2017年12月四级真题第2套.doc

2017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 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 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 tries to entertain its audience. B) It tries to look into the distance.C) It wants to catch peoples attention.D) It has got one of its limbs injured.2. A) It was spotted by animal protection officials. B) Its videos were posted on social media.C) It was filmed by a local television reporter. 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 strangers 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 each conversation you will hear four questions. Both the conversations and the question-s 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) 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 Jonathans friends on the weekend.D) Join him in his brothers birthday celebration.11. A) By car.C) By taxi. B) By train.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.C) Learn a little bit of Spanish.B) Save enough money.D) Ask her parents permission.15. A) He has rich sailing experience.C) He is also eager to go to Spain.B) He speaks Spanish fluently.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 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) 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.C) Both won military medals.B) Both fought in World War I.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.C) The Vikings everyday life.B) The making of European nations.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.C) Oriental architecture.B) City planning.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 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.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.We all know there exists great void (空白) in the public educational system when it comes to 26 to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), 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 after school 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) attractedI)feedingB) careerJ) graduatingC) championshipsK) interestD) degreesL) levelsE) developingM) localF) enrollN) operatesG) exposureO) participatedH) feasibleSection 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 question by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Why arent 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 didnt you have the curiosity to go to the casino (赌场) yourself?” The implication of the question is that a more curious.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 associate to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal “Isnt the mainstream media the least 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 ones party? Or is here 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 readers 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, make 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 dont know hes surely right to point out that the problem is growing: “Google can give us the powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers.”I Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping body (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 Keyness 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 curiosity dictates, should be an afternoons 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 factorand 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 and 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 Leslies book isnt about politics, he doesnt entirely shy away from the problem. Political leaders, like leaders 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 presents 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 un-known unknowns were mistaken. Rumsfelds idea, Leslie writes, “wasnt absurdit was smart.” He adds, “The tragedy is that he didnt 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 changing, in a different way that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious. I leave it to the readers political preference to decide which, if any, charges should remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sakeeven when what we find out is something we didnt particularly want to know.36. To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we dont know.37. According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to ones success.38. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledges sake.39. Political leaders lac