1、12013 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第一套)Part I Writing （30 minutes）Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief account of the impact of the Internet on the way people communicate and then explain whether electro
2、nic communication can replace face-to-face contact. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.“Dear Andy-How are you? Your mother and I are fine. We both miss you and hope you are doing well. We look forward to seeing you again the next time your computer crashes and you come do
3、wnstairs for something to eat. Love, Mom and Dad.”_Part II Listening Comprehension （30 minutes）Section A:Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conve
4、rsation and the questions 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 1 with a single line through the centr
5、e.1. A. go to a place he has visitedB. make her own arrangementsC. consult a travel agentD. join in a package tour2. A. they are on a long trip by carB. they are stuck in a traffic jamC. they are used to getting up earlyD. they are tired of eating out at night3. A. he is a person difficult to deal w
6、ith2B. he dislikes any formal gather C. he is unwilling to speak in publicD. he often keeps a distance from others4. A. work in another departmentB. pursue further educationC. recruit graduate studentsD. take an administrative job5. A. he would not be available to start the job in timeB. he is not q
7、uite qualified for the art director positionC. he would like to leave some more time for himselfD. he will get his application letter ready before May 16. A. cleaner B. mechanic C. porter D. salesman7. A. request one or two roommates to do the cleaningB. help Laura with her term paper due this weeke
8、ndC. get Laura to clean the apartment herself this timeD. ask Laura to put off the cleaning until another week8. A. a problem caused by the constructionB. an accident that occurred on the bridgeC. the building project they are workingD. the public transportation conditionQuestions 9 to 11 are based
9、on the conversation you have just heard.9. A. to look for a job as a salespersonB. to have a talk with Miss ThompsonC. to place an order for some productsD. to complain about a faulty appliance10. A. the person in charge is not in the officeB. the supplies are out of stock for the momentC. they fail
10、ed to reach an agreement on the priceD. the company is re-cataloguing the items11. A. 0734,12536 extension 15B. 0734,21653 extension 51C. 0734,38750 extension 15D. 0734,62135 extension 51Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A. since he found a girlfriendB. since h
11、e took to heavy smokingC. since he began to exercise regularlyD. since he started to live on his own13. A. he is getting too fatB. he smokes too much C. he doesnt eat vegetablesD. he doesnt look well at all14 A. they are overweight for their ageB. they are respectful to their parents3C. they are sti
12、ll in their early twentiesD. they dislike doing physical exercise15 A. to quit smokingB. to reduce his weightC. to find a girlfriendD. to follow her adviceSection BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage
13、and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear questions, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the center.Passage OneQuestions16 to 19 are based on the passage you h
14、ave just heard.16 A. they have destroyed several small townsB. they will soon spread to San FranciscoC. they have injured many residentsD. they are burning out of control17. A. they have been hospitalizedB. they have got skin problemsC. they were choked by the thick smokeD. they were poisoned by the
15、 burning chemicals18 A. it failed because of a sudden rocket explosionB. it has been re-scheduled for a midday takeoffC. it has been cancelled due to technical problemsD. it was delayed for eleven hours and thirty minutes19 A. they made frequent long-distance calls to each otherB. they illegally use
16、d government computers in New JerseyC. they were found to be smarter than computer specialistsD. they were arrested for stealing government informationPassage TwoQuestions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.20.A. peaceful B. considerate C. generous D. cooperative21.A. someone dump
17、ed the clothes left in the washer and dryerB. someone broke the washer and dryer by overloading themC. Mindy Lances laundry blocked the way to the laundry roomD. Mindy Lance threatened to take revenge on her neighbors22. A. asking the neighborhood committee for helpB. limiting the amount of laundry
18、for each washC. informing the building manager of the matterD. installing a few more washers and dryersPassage threeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.23. A. she is both a popular and a highly respected authorB. she is the most loved African novelist of all times4C. she
19、is the most influential author since the 1930sD. she is the first writer to focus on the fate of slaves24. A. The Book Critics Circles AwardB. the Nobel Prize for literature C. the Pulizer Prize for fictionD. the National Book Award25. A. she is a relative of MorrisonsB. she is a slave from AfricaC.
20、 she is a skilled storytellerD. she is a black womanSection CDirections: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the
21、blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.Many college students today own personal computers that cost anywhere from $1,000 to perhaps $5,000 or more. 26_, it is not uncommon for them to purchase 27_
22、costing another several hundred dollars. Twenty years ago, computers were 28_, but they were very large and extremely expensive. Few, if any, 29_ purchased computers for home use. Over they years, the price of the “guts” of a computer - its memory - has declined to less than a thousandth of the pric
23、e per unit of memory that prevailed twenty years ago. This is the main reason why computers cost so much less today than they used to. 31_ memory circuitry that is small enough to fit into the portable personal computers that many of us own and use. 32_, as the price of computation has declined the
24、average consumer and business have spent more on purchasing computers.33_, improved agricultural technology, hybrid(杂交) seeds, 34_ animal breeding, and so on have vastly increased the amount of output a typical farmer can produce. The prices of goods such as meats and grains have fallen sharply rela
25、tive to the prices of most other goods and services. As agricultural prices have fallen, many households have decreased their total expense on food. Even though the 35_ of a product purchased generally increases when its price falls, total expenses on it may decline.Part III Reading Comprehension （4
26、0 minutes）Section ATo get a sense of how women have progressed in science. Take a quick tour of the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a storied place, the 36_ some of the most important discoveries in modern science-starting with Ernest Lawrences invention of the
27、cyclotron(回旋加速器) in 1931. a generation ago, female faces were 37_ and, even today, visitors walking through the first floor of LeConte Hall will see a full corridor of exhibits 38_ the many distinguished physicists who made history here, 39_ all of them white makes.But climb up to the third floor an
28、d youll see a 40_ display. There, among the photos of current faculty members and students, are portraits of the 41_head of the department, Marjorie Shapiro, and four other women whose research 42_ everything from the 5mechanics of the universe to the smallest particles of matter. A sixth woman was
29、hired just two weeks ago. Although theyre still only about 10 percent of the physics faculty, women are clearly a presence here. And the real 43_ may be in the smaller photos to the right: graduate and undergraduate students, about 20 percent of them female. Every year Berkeley sends its fresh femal
30、e physics PhDs to the countrys top universities. That makes Shapiro optimistic, but also 44_, “I believe things are getting better,” she says, “but theyre not getting better as 45_ as I would like.”A circumstance B confidence C coversD current E deals F different G exposing H fast I honoringJ hope K
31、 presently L rareM realistic N site O virtuallySection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a pa
32、ragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Is College a Worthy Investment?A) Why are we spending so much money on college? And why are we so unhappy about it? We all seem to agree that a college education
33、 is wonderful, and yet strangely we worry when we see families investing so much in this supposedly essential good. Maybe its time to ask a question that seems almost sacrilegious(大不敬的): is all this investment in college education really worth it?B) The answer, I fear, is no. for an increasing numbe
34、r of kids, the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus. C) For my entire adult life, a good education has been the most important thing for middle-class households. My parents spent more educating my sister and me
35、than they spent on their house, and theyre not the only onesand, of course, for an increasing number families, most of the cost of their house is actually the cost of living in a good school district. Questioning the value of a college education seems a bit like questioning the value of happiness, o
36、r fun.D) The average price of all goods and services has risen about 50 percent. But the price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time. Is the education that todays students are getting twice as good? Are new workers twice as smart? Have they become somehow massively more expensive to
37、 education?E) Perhaps a bit, Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, says, “I look at the data, and I see college costs rising faster then inflation up the mid-1980s by 1 percent a year. Now I see them rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation. What has happened? The federal govern
38、ment has started dropping money out of airplanes.” Aid has increased, subsidized(补贴的) loans have become available, and “the universities have gotten the money.” Economist Bryan Caplan, who is writing a book abut education, agrees: “Its a giant waste of resources that will continue as long as the sub
39、sidies continue.”F) Promotional literature for colleges and student loans often speaks of debt as an “investment in 6yourself.” But an investment is supposed to generate income to pay off the loans. More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that do not require a degree, and th
40、e amount of student-loan debt carried by households had increased more than five times since 1999. these graduates were told that a diploma was all they needed to succeed, but it wont even get them out of the spare bedroom at Mom and Dads. for many, the most visible result of their four years is the
41、 loan payments, which now average hundreds of dollars a month on lan balances in the tens of thousands.G) Its true about the money-sort of. College graduates now make 80 percent more than people who have only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, the wage premium(高出的部分) f
42、or an outstanding school seems to be even higher. But thats not true of every student. Its very easy to spend four years majoring in English literature and come out no more employable than you were before you went in. conversely, chemical engineers straight out of school can easily make almost four
43、times the wages of an entry-level high-school graduate.H) James Heckman, the Nobel Prize winning economist, has examined how the returns on education break down for individuals with different backgrounds and levels of ability. “Even with these high prices, youre still finding a high return for indiv
44、iduals who are bright and motivated,: he says. On the other hand, “if youre not college ready, then the answer is no, its not worth it.” Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today, but they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and mor
45、e of the potential return. For borderline students, tuition(学费) rise can push those returns into negative territory.I) Everyone seems to agree that the government, and parents, should be rethinking how we invest in higher education-and that employers need to rethink the increasing use of college deg
46、rees as crude screening tools for jobs that dont really require college skills. “Employers seeing a surplus of college graduates and looking to fill jobs are just adding that requirement,” says Vedder. “In fact, a college degree becomes a job requirement for becoming a bar-tender.”J) We have started
47、 to see some change on the finance side. A law passed in 2007 allows many students to cap their loan payment at 10 percent of their income and forgives any balance after 25 years. But of course, that doesnt control the cost of education; it just shifts it to taxpayers. It also encourages graduated t
48、o choose lower-paying careers, which reduces the financial return to education still further. “Youre subsidizing people to become priests and poets and so forth,” says Heckman. “You may think thats a good thing, or you may not.” Either way it will be expensive for the government.K) What might be a lot cheaper is putting more kids to work Caplan notes that work also builds valuable skills-probably more valuable for kids who dont
