2017年12月大学英语四级真题及答案(第三套)

Part I Writing (25 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay onhow to best handle the relationshop between teachers and students.

　　You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)

　　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 are based on the news report you have just heard.

　　1. A) Her friend Erika. C) Her grandfather.

　　B) Her little brother. D) Her grandmother.

　　2. A) By taking pictures for passers-by. C) By selling lemonade and pictures.

　　B) By working part time at a hospital. D) By asking for help on social media.

　　Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.

　　3. A) Finding cheaper ways of highway construction.

　　B) Generating electric power for passing vehicles.

　　C) Providing clean energy to five million people.

　　D) Testing the efficiency of the new solar panel.

　　4. A) They can stand the wear and tear of natural elements.

　　B) They can be laid right on top of existing highways.

　　C) They are only about half an inch thick.

　　D) They are made from cheap materials.

　　Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.

　　5. A) Endless fighting in the region. C) Inadequate funding for research.

　　B) The hazards from the desert. D) The lack of clues about the species.

　　6. A) To observe the wildlife in the two national parks.

　　B) To identify the reasons for the lions’ disappearance.

　　C) To study the habitat of lions in Sudan and Ethiopia.

　　D) To find evidence of the existence of the “lost lions”.

　　7. A) Lions walking. C) Some camping facilities.

　　B) Lions’ tracks. D) Traps set by local hunters

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 conversation 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 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　8. A) Her ‘lucky birthday’. C) Her wedding anniversary.

　　B) A call from her dad. D) A special gift from the man.

　　9. A) Gave her a big model plane. C) Took her on a trip overseas.

　　B) Bought her a good necklace. D) Threw her a surprise party.

　　10. A) The gift her husband has bought.

　　B) The trip her husband has planned.

　　C) What has been troubling her husband.

　　D) What her husband and the man are up to.

　　11. A) He will be glad to be a guide for the couple’s holiday trip.

　　B) He will tell the women the secret if her husband agrees.

　　C) He is eager to learn how the couple’s holiday turns out.

　　D) He wants to find out about the couple’s holiday plan.

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

　　12. A) They are sensitive to the dynamics of a negotiation.

　　B) They see the importance of making compromises.

　　C) They know when to adopt a tough attitude.

　　D) They take the rival’s attitude into account.

　　13. A) They know how to adapt. C) They know when to make compromises.

　　B) They know when to stop. D) They know how to control their emotion.

　　14. A) They are patient. C) They learn quickly.

　　B) They are good at expression. D) They uphold their principles.

　　15. A) Make clear one's intentions. C) Formulate one's strategy.

　　B) Clarify items of negotiation. D) Get to know the other side.

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), 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 passage you have just heard.

　　16. A) When America's earliest space program started.

　　B) When the International Space Station was built.

　　C) How many space shuttle missions there will be.

　　D) How space research benefits people on Earth.

　　17. A) They accurately calculated the speed of the orbiting shuttles.

　　B) They developed objects for astronauts to use in outer space.

　　C) They tried to meet astronauts' specific requirements.

　　D) They tried to make best use of the latest technology.

　　18. A) They are extremely accurate. C) They were first made in space.

　　B) They are expensive to make. D) They were invented in the 1970s.

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

　　19. A) It was when her ancestors came to America.

　　B) People had plenty of land to cultivate then.

　　C) It marked the beginning of something new.

　　D) Everything was natural and genuine then.

　　20. A) They believed in working for goals. C) They had all kinds of entertainment.

　　B) They enjoyed living a living a life of ease. D) They were known to be creative.

　　21. A) Chatting with her ancestors. C) Polishing all the silver work.

　　B) Furnishing her country house. D) Doing needlework by the fire.

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

　　22. A) Use a map to identify your location. C) Sit down and try to calm yourself.

　　B) Call your family or friends for help. D) Try to follow your footprints back.

　　23. A) You may find a way out without your knowing it.

　　B) You may expose yourself to unexpected dangers.

　　C) You may get drowned in a sudden flood.

　　D) You may end up entering a wonderland.

　　24. A) Look for food. C) Start a fire.

　　B) Wait patiently. D) Walk uphill.

　　25. A) Inform somebody of your plan. C) Check the local weather.

　　B) Prepare enough food and drink. D) Find a map and a compass.

Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension ( 40 minutes )

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 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.

　　Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a “disease.”

　　On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancer and many more. In that light, aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.

　　Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.

　　“It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical(制药的)industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects,”he said.

　　“Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can’t control,”he said. “IN academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range.”

　　But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said,“It would attract funding and change the way we do health care. What matters is understand that aging is curable.”

　　“It was always known that the body accumulates damage,”he added. “The only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.”

　　Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespancan be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. Hayflick is not among them.

　　“There’re many people who recover from cancer, stroke, or heart disease. But they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease,”Hayflick said. “Even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.”

　　46. Whatdo people generally believe about aging?

　　A) It should cause not alarm whatsoever.

　　B) They just cannot do anything about it.

　　C) It should be regardedas a kind of disease.

　　D) They can delay it with advances in science.

　　47.How do many scientists view aging now?

　　A) It might be prevented and treated. C) It results from a vitamin deficiency.

　　B) It can be as risky as heart disease. D) It is an irreversible biological process.

　　48. What does Alex Zhavoronkov think of “describing aging as a disease”?

　　A) It will prompt people to take aging more seriously.

　　B) It will greatly help reduce the side effects of aging.

　　C) It will free pharmacists from the conventional beliefs about aging.

　　D) It will motivate doctors and pharmacists to find ways to treat aging.

　　49. What do we learn about the medical community?

　　A) They now have a strong interest in research on aging.

　　B) They differ from the academic circles in their view on aging.

　　C) They can contribute to people’s health only to a limited extent.

　　D) They have ways to intervene in people’s aging process.

　　50. What does Professor Leonard Hayflick believe?

　　A) The human lifespan cannot be prolonged.

　　B) Aging is hardly separable from disease.

　　C) Few people can live up to the age of 92.

　　D) Heart disease is the major cause of aging.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

　　Female applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences were nearly half as likely to receive excellent letters of recommendation, compared with their male counterparts. Christopher Intagliata reports.

　　As in many other fields, gender bias is widespread in the sciences. Men score higher starting salaries, have more mentoring(指导), and have better odds of being hired. Studies show they’re also perceived as more competent than women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. And new research reveals that men are more likely to receive excellent letters of recommendation, too.

　　“Say, you know, this is the best student I’ve ever had,” says Kuheli Dutt, a social scientist and diversity officer at Columbia University’s Lamont campus. “Compare those excellent letters with a merely good letter: ‘The candidate was productive, or intelligent, or a solid scientist or something that’s clearly solid praise,’ but nothing that singles out the candidate as exceptional or one of a kind.”

　　Dutt and her colleagues studied more than 1,200 letters of recommendation for postdoctoral positions in geoscience. They were all edited for gender and other identifying information, so Dutt and her team could assign them a score without knowing the gender of the student. They found that female applicants were only half as likely to get outstanding letters, compared withtheir male counterparts. That includes letters of recommendation from all over the world, and written by, yes, men and women. The findings are in the journal Nature Geoscience.

　　Dutt says they were not able to evaluate the actual scientific qualifications of the applicants using the data in the files. But she says the results still suggest women in geoscience are at a potential disadvantage from the very beginning of their careers starting with those less than out-standing letters of recommendation.

　　“We're not trying to assign blame or criticize anyone or call anyone consciously sexist. Rather, the point is to use the results of this study toopen upmeaningful dialogues on implicit gender bias, be it at a departmental level or an institutional level or even a discipline level.”Which may lead to some recommendations for the letter writers themselves.

　　51. What do we learn about applicants to postdoctoral positions in geosciences?

　　A)There are many more men applying than women.

　　B)Chances for women to get the positions are scarce.

　　C)More males than females are likely to get outstanding letters of recommendation.

　　D)Male applicants have more interest in these positions than their female counterparts.

　　52. What do studies about men and women in scientific research show?

　　A) Women engaged in postdoctoralwork are quickly catching up.

　　B) Fewer women are applying for postdoctoralpositions due to gender bias.

　　C) Men are believed to be better able to excel in STEM disciplines.

　　D) Women who are keenly interested in STEM fields are often exceptional.

　　53. What do the studies find about the recommendation letters for women applicants?

　　A) They are hardly ever supported by concrete examples.

　　B) They contain nothing that distinguishes the applicants.

　　C) They provide objective information without exaggeration.

　　D) They are often filled with praise for exceptional applicants.

　　54. What did Dutt and her colleagues do with the more than 1,200 letters of recommendation?

　　A) They asked unbiased scholars to evaluate them.

　　B) They invited women professionals to edit them.

　　C) They assigned them randomly to reviewers.

　　D) They deleted all information about gender.

　　55. What does Dutt aim to do with her study?

　　A) Raise recommendation writers’awareness of gender bias in their letters.

　　B) Open up fresh avenues for women post-doctors to join in reaserach work.

　　C) Alert women researchers to all types of gender bias in the STEM disciplines.

　　D) Start a public discussion on how to raise women’s status in academic circles.

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.

　　黄山位于安徽省南部。它风景独特，尤以其日出和云海著称。要欣赏大山的宏伟壮丽，通常得向上看。但要欣赏黄山美景，得向下看。黄山的湿润气候有利于茶树生成，是中国主要产茶地之一。这里还有许多温泉，其泉水有助于防治皮肤病。黄山是中国主要旅游目的地之一，也是摄影和传统国画最受欢迎的主题。