英语四级真题及答案.docx

1、英语四级真题及答案2012年12月英语四级真题及答案Part Listening Comprehension (20 minutes)Section ADirections：In this section,you will hear 10 short conversations. At the end of each conversation,a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the question will be spoken only once. After each quest

2、ion 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Example:You will read: A) At the office. B) In the waiting room.C) At the

3、 airport. D) In a restaurant.From the conversation we know that the two were talking about some work they had to finish in the evening. This conversation is most likely to have taken place at the office. Therefore,A)“At the office” is the best answer. You should choose A) on the Answer Sheet and mar

4、k it with a single line through the centre.Sample Answer ABCD1. A) The fourth floor. B) The fifth floor. C) The sixth floor. D) The seventh floor.2. A) John bought a cheap computer. B) John bought Morris a computer.C) Morris bought a computer from John. D) Morris bought a new computer.3. A) Recogniz

5、e Jane first. B) Tell the woman why.C) Go on a diet. D) Feel at ease.4. A) The white one. B) The brick one.C) The prettier one. D) The better one.5. A) The summer this year is terribly hot. B) Last summer was even hotter.C) Hot weather helps lose weight. D) Light was stronger this morning.6. A) No o

6、ne on the bus was injured.B) Everyone on the bus was injured.C) Only one student on the bus was injured.D) More than one student on the bus was injured.7. A) Drawing some money. B) Opening a deposit account.C) Saving much money. D) Putting money in the bank.8. A) They have too little patience. B) Th

7、ey are not strict with students.C) They are very hard on students. D) They are more hardworking than before.9. A) The woman is very worried. B) The man doesnt like thinking.C) The man has done something wrong. D) The woman can do nothing for the man.10. A) Because the waist was a bit too tight.B) Be

8、cause there wasnt any of her size.C) Because she didnt look good in the dress.D) Because the style was not what she liked.Section B Compound Dictation注意：听力理解的B节（Section B）为复合式听写（Compound Dictation），题目在试卷二上。现在请取出试卷二。A supermarket club card is a new way for people to save money on items they buy. Peop

9、le used to cut out coupons (赠券)to(S1) save money. Now they use a card that looks like a(S2)credit card when they pay for items. Only people with cards can get the(S3)lower price.To get a card, people must give out their name, address, and other(S4)personal information. Everything club card-users buy

10、 is (S5)stored on a computer in a file with their name on it. In the coupon days, no one kept (S6)track of the things people bought. Now, computers allow huge(S7)amounts of information to be saved.In order to save money with the cards, people could lose privacy. So far, the information, or data, is

11、private. But that could change. There are many companies who might be interested in knowing what people buy. For instance, (S8)an insurance company might want to know if their clients buy healthy food, or if people buy a lot of medicine from the store.A California Senator, Debra Bowen, wants to make

12、 sure there are laws to protect data kept on computers. She says,“(S9)The laws that govern privacy really havent caught up with technology. ”Stores that use club cards have promised to keep the information private. (S10)Some people are afraid the stores might change their minds if companies offered

13、enough money. Some people say the information is worth as much as treasure.Part Reading Comprehension(35 minutes)Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. 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 shou

14、ld decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.The predictability of our mortality rates is something that has long puzzled social scientists. After all, there i

15、s no natural reason why 2,500 people should accidentally shoot themselves each year or why 7,000 should drown or 55,000 die in their cars. No one establishes a quota for each type of death. It just happens that they follow a consistent pattern year after year.A few years ago a Canadian psychologist

16、named Gerald Wilde became interested in this phenomenon. He noticed that mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths throughout the Western world have remained oddly static throughout the whole of the century, despite all the technological advances and increases in safety standards that have h

17、appened in that time. Wilde developed an intriguing theory called “risk homeostasis”. According to this theory, people instinctively live with a certain level of risk. When something is made safer, people will get around the measure in some way to reassert the original level of danger. If, for insta

18、nce, they are required to wear seat belts, they will feel safer and thus will drive a little faster and a little more recklessly, thereby statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers. Other studies have shown that where an intersection is made safer, the accident rate invariab

19、ly falls there but rises to a compensating level elsewhere along the same stretch of road. It appears, then, that we have an innate need for danger.In all events, it is becoming clearer and clearer to scientists that the factors influencing our lifespan are far more subtle and complex than had been

20、previously thought. It now appears that if you wish to live a long life, it isnt simply a matter of adhering to certain precautions eating the right foods, not smoking, driving with care. You must also have the right attitude. Scientists at the Duke University Medical Center made a 15-year study of

21、500 persons personalities and found, somewhat to their surprise, that people with a suspicious or mistrustful nature die prematurely far more often than people with a sunny disposition. Looking on the bright side, it seems, can add years to your life span.11. What social scientists have long felt pu

22、zzled about is why .A) the mortality rate can not be predictedB) the death toll remained stable year after yearC) a quota for each type of death has not come into beingD) people lost their lives every year for this or that reason12. In his research, Gerald Wilde finds that technological advances and

23、 increases in safety standards .A) have helped solve the problem of so high death rateB) have oddly accounted for mortality rates in the past centuryC) have reduced mortality rates for violent and accidental deathsD) have achieved no effect in bringing down the number of deaths13. According to the t

24、heory of “risk homeostasis”, some traffic accidents result from .A) our innate desire for riskB) our fast and reckless drivingC) our ignorance of seat belt benefitsD) our instinctive interest in speeding14. By saying “statistically canceling out the benefits that the seat belt confers” (Para. 2),the

25、 author means .A) wearing seat belts does not have any benefits from the statistic point of viewB) deaths from wearing seat belts are the same as those from not wearing themC) deaths from other reasons counterbalance the benefits of wearing seat beltsD) wearing seat belts does not necessarily reduce

26、 deaths from traffic accidents15. Which of the following may contribute to a longer life span?A) Showing adequate trust instead of suspicion of othersB) Eating the food low in fat and driving with great careC) Cultivating an optimistic personality and never losing heartD) Looking on the bright side

27、and developing a balanced level of riskPassage TwoQuestions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货的) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous pr

28、ices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on.Governor Gray Davis says,“Im not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. Theyre living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.”As

29、part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from Californias booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along w

30、ith demand. And hike them they did.Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says,” This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to sayhelp us impose reasonable price caps to help to keep our market stable.”Federal regulators did ask for longer-term co

31、ntracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, released a recent statement defending its position not to re-regulate.Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 15,2000: “The commission?s intention is to enable the

32、markets to catch up to current supply and demand problems and not to reintroduce command and control regulation that has helped to produce the current crisis.”Some energy experts believe that, without temporary price caps, the crisis will continue.Severin Borenstein of the U.C. Energy Institute says,“Some federal regulators have a blind commitment to making the market work and I think part of the problem is they really don?t understand what?s going on.”Gary Ackerman of the Western Power Trading Forum says