1、2015年 12月大学英语四级真题试卷（一）及答案与解析 一、 Part I Writing 1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying “Listening is more important than talking. “ You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of paying attention to others opinions. You should write at least 120
2、words but no more than 180 words. Section A （ A） They admire the courage of space explorers. （ B） They were going to watch a wonderful movie. （ C） They enjoyed the movie on space exploration. （ D） They like doing scientific exploration very much. （ A） In a school library. （ B） At a gift shop. （ C） I
3、n the office of a travel agency. （ D） At a graduation ceremony. （ A） He used to work in the art gallery. （ B） He does not have a good memory. （ C） He is not interested in any part-time jobs. （ D） He declined a job offer from the art gallery. （ A） He will be unable to attend the birthday party. （ B）
4、The woman should have informed him earlier. （ C） He will go to the birthday party after the lecture. （ D） Susan has been invited to give a lecture tomorrow. （ A） Set a deadline for the staff to meet. （ B） Assign more workers to the project. （ C） Reward those having made good progress. （ D） Encourage
5、 the staff to work in small groups. （ A） Where she can leave her car. （ B） The rate for parking in Lot C. （ C） How far away the parking lot is. （ D） The way to the visitors parking. （ A） He regrets missing the classes. （ B） He has benefited from exercise. （ C） He plans to take the fitness classes. （
6、 D） He is looking forward to a better life. （ A） How to select secretaries. （ B） How to raise work efficiency. （ C） The responsibilities of secretaries. （ D） The secretaries in the mans company. （ A） It is used by more people than English. （ B） It is more difficult to learn than English. （ C） It wil
7、l be as commonly used as English. （ D） It will eventually become a world language. （ A） Its popularity with the common people. （ B） The effect of the Industrial Revolution. （ C） The influence of the British Empire. （ D） Its loan words from many languages. （ A） It has a growing number of newly coined
8、 words. （ B） It includes a lot of words from other languages. （ C） It is the largest among all languages in the world. （ D） It can be easily picked up by overseas travellers. （ A） To place an order. （ B） To apply for a job. （ C） To return some goods. （ D） To make a complaint. （ A） He works on a part
9、-time basis for the company. （ B） He has not worked in the sales department for long. （ C） He is not familiar with the exact details of the goods. （ D） He has become somewhat impatient with the woman. （ A） It is not his responsibility. （ B） It will be free for large orders. （ C） It depends on a numb
10、er of factors. （ D） It costs 15 more for express delivery. （ A） Make inquiries with some other companies. （ B） Report the information to her superior. （ C） Pay a visit to the saleswoman in charge. （ D） Ring back when she comes to a decision. Section B （ A） No one knows for sure when they came into b
11、eing. （ B） No one knows exactly where they were first made. （ C） No one knows for what purpose they were invented. （ D） No one knows what they will look like in the future. （ A） Measure the speed of wind. （ B） Give warnings of danger. （ C） Pass on secret messages. （ D） Carry ropes across rivers. （ A
12、） To find out the strength of silk for kites. （ B） To test the effects of the lightning rod. （ C） To prove that lightning is electricity. （ D） To protect houses against lightning. （ A） She was born with a talent for languages. （ B） She was trained to be an interpreter. （ C） She can speak several lan
13、guages. （ D） She enjoys teaching languages. （ A） They want to learn as many foreign languages as possible. （ B） They have an intense interest in cross-cultural interactions. （ C） They acquire an immunity to culture shock. （ D） They would like to live abroad permanently. （ A） She became an expert in
14、horse racing. （ B） She learned to appreciate classical music. （ C） She was able to translate for a German sports judge. （ D） She got a chance to visit several European countries. （ A） Take part in a cooking competition. （ B） Taste the beef and give her comment. （ C） Teach vocabulary for food in Engl
15、ish. （ D） Give cooking lessons on Western food. （ A） He had only a third-grade education. （ B） He once threatened to kill his teacher. （ C） He often helped his mother do housework. （ D） He grew up in a poor single-parent family. （ A） Stupid. （ B） Active. （ C） Brave. （ D） Careless. （ A） Watch educati
16、onal TV programs only. （ B） Write two book reports a week. （ C） Help with housework. （ D） Keep a diary. Section C 26 When you look up at the night sky, what do you see? There are other【 B1】_bodies out there besides the moon and stars. One of the most【 B2】 _of these is a comet(彗星 ). Comets were forme
17、d around the same time the Earth was formed. They are【 B3】_ice and other frozen liquids and gases.【 B4】 _these “dirty snowballs“ begin to orbit the sun, just as the planets do. As a comet gets closer to the sun, some gases in it begin to unfreeze. They【 B5】_dust particles from the comet to form a hu
18、ge cloud. As the comet gets even nearer to the sun, a solar wind blows the cloud behind the comet, thus forming its tail. The tail and the【 B6】 _fuzzy(模糊的 )atmosphere around a comet are【 B7】 _that can help identify this【 B8】 _in the night sky. In any given year, about a dozen known comets come close
19、 to the sun in their orbits. The average person cant see them all, of course. Usually there is only one or two a year bright enough to be seen with the【 B9】 _eye. Comet Hale-Bopp, discovered in 1995, was an unusually bright comet. Its orbit brought it【 B10】 _close to the Earth, within 122 million mi
20、les of it. But Hale-Bopp came a long way on its earthly visit. It wont be back for another four thousand years or so. 27 【 B1】 28 【 B2】 29 【 B3】 30 【 B4】 31 【 B5】 32 【 B6】 33 【 B7】 34 【 B8】 35 【 B9】 36 【 B10】 Section A 36 Scholars of the information society are divided over whether social inequality
21、 decreases or increases in an information-based society. However, they generally agree with the idea that inequality in the information society is【 C1】 _different from that of an industrial society. As informatization progresses in society, the cause and structural nature of social inequality change
22、s as well. It seems that the information society【 C2】 _the quantity of information available to the members of a society by revolutionizing the ways of using and exchanging information. But such a view is a【 C3】 _analysis based on the quantity of information supplied by various forms of the mass med
23、ia. A different【 C4】_is possible when the actual amount of information【 C5】 _by the user is taken into account. In fact, the more information【 C6】 _throughout the entire society, the wider the gap becomes between “information haves“ and “information have-nots“ , leading to digital divide. According
24、to recent studies, digital divide has been caused by three major【 C7】_: class, sex, and generation. In terms of class, digital divide exists among different types of workers and between the upper and middle classes and the lower class. With【 C8】 _to sex, digital divide exists between men and women.
25、The greatest gap, however, is between the Net-generation,【 C9】 _with personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation,【 C10】 _to an industrial society. A)accustomed I)flows B)acquired J)fundamentally C)assembly K)interpretation D)attribute L)passive E)champions M)regard F)elements N)res
26、pectively G)expands O)superficial H)familiar 37 【 C1】 38 【 C2】 39 【 C3】 40 【 C4】 41 【 C5】 42 【 C6】 43 【 C7】 44 【 C8】 45 【 C9】 46 【 C10】 Section B 46 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
27、. 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. Joy: A Subject Schools Lack Becoming educated should not require giving up pl
28、easure. A)When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Even as a satire(讽刺 ), it seems disgusti
29、ng and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think. B)If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, youll hear a lot of the following words: “ standards,“ “ results,“ “ skills,“ “ self-control,“ “ accountabi
30、lity,“ and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly “effective“ schools, where children shout slogans in order to learn self-control or must stand behind their desk when they cant sit still. C)A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people t
31、hink about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right. D)Im a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So Ive watched a lot of children talking, playing, arguing, eatin
32、g, studying, and being young. Heres what Ive come to understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. Its their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub
33、, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of putting together strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A childs ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is some
34、thing adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to. E)A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills.
35、The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching(蹲伏 )down to peer at something on the sidewalk. His face went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he ca
36、lled out, “Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug Ive ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. Look at this. Its amazing. “ He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with energy and delight. “ Cant we stay here for just a minute? I want to find out what he does with all those legs. Thi
37、s is the coolest ever. “ F)The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance(坚持不懈 ), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the
38、kind of intense absorption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking. Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead of playing with small figur
39、es, conducting experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than stringing together nonsense words, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, m
40、aking friends, making decisions. G)Building on a childs ability to feel joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldnt be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education worlds mindset(思维模式 ). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in mea
41、ningful, productive activity, like making things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems? These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight. H)Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there
42、 is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success. I)Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their admi
43、nistrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldnt chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work: instead, they should learn to delay gratification(快乐 )so that they can pursue abstract goals, like going to college. J)Not
44、only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally. Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice divisio
45、n. But you cant force the child to think carefully, enjoy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in learning to see school as a source of joy. K)Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine: unple
46、asant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure? L)Joy should not be trained out of children or left for after-school programs. The more difficult a childs life circumsta
47、nces, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom. “Pleasure“ is not a dirty word. And it doesnt run counter to the goals of public education. It is, in fact, the precondition. 47 It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way
48、of thinking. 48 What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing. 49 Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty. 50 It is human nature to seek joy in life. 51 Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medici
49、ne is to patients. 52 Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience. 53 Adults do not consider childrens feelings when it comes to education. 54 Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals. 55 In the so-called “effective“ schools, children are taught self-control under a set of strict rules. 56 To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children
