2016年12月大学英语四级考试真题(第二套).docx

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2016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. Suppose you have twooptions upon graduation: one is to take a job in a company and the other to go to agraduate school. You are to make a choice between the two. Write an essay to explain thereasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180words.
Part Ⅱ
Listening Comprehension
(25 minutes )
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each newsreport, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and thequestions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D .Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single linethrough the centre.
Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.
1. A. To satisfy the curiosity of tourists.
B. To replace two old stone bridges.
C. To enable tourists to visit Goat Island.
D. To improve utility services in the state.
2. A. Countless tree limbs.
B. A few skeletons.
C. Lots of wrecked boats and ships.
D. Millions of coins on the bottom.
Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.
3. A. It suspended diplomatic relations with Libya.
B. It urged tourists to leave Tunisia immediately.
C. It shut down two border crossings with Libya.
D. It launched a fierce attack against Islamic State.
4. A. Advise Tunisian civilians on how to take safety precautions.
B. Track down the organization responsible for the terrorist attack.
C. Train qualified security personnel for the Tunisian government.
D. Devise a monitoring system on the Tunisian border with Libya.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.
5. A. An environment-friendly battery.
B. An energy-saving mobile phone.
C. A plant-powered mobile phone charger.
D. A device to help plants absorb sunlight.
6. A. While sitting in their school's courtyard.
B. While playing games on their phones.
C. While solving a mathematical problem.
D. While doing a chemical experiment.
7. A. It increases the applications of mobile phones.
B. It speeds up the process of photosynthesis.
C. It improves the reception of mobile phones.
D. It collects the energy released by plants.
Section 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 onlyonce. 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 1with a single line through the centre.
Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
8. A. He visited the workshops in the Grimsby plant.
B. He called the woman and left her a message.
C. He used stand-ins as replacements on all lines.
D. He asked a technician to fix the broken production line.
9. A. It is the most modern production line.
B. It assembles super-intelligent robots.
C. It has stopped working completely.
D. It is going to be upgraded soon.
10. A. To seek her permission.
B. To place an order for robots.
C. To request her to return at once.
D. To ask for Tom's phone number.
11. A. She is on duty.
B. She is having her day off.
C. She is on sick leave.
D. She is abroad on business.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12. A. He saved a baby boy's life.
B. He wanted to be a superhero.
C. He prevented a train crash.
D. He was a witness to an accident.
13. A. He has a 9-month-old boy.
B. He is currently unemployed.
C. He enjoys the interview.
D. He commutes by subway.
14. A. A rock on the tracks.
B. A misplaced pushchair.
C. A strong wind.
D. A speeding car.
15. A. She stood motionless in shock.
B. She cried bitterly.
C. She called the police at once.
D. She shouted for help.
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hearthree or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices markedA, B, C and D. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with asingle line through the centre.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A. She inherited her family ice-cream business in Billings.
B. She loved the ice-cream business more than teaching primary school.
C. She started an ice-cream business to finance her daughter's education.
D. She wanted to have an ice-cream truck when she was a little girl.
17. A. To preserve a tradition.
B. To amuse her daughter.
C. To help local education.
D. To make some extra money.
18. A. To raise money for business expansion.
B. To make her truck attractive to children.
C. To allow poor kids to have ice-cream too.
D. To teach kids the value of mutual support.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A. The reasons for imposing taxes.
B. The various services money can buy.
C. The various burdens on ordinary citizens.
D. The function of money in the modem world.
20. A. Educating and training citizens.
B. Improving public transportation.
C. Protecting people's life and property.
D. Building hospitals and public libraries.
21. A. By asking for donations.
B. By selling public lands.
C. By selling government bonds.
D. By exploiting natural resources.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22. A. It is located at the center of the European continent.
B. It relies on tourism as its chief source of revenues.
C. It contains less than a square mile of land.
D. It is surrounded by France on three sides.
23. A. Its beauty is frequently mentioned in American media.
B. Its ruler Prince Rainier married an American actress.
C. It is where many American movies are shot.
D. It is a favorite place Americans like to visit.
24. A. Tobacco.
B. Potatoes.
C. Machinery.
D. Clothing.
25. A. European history.
B. European geography.
C. Small countries in Europe.
D. Tourist attractions in Europe.
Part Ⅲ
Reading Comprehension
(40 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices.Each choice in the bank isidentified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in thebank more than once.
Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.
The ocean is heating up. That's the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earth's oceans now26heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat intake since 1865 hastaken place since 1997, researchers report online in Nature Climate Change.
Warming waters are known to27 to coral bleaching (珊瑚白化) and they take up more spacethan cooler waters, raising sea28While the top of the ocean is well studied, its depths are moredifficult to 29The researchers gathered 150 years of ocean temperature data in order to get abetter30 of heat absorption from surface to seabed. They gathered together temperature readingscollected by everything from a 19th century31 of British naval ships to modem automated oceanprobes. The extensive data sources,32 with computer simulations ( 计算机模拟), created atimeline of ocean temperature changes, including cooling from volcanic outbreaks and warming fromfossil fuel33
About 35 percent of the heat taken in by the oceans during the industrial era now resides at a34 of more than 700 meters, the researchers found. They say they're35whether the deep-seawarming canceled out warming at the sea's surface.
A. absorb
B. Combined
C. Contribute
D. depth
E. emissions
F. excursion
G. explore
H. floor
I. heights
J. indifferent
K. levels
L. mixed
M. picture
N. unsure
O. voyage
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
A) I first began to investigate the basis of human motivation--and how people persevere aftersetbacks--as a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s. Animal experiments bypsychologists at the University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repeated failures, most animalsconclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. After such an experience an animaloften remains passive even when it can effect change--a state they called learned helplessness.
B) People can learn to be helpless, too. Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty,whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer, I soondiscovered, lay in people's beliefs about why they had failed.
C) In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than doesthe belief that lack of effort is to blame. When I told a group of school children who displayedhelpless behavior that a lack of effort led to their mistakes in math, they learned to keep tryingwhen the problems got tough. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded fortheir success on easier problems did not improve their ability to solve hard math problems. Theseexperiments indicated that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and generate success.
D) Later, I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners--helplessversus mastery-oriented. I realized these different types of students not only explain their failuresdifferently, but they also hold different "theories" of intelligence.The helpless ones believeintelligence is a fixed characteristic: you have only a certain amount, and that's that. I call this a"fixed mind-set (思维模式). " Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors toa lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challengesmake mistakes more likely. The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence isnot fixed and can be developed through education and hard work. Such children believe challengesare energizing rather than intimidating (令人生畏); they offer opportunities to learn. Studentswith such a growth mind-set were destined (注定) for greater academic success and were quitelikely to outperform their counterparts.
E) We validated these expectations in a study in which two other psychologists and I monitored 373students for two years during the transition to junior high school, when the work gets more difficultand the grading more strict, to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math grades. At thebeginning of seventh grade, we assessed the students' mind-sets by asking them to agree or disagreewith statements such as "Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't reallychange. " We then assessed their beliefs about other aspects of learning and looked to see whathappened to their grades.
F) As predicted, the students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal thangetting good grades. In addition, they held hard work in high regard. They understood that evengeniuses have to work hard. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, studentswith a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy. The students whoheld a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with less regard for learning.They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard was a sign of low ability.They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well.Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability, those with a fixed mind-set said that they wouldstudy less in the future, try never to take that subject again and consider cheating on future tests.
G) Such different outlooks had a dramatic impact on performance. At the start of junior high, the mathachievement test scores of the students with a growth mind-set were comparable to those ofstudents who displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more difficult, the students witha growth mind-set showed greater persistence. As a result, their math grades overtook those of theother students by the end of the first semester--and the gap between the two groups continued towiden during the two years we followed them.
H) A fixed mind-set can also hinder communication and progress in the workplace and discourage orignore constructive criticism and advice. Research shows that managers who have a fixed mind-setare less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growthmind-set.
I) How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children? One way is by telling stories aboutachievements that result from hard work. For instance, talking about mathematical geniuses whowere more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of greatmathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills produce a growth mind-set.
J) In addition, parents and teachers can help children by providing explicit instruction regarding themind as a learning machine. I designed an eight-session workshop for 91 students whose mathgrades were declining in their first year of junior high.Forty-eight of the students receivedinstruction in study skills only, whereas the others attended a combination of study skills sessionsand classes in which they learned about the growth mind-set and how to apply it to schoolwork. Inthe growth mind-set classes, students read and discussed an article entitled "You Can Grow YourBrain. " They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use and thatlearning prompts the brain to grow new connections. From such instruction, many students beganto see themselves as agents of their own brain development. Despite being unaware that there weretwo types of instruction, teachers reported significant motivational changes in 27% of the childrenin the growth mind-set workshop as compared with only 9% of students in the control group.
K) Research is converging (汇聚) on the conclusion that great accomplishment and even genius istypically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from agift.
36. The author's experiment shows that stud