2016年12月大学英语四级第一套真题和答案

2016年12月大学英语四级试题第一套。Part I Writing 30minutes请于正式开考后半小时完成该局部，之后将进展听力考试Directions：For this part， you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay .Suppose you are 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 25 minutesSection ADirections：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. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer sheet1with a single line through the centre.Questions 1and 2 are based on the news report you have just the heard.1.A It was dangerous to live in. C He could no longer pay the rent. B It was going to be renovated.D He had sold it to the royal family.2. A A strike. B A storm. C A forest fire. D A Terrorist attack.Questions 3and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3.A They lost contact with the emergency department.BThey were trapped in an underground elevator.C They were injured by suddenly falling rocks.DThey sent calls for help via a portable radio.4. A They tried hard to repair the accident.B They released the details of the accident.C They sent supplies to keep the miners warm.D They provided the miner with food and water.Question5 to7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A Raise postage rates.C Redesign delivery routes.B Improve its services.D Close some of its post offices.6. A Shortening business hours. C Stopping mail delivery on Saturdays.B Closing offices on holidays. D Computerizing mail sorting processes.7. A Many post office staff will lose their jobsB Many people will begin to complainC Taxpayers will be very pleasedDA lot of controversy will ariseSection BDirections：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 four choice marked A，B，C and D.Then mark the corresponding letter an Answer sheet1 with a single line though the centre.Question8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. AHe will be kept from promotion. CHe will be given a warning.BHe will go through retraining. DHe will lose part of his pay. 9. AHe is always on time.CHe is an experienced press operator.BHe is trustworthy guy. DHe is on good terms with his workmates.10.AShe is a trade union representative.CShe is a senior manager of the shop. BShe is in charge of public relation. DShe is better at handing such matters.11. AHe is skilled and experienced.CHe is always trying to stir up trouble.BHe is very close to the manager.DHe is always complaining about low wages.Question12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12.AOpen.BFriendly.CSelfish.DReserved.13.AThey stay quiet.CThey talk about the weather BThey read a book. DThey chat with fellow passengers.14.AShe was always treated as a foreigner.BShe was eager to visit an English castle.CShe was never invited to a colleagues home.DShe was unwilling to make friends with workmates.15.A House are much more quiet. C They want to have more space. B Houses provide more privacy.D They want a garden of their own.Section CDirections：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.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16.A They dont have much choice of jobs.B They are likely to get much higher pay.C They dont have to go through job interviews.D They will automatically be given hiring priority.17.A Ask their professors for help.C Visit the school careers services. B Look at school bulletin boards.D Go through campus newspapers.18.A Helping students find the books and journals they need.B Supervising study spaces to ensure a quiet atmosphere.C Helping students arrange appointments with librarians.D Providing students with information about the library.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A It tastes better.C It may be sold at a higher price .B It is easier to grow.D It can better survive extreme weathers.20.A It is healthier than green tea.C It will replace green tea one day.B It can grow in drier soil. D It is immune to various diseases. 21.A It has been well received by many tea drinkers.B It does not bring the promised health benefits. C It has made tea farmers life easier.D It does not have a stable market.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22.AThey need decorations to show their status.B They prefer unique objects of high quality.C They decorate their homes themselves.D They care more about environment.23.A They were proud of their creations. B They could only try to create at night.C They made great contributions to society.D They focused on the quality of their products.24.A Make wise choices.C Design handicrafts themselves.B Identify fake crafts.D Learn the importance of creation.25.A To boost the local economy.C To arouse public interest in crafts.B To attract foreign investments.D To preserve the traditional culture. PART Reading Comprehension 40 minutesSection ADirections： In this section， there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select oneword 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.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 29penalties, and in the case of animal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and extremely30.The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which 31these 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 wed like to see the U.S. Sentencing Commission make further guidelines.Simultaneous to this effort, were 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 overburdened animal 34 that care for animal fighting victims. This help is35 important because the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major deterrent to intervening in cruelty cases in the first place.A) convenientB) creates C) critically D) determine E) direction F) hesitate G) inadequate H)inspiredI) methodJ) minimalK) rarelyL) sheltersM) strengthenN) sufferingsO) torturedSection BDirections：In this section， you are gonging to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify theparagraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraphmore than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer sheet 2.When Work Becomes a GameAWhat 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. BIncreasingly, companies are tapping into these desires directly through whats 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.CIt 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 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.DThe concept of gamification is not entirely new, Werbach says. Companies, marketers and teachers have long looked for fun ways to engage peoples 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 Charles Schwab is said to have often come into his factory and written the number of tons of steel produced on the past shift on the factory floor, thus motivating the next shift of workers to beat the previous one.EBut 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. “Were 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 adults play these video games too, Werbach says.FA number of companies have sprung upGamEffective, Bunchball and Badgeville, to name a fewin 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 game-like is that the player actually cares about the outcome, Werbach says. “The principle is understanding what is motivating to this group of players, which requires some understanding of psychology.GSome 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 whos 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 employee morale. When employees log in to their computers, theyre shown a picture of one of their coworkers and asked to guess that persons name.HGamification 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 dont have to be stuff, Cornetti says. “Rewards can be flextime. Rewards can be extension time.Another training, this one for pay roll law, used a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs theme. Snow White is public domain, but the dwarfs are still under copyright, so Cornetti invented sound-alike characters (Grumpy Gus, Dopey Dan) to illustrate specific pay roll law principles.ISome people dont take as naturally to gamified work environments, Cornetti says. In her experience, people in positions of power or people in finance or engineering dont tend to like the sound of the word.“If were designing for engineers, Im not talking about a game at all, Cornetti says. “Im talking about a simulation, Im talking about being able to solve this problem.JGamification is “not a magic bullet, Werbach cautions. A gamification strategy thats not sufficiently thought through or tailored to its players may engage people for a little while, but it wont motivate in the long term. It can also be exploitative, 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 skip 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.KStill, gamification only stands to become more popular, he says, “as more and more people come into the workforce who are intuitively familiar with the structures and expressions of digital games. “We are way ahead of the tipping point, Cornetti agrees. “Theres 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 works when starting their computers.39.The idea of gamification was practiced by some businesses more than a century ago.40.There is a 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“gamificationfor some professions.Section CDirections：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 maked A，B，Cand D.You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain students and keepyoungerfaculty members from going elsewhere.It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task itis to solveproblems-real orimagined. And in my position as a professor atthree different colleges,the actual problems in educating our young people and older students have deepened, while the number of people hired-notto teach butto hold meetings-has increased significantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an administrative fixer. Take our Centerfor Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title,thecenteris a clearing house (信息交流中心)for using technology in classrooms and in online courses. Its an administrative sham (欺诈) ofthe kind that has multiplied overthe 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. lf we replaced half of ouradministrative staff with classroom teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20orfewer students perteacher This would be an environmentin 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 sothatthey can use theirindividualtalents to achieve the goals ofthe 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 appearin a classroom. Good teaching and research are notexclusive, butthey are also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft,talent and practice;itis not something thatjust anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that peopledo notrecognize this, despite the factthat pretty much anyone who has been a student can tellthe difference between their best and worstteachers.46.Whatdoes the author say about present-day universities?A)They are effectively tackling real orimagined problems.B)They often failto combine teaching with research. C)They are over-burdened with administrative staff.D)They lack talenttofix their deepening problems.47.According to the author, what kind ofpeople do universities lack most? A)Good classroom teachers.C) Talented researchers. B)Efficient administrators.D) Motivated students.48.What does the authorimply aboutthe classes at present? A)They facilitate students independentlearning. B)They help students form closerrelationships. C)They have more older studentsthan before. D)They are much bigger than is desirable.49.What does the authorthink ofteachingability? A)Itrequires talent and practice. B)Itis closely related to research. C)Itis a chieffactor affecting studentslearning. D)It can be acquired through persistent practice.50.Whatis the authors suggestion forimproving university teaching? A)Creating an environmentforteachers to share theirteaching experiences. B)Hiring more classroom teachers and allowing them to teach in their own way. C)Using high technology in classrooms and promoting exchange ofinformation. D)Cutting down meetings and encouraging administrative staffto go to classrooms. Passage TwoQuestions 51to 55 are based on the following passage.The secretto eating less and being happy aboutit may have been cracked years ago-byMcDonalds. According to a new study from Cornell Universitys Food and Brand Lab, small non-food rewards-like the toys in McDonalds Happy Meals-stimulate the same reward centers in the brain asfood does. The researchers,led by Martin Reimann, carried out a series of experiments to see if people would choose a smaller mealifit was paired with a non-food items.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 thatthe promise of a future reward was enough to make adults choose thesmaller portion.One ofthe prizes used was a lottery ticket