1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 54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 individualism. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words
2、. individualism : 个人主义 Section A （ A） She did poorly on the exam. （ B） She didnt get the highest grade. （ C） She often makes careless mistakes. （ D） She complains a lot about the exam. （ A） The first. （ B） The second. （ C） The third. （ D） The fourth. （ A） It is run by Mrs Winters husband. （ B） It hi
3、res Mrs Winter as an adviser. （ C） It gives a 30% discount to all customers. （ D） It encourages husbands to shop alone. （ A） She may choose to teach. （ B） She has no desire to teach. （ C） She likes teaching very much. （ D） She has no idea about teaching. （ A） Dr Clark is a good teacher. （ B） Statist
4、ics is a boring course. （ C） Two semesters of Statistics are required. （ D） The students do not like Dr Clark. （ A） He was extremely angry. （ B） He wouldnt forgive Ben. （ C） He was quite disappointed. （ D） He couldnt understand Ben. （ A） The traffic. （ B） The weather. （ C） Their health. （ D） Their t
5、imetable. （ A） Both speakers think half of the staff are efficient. （ B） The woman has a favourable opinion of the staff. （ C） Neither of them has a favourable opinion of the staff. （ D） The woman is a restaurant manager herself. （ A） Horror. （ B） Romance. （ C） Thriller. （ D） Cartoon. （ A） Her broth
6、er will give her a ride there. （ B） Dirks brother is coming to pick her up. （ C） She is going to the movie theatre by bus. （ D） She is going to the theatre in a taxi. （ A） 7:30. （ B） 8:00. （ C） 0.354167 （ D） 0.458333 （ A） He returned the books to the new library. （ B） He went to see the new library.
7、 （ C） He began to study in the new library. （ D） He borrowed some books from the new library. （ A） It is near the university. （ B） It is hard to find a place to study there. （ C） It has comfortable chairs. （ D） It allows students to rent a bicycle. （ A） By taxi. （ B） On foot. （ C） By bus. （ D） By bi
8、ke. （ A） She has a class to attend. （ B） She has to turn off the gas. （ C） She needs to see her friend off. （ D） She has an appointment. Section B （ A） They often regret writing poor works. （ B） Some of them write surprisingly much. （ C） Many of them hate reading their own works. （ D） They are happy
9、 to review the publishers opinions. （ A） People think in words and sentences. （ B） Human ideas are translated into symbols. （ C） People think by connecting threads of ideas. （ D） Human thoughts are expressed through pictures. （ A） Most people believe we think in symbols. （ B） Loving our own writing
10、is scientifically reasonable. （ C） The writers and critics can never reach an agreement. （ D） When writing people should have two different minds. （ A） They sleep too little at night. （ B） They eat too much for lunch. （ C） The weather becomes a lot warmer. （ D） Their body temperature becomes lower.
11、（ A） About 12:30 pm. （ B） About 1:30 pm. （ C） About 2:30 pm. （ D） About 3:30 pm. （ A） All for a Nap. （ B） Just for a Rest. （ C） A Special Sleep Pattern. （ D） Taking Naps in Warmer Climate. （ A） To interest students in a career in counselling. （ B） To recruit counsellors to work in the placement offi
12、ce. （ C） To inform students of a university programme. （ D） To convince local merchants to hire college students. （ A） A job listing. （ B） A resume. （ C） A permission slip. （ D） Their salary requirements. （ A） Refine their interviewing techniques. （ B） Arrange their work schedules. （ C） Select appro
13、priate courses. （ D） Write cover letters. （ A） They pay the same wage. （ B） They involve working outdoors. （ C） They can be substituted for college students. （ D） Theyre part-time. Section C 26 Memory is our most important possession. Without memory, you wouldnt know who you are. You couldnt think a
14、bout the past or plan for the future. Memory【 B1】_everything we do as human beings. Its amazing that we have this【 B2】 _ time machine in our heads that enables us to record experiences and then use that information at a later time. Discovering how the brain makes and【 B3】_memories has to be one of t
15、he most important of all scientific【 B4】 _. People who feel they must apologise for having a bad memory should stop using a poor memory as an【 B5】 _forgetting things. The only people who have a poor memory are those whose memory function has been【 B6】 _by disease or damage. All the rest of us must a
16、ccept the responsibility to【 B7】 _to remember things. You must【 B8】 _something. You must exercise it or risk losing its effectiveness. Student and faculty should understand that a good education involves an emphasis on understanding rather than【 B9】 _ memorisation. Second, cramming for finals is a v
17、ery bad way to learn something that will last. Information from cramming will come in and go out. If you want to【 B10】 _what you learn, you must spread out the learning process. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 American universit
18、ies are rushing towards a wireless future. They are installing networks that let students and teachers surf the Internet from laptop computers(笔记本电脑 ). But professors say the technology poses a growing【 C1】 _: Retaining their students attention. In a classroom at American University in Washington D.
19、C., the benefits and【 C2】_of the new wireless work were on display. From the back row of a lecture hall, more than a dozen laptop screens were【 C3】 _. As Professor Jay Mallek lectured on the finer points of an office budget, many students went online to surf the Internet. Students write quick e-mail
20、s and send instant messages. A young man shows an amusing e-mail to the women next to him, and then switches over to read the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. Distraction is nothing【 C4】 _. As long as there have been schools, students have whispered, passed notes and even gazed out the win
21、dow and daydreamed. But the【 C5】 _of the laptop has introduced new opportunities for distraction, and wireless introduces an even【 C6】 _range of distraction. This is【 C7】 _annoying for law professors, many of whom still live in the world of paper. “This is something that hurts the students themselve
22、s,“ said Ian Ayres, professor at Yale Law School, who【 C8】 _the Internets entry into the classroom. However, Professor Mallek sees it【 C9】 _. He said the benefits of the technology outweigh(胜过 )the problems. He suggested that it might even be making him a better teacher. He takes the【 C10】 _of losin
23、g his students to e-mail and online newspapers as a challenge to keep lectures lively and interesting. A)visible I)new B)threat J)demonstrates C)possible K)larger D)opposes L)differently E)obstacle M)challenge F)especially N)arrival G)broader O)advantages H)drawbacks 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【
24、C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 Making Reading, Writing and Recession Work Together A)With books tucked neatly on the shelves and a comfy purple-dragon rug in a back corner nook, the library at San Diegos Willard B. Hage Elementary School is the perfect place
25、for children to fall in love with reading. Since the start of the school year, however, the library has been off limits to students, who get to go there only when(already overworked)teachers can escort them and handle the record keeping. “With all of the cutbacks weve had in the last few years, the
26、district cant pay for someone to help check out books,“ explains Pam Wiesenberg, a third-grade teacher at the school. “As a result, the children suffer.“ B)As the national economy continues to nose dive, a growing number of public schools have found themselves facing similar situations and making mo
27、re and more painful cutbacks. Advanced Placement programmes, extra help for English learners, art, music and summer school could be on the chopping block in many places. Ditto(同上 )for efforts to reduce class size. C)The huge federal stimulus package should offer some relief to desperate districts; t
28、he House and Senate are haggling over versions that include at least $80 billion for education programs, a significant bump up from the Education Departments $59 billion discretionary(自由裁量的 )budget for fiscal 2008. But theres a catch: a big chunk of the stimulus money that is designed to prevent mas
29、sive teacher layoffs will be awarded only to states that spend at least as much on education as they did in 2006 a tall order given that a minimum of 42 states are facing significant budget gaps. At least 20 states have already cut their K-12 budgets. Moreover, even with the federal stimulus money,
30、school districts will still get the bulk of their funding from state and local coffers, which havent been this low in decades. As Randall Moody, manager of federal advocacy for the National Education Association, says, “When you have 40 states with serious budget issues and thats where schools get t
31、he bulk of their money, naturally theres going to be a problem.“ D)Budget disasters are perhaps most acute in California. The state, the most populous in the US, spends about $48 billion a year on K-12 education, or nearly half its general fund, which receives revenue from a variety of sources, incl
32、uding income and sales taxes. This year, however, the double hits of endless layoffs and an imploding(剧减的 )real estate market has ruined the fund, with legislators projecting a $42 billion deficit by the middle of next year. To help bridge this gap, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed shorti
33、ng schools $2.1 billion during the rest of this academic year and $3.1 billion the next. He wants to save an additional $1.1 billion by reducing the number of school days, from 180 to 175. Though the extra time off might cheer students, California school superintendent Jack O. Connell strenuously op
34、poses the move. Best sound bite: “To close the achievement gap and prepare all students for success in the competitive global economy, we should be offering more time in class, not less.“ E)Despite Congresss holding emergency weekend sessions to push through a stimulus plan, educators in many states
35、 lament the fact that schools wont see a penny of the extra money until at least July. According to O. Connell, some of Californias poorest districts are running out of cash for subsidised meal programmes. The Hayward district is planning layoffs that would increase class size in primary grades from
36、 20 students to 32. In Lake Elsinore, schools have turned off the lights in many rooms and placed duct tape over the switches to save money on electricity bills. F)Terry Grier, superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, says his district needs a cash influx(流入 )now. “There are schools
37、in our district that dont even have nurses on certain days,“ says Grier, whose district includes Hage Elementary School and its shuttered stacks. “If a kid skins his elbow, a teacher has to take time out of her lesson to dust him off, clean him up and put on a Band Aid.“ G)California isnt the only s
38、tate grappling with steep K-12 budget cuts. In Florida, officials in overcrowded school districts are bracing themselves for likely staff cuts. Connecticuts board of education adopted a budget resolution in December that included an overall 10% reduction a move that some fear means that pink slips f
39、or teachers are inevitable. “The biggest line items in most school budgets are staff and benefits,“ says Bob Brewer, an education consultant in East Hartford, Conn. “No district can absorb those kinds of hits without trimming some of those big ticket items.“ Even oil and gas rich states are in a pan
40、ic. In Alaska, for instance, sinking oil prices have some state legislators scrambling to lock in education budgets for the next few years as the state prepares to dip into its savings to cover a shortfall of approximately $1.65 billion this year and up to $3 billion next year. In Montana, which ear
41、ned big bucks last year from its natural resources, education is funded primarily through property taxes, and many fear that the closing of mines and aluminum plants could trigger a mass exodus and redistribute the tax base. “It doesnt look good,“ says Eric Feaver, who heads the MEA MFT, a union of
42、teachers and state employees. “People around here are starting to ask themselves what will happen if people leave.“ H)Where will those families go? And whose school districts can afford to absorb their children? In California, school officials are expecting to receive upwards of $8 billion over two
43、years from the federal stimulus. While this money would enable districts to address some of their most pressing needs, John Mockler, an education funding specialist in Sacramento, says, “Its not a panacea(万灵药 ).“ In the long term, Mockler says, states need to come up with new funding sources to supp
44、ort classroom instruction and let teachers do what they were hired to do teach. In the meantime, some school district administrators have come up with creative solutions. Superintendent Jerry Vaughn of the Floydada Independent School District in Texas which has 900 or so students says he is working
45、toward a partnership with a local wind power company that would pay for a laptop for every kid in grades 6 through 12. At the fast growing Forsyth County Schools District in Cum-ming, Ga., Bailey Mitchell, chief technology and information officer, recently opted to use free open source software inst
46、ead of purchasing expensive software licenses from vendors like Microsoft. Mitchell says the decision will save $1.1 million over three years. “We sat back and recognized the money we needed simply wasnt going to materialize out of thin air,“ he says. I)Back in San Diego, at Hage Elementary, teacher
47、s desperate for help in the school library are recruiting parent volunteers to staff the facility a few days each week. Juli Finney, president of the schools Parent Teacher Association, admits that while this solution isnt ideal, it is precisely the kind of effort she and other parents must make to
48、ensure that state budget cuts dont deny their children the chance to experience the thousands of books that are now quite literally behind closed doors. “Technically, the PTA is supposed to put icing on the cake and not provide the cake itself,“ she says. But when times are tough, some cake is bette
49、r than no cake at all. 47 There might not be enough taxes for school budgets if a lot of people leave Montana. 48 A big part of the federal stimulus money will go to states that spend on education no less than they did in 2006. 49 Sinking oil prices have led state legislators of Alaska to make adjustment on education budgets for the next few years. 50 According to Terry Grier, the number of school staffs has decreased because of lacking
