新东方：2008年12月英语四级考试模拟冲刺试卷

　　34. A) Wash the dishes.

　　B) Have her own meal.

　　C) Make plans for other activities.

　　D) Serve some wine.

　　35. A) Odd

　　B) Crazy

　　C) Regular

　　D) Romantic

　　Section C

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

　　The Romans built great “aqueducts” to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Roman (36) _____even set up a (37)___ health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.

　　When the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these (38) _____ methods of treatment (39) _____ from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions, which helped to cause diseases; and they asked God to cure the (40) _____. They shut up (41) _____ sick people in prisons. Or they burnt them alive because they were supposed to have (42) _____ powers. But the work of the Greek and Roman doctors was not lost.

　　Over a thousand years ago, the Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the old (43)_____ lands. (44) ______________________________ Arab doctors themselves made many new discoveries.

　　(45)___________________________________________ Slowly, European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known so long ago. (46) ____________________________

　　Part IV Reading comprehension (reading in depth) (25 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 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 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.

　　The song “Happy birthday to you” is sung all over the world just before the birthday boy or girl blows out the candles on the cake.

　　It is so simple that children as young as three can sing it without ___47___. The song, with its ___48___ title “Good Morning to You”, was written in 1893 by the two sisters, Mildred and Patty Smith Hill. They were the daughters of a ___49___ Kentucky couple, who believed in female education at a time---the mid-nineteenth century--- when it was still a ___50___ idea and who trained their two daughters to be schoolteachers. They were long involved in elementary education.

　　A birthday cake with ___51___ candles is also indispensable at one's birthday party. It may derive, ___52___, from the ancient Greek practice of offering to Artemis, goddess of the moon, a round honey cake into which a candle was stuck. After German bakers ___53___ the modern birthday cake in the Middle Ages, a similar ___54___ was adopted for happiness at birthdays.

　　The candle-blowing-out custom may be associated with double meaning at birthdays. Some people believe that each birthday is another step toward the end, and what we ___55___ at birthday gatherings is not only our growth, but our transience. Thus, candles at birthdays are ___56___ of life and death, hopes and fears, increase and loss, and so on.

　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

　　A) invented I) original

　　B) accelerate J) novel

　　C) old K) apparently

　　D) symbols L) burning

　　E) hesitation M) prevented

　　F) progressive N) custom

　　G) celebrate O) substitute

　　H) distantly