1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 229及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay about the popularity of WeChat. You should state the reasons and write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） A university. （ B） A hospital.
2、（ C） A cinema. （ D） A park. （ A） More than 15 years. （ B） More than 50 years. （ C） 55 years. （ D） More than 55 years. （ A） Terrorists. （ B） Migrants. （ C） Veterans. （ D） Europeans. （ A） More than a hundred thousand. （ B） More than nine hundred thousands. （ C） More than a million. （ D） More than ten
3、millions. （ A） More than forty millions. （ B） More than four millions. （ C） Less than four millions. （ D） Less than forty millions. （ A） An irregular heart beat poses a greater risk to men than to women. （ B） Women with Atrial Fibrillation were almost twice as likely to have fatal heart disease and
4、strokes. （ C） A regular heart beat poses a greater risk to women than to men. （ D） Men with Atrial Fibrillation were almost twice as likely to have fatal heart disease and strokes. （ A） Women are being diagnosed earlier than men. （ B） Women are being diagnosed later than men. （ C） Women may respond
5、better to drugs to combat AF. （ D） Men may respond less well to drugs to combat AF. Section B （ A） In a hotel. （ B） In London. （ C） In a museum. （ D） In a restaurant. （ A） She hates London. （ B） She likes travelling. （ C） She likes this hotel. （ D） She is indecisive. （ A） The man is too tired. （ B）
6、The galleries and museums are too crowded. （ C） The man has to go to work this morning. （ D） The woman does not like this place. （ A） Get something to eat. （ B） Go to see a show. （ C） Go into the town. （ D） Go round the galleries and museums. （ A） His uncle. （ B） Melissa. （ C） His aunt. （ D） Not cle
7、ar. （ A） Because he spent the whole lot in a month. （ B） Because he had an affair. （ C） Because he is too rich. （ D） Because he doesnt love her any more. （ A） He is rich. （ B） He is charming. （ C） He is a waste of space. （ D） He is brave and generous. （ A） Friends. （ B） Colleagues. （ C） Relatives. （
8、 D） Classmates. Section C （ A） Two. （ B） Three. （ C） Four. （ D） Five. （ A） It trains your mind to sustain single-pointed concentration. （ B） It helps to quiet our mood. （ C） It helps you forget those worries for a while. （ D） It does good to your health. （ A） Mediation. （ B） Be Honest With Yourself.
9、 （ C） Move Your Body. （ D） Clear your clutter. （ A） Ban pupils from bringing “inappropriate“ designer handbags to lessons. （ B） Ban pupils from bringing “inappropriate“ designer A4 files to lessons. （ C） Ban pupils from bringing “inappropriate“ designer textbooks to lessons. （ D） Ban pupils from bri
10、nging “inappropriate“ designer PE kits to lessons. （ A） Support. （ B） Disapprove. （ C） Both of A and B. （ D） Neither of A and B. （ A） In 2012. （ B） In 2011. （ C） In 2001. （ D） In 2002. （ A） It helps you grow muscles. （ B） It helps you stop snacking. （ C） It helps you boost metabolism. （ D） It helps
11、you keep thin. （ A） Yes. （ B） No. （ C） Only some are tested. （ D） Not mentioned. （ A） They are generally more active. （ B） They have a better overall diet. （ C） They try to lead healthier lives. （ D） They want to be more charming. （ A） She thinks it can be a struggle to get the right balance of nutr
12、ients. （ B） She thinks it is not the easiest meal of the day to get right. （ C） She thinks it is the easiest meal of the day to get right. （ D） She believes it has no risk of skipping breakfasts. Section A 26 What determines the kind of person you are? What factors make you more or less bold, intell
13、igent, or able to read a map? All of these are influenced by the interaction of your genes and the environment in which you were【 C1】 _. The study of how genes and environment interact to influence【 C2】 _ activity is known as behavioral genetics. Behavioral genetics has made important【 C3】 _ to the
14、biological revolution, providing information about the extent to which biology influences mind, brain and behavior. Any research that suggests that【 C4】 _ to perform certain behaviors are based in biology is controversial. Who wants to be told that there are limitations to what you can【 C5】 _ based
15、on something that is beyond your control, such as your genes? It is easy to accept that genes control physical characteristics such as sex, race and eye color. But can genes also determine whether people will get divorced, how【 C6】_ they are, or what career they are likely to choose? A concern of ps
16、ychological scientists is the【 C7】 _ to which all of these characteristics are influenced by nature and nurture (养育 ), by genetic makeup and the environment. Increasingly, science【 C8】 _ that genes lay the groundwork for many human traits. From this perspective, people are born【 C9】 _ like undevelop
17、ed photographs: The image is already captured, but the way it【 C10】 _ appears can vary based on the development process. However, the basic picture is there from the beginning. A) abilities I) extent B) achieve J) indicates C) appeal K) proceeds D) complaints L) psychological E) contributions M) rai
18、sed F) displayed N) smart G) essentially O) standard H) eventually 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Education Study Finds U. S. Falling Behind A Teachers in the United States earn less relative to national income than their count
19、erparts in many industrialized countries, yet they spend far more hours in front of the classroom, according to a major new international study. B The salary differentials are part of a pattern of relatively low public investment in education in the United States compared with other member nations o
20、f the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group in Paris that compiled the report. Total government spending on educational institutions in the United States slipped to 4. 8 percent of gross domestic product in 1998, falling under the international average 5 percent for the firs
21、t time. C “The whole economy has grown faster than the education system, “ Andreas Schleicher, one of the reports authors, explained. “The economy has done very well, but teachers have not fully benefit. “ The report, due out today, is the sixth on education published since 1991 by the organization
22、of 30 nations, founded in 1960, and now covering much of Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. D In addition to the teacher pay gap, the report shows the other countries have begun to catch up with the United States in higher education; college enrollment has grown by
23、 20 percent since 1995 across the group, with one in four young people now earning degrees. For the first time, the United States college graduation rate, now at 33 percent, is not the worlds highest. Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Britain have surpassed it. E The United States is also pr
24、oducing fewer mathematics and science graduates than most of the other member states. And, the report says, a college degree produces a greater boost in income here while the lack of a high school diploma imposes a bigger income penalty. “The number of graduates is increasing, but that stimulates ev
25、en more of a demand there is no end in sight,“ Mr. Schleicher said. “The demand for skill, clearly, is growing faster than the supply that is coming from schools and colleges.“ F The report lists the salary for a high school teacher in the United States with 15 years experience as $36,219, above the
26、 international average of $31,887 but behind seven other countries and less than 60 percent of Switzerlands $62,052. Because teachers in the Unites States have a heavier classroom load teaching almost a third more hours than their counterparts abroad their salary per hour of actual teaching is $ 35
27、, less than the international average of $41 (Denmark, Spain and Germany pay more than $50 per teaching hour, South Korea $77). In 1994, such a veteran teacher in the United States earned 1. 2 times the average per capita income whereas in 1999 the salary was just under the national average. Only th
28、e Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland and Norway pay their teachers less relative to national income; in South Korea, teachers actually earn 2. 5 times the national average. Teacher pay accounts for 56 percent of what the United States spends on education, well below the 67 percent average among the gr
29、oup of countries. G The new data come as the United States faces a shortage of two million teachers over the next decade, with questions of training, professionalism and salaries being debated by politicians local and national. Joost Yff, an international expert at the American Association of Colleg
30、es of Teacher Education, said training for teachers is comparable among most of the nations in the study, and that they are all dealing with similar issues of raising standards and increasing professionalism. H Though the United States lags behind in scores on standardized tests in science and mathe
31、matics, students here get more instruction in those subjects, the report shows. The average 14-year-old American spent 295 hours in math and science classes in 1999, far more than the 229 international average; only Austria (370 hours), Mexico (367) and New Zealand (320) have more instruction in tho
32、se subjects. Middle-schoolers here spend less time than their international counterparts studying foreign languages and technology, but far more hours working on physical education and vocational skills. High school students in the United States are far more likely to have part-time jobs: 64 percent
33、 of Americans ages 15 to 19 worked while in school, compared with an international average of 31 percent (only Canada and the Netherlands, with 69 percent, and Denmark, with 75 percent, were higher). I One place the United States spends more money is on special services for the disabled and the poor
34、. More than one in four children here are in programs based on incomeonly five other countries serve even 1 in 10 and nearly 6 percent get additional resources based on physical or mental handicaps, twice or three times the rate in other countries. J The report shows a continuing shift in which the
35、United States is losing its status as the most highly educated among the nations. The United States has the highest level of high school graduates ages 55 to 64, but falls to fifth, behind Norway, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, among ages 25 to 34. Among college graduates, i
36、t leads in the older generation but is third behind Canada and Japan in the younger cohort (一群 ). While the portion of Americans with high school diplomas remains at 88 percent across age groups, the average age among member countries is rising. It has gone from 58 percent of those ages 45 to 54, to
37、 66 percent of those ages 35 to 44 and 72 percent of those ages 25 to 34. A higher percentage of young people in Norway, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have degrees than in the United States. K “The U. S. has led the development in college education and making education sort
38、of accessible for everyone,“ Mr. Schleicher said. “Its now becoming the norm. 37 Compared with their counterparts in many industrialized countries, the U. S. teachers work longer. 38 The U. S. government spent 4. 8% of its GDP on education in 1998. 39 From the passage we learn about Finland surpasse
39、s the U. S. in college graduation rate. 40 When the number of graduates in the U. S. increases, the demand for them is rising. 41 The new study shows that the actual teaching salary per hour in the U. S. is $35. 42 In the report, the U. S. students study of science and mathematics get most instructi
40、on in those subjects in the OECD. 43 Compared with those in other OECD countries, high school students in the U. S. spend more time in physical education and vocational skills. 44 It is for the special services for the disabled and the poor that the United States pays more money than other OECD coun
41、tries. 45 Those who have high school diplomas in the U. S. account for 88 percent of the Americans of all ages. 46 According to Mr. Schleicher, the U. S. is becoming the norm in making education accessible for everyone and college education. Section C 46 Wouldnt it be great if you could just look up
42、 at the sky and read the weather forecast right away? Well, you can. The forecast is written in clouds. If you can read that writing, you can tell something about the atmosphere. With some practice, you can become a pretty good weather forecaster. Who knows, you might even do as well as meteorologis
43、ts. Meteorologists use much more information than just the appearance of the clouds to make their forecast. They collect data from all over the world. Then they put it into powerful, high-speed computers. This does give the meteorologists an advantage, because they can track weather patterns as they
44、 move from west to east across the country. But you have an advantage, too. You can look at the sky and get your data directly. A meteorologist uses a computer forecast thats several hours old to make a local forecast. What are you seeing when you look at a cloud? “A picture of moisture is doing in
45、the atmosphere,“ says meteorologist Peter Leavitt. Theres moisture throughout the atmosphere. Most of the time you dont see it, because its in the form of an invisible gas called water vapor. Sometimes, the temperature of the air gets cold enough to cause the water vapor to change to liquid water. I
46、ts called condensation, and we see it happen all the time (for example, when humid air from the shower hits the cold glasses of a mirror). When enough water vapor condenses, droplets come in the air. These droplets scatter light. A cloud is seen. Watching clouds over a day or two tells you a lot mor
47、e than a single cloud about the weather to come. Changes in clouds show changes in the atmosphere. You should begin to notice patterns. Certain clouds, following each other in order, can signal an approaching storm. But dont take our word for it; see for yourself. 47 The word “meteorologists“ in the
48、 second paragraph means_. （ A） people who broadcast weather on TV （ B） people who are in charge of weather forecast （ C） experts who study the earths atmosphere and its changes （ D） experts who study the earths crust, rocks, strata and the history of its development 48 According to the passage, an o
49、rdinary person might do as well as meteorologist in weather forecast_. （ A） with some simple practice looking up at the sky （ B） with the help of the high-speed computers （ C） through a complex instruments （ D） consulting a weather station 49 Meteorologists can make their weather forecast_. （ A） by using information of the appearance of the clouds only （ B） by collecting data from parts of the world （ C） by calculating and analyzing this data （ D） by watching the s
