长喜英语大学四级考试模拟试题
答案及录音文本
答案
Part I Writing
范文略
Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)
1. A)
2.D)
3. D)
4. B)
5. D)
6. C)
7. B)
8. too dangerous or too costly
9. restrict enrollment
10. half / 50%
Part III Listening Comprehension
Section A
11. B) 12. C) 13. A) 14. D) 15. B) 16. D) 17. A) 18. B)
19. D) 20. A) 21. A) 22. C) 23. C) 24. D) 25. A)
Section B
26. C) 27. A) 28. D) 29. D) 30. A) 31. B) 32. C) 33. D) 34. A) 35. B)
Section C
36. challenge
37. capable
38. reason
39. increase
40. performing
41. automatically
42. satisfaction
43. consequence
44. Either way, the reasons need to be strong enough to move you into action
45. you will need to start designing a more compelling future for yourself
46. When you have a strong purpose and constantly feed your mind with self-improvement motivation
material
Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)
Section A
47. M) 48. H) 49. A) 50. I) 51. N) 52. G) 53. F) 54. D) 55. L) 56. B)
Section B
57. C) 58.D) 59. C) 60. A) 61. D) 62. B) 63. C) 64. C) 65. A) 66. D)
Part V Cloze
67. A) 68. C) 69. D) 70. B) 71. A) 72. C) 73. B) 74. B) 75. C)76. C)
77. D) 78. D) 79. B) 80. D) 81. A) 82. B) 83. A) 84. A) 85. D) 86. C)
Part VI Translation
87. keep pace with the increasing / rising prices
88. would have telephoned / phoned / called him
89. before they could sign the contract
90. the more likely you will pass the exam
91. the audience couldn’t help yawning
录音文本
Section A
11. M: Please reconsider — what have you got against keeping a dog for a month?
W: Y ou know I’d like to help. But i t’s just that dogs are a lot more trouble than they’re worth.
Q: What is the woman most probably going to do?
12. M: Y ou’re not looking very cheerful. What’s the matter with you?
W: Oh, nothing special. I’m just a bit fed up.
Q: What do we learn about the woman?
13. W: I can’t believe the school could have a power out just before our finals. How are we ever going to begin our
exams?
M: Don’t worry. It’ll be postponed till T hursday.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
14. W: Y ou lined up for concert tickets on Sunday, didn’t you? Were there a lot of people?
M: Were there? I just wish I’d brought a book to fill my time.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
15. W: How do you like the coat I bought at the big Thanksgiving sale yesterday?
M: Oh, I can’t like it better! The color is perfect for people of all ages.
Q: What does the man mean?
16. W: I thought of going for a bite but nothing seems to be open.
M: Oh, th at’s because it’s after 12. Why don’t you follow me and I’ll show you one that’s open all hours?
Q: What does the man suggest they should do?
17. W: I’m not sure whether Professor Brown’s test will cover the second part of the course or not.
M: Well, from what’s been going around, perhaps you shouldn’t throw these notes away quite yet.
Q: What can we infer from the conversation?
18. M: Could you please tell me what Mr. Smith asked us to do? Y ou see I was absent last time.
W: Well, he gave us a special assignment on the influence of advertisement.
Q: What’s the probable relationship between the two speakers?
Now you will hear the two long conversations.
Conversation One
M: Can you tell me about the university shuttle bus system? This is such a large campus, and I have classes all over the campus. I need to take the shuttle bus from one class to another, or I’ll never make it on time.
W: What do you need to know? I think it’s a really great system.
M: First of all, where does it go?
W: The university shut tle bus system goes all over campus. It doesn’t leave the campus; if you want to travel off campus, you’ll need to take the city bus system. But the university shuttle bus system will get you from one class to the next very efficiently.
M: And how much does it cost?
W: It’s free. Can you believe it? So you don’t have to pay a cent to get all around the university campus.
M: That’s really great. And how do I catch the shuttle bus?
W: Just look for one of the bright yellow shuttle bus signs, and go stand next to it. You can see the yellow shuttle bus signs all over campus. A shuttle bus will come along approximately every five minutes, so you shouldn’t have to wait long.
M: That all sounds good. Thanks for your help.
W: No problem.
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. What are the man and woman discussing?
20. What area does the university shuttle bus cover?
21. How much does the shuttle bus cost?
22. What color are the shuttle bus signs?
Conversation Two
W: Good morning, D octor Sherman Alexie. Let’s talk about your life. Where do you come from?
M: I come from the Rez, an Indian reservation. I grew up there, lived there until 18. I lived on and off the reservation for the next 6 or 7 years during college. I left there after I graduated, worked at a high school exchange program. I thought I do that kind of job to support my writing. Day jobs that require no emotional investment beyond 8 hours a day where I wouldn’t need to bring work home. I didn’t want to be part of managemen t or anybody important at the job. I wanted to be completely replaceable, that i s what I thought I would be doing for most of my life and writing. Then I got a ground and my first book got a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review.
W: When did writing enter your life?
M: Books are al ways being in my life. My dad love books and most of what he read were westerners’ spy novels, mysteries. I grew up loving books, copying my father’s love for books. But nobody has showed me a book written by an Indian, not even one piece of poem. Nothing. At that time I was going to be a physi cian. I loved math and science. I got to college, couldn’t handle physiology, and was looking around for options and took a poetry-writing class for fun.
W: Poetry was your way in?
M: Yes, that’s where I started. I took the class and honestly, I just thought it would be an easy grade. But I completely underestimated poetry and what it would do to me and the realm of possibility for it. I took the class and was hooked about ten minutes after reading my first contemporary poem.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. Why did Sherman Alexie only take day jobs?
24. What was his original goal at college?
25. Why did he take the poetry-writing class?
Section B
Passage One
Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.
In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king
of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way.
Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.
Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War Ⅱ. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate of dirt, however, gone too far?
Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American scientist, encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. Why did the kings of France and England in the 16th century close bath houses?
27. What’s Henry IV’s attitude to bathing?
28. What is the purpose of the speaker’s talk?
Passage T wo
There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care. To water his flowers, he used two buckets. One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and worn-out one, which had seen many years of service, but was now past its best.
Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path, one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full bucket of water without a single drop spilled. The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked along the path.
Sometimes the new bucket would say, “See how capable I am! How good it is that the gardener has me to water the flowers every day! I do n’t know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of s pace you are!”
And all that the old bucket could say was, “I know I am not very useful, but I can only do my best. I am happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least.”
One day, the gardener heard that kind of conversation. After watering the flowers as usual, he said, “You both have done your work very well. Now I am going to carry you back. I want you to look carefully along the path.”
Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was carried, there was just bare earth; on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
29. What was the old bucket ashamed of?
30. What was the new bucket’s main purpose of making conversations with the old one?
31. Why was the old bucket still kept by the gardener?
Passage Three
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller’s father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great
American Dream”. However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his f amily business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early l930s.
Millers’s most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with his worth. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can’t do the work, then he is no good to his emplo yer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics’Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for a Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10,2005,the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
32. Why did Arthur Miller’s father move to the USA?
33. What does the speaker say about the play Death of a Salesman?
34. What do we learn about Death of a Salesman after it was first staged?
35. What is the passage mainly about?
Section C
Self-motivation is basically the ability to get yourself to take action whether you feel like it or not. Many people have a (36)challenge when it comes to motivation in general. It can be seen as being lazy or unproductive, but in actuality, no one is really lazy. If you are not (37) capable of getting yourself to do certain things that you know you should be doing, it’s because you don’t have a strong enough (38) reason to do it.
What can you do to help (39) increase your self-motivation? One thing you can do is to start giving yourself stronger reasons to be (40) performing certain things such as taking action towards your goals. Once you have a goal and strong enough reasons to take action, your self-motivation will (41) automatically start to increase. Y our reasons can be both positive and negative. Y ou can either do something because you want to get (42) satisfaction out of completing a task or you want to avoid the (43) consequence of not completing the task. (44) Either way, the reasons need to be strong enough to move you into action.
The bottom line is that if you want to increase your self-motivation, (45) you will need to start designing a more compelling future for yourself. Come up with powerful reasons why you should take action. (46) When you have a strong purpose and constantly feed your mind with self-improvement motivation material, you will start to become more and more powerful and will begin to take more action.
2017年6月大学英语四级真题及答案(三) Part I Writing (30 minutes) (请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试) Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an advertisement on your campus website to sell some of the course books you used at college. Your advertisement may include a brief description of their content,their condition ,their price and your contact information. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes) 说明：2017年6月大学英语四级考试全国共考了两套听力.本套的听力内容与第二套相同，因此本套听力部分不再重复给出。 Part ⅢReading Comprehension (40 minutes) 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. Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage. As if you needed another reason to hate the gym, it now turns out that exercise can exhaust not only your muscles, but also your eyes. Fear not, however, for coffee can stimulate them again. During (26)_______ exercise, our muscles tire as they run out of fuel and build up waste products. Muscle performance can also be affected by a (27)_______ called "central fatigue,” in which an imbalance in the
2017年12月大学英语四级考试真题及答案（第一套）Part I Writing （25 minutes） Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short easy on how to best handle the relationship between doctors and patients. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Part II Listening Comprehension （25 minutes） Section A Directions: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre. Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard. 1. A) Her friend Erika. C) Her grandfather. B) Her little brother. D) Her grandmother. 2. A) By taking pictures for passers-by. C) By selling lemonade and pictures. B) By working part time at a hospital. D) By asking for help on social media. Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard. 3. A) Finding cheaper ways of highway construction. B) Generating electric power for passing vehicles. C) Providing clean energy to five million people. D) Testing the efficiency of the new solar panel. 4. A) They can stand the wear and tear of natural elements. B) They can be laid right on top of existing highways. C) They are only about half an inch thick. D) They are made from cheap materials. Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard. 5. A) Endless fighting in the region. C) Inadequate funding for research. B) The hazards from the desert. D) The lack of clues about the species. 6. A) To observe the wildlife in the two national parks. B) To identify the reasons for the lions’ disappearance. C) To study the habitat of lions in Sudan and Ethiopia.
阅读答案 Section A 选词填空(卷1) 26. E constructed 27. O undertaken 28. F consulted 29. M range 30. N scale 31. I eventually 32. K necessarily 33. L production 34. A cheaper 35. J height Section B 段落信息匹配卷1 36—K 37—D 38—M 39—G 40—B 41—L 42—H 43—F 44—J 45—C Section C 仔细阅读 Passage one 46. A. Seneca's thinking is still applicable today 问题：What are researchers rediscovering through their studies 解析：问题题干中的“researchers”和“today”是解题的关键，对应到文中第一段的“Now scientists are bringing this ancient wisdom up-to-date”。选项中“Seneca’s thinking “ 对应到“this ancient wisdom” ，而“still applicable”对应到“bring…up-to-date”,故答案为A。 47.B. It is a teaching tool under development 问题：What do we learn about “Betty’s Brain”？ 解析：根据“Betty’s Brian”定位，定位到第三段，而该段的段首便强调“ But the most cutting-edge tool under development is the “teaching agent” “ ,意味着整段文字要叙述的主要是和“ tool “有关的信息，且选项中的”under development”和原文信息重合，故答案为B。 48 C. It helps them learn their academic subjects better.
精品文档 2014年6月大学英语四级考试真题及答案（完整版） 来源：文都教育 Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following topic. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Suppose a foreign friend of yours is coming to visit your hometown, what is the most interesting place you would like to take him/her to see and why? 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。 Part II Listening Comprehension (30 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 1 with a single line through the centre. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。 1. A) See a doctor about her strained shoulder. B) Use a ladder to help her reach the tea. C) Replace the cupboard with a new one. D) Place the tea on a lower shelf next time. 2. A) At Mary Johnson's. C) In an exhibition hall. B) At a painter's studio. D) Outside an art gallery. 3. A) The teacher evaluated lacks teaching experience. B) She does not quite agree with what the man said. C) The man had better talk with the students himself. D) New students usually cannot offer a fair evaluation. 4. A) He helped Doris build up the furniture. B) Doris helped him arrange the furniture.
大学英语四级历年真题及答案（经典版） 2012年6月英语四级 Part ⅠWriting (30minutes) 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 Part ⅡReading Comprehension(Skimming and Scanning)(15minutes) 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
2018年12月大学英语四级真题完整版（第3套） Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad.You should write at least 120 words but no more than180 words. PartⅡListening Comprehension (25 minutes) Part ⅢReading Comprehension ( 40 minutes) 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. R ead the passage t hrough 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． Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage. Have you ever used email to apologize to a colleague?D elivered a 26to a subordinate (下属) with a voice-mail message? Flown by plane across the country just to deliver important news in person? The various communication options at our fingertips today can be good for 27and productivity---and at the same time very troublesome. With so many ways to communicate, how should a manager choose the 28when the message to be delivered is bad or unwelcome news one that’s best --- 29business communication consultants and etiquette for the recipient? We’ve (礼仪) experts to come up with the following guidelines for 30using the alterative ways of delivering difficult messages. First of all, choose how personal you want to be. A face-to-face communication is the most 31 .Other choices, in descending order of personalization, are: a real-time phone call, a voice-mail message, a handwritten note, a typewritten letter, and the most 32is email. Some of these may change order according to the 33 situation or your own preferences; for example, a handwritten note might seem more personal than voice mail. How do you decide on the best choice for the difficult message you’ve got to deliver? “My 34concern is: How can I soften or civilize this says etiquette expert Dana Casperson. “So when I apologize, I usually message?” choose in-person first, or a phone conversation as my top alternative, and maybe a
2018年6月大学英语四级真题（第1套) Part?I? Writing? （30?minutes） Directions:?For?this?part,?you?are?allowed?30minutes?to?write?a?short?essay?on? the?importance of?reading?ability?and?how?to?develop?it.?You?should?write?at?least?120?wor ds?but?no?more?than180?words. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Part?II ?Listening?Comprehension? (25?minutes) Section?A Directions:?In?this?section,?you?will?hear?three news?reports.?At?the?end?of?each?news?report,?you will?hear?two?or?three?questions.?Both?the?news?report?and?the?questions?wil l?be?spoken?only once.?After?you?hear?a?question,?you?must?choose?the?best?answer?from?the?fo ur?choices marked?A),?B),?C)?and?D).?Then?mark?the?corresponding?letter?on?Answer?Sheet ?1?with?a single?line?through?the?centre. Questions?1?and?2?are?based?on?the?news?report?you?have?just?heard. 1.A)?The?return?of?a?bottled?message?to?its?owner's?daughter. B)?A?New?Hampshire?man's?joke?with?friends?on?his?wife. C)?A?father's?message?for?his?daughter. D)?The?history?of?a?century-old?motel. 2.?A)?She?wanted?to?show?gratitude?for?his?kindness. B)?She?wanted?to?honor?her?father's?promise. C)?She?had?been?asked?by?her?father?to?do?so. D)?She?was?excited?to?see?her?father's?handwriting. Questions?3?and?4?are?based?on?the?news?report?you?have?just?heard. 3.?A)?People?were?concerned?about?the?number?of?bees. B)?Several?cases?of?Zika?disease?had?been?identified. C)?Two?million?bees?were?infected?with?disease. D)?Zika?virus?had?destroyed?some?bee?farms. 4.?A)?It?apologized?to?its?customers.? B)?It?was?forced?to?kill?its?bees. C)?It?lost?a?huge?stock?of?bees. D)?It?lost??million?dollars.
目录 2017 年12 月大学英语四级真题试题一(完整版) (1) 答案 (15) 2017 年12 月大学英语四级真题试题二(完整版) (15) 答案 (24) 2017 年12 月大学英语四级真题试题三(完整版) (24) 答案 (34) 2017 年12 月大学英语四级真题试题一(完整版) Part I Writing (25 minutes) (请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试)? Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an a short easy on how to besthandle the relationship between doctors and patients. You should write at least 120words but no more than 180 words. Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes) Section A Directions:In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and questions will be spoken only once. After you hear questions, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1 上作答。 Questions 1 to 2 are based on the new reportyou have just heard. 1.A)Her grandfather. B)Her grandfather.
2014年6月大学英语四级考试真题及答案(完整版) Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: You should write atleast 120 words but no more than 180 words. Supposea foreign friend of yours is coming to visit your hometown, what is the mostinteresting place you would like to take him/her to see and why? Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section A Questions 36 to 45 are based onthe following passage. Global warming is a trend towardwarmer conditions around the world. Part of the warming is natural; we haveexperienced a 20,000 -year -long warming as the last ice age ended and the ice 36 away.However, we have already reached temperatures that are in 37 withother minimum-ice periods, so continued warming is likely not natural. We are 38 toa predicted worldwide increase in temperatures 39 between 1℃and 6℃over the next 100 years. The warming will be more 40 in some areas, less in others, and some placesmay even cool
大学英语四级考试真题及答案 Part ⅠWriting (30 minutes) 注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上。 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the topic of Creating a Green Campus. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below: 1. 建设绿色校园很重要 2. 绿色校园不仅指绿色的环境…… 3. 为了建设绿色校园，我们应该…… Creating a Green Campus 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 questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For question 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage. Colleges taking another look at value of merit-based aid Good grades and high tests scores still matter—a lot—to many colleges as they award financial aid. But with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years, some schools are re-examining whether that aid, typically known as “merit aid”, is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars. George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for example, said last week that it would cut the value of its average merit scholarships by about one-third and reduce the number of recipients(接受者), pouring the savings, about $2.5 million, into need-based aid. Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., made a similar decision three years ago. Now, Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., says it will phase out merit scholarships altogether. No current merit-aid recipients will lose their scholarships, but need-based aid alone will be awarded beginning with students entering in fall 2008. Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but many families who don’t meet need eligibility(资格)have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school. For small regional colleges that struggle just to fill seats, merit aid can be an important revenue-builder because many recipients still pay enough tuition dollars over and above the scholarship amount to keep the institution running. But for rankings-conscious schools in between, merit aid has served primarily as a tool to recruit top students and to improve their academic profits. “They’re trying to buy students,”says Skidmore College economist Sandy Baum. Studies show merit aid also tends to benefit disproportionately students who could afford to enroll without it. “As we look to the future, we see a more pressing need to invest in need-based aid,”says Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, which has offered merit scholarships for 10 years. During that time, it rose in US News & World Repor t’s ranking of the best liberal arts colleges, from 25 to 17. Merit aid, which benefited about 75 students a year, or about 4% of its student body, at a cost of about $ 1 million a year, “served us well,”Inzer says, but “to be
2011年12月大学英语四级真题及答案汇总 一、写作部分 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a shortessay entitled Nothing Succeeds Without a Strong Will by commentingon the humorous saying, "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing inthe world. I've done it hundreds of times." You should write atleast 120 words but no more than 180 words。 Nothing Succeeds Without aStrong Will No great work can be performedwithout will. We envy famous men and imagine that fame was due tosome trick of luck. But when we know their histories, we find thatit is long years of will and constant effort that have broughtabout their success. Just as we can’t reach the top of a mountainwithout climbing, we can’t achieve success without will。 The modern society providespeople with more opportunities than before, and there are storieswhich tell us the possibility of becoming successful overnight.Actually that is not the case. Before these people becomesuccessful, a lot of hard work has been done, unnoticed mostly.What we usually see is the result, but what we ignore is a longprocess of struggling forward and wrestling with internal orexternal obstacles. Take “quitting