2013年12月英语四级听力考试全真模拟题8

　　答案和解析：

　　Section B

　　Passage One

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. [A] Social challenge.[B] Physical challenge.

　　[C] Economic challenge.[D] Intellectual challenge.

　　27. [A] Painting a picture.[B] Building pymp3ids.

　　[C] Exploring the space.[D] Making plans for transportation.

　　28. [A] They ignore them.[B] They are afraid of them.

　　[C] They accept and enjoy them. [D] They are indifferent to them.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. [A] It eliminated many factory jobs.

　　[B] It allowed workers to live far from their jobs.

　　[C] It gave workers opportunity for better training.

　　[D] It allowed workers to spend more time at home.

　　30. [A] Increased transportation costs.

　　[B] The lack of a qualified sales force.

　　[C] A decline in the number of customers.

　　[D] Difficulty in transporting merchandise.

　　31. [A] Because property is more valuable in the city.

　　[B] Because prices are higher in downtown stores.

　　[C] Because job opportunities are better in the city.

　　[D] Because highway commuting has become unpleasant.

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　32. [A] The good points of the federal system.

　　[B] How power is divided under the federal system.

　　[C] The difference between the central government and the states.

　　[D] The different functions of the central government and the states.

　　33. [A] Printing money.

　　[B] Limiting state taxes.

　　[C] Making treaties with foreign countries.

　　[D] Passing laws affecting trade between the states.

　　34. [A] All the states have respective powers.

　　[B] The central government and the states share the same powers.

　　[C] The powers of the country are fairly divided up between states.

　　[D] It is the Constitution that specifies the power for the central government and the states.

　　35. [A] The central government cannot be too powerful.

　　[B] Bigger states have more power than smaller ones.

　　[C] The central government can put a limit on state taxes.

　　[D] The states and the central government have the same powers.

　　Section B

　　Passage One

　　Human beings enjoy challenges. Many of them like physical challenges. They ask themselves questions like these: How fast can I run? How high can I climb? How deep can I dive? How far can I swim? How long can I hold my breath? How much can I lift? How high can I jump? Because people enjoy challenges, they like to play sports and watch other people play sports. They like climbing, running, diving, lifting, jumping, and so on. Every four years millions of people all over the world enjoy the international sports competition called the Olympics. There are challenges that are not physical challenges. There are social and intellectual challenges, too. Leonardo da Vinci, who lived in Italy during the fifteenth century, enjoyed every possible challenge. He was an artist and painted the well known picture, the Mona Lisa. He was an engineer who made plans for a city with roads under the street for traffic. He was an inventor who invented a device to let people breathe under water. He was a scientist, and he learned a great deal about human structure.

　　Another kind of challenge faced the Egyptians between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago when they decided to build the first pymp3id. They used six million tons of rock. That is enough to build a ten foot wall around all of France. Four hundred thousand men worked for twenty years to build it.

　　So, for thousands of years, people accepted challenges. Today we still have many challenges before us. Medical science faces the challenges of conquering the many diseases which still attack human beings. Engineers and planners must build new cities and new kinds of transportation. Scientists must develop new fomp3s of energy. And many of us are interested in the challenge of space. We live in an age of challenge.

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. When people participate in sporting activities, what kind of challenge do they face?

　　【解析】选[B]。预读选项可知此题询问的是challenge的类型。在听的过程中需要留意涉及类型的细节。文中开头的Many of them like physical challenges后用一系列的例子，如How fast I can run?...They like climbing, running...表明，当人们参加体育活动时他们面对的是physical challenges。

　　27. Which belongs to social challenge?

　　【解析】选[D]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对四种行为在细节上的区分。在听的过程中需要留意文中出现了哪几种行为、分别是为了说明什么问题而出现。

　　28. How do people react to the category of social challenges?

　　【解析】选[C]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查They对them的态度。在听问题时需要留意They和them分别指代的是什么。

　　Passage Two

　　Today well examine the role that private transportation namely, the automobile plays in city planning.

　　A number of sociologists blame the automobile for the decline of the downtown areas of major cities. In the 1950s and 1960s the automobile made it possible to work in the city and yet live in the suburbs many miles away. Shopping patterns changed; instead of going to downtown stores, people in the suburbs went to large shopping malls outside the city and closer to the home. Merchants in the city failed, and their stores closed.

　　Downtown shopping areas became deserted. In recent years theres been a rebirth of the downtown area, as many suburbanites have moved back to the city. Theyve done this, of course, to avoid highways blocked with commuters from the suburbs. Ive chosen this particular city planning problemour dependence on private transportation to discuss in groups. Im hoping you will all come up with some novel solutions. Oh, and dont approach the problem from a purely sociological perspective; try to take into account environmental and economic issues as well.

　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. How did the automobile affect the work force in the 1950s and 1960s?

　　【解析】选[B]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对It对workers或jobs的影响。在听问题时需要留意It指代的是什么。

　　30. What problem did downtown city merchants face in the 1960s?

　　【解析】选[C]。预读选项可知此题是考查对四种负面事实的区分，需要留意文中关于这些细节的陈述。

　　31. According to the speaker, why are some people moving back to the city?

　　【解析】选[D]。预读选项可知此题询问的是关于某件事情的原因。文中提到人们从乡下搬回到城市的原因是：to avoid highways blocked with comustters...,[D]是对此的同义转述。

　　Passage Three

　　The United States operates under a federal system of government. Under the federal system, power is divided between the central government and the states. The central government is given specific powers. These powers are named in the Constitution. Powers that are not assigned to the central government in the Constitution belong to the states.

　　The central government can pass laws that affect trade between states. The central government can also make treaties with foreign countries. It has the power to print money. The Constitution gives the central government these powers. These powers belong to the central government only. However, the states have many powers that the central government cannot control. For example, a state is allowed to tax people who live and work in the state. The central government cannot put a limit on the amount of money that a state taxes its people.

　　Many people feel that the federal system has many good points. One good point is that it restrains the power of the central government. The central government cannot become too powerful. Another good point is that the central government makes sure that the bigger states dont become too powerful. Under the Constitution, all states are treated equally. The laws of the central government do not favor one state over another.

　　Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　32. What does the passage mainly tell us?

　　【解析】[B]。在听录音之前，预览四个选项可知本文与federal system或central government and the states有关。而且这些选项的概括性很强，很有可能询问文章的主旨大意。

　　33. Which is the power of the states governments?

　　【解析】[B]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对四种行为在细节上的区分。在听的过程中需要留意文中出现了哪几种行为、分别是为了说明什么问题而出现。

　　34. What is stated in the passage?

　　【解析】[D]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对四种事实的区分，而且均与中央政府和每个州的权力有关。

　　35. According to the passage, what is a good point about the federal system?

　　【解析】[A]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对四种事实的区分，需要留意文中出现了哪种或哪几种事实。