1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 258及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have two options on how to go on your tour: one is to go on a package tour and the other is to go on a self-guided tour. You are to make a choice. Write an
2、essay to explain the reasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） The amount of it changes from season to season. （ B） The amount of it shrinks to the lowest level in July. （ C） The amount of it grows in winter and shrinks in summer. （ D） Th
3、e amount of it is close to that of Arctic sea ice. （ A） It has something to do with the weather. （ B） It is due to the greenhouse effect. （ C） It is hard to identify. （ D） It has aroused public concern. （ A） It is warming at a slower pace than elsewhere. （ B） It is warming at a quicker pace than els
4、ewhere. （ C） Its temperature is soaring at a high speed everywhere. （ D） Its temperature is going towards the level of tropical areas. （ A） The trend of climate change can be reversed. （ B） The sea-level rise is a linear trend. （ C） The rising sea level is largely caused by floods. （ D） The sea-leve
5、l rise is accelerating. （ A） The process of turning hydrogen into a metal. （ B） Hydrogen might be turned into a metal. （ C） Reflectivity is a key trait of metals. （ D） The decades-long search for superconductors. （ A） By compressing it to 4.9 million times atmospheric pressure. （ B） By heating it up
6、 to extremely high temperatures. （ C） By cooling it down to extremely cold temperatures. （ D） By squeezing it strong enough at room temperature. （ A） Most of them work only at room temperature. （ B） Most of them work only at freezing temperature. （ C） Most of them work only at extremely cold tempera
7、tures. （ D） Most of them work only at extremely high temperatures. Section B （ A） Look for a missing file. （ B） Mark “Confidential“ on a file. （ C） Make a copy of a file. （ D） Circulate a file to the staff. （ A） A new chair range. （ B） A new watch range. （ C） A new desk range. （ D） A new cup range.
8、（ A） Because they found someone suspicious. （ B） Because the man lost the key of the safe. （ C） Because the woman lost a new design. （ D） Because the man lost the payment of this morning. （ A） Kind-hearted. （ B） Terrible. （ C） Strange. （ D） Humorous. （ A） Open. （ B） Polite. （ C） Creative. （ D） Selfi
9、sh. （ A） She is sick of British custom. （ B） She likes drinking coffee. （ C） She has been to Britain for four years. （ D） She doesnt speak “please“ so often. （ A） Stupid. （ B） Friendly. （ C） Terrible. （ D） Considerate. （ A） They use many words to say things. （ B） They apologize all the time. （ C） Th
10、ey keep a slight smile on their face. （ D） They put themselves in others shoes. Section C （ A） Because the planets are the same size as Earth. （ B） Because the planets are similar in many aspects to Earth. （ C） Because the planets are capable of supporting life. （ D） Because the planets have water o
11、n their surface. （ A） They are rocky planets. （ B） They are gaseous like Jupiter. （ C） They are covered by water. （ D） They are covered by sea ice. （ A） Because it has the right temperature and enough greenhouse gases. （ B） Because it has the right amount of water and enough greenhouse gases. （ C） B
12、ecause it has the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases. （ D） Because it has the right gravity and enough greenhouse gases. （ A） They should be widely used in the field of social services. （ B） They should be blamed for the increasing unemployment. （ C） They should be taxed the same amount as
13、 the people they replace. （ D） They should be taxed more than the ordinary people. （ A） They will surely face massive unemployment. （ B） They will need less income tax to spend. （ C） They will have less income tax to spend. （ D） They will have no need to cope with the changes. （ A） Psychologists. （
14、B） Police officers. （ C） Room cleaners. （ D） Doctors. （ A） People who sleep late are smarter and more creative. （ B） People who sleep late are always late for their jobs. （ C） People who sleep late are easily irritated. （ D） People who sleep late are slow and ineffective in their jobs. （ A） You will
15、 feel exhausted all day long. （ B） You cant justify your lateness. （ C） You will be late for your work. （ D） You cant find persuasive excuses. （ A） Because they can fully enjoy themselves late at night. （ B） Because they can fully concentrate their attention late at night. （ C） Because they can read
16、 the most fascinating book late at night. （ D） Because they can make rapid progress in mentality late at night. （ A） Group intelligence tests. （ B） Emotional intelligence tests. （ C） Deductive reasoning tests. （ D） Inductive reasoning tests. Section A 26 A third of the planets land is severely degra
17、ded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year, according to a new United Nations-backed study that calls for a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture. The alarming【 C1】 _ , which is forecast to continue as demand for food and productive land increases, will add to
18、 the risks of conflicts unless【 C2】 _ actions are implemented, warns the institution behind the report. “As the ready supply of healthy and productive land dries up and the population grows, competition is【 C3】 _ for land within countries and globally,“ said executive secretary of the UN Convention
19、to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at the launch of the Global Land Outlook. “To【 C4】 _ the losses, the outlook suggests it is in all our interests to step back and rethink how we are managing the pressures and the competition. “ The Global Land Outlook is【 C5】 _ as the most comprehensive study of it
20、s type, mapping the interlinked impacts of urbanization, climate change, erosion and forest loss. But the biggest factor is the【 C6】 _ of industrial farming. Heavy tilling, multiple harvests and【 C7】 _ use of agrochemicals have increased yields at the【 C8】 _ of long-term sustainability. In the past
21、20 years, agricultural production has increased threefold and the amount of irrigated land has doubled, notes a paper in the outlook by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European commission. Over time, however, this【 C9】 _ fertility and can lead to abandonment of land and【 C10】 _ desertificatio
22、n. A) absorb I) limited B) abundant J) minimize C) billed K) occasionally D) decline L) optimizes E) diminishes M) rate F) expansion N) remedial G) expense O) ultimately H) intensifying 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Motherhood
23、 Isnt Sacrifice; Its Selfishness A) I was taking a few weeks break from work over the summer. My family and I my husband and my sons, then 9 and 7 planned to spend the time at our house on the New Jersey shore. When my mother asked what we would be doing on our vacation, I told her we would be toget
24、her going to the beach and the nearby amusement park, cooking, playing in the yard. In response, my mother said: “Oh, thats not much of a vacation for you. Ill bet you cant wait to get back to work. Motherhood, its the hardest job in the world. All sacrifice!“ “Really?“ was all I could say in respon
25、se. B) I was looking forward to uninterrupted time with my boys. We would spend days by the ocean and take trips to the boardwalk, where they would scream with delight while riding the roller coaster the same one Id ridden when I was their age, then ridden alongside them until Hurricane Sandy deposi
26、ted it into the Atlantic. Wed ram one another with bumper cars; wed ride the old-fashioned merry-go-round, waiting until my youngest sons favorite horse, bright-blue Freddy, became available. Some days were sure to end in tears of exhaustion, but the tears didnt outweigh the joy. Even on the bad day
27、s. C) My mother was only trying to be sympathetic to my life as a working mother, but the self-satisfied way she proclaimed the sacrificial nature of motherhood grated (使人烦恼 )- I dont believe for one second that motherhood is the hardest job in the world nor that it is all sacrifice. Still, it wasnt
28、 fair to blame her; she was merely parroting a common refrain. Once my annoyance lifted, in its place spread a kind of clarity that helped me to understand how these linguistic tropes (比喻 ) reinforce the disempowerment of mothers and women. D) The assertion of motherhood as sacrifice comes with a pe
29、rceived glorification. A woman is expected to sacrifice her time, ambition and sense of self to a higher purpose, one more worthy than her own individual identity. This leaves a vacuum in the place of her value, one that others rush to fill. E) When a woman becomes pregnant, she seems to become publ
30、ic property. Perhaps because bearing children ensures the continuation of the species, it is often prioritized as part of a larger social contract. Not only does this logic lead to an attempt to legislate womens bodies, but also in smaller, everyday gestures, boundaries get crossed. Many friends tel
31、l stories about being touched by strangers during pregnancy, as if a womans maternal (母亲的 ) status turns her into a vessel to handle. F) Written more than 30 years ago, Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale offers a cautionary tale of womanhood as sacrifice. In this dystopic novel, women are grouped a
32、ccording to the uses men determine for them: namely, sterile wives married for appearance or fertile “handmaids,“ who are raped routinely for procreation (生育 ). One male character declares that the woman must “learn in silence with all subjection“ and that “she shall be saved by childbearing.“ In th
33、is scenario, the act of motherhood is subverted for the benefit of those in power, and they get away with it because of the concept of motherhood as sacrifice. G) When we cling to the idea of motherhood as sacrifice, what we really sacrifice is our sense of self, as if it is the price we pay for hav
34、ing children. H) Motherhood is not a sacrifice, but a privilege one that many of us choose selfishly. At its most atavistic (原始的 ), procreating ensures that our genes survive into the next generation. You could call this selfishness as biological imperative. On a personal level, when we bring into t
35、he world a being that is of us, someone we will protect and love and for whom we will do everything we can to help thrive and flourish, it begets the question, How is this selfless? Selflessness implies that we have no skin in the game. In motherhood, were all in. I) By refraining motherhood as a pr
36、ivilege, we redirect agency back to the mother, empowering her, celebrating her autonomy (自主权 ) instead of her sacrifice. Granted, some of us have more autonomy than others. There are many mothers who would not have chosen motherhood, for financial or personal reasons. Still, by owning our roles as
37、mothers and refusing the false accolades (赞扬 ) of martyrdom (殉难 ) , we do more to empower all women. J) In my experience, when women talk among women, our ambivalence or frustration is rarely about our roles as mothers. (That doesnt mean our kids dont drive us crazy sometimes.) Rather, conversations
38、 turn to questions of how to manage the best part of our lives (those very kids who are driving us crazy) with our partners, careers and other responsibilities. And while many women derive their deepest fulfillment as mothers, it doesnt preclude (阻止 ) their ambition or fly in the face of leaning in
39、or out or sideways. K) Calling motherhood “the hardest job in the world“ misses the point completely because having and raising children is not a “job.“ No one will deny that there is exhaustion, fear and tedium (枯燥 ). Raising a family is hard work, but so is every other meaningful aspect of our liv
40、es. L) The language surrounding child rearing as a job surely derived from caregivers and homemakers efforts to be acknowledged as fulfilling an important role. And clearly raising children is one of the most important things we do for both women and menbut that does not make it a job. In a job, an
41、employer pays for services an employee agrees to perform. And there is a boss to whom the employee reports. In the case of parenting, who would that be? M) That doesnt mean we dont want support paid parental leave, more flexible working hours, publicly funded day care. But the cultural shift has to
42、happen for the policies to follow. Martyrs, after all, dont need or expect public services. N) Fathers are rarely, if ever, spoken about in the same way that mothers are. Its culturally acceptable for men to have children and professional identities without having to choose between the two. These un
43、spoken biases run deep. It reminds me of a friend whose husband complained about having to “babysit“ the children while she went to dinner with friends. Has a woman ever “babysat“ her own children? Things are changing, but the insidious (潜在的 ) inferences persist. O) Further, with “women“ and “family
44、“ as go-to cultural corollaries (必然的结果 ), studies show, terrifyingly, that these biases are being adopted by artificial intelligence, too. Calling motherhood a womans “job“ only serves to keep a woman in her place. The priorities of mothers who work outside the home are often questioned. Its as if w
45、omen are forced to choose between ambition (or simply earning a living wage) and family. P) If we start referring to motherhood as the beautiful, messy privilege that it is, and to tending to our children as the most loving yet selfish thing we do, perhaps we can change the biased language my mother
46、 used. Only when we stop talking about motherhood as sacrifice can we start talking about mothers the way that we deserve. 37 In Margaret Atwoods novel, women are divided into two groups based on whether or not they can give birth to a child. 38 The way to alter the biased view held by people like t
47、he authors mother is to talk about being a mother as privilege and selfishness. 39 Rearing children couldnt become a job because parents, unlike employees, neither get paid to fulfill their responsibilities nor have a superior. 40 The author knows from her experience that conversations between women
48、 usually centre on disciplining their children, jobs and other responsibilities instead of their mothering roles. 41 Motherhood is a selfish behavior, from both a biological and a personal perspective. 42 The author expressed her disagreement when her mother made comments on her holiday plan and mot
49、herhood. 43 The cultural acceptance of mens dual identities as father and jobholder reflects deep-rooted prejudice against women. 44 The reason why pregnant women appear to become public assets may be that bringing children into the world makes sure the human races continued existence. 45 Despite their unwillingness to bear a child due to economic or personal reasons, many women still became mothers. 46 The author expected to spend her holiday with sons without distraction and believed they
