文档内容
2016年12月英语四级真题及答案
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose
you have two options upon graduation : one is to find a job somewhere
and the other to start a business of your own. You are to make a choice
between the two. Write an essay to explain the reasons for your choice. You
should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
Part II Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)
说明：由于 2016 年 12 月四级考试全国共考了 2 套听力，本套真题听力
与前 2 套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。
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 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.
When someone commits a criminal act, we always hope the punishment will
match the offense. But when it comes to one of the cruelest crimes-animal fighting-
things 26 work out that way. Dog-fighting victims are 27 and killed for profit
and “sport,” yet their criminal abusers often receive a 28 sentence for causing a
lifetime of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animal fighters only get
probation（缓刑）.
Some progress has been made in the prosecution （起诉） of animal fighters.
But federal judges often rely heavily on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines when they
29 penalties, and in the case of animal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and
extremely 30 .
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which 31 these sentencing guidelines, is
revisiting them, proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6-12 to 21-27 months,
This is a step in the right 32 , but we’d like to see the U.S. Sentencing
Commission make further changes to the guidelines.
Along with this effort, we’re working with animal advocates and state and federal
lawmakers to 33 anti-cruelty laws across the country, as well as supporting laws
and policies that assist because the high animal 34 that care for animal fighting
victims. This help is 35 important because the high cost of caring for animal
victims is a major factor that prevents people from getting involved in cruelty cases inthe first place.
A) Convenient
B) Creates
C) Critically
D) Determine
E) Direction
F) Hesitate
G) Inadequate
H) Inspired
I) Method
J) Minimal
K) Rarely
L) Shelters
M) Strengthen
N) Sufferings
O) Tortured
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 question by marking the corresponding letter on
Answer Sheet 2.
When Work Becomes a Game
[A] What motivates employees to do their jobs well? Competition with
coworkers, for some. The promise of rewards, for others. Pure enjoyment of problem-
solving, for a lucky few.
[B] Increasingly, companies are tapping into these desires directly through what
has come to be known as “gamification”: essentially, turning work into a game.
“Gamification is about understanding what it is that makes games engaging and what
game designers do to create a great experience in games, and taking those learnings
and applying them to other contexts such as the workplace and education,” explains
Kevin Werbach, a gamification expert who teaches at the Wharton School of Business
at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
[C] It might mean monitoring employee productivity on a digital leaderboard and
offering prizes to the winners, or giving employees digital badges or stars for
completing certain activities. It could also mean training employees how to do their
jobs through video game platforms. Companies from Google to L’Oréal to IBM to
Wells Fargo are known to use some degree of gamification in their workplaces. And
more and more companies are joining them. A recent report suggests that the global
gamification market will grow from $1.65 billion in 2015 to $11.1 billion by 2020.
[D] The concept of gamification is not entirely new, Werbach says. Companies,marketers and teachers have long looked for fun ways to engage people’s reward-
seeking or competitive spirits. Cracker Jacks has been “gamifying” its snack food by
putting a small prize inside for more than 100 years, he adds, and the turn-of-the-
century steel magnate（巨头）Charles Schwab is said to have often come into his
motivating the next shift of workers to beat the previous one.
[E] But the word “gamification” and the widespread, conscious application of the
concept only began in earnest about five years ago, Werbach says. Thanks in part to
video games, the generation now entering the workforce is especially open to the idea
of having their work gamified. “We are at a point where in much of the developed
world the vast majority of young people grew up playing video games, and an
increasingly high percentage of adult play these video games too,” Werbach says.
[F] A number of companies have sprung up-GamEffective, Bunchball and
Badgeville, to name a few-in recent years offering gamification platforms for
businesses. The platforms that are most effective turn employees’ ordinary job tasks
into part of a rich adventure narrative. “What makes a game mage-like is that the
player actually cares about the outcome,” Werbach says. The principle is about
understanding what is motivating to this group of players, which requires some
understanding of psychology.
[G] Some people, Werbach says, are motivated by competition. Sales people
often fall into this category. For them, the right kind of gamification might be turning
their sales pitches into a competition with other team members, complete with a
digital leaderboard showing who is winning at all times. Others are more motivated
by collaboration and social experiences. One company Werbach has studied uses
gamification to create a sense of community and boost employees’ morale (士气).
When employees log in to their computers, they’re shown a picture of one of their
coworkers and asked to guess that person’s name.
[H] Gamification does not have to be digital. Monica Cornetti runs a company
that gamifies employee trainings. Sometimes this involves technology, but often it
does not. She recently designed a gamification strategy for a sales training company
with a storm-chasing theme. Employees formed “storm chaser teams” and competed
in storm-themed educational exercises to earn various rewards. “Rewards do not have
to be stuff,” Cornetti says. “Rewards can be flexible working hours.” Another
training, this one for pay roll law, used a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme.
“Snow White” is available for everyone to use, but the “dwarfs” are still under
copyright, so Cornetti invented sound-alike characters (Grumpy Guys, Dopey Dan) to
illustrate specific pay roll law principles.
[I] Some people do not take naturally to gamified work environments, Cornetti
says. In her experience, people in positions of power of people in finance or
engineering do not tend to like the sound of the word. “If we are designing for
engineers, I’m not talking about a ‘game’ at all”, Cornetti says. “I’m talking about a
‘simulation’ (模拟), I’m talking about ‘being able to solve this problem.’”
[J] Gamification is “not a magic bullet,” Werbach warns. A gamification strategy
that is not sufficiently thought through or well tailored to its players may engage
people for a little while, but it will not motivate people in the long term. It can also beexploitive, especially when used with vulnerable populations. For workers, especially
low-paid workers, who desperately need their jobs yet know they can be easily
replaced, gamification may feel more like the Hunger Games. Werbach gives the
example of several Disneyland hotels in Anaheim, California, which used large digital
leaderboards to display how efficiently laundry workers were working compared to
one another. Some employees found the board motivating. To others, it was the
opposite of fun. Some began to stop taking bathroom breaks, worried that if their
productivity fell they would be fired. Pregnant employees struggled to keep up. In a
Los Angeles Times article, one employee referred to the board as a “digital whip.” “It
actually had a very negative effect on morale and performance,” Werbach says.
[K] Still, gamification only stands to become more popular, he says, “as more and
more people come into the workforce who are familiar with the structures and
expressions of digital games.” “We are far from reaching peak,” Cornetti agrees.
“There is no reason this will go away.”
36. Some famous companies are already using gamification and more are trying
to do the same.
37. Gamification is not a miracle cure for all workplaces as it may have negative
results.
38. To enhance morale, one company asks its employees to identify their fellow
workers when starting their computers.
39. The idea of gamifacation was practiced by some businesses more than a
century ago.
40. There is reason to believe that gamification will be here to stay.
41. Video games contributed in some ways to the wide application of
gamification.
42. When turning work into a game, it is necessary to understand what makes
games interesting.
43. Gamification in employee training does not always need technology.
44.The most successful gamification platforms transform daily work assignments
into fun experiences.
45. It is necessary to use terms other than “gamification” for some professions.
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
centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain
students and keep younger faculty members from going elsewhere.
It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose taskit is to “solve problems-real or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three
different colleges, the actual problems in educating our young people and older
students have deepened, while the number of people hired- not to teach but to hold
meetings- has increased significantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an
administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title, the
center is a clearing house(信息交流中心) for using in classrooms and in online
courses. It’s an administrative sham (欺诈) of the kind that has multiplied over the
last 30 years.
I offer a simple proposition in response: Many of our problems- class attendance,
educational success, student happiness and well-being-might be improved by cutting
down the bureaucratic(官僚的) mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army
of good teachers. If we replaced half of our administrative staff with classroom
teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20 or fewer students
per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actually
knew each other.
The teachers must be free to teach in their own way- the curriculum should be
flexible enough so that they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the
course. Additionally, they should be allowed to teach, and be rewarded for doing it
well. Teachers are not people who are great at and consumed by research and happen
to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are not exclusive, but they are
also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft, talent and practice; it is
not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that people
do not recognize this, despite the fact that pretty much anyone who has been a student
can tell the difference between their best and worst teachers.
46. What does the author say about present-day universities?
A) They are effectively tackling real or imagined problems.
B) They often fail to combine teaching with research.
C) They are over-burdened with administrative staff.
D) They lack talent to fix their deepening problems.
47. According to the author, what kind of people do university lack most?
A) Good classroom teachers.
B) Efficient administrators.
C) Talented researchers.
D) Motivated students.
48. What does the author imply about the classes at present?
A) They facilitate students’ independent learning.
B) They help students form closer relationships.
C) They have more older students than before.
D) They are much bigger than is desirable.
49. What does the author think of teaching ability?
A) It requires talent and practice.
B) It is closely related to research.
C) It is a chief factor affecting students’ learning.
D) It can be acquired through persistent practice.50. What is the author’s suggestion for improving university teaching?
A) Creating an environment for teachers to share their teaching experiences.
B) Hiring more classroom teachers and allowing them to teach in their own way.
C) Using high technology in classroom and promoting exchange of information.
D) Cutting down meetings and encouraging administrative staff to go to
classrooms.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
The secret to eating less and being happy about it may have been cracked years
ago-by McDonald’s. According to a new study from Cornell University’s Food and
Brand Lab, small non-food rewards-like the toys in McDonald’s happy meals-
stimulate the same reward centers in the brain as food does.
The researchers, led by Martin Reimann, carried out a series of experiments to
see if people would choose a smaller meal if it was paired with a non-food item.
They found that the majority of both kids and adults opted for a half-sized portion
when combined with a prize. Both options were priced the same.
Even more interesting is that the promise of a future reward was enough to make
adults choose the smaller portion. One of the prizes used was a lottery ticket, with a
$10, $50 or $100 payout, and this was as effective as a tangible gift in persuading
people to eat less.
“The fact that participants were willing to substitute part of a food item for the
mere prospect of a relatively small monetary award is interesting,” says Reimann.
He theorize that it is the emotion component of these intangible prizes that make
then effective than options with hard odds included.
“One explanation for this finding is that possible awards may be more
emotionally provoking than certainty awards,” says Reimann. “The uncertainty of
winning provides added attraction and desirability through emotional ‘thrills’. The
possibility of receiving an award also produces a state -of hope-a state that is in itself
psychologically rewarding.” In other words, there’s a reason why people like to
gamble.
How might this knowledge be used to help people eat more healthily?
One possibility is a healthy option that offers the chance to win a spa weekend.
Or maybe the reward of a half-sized dessert to be claimed only on a future date. That
would get you back in the restaurant-and make you eat a little less.
51. What do we learn about McDonald’s inclusion of toys in its happy meals?
A) It may shed light on people’s desire to crack a secret.
B) It has proved to be key to McDonald’s business success.
C) It appeals to kid’s curiosity to find out what is hidden inside.
D) It may be a pleasant way for kids to reduce their food intake.
52. What is the finding of the researchers led by Martin Reimann?
A) Reducing food intake is not that difficult if people go to McDonald’s more.
B) More kids and adults don’t actually feel hungry when they eat half of their
meal.C) Eating a smaller portion of food does good to the health of kids and adults
alike.
D) Most kids and adults would choose a smaller meal that came with a non-food
item.
53. What is most interesting in Martin Reimann’s finding?
A) Kids preferred an award in the form of money to one in the form of a toy.
B) Adults choose the smaller portion on the more promise of a future award.
C) Both kids and adults felt satisfied with only half of their meal portions.
D) Neither children nor adults could resist the temptation of a free toy.
54. How does Martin Reimann interpret his finding?
A) The emotional component of the prize is at work.
B) People now care more about quality than quantity.
C) People prefer certainty awards to possible award.
D) The desire for a future rewards is overwhelming.
55. What can we infer from Martin Reimann’s finding?
A) People should eat much less if they wish to stay healthy and happy.
B) More fast food restaurants are likely to follow McDonald’s example.
C) We can lead people to eat less while helping the restaurant business.
D) More studies are needed to find out the impact of emotion on behavior.
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.
随着中国的改革开放，如今很多年轻人都喜欢举行西式婚礼。新娘在婚礼
上穿着白色婚纱，因为白色被认为是纯洁的象征。然而，在中国传统文化中，
白色经常是葬礼上使用的颜色。因此，务必记住，白花一定不要用作祝人康复
的礼物，尤其不要送给老年人或危重病人。同样，礼金也不能装在白色的信封
里，而要装在红色的信封里。【 参 考 答 案 】
【参考范文】
In the past two years of my college life, I have never ceased to think what kind of
work I shall take up upon graduation. Although my ideas are not consistent, I have
now decided to start a business of my own as my lifelong career.
A variety of factors have led me to make this decision over other more lucrative
ones. To begin with, running my own business means freedom and independence. As
a person having my own business, it can fully express myself and make my own
decisions, a privilege not everyone can have, even those with highly-paid positions.
More importantly, I like starting my own business in that it combines with interest and
work. A person can only devote himself to doing the best when he is really interested
in one thing. What's more, start a business of my own offers a certain peace of mind.
No more rushing to catch a morning bus, no more worries about when I will get fired,
no more anxious to please a boss.
I do not want to miss this entrepreneurial era, and nothing, not even a big salary,
can equal for the satisfaction of being your own boss and a gentle peace of life.
【26-30】KOJDG 【31-35】BEMLC
【36-40】CJGDK 【41-45】EBHFI
【46-50】CADAB 【51-55】DDBAC
【翻译参考译文】
With China's reform and opening up, nowadays quite a number of youngsters
would like to celebrate their weddings in western style. The bride wears a white
wedding dress at the ceremony, as white is regarded as a symbol of purity. However,
in traditional Chinese culture, white is a color that is often used in funerals. That's
why it's necessary to keep in mind that white flowers must not be gifts for patients,
especially not for the elders or critically ill patients. Similarly, the cash gift shouldn't
be packed in a white envelope, but in a red one instead.
