2011年12月大学英语四级考试模拟试题(四)

英语自学网

　　Part I Writing (30 minutes)
        　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled “How to Conduct Patriotic Education Among the Youth of Today”. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:
        　　1. 我国爱国主义教育的现状;
        　　2. 爱国主义教育的重要意义;
        　　3. 如何在青少年中开展爱国主义教育?
        　　Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)
        　　Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
        　　Work-life balance: Ways to restore harmony and reduce stress
        　　Finding work-life balance in today’s frenetically (疯狂) paced world is no simple task.
        　　Spend more time at work than at home, and you miss out on a rewarding personal life. Then again, when you face challenges in your personal life, such as caring for an aging parent or coping with marital problems, concentrating on your job can be difficult.
        　　Whether the problem is too much focus on work or too little, when your work life and your personal life feel out of balance, stress — along with its harmful effects — is the result.
        　　The good news is that you can take control of your work-life balance — and give yourself the time to do the things that are most important to you. The first step is to recognize how the world of work has changed. Then you can evaluate your relationship to work and apply some specific strategies for striking a healthier balance.
       
            
            

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        　　How work invades your personal life
        　　There was a time when employees showed up for work Monday through Friday and worked eight- to nine-hour days. The boundaries between work and home were fairly clear then. But the world has changed and, unfortunately, the boundaries have blurred for many workers. Here’s why:
        　　●Global economy. As more skilled workers enter the global labor market and companies outsource or move more jobs to reduce labor costs, people feel pressured to work longer and produce more just to protect their jobs.
        　　●International business. Work continues around the world 24 hours a day for some people. If you work in an international organization, you might be on call around the clock for troubleshooting or consulting.
        　　●Advanced communication technology. Many people now have the ability to work anywhere — from their home, from their car and even on vacation. And some managers expect this.
        　　●Longer hours. Employers commonly ask employees to work longer hours than they’re scheduled. Often, overtime is mandatory (强制性的). If you hope to move up the career ladder, you may find yourself regularly working more than 40 hours a week to achieve and exceed expectations.
        　　●Changes in family roles. Today’s married worker is typically part of a dual-career couple, which makes it difficult to find time to meet commitments to family, friends and community.
        　　Married to your work
        　　It can be tempting to rack up the hours at work — especially if you’re trying to earn a promotion or some extra money for a child’s education or a dream vacation. For others, working more hours feels necessary in order to manage the workload.
        　　But if you’re spending most of your time at work, your home life will likely pay the price. Consider the pros and cons of working extra hours on your work-life balance:
        　　●Fatigue. Your ability to think and your eye-hand coordination decrease when you’re tired. This means you’re less productive and may make more mistakes. These mistakes can lead to injury or rework and negatively impact your professional reputation.
        　　●Family. You may miss out on important events, such as your child’s first bike ride, your father’s 60th birthday or your high-school reunion. Missing out on important milestones may harm relationships with your loved ones.
       
            
            

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        　　●Friends. Trusted friends are a key part of your support system. But if you’re spending time at the office instead of with them, you’ll find it difficult to nurture those friendships.
        　　●Expectations. If you regularly work extra hours, you may be given more responsibility. This could create a never-ending and increasing cycle, causing more concerns and challenges.
        　　Sometimes working overtime is important. If you work for a company that requires mandatory overtime, you won’t be able to avoid it, but you can learn to manage it. Most importantly, say no when you’re too tired, when it’s affecting your health or when you have crucial family obligations.
        　　Striking the best work-life balance
        　　For most people, juggling (巧妙处理) the demands of career and personal life is an ongoing challenge. With so many demands on your time — from overtime to family obligations — it can feel difficult to strike this balance. The goal is to make time for the activities that are the most important to you.
        　　Here are some ideas to help you find the balance that’s best for you:
        　　●Learn to say no. Whether it’s a co-worker asking you to spearhead (充当先锋) an extra project or your child’s teacher asking you to manage the class play, remember that it’s OK to respectfully say no. When you quit doing the things you only do out of guilt or a false sense of obligation, you’ll make more room in your life for the activities that are meaningful to you and bring you joy.
        　　●Leave work at work. Make a conscious decision to separate work time from personal time. When with your family, for instance, turn off your cell phone and put away your laptop computer.
        　　●Manage your time. Organize household tasks efficiently. Do one or two loads of laundry every day, rather than saving it all for your day off. A weekly family calendar of important dates and a daily list of to-dos will help you avoid deadline panic. If your employer offers a course in time management, sign up for it.
       
            
            

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        　　●Get enough sleep. There’s nothing as stressful and potentially dangerous as working when you’re sleep-deprived. Not only is your productivity affected, but also you can make costly mistakes. You may then have to work even more hours to make up for these mistakes.
        　　●Communicate clearly. Limit time-consuming misunderstandings by communicating clearly and listening carefully. Take notes if necessary.
        　　●Nurture yourself. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as walking, working out or listening to music.
        　　●Set aside one night each week for recreation. Take the phone off the hook, power down the computer and turn off the TV. Discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends, such as playing golf, fishing or canoeing. Making time for activities you enjoy will rejuvenate (使年轻) you.
        　　Remember, striking a work-life balance isn’t a one-shot deal. Creating balance in your life is a continuous process. Balance doesn’t mean doing everything. Examine your priorities and set boundaries. Be firm in what you can and cannot do. Only you can restore harmony to your lifestyle.
        　　1. What will happen if your work life and personal life feel out of balance?
        　　A) You will have little time to finish your work.
        　　B) You may feel stress, which will affect you negatively.
        　　C) You will have a lot of time to share with your family.
        　　D) You will never balance the combination of life and work.
        　　2. The boundaries between work and home have blurred for the following reasons, EXCEPT _______.
        　　A) global economy B) changes in family roles
        　　C) advanced communication technology D) high divorce rate
       
            
            

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        　　3. What will happen if you’re spending most of your time at work?
        　　A) You will lose both health and wealth. B) You will be hated by your loved ones.
        　　C) You will lose all your friends. D) You may be given more responsibility.
        　　4. According to the passage, you’d better say no to mandatory overtime when _______________.
        　　A) you get bored with the work B) you are not interested in the work
        　　C) you can’t get additional allowance D) you have crucial family obligations
        　　5. What does the underlined sentence mean?
        　　A) You should do the things people ask you to do without feeling guilty.
        　　B) You shouldn’t do the things people ask you to do if you don’t want to.
        　　C) To do things people ask you to do can bring you a lot of joy.
        　　D) To do things for yourself is more meaningful than to do things for others.
        　　6. What will NOT happen if you don’t get enough sleep?
        　　A) You will feel stressed while working. B) You will have no sense of exhaustion.
        　　C) You can make costly mistakes. D) You will have low productivity.
        　　7. What does the real balance mean according to the author?
        　　A) Examining priorities and deciding what is the most important to you.
        　　B) Doing everything you want to do whether you can do it or not.
        　　C) Saying yes to everybody in order to maintain good relationships.
        　　D) Being firm that working overtime will strike a work-life balance.
        　　8. Spend more time at work than at home, and you won’t have enough time to enjoy your _______________.
        　　9. You have slow responses and your eye-hand coordination decreases when you’re ________.
       
            
            

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        　　10. You can save a lot of time and avoid misunderstandings if you communicate clearly and ____________.
        　　Part III Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
        　　■ Section A
        　　Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
        　　Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage.
        　　Major retailers and car manufacturers have slashed (削减) their marketing budgets in the six months to October, 2008, as the financial crisis has taken its toll, while supermarkets have 11 advertising spending in a battle to prove that they offer the most 12 prices.
        　　According to new research undertaken for The Daily Telegraph by Nielsen Media Research, in the six months to September 30, 2008, Marks &Spencer’s advertising spend fell 20.3pc to ￡25.3m, 13 with the same period in 2007.
        　　While the retailer has spent heavily on a campaign 14 celebrities in the past two years, it is understood to be cutting back on celebrity spending in 2009. The retailer is, however, still the UK’s 25th largest spender on advertising,
        　　15 being at 17th place in the six months to September 30, 2007.
        　　Car manufacturers have also significantly 16 back on marketing spending, believed to be a result of the financial crisis. According to Nielsen, Ford spent ￡26.6m in the six months to September 30, 2008, down 21pc from the same period last year. Vauxhall also 17 spending by 15.6pc in the period to ￡26.5m.
        　　For supermarkets, however, a significant increase in advertising spending, it appears, is a 18 as they seek to woo (追求) increasingly price- 19 customers. The leading supermarkets have 20 an aggressive price war in the past six months as consumers have been faced with news of higher food prices.
       
            
            

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        　　A) conscientious I) necessity
        　　B) conscious J) contribution
        　　C) against K) reduced
        　　D) despite L) moreover
        　　E) comparing M) scaled
        　　F) compared N) competitive
        　　G) launched O) featuring
        　　H) boosted
        　　■ Section B
        　　Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished sentences. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice.
        　　Passage One
        　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
        　　There are more than 2,000 different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its thin sucking tube to break the skin, find blood and inject the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing.
        　　The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce as many as 250 eggs. The insect leaves the eggs in any standing water.
        　　The eggs produce worm-like creatures called larvae (幼虫) in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The larvae feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas (蛹). The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away.
        　　The World Health Organization (WHO) says mosquitoes carry organisms that cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria (疟疾). The WHO says 247 million people became infected with malaria in 2006. Malaria caused almost one million deaths, mostly among children in Africa. The disease is found in more than one hundred countries in Africa, Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, the Middle East and Central and South America.
       
            
            

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        　　Malaria parasites (寄生虫) enter a person’s blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells.
        　　Some medicines are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed.
        　　21. According to the passage, we can infer that _________.
        　　A) female mosquitoes don’t bite animals
        　　B) female mosquitoes bite people for a substance that keeps blood flowing
        　　C) malaria is found everywhere in the world
        　　D) countries in Europe and North America have low malaria death rate
        　　22. What is the right order in which mosquitoes grow?
        　　a. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away.
        　　b. The larvae change into creatures called pupas.
        　　c. The insect leaves the eggs in any standing water.
        　　d. The eggs produce worm-like creatures called larvae.
        　　A) c, a, b, d B) d, c, b, a C) c, d, b, a D) d, b, c, a
        　　23. According to the WHO, the organisms carried by mosquitoes __________.
        　　A) are the food for larvae
        　　B) have led to the death of millions of people in the world
        　　C) invade red blood cells first and then destroy major organs
        　　D) can enter a person’s brain through the mosquito’s bite
       
            
            

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        　　24. According to the passage, malaria medicines are generally designed to _______.
        　　A) keep people’s body temperature at a normal level
        　　B) prevent parasites from entering people’s skins
        　　C) stop parasites from growing inside the body
        　　D) stop parasites from invading red blood cells
        　　25. What is the passage mainly talking about?
        　　A) The growing process of mosquitoes and the diseases spread by them.
        　　B) The medicines used in preventing and treating malaria.
        　　C) The kinds of mosquitoes in the world today.
        　　D) The larvae of mosquitoes feed on organisms in the water.
        　　Passage Two
        　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
        　　Conservationists call them hot spots — habitats that cover just 1.4 percent of the earth’s land surface but are so rich in biological diversity that preserving them could keep an astonishing number of plant and animal species off the endangered list.
        　　Since 1988, when Dr. Norman Myers and his colleagues began describing these hot spots in a series of scientific papers and arguing for their protection, they have become a focus of worldwide conservation efforts. Private organizations and government agencies, including the World Bank, have made preserving 25 such ecological arks a top priority for financing and protective legislation. But a growing chorus of scientists is warning that directing conservation funds to hot spots may be a recipe for major losses in the future. Of species that live on land, nearly half of all plants and more than a third of all animals are found only in the hot spots. But they do not include many rare species and major animal groups that live in less biologically rich regions (“cold spots”). And the hot-spot concept does not factor in the importance of some ecosystems to human beings, the scientists argue.
       
            
            

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        　　This debate has been simmering quietly among biologists for years; however, it is coming to a boil now with the publication of an article in the current issue of American Scientist arguing that “calls to direct conservation funding to the world’s biodiversity hot spots may be bad investment advice.” “The hot-spot concept has grown so popular in recent years within the larger conservation community that it now risks eclipsing all other approaches,” write the authors of the paper. “The officers and directors of all too many foundations, non-governmental organizations and international agencies have been seduced by the simplicity of the hot spot idea,” they go on. “We worry that the initially appealing idea of getting the most species per unit area is, in fact, a thoroughly misleading strategy.”
        　　But hot spots have their ardent defenders, notably Dr. Norman Myers and Dr. Russell Mittermeier. Dr. Myers says hot spots have been successful at attracting attention and financing for conservation in tropical countries. “And that has been good,” he said. “No one is suggesting that one invest solely in hot spots, but if you want to avoid extinctions, you have to invest in them.”
        　　26. The best title for this passage would be ________.
        　　A) A Debate on Preserving Hot Spots B) An Introduction to Hot Spots
        　　C) Hot Spots vs. Cold Spots D) How to Finance Hot Spots
        　　27. Hot spots occupy a small percentage of the earth’s land surface with _____________.
        　　A) a third of all plants B) many major animal groups living in cold spots
        　　C) rich biological diversity D) many rare species living in cold spots
        　　28. Critics of hot spots hold the opinion that ________.
        　　A) hot spots are always as important as cold spots
        　　B) it is unwise to invest largely in hot spots
        　　C) governments should choose the best time to invest in hot spots
        　　D) the hot-spot approach is a misleading strategy from the very beginning
        　　29. According to Dr. Norman Myers, _________.
        　　A) protecting and investing in hot spots can save species from extinction
        　　B) conservation efforts should not center on hot spots
        　　C) governments should invest most in cold spots
        　　D) the hot-spot approach now is not as good as it was in the past