2016年英语四级备考冲刺模拟试题二

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Excessive Packaging following the outline given below. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

　　1.目前许多商品存在过度包装的现象

　　2.出现这一现象的原因

　　3.我对这一现象的看法和建议

　　On Excessive Packaging

　　On Excessive Packaging

　　Nowadays the phenomena of excessive packaging of goods are prevailing in our society: clothes swathed in tissue paper, placed in cardboard box and finally wrapped in well-designed plastic bags, imported bottles of grape wine packed in wooden boxes, fruits put in hand-woven baskets, to name but a few.

　　There are several causes of excessive packaging. The first reason is that a large number of companies believe that they can attract customers’ attention and stimulate their purchasing desire by over-packaging their goods, thus gaining more profits. On the other hand, quite a number of consumers mistakenly hold that the more delicate the package is, the better the quality will be, thus encouraging excessive packaging.

　　In my point of view, excessive packaging has disastrous consequences, including the loss of precious resources, excessive consumption of water and energy, and unnecessary extraction of scarce land for landfill.

　　To solve the problem, it’s necessary to take the following measures. First, laws and regulations must be made to restrict excessive packaging of companies. In addition, we need to raise consumer’s awareness that excessive packaging doesn’t equal to high quality and advocate packaging recycling.

　　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,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.

　　Small Schools Rising

　　This year's list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, those with fewer students are flourishing.

　　Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with students counted in the thousands. As baby boomers(二战后婴儿潮时期出生的人) came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency. A greater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracies(官僚机构)，the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students.SAT scores began dropping in 1963;today,on average,30% of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50% in poor urban neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven standards as set in No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary(and some middle)schools, high schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress.

　　Size isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend toward smaller schools. This has been due ,in part ,to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools-most of them with about 400 kids each with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade, About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as No.1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high-schoolers and 18 graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, such as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engineering Magnet,with383,which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, N.Y., which grew out of volunteer evening seminars for students. And it includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery(抽签)，such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted thousands of students all marching to the same band.

　　Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif, is one of those, ranking No.423-among the top 2% in the country-on Newsweek's annual ranking of America's top high schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating Classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full ,Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.

　　Although many of Hillsdale's students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990 average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname (绰号) "Hillsjail. " Jeff Gilbert. A Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching students file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, "How did that student graduate?"

　　So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three "houses," romantically named Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly(随机地) assigned to one of the houses. Where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of "advisory" classes Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students' success."We're constantly talking about one another's advisers," says English teacher Chris Crockett. "If you hear that yours isn't doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the dean's office, it's like a personal failure." Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95."It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved up to physics," says Gilbert "Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them."But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.

　　The Newsweek list of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.

　　Ranking schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents(地区教育主管)from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation."It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' in the nation, "their letter read. in part. "Determining whether different schools do or don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at man different measures, including students' overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college. And taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities."

　　In the end, the superintendents agreed to provide the data we sought, which is, after all, public information. There is, in our view, no real dispute here, we are all seeking the same thing, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by encouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps a list won't be necessary.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答卡1上作答.

　　1. Fifty years ago. big. Modern. Suburban high schools were established in the hope of __________.

　　A) ensuring no child is left behind

　　B) increasing economic efficiency

　　C) improving students' performance on SAT

　　D)providing good education for baby boomers

　　2. What happened as a result of setting up big schools?

　　A)Teachers' workload increased.

　　B)Students' performance declined.

　　C)Administration became centralized.

　　D)Students focused more on test scores.

　　3.What is said about the schools forded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation?

　　A)They are usually magnet schools.

　　B)They are often located in poor neighborhoods.

　　C)They are popular with high-achieving students.

　　D)They are mostly small in size.

　　4.What is most noticeable about the current trend in high school education?

　　A)Some large schools have split up into smaller ones.

　　B)A great variety of schools have sprung up in urban and suburban areas.

　　C)Many schools compete for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds.

　　D)Students have to meet higher academic standards.

　　5.Newsweek ranked high schools according to .

　　A)their students' academic achievement

　　B)the number of their students admitted to college

　　C)the size and number of their graduating classes

　　D)their college-level test participation

　　6.What can we learn about Hillsdale's students in the late 1990s?

　　A)They were made to study hard like prisoners.

　　B)They called each other by unaffectionate nicknames.

　　C)Most of them did not have any sense of discipline,

　　D)Their school performance was getting worse.

　　7.According to Jeff Gilbert, the "advisory" classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could .

　　A)tell their teachers what they did on weekends

　　B)experience a great deal of pleasure in learning

　　C)maintain closer relationships with their teachers

　　D)tackle the demanding biology and physics courses

　　8.________is still considered a strength of Newsweek's school ranking system in spite of the criticism it receives.

　　9.According to the 38 superintendents, to rank schools scientifically, it is necessary to use________.

　　10.To better serve the children and our nation, schools students to take________.

　　参考答案：

　　1. D) providing good education for baby boomers.

　　2. D) Students’ performance declined.

　　3. D) They are mostly small in size.

　　4. D) Some large schools have split up into smaller ones.

　　5. C) their college-level test participation.

　　6. B) Their school performance was getting worse.

　　7. A) maintain closer relationships with their teachers.

　　8. Simplicity

　　9. different measures

　　10. tough subjects　One in six. Believe it or not, that's the number of Americans who struggle with hanger To make tomorrow a little better, Feeding Action Month. As part of its 30 Ways in 30 Days program, It's asking 48 across the country to help the more than 200 food banks and 61,000 agencies in its network provide low-income individuals and families with the fuel they need to 49 .

　　It's the kind of work that's done every day at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, People who 50 at its front door on the first and third Thursdays of each month aren't looking for God-they're there for something to eat, St. Andrew's runs a food pantry(食品堂)that 51 the city and several of the 52 towns. Janet Drane is its manager.

　　In the wake of the 53 .the number of families in need of food assistance began to grow. It is 54 that 49 million Americans are unsure of where they will find their next meal What's most surprising is that 36% of them live in 55 where at least one adult is working."It used to be that one job was all you needed." says St. Andrew's Drane."The people we see now have three or four part-time jobs and they're still right on the edge 56 ."

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　A)survive I)formally

　　B) surrounding J)financially

　　C)serves K)domestic

　　D)reviewed L)competition

　　E)reported M)communities

　　F)recession N)circling

　　G)households O)accumulate

　　H)gather

　　参考答案：

　　47. E. domestic

　　48. C. communities

　　49. O. survive

　　50. H. gather

　　51. M. serves

　　52. N. surroundings

　　53. J. recession

　　54. K. reported

　　55. I. households

　　56. F. financiallyTeaching children to read well from the start is the most important task of elementary schools. But relying on educators to approach this task correctly can be a great mistake. Many schools continue to employ instructional methods that have been proven ineffective. The staying power of the “look-say” or “whole-word” method of teaching beginning reading is perhaps the most flagrant example of this failure to instruct effectively.

　　The whole-word approach to reading stresses the meaning of words over the meaning of letters, thinking over decoding, developing a sight vocabulary of familiar words over developing the ability to unlock the pronunciation of unfamiliar words. It fits in with the self-directed, “learning how to learn” activities recommended by advocates (倡导者)of “open” classrooms and with the concept that children have to be developmentally ready to begin reading. Before 1963, no major publisher put out anything but these “Run-Spot-Run” readers.

　　However, in 1955, Rudolf Flesch touched off what has been called “the great debate” in beginning reading. In his best-seller Why Johnny Can’t Read, Flesch indicted(控诉)the nation’s public schools for miseducating students by using the look-say method. He said – and more scholarly studies by Jeane Chall and Rovert Dykstra later confirmed – that another approach to beginning reading, founded on phonics(语音学), is far superior.

　　Systematic phonics first teachers children to associate letters and letter combinations with sounds; it then teaches them how to blend these sounds together to make words. Rather than building up a relatively limited vocabulary of memorized words, it imparts a code by which the pronunciations of the vast majority of the most common words in the English language can be learned. Phonics does not devalue the importance of thinking about the meaning of words and sentences; it simply recognizes that decoding is the logical and necessary first step.

　　36. The author feels that counting on educators to teach reading correctly is _____________.

　　A) only logical and natural B) the expected position

　　C) probably a mistake D) merely effective instruction

　　37. The author indicts the look-say reading approach because _________________.

　　A) it overlooks decoding B) Rudolf Flesch agrees with him

　　C) he says it is boring D) many schools continue to use this method

　　38. One major difference between the look-say method of learning reading and the phonics method is _______________.

　　A) look-say is simpler B) Phonics takes longer to learn

　　C) look-say is easier to teach D) phonics gives readers access to far more words

　　39. The phrase “touch-off” (Para 3, Line 1) most probably means _____________.

　　A) talk about shortly B) start or cause

　　C) compare with D) oppose

　　40. According to the author, which of the following statements is true?

　　A) Phonics approach regards whole-word method as unimportant.

　　B) The whole-word approach emphasizes decoding.

　　C) In phonics approach, it is necessary and logical to employ decoding.

　　D) Phonics is superior because it stresses the meaning of words thus the vast majority of most common words can be learned.

　　参考答案：

　　36. C)本题的线索是第一段的第二句话，其中的relying on educators与题干中的counting on educators 完全是同样的意思。

　　37. A) 作者先在第一段的最后一句说“look-say”或“whole-word”的阅读教学方法是失败的，第二段分析了这种方法失败的原因，是因为它“stresses the meaning of words over the meaning of letters, thinking over decoding…”

　　38. D) 文章在最后一段谈到了phonics method的特点和好处，本题线索见该段的第二句话“Rather than building up a relatively limited vocabulary of memorized words, it imparts a code by which the pronunciations of the vast majority of the most common words in the English language can be learned”，可见这种方法能使学习者获得更大的词汇量。

　　39. B) 本题要求利用上下文猜测单词的意思。根据第二段的最后一句，在1963年以前，出版的东西都是教授使用whole-word的方法的，紧接着用了转折词however，说在1955年，Rudolf Flesch“touched off”一场争论，因此此处的touch off必然是“引起”的意思。

　　40. C) 本题要求有较好的综合能力才能做得既快又准。从第二段中综合出whole-word阅读方法的特点：强调单词的意思、没有decoding;由此即可知B)、D)是错的;在文章的最后一句话，作者指出Phonics does not devalue the importance of thinking about the meaning of words and sentences，所以A)也是不对的。　41. Word had come from the manager ____________ a new transaction would be concluded.

　　A) who

　　B) that

　　C) which

　　D) when

　　42. There was a traffic jam, but she ____________ get to the destination in time.

　　A) could

　　B) might

　　C) ought to

　　D) was able to

　　43. "Do you think ____________ I should attend the lecture?" she asked me.

　　A) that

　　B) whether

　　C) if

　　D) when

　　44. Their room was on the third floor, its window ____________ the sports ground.

　　A) overlooks

　　B) overlooking

　　C) overlooked

　　D) to overlook

　　45. On no account ____________ to anyone who works in the company.

　　A) my name must be mentioned

　　B) my name must mention

　　C) must my name be mentioned

　　D) must my name mention

　　46. Jim knows little of mathematics, ____________ of chemistry.

　　A) and still less

　　B) as well as

　　C) no less than

　　D) and still more

　　47. The man denied ____________ any thing at the supermarket when he was questioned by the police.

　　A) to have stolen

　　B) to steal

　　C) having stolen

　　D) having been stealing

　　48. Did he tell you what ____________ if he had a chance?

　　A) was he going to do

　　B) he would do

　　C) be had done

　　D) had to do

　　49. The results were to ____________ yesterday, but we have heard nothing.

　　A) reveal

　　B) have revealed

　　C) be revealed

　　D) have been revealed

　　50. Calculations, which are astronomically exact, have been made ____________ with the use of computers.

　　A) possible

　　B) it possible

　　C) possibly

　　D) to be possible

　　51. To handle the delicate situation, you must ;be____________

　　A) more than careful

　　B) more carefully

　　C) carefully enough

　　D) enough carefully

　　52. The governess agreed to teach the temperamental child ____________ she was given complete authority.

　　A) whether

　　B) for

　　C) that

　　D) provided

　　53. According to the periodic table, ____________ still some elements undiscovered.

　　A) there seem to be

　　B) it seems to be

　　C) it seems that

　　D) here seem

　　54. The farmer used wood to build a house ____________ to store grain.

　　A) with

　　B) in which

　　C) which

　　D) where

　　55. A beam of light will not bend round the corners unless ____________ to do so with the help of a reflecting device.

　　A) being done

　　B) made

　　C) to be made

　　D) having made　56. ____________, the more severe the winters are.

　　A) The more north you go

　　B) The farther you go the north

　　C) The more you go north

　　D) The farther north you go

　　57. Vicky has been sad recently, for her plan to go to college ____________ at the last moment.

　　A) fell out

　　B) fell behind

　　C) fell through

　　D) fell off

　　58. You had better ____________ teasing these newcomers, for that will hurt their feeling.

　　A) leave out

　　B) leave for

　　C) leave off

　　D) leave behind

　　59. Don't lose heart! You should _____________ your courage and overcome the difficulty.

　　A) hold up

　　B) set up

　　C) pull up

　　D) pluck up

　　60. He ____________ a sum of money every month to help the two orphans.

　　A) sets aside

　　B) sets up

　　C) sets along

　　D) sets in

　　61. His debts had to be _____________ after he committed suicide with his rifle.

　　A) laid off

　　B) written off

　　C) turned off

　　D) put off

　　62. The gentleman ____________ a cherub with his letter.

　　A) combined

　　B) included

　　C) kept

　　D) enclosed

　　63. At the meeting both sides exchanged their views on a wide ____________ of topics they were interested in.

　　A) extent

　　B) number

　　C) collection

　　D) range

　　64. His ____________ has changed but he has kept the fine qualities of a scientific researcher.

　　A) state

　　B) status

　　C) station

　　D) statue

　　65. She can speak French and German, to ____________ nothing of English.

　　A) say

　　B) speak

　　C) talk

　　D) tell

　　66. If you play with electricity, you may get an electric ____________

　　A) strike

　　B) beat

　　C) shock

　　D) knock

　　67. It was a wonderful play with a ____________ of over fifty actors and actresses.

　　A) list

　　B) group

　　C) bunch

　　D) herd

　　68. A ____________change in policy is needed if relations are ever to improve.

　　A) strict

　　B) wide

　　C) ever

　　D) radical

　　69. Please give my best ____________ to your family.

　　A) notice

　　B) attention

　　C) regards

　　D) cares

　　70. They bought the land with a ____________ to build a new office block.

　　A) purpose

　　B) view

　　C) goal

　　D) reason参考答案：

　　41. B) 空格及其后的内容作word的同位语，表示经理所说的话的内容。

　　42. D) 本题主要是A)和D)的辨析，be able to 与can的主要区别在于前者表示客观的能力，后者主观更多色彩更浓。本题根据时态及全句的内容，看出这是个客观的事实，因此应选D)。

　　43. A) 此处是由that引导的宾语从句。

　　44. B) 分词的独立主格结构，window与overlook的关系是主动的，故要用现在分词。

　　45. C) 倒装。状语on no account中含有否定词，故要用倒装。

　　46. A) less与little才是递进的关系。

　　47. C) 在deny之后要用动名词。

　　48. B) 在tell you的后面是一个宾语从句，而在这个宾语从句中用的是虚拟语气，看清这一点后，再看看if状语从句中的时态就能做出正确答案了。

　　49. D) 首先，我们知道结果是要“被公布”的，所以动词部分必须用被动语态，去掉A)、B)。再由句子的意思判断，结果本来要被公布的，但是我们没有听到什么消息，隐指消息未被公布，所以这是个虚拟的。

　　50. A) 这是一个固定句型。由make … possible变化而来。

　　51. A) 如果知道more than的特殊用法，本题即可顺利做答。解答本题的另一个方法是看句子成份，要填的空中是作be的表语，根据常识，副词是不能用作表语的，所以B)、C)、D)可被自然排除。

　　52. D) provided是一个特殊的连词，相当于if，可引导状语从句。

　　53. A) there be句型的变化。如果对其它的选项有疑问的话，可分析一下句子的成份。

　　54. B) 带介词的定语从句。农民盖房子的目的是要用房子来盛粮食，也就是说，要把粮食放在房子中，所以选B)。

　　55. B) 省略了主语和系动词的分词状语结构。

　　56. D) the more … the more 句型。在这个句型中，the more不是死的，只是表示一个比较级。

　　57. C) fall through的意思是“失败、破产”。fall out争吵, 吵架, 闹翻, 结果是, 离队;fall off 下降, 跌落, 减少, 衰退, 离开;落在...的后面, 拖欠。

　　58. C) leave off相当于stop。leave out省去, 遗漏, 不考虑;leave for动身去某地;leave behind将……落下

　　59. D) pluck up振作, 拔起。hold up举起, 支撑, 继续下去, 阻挡, 拦截;set up 设立, 竖立, 架起, 升起, 装配, 创(纪录), 提出, 开业;hold up举起, 支撑, 继续下去, 阻挡, 拦截

　　60. A) set aside .留出, 不顾, 取消, 驳回;set up 设立, 竖立, 架起, 升起, 装配, 创(纪录), 提出, 开业;set along 无此短语; set in开始, 到来, 上涨, 插入, 嵌入。

　　61. B) write off 注销, 勾销, 取消;lay off解雇, 停止工作, 休息, 划出;turn off 关掉, 避开, 使转变方向, 生产, 制造, 用车床加工出, 使厌烦, 变成;put off 推迟, 拖延, 搪塞, 使分心, 使厌恶, 扔掉, 脱掉, 劝阻。

　　62. D) enclose指邮寄信件时附上其它东西。

　　63. D) 选项中只有range能被wide修饰。

　　64. B) status指身份, 地位, 情形, 状况;sate指状态;statue则是雕象。

　　65. A) to say nothing of 是一个固定短语，意思是“更不用说……了”。本题不要做成词义辨析题。 66. C) 本题同样没有必要辨析四个选项的意思，只要知道“电击”是electric shock就够了。

　　67. B) 表示人的量词用group。

　　68. D) 常用radical修饰change，表示根本的的变化。

　　69. C) 表示向某人致意用regard。

　　70. A) 此处应选“目的”一词。C)表示具体的目标，不通。

　　1.But,for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not.

　　2. Declaring that he was opposed to using this unusual animal husbandry technique to clone humans, he ordered that federal funds not be used for such an experiment-although no one had proposed to do so--and asked an independent panel of experts chaired by Princeton President Harold Shapiro to report back to the White House in　90 days with recommendations for a national policy on human cloning.

　　3. In a draft preface to the recommendations, discussed at the 17 May meeting, Shapiro suggested that the panel had found a broad consensus that it would be "morally unacceptable to attempt to create a human child by adult nuclear cloning".

　　参考答案：

　　1.但是，对一个小部分学生来说，职业教育也是条可取的路径。因为在其他因素相同的情况下，技能的娴熟是得到工作与否的关键。

　　2.他宣布自己反对使用这种非同寻常的畜牧繁殖技术来克隆人类，并下令.不准联邦政府基金用于做此类试验--尽管还没有人建议这么做--他还请一个以普林斯顿大学校长哈罗得?夏皮罗为首的独立的专家组在90天内向白宫汇报关于制定有关克隆人的国家政策的建议。

　　3.在5月17日的会议上所讨论的这份建议书的序言草案中，夏皮罗提出，专家组已经达成广泛共识，那就是"试图通过成人细胞核克隆来制造人类幼儿的做法在道德上是不可接受的"。