1、2017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）Part I Writing (25 minutes)Directions：For this part ，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on how to best handlethe relationship between parents and children. You should write at least 120 words but no morethan 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minut
2、es)说明：由于 2017 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 ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one wordfor each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following t
3、he passage. Read the passagethrough 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 throughthe centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions
4、 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.We all know there exists a great void (空白)in the public educational system when it comes to26 to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses. One educator namedDori Roberts decided to do something to change this system. Dori taught hig
5、h school engineeringfor 11 years. She noticed there was a real void in quality STEM education at all 27 of the publiceducational system. She said, “I started Engineering For Kids (EFK) after noticing a real lack ofmath, science and engineering programs to 28 my own kids in.”She decided to start an a
6、fterschool program where children 29 in STEM-based competitions. Theclub grew quickly and when it reached 180 members and the kids in the program won several state30 , she decided to devote all her time to cultivating and 31 it. The global business EFK wasborn.Dori began operating EFK out of her Vir
7、ginia home, which she then expanded to 3263recreation2017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）centers. Today, the EFK program 33 over 144 branches in 32 states within the United Statesand in 21 countries. Sales have doubled from $5 million in 2014 to $10 million in 2015, with 25new branches planned for 2016. The E
8、FK website states, “Our nation is not 34 enough engineers.Our philosophy is to inspire kids at a young age to understand that engineering is a great 35.”A) attractedB) careerC) championshipsD) degreesE) developingF) enrollG) exposureH) feasibleI) feedingJ) graduatingK) interestL) levelsM) localN) op
9、eratesO) participatedSection BDirections: 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 fromwhich the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Ea
10、ch paragraphis marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on AnswerSheet 2.Why arent you curious about what happened?A) “You suspended Ray Rice after our video, a reporter from TMZ challenged National FootballLeague Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. “Why d
11、idnt you have the curiosity to go tothe casino (赌场 )yourself?” The implication of the question is that a more curious commissionerwould have found a way to get the tape.B) The accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often, carrying the suggestion that there issomething wrong with not wanting t
12、o search out the truth. I have been bothered for a long timeabout the curious lack of curiosity said a Democratic member of the New Jersey legislature backin July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New JerseyGovernor Chris Christie who chose not to ask
13、hard questions about the George Washington Bridgetraffic scandal. “Isnt the mainstream media the least bit curious about what happened?” wroteconservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlier this year, referring to the attack on Americans inBenghazi, Libya.C) The implication, in each case, is that curiosi
14、ty is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a642017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）problem. Are such accusations simply efforts to score political points for ones party? Or is theresomething of particular value about curiosity in and of itself?D) The journalist Ian Leslie, in his new and enjoyable book Cur
15、ious：The Desire to Know andWhy Your Future Depends on It, insists that the answer to that last question is Yes. Leslie arguesthat curiosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success，and that we are losing it.E) We are suffering，he writes ，from a “serendipity deficit.” The word “seren
16、dipity” was coinedby Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter, from a tale of three princes who “were always makingdiscoveries, by accident, of things they were not in search of.” Leslie worries that the rise of theInternet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimlessa
17、dventures. No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through fields of knowledge,ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.F) Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation andentrepreneurship. We will see unimaginati
18、ve governments and dying corporations make disastrousdecisions. We will lose a vital part of what has made humanity as a whole so successful as aspecies.G) Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole isgrowing less curious. In the U.S. and Europe, for exampl
19、e, the rise of the Internet has led to adeclining consumption of news from outside the readers borders. But not everything is to beblamed on technology. The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identifiedby Leslie. Reading literary fiction, he says, makes us more curious
20、.H) Moreover, in order to be curious, “you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in thefirst place.” Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us areunaware of how much we dont know, hes surely right to point out that the problem is growing:“Google can give us the
21、 powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers.”I) Indeed, Google， for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping boy (替罪羊）. He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the “ perfect search engine” will“understand exactly what I mean and give me back
22、exactly what I want.” Elsewhere in the book,Leslie writes: “Google aims to save you from the thirst of curiosity altogether.”J) Somewhat nostalgically(怀旧地），he quotes John Maynard Keyness justly famous words ofpraise to the bookstore：“One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is
23、there652017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）freely to attract and influence the eye. To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiositydictates, should be an afternoons entertainment.” If only!K) Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive ( 认 知 的 ） scientists ， Leslie criticizes thereceived wisdo
24、m that academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent andhard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factorand a difficult one to preserve. If notcultivated, it will not survive： “Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between child and adult.The surest way to kill it i
25、s to leave it alone. ”L) School education, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious.Children of educated and upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at earlyages, than children of working class and lower class families. That lack of curiosity produ
26、ces arelative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensatefor later on.M) Although Leslies book isnt about politics, he doesnt entirely shy away from the problem.Political leaders, like leaders of other organizations, should be curious. They should ask qu
27、estionsat crucial moments. There are serious consequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.N) He presents as an example the failure of the George W. Bush administration to prepareproperly for the after-effects of the invasion of Iraq. According to Leslie, those who ridiculedformer Defense Secretary
28、 Donald Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the“unknown unknowns” were mistaken. Rumsfelds idea, Leslie writes, “wasnt absurd it wassmart. He adds, “The tragedy is that he didnt follow his own advice. ”O) All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christie case and Benghazi.
29、Each critic in thoseexamples is charging, in a different way, that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious.I leave it to the readers political preference to decide which，if any，charges should stick. But letsbe careful about demanding curiosity about the other sides weaknesses and remai
30、ningdeterminedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its ownsakeeven when what we find out is something we didnt particularly want to know.36. To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we dont know.37. According to Leslie，curiosity
31、is essential to ones success.38. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledges sake.39. Political leaders lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.662017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）40. There are often accusations about politicians and the medias lack of curiosity to find out thetru
32、th.41. The less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.42. It is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.43. Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.44. Both the rise of the Interne
33、t and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to peoplesdeclining curiosity.45. Mankind wouldnt be so innovative without curiosity.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions orunfinished statements. For each of them there are four c
34、hoices marked A), B), C) and D). Youshould decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with asingle line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.Aging happens to all of us, and is generally thought of as a natural part of
35、life. It would seemsilly to call such a thing a “disease.”On the other hand, scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are twodifferent things, and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, cancerand many more. In that light, aging itself mig
36、ht be seen as something treatable, the way you wouldtreat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.Biophysicist Alex Zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. He saidthat describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.“It unties the hands of the pharm
37、aceutical (制药的 )industry so that they can begin treatingthe disease and not just the side effects,” he said.“Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you cant control，” he said. “Inacademic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to developint
38、erventions. The medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about itexcept keep people within a certain health range. ”But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, “It would attract funding and change the672017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）way we do health care. What matters is
39、 understanding that aging is curable.”“It was always known that the body accumulates damage，” he added. “The only way to cureaging is to find ways to repair that damage. I think of it as preventive medicine for age-relatedconditions.”Leonard Hayflick, a professor at the University of California，San
40、Francisco，said the ideathat aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researcherssuggest is possible. Hayflick is not among them.“Therere many people who recover from cancer, stroke，or heart disease. But they continueto age，because aging is separate from their diseas
41、e,” Hayflick said. “Even if those causes of deathwere eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.”46. What do people generally believe about aging?A) It should cause no alarm whatsoever.B) They just cannot do anything about it.C) It should be regarded as a kind of disease.D)
42、 They can delay it with advances in science.47. How do many scientists view aging now?A) It might be prevented and treated. C) It results from a vitamin deficiency.B) It can be as risky as heart disease. D) It is an irreversible biological process.48. What does Alex Zhavoronkov think of “describing
43、aging as a disease”?A) It will prompt people to take aging more seriously.B) It will greatly help reduce the side effects of aging.C) It will free pharmacists from the conventional beliefs about aging.D) It will motivate doctors and pharmacists to find ways to treat aging.49. What do we learn about
44、the medical community?A) They now have a strong interest in research on aging.B) They differ from the academic circles in their view on aging.C) They can contribute to peoples health only to a limited extent.D) They have ways to intervene in peopled aging process.50. What does Professor Leonard Hayf
45、lick believe?A) The human lifespan cannot be prolonged.682017 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题(第三套）B) Aging is hardly separable from disease.C) Few people can live up to the age of 92.D) Heart disease is the major cause of aging.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Female applicants to p
46、ostdoctoral positions in geosciences were nearly half as likely toreceive excellent letters of recommendation, compared with their male counterparts. ChristopherIntagliata reports.As in many other fields, gender bias is widespread in the sciences. Men score higher startingsalaries, have more mentori
47、ng (指导），and have better odds of being hired. Studies show theyrealso perceived as more competent than women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, andMathematics) fields. And new research reveals that men are more likely to receive excellent lettersof recommendation, too.“Say, you know，this is t
48、he best student Ive ever had，” says Kuheli Dutt ，a social scientistand diversity officer at Columbia Universitys Lamont campus. “Compare those excellent letterswith a merely good letter： The candidate was productive, or intelligent, or a solid scientist orsomething thats clearly solid praise， but no
49、thing that singles out the candidate as exceptional orone of a kind. ”Dutt and her colleagues studied more than 1,200 letters of recommendation for postdoctoralpositions in geoscience. They were all edited for gender and other identifying information, so Duttand her team could assign them a score without knowing the gender of the student. They foundthat female applicants were only half as likely to get outstanding letters, compared with their malecounterparts. That includes letters of recommendation from all over the world, and writt
