1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 260及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled The Importance of Change by commenting on the saying “If youre prepared to adapt and learn, you can transform.“ You should write at least 120 words but no
2、more than 180 words. Section A （ A） Because the storm had cut power to them. （ B） Because the roads to them had been flooded. （ C） Because there might be mud slides. （ D） Because there might be tsunami. （ A） It is expected to last until Saturday afternoon. （ B） It has caused over 300 traffic deaths.
3、 （ C） It is the strongest one in years. （ D） It will be at its strongest on Saturday afternoon. （ A） A car crash. （ B） A bushfire. （ C） A burglary. （ D） A terrorist attack. （ A） More than 15 homes had moved out. （ B） More than 50 homes had joined the fight. （ C） They had not had the fire under contr
4、ol yet. （ D） They had found a way to put out the fire. （ A） They are useful in terms of security but have rusted. （ B） They are useful in terms of security but not beautiful. （ C） They are no longer strong enough to protect the tower. （ D） They are no longer needed as a photo spot. （ A） It is the mo
5、st visited monument in the world. （ B） It is totally free of charge for visiting. （ C） The entry to the forecourt of the tower is free. （ D） The entry to the forecourt of the tower will be charged. （ A） Less visitor entrances. （ B） More security guards. （ C） Ornamental lights. （ D） Better elevators.
6、 Section B （ A） Its for disabled adults. （ B） Its in a sports centre. （ C） Its rewarding and challenging. （ D） Its compulsive in her community. （ A） The skills they need. （ B） The products they have. （ C） The market they target. （ D） The language they require. （ A） Diversify markets and sales strate
7、gies. （ B） Reduce costs and jobs. （ C） Learn from other companies. （ D） Listen to the opinions of experts. （ A） The salary and the workload. （ B） The office hour and the penalty system. （ C） The welfare and the holiday system. （ D） The ethical policy and the carbon footprint. （ A） Double-decker buse
8、s. （ B） The traffic in London. （ C） Bus routes. （ D） Travels in Britain. （ A） It has no windows. （ B） People get onto it at the front. （ C） It has two carriages. （ D） It is open at the back. （ A） Uncomfortable. （ B） Noisy. （ C） Dangerous. （ D） Shabby. （ A） Bendy buses can help reduce the traffic jam
9、. （ B） Bendy buses are more environmentally friendly. （ C） Bendy buses are convenient for people in wheelchairs. （ D） Bendy buses are more popular among tourists. Section C （ A） Cars and iron ore. （ B） Iron ore and people. （ C） Animals and iron ore. （ D） People and animals. （ A） It includes three in
10、frastructure companies. （ B） It has 24 operators to run the services. （ C） It has no state-owned companies. （ D） It is a highly complex system. （ A） He thinks British trains are the most punctual in the world. （ B） He never complains to the Rail Passenger Council. （ C） He constantly encounters the p
11、oor train service. （ D） He often complains about the poor train service. （ A） The trifles of daily life. （ B） The basics of relationships. （ C） The standards of relationships. （ D） The feelings of romantic gestures. （ A） It needs something special. （ B） It is highly demanding. （ C） It is the source
12、of happiness. （ D） It doesnt exist in real life. （ A） There are many ups and downs in life. （ B） It is hard to find a healthy relationship. （ C） People tend to think highly of themselves. （ D） People have easy access to meeting strangers. （ A） They are liable to attack. （ B） They like to smell peopl
13、e. （ C） They are as smart as cats. （ D） They are independent. （ A） Strong. （ B） Quiet. （ C） Neat. （ D） Loyal. （ A） They can be trained to deliver things. （ B） They can be put to use as guide dogs. （ C） They can be used to work as police dogs. （ D） They can be trained to help the disabled. （ A） Evalu
14、ating dogs reaction to different cancers. （ B） Using dogs to discover early stage cancer. （ C） Examining dogs highly sophisticated sensor. （ D） Investigating the functions of dogs noses. Section A 26 Passwords are a pain in the ass. Theyre either easy to【 C1】 _ or hard to remember, and when breaches
15、 (破坏 )【 C2】 _ you have to come up with a whole new one. So people are trying to do away with passwords altogether, and so far fingerprint scanners are doing the job nicely. Still, fingerprints alone are not【 C3】 _ . Online security has become【 C4】_ important, forcing service providers to come up wit
16、h better measures such as two-factor authentication (验证 ) to【 C5】 _ user information. Companies are turning to other parts of our bodies to find biometric (生物计量的 )【 C6】 _ that are up to the task, and our faces and eyes are at the top of the list. Although facial and eye-based recognition appear gimm
17、icky for now, they may soon become as prevalent and popular as fingerprint scanners. That pairing could root out passwords and clunky text-message two-factor【 C7】 _ altogether, making it a completely biometric process. The popularity, prevalence and convenience of fingerprint scanning means it is he
18、re to stay, and by no means are face and eye recognition meant to【 C8】 _ it. Choudhury sees the newer method as a complement to fingerprints, providing a more convenient second-factor authentication as opposed to entering a text code sent to your phone. While the tech we have right now may not be fa
19、st or secure enough to be truly convenient and helpful, were getting close. Using the adoption of fingerprint scanners as a【 C9】 _ , Choudhury estimated we are about five years away from iris (虹膜 ) scanners and face detection becoming【 C10】 _ . Until then, well have to deal with changing our crappy
20、passwords every so often and hope we dont forget them. A) complements I) interfere B) conceptions J) model C) crack K) occur D) defend L) replace E) enough M) traditionally F) identify N) verification G) inappropriate O) widespread H) increasingly 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6
21、】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Corporate Ambitions: Amazon, the Worlds Most Remarkable Firm, Is Just Getting Started A) Amazon is an extraordinary company. The former bookseller accounts for more than half of every new dollar spent online in America. It is the worlds leading pro
22、vider of cloud computing. This year Amazon will probably spend twice as much on television as HBO, a cable channel. Its own-brand physical products include batteries, almonds, suits and speakers linked to a virtual voice-activated assistant that can control, among other things, your lamps and sprink
23、ler. B) Yet Amazons shareholders are working on the premise that it is just getting started. Since the beginning of 2015 its share price has jumped by 173%, seven times quicker than in the two previous years (and 12 times faster than the S Walmart already has revenues nudging $ 500bn and is beefing
24、up online. If anything happened to Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder and boss, the gap would be exceptionally hard to fill. But the striking thing about the company is how much of a chance it has of achieving such unprecedented goals. E) This is largely due to the firms unusual approach to two dimensions
25、of corporate life. The first of these is time. In an era when executives routinely whinge about (发牢骚 ) pressure to produce short-term results, Amazon is resolutely focused on the distant horizon. Mr. Bezos emphasises continual investment to propel (推动 ) its two principal businesses, e-commerce and A
26、mazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud-computing arm. F) In e-commerce, the more shoppers Amazon lures, the more retailers and manufacturers want to sell their goods on Amazon. That gives Amazon more cash for new servicessuch as two-hour shipping and streaming video and musicwhich entice more shoppers.
27、 Similarly, the more customers use AWS, the more Amazon can invest in new services, which attract more customers. A third virtuous circle is starting to whirl (迅速旋转 ) around Alexa, the firms voice-activated assistant: as developers build services for Alexa, it becomes more useful to consumers, givin
28、g developers reason to create yet more services. G) So long as shareholders retain their faith in this model, Amazons heady valuation resembles a self-fulfilling prophecy. The company will be able to keep spending, and its spending will keep making it more powerful. Their faith is sustained by Amazo
29、ns record. It has had its failuresits attempt to make a smartphone was a debacle. But the business is starting to crank out (快速大量地制造 ) cash. Last year cashflow (before investment) was $ 16bn, more than quadruple the level five years ago. H) If Amazons approach to time-frames is unusual, so too is th
30、e sheer breadth of its activities. The companys list of current and possible competitors, as described in its annual filings, includes logistics firms, search engines, social networks, food manufacturers and producers of “physical, digital and interactive media of all types“. A wingspan this large i
31、s more reminiscent of a conglomerate (大型联合企业 ) than a retailer, which makes Amazons share price seem even more bloated: stockmarkets typically apply a “ conglomerate discount“ to reflect their inefficiencies. I) Many of these services support Amazons own expansion and that of other companies. The ob
32、vious example is AWS, which powers Amazons operations as well as those of other firms. But Amazon also rents warehouse space to other sellers. It is building a $ 1. 5bn air-freight hub (中心 ) in Kentucky. It is testing technology in stores to let consumers skip the cash register altogether, and exper
33、imenting with drone deliveries to the home. Such tools could presumably serve other customers, too. Some think that Amazon could become a new kind of utility: one that provides the infrastructure of commerce, from computing power to payments to logistics. J) And here lies the real problem with the e
34、xpectations surrounding Amazon. If it gets anywhere close to fulfilling them, it will attract the attention of regulators. For now, Amazon is unlikely to trigger antitrust (反垄断的 ) action. It is not yet the biggest retailer in America, its most mature market. Americas antitrust enforcers look mainly
35、at a firms effect on consumers and pricing. Seen through this lens, Amazon appears pristine (处于原始状态的 ). Consumers applaud it; it is the most well-regarded company in America, according to a Harris poll. (AWS is a boon to startups, too.) K) But as it grows, so will concerns about its power. Even on s
36、tandard antitrust grounds, that may pose a problem: if it makes as much money as investors hope, a rough calculation suggests its earnings could be worth the equivalent of 25% of the combined profits of listed Western retail and media firms. But regulators are also changing the way they think about
37、technology. In Europe, Google stands accused of using its clout as a search engine to extend its power to adjacent businesses. The comparative immunity from legal liability of digital platformsfor the posting of inflammatory content on Facebook, say, or the vetting of drivers on Uberis being chipped
38、 away. L) Amazons business model will also encourage regulators to think differently. Investors value Amazons growth over profits; that makes predatory pricing more tempting. In future, firms could increasingly depend on tools provided by their biggest rival. If Amazon does become a utility for comm
39、erce, the calls will grow for it to be regulated as one. Shareholders are right to believe in Amazons potential. But success will bring it into conflict with an even stronger beast: government. 37 Amazon has formed sound circles that push its e-commerce, AWS and Alexa voice service forward. 38 There
40、 is less chance of American government filing an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon because of its scale as a retailer and customers positive comments. 39 The two potential perils faced by Amazon come from its competitors and its leader Jeff Bezos respectively. 40 Amazon used to sell books online, but
41、 now the company has expanded its business scope into providing cloud computing and manufacturing its own physical products. 41 Its believed that Amazon will offer infrastructure of commerce with its AWS, rental warehouse space, logistics center in Kentucky, checkout-free shopping technology and dro
42、ne delivery. 42 The development of Amazon and the changing attitude of regulators towards technology will possibly bring Amazon antitrust trouble in the future. 43 Amazons executives havent experienced the same pressure as their counterparts in other companies due to Amazons forward-looking strategy
43、 about continuing investing in e-commerce and AWS. 44 Amazon remains so high in market value for so long but so small in profit that no other company in history can match with it. 45 Despite Amazons setback in making smartphones, this business is now turning a profit. 46 The investors double expecta
44、tions for Amazon suggest that it is likely to become the most profitable company in America. Section C 46 In todays world, online social media has become more powerful and the most destructive thing over worldwide. Although with time all generations have come to embrace the changes social network ha
45、s brought about, teenagers and young adults are the most fanatic users of these sites. According to various research studies in the field of online social networks, it has been revealed that these sites are impacting the lives of the youth greatly. When using these sites such as Twitter, Facebook or
46、 Myspace, there are both positive and negative effects on the youth. Firstly, social media helps the youth and any other user updated with what is happening around the world, and helps the teenagers stay connected and interact with each other even if they are many miles apart. This strengthens their
47、 relationship. Even if they finished school and moved to different locations, they stay connected and update one another. In addition, social media sites have provided a platform whereby the youth can create groups and pages based on their common discipline and end up building connections and opport
48、unities for their respective careers by updating various topics to discuss. Youth who have been interviewed say that social media has become their lifestyle and it makes their lives easier and more efficient. While on the one hand social network sites seem to bring people together and stay connected
49、, on the other hand it causes many physical and mental health problems such as eyes infection, back problems, etc. Other negative effects of social networking various people suggested included encouraging poor spelling and grammar, exposing underage to online predators (捕食者 ), allowing spread of misinformation that is seen as fact, decreasing productivity as those who are supposed to be working spend time in the sites to chat, providing a perfect platform for cyberbullying and providing detai
