1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 241及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to unite a short essay. You should start your essay with a brief account of students increasing reliance on technology to solve problems, and then explain the consequence of over-dependence on it. Yo
2、u should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） The U.S. central bank decides monetary policy. （ B） The U.S. central bank has raised an interest rate. （ C） The U.S. economic growth is expected to continue. （ D） The U.S. economy is adding about 200,000 jobs each year. （ A
3、） It is expected to grow. （ B） It is set below 1 percent. （ C） It would affect interest rates. （ D） It would be good for price stability. （ A） They had killed civilians and destroyed basic facilities. （ B） They covered the whole nation of Syria （ C） They attempted to destroy Syrias government facili
4、ties. （ D） They were launched based on humanitarian law. （ A） It promised to stop air strikes in September. （ B） It did not feel guilty for the casualties. （ C） It was proud of causing the casualties. （ D） It claimed to take responsible for the casualties. （ A） The growing number of motor vehicles d
5、oesnt mean more traffic crashes. （ B） All countries surveyed have great progress in preventing traffic deaths. （ C） Road traffic crashes are decreasing in those 180 countries surveyed. （ D） Road crashes have been prevented thoroughly in most poor countries. （ A） There is no way to make roads safer i
6、n developed countries. （ B） About 30 percent of driving-related accidents are from drunk driving. （ C） All countries surveyed have implemented tougher road safety laws. （ D） Young adults around the world are facing serious driving risks. （ A） There are no differences between them and rich ones. （ B）
7、 They have the highest death rate in the world. （ C） They have more than 60 percent of worlds vehicles. （ D） The safety statistics of them is worse than rich ones. Section B （ A） It was a custom to do so. （ B） There was flu in the city. （ C） The pollution was serious. （ D） Wearing a mask was popular
8、. （ A） Natural disasters. （ B） Large chemical factories. （ C） Exhaust from vehicles. （ D） Large amounts of household garbage. （ A） It is not feasible. （ B） It is a sensible solution. （ C） It will be good for health. （ D） It will cause greenhouse effect. （ A） They care much about the environment. （ B
9、） The air pollution will disappear gradually. （ C） Their towns become more pleasant to live. （ D） It benefits their economy a lot. （ A） He closes and opens his eyes too frequently. （ B） He didnt have enough sleep last night. （ C） He has been long staring at the computer screen. （ D） He has been doin
10、g homework about computer for hours. （ A） Lack of moisture. （ B） Exposure to radiation. （ C） Lack of sleep. （ D） Misuse of medicine. （ A） Using eye drops. （ B） Taking breaks. （ C） Seeing a doctor. （ D） Keeping eyes opener. （ A） Get some sleep. （ B） Do homework till tonight. （ C） Read articles about
11、eye problems. （ D） Drink some coffee. Section C （ A） They wanted to follow his example. （ B） They fully supported his undertaking. （ C） They were puzzled by his decision. （ D） They were afraid he wasnt prepared. （ A） It is more exciting than space travel. （ B） It is much cheaper than space travel. （
12、 C） It is much safer than space travel. （ D） It is less time-consuming than space travel. （ A） They both attract scientists attention. （ B） They both can be quite challenging. （ C） They are both thought-provoking. （ D） They both lead to surprising findings. （ A） To show how simple the mechanical aid
13、s for diving can be. （ B） To provide reasons for his changeable character. （ C） To explore the philosophical issues of space travel. （ D） To explain why he took up underwater exploration. （ A） Gold was discovered in the city. （ B） The citys population grew to twelve thousand. （ C） The Golden Gate Br
14、idge was constructed. （ D） Telegraph communications with the East were established. （ A） It is almost two million. （ B） It is almost three million. （ C） It is almost five million. （ D） It is almost six million. （ A） It is one mile long. （ B） It cost 32 million dollars. （ C） It is the largest in the
15、world. （ D） It was completed in 1936. （ A） 300 million. （ B） 3 billion. （ C） Over 335 million. （ D） More than 28 million. （ A） National conflict. （ B） Agricultural problems. （ C） Population decrease. （ D） Economic problems. （ A） Asking people to use less water in the daily life. （ B） Finding ways to
16、 use water for more than one purpose. （ C） Making good use of seawater for daily life. （ D） Importing fresh water from other countries. Section A 26 What do dieting and energy policy have in common? The SnackWell effect. The name comes from those tasty little cookies that are【 C1】 _as being lower in
17、 fat and sugar. But they often lead dieters to eat more of them than【 C2】 _cookies and then wonder why theyre not losing weight. It turns out theres a SnackWell effect for energy use too and it may make it tougher for us to cut back on carbon. When【 C3】 _conscious consumers buy an energy-efficient d
18、ishwasher, for example, they may feel less guilty about【 C4】 _the machine more often and as a result may not end up saving much on their utility bills. Likewise, studies indicate that people who【 C5】 _more-energy-efficient lights lose 5% to 12% of the expected savings by leaving them on longer. Much
19、 like dieters eating too many SnackWells, we can fail in our attempts to save energy and money. So resist the【 C6】 _to raise your thermostat (恒温器 ) after you buy a more efficient furnace: lower the temperature by a degree and shave another 1% off your heating bill. But even if we do what Jimmy Carte
20、r did and wear a 70s-style sweater all winter, we may end up spending those energy savings somewhere else like on a plane【 C7】_to Bermuda A report estimated that【 C8】 _, this effect could reduce the savings from energy efficiency by 10% or more. That doesnt mean energy-efficiency measures are【 C9】 _
21、 or that we should never go on vacation. But it does mean that cutting back on energy【 C10】 _, like dieting, is not an excuse to stuff ourselves on less guilty pleasures. A) acting E) globally I) ride M) special B) advertised F) install J) route N) urge C) consumption G) operated K) running O) usele
22、ss D) environmentally H) regular L) saving 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 What If You Could Learn Everything? A Imagine every student has a tireless personal tutor, an artificially intelligent and inexhaustible companion that m
23、agically knows everything, knows the student, and helps her learn what she needs to know. “You guys sound like youre from the future,“ Jose Ferreira, the CEO of the education technology startup Knewton, says. “Thats the most common reaction we get from others in the industry.“ B Four years ago, this
24、 kind of talk sounded like typical Silicon Valley boast from another childish founder of a technology startup. Today, Knewton says they can deliver the kinds of breakthroughs: several million data points generated daily by each of 1 million students from elementary school through college, using Knew
25、tons “adaptive learning“ technology to study math, reading, and other fundamentals. Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder, Facebook investor, and an early investor in Knewton, told Knewtons staff recently that the company has two key characteristics he looks for in a deal. “Before they happen, everybod
26、y thought it was impossible. Afterwards its too late for anyone else, because theyve already done it.“ C Adaptive learning is an increasingly popular saying indicating educational software that customizes its presentation of material from moment to moment based on the users input. Its being hailed a
27、s a “revolution“ by both venture capitalists and big, established education companies. Starting this fall, Knewtons technology will be available to the vast majority of the nations colleges and universities and K-12 school districts through new partnerships with three major textbook publishers: Pear
28、son, MacMillan, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. And Ferreiras done all this even though he says neither his investors nor his competition, to say nothing of the public or the press, really understand what Knewton can do. D But heres the vision. Within 5 or 10 years, the paper textbook and mimeographe
29、d (油印的 ) worksheet will be dead. Classroom exercises and homework text, audio, video, games will have shifted entirely to the iPad or equivalent. And adaptive learning will help each user find the exact right piece of content needed, in the exact right format, at the exact right time, based on previ
30、ous patterns of use. E In an age of swelling class sizes, teacher layoffs, and students with a vast grouping of special needs and learning styles, some reformers greet these adaptive learning software systems as a savior that could make learning more customized and effective and teaching more effici
31、ent. While battle lines are sharp in K-12 school reform over issues from charters to the Common Core national curriculum standards, digital innovations have fans across the political scope for their power to engage students and bring the classroom into the 21st century. F Knewton, at base, is a reco
32、mmendation engine but for learning. The recommendation engine is a core technology of the Internet, and probably one you encounter every day. Google uses recommendations: other people who entered these search terms clicked on this page, so well show it to you first. The more you use one of these web
33、sites, the more it knows about you not just about your current behavior, but about all the other searches and clicks youve done. In theory, as you spend more time with a site its recommendations will become more personalized. G Rather than the set of all Web pages or all movies, the learning data se
34、t is, more or less, the universe of all facts. Ferreira calls these facts “atomic concepts,“ meaning that theyre indivisible into smaller concepts. When a textbook publisher like Pearson loads its curriculum into Knewtons platform, each piece of content it could be a video, a test question, or a par
35、agraph of text is tagged with the appropriate concept or concepts. H The platform forms a personalized study plan based on that information and decides what the student should work on next, feeding the student the appropriate new pieces of content and continuously checking the progress. A dashboard
36、(仪表盘 ) shows the student how many “mastery points“ have been achieved and what to do next. Teachers, likewise, can see exactly which concepts the student is struggling with, and not only whether the homework problems have been done but also how many times each problem was attempted or how many hints
37、 were needed. The more people use the system, the better it gets: and the more you use it, the better it gets for you. I In a traditional class, a teacher moves a group of students through a predetermined sequence of material at a single pace. Reactions are delayed you dont get homework or pop quizz
38、es back for a day or two. Some students are bored: some are confused. You can miss a key idea, fall behind, and never catch up. Software-enabled adaptive learning flips all of this on its head. Students can move at their own speed. They can get hints and instant feedback. Teachers, meanwhile, can sp
39、end class time targeting their help to individuals or small groups based on need. J The Knewton system uses its analytics to keep students motivated. If it notices that you seem to have a confidence problem, because you too often blow questions that should be easy based on previous results, it will
40、start you off with a few questions youre likely to get right. If youre stuck, choosing the wrong answer again and again, it will throw out broader and broader hints before just showing you the right answer. It knows when to drill you on multiplication and when to give you a fun animated video to wat
41、ch. K These are early days, and the questions are mounting. Research indicates that emotional qualities like courage, persistence, and motivation may be even more important to students success than the knowledge or skills they acquire, and they all depend heavily on human relationships. Knowledge ac
42、quisition is the only aspect of education that todays digital technology seems especially well adapted to. So far, most software applications, platforms, apps, and games, including Knewtons, have been optimized for transferring quantitative, bounded bodies of facts in fields like math, science, or e
43、ngineering, as well as basic literacy and grammar. An adaptive-learning platform like Knewtons is helpless to analyze a students insight in class discussions, the special brilliance of an essay, or creativity in a group presentation. In a rare moment of modesty, Ferreira agrees. “In the end,“ he say
44、s, “maybe Knewton is just a tool.“ 37 Students get personalized study plan and teachers get detailed information about students performance from Knewton platform. 38 With cooperation with major textbook publishers, Knewtons technology will be accessible to many universities beginning from this autum
45、n. 39 When curriculums are put into Knewtons platform, theyre labeled with proper concepts. 40 The Knewton system pays attention to students confidence problems. 41 Knewton basically works in the same way as Google, but only for learning. 42 Adaptive learning is a phrase used to indicate educational
46、 software that changes the materials presented to users according to their input. 43 Knewton helps little in developing students emotional qualities. 44 Adaptive learning software systems have many political supporters. 45 In a traditional class, students cant get timely homework feedback. 46 An inv
47、estor believed in Knewton because it owns the characteristics he values in a deal. Section C 46 A new partner pushes out two close friends on average, leaving lovers with a smaller inner circle of people they can turn to in times of crisis, a study found. The research, led by Robin Dunbar, head of t
48、he Institute of Cognitive (认知的 ) and Evolutionary Anthropology (人类学 ) at Oxford University, showed that men find women were equally likely to lose their closest friends when they started a new relationship. Previous research by Dunbars group has shown that people typically have five very close relat
49、ionships that is, people whom they would turn to if they were in emotional or financial trouble. “If you go into a romantic relationship, it costs you two friends. Those who have romantic relationships, instead of having the typical five core set of relationships only have four. And of those, one is the new person whos come into their life,“ said Dunbar. The study, submitted to the journal Personal Relationships, was designed to investigate how peopl
