2016年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第三套）

2016年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第三套）

Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have two options upon graduation : one is to find a job somewhere and the other to start a business of your own . You are to make a decision. Write an essay to explain the reasons for your decision. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)

（说明：本次四级考试全国共考了两套听力，为避免重复，特补充了一套模拟听力，供同学们练习。）

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 will be based on the following news item.

1. A) Armed men.

B) Militants. C) Civilians. D) Hard-liners. 2.

A) The parked passenger bus.

B) The armed men on motorcycles. C) The central government. D) The Islamic rebels.

Questions 3 and 4 will be based on the following news·item.

3. A)$ 14 billion.

B)$ 40 billion. C)$ 2.5 billion. D)$ 25 billion.

4. A) Lack of knowledge of climate change.

B) Not enough examples to follow. C) Shortage of agricultural experts. D) Insufficient financing mechanisms.

Questions 5 to 7 will be based on the following news item 5. A) It will rise.

B) It will be stable.

C) It will be lowered down. D) It will change from time to time.

6. A) To boom up real estate market. B) To lower unemployment rate. C) To finance car industry.

D) To off er food to more people.

7. A) Students with bank loan. B) Home buyers with bank loan. C) Low income workers.

D) People with savings accounts.

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 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) Waiter and customer. B) Good friends.

C) Husband and wife. D) Colleagues.

9. A) The man does her a favor.

B) The man recommends her many good foods. C) The man is very patient to her question. D) The man decides to treat her to a meal.

10. A) There were not many Chinese restaurants before.

B) Many people emigrated out of his country. C) It is famous for the different recipes.

D) It prevents foreign languages from getting in. 11.

A) He cannot understand why she always speaks nonsense. B) He does not think the woman knows how to enjoy herself. C) He believes the woman is capable of being promoted soon. D) He hates to choose between Chinese cuisine and French cuisine

Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 12.

A) T-bone steak& beer.

B) Fried chicken steak & Sprite. C) Boiled chicken & salad. D) Roast beef & rice.

13. A) French. B) Italian. C) Ranch. D) Germany.

14. A) For its salad. C) For its cheese. B) For its pies. D) For its fries. 15.

A) The baker was hurt at work and can?t prepare them. B) The oven is broken and hasn? t been repaired. C) They are served only on Sundays. D) The pies have been sold out.

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) 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 conversation you have just heard.

16. A) They want to attract attention. C) They appear respectable in such clothes.

B) It is fashionable to wear such clothes. D) Riding a motorcycle makes one

dirty.

17. A) It is efficient. C) It is convenient. B) It is exciting.D) It is dangerous. 18.

A) If he always wears protective clothing. B) If he can see everything around him clearly. C) If he is very careful.

D) If he has a lot of defenders.

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

A) Making noises.

B) Our own system of language. C) Combinations of different sounds.

D) A group of sentences upon our own creations. 20.

A) It does good to communication between people. B) It encourages people to speak out their thoughts. C) It enlarges the vocabulary of a particular language. D) It hinders communication among individuals. 21.

A) Words.

B) Tone of voice. C) Sentence structures. D) Sounds.

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

A) William Smart. B) Mrs. Dodd.

C) President Lyndon Johnson. D) President Nixon.

23. A) In 1910. B) In 1906. C) In 1966. D) In 1972. 24.

A) First Sunday in June. B) Second Sunday in June. C) Third Sunday in June. D) Decided by each Presiden 25.

A) To honor only your father.

B) To honor all fathers around you. C) To honor father like figures. D) To honor Mrs. Dodd ? s father.

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.

When someone commits a criminal act , we always hope the punishment will match the off ense. But when it comes to one of the cruelest crimes animal fighting things 26 work out that way. Dog-fighting victims are 27 and killed for prof it and “ sport ，” yet their

criminal abusers of ten receive a 28 sentence for causing a life time of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animal fighters only get probation （缓刑）．

Some progress has been made in the prosecution （起诉）of animal fighters. But federal judges often rely heavily on the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines when they 29 penalties , and in the case of animal fighting , those guidelines are outdated and extremely 30 The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which 31 these sentencing guidelines, is revisiting them, proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6-12 to 21-27 months. This is a step in the right 32 , but we?d like to see the U.S. Sentencing Commission make further changes to the guidelines.

Along with this effort , we're working with animal advocates and state and federal lawmakers to 33 anti-cruelty laws across the country , as well as supporting laws and policies that assist overburdened animal 34 that care for animal fighting victims. This help is 35 important because the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major factor that prevents people from getting involved in cruelty cases in the first place.

A) convenient B) creates C) critically D) determine E) direction F) hesitate

G) inadequate H) inspired I) method J) minimal K) rarely L) shelters M) strengthen N) sufferings O) tortured

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.

When Work Becomes a Game

A) What motivates employees to do their jobs well? Competition with coworkers, for

some. The promise of rewards, for others. Pure enjoyment of problem solving, for a lucky few.

B) Increasingly , companies are tapping into these desires directly through

what has come to be known as “gasification'': essentially , turning work into a game. “Gasification is about understandingwhat it is that makes games engaging and what game designers do to create a great experience in games, and taking those learning?s and applying them to other contexts such asthe workplace and education ，” explains Kevin Wabash , a gasification expert who teachesAt the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.

C) It might mean monitoring employee productivity on a digital leaderboard and off erring

prizesto the winners , or giving employees digital badges or stars for completing certain activities. It could also mean training employees how to do their jobs through video game platforms. Companies from

Google to L? Ordeal to IBM to Wells Fargo are known to use some degree of gasification in their workplaces. And more and more companies are joining them. A recentReport suggests that the global gasification market will grow from $ 1.65 billion in 2015 to $ 11.1 billion by 2020.

D) The concept of gasification is not entirely new , Werbach says.

Companies , marketers and teachers have long looked for fun ways to engage people ?s reward seeking or competitive spirits. Cracker Jacks has been “gamifying” its snack food by putting a small prize inside for more than 100 years , he adds , and the turn-of-the-century steel magnate （巨头） CharlesSchwab is said to have often come into his factory and written the number of tons of steel produced on the past shift on the factory floor, thus motivating the next shift t of workers to beat the previous one.

E) But the word “gasification ” and the widespread , conscious application

of the concept only began in earnest about five years ago , Wabash says. Thanks in part to video games, thegeneration now entering the workforce is especially open to the idea of having their work gasified. “We are at a point where in much of the developed

world the vast majority ofyoung people grew up playing video games , and an increasingly high percentage of adults play these video games too ，” Werbach says.

F) A number of companies have sprung up GamEffective ,Bunchball and Badgeville ,

to name a few一in recent years off eringgamification platforms for businesses. The platforms that are most effective turn employees' ordinary job tasks into part of a rich adventure narrative.“What makes a game game like is that the player actually cares about the outcome ，”Werbach says. “ The

principle is about understanding what is motivating to this group of players, which requires some understanding of psychology. ”

G) Some people, Werbachsays , are motivated by competition. Sales people of ten fall into

this category. For them , the right kind of gamification might be turning their sales pitches into a competition with other team members , complete with a digital leaderboard showing who is winning at all times. Others are more motivated by collaboration and social experiences. One company Werbach has studied uses

gamification to create a sense of community and boost employees' morale （士气）.When employees log in to their computers , they?re shown a picture of one of their coworkers and asked to guess that person ?s name.

H) Gamification does not have to be digital. Monica Cornetti runs a company that gamifies

employee trainings. Sometimes this involves technology, but of ten it does not. She recentlydesigned a gamification strategy for a sales training company with a storm chasing theme. Employees formed “storm chaser teams” and competed in storm-themed educational exercises to earn various rewards. \ do not have to be stuff ，” Cornetti says. “Rewards can be flexible working hours.” Another training , this one for pay roll law , used a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme. “Snow White” is available for everyone to use ,but the “ dwarf s\ so Cornetti invented sound-alike characters ( Grumpy Gus, Dopey Dan) to illustrate specific pay roll law principles.

I) Some people do not take naturally to gamified work environments, Cornetti says. In

herexperience , people in positions of power or people in finance or

engineering do not tend to like the sound of the word. “ If we are designing for engineers, I?m not talking about a ? game' at all ，” Cornetti says. I? m talking about a simulation ' （模拟） ' I?m talking about? being able to solve this problem.

J) Gamification is “not a magic bullet，” Werbach warns. A gamification strategy

that is not sufficiently thought through or well tailored to its players may engage people for a little while , but it will not motivate people in the long term. It can also be exploitative, especially when used with vulnerable populations. For workers, especially low-paid workers , who desperately need their jobs yet know they can be easily replaced , gamification may feel more like the Hunger Games. Werbach gives the example ofseveral Disneyland hotels in Anaheim, California, which used large digital leaderboards to display how efficiently laundry workers were working compared to one another. Some employees found the board motivating. To others, it was the opposite of fun. Some began to stop taking bathroom breaks,worried that if their productivity fell they would be fired. Pregnant employees struggled to keep up. In a Los Angeles Times article, one employee referred to the board as a “digital whip.” “It actually had a very negative effect onmorale and performance ，” Werbach says.

K) Still , gamification only stands to become more popular , he says ，“as more and more

people come into the workforce who are familiar with the structures and expressions of digital games.” “We are far from reaching the peak ，” Cornetti agrees. “There is no reason this will go away.”

36. Some famous companies are already using gamification and more are trying to do the same.

37. Gamification is not a miracle cure for all workplaces as it may have negative results. 38. To enhance morale, one company asks its employees to identify their fellow workers when starting their computers.

39. The idea of gamification was practiced by some businesses more than a century ago. 40. There is reason to believe that gamification will be here to stay.

41. Video games contributed in some ways to the wide application of gamification.

42. When turning work into a game, it is necessary to understand what makes games interesting.

43. Gamification in employee training does not always need technology.

44. The most successful gamification platforms transform daily work assignments into experiences.

45. It is necessary to use terms other than “gamification” for some professions.

Section C

Directions :There are 2 pass ages in this section . Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinishedstatements . 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 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain students and keep younger faculty members from going elsewhere.

It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task it is to “solve” problems- real or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three diff erent colleges , the actual problems in educating our young people and older students have deepened ,while the number of people hired not to teach but to hold meetings- has increasedsignificantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title , the center is a clearing house （信息交流中心） for using technology in classrooms and in online courses. It? s an administrative sham （欺诈） of the kind that has multiplied over the last 30 years.I offer a simple proposition in responsez Many of our problems- class attendance , educational success , student happiness and well-being- might be improved by cutting down the bureaucratic（宫僚的） mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army of good teachers. If we replaced half of our administrative staff with classroom teachers , we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20 or f ewer students per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actually knew each other.The teachers must be free to teach in their own way the curriculum should be flexible enough so that they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the course. Additionally, they should be cllowed to teach , and be rewarded for doing it well. Teachers are not people who are great at and consumed by research and happen to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are not exclusive, but they are also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft , talent and practice ; it is not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that people do not recognize this , despite the fact that

pretty much anyone who has been a student can tell the difference between their best and worst teachers.

46.What does the author say about present-day universities? A) They are effectively tackling real or imagined problems. B) They of ten fail to combine teaching with research. C) They are over burdened with administrative staff. D) They lack talent to fix their deepening problems.

47. According to the author , what kind of people do universities lack most?

A) Good classroom teachers. B) Efficient administrators. C) Talentedresearchers. D) Motivated students.

48. What does the author imply about the classes at present? A) They facilitate students' independent learning. B) They help students form closer relationships.

C) They have more older students that before. D) They are much bigger than is desirable.

49. What does the author think of teaching ability? A) It requires talent and practice. B) It is closely related to research.

C) It is a chief factor affecting students' learning.? D) It can be acquired through persistent practice.

50. What is the author's suggestion for improving university teaching?

A) Creating an environment for teachers to share their teaching experiences. B) Hiring more classroom teachers and allowing them to teach in their own way. C) Using high technology in classrooms and promoting exchange of information. D) Cutting down meetings and encouraging administrative staff to go to classrooms.

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

The secret to eating less and being happy about it may have been cracked years ago-by McDonald ? s. According to a new study from Cornell University ?s Food and Brand Lab , small non-food rewards- like the toys in McDonald ? s Happy Meals- stimulate the same reward centers in the brain as food does.

The researchers , led by Martin Reimann , carried out a series of experiments to see if people would choose a smaller meal if it was paired with a non-food item.

They found that the majority of both kids and adults opted for a half sized portion when combined with a prize. Both options were priced the same.

Even more interesting is that the promise of a future reward was enough to make adults choose the smaller portion. One of the prizes used was a lottery ticket （彩票） , with a $ 10 ,$ 50 or $ 100 payout , and this was as effective as a tangible gif t in persuading people to eat less.“The fact that participants were willing to substitute part of a food item for the mere prospect of a relatively small monetary award is interesting ，”says Reimann.

He theorizes that it is the emotional component of these intangible prizes that make them effective. In fact, vaguely-stated possibilities of winning a prize were more effective than options with hard odds included.

“One explanation for this finding is that possible awards may be more emotionally provoking than certainty awards ，”says Reimann. “The uncertainty of winning provides added attraction and desirability through emotional ? thrills. ? The possibility of receiving an award also produces a state of hope- a state that is in itself psychologically rewarding. ” In other words , there's a reason why people like to gamble.

How might this knowledge be used to help people eat more healthily?

One possibility is a healthy option that offers the chance to win a spa （温泉疗养）

weekend. Or maybe the reward of a half sized portion could be a half-sized dessert to be claimed only on a future date. That would get you back in the restaurant- and make you eat a little less.

51. What do we learn about McDonald ? s inclusion of toys in its Happy Meals? A) It may shed light on people ? s desire to crack a secret. B) It has proved to be key to McDonald's business success.

C) It appeals to kids? curiosity to find out what is hidden inside.

D) It may be a pleasant way for kids to reduce their food intake． 52. What is the finding of the researchers led by Martin Reimann?

A) Reducing food intake is not that difficult if people go to McDonald ? s more.

B) Most kids and adults don?t actually f eel hungry when they eat half

of their meal.

C) Eating a smaller portion of food does good to the health of kids and adults alike. D) Most kids and adults would choose a smaller meal that came with a non-food item. 53. What is most interesting in Martin Reimann's finding?

A) Kids preferred an award in the form of money to one in the form of a toy. B) Adults chose the smaller portion on the mere promise of a future award. C) Both kids and adults felt satisfied with only half of their meal portions. D) Neither children nor adults could resist the temptation of a free toy. 54. How does Martin Reimann interpret his finding? A) The emotional component of the prizes is at work. B) People now care more about quality than quantity. C) People prefer certainty awards to possible awards. D) The desire for a future reward is overwhelming.

55.What can we infer from Martin Reimann? s finding? A) People should eat much less if they wish to stay healthy and happy.

B) More fast food restaurants are likely to follow McDonald ?s example. C) We can lead people to eat less while helping the restaurant business. D) More studies are needed to find out the impact of emotion on behavior.

Part IV Translation (30 minutes)

Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minted to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

在中国文化中，黄颜色是一种很重要的颜色，因为它具有独特的象征意义。在封建（feudal) 社会中，它象征统治者的权力和权威。那时，黄色是专为皇帝使用的颜色，皇家宫殿全都漆成黄色,皇袍总是黄色的 ,而普通老百姓是禁止穿黄色衣服的。在中国，黄色也是收获的象征。秋天庄稼成熟时，田野变得一片金黄。人们兴高采烈 ,庆祝丰收。

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