2017年12月大学英语四级考试真题第二套
Part I Writing (25 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short easy on how to best
handle the relationship between teachers and students. You should write at least
120 words but no more than 180 words.
Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.
Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.
1. A) Her friend Erika. C) Her grandfather.
B) Her little brother. D) Her grandmother.
2. A) By taking pictures for passers-by. C) By selling lemonade and pictures.
B) By working part time at a hospital. D) By asking for help on social media.
Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.
3. A) Finding cheaper ways of highway construction.
B) Generating electric power for passing vehicles.
C) Providing clean energy to five million people.
D) Testing the efficiency of the new solar panel.
4. A) They can stand the wear and tear of natural elements.
B) They can be laid right on top of existing highways.
C) They are only about half an inch thick.
D) They are made from cheap materials.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.
5. A) Endless fighting in the region. C) Inadequate funding for research.
B) The hazards from the desert. D) The lack of clues about the species.
6. A) To observe the wildlife in the two national parks.
B) To identify the reasons for the lions’ disappearance.
C) To study the habitat of lions in Sudan and Ethiopia.
D) To find evidence of the existence of the “lost lions”.
7. A) Lions walking. C) Some camping facilities.
B) Lions’ tracks. D) Traps set by local hunters.
Section B
Directions：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) Her ‘lucky birthday’. C) Her wedding anniversary.
B) A call from her dad. D) A special gift from the man.
9. A) Gave her a big model plane. C) Took her on a trip overseas.
B) Bought her a good necklace. D) Threw her a surprise party.
10. A) The gift her husband has bought.
B) The trip her husband has planned.
C) What has been troubling her husband.
D) What her husband and the man are up to.
11. A) He will be glad to be a guide for the couple’s holiday trip.
B) He will tell the women the secret if her husband agrees.
C) He is eager to learn how the couple’s holiday turns out.
D) He wants to find out about the couple’s holiday plan.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12. A) They are sensitive to the dynamics of a negotiation.
B) They see the importance of making compromises.
C) They know when to adopt a tough attitude.
D) They take the rival’s attitude into account.
13. A) They know how to adapt. C) They know when to make compromises.
B) They know when to stop. D) They know how to control their emotion.
14. A) They are patient. C) They learn quickly.
B) They are good at expression. D) They uphold their principles.
15. A) Make clear one's intentions. C) Formulate one's strategy.
B) Clarify items of negotiation. D) Get to know the other side.
Section C
Directions: 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), 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) When America's earliest space program started.
B) When the International Space Station was built.
C) How many space shuttle missions there will be.
D) How space research benefits people on Earth.
17. A) They accurately calculated the speed of the orbiting shuttles.
B) They developed objects for astronauts to use in outer space.
C) They tried to meet astronauts' specific requirements.
D) They tried to make best use of the latest technology.
18. A) They are extremely accurate. C) They were first made in space.
B) They are expensive to make. D) They were invented in the 1970s.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A) It was when her ancestors came to America.
B) People had plenty of land to cultivate then.
C) It marked the beginning of something new.
D) Everything was natural and genuine then.
20. A) They believed in working for goals. C) They had all kinds of entertainment.
B) They enjoyed living a living a life of ease. D) They were known to be creative.
21. A) Chatting with her ancestors. C) Polishing all the silver work.
B) Furnishing her country house. D) Doing needlework by the fire.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22. A) Use a map to identify your location. C) Sit down and try to calm yourself.
B) Call your family or friends for help. D) Try to follow your footprints back.
23. A) You may find a way out without your knowing it.
B) You may expose yourself to unexpected dangers.
C) You may get drowned in a sudden flood.
D) You may end up entering a wonderland.
24. A) Look for food. C) Start a fire.
B) Wait patiently. D) Walk uphill.
25. A) Inform somebody of your plan. C) Check the local weather.
B) Prepare enough food and drink. D) Find a map and a compass.
Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
We all know there exists a great void (空白) in the public educational system when it comes to ___26___ to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses. One educator named Dori Roberts decided to do something to change this system. Dori taught high school engineering for 11 years. She noticed there was a real void in quality STEM education at all __27__ of the public educational system. She said, “I started Engineering For Kids (EFK) after noticing a real lack of math, science and engineering programs to _ _28_ my own kids in.”
She decided to start an afterschool program where children ___29___ in STEM-based competitions. The club grew quickly and when it reached 180 members and the kids in the program won several state ___30___, she decided to devote all her time to cultivating and ___31___it. The global business EFK was born.
Dori began operating EFK out of her Virginia home, which she then expanded to ___32___ recreation centers. Today, the EFK program ___33___over 144 branches in 32 states within the United States and in 21 countries. Sales have doubled from $5 million in 2014 to $10 million in 2015, with 25 new branches planned for 2016. The EFK website states, “Our nation is not ___34___ enough engineers. Our philosophy is to inspire kids at a young age to understand that engineering is a great ___35___.”
A) attracted I) feeding
B) career J) graduating
C) championships K) interest
D) degrees L) levels
E) developing M) local
F) enroll N) operates
G) exposure O) participated
H) feasible
Section B
Directions: 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.
Why aren’t you curious about what happened?
A) “You suspended Ray Rice after our video,” a reporter from TMZ challenged National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. “Why didn’t you have the curiosity to go to the casino (堵场) yourself?” The implication of the question is that a more curious commissioner would have found a way to get the tape.
B) The accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often, carrying the suggestion that there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. “I have been bothered for a long time about the curious lack of curiosity,” said a Democratic member of the New Jersey legislature back in July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal. “Isn’t the mainstream media the least bit curious about what happened?” wrote conservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlier this year. referring to the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
C) The implication, in each case, is that curiosity is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a problem. Are such accusations simply efforts to score political points for one’s party? Or is there something of particular value about curiosity in and of itself?
D) The journalist Ian Leslie, in his new and enjoyable book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, insists that the answer to that last question is ‘Yes’. Leslie argues that curiosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, and that we are losing it.
E) We are suffering, he writes, from a “serendipity deficit.” The word “serendipity” was coined by Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who “were always making discoveries, by accident, of things they were not in search of.” Leslie worries that the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures. No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through fields of knowledges, ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.
F) Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We will see unimaginative governments and dying corporations make disastrous decisions. We will lose a vital part of what has made humanity as a whole so successful as a species.
G) Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious. In the U.S. and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader’s borders. But not everything is to be blamed on technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, makes us more curious.
H) Moreover, in order to be curious, “you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in the first place.” Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we don’t know, he’s surely right to point out that the problem is growing: “Google can give us the powerful illusion that a questions have definite answers.”
I) Indeed, Google, for which Leslie express admiration, is also his frequent whipping boy (替罪羊). He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the “perfect search engine” will “understand exactly what I mean and give me back exactly what I want.” Elsewhere in the book, Leslie writes: “Google aims to save you from the thirst of curiosity altogether.”
J) Somewhat nostalgically (怀旧地), he quotes John Maynard Keynes’s justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: “One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye. To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon’s entertainment.” If only!
K) Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive (认知的) scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdom that academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent and hard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factor—and a difficult one to preserve. If not cultivated, it will not survive: “Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between child and adult. The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone.”
L) School education, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious. Children of educated an upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at early ages, than children of working class and lower class families. That lack of curiosity produces a relative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.
M) Although Leslie’s book isn’t about politics, he doesn’t entirely shy away from the problem. Political leaders, like leader of other organizations, should be curious. They should ask questions at crucial moments. There are serious consequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.
N) He present as an example the failure of the George W. Bush administration to prepare properly for the after-effects of the invasion of Iraq. According to Leslie, those who ridiculed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the “unknown unknowns” were mistaken. Rumsfeld’s idea, Leslie writes, “wasn't absurd—it was smart.” He adds, “The tragedy is that he didn't follow his own advice.”
O) All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christie case and Benghazi. Each critic in those examples is charging, in a different way, that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious. I leave it to the reader's political preference to decide which, if any, charges should stick. But let’s be careful about demanding curiosity about the other side’s weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sake—even when what we find out is something we didn't particularly want to know.
36. To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don’t know.
37. According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to one’s success.
38. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
39. Political leaders’ lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.
40. There are often accusations about politicians’ and the media’s lack of curiosity to find out the truth.
41. The less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.
42. It is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.
43. Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.
44. Both the rise of the Internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to people’s declining curiosity.
45. Mankind wouldn’t be so innovative without curiosity.
Section C
Directions: 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 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.
Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a “disease.”
On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.
Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.
“It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical (制药的) industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects,” he said.
“Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can’t control,” he said. “IN academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range.”
But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, “It would attract funding and change the way we do health care. What matters is understand that aging is curable.”
“It was always known that the body accumulates damage,” he added. “The only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.”
Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. Hayflick is not among them.
“There’re many people who recover from cancer, stroke, or heart disease. But they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease,” Hayflick said. “Even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.”
46. What do people generally believe about aging?
A) It should cause not alarm whatsoever.
B) They just cannot do anything about it.
C) It should be regarded as a kind of disease.
D) They can delay it with advances in science.
47. How do many scientists view aging now?
A) It might be prevented and treated. C) It results from a vitamin deficiency.
B) It can be as risky as heart disease. D) It is an irreversible biological process.
48. What does Alex Zhavoronkov think of “describing aging as a disease”?
A) It will prompt people to take aging more seriously.
B) It will greatly help reduce the side effects of aging.
C) It will free pharmacists from the conventional beliefs about aging.
D) It will motivate doctors and pharmacists to find ways to treat aging.
49. What do we learn about the medical community?
A) They now have a strong interest in research on aging.
B) They differ from the academic circles in their view on aging.
C) They can contribute to people’s health only to a limited extent.
D) They have ways to intervene in people’s aging process.
50. What does Professor Leonard Hayflick believe?
A) The human lifespan cannot be prolonged.
B) Aging is hardly separable from disease.
C) Few people can live up to the age of 92.
D) Heart disease is the major cause of aging.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Female applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences were nearly half as likely to receive excellent letters of recommendation, compared with their male counterparts. Christopher Intagliata reports.
As in many other fields, gender bias is widespread in the sciences. Men score higher starting salaries, have more mentoring (指导), and have better odds of being hired. Studies show they’re also perceived as more competent than women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. And new research reveals that men are more likely to receive excellent letters of recommendation, too.
“Say, you know, this is the best student I’ve ever had,” says Kuheli Dutt, a social scientist and diversity officer at Columbia University’s Lamont campus. “Compare those excellent letters with a merely good letter: ‘The candidate was productive, or intelligent, or a solid scientist or something that’s clearly solid praise,’ but nothing that singles out the candidate as exceptional or one of a kind.”
Dutt and her colleagues studied more than 1,200 letters of recommendation for postdoctoral positions in geoscience. They were all edited for gender and other identifying information, so Dutt and her team could assign them a score without knowing the gender of the student. They found that female applicants were only half as likely to get outstanding letters, compared with their male counterparts. That includes letters of recommendation from all over the world, and written by, yes, men and women. The findings are in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Dutt says they were not able to evaluate the actual scientific qualifications of the applicants using the data in the files. But she says the results still suggest women in geoscience are at a potential disadvantage from the very beginning of their careers starting with those less than out-standing letters of recommendation.
“We're not trying to assign blame or criticize anyone or call anyone consciously sexist. Rather, the point is to use the results of this study to open up meaningful dialogues on implicit gender bias, be it at a departmental level or an institutional level or even a discipline level.” Which may lead to some recommendations for the letter writers themselves.
51. What do we learn about applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences?
A) There are many more men applying than women.
B) Chances for women to get the positions are scarce.
C) More males than females are likely to get outstanding letters of recommendation.
D) Male applicants have more interest in these positions than their female counterparts.
52. What do studies about men and women in scientific research show?
A) Women engaged in postdoctoral work are quickly catching up.
B) Fewer women are applying for postdoctoral positions due to gender bias.
C) Men are believed to be better able to excel in STEM disciplines.
D) Women who are keenly interested in STEM fields are often exceptional.
53. What do the studies find about the recommendation letters for women applicants?
A) They are hardly ever supported by concrete examples.
B) They contain nothing that distinguishes the applicants.
C) They provide objective information without exaggeration.
D) They are often filled with praise for exceptional applicants.
54. What did Dutt and her colleagues do with the more than 1,200 letters of recommendation?
A) They asked unbiased scholars to evaluate them.
B) They invited women professionals to edit them.
C) They assigned them randomly to reviewers.
D) They deleted all information about gender.
55. What does Dutt aim to do with her study?
A) Raise recommendation writers’ awareness of gender bias in their letters.
B) Open up fresh avenues for women post-doctors to join in reaserach work.
C) Alert women researchers to all types of gender bias in the STEM disciplines.
D) Start a public discussion on how to raise women’s status in academic circles.
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.
泰山位于山东省西部。海拔1500余米，方圆约400平方公里。泰山不仅雄伟壮观，而且是一座历史文化名山，过去3000多年一直是人们前往朝拜的地方。据记载，共有72位帝王曾来此游览。许多作家到泰山获取灵感，写诗作文。艺术家也来此画画。山上因此留下了许许多多的文物古迹。泰山如今已成为中国一处主要的旅游景点。
