2015年6月大学英语四级考试试卷二真题(汇总版)

Part I 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 deion of the picture and

comment on this kind of modern life. You should write at least 120 words but no

more than 180 words.

THIS MODERN LIFE:

Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)

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 1with a single line through the centre.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

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 woman’s boots for spring.

D) He will help the woman put things away.

6. A) At a tailor’s

B) At Bob’s 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) Bellingham.

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 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

marked A),B),C)and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1with a

single line through the centre.

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) It shows you have been ignoring you 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 one’s back.

C) Going out for a walk.

D) Listening to light music.

Passage Three

Questions 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 one’s means.

D) Leaving no room for large bills.

23. A) Many of them can be cut.

B) Alt of them have to be covered.

C) Their payment cannot be delayed.

D) The 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 plaguinga family.

B) Difficulty in making both ends meet.

C) Family budget problems and solutions.

D) New ways to boost family income.

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。

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 it’s what their friends are doing. Then, there’s 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 can’t 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 you’re willing to make your college years count, you might be (32)_________ doing something else. Not everyone should attend to 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 in the world helps some people to (34)_________ their priorities and goals. If you’re 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 you’re there, what you hope to get out of it, and (35)_________ even what you hope to become.

Part ⅢReading 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.

Question 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.It’s 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 diseases, 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 permaturely___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 didn’t compare different sedentary activities to ___45___whether TV watching was linked to a greater risk of diabetes,heart disease or clearly death compared with, say, reading.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

A)climbed I)previously

B)conseme J)resume

C)decade K)suffered

D)determine L)suffering

E)effectIve M)term

F)harmfulN)terminals

G)outcomes O)twisting

H)passively

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

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

paragraphfrom 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 Break

[A] 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 you 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 educational consortium(联盟)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 artificialintelligence technology to grade essay 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 theinstant-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 leaning with instant feedback,” Dr. Agarwal said. “Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback.”

[E] But skeptics(怀疑者)say the automated system is no match for live teachers. One longtime critic, 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 circulating a petition(呼吁)opposing automated assessment software. The group, which calls itself Professsionals Against MachineScoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment, has collected nearly 2,000 signatures, including some from famous people like Noam Chomsky.

[G] “Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s 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 Californian-Berkeley; this fall, it will add classes from Wellesley, Georgetown and the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities participate in EdX, which offers certificates for course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year, including adding internationalschools.

[I] The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or graders, 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 ornumerical(数字的)rank.

[J] EdX is not the first to use the automated assessment technology, which datesto early computers in the 1960s. There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers, and four states—Louisiana, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia—are using some form of the technology in secondary schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some cases the softwareis 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 announcedthat is 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 into a game, with students naturally gravitating(吸引) toward resubmitting the work until they get it right,” said Daphne Koller, a computer scientist and a founder of Coursera.

[M] Last year the Hewlett Foundation, a grant-making organization set up by one of the Hewlett-Packard founders and his wife, sponsored two$100,000 prizes aimed at improving softwarethat grades essays and short answers. More than 150 teams entered each category. A winner of one of the Hewlett contests, Vik Paruchuri, was hired by EdX to help design its assessment software.

[N] “One of our focuses is to help kids learn how to think critically,”said Victor Vuchic, a program officer at the HewlettFoundation. “It’s probably impossible to do that with multiple-choice tests. The challenge is that this requires human graders, and so they cost a lot more and they take a lot more time.”

[O] Mark D. Shermis, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, supervised the Hewlett Foundation’s contest on automated essay scoring and wrote a paper about the experiment. In his view, the technology—though imperfect—has a place in educational settings.

[P] With increasingly large classes, it is impossible for most teachers to give students meaningful feedback on writing assignments, he said.Plus, he noted, critics of the technology have tended to come from the nation’s best universities, where the level of teaching is much better than at most schools.

[Q]“Often they come from very famous institutions where, in fact, they do a much better job of providing feedback than a machine ever could,”Dr. Shermis said. “There seems to be a lack of appreciation of what is actually going on in the real world.”

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

46. Some professionals in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to automated essay grading.

47. Using software to grade students’ essays saves teachers time for other work.

48. The Hewlett contests aim at improving essay grading software.

49. Though the automated grading system is widely used in multiple-choice tests, automated essay grading is still criticized by many educators.

50. Some people don’t believe the software grading system can do as good a job as human graders.

51. Critics of automated essay scoring do not seem to know the true realities in less famous universities.

52. Critics argue many important aspects of effective writing cannot be measured by computer rating programs.

53. As class size grows, most teachers are unable to give students valuable comments as to how to improve their writing.

54. The automated assessment technology is sometimes used to double check the work of human graders.

55. Students find instant feedback helps improve their learning considerably.

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 2with a single line through the centre.

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 individuals and society, are profound.

The world is facing an 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 1.1 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.

Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy(预期寿命), combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with less generous defined-contribution ones, means 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 the poor?

A) Longer life expectancies.

B) A rapid technological advance.

C) Profound changes in the workforce.

D) A growing number of the well-educated.

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

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 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.

The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soyabeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous(人口多的)countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.

Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soyabeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.

Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert(回返)to forest or wilderness.This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

61. What does the author try to draw attention to?

A) Food riots and hunger in the world.

B) News headlines in the leading media.

C) The decline of the grain yield growth.

D) The food supply in populous countries.

62. Why does the author mention India and China in particular?

A) Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets.

B) Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years.

C) Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns.

D) Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.

63. What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts?

A) They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s.

B) They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production.

C) They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world.

D) They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.

64. What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation say about world food production in the

coming decades?

A) The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies.

B) The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution.

C) The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed.

D) The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland.

65. How does the author view the argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation?

A) It is built on the findings of a new study.

B) It is based on a doubtful assumption.

C) It is backed by strong evidence.

D) It is open to further discussion.

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.

在西方人心目中，和中国联系最为密切的基本食物是大米。长期以来，大米在中国人的饮食中占据很重要的地位，以至于有谚语说“巧妇难为无米之炊”。中国南方大多种植水稻，人们通常以大米为主食;而华北大部分地区因为过于寒冷或过于干燥，无法种植水稻，那里的主要作物是小麦。在中国，有些人用面粉做面包，但大多数人用面粉做馒头和面条。

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.