1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 250及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following topic. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Some people claim that there are more disadvantages of the car than its advantages. Do y
2、ou agree or disagree? Section A （ A） The police. （ B） The district lawyer. （ C） The prison authorities. （ D） Institute of Childhood and Family. （ A） To be imprisoned and fined. （ B） To have their children taken away. （ C） To be handed over to the authorities. （ D） None. （ A） 0.4 percent. （ B） 3.4 pe
3、rcent. （ C） 4.4 percent. （ D） 3 percent. （ A） 2. （ B） 3. （ C） 4. （ D） 5. （ A） Engineer. （ B） Passengers. （ C） Architects. （ D） Workers of airport. （ A） Airports. （ B） Passengers. （ C） Architects. （ D） Companies. （ A） Sleep boxes can be rented for different lengths of time. （ B） Renters of normal hei
4、ght can stand up inside. （ C） Bedding can be automatically changed. （ D） Renters can surf the Internet inside the box. Section B （ A） He saw the office on his way home from work. （ B） A friend referred him to Dr. Carters office. （ C） He found Dr. Carters number in the phone book. （ D） He found Dr. C
5、arter s number on the Internet. （ A） He has to pick up his tool kits. （ B） He has to take a bus home. （ C） He has to open his store in the morning. （ D） He has to pick up his kids. （ A） The mans telephone number is 647-0547. （ B） The man s telephone number is 603-0547. （ C） The man was scheduled to
6、meet the doctor at 8:15 a.m. Thursday. （ D） The man was scheduled to meet the doctor at 8:00 a.m. Thursday. （ A） He hurt his knees when a tall ladder fell on him. （ B） He injured his ankle when he fell from a ladder. （ C） He sprained his hand when he fell off the roof of his house. （ D） His foot has
7、 a paint can on because he likes painting the house. （ A） He is early for classes. （ B） He has an accident on the road. （ C） He always make troubles. （ D） He makes a complaint. （ A） He is late for classes too often. （ B） He has missed too many classes. （ C） He has failed in the exam again. （ D） He i
8、s a trouble maker at school. （ A） Students are going to take the final exam today. （ B） It s the last day Steve can drop the class with a full refund. （ C） Students have to hand in their reports today. （ D） It s the final day Steve can apply for a loan. （ A） Drop the class. （ B） Make up the missed l
9、essons. （ C） Stop taking part time job. （ D） Transfer to another school. Section C （ A） They strongly believe in family rules. （ B） They are very likely to succeed in life. （ C） They tend to take responsibility for themselves. （ D） They are in the habit of obeying their parents. （ A） They grow up to
10、 be funny and charming. （ B） They often have a poor sense of direction. （ C） They get less attention from their parents. （ D） They tend to be smart and strong-willed. （ A） They usually don t follow family rules. （ B） They don t like to take chances in their lives. （ C） They are less likely to be suc
11、cessful in life. （ D） They tend to believe in their parent s ideas. （ A） Economic growth. （ B） Reducing unemployment. （ C） Social security. （ D） How to pay growing numbers of pensioners. （ A） Aging populations will bankrupt government. （ B） Aging populations will erode economic vitality. （ C） Aging
12、population will harm geopolitical strength. （ D） The truth is that such fears are widely exaggerated. （ A） Political will. （ B） Demographics. （ C） Social security. （ D） Medicare. （ A） Once a week. （ B） Twice a week. （ C） Once a month. （ D） Twice a month. （ A） No one. （ B） One young man. （ C） His son
13、. （ D） Mathew. （ A） Because he was poor. （ B） Because he wanted to retire. （ C） Because he couldnt do his job well. （ D） Because he was going somewhere. （ A） He cut Mathew s hair exactly as Mathew liked it. （ B） He cut Mathew s hair better than the old hairdresser. （ C） He cut Mathew s hair like his
14、 own. （ D） He cut Mathew s hair very badly. Section A 26 As Whats your earliest childhood memory? Adults seldom【 C1】 _events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four【 C2】 _retain any specific, personal experiences. Adults think in words, an
15、d their life memories are like stories or【 C3】 _ one event follows another as in a novel or film. But when they search through their mental files for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they dont find any that fits the【 C4】 _. Its like trying to find a Chinese word in an Engli
16、sh dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new【 C5】 _for childhood amnesia. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else s spoken description of their personal experiences in order to turn their own short-term, quickly【 C6】 _impressi
17、ons of them into long-term memories. In other【 C7】 _, children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about theirs Mother talking about the afternoon【 C8】 _looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean park. Without this【 C9】_reinforcement, says Dr
18、. Simms, children cannot form【 C10】 _memories of their personal experiences. A)words B)narratives C)spent D)pattern E)forgotten F)largely G)recall H)explanation I)cases J)rarely K)taken L)factor M)habitual N)permanent O)verbal 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 3
19、5 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 How to Make Peace with Your Workload A)Swamped(忙碌的 ), under the gun, just struggling to stay above water: whatever office cliche you employ to depict it, weve all been in that situation where we feel like we might be swallowed up by our workload. Nonetheless many a way
20、 may be used to manage your to-do list to prevent feeling overwhelmed. How to make peace with your workload once and for all goes as follows. B)Get organized. “Clear the deadwood out of your desk and keep your office in shape, which enhances your capability to handle other tasks and raises the proba
21、bility that youll retrieve the items you do need in a faster and easier fashion, “ says Jeff Davidson who works as a work / life expert and writer of more than 50 books on workplace issues. “When something can be disposed, let it go, given in reality most of what you retain is replaceable.“ Joel Rud
22、y, vice president of operations for Photographic Solutions, with better than thirty years of business management experience, believes that keeping organized is a must. “Messy work areas are nonproductive in some measure. Provided that you cant locate a document or report easily because its lost in a
23、 pile of mess, then you have a problematic situation, “ he says. “Thereby you are supposed to take the time to tidy up your work areas and keep your important files, manuals and reports in an accessible location, which will maximize your efficiencies.“ C)Make a to-do list, then cover it up. It may s
24、ound weird, but it works, says Jessica Carlson, an account executive at Bluefish Design Studio which is an advertising consulting firm. Carlson urges her team to utilize to-do lists to stay on track and highlight items that are a priority. “Cover up the list, with the exception of one high-priority
25、task at one time, “ she suggests. “This will allow you to focus better on the task at hand: otherwise, it will be easy to get overwhelmed if youre reading through a to-do list that spans an entire page. Concentrating on a single item will make your tasks appear like they are more doable, “ Carlson s
26、ays. D)Stop multitasking. Despite what you may consider multitasking, its counterproductive. Unless youre drinking coffee while scanning your morning e-mails, youre not saving any time by attempting to do ten things at once. “If you find yourself getting tangled in too many things, it may be of much
27、 necessity of you to re-evaluate your involvement, “ Rudy says. “Your mind will wander from one topic to another and you may end up never accomplishing a thing.“ Rudy recommends the best way to stop multitasking is to create priority lists with deadlines. “When applicable, complete one project befor
28、e you move further on to the next one, “ he says. E)Set time limits. Deborah Chaddock Brown, a work-at-home single parent, says shes frequently overwhelmed by the demands of maintaining order in her residence and running her own business. Still, she manages to “do it all“ by setting a time limit for
29、 each task. “I have the type of personality that flits(轻轻地掠过 )from thing to thing because I do have so much on my plate, “ Brown says. “As a consequence I assign time slots: For the next 15 minutes I will participate in social media for the purpose of marketing my business(not sending photos or play
30、ing Farmville)and that is the only thing I am about to do for the next 15 minutes. When the time is up, I move on to the next task. That way, at night I dont end up with a pile of tasks to accomplish even though I felt busy all day.“ F)Talk to your manager. “Quite often, people are working on things
31、 that are no longer a top priority, but someone forgot to tell them(that theyre no longer important). There are usually clear priorities in the managers head: he or she has just not done a great job communicating those with the employee, “ says Holly Green, CEO of The Human Factor. Greens suggestion
32、 unfolds in this manner: “If you find yourself confronted with too many responsibilities, sit down, note the significant things you are in charge of, and go to your manager to have a conversation to discuss priorities, trade-offs, time commitments and interdependencies required to do each thing well
33、, and then ask what you should stop working on or work on less so you can get the right things done.“ Green says managers should be willing to help sort out priorities, so long as employees have a can-do approach and arent just complaining about their workload. G)Eliminate time wasters. “If interrup
34、tions are keeping you from your responsibilities, learn how to deal with them accordingly, “ says Eileen Roth, author of Organizing for Dummies. Roth proposes the following suggestions to combat disruptions: “Use voice mail to cut down on telephone interruptions, turn off the alert that says You ve
35、got an e-mail: and give staff members a set time to visit you.“ Justin Gramm, president of Globella Buyers Realty, exemplifies Roths point. “E-mail had been a big time waster for me in the past because it was a constant interruption, causing me to lose focus on the task at hand, “ he says. Since det
36、ermined to check his e-mails only twice a day, Gramm says he has become much more efficient. “If people want to get more work done, they need to stop checking e-mails and get down to business, “ he says. H)Assess your workload before taking on new tasks. “The paradox of todays work environment is th
37、at the more you do, the more thats expected of you, “ Davidson says. In order to better assess your workload, Davidson suggests asking yourself the following questions before agreeing to undertake new responsibilities: Is the task aligned(使一致 )with your priorities and goals: Are you likely to be as
38、prone to saying yes to such a request tomorrow or next week: What else could you do that would be more rewarding: What other pressing tasks and responsibilities are you likely to face: Does the other party have options other than you: Will he or she be crushed if you say no? I)Want to know more? Mos
39、t of our experts recommended books for additional tips on how to maximize efficiency, but one book was mentioned time and again. Check out The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. 37 Taking time to tidy up work areas will maximize your efficiencies. 38 Deborah Chaddock Brown finds she is overwhe
40、lmed trying to make a balance between business and housework. 39 There are many useful methods of preventing people from feeling overwhelmed by workload. 40 To know more about how to maximize efficiency, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is recommended. 41 Davidson says, today s paradox is
41、 the more one does, the more he is expected to do. 42 Focusing on one single thing will make your tasks appear more possible to be done. 43 In Organizing for Dummies, using voice mail to cut down on telephone interruptions is suggested in combating interruptions. 44 Rudy said, the best way to stop m
42、ultitasking is to make a list of priorities and set deadlines for each task. 45 When something can be disposed, let it go, considering most of what you retain is replaceable in reality. 46 If employees have a can-do attitude and do not complain about their workload, the managers would like to help t
43、hem decide what to do first. Section C 46 In August, environmentalists in the Philippines vandalized(肆意破坏 )a field of Golden Rice, an experimental grain whose genes had been modified. Its seeds will be handed out free to farmers. The aim is to improve the health of children in poor countries by redu
44、cing vitamin A deficiency, which contributes to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and cases of blindness each year. Environmentalists claim that these sorts of actions are justified because genetically modified crops pose health risks. Now the main ground for those claims has crumbled. Last
45、year a paper which was published in a respected journal found that unusual rates of tumours and deaths in rats that had been fed upon a variety of genetic modification(GM)(转基因 )corn. Other studies found no such effects. But this one enabled campaigners to make a health-and-safety argument against GM
46、 crops one persuasive enough to influence governments. After the study appeared, Russia suspended imports of the grain in question. Kenya banned all GM crops. And the French prime minister said that if the results were confirmed he would press for a Europe-wide ban on the GM corn. There is now no se
47、rious scientific evidence that GM crops do any harm to the health of human beings. There is plenty of evidence, though, that they benefit the health of the planet. One of the biggest challenges facing mankind is to feed the 9 billion-10 billion people who will be alive and richer in 2050. This will
48、require doubling food production on roughly the same area of land, using less water and fewer chemicals. It will also mean making food crops more resistant to the droughts and floods that seem likely if climate change is as bad as scientists fear. If the Green revolution had never happened, and yiel
49、ds had stayed at 1960 levels, the world could not produce its current food output even if it ploughed up every last acre of cultivable land. In contrast, GM crops boost yields, protecting wild habitat from the plough. They are more resistant to the vagaries of climate change, and to diseases and pests, reducing the need for agrochemicals. Genetic research holds out the possibility of breakthroughs that could vastly increase the productivity of farming. Vandalizing GM field trials is a bit like t
