1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 87及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled The Average Age at First Marriage in the U.S. based on the statistics provided in the bar graph below. Please convey the information in the graph. You should write at l
2、east 120 words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） To put him through to the director. （ B） To have a talk with the director about his work. （ C） To arrange an appointment for him with the director. （ D） To go and see if the director can meet him right now. （ A） Detective stories. （ B） Storie
3、s about jail escapes. （ C） Love stories. （ D） Stories about royal families. （ A） In the laundry. （ B） In the tailor s. （ C） In the department store. （ D） At home. （ A） It started to rain when she was at the beach. （ B） She d like the man to go to the beach with her. （ C） The forecast calls for more
4、rain tomorrow. （ D） She won t go to the beach tomorrow if it rains. （ A） Go home to get a book. （ B） Return a book to the library. （ C） Ask the librarian for help in finding a book. （ D） Take a book from the library for the woman. （ A） Shop for new clothes. （ B） Lose some weight. （ C） Have his jeans
5、 altered. （ D） Wear clothes that fit more tightly. （ A） He has already taken a picture of the flowers. （ B） He doesn t know how to use the camera. （ C） He doesn t think the flowers are beautiful. （ D） He does not have any more film left. （ A） Decide which movie to see. （ B） Order his food quickly. （
6、 C） Go to a later movie. （ D） Go to a different restaurant. （ A） The quality of goods and services has improved. （ B） Most people are reducing their consumption. （ C） Complaint channels are too limited. （ D） Many people don t bother to complain. （ A） Electrical appliances. （ B） Travel agencies. （ C）
7、 Photographic and sound equipment. （ D） Clothing. （ A） They account for the largest proportion. （ B） 90 percent of them are reasonable. （ C） Most of them are for delayed air tickets. （ D） Few of them are for poor accommodation. （ A） Two weeks. （ B） Less than two weeks. （ C） Two to three weeks. （ D）
8、More than three weeks. （ A） It is a house full of cleverly-designed device. （ B） It can help people live a much easier life. （ C） It is the most comfortable house available. （ D） It expresses the newest architectural style. （ A） The door will open with just a touch of the finger. （ B） The refrigerat
9、or can figure out how much milk to buy. （ C） The robot can do all the housework very efficiently. （ D） The house Call put out a fire in a very short time. （ A） Its too wonderful to be true. （ B） It s too expensive for her. （ C） She considers it nothing fancy. （ D） She is considering buying one. Sect
10、ion B （ A） To examine the chemical elements in the Ice Age. （ B） To learn what s been happening on the sun s surface. （ C） To analyze the composition of different trees. （ D） To find out the origin of carbon-14 on Earth. （ A） The life cycle of trees. （ B） The number of trees. （ C） The intensity of s
11、olar burning. （ D） The quality of air. （ A） It affects the growth of trees. （ B） It has been increasing since the Ice Age. （ C） It is determined by the chemicals in the air. （ D） It follows a certain cycle. （ A） Men who belong to organizations must wear jewelry. （ B） Each new period brings some chan
12、ges in clothing. （ C） Women do not like to look attractive in new clothes. （ D） Every woman wants to look attractive. （ A） They change to show their position in life. （ B） They change as fashions in beauty change. （ C） They change to attract other women. （ D） They change when dentists put on white c
13、lothing. （ A） Some men enjoy wearing special kinds of clothing. （ B） Soldiers do not allow delivery men to wear uniforms. （ C） All doctors and dentists wear coats at home. （ D） In ancient Greece, men wearing dresses were thought to be savages. （ A） Successful people. （ B） Famous people. （ C） Older p
14、eople. （ D） Anyone. （ A） They show you how to achieve success. （ B） They provide you with the experience you havent had. （ C） They tell you the secrets to gain certain abilities that you admire. （ D） They show you the way to better measure yourself. （ A） We should get to know everything about the mo
15、del. （ B） We might be especially interested in people who are lucky. （ C） We should incorporate into ours the model s characteristics that we admire. （ D） We should try to learn what kind of achievements the model has gained. （ A） Role models will tell us how well we are doing. （ B） We can compare o
16、urselves with role models at the same stage that we are. （ C） We can measure ourselves against what role models have achieved. （ D） We can measure ourselves by looking at what successful people are doing. Section C 26 Nowadays, many foreign students fly to China, a country【 B1】 _kilometers from thei
17、r own, just to learn this hard language, as well as to taste something of its【 B2】 _culture. Frank Micheal from Germany is one of them, though he would rather be called Dashan, a Chinese name given to him by his friend. He has been at Shanghai【 B3】_Studies University (SISU)for a year. Before this, h
18、e had studied Chinese for a year at Heidelberg University, in Germany. “So far, I have had no【 B4】 _talking with Chinese people,“ He says, “But when theyre talking to each other I cannot easily understand them.“ he【 B5】 _, “Chinese culture is quite different from our own. Learning another language a
19、nd another culture, is like【 B6】 _out of a door, through which I can look back and see more clearly my own culture.“ For western students like Dashan, the block【 B7】 _of Chinese are a big【 B8】_. Pinyin is easier, he said, but you cannot【 B9】 _out what a word means just by reading the Pinyin, since t
20、here are so many homophones in Chinese. Professor Yang of SISU said that when the students are learning a language, they should also learn its culture, so the program includes a【 B10】 _named Survey of China. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 S
21、ection A 36 Accustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as “silent“, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent. From the very beginning, music was regarded as an【 C1】 _accompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public film exhibition in
22、the United States in February 1896, they were【 C2】 _by piano improvisations(即兴创作 )on popular tunes. At first, the music played【 C3】 _no special relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind was【 C4】 _. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity(不协调 )of playing lively music to a【 C5
23、】 _film became apparent, and film pianists began to take some care in【 C6】 _their pieces to the mood of the film. As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps a cellist, would be added to the pianist in certain【 C7】 _, and in the larger movie theaters small orchestras we
24、re formed. For a number of years the selection of music for each film program【 C8】 _entirely in the hands of the conductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principal【 C9】 _for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much as the ownership of a large personal library of musical
25、 pieces. Since the conductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown, the musical arrangement was【 C10】 _improvised in the greatest hurry. A)sufficient B)incredible C)accompanied D)comparatively E)matching F)rested G)normally H)occasions I)bore J)qualification K)solemn L)in
26、dispensable M)severe N)according O)cases 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 It Isnt Easy Being Green Green stories of hotels A)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companie
27、s, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also p
28、laced a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow. B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would
29、be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industry? C)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotels pro
30、fits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they wont get new towels because the hotel doesnt want to pay for laundry wouldnt go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the dif
31、ference. D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money theyll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. “Why should hotels be green?“ asks the Green Hotels Associations Web site. “Havent you heard? Being green goes directly to your bot
32、tom line.“ The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. “Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, dont change a single bed,“ said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that “70 percent of people stayin
33、g more than one night participate in the program.“ Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels. E)So lets review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money; the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of e
34、nvironmental consciousness; the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel s “carbon footprint“. But here s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didnt seem all that interested in being green when it came to other
35、things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的 )vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the gro
36、unds. Green stories of companies F)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems; they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesse
37、s and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They dont do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution
38、to Mother Earth. G)It s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to ch
39、eck my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I a
40、lready do. Green stories of ad campaigns H)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a companys green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. “I will unplug
41、 stuff more,“ reads one. Another says, “I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物 ).“ These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose “Will You Join Us?“ ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worri
42、ed about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数 )requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaste
43、r and think about getting a Toyota Prius. I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Ma
44、rt appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweeks list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place
45、 in our reputation survey. J)Given the power of positive marketing, its easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while he
46、lping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming. 47 Some companies actually change the way they d
47、o things to reduce waste, while others are just green fakeries. 48 Cutting down the number of loads of laundry can save a large amount of electricity for the hotels. 49 Industry groups tend to emphasize the money hotels can save along with the benefits to the environment. 50 Some green fakery compan
48、ies make its customers do the work, and take benefit themselves. 51 Ad campaigns help companies raise their ranks of green reputation. 52 In America, it is common for hotels to appeal to customers to recycle towels. 53 It is estimated that seventy percent of the hotel guests are willing to participa
49、te in the green program and ask for fewer. 54 It does better to set up an ad campaign with eco-friendly slogans to enhance a companys green reputation than do some actual practices. 55 While name the activities as a green campaign, the hotels save money for providing less service to their customers. 56 All day long, frosty air rushed out the vast double doors of the lobby in the July heat. Section C 56 Is language, like food, a basic human nee
