2013年12月大学英语四级考试真题及答案(第三套)
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2013年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第三套）
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 increasing use of the
mobile phone
in people’s life and then explain
the consequences of overusing it. You should write
at least 120
words but no more than 180 words.
Part II
Listenin
g
Compre
hension
（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
conversation 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 Answer Sheet 1 with a
single line
through the centre.
1.
A） He has proved to be a better reader than the
woman.
B） He has difficulty understanding the
book.
C） He cannot get access to the assigned
book.
D） He cannot finish his assignment
before the deadline.
2. A） She will drive the
man to the supermarket.
B） The man should
buy a car of his own.
C） The man needn’t go
shopping every week.
D） She can pick the man
up at the grocery store.
3. A） Get more food
and drinks. C） Tidy up the place.
B） Ask
his friend to come over. D） Hold a party.
4.
A） The talks can be held any day except this
Friday.
B） He could change his schedule to
meet John Smith.
C） The first-round talks
should start as soon as possible.
D） The
woman should contact John Smith first.
5. A）
He understands the woman’s feelings.
B） He
has gone through a similar experience.
C）
The woman should have gone on the field trip.
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D） The teacher is just following the
regulations.
6. A） She will meet the man
halfway. C） She will ask David to talk less.
B） She is sorry the man will not come. D）
She has to invite David to the party.
7. A）
Few students understand Prof. Johnson’s lectures.
B） Few students meet Prof. Johnson’s
requirements.
C） Many students find Prof.
Johnson’s lectures boring.
D） Many students
have dropped Prof. Johnson’s class.
8. A）
Check their computer files. C） Study a computer
program.
B） Make some computations. D）
Assemble a computer.
Questions 9 to 12
are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. A） It allows him to make a lot of friends.
C） It enables him to apply theory to practice.
B） It requires him to work long hours. D） It
helps him understand people better.
10. A） It
is intellectually challenging.
B） It requires
him to do washing-up all the time.
C） It
exposes him to oily smoke all day long.
D） It
demands physical endurance and patience.
11.
A） In a hospital. C） At a laundry.
B） At a
coffee shop. D） In a hotel.
12. A） Getting
along well with colleagues. C） Planning
everything in advance.
B） Paying attention to
every detail. D） Knowing the needs of customers.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the
conversation you have just heard.
13. A） The
pocket money British children get.
B） The
annual inflation rate in Britain.
C） The
things British children spend money on.
D） The
rising cost of raising a child in Britain.
14.
A） It enables children to live better. C） It
often rises higher than inflation.
B） It goes
down during economic recession. D） It has gone up
25% in the past decade.
15. A） Save up for
their future education. C） Buy their own shoes
and socks.
B） Pay for small personal things.
D） Make donations when necessary.
Section
B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3
short passages. At the end of each passage, you
will
hear some questions. 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
Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the
centre.
Passage One
Questions 16 to
19 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A） District managers. C） Sales directors.
B） Regular customers. D） Senior clerks.
17. A） The support provided by the regular
clients.
B） The initiative shown by the sales
representatives.
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C） The urgency of implementing the
company’s plans.
D） The important part played
by district managers.
18. A） Some of them
were political-minded. C） One third of them were
senior managers.
B） Fifty percent of them
were female. D） Most of them were rather
conservative.
19. A） He used too many
quotations. C） He did not keep to the point.
B） He was not gender sensitive. D） He spent too
much time on details.
Passage Two
Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
20. A） State your
problem to the head waiter.
B） Demand a
discount on the dishes ordered.
C） Ask to see
the manager politely but firmly.
D） Ask the
name of the person waiting on you.
21. A）
Your problem may not be understood correctly.
B） You don’t know if you are complaining at the
right time.
C） Your complaint may not reach
the person in charge.
D） You can’t tell how
the person on the line is reacting.
22. A）
Demand a prompt response. C） Send it by express
mail.
B） Provide all the details. D） Stick
to the point.
Passage Three
Questions
23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just
heard.
23. A） Fashion designer. C） City
planner.
B） Architect. D） Engineer.
24. A） Do some volunteer work. C） Work
flexible hours.
B） Get a well-paid part-time
job. D） Go back to her previous post.
25. A）
Few baby-sitters can be considered trustworthy.
B） It will add to the family’s financial
burden.
C） A baby-sitter is no replacement
for a mother.
D） The children won’t get along
with a baby-sitter.
Section C
Directions: 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 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.
Almost every child, on the first
day he sets foot in a school building, is smarter,
more curious,
less afraid of what he doesn’t
know, better at finding and （26）__________, more
confident,
resourceful （机敏的）, persistent and
（27）__________ than he will ever be again in his
schooling—or, unless he is very unusual and
very lucky, for the rest of his life. Already, by
paying
close attention to and （28）__________
the world and people around him, and without any
school-type （29）__________ instruction, he has
done a task far more difficult, complicated and
（30）__________ than anything he will be asked
to do in school, or than any of his teachers has
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done for years. He has solved the
（31）__________ of language. He has discovered
it—babies
don’t even know that language
exists—and he has found out how it works and
learnt to use it
（32）__________. He has done
it by exploring, by experimenting, by developing
his own model
of the grammar of language, by
（33）__________ and seeing whether it works, by
gradually
changing it and （34）__________ it
until it does work. And while he has been doing
this, he has
been learning other things as
well, including many of the （35）__________ that
the schools think
only they can teach him, and
many that are more complicated than the ones they
do try to teach
him.
Part III
Reading Comprehension （40 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.
Please mark the corresponding letter for each
item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through
the centre. You may not use any of the words
in the bank more than once.
Questions 36
to 45 are based on the following passage.
The
mobile phone is a magic device widely used these
days. Although it has been nearly 30
years
since the first commercial mobile-phone network
was launched, advertisers have yet to
figure
out how to get their ___36___ out to mobile-phone
users in a big way. There are 2.2 billion
cell-phone users worldwide, a ___37___ that is
growing by about 25% each year. Yet spending on
ads carried over cell-phone networks last year
___38___ to just $$1.5 billion worldwide, a
fraction
of the $$424 billion global ad market.
But as the number of eyeballs glued to
___39___ screens multiplies, so too does the
mobile
phone’s value as a pocket billboard
（广告牌）. Consumers are ___40___ using their phones
for
things other than voice calls, such as
text messaging, downloading songs and games, and
___41___ the Internet. By 2010, 70 million
Asians are expected to be watching videos and TV
programs on mobile phones. All of these
activities give advertisers ___42___ options for
reaching
audiences. During soccer’s World Cup
last summer, for example, Adidas used real-time
scores and
games to ___43___ thousands of fans
to a website set up for mobile-phone access. “Our
target
audience was males aged 17 to 25,” says
Marcus Spurrell, Adidas regional manager for Asia.
“Their mobiles are always on, always in their
pocket—you just can’t ___44___ cell phones as an
advertising tool.” Mobile-phone marketing has
become as ___45___ a platform as TV, online or
print.
A） accessing I） increasingly
B） amounted J） messages
C） approaching
K） patiently
D） attract L） tiny
E）
casual M） total
F） characters N） violated
G） fresh O） vital
H） ignore
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Section B
Directions: In this
section, you are going to read a 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
paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is
marked with a letter. Answer the questions by
marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet
2.
A Mess on the Ladder of Success
A） Throughout American history there has
almost always been at least one central economic
narrative that gave the ambitious or
unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their
fortune elsewhere.
For the first 300 or so
years of European settlement, the story was about
moving outward: getting
immigrants to the
continent and then to the frontier to clear the
prairies （大草原）, drain the
wetlands and build
new cities.
B） By the end of the 19th century,
as the frontier vanished, the US had a mild panic
attack. What
would this energetic,
enterprising country be without new lands to
conquer? Some people, such as
Teddy Roosevelt,
decided to keep on conquering （Cuba, the
Philippines, etc.）, but eventually, in
industrialization, the US found a new
narrative of economic mobility at home. From the
1890s to
the 1960s, people moved from farm to
city, first in the North and then in the South. In
fact, by the
1950s, there was enough
prosperity and white-collar work that many began
to move to the suburbs.
As the population
aged, there was also a shift from the cold Rust
Belt to the comforts of the Sun
Belt. We think
of this as an old person’s migration, but it
created many jobs for the young in
construction and health care, not to mention
tourism, retail and restaurants.
C） For the
last 20 years—from the end of the cold war through
two burst bubbles in a single
decade—the US
has been casting about for its next economic
narrative. And now it is
experiencing another
period of panic, which is bad news for much of the
workforce but
particularly for its youngest
members.
D） The US has always been a
remarkably mobile country, but new data from the
Census Bureau
indicate that mobility has
reached its lowest level in recorded history.
Sure, some people are stuck
in homes valued at
less than their mortgages （抵押贷款）, but many young
people—who don’t
own homes and don’t yet have
families—are staying put, too. This suggests,
among other things,
that people aren’t packing
up for new economic opportunities the way they
used to. Rather than
dividing the country into
the 1 percenters versus （与„„相对） everyone else, the
split in our
economy is really between two
other classes: the mobile and immobile.
E）
Part of the problem is that the country’s largest
industries are in decline. In the past, it was
perfectly clear where young people should go
for work （Chicago in the 1870s, Detroit in the
1910s, Houston in the 1970s） and, more or
less, what they’d be doing when they got there
（killing cattle, building cars, selling oil）.
And these industries were large enough to offer
jobs to
each class of worker, from unskilled
laborer to manager or engineer. Today, the few
bright spots in
our economy are relatively
small （though some promise future growth） and
decentralized. There
are great jobs in Silicon
Valley, in the biotech research capitals of Boston
and Raleigh-Durham
and in advanced
manufacturing plants along the southern I-85
corridor. These companies recruit
all over the
country and the globe for workers with specific
abilities. （You don’t need to be the
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next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, to
get a job in one of the microhubs （微中心）, by
the way. But you will almost certainly need at
least a B.A. in computer science or a year or two
at
a technical school.） This newer, select job
market is national, and it offers members of the
mobile
class competitive salaries and higher
bargaining power.
F） Many members of the
immobile class, on the other hand, 1ive in the
America of the gloomy
headlines. If you have
no specialized skills, there’s little reason to
uproot to another state and be
the last in
line for a low-paying job at a new auto plant or a
green-energy startup. The surprise in
the
census （普查） data, however, is that the immobile
workforce is not limited to unskilled
workers.
In fact, many have a college degree.
G） Until
now, a B.A. in any subject was a near-guarantee of
at least middle-class wages. But
today, a
quarter of college graduates make less than the
typical worker without a bachelor’s degree.
David Autor, a prominent labor economist at
M.I.T., recently told me that a college degree
alone is
no longer a guarantor of a good job.
While graduates from top universities are still
likely to get a
good job no matter what their
major is, he said, graduates from less-famous
schools are going to
be judged on what they
know. To compete for jobs on a national level,
they should be armed with
the skills that
emerging industries need, whether technical or
not.
H） Those without such specialized
skills—like poetry, or even history, majors—are
already
competing with their neighbors for the
same sorts of second-rate, poorer-paying local
jobs like
low-level management or big-box
retail sales. And with the low-skilled labor
market atomized into
thousands of
microeconomies, immobile workers are less able to
demand better wages or
conditions or to
acquire valuable skills.
I） So what, exactly,
should the ambitious young worker of today be
learning? Unfortunately, it’s
hard to say,
since the US doesn’t have one clear national
project. There are plenty of emerging,
smaller
industries, but which ones are the most promising?
（Nanotechnology’s（纳米技术）
moment of remarkable
growth seems to have been 5 years into the future
for something like 20
years now.） It’s not
clear exactly what skills are most needed or if
they will even be valuable in a
decade.
J）
What is clear is that all sorts of government
issues—education, health-insurance portability,
worker retraining—are no longer just bonuses
to already prosperous lives but existential
requirements. It’s in all of our interests to
make sure that as many people as possible are able
to
move toward opportunity, and America’s
ability to invest people and money in exciting new
ideas
is still greater than that of most other
wealthy countries. （As recently as five years ago,
US
migration was twice the rate of European
Union states.） That, at least, is some comfort at
a time
when our national economy seems to be
searching for its next story line.
46.
Unlike in the past, a college degree alone does
not guarantee a good job for its holder.
47.
The census data is surprising in that college
graduates are also among the immobile
workforce.
48. New figures released by
the government show that Americans today are less
mobile than ever
before.
49. The
migration of old people from cold to warm places
made many jobs available to the
young.
50.
America is better at innovation than most other
rich nations.
51. Early American history is
one of moving outward.
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52. Young
people don’t know what to learn because it is hard
to predict what skills are most
needed or
valued ten years from now.
53. Computer or
other technical skills are needed to get a well-
paying job in high-tech or
advanced
manufacturing.
54. When the frontier vanished
about a century ago, America found new economic
mobility in
industrialization.
55.
America today can be divided into two classes:
those who move and those who don’t.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages
in this section. 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 Answer Sheet
2 with a
single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based
on the following passage.
A new study shows a
large gender gap on economic policy among the
nation’s professional
economists, a divide
similar to the gender divide found in the general
public.
“As a group, we are pro-market,” says
Ann Mari May, co-author of the study and a
University of Nebraska economist. “But women
are more likely to accept government regulation
and involvement in economic activity than our
male colleagues.”
“It’s very puzzling,” says
free market economist Veronique de Rugy of the
Mercatus
Center at George Mason University.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t ask myself why
there are so
few women economists on the free
market side.”
A native of France, de Rugy
supported government intervention （干预） early in
her life but
changed her mind after studying
economics. “We want many of the same things as
liberals—less
poverty, more health care—but
have radically different ideas on how to achieve
it.”
Liberal economist Dean Baker, co-founder
of the Center for Economic Policy and Research,
says male economists have been on the inside
of the profession, confirming each other’s
anti-regulation views. Women, as outsiders,
“are more likely to think independently or at
least see
people outside of the economics
profession as forming their peer group,” he says.
The gender balance in economics is changing.
One-third of economics doctorates （博士学
位） now
go to women. “More diversity is needed at the
table when public policy is discussed,”
May
says.
Economists do agree on some things.
Female economists agree with men that Europe has
too
much regulation and that Wal-mart is good
for society. Male economists agree with their
female
colleagues that military spending is
too high.
The genders are most divorced from
each other on the question of equality for women.
Male
economists overwhelmingly think the wage
gap between men and women is largely the result of
individuals’ skills, experience and voluntary
choices. Female economists overwhelmingly disagree
by a margin of 4-to-1.
The biggest
disagreement: 76% of women say faculty
opportunities in economics favor men.
Male
economists point the opposite way: 80% say women
are favored or the process is neutral.
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56. What is the finding of the new study?
A） The gender divide is a big concern of the
general public.
B） Men and women understand
economics quite differently.
C） The gap
between male and female economists needs to be
closed.
D） Male and female economists
disagree widely on economic policy.
57. What
does Ann Mari May say about female economists?
A） They are strongly against male domination
in the economics profession.
B） They tend to
support government intervention in economic
activity.
C） They usually play an active role
in public policy-making.
D） They are mostly
strong advocates of free market economy.
58.
What do we learn about economist Veronique de
Rugy?
A） She represents most female
economists’ standpoint.
B） She devotes
herself to eliminating women’s poverty.
C）
Her study of economics changed her view on
government’s role in economic activities.
D）
Her academic background helped her get into the
inner circle of the economics
profession.
59. What does Ann Mari May imply about public
policy-making?
A） More female economists
should get involved.
B） It should do
justice to female economists’ studies.
C）
More attention should be paid to women’s rights.
D） It should aim at sustainable development.
60. On what issue do male and female
economists differ most?
A） Government
regulation. C） Military spending.
B） Job
creation. D） Gender equality.
Passage
Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the
following passage.
The number of postgraduate
students travelling from non-EU countries to study
at UK
universities has fallen for the first
time in 16 years, fuelling fears that the
government’s
immigration crackdown is
discouraging thousands of the brightest students
from continuing their
studies in Britain.
Jo Beall, British Council director of
education and society, said the fall would cause
alarm
among UK vice-chancellors（大学行政主管）. “The
sector was expecting a decline in growth, but
the actual reduction in postgraduate numbers
is of real concern as international students make
up
the majority of numbers in many
postgraduate courses and research teams in
science, technology,
engineering and
mathematics.”
“Attracting the brightest and
most ambitious postgraduate and research students
is critical if
the UK is to maintain its
quality reputation for research,” Beall said.
Universities get a third of their tuition （学费）
fee revenue from non-EU students. There is
growing fear among vice-chancellors that this
revenue—as well as the cultural, academic and
economic benefit international students
bring—is being put at risk.
Tim Westlake,
director for the student experience at Manchester
University, said students
whose families
relied on them working in the UK after their
studies to gain experience and repay
the fees
were starting to look elsewhere.
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Last month the home secretary, Theresa May,
announced that embassy staff would interview
more than 100,000 applicants in an attempt to
prevent bogus（假冒的） ones entering the country.
She also said immigrants were responsible for
pushing up UK house prices. The comments
followed the introduction of new limitations
on students’ right to work during and after their
studies.
Beall said: “Government
statistics for the first time provide real
evidence that the changes to
UK visa
regulations may have discouraged many students
from applying to the UK, and in
particular
postgraduate students who are so important to the
UK’s research output. The UK enjoys
an
excellent reputation around the world for the high
quality of our education system, so the
government needs to ensure that institutions
have all the support they need to attract
international
students who make a tremendous
academic, cultural and economic contribution to
the UK.”
61. What has caused the decline
of the number of non-EU postgraduates in the UK?
A） The increase in tuition and fees. C）
Changed immigration policies.
B） The ever-
rising living expenses. D） Universities’
tightened budgets.
62. What is UK vice-
chancellors’ biggest concern?
A） How to
obtain financial support from the government.
B） How to keep the academic reputation of their
institutions.
C） How to prevent bogus
applicants entering their universities.
D）
How to stimulate the creativity of their research
teams.
63. Why do UK universities try to
attract postgraduate students from outside the EU?
A） A substantial part of their revenue comes
from non-EU students’ tuition and fees.
B）
Non-EU postgraduate students are usually highly
motivated.
C） The number of UK postgraduate
students has fallen sharply.
D） Some of the
postgraduate programmes are specially designed for
non-EU students.
64. What were the
expectations of some non-EU students’ families?
A） Their children could enjoy the UK’s
cultural benefits.
B） Their children could
find well-paying jobs upon their return.
C）
Their children could become established
academically.
D） Their children could work in
the UK after graduation.
65. What does Beall
suggest the UK government should do?
A） Allow
promising international students to work in
research teams.
B） Revise UK visa
regulations to accommodate non-EU students.
C） Give universities adequate support to attract
non-EU students.
D） Try to address the needs
of international students in the UK.
Part
IV Translation
（30 minutes）
Directions: For this part, you
are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from
Chinese into
English. You should write your
answer on Answer Sheet 2.
“你要茶还是要咖啡？”是用餐人
常被问到的问题。许多西方人会选咖啡，而中国人则
会选茶。相传，中国的一位帝王于五千多年前发现了
茶，并用来治病。在明清（the Ming and
Qing Dynasties）期间，茶馆遍
布全国。饮茶在六世纪传到日本，但直到十七、十八世纪才
传到欧美。如今，茶是世界上最流行的饮料（
beverage）之一。茶是中国的民族饮品，也是
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中国传统和文化的重要组成部分。
2013年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第三套）答案
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