1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 231及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 Directions： For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic On a Harmonious Dormitory Life You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words Outlines are given below in Chinese： 1宿舍生活时有不和谐情况的出现； 2一个
2、和谐宿舍生活的必要性； 3如何避免不和谐的因素，创造融洽的宿舍生活。 Section A （ A） During the spring. （ B） During the courtship. （ C） During the winter. （ D） During breeding season. （ A） Use the magnifying glass. （ B） Play in super-fast motion. （ C） See by the naked eyes. （ D） Playing in super-slow motion. （ A） It costs less money.
3、 （ B） It can be found in lakes. （ C） It is more efficient. （ D） It is poisonous as well. （ A） One. （ B） Two. （ C） Three. （ D） Four. （ A） Finding reliable partners. （ B） Raising money. （ C） Hiring employees. （ D） Searching for resources. （ A） 9. 1 million. （ B） 38 million. （ C） 16 million. （ D） 3 mil
4、lion. （ A） Women are in need of more help to start a business. （ B） Women-owned businesses are on the rise. （ C） Women-owned businesses begin to make profit. （ D） More businesses are owned by women than that by men. Section B （ A） He is concerned about exam. （ B） He is concerned about CV. （ C） He is
5、 concerned about his language. （ D） He is concerned about finding a job. （ A） He asks her for advice about learning English. （ B） He asks her for advice about finding a job. （ C） He asks her for advice about some exam difficulties. （ D） He asks her for advice about documents. （ A） CV stands for curr
6、iculum vitae. （ B） CV stands for calorific value. （ C） CV stands for command vehicle. （ D） CV stands for Cape Verde. （ A） She advises him to write down good marks. （ B） She advises him to write in English. （ C） She advises him to get a professional guide. （ D） She advises him to ask her professor. （
7、 A） A physics exam. （ B） A lecture they plan to attend. （ C） An assignment. （ D） Their favorite poets. （ A） Listen to the womans talk. （ B） Study for a test. （ C） Go to class. （ D） Prepare his presentation. （ A） In the library. （ B） In the womans dormitory （ C） In an empty classroom. （ D） In the din
8、ing hall. （ A） The space is big enough. （ B） There are many students there. （ C） It is much quieter than other places. （ D） It is more close. Section C （ A） Its the release of artificial or natural substances into the environment. （ B） Its the production of new industrial goods. （ C） Its increased a
9、mounts of a natural substance. （ D） Its our ever-increasing population. （ A） Air and water pollution. （ B） Both a litter problem and a waste of resources. （ C） To pay for the service. （ D） To produce the receipt. （ A） Cutting out unnecessary buying. （ B） Eating less. （ C） Reducing excess use. （ D） C
10、arefully disposing our daily products. （ A） It is a method often used by people who cannot speak. （ B） It can tell something that words cannot express. （ C） It can be used to talk with people who cannot hear. （ D） It is less used than words. （ A） Less eye contact suggests distance in relation. （ B）
11、The longer one looks at you, the more interest he has in you. （ C） There is more eye contact between people who like each other. （ D） Shorter eye contact shows more interest in what one is talking about. （ A） It is a sign of ones friendliness. （ B） It is a sign of ones unfriendliness. （ C） It makes
12、people feel happy. （ D） It makes people feel uncomfortable. （ A） Universities in the United States. （ B） The Academic Year. （ C） The Quarter System. （ D） The Semester System. （ A） Four regular terms. （ B） Three regular terms and one summer term. （ C） Two regular terms and two summer terms. （ D） One
13、regular term and three summer terms. （ A） September. （ B） Summer semester only. （ C） At the beginning of any quarter. （ D） At the beginning of the academic year. （ A） They allow students to graduate early. （ B） They provide more options for admission. （ C） They are long enough to cover the course ma
14、terial. （ D） They last eleven weeks. Section A 26 If a potential customer enjoys your advert, they are more likely to buy your product. Its a simple【 C1】 _ , but it is extremely difficult to know how well your advert is being received in the real world. Now a new system could help【 C2】 _ know exactl
15、y how their latest offering is going down with viewers, just by watching their face. The system, developed by Daniel McDuff and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, looks at how【 C3】 _ in the face move in response to watching a video. Software can then classify what cou
16、nts as positive【 C4】 _ responses and smiles during the video and from that predict which adverts the viewer most enjoys. The team collected more than 3 200 videos of people, whose faces were【 C5】 _ by their own computers webcam as they watched three adverts online during the Super Bowl in 2011. Afte
17、r each commercial one for Doritos, one for Google and one for Volkswagen the viewers were asked if they liked the video and whether they would want to watch it again. In tests, the system made correct【 C6】 _ more than 75 per cent of the time. The system would be a【 C7】 _ for advertisers trying to gr
18、ab the attention of potential customers on the Internet. In future, the system could be used to personalize adverts for viewers as they watch programs online, depending on their【 C8】 _ , or as a more【 C9】 _ way of testing how good a new advert is at【 C10】 _ to customers. A) facial F ) created K) pre
19、dictions B) boon G ) suggestions L ) advertisers C) reaction H ) concept M) appealing D) filmed I ) effective N) people E) face J ) eyes O) muscles 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Need a Brain Boost? Exercise! A) If you spend yo
20、ur workday at a desk, you know that familiar and dreaded feeling: the mid-afternoon slump. E-mails take a bit longer to compose, documents take longer to read. Its expected, given that you spend most of your time in a chair. To combat your mental fatigue, you reach for artificial stimulation in the
21、form of caffeine, sugar or energy drinks. B) However, all you need to sharpen your mental acuity (敏锐 ) is something you already own: your legs. This should come as little surprise. Mental fatigue sets in after youve been sitting for an extended period of time and walking around is an easy way to tem
22、porarily increase your alertness. But a few types of extended physical activity can have measurable impact on your mental acuity. C) According to recent research, a single workout can immediately boost higher-order thinking skills, making you more productive and efficient as you labor through your w
23、orkday. When you exercise your legs, you also exercise your brain; this means that a lunchtime workout can improve your cognitive performance, thanks to blood flow and brain food. Brain-derived neurotrophic (神经营养的 ) factor, or BDNF, is a protein that facilitates the growth of neurons and nourishes e
24、xisting ones. It improves executive function, a type of higher-order thinking that allows people to formulate arguments, develop strategies, creatively solve problems and synthesize information. BDNF sits idly at the synapses (神经键 ) of your brain neurons and crosses the synapses only with the increa
25、sed blood flow that comes with exercise. D) Writers have long used exercise to unleash their creative powers. William Wordsworth composed his poems while walking. According to Adam Sisman, author of “The Friendship: Wordsworth not a word of it was written down before they reached Bristol, and not a
26、line altered afterwards.“ Novelist Susan Henderson often goes hiking for two or three hours. “ For my first draft, Ill go into the woods,“ she says. “Ill go with a specific question or dilemma, and talk it out into the voice recorder on my phone.“ Craig Finn of the band the Hold Steady uses running
27、as a way to gather song ideas; “Long runs are a very meditative time. My mind gets to a crazy, unique place once I get above 10 miles. Its a time for some very clear thinking. I dont know that its conscious, but I always feel inspired to write after I run.“ E) Fortunately, you dont have to run 10 mi
28、les to boost your executive function. Several studies have shown that a short aerobic (有氧的 ) workout gives your brain an immediate boost According to Charles Hillman, professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, as little as 20 minutes of aerobic exercise at 60 to 70
29、percent of your maximum heart rate is enough. F) Your choice of exercise also makes a difference. A calm mind is key. The less you pay attention to external stimuli like a book or your environment the greater the benefit later, because any activity that requires extended concentration involves the s
30、ame higher-order thinking skills you need after the run. In other words, the more rested your mind during exercise, the better your post-workout problem-solving skills. G) This is bad news if you like to read while exercising. But its even worse for people who combine their gaming fix with exercise.
31、 Hillman said that in a recent study, treadmill runners fared better on post-exercise tests than those who played Wii Fit. “With Wii Fit, youre exercising, but youre also cognitively responding to, and accounting for, things in your environment, he says. “This is much like the urban environment, whe
32、re you have to stop for traffic and pedestrians. You have a busy mind to go along with that busy body.“ H) The concept of the calm mind is why you might not even need to elevate your heart rate to reap the benefits. All you have to do is head for the hills, or at least the trail, and get away from t
33、he concrete jungle. According to a 2008 study from the University of Michigan, nature stimulates creativity and strengthens cognitive powers better than urban environments. This is the idea behind Attention Restoration Theory, which assumes that a strong mind always needs time to be refreshed. In an
34、 urban environment, your mind is never at ease. You have to pay attention to all sorts of external stimuli, such as cars in crosswalks and people on sidewalks. Its survival mode. What you need is a workout that involves involuntary attention. This type of attention requires no extra work on your bra
35、ins part. You use it when you notice the cherry blossoms or the beauty of Rock Creek Park. It doesnt take any extra effort to notice the pretty things; you just do it. According to the researchers at University of Michigan, natural environments are much better than urban environments at restoring an
36、d improving cognitive functioning. I) A natural environment gives the directed-attention part of your brain some vacation time, allowing it to refresh. “ Simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increase in cognitive control,“ according to the researchers. The best part? The part
37、icipants in the study were walkers, not runners. For most people, walking is a more practical option. J) Dont like to run, or even walk? No problem. You can be flexible in your workout routine. Literally. Yoga may also improve cognitive functioning, according to a recent study. One of the authors, N
38、eha Gothe, an assistant professor of education at Wayne State University, said that when you practice yoga, youre not only moving, youre in touch with your body movements. “ This awareness might be the reason why you keep distracting parts away and focus on the task at hand,“ she says. So while yoga
39、 involves focus, its a different kind: It requires a mind-body connection, not a connection to external stimuli. In this way, yoga allows your mind time to rest by keeping external thoughts like workplace stress at bay. K) No matter your workout, most researchers agree that the cognitive benefits la
40、st for at least an hour after exercise. So the next time you need to give your brain a boost, skip the energy drink and grab your workout gear. 37 You do not need to exercise your legs for a long time in order to boost your brain. 38 Exercise is not enough to combat your mental fatigue, you also req
41、uired to be calm during the exercise. 39 Natural environments make the direct-attention part of your brain have some spare time. 40 Exercises inspired many writers or novelists to create famous workers. 41 Some people combat mental fatigue by coffee when they spend a long time at desk. 42 Exercise e
42、nvironment is also an important factor that may influence the effectiveness of the exercise. 43 Compared with urban environment, natural environment is more suitable for improving your cognitive performance. 44 Besides running and walking, there still are other exercises that can sharpen your mental
43、 acuity. 45 Lunchtime workout can exercise your brain, allowing you to be more productive. 46 Not all of the extended physical activities can have considerable influence on peoples mental acuity. Section C 46 The gardens and fields of Britain were saved from a grim invasion this spring. Thanks to th
44、e sharp, late frosts of May, millions of giant Spanish slugs which threatened to devastate plants across the country were killed. But now experts fear that Spanish slugs which was first spotted in East Anglia a year ago may soon make an unwelcome return to our shores. They have decided to seek publi
45、c help to spot a menace which one expert described as “a disaster waiting to happen“. A group of scientists led by Dr. Ian Bedford, head of entomology (昆虫学 ) at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, have created a “slugwatch“ website, so people can report where and when they have seen Spanish slugs. There
46、 will also be instructions on building traps to catch them. “The Spanish slug is a voracious predator. It eats crops spared by our native slugs, tolerates drier conditions, reproduces in greater numbers and even eats dead animals and excrement,“ said Bedford. “ We want photos and sightings from memb
47、ers of the public to help build a picture of how widespread the Spanish slug is. The reports may also give us an idea of whether it is breeding with native species to form a hybrid with tolerance to frosts and cold from our own species.“ The species appeared in Scandinavia a few years ago, where the
48、y bred so quickly that squashed slugs on roads became a serious traffic hazard. Very soon, it looked as if Britain would follow suit. “In early spring, numbers of the slugs began to appear and it looked as if we were in trouble,“ said Bedford. “But the late spring frosts seemed to have killed off ba
49、by Spanish slugs and saved us for the time being.“ Scientists stress that slugs play an important role in the ecosystem: they are natural composters, breaking down vegetation, and provide food for our hedgehogs, toads and some garden birds. However, the Spanish slug could prove to be an even greater threat. “We need to know exactly how they are distributed and that is why we have set up this website,“ saidBedford. “ We need public help, badly.“ 47 Why did the expert say “a disaster waiting
