你手中的这本书，它与众多的四级考试辅导书不同。它是一本新的应考宝典。它独具匠心，通过完全扫描历年真题，以真题为蓝本，提炼出常考主题。在全书编排中，颠覆了传统的编排体例，以主题为明线，以最新题型为暗线，明暗结合地设置全书栏目，给考生一个全新的备考思路。
全书共分为六个部分，分别为：写作、快速阅读、听力理解、仔细阅读、完形填空和翻译。其中，听力理解包括四章，即：短对话、长对话、短文理解和复合式听写；仔细阅读包括两章，即：篇章词汇和常规阅读。六个部分的题型完全按照真题顺序安排，让考生从总体上领略四级真题。
For many people——whether they care to admit it or not——Christmas is about presents. Children nearly burst inanticipation of Christmas morning. Far-sighted adults start stockpiling on-sale gifts early in the summer. The pro-erastinating multitudes flock to the mall in the week preceding the holiday.
Christmas's gift-giving tradition has its roots in the Three Kings' offerings to the infant Jesus. The magi traveledto Bethlehem to present Christ gifts. Some Eastern Orthodox Churches and European countries still celebrate thetraditional date of the Magi's arrival——Dec. 6 or Three Kings' Day——with a Christmas-like gift exchange.
Romans traded gifts during Saturnalia, and 13th century French nuns distributed presents to the poor on St.Nicholas' Eve. However, gift-giving did not become the central Christmas tradition it is today until the late 18thcentury.
Gifts were ostensibly meant to remind people of the magi's offerings to Jesus and of God's gift of Christ to hu-mankind. But despite the rationalized Christian roots of gift-giving, the practice ultimately steered Christmas closerto the secularized holiday it is today. Stores began placing Christmas-themed ads in newspapers in 1820. SantaClaus, the increasingly popular bearer of gifts, started popping up in ads and stores 20 years later. By 1867, theMacy's department store in New York City stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve, allowing last-minute shop-pers to make their purchases.
Today, Christmas is a bonafide gift-giving bonanza. Desperate parents scrabble over the under-stocked toy ofthe season. Stores bring out the tinsel and greenery in early October. And sale-enthusiasts queue up before dawnthe day after Thanksgiving. Most retailers rely on the holidays to make up for the summer doldrums and prepare forthe slow sales of the New Year. This dependence has made Christmas, a single day in late December, swell into athree month holiday season. "The holidays"——with their sales, decorations and mall Santas-now reign through near-ly a quarter of the year.
Some shoppers appreciate the early bird merchants. They make their purchases over the summer or in the earlyfall to avoid stress or save money. But for many consumers, October allusions to Christmas only serve as an annoy-ance, or, in some cases, even a deterrent from shopping at all. In response to consumer complaints, many storeshave adopted subtler holiday tactics. They still begin their sales and ad campaigns in early October but hold backthe overt holiday images and greetings until closer to November.Chris~as decorations
With Americans spending about $ 8 billion annually on Christmas decorations, it's clear that tinsel, greentrimmings and electric lights are an important part of most peoples' holiday. Evergreen trees and garlands were usedas decorative symbols of eternal life by ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Hebrews ; European pagans sometimes wor-shiped evergreen trees. By medieval times, western Germans used fir trees to represent the Tree of Paradise in mys-tery plays about Adam and Eve. They decorated the trees with apples and later with wafers to symbolize the host.The trees grew increasing popular in Germany and settlers introduced them to North America in the 17th century.Many people also decorate with holly, mistletoe and ivy. Decorators started lighting up their trees with electricbulbs in the 1890s. Since then, lights have become an integral part of Christmas decorating.
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