12月大学英语四级考试模拟试卷及答案(6)

Part Ⅰ Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic Dormitory Life . You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:

Dormitory Life

1. 大学宿舍的集体生活是全新的体验。

2. 宿舍生活与在家生活的不同之处。

3. 宿舍生活利与弊。

Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)

Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer sheet1.

Testing Times

Researchers are working on ways to reduce the need for animal experiments, but new laws may increase the number of experiments needed. The current situation

In an ideal world, people would not perform experiments on animals. For the people, they are expensive. For the animals, they are stressful and often painful.

That ideal world, sadly, is still some way away. People need new drugs and vaccines. They want protection from the toxicity of chemicals. The search for basic scientific answers goes on. Indeed, the European Commission is forging ahead with proposals that will increase the number of animal experiments carried out in the European Union, by requiring toxicity tests on every chemical approved for use within the union's borders in the past 25 years.

Already, the commission has identified 140,000 chemicals that have not yet been tested. It wants 30,000 of these to be examined right away, and plans to spend between ~ 4 billion — 8 billion ($5 billion—10 billion) doing so. The number of animals used for toxicity testing in Europe will thus, experts reckon, quintuple (翻五倍) from just over lm a year to about 5m, unless they are saved by some dramatic advances in non-animal testing technology. At the moment, roughly 10% of European animal tests are for general toxicity, 35% for basic research, 45% for drugs and vaccines, and the remaining 10% a variety of uses such as diagnosing diseases.

Animal experimentation will therefore be around for some time yet. But the search for substitutes continues, and last weekend the Middle European Society for Alternative Methods to Animal Testing met in Linz, Austria, to review progress.

A good place to start finding alternatives for toxicity tests is the liver--the organ responsible for breaking toxic chemicals down into safer molecules that can then be excreted. Two firms, one large and one small, told the meeting how they were using human liver cells removed incidentally during surgery to test various substances for long-term toxic effects.

One way out of the problem

PrimeCyte, the small firm, grows its cells in cultures over a few weeks and doses them regularly with the substance under investigation. The characteristics of the cells are carefully monitored, to look for changes in their microanatomy.

Pfizer, the big firm, also doses its cultures regularly, but rather than studying individual cells in detail, it counts cell numbers. If the number of cells in a culture changes after a sample is added, that suggests the chemical in question is bad for the liver.

In principle, these techniques could be applied to any chemical. In practice, drugs (and, in the case of PrimeCyte, food supplements) are top of the list. But that might change if the commission has its way: those 140,000 screenings look like a lucrative market, although nobody knows whether the new tests will be ready for use by 2009, when the commission proposes that testing should start.

Other tissues, too, can be tested independently of animals. Epithelix, a small firm in Geneva, has developed an artificial version of the lining of the lungs. According to Huang Song, one of Epithelix's researchers, the firm's cultured cells have similar microanatomy to those found in natural lung linings, and respond in the same way to various chemical messengers. Dr. Huang says that they could be used in long-term toxicity tests of airborne chemicals and could also help identify treatments for lung diseases.

The immune system can be mimicked and tested, too. ProBioGen, a company based in Berlin, is developing an artificial human lymph node (淋巴结) which, it reckons, could have prevented the neardisastrous consequences of a drag trial held in Britain three months ago, in which (despite the drag having passed animal tests) six men suffered multiple organ failure and nearly died. The drug the men were given made their immune systems hyperactive. Such a response would, the firm's scientists reckon, nave teen identified by their lymph node, which is made from cells that provoke the immune system into a response. ProBioGen's lymph node could thus work better than animal testing. A second alternative

Another way of cutting the number of animal experiments would be to change the way that vaccines are tested, according to Coenraad Hendriksen of the Netherlands Vaccine Institute. At the moment, all batches of vaccine are subject to the same battery of tests. Dr. Hendriksen argues that this is over-rigorous. When new vaccine cultures are made, belt-and-braces tests obviously need to be applied. But if a batch of vaccine is derived from an existing culture, he suggests that it need be tested only to make sure it is identical to the batch from which it is derived. That would require fewer test animals.

All this suggests that though there is still some way to go before drugs, vaccines and other substances can be tested routinely on cells rather than live animals, useful progress is being made. What is harder to see is how the use of animals might be banished from fundamental research. Weighing the balance

In basic scientific research, where the object is to understand how, say, the brain works rather than to develop a drug to treat brain disease, the whole animal is often necessarily the object of study. Indeed, in some cases, scientific advances are making animal tests more valuable, rather than less. Geneticmodification techniques mean that mice and rats can be remodelled to make them exhibit illnesses that they would not normally suffer from. Also, genes for human proteins can be added to them, so that animal tests will more closely mimic human responses. This offers the opportunity to understand human diseases better, and to screen treatments before human trials begin. However, the very creation of these mutants (突变异种) counts as an animal experiment in its own right, so the number of experiments is increasing once again.

What is bad news for rodents, though, could be good news for primates. Apes and monkeys belong to the same group of mammals as humans, and are thus seen as the best subjects for certain sorts of experiment. To the extent that rodents can be "humanised", the number of primate experiments might be reduced.

Some people, of course, would like to see them eliminated altogether, regardless of the effect on useful research. On June 6th the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, an animal-rights group, called for the use of primates in research to be banned. For great apes, this has already happened. Britain, Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden have ended experiments on chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orang-utans. Experiments on monkeys, though, are still permitted. And some countries have not banned experiments on apes. In America, for example, about 1,000 chimpanzees a year are used in research.

This is a difficult area. Great apes are man's closest relatives, having parted company from the human family tree only a few million years ago. Hence it can be (and is) argued that they are indispensable for certain sorts of research. On the other hand, a recent study by Andrew Knight and his colleagues at Animal Consultants International, an animal-advocacy group, casts doubt on the claim that apes are used only for work of vital importance to humanity. Important papers tend to get cited as references in subsequent studies, so Mr. Knight looked into the number of citations received by 749 scientific papers published as a result of invasive experiments on captive chimpanzees. Half had received not a single citation up to ten years after their original publication.

That is damning. Animal experiments are needed for the advance of medical science, not to mention people's

safety. But if scientists are to keep the sympathy of the public, they need to do better than that.

1. The passage summarizes harmful effects of animal experiment. However, as animal experiment is indispensable in a number of areas, it might not be stopped or replaced by other alternatives.

2. Animal experiments are needed in research to find new drugs and vaccines, and to find ways of protection from the toxicity of chemicals.

3. It is predicted by experts that the number of animals used for toxicity testing in Europe will quintuple due to a plan to have a large variety of chemical tested.

4. People are trying to find alternatives to animal testing, and they started with liver.

5. PrimeCyte and Pfizer began to find alternatives to animal testing because they were advocates of animal protection.

6. It is found that tissues from liver, lung, and immune system can all be tested independently of animals.

7. Although there is more than one alternative to animal experiment, there is still concern over how to eliminate animal testing in fundamental research.

8. In basic scientific research, the object is to understand how, say, the brain works rather than to develop a drug to ______ brain disease.

9. Indeed, in some cases, scientific advances are making animal tests ___________

10. Recently, an animal-advocacy group casts doubt on the scientists' claim that apes are used only for __________ Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)

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. What is suburbanization? If by "suburb" is meant an urban (47) that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior, the process of suburbanization began during the (48) of the industrial city in the second quarter of the 19th century. Before that period the city was a small highly (49) cluster in which people move about on foot and goods were (50) by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1830s and 1840s were (51) along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment.

In time, the factories were (52) by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities. As a defense (53) this encroachment and to enlarge their tax base, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In 1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia (54) most of Philadelphia County. Similar things (55) place in Chicago and in New York. Indeed, most great cities of the United States (56) such status only by annexing the communities along their borders.

A) located

B) margin

C) conveyed

D) compact

E) center

F) emergence

G) spacious

H) surrounded

I) abandoned

J) plummet

K) achieved

L) took

M) against

N) for

O) incorporated

Section B

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

As you make your way through the crowded stalls of Beijing's food markets nowadays, you may sometimes be confused as to just what you should be looking for. There is a profusion of fresh vegetables laid out for sale, so much celery, so many Dutch beans, tomatoes, even broccoli and parsley. How different things were only a scant 15 years ago. At that time there was no variety in the selection of vegetables. Today, with bread, jam, milk and eggs available for breakfast instead of porridge, deep-fried dough strips and pickles, more and more people can afford the indulgence of eating whatever they want.

It is all the rage for fashionable teenagers to go to a Western restaurant for spaghetti, a hamburger, filed chicken, pizza or a sandwich. Older folks in China have not quite caught on to these trends, as their younger counterparts have, and tend to be more practical, focusing their attention on simple but sensible food. The purpose of eating is not simply to fill one's stomach, they mason, but also to maintain one's mind and body. Products like low-fat foods, vegetables, bean products and "black food" (foods dark in color, believed to be highly nutritious) have all won over many older consumers who would probably blanch at the thought of a McDonald's Happy Meal for lunch.

It is an old Chinese tradition to attach great importance and ceremony to the art of dining. When friends come for dinner, they are often treated to a sumptuous banquet, which results in a lot of wasted food. Young people nowadays pay more attention to quality than quantity, though, and innovative contraptions like chafing dishes are starting to appear on Chinese tables instead of the old "eight courses (usually four meat dishes and four vegetable dishes) and one soup" allowing diners to chat while they eat. Some companies are now beginning to treat guests to buffets instead of the traditional big banquet, which helps in turn to cut costs.

China is well-known for its food, and that is saying a lot. The famous "eight cuisines" of Chinese kitchens have won accolades from customers as far afield as Capetown and Salt Lake City. But preparing Chinese dishes is no easy job, and it takes one or two hours to serve up one dish with the right flavor, color, taste and shape to satisfy demanding Chinese palates. People of the 1990's just don't have the time any more. Affluence brings more fast food and instant meals in a box, especially frozen food, and the introduction of electric steamers, microwave ovens and electric ranges gives many people an excuse to spend fewer and fewer hours in the kitchen preparing a decent meal.

57. What did Chinese people usually have for breakfast 15 years ago?

[A] Beans, tomatoes, broccoli and parsley. [B] Bread, jam, milk and eggs.

[C] Porridge, deep-filed dough strips and pickles. [D] Bread, milk, porridge and pickles.

58. According to the Chinese tradition, dining is not only a way to fill one's stomach but also a

[A] revolution [B] trend [C] ceremony [D] waste

59. Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that Chinese people are spending less time in the kitchen now than in the past?

[A] They are much busier than before. [B] They care less about eating than before.

[C] More fast food and instant meals are available than before. [D] More modem electric appliances are available than before.

60. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

[A] A large variety of foods are available in the Chinese market now.

[B] Chinese people like to go to Western restaurants.

[C] Traditional Chinese people pay more attention to quantity than to quality.

[D] A traditional Chinese dish that presents the right taste, flavor, and color is regarded as an excellent dish. 1. B 2. A 3. A 4. A 5. C 6. A 7. A

8. treat

9. more valuable

10. work of vital importance to humanity

Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)

Section A

47. B 48. F 49. D 50. C 51. A 52. H 53. M 54. O 55. L 56. K

Section B

57. C 58. C 59. B 60. A

61. What is the author's attitude toward China's gastronomic revolution?

[A] In favor of. [B] Indifferent. [C] Against. [D] Holds a balanced view.

Passage Two

The Language Learning Theory course is an option during the third semester of your program. It is an introduction to aspects of Psycholinguistics and Second Language Acquisition Research. The course will deal specifically with those aspects of recent research that are relevant to the comprehension and production of spoken language. Most of the course will, in other words, be spent considering the processes involved in understanding and producing spoken language. At each stage, we shall be relating the implications of recent research and theories to the practice of foreign language teaching. The course aims to provide relevant background for all language teachers who are interested in WHY and HOW current teaching approaches have been developed.

The course will be held during the first ten weeks of this semester from 8: 30 to 10: 30 on Tuesday mornings. A handout giving an outline of the topics of each of the ten sessions is available for those who wish to consider the course in more detail.

The course will be principally conducted through lecture and seminar. Learners will, at times, be asked to take part in small language experiments. Handouts and worksheets will be distributed each week. Preparatory reading and follow-up reading will be required for each session.

Learners' participation in class activities will be taken into consideration. Attendance at classes is essential. There will be four short, assessed assignments during the course. Participation in classes will account for 10% of the final mark. Assignments will account for 60%. The remaining 30% is for the final test—which will be held one week after the end of the course.

You may collect the handout (covering the information I have given you today) from me at the end of this session. If you need further details, you are welcome to ask me personally or see the secretary in Room 513. The course code is LLT 96.

62. Students who are interested in______ are most UNLIKELY to take this course?

[A] Linguistics (language studies). [B] Language teaching. [C] Improving oral skills. [D] Psychology.

63. According to the passage, when will the final test of the course be given?

[A] The 11th week. [B] The 10th week. [C] The 9th week. [D] The 18th week.

64. If a student never skips a class and gets an overall mark of 80 (out of 100) for assignments, what is the minimum mark that the student must obtain in the final exam in order to get 85 (out of 100) as the final mark of the course?

[A] 80. [B] 85. [C] 90. [D] 95.

65. Which of the following is FALSE according to the passage?

[A] Language teaching theory is a compulsory course. [B] Each session of this course will last 2 hours.

[C] Reading will be required both before and after each session of this course.

[D] Students interested in more details about this course may see the speaker in person.

66. This passage is the transcript of a speech most probably given by _____.

[A] a teaching secretary [B] a teacher [C] a school director [D] a student