大学英语四级考试新题型及答案.doc

大学英语四级考试新题型及答案Part I Listening Comprehension ( 20 minutes )Section ADirections: In this section ,you will hear 10 short conversations .At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said .Both the conversation and the question will be spoken only once .After each question there will be a pause .During the pause ,you must read the four choices marked A),B),C) and D),and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.Example: You will hear :You will read : A)At the office .B)In the waiting room.C)At the airport .D)In a restaurant.From the conversation we know that the two were talking about some work they had to finish in the evening .This is most likely to have taken place at the office .Therefore ,A)At the office is the best answer .You should choose on the Answer Sheet and mark it with a single line through the center.A1. A) Go out to work C) Be calm and patientB) Listen carefully to John D) Do the easiest thing2. A) He doesnt like to talk C) He is friendlyB) He is a very kind man D) He is not a pleasant person3. A) The doctor wont see her tomorrowB) The doctor is busy tomorrowC) The doctor is busy all day todayD) The doctor will see her today4. A) Young people are too quick in making decisionsB) Young people seldom stay long on the same jobC) Young people lose their jobs easilyD) Young people are too eager to succeed5.A) She felt it was tiring. C) She thought it took less time.B) She felt it was very nice. D) She thought it was expensive6. A) They are having breakfast C) They are preparing a hot soupB) They are eating some fruit D) They are drinking cold milk7. A) The woman doesnt want to spend Christmas with the man.B) The woman is going home for Christmas.C) The woman has not been invited to the Christmas party.D) The woman is going to spend Christmas abroad.8. A) By car C) By planeB) By bus D) By train9. A) It closes at four on weekdays C ) It isnt open on SundaysB) He doesnt know its business hours D) It is open till four on Sundays10. A) Tennis shoes C) Nothing yetB) Some clothes D) Music recordsSection BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage ,you will hear some question. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once ,After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A),B),C),and D).then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.Passage OneQuestions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.11. A) In about 20 years C) In a couple of weeksB) Within a week D) As early as possible12. A) Yes ,of course C) Not mentionedB) Possibly not D) Definitely not13. A) Her complaint was ignoredB) The store sent her the correct orderC) The store apologized for their mistakeD) The store picked up the wrong itemsPassage 2Questions 14 to 17 are based on the passage you have just heard.14. A) The prison gates are always open. C) The prison has no armed guardsB) Its prisoner can work outside D) The prison is open to the public15. A) The prisoners are provided with jobs on releaseB) Its prisoners are seldom made to work overtimeC) It is run on the principle of trusting prisonersD) It has no security measures16. A) One years C) Thirteen yearsB) Thirteen years D) Fourteen years17. A) Doubtful C) CriticalB) Positive D) IndifferentPassage 3Questions 18 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.18. A) Its good for training ones character but not good for ones healthB) It cannot prepare pupils to be good citizens.C) It has less effect on a childs character than sports and games.D) Its as important as after-class activities19. A) Because pupils there have to spend most of the time studyingB) Because the school authorities insist on traditional ways of teachingC) Because the school authorities have neglected disciplineD) Because pupils there are too fond of playing20. A) Practical work B) Collective activitiesC) Teachers encouragement D) Book knowledgePart II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)Direction: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage:I believe very strongly that our overproduction of cheap grain in general, and corn in particular, has a lot to do with the fact that three-fifths of Americans are now overweight. The obesity crisis is complicated in some ways, but its very simple in another way. Basically, Americans are on average eating 200 more calories a day than they were in the 1970s. If you do that and dont get correspondingly more exercise, youre going to get a lot fatter. Many demographers are predicting that this is the first generation of Americans whose life span may be shorter than their parents. The reason for that is obesity, essentially, and diabetes specifically.Where do those calories come from? Except for seafood, all our calories come from the farm. Compared with the mid-to-late 1970s, American farms are producing 500 more calories of food a day per American. Were managing to pack away 200 of them, which is pretty heroic on our part. A lot of the rest is being dumped overseas, or wasted, or burned in our cars.Overproduction sooner or later leads to over-consumption, because were very good at figuring out how to turn surpluses into inexpensive, portable new products. Our cheap, value-added, portable corn commodity is corn sweetener, specifically high-fructose(高糖) corn syrup. But we also dispose of overproduction in corn-fed beef, pork, and chicken. And now were even teaching salmon to eat corn, because theres so much of it to get rid of.There is a powerful industrial logic at work here, the logic of processing. We discovered that corn is this big, fat packet of starch(淀粉) that can be broken down into almost any basic organic molecules and reassembled as sweeteners and many other food additives. Of the 37 ingredients in chicken nuggets, something like 30 are made, directly or indirectly, from corn.11. Which of the following best summarizes the passage?A. Overproduction of corn products leads to overweight.B. Corn is the most popular portable product in America.C. Corn processing is a powerful industrial logic at work.D. A balanced diet of corn is beneficial to ones life span.12. The word “obesity”(Line 3, Para. 1) most probably means _.A. having much nutritionB. becoming too fatC. abundance in caloriesD. shortening of life span13. Which of the following is true according to the passage?A. Americans standard of living is relatively low in the 1970s.B. Americans are on average consuming 200 calories every day.C. Farms are responsible for American over-consumption of calories.D. Diabetes is the unavoidable result of Americans consuming corn.14. Overproduced corn in American farms has been converted to _.A. feed cattle, pigs and poultryB. manufacture automobile componentsC. make artificial beef, pork, and chickenD. become high-fructose low fat products15. The reason why corn can be processed into other food additives is that _.A. it can serve as sweeteners during cookingB. it contains an unparalleled amount of starchC. its basic organic molecules can be broken downD. its chemical composition can be changed and reorganizedPassage TwoQuestions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货的) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous prices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on.Governor Gray Davis says, “Im not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. Theyre living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.”As part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from Californias booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along with demand. And hike them they did.Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says, “This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to say help us impose reasonable price caps to help to keep our market stable.”Federal regulators did ask for longer-term contracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, released a recent statement defending its position not to re-regulate.Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 15, 2000: “The commissions intention is to enable the markets to catch up to current supply and demand problems and not to reintroduce command and control regulation that has helped to produce the current crisis.”Some energy experts believe that, without temporary price caps, the crisis will continue.Severin Borenstein of the U.C. Energy Institute says, “Some federal regulators have a blind commitment to making the market work and I think part of the problem is they really dont understand whats going on.”Gary Ackerman of the Western Power Trading Forum says, “Hes dead wrong about that. The federal regulators understand far better than any individual state that, though it might be painful and it certainly is painful in California, price caps dont work. They never work.”16. The battle between Californians and federal regulators is about _.A. control over the price of powerB. necessity of removing price capsC. hiking the energy prices in CaliforniaD. a regulation concerning power supply17. Governor Gray Davis was dissatisfied with the Federal Regulatory Commission because _.A. they did not know what the real problem wasB. they were living an easy life in an ivory towerC. they could not experience the life in San DiegoD. they turned a blind eye to the situation in California18. The Federal Commission uncapped the energy price with the intention to _.A. help Californias economy booming steadilyB. prevent power price from going up any furtherC. enable the market to deal with supply and demand problemsD. have contracts signed between power producers and the utilities19. To help keep prices from going higher, people and groups in California _.A. imposed reasonable price capsB. beat down the door of federal regulatorsC. urged the federal authorities to take actionD. struggled against federal policy to hike prices20. Energy experts against price caps believe that _.A. the present situation in California will continue unless there is price controlB. the current crisis is partly attributed to previous command and control policyC. price caps can temporarily solve energy problems an individual state meets withD. they do understand what is going on in California and will take proper measuresPassage ThreeQuestions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:In Western countries people have been using the installment plan since the first half of the twentieth century. Today, a large number of families in Great Britain buy furniture, household goods and cars by installments. In the U.S., the figure is much higher than in Great Britain, and people there spend over 10 percent of their income on the installment plan.The price of an article bought on installments is always higher than the price that would be paid by cash. There is a charge for interest. The buyer pays one quarter or one third of the price as a down payment when the goods are delivered to him. He then makes regular payments, weekly or monthly, until the full price is paid up. The legal ownership of the goods remains with the seller until the final payment has been made.Installment buying has advantages and disadvantages. It can help couples with small incomes to furnish their homes and start housekeeping. It increases the demand for goods, and in this way helps business and employment. There is, however, the danger that when business is bad, installment buying may end suddenly, making business much worse. This may result in a great increase in unemployment. If the people on the installment plan lose their jobs, they will probably not be able to make their payments. If great numbers of people are not able to pay their installment debts there is a possibility that businessmen cannot collect their debts and will therefore lose money. If businessmen lose money or fail to make a satisfactory profit, it becomes more likely to have a depression. This is why, in some countries, the government controls the installment plan by fixing the amount of the down payment and installments to discourage people from buying more than they can pay for on the installment plan.31. Which of the following is NOT true about the installment plan?A. A lot of British families use the installment plan.B. More than 10 percent American families buy things on installments.C. Americans depend more on installment than British people do.D. Americans spend one tenth of their income on installment buying.32. Goods bought on installments are more expensive than goods bought by cash because _.A. the buyer has to pay extra money as interestB. the delivery of the goods charges extra moneyC. the buyer has to pay a down paymentD. the service offered by installment plan charged extra money33. What will happen to a buyer if he fails to make the full payment for an item bought on installments?A. He might lose his job.B. He will stop owning the item he has bought.C. He will have to sell what he has bought.D. He will go into debt.34. The advantage of installment buying might include all the following EXCEPT that _.A. purchasing power is strengthenedB. employment might be increasedC. people develop a good habit of saving moneyD. young couples are able to furnish their homes35. In some countries, the governments control the installment plan to _.A. increase employmentB. avoid depressionsC. ensure that businesses make good profitsD. ensure that people can pay for what hey buyPassage FourQuestions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:Its very necessary for Canada to set up effective transportation system because of its enormous size with its sparsely populated distribution. It is also very difficult to make transportation construction on the surface of the country due to its harsh long winter and its mountainous terrain. Its really amazing for this country to set up a transcontinental railroad since last century. Until 1990, the route length was more than 86,880 kilometers. Most of the countrys freight are transported by Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. But nowadays fewer and fewer people travel by train.Water transportation was very important before railway construction. Although passenger travel by water is less important than before, waterways remain important for cargo transporting. Waterways include lakes, rivers and sea coastlines. One of the most significant water transportation system is St. Lawrence seaway from the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Lake Superior.Because of the increasing number of automobiles, Canadas road transportation develops very quickly. In 1991, road length has been more than 849,400 kilometers. Road system is becoming more and more important. Trucks carry nearly half of the total freight transported in Canada. Early in 1962, Canada had Trans-Canada Highway with the length of more than 7.7 kilometers, extending from St. Johns, New Brunswick to Victoria, British Columbia.With the development of transportation, airplanes became another necessary vehicles since aeroplanes could be the only access to some areas of the far northern region. Canadian transportation system develops very quickly with the increasingly advanced science and technology. The aim of the transportation is to use substitute fuels and to produce more efficient transportation facilities.36. Despite its _, Canada now boasts a transcontinental railroad.A. sparsely populated areas B. abundant natural resourcesC. large acre of desert D. harsh long winter37. Nowadays, the Canadian railway is mainly used to _.A. transport freight B. carry passengersC. carry tourists D. transport soldiers38. Nearly 50% of the total freight transported in Canada is accomplished by _.A. trains B. cars C. trucks D. ships39. Airplanes are important in transportation in Canada _.A. because they can fly very highB. because they can carry larger freight to the destination within shorter timeC. because they are the newest form of transportD. because they can go to some areas that cannot be reached by other transports40. The passage is mainly about _.A. the hist