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大学英语四级考试 2015 年 12 月真题(第三套)
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on
the saying “Never go out there to see what happens, go out there to make things
happen.” You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of being participants rather
than mere onlookers in life. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180
words.
Part I Listening (30 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) A lawsuit has been filed against Malaysia Airlines.
C) The cause of the disappearance has been unveiled.
B) The missing passengers’ bodies have been found.
D) Flight MH370 got lost during its trip to Hong Kong.
2. A) On a beach in Mozambique. C) In Reunion Island.
B) In Malaysia. D) In Beijing.
Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.
3. A) Because they are used to living here.
B)Because it is cheaper for them to live here.
C)Because it is easier for them to get a job.
D)Because the government forced them to live here.
4. A) The snowstorm. C) The war.
B) The bombing. D) The starvation.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.
5. A) Enriching the menu. C) Opening new branches.
B) Meeting customer needs. D) Improving customer sales.
6. A) U.S.-based McDonald’s president. C) McDonald’s Japan’s president.
B) McDonald’s Japan’s customer. D) U.S.-based McDonald’s customer.
17. A) In 1971. C) In 1997.
B) In 1991. D) In 2015.
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) Hosting an evening TV program. C) Lecturing on business management.
B) Having her bicycle repaired.. D) Conducting a market survey.
9. A) He repaired bicycles. C) He worked as a salesman.
B) He served as a consultant. D) He coached in a racing club.
10.A) He wanted to be his own boss. C) He didn’t want to start from scratch.
B) He found it more profitable. D) He didn’t want to be in too much debt.
11. A) They work five days a week. C) They are paid by the hour.
B) They are all the man’s friends. D) They all enjoy gambling.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12.A) It has gradually given way to service industry.
B)It remains a major part of industrial activity.
C)It has a history as long as paper processing.
D)It accounts for 80 percent of the region’s GDP.
13. A) Transport problems. C) Lack of resources.
B) Shortage of funding. D) Poor management.
14.A) Competition from rival companies.
B)Product promotion campaigns.
C)Possible locations for a new factory.
D)Measures to create job opportunities.
15.A) It’s just so-so. C) Its very good and improving.
B) Its perfect. D) Its disappointing.
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) and D).Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a
single line through the centre.
2Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16.A) They shared mutual friends in school.
B)They had known each other since childhood.
C)They shared many extracurricular activities.
D)They had many interests in common.
17.A) At a local club. C) At the sports center.
B) At Joe’s house. D) At the boarding school.
18.A) Durable friendships can be very difficult to maintain.
B)One has to be respectful of other people in order to win respect.
C)It is hard for people from different backgrounds to become friends.
D)Social divisions will break down if people get to know each other.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19.A) Near the entrance of a park. C) At a parking meter.
B) In his buildings parking lot. D) At a street corner.
20.A) It had been taken by the police. C) It had been stolen by someone.
B) It had been moved to the next block. D) It had been parked at a wrong place.
21.A) At the Greenville center. C) In a neighboring town.
B) At a public parking lot. D) In the city garage.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22.A) Famous creative individuals. C) A major scientific discovery.
B) The mysteriousness of creativity. D) Creativity as shown in arts.
23.A) It is something people all engage in. C) It starts soon after we are born.
B) It helps people acquire knowledge. D) It is the source of all artistic work.
24. A) Creative imagination. C) Natural curiosity.
B) Logical reasoning. D) Critical thinking.
25. A) It is beyond ordinary people. C) It is part of everyday life.
B) It is yet to be fully understood. D) It is a unique human trait.
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.
3Question 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.
For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. Late
November and December 36 early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of
the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two 37 , record-cold days will
likely turn out to have outnumbered record-warm ones. But the U. S. was the exception:
November was the warmest ever 38 , and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to
have been the fourth hottest year on record.
Enjoy the snow now, because 39 are good that 2014 will be even hotter,
perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept. That’s because, scientists are
predicting, 2014 will be an El Nino year.
El Nino, Spanish for “the child”, 40 when surface ocean waters in the southern
Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, covering 30% of the planet’s
surface, that the 41 energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series
of weather changes around the world. El Ninos are 42 with abnormally dry
conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia. They can lead to extreme rain in parts of
North and South America, even as southern Africa 43 dry weather. Marine life may be
affected too: El Ninos can 44 the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich（营养丰富的）
water that supports large fish 45 , and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can
destroy coral（珊瑚）.
A) additional I) logically
B) associated J) occurs
C) bore K) populations
D) chances L) realize
E) communicated M) reduce
F) decades N) saw
G) Experiences O) Specific
H) globally
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.
How to Eat Well
A) Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctly
called junk (垃圾）and should really carry warning labels?
B) It’s not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer more
4variety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers, markets in the U. S.
as there were 20 years ago. Nor is it for lack of available information. There are plenty
of recipes（食谱）how-to videos and cooking classes available to anyone who has a
computer, smartphone or television. If anything, the information is overwhelming.
C) And yet we aren’t cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like most
Americans, you probably get at least a third of your daily calories (卡路里）outside
the home. Nearly two thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25%
of our daily calories from snacks. So we’re eating out or taking in, and we don’t sit
down—or we do, but we hurry.
D) Shouldn’t preparing—and consuming—food be a source of comfort, pride, health,
well-being, relaxation, sociability? Something that connects us to other humans? Why
would we want to outsourc 外包）this basic task, especially when outsourcing it is so
（e
harmful?
E) When I talk about cooking, I’m not talking about creating elaborate dinner parties or
three-day science projects. I’m talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My
mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed
themselves. That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach
people to cook food that’s good enough to share with family and friends.”
F) Perhaps a return to real cooking needn’t be far off. A recent Harris poll revealed that
79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30% “love it”; 14% admit to not
enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won’t go near the stove at all. But this doesn’t
necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn’t surprise
anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week; only a
third of young people do.
G) Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Mom cooked virtually
every night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much
universal. Most people couldn’t afford to do otherwise.
H) Although frozen dinners were invented in the 40s, their popularity didn’t boom until
televisions became popular a decade or so later. Since then, packaged, pre-prepared
meals have been what’s for dinner. The microwave and fast-food chains were the
biggest catalyst (催化剂）, but the big food companies—which want to sell anything
except the raw ingredients that go into cooking—made the home cook an endangered
species.
I) Still, I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals at home
regularly. Isn’t this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and champions
craft cooking? And isn’t this the generation who say they’ve concerned about their
5health and the well-being of the planet? If these are truly the values of many young
6people, then their behavior doesn’t match their beliefs.
J) There have been half-hearted but well-publicized efforts by some food companies to
reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still the
polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant-based diet that just about every expert says
we should be eating. Considering that the government’s standards are not nearly
ambitious enough, the picture is clear: by not cooking at home, we’re not eating the
right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate.
K) To help quantify（量化）costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate this impact
in terms of a most famous food, the burger（汉堡包）. I concluded that the profit
from burgers is more than offset（抵消）by the damage they cause in health
problems and environmental harm?
L) Cooking real food is the best defense—not to mention that any meal you’ve likely to
eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a restaurant.
M) To those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what
you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop the
grocery store, since that’s where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy are. And
to save money and still eat well you don’t need local, organic ingredients; all you need
is real food. I’m not saying local food isn’t better; it is. But there is plenty of decent
food in the grocery stores.
N) The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned goods.
Frozen produce is still produce; canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just make sure
you’re getting real food without tons of added salt or sugar. Ask yourself, would
Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in nature?
It’s pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable foodlike
objects.
O) You don’t have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance of skill.
Since fewer than half of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level and only
20% describe their cooking skills as advanced, the crisis is one of confidence. And the
only remedy for that is practice. There’s nothing mysterious about cooking the
evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and redefine what qualifies
as dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more; every time you cook,
you advance your level of skills. Someday you won’t even need recipes. My advice is
that you not pay attention to the number of steps and ingredients, because they can be
deceiving.
P) Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must adjust
your priorities to find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the kitchen
and watch your favorite shows while you’re standing at the sink. No one is asking you
7to give up activities you like, but if you’re watching food shows on TV, try cooking
instead.
36. Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another.
37. Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.
38. Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.
39. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.
40. In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.
41.Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and
their family.
42. Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.
43.To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it
themselves.
44. We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.
45. The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.
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.
The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the
generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping—where you hand over notes
and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail
encounters, like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the
shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is
more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores
—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don’t go and stand at any kind of
cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your
payment while you relax on a sofa.
Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But
across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just old-
fashioned. But earning money isn’t quick or easy for most of us. Isn’t it a bit weird that
spending it should happen in half a blink (眨眼）of an eye? Doesn’t a wallet—that
8time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something
that matters?
But I’ll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the
wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look
and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with
age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed
cinema tickets—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a
wallet is a smartphone or an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable
as a pebble (鹅卵石）. Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into comers,
we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you
still have one. It may not be here much longer.
46. What is happening to the wallet?
A)It is disappearing.
B)It is being fattened.
C)It is becoming costly,
D)It is changing in style.
47.How are business transactions done in big modern stores?
A)Individually.
B)Electronically.
C)In the abstract.
D)Via a cash register.
48.What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays?
A)Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.
B)The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading.
C)Earning money is getting more difficult.
D)Spending money is so fast and easy.
49.Why does the author choose to write about what’s happening to the wallet?
A)It represents a change in the modem world.
B)It has something to do with everybody’s life.
C)It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition.
D)It is the concern of contemporary economists.
50.What can we infer from the passage about the author?
A)He is resistant to social changes.
B)He is against technological progress.
C)He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet.
D)He feels insecure in the ever-changing modem world.
9Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Everybody sleeps, but what people stay up late to catch—or wake up early in order
not to miss— varies by culture.
From data collected, it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep, on
average, are sporting events, time changes, and holidays.
Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of
daylight savings time, Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later
each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to “winter time”
starting on October 26.
Russia’s other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays.
On New Year’s Eve, Russians have the world’s latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around
3:30 a.m.
Russians also get up an hour later on International Women’s Day, the day for
treating and celebrating female relatives.
Similarly, Americans, late nights, late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day
weekends. Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic
hockey （冰球）. The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation (剥
夺）. The worst night for sleep in the U. K was the night of the England-Italy match on
June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than
usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely
sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to
Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a half later on
various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.
It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns;
in some of these nations, it’s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect
to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that’s the
case, though, the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among us
have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the
rest of us losing?
51. What does the author say about peopled sleeping habits?
A)They are culture-related.
C) They change with the seasons.
B) They affect peopled health.
D) They vary from person to person.
1052.What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep?
A)They don’t fall asleep until very late.
B)They don’t sleep much on weekends.
C)They get less sleep on public holidays.
D)They sleep longer than people elsewhere.
53.What is the major cause for Europeans’ loss of sleep?
A)The daylight savings time.
B)The colorful night life.
C)The World Cup.
D)The summertime.
54. What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their
sleep patterns?
A)They have trouble falling asleep.
B)They want to get sufficient sleep.
C)They are involved in a sleep research.
D)They want to go to bed on regular hours.
55. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A)Sleeplessness does harm to peopled health.
B)Few people really know the importance of sleep.
C)It is important to study our sleep patterns.
D)Average people probably sleep less than the rich.
Part IV Translation (30 minutes)
Section A
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.
今年在长沙举行了一年一度的外国人汉语演讲比赛。这项比赛证明是促进中国
和世界其他地区文化交流的好方法。它为世界各地的年轻人提供了更好地了解中国 的
机会。
来自 87 个国家共计 126 位选手聚集在湖南省省会参加了从 7 月 6 日到 8 月 5 日
进行的半决赛和决赛。
比赛并不是唯一的活动。选手们还有机会参观了中国其他地区的著名景点和历 史
名胜。
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