1、大学英语四级（ 2013年 12月考试改革适用）模拟试卷 257及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to offer your suggestions to your cousin who sought your advice on how to make his resume distinctive. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Se
2、ction A （ A） Wait for the hurricane to stop. （ B） Call 911 for help. （ C） Leave their homes immediately. （ D） Turn to social media websites for help. （ A） Their colleagues. （ B） Their neighbors. （ C） Local fire department. （ D） A restaurant where they often had dinner. （ A） A piece of multi-use furn
3、iture for kids. （ B） A camera for watching children in another room. （ C） A young boys daily life with his twin brother. （ D） A young boy rescuing his brother trapped under the furniture. （ A） Playing with a new camera. （ B） Trying to move a dresser. （ C） Trying to climb to the top of a dresser. （ D
4、） Climbing the wall in their bedroom. （ A） Icebergs float through these waters between May and July. （ B） Its fresh water comes from melting icebergs. （ C） People can see icebergs from the coast. （ D） There is a huge iceberg sitting on the coast. （ A） It has a population of 5,000 people. （ B） Its pi
5、llar industry is tourism. （ C） Its residents are good at fishing. （ D） It has only one small inn. （ A） It will melt within 10 days. （ B） It will be pushed into the sea by ocean currents. （ C） It will be used as the background of films. （ D） It will be pushed into the sea by local residents. Section
6、B （ A） He is applying for a job. （ B） He is reading a job advertisement. （ C） He is filling in a form for a school. （ D） He is writing his graduation thesis. （ A） Because he does not want his college education to be useless. （ B） Because he is quite skilled in his major. （ C） Because he has spent mu
7、ch time and money on college education. （ D） Because he is very interested in his major. （ A） How to improve nutrition for children of the minority groups. （ B） How to distribute food and money to the poor. （ C） How to understand the needs of the poor. （ D） How to collect money for charitable causes
8、. （ A） It is frustrating. （ B） It is natural. （ C） It is intolerable. （ D） It is motivating. （ A） Because people in that period believed in the power of God. （ B） Because people in that period believed in the power of mankind. （ C） Because people in that period believed in the power of religious fai
9、th. （ D） Because people in that period believed in the power of nature. （ A） He was elected the first president of the USA. （ B） He was one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence. （ C） He was a successful businessman as well as a famous writer. （ D） He was the embodiment of American Drea
10、m. （ A） He was the commander in chief of the Continental army. （ B） He was the second American president. （ C） He drafted the Declaration of Independence alone. （ D） He was a successful statesman and scientist. （ A） So far as you work hard, you can make your dream come true. （ B） Only when you have
11、a higher education can you realize your dream. （ C） Despite your efforts, you cant make it if opportunity does not strike you. （ D） Despite your efforts, your family background counts more in your life. Section C （ A） It is based on knowledge level. （ B） It is based on cognitive level. （ C） It is ra
12、ndom. （ D） It is controversial. （ A） Some teachers work together to teach one class. （ B） Different teachers see to music and physical education. （ C） The old pattern has been reformed to meet students demand. （ D） One teacher is primarily responsible for one class. （ A） The preference for science.
13、（ B） The teaching methods. （ C） The teaching subjects. （ D） The teaching goals. （ A） Building cycle paths on the road. （ B） Publicizing the advantages of cycling. （ C） Providing facilities for cyclists. （ D） Raising fares of public transport. （ A） It is quicker and cheaper. （ B） It requires less com
14、mitment. （ C） It doesnt need any effort. （ D） It enables one to lose weight faster. （ A） Cyclists have bigger muscles. （ B） Cyclists suffer no pain. （ C） Cyclists are slimmer. （ D） Cyclists hardly catch a cold. （ A） It is soothing. （ B） It is striking. （ C） It is luxurious. （ D） It is fortunate. （ A
15、） It makes them cool and mysterious. （ B） It is similar to the colour of the sky. （ C） It gives a sense of being dependable. （ D） It indicates wealth and security. （ A） It makes an environmentally friendly impression. （ B） It attracts customers attention greatly. （ C） It implies growth and movement.
16、 （ D） It imitates the colour of traffic lights. （ A） It was difficult to produce the dye in the past. （ B） It is the choice of many chocolate companies. （ C） It was the colour used by royal families only. （ D） It makes products seem unique. Section A 26 Ask a left-wing Briton what they believe about
17、 the safety of nuclear power, and you can guess their answer. Ask a right-wing American about the risks posed by climate change, and you can also make a【 C1】 _ guess than if you didnt know their political affiliation. Issues like these feel like they should be【 C2】 _ by science, not our political tr
18、ibes, but sadly, thats not what happens. Psychology has long shown that education and intelligence wont stop your politics from【 C3】 _ your broader worldview, even if those beliefs do not match the hard evidence. Instead, your ability to weigh up the facts may depend on a less well-recognised trait
19、【 C4】 _ . There is now a mountain of【 C5】 _ to show that politics doesnt just help predict peoples views on some scientific issues; it also affects how they interpret new information. This is why it is a【 C6】 _ to think that you can somehow “correct“ peoples views on an issue by giving them more fac
20、ts, since study after study has shown that people have a tendency to【 C7】 _ reject facts that dont fit with their existing views. But smarter people shouldnt be susceptible to prejudice swaying their opinions, right? Wrong. Other research shows that people with the most education, highest mathematic
21、al abilities, and the strongest tendencies to be reflective about their beliefs are the most【 C8】 _ to resist information which should contradict their prejudices. This undermines the simplistic assumption that prejudices are the result of too much gut instinct and not enough deep thought. Rather, p
22、eople who have the【 C9】 _ for deeper thought about an issue can use those cognitive powers to justify what they already believe and find reasons to dismiss apparently【 C10】 _ evidence. A) better I) flexibility B) competitively J) identical C) contrary K) informed D) curiosity L) likely E) evidence M
23、) mistake F) explained N) selectively G) facility O) shaping H) fact 27 【 C1】 28 【 C2】 29 【 C3】 30 【 C4】 31 【 C5】 32 【 C6】 33 【 C7】 34 【 C8】 35 【 C9】 36 【 C10】 Section B 36 Take Naps at Work. Apologize to No One A) In the past two weeks Ive taken three naps at work, a total of an hour or so of shut-
24、eye while on the clock. And I have no shame or uncertainty about doing it. I couldnt feel better about it, and my productivity reflects it, too. B) Sleeping on the job is one of those workplace taboos like leaving your desk for lunch or taking an afternoon walk that were taught to look down on. If s
25、omeone naps at 2 p. m. while the rest of us furiously write memos and respond to emails, surely it must mean theyre slacking off (偷懒 ). Or so the assumption goes. C) Restfulness and recharging can take a back seat to the perception and appearance of productivity. Its easier to stay on a virtual hams
26、ter (仓鼠 ) wheel of activity by immediately responding to every email than it is to measure aggregate productivity over a greater period of time. But a growing field of occupational and psychological research is building the case for restfulness in pursuit of greater productivity. D) Companies are su
27、ffering from tremendous productivity problems because people are stressed out and not recovering from the workday, said Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte. “Theyre beginning to realize that this is their problem, and they cant just say to people, Heres a work-life balance cours
28、e, go teach yourself how to manage your inbox, Mr. Bersin said. “Its way more complicated than that. “ E) To be sure, the ability to nap at work is far from widespread, experts said. Few among us have the luxury of being able to step away for a half-hour snoozefest. But lunch hours and coffee breaks
29、 can be great times to duck out, and your increased productivity and alertness will be all the evidence you need to make your case to inquiring bosses. F) In an ideal world, wed all solve this problem by unplugging early and getting a good nights sleep. Heres our guide on how to do just that. But th
30、e next best thing is stealing away for a quick power nap when youre dragging after lunch. G) In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers tested subjects on their perceptual performance four times throughout the day. Performance deteriorated with each test, but subjects who took a 30-min
31、ute nap between tests stopped the deterioration in performance, and those who took a 60-minute nap even reversed it. H) “ Naps had the same magnitude of benefits as full nights of sleep if they had a specific quality of nap,“ said Sara Mednick, a co-author of the study and associate professor of psy
32、chology at the University of California, Riverside. I) Dr. Mednick, a sleep researcher and the author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life, said daytime napping can have many of the benefits of overnight sleep, and different types of naps offer specific benefits. J) For example, Dr. Mednick said a 20- to
33、 60-minute nap might help with memorization and learning specific bits of information. Its just long enough to enter stage-two sleep, or non-rapid eye movement (R. E. M.) sleep. K) After 60 minutes, you start getting into R. E. M. sleep, most often associated with that deep, dreaming state we all en
34、joy at night. R. E. M. sleep can improve creativity, perceptual processing and highly associative thinking, which allows you to make connections between disparate ideas, Dr. Mednick said. Beyond that, your best bet is a 90-minute nap, which will give you a full sleep cycle. L) Any nap, however, can
35、help with alertness and perception and cut through the general fog that creeps in during the day, experts said. M) So how did we even arrive at this point where aptitude is inextricably tied (紧密相连 ) to working long, concentrated hours? Blame technology, but think broader than smartphones and laptops
36、; the real issue is that tech has enabled us to be available at all times. N) “We went through a period where people were in denial and business leaders were ignoring it,“ Mr. Bersin said. “They were assuming that if we give people more tools, more emails, more Slack, more chatter, and well just ass
37、ume they can figure out how to deal with it all. And I think theyve woken up to the fact that this is a big problem, and it is affecting productivity, engagement, health, safety, wellness and all sorts of things. “ O) It isnt just office workers who can benefit from an afternoon siesta (午睡 ). A 2015
38、 study published in Current Biology looked at the sleeping habits of three hunter-gatherer preindustrial societies in Tanzania, Namibia and Bolivia. P) “Theyre active in the morning, then they get in the shade under the trees and have a sort of quiet time, but theyre not generally napping,“ said Jer
39、ome Siegel, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, and director of the U. C. L. A. Center for Sleep Research, a co-author of the study. “Then they do some work and go to sleep, and they sleep through the night.“ Q) Still, Mr. Siegel said, “the only genuine way to solve daytime sleepines
40、s and fatigue starts the night before with a solid nights sleep.“ The real Holy Grail of restfulness is a regular sleep schedule with ideally seven or eight hours of sleep each night, which experts say is optimal. R) “Daytime napping certainly does increase alertness,“ Mr. Siegel said. “But its not
41、as simple as going to the gas station and filling the tank.“ S) He also advises avoiding caffeine late in the day and waking around the same time every morning, even if you cant get to sleep at the same time every night. This helps acclimate (使适应 ) your body to your regular wake-up time, regardless
42、of how much sleep you got the night before. T) So if youve made it this far and youre interested in giving workday naps a try (or just starting to nod off),heres a quick guide to the perfect nap: *Find a quiet, unoccupied space where you wont be disturbed. *Try to make your area as dim as possible (
43、or invest in a sleep mask you can keep in the office). Earplugs might help, too. *Aim for around 20 minutes. Any longer than that and youre likely to wake up with sleep inertia (睡眠惰性 ), which will leave you even groggier (头脑昏沉的 ) than before. 37 Participants perceptual performance became better afte
44、r sleeping one hour between tests in an article in Nature Neuroscience. 38 Jerome Siegel found that only by sleeping soundly through the previous night could people tackle their weariness during the day. 39 Our talent is closely bound to working with concentration for long periods of time because te
45、chnology makes us accessible 24/7. 40 Taking a nap at work is normally regarded as laziness that should be held in contempt and avoided in workplace. 41 Between 20 to 60 minutes, people can get into non-REM sleep which may improve memory and learning ability according to Dr. Mednick. 42 People can d
46、oze off at lunch and coffee breaks and defended themselves by saying their improved productivity and alertness when bosses investigated their whereabouts. 43 The authors tips on taking a perfect nap involve sleeping place, environment and duration. 44 The author believes business leaders are aware t
47、hat availability at any time due to technology has negative effects on every aspect of peoples life. 45 The optimal length of a nap was an hour and a half so that people could go through a complete sleep cycle. 46 Josh Bersin mentioned the cause of companies big productivity problems and the solutio
48、n which needs more than just employees efforts. Section C 46 Worried about Internet companies spying on your online browsing? You might turn to something called a virtual private network to protect your privacy. But researchers say these networks can themselves be insecure. Earlier this year, the fe
49、deral government rolled back rules that would have prevented Internet service providers from tracking your activity online. Comcast, AT they claim not to share your data. But these services dont always deliver on their promises. Sometimes the medicine might be worse than the illness. In the first major review of VPN providers, what researchers found was alarming. Nearly 40 percent injected malware (恶意软件 ). Experts suggest researching a VPN before using it and to think of it as a su
