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2014年6月四级真题(第三套)

Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the following question.You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
Suppose a foreign friend of yours is coming to visit China, what is the first place you would like to take him/her to see and why?
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注意:此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答.


Part H 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 1 with a single line through the centre.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答.
1.A.It was mainly meant for cancer patients.
B.It might appeal more to viewers over 40.
C.It was frequently interrupted by commercials.
D.It could help people of all ages to avoid cancer.
2.A.The man admires the woman's talent in writing.
B.The woman took a lot of pictures at the contest.
C.The woman is a photographer.
D.The man is fond of traveling.
3.A.The man placed the reading list on a desk.
B.The man regrets being absent-minded.
C.The woman saved the man some trouble.
D.The woman emptied the waste paper basket.
4.A.He has left the army recently.
B.He quit teaching in June.
C.He has taken over his brother's business.
D.He opened a restaurant near the school.
5.A.She read only part of the book.
B.She is interested in reading novels.
C.She seldom reads books from cover to cover.
D.She was eager to know what the book was about.
6.A.She called to say that her husband had been hospitalized.
B.She was absent all week owing to sickness.
C.She was seriously injured in a car accident.
D.She had to be away from school to attend to her husband.
7.A.The man lives two blocks away from the Smiths.
B.The woman is not sure if she is on the right street.
C.The Smiths' new house is not far from their old one.
D.The speakers want to rent the Smiths' old house.
8.A.The man couldn't find his car in the parking lot.
B.The man had a hard time finding a parking space.
C.The woman found they had got to the wrong spot.
D.The woman was offended by the man's late arrival.
Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9.A.The hotel clerk couldn't find his reservation for that night.
B.The hotel clerk tried to take advantage of his inexperience.
C.The hotel clerk had put his reservation under another name.
D.The hotel clerk insisted that he didn't make any reservation.
10.A.A grand wedding was being held in the hotel.
B.It was a busy season for holiday-makers.
C.The hotel was undergoing major repairs.
D.There was a conference going on in the city.
11.A.It was free of charge on weekends.
B.It was offered to frequent guests only.
C.It had a 15% discount on weekdays.
D.It was 10% cheaper than in other hotels.
12.A.Demand compensation from the hotel.
B.Find a cheaper room in another hotel.
C.Ask for an additional discount
D.Complain to the hotel manager.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
13.A.Secretary of Birmingham Medical School.
B.Head of the Overseas Students Office.
C.Assistant Director of the Admissions Office.
D.An employee in the city council at Birmingham.
14.A.A small number are from the Far East.
B.A large majority are from Latin America.
C.About fifteen percent are from Africa.
D.Nearly fifty percent are foreigners.
15.A.She will have more contact with students.
B.She will be more involved in policy-making.
C.It will be less demanding than her present job.
D.It will bring her capability into fuller play.
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, Cand D.Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 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.Her parents immigrated to America.
B.Her parents set up an ice-cream store.
C.Her parents left Chicago to work on a farm.
D.Her parents thrived in the urban environment.
17.A.He was born with a limp.
B.He taught English in Chicago.
C.He worked to become an executive.
D.He was crippled in a car accident.
18.A.She was fascinated by American culture.
B.She was very generous in offering help.
C.She was highly devoted to her family.
D.She was fond of living an isolated life.
Passage Two
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19.A.He was seriously injured.
B.He was wrongly diagnosed.
C.He developed a strange disease.
D.He suffered a nervous breakdown.
20.A.He raced to the nursing home.
B.He was able to talk again.
C.He could tell red and blue apart.
D.He could not recognize his wife.
21.A.Two and a half months.
B.Twenty-nine days.
C.Fourteen hours.
D.Several minutes.
22.A.They released a video of his progress.
B.They avoided appearing on television.
C.They welcomed the publicity in the media.
D.They declined to give details of his condition.
Passage Three
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
23.A.For farmers to exchange their daily necessities.
B.For people to share ideas and show farm “products.
C.For officials to educate the farming community.
D.For farmers to celebrate their harvests.
24.A.By offering to do volunteer work at the fair.
B.By bringing an animal rarely seen on nearby farms.
C.By bringing a bag of grain in exchange for a ticket.
D.By performing a special skill at the entrance.
25.A.They help to increase the state governments' revenue.
B.They contribute to the modernization of American farms.
C.They remind Americans of the importance of agriculture.
D.They provide a stage for people to give performances.
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.
Students' pressure sometimes comes from their parents.Most parents are (26) __________, but some of them aren't very helpful with the problems their sons and daughters have in(27) __________college, and a few of them seem to go out of their way to add to their children's difficulties.
For one thing, parents are often not (28) __________the kinds of problems their children face.They don't realize that the (29) __________is keener, that the required standards of work are higher, and that their children may not be prepared for the change.(30) __________to seeing A's and B's on high school report cards, they may be upset when their children's first semester college grades are below that level.At their kindest, they may (31) __________inquire why John or Mary isn't
doing better, whether he or she is tryingas hard as he or she should, and so on.At their worst, they may (32) __________to take their children out of college, or (33)__________funds.
Sometimes parents regard their children as extensions of themselves and think it only right and natural that they determine what their children do with their lives. In their involvement and(34)__________with their children, they forget that everyone is different and that each person must develop in his or her own way. They forget that their children, who are now young(35) __________, must be the ones responsible for what they do and what they are.

Part Ⅲ Reading 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.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Global warming is a trend toward warmer conditions around the world.Part of the warming is natural; we have experienced a 20,000-year-long warming as the last ice age ended and the ice____36____away.However, we have already reached temperatures that are in____37____with other minimum-ice periods, so continued warming is likely not natural.We are____38____to a predicted worldwide increase in temperatures____39____between 1℃ and 6℃ over the next 100 years.The warming will be more____40____in some areas, less in others, and some places may even cool off.Likewise, the____41____of this warming will be very different depending on where you are-coastal areas must worry about rising sea levels,while Siberia and northern Canada may become more habitable (益居的) and____42____for humans than
these areas are now.
The fact remains, however, that it will likely get warmer, on____43____, everywhere.Scientists are in general agreement that the warmer conditions we have been experiencing are at least in part the result of a human-induced global warming trend.Some scientists_____44____that the changes we are seeing fall within the range of random (无规律的) variation--some years are cold, others warm, and we have just
had an unremarkable string of warm years____45____but that is becoming an increasingly rare interpretation in the face of continued and increasing warm conditions.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.
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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 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.
The End of the Book?
A.Amazon, by far the largest bookseller in the country, reported on May 19 that it is now selling more books in its electronic Kindle format than in the old paper-and-ink format.That is remarkable,considering that the Kindle has only been around for four years.E-books now account for 14 percent of all book sales in this country and are increasing far faster than overall book sales.E-book sales are up 146 percent over last year, while hardback sales increased 6 percent and paperbacks decreased 8 percent.
B.Does this spell the doom of the physical book? Certainly not immediately, and perhaps not at all.What it does mean is that the book business will go through a transformation in the next decade or so more profound than any it has seen since Gutenberg introduced printing from moveable type in the 1450s.
C.Physical books will surely become much rarer in the marketplace.Mass market paperbacks, which have been declining for years anyway, will probably disappear, as will hardbacks for mysteries,thrillers, “omance fiction,”etc.Such books, which only rarely end up in permanent collections,either private or public, will probably only be available as e-books within a few years.Hardback and trade paperbacks for “serious” nonfiction and fiction will surely last longer.Perhaps it will become the mark of an author to reckon with that he or she is Still published in hard copy.
D.As for children's books, who knows? Children's_ books are like dog food in that the purchasers are not the consumers, so the market (and the marketing) is inherently strange.
E.For clues to the book's future, let's look at some examples of technological change and see what happened to the old technology.
F.One technology replaces another only because the new technology is better, cheaper, or both.The greater the difference, the sooner and more thoroughly the new technology replaces the old.Printing with moveable type on paper dramatically reduced the cost of producing a book compared with the old-fashioned ones handwritten on vellum, which comes from sheepskin.A Bible--to be sure, a long book--required vellum made from 300 sheepskins and countless man-hours of labor.Before printing arrived, a Bible cost more than a middle-class house.There were perhaps 50,000 books in all of Europe in 1450.By 1500 there were 10 million.
G.But while printing quickly caused the handwritten book to die out, handwriting lingered on(继续存在)well into the 16th century.Very special books are still occasionally produced on vellum, but they are one-of-a-kind show pieces.
H.Sometimes a new technology doesn't drive the old one out, but only parts of it while forcing the rest to evolve.The movies were widely predicted to drive live theater out of the marketplace, but they didn't, because theater turned out to have qualities movies could not reproduce.Equally, TV was supposed to replace movies but, again, did not.
I.Movies did, however, fatally impact some parts of live theater.And while TV didn't kill movies, it did kill second-rate pictures, shorts, and cartoons.
J.Nor did TV kill radio.Comedy and drama shows (“Jack Benny,” “Amos and Andy,” “The Shadow”)all migrated to television.But because you can't drive a car and watch television at the same time,rush hour became radio's prime time, while music, talk, and news radio greatly enlarged their audiences.Radio is today a very different business than in the late 1940s and a much larger one.
K.Sometimes old technology lingers for centtmes because of its symbolic power.Mounted cavalry (骑兵)replaced the chariot (二轮战车) on the battlefield around 1000 BC.But chariots maintained their place in parades and triumphs right up until the end of the Roman Empire 1,500 years later.The sword hasn't had a military function for a hundred years, but is still part of an officer's full-dress uniform, precisely because a sword always symbolized “an officer and a gentleman.”
L.Sometimes new technology is a little cranky (不稳定的) at first.Television repairman was a common occupation in the 1950s, for instance.And so the old technology remains as a backup.Steamships captured the North Atlantic passenger business from sail in the 1840s because of its much greater speed.But steamships didn't lose their sails until the 1880s, because early marine engines had a nasty habit of breaking down.Until ships became large enough (and engines small enough) to mount two engines side by side, they needed to keep sails.(The high cost of steam and the lesser need for speed kept the majority of the world's ocean freight moving by sail until the early years of the 20th century.)
M.Then there is the fireplace.Central heating was present in upper- and middle-class home by the second half of the 19th century.But functioning fireplaces remain to this day a powerful selling point in a house or apartment.I suspect the reason is a deep-rooted love of fire.Fire was one of the earliest major technological advances for humankind, providing heat, protection, and cooked food (which is much easier to eat and digest).Human control of fire goes back far enough (over a million years) that evolution could have produced a genetic leaning towards fire as a central aspect of human life.
N.Books--especially books the average person could afford--haven't been around long enough to produce evolutionary change in humans.But they have a powerful hold on many people nonetheless,a hold extending far beyond their literary content.At their best, they are works of art and there is a tactile (触觉的) pleasure in books necessarily lost in e-book versions.The ability to quickly thumb through pages is also lost.And a room with books in it induces, at least in some, a feeling not dissimilar to that of a fire in the fireplace on a cold winter's night.
O.For these reasons I think physical books will have a longer existence as a commercial product than some currently predict.Like swords, books have symbolic power.Like fireplaces, they induce a sense of comfort and warmth.And, perhaps, similar to sails, they make a useful backup for when the lights go out.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.
46.Authors still published in printed versions will be considered important ones.
47.Some people are still in favor of printed books because of the sense of touch they can provide.
48.The radio business has changed greatly and now attracts more listeners.
49.Contrary to many people's prediction of itsdeath, the film industry survived.
50.Remarkable changes have taken place in the book business.
51.Old technology sometimes continues to exist because of its reliability.
52.The increase of e-book sales will force the book business to make changes not centuries.
53.A new technology is unlikely to take the place of an old one without a clear advantage.
54.Paperbacks of popular literature are more likely to be replaced by e-books.
55.A house with a fireplace has a stronger appeal to buyers.
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, Cand D.You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
The question of whether our government should promote science and technology or the liberal arts in higher education isn't an either/or proposition (命题), although the current emphasis on preparing young Americans for STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) -related fields can make it seem that way.
The latest congressional report acknowledges the critical importance of technical training, but also asserts that the study of the humanities (人文科学) and social sciences must remain central components of America's educational system at all levels.Both areas are critical to producing citizens who can participate effectively in our democratic society, become innovative (创新的) leaders, and benefit from the spiritual enrichment that the reflection on the great ideas of mankind over time provides.
Parents and students who have invested heavily in higher education worry about graduates' job prospects as technological advances and changes in domestic and global markets transform professions in ways that reduce wages and cut jobs.Under these circumstances, it's natural to look for what may appear to be the most“practical” way out of the problem:“Major in a subject designed to get you a job” seems the obvious answer to some, though this ignores the fact that many disciplines in the humanities characterized as“soft” often, in fact, lead to employment and success in the long run.Indeed, according to surveys, employers have expressed a preference for students who have received a broadly-based education that has taught them to write well, think critically, research creatively, and communicate easily.
Moreover, students should be prepared not just for their first job, but for their 4th and 5th jobs, as there's little reason to doubt that people entering the workforce today will be called upon to play many different roles over the course of their careers.The ones who will do the best in this new environment will be those whose educations have prepared them to be flexible.The ability to draw upon every available tool and .insight--picked up from science, arts, and technology--to solve the problems of the future, and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves, will be helpful to them and the United States.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.
56.What does the latest congressional report suggest?
A.STEM-related subjects help students find jobs in the information society.
B.The humanities and STEM subjects should be given equal importance.
C.The liberal arts in higher education help enrich students' spiritual life.
D.Higher education should be adjusted to the practical needs of society.
57.What is the main concern of students when they choose a major?
A.Their interest in relevant subjects.
B.The academic value of the courses.
C.The quality of education to receive.
D.Their chances of getting a good job.
58.What does the author say about the so-called soft subjects?
A.They benefit students in their future life.
B.They broaden students' range of interests.
C.They improve students' communication skills.
D.They are essential to students' healthy growth.
59.What kind of job applicants do employers look for?
A.Those who have a strong sense of responsibility.
B.Those who are good at solving practical problems.
C.Those who are likely to become innovative leaders.
D.Those who have received a well-rounded education.
60.What advice does the author give to college students?
A.Seize opportunities to tap their potential.
B.Try to take a variety of practical courses.
C.Prepare themselves for different job .options.
D.Adopt a flexible approach to solving problems.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Energy independence.It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? If you think so, you're not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American presidents for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical(修辞的) companion “energy security', are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely thought through.What is it we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want tobe independent from imported oil.But there are reasons that we buy all that off from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running.Yes, there is a trickle (涓涓细流)of biofuel (生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofueis cause economic wasteand environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don't really want to produce all their Own oil.They value the environmental quality they preserve, over their off imports from abroad.Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to off exploration and production in the name of environmental protection.To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade.It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit.And although you don't read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of off products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy.When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices.At the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.
61.What does the author say about energy independence for America?
A.It sounds very attractive.B.It ensures national security.
C.It will bring oil prices down.
D.It has long been everyone's dream.
62.What does the author think of biofuels?
A.They keep America's economy running healthily.
B.They prove to be a good alternative to petroleum.
C.They do not provide a sustainable energy supply.
D.They cause serious damage to the environment
63.Why does America rely heavily on off imports?
A.It wants to expand its storage of crude oil.
B.Its own oil reserves are quickly running out.
C.It wants to keep its own environment intact.
D.Its own oil production falls short of demand.
64.What does the author say about oil trade?
A.It proves profitable to both sides.
B.It improves economic efficiency.
C.It makes for economic prosperity.
D.It saves the cost of oil exploration.
65.What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
A.To justify America's dependence on oil imports.
B.To arouse Americans' awareness of the energy crisis.
C.To stress the importance of energy conservation.
D.To explain the increase of international oil trade.


Part IVTranslation (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.
为了促进教育公平,中国已投入360亿元,用于改善农村地区教育设旋和加强中西部地区农村义务教育(compulsory education).这些资金用于改善教学设施、购买书籍,使l6万多所中小学受益.资金还用于购置音乐和绘画器材.现在农村和山区的儿童可以与沿海城市的儿童一样上音乐和绘画课.一些为接受更好教育而转往城市上学的学生如今又回到了本地农村学校就读.
注意:此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答.
      

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