1、2016 年 12 月大学英语四级真题试卷（二）（无答案）一、Part I Writing1 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have two options upon graduation: one is to take a job in a company and the other to go to a graduate school. You are to make a choice between the two. Write an essay to explain th
2、e reasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Section A（A）To satisfy the curiosity of tourists.（B） To replace two old stone bridges.（C） To enable tourists to visit Goat Island.（D）To improve utility services in the state.（A）Countless tree limbs.（B） A few sk
3、eletons.（C） Lots of wrecked boats and ships.（D）Millions of coins on the bottom.（A）It suspended diplomatic relations with Libya.（B） It urged tourists to leave Tunisia immediately.（C） It shut down two border crossings with Libya.（D）It launched a fierce attack against Islamic State.（A）Advise Tunisian c
4、ivilians on how to take safety precautions.（B） Track down the organization responsible for the terrorist attack.（C） Train qualified security personnel for the Tunisian government.（D）Devise a monitoring system on the Tunisian border with Libya.（A）An environment-friendly battery.（B） An energy-saving m
5、obile phone.（C） A plant-powered mobile phone charger.（D）A device to help plants absorb sunlight.（A）While sitting in their schools courtyard.（B） While playing games on their phones.（C） While solving a mathematical problem.（D）While doing a chemical experiment.（A）It increases the applications of mobile
6、 phones.（B） It speeds up the process of photosynthesis.（C） It improves the reception of mobile phones.（D）It collects the energy released by plants.Section B（A）He visited the workshops in the Grimsby plant.（B） He called the woman and left her a message.（C） He used stand-ins as replacements on all lin
7、es.（D）He asked a technician to fix the broken production line.（A）It is the most modern production line.（B） It assembles super-intelligent robots.（C） It has stopped working completely.（D）It is going to be upgraded soon.（A）To seek her permission.（B） To place an order for robots.（C） To request her to r
8、eturn at once.（D）To ask for Toms phone number.（A）She is on duty.（B） She is having her day off.（C） She is on sick leave.（D）She is abroad on business.（A）He saved a baby boys life.（B） He wanted to be a superhero.（C） He prevented a train crash.（D）He was a witness to an accident.（A）He has a 9-month-old b
9、oy.（B） He is currently unemployed.（C） He enjoys the interview.（D）He commutes by subway.（A）A rock on the tracks.（B） A misplaced pushchair.（C） A strong wind.（D）A speeding car.（A）She stood motionless in shock.（B） She cried bitterly.（C） She called the police at once.（D）She shouted for help.Section C（A）S
10、he inherited her family ice-cream business in Billings.（B） She loved the ice-cream business more than teaching primary school.（C） She started an ice-cream business to finance her daughters education.（D）She wanted to have an ice-cream truck when she was a little girl.（A）To preserve a tradition.（B） To
11、 amuse her daughter.（C） To help local education.（D）To make some extra money.（A）To raise money for business expansion.（B） To make her truck attractive to children.（C） To allow poor kids to have ice-cream too.（D）To teach kids the value of mutual support.（A）The reasons for imposing taxes.（B） The variou
12、s services money can buy.（C） The various burdens on ordinary citizens.（D）The function of money in the modem world.（A）Educating and training citizens.（B） Improving public transportation.（C） Protecting peoples life and property.（D）Building hospitals and public libraries.（A）By asking for donations.（B）
13、By selling public lands.（C） By selling government bonds.（D）By exploiting natural resources.（A）It is located at the center of the European continent.（B） It relies on tourism as its chief source of revenues.（C） It contains less than a square mile of land.（D）It is surrounded by France on three sides.（A
14、）Its beauty is frequently mentioned in American media.（B） Its ruler Prince Rainier married an American actress.（C） It is where many American movies are shot.（D）It is a favorite place Americans like to visit.（A）Tobacco.（B） Potatoes.（C） Machinery.（D）Clothing.（A）European history.（B） European geography.
15、（C） Small countries in Europe.（D）Tourist attractions in Europe.Section A26 The ocean is heating up. Thats the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earths oceans now【 C1】_ heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat intake since 1865 has taken place since 1997, resear
16、chers report online in Nature Climate Change.Warming waters are known to【C2】_ to coral bleaching(珊瑚白化)and they take up more space than cooler waters, raising sea【C3】_ . While the top of the ocean is well studied, its depths are more difficult to【C4】_ . The researchers gathered 150 years of ocean tem
17、perature data in order to get a better【C5】_ of heat absorption from surface to seabed. They gathered together temperature readings collected by everything from a 19th century【C6】_ of British naval ships to modern automated ocean probes. The extensive data sources,【C7】_ with computer simulations(计算机模
18、拟 ), created a timeline of ocean temperature changes, including cooling from volcanic outbreaks and warming from fossil fuel【C8】_ .About 35 percent of the heat taken in by the oceans during the industrial era now resides at a【C9】_ of more than 700 meters, the researchers found. They say theyre【C10】_
19、 whether the deep-sea warming canceled out warming at the seas surface.A)absorb I)heightsB)combined J)indifferentC)contribute K)levelsD)depth L)mixedE)emissions M)pictureF)excursion N)unsureG)explore O)voyageH)floor27 【C1 】28 【C2 】29 【C3 】30 【C4 】31 【C5 】32 【C6 】33 【C7 】34 【C8 】35 【C9 】36 【C10 】Sect
20、ion B36 The Secret to Raising Smart KidsA)I first began to investigate the basis of human motivationand how people persevere after setbacksas a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s. Animal experiments by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repe
21、ated failures, most animals conclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. After such an experience an animal often remains passive even when it can effect changea state they called learned helplessness.B)People can learn to be helpless, too. Why do some students give up when they e
22、ncounter difficulty, whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in peoples beliefs about why they had failed.C)In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than does the belief that lack of eff
23、ort is to blame. When I told a group of school children who displayed helpless behavior that a lack of effort led to their mistakes in math, they learned to keep trying when the problems got tough. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded for their success on easier problems did n
24、ot improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These experiments indicated that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and generate success.D)Later, I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learnershelpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized these di
25、fferent types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories“ of intelligence. The helpless ones believe intelligence is a fixed characteristic: you have only a certain amount, and thats that. I call this a “fixed mind-set(思维模式). “ Mistakes crack thei
26、r self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely. The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is not fixed and can be developed through education and
27、hard work. Such children believe challenges are energizing rather than intimidating(令人生畏): they offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set were destined(注定)for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts.E)We validated these expectations in
28、 a study in which two other psychologists and I monitored 373 students for two years during the transition to junior high school, when the work gets more difficult and the grading more strict, to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math grades. At the beginning of seventh grade, we asse
29、ssed the students mind-sets by asking them to agree or disagree with statements such as “Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you cant really change. “ We then assessed their beliefs about other aspects of learning and looked to see what happened to their grades.F)As predicted, t
30、he students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal than getting good grades. In addition, they held hard work in high regard. They understood that even geniuses have to work hard. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, students with a growth mind-set
31、 said they would study harder or try a different strategy. The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with less regard for learning. They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard was a sign of low ability. They thought that a person wi
32、th talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well. Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability, those with a fixed mind-set said that they would study less in the future, try never to take that subject again and consider cheating on future tests.G)Such different outlooks had a
33、dramatic impact on performance. At the start of junior high, the math achievement test scores of the students with a growth mind-set were comparable to those of students who displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more difficult, the students with a growth mind-set showed greater persiste
34、nce. As a result, their math grades overtook those of the other students by the end of the first semesterand the gap between the two groups continued to widen during the two years we followed them.H)A fixed mind-set can also hinder communication and progress in the workplace and discourage or ignore
35、 constructive criticism and advice. Research shows that managers who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growth mind-set.I)How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children? One way is by telling stories about achievement
36、s that result from hard work. For instance, talking about mathematical geniuses who were more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills produce a growth mindset.J)In addition, parents and
37、teachers can help children by providing explicit instruction regarding the mind as a learning machine. I designed an eight-session workshop for 91 students whose math grades were declining in their first year of junior high. Forty-eight of the students received instruction in study skills only, wher
38、eas the others attended a combination of study skills sessions and classes in which they learned about the growth mind-set and how to apply it to schoolwork. In the growth mind-set classes, students read and discussed an article entitled “ You Can Grow Your Brain. “ They were taught that the brain i
39、s like a muscle that gets stronger with use and that learning prompts the brain to grow new connections. From such instruction, many students began to see themselves as agents of their own brain development. Despite being unaware that there were two types of instruction, teachers reported significan
40、t motivational changes in 27% of the children in the growth mind-set workshop as compared with only 9% of students in the control group.K)Research is converging(汇聚)on the conclusion that great accomplishment and even genius is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something
41、 that flows naturally from a gift.37 The authors experiment shows that students with a fixed mind-set believe having to work hard is an indication of low ability.38 Focusing on effort is effective in helping children overcome frustration and achieve success.39 We can cultivate a growth mind-set in c
42、hildren by telling success stories that emphasize hard work and love of learning.40 Students belief about the cause of their failure explains their attitude toward setbacks.41 In the authors experiment, students with a growth mind-set showed greater perseverance in solving difficult math problems.42
43、 The author conducted an experiment to find out about the influence of students mind-sets on math learning.43 After failing again and again, most animals give up hope.44 Informing students about the brain as a learning machine is a good strategy to enhance their motivation for learning.45 People wit
44、h a fixed mind-set believe that ones intelligence is unchangeable.46 In the workplace, feedback may not be so welcome to managers with a fixed mind-set.Section C46 “ Sugar, alcohol and tobacco,“ economist Adam Smith once wrote, “ are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which have beco
45、me objects of almost universal consumption, and which are, therefore, extremely popular subjects of taxation. “Two and a half centuries on, most countries impose some sort of tax on alcohol and tobacco. With surging obesity levels putting increasing strain on public health systems, governments aroun
46、d the world have begun to toy with the idea of taxing sugar as well.Whether such taxes work is a matter of debate. A preliminary review of Mexicos taxation found a fall in purchases of taxed drinks as well as a rise in sales of untaxed and healthier drinks. By contrast, a Danish tax on foods high in
47、 fats was abandoned a year after its introduction, amid claims that consumers were avoiding it by crossing the border to Germany to satisfy their desire for cheaper, fattier fare.The food industry has, in general, been firmly opposed to such direct government action. Nonetheless, the renewed focus o
48、n waistlines means that industry groups are under pressure to demonstrate their products are healthy as well as tasty.Over the past three decades, the industry has made some efforts to improve the quality of its offerings. For example, some drink manufacturers have cut the amount of sugar in their b
49、everages.Many of the reductions over the past 30 years have been achieved either by reducing the amount of sugar, salt or fat in a product, or by finding an alternative ingredient. More recently, however, some companies have been investing money in a more ambitious undertaking: learning how to adjust the fundamental make-up of the food they sell. For example, having salt on the outside, but none on the inside, reduces the salt content without changing the taste.While reformulating recipes(配方)is one way to
