2015年12月四级真题第2套
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第二套）Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission.”You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning.You should write at least 120 words but no more than180 words.Part ⅡListening Comprehension (25 minutes) Section ADirections: 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 thequestions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose 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 linethrough the centre.Questions 1 and 2 will be based on the following news item.1. A) A celebration held for the US military history.B) A new museum being built for the history of American diplomacy.C) An enormous collection displayed in Washington D.C.D) A lecture hall under construction by American diplomats.2. A) It occupies an area of 20,000 square kilometers.B) It is expected to take about three years’ construction.C) It will serve as an education area for diplomats.D) It will be featured in American military history.Questions 3 and 4 will be based on the following news item.3. A) $20,000 every year.B) $5,100 every two yearsC) $ 510 every year.D) $ 200 every two years.4. A) Too many conflicts occur on New York streets.B) It takes little to get an illegal food vending license.C) Vendors are allowed to work the street unlicensed.D) The number of legal permits is too limited.Questions 5 and 7 will be based on the following news item.5. A) Buying machines.B) Removing manually.C) Applying poisons.D) Using animals.6. A) To improve the weeding efficiency.B) To reduce manpower costs.C) To protect the environment.D) To help local farmers.7. A) She is a company owner.B) She is a cemetery official.C) She works for an insurance company.D) She works in an environmental sector.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and thequestions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose 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 linethrough the centre.Conversation OneQuestions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) From the wanted column.B) From some of her friends.C) From a telephone directory.D) From a television commercial.9. A) She received full-time education abroad.B) She graduated from an open university.C) She finished her secondary school.D) She studied in a vocational college.10. A) She is a shorthand-typist.B) She works as a tour guide.C) She is a policewoman.D) She teaches an evening class.11.A) Persuade the woman to be a policewoman.B) Find a suitable job for the woman.C) Help the woman to be a tour guide.D) Provide the woman with some formal education.Conversation TwoQuestions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) It provides him with career opportunities.B) It helps enlarge his customer network.C) It has been off and on for ten yearsD) It was interrupted for four years.13. A) Individualized service.B) Traditional setting.C) Home-made beer.D) Social games.14. A) The quality of beer.B) The atmosphere.C) The owner's attitude.D) The right location.15. A) It is a rather tough job.B) It is a profitable business.C) It helps old people kill time.D) It makes retirees feel useful.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passage. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will bespoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the bestanswer from the four choices marked A), B), C), and D). Then mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1with a single line through thecentre.Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16.A) It is becoming increasingly popular.B) It helps the user to escape reality.C) It gives rise to serious social instability.D) It hurts a person and those around them.17.A) They use drugs just for fun.B) They take drugs to get high.C) They use drugs as medicine.D) They keep drug use a secret.18. A) It is quite common in entertainment circles.B) It is the cause of various social problems.C) It is hard to get rid of.D) It is fatal to the user.Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A) Taking up exercises after recovery.B) Producing tasty healthy frozen food.C) Finding new ways to cure heart disease.D) Going on a diet upon leaving the hospital.20.A) It was carefully tested with consumers.B) It was promoted by health organizations.C) It was disapproved by many diet experts.D) It was highly expected by the general public.21.A) Competitive price.B) Low expectations.C) Vigorous promotion.D) Unique ingredients.22. A) It was suggested by the firm’s vice-president.B) It matches the food’s dark green packaging.C) It has a positive implication for consumers.D) It tricks the elders into impulse purchasing.Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.23.A) It is practiced in most of the states.B) It will be abolished sooner or later.C) It has drawn a lot of criticism from overseas.D) It has to be approved by the Supreme Court.24. A) Whether the practice should be allowed to continue in future.B) Whether there should be a minimum age limit for execution.C) What type of criminals should receive it.D) What effect it might have on youngsters.25. A) The court sentenced him to life in prison for killing two friends.B) The governor changed his death sentence to life in prison.C) He was the first minor to be executed in South Carolina.D) He was sentenced to death for a crime he committed as a minor.Part ⅢReading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section ADirections: 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 bankfollowing the passage. Read the passage through carefully before makingyour choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Pleasemark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2with asingle line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in thebank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. Late November and December 26 early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two 27 , record-cold days will likely turn out to have outnumbered record-warm ones. But the U.S. was the exception: November was the warmest ever 28 , and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth hottest year on record.Enjoy the snow now, because 29 are good that 2014 will be even hotter, perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept. That’s because, scientists are predicting, 2014 will be an El Niños Year.El Niños, Spanish for “the child”,30 when surface ocean waters in the southern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, covering 30% of the planet’s surface, that the 31 energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. El Niños are 32 with abnormally dry conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia. They can lead to extreme rain in parts of North and South America, even as southern Africa 33 dry weather. Marine life may be affected too: E1 Niños can 34 the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich(营养丰富的) water that supports large fish 35 , and the unusuallySection BDirections:In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of theparagraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is markedwith a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letteron Answer Sheet 2.How to Eat Well[A] Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctlycalled junk (垃圾) and should really carry warning labels?[B] It’s not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer morevariety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers’ markets in the U.S. as there were 20 years ago. Nor is it for lack of available information. There are plenty of recipes (食谱), how-to videos and cooking classes available to anyone who has a computer, smartphone or television. If anything, the information is overwhelming.[C] And yet we aren’t cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like mostAmericans, you probably get at least a third of your dally calories(卡路里) outside the home. Nearly two-thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25% of our dally calories from snacks. So we’re eating out or taking in, and we don't sit down—or we do, but we hurry.[D] Shouldn’t preparing—and consuming—food be a source of comfort, pride, health,well-being, relaxation, sociability? Something that connects us to other humans?Why would we want to outsource (外包) this basic task, especially when outsourcing it is so harmful?[E] When I talk about cooking, I’m not talking about creating elaborate dinner partiesor three-day science projects. I’m talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed themselves. That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach people to cook food that’s good enough to share with family and friends.[F] Perhaps a return to real cooking nee dn’t be far off. A recent Harris poll revealedthat 79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30% “love it”; 14% admit to not enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won’t go near the stove at all. But this doesn’t necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn’t surprise anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week; only a third of young people do.[G] Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Morn cooked virtuallyevery night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much universal. Most people couldn’t afford to do otherwise.[H] Although frozen dinners were invented in the 40s, their popularity didn’t boomuntil televisions became popular a decade or so later. Since then, packaged, pre-prepared meals have been what’s for dinner. The microwave and fast-food chains were the biggest catalysts (催化剂), but the big food companies—which want to sell anything except the raw ingredients that go into cooking—made the home cook an endangered species.[I] Still, I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals athome regularly. Isn’t this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and champions craft cooking? And isn’t this the generation who say they’re concerned about their health and the well—being of the planet? If these are truly the values of many young people, then their behavior doesn’t match their beliefs.[J] There have been half-hearted but well-publicized efforts by some food companies to reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still the polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant—based diet that just about every expert says we should be eating. Considering that the government’s standards are not nearly ambitious enough, the picture is clear: by not cooking at home, we’re not eating the right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate.[K] To help quantify (量化) the costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate thisimpact in terms of a most famous food, the burger (汉堡包). I concluded that the profit from burgers is more than offset (抵消) by the damage they cause in health problems and environmental harm.[L] Cooking real food is the best defense—not to mention that any meal you’re likely to eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a restaurant.[M] To those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop the grocery store, since that’s where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy are. And to save money and still eat well you don’t need local, organic ingredients; all you need is real food. I’m not saying local food isn’t better; it is. But there is plenty of decent food in the grocery stores.[N] The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned goods. Frozen produce is still produce; canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just make sure you’re getting real food without tons of added salt or sugar. Ask yourself, would Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in nature? It’s pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable food like objects.[O] You don’t have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance of skill. Since fewer than haft of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level and only 20% describe their cooking skills as advanced, the crisis is one of confidence. And the only remedy for that is practice. There’s nothing mysterious about cooking the evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and redefine what qualifies as dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more; every time you cook, you advance your level of skills. Someday you won’t even need recipes. My advice is that you not pay attention to the number of steps and ingredients, because they can be deceiving.[P] Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must adjust your priorities to find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the kitchen and watch your favorite shows while you’re standing at the sink. No one is asking you to give up activities you like, but if you’re watching food shows on TV, try cooking instead.36. Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with oneanother.37. Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.38. Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.39. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.40. In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.41. Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselvesand their family.42. Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.43. To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook itthemselves.44. We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.45. The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are fourchoices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choiceand mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single linethrough the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping—where you hand over notes and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don’t go and stand at any kind of cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa.Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. But earning money isn’t quick or easy for most of us. Isn’t it a bit weird that spending it should happen in haft a blink (眨眼) of an eye? Doesn’t a wallet—that time-honored Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—representsomething that matters?But I’ll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed cinema tickets—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smart phone or an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as a pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.46. What is happening to the wallet?A) It is disappearing.B) It is being fattened.C) It is becoming costly.D) It is changing in style.47. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?A) Individually.B) Electronically.C) In the abstract.D) Via a cash register.48. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading.C) Earning money is getting more difficult.D) Spending money is so fast and easy.49. Why does the author choose to write about what’s happening to the wallet?A) It represents a change in the modern world.B) It has something to do with everybody’s life.C) It marks the end of a time-honored tradition.D) It is the concern of contemporary economists.50. What can we infer from the passage about the author?A) He is resistant to social changes.B) He is against technological progress.C) He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.D) He feels insecure in the ever-changing modern world.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Everybody sleeps, but what people stay up late to catch—or wake up early in order not to miss—varies by culture.From data collected, it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep, on average, are sporting events, time changes, and holidays.Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to “winter time” starting on October 26.Russia’s other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year’s Eve, Russians have the world’s latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 am.Russians also get up an hour later on International Women’s Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.Similarly, Americans’late nights, late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day weekends.Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey (冰球) final.The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation (剥夺). The worst night for sleep in the U. K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a haft later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns; in some of these nations, it’s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that’s the case, though, the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?51. What does the author say about people’s sleeping habits?A) They are culture-related.B) They affect people’s health.C) They change with the seasons.D) They vary from person to person.52. What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep?A) They don’t fall asleep until very late.B) They don’t sleep much on weekends.C) They get less sleep on public holidays.D) They sleep longer than people elsewhere.53. What is the major cause for Europeans’ loss of sleep?A) The daylight savings time.B) The colorful night life.C) The World Cup.D) The summertime.54. What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to recordtheir sleep patterns?A) They have trouble falling asleep.B) They want to get sufficient sleep.C) They are involved in a sleep research.D) They want to go to bed on regular hours.55. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?A) Sleeplessness does harm to people’s health.B) Few people really know the importance of sleep.C) It is important to study our sleep patterns.D) Average people probably sleep less than the rich.Part ⅣTranslation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.云南省的丽江古镇是中国著名的旅游目的地之一。
2016年12月-大学英语四级-考试真题附答案-（第二套.）
2016年12月-大学英语四级-考试真题附答案-（第二套.）2016年12，月大学英语四级，考试真题附答案，（第二套.）Part IWriting(30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have twooptions upon graduation: one is to take a job in a company and the other to go to agraduate school. You are to make a choice between the two. Write an essay to explain thereasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180words.Part ⅡListening Comprehension(25 minutes )Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each newsreport, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and thequestions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D .Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single linethrough the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A. To satisfy the curiosity of tourists.B. To replace two old stone bridges.C. To enable tourists to visit Goat Island.D. To improve utility services in the state.2. A. Countless tree limbs.B. A few skeletons.C. Lots of wrecked boats and ships.D. Millions of coins on the bottom.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A. It suspended diplomatic relations with Libya.B. It urged tourists to leave Tunisia immediately.C. It shut down two border crossings with Libya.D. It launched a fierce attack against Islamic State.4. A. Advise Tunisian civilians on how to take safety precautions.B. Track down the organization responsible for the terrorist attack.C. Train qualified security personnel for the Tunisian government.D. Devise a monitoring system on the Tunisian border with Libya.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A. An environment-friendly battery.B. An energy-saving mobile phone.C. A plant-powered mobile phone charger.D. A device to help plants absorb sunlight.6. A. While sitting in their school's courtyard.B. While playing games on their phones.C. While solving a mathematical problem.D. While doing a chemical experiment.7. A. It increases the applications of mobile phones.B. It speeds up the process of photosynthesis.C. It improves the reception of mobile phones.D. It collects the energy released by plants.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation,you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken onlyonce. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked A, B, C and D. Then mark the correspondingletter on Answer Sheet 1with a single line through the centre. Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A. He visited the workshops in the Grimsby plant.B. He called the woman and left her a message.C. He used stand-ins as replacements on all lines.D. He asked a technician to fix the broken production line.9. A. It is the most modern production line.B. It assembles super-intelligent robots.C. It has stopped working completely.D. It is going to be upgraded soon.10. A. To seek her permission.B. To place an order for robots.C. To request her to return at once.D. To ask for Tom's phone number.11. A. She is on duty.B. She is having her day off.C. She is on sick leave.D. She is abroad on business.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A. He saved a baby boy's life.B. He wanted to be a superhero.C. He prevented a train crash.D. He was a witness to an accident.13. A. He has a 9-month-old boy.B. He is currently unemployed.C. He enjoys the interview.D. He commutes by subway.14. A. A rock on the tracks.B. A misplaced pushchair.C. A strong wind.D. A speeding car.15. A. She stood motionless in shock.B. She cried bitterly.C. She called the police at once.D. She shouted for help.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hearthree or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices markedA, B, C and D. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with asingle line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A. She inherited her family ice-cream business in Billings.B. She loved the ice-cream business more than teaching primary school.C. She started an ice-cream business to finance her daughter's education.D. She wanted to have an ice-cream truck when she was a little girl.17. A. To preserve a tradition.B. To amuse her daughter.C. To help local education.D. To make some extra money.18. A. To raise money for business expansion.B. To make her truck attractive to children.C. To allow poor kids to have ice-cream too.D. To teach kids the value of mutual support.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A. The reasons for imposing taxes.B. The various services money can buy.C. The various burdens on ordinary citizens.D. The function of money in the modem world.20. A. Educating and training citizens.B. Improving public transportation.C. Protecting people's life and property.D. Building hospitals and public libraries.21. A. By asking for donations.B. By selling public lands.C. By selling government bonds.D. By exploiting natural resources.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A. It is located at the center of the European continent.B. It relies on tourism as its chief source of revenues.C. It contains less than a square mile of land.D. It is surrounded by France on three sides.23. A. Its beauty is frequently mentioned in American media.B. Its ruler Prince Rainier married an American actress.C. It is where many American movies are shot.D. It is a favorite place Americans like to visit.24. A. Tobacco.B. Potatoes.C. Machinery.D. Clothing.25. A. European history.B. European geography.C. Small countries in Europe.D. Tourist attractions in Europe.Part ⅢReading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices.Each choice in the bank isidentified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in thebank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.The ocean is heating up. That's the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earth's oceans now26heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat intake since 1865 hastaken place since 1997, researchers report online in Nature Climate Change.Warming waters are known to27 to coral bleaching (珊瑚白化) and they take up more spacethan cooler waters, raising sea28While the top of the ocean is well studied, its depths are moredifficult to 29The researchers gathered 150 years of ocean temperature data in order to get abetter30 of heat absorption from surface to seabed. They gathered together temperature readingscollected by everything from a 19th century31 of British naval ships to modem automated oceanprobes. The extensive data sources,32 with computer simulations ( 计算机模拟), created atimeline of oceantemperature changes, including cooling from volcanic outbreaks and warming fromfossil fuel33About 35 percent of the heat taken in by the oceans during the industrial era now resides at a34 of more than 700 meters, the researchers found. They say they're35whether the deep-seawarming canceled out warming at the sea's surface.A. absorbB. CombinedC. ContributeD. depthE. emissionsF. excursionG. exploreH. floorI. heightsJ. indifferentK. levelsL. mixedM. pictureN. unsureO. voyageSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.The Secret to Raising Smart KidsA) I first began to investigate the basis of human motivation--and how people persevere aftersetbacks--as a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s. Animal experiments bypsychologists at the University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repeated failures, most animalsconclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. After such an experience an animaloften remains passive even when it can effect change--a state they called learned helplessness.B) People can learn to be helpless, too. Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty,whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn One answer, I soondiscovered, lay in people's beliefs about why they had failed.C) In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than doesthe belief that lack of effort is to blame. When I told a group of school children who displayedhelpless behavior that a lack of effort led to their mistakes in math, they learned to keep tryingwhen the problems got tough. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded fortheir success on easier problems did not improvetheir ability to solve hard math problems. Theseexperiments indicated that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and generate success.D) Later, I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners--helplessversus mastery-oriented.I realized these different types of students not only explain their failuresdifferently, but they also hold different "theories" of intelligence.The helpless ones believeintelligence is a fixed characteristic: you have only a certain amount, and that's that. I call this a"fixed mind-set (思维模式). " Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors toa lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challengesmake mistakes more likely. The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence isnot fixed and can be developed through education and hard work. Such children believe challengesare energizing rather than intimidating (令人生畏); they offer opportunities to learn. Studentswith such a growth mind-set were destined (注定) for greater academic success and were quitelikely to outperform their counterparts.E) We validated these expectations in a study in which two other psychologists and I monitored 373students for two years during the transition to junior high school, when the work gets more difficultand the grading more strict, to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math grades. At thebeginning of seventh grade, we assessed the students' mind-sets by asking them to agree or disagreewith statementssuch as "Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't reallychange. " We then assessed their beliefs about other aspects of learning and looked to see whathappened to their grades.F) As predicted, the students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal thangetting good grades. In addition, they held hard work in high regard. They understood that evengeniuses have to work hard. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, studentswith a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy. The students whoheld a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with less regard for learning.They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard was a sign of low ability.They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well.Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability, those with a fixed mind-set said that they wouldstudy less in the future, try never to take that subject again and consider cheating on future tests.G) Such different outlooks had a dramatic impact on performance. At the start of junior high, the mathachievement test scores of the students with a growth mind-set were comparable to those ofstudents who displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more difficult, the students witha growth mind-set showed greater persistence. As a result, their math grades overtook those of theother students by the end of the first semester--and the gap between the two groups continued towiden during the two years we followed them.H) A fixed mind-set can also hinder communication and progress in the workplace and discourage orignore constructive criticism and advice. Research shows that managers who have a fixed mind-setare less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growthmind-set.I) How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children One way is by telling stories aboutachievements that result from hardwork. For instance, talking about mathematical geniuses whowere more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of greatmathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills produce a growth mind-set.J) In addition, parents and teachers can help children by providing explicit instruction regarding themind as a learning machine. I designed an eight-session workshop for 91 students whose mathgrades were declining in their first year of junior high.Forty-eight of the students receivedinstruction in study skills only, whereas the others attended a combination of study skills sessionsand classes in which they learned about the growth mind-set and how to apply it to schoolwork. Inthegrowth mind-set classes, students read and discussed an article entitled "You Can Grow YourBrain. " They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use and thatlearning prompts the brain to grow new connections. From such instruction, many students beganto see themselves as agents of their own brain development. Despite being unaware that there weretwo types of instruction, teachers reported significant motivational changes in 27% of the childrenin the growth mind-set workshop as compared with only 9% of students in the control group.K) Research is converging (汇聚) on the conclusion that great accomplishment and even genius istypically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from agift.36. The author's experiment shows that students with a fixed mind-set believe having to work hard is an indication of low ability.37. Focusing on effort is effective in helping children overcome frustration and achieve success.38. We can cultivate a growth mind-set in children by telling success stories that emphasize hard work and love of learning.39. Students' belief about the cause of their failure explains their attitude toward setbacks.40. In the author's experiment, students with a growth mind-set showed greater perseverance in solving difficult math problems.41. The author conducted an experiment to find out about the influence of students' mind-sets on math learning.42. After failing again and again, most animals give up hope.43. Informing students about the brain as a learning machine is a good strategy to enhance their motivation for learning.44. People with a fixed mind-set believe that one's intelligence is unchangeable.45. In the workplace, feedback may not be so welcome to managers with a fixed mind-set.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions orunfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices markedA.,B.,C. AndD . You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage."Sugar, alcohol and tobacco," economist Adam Smith oncewrote," are commodities which arenowhere necessaries of life, which have become objects of almost universal consumption, and whichare, therefore, extremely popular subjects of taxation. "Two and a haft centuries on, most countries impose some sort of tax on alcohol and tobacco. Withsurging obesity levels putting increasing strain on public health systems, governments around the worldhave begun to toy with the idea of taxing sugar as well.Whether such taxes work is a matter of debate. A preliminary review of Mexico's taxation found afall in purchases of taxed drinks as well as a rise in sales of untaxed and healthier drinks. By contrast,a Danish tax on foods high in fats was abandoned a year after its introduction, amid claims thatconsumers were avoiding it by crossing the border to Germany to satisfy their desire for cheaper, fattierfare.The food industry has, in general, been firmly opposed to such direct government action.Nonetheless, the renewed focus on waistlines means that industry groups are under pressure todemonstrate their products are healthy as well as tasty.Over the past three decades, the industry has made some efforts to improve the quality of itsofferings. For example, some drink manufacturers have cut the amount of sugar in their beverages.Many of the reductions over the past 30 years have been achieved either by reducing the amount ofsugar, salt or fat in a product, or by finding an alternative ingredient. More recently, however, somecompanies have been investing money in a more ambitious undertaking: learning how to adjust thefundamental make-up of the food they sell. For example, having salt on theoutside, but none on theinside, reduces the salt content without changing the taste.While reformulating recipes ( 配方) is one way to improve public health, it should be part of amulti-sided approach. The key is to remember that there is not just one solution. T o deal with obesity,a mixture of approaches--including reformulation, taxation and adjusting portion sizes--will beneeded. There is no silver bullet.46. What did Adam Smith say about sugar, alcohol and .tobaccoA. They were profitable to manufacture.B. They were in ever-increasing demand.C. They were subject to taxation almost everywhere.D. They were no longer considered necessities of life.47. Why have many countries started to consider taxing sugarA. They are under growing pressure to balance their national budgets.B. They find it ever harder to cope with sugar-induced health problems.C. The practice of taxing alcohol and tobacco has proved both popular and profitable.D. The sugar industry is overtaking alcohol and tobacco business in generating profits.48. What do we learn about Danish taxation on fat-rich foodsA. It did not work out as well as was expected.B. It gave rise to a lot of problems on the border.C. It could not succeed without German cooperation.D. It met with firm opposition from the food industry.49. What is the more recent effort by food companies tomake foods and drinks both healthy and tastyA. Replacing sugar or salt with alternative ingredients.B. Setting a limit on the amount of sugar or salt in their products.C. Investing in research to find ways to adapt to consumers' needs.D. Adjusting the physical composition of their products.50. What does the author mean by saying, at the end of the passage, "There is no silver bullet" ( Line 4, Para.7)A. There is no single easy quick solution to the problem.B. There is no hope of success without public cooperation.C. There is no hurry in finding ways to solve the obesity problem.D. There is noeffective way to reduce people's sugar consumption.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.You may have heard some of the fashion industry horror stories: models eating tissues or cottonballs to hold off hunger, and models collapsing from hunger-induced heart attacks just seconds afterthey step off the runway.Excessively skinny models have been a point of controversy for decades, and two researchers saya model's body mass should be a workplace health and safety issue. In an editorial released Monday inthe American Journal of Public Health, Katherine Record and Bryn Austin made their case forgovernment regulation of the fashion industry.The average international runway model has a body mass index (BMI) under 16--low enough toindicate starvation by the World Health Organization's standard. And Record and Austin areworried notjust about the models themselves, but about the vast number of girls and women their images influence."Especially girls and teens," says Record. "Seventy percent of girls aged 10 to 18 report that theydefine perfect body image based on what they see in magazines. " That's especially worrying, she says,given that anorexia (厌食症) results in more deaths than does any other mental illness, according tothe National Institute of Mental Health.It's commonly known that certain diseases are linked with occupations like lung disease in coalminers. Professional fashion models are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders resulting fromoccupational demands to maintain extreme thinness.Record's suggestion is to prohibit agents from hiring models with a BMI below 18.In April, France passed a law setting lower limits for a model's weight. Agents and fashion houseswho hire models with a BMI under 18 could pay $ 82,000 in fines and spend up to 6 months in jail.Regulating the fashion industry in the United States won't be easy, Record says. But with the new rulesin France, U.S. support could make a difference. "A designer can't survive without participating inParis Fashion Week", she says, adding," Our argument is that the same would be true of New YorkFashion Week. "51. What do Record and Austin say about fashion models' body massA. It has caused needless controversy.B. It is but a matter of personal taste.C. It is the focus of the modeling business.D. It affects models' health and safety.52. What are Record and Austin advocating in the MondayeditorialA. A change in the public's view of female beauty.B. Government legislation about models' weight.C. Elimination of forced weight loss by models.D. Prohibition of models eating non-food stuff.53. Why are Record and Austin especially worried about the low body mass index of modelsA. It contributes to many mental illnesses.B. It defines the future of the fashion industry.C. It has great influence on numerous girls and women.D. It keeps many otherwise qualified women off the runway.54. What do we learn about France's fashion industryA. It has difficulty hiring models.B. It has now a new law to follow.C. It allows girls under 18 on the runway.D. It has overtaken that of the United States.55. What does Record expect of New York Fashion WeekA. It will create a completely new set of rules.B. It will do better than Paris Fashion Week.C. It will differ from Paris Fashion Week.D. It will have models with a higher BMI.Part ⅣTranslation( 30 minutes )Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese intoEnglish. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.在中国文化中，黄颜色是一种很重要的颜色，因为它具有独特的象征意义。
2014年12月年大学英语四级(CET-4)考试真题(第二套)
2014年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第2套)Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay about a course that has impressed you most in college. You should state the reasons and write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes) Section ADirections: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.1.A)The man is not good at balancing his budget.B)She will go purchase the gift herself.C)The gift should not be too expensive.D)They are going to Jane^ house-warming party.2.A)He is quite willing to give the woman a hand.B)It takes patience to go through the statistics.C)He has prepared the statistics for the woman.D)The woman should take a course in statistics.3.A)Page 55 is missing from the woman’s scripts.B)They cannot begin their recording right away.C)The woman does not take the recording seriously.D)The man wants to make some changes in the scripts.4.A)The date of Carl’s wedding.C) A significant event in July.B)The birthday of Carl’s bride.D) Preparations for a wedding.5.A)The woman forgot to tell the man in advance.B)The man was absent from the weekly meeting.C)The woman was annoyed at the man’s excuse.D)The man was in charge of scheduling meetings.6.A)The woman is a marvelous cook. C) The man has to leave in half an hour.B)The woman has just bought an oven. D) The man cannot wait for his meal.7.A)How she can best help the man. C) What items sell well in the store.B)Where the man got the bad news. D) Whether the man can keep his job.8.A)The woman can sign up for a swimming class.B)He works in the physical education department.C)The woman has the potential to swim like a fish.D)He would like to teach the woman how to swim.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9.A) He teaches in a law school. C) He is a diplomat.B)He loves classical music. D) He is a wonderful lecturer.10. A) Went to see a play. C) Took some photos.B) Watched a soccer game. D) Attended a dance.11. A) She decided to get married in three years.B)Her mother objected to Eric’s flying lessons.C)She insisted that Eric pursue graduate studies.D)Her father said she could marry Eric right away.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12.A) Editor. C) Journalist.B)Teacher. D) Typist.13.A) The beautiful Amazon rainforests. C) Big changes in the Amazon valley.B) A new railway under construction. D) In a local evening paper.14.A) In news weeklies. C) In a local evening paper.B) In newspapers5 Sunday editions. D) In overseas editions of U. S. magazines.15.A) To be employed by a newspaper. C) To sell her articles to a news service.B) To become a professional writer. D) To get her life story published soon.Section BDirections:In this section,you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage,you will hear some questions. Both the passage 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.Passage OneSection ADirections :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.than a few years.[I] In a survey of older workers who were laid off during the recession, just one in six had found another job, and half of that group had accepted pay cuts. 14% of the re-employed said the pay in their new job was less than half what they earned in their previous job. “I just say to myself：‘ Why me? What have I done to deserve this?’ ’’ said John Agati， 56，whose last full-time job, as a product developer, ended four years ago when his employer went out of business. That position paid $90,000, and his resume lists jobs at companies like American Express, Disney and USA Networks. Since being laid off, though, he has worked a series of part-time, low-wage, temporary positions, including selling shoes at Lord & Taylor and making sales calls for a car company.[J] The last few years have taken a toll not only on his family’s finances, but also on his feelings of self- worth. “You just get sad,” Mr. Agati said. “I see people getting up in the morning, going out to their careers and going home. I just wish I was doing that. Some people don’t like their jobs, or they have problems with their jobs, but at least they’re working. I just wish I was in their shoes.” He said he cannot afford to go back to school, as many younger people without jobs have done. Even if he could afford it, economists say it is unclear whether older workers like him benefit much from more education.[K] “It just doesn’t make sense to offer retraining for people 55 and older,” said Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor. “Discrimination by age, long-term unemployment, and the fact that they’ve now at the end of the hiring queue just don’t make it sensible to invest in them.”[L] Many displaced older workers are taking this message to heart and leaving the labor force entirely. The share of older people applying for Social Security early rose quickly during the recession as people sought whatever income they could find. The penalty they will pay is permanent, as retirees who take benefits at age 62 will receive as much as 30% less in each months check for the rest of their lives than they would if they had waited until full retirement age (66 for those born after 1942).[M] Those not yet qualified for Social Security are increasingly applying for another, comparable kind of income support that often goes to people who expect never to work again：disability benefits. More than one in eight people in their late 50 s is now on some form of federal disability insurance program, according to Professor Mark Duggan at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.[N] The very oldest Americans, of course, were battered by some of the same ill winds that tormented (折磨）those now nearing retirement, but at least the most senior were cushioned by a more readily available social safety net. More important, in a statistical twist, they may have actually benefited from the financial crisis in the most fundamental way: longer lives.[O] Death rates for people over 65 have historically fallen during recessions, according to a November 2011 study by economists at the University of California, Davis. Why? The researchers argue that weak job markets push more workers into accepting relatively undesirable work at nursing homes, leading to better care for residents.46.Greater mobility puts younger people at an advantage in seeking new jobs.47.Many of the older workers laid off during the recession had to accept lower pay in their new jobs.48.Those who lose their jobs shortly before retirement age live a shorter-than-average life.49.Seniors at nursing homes could benefit from the weak job market.50.Age discrimination in employment makes it pointless retraining older workers.51.According to recent reports and data analyses, boomers suffer most from the weak economy.52.Unemployed boomers are at a disadvantage in job-hunting because employers tend to hire younger workers.53.People in their fifties and early sixties bear the heaviest family burdens.54.People who take benefits from Social Security before official retirement age will get much less for the restof their lives.55.Older workers5 choice of jobs can be limited because of disability.Section CDirections:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.New Yorkers are gradually getting used to more pedaling (骑车的) passengers on those shining blue Citi Bikes. But what about local bike shops? Is Citi Bike rolling up riders at their expense?At Gotham Bikes in Tribeca, manager W. Ben said the shop has seen an increase in its overall sales due to the bike-share program. “ It’s getting more people on the road,’’ he said. James Ryan, an employee at Danny’s Cycles in Gramercy also said Citi Bike is a good option for people to ease into biking in a city famed for its traffic jams and aggressive drivers. “They can try out a bike without committing to buying one,” he said.Rentals are not a big part of the business at either Gotham Bikes or Danny’s Cycles. But for Frank’s Bike Shop, a small business on Grand St. , the bike-share program has been bad news. Owner Frank Arroyo said his rental business has decreased by 90% since Citi Bike was rolled out last month. Arroyo’s main rental customers are European tourists, who have since been drawn away by Citi Bikes.However, Ben said the bike-share is good for bike sales at his shop. People have used the bike- share and realized how great it is to bike in the city, then decide that they want something nicer for themselves,’’ he noted.Christian Farrell of Waterfront Bicycle Shop, on West St. just north of Christopher St. , said initially he was concerned about bike-share, though, he admitted, “ I was happy to see people on bikes.”Farrell’s early concerns were echoed by Andrew Crooks, owner of NYC Velo, at 64 Second Ave. “It seemed like a great idea, but one that would be difficult to implement,” Crooks said of Citi Bike. He said he worried about inexperienced riders’ lack of awareness of biking rules and strong negative reaction from non-cyclists. However, he said, ifs still too early to tell if his business has been impacted.While it’s possible bike-share will cause a drop in business, Crooks allowed that the idea is a positive step forward for New York City.56.What is the author’s chief concern about the increasing use of Citi Bikes in New York?A)How non-cyclists will respond to it.B)Whether local bike shops will suffer.C)Whether local bike businesses will oppose it.D)How the safety of bike riders can be ensured.57.What happened to Gotham Bikes as a result of the bike-share program?A) It found its bike sales unaffected.C) It saw its bike sales on the rise.B) It shifted its business to rentals.D) It rented more bikes to tourists.58.Why is the bike-share program bad news for Franks Bike Shop?A)It cannot meet the demand of the bike-share program.B)Its customers have been drawn away by Citi Bikes.C)Its bike prices have to be lowered again and again.D)It has to compete with the city’s bike rental shops.59.Why did Andrew Crooks think that the bike-share program would be difficult to execute?A)Inexperienced riders might break biking rules.B)Conflicts might arise among bike rental shops.C)Traffic conditions might worsen in the downtown area.D)There are not enough lanes to accommodate the bikes.60.What is the general attitude of local bike shops towards Citi Bike?A) Wait-and-see. B) Negative.C) Indifferent.D) Approving.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.Various studies have shown that increased spending on education has not led to measurable improvements in learning. Between 1980 and 2008, staff and teachers at US public schools grew roughly twice as fast as students. Yet students showed no additional learning in achievement tests.Universities show similar trends of increased administration personnel and costs without greater learning, as documented in Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s recent book Academically Adrift：Limited Learning on College Campuses.A survey shows that 63% of employers say that recent college graduates don’t have the skills they need to succeed and 25% of employers say that entry-level writing skills are lacking.Some simplistically attribute the decline in our public education system to the drain of skilled students by private schools, but far more significant events were at work.Public schools worked well until about the 1970s. In fact, until that time, public schools provided far better education than private ones. It was the underperforming students who were thrown out of public schools and went to private ones.A prominent reason public schools did well was that many highly qualified women had few options for working outside the house other than being teachers or nurses. They accepted relatively low pay, difficult working conditions, and gave their very best.Having such a large supply of talented women teachers meant that society could pay less for their services. Womens liberation opened up new professional opportunities for women, and, over time, some of the best left teaching as a career option, bringing about a gradual decline in the quality of schooling.Also around that time, regulations, government, and unions came to dictate pay, prevent adjustments, and introduce bureaucratic (官僚的）standard for advancement. Large education bureaucracies and unions came to dominate the landscape, confusing activity with achievement. Bureaucrats regularly rewrite curriculums, talk nonsense about theories of education, and require ever more administrators. The end result has been that, after all the spending, students have worse math and reading skills than both their foreign peers and earlier generations spending far less on education— as all the accumulating evidence now documents.61.What do we learn from various studies on America’s public education?A)Achievement tests have failed to truly reflect the quality of teaching.B)Public schools lack the resources to compete with private schools.C)Little improvement in education has resulted from increased spending.D)The number of students has increased much faster than that of teachers.62.How do some people explain the decline in public education?A)Government investment does not meet schools’ needs.B)Skilled students are moving to private schools.C)Qualified teachers are far from adequately paid.D)Training of students, basic skills is neglected.63. What was a significant contributor to the past glory of public schools?A)Well-behaved students.C)Talented women teachers.B)Efficient administration.D)Generous pay for teachers.64.Why did some of the best women teachers leave teaching?A)New career opportunities were made available to them by women’s liberation.B)Higher academic requirements made it difficult for them to stay in their jobs.C)They were unhappy with the bureaucratic administration in their schools.D)The heavy teaching loads left them little time and energy for family life.65.What does the author think is one of the results of government involvement in education?A)Increasing emphasis on theories of education.B)Highly standardized teaching methods.C)Students’ improved academic performance.D)An ever-growing number of administrators.Part IV Translation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.中国的互联网社区是全世界发展最快的。
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题及解析(卷二
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题及解析(卷二) Part I Writing1.【题干】Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission." You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening ComprehensionPartⅢReading ComprehensionSection AScholars of the information society are divided over whether social inequality decreases or increases in an information-based society. However, they generally agree with the idea that inequality in the information society is_____(37)different from that of an industrial society. As informatization progress in society, the cause and structural nature of social inequality changes as well.It seems that the information society_____(38)the quantity of information available to the members of a society by revolutionizing the ways of using and exchanging information. But such a view as a_____(39)analysis based on the quantity of information supplied by various forms of the mass media. A different_____(40)is possible when the actual amount of information_____(41)by the user is taken into account. In fact, the more information_____(42)throughout the entire society, the wider the gap becomes between "information haves" and "information have-nots," leading to digital divide.According to recent studies, digital divide has been caused by three major_____(43): class, sex, and generation. In terms of class, digital divide exists among different types of workers and between the upper and middle classes and the lower class. With_____(44)to sex, digital divide exists between men and women. The greatest gap, however, is between the Net-generation, _____(45)with personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation,_____(46)to an industrial society.37.【题干】_____【选项】A.accustomed习惯的通常的B.acquired 取得C.assembly 集合D.attribute 把…归于E.champions 冠军F.elements 原理，元素G.expands 扩大H.familiar 熟悉的I.flows 流动J.fundamentally 从根本上地K.interpretation 解释L.passive 被动的M.regard 把..看作，与…有关N.respectively 分别地O.superficial 表面的，肤浅的【答案】J38.【答案】G39.【答案】O40.【答案】K 41. 【答案】B 42.I 43.F 44.M 45.A 46.DSection BJoy：A Subject Schools LackBecoming educated should not require giving up pleasureA)When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Evan as a satire(讽刺), it seems disgusting and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think.B)If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, you'll hear a lot of the following words: "standards,""results,""skills,""self-control,""accountability," and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly "effective" schools, where children shout slogans in order to learn self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can't sit still.C)A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.D)I'm a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So I've watched a lot of children-talking, playing, arguing, eating, studying, and being young. Here's what I've come to understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It's their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of putting together strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A child's ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is something adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to.E)A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching(蹲伏)down to peer at something on the sidewalk.His face went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he called out," Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug I've ever seen. It has, like a million legs. Look at this. It's amazing." He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with energy and delight. "Can't we stay here for just a minute? I want to find out what he does with all those legs. This is the coolest ever."F)The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth-something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance(坚持不懈), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the kind of intense absorption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking. Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead to playing with small figures, conducting experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than stringing together nonsense words, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, making friends, making decisions.G)Building on a child's ability to joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn't be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education word's mindset(思维模式). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in meaningful, productive activity, like making things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems? These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight.H)Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success.I)Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldn't chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work; instead, they should learn to delay gratification(快乐)so that can pursue abstract goals, like going to college.J)Not only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally, Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can't force the child to think carefully, enjoy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in learning-to see school as a source of joy.K)Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine: unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food-something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure?L)Joy should not be trained out of children or left for after-school programs. The more difficult a child's life circumstances, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom. "Pleasure" is not a dirty word. And it doesn't run counter to the goals of public education. It is, in fact, the precondition.47.【题干】It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way of thinking.【答案】G【解析】Building on a child's ability to joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn't be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education word's mindset(思维模式).48.【题干】What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing.【答案】D【解析】The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It's their enormous capacity for joy49.【题干】Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty.【答案】A50.【题干】It is human nature to seek joy in life.【答案】F【解析】Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy.51.【题干】Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medicine is to patients.【答案】K【解析】Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine: unpleasant, but necessary and good for you.52.【题干】Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience.【答案】L【解析】The more difficult a child's life circumstances, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom.53.【题干】Adults do not consider children's feelings when it comes to education.【答案】C【解析】A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.54.【题干】Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals.【答案】I【解析】Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility.55.【题干】In the so-called "effective" schools, children are taught self-control under a set ofstrict rules.【答案】B【解析】I have visited some of the newer supposedly "effective" schools, where children shout slogans in order to learn self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can't sit still.56.【题干】To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children want to learn.【答案】J【解析】You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can't force the child to think carefully, enjoy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in learning-to see school as a source of joy.Passage OneQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.When it's five o'clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they're done.These days, the time is everywhere: not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing, particularly at work. New research shows that clock-based word schedules hinder morale(士气)and creativity.Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., research from 10 a.m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task-timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities-from project planning, holiday shopping, to yoga-by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time". They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening, and seize opportunities that come up.The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in the business culture. Smart companies, they believe, will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies.This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.57.【题干】What does the author think of time displayed everywhere?【选项】A.It makes everybody time-conscious.B.It is a convenience for work and life.C.It may have a negative effect on creative work.D.It clearly indicates the fast pace of modern life.【答案】C【解析】2 New research shows that clock-based word schedules hinder morale(士气)and creativity.58.【题干】How do people usually go about their work according to the author?【选项】A.They combine clock-based and task-based planning.B.They give priority to the most urgent task on hand.C.They set a time limit for each specific task.D.They accomplish their tasks one by one.【答案】A【解析】3 They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.59.【题干】What did Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier find in their experiments about clock-timers?【选项】A.They seize opportunities as they come up.B.They always get their work done in time.C.They have more control over their lives.D.They tend to be more productive.【答案】D【解析】They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive.60.【题干】What do the researchers say about today's business culture?【选项】A.It does not support the strategies adopted by smart companies.B.It does not attach enough importance to task-based practice.C.It places more emphasis on work efficiency than on workers' lives.D.It aims to bring employees' potential and creativity into full play.【答案】B【解析】The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in the business culture.61.【题干】What do the researchers suggest?【选项】A.Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work.B.It is important to keep a balance between work and life.C.Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier.D.A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.【答案】D【解析】最后段the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.Passage TwoQuestion 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2004. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was "paying her dues," and that "there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew."Surely, the American ideal of second chances should not be reserved only for the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented form ever fully paying their debt to society.At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties that continue long after punishment is completed.Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person's individual circumstances. Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. They can affect a person's ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life.Some laws make sense. No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia(恋童癖)work in a school. But too often collateral(附随的)consequences bear no relation to public safety. Should a woman who possessed a small amount of drugs years ago be permanently unable to be licensed as a nurse?These laws are also counterproductive, since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding.A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety. Where the penalties are not a must, they should be imposed only if the facts of a case support it.The point is not to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America's vast criminal justice system, second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.62.【题干】What does the well-known columnist's remark about Martha Stewart suggest?【选项】A.Her past record might stand in her way to a new life.B.Her business went bankrupt while she was in prison.C.Her release from prison has drawn little attention.D.Her prison sentence might have been extended.【解析】第一段a well-known columnist wrote that she was "paying her dues," and that "there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew."63.【题干】What do we learn from the second paragraph about many criminals in America?【选项】A.They backslide after serving their terms in prison.B.They are deprived of all social benefits.C.They receive severe penalties for committing minor offenses.D.They are convicted regardless of their individual circumstances.【答案】B【解析】第二段Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented form ever fully paying their debt to society.64.【题干】What are the consequences for many Americans with a criminal record?【选项】A.They remain poor for the rest of their lives.B.They are deprived of all social benefits.C.They are marginalized in society.D.They are deserted by their family.【答案】C【解析】第四段Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person's individual circumstances. Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. They can affect a person's ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.65.【题干】What does the author think of the post-conviction laws and rules?【选项】A.They help to maintain social stability.B.Some of them have long been outdated.C.They are hardly understood by the public.D.A lot of them have negative effects on society.【答案】D【解析】倒数第二段These laws are also counterproductive, since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding.66.【题干】What is the author's main purpose in writing the passage?【选项】A.To create opportunities for criminals to reform themselves.B.To appeal for changes in America's criminal justice system.C.To ensure that people with a criminal record live a decent life.D.To call people's attention to prisoner's conditions in America.【解析】呼吁美国司法体系的改革。
2015年12月英语四级考试真题(第二套)
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题(第2套)Part I Writing(30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying"Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. " You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________Part II Listening Comprehension ( 30 minutesSection ADirections: 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 I with a single line through the centre.1. A. The agenda for the board of directors' meeting.B. The details of the meeting to be held next week.C. The reason for the man's absence from the meeting.D. The time for the man's visit to the woman's company.2.A. At a travel agency. B. At a department store.C. In a library.D. In a post office.3.A. He cannot hear the woman's call. B. He cannot get through to New York.C. He cannot recall the phone number.D. He cannot find a public phone nearby.4.A. Watch a movie with the woman. B. Revise his thesis in the office.C. Do some shopping with Jane.D. Discuss his thesis with Prof. Hudson.5. A. He just cannot work properly without a watch.B. He has no idea where he can buy a gold watch.C. He still does not know where he left his watch.D. He is not sure what went wrong with his watch.6.A. He forgot all about what he said. B. He slipped and hurt his head.C. He was sorry for being off sick last week.D. He thought the woman's car had been sold.7.A. She should try to catch an earlier bus.B. She is absent from his class too often.C. She is always making excuses for being late.D. She should come up with a better excuse.8.A. He is going to help the woman out.B. He has to move out of the building soon.C. He is on his way to see a real estate agent.D. He will stay with the woman's brother.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9.A. From the wanted cohunn. B. From some of her friends.C. From a telephone directory.D. From a television commercial.10.A. She received full-time education abroadB. She graduated from an open university.C. She finished her secondary school.D. She studied in a vocational college.11.A. She is a shorthand-typist. B. She works as a tour guide.C. She is a policewoman.D. She teaches an evening class. Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12.A. It provides him with career opportunities.B. It helps enlarge his customer network.C. It has been off and on for ten years.D. It was interrupted for four years.13.A. Individualized service. B. Traditional setting.C. Home-made beer.D. Social games.14.A. The quality of beer. B. The atmosphere.C. The owner's attitude.D. The right location.15.A. It is a rather tough job. B. It is a profitable business.C. It helps old people kill time.D. It makes retirees feel useful. Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked A , B ,C. and D. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16.A. It is becoming increasingly popular. B. It helps the user to escape reality.C. It gives rise to serious social instability.D. It hurts a person and those around them.17.A. They use drugs just for fun. B. They take drugs to get high.C. They use drugs as medicine.D. They keep drug use a secret.18. A. It is quite common in entertainment circles.B. It is the cause of various social problems.C. It is hard to get rid of.D. It is fatal to the user.Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A. Taking up exercises after recovery. B. Producing tasty healthy frozen food.C. Finding new ways to cure heart disease.D. Going on a diet upon leaving the hospital.20.A. It was carefully tested with consumers.B. It was promoted by health organizations.C. It was disapproved by many diet experts.D. It was highly expected by the general public.21.A. Competitive price. B. Low expectations.C. Vigorous promotion.D. Unique ingredients.22. A. It was suggested by the firm's vice-president.B. It matches the food's dark green packaging.C. It has a positive implication for consumers.D. It tricks the elders into impulse purchasing.Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.23.A. It is practiced in most of the states.B. It will be abolished sooner or later.C. It has drawn a lot of criticism from overseas.D. It has to be approved by the Supreme Court.24. A. Whether the practice should be allowed to continue in future.B. Whether there should be a minimum age limit for execution.C. What type of criminals should receive it.D. What effect it might have on youngsters.25. A. The court sentenced him to life in prison for killing two friends.B. The governor changed his death sentence to life in prison.C. He was the first minor to be executed in South Carolina.D. He was sentenced to death for a crime he committed as a minor.Section CDirections: 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 isread for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks with, the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.Some people borrow money and "forget" to pay it back.Large loans are seldom the issue; they are usually treated as business26, with the terms spelled out on paper. But many women suffer27over problems like Carol's "My friend Ginny is always28cash," she says. "I hate to recall how often I've ' loaned' her a dollar or two for a drink or a movie. Each loan is so small I'd feel really cheap making a big deal out of it; still, I do29the fact that she never pays me back. "Carol admits to being "too30or something" to demand repayment, but she has resolved to stop lending money to Ginny. "The last time she asked for five dollars to pay for her dry cleaning, I just told her I couldn't31it. "Another woman suggests a bolder32. "When somebody refuses to repay a loan, I 33 by requesting one myself," she says. "'I left home without my wallet,' I'll say. 'Can you lend me enough to cover lunch?' Then, when the money is safely in hand, I am struck by a sudden 34 Why, this is exactly the amount I loaned you last week ! How 35! Now you won't have to repay me'" She says it works like a charm.Part III Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections: 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 inthe 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 36 to 45 are based on the following passage. For many Americans,2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. Late November and December36early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two37, record-cold days will likely turn out to have oumumbered record-warm ones. But the U. S. was the exception: November was the warmest ever38, and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth hottest year on record. Enjoy the snow now, because39are good that 2014 will be even hotter, perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept. That's because, scientists are predicting,2014 will be an El Nifio Year. El Nino, Spanish for "the child",40when surface ocean waters in the southern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, covering 30% of the planet's surface, that the41energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. El Ninos are42with abnormally dry conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia. They can lead to extreme rain in parts of North and South America, even as southern Africa43dry weather. Marine life may be affected too: E1 Ninos can44the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich ( 营养丰富的）water that supports large fish45, and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral ( 珊瑚).A. Additional I. logicallyB. Associated J. occursC. bore K. populationsD. Chances L. realizeE. Communicated M. reduceF. Decades N. SawG. experiences O. SpecificH. globallySection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How to Eat WellA. Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk (垃圾. and should really carry warning labels?B. It's not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer more variety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers' markets in the U. S. as there were 20 years ago. nor is it for lack of available information. There are plenty of recipes (食谱), how-to videos and cooking classes available to anyone who has a computer, smart phone or television. If anything, the information is overwhelming.C. And yet we aren't cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like most Americans, you probably get at least a third of your daily calories (卡路里. outside the home. Nearly two-thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25% of ourdally calories from snacks. So we're eating out or taking in, and we don't sit down－or we do, but we hurry.D. Shouldn't preparing－and consuming－food be a source of comfort, pride, health, well－being, relaxation, sociability? Something that connects us to other humans? Why would we want to outsource(外包. this basic task, especially when outsourcing it is so harmful?E. When I talk about cooking, I'm not talking about creating elaborate dinner parties or three－day science projects. I'm talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed themselves. That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach people to cook food that's good enough to share with family and friends.F. Perhaps a return to real cooking needn't be far off. A recent Harris poll revealed that 79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30% "love it"; 14% admit to not enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won't go near the stove at all. But this doesn't necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn't surprise anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week; only a third of young people do.G. Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Morn cooked virtually every night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much universal. Most people couldn't afford to do otherwise.H. Although frozen dinners were invented in the '40s, their popularity didn't boom until televisions became popular a decade or so later. Since then, packaged, pre-preparedmeals have been what's for dinner. The microwave and fast-food chains were the biggest catalysts ( 催化剂), but the big food companies--which want to sell anything except the raw ingredients that go into cooking－made the home cook an endangered species.I. Still, I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals at home regularly. Isn't this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and champions craft cooking? And isn't this the generation who say they're concerned about their health and the well－being of the planet? If these are truly the values of many young people, then their behavior doesn't match their beliefs.J. There have been haft－hearted but well-publicized efforts by some food companies to reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still the polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant－based diet that just about every expert says we should be eating. Considering that the government's standards are not nearly ambitious enough, the picture is clear: by not cooking at home, we're not eating the right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate.K. To help quantify (量化). the costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate this impact in terms of a most famous food, the burger (汉堡包). I concluded that the profit from burgers is more than offset (抵消）by the damage they cause in health problems and environmental harm.L. Cooling real food is the best defense－not to mention that any meal you're likely to eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a restaurant. M. T o those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop thegrocery store, since that's where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy are. And to save money and still eat well you don't need local, organic ingredients; all you need is real food. I'm not saying local food isn't better; it is. But there is plenty of decent food in the grocery stores.N. The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned goods. Frozen produce is still produce; canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just make sure you're getting real food without tons of added salt or sugar. Ask yourself, would Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in nature? It's pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable food like objects. O. You don't have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance of skill. Since fewer than haft of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level and only 20% describe their cooling skills as advanced, the crisis is one of confidence. And the only remedy for that is practice. There's nothing mysterious about cooking the evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and redefine what qualifies as dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more; every time you cook, you advance your level of skills. Someday you won't even need recipes. My advice is that you not pay attention to the number of steps and ingredients, because they can be deceiving.P. Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must adjust your prioritiesto find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the kitchen and watch your favorite shows while you're standing at the sink. No one is asking you to give up activities you like, but if you're watching food shows on TV, try cooking instead.46. Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another.47. Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.48. Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.49. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.50. In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.51. Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and their family.52. Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.53. To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it themselves.54. We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.55. The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C. and D ). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage One Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping－where you hand over notes and count out change in return－now happens only in the most minor of our retailencounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores－Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance－you don't go and stand at any kind of cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa.Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I'm just old－fashioned. But earning money isn't quick or easy for most of us. Isn't it a bit weird that spending it should happen in haft a blink (眨眼). of an eye? Doesn't a wallet－that time －honoured Friday－night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness－represent something that matters?But I'll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet－the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed cinema tickets－is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smart phone or an iPad..The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as a pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer.56. What is happening to the wallet?A. It is disappearing.B. It is being fattened.C. It is becoming costly.D. It is changing in style.57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?A. Individually.B. Electronically.C. In the abstract.D. Via a cash register.58. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?A. Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.B. The pleasing Friday－night feeling is fading.C. Earning money is getting more difficult.D. Spending money is so fast and easy.59. Why does the author choose to write about what's happening to the wallet?A. It represents a change in the modern world.B. It has something to do with everybody's life.C. It marks the end of a time－honoured tradition.D. It is the concern of contemporary economists.60. What can we infer from the passage about the author?A. He is resistant to social changes.B. He is against technological progress.C. He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.D. He feels insecure in the ever－changing modern world.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.Everybody sleeps, but what people stay up late to catch－or wake up early in order notto miss－varies by culture. From data collected, it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep, on average, are sporting events, time changes, and holidays. Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to "winter time" starting on October 26.Russia's other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year's Eve, Russians have the world's latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 am. Russians also get up an hour later on International Women's Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives. Similarly, Americans' late nights, late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three－day weekends. Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey (冰球) final. The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation (剥夺). The worst night for sleep in the U. K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half－hour later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a haft later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns; in some of these nations, it's likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that's the case, though, the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among ushave such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?61. What does the author say about people's sleeping habits?A. They are culture－related.B. They affect people's health.C. They change with the seasons.D. They vary from person to person.62, What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep?A)They don't fall asleep until very late.B. They don't sleep much on weekends.C. They get less sleep on public holidays.D. They sleep longer than people elsewhere.63. what is the major cause for Europeans' loss of sleep?A. The daylight savings time.B. The colorful night life.C. The World Cup.D. The summertime.64. what is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their sleep patterns?A)They have trouble falling asleep.B. They want to get sufficient sleep.C. They are involved in a sleep research.D. They want to go to bed on regular hours.65. what does the author imply in the last paragraph?A. Sleeplessness does harm to people's health.B. Few people really know the importance of sleep.C. It is important to study our sleep patterns.D. Average people probably sleep less than the rich.Part TV Translation( 30 minutes )Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.云南省的丽江古镇是中国著名的旅游目的地之一。
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题听力原文及参考答案(第2套)
2015年12月大学英语四级考试真题答案及详解（第2套）PART ⅠWriting思维导图学习应该是一个终生的过程Learning Should Be a Lifelong Process第一段结合谚语，引出话题：终身学习的重要性(the importance of lifelong learning)。
第二段分析终身学习对于现代社会的我们如此重要的原因。
在快速发展的信息时代，我们必须通过不断学习来紧跟时代潮流(keep pace with the times)，否则将会失去很多机会(too outdated to seize any opportunities)。
作者通过出租车司机使用打车软件增加收入和家庭主妇开网店赚钱两个例子来进一步支持自己的论点，避免说理空洞。
第三段引用谚语“活到老学到老”(it is never too old to learn)进一步呼应和深化主题、总结全文：学习无关乎年龄。
只有不断学习，才能在迅猛发展的社会中发挥自身潜能(achieve our potential)、生活得更好。
〇高分范文Learning Should Be a Lifelong Process①It is often said that learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. ②The saying indicates the importance of lifelong learning, which we have been lectured over and over again.③Lifelong learning is crucial to our life and career in modern society. ④Living in the Information Age, we have to keep pace with the times through ceaseless learning; otherwise, we'll be too outdated to seize any opportunities. ⑤For example, a taxi driver who learns to use a Taxi App such as Didi can make much more money than those who don't; a housewife who opens a shop online can even out-earn a white-collar worker. ⑥All of their success can be attributed to their constant learning in addition to the progress of technology.⑦As an old saying goes, it is never too old to learn. Thus, learning is an attitude regardless of age. ⑧Only through learning ceaselessly can we achieve our potential and live a better life in this rapidly developing society.〇精彩点评①开门见山，引出谚语。
2015年12月大学英语四级真题试卷(二)(题后含答案及解析)
2015年12月大学英语四级真题试卷（二）(题后含答案及解析)题型有：1. Writing 2. Listening Comprehension 3. 4. Reading Comprehension 5. TranslationPart I Writing1．For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. “You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.正确答案：Learning Should Be a Lifelong Process It is often said that learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. The saying indicates the importance of lifelong learning, which we have been lectured over and over again. Lifelong learning is crucial to our life and career in modern society. Living in the Information Age, we have to keep pace with the times through ceaseless learning: otherwise, we’ll be too outdated to seize any opportunities. For example, a taxi driver who learns to use a Taxi App such as Didi can make much more money than those who don’t: a housewife who opens a shop online can even out-earn a white-collar worker. All of their success can be attributed to their constant learning in addition to the progress of technology. As an old saying goes, it is never too old to learn. Thus, learning is an attitude regardless of age. Only through learning ceaselessly can we achieve our potential and live a better life in this rapidly developing society.Part II Listening ComprehensionSection A听力原文：W: Hello, Mr. Harrison, thanks for calling. Now, when would it be good for you to visit our company? M: Well. In fact, I can come almost any time next month. And probably toward the end of a week would be best for me. Q: What are the speakers talking about?2．A．The agenda for the board of directors’ meeting.B．The details of the meeting to be held next week.C．The reason for the man’s absence from the meeting.D．The time for the man’s visit to the woman’s company.正确答案：D解析：女士询问男士什么时候方便到她所在的公司参观，男士说下个月几乎任何时间都行，可能接近周末的时间最好。
2015年12月英语四级考试真题(第1套)
2015年12月英语四级考试真题试卷（第一套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Listening is more important than talking?" You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of paying attention to others' opinions. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________Part ⅡListening Comprehension ( 30 minutes)Section ADirections: 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 I with a single line through the center.1.A) They admire the courage of space explorers.B)They were going to watch a wonderful movie.C)They enjoyed the movie on space exploration.D)They like doing scientific exploration very much.2.A) In a school library.B)At a gift shop.C)In the office of a travel agency.D)At a graduation ceremony.3.A) He used to work in the art gallery.B)He does not have a good memoiy.C)He is not interested in any part-time jobs.D)He declined a job offer from the art gallery.4.A) He will be unable to attend the birthday party.B)The woman should have informed him earlier.C)He will go to the birthday party after the lecture.D)Susan has been invited to give a lecture tomorrow.5.A) Set a deadline for the staff to meet.B)Assign more workers to the project.C)Reward those having made good progress.D)Encourage the staff to work in small groups.6.A) Where she can leave her car.B)The rate for parking in Lot C.C)How far away the parking lot is.D)The way to the visitor's parking.7.A) He regrets missing the classes. B) He has benefited from exercise.C) He plans to take the fitness classes. D) He is looking forward to a better life.8. A) How to select secretaries. B) How to raise work efficiency.C) The responsibilities of secretaries. D) The secretaries in the man's company. Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9.A) It is used by more people than English. B) It is more difficult to learn than English.C) It will be as commonly used as English. D) It will eventually become a world language.10.A) Its popularity with the common people. B) The effect of the Industrial Revolution.C) The influence of the British Empire. D) Its loan words from many languages.11.A) It has a growing number of newly coined words.B) It includes a lot of words from other languages.C) It is the largest among all languages in the world.D) It can be easily picked up by overseas travellers.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12.A) To place an order. B) To apply for a job.C) To return some goods. D) To make a complaint.13.A) He works on a part-time basis for the company.B) He has not worked in the sales department for long.C) He is not familiar with the exact details of the goods.D) He has become somewhat impatient with the woman.14.A) It is not his responsibility. B) It win be free for large orders.C) It depends on a number of factors. D) It costs ￡15 more for express delivery.15.A) Make inquiries with some other companies.B) Report the information to her superior.C) Pay a visit to the saleswoman in charge.D) Ring back when she comes to a decision.Section BDirections：In this section, you will hear 3 short passages.At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions.Both the passage 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 center.Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the conversation you have just heard.16.A) No one knows for sure when they came into being.B) No one knows exactly where they were first made.C) No one knows for what purpose they were invented.D) No one knows what they will look like in the future.17.A) Measure the speed of wind. B) Give warnings of danger.C) Pass on secret messages. D) Carry ropes across rivers.18.A) To find out the strength of silk for kites. B) To test the effects of the lightning rod.C) To prove that lightning is electricity. D) To protect houses against lightning.Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A) She was born with a talent for languages. B) She was trained to be an interpreter.C) She can speak several languages. D) She enjoys teaching languages.20.A) They want to learn as many foreign languages as possible.B) They have an intense interest in cross-cultural interactions.C) They acquire an immunity to culture shock.D) They would like to live abroad permanently.21.A) She became an expert in horse racing.B) She learned to appreciate classical music.C) She was able to translate for a German sports judge.D) She got a chance to visit several European countries.22.A) Take part in a cooking competition. B) Taste the beef and give her comment.C) Teach vocabulary for food in English. D) Give cooking lessons on Western food.Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.23.A) He had only a third-grade education. B) He once threatened to kill his teacher.C) He often helped his mother do housework. D) He grew up in a poor single-parent family.24.A) Stupid. B) Active. C) Brave. D) Careless.25.A) Watch educational TV programs only. B) Write two book reports a week.C) Help with housework. D) Keep a diary.Section CDirections: 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 with the exact words you have just heard.Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.When you look up at the night sky, what do you see? There are other __26__ bodies out there besides the moon and stars. One of the most __27__ of these is a comet (彗星).Comets were formed around the same time the Earth was formed. They are __28__ ice and other frozen liquids and gases. __29__ these "dirty snowballs" begin to orbit the sun, just as the planets do.As a comet gets closer to the sun, some gases in it begin to unfreeze. They __30__ dust particles from the comet to form a huge cloud. As the comet gets even nearer to the sun, a solar wind blows the cloud behind the comet, thus forming its tail. The tail and the __31__ fuzzy (模糊的) atmosphere around a comet are __32__ that can help identify this __33__ in the night sky.In any given year, about a dozen known comets come close to the sun in their orbits. The average person can't see them all, of course. Usually there is only one or two a year bright enough to be seen with the __34__ eye. Comet Hale-Bopp, discovered in 1995, was an unusually bright comet. Its orbit brought it __35__ close to the Earth, within 122 million miles of it. But Hale-Bopp came a long way on its earthly visit. It won't be back for another four thousand years or so.Part ⅢReading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections : 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 2with a single line through the center. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.Scholars of the information society are divided over whether social inequality decreases or increases in an information-based society. However, they generally agree with the idea that inequality in the information society is __36__ different from that of an industrial society. As informatization progresses in society, the cause and structural nature of social inequality changes as well.It seems that the information society __37__ the quantity of information available to the members of a society by revolutionizing the ways of using and exchanging information. But such a view is a __38__ analysis based on the quantity of information supplied by various forms of the mass media. A different __39__ is possible when the actual amount of information __40__ by the user is taken into account. In fact, the more information __41__ throughout the entire society,the wider the gap becomes between "information haves" and "information have-nots" , leading to digital divide.According to recent studies, digital divide has been caused by three major __42__: class, sex, and generation. In terms of class, digital divide exists among different types of workers and between the upper and middle classes and the lower class. With __43__ to sex, digital divide exists between men and women. The greatest gap, however, is between the Net-generation, __44__ with personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation, __45__ to an industrial society.A) accustomed B) acquired C) assembly D) attribute E) championsF) elements G) expands H) familiar I) flows J) fundamentallyK) interpretation L) passive M) regard N) respectively O) superficialSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Joy: A Subject Schools LackBecoming educated should not require giving up pleasure.A) When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Even as a satire (讽刺), it seems disgusting and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think.B) If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, you'll hear a lot of the following words: "standards," "results," "skills," "self-control," "accountability," and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly "effective" schools, where children shout slogans in order to leam self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can't sit still.C) A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.D) I'm a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So I've watched a lot of children—talking, playing, arguing, eating, studying, and being young. Here's what I've come to understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It's their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of puttingtogether strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A child's ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is something adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to.E) A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching (蹲伏) down to peer at something on the sidewalk. His face went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he called out, "Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug I've ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. Look at this. It's amazing. " He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with energy and delight. "Can't we stay here for just a minute? I want to find out what he does with all those legs. This is the coolest ever. "F) The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth—something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance (坚持不懈), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the kind of intense Absoiption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking. Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead of playing with small figures, conducting experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than stringing together nonsense words, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, making friends, making decisions.G) Building on a child's ability to feel joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn't be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education world's mindset (思维模式). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in meaningful, productive activity, like making things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems? These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight.H) Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success.I) Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldn't chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work; instead, they should leain to delay gratification (快乐) so that they can pursue abstract goals, like going to college.J) Not only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally.Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can't force the child to think carefully, er\joy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure inlearning—to see school as a source of joy.K) Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine; unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food—something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure?L) Joy should not be trained out of children or left for after-school programs. The more difficult a child's life circumstances, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom. "Pleasure" is not a dirty word. And it doesn't run counter to the goals of public education. It is, in fact, the precondition.46. It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way of thinking.47. What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing.48. Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty.49. It is human nature to seek joy in life.50. Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medicine is to patients.51. Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience.52. Adults do not consider children's feelings when it comes to education.53. Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals.54. In the so-called "effective" schools, children are taught self-control under a set of strict rules.55. To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children want to leam.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section.Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements.For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C. And D .You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer. Sheet 2 with a single line through the center.Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.When it's five o'clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they're done.These days, the time is everywhere-, not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing, particularly at work. New research shows that clock-basedwork schedules hinder morale (士气) and creativity.Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 a. m. to 10 a. m. , research from 10 a. m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task-timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities—from project planning, holiday shopping, to yoga—by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time. " They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control Over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening, and seize opportunities that come up.The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in business culture. Smart companies, they believe, will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies.This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.56. What does the author think of time displayed everywhere?A) It makes everybody time-conscious.B) It is a convenience for work and life.C) It may have a negative effect on creative work.D) It clearly indicates the fast pace of modem life.57. How do people usually go about their work according to the author?A) They combine clock-based and task-based planning.B) They give priority to the most urgent task on hand.C) They set a time limit for each specific task.D) They accomplish their tasks one by one.58. What did Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier find in their experiments about clock-timers?A) They seize opportunities as they come up.B) They always get their work done in time.C) They have more control over their lives.D) They tend to be more productive.59. What do the researchers say about today's business culture?A) It does not support the strategies adopted by smart companies.B) It does not attach enough importance to task-based practice.C) It places more emphasis on work efficiency than on workers' lives.D) It aims to bring employees' potential and creativity into full play.60. What do the researchers suggest?A) Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work.B) It is important to keep a balance between work and life.C) Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier.D) A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2004. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was " paying her dues," and that " there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew. "Surely, the American ideal of second chances should not be reserved only for the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented from ever fully paying their debt to society.At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties that continue long after punishment is completed.Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person's individual circumstances. Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. They can affect a person's ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life.Some laws make sense. No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia(恋童癖) work in a school. But too often collateral (附随的) consequences bear no relation to public safety. Should a woman who possessed a small amount of drugs years ago be permanently unable to be licensed as a nurse?These laws are also counterproductive, since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding.A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety. Where the penalties are not a must, they should be imposed only if the facts of a case support it.The point is not to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America's vast criminal justice system, second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
2015年12月四级真题(第2套)
[ti:][ar:][al:][by:][00:04.17]College English Test Band Four[00:07.05]Part Two Listening Comprehension[00:10.45]Section A[00:13.49]Directions: In this section,[00:16.08]you will hear three news reports.[00:19.11]At the end of each news report,[00:21.52]you will hear two or three questions.[00:23.64]Both the news report and the questions[00:27.00]will be spoken only once.[00:30.03]After you hear a question,[00:32.13]you must choose the best answer from the four choices [00:35.61]marked A), B), C) and D).[00:39.41]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 [00:43.92]with a single line through the centre.[00:47.25]Questions 1 and 2 will be based[00:49.56]on the following news item.[00:53.60]There are more than 400 museums in the US[00:56.52]that celebrate the history of the military.[00:59.13]But not a single one devoted to American diplomacy. [01:02.98]That’s about to change.[01:05.10]A new museum celebrating the history[01:07.45]of American diplomacy is being built[01:10.19]at the US Department of State.[01:12.59]The US Diplomacy Center (USDC) will feature 238 years [01:19.10]of American diplomatic history,[01:21.30]as well as an education area[01:22.85]for students interested in diplomatic careers.[01:26.79]The USDC has collected over 6 200 objects[01:30.86]to display in the new,[01:32.19]20 000-square-foot museum.[01:34.97]Building started on the museum in 2014.[01:39.40]Secretary of State John Kerry,[01:41.92]along with five former Secretaries of State,[01:44.34]was present for the ceremony.[01:46.18]Once all the funding and design plans are completed, [01:49.67]the museum is projected to open in 2017,[01:53.24]said a spokesman for the project.[01:56.19]1. What is the news report mainly about?[02:15.40]2. What can we learn about the project[02:19.22]from the news report?[02:35.56]Questions 3 and 4 will be based[02:37.33]on the following news item.[02:39.94]A conflict is forming on the streets[02:42.77]of New York City between legal[02:44.89]and illegal food trucks and carts.[02:48.02]The city grants 5 100 food vending permits every two years. [02:54.43]The permit is issued by the Department[02:56.31]of Health and Mental Hygiene.[02:58.73]Most of the permit holders pay $200[03:02.09]to renew their permit every two years.[03:05.43]Some permit holders rent their license, or permit,[03:09.05]for a profit.[03:11.43]Some cart or truck operators pay more than[03:14.24]$20 000 for a food vending permit.[03:17.67]Because there is greater demand than supply of permits, [03:21.62]a black market for the licenses has emerged.[03:25.03]It is reported that transferring or renting these permits [03:27.97]to another vendor is illegal.[03:30.61]But many vendors have turned[03:32.79]to this illegal black market for permits.[03:35.44]The vendors say getting a cart or[03:37.31]truck permit can take 10 to 15 years.[03:41.58]Some vendors work the street unlicensed.[03:45.18]3. How much should the permit holders pay[03:48.65]to renew the permit?[04:04.94]4. Why has a black market for the licenses emerged? [04:24.76]Questions 5 to 7 will be based on the following news item. [04:31.04]A burial place in Washington,[04:32.51]DC is using goats instead of poison to remove weeds. [04:37.49]Congressional Cemetery is near Capitol Hill.[04:40.97]There are more than 65 000 graves there.[04:44.31]In recent years,[04:45.61]many weeds have grown in the cemetery.[04:48.58]Officials did not want to use poisons,[04:50.85]to kill the weeds.[04:52.78]The cemetery is near the Anacostia River.[04:56.21]Officials have worked for many years[04:58.09]to remove pollutants from the river,[05:00.14]which runs through the city.[05:02.24]So cemetery officials decided to use goats.[05:06.00]The animals are less costly than chemicals[05:08.14]and do not hurt the environment.[05:10.82]And the goats eat a lot of weeds.[05:13.98]The animals are owned by Mary Bowen, a farmer.[05:18.30]She operates a company called Browsing Green Goats. [05:22.45]The cemetery pays her company more than[05:24.27]$11 000 to have the goats remove unwanted plants [05:28.36]from each hectare of the cemetery.[05:31.24]But Mary Bowen says that is[05:33.02]about half the cost of using herbicides.[05:36.01]She hopes the goats will help[05:37.31]more people understand that[05:38.86]they can keep their property free of weeds[05:41.48]without hurting the environment.[05:45.53]5. What new measure is taken to kill the weeds[05:50.73]in Congressional Cemetery?[06:07.66]6. Why is the new measure taken?[06:26.47]7. What does Mary Bowen do?[06:45.65]Section B[06:47.14]Directions: In this section,[06:49.89]you will hear two long conversations.[06:52.86]At the end of each conversation,[06:54.66]you will hear four questions.[06:56.78]Both the conversation and the questions[06:59.23]will be spoken only once.[07:01.74]After you hear a question,[07:03.89]you must choose the best answer from the four choices [07:06.68]marked A), B), C) and D).[07:10.49]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 [07:14.37]with a single line through the centre.[07:17.68]Conversation One[07:20.54]M: Ace Employment Agency. Good morning.[07:23.04]W: Good morning. I wonder if you can help me. [07:25.89]I’m looking for a job.[07:27.56]M: I’ll see what we can do.[07:29.44]Uh...Have you been to us before?[07:31.56]W: No. But you’ve managed to get jobs[07:33.98]for some of my friends.[07:35.73]So I thought, perhaps, you know...[07:37.75]M: Yes, I see. First of all,[07:40.55]could you give me your full name?[07:42.39]W: Yes, of course. Susan Hollies.[07:44.86]M: Good. And could I have your phone number? [07:47.60]W: Yes. 7788992.[07:51.41]M: Fine. And your date of birth, please?[07:53.94]W: Feb. 3rd, 1980.[07:56.57]M: Thank you. Now, education.[07:59.18]Which school did you go to?[08:01.36]W: I went to a secondary school in South Town. [08:04.10]M: And have you been to college?[08:06.27]W: No. I left full-time education when I was 18. [08:09.96]M: I see. Any qualifications?[08:12.86]W: Yes. I gained a shorthand and typing diploma [08:15.96]at evening classes.[08:17.46]M: That’s good.[08:18.49]Now, where are you working at the moment?[08:21.54]W: Well, I’ve got a job as a shorthand-typist. [08:24.38]But I’m not enjoying it very much[08:26.73]and it doesn’t pay very well.[08:28.59]M: I see.[08:29.70]Have you applied for any other jobs?[08:31.72]W: Yes. I thought I’d like to be a policewoman. [08:34.81]But they turned me down because I was too short. [08:38.43]M: What would you like to do now, then?[08:40.94]W: Well, I think I’d like to work[08:43.45]in a travel agency.[08:45.11]M: I see. I think the best thing is for me[08:48.53]to see what we might find for you.[08:51.13]And then...[08:53.87]Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation[08:56.99]you have just heard.[09:00.00]8. How did the woman get to know about the man’s company? [09:20.54]9. What formal education did the woman receive?[09:41.03]10. What do we learn about the woman’s occupation? [10:01.09]11. What will the man probably do next?[10:20.55]Conversation Two[10:23.01]W: Steve, can you tell me[10:24.29]how long you’ve been a pub owner?[10:26.83]M: Well, four years, I suppose.[10:29.42]I’ve been involved with pubs off and on for ten years.[10:33.20]I’ve sort of done hotel work and[10:35.81]I’ve also run a restaurant pub.[10:37.88]And now I’ve got what you call a good old-fashioned pub. [10:41.91]That is a public bar,[10:43.62]with all the social games going with it,[10:46.01]which is what we’ve always wanted to have, you know. [10:48.67]W: It sounds like you’ve always worked in pubs,[10:51.13]but not always in this one.[10:53.37]M: No, no. I worked in quite a variety of pubs.[10:56.81]W: What makes a good pub?[10:58.37]I mean, you said, you know,[10:59.88]it has got a good variety of things.[11:02.47]M: Well, I think having the right customers to start with,[11:07.28]selling the right beer,[11:08.56]keeping it good,[11:09.95]and most of all,[11:10.93]keeping a good attitude yourself,[11:13.15]even though you probably feel very tired.[11:15.92]But the idea is,[11:17.81]if you generate from your side,[11:19.82]it’s got to affect the other side,[11:21.58]if you’re getting the right customers in.[11:23.50]W: Yeah.[11:24.29]I must say that’s one thing that has always[11:26.36]struck me about being a pub owner.[11:28.54]I mean, a lot of people seem to think[11:30.46]that it’s a nice job, you know.[11:32.50]Everybody says,[11:33.34]“Oh, I’d love to retire and get a country pub.”[11:36.56]But it seems to me that it’s actually very hard work.[11:40.86]Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation[11:44.16]you have just heard.[11:46.18]12. What does the man say about his involvement with pubs?[12:06.03]13. What characterizes the old-fashioned pub[12:10.69]according to the man?[12:27.14]14. What does the man say is the most important[12:31.29]in making a good pub?[12:48.30]15. What does the woman think of running a country pub? [13:06.71]Section C[13:08.66]Directions: In this section,[13:11.49]you will hear three passages.[13:14.01]At the end of each passage,[13:15.60]you will hear some questions.[13:17.72]Both the passage and the questions[13:19.93]will be spoken only once.[13:23.30]After you hear a question,[13:24.87]you must choose the best answer from the four choices [13:28.01]marked A), B), C) and D).[13:31.81]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 [13:35.09]with a single line through the centre.[13:39.64]Passage One[13:42.18]To help ourselves and others,[13:44.33]it’s important to know something about drugs.[13:47.95]A drug is a chemical substance.[13:50.38]It can bring about a physical,[13:52.56]emotional, or mental change in people.[13:56.35]Alcohol and tobacco are drugs.[13:59.30]Caffeine, a substance found in coffee[14:02.01]and some soft drinks, is also a drug.[14:05.60]Drug abuse is the use of a drug,[14:07.88]legal or illegal,[14:09.73]that hurts a person or someone close to him.[14:13.29]A drug user is the person who takes the drug.[14:16.46]There are many kinds of drug users.[14:19.43]Experimental users may try drugs once or twice.[14:23.71]They want to see what the effects will be.[14:26.41]Recreational users take drugs to get high.[14:30.10]They use drugs with friends or at parties[14:32.44]to get into the mood of things.[14:35.23]Regular users take drugs all the time.[14:38.55]But they are often able to keep up[14:40.35]with the normal routine of work.[14:43.52]Dependent users can’t relate to anything but drugs. [14:48.35]Their whole life centers around drugs.[14:51.64]They feel extreme mental or physical pain without drugs. [14:56.67]It’s not always easy to tell that someone is using drugs. [15:00.86]In the early stages,[15:02.27]drug use is often hard to see.[15:04.63]Sometimes, people like drugs or need drugs[15:07.40]so much that they can’t do without them.[15:10.18]They are dependent upon drugs.[15:13.04]Only a few kinds of drugs can cause physical dependence. [15:16.93]But almost any drug,[15:18.39]when it’s misused,[15:19.67]can make a person think he needs it all the time. [15:23.50]By this time,[15:24.88]it’s too late and the person is hooked.[15:29.30]Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage[15:32.38]you have just heard.[15:34.39]16. What does the speaker say about drug abuse? [15:53.94]17. What does the speaker say[15:57.41]about recreational drug users?[16:14.82]18. What does the speaker say about drug dependence? [16:34.34]Passage Two[16:36.39]According to Charles Harper,[16:38.03]Chairman of ConAgra,[16:39.81]the Healthy Choice line of frozen dinners[16:42.22]began with his own heart attack.[16:44.99]It has been brought on by years of[16:46.76]eating anything he could get his hands on.[16:49.83]As he lay in the hospital recovering,[16:52.33]Harper imagined the line of healthy frozen foods [16:55.54]that tasted good.[16:57.77]The Healthy Choice product line was carefully[17:00.02]tested with consumers before being introduced[17:03.02]to the general public.[17:05.34]ConAgra’s research and development staff[17:07.83]spent a year working under the instruction[17:10.82]“Whatever the cost, don’t sacrifice taste.”[17:14.98]The first test market results surprised[17:17.22]even the ConAgra team.[17:19.48]The low-sodium, low-fat frozen dinners[17:22.07]sold much better than expected.[17:24.84]According to the firm’s vice-president[17:27.01]of marketing and sales,[17:28.77]“We benefited from low expectations.[17:31.94]The products were much better than people[17:33.94]thought they would be.”[17:35.98]This finding supported ConAgra’s decision[17:38.35]to position the product against other high-quality [17:41.36]frozen dinners rather than as a diet or health food. [17:45.39]The new product’s brand name and packaging [17:47.61]were an important part of the development process. [17:51.36]The name Healthy Choice was chosen[17:53.80]for the positive implication it held for consumers. [17:57.48]Because ConAgra felt the product[17:59.82]would be an impulse purchase,[18:01.78]it was important to make the item stand out[18:04.25]in the freezer case.[18:06.22]This was accomplished through the dark green packaging [18:08.69]that not only differed from the competitors[18:11.34]but also suggested freshness and richness in vitamins.[18:16.62]Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage[18:20.54]you have just heard.[18:23.40]19. What did Charles Harper think of[18:28.07]while he was in hospital?[18:44.58]20. What does the passage say[18:47.77]about the Healthy Choice product line[18:49.99]before it went to market?[19:07.04]21. What is said to contribute[19:10.63]to ConAgra’s business success?[19:27.94]22. What does the speaker say[19:31.33]about the name Healthy Choice?[19:49.17]Passage Three[19:51.87]In the United States,[19:53.33]36 states currently allow capital punishment[19:56.70]for serious crimes such as murder.[20:00.01]Americans have always argued about the death penalty. [20:03.45]Today, there is a serious question about this issue:[20:07.42]Should there be a minimum age limit for executing criminals? [20:11.75]In other words,[20:12.70]is it right for convicted murderers[20:14.94]who kill when they are minors—that is,[20:17.34]under the age of 18—to receive the death penalty?[20:21.15]In most other countries of the world,[20:23.32]there is no capital punishment for minors.[20:26.33]In the United States,[20:27.37]though, each state makes its own decision.[20:30.92]Of the 36 states that allow the death penalty,[20:33.88]30 permit the execution of minors.[20:37.06]In the state of South Carolina,[20:39.28]a convicted murderer was given the death penalty[20:41.85]for a crime he committed while he was a minor.[20:45.50]In 1977, when he was 17 years old,[20:49.34]James Terry Roach and two friends[20:51.98]cruelly murdered three people.[20:54.82]Roach’s lawyer fought the decision to execute him. [20:58.92]The young murderer remained on Death Row[21:01.73]for ten years while his lawyer appealed to the governor. [21:05.57]The lawyer argued that it is wrong[21:07.61]to execute a person for a crime[21:09.97]he committed while he was a minor.[21:12.98]In the United States,[21:14.48]the governor of a state has the power[21:16.63]to change a sentence from the death penalty to life in prison. [21:21.37]Nonetheless, the governor of South Carolina[21:24.11]refused to stop the execution.[21:26.89]Roach was finally executed in 1986.[21:31.70]Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage[21:35.11]you have just heard.[21:37.15]23. What does the speaker say about the death penalty [21:41.49]in the United States?[21:58.06]24. What is the focus of the debate around the death penalty? [22:18.39]25. What does the speaker say about James Terry Roach? [22:38.78]This is the end of listening comprehension.。
大学英语四级考试真题及解析
大学英语四级考试真题及解析The document was finally revised on 20212015年12月大学英语四级考试真题及解析Part I Writing1.【题干】Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission." You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening ComprehensionSection A2.【题干】Question 1【选项】admire the courage of space explorers.enjoyed the movie on space exploration.were going to watch a wonderful movie.like doing scientific exploration very much.【答案】B【解析】M: Do you remember the wonderful film on space exploration wewatched together last month?W: Sure. It's actually the most impressive one I've seen on that topic.Q: What do we learn about the speakers?3.【题干】Question 2【选项】a gift shop.a graduation ceremony.the office of a travel agency.a school library.【答案】A【解析】W: Are you looking for anything in particular?M: Yes. My son is graduating from high school and I want to get him something special.Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?4.【题干】Question 3【选项】used to work in the art gallery.does not have a good memory.declined a job offer form the art gallery.is not interested in any part-time jobs.【答案】C【解析】M: Mike told me yesterday that he'd been looking in vain for a job inthe art gallery.W: Really If I remember right, he had a chance to work there but he turned it down.Q: What does the woman say about Mike?5.【题干】Question 4【选项】has been invited to give a lecture tomorrow.will go to the birthday party after the lecture.woman should have informed him earlier.will be unable to attend the birthday party.【答案】D【解析】W: Would you like to come to Susan's birthday party tomorrowevening?M: I'm going to give a lecture tomorrow. I wish I could be in two places at the same time.Q: What does the man mean?6.【题干】Question 5【选项】those having made good progress.a deadline for the staff to meet.more workers to the project.the staff to work in small groups.【答案】B【解析】W: Aren't you discouraged by the slow progress your staff is making?M: Yes. I think I'll give them a deadline and hold them to it.Q: What is the man probably going to do?7.【题干】Question 6【选项】way to the visitor’s parking.rate for parking in Lot C.far away the parking lot is.she can leave her car.【答案】A【解析】W: Excuse me, could you tell me where the visitor's parking is I leftmy car there.M: Sure. It's in Lot C, over that way.Q: What does the woman want to know?8.【题干】Question 7【选项】regrets missing the classes.plans to take the fitness classes.is looking forward to a better life.has benefited form exercise.【答案】D【解析】W: You look great now that you've taken those fitness classes.M: Thanks. I've never thought better in my life.Q: What does the man mean?9.【题干】Question 8【选项】to work efficiency.to select secretaries.responsibilities of secretaries.secretaries in the man’s company.【答案】D【解析】W: I really admire the efficiency of your secretaries.M: Our company selects only the best. They have a heavy workload and we give them a lot of responsibilities.Q: What are the speakers talking about?10.【题干】Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.Question 9【选项】is more difficult to learn than English.is used by more people than English.will be as commonly used as English.will eventually become a world language.【答案】B【解析】Q: What does the man say about Chinese?W: Hi, Leo. Why do you say English will become the world language?M: Well, for one thing, it's so commonly used. The only language that is used by more people is Chinese.W: Why is English spoken by so many people?M: It's spoken in many countries of the world because of the British Empire. And now, of course, there's influence of America as well.W: Many students find English a difficult language to learn.M: Oh, all languages are difficult to learn. But English does have two great advantages.W: What are they?M: Well, first of all, it has a very international vocabulary. It has many German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian words in it. So speakers of those languages will find many familiar words in English. In fact, English has words from many other languages as well.W: Why is that?M: Well, partly because English speakers have travelled a lot. They bring back words with them, so English really does have an international vocabulary.W: And what's the other advantage of English?M: It's that English grammar is really quite easy. For example, it doesn't have dozens of different endings for its nouns, adjectives and verbs, not like Latin, Russian, and German for example.W: Why is that?M: Well, it's quite interesting actually. It's because of the French. When the French ruled England, French was the official language and only the common people spoke English. They try to make the language as simple as possible, so they made the grammar easier.11.【题干】Question 10【选项】has words from many languages.popularity with the common people.influence of the British Empire.effect of the Industrial Revolution.【答案】C【解析】Q: What made English a widely used language?W: Hi, Leo. Why do you say English will become the world language?M: Well, for one thing, it's so commonly used. The only language that is used by more people is Chinese.W: Why is English spoken by so many people?M: It's spoken in many countries of the world because of the British Empire. And now, of course, there's influence of America as well.W: Many students find English a difficult language to learn.M: Oh, all languages are difficult to learn. But English does have two great advantages.W: What are they?M: Well, first of all, it has a very international vocabulary. It has many German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian words in it. So speakers of those languages will find many familiar words in English. In fact, English has words from many other languages as well.W: Why is that?M: Well, partly because English speakers have travelled a lot. They bring back words with them, so English really does have an international vocabulary.W: And what's the other advantage of English?M: It's that English grammar is really quite easy. For example, it doesn't have dozens of different endings for its nouns, adjectives and verbs, not like Latin, Russian, and German for example.W: Why is that?M: Well, it's quite interesting actually. It's because of the French. When the French ruled England, French was the official language and only the common people spoke English. They try to make the language as simple as possible, so they made the grammar easier.12.【题干】Question 11【选项】includes a lot of words form other languages.has a growing number of newly coined words.can be easily picked up by overseas travellers.is the largest among all languages in the world.【答案】A【解析】Q: What is said to be special about English vocabulary?W: Hi, Leo. Why do you say English will become the world language?M: Well, for one thing, it's so commonly used. The only language that is used by more people is Chinese.W: Why is English spoken by so many people?M: It's spoken in many countries of the world because of the British Empire. And now, of course, there's influence of America as well.W: Many students find English a difficult language to learn.M: Oh, all languages are difficult to learn. But English does have two great advantages.W: What are they?M: Well, first of all, it has a very international vocabulary. It has many German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian words in it. So speakers of those languages willfind many familiar words in English. In fact, English has words from many other languages as well.W: Why is that?M: Well, partly because English speakers have travelled a lot. They bring back words with them, so English really does have an international vocabulary.W: And what's the other advantage of English?M: It's that English grammar is really quite easy. For example, it doesn't have dozens of different endings for its nouns, adjectives and verbs, not like Latin, Russian, and German for example.W: Why is that?M: Well, it's quite interesting actually. It's because of the French. When the French ruled England, French was the official language and only the common people spoke English. They try to make the language as simple as possible, so they made the grammar easier.13.【题干】Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have justheard.Question 12【选项】return some goods.apply for a job.place an order.make a complaint.【答案】C【解析】Q: What is the woman's purpose in making the phone call?M: Hello. Yes?W: Hello. Is that the sales department?M: Yes, it is.W: Oh, well, my name's Jane Kingsbury of GPF Limited. Hmm, we need some supplies for our design office.M: Uh, what's sort?W: Well, first of all, we need one complete new drawing board.M: A DO44 or DO45?W: Uh, I don't know. What's the difference?M: Well, the 45 costs 15 pounds more.W: Hmm, so what's the total price then?M: It's 387 pounds.W: Does that include value added tax?M: Oh, I'm not sure, most of the prices do. Yes, I think it does.W: Hmm, what are the boards actually made of?M: Oh, I don't know. I think it's a sort of plastic stuff these days. It's white anyway.W: Hmm, and how long does it take to deliver?M: Oh, I couldn't really say. It depends on how much work we've got and how many other orders there are to send out, you know.W: Ok. Now we also want some drawing pens, ink and rulers and some drawing paper.M: Oh, dear, the girl that takes orders for supplies isn't here this morning, so I can't take those orders for you. I only do the equipment, you see.W: OK. Well, perhaps I'll ring back tomorrow.M: So do you want the drawing board then?W: I'll have to think about it. Thanks very much. I'll let you know. Goodbye.M: Thank you. Goodbye.14.【题干】Question 13【选项】has become somewhat impatient with the woman.is not familiar with the exact details of goods.has not worked in the sales department for long.works on a part-time basis for the company.【答案】B【解析】Q: What do we learn about the man from the conversation?M: Hello. Yes?W: Hello. Is that the sales department?M: Yes, it is.W: Oh, well, my name's Jane Kingsbury of GPF Limited. Hmm, we need some supplies for our design office.M: Uh, what's sort?W: Well, first of all, we need one complete new drawing board.M: A DO44 or DO45?W: Uh, I don't know. What's the difference?M: Well, the 45 costs 15 pounds more.W: Hmm, so what's the total price then?M: It's 387 pounds.W: Does that include value added tax?M: Oh, I'm not sure, most of the prices do. Yes, I think it does.W: Hmm, what are the boards actually made of?M: Oh, I don't know. I think it's a sort of plastic stuff these days. It's white anyway.W: Hmm, and how long does it take to deliver?M: Oh, I couldn't really say. It depends on how much work we've got and how many other orders there are to send out, you know.W: Ok. Now we also want some drawing pens, ink and rulers and some drawing paper.M: Oh, dear, the girl that takes orders for supplies isn't here this morning, so I can't take those orders for you. I only do the equipment, you see.W: OK. Well, perhaps I'll ring back tomorrow.M: So do you want the drawing board then?W: I'll have to think about it. Thanks very much. I'll let you know. Goodbye.M: Thank you. Goodbye.15.【题干】Question 14【选项】is not his responsibility.will be free for large orders.costs 15 more for express delivery.depends on a number of factors.【答案】D【解析】Q: What does the man say about delivery?M: Hello. Yes?W: Hello. Is that the sales department?M: Yes, it is.W: Oh, well, my name's Jane Kingsbury of GPF Limited. Hmm, we need some supplies for our design office.M: Uh, what's sort?W: Well, first of all, we need one complete new drawing board.M: A DO44 or DO45?W: Uh, I don't know. What's the difference?M: Well, the 45 costs 15 pounds more.W: Hmm, so what's the total price then?M: It's 387 pounds.W: Does that include value added tax?M: Oh, I'm not sure, most of the prices do. Yes, I think it does.W: Hmm, what are the boards actually made of?M: Oh, I don't know. I think it's a sort of plastic stuff these days. It's white anyway.W: Hmm, and how long does it take to deliver?M: Oh, I couldn't really say. It depends on how much work we've got and how many other orders there are to send out, you know.W: Ok. Now we also want some drawing pens, ink and rulers and some drawing paper.M: Oh, dear, the girl that takes orders for supplies isn't here this morning, so I can't take those orders for you. I only do the equipment, you see.W: OK. Well, perhaps I'll ring back tomorrow.M: So do you want the drawing board then?W: I'll have to think about it. Thanks very much. I'll let you know. Goodbye.M: Thank you. Goodbye.16.【题干】Question 15【选项】the information to her superior.a visit to the saleswoman in charge.back when she comes to a decision.inquiries with some other companies.【答案】C【解析】Q: What does the woman say she will possibly do tomorrow?M: Hello. Yes?W: Hello. Is that the sales department?M: Yes, it is.W: Oh, well, my name's Jane Kingsbury of GPF Limited. Hmm, we need some supplies for our design office.M: Uh, what's sort?W: Well, first of all, we need one complete new drawing board.M: A DO44 or DO45?W: Uh, I don't know. What's the difference?M: Well, the 45 costs 15 pounds more.W: Hmm, so what's the total price then?M: It's 387 pounds.W: Does that include value added tax?M: Oh, I'm not sure, most of the prices do. Yes, I think it does.W: Hmm, what are the boards actually made of?M: Oh, I don't know. I think it's a sort of plastic stuff these days. It's white anyway.W: Hmm, and how long does it take to deliver?M: Oh, I couldn't really say. It depends on how much work we've got and how many other orders there are to send out, you know.W: Ok. Now we also want some drawing pens, ink and rulers and some drawing paper.M: Oh, dear, the girl that takes orders for supplies isn't here this morning, so I can't take those orders for you. I only do the equipment, you see.W: OK. Well, perhaps I'll ring back tomorrow.M: So do you want the drawing board then?W: I'll have to think about it. Thanks very much. I'll let you know. Goodbye.M: Thank you. Goodbye.Section B17.【题干】Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 16【选项】one knows exactly where they were.one knows for sure when they came into being.one knows for what purpose they were.one knows what they will.【答案】B【解析】Q: What does the speaker say about kites?No one knows for sure just how old kites are. In fact, they have been in use for centuries. 25 centuries ago, kites were well-known in China. These first kites were probably made of wood. They may even have been covered with silk, because silk was used a lot at that time.Early kites were built for certain uses. In ancient China, they were used to carry ropes across rivers. Once across, the ropes were tied down and wooden bridges were hung from them. Legend tales of one general who flew musical kites over the enemy’s camp. The enemy fled, believing the sounds to be the warning voices of angels. By the 15th centuries, many people flew kites in Europe. Marco Polo may have brought the kite back from his visit to China. The kite has been linked to great names and events. For instance, Benjamin Franklin used the kite to prove that lightening is electricity. He flew the kite in a storm. He did this in order to draw lightening from the clouds. He tied a metal key and a strip of silk to the kite line. The silk ribbonwould stop the lightening from passing through his body. Benjamin’s idea was firstlaughed at, but later on it led to the invention of the lightening rod.With such grand history, kite flying is sure to remain an entertaining and popular sport.18.【题干】Question 17【选项】ropes across rivers.the speed of wind.on secret messages.warnings of danger.【答案】A【解析】Q: What did ancient Chinese use kites to do?No one knows for sure just how old kites are. In fact, they have been in use for centuries. 25 centuries ago, kites were well-known in China. These first kites were probably made of wood. They may even have been covered with silk, because silk was used a lot at that time.Early kites were built for certain uses. In ancient China, they were used to carry ropes across rivers. Once across, the ropes were tied down and wooden bridges were hung from them. Legend tales of one general who flew musical kites over the enemy’s camp. The enemy fled, believing the sounds to be the warning voices of angels. By the 15th centuries, many people flew kites in Europe. Marco Polo may have brought the kite back from his visit to China. The kite has been linked to great names and events. For instance, Benjamin Franklin used the kite to prove that lightening is electricity. He flew the kite in a storm. He did this in order to draw lightening from the clouds. He tied a metal key and a strip of silk to the kite line. The silk ribbonwould stop the lightening from passing through his body. Benjamin’s idea was firstlaughed at, but later on it led to the invention of the lightening rod.With such grand history, kite flying is sure to remain an entertaining and popular sport.19.【题干】Question 18【选项】protect houses against lightning.test the effects of the lightning rod.find out the strength of silk for kites.prove that lightning is electricity.【答案】D【解析】Q: Why did Benjamin Franklin fly a kite in a storm?No one knows for sure just how old kites are. In fact, they have been in use for centuries. 25 centuries ago, kites were well-known in China. These first kites were probably made of wood. They may even have been covered with silk, because silk was used a lot at that time.Early kites were built for certain uses. In ancient China, they were used to carry ropes across rivers. Once across, the ropes were tied down and wooden bridges werehung from them. Legend tales of one general who flew musical kites over the enemy’s camp. The enemy fled, believing the sounds to be the warning voices of angels. By the 15th centuries, many people flew kites in Europe. Marco Polo may have brought the kite back from his visit to China. The kite has been linked to great names and events. For instance, Benjamin Franklin used the kite to prove that lightening is electricity. He flew the kite in a storm. He did this in order to draw lightening from the clouds. He tied a metal key and a strip of silk to the kite line. The silk ribbonwould stop the lightening from passing through his body. Benjamin’s idea was firstlaughed at, but later on it led to the invention of the lightening rod.With such grand history, kite flying is sure to remain an entertaining and popular sport.20.【题干】Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 19【选项】enjoys teaching languages.can speak several languages.was trained to be an interpreter.was born with a talent for languages.【答案】B【解析】Q: What does the speaker say about herself?I have learned many languages, but I have not mastered them the way a professional interpreter or translator has. Still, they have opened doors for me. They have allowed me the opportunity to seek jobs in international contexts and help me get those jobs. Like many people who have lived overseas for a while, I simply got crazy about it. I can’t imagine living my professional or social life withoutinternational interactions. Since 1977, I have spent much more time abroad than in the United States. I like going to new places, eating new foods and experiencing new cultures. If you can speak the language, it’s easier to get to know the country and its people. If I had the time and money, I would live for a year in as many countries as possible.Beyond my career, my facility with languages has given me a few rare opportunities. Once just after I returned from my year in Vienna, I was asked to translate for a German judge at an Olympic level horse event. I learned a lot about the sport. In Japan, once when I was in the studio audience of a TV cooking show, I was asked to go up on the stage and taste the beef dish that was being prepared and tell what I thought. They asked, "Was it as good as American beef" It was very exciting for me to be on Japanese TV speaking in Japanese about how delicious the beef was.21.【题干】Question 20【选项】acquire an immunity to culture shock.would like to live abroad permanently.want to learn as many foreign languages as possible.have an intense interest in cross-cultural interactions.【答案】D【解析】Q: What does the speaker say about many people who have livedoverseas for a while?I have learned many languages, but I have not mastered them the way a professional interpreter or translator has. Still, they have opened doors for me. They have allowed me the opportunity to seek jobs in international contexts and help me get those jobs. Like many people who have lived overseas for a while, I simply got crazy about it. I can’t imagine living my professional or social life withoutinternational interactions. Since 1977, I have spent much more time abroad than in the United States. I like going to new places, eating new foods and experiencing new cultures. If you can speak the language, it’s easier to get to know the country and itspeople. If I had the time and money, I would live for a year in as many countries as possible.Beyond my career, my facility with languages has given me a few rare opportunities. Once just after I returned from my year in Vienna, I was asked to translate for a German judge at an Olympic level horse event. I learned a lot about the sport. In Japan, once when I was in the studio audience of a TV cooking show, I was asked to go up on the stage and taste the beef dish that was being prepared and tell what I thought. They asked, "Was it as good as American beef"It was very exciting for me to be on Japanese TV speaking in Japanese about how delicious the beef was.22.【题干】Question 21【选项】became an expert in horse racing.got a chance to visit several European countries.was able to translate for a German sports judge.learned to appreciate classical music.【答案】C【解析】Q: How does the speaker’s experience of living in Vienna benefit her?I have learned many languages, but I have not mastered them the way a professional interpreter or translator has. Still, they have opened doors for me. They have allowed me the opportunity to seek jobs in international contexts and help me get those jobs. Like many people who have lived overseas for a while, I simply got crazy about it. I can’t imagine living my professional or social life withoutinternational interactions. Since 1977, I have spent much more time abroad than in the United States. I like going to new places, eating new foods and experiencing new cultures. If you can speak the language, it’s easier to get to know the country and its people. If I had the time and money, I would live for a year in as many countries aspossible.Beyond my career, my facility with languages has given me a few rare opportunities. Once just after I returned from my year in Vienna, I was asked to translate for a German judge at an Olympic level horse event. I learned a lot about the sport. In Japan, once when I was in the studio audience of a TV cooking show, I was asked to go up on the stage and taste the beef dish that was being prepared and tell what I thought. They asked, "Was it as good as American beef"It was very exciting for me to be on Japanese TV speaking in Japanese about how delicious the beef was.23.【题干】Question 22【选项】the beef and give her comment.part in a cooking competition.vocabulary for food in.cooking lessons on.【答案】A【解析】Q: What was the speaker asked to do in a Japanese studio?I have learned many languages, but I have not mastered them the way a professional interpreter or translator has. Still, they have opened doors for me. They have allowed me the opportunity to seek jobs in international contexts and help me get those jobs. Like many people who have lived overseas for a while, I simply got crazy about it. I can’t imagine living my professional or social life withoutinternational interactions. Since 1977, I have spent much more time abroad than in the United States. I like going to new places, eating new foods and experiencing new cultures. If you can speak the language, it’s easier to get to know the country and its people. If I had the time and money, I would live for a year in as many countries aspossible.Beyond my career, my facility with languages has given me a few rare opportunities. Once just after I returned from my year in Vienna, I was asked to translate for a German judge at an Olympic level horse event. I learned a lot about the sport. In Japan, once when I was in the studio audience of a TV cooking show, I was asked to go up on the stage and taste the beef dish that was being prepared and tell what I thought. They asked, "Was it as good as American beef"It was very exciting for me to be on Japanese TV speaking in Japanese about how delicious the beef was.24.【题干】Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.Question 23【选项】had only a third-grade education.once threatened to kill his teacher.grew up in a poor single-parent household.often helped his.【答案】B【解析】Q: What do we learn about Ben Carson?Doctor Ben Carson grew up in a poor single parent household in Detroit. His mother, who had only a third-grade education, worked two jobs cleaning bathrooms. To his classmates and even to his teachers, he was thought of as the dumbest kid in the class, according to his own not so fond memories. He had a terrible temper, and once threatened to kill another child. Doctor Carson was headed down a path of self-destruction until a critical moment in his youth. His mother, convinced that she had to do something dramatic to prevent him from leading a life of failure, laid down some rules. He could not watch television except for two programs a week, could not play with his friends after school until he finished his homework, and had to read two books a week and write book reports about them. His mother’s strategy worked. "Ofcourse, I didn’t know she couldn’t read, so there I was submitting these reports." He said. "She would put check marks on them like she had been reading them. As I began to read about scientists, economists and philosophers, I started imaging myself in their shoes. As he got in the habit of hard work, his grades began to soar. Ultimately, he received a scholarship to attend Yale University. And later, he was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical School. He is now a leading surgeon at John’sHopkins Medical School, and he’s also the author of three books.25.【题干】Question 24【选项】....【答案】B。
2015年12月大学英语四级听力原文第二套
Long Conversation1. M: Athena Employment Agency. Good morning!W:Good morning! I wonder if you can help me. I am looking for a job.M:I will see what we can do. Aha, have you been to us before?W:No, but you have managed to get jobs for some of my friends. So Ithought perhaps you know.M:Yes, I see. First of all, could you give me your full name?W:Yes, of course. Susan Horace.M:Good. Could I have your phone number?W:Yes, double seven double eight double nine two (7788992)M:Fine, and your date of birth please?W:February 3rd, 1980.M:Thank you! Now, education, which school did you go to?W:I went to a Secondary school in south town.M:And have you been to college?W:No, I left full-time education when I was 18.M:I see, any qualifications?W:Yes, I gained a shorthand and typing diploma at evening classes.M:That‟s good! Now where are you working at the moment?W:Well, I got a job as a shorthand typist, but I am not enjoying it very much and it doesn‟t pay very well.M:I see. Have you applied for any other jobs?W:Yes, I sort like to be a sales woman but they turned me down because I was too short.M:What would you like to do now then?W:Well, I think I would like to work in a travel agency.M:I see, I think the best thing is for me to see what we may find for you. And then……9. How did the woman get to know about the man‟s company?10. What formal education did the woman receive?11. What do we learn about the woman‟s occupation?Conversation 2.W: Steve, can you tell me how long have you been a pub owner?M: Well, four years I suppose. I got involved with pubs and on for ten years. I have sort of done hotel work. And I also ran a restaurant pub and now I have got what you have called an old fashioned pub. That is a public bar with all the social games going with it, which is what we have always wanted to have, you know.W: It sounds you have always worked in pubs but not always in this one.M: No, no, I work in quite variety of pubs.W: What makes a good pub? And like you said, you know, it has got a good variety of things.M: Well, I think having right customers to start with, selling the right beer, keeping in good and also keeping a good attitude to yourself even though you probably feel tired, but the idea is if you generate from you side, it got to effect the other side if you are getting the right customers in.W:Yes, I must say that is one thing that always strike me about being a pub owner, I mean a lot of people think that is a nice job, you know. Everybody says “oh, I would love retiring to get a country pub” but it seems to me is actually a very hard work.12. What does the man say about his involvement with pubs?13. What characterizes the old fashioned pub according to the man?14.What does the man say is the most important in making a good pub?15.What does the woman think of running a country pub?Passage OneTo help ourselves and others, it‟s important to know something about drugs. A drug is a chemical substance. It can bring about a physical, emotional, or mental change in people. Alcohol and tobacco are drugs. Caffeine, a substance found in coffee and some soft drinks is also a drug.Drug abuse is the use of a drug, legal or illegal that hurts a person or someone close to him. A drug user is the person who takes the drug. There are many kinds ofdrug users. Experimental users may try drugs one or twice. They want to see what the effects will be. Recreational users take drugs to get high. They use drugs with friends or at parties to get into the mood of things. Regular users take drugs all the time. But they are often able to keep up with the normal routine of work. Dependent users can‟t relate to anything but drugs. Their whole life centers around drugs. They feel extreme mental or physical pain without drugs.It‟s not always easy to tell if someone is using drugs. In the early stages, drug use is often hard to see.Sometimes people like drugs or need drugs so much they can‟t do without them. They can‟t do without them. They are dependent upon drugs. Only a few kinds of drugs can cause physical dependence, but almost any drug, when it‟s misused can make a person think he needs it all the time. By this time it‟s too late and the person is …hooked‟.16. What does the speaker say about drug abuse?17. What does the speaker say about recreational drug users?18. What does the speaker say about drug dependence?Passage twoAccording to Charles Harper, Chairman of Con Agra, the Healthy Choice line of frozen dinners began w ith his own heart attack. It‟s been brought on by years of eating anything he could get his hands on. As he lay in a hospital for recovering , Harper imagined the line of healthy frozen foods, the Tasty Good. The Healthy Choice product line was carefully tested with consumers before being introduced to the general public. ConAgra‟s research and development staff spent a year working under the instruction-“Whatever the cost, don‟t sacrifice taste”. The first test market results surprised even the ConAgra team: the low sodium, low fat frozen dinners sold much better than expected. According to the firms‟ vice president of marketing and sales, “We benefited from low expectations. The products were much better than people thought they would be” This finding supported ConAgra‟s decision to position a product against other high quality frozen dinners, rather than as a diet or health food. The new products brand‟s name and packaging were an important part to thedevelopment process. The name Healthy Choice was chosen for the positive implication it held for consumers. Because ConAgra felt product would be an impulse purchase, it was important to make the item stand out in a freezer case. This was accomplished through the dark green packaging that not only differed from the competitors, but also suggested freshness and richness in vitamins.19. What did Charles Harper think of while he was in hospital?20. What does the passage say about the Health Choice product line before it went to market?21. What is said to contr ibute to ConAgra‟s business success?22. What does the speaker say about the name Healthy Choice?Passage ThreeIn the United States, 36 states currently allowed capital punishment for serious crimes, such as murder Americans have always argued about the death penalty. Today, there is a serious question about this issue-Should there be a minimum age limit for executing criminals? In other words, is it right for convict murderers who kill when they are minors, that is under the age of 18, to receive the death penalty. In most other countries of the world, there is no capital punishment for minors. In the United States, though, each state makes its own decision. Of the 36 states that allowed the death penalty, 30 permit the execution of minors. In the state of South Carolina, a convicted murderer ws given the death penalty for a crime he committed while he was a minor. In 1977, when he was 17 years old, James Terry Roach and two friends cruelly murdered three people. Roach‟s lawyer fought the decision to execut e him. The young murder remained on death roll for ten years while his lawyer appealed to the governor. The lawyer argued that it‟s wrong to execute a person for a crime he committed while he was a minor. In the United States the governor of a state has the power to change a sentence from the death penalty to life in prison. Nonetheless the governor of South Carolina refused to stop the execution Roach was finally executed in 1986.23. What does the speaker say about the death penalty in the United States?24. What is the focus of the debate around the death penalty?25 what does the speaker say about James Terry Roach?。