2015年6月四级真题第2套.doc

2015年6月大学英语四级考试真题（第二套）Part I Writing （30 minutes）Directions：For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You should start your essay with a brief description of the picture and then comment on this kind of modern life. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.1. A) He is pleased to sit on the committee.B) He is willing to offer the woman a hand.C) He will tell the woman his decision later.D) He would like to become a club member.2. A) Their planned trip to Vancouver is obviously overpriced.B) They should borrow a guide book instead of buying one.C) The guide books in the library have the latest information.D) The library can help order guide books about Vancouver.3. A) He regrets having taken the history course.B) He finds little interest in the history books.C) He has trouble finishing his reading assignments.D) He has difficulty writing the weekly book report.4. A) The man had better choose another restaurant.B) The new restaurant is a perfect place for dating.C) The new restaurant caught her fancy immediately.D) The man has good taste in choosing the restaurant.5. A) He has been looking forward to spring.B) He has been waiting for the winter sale.C) He will clean the womans boots for spring.D) He will help the woman put things away.6. A) At a tailors.B) At Bobs home.C) In a clothes store.D) In a theatre.7. A) His guests favor Tibetan drinks.B) His water is quite extraordinary.C) Mineral water is good for health.D) Plain water will serve the purpose.8. A) Report the result of a discussion.B) Raise some environmental issues.C) Submit an important document.D) Revise an environmental report.Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.9. A) They pollute the soil used to cover them.B) They are harmful to nearby neighborhoods.C) The rubbish in them takes long to dissolve.D) The gas they emit is extremely poisonous.10. A) Growing population.B) Packaging materials.C) Changed eating habits.D) Lower production cost.11. A) By saving energy.B) By using less aluminum.C) By reducing poisonous wastes.D) By making the most of materials.12. A) We are running out of natural resources soon.B) Only combined efforts can make a difference.C) The waste problem will eventually hurt all of us.D) All of us can actually benefit from recycling.Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.13. A) Miami.B) Vancouver.C) Belling ham.D) Boston.14. A) To get information on one-way tickets to Canada.B) To inquire about the price of “Super Saver” seats.C) To get advice on how to fly as cheaply as possible.D) To inquire about the shortest route to drive home.15. A) Join a tourist group.B) Choose a major airline.C) Avoid trips in public holidays.D) Book tickets as early as possible.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 I with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) There are mysterious stories behind his works.B) There are many misunderstandings about him.C) His works have no match worldwide.D) His personal history is little known.17. A) He moved to Stratford-on-Avon in his childhood.B) He failed to go beyond grammar school.C) He was a member of the town council.D) He once worked in a well-known acting company.18. A) Writers of his time had no means to protect their works.B) Possible sources of clues about him were lost in a fire.C) His works were adapted beyond recognition.D) People of his time had little interest in him.Passage TwoQuestions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) It shows you have been ignoring your health.B) It can seriously affect your thinking process.C) It is an early warning of some illness.D) It is a symptom of too much pressure.20. A) Reduce our workload.B) Control our temper.C) Use painkillers for relief.D) Avoid masking symptoms.21. A) Lying down and having some sleep.B) Rubbing and pressing ones back.C) Going out for a walk.D) Listening to light music.Passage ThreeQuestions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) Depending heavily on loans.B) Having no budget plans at all.C) Spending beyond ones means.D) Leaving no room for large bills.23. A) Many of them can be cut.B) All of them have to be covered.C) Their payment cannot be delayed.D) They eat up most of the family income.24. A) Rent a house instead of buying one.B) Discuss the problem in the family.C) Make a conservation plan.D) Move to a cheaper Place.25. A) Financial issues plaguing a family.B) Difficulty in making both ends meet.C) Family budget problems and solutions.D) New ways to boost family income.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. Perhaps because going to college is so much a part of the American dream, many people go for no 26 reason. Some go because their parents expect it, others because its what their friends are doing. Then, theres the belief that a college degree will 27 ensure a good job and high pay. Some students 28 through four years, attending classes, or skipping (逃课) them as the case may be, reading only what cant be avoided, looking for less 29 courses, and never being touched or changed in any important way. For a few of these people, college provides no 30 , yet because of parental or peer pressure, they cannot voluntarily leave. They stop trying in the hope that their teachers will make the decision for them by 31 them. To put it bluntly (直截了当地), unless youre willing to make your college years count, You might be 32 doing something else. Not everyone should attend college, nor should everyone who does attend begin right after high school. Many college students 33 taking a year or so off. A year out m the world helps some people to 34 their priorities and goals. If youre really going to get something out of going to college, you have to make it mean something, and to do that you must have some idea why youre there, what you hope to get out of it, and 35 even what you hope to become.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 36 to 45 are based on the following passage. Its our guilty pleasure: Watching TV is the most common everyday activity, after work and sleep, in many parts of the world. Americans view five hours of TV each day, and while we know that spending so much time sitting 36 can lead to obesity (肥胖症) and other disease, researchers have now quantified just how 37 being a couch potato can be. In an analysis of data from eight large 38 published studies, a Harvard-led group reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that for every two hours per day spent channel 39 , the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes (糖尿病) rose 20% over 8.5 years, the risk of heart disease increased 15% over a 40 , and the odds of dying prematurely 41 13% during a seven-year follow-up. All of these 42 are linked to a lack of physical exercise. But compared with other sedentary (久坐的) activities, like knitting, viewing TV may be especially 43 at promoting unhealthy habits. For one, the sheer number of hours we pass watching TV dwarfs the time we spend on anything else. And other studies have found that watching ads for beer and popcorn may make you more likely to 44 them. Even so, the authors admit that they didnt compare different sedentary activities to 45 whether TV watching was linked to a greater risk of diabetes, heart disease or early death compared with, say, reading.A) climbedB) consumeC) decadeD) determineE) effectiveF) harmfulG) outcomesH) passivelyI) previouslyJ) resumeK) sufferedL) surfingM) termN) terminalsO) twistingSection 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.Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a BreakA Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program. And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let your rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.B EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated (自动的) software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.C The new service will bring the education consortium into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education. Although automated grading systems for multiple-choice and true-false tests are now widespread, the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade easy answers has not yet received widespread acceptance by educators and has many critics.D Anant Agarwal, an electrical engineer who is president of EdX, predicted that the instant-grading software would be a useful teaching tool, enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers. He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system, where students often wait days or weeks for grades. “There is a huge value in learning with instant feedback,” Dr. Agarwal said, “Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback.”E But skeptics say the automated system is no match for live teachers. One longtime critics, Les Perelman, has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks. He has also been highly critical of studies claiming that the software compares well to human graders.F He is among a group of educators who last month began circulation a petition opposing automated assessment software. The group, which calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment, has collected nearly 2000 signatures, including some from famous people like Noam Chomsky.G “Lets face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the groups statement reads in part, “Computers cannot read. They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical (伦理的) position, convincing argument, meaningful organization, and clarity, among others.”H But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities. It offers free online classes from Harvard, MIT and the University of California-Berkeley; this fall, it will add classes from Welleslley, Georgetown and the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities participate in EdX, which offers certificates for course completion and said that it plans to continue to expand next year, including adding international schools.I The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or grades, to first grade 100 essays or essay questions. The system then uses a variety of machine-learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantly. The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher, whether it is a letter grade or numerical (数字的) rank.J EdX is not the first to use the automated assessment technology, which dates to early computers in the 1960s. There is now use the automated assessment technology, which dates to early computers in the 1960s. There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers, and four statesLouisiana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginiaare using some form of the technology in secondary schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some eases the software is used as a “second reader”, to check the reliability of the human graders.K But the growing influence of the EdX consortium to set standards is likely to give the technology a boost. On Tuesday, Stanford announced that it would work with EdX to develop a joint educational system that will make use of the automated assessment technology.L Two start-ups, Coursera and Udacity, recently founded by Stanford faculty members to create “massive open online courses”, or MOOCs, are also committed to automated assessment systems because of the value of instant feedback. “It allows students to get immediate feedback on their work, so that learning turns in