2014年12月大学英语四级考试真题(第2套)

2020年12月英语四级真题及答案第二套(网络整理版)2020年12月英语四级真题及答案第二套2020年12月的英语四级考试已经结束，考生们迫不及待地想要知道真题及答案。

以下是网络整理版的2020年12月英语四级真题及答案第二套，希望能为大家提供参考。

听力部分（略）阅读部分（略）第一节翻译1. 答案：In the past few years, an increasing number of college students have been involved in part-time jobs. This phenomenon has aroused wide public concern.2. 答案：The rapid development of information technology has brought about many changes in people's lifestyles and work patterns. More and more people choose to work from home.3. 答案：It is universally acknowledged that environmental protection is crucial to our existence. As a result, many countries have implemented measures to reduce pollution and promote sustainable development.4. 答案：The government has introduced a series of policies to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among young people. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of startups in recent years.第二节阅读理解5. 答案：C. The growing popularity of paid paternity leave.6. 答案：A. The importance of early intervention in language development.7. 答案：D. The need for parents to help their children develop good study habits.8. 答案：B. By reducing job positions and cutting costs.9. 答案：C. The role of sleep in memory consolidation.10. 答案：A. Using mobile devices to deliver personalized learning experiences.11. 答案：D. The potential negative effects of excessive exposure to artificial lighting.12. 答案：A. People feel more relaxed when they are surrounded by plants.第三节完形填空13. 答案：B. citizens14. 答案：A. committed15. 答案：C. gain16. 答案：B. diverse17. 答案：A. difference18. 答案：C. supplement19. 答案：D. creating20. 答案：B. addressed21. 答案：D. accomplish22. 答案：A. measures23. 答案：C. potential24. 答案：A. enhance25. 答案：B. access26. 答案：D. correspondingly27. 答案：C. available28. 答案：B. opportunity29. 答案：A. simple30. 答案：C. achieve写作部分第一节作文近年来，网购在我国迅速发展，改变了人们的消费方式。

12⽉第2套英语四级听⼒真题及答案⼤家在平时做英语四级听⼒练习的时候，是需要掌握正确的⽅法的，怎么掌握正确的⽅法呢?下⾯⼩编就跟⼤家聊聊关于12⽉第2套英语四级听⼒真题及答案吧，希望能帮助到⼤家。

2019年12⽉第2套英语四级听⼒真题Section A News ReportDirections： In this section, you will hear threenews reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both thenews report and the questions will be spokenonly once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A) The number of male nurses has gone down.B) There is discrimination against male nurses.C) There is a growing shortage of medical personnel.D) The number of nurses has dropped to a record low.2. A) Working conditions.B) Educational system.C) Inadequate pay.D) Cultural bias.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A) He fell out of a lifeboat.B) He was almost drowned.C) He lost his way on a beach.D) He enjoyed swimming in the sea.4. A) The lifeboats patrol the area round the clock.B) The beach is a good place to watch the tide.C) The emergency services are efficient.D) The beach is a popular tourist resort.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A) It climbed 25 storeys at one go.B) It broke into an office room.C) It escaped from a local zoo.D) It became an online star.6. A) Release it into the wild.B) Return it to its owner.C) Send it back to the zoo.D) Give it a physical checkup.7. A) A racoon can perform acts no human can.B) A racoon can climb much higher than a cat.C) The racoon did something no politician could.D) The raccoon became as famous as some politicians.Section B ConversationDirections： In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of eachconversations you will hear four questions. Both the conversations and the question-s willbe spoken only once. After you hear a question. You must choose the best answer fromthe four choices marked A), B), C)and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on AnswerSheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) She received a bonus unexpectedly.B) She got a well-paying job in a bank.C She received her first monthly salary.D) She got a pay raise for her performance.9. A) Two decades ago.B) Several years ago.C) Just last month.D) Right after graduation.10. A) He sent a small check to his parents.B) He treated his parents to a nice meal.C) He took a few of his friends to a gym.D) He immediately deposited it in a bank.11. A) Join her colleagues for gym exercise.B) Visit her former university campus.C) Buy some professional clothes.D) Budget her salary carefully.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) He has just too many things to attend to.B) He has been overworked recently.C) He has a difficult decision to make.D) He has just quarreled with his girlfriend.13. A) Turn to his girlfriend for assistance.B) Give priority to things more urgent.C) Think twice before making the decision.D) Seek advice from his family and advisor.14. A) His girlfriend does not support his decision.B) He is not particularly keen on the job offered.C) He lacks the money for his doctoral program.D) His parents and advisor have different opinions.15. A)They need time to make preparations.B) They haven't started their careers yet.C) They need to save enough money for it.D) They haven't won their parents' approval.Section C PassageDirections： In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spokenonly once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the fourchoices marked A), B), C)and D).Then mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) Expressing ideas and opinions freely.B) Enriching social and intellectual lives.C) Acquiring information and professional knowledge.D) Using information to understand and solve problems.17. A) Traveling to different places in the world.B) Playing games that challenge one's mind.C) Improving mind-reading strategies.D) Reading classic scientific literature.18. A) Participate in debates or discussions.B) Expose themselves to different cultures.C) Discard personal biases and prejudices.D) Give others freedom to express themselves.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) Why dogs can be faithful friends of humans.B) The nature of relationships between dogs.C) The reason a great many people love dogs.D) How dogs feel about their bonds with humans.20. A) They behave like other animals in many ways.B) They have an unusual sense of responsibility.C) They can respond to humans' questions.D) They can fall in love just like humans.21. A) They stay with one partner for life.B) They have their own joys and sorrows.C) They experience true romantic love.D) They help humans in various ways.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) A rare animal.B) A historical site.C) A cow bone.D) A precious stone.23. A) Dating it.B) Preserving it.C) Measuring it.D) Identifying it.24. A) The channel needs to interview the boy.B) The boy should have called an expert.C) The boy's family had acted correctly.D) The site should have been protected.25. A) Conduct a more detailed search.B) Ask the university to reward Jude.C) Search for similar fossils elsewhere.D) Seek additional funds for the search.2019年12⽉第2套英语四级听⼒答案1. A2. D3. B4. C5. D6. A7. C8. C9. A10. B11. A12. C13. D14. D15. B16. D17. B18. A19. B20. D21. A22. C23. B24. C25. A⼤学英语四级考试语法指导物主代词概说表⽰所有关系的代词叫做物主代词，也可叫做代词所有格。

可编辑修改精选全文完整版News Report One(1) A 22-year-old Chinese woman who suffered from a persistent cough was sh ocked to learn that she had a piece of chicken bone lodged in her lung. The unn amed woman from the province of Shandong started have coughing problems w hen she was 7 or 8 years old. For 14 years, she made numerous hospital visits. However, no doctor could identify any problem. Her uncontrollable coughing w as a mystery. Finally, the woman got a full body scan at a hospital in the city of Qingdao. This special medical procedure revealed she had a chicken bone stuc k in her lung. (2) Doctors performed surgery and removed the bone. The simple procedure went smoothly and the woman has recovered fully with the bone fin ally removed from her lung, the woman is very happy that she no longer suffers from that annoying cough.1. What was the woman’s problem?2. How was the woman’s problem eventually solved?News Report Two(3) A white shape named Prickles that ran away from an Australian farm during the 2013 bush fires recently returned home. According to farmer Alice Gray, P rickles was only a lamb when she ran away. The bush fires that hit the area bac k then destroyed a large part of her family’s massive property. They thought Pri ckles had died in the fire. But instead, the young sheep escaped into a 200-acre forest near the farm. (4) Once the fires were over, the family had to fix the dam age done to the farm as it was such a large property, which included rebuilding about 40 kilometers of fencing. It was this huge fencing that prevented Pickles from finding her way back. Over the years, the family spotted her a few times. They even recorded her with cameras installed to monitor the activity. But whe n they knew Pringles was alive, they couldn’t find her and never expected her t o return by herself. Seven years later, they were proven wrong.3. What does the news say about the white sheep Prickles?4.What the family do of the bush fires?News Report Three(5) Tons of gold have fallen out of the sky in Russia after a cargo plane malfun ctioned in midair this morning. The aircraft was carrying 265 million pounds w orth of gold and diamonds, when the door flew open, sending the precious meta l back to earth. According to the official news agency, Russian authorities have recovered more than 170 gold bars weighing 20 kilograms each. The plane was traveling from Yakutsk airport in a major diamond producing region to the city Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. (6)However, the aircraft made an emergency landing i n Magan after began losing some of its valuable cargo. Reports suggest some b ars of gold were scattered up to fifteen miles away from the airport. Nine tons o f gold on plane AN12 belonged to a gold mine company. Police have sealed off the runway and say it is unclear if it was an accident or an attempted robbery. ( 7) Technical engineers who worked on the plane prior to takeoff are reportedly going to be questioned by the police.5. What is the news report mainly about?6. What did the aircraft do when the incident happened?7. What does the news report say about the technical engineers who worked on the plane before takeoff?Conversation One8. Why does the man have this conversation with the man recorded?His job is related to the customer service.9. What is the woman’s purpose of calling to the furniture company?She wants to know when she can get her money back.10. What does the woman say about her bank card?The new bank card will be sent to her on Tuesday, and the bank may has cancel ed the old one before the man made the payment.11. What does the man advise the woman to do?She needs to update the card details directly on the website.Conversation Two12. Why isn’t the man going to cook?He’s worn out.13. What does the man say he’ll do on his phone?He’ll use the food delivery app on his phone.14. What does the woman think of the Indian food?That’s not the kind of the hot she means. She needs something mild.15. What does the man think of the woman?She’s really difficult to please.Passage One(16) A new study carried out by the university of Lincoln has found a link betw een the personalities of cat owners and the behavior and wellbeing of their cats. The findings suggest that just as apparent personality can affect the personality of a child, the same is true for a cat and its owner. Owners defined as individu als with high levels of anxiety, fear, anger, depression and loneliness were mor e likely to have cats with behavioral issues. Such cats display more aggressive and anxious behavioral styles as well as more stress related sickness. They will also more likely to have an ongoing medical condition and be overweight. The research also found that mentally well-adjusted owners had come from happier and healthier cats. Researchers explained that many owners regard their pets as a family member and form close social bonds with them. (17) The majority of o wners want to provide the best care for their pets and is therefore possible that pets could be affected by the way their owners interact with and manage them. The study highlights an important relationship between our personalities and th e well-being of our pets. (18) Further research is needed to investigate the caus e of nature of this relationship and look at how owners’ personalities are directl y influencing their pet’s behavior and well-being. It is possible that the well-be ing of pets is driven by the underlying nature of the owner not simply by their c onscious decisions and behaviors.16. What do we learn from the new study by the University of Lincoln?17. What does the passage say most pet owners want to do?18. What does the passage say it’s still needed to understand the effects of own ers’ personalities on their pets?Passage Two(19) One 50-minute run can add seven hours to your life. This was a claim made by The Times last week. The claim was based on a new review of studies abo ut the effects of running. The review concluded that an average runners live thr ee years longer than non-runners and that running does more to extend life than any other form of exercise. But there’s more to running than its health benefits . (20) Research published in recent years have shown that running changes your brain and mind in some fascinating ways from increasing your brain function t o regulating your emotions. However, the precise effects vary according to whe ther you engage in short fast running or long distance running. For example, in one study, researchers compared participants’ ability to learn new words after s everal minutes of intense running, and after 40 minutes of gentle running, parti cipants were able to learn 20 percent faster after the intense running and they s howed a superior memory when tested again a week later. In another study, res earchers asked volunteers to jog for 30 minutes and then showed them clips fro m a sad movie. Participants who usually struggled to handle negative emotions were more intensely affected by the sad clips just as you’d expect. But cruciall y, this was less so if they had completed the 30 minutes jog. (21) The researche rs said moderate exercise appears to have helped those participants to be less v ulnerable to the impact of the sad movie.19. What did the new review of studies claim?20. What is one effect that running has on people according to recent research?21. What did another study find about the participant after they had a 30 minute s jog?Passage ThreeWelcome to the tour of the Hill House. This house built in 1904 is one of the m ost well-known works of Charles Hill, the famous architect. It was designed and built for local entrepreneur and his family. Before starting the tour, let me give you a brief introduction about the design of this amazing building. (23) Prior to beginning his design, the architect spends sometime in the client’s old home, observing their life and studying their habits. This meant that he could design t he house according to the needs of the family. (24) The client’s main desire wa s to have a home with unique design, so the architect was given complete freed om. The building style is radically different from what was the fashion of the p eriod. At the time, most large homes were constructed of timber and brick. Thisone, however, is made of concrete, a novel construction material in those days. The interior of the house, including the fittings and furniture, was also designe d by the same person. Most of the furniture you will see is original and in good condition. However, (25) both pieces in the children’s bedrooms are copies buil t to the designs of the architect. Fortunately, all the blueprints for both the buil ding and its contents have been preserved, so we’ve been able to replace badly damaged furniture. Let’s begin our tour, starting from the rooms.22. What do we learn about the speaker?He is the guide of the tour.23. What dis the architect do before beginning his design?24. What did the architect’s client mainly want?25. What do we learn about the pieces of furniture in the children’s bedrooms?。

12月英语四级考试第2套真题试卷及答案大学英语四级考试涉及的语法知识点多、涉及面宽，对不少考生来说都是一个难题。

考生要多刷真题巩固练习考点内容，下面小编就跟大家聊聊关于12月英语四级考试第2套真题试卷及答案吧，希望能帮助到大家。

12月英语四级考试真题试卷(完整版第2套)Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short easy on how to besthandle the relationship between teachers and students. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)听力音频MP3文件，点击进入听力真题页面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 the questions willbe spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer fromthe four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A) It tries entertain its audience.B) It tries to look into the distance.C) It wants to catch people's attention.D) It has got one of its limbs injured.2. A) It was spotted by animal protection officials.B) It was filmed by a local television reporter.C) Its videos Were posted on social media.D) Its picture won a photography prize.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A) The distance travelled.B) The incidence of road accidents.C) The spending on gas.D) The number of people travelling.4. A) Fewer people are commuting.B) Gas consumption is soaring.C) Job growth is slowing down.D) Rush-hour traffic is worsening.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A) He told a stranger the sad story about himself.B) He helped a stranger to carry groceries to his car.C) He went up to a stranger and pulled at his sleeves.D) He washed a stranger's car in return for some food.6. A) He ordered a lot of food for his family.B) He gave him a job at his own company.C) He raised a large sum of money for him.D) He offered him a scholarship for college.7. A) He works hard to support his family.B) He is an excellent student at school.C) He is very good at making up stories.D) He has been disabled since boyhood.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of eachconversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questionswill be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answerfrom the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) Attended an economics lecture.B) Taken a walk on Charles Street.C) Had a drink at Queen Victoria.D) Had dinner at a new restaurant.9. A) Treat a college friend to dinner.B) Make preparations for a seminar.C) Attend his brothers birthday party.D) Visit some of his high school friends.10. A) Gather statistics for his lecture.B) Throw a surprise birthday party.C) Meet with Jonathan's friends on the weekend.D) Join him in his brother's birthday celebration.11. A) By car.B) By train.C) By taxi.D) By bus.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) Taking a vacation abroad.B) Reviewing for his last exam.C) Saving enough money for a rainy day.D) Finding a better way to earn money.13. A) Preparing for his final exams.B) Negotiating with his boss for a raise.C) Working part time as a waiter.D) Helping the woman with her courses.14. A) Finish her term paper.B) Save enough money.C) Learn a little bit of Spanish.D) Ask her parent's permission.15. A) He has rich sailing experience.B) He speaks Spanish fluently.C) He is also eager to go to Spain.D) He is easy to get along with.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spokenonly once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the fourchoices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) She went to the same university as her mother.B) She worked as a nurse in the First World War.C) She won the Nobel Prize two times.D) She was also a Nobel Prize winner.17. A) She fought bravely in a series of military operations.B) She developed X-ray facilities for military hospitals.C) She helped to set up several military hospitals.D) She made donations to save wounded soldiers.18. A) Both died of blood cancer.B) Both fought in World War I.C) Both won military medals.D) Both married their assistants.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) They were the first settlers in Europe.B) They were the conquerors of Norway.C) They discovered Iceland in the ninth century.D) They settled on a small island north of England.20. A) It was some five hundred miles west of Norway.B) It was covered with green most time of the year.C) It was the Vikings' most important discovery.D) It was a rocky mass of land covered with ice.21. A) The Vikings' ocean explorations.B) The making of European nations.C) The Vikings' everyday life.D) The Europeans' Arctic discoveries.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) Work hard for a better life.B) Make mistakes now and then.C) Dream about the future.D) Save against a rainy day.23. A) Teach foreign languages for the rest of his life.B) Change what he has for his past imaginary world.C) Exchange his two-story house for a beach cottage.D) Dwell on the dreams he had dreamed when young.24. A) Criminal law.B) City planning.C) Oriental architecture.D) International business.25. A) Dream and make plans.B) Take things easy in life.C) Be content with what you have.D) Enjoy whatever you are doing.Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passagewith ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choicesgiven in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully beforemaking your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark thecorresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through thecentre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Technological changes brought dramatic new options to Americans living in the 1990s. During this decade new forms of entertainment, commerce, research, andcommunication became commonplace in the U.S. The driving force behind much ofthis change was a(n) 26 popularly known as the Internet.The Internet was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense. In the caseof an attack, military advisers suggested the 27 of being able to operate one computerfrom another terminal. In the early days, the Internet was used mainly by scientists tocommunicate with other scientists. The Internet28 under government control until1984.One early problem faced by Internet users was speed. Phone lines could only transmitinformation at a 29 rate. The development of fiber-optic (光纤) cables allowed for billionsof bits of information to be received every minute. Companies like Intel developed fastermicroprocessors, so personal computers could process the 30 signals at a more rapidrate.In the early 1990s, the World Wide Web was developed, in large part, for 31 purposes.Corporations created home pages where they could place text and graphics tosell products. Soon airline tickets, hotel 32 , and even cars and homes could bepurchased online. Universities 33 research data on the Internet, so students could find 34 information without leaving their dormitories. Companies soon discovered that workcould be done at home and 35 online, so a whole new class of telecommuters began toearn a living from home offices unshaven and wearing pajamas (睡衣).A) advantage B) commercial C) conservation D) equipped E) incoming F) innovationG) limited H) local I) maintained J) occupations K) posted L) remained M) reservationsN) submitted O) valuableSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statementsattached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose aparagraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questionsby marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.The Health Benefits of KnittingA) About 15 years ago, I was invited to join a knitting group.I agreed to give it a try.B) My mother had taught me to knit at 15, and I knitted in class throughout college andfor a few years thereafter. Then decades passed without my touching a knitting needle. But within two Mondays in the group, I was hooked, not only on knitting but also oncrocheting (钩织), and I was on my way to becoming a highly productive crafter.C) I've made countless baby blankets, sweaters, scarves, hats, caps for newborns. I takea knitting project with me everywhere, especially when I have to sit still and listen. As Idiscovered in college, when my hands are busy, my mind stays focused on the here andnow.D) It seems, too, that I'm part of a national renewal of interest in needle and otherhandicrafts (手工艺). The Craft Yarn Council reports that a third of women ages 25-35 now knit or crochet. Even men and schoolchildren are swelling the ranks, among themmy friend's three small grandsons. Last April, the council created a "Stitch Away Stress" campaign in honor of National Stress Awareness Month. Dr. Herbert Benson, a pioneerin mind/body medicine and author of The Relaxation Response, says that the repetitiveaction of needlework can induce a relaxed state like that associated with meditation(沉思) and yoga. Once you get beyond the initial learning curve, knitting and crochetingcan lower heart rate and blood pressure.E) But unlike meditation, craft activities result in tangible and often useful productsthat can enhance self-esteem. I keep photos of my singular accomplishments on mycellphone to boost my spirits when needed.F) Since the 1990s, the council has surveyed hundreds ofthousands of knitters andcrocheters, who routinely list stress relief and creative fulfillment as the activities'main benefits. Among them is the father of a prematurely born daughter who reportedthat during the baby's five weeks in the intensive care unit, "learning how to knit infanthats gave me a sense of purpose during a time that I felt very helpless. It's a hobbythat I've stuck with, and it continues to help me cope with stress at work, provide asense of order in hectic (忙乱的) days, and allow my brain time to solve problems."G) A recent email from the yarn (纺纱) company Red Heart titled "Health Benefits ofCrocheting and Knitting" prompted me to explore what else might be known about thehealth value of activities like knitting. My research revealed that the rewards go wellbeyond replacing stress and anxiety with the satisfaction of creation.H) For example, Karen Hayes, a life coach in Toronto, conducts knitting therapyprograms, including Knit to Quit to help smokers give up the habit, and Knit to Heal forpeople coping with health crises, like a cancer diagnosis or serious illness of a familymember. Schools and prisons with craft programs report that they have a calmingeffect and enhance social skills. And having to follow instructions on complex craftprojects can improve children's math skills.I) Some people find that craftwork helps them control their weight. Just as it'schallenging to smoke while knitting, when hands are holding needles and hooks, there'sless snacking and mindless eating out of boredom.J) I've found that my handiwork with yarn has helped my arthritic (患关节炎的) fingersremain more dexterous (灵巧的) as I age. A woman encouraged to try knitting andcrocheting afterdeveloping an autoimmune disease that caused a lot of hand painreported on the Craft Yarn Council site that her hands are now less stiff and painful.K) A 2009 University of British Columbia study of 38 women with an eating disorder whowere taught to knit found that learning the craft led to significant improvements. Seventy-four percent of the women said the activity lessened their fears and kept themfrom thinking about their problem.L) Betsan Corkhill, a wellness coach in Bath, England, and author of the book Knit forHealth & Wellness, established a website, Stitchlinks, to explore the value of whatshe calls therapeutic knitting. Among her respondents, 54 percent of those who wereclinically depressed said that knitting made them feel happy or very happy. In a studyof 60 self-selected people with persistent pain, Ms. Corkhill and colleagues reported thatknitting enabled them to redirect their focus, reducing their awareness of pain. Shesuggested that the brain can process just so much at once, and that activities likeknitting and crocheting make it harder for the brain to register pain signals. Perhapsmost exciting is research that suggests that crafts like knitting and crocheting may helpto keep off a decline in brain function with age. In a 2011 study, researchers led by Dr. Yonas Geda at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester interviewed a random (随机的) sample of1,321 people ages 70-89, most of whom were cognitively (在认知方面) normal, about thecognitive activities they engaged in late in life. The study, published in the Journal ofNeuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, found that those who engaged in craftslike knitting and crocheting had a diminished chance of developing mild cognitivedisorder and memory loss.M) Although it is possible that only people who arecognitively healthy would pursuesuch activities, those who read newspapers or magazines or played music did not showsimilar benefits. The researchers speculate that craft activities promote thedevelopment of nerve pathways in the brain that help to maintain cognitive health.N) In support of that suggestion, a 2014 study by Denise C. Park of the University ofTexas at Dallas and colleagues demonstrated that learning to knit or do digitalphotography enhanced memory function in older adults. Those who engaged inactivities that were not intellectually challenging, either in a social group or alone, did not show such improvements.O) Given that sustained social contacts have been shown to support health and a longlife, those wishing to maximize the health value of crafts might consider joining a groupof like-minded folks. I for one try not to miss a single weekly meeting of my knittinggroup.36. When the author was a college student, she found that knitting helped herconcentrate.37. Knitting can help people stay away from tobacco.38. Even men and children are now joining the army of knitters.39. Being a member of a crafts group enhances one's health and prolongs one's life.40. Knitting diverts people's attention from their pain.41. The author learnt to knit as a teenager, but it was not until she was much older thatshe became keenly interested.42. When people are knitting, they tend to eat fewer snacks.43. Survey findings show that knitting can help people relieve stress.44. According to a study, knitters and crocheters are lesslikely to suffer mild cognitivedamage.45. The products of knitting can increase one's sense of self-respect.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by somequestions 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 onAnswer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.Nobody really knows how big Lagos is. What's indisputable is that it's growing veryquickly. Between now and 2050, the urban population of Africa could triple. Yet cities insub-Saharan Africa are not getting richer the way cities in the rest of the world have. Most urban Africans live in slums (贫民窟); migrants are often not much better off thanthey were in the countryside. Why?The immediate problem is poverty. Most of Africa is urbanising at a lower level ofincome than other regions of the world did. That means there's little money around forinvestment that would make cities liveable and more productive. Without upgrades andnew capacity, bridges, roads and power systems are unable to cope with expandingpopulations. With the exception of South Africa, the only light rail metro system in sub-Saharan Africa is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Traffic jam leads to expense andunpredictability, things that keep investors away.In other parts of the world, increasing agricultural productivity and industrialisationwent together. More productive farmers meant there was a surplus that could feedcities; in turn, that created a pool of labour for factories. But African cities aredifferent. They are too often built around consuming natural resources. Government isconcentrated in capitals, so is the money. Most urban Africans work for a smallminority of the rich, who tend to be involved in either cronyish (有裙带关系的) businesses or politics. Since African agriculture is still broadly unproductive, food isimported, consuming a portion of revenue.So what can be done? Though African countries are poor, not all African cities are. InLagos, foreign oil workers can pay as much as $65,000 per year in rent for a modestapartment in a safe part of town. If that income were better taxed, it might provide therevenue for better infrastructure. If city leaders were more accountable to their residents, they might favour projects designed to help them more. Yet even as new roads are built, new people arrive. When a city's population grows by 5% a year, it is difficult to keepup.46. What do we learn from the passage about cities in sub-Saharan Africa?A) They have more slums than other cities in the world.B) They are growing fast without becoming richer.C) They are as modernised as many cities elsewhere.D) They attract migrants who want to be better off.47. What does the author imply about urbanisation in other parts of the world?A) It benefited from the contribution of immigrants.B) It started when people's income was relatively high.C) It benefited from the accelerated rise in productivity.D) It started with the improvement of peopled livelihood.48. Why is sub-Saharan Africa unappealing to investors?A) It lacks adequate transport facilities.B) The living expenses there are too high.C) It is on the whole too densely populated.D) The local governments are corrupted.49. In what way does the author say African cities are different?A) They have attracted huge numbers of farm labourers.B) They still rely heavily on agricultural productivity.C) They have developed at the expense of nature.D) They depend far more on foreign investment.50. What might be a solution to the problems facing African cities?A) Lowering of apartment rent.B) Better education for residents.C) More rational overall planning.D) A more responsible government.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.For the past several decades, it seems there's been a general consensus on how to getahead in America: Get a college education, find a reliable job, and buy your own home. But do Americans still believe in that path, and if they do, is it attainable?The most recent National Journal poll asked respondents about the American dream, what it takes to achieve their goals, and whether or not they felt a significant amount ofcontrol over their ability to be successful. Overwhelmingly, the results show that today， the idea of the American dream—and what it takes to achieve it—looks quite differentthan it did in the late 20th century.By and large, people felt that their actions and hard work—not outside forces—were thedeciding factor in how their lives turned out. But respondents had decidedly mixedfeelings aboutwhat actions make for a better life in the current economy.In the last seven years, Americans have grown more pessimistic about the power ofeducation to lead to success. Even though they see going to college as a fairly achievablegoal, a majority—52 percent—think that young people do not need a four-year collegeeducation in order to be successful.Miguel Maeda, 42, who has a master's degree and works in public health, was the first inhis family to go to college, which has allowed him to achieve a sense of financialstability his parents and grandparents never did.While some, like Maeda, emphasized the value of the degree rather than the educationitself, others still see college as a way to gain new perspectives and life experiences. Sixty-year-old Will Fendley, who had a successful career in the military and neverearned a college degree, thinks "personal drive" is far more important than just going tocollege. To Fendley, a sense of drive and purpose, as well as an effective high-schooleducation, and basic life skills, like balancing a checkbook, are the necessaryingredients for a successful life in America.51. It used to be commonly acknowledged that to succeed in America, one had to have .A) an advanced academic degreeB) an ambition to get aheadC) a firm belief in their dreamD) a sense of drive and purpose52. What is the finding of the latest National Journal poll concerning the Americandream?A) More and more Americans are finding it hard to realize.B) It remains alive among the majority of American people.C) Americans' idea of it has changed over the past fewdecades.D) An increasing number of young Americans are abandoning it.53. What do Americans now think of the role of college education in achieving success?A) It still remains open to debate.B) It has proved to be beyond doubt.C) It is no longer as important as it used to be.D) It is much better understood now than ever.54. How do some people view college education these days?A) It promotes gender equality.B) It needs to be strengthened.C) It adds to cultural diversity.D) It helps broaden their minds.55. What is one factor essential to success in America, according to Will Fendley?A) A desire to learn and to adapt.B) A strong sense of responsibility.C) A willingness to commit oneself.D) A clear aim and high motivation.Part IV Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chineseinto English. You should write your answer onAnswer Sheet 2.华山位于华阴市，据西安120公里。

大学英语四级考试COLLEGE ENGLISH TEST–Band Four–(2022.12-02)Part I Writing(30minutes) Directions:In this task,you are to write an essay on the importance of developing a healthy lifestyle among college students.You will have30minutes for the task.You should write at least120words but no more than180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension(25minutes) 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 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 Sheet1with a single line through the centre.Questions1and2are based on the news report you have just heard.1.A)A sports competition.B)A yearly concert.C)A free car show.D)A pipe band contest.2.A)Improve the image of Glasgow city.B)Enrich the local culture of Glasgow.C)Contribute a lot to the local economy.D)Entertain people in local communities.3.A)Surprising rise in global sea levels.B)Dangerous ice melts in Greenland.C)Changing weather patterns in summer.D)Record growth of Greenland's ice sheets.4.A)It began in late May.B)It lasted three months.C)It started a month earlier than usual.D)It ended a month earlier than before.Questions5to7are based on the news report you have just heard.5.A)Bundles of£20notes kept tuning up.B)A villager was searching for his lost cash.C)Local policemen came across bundles of£20notes.D)A bundle containing thousands of pounds got stolen.6.A)They give it to charity.B)They return it to the finder.C)They hand it over to the local government.D)They place a notice in The Northern Echo.7.A)They cooperated well with the police.B)They enjoyed a fairly affluent life.C)They were puzzled by the mystery.D)They had a strong community spirit.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 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 Sheet1with a single line through the centre.8.A)Excited.B)Delighted.C)Indifferent.D)Strange.9.A)Search for the meaning of their life.B)Look back on their years at school.C)Call on their relatives and friends.D)Talk about future plans with friends.10.A)He prefers to have them shown on social media.B)He loves them but does not want to make a fuss.C)He enjoys celebrating others’birthdays rather than his own.D)He looks forward to receiving presents from his close friends.11.A)Hold it on a modest scale to remove birthday anxieties.B)View it as a chance for people to socialize and have fun.C)Extend invitation to those he trusts most.D)Make it an occasion to collect donations.Questions12to15are based on the conversation you have just heard.12.A)It was absolutely exhausting.B)There was a terrible smell.C)There was too long a delay.D)She got off at the wrong station.13.A)She hasn’t saved enough money.B)She is worried about traffic jams.C)She hasn’t passed the driving test yet.D)She is used to taking public transport.14.A)They are popular.B)They are dangerous.C)They are a bit expensive for her.D)They are environmentally friendly.15.A)By bus.B)By Jogging.C)By renting a bike.D)By sharing a ride.Section CDirections:In this section,you will hear three passages.At the end of each passage,you will hear three 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 marked A),B),C)and D).Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet1with a single line through the centre.Questions16to18are based on the passage you have just heard.16.A)He is a sign language interpreter.B)He is a deaf person working in IT.C)He doesn’t like speaking at meetings.D)He doesn’t use email or text messages.17.A)Improved communication skills.B)Speech recognition technology.C)Big advances in sign language.D)Transformation in the IT industry.18.A)He can avoid being mistaken.B)He can take notes on the spot.C)He can understand with ease.D)He can see the speakers’images.Questions19to21are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A)To find pure white walls shining.B)To enter a house well looked after.C)To get a hug from family members.D)To see cheerful colours all around.20.A)Choosing a colour because it is fashionable.B)Painting the interior of their cupboards.C)Doing the painting job all by themselves.D)Designing all window frames the same way.21.A)Fit most of the cupboards into walls.B)Hang landscape paintings all around.C)Match the room’s ceiling with all the furniture in colour.D)Paint the wooden frameworks and walls the same colour. Questions22to25are based on the passage you have just heard.22.A)Children must read at least3times a week.B)Reading is a habit every child can develop.C)Reading to their children is important.D)Children should start reading at age3.23.A)The number of books they have read by age four.B)The speed of their brain development in infancy.C)The number and quality of books parents read to them in infancy.D)The quality and quantity of time parents spend playing with them.24.A)Books with specifically labeled images.B)Books with pictures of dolls and toys.C)Books describing the lives of animals.D)Books telling very interesting stories.25.A)Read as many books as possible to their children.B)Choose carefully what to read to their children.C)Share experience with other parents.D)Create picture books for their children.Part III Reading Comprehension(40minutes) 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 Sheet2with a single line through the centre.You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Phones influence all aspects of teenage life.Ninety-five percent of Americans ages13to17have a smartphone or have access to one,and nearly half report using the internet“almost26.”But as recent survey data and interviews have suggested,many teens find much of that time to be unsatisfyingly spent.Continuous27shouldn’t be mistaken for endless enjoyment.A new28 representative survey about“screen time and device distractions”from the Pew Research Center indicates that it’s not just parents who think teenagers are worryingly29from their phones–many teens themselves do too. Fifty-four percent of the13-to-17-year-olds surveyed said they spend too much time30in their phones.Vicky Rideout,who runs a research firm that studies children’s interactions with media and technology,was not surprised by this finding.She says it’s hardly31to teenagers.“They are dealing with the same challenges that adults are,as far as they are living in the32of a tech environment designed to suck as much of their time onto their devices as possible,”Rideout says.The ways parents interact with technology can33the way they interact with their kids.Rideout thus thinks it’s up to parents to model good34:Kids tend to take note if their parent put their phone away at dinner or charge it in another room while they sleep.Witnessing habits like that can help them“realize that they can35 some more control over their devices,”she says.A)absorbedB)addictedC)behaviorD)constantlyE)context F)exerciseG)inseparableH)nationallyI)recruitedJ)shapeK)solutionL)specificM)summaryN)usageO)vaguelySection 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 Sheet2.Evil GeniusA)A few years ago I found myself teaching a university class on evil.It was for third-year criminology students tohelp them contextualize theory and research within controversial current topics.It was a huge success.The debates were heated and interesting.I could see people’s views change within the course of a single lecture.Over the past13years,as a student,lecturer and researcher,I’ve enjoyed discussing the science of evil with anyone willing to listen.What I like most is destroying the clichés(陈词滥调)of good and evil,and replacing them with scientific insight.We need a more informed way of discussing behavior that at first we cannot,or should not,begin to understand.B)Without understanding,we risk dehumanizing others,writing off human beings simply because we don’tcomprehend them.We must try to understand what we have labelled evil.We tend to think evil is something that other people are.We think of ourselves as“good people”,and even when we do morally wrong things,we understand the context of our decisions.With others,however,it is far easier to write them off.If their actions deviate(偏离)substantially from what we consider acceptable,we may label them evil.We need to be careful with this.Calling someone evil is often similar to saying they cannot change,and perhaps aren’t even a human at all.However,when you actually go monster-hunting,and you look deeply at the people behind shocking behavior,you may be surprised.C)As a child I used to love the Scooby-Doo cartoons.Arriving in their“Mystery Machine”,the gang would haveto find a monster who was terrorizing a neighborhood.They would run around looking for clues and at the end unmask the bad guy.It was always a normal person in a costume.There were no monsters.Like the Scooby crew,we may find ourselves hunting for an easy fix,one word for people who do bad things.But if we take a good look,the word“evil”is insufficient–there are no simple explanations for why humans do bad things: instead there are many,and they are all marvelously different.D)Evil is typically referred to when there is deviance from social norms:formal deviance is the violation of laws,like theft,murder,and assault,while informal deviance involves violations of social norms,like lying.Evil behavior is typically thought to embrace one or both forms.However,deviance can also describe a behavior that simply differs from the norm.E)Perhaps this is where we can find the good side of our bad side.Deviating from the norm can make us villains(恶棍),but it can also make us heroes.A child deviates from social pressures when they stand up for another child being bullied in school.A soldier deviates when they choose not to follow orders to kill an innocent civilian.An employee in a big tech company deviates when they expose its wrongdoings.F)Creativity is also a deviation.Here,too,things are complex.Thinking creatively has given us modern medicine,technology and modern political structures,but it has also given us poison and nuclear weapons.Great benefit and great harm can come from the same human tendency.G)In a research paper,Evil Genius,published in2014,the behavioral scientists Francesca Gino and ScottWiltermuth wanted to examine whether people who behave unethically in one task are more creative than others on a subsequent task,even after controlling for differences in baseline creative skills.The unethical behavior they chose was dishonesty.H)Over five experiments researchers gave participants tasks in which they could cheat.In one study,they weregiven matrixes(矩阵)and had to find two numbers that added up to10.Participants were asked to self-report how well they did at the end of the study:59%cheated by saying that they solved more matrixes than they actually had.I)After each task,the researchers measured participants’performance on the Remote Associates Test.This showsparticipants three words at a time that appear to be unrelated,and the person has to think of a fourth word that is associated with all of them.For example,you might get“Fox,Man,Peep”,or“Dust,Cereal,Fish”.In order to find the linking words(“Hole”for the first,“Bowl”for the second)you need to be creative.The more you get right,the more creative you are thought to be because you have come up with uncommon associations.J)For every one of the five studies,they found the same thing–participants who cheated in the first task did better on the creativity task.Why?Like other forms of unethical behavior,lying means breaking rules.It involves being deviant,going against the social principle that people should tell the truth.Similarly,being creative involves“thinking outside the box”,deviating from expectations.They involve similar thought patterns,so stimulating one stimulates the other.Can we learn from this?Perhaps.To be more creative,wecould try lying in controlled environment.Find online logic games and cheat at them,play Scrabble(拼字游戏) with a dictionary,or write a story about something that is untrue?Such tasks can get our brains thinking flexibly,beyond our normal comfort zone.This is not a call to become a compulsive(强迫性的)liar,but a controlled liar.K)In addition to benefits for creativity,deviance can be a good thing in other ways.Even Philip Zimbardo,the author of the Stanford prison experiment,who showed how easily we can be led to behave badly,believes that the future of deviance research may lie more in understanding extreme pro-social behavior,such as heroism.Like evil,we often view heroism as only a possibility for outliers–for people who are abnormal.But Zimbardo asks:“What if the capability to act heroically is also fundamentally ordinary and available to all of us?”Some say we should never meet our heroes,lest they disappoint us when we find out how normal they are.But this should be liberating,not disappointing.We are all capable of behaving like outliers.It’s time for us to understand deviance,and realize its potential for good as well as harm.36.A behavior that does not conform to social norms may be described as being deviant.37.Various experiments found that participants who cheated in the initial task performed better in the creativitytest.38.People may be simply considered evil if their behaviors are morally unacceptable to us.39.The research published by two scientists was intended to examine the relationship between dishonesty andcreativity,40.The author’s lectures sparked lively discussions in his class.41.The researchers tested the participants’creativity by asking them to play a word game.42.It is time we realized that deviance may be capable of doing both good and harm to individuals and society.43.The reasons for people’s evil behaviors can be explained in more ways than one.44.The math task in one experiment was designed to test participants’tendency to cheat.45.Some creative ideas have turned out to do harm to human society.Section CDirections:There are2passages 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 Sheet2with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions46to50are based on the following passage.Even though we are living in an age where growing old is thought of as an inevitable misery,this doctor has been changing the game for seniors over the last25years.It all started in1991when the Harvard-educated physician was transferred from working in a stressful emergency room to being the medical director of a nursing home in upstate New York.The depressing and regimented(严格管制的)environment got him thinking on what exactly could improve the residents’conditions.Even though animals in nursing homes were illegal at the time,Dr.Bill Thomas took a chance.Based on a hunch(直觉),he brought in two dogs,four cats,hens,rabbits,100birds,a multitude of plants,a flower garden,and a vegetable patch.The change was dramatic.There was a50%drop in medical prescriptions along with a dramatic decrease in death rates–but most importantly,the residents were simply happier.Dr.Thomas’s approach,named the Eden Alternative,has driven nursing homes to allow a more autonomous (自主的)and creative living space for their elderly.It erases the belief that growing old means growing useless.He encourages residents to think of their age as an enriching new phase of life rather than the end of it.Thomas,now a speaker and author of several books,also created small,independently-run residences with their own bedrooms and bathrooms,and he has been preaching a singular message that getting old is not a bad thing.“Within six weeks,they had to send a truck around to pick up all the wheelchairs,”Thomas told the Washington Post.“You know why most people in nursing homes use wheelchairs?Because the buildings are so big.”The56-year-old doctor’s methods have been adopted in Australia,Japan,Canada,and America with enormous st year he published Second Wind:Navigating the Passage to a Slower,Deeper,and More Connected Life,a guide on how to shift our perspectives on aging and growth.He is currently traveling through North America performing with his guitar and his enthusiasm on his Age of Disruption Tour.46.What has Bill Thomas been doing for a quarter of a century?A)Transforming people’s lifestyle.B)Honoring his Harvard education.C)Changing people’s philosophy of life.D)Shifting people’s perspective on aging.47.Why did Bill Thomas try something different in the nursing home?A)He wanted to make it more pleasant for seniors.B)He wanted to apply his Harvard training to practice.C)He felt it his duty to revolutionize its management.D)He felt disappointed working in the environment.48.What do we learn about Bill Thomas bringing animals and plants into the nursing home?A)He made a mess of the nursing home.B)He did something all professionals would do.C)He won instant support from the state authorities.D)He acted in violation of the state law.49.What has Bill Thomas been persistently advocating?A)Good health is not just a privilege of the young.B)Nursing homes should be strictly limited in size.C)Getting old is by no means something miserable.D)Residences for seniors should be run independently.50.How will Bill Thomas’s new concept received?A)It is gaining ground in many countries.B)It is being heatedly debated worldwide.C)It is considered revolutionary everywhere.D)It is winning approval from the government.Passage TwoQuestions51to55are based on the following passage.Research shows that in developed countries,more affluent and educated people tend to consume higher quality diets–including more fruits and vegetables,fish and whole grains.On the contrary,economically disadvantaged people report diets that are nutrient-poor and energy-dense.They are less likely to havefood-purchasing habits that conform to public health recommendations.These dietary differences are often accompanied by higher rates of obesity and diabetes among lower-income people.This relationship between social class and diet quality and health is extensively documented.However,the research does not explain why this is the case–a question that has significant implications for designing effective policies and initiatives to improve diets and prevent chronic diseases.Public-health initiatives to promote healthy diets often focus on providing nutrition education and recipes(食谱).These approaches,however,often presume less food literacy(i.e.food knowledge and skills)among low-income people.Are unhealthy diets really the result of poor choices,limited food skills and knowledge?Research suggests that adults in food-insecure households are just as likely as those in food-secure households to adjust recipes to make them more healthy.They are also just as proficient in food preparation and cooking skills. There is no indication that increasing food skills or budgeting skills will reduce food insecurity.Instead,disadvantaged groups are constrained by their economic,material and social circumstances.For example,low income is the strongest predictor of food insecurity in Canada,where one in eight households experiences insufficient access to nutritious foods.It’s well-established that food prices are an important determinant of food choice.Low-income households report that they find it difficult to adopt dietary guidelines because food prices are a barrier to improving their diets.When researchers estimate the cost of diets people actually eat,higher-quality diets are typically more costly.While this may be so,it does not,in itself,prove that healthy diets are necessarily more expensive or cost-prohibitive.After all,not all socioeconomically disadvantaged people consume poor diets.We can easily think of a number of foods and recipes that are both inexpensive and nutritious.The internet is full of recipes for“eating well on a budget.”51.What can we learn from research on diets in developed countries?A)Dietary recommendations are not fit for underprivileged people.B)People from different social groups vary in their dietary habits.C)People’s choice of food depends on their individual taste.D)There is no consensus on what high-quality diets are.52.What does the author say is important in formulating policies to improve diets and health?A)A better understanding of the relationship between social class and health.B)A greater emphasis on studying the cause of obesity and chronic diseases.C)Prioritizing the provision of better nutrition for lower classes.D)Designing education programs and initiatives on public health.53.What does research reveal about adults in food-insecure households?A)Their eating habits need to be changed.B)Their food literacy has been improving.C)They do not pay much attention to their food recipes.D)They do not lack food knowledge or budgeting skills.54.What would help improve food security among the disadvantaged groups in Canada?A)Teaching them budgeting skills.B)Increasing their food choices.C)Enabling them to have more access to nutritious foods.D)Taking more effective measures to increase food supplies.55.What does the author suggest disadvantaged people do to improve their health?A)Adopt a positive attitude towards dietary guidelines.B)Choose diets that are both healthy and affordable.C)Make sure to purchase healthy foods on the internet.D)Change their eating habits and consumption patterns.Part IV Translation(30minutes) Directions:For this part,you are allowed30minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.You shouldwrite your answer on Answer Sheet2.在中国农历中，立秋（Start of Autumn）意味着夏天的结束和秋天的开始。

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。

2014 年12 月英语四级考试真题试卷（1）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay about a classmate of yours who has influenced you most in college. You should state the reasons and 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 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.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡 1 上作答。

2014年12月大学英语四级考试真题及答案（第一套）Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage。

The rise of the Internet has been one of the most transformative developments in human history, comparable in impact to the invention of the printing press and the telegraph。

Over two billion people worldwide now have access to vastly more information than ever before, and can communicate with each other instantly , often using Web—connected mobile devices they carry everywhere。

But the Internet’s tremendous impact has only just begun。

"Mass adoption of the Internet is driving one of the most exciting social, cultural，and political transformations in history，and unlike earlier periods of change, this time the effects are fully global，" Schmidt and Cohen write in their new book The New Digital Age.Perhaps the most profound changes will come when the five billion people worldwide who currently lack Internet access get online。

2013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 a short essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief account of the impact of the Internet on learning and then explain why education doesn’t simply mean learning to obtain information. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.“Once I learn how to use Google, isn’t that all the education I really need?”Part II Listening prehension （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）Go to a place he has visited.B）Make her own arrangements.C）Consult a travel agent.D）Join in a package tour.2. A）They are on a long trip by car. C）They are used to getting up early.B）They are stuck in a traffic jam. D）They are tired of eating out at night.3. A）He is a person difficult to deal with.C）He is unwilling to speak in public. B）He dislikes any formal gathering.D）He often keeps a distance from others.4. A）Work in another department. C）Recruit graduate students.B）Pursue further education. D）Take an administrative job.5.A）He would not be available to start the job in time.B）He is not quite qualified for the art director position.C）He would like to leave some more time for himself.D）He will get his application letter ready before May 1.6. A）Cleaner. C）Porter.B）Mechanic. D）Salesman.7. A）Request one or two roommates to do the cleaning.B）Help Laura with her term paper due this weekend.C）Get Laura to clean the apartment herself this time.D）Ask Laura to put off the cleaning until another week.8. A）A problem caused by the construction.B）An accident that occurred on the bridge.C）The building project they are working on.D）The public transportation conditions.Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9. A）To look for a job as a salesperson. C）To place an order for some products. B）To have a talk with Miss Thompson. D）To plain about a faulty appliance. 10. A）The person in charge is not in the office.B）The supplies are out of stock for the moment.C）They failed to reach an agreement on the price.D）The pany is re-cataloguing the items.11. A）0743, 12536 extension 15. C）0734, 38750 extension 15.B）0734, 21653 extension 51. D）0743, 62135 extension 51.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A）Since he found a girlfriend. C）Since he began to exercise regularly.B）Since he took to heavy smoking. D）Since he started to live on his own. 13. A）He is getting too fat. C）He doesn’t eat vegetables.B）He smokes too much. D）He doesn’t look well at all.14. A）They are overweight for their age. C）They are still in their early twenties. B）They are respectful to their parents. D）They dislike doing physical exercise.15. A）To quit smoking. C）To find a girlfriend.B）To reduce his weight. D）To follow her advice.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 OneQuestions 16 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A）They have destroyed several small towns. C）They have injured many residents.B）They will soon spread to San Francisco. D）They are burning out of control.17. A）They have been hospitalized.B）They have got skin problems.C）They were choked by the thick smoke.D）They were poisoned by the burning chemicals.18. A）It failed because of a sudden rocket explosion.B）It has been re-scheduled for a midday takeoff.C）It has been canceled due to technical problems.D）It was delayed for eleven hours and thirty minutes.19. A）They made frequent long-distance calls to each other. B）They illegally used government puters in New Jersey.C）They were found to be smarter than puter specialists.D）They were arrested for stealing government information.Passage TwoQuestions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.20. A）Peaceful. C）Generous.B）Considerate. D）Cooperative.21.A）Someone dumped the clothes left in the washer and dryer. B）Someone broke the washer and dryer by overloading them. C）Mindy Lance’s laundry blocked the way to the laundry room. D）Mindy Lance threatened to take revenge on her neighbors. 22. A）Asking the neighborhood mittee for help.B）Limiting the amount of laundry for each wash.C）Informing the building manager of the matter.D）Installing a few more washers and dryers.Passage ThreeQuestions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.23. A）She is both a popular and highly respected author.B）She is the most loved African novelist of all times.C）She is the most influential author since the 1930’s.D）She is the first writer to focus on the fate of slaves.24. A）The Book Critics Circle Award. C）The Pulitzer Prize for fiction.B）The Nobel Prize for literature. D）The National Book Award.25. A）She is a relative of Morrison’s. C）She is a skilled storyteller.B）She is a slave from Africa. D）She is a black woman.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.Many college students today own personal puters that cost anywhere from $1,000 to perhaps $5,000 or more. （26）__________, it is not unmon for them topurchase （27）__________ costing another several hundred dollars. Twenty years ago, puters were （28）__________, but they were very large and extremely expensive. Few, if any, （29）__________ purchased puters for home use. Over the years, the price of the “guts”of a puter—its memory—has declined to less than a thousandth of the price per unit of memory that prevailed twenty years ago. This is the main reason why puters cost so much less today than they used to. Moreover, （30）__________ improvements have made it possible to （31）__________ memory circuitry that is small enough to fit into the portable personal puters that many of us own and use. （32）__________, as the price of putation has declined the average consumer and business have spent more on purchasing puters.（33）__________, improved agricultural technology, hybrid （杂交）seeds, （34）__________ animal breeding, and so on have vastly increased the amount of output a typical farmer can produce. The prices of goods such as meats and grains have fallen sharply relative to the prices of most other goods and services. As agricultural prices have fallen, many households have decreased their total expenses on food. Even though the （35）__________ of a product purchased generally increases when its price falls, total expenses on it may decline.Part III Reading prehension （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 followingthe passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.What does it take to be a well-trained nurse? The answer used to be two-year associate’s or four-year bachelor’s degree programs. But as the nursing shortage ___36___, a growing number of schools and hospitals are establishing “fast-track programs”that enable college graduates with no nursing ___37___ to bee registered nurses with only a year or so of ___38___ training.In 1991, there were only 40 fast-track curricula; now there are more than 200. Typical is Columbia University’s Entry to Practice program. Students earn their bachelor of science in nursing in a year. Those who stay on for an ___39___ two years can earn a master’s degree that ___40___ them as nurse practitioners （执业护士）or clinical nurse specialists.Many students are recent ___41___; others are career switchers. Rudy Guardron, 32, a 2004 graduate of Columbia’s program, was a premedical student in college and then worked for a pharmaceutical （药物的）research pany. At Columbia, he was ___42___ as a nurse practitioner. “I saw that nurses were in high ___43___ and it looked like a really good opportunity,”he says. “Also, I didn’t want to be in school for that long.”The fast-track trend fills a need, but it’s also creating some___44___ between newers and veterans. “Nurses that are still at the bedside ___45___ these kids with suspicion,”says Linda Pellico, who has taught nursing at Yale University for 18 years. “They wonder, how can they do it quicker?”The answer is they don’t.A）additional I）promoteB）applied J）qualifiesC）demand K）specializedD）excessive L）tensionE）experience M）trainedF）explores N）viewG）graduatesO）worsensH）operationsSection 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.The rise of the sharing economyA）Last night 40,000 people rented acmodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, co-ordinated via the internet.B）You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast （家庭旅店）, owning a timeshare （分时度假房）or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever —and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the internet, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, RelayRides and SnapGoods match up owners and renters; smartphones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing.What’s mine is yours, for a feeC）Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to bee a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc （临时的）taxi service, car-hire firm or boutiquehotel （精品酒店）as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps （胜过）ownership.D）Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid （电网）. And it is not just individuals; the web makes it easier for panies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other.E）Such “collaborative （合作的）consumption”is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $9,300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using RelayRides make an average of $250 a month; some make more than $1,000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them.F）For sociable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of thecharm. Curmudgeons （倔脾气的人）who imagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends （or friends of friends）in mon. An Airbnb user had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works.Peering into the futureG）The sharing economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successful purchase from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay. Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated by professional “power sellers”（many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users）. The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise. Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example.H）Existing rental businesses are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in a sharing rival. So do GM and Daimler, two carmakers. In future, panies may develop hybrid （混合的）models, listing excess capacity （whether vehicles, equipment or office space）on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways ofdoing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more.I）The main worry is regulatory uncertainty. Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy petition. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate.J）The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet’s value to consumers. This emerging model is now big and disruptive （颠覆性的）enough for regulators and panies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.46. Sharing items such as cars does good to the environment.47.Airbnb’s success clearly illustrates the emergence of a huge sharing economy.48. The major concern about the sharing economy is how the government regulates it.49. The most frequently shared items are those expensive to buy but not fully used.50. The sharing economy has a promising future.51. Online sharing will change the way business is done in transportation, travel, rentals, etc.52. Airbnb is a website that enables owners and renters to plete transactions online.53. The sharing economy is likely to go the way of online shopping.54. One advantage of sharing is that owners earn money from renting out items not made full use of.55. Sharing appeals to the sociable in that they can meet new people.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.In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV （or a similar distraction）can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Evensimple visual cues, like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people’s hunger levels were predicted not by how much they’d eaten but rather by how much food they’d seen in front of them —in other words, how much they remembered eating.This disparity （差异）suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol.“Hunger isn’t controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal,”Brunstrom says. “This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake is more plex than we thought.”These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body’s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie（卡路里）milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones （荷尔蒙）, depending on whether the shake’s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they’d consumed a higher-calorie shake.What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less, the new findings do highlight the benefits offocusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control our appetite, Brunstrom says.56. What is said to be a factor affecting our appetite and food intake?A）How we perceive the food we eat. C）When we eat our meals.B）What ingredients the food contains. D）How fast we eat our meals.57. What would happen at meal time if you remembered eating a lot in the previous meal?A）You would probably be more picky about food. C）You would have a good appetite.B）You would not feel like eating the same food. D）You would not feel so hungry.58. What do we learn from the 2011 study?A）Food labels may mislead consumers in their purchases.B）Food labels may influence our body’s response to food.C）Hunger levels depend on one’s consumption of calories.D）People tend to take in a lot more calories than necessary.59. What does Brunstrom suggest we do to control our appetite?A）Trick ourselves into eating less. C）Concentrate on food while eating.B）Choose food with fewer calories. D）Pick dishes of the right size.60. What is the main idea of the passage?A）Eating distractions often affect our food digestion.B）Psychological factors influence our hunger levels.C）Our food intake is determined by our biological needs.D）Good eating habits will contribute to our health.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.As a society we might want to rethink the time and money spent on education, so that these resources can benefit a greater percentage of the population. Ideally, both high schools and colleges can prepare individuals for the ever-changing roles that are likely to be expected of them.High school degrees offer far less in the way of preparation for work than they might, or than many other nations currently offer, creating a growing skills gap in our economy. We encourage students to go on to college whether they are prepared or not, or have a clear sense of purpose or interest, and now have the highest college dropout rate in the world.We might look to other countries for models of how high schools can offer better training, as well as the development of a work ethic （勤奋工作的美德）and the intellectual skills needed for continued learning and development. I remend Harvard’s 2011 “Pathways to Prosperity”report for more attention to the “forgotten half”（those who do not go on to college）and ideas about how to address this issue.Simultaneously, the liberal arts bee more important than ever. In a knowledgeeconomy where professional roles change rapidly and many college students are preparing for positions that may not even exist yet, the skill set needed is one that prepares them for change and continued learning.Learning to express ideas well in both writing and speech, knowing how to find information, and knowing how to do research are all solid background skills for a wide variety of roles, and such training is more important than any particular major in a liberal arts college. We need to continue to value broad preparation in thinking skills that will serve for a lifetime.Students also need to learn to work independently and to make responsible decisions. The lengthening path to adulthood appears exacerbated （恶化）by parental involvement in the college years. Given the rising investment in college education, parental concern is not surprising, but learning where and when to intervene （干预）will help students take more ownership of the outes of these increasingly costly educations.61. What kind of education does the author think is ideal?A）It benefits the great majority of the general population.B）It prepares students to meet the future needs of society.C）It encourages students to learn throughout their lives.D）It ensures that students’expectations are successfully fulfilled.62. What does the author say is the problem with present high school education? A）Ignoring the needs of those who don’t go to college.B）Teaching skills to be used right after graduation only.C）Giving little attention to those having difficulty learning.D）Creating the highest dropout rate in the developed world.63. What characterizes a knowledge economy according to the passage?A）People have to receive higher education to qualify for a professional position. B）Students majoring in liberal arts usually have difficulty securing a job.C）New positions are constantly created that require people to keep learning. D）Colleges find it hard to teach students how to cope with the changing economy.64. What does the author think a liberal arts college should focus on?A）Solid background knowledge in a particular field.B）Practical skills urgently needed in current society.C）Basic skills needed for change and lifelong learning.D）Useful thinking skills for advanced academic research.65. What suggestion does the author offer to parents?A）Rethinking the value of higher education.B）Investing wisely in their children’s education.C）Helping their children to bring their talent into full play.D）Avoiding too much intervention in their children’s education.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.中国结（the Chinese knot）最初是由手工艺人发明的，经过数百年不断的改进，已经成为一种优雅多彩的艺术和工艺。

2024年6月大学英语四级考试真题和答案（第2套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: Suppose your university is seeking students’ opinions on whether university sports facilities should be open to the public. You are now to write an essay to express your view. You will have 30 minutes for the task. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.PartⅡ Listening 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 the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A）, B), C) and D).Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A) It hit a bird shortly after takeoff.B) Its crew members went on strike.C) It narrowly escaped a plane crash when turning around.D) Its captain got slightly injured during the forced landing.2. A) Panic.B) Nervous.C) Relieved.D) Contented.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A) He is now kept in a secure area.B) He has escaped the zoo once again.C) He has been caught a second time.D) He finally disappeared six days ago.4. A) Squeezed.B) Threatened.C) Disappointed.D) Frustrated.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A) It is condemned as a crazy idea.B) It is enriching the city’s night life.C) It is questioned by local residents.D) It is giving rise to safety concerns.6. A) Avoid entering one-way streets.B) Ensure the safety of pedestrians.C) Follow all the traffic rules drivers do.D) Give way to automobiles at all times.7. A) To ease the city’s busy traffic.B) To bring new life into the city.C) To add a new means of transport.D) To reduce the city’s air pollution.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 only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A），B），C)and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) Take it seriously.B) Discuss it regularly.C) Make it sound scary.D) Talk about it openly.9. A) By shopping around for the best deals.B) By making abstract sums relevant.C) By citing concrete examples.D) By visiting discount stores.10. A) Paying their kids to help with housework.B) Setting kids a good example by sharing chores.C) Giving kids pocket money according to their needs.D) Urging kids to deposit some of their gift money.11. A) The importance of cutting down family expenses.B) The need to learn important lessons from her elders.C) The delight in seeing their savings grow.D) The necessity of saving into a pension.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) He is a successful businessman.B) He reviews books on political affairs.C) He has published a new bestseller.D) He has worked in several banks.13. A) The man’s ideas about education.B) The man’s academic background.C) The man’s attempts at drawing public attention.D) The man’s proposals to solve economic problems.14. A) To reduce students’ financial burden.B) To motivate all students to be successful.C) To give students incentive to excel in economics.D) To provide remedies for students’ poor performance.15. A) Improving school budgeting.B) Increasing tuition fees.C) Seeking donations.D) Raising taxes.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three 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 marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) To show his sympathy towards people always being busy.B) To prevent people from complaining about being “busy”.C) To call on busy people to take care of themselves.D) To help busy people to sort out their priorities.17. A) Avoid saying we are busy.B) Reflect on their true purpose.C) Describe our schedule in detail.D) Respond as most busy people do.18. A) To show their achievements resulted from great efforts.B) To prove they stand out as accomplished professionals.C) To cover up their failure to achieve some purpose.D) To tell others a complete lie about their inability.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) They will help one reduce fear.B) They should become so popular.C) They will be less challenging after a time.D) They should cover so many different types.20. A) To break one’s ultimate limits.B) To stop being extremely afraid.C) To avoid dangerous mistakes.D) To enjoy the sports to the full.21. A) By allowing our motivation to be at an all-time high.B) By stopping us hurting the same muscles repeatedly.C) By burning as many as 300 calories per hour.D) By enabling us to get an all-over workout.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) It is natural.B) It is instrumental.C) It is personal.D) It is vital.23. A) To guard against being perceived negatively.B) To prevent themselves from being isolated.C) To conceal personality preferences.D) To maintain workplace harmony.24. A) It helps to enhance team spirit.B) It stimulates innovative ideas.C) It helps to resolve problems.D) It facilitates policy-making.25. A) An innovative mind.B) Corporate culture.C) Mutual trust.D) A healthy mentality.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 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 centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once．A team of researchers led by Priyanka Joshi examined the degree to which men and women relied on “communicative abstraction” to verbally convey their ideas and emotions. Communicative abstraction, according to the researchers, reflects the tendency of people to use “abstract speech that focuses on the broader picture and____26____purpose of action rather than concrete speech focusing on details and the meansof____27____action.” Interestingly, they found that men were far more likely to speak in the abstract than were women.To arrive at this____28____, the researchers examined the linguistic (语言的) patterns of men and women in over 600,000 blog posts written on websites. To do this, the researchers computed abstractness ratings for____29____40,000 commonly used words in the English language. Words considered to be concrete could be easily visualized, such as “table”or “chair”. Words that were more____30____to visualize, for example, “justice” or “morality” were considered to be more abstract. They found that men used____31____more abstract language in their blog posts.What is the____32____of this effect? The researchers suggest that power differences between the genders— that is, men having more power in society—might be a key determinant(决定因素). For instance, in a follow-up study conducted with a sample of 300 students, the researchers____33____power dynamics in an interpersonal setting to see if this would influence communicative abstraction. They found that participants in a high-power interviewer role were more likely to give abstract descriptions of behaviors than were participants in a low-power interviewee role. This suggests that communicating more abstractly does not reflect a____34____tendency of men or women butrather____35____within specific contexts.A) approximatelyB) attainingC) conclusionD) difficultE) emergesF) fixedG) ignoredH) legallyI) manipulatedJ) recommendedK) refrainingL) signalsM) significantlyN) sourceO) ultimateSection 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 better work towards long-term goalsA) Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, wanted to know why people weren’t saving for retirement. Across the board, people are living longer. Logically, they’ll need more money to live comfortably in their post-work years. And yet, savings rates in the U.S. have gone down in recent decades, not up.B) To help explain this seemingly irrational behavior, Hershfield and his team scanned the brains of study participants while asking them to what degree various traits (特征)—like “honorable” or “funny”—applied to their current self, their future self, a current other, or a futureother. As participants answered, Hershfield’s team recorded which parts of their brains lit up. Unsurprisingly, people’s brains were most active when thinking about their current selves and least active when thinking about a current other. But the team found that participants’ brain activity while considering their future selves more closely resembled their brain activity while thinking about a current other rather than the current self.C) Put in practical terms, when thinking of yourself in a month or a year or a decade, your brain registers that person in ways similar to how it would register Taylor Swift or the mailman. Understood in that way, saving for retirement is the equivalent of giving money away to someone else entirely.D) In light of Hershfield’s study, one simple question arises: Is it possible to make our present selves give a damn about our future selves? The answers are anything but simple.E) Seen through the lens of the present self versus the future self, our self-defeating actions—like choosing to watch television rather than go to the gym—suddenly make perfect sense. We get to enjoy the very concrete, immediate benefits of our actions while someone else (namely, our future selves) suffers the hypothetical(假设的), far-off consequences. As a result, the decisions we make for our present selves often look very different from our decisions for our future selves. We believe that tomorrow will be different. We believe that we will be different tomorrow; but in doing so, we prioritize our current mood over the consequences of our inaction for the future self.F) Understanding our procrastination (拖延) through the lens of the present and future selves, we’re left with three possible solutions: The first is to force your future self to do whatever your present self doesn’t want to do. The second is to convince your present self that your future self is, in fact, still you. If the central problem is that we think of our future selves as other people, it follows that trying to identify more closely with our future selves will encourage us to make better long-term decisions.G) In a follow-up study, Hershfield wanted to explore ways to bridge the disconnect between the present and future selves and encourage people to save more for retirement. He and his team took photos of study participants, and then used image processing to visually age their faces. Participants were then placed in a virtual reality setting where they could look into a mirror and see their aged selves looking back at them. Participants who saw their aged selves said they would save 30% more of their salary for retirement than the control group.H) Whatever your long-term goals may be—getting in better shape, launching your own business, writing a book—thinking about your deadline in terms of days rather than months or years can help you wrap your mindaround how close the future really is.I) The third solution is to forget about your future self and use your present self’s love of instant gratification (满足感) to your advantage. While the two tactics (手段) above can be effective in making better long-term choices, in the end, you’re still struggling against human nature. Our brains are hard-wired for instant gratification. Instead of fighting your present self’s need for immediate rewards, why not use it to your advantage? When most of us set goals, we focus on long-term results we want to see—e.g., losing weight, getting a promotion, retiring in comfort, etc. While those visions of our future selves can be inspiring, when it comes to actually doing the day-to-day work, it may be more effective to reframe activities in terms of their immediate, or at least very near-term, rewards.J) Take writing this article, for instance. It’s easy for me to imagine how amazing it will feel at the end of the workday to have this article done. This isn’t just my opinion. Research partners Kaitlin Woolley of Cornell University and Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago have made a career out of studying the differences between the goals that people achieve and the ones that fall to the wayside.K) “In one study, we asked people online about the goals they set at the beginning of the year. Most people set goals to achieve delayed, long-term benefits, such as career advancement, debt repayment, or improved health. We asked these individuals how enjoyable it was to pursue their goal, as well as how important their goal was. We also asked whether they were still working on their goals two months after setting them. We found that enjoyment predicted people’s goal persistence two months after setting the goal far more than how important they rated their goal to be,” Woolley said.L) This pattern held true across a wide variety of goals from exercising to studying to eating healthier foods. For example, people ate 50% more of a healthy food when directed to focus on the good taste rather than the long-term health benefits. Other studies have shown a greater uptake of exercise in people who were told to think of the enjoyment of doing the exercise now rather than future health gains.M) These findings suggest that when it comes to achieving your goals, enjoying the process itself is more important than wanting the long-term benefits. In other words, present self trumps (战胜) future self. Who says instant gratification has to be a bad thing? By all means, set ambitious long-term goals for your future self, but when it comes to actually following through day-to-day, make sure your present self knows what’s in it for her too.36. Our brains are genetically determined to satisfy immediate desires.37. Taken in a practical way, saving for post-work years is like givingmoney away to others.38. Research found that, as regards achievement of one’s goals, it is important to focus more on enjoying the process than the long-term benefits.39. Regarding our future selves as still being ourselves will help us make better long-term decisions.40. Savings rates in America have dropped in recent decades even though people’s life expectancy has increased.41. Researchers found that enjoyment rather than importance enabled people to persist in their goals.42. When making decisions, we give priority to our current frame of mind without thinking much of the consequences.43. People ate more of a healthy food when they focused on its good taste instead of its longterm benefits.44. As was expected, when people thought of their present selves, their brains were observed to become more active.45. Researchers found that participants who saw the images of their aged selves would save more for their later years than those who didn’t.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 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.People often wonder why some entrepreneurs have greater success than others. Is it habits, connections, luck, work ethic or any other behavior?I believe the key to success is willpower. Willpower is the ability to control yourself. It is a strong determination that allows you to do something difficult. It is a behavior we are born with more than one we learn; however, it is possible to not only learn it, but also strengthen it with constant exercise.Willpower is just like a muscle; to keep it strong you need to constantly exercise it. People with a great amount of willpower have the discipline to develop positive, successful habits. Even with an incredible amount of talent, without the discipline and motivation to create positive habits, it can be difficult to achieve success.Willpower and habits go hand in hand. It is critical to create good habits and take the actions necessary to stick to those habits day in and day out for greater success. Almost half of our daily actions are part of our habits and not decisions, so once the correct habits are in place,you will automatically perform those tasks on a day-today basis.The best way to create and stick to a habit is to have strong motivation. It’s easier to change your habits to lose weight if you have a health issue and you want to be around longer for your kids, or if your business is something you’re passionate about. Having a valuable outcome associated with a habit will help you stick to that habit permanently.The art of self-control is one that most successful individuals have mastered. Self-control enables you to avoid behaviors that don’t contribute to your success and adopt those that do.Because there is a delayed satisfaction associated with self-control, it can be easy to get off track. However, if you work on sticking to those small positive habits one day at a time, it becomes easier to stay strong and achieve that delayed reward. Once a reward is achieved, it is much easier to continue sticking to your habits.46. What does the author say we need to do to strengthen our willpower?A) Keep it under control.B) Apply it continuously.C) Learn from entrepreneurs.D) Aim at success determinedly.47. How are almost half of our daily actions performed according to the passage?A) Out of habit.B) With determination.C) Like muscle building.D) By self-discipline.48. What will help people stick to doing something constructive automatically?A) Practising it on a day-to-day basis.B) Associating it with improving health.C) Possessing a reasonable amount of talent.D) Foreseeing the desired outcome it will yield.49. How does the art of self-control help us succeed?A) By allowing us to remain clear-headed permanently.B) By enabling us to alter our behaviors constantly.C) By enabling us to take positive actions.D) By allowing us to avoid taking risks.50. Why can it be difficult for us to maintain self-control?A) Most of us are not in the habit of exercising self-control.B) We may not get immediate rewards from self-control.C) Self-control tends to be associated with pains.D) Self-control only brings about small benefits.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Today, most scientific research is funded by government grants, companies doing research and development, and non-profit foundations. As a society, we reap the rewards from this science, but we also help pay for it. You indirectly support science through taxes you pay, products and services you purchase, and donations you make.Funding for science has changed with the times. Historically, science has been largely supported through private patronage (资助), church sponsorship, or simply paying for the research yourself. Today, researchers are likely to be funded by a mix of grants from various government agencies, institutions, and foundations. Other research is funded by private companies. Such corporate sponsorship is widespread in some fields. Almost 75% of U.S. clinical trials in medicine are paid for by private companies. And, of course, some researchers today still fund small-scale studies out of their own pockets. Most of us can’t afford to do nuclear research as a private hobby, but birdwatchers, rock collectors, and others can do real research on a limited budget.In a perfect world, money wouldn’t matter—all scientific studies would be completely objective. But in the real world, funding may introduce biases. Drug research sponsored by the pharmaceutical (制药的) industry is more likely to end up favoring the drug under consideration than studies sponsored by government grants or charitable organizations. Similarly, nutrition research sponsored by the food industry is more likely to end up favoring the food under consideration than independently funded research.So what should we make of all this? Should we ignore any research funded by companies or special interest groups? Certainly not. These groups provide invaluable funding for scientific research. Furthermore, science has many safeguards in place to catch instances of bias that affect research outcomes. Ultimately, misleading results will be corrected as science proceeds; however, this process takes time. Meanwhile, it pays to examine studies funded by industry or special interest groups with extra care. Are the results consistent with other independently funded studies? What do other scientists have to say about this research? A little examination can go a long way towards identifying bias associated with the funding source.51. What does the passage mainly discuss regarding scientific research?A) Its foundation.B) Its rewards.C) Its prospect.D) Its funding.52. What do we learn from the passage about researchers like birdwatchers and rock collectors?A) They have little access to government funding.B) They can do research with limited resources.C) They can do amateur work in their own fields.D) They have no means for large-scale research.53. What would scientific studies look like in a perfect world according to the author?A) They would be totally unbiased.B) They would be independently funded.C) They would be responsibly conducted.D) They would be strictly supervised.54. What does the author say about companies and special interest groups?A) They try hard to pull down the safeguards for research.B) They make extra efforts to research their own products.C) They provide valuable resources for scientific research.D) They reap the most benefits from scientific research.55. What does the author think of research funded by industry or special interest groups?A) Its recommendations should be examined for feasibility.B) Its misleading results should be corrected in time.C) Its validity should be checked with additional care.D) Its hidden biases should be identified independently.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.农历（the lunar calendar）起源于数千年前的中国，根据太阳和月亮的运行规律制定。