文都:2008年12月英語(yǔ)四級(jí)全真預(yù)測(cè)試卷十三1

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Model Test Thirteen
    Part IWriting(30 minutes)
    Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic Is Failure a Bad Thing. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:
    1. 失敗是常有的事。
    2. 人們對(duì)失敗有各種態(tài)度。
    3. 我對(duì)失敗的態(tài)度。
    Is Failure a Bad Thing?
    Part IIReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)
    Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the question on Answer Sheet 1.
    For questions 1-7, mark
    Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
    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 Migration of Birds
    The migration of birds has never been properly explained. Homer brings it into his books, and Aristotle kept a record of the migration dates of different birds. Men of the past cut pictures of birds on stone 40,000 years ago, and they probably knew something about migration.
    In the last hundred years scientists have studied migration quite closely by fixing metal bands to the legs of birds and then setting them free. The bands have on them the date and the place where the birds lived. So if, for example, a bird has an English “address” and is found in the south of Africa, the scientists learn something about its journey.
    How do the birds know when to begin their migration? What tells them that the right time has come to move? It is probably not cold weather. But when the summer is ending in the north, the days become shorter and shorter. This may be the sign for the birds that the winter is coming.
    In a certain experiment, some birds were put in a place where the sun could not be seen. The only light was electric. In this place the “days” were made longer and longer by keeping the light turned on for more and more hours in the day. The birds thought that spring was coming, although winter was in fact getting nearer every day. They began to sing. Therefore the light was the cause of their mistake. Perhaps the birds know when to start their migration by watching the daylight. The setting sun sends them home in the evenings. Perhaps the shorter days send them south.
    But how do they find their way? That is the great difficulty. The young birds do not always go with the older ones who could perhaps remember the way from earlier journeys. The young are often left to find their own way, and they do find it.
    If a bird is carried a short way from its home, it can often find its way back. But can it do this if it is carried a long way? At Midway Island eighteen birds were caught and banded. They were then put into boxes, and the boxes were placed in waiting aero planes. Some of the birds were taken to North America, some to Japan, some to the Philippines, some to the island of Oahu, and some to the Marshall Islands.
    Fourteen of the birds returned home. One from the Philippines took thirty-two days on its journey, but it had to cover more than 4,000 miles.
    These long journeys are rather different from the journey of the bird that just goes home after the day’s business. Over a short journey, a bird may remember things; but not over 4,000 miles. And how does it find its way over the sea? There is nothing on the sea to remember. Some birds fly regularly from Alaska to Hawaii, a journey of 2,000 miles and there is no land on the way.
    An experimenter, Robert Wood, took six birds from Ross Island and sent them 826 miles to the South Pole. The ice there does nothing to help a bird to find the right direction. Every direction from the South Pole is north. There are no stars to be seen in summer because the sun is bright for 24 hours a day. So the birds could not use the stars to help them. It seems that Robert Wood had placed the birds in an impossible position. They could not even feel the turning of the earth, because it turns slowly there: about 63 feet in 24 hours, twenty feet from the pole.
    But one bird found its way home in ten days.
    What, then, directs the birds? Scientists have had many ideas. Once they thought it was the turning of the earth. Then they thought it was the sun. Both of these have been proven wrong. The scientist and musician Gustav Kramer noticed that some singing birds fly only at night when the time for migration comes. Does the moon help these birds after the sun has gone down? Perhaps, some experts think so. But another scientist, R. Drost, says that birds can find a small island like Helgoland on a dark night with no moon. What is the truth? What is the answer?
    A lot of important work has been done on this question, but a lot more is needed, for this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world. There is something here which we cannot understand. There are men who think that we do not know the whole truth about science. They think there is another world of which at present we know almost nothing: a world of lines of force.
    T. C. Lethbridge in one of his books describes how birds can find each other when one is far away from the other. He believes that lines of force, or lines of life, stand round people, animals and even things like metals. These lines can be found with a pendulum——something heavy hanging on a long piece of silk or other material. The length of the silk is important. Each kind of thing needs a special length. An example may make this clear.
    Suppose we want to find a piece of glass in a garden. We have to know the right length of the pendulum for glass. So we take the pendulum to a piece of glass, bringing nearer and nearer. It is moving from side to side, and so it will continue until we find the right length. We know now that this is 14 inches, for glass. If then, we let the length of the silk be 14 inches; the pendulum will stop moving from side to side when we bring it near to the glass. It will begin to ground in a kind of ring. (It will do this even if the glass is below the ground.) The “rate” for glass is therefore 14. Other rates are, for example, 22 for silver, 20 for diamonds, 29 for gold, 32 for iron, 20 for electricity, 24 for men and 29 for women. The pendulum stops moving from side to side because the lines of force near the thing have an effect on it.
    So Mr. Lethbridge believes that there is an entirely different world around us and that it has lines of force in it. These are up-and-down lines, and they may reach the sun. They seem to go up (and down) forever. Mr. Lethbridge has found them with his pendulum in a room above the room in which the object is.
    If there are lines of force like these, perhaps birds can sense them, or other lines like them. If so, this may in the future help to explain bird migration. But at present this science (If it is a science) is only beginning. Who knows what the future may hold?
    1.Scientists fixed metal bands to a bird’s leg so as to learn something about its flying route.
    2.The eighteen birds were let go soon after they had been brought to the island of Oahu.
    3.In the experiment mentioned in paragraph four, the “days” were made longer and longer and this gave the birds an illusion that spring was approaching.
    4.The turning of the earth directs the birds to their destinations.
    5.According to the passage, some birds take a regular trip of 2,000 miles from Alaska to Hawaii. There is no land on their way, so they can find nothing over the blue waters to remember.
    6.The ice in the South Pole does nothing to help a bird find its way.
    7. Migrating birds fly up north again in the spring because of the overly dense population of different kinds of birds in the warm region.
    1.[Y][N][NG]2.[Y][N][NG]3.[Y][N][NG]4.[Y][N][NG]
    5.[Y][N][NG]6.[Y][N][NG]7.[Y][N][NG]
    8.tells the birds when to fly south.
    9.From the South Pole, the six birds sent by Mr. Robert Wood could go nowhere but .
    10. T. C. Lethbridge maintains that can be found in all animals, and all metals.
    Part IIIListening Comprehension(35 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 2 with a single line through the centre.
    11.[A]Once a week. [C]Three times a week. [B]Twice a week.
    [D]Four times a week.
    12.[A]He left his notes at home. [B]He doesn’t know where his notes are.
    [C]He doesn’t want to lend his notes to the woman. [D]He agrees to lend her his notes.
    13.[A]The doctor won’t see her tomorrow. [B]The doctor is busy tomorrow.
    [C]The doctor is busy all day today.[D]The doctor will see her today.
    14.[A]Young people are too quick in making decisions.
    [B]Young people seldom stay long on the same job.
    [C]Young people lose their jobs easily.
    [D]Young people are too eager to succeed.
    15.[A]The pear.[B]The weather. [C]The sea food. [D]The cold.
    16.[A]Mary has never studied mathematics.
    [B]Mary must be good at mathematics.
    [C]Mary enjoys learning mathematics.
    [D]Mary probably is poor at mathematics.
    17.[A]More than an hour and a half.
    [B]Not more than half an hour.
    [C]More than two hours.
    [D]Less than an hour and a half.
    18.[A]His suit is too old to wear.
    [B]He doesn’t want to buy new clothes.
    [C]He doesn’t want to wear a suit.
    [D]He’ll go shopping with the woman.
    Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
    19.[A]Hospital employees only.[B]Many City Hall officials.
    [C]Many Packer Hall residents.[D]The engineering students only.
    20.[A]By collections made at City Hall.
    [B]By donations from the participants.
    [C]By the allocation of funds from local hospital.
    [D]By contributions based on the number of miles walked.
    21.[A]Joe will keep it.[B]It will be used for a new hospital.
    [C]It will be divided among the participants.[D]Joe will share it with those who made pledges.
    22.[A]Eleven dollars for the event[B]Five dollars for the event
    [C]One dollar per mile[D]Twentyfive cents or less per mile
    Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
    23.[A]Purchase her plane ticket.
    [B]Change her plane ticket.
    [C]Pick up a passport application form.
    [D]Arrange for her accommodations in Europe.
    24.[A]She doesn’t have time to move.
    [B]She would have difficulty finding another apartment.
    [C]She’s paid her rent for the summer in advance.
    [D]She doesn’t want to paint another apartment.
    25.[A]Three weeks.[B]One month.[C]Three months.[D]Over a year.