2015年6月大学英语四级考试真题
Part 1 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 description of the picture and them comment on this kind of modern life. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
THIS MODERN LIFE:
WORK HOME PLAY SLEEP
请用黑色签字笔在答题卡1指定区域作答作文题，在试题册上的作答无效。
Part II Listening Comprehension (30minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will bear 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 questions 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 1 with a single line through the center.
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 C) He will tell the woman his decision later
B) He is willing to offer the woman a hand 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 interests in history books
C) He has trouble finishing his reading assignments
D) He has difficulty in 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 sping C) He will clean the woman’s boots for spring
C) He has been waiting for the winter sale D) He will help the woman put things away
6. A) At a tailor’s C) In a cloth store
B) At Bob’s home D) In a theatre
7. A) His guests favors Tibetan drinks C) Mineral water is good for health
B) His water is quite extraordinary D) Plain water will serve the purpose
8. A) Report the result of a discussion C) Submit an important documentation
B) Raise some environmental issues D) Revise an environmental report
Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you 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 populations C) Changed eating habits
B) Packaging materials D) Lower production cost
11. A) By saving energy C) By reducing poisonous wastes
B) By using less aluminum 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 C) Bellingham
B) Vancouver 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 C) Avoid trips in public holidays
B) Choose a major airline 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 marketed A), B),C) and D). Then marked the correspond letter on Answer sheet I with 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-know 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 19-21 are based on the passage you have just heard
19. A) It shows you have been ignoring your health
B) It can seriously affect your thinking process
C) It is an early warning of some illness
D) It is a symptom of two much pressure
20. A) Reduce our workload C) Use painkillers for relief
B) Control our temper D) Avoid masking symptom
21. A) Lying down and having some sleep C) Going out for a walk
B) Rubbing and pressing one’s back 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 C). Spending beyond one’s means
B) Having no budget plans at all D). Leaving no room for large bills
23. A) Many of them can be cut C) Their payment cannot be delayed
B) All of them have to be covered D) They eat up most of the family income
24. A) Rent a house instead of buying one C) Make a conversation plan
B) Discuss the problem in the family D) Move to a cheaper place
25. A) Financial issues plaguing a family C) Family budget problems and solutions
B) Difficulty in making both ends meet D) New ways to boost family income
Section C
Directions: in this section,you will hear a paasage 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 reaf 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 ecpect 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 for 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 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 III Reading Comprehension (40minutes)
Section A
Direction: 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 follwing the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making choices. Each choie in the bank is identificated by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answere Sheet2 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)harmful N)terminals
G)outcomes O)twisting
H)passively Section B
Directions: In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attavched 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 question by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2
Essay -granding Software Officers Professors a Break
[A] Imagine taking a college exam, and instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professoer 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 the 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 Thnology(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 institutioons 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 the automation education. Altough automated grading systems for multiple-choice and true-false tests are now widespread, the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet provided widespread acceptance by educations and has many critics.
[D] Anant Agarwal, an electrical engineer who is president of Edx, predicted that the instant 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.“Thers is a huge value in learning 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 matter 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 grades.
[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 Professionals Against Machine Scoring 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)position, convincing argument, meaningful organization, and clarity, among others.”
[H] But EdX experts its software to be widely by schools and universities. It offers free online classes from Harvard, MIT and the University of California-Berkeley; this fall, it will add classes from Wellesley, Geogetown 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 international schools.
[I] The EdX assessment tool requires human teachers, or graders 100 essay 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 or numerical (数字的) rank.
[J] Edx is not the first to use the automated assessment technology, which dates to 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 second schools. A fifth, Indiana, has experimented with it. In some cases the software is 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 announced that it 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) to ward 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 software that grades essay and short answers. More than 150 teams entered each category. A winner of one of the Hewlett contents, Vik Paruchurt was hired by EdX to help design its assessment software.
[N] “One of our focus is to help kids learn how to think critically,” said Vuchic, a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation. “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 of 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 increasing large class, 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 over 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 professors in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to automated essay grading.
47 using software to grade students’ essay 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
leses famous university.
52 Critics argue many important aspects of effective writing cannot measured by computer rating programs.
53 As class size grows, most teachers are unable to give student 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 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 2 with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Question 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-education 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 individual and society, are profound.
The world is facing as 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.
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 poor?
A. Longer life expectancies
B. Profound changes in the workforce
C. rapid technological advance.
D. A growing number of well-graduated.
58、what do many observers predict in view of the experience of the 20th
century?
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 61-65 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 soybeans(大豆). They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that tood 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
soyabeans. 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 ploughted 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. C)The decline of the grain yield growth.
B)News headlines in the leading media. 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 Sheet2.
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。
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