1、大学英语四级考试模拟试题及答案2010年12月大学英语四级考试模拟试题及答案Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic: Online Education. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:1. 目前网络教育形成热潮2. 我认为形成这股热潮的原因是3. 我对网络教育的评价Onli
2、ne EducationPart II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7, markY (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the pass
3、age;N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.The World in a Glass: Six Drinks That Changed HistoryTom Standage ur
4、ges drinkers to savor the history of their favorite beverages along with the taste.The author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses (Walker & Company, June 2005), Standage lauds the libations that have helped shape our world from the Stone Age to the present day.The important drinks are still drink
5、s that we enjoy today, said Standage, a technology editor at the London-based magazine the Economist. They are relics (纪念物)of different historical periods still found in our kitchens.Take the six-pack, whose contents first fizzed at the dawn of civilization.BeerThe ancient Sumerians, who built advan
6、ced city-states in the area of present-day lraq, began fermenting(发酵)beer from barley at least 6,000 years ago.When people started agriculture the first crops they produced were barley or wheat. You consume those crops as bread and as beer, Standage noted. Its the drink associated with the dawn of c
7、ivilization. Its as simple as that.Beer was popular with the masses from the beginning.Beer would have been something that a common person could have had in the house and made whenever they wanted, said Linda Bisson, a microbiologist at the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of
8、California, Davis.The guys who built the pyramids were paid in beer and bread, Standage added. It was the defining drink of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Everybody drank it. Today its the drink of the working man, and it was then as well.WineWine may be as old or older than beerthough no one can be certain
9、.Paleolithic humans probably sampled the first wine as the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes. But producing and storing wine proved difficult for early cultures.To make wine you have to have fresh grapes, said Bisson, the UC Davis microbiologist. for beer you can just store grain and add wate
10、r to process it at any time.Making wine also demanded pottery that could preserve the precious liquid.Wine may be easier to make than beer, but its harder to store, Bisson added. For most ancient cultures it would have been hard to catch fermenting grape juice as wine on its way to becoming vinegar.
11、Such caveats and the expense of producing wine helped the beverage quickly gain more cachet(威望)than beer. Wine was originally associated with social elites and religious activities.Wine snobbery may be nearly as old as wine itself. Greeks and Romans produced many grades of wine for various social cl
12、asses.The quest for quality became an economic engine and later drove cultural expansion.Once you had regions like Greece and Rome that could distinguish themselves as making good stuff, it gave them an economic boost, Bisson said. Beer just wasnt as special.SpiritsHard liquor, particularly brandy a
13、nd rum, placated (安抚)sailors during the long sea voyages of the Age of Exploration, when European powers plied the seas during the 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries.Rum played a crucial part of the triangular trade between Britain, Africa, and the North American colonies that once dominated the A
14、tlantic economy.Standage also suggests that rum may have been more responsible than tea for the independence movement in Britains American colonies.Distilling molasses for rum was very important to the New England economy, he explained. When the British tried to tax molasses it struck at the heart o
15、f the economy. The idea of no taxation without representation originated with molasses and sugar. Only at the end did it refer to tea.Great Britains longtime superiority at sea may also owe a debt to its navys drink of rum-based choice, grog(掺水烈酒),which was made a compulsory beverage for sailors in
16、the late 18th century.They would make grog with rum, water, and lemon or lime juice, Standage said. This improved the taste but also reduced illness and scurvy. Fleet physicians thought that this had doubled the efficiency of the fleet.CoffeeThe story of modern coffee starts in the Arabian Peninsula
17、, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000. Sometime around the 15th century, coffee spread throughout the Arab world.In the Arab world, coffee rose as an alternative to alcohol, and coffeehouses as alternatives to taverns(酒馆)both of which are banned by Islam, Standage said.When coffee
18、 arrived in Europe it was similarly hailed as an anti-alcohol that was quite welcome during the Age of Reason in the 18th century.Just at the point when the Enlightenment is getting going, heres a drink that sharpens the mind, Standage said. The coffeehouse is the perfect venue(聚会地点)to get together
19、and exchange ideas and information. The French Revolution started in a coffeehouse.Coffee also fuelled commerce and had strong links to the rituals of business that remain to the present day. Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange were both originally coffeehouses.TeaTea became a daily drink
20、 in China around the third century A.D.Standage says tea played a leading role in the expansion of imperial and industrial might in Great Britain many centuries later. During the 19th century, the East India Company enjoyed a monopoly on tea exports from China.Englishmen around the world could drink
21、 tea, whether they were a colonial administrator in India or a London businessman, Standage said. The sun never set on the British Empirewhich meant that it was always teatime somewhere.As the Industrial Revolution of 18th and 19th centuries gained steam, tea provided some of the fuel. Factory worke
22、rs stayed alert during long, monotonous shifts thanks to welcome tea breaks.The beverage also had unintended health benefits for rapidly growing urban areas. When you start packing people together in cities its helpful to have a water-purification technology like tea, which was brewed with boiling w
23、ater, Standage explained.Coca-colaIn 1886 pharmacist John Stith Pemberton sold about nine Coca-colas a day.Today his soft drink is one of the worlds most valuable brands-sold in more countries than the United Nations has members.It may be the second most widely understood phrase in the world after O
24、K, Standage said.The drink has become a symbol of the United Stateslove it or hate it. Standage notes that East Germans quickly reached for Cokes when the Berlin Wall fell, while Thai Muslims poured it out into the streets to show disdain for the U.S. in the days leading up to the 2003 invasion of I
25、raq.Coca-cola encapsulates what happened in the 20th century: the rise of consumer capitalism and the emergence of America as a superpower, Standage said. Its globalization in a bottle.While Coke may not always produce a smile, a survey by the Economist magazine (Standages employer), suggests that t
26、he soft drinks presence is a great indicator of happy citizens. When countries were polled for happiness, as defined by a United Nations index, high scores correlated with sales of Coca-Cola.Its not because Coke makes people happy, but because its sales happen in the dynamic free-market economies th
27、at tend to produce happy people, Standage said.1. The passage gives a brief description of the content of a new book, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.2. The ancient Sumerians began fermenting beer from barley at least 6,000 years ago.3. Today beer is the drink of the working man, which was not t
28、he case before.4. Greeks probably sampled the first wine as the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes.5. The caveats and the expense of producing wine helped it quickly gain more cachet than beer.6. Standage suggests that tea may have been more responsible than rum for the independence movement i
29、n Britains American colonies.7. Coffee is the best drink according to Standage.8. Sometime around the 15th century coffee spread throughout _.9. During the 19th century, the monopoly on tea exports from China is _.10. Coca-Cola has become a symbol of _.Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth
30、) (25 minutes)Section ADirections: 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 bank is identifi
31、ed by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.It seems you always forgetyour reading glasses when you are rushing to work, your coat when you are going to the cleaners, your credit card when you are shopping.Such absent-mindedness may be 47 to you; now British and German scientists are developing memory glasses that record everything the 48 sees.The glasses can play bac
