大学英语四级考试模拟试题八Word格式文档下载.docx

1、 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 passage;N （for NO） if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;NG （for

2、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 urges drinkers to savor the history of their favorite beverages along with the taste.The au

3、thor 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 drinks that we enjoy today, said Standage, a technology editor at the London-based magazine th

4、e 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 advanced city-states in the area of present-day lraq, began fermenting（发酵）beer from barley at

5、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 civilization. Its as simple as that.Beer was popular with the masses from the beginning.Be

6、er 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 California, Davis.The guys who built the pyramids were paid in beer and bread, Standage a

7、dded. 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.Paleolithic humans probably sampled the first wine as the juice of naturally fermented w

8、ild 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 water to process it at any time.Making wine also demanded pottery that could preserve the pre

9、cious 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.Such caveats and the expense of producing wine helped the beverage quickly gain more cach

10、et（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 classes.The quest for quality became an economic engine and later drove cultural expansion.

11、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 and rum, placated （安抚）sailors during the long sea voyages of the Age of Exploration, when

12、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 Atlantic economy.Standage also suggests that rum may have been more responsible than tea f

13、or 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 of the economy. The idea of no taxation without representation originated with molasses an

14、d 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 the late 18th century.They would make grog with rum, water, and lemon or lime juice, Stan

15、dage 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, where roasted beans were first brewed around A.D. 1000. Sometime around the 15th centur

16、y, 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 arrived in Europe it was similarly hailed as an anti-alcohol that was quite welcome duri

17、ng 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,The coffeehouse is the perfect venue（聚会地点）to get together and exchange ideas and information. The French Revolution started in a coffeehouse.Coffee also fuelled co

18、mmerce 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 in China around the third century A.D.Standage says tea played a leading role in the expansion of imperi

19、al 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 tea, whether they were a colonial administrator in India or a London businessman,The sun never set on th

20、e 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 workers stayed alert during long, monotonous shifts thanks to welcome tea breaks.The beverage also had unintended health benef

21、its 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 water, Standage explained.Coca-colaIn 1886 pharmacist John Stith Pemberton sold about nine Coca-colas a day.Today his soft

22、 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 OK,The drink has become a symbol of the United Stateslove it or hate it. Standage notes that East Germans quickly reached

23、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 Iraq.Coca-cola encapsulates what happened in the 20th century: the rise of consumer capitalism and the emergence of America as a superpow

24、er,Its globalization in a bottle.While Coke may not always produce a smile, a survey by the Economist magazine （Standages employer）, suggests that the soft drinks presence is a great indicator of happy citizens. When countries were polled for happiness, as defined by a United Nations index, high sco

25、res correlated with sales of Coca-Cola.Its not because Coke makes people happy, but because its sales happen in the dynamic free-market economies that tend to produce happy people,1. The passage gives a brief description of the content of a new book, A History of the World in 6 Glasses.2. The ancien

26、t 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 the case before.4. Greeks probably sampled the first as the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes.5. The caveats and the expense of producing wine helped it quickly

27、gain more cachet than beer.6. Standage suggests that tea may have been more responsible than rum for the independence movement in 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, th

28、e monopoly on tea exports from China is _.10. Coca-Cola has become a symbol of _.Part III Listening Comprehension （35 minutes）Section A 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 s

29、aid. 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 throug

30、h the centre.11. A They want to go downtown. C He doesnt know where to park the car.B He wants to go to the park, but she doesnt. D He wants to find out where the park is.12. A Company and customer. C Teacher and students parent.B Repairman and customer. DWife and husband.13. A She didnt like working in a company. C She was not good at doing business.