大学英语四级考试真题试卷第二套

大学英语四级考试

COLLEGE ENGLISH TEST

- Band Four -

得到监考老师指令前，不得翻阅该试题册!

Part 1 Writing (30 minutes)

(请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试)

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 the kid’s understanding of going to school. You should write at least 120

words but no more than 180 words.

请用黑色签字笔在答题卡1指定区域作答作文题，在试题册上的作答无效。

Part II Listening Comprehension (30minutes)

Section A

Directions: 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 center.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1. A) He will give the woman some tips on the game.

B) The woman has good reason to quit the game.

C) He is willing to play chess with the woman.

D) The woman should go on playing chess.

2. A) The man can forward the mail to Mary.

B) She can call Mary to take care of the mail.

C) Mary probably knows Sally’s new address.

D) She would like to resume contact with Sally.

3. A) His handwriting has a unique style. C) He did not attend today’s class.

B) His notes are not easy to read. D) He is very pleased to be able to help.

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 woman’s boots for spring.

D) He will help the woman put things away.

6. A) The woman is rather forgetful.

B) The man appreciates the woman’s help.

C) The man often lends books to the woman.

D) The woman often works overtime at weekends.

7. A) Go to work on foot. C) Start work earlier than usual.

B) Take a sightseeing trip. D) Take a walk when the weather is nice.

8. A) The plane is going to land at another airport.

B) All flights have been delayed due to bad weather.

C) Temporary closing has disturbed the airport’s operation.

D) The airport’s management is in real need of improvement.

Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you just heard.

9. A) It specializes in safety from leaks. C) It has a partnership with LCP.

B) It is headquartered in London. D) It has a chemical processing plant.

10. A) He is Mr. Grand’s friend.

B) He is a safety inspector.

C) He is a salesman.

D) He is a chemist.

11. A) Director of the safety department.

B) Mr. Grand’s personal assistant.

C) Head of the personnel department.

D) The public relations officer.

12. A) Wait for Mr. Grand to call back.

B) Leave a message for Mr. Grand.

C) Provide details of their products and services.

D) Send a comprehensive description of their work.

Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

13. A) She learned playing the violin from a famous French musician.

B) She dreamed of working and living in a European country.

C) She read a lot about European musicians and their music.

D) She listened to recordings of many European orchestras.

14. A) She began taking violin lessons as a small child.

B) She was a pupil of a famous European violinist.

C) She gave her first performance with her father.

D) She became a professional violinist at fifteen.

15. A) It gave her a chance to explore the city.

B) It was the chance of a lifetime.

C) It was a great challenge to her

D) It helped her learn classical French music.

Section B

Directions: 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

marketed A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer sheet 1

with a single line through the center.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

Passage one

Questions 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 Two

Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.

19. A) Theft.

B) Cheating.

C) Air crash.

D) Road accidents.

20. A) Learn the local customs. B) Make hotel reservations.

C) Book tickets well in advance. D) Have the right documents.

21. A) Contact your agent.

B) Get a lift if possible.

C) Use official transport.

D) Have a friend meet you.

Passage Three

Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

22. A) Cut down production cost. C) Specialise in gold ornaments.

B) Sell inexpensive products. D) Refine the taste of his goods.

23. A) At a national press conference.

B) During a live television interview.

C) During a local sales promotion campaign.

D) At a meeting of top British businesspeople.

24. A) Insulted. B) Puzzled.

C) Distressed. D) Discouraged.

25. A) The words of some businesspeople are just rubbish.

B) He who never learns from the past is bound to fail.

C) There should be a limit to one’s sense of humour.

D) He is not laughed at, that laughs at himself first.

Section C

Directions: 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.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

Looking at the basic biological systems, the world is not doing very well. Yet economic indicators show the world is (26) _________. Despite a slow start at the beginning of the eighties, global economic output increased by more than a fifth during the (27) __________. The economy grew, trade increased, and millions of new jobs were created. How can biological indicators show the (28) _________of economic indicators?

The answer is that the economic indicators have a basic fault: they show no difference be-tween resource uses that (29) _________ progress and those uses that will hurt it. The main measure of economic progress is the gross national product (GNP). (30)__________, this totals the value of all goods and services produced and subtracts loss in value of factories and equipment. Developed a half-century ago, GNP helped (31) ___________ a common way among countries of measuring change in economic output. For some time, this seemed to work (32) _________well, but serious weaknesses are now appearing. As indicated earlier, GNP includes loss in value of factories and equipment, but it does not (33) ___________ the loss of natural resources, including nonrenewable resources such as oil or renewable resources such as forests.

This basic fault can produce a (34) _________sense of national economic health. According to GNP, for example, countries that overcut forests actually do better than those that preserve their forests. The trees cut down are counted as income but no subtraction is made for (35) _________the forests.

Part III Reading Comprehension (40minutes)

Section A

Direction: 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 choices. Each choice in the bank is

identificated 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.

Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

As a teacher, you could bring the community into your classroom in many ways. The parents and grandparents of your students are resources and 36 for their children. They can be 37 teachers of their own traditions and histories. Immigrant parents could talk about their country of

38 and why they emigrated to the United States. Parents can be invited to talk about their jobs or a community project. Parents, of course, are not the only community resources. Employees at local businesses and staff at community agencies have 39 information to share in classrooms.

Field trips provide another opportunity to know the community. Many students don’t have the opportunity to 40 concerts or visit museums or historical sites except through field trips. A school district should have 41 for selecting and conducting field trips. Families must be made 42 of field trips and give permission for their children to participate.

Through school projects, students can learn to be 43 in community projects ranging from planting trees to cleaning up a park to assisting elderly people. Students, 44 older ones, might conduct research on a community need that could lead to action by a city council or state government. Some schools require students to provide community service by 45 in a nursing home, child care center or government agency. These projects help students understand their responsibility to the larger community.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

A) assets F) expensive K) observe

B) attend G) guidelines L) origin

C) aware H) involved M) recruited

D) especially I) joining N) up-to-date

E) excellent J) naturally O) volunteering

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 question by marking

the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Reaping the Rewards of Risk-taking

[A] Since Steve Jobs resigned as chief esecutive of Apple, much has been said about him as a

peerless corporate leader who has created immense wealth for shareholders, and guided the design of hit products that are transforming entire industries, like music and mobile communications.

[B] All true, but let’s think different, to borrow the Apple marketing slogan of years back. Let’s

look at Mr. Jobs as a role model.

[C] Above all, he is an innovator（创新者）. His creative force is seen in products like the iPod,

iPhone and iPad, and in new business models for pricing and distributing music and mobile software o nline. Studies of innovation come to the same conclusion: you can’t engineer innovation, but you can increase the odds of it occurring. And Mr. Jobs’s career can be viewed as a consistent pursuit of improving those odds, both for himself and the companies he has led. Mr. Jobs, of course, has enjoyed singular success. But innovation, broadly defined, is the crucial ingredient in all economic progress —higher growth for nations, more competitive products for companies, and more prosperous careers for individuals. And Mr.

Jobs, many experts say, exemplifies what works in the innovation game.

[D] “We can look at and learn from Steve Jobs what the essence of American innovation is,”

says John Kao, an innovation consultant to corporations and governments. Many other nations, Mr. Kao notes, are now ahead of the United States in producing what are considered the raw materials of innovation. These include government financing for scientific research, national policies to support emerging industries, educational achievement, engineers and scientists graduated, even the speeds of Internet broadband service.

[E] Yet what other nations typically lack, Mr. Kao adds, is a social environment that encourages

diversity, experimentation, risk-taking, and combining skills from many fields into products that he calls “recombinant mash-ups,”（打碎重组）like the iPhone, which redefined the smartphone category. “The culture of other countries doesn’t support the kind of innovation that Steve Jobs exemplifies, as America does,” Mr. Kao say s.

[F] Workers of every rank are told these days that wide-ranging curiosity and continuous

learning are vital to thriving in the modern economy. Formal education matters, career counselors say, but real-life experience is often even more valuable.

[G] An adopted child, growing up in Silicon Valley, Mr. Jobs displayed those traits early on. He

was fascinated by electronics as a child, building Heathkit do-it-yourself projects, like radios.

Mr. Jobs dropped out of Reed College after a semester and trekked around India in search of spiritual enlightenment, before returning to Silicon Valley to found Apple with his friend, Stephen Wozniak, an engineering wizard（奇才）. Mr. Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985, went off and founded two other companies, Next and Pixar, before returning to Apple in 1996 and becoming chief executive in 1997.

[H] His path was unique, but innovation experts say the pattern of exploration is not unusual.

“It’s often people like Steve Jobs who can draw from a deep reservoir of diverse expe rience that generate breakthrough ideas and insights,” says Hal B. Gregersen, a professor at the European Institute of Business Administration.

[I] Mr. Gregersen is a co-author of a new book, “The Innovator’s DNA” (Harvard Business

School Press), based on an eight-year study of 5,000 entrepreneurs （创业者）and executives worldwide. His two collaborators and co-authors are Jeff Dyer, a professor at Brigham Young University, and Clayton M. Christensen, a professor at the Harvard Business School, whose 1997 book “The Innovator’s Dilemma” popularized the concept of “disruptive （颠覆性的）innovation.”

[J] The academics identify five traits that are common to the disruptive innovators: questioning, experimenting, observing, associating and networking. Their bundle of characteristics echoes the ceaseless curiosity and willingness to take risks noted by other experts. Networking, Mr.

Gregersen explains, is less about career-building relationships than a search for new ideas.

Associating, he adds, is the ability to make idea-producing connections by linking concepts from different disciplines.

[K] “Innovators engage in these mental activities regularly,” Mr. Gregersen says. “It’s a habit.”

Innovative companies, according to the authors, typically enjoy higher valuations in the stock market, which they call an “innovation premium（溢价）.” It is calculated by estimating the share of a company’s value that cannot be accounted for by its current products and cash flow.

The innovation premium tries to quantify （量化）investors’ bets that a company will do even better in the future because of innovation.

[L] Apple, by their calculations, had a 37 percent innovation premium during Mr. Jobs’s first stint with the company. His years in exile resulted in a 31 percent innovation discount. After his return, Apple’s fortunes improved gradually at first, and improved markedly starting in 2005, yielding a 52 percent innovation premium since then.

[M] There is no conclusive proof, but Mr. Gregersen says it is unlikely that Mr. Jobs could have reshaped industries beyond computing, as he has done in his second stint at Apple, without the experience outside the company, especially at Pixar —the computer-animation studio that created a string of critically and commercially successful movies, like “Toy Story” and “Up.”

[N] Mr. Jobs suggested much the same thing during a commencement address to the graduating

class at Stanford in 2005. “It turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” he told the students. Mr. Jobs also spoke of perseverance.

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick,” he said. “Don’t lose faith.”

[O] Mr. Jobs ended his commencement talk with a call to innovation, in one’s choice of work and in life. Be curious, experiment, take risks, he said. His admonition was punctuated by the words on the back of the final edition of “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which he quoted: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” “And,” Mr. Jobs said, “I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to be gin anew, I wish that for you.”

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

46. Steve Jobs called on Stanford graduates to innovate in his commencement address.

47. Steve Jobs considered himself lucky to have been fired once by Apple.

48. Steve Jobs once used computers to make movies that were commercial hits.

49. Many governments have done more than the US government in providing the raw materials

for innovation.

50. Great innovators are good at connecting concepts from various academic fields.

51. Innovation is vital to driving economic progress.

52. America has a social environment that is particularly favorable to innovation.

53. Innovative ideas often come from diverse experiences.

54. Real-life experience is often more important than formal education for career success.

55. Apple’s fortunes suffered from an innovation discount during Job’s absence.

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 center.

Passage One

Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individual and society, are profound.

The world is facing as astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长寿) translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems.

But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers (二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.

That even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than the preceding generation. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management knowhow to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

56. What is happening in the workforce in rich countries?

A) Younger people are replacing the elderly.

B) Well-educated people tend to work longer.

C) Unemployment rates are rising year after year.

D) People with no college degree do not easily find work.

57. What has helped deepen the divide between the well-off and poor?

A) Longer life expectancies.

B) Profound changes in the workforce.

C) A rapid technological advance.

D) A growing number of well-graduated.

58. What do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th century?

A) Economic growth will slow down.

B) Government budgets will increase.

C) More people will try to pursue higher education

D) There will be more competition in the job market.

59. What is the result of policy changes in European countries?

A) Unskilled workers may choose to retire early.

B) More people have to receive in-service training.

C) Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retirement.

D) People may be able to enjoy generous defined-benefits from pension?plans.

60. What is characteristic of work in the 21st century?

A) Computers will do more complicated work.

B) More will be taken by the educated young.

C) Most jobs to be done will be creative ones.

D) Skills are highly valued regardless of age.

Passage Two

Questions 61-65 are based on the following passage.

The endless debate about “work-life balance”?often contains a hopeful footnote about stay-at-home dads. If American society and business won’t make it easier on future female leaders who choose to have children, there is still the ray of hope that increasing numbers of full-time fathers will. But based on today’s socioeconomic trends, this hope is, unfortunately, misguided.

It’s true that the number of men who have left work to do the ir thing as full-time parents has doubled in a decade, but it’s still very small: only % of married couples where?the stay-at-home

father was out of the labor force for a year.?Even that percentage is likely inflated by men thrust into their caretaker role by a downsizing. This is simply not a large enough group to reduce the social stigma（污名）and force other adjustments necessary to supporting men in this decision, even if only for a relatively short time.

Even shorter times away from work for working fathers are already difficult. A found that 85% of new fathers take some time off after the birth of a child —?but for all but a few, it’s a week or two at most. Meanwhile, the average for women who take leave is more than 10 weeks.?

Such choices impact who m oves up in the organization. While you’re away, someone else is doing your work, making your sales, taking care of your customers. That can’t help you at work. It can only hurt you. Women, of course, face the same issues of returning after a prolonged absence. But with many more women than men choosing to leave the workforce entirely to raise families, returning from an extended parental leave doesn’t raise as many eyebrows as it does for men.

Women would make more if they didn’t break their earning trajec tory （轨迹）by leaving the workforce, or if higher-paying professions were more family-friendly. In the foreseeable future, stay-at-home fathers may make all the difference for individual families, but their presence won’t make a dent in the numbers of high-potential women who are forced to choose between family and career.

注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

61. What gives women a ray of hope to achieve work-life balance?

A) More men taking an extended parental leave.

B) People’s changing attitudes towards family.

C) More women entering business management.

D) The improvement of their socioeconomic status.

62. Why does the author say the hope for more full-time fathers is misguided?

A) Women are better at taking care of children.

B) Many men value work more than their family.

C) Their number is too small to make difference.

D) Not many men have the chance to stay at home.

63. Why do few men take a long parental leave?

A) A long leave will have a negative impact on their career.

B) They just have too many responsibilities to fulfill at work.

C) The economic loss will be too much for their family to bear.

D) They are likely to get fired if absent from work for too long.

64. What is the most likely reaction to men returning from an extended parental leave?

A) Jealousy.

B) Surprise.

C) Admiration.

D) Sympathy.

65. What does the author say about high-potential women in the not-too-distant future?

A) They will benefit from the trend of more fathers staying at home.

B) They will find high-paying professions a bit more family-friendly.

C) They are unlikely to break their career trajectory to raise a family.

D) They will still face the difficult choice between career and children.

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.

中国是世界上最古老的文明之一。构成现代世界基础的许多元素都起源于中国。中国现在拥有世界上发展最快的经济，正经历着一次新的工业革命。中国还启动了雄心勃勃的太空探索计划，其中包括到2020年建成一个太空站。目前，中国是世界最大的出口国之一，并正在吸引大量外国投资。同时，它也在海外投资数十亿美元。2011年，中国超越日本成为世界第二大经济体。

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。