1、2016 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第 1 套)Part Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have twooptions upon graduation: one is to find a job somewhere and the other to start abusiness of your own. You are to make a decision. Write an essay to explai
2、n the reasonsfor your decision. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part Listening Comprehension ( 25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each newsreport, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report a
3、nd thequestions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you mustchoose 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 linethrough the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.
4、1. A. It was dangerous to live in. B. It was going to be renovated. C. He could no longer pay the rent.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 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A. They lost contact w
5、ith the emergency department.B. They were trapped in an underground elevator.C. They were injured by suddenly falling rocks.D. They sent calls for help via a portable radio.4. A. They tried hard to repair the elevator.B. They released the details of the accident.C. They sent supplies to keep the min
6、ers warm.D. They provided the miners with food and water.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A. Raise postage rates.B. Improve its services. C. Redesign delivery routes.D. Close some of its post offices.6. A. Shortening business hours. B. Closing offices on holidays.
7、 C. Stopping mail delivery on Saturdays.D. Computerizing mall sorting processes.7. A. Many post office staff will lose their jobs. B. Many people will begin to complain.C. Taxpayers will be very pleased.D. A lot of controversy will arise.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long c
8、onversations. At the end of each conversation,you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken onlyonce. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked A, B, C and D . Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1with
9、 a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A. He will be kept from promotion.B. He will go through retraining.C. He will be given a warning.D. He will lose part of his pay.9. A. He is always on time. B. He is a trustworthy guy. C. He is a
10、n experienced press operator.D. He is on good terms with his workmates.10. A. She is a trade union representative.B. She is in charge of public relations. C. She is a senior manager of the shop.D. She is better at handling such matters.11. A. He is skilled and experienced. B. He is very close to the
11、 manager.C. He is always trying to stir up trouble. D. He is always complaining about low wages.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A. Open.B. Friendly. C. Selfish. D. Reserved.13. A. They stay quiet.B. They read a book.C. They talk about the weather.D. They chat
12、 with fellow passengers.14. A. She was always treated as a foreigner.B. She was eager to visit an English castle.C. She was never invited to a colleagues home.D. She was unwilling to make friends with workmates.15. A. Houses are much more quiet.B. Houses provide more privacy. C. They want to have mo
13、re space.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 hearthree 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 fro
14、m the four choices markedA, B, C and D . Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with asingle 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
15、go through job interviews.D. They will automatically be given hiring priority.17. A. Ask their professors for help.B. Look at school bulletin boards. C. Visit the school careers service.D. Go through campus newspapers.18. A. Helping students find the books and journals they need.B. Supervising study
16、 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. B. It is easier to grow. C. It may be sold at a higher price
17、.D. It can better survive extreme weathers.20. A. It is healthier than green tea.B. It can grow in drier soil.C. It will replace green tea one day. 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 ma
18、de 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. A. They 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.2
19、3. 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.B. Identify fake crafts. C. Design handicrafts themselves.D. Learn the importance of creation.25. A
20、. To boost the local economy.B. To attract foreign investments. C. To arouse public interest in crafts.D. To preserve the traditional culture.Part Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each bl
21、ank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank isidentified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may no
22、t use any of the words in thebank 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-things26 work out that way.Dog-fighting vic
23、tims are 27 and killed for profit and “sport,“ yet their criminal abusers oftenreceive a28 sentence for causing a lifetime of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animalfighters only get probation (缓刑).Some progress has been made in the prosecution (起诉) of animal fighters. But federal judge
24、soften rely heavily on the U. S. Sentencing GuideLines when they29 penalties, and in the case ofanimal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and extremely30The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which31 these sentencing guidelines, is revisiting them,proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6 - 12 to
25、 21 - 27 months. This is a step in the right32, but wed like to see the U. S. Sentencing Commission make further changes to the guidelines.Along with this effort, were working with animal advocates and state and federal lawmakers to33 anti-cruelty laws across the country, as well as supporting laws
26、and policies that assistoverburdened animal 34 that care for animal fighting victims. This help is 35 importantbecause the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major factor that prevents people from gettinginvolved in cruelty cases in the first place.A. convenientB. createsC. criticallyD. det
27、ermine E. direction F. hesitateG. inadequateH. inspiredI. methodJ. minimalK. rarelyL. sheltersM. strengthenN. sufferingsO. torturedSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragrap
28、hs. Identify the paragraphfrom 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 thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.When Work Becomes a GameA) What motivates employees to do their jobs well? Compe
29、tition with coworkers, for some. Thepromise 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 knownas “gamification“ : essentially, turning work into a game. “Gamification is about
30、 understandingwhat it is that makes games engaging and what game designers do to create a great experience ingames, and taking those learnings and applying them to other contexts such as the workplace andeducation,“ explains Kevin Werbach, a gamification expert who teaches at the Wharton School ofBu
31、siness at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.C) It might mean monitoring employee productivity on a digital leaderboard and offering prizes to thewinner, or giving employees digital badges or stars for completing certain activities. It could alsomean training employees how to do the
32、ir jobs through video game platforms. Companies fromGoogle to LOralto IBM to Wells Fargo are known to use some degree of gamification in theirworkplaces. And more and more companies are joining them. A recent report suggests that theglobal gamification market will grow from $1.65 billion in 2015 to
33、$11.1 billion by 2020.D) The concept of gamification is not entirely new, Werbach says. Companies, marketers and teachershave long looked for fun ways to engage peoples reward-seeking or competitive spirits. Cracker Jackshas been “gamifying“ its snack food by putting a small prize inside for more th
34、an 100 years, headds, and the turn-of-the-century steel magnate (巨头) Charles Schwab is said to have often comeinto his factory and written the number of tons of steel produced on the past shift on the factoryfloor, thus motivating the next shift of workers to beat the previous one.E) But the word “g
35、amification“ and the widespread, conscious application of the concept only beganin earnest about five years ago, Werbach says. Thanks in part to video games, the generation nowentering the workforce is especially open to the idea of having their work gamified. “We are at apoint where in much of the
36、developed world the vast majority of young people grew up playingvideo games, and an increasingly high percentage of adults play these video games too,“ Werbachsays.F) A number of companies have sprung up-GamEffective, Bunchbail and Badgeville, to name a few-in recent years offering gamification pla
37、tforms for businesses. The platforms that are most effectiveturn employees ordinary job tasks into part of a rich adventure narrative. “What makes a gamegame-like is that the player actually cares about the outcome,“ Werbach says. “The principle isabout understanding what is motivating to this group
38、 of players, which requires some understandingof psychology. “G) Some people, Werbach says, are motivated by competition.Sales people often fall into thiscategory. For them, the right kind of gamification might be turning their saies pitches into acompetition with other team members, complete with a
39、 digital leaderboard showing who is winningat all times. Others are more motivated by collaboration and social experiences. One companyWerbach has studied uses gamification to create a sense of community and boost employees morale(士气). When employees log in to their computers, theyre shown a picture
40、 of one of theircoworkers and asked to guess that persons name.H) Gamification does not have to be digital. Monica Cornetti runs a company that gamifies employeetrainings. Sometimes this involves technology, but often it does not. She recently designed agamification strategy for a saies training com
41、pany with a storm-chasing theme. Employees formed“storm chaser teams“ and competed in storm-themed educational exercises to earn variousrewards. “Rewards do not have to be stuff,“ Cornetti says. “Rewards can be flexible workinghours. “ Another training, this one for pay roll law, used a Snow White a
42、nd the Seven Dwarfstheme. “Snow White“ is available for everyone to use, but the “dwarfs“ are still under copyright,so Cornetti invented sound-alike characters (Grumpy Gus, Dopey Dan) to illustrate specific pay rolllaw principles.I) Some people do not take naturaily to gamified work environments, Co
43、rnetti says.In herexperience, people in positions of power or people in finance or engineering do not tend to like thesound of the word. “If we are designing for engineers, Im not talking about a game at all,“Cornetti says. “Im talking about a simulation (模拟), Im talking about being able to solvethi
44、s problem. “J) Gamification is “ not a magic bullet,“ Werbach warns.A gamification strategy that is notsufficiently thought through or well tailored to its players may engage people for a little while, but itwill not motivate people in the long term. It can also be exploitative, especially when used
45、 withvulnerable populations. For workers, especially low-paid workers, who desperately need their jobsyet know they can be easily replaced, gamification may feel more like the Hunger Games. Werbachgives the example of several Disneyland hotels in Anaheim, Caiifornia, which used large digital leaderb
46、oards 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 tostop taking bathroom breaks, worried that if their productivity fell they would be fired. Pregnantemployees struggled t
47、o keep up. In a Los Angeles Times article, one employee referred to the boardas a “digital whip. “It actually had a very negative effect on morale and performance,“ Werbachsays.K) Still, gamification only stands to become more popular, he says, “as more and more people comeinto the workforce who are
48、 familiar with the structures and expressions of digitai games. “We arefar from reaching the 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 work
49、places as it may have negative results.38. To enhance morale, one company asks its employees to identify their fellow workers when startingtheir computers.39. The idea of gamification 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
