1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 27及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then express your views on exhaust fumes. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words
2、. Write your essay on Answer Sheet 1. Section A （ A） The blood sample collection. （ B） Religious concern about research. （ C） Results of genetic testing. （ D） The way to get the blood sample. （ A） Because she is younger than the previous managers. （ B） Because she has more experience. （ C） Because s
3、he is sure that she is mentally stronger. （ D） Because she has few psychological problems. （ A） The man has taken away the womans stuff. （ B） The womans roommate is missing. （ C） The man thinks the womans roommate might be stealing. （ D） The woman has taken away her roommates stuff. （ A） People dese
4、rve all the disasters. （ B） People shouldnt have deserved the disasters. （ C） People have been ready for the tornado. （ D） People must protect themselves against disasters. （ A） Different cultures and customs. （ B） The womans first year at university. （ C） Things that the woman is doing now. （ D） Th
5、e foreign roommates of the woman. （ A） He was pushed by the woman. （ B） He put forth great efforts. （ C） He made a wheelchair by himself. （ D） He was very proud of himself. （ A） Doctor and patient. （ B） Teacher and student. （ C） Father and daughter. （ D） Coach and player. （ A） Because she can pay th
6、e higher fuel costs. （ B） Because rising fuel costs can benefit the environment. （ C） Because she can save more money. （ D） Because she can cut her consumption. （ A） Because she hasn t seen snow. （ B） Because she doesnt like to ski. （ C） Because she is afraid of skiing. （ D） Because she lives very f
7、ar away from the skifield. （ A） Act like a crab. （ B） Go up step by step. （ C） Stand in the middle. （ D） Go up as quickly as possible. （ A） Cross the tips. （ B） Stop leaning forward. （ C） Point the tips together. （ D） Move to a gentle place. （ A） She is honest and hardworking. （ B） She is very compe
8、tent for the job. （ C） She likes her job very much. （ D） She is hardworking but not competent. （ A） Designing a terrific web. （ B） Designing a basic web. （ C） Building a terrific BBS. （ D） Designing a terrific program. （ A） She learned the skills at a famous university. （ B） She didnt do well at sch
9、ool. （ C） She learned the skills by herself. （ D） She received some professional training. （ A） Let her leave immediately. （ B） Get an experienced man to help her. （ C） Fire her in a week. （ D） Let her get some professional training. Section B （ A） It is lined with tall trees. （ B） It was widened re
10、cently. （ C） It has high buildings on both sides. （ D） It used to be dirty and disorderly. （ A） They repaved it with rocks. （ B） They built public restrooms on it. （ C） They beautified it with plants. （ D） They set up cooking facilities near it. （ A） What makes life enjoyable. （ B） How to work with
11、tools. （ C） What a community means. （ D） How to improve health. （ A） They were obliged to fulfill the signed contract. （ B） They were encouraged by the city officials praise. （ C） They wanted to prove they were as capable as boys. （ D） They derived happiness from the constructive work. （ A） The majo
12、rity of them think it less important than computers. （ B） Many of them consider it boring and old-fashioned. （ C） The majority of them find it interesting. （ D） Few of them read more than ten books a year. （ A） Novels and stories. （ B） Mysteries and detective stories. （ C） History and science books.
13、 （ D） Books on culture and tradition. （ A） Watching TV. （ B） Listening to music. （ C） Reading magazines. （ D） Playing computer games. （ A） Advice on the purchase of cars. （ B） Information about the new green-fuel vehicles. （ C） Trends for the development of the motor car. （ D） Solutions to global fu
14、el shortage. （ A） Limited driving range. （ B） Huge recharging expenses. （ C） The short life of batteries. （ D） The unaffordable high price. （ A） They need to be further improved. （ B） They can easily switch to natural gas. （ C） They are more cost-effective than vehicles powered by solar energy. （ D）
15、 They can match conventional motor cars in performance and safety. Section C 26 Less than 60% of students now entering four-year American colleges are likely to graduate. The【 B1】 _rate is lower than for almost any other wealthy country, and worst for poor and minority students. A new book about Ame
16、ricas public universities explores the complex causes of the high【 B2】 _. The book is called Crossing the Finish Line. President Obama wants the United States to again have the worlds highest【 B3】 _of college graduates by 2020. On Tuesday the president gave a【 B4】_broadcast speech to students about
17、the importance of staying in school. He spoke on the first day of classes at a high school in Virginia. He talked about personal【 B5】_, and used himself as an example of someone who【 B6】 _difficulties. But he told students that problems in their own lives should not stop them from learning. But many
18、 conservatives【 B7】 _plans for the speech. Some called it “socialized education“ or federal interference in local schools. Others【 B8】 _it would be too political, so some schools decided not to show the speech. On Sunday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 30% of students do not graduate from high
19、 school. According to him, more than a million students every year who entered ninth grade do not complete twelfth grade. The education secretary called the【 B9】 _the presidents speech “silly.“ It suggested that students write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. But a
20、fter conservatives objected, the【 B10】_was changed to writing about personal goals. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 Its the first question parents ask when their child is diagnosed with autism(自闭症 ). Will his future brothers or
21、sisters have a higher risk of【 C1】 _it, too? According to the largest study of siblings(兄弟姐妹 )in families with autism, the answer is yes. Among 664 children who had at least one older sibling with the developmental disorder, the【 C2】 _risk of autism was nearly 19%,【 C3】_higher than previous sibling-
22、recurrence estimates that were anywhere from 3% to 10%. Kids with more than one older autistic sibling had an even higher risk of the disorder: 32%. The【 C4】 _suggest that genes play a key role in autism risk. But they also hint that other environmental factors【 C5】 _by siblings, like influences in
23、the womb(子宫 ), may be important as well. On the【 C6】 _of the findings, the researchers recommend that doctors closely【 C7】 _younger siblings of autistic children to pick up any early signs of the disorder, 【 C8】 _an unusually large head or delayed language development and communication skills. Evide
24、nce suggests that early【 C9】 _and diagnosis of autism can help children take advantage of therapies that can treat some of its【 C10】_ A)average F)developing K)reason B)basis G)distributed L)results C)common H)dramatically M)shared D)consequently I)including N)symbols E)detection J)monitor O)symptoms
25、 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Why Summer Vacation Won t Make You Happier A)From an informal and highly unscientific survey of friends and colleagues, I can report that the reasons for not feeling happy after returning from va
26、cation include: the flight home(red-eye to New York); realizing what they just did to their credit-card balance; getting back to work; wondering if they should have gone somewhere different; sharp memories of kids fighting constantly in the back seat of the rental car; and sadness that the next vaca
27、tion will not arrive for months, typically around the end of the year, making them wonder over and over, how am I going to hold out until then? I, in contrast, not having taken a vacation this year and with none scheduled, am positively euphoric(非常高兴的 )compared with these unhappy souls: I have somet
28、hing to look forward to and a world of possible destinations to fantasize about. B)Anecdotes do not equal data, as scientists say, but in this case the anecdotes about vacations failing to give us a post-trip mood boost match the results of years of research. Studies point to an inescapable conclusi
29、on: “Generally, there is no difference between vacationers and non-vacationers post-trip happiness,“ as the authors of a recent paper in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life put it. One interesting exception is the period just before taking a vacation, when about-to-be travelers report fe
30、eling happier than nonvacationers, possibly because the anticipation puts them in a good mood. C)But the holiday aftermath is a different story, and a glum one. One small study in 2008 used text messages from vacationers during their holidays to assess how happy they were, and then compared these re
31、al-time messages with how people recalled their holiday moods once theyd returned to real life. Vacationers were, overall, happier on holiday than in their normal lives. So far, so good. But once home, they stank at remembering how happy they had been while away, consistently recalling higher levels
32、 of happiness than they had reported at the time. That suggests two things: we will ourselves to recall being happy on vacation(if we werent happy, why did we just spend all that money?), but by comparison real life feels grimmer. D)Another small study, from 2004 in the Annals of Tourism Research, m
33、easured the effect of a vacation on post-vacation mood more directly, having people fill out a questionnaire that assessed their levels of happiness right before going on holiday and then when they returned.(Nontravelers also filled out the questionnaire, with results confirming that about-to-be vac
34、ationers indeed experience an anticipatory high.)The carry-over effect of a vacation on happiness was so small, the best the researchers could report was that vacations are “not causing individuals to feel any worse off than before traveling.“ I dont think well be seeing that sentiment on tourist We
35、b sites any time soon. “Come to the Caribbean: you wont feel any lousier than you did before vacationing here!“ E)Even the small positive effects last about as long as a sunburn. Sure, take a vacation in hopes that it will relieve your burnout, but within three to four weeks people are feeling as st
36、ressed out as before, found a 2001 study in which the authors concluded: “Vacation alleviated(减轻 )perceived job stress and burnout as predicted. But we found a return to prevacation levels of burnout four weeks later.“ That may be one reason the sense of happiness fades as well: if you feel just as
37、much burnout a month after returning from vacation as you did before, no wonder youre grouchy(脾气坏的 ). This result isnt from just a single study, by the way: a 2009 meta-analysis of seven reached the same conclusion about the post-vacation letdown. F)For one thing, holiday trips are not 24/7 bliss. T
38、here are missed flight connections, disappointing hotels, bad food, and illness. Looking back on all that, once were back home, can understandably put a dent in our happiness. Also, whats called the peak-end effect can affect post-trip mood. The most intense experiences(peak)and those that occur as
39、the vacation is winding down(end)leave the most lasting impressions. If we fail to pack a few ultrahighs into a trip(swim with the dolphins one day, climb a volcano another)and instead have a lot of so-so pleasant experiences or start the trip with a bang but end it in a letdown whimper then post-tr
40、ip happiness will suffer. G)Although scientists generally find no correlation between length of a vacation and post-trip contentment, there is one argument in favor of shorter vacations. Say you get 10 days of vacation a year. If you take them as three vacations(of 4 days, 4 days, and 2 days), you w
41、ill have more final days, when fun experiences have the strongest carry-over effect, and more pre-vacation anticipation highs than if you took two 5-day trips, let alone a single 10-day trip.(The above does not hold if, like me, you find vacation planning so stressful that the very thought of doing
42、it three times a year is enough to make you a workaholic.) H)The latest study of vacations effect on happiness has the virtue of studying a large number of people(1 530). Scientists in the Netherlands had participants answer a questionnaire asking if they had recently “enjoyed their daily tasks,“ ha
43、d recently felt “unhappy,“ or had recently felt “gloomy.“ Possible answers were “never,“ “almost never,“ “sometimes,“ “very often,“ and “always. “ The study compared responses of the 556 people who did not go on a holiday with those of the 974 who did, controlling for things like personality(extrove
44、rts tend to be happier and might vacation more, so you have to subtract this effect from the happiness levels of vacationers). I)Result: vacationers were happier before their trips than were nonvacationers, confirming the anticipation effect or suggesting that people able to take trips might have mo
45、re happiness-boosting characteristics(good health, money, friends and family to travel with)than nonvacationers do. But “post-trip happiness did not differ between vacationers and non-vacationers,“ the scientists found. The travelers happiness edge had actually disappeared. Even more sobering, happi
46、ness levels post-trip were little different from what they had been before. J)Even people who had had the least stressful vacations experienced this happiness fadeout, with their sense of contentment falling to pre-trip levels eight weeks after their return. “The benefits of a very relaxed holiday t
47、rip last maximally for two weeks,“ write the scientists. “A holiday trip does not have a prolonged effect on happiness,“ and “length of stay is not associated with post-trip happiness. Returning home involves a swift return to pre-trip happiness levels.“ 47 Memories about the extreme experiences dur
48、ing a vacation will last for a long time. 48 It is suggested that nonvacationers might have less happiness-boosting characteristics than vacationers. 49 Some people believe several shorter vacations will bring them more happiness than a long one. 50 That they cannot have a good rest on the flight ho
49、me is one of the reasons people dont feel happy after vacations. 51 One study showed that people, once home, pretend to have had more happy times during the vacation. 52 Without taking a vacation this year, I feel very happy because I can enjoy the possible destinations in my imagination. 53 Scientists think the benefits of a relaxed vacation can keep at best for half a month. 54 It is true that holiday trips cannot bring people happiness throughout. 5
