1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 242及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then comment on peoples seeking for happiness endlessly. You should write at leas
2、t 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） The brick buildings are too old. （ B） Many people are still buried. （ C） Earthquakes keep occurring. （ D） Shelter and food is not enough. （ A） It was the worlds worst earthquake in 80 years. （ B） It created great panic among the residents. （ C）
3、Most residents spent the night outside in the open. （ D） Some witnesses were sent on a boat after the earthquake. （ A） To cultivate the next generation of smokers. （ B） To change peoples attitude towards smoking. （ C） To lure smokers into choosing their brands. （ D） To lift the smoking industrys pos
4、ition. （ A） They are be more difficult to quit for smokers. （ B） They are not as safe as traditional cigarettes. （ C） Their market has great potential. （ D） They are not attractive to young children. （ A） Extremely high crime rates. （ B） Troubled higher education. （ C） Limited natural resources. （ D
5、） Poor government stability. （ A） The increasing number of college graduates means hope. （ B） The number of graduates should be decreased. （ C） Therere enough resources for the African students. （ D） The high number of students is the biggest problem. （ A） It will sooner or later be solved. （ B） It
6、is one of the most serious issues. （ C） It isnt as hard as war or poverty. （ D） It is the root cause of other issues. Section B （ A） He doesnt have a checklist-release card. （ B） He goes to the wrong place for registration. （ C） He ibrgets to return books to the library. （ D） He is on the library ch
7、ecklist. （ A） Calm. （ B） Angry. （ C） Interested. （ D） Funny. （ A） Go to the library. （ B） Pay the money. （ C） Go through registration. （ D） Get a checklist-release card. （ A） Give up registration and leave. （ B） Talk to the admissions representative. （ C） Go to the library immediately. （ D） Wait unt
8、il the woman processes his registration. （ A） Doctor. （ B） Government official. （ C） Teacher. （ D） Babysitter. （ A） He is always ill. （ B） He is too active. （ C） He speaks too little. （ D） He does a bad thing. （ A） His parents disagree with that. （ B） His parents cant be with him. （ C） His parents t
9、hink it is unhealthy. （ D） His parents order him to stay at home. （ A） It is signed by the state government. （ B） It could raise money from parents. （ C） It has been drawn up to protect children. （ D） It could help to fund afternoon programs. Section C （ A） Automobiles are more destructive to human
10、society. （ B） Peacebreakers pay little attention to law and morality. （ C） Modern technology brings more harm than good. （ D） The lack of virtue is becoming more prevailing. （ A） Researchers show great interest in this. （ B） Few drivers know the dangers of accidents. （ C） Experts want to warn driver
11、s of their own safety. （ D） It is a main reason leading to accidents. （ A） Raising safety standards for vehicles. （ B） Establishing speed limits on more roads. （ C） Limiting the number of vehicles on express ways. （ D） Regulating the release of drivers licenses. （ A） To show that the motor vehicle i
12、s a very dangerous invention. （ B） To discuss traffic problems and propose possible solutions. （ C） To promote drivers social awareness and sense of responsibility. （ D） To warn drivers of the destruction of careless driving. （ A） They become more mature in a shorter time. （ B） They might be of diff
13、erent genes from their ancestors. （ C） They are much more nutritious with better taste. （ D） They might take a totally different look than before. （ A） Which food could be sold. （ B） How foods must be described. （ C） When certain foods are available. （ D） What nutrients food should contain. （ A） The
14、y have trouble in moving. （ B） They have trouble in speaking. （ C） They have trouble in sleeping. （ D） They have trouble in breathing. （ A） It plays an important role in the international economy. （ B） Japan is the largest trading partner of America. （ C） American banks have the most branches global
15、ly. （ D） Trade between Japan and America is the most active of all. （ A） She was interested in living in different places. （ B） She wanted to know more about Japanese culture. （ C） She was promoted by her boss to a new position. （ D） She wanted to gain more knowledge of the field. （ A） She is the ma
16、nager of the Tokyo branch bank. （ B） She studies economics in Japan. （ C） She works for a Japanese bank in America. （ D） She set up her own business in Japan. Section A 26 Would you be happier if you spent more time discussing the state of the world and the meaning of life and less time talking abou
17、t the weather? It may sound counterintuitive (违反直觉的 ), but people who spend more of their day having deep discussions and less time engaging in small talk seem to be happier, said Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona who published a study on the【 C1】 _. “We found this so intere
18、sting, because it could have gone the other way it could have been, Dont worry, be happy as long as you surf on the【 C2】 _level of life youre happy, and if you go into the essential depths youll be unhappy,“ Dr. Mehl said. But, he【 C3】 _, deep conversation seemed to hold the【 C4】 _to happiness for t
19、wo main reasons: both because human beings are driven to find and create【 C5】 _in their lives, and because we are social animals who want and need to【 C6】 _with other people. “By engaging in meaningful conversations, we manage to impose meaning on a(n)【 C7】 _pretty chaotic world,“ Dr. Mehl said. “An
20、d interpersonally, as you find this meaning, you bond with your interactive partner, and we know that interpersonal connection and integration is a core【 C8】 _foundation of happiness.“ Dr. Mehls study was small and doesnt【 C9】 _a cause-and-effect relationship between the kind of conversations one ha
21、s and ones happiness. But thats the【 C10】_next step, when he will ask people to increase the number of deep conversations they have each day and cut back on small talk, and vice versa. A) calculated E) fundamental I) nevertheless M) prove B) connect F) key J) otherwise N) shallow C) contact G) love
22、K) planned O) subject D) fantastic H) meaning L) proposed 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 The End of AIDS? A On June 5th 1981 Americas Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported the outbreak of an unusual form of pneumo
23、nia (肺炎 ) in Los Angeles. When, a few weeks later, its scientists noticed a similar cluster of a rare cancer called Kaposis sarcoma (肉瘤 ) in San Francisco, they suspected that something strange and serious was coming. That something was AIDS. B Since then, 25m people have died from AIDS and another
24、34m are infected. The 30th anniversary of the diseases discovery has been taken by many as an occasion for hand-wringing. Yet the war on AIDS is going far better than anyone dared hope. A decade ago, half of the people in several southern African countries were expected to die of AIDS. Now, the deat
25、h rate is dropping. In 2005 the disease killed 2.1m people. In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, the number was 1.8m. Some 5m lives have already been saved by drug treatment. In 33 of the worst-affected countries the rate of new infections is down by 25% or more from its peak.
26、 C Even more hopeful is a recent study which suggests that the drugs used to treat AIDS may also stop its transmission. If that proves true, the drugs could acliieve much of what a vaccine (疫苗 ) would. The question for the world will no longer be whether it can wipe out the plague, but whether it is
27、 prepared to pay the price. The appliance of science D If AIDS is defeated, it will be thanks to an alliance of science, activism and unselfishness. The science has come from the worlds drug companies, which leapt on the problem. In 1996 a batch of similar drugs, all of them inhibiting the activity
28、of one of the AIDS viruss crucial enzymes (霉素 ), appeared almost simultaneously. The effect was miraculous, if you (or your government) could afford the $15,000 a year that those drugs cost when they first came on the market. E Much of the activism came from rich-world gays. Having persuaded drug co
29、mpanies into creating the new medicines, the activists bullied them into dropping the price. That would have happened anyway, but activism made it happen faster. The unselfishness was aroused as it became clear by the mid-1990s that AIDS was not just a rich-world disease. Three-quarters of those aff
30、ected were and still are in Africa. Unlike most infections, which strike children and the elderly, AIDS hits the most productive members of society: businessmen, civil servants, engineers, teachers, doctors, nurses. Thanks to an enormous effort by Western philanthropists (慈善家 ) and some politicians
31、(this is one area where even the left should give credit to George Bush junior), a series of programmes has brought drugs to those infected. F The result is unsatisfactory. Not enough people some 6.6m of the 16m who would most quickly benefit are getting the drugs. And the pills are not a cure. Stop
32、 taking them, and the virus bounces back. But it is a huge step forward from ten years ago. G What can science offer now? A few peoples immune systems control the disease naturally, which suggests a vaccine might be possible, and antibodies have been discovered that neutralise the virus and might th
33、us form the basis of AIDS-clearing drugs. But a cure still seems a long way off. Prevention is, for the moment, the better bet. A question of money H In the early days scientists were often attacked by activists for being more concerned with trying to prevent the epidemic spreading than treating the
34、 affected. Now it seems that treatment and prevention will come in the same pill. If you can stop the virus reproducing in someones body, you not only save his life, you also reduce the number of viruses for him to pass on. Get enough people on drugs and it would be like vaccinating them: the chain
35、of transmission would be broken. I That is a huge task. It is not just a matter of bringing in those who should already be on the drugs (the 16m who show symptoms or whose immune systems are critically weak). To prevent transmission, treatment would in theory need to be expanded to all the 34m peopl
36、e infected with the disease. That would mean more effective screening, which is planned already, and also a willingness by those without the symptoms to be treated. That willingness might be there, though, if it would protect peoples uninfected lovers. J Such a programme would take years and also co
37、st a lot of money. About $16 billion a year is spent on AIDS in poor and middle-income countries. Half is generated locally and half is foreign aid. A report in this weeks Lancet suggests a carefully crafted mixture of approaches that does not involve treating all those without symptoms would bring
38、great benefit for not much more than this a peak of $22 billion in 2015, and a fall thereafter. Moreover, most of the extra spending would be offset by savings on the treatment of those who would have been infected, but were not some 12m people, if the scientists have done their sums right. At $500
39、per person per year, the benefits would far outweigh the costs in purely economic terms: though donors will need to compare the gain from spending more on knocking out AIDS against other worthy causes, such as eliminating malaria (疟疾 ). K For the moment, the struggle is to stop some rich countries g
40、iving less. The Netherlands and Spain are cutting their contributions to the Global Fund, one of the two main distributors of the life-saving drugs, and Italy has stopped paying altogether. On June 8th the United Nations meets to discuss what to do next. Those who see the UN as a mere talking-shop s
41、hould remember that its first meeting on AIDS launched the Global Fund. It is still a long haul. But AIDS can be beaten. A plague that 30 years ago was blamed on mans wickedness has ended up showing him in a better, more inventive and generous light. 37 If the anti-AIDS drugs can stop AIDS from tran
42、smitting, the wipe-out of the plague will be out of question. 38 Activists forced the drug institutions not only to create new drugs but also to lower the drug price. 39 People used to blame scientists for paying more attention to preventing the spread of AIDs than treating patients infected with it
43、. 40 AIDS was first discovered by American scientists about some thirty years ago. 41 Even though drugs with amazing effect appeared in 1990s, they were too expensive for most patients to afford. 42 About 50% of the money spent on AIDS, in the poor and middle-income countries, comes from foreign ass
44、istance. 43 Some rich countries in Europe are decreasing their anti-AIDS investment to Global Fund. 44 More effective screening and willingness are required to prevent AIDS from transmitting. 45 Unlike most infectious diseases that hit the weak members, AIDS strikes the most capable members of socie
45、ty. 46 Scientists have discovered some antibodies which might help to produce drugs that can clear AIDS. Section C 46 By and large, married people appear to have better health than their single peers. However, if the marriage ends, that healthy edge tends to disappear, with divorced and separated pe
46、ople reporting one of the highest rates of illness. Now, a new study published in the May issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family shows that co-habitating (同居的 ) couples also experience a decrease in health after splitting up. “Leaving a co-habitation, like a marriage, tends to have a harmful ef
47、fect on health,“ said lead author Dr. Zheng Wu of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Wu and his co-author Randy Hart obtained their results from nationwide surveys on physical and mental health and relationship status, conducted by Statistics Canada at 2-year intervals starting
48、in the 1990s. There were 9,775 participants, aged 20 to 64 years when the surveys began. Looking at this data, the researchers found that both men and women tend to report a decrease in physical or mental health after ending either a co-habitation or a marriage. Researchers have proposed two theorie
49、s to explain why married people report better health than non-married people. One supposes that healthier people are more likely to get married, while the other, called the “marriage protection hypothesis“, suggests that married couples improve their health by providing each other with social and financial support, and by monitoring each others health behaviors. In an interview with Reuters Health, Wu said he tried to understand if either of these hypotheses might exp
