Foreign minister. （ C） Country commissioner. （ D） State governor. （ A） Ann Richards created a world for all the young people. （ B） Ann Richards was the greatest feminist in the US. （ C） Ann Richards helped young
13、 girls find their places. （ D） Ann Richards was a kind-hearted person. （ A） Accepting the criticism and ignore the praise. （ B） Understanding the reason behind peoples criticism. （ C） Stopping caring other peoples opinions. （ D） Smiling to all the praise and criticism. （ A） Thank the person. （ B） Co
14、rrect it happily. （ C） Ignore the mistake. （ D） Cancel the publication. （ A） The topic is worth discussing again. （ B） The topic is funny and meaningful. （ C） The topic needs to be well understood. （ D） The topic has to be changed. Section A 26 We all know that emotions originate in the brain. But w
15、e usually talk about our emotions coming from our hearts. If someone you know doesnt give up【 C1】 _ , you might say, “Hes got a lot of heart.“ Then what about bad emotions? When you feel so sad that your heart “aches,“ could it actually be true? A new study shows what goes on in your mind can, liter
16、ally, break your heart. In the study, just published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers looking at more than. 63,000 women who were participants in the【 C2】_ Nurses Health Study, found that, those who reported basic symptoms of depression had a higher-than-normal【 C3】
17、_ of heart attack. And women who were clinically depressed were more than twice as【 C4】 _ as other women to suffer sudden heart attack. None of the participants had heart problems at the studys【 C5】 _ , but nearly 8% had symptoms of depression. The researchers theorize that depression might have som
18、e direct physiological impact on the heart-like【 C6】 _ it to work harder in the face of stress. Or it may be that the antidepressants (抗抑郁药 )【 C7】 _ to treat those with mood problems were associated with heart diseases; in the study, sudden heart attack was linked more【 C8】_ with antidepressant use
19、than with womens symptoms of depression. No one is sure exactly how depression hurts the heart, and one【 C9】 _ explanation is that a damaged heart and its consequent stress on the body might activate, somehow, genes or other physiological changes that【 C10】 _ to depression. A) risk E) strongly I) ca
20、using M) easily B) plausible F) outset J) process N) make C) ongoing G) likely K) contribute O) possibly D) sum H) meaningful L) prescribed 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Why Minority Students Dont Graduate from College A Barry
21、 Mills, the president of Bowdoin College, was justifiably proud of Bowdoins efforts to recruit minority students. Since 2003 the school has boosted the proportion of so-called under-represented minority students (blacks, Latinos (拉丁美洲人 ), and Native Americans, about 30 percent of the U.S. population
22、) in entering freshman classes from 8 percent to 13 percent. But Bowdoin has not done quite as well when it comes to actually graduating minorities. While nine out of 10 white students routinely get their diplomas within six years, only seven out of 10 black students made it to graduation day in sev
23、eral recent classes. B The United States once had the highest graduation rate of any nation. Now it stands 10th. For the first time in American history, there is the risk that the rising generation will be less well educated than the previous one. The graduation rate among 25-to 34-year-olds is no b
24、etter than the rate for the 55-to 64-year-olds who were going to college more than 30 years ago. Studies show that more and more poor and nonwhite students are eager to graduate from collegebut their graduation rates fall far short of their dreams. The graduation rates for blacks, Latinos, and Nativ
25、e Americans lag far behind the graduation rates for whites and Asians. As the minority population grows in the United States, low college-graduation rates become a threat to national prosperity. C The problem is noticeable at public universities. In 2007, the University of Wisconsin-Madisonone of th
26、e top five or so “public Ivies“graduated 81 percent of its white students within six years, but only 56 percent of its blacks. At less-selective state schools, the numbers get worse. Community colleges have low graduation rates generallybut rock-bottom rates for minorities. A recent review of Califo
27、rnia community colleges found that while a third of the Asian students picked up their degrees, only 15 percent of African-Americans did so as well. D Private colleges and universities generally do better, partly because they offer smaller classes and more personal attention. But when it comes to a
28、significant graduation gap, Bowdoin has company. Nearby Colby College logged an 18-point difference between white and black graduates in 2007 and 25 points in 2006. “Higher education has been able to get around this issue for years, particularly the more selective schools, by saying the responsibili
29、ty is on the individual student,“ says Pennington of the Gates Foundation. “If they fail, its their fault.“ Some critics blame affirmative actionstudents admitted with lower test scores and grades from shaky high schools often struggle at top schools. But a bigger problem may be that poor high schoo
30、ls often send their students to colleges for which they are “undermatched“: they could get into better, richer schools, but instead go to community colleges and low-rated state schools that lack the resources to help them. Some schools out for profit cynically increase tuitions and count on student
31、loans and federal aid to foot the billknowing full well that the students wont make it. “Colleges know that a lot of kids they take will end up in remedial classes, for which theyll get no college credit and then theyll be dismissed,“ says Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust. “The school gets to keep
32、 the money, but the kid leaves with loads of debt and no degree and no ability to get a better job. Colleges are not holding up their end.“ E A college education is getting ever more expensive. Since 1982 tuitions have been rising at roughly twice the rate of inflation. University administrators ins
33、ist that most of those hikes are matched by increased scholarship grants or loans, but the recession has decreased private endowments (捐助 ) and cut into state spending on higher education. In 2008 the net cost of attending a four-year public university equaled 28 percent of median family income, whi
34、le a four-year private university cost 76 percent of median family income. More and more scholarships are based on scores, not need. Poorer students are not always the best-informed consumers. Often they end up deeply in debt or simply unable to pay after a year or two and must drop out. F There onc
35、e was a time when universities took an unreasonable pride in their drop-out rates. Professors would begin the year by saying, “Look to the right and look to the left. One of you is not going to be here by the end of the year.“ But such a Darwinian spirit is beginning to give way as at least a few co
36、lleges face up to the graduation gap. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the gap has been roughly halved over the last three years. The university has poured resources into peer counseling to help students from inner-city schools adjust to the faster pace of a university classroom, and also to
37、help minority students overcome the stereotype that they are less qualified. G State and federal governments could sharpen that focus everywhere by broadly publishing minority graduation rates. For years private colleges such as Princeton and MIT have had success bringing minorities onto campus in t
38、he summer before freshman year to give them a head start on college-level courses. The newer trend is to start recruiting poor and nonwhite students as early as the seventh grade, using new tools like hip-hop competitions to identify kids with sophisticated verbal (语言的 ) means. Such programs can be
39、expensive, of course, but cheap compared with the millions already invested in scholarships and grants for kids who have little chance to graduate without special support. H With effort and money, the graduation gap can be closed. Washington and Lee is a small, selective school in Virginia. Its stud
40、ent body is less than 5 percent black and less than 2 percent Latino. While the school usually graduated about 90 percent of its whites, the graduation rate of its blacks and Latinos had dipped to 63 percent by 2007. “We went through a dramatic shift,“ says Dawn Watkins, the vice president for stude
41、nt affairs. The school aggressively pushed mentoring (师徒制 ) of minorities by other students and “partnering“ with parents at a special pre-enrollment session. The school had its first-ever black homecoming. Last spring the school graduated the same proportion of minorities as it did whites. If the U
42、nited States wants to keep up in the global economic race, it will have to pay systematic attention to graduating minorities, not just enrolling them. 37 The recessions impact on higher education is that universities receive fewer contributions from individuals. 38 More attention should be paid to i
43、ncrease the graduation rate of minorities in order to keep up in the global economic race. 39 Before the minorities enter university, some private colleges arrange them to take part in college-level courses. 40 Private colleges and universities have higher graduation rates for minorities partly beca
44、use they pay more attention to students individual need. 41 Since Americans rank in graduation rate dropped dramatically, the young may be less well educated than their fathers. 42 The “undermatched“ students dont receive enough help from colleges or schools. 43 A recent review found that a third of
45、 the Asian students managed to graduate from college, while the graduation rate of African-Americans was worse. 44 Barry Mills, the president of Bowdoin College was proud of the Colleges higher enrollment rate of minority students. 45 The University of Wisconsin-Madison managed to narrow the graduat
46、ion gap by organizing programs to help students adapt to the pace of class pattern. 46 Washington and Lee worked together with parents as partners to help minorities at a special pre-enrollment session. Section C 46 If youre like most people, youre way too smart for advertising. You skip right past
47、newspaper ads, never click on ads online and leave the room during TV commercials. That, at least, is what we tell ourselves. But what we tell ourselves is wrong. Advertising works, which is why, even in hard economic times, Madison Avenue is a $34 billion-a-year business. And if Martin Lindstromaut
48、hor of the best seller Buyology and a marketing consultant for Fortune 500 companies, including PepsiCo and Disneyis correct, trying to tune this stuff out is about to get a whole lot harder. Lindstrom is a practitioner of neuromarketing (神经营销学 ) research, in which consumers are exposed to ads while
49、 hooked up to machines that monitor brain activity, sweat responses and movements in face muscles, all of which are markers of emotion. According to his studies, 83% of all forms of advertising principally engage only one of our senses: sight. Hearing, however, can be just as powerful, though advertisers have taken only limited advantage of it. Historically, ads have relied on slogans to catch our ear, largely ignoring everyday soundsa baby laughing and other noises our bodies cant he
