1、 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ 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 que
2、stion will be spoken only once. After each question 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)
3、 At the office. B) In the waiting room.C) At the 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.
4、You should choose A) on the Answer Sheet and mark 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
5、. D) Morris bought a new computer.3. A) Recognize Jane first. B) Tell the woman why.C) Go on a diet. D) Feel at ease.4. A) The white one. B) The brick 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ C) The prettier one. D) The better one.5. A) The summer this year is terribly hot. B) Last summ
6、er was even hotter.C) Hot weather helps lose weight. D) Light was stronger this morning.6. A) No one 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 acc
7、ount.C) Saving much money. D) Putting money in the bank.8. A) They have too little patience. B) They 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
8、 wrong. D) The woman can do nothing for the man.10. A) Because the waist was a bit too tight.B) Because 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
9、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. People used to cut out coupons (赠券)to(S1) save money. Now they use a card 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ that looks like a(S2)credit card when they pay for items. Only people with
10、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 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, compute
11、rs 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 private. But that could change. There are many companies who might be interested in knowing what people buy. For instance, (S8)an insurance compa
12、ny 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 sure there are laws to protect data kept on computers. She says,“(S9)The laws that govern privacy really havent caught up with technology. ”Stor
13、es 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 enough money. Some people say the information is worth as much as treasure.Part Reading Comprehension(35 minutes)Directions: There are 4 passages
14、 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 should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 11
15、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 is no natural reason why 2,500 people should accidentally shoot themselves each year or why 7,000 should drown or 55,000 die in 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切
16、勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ 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 named Gerald Wilde became interested in this phenomenon. He noticed that mortality rates fo
17、r 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 happened in that time. Wilde developed an intriguing theory called “risk homeostasis”. Accor
18、ding 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 instance, they are required to wear seat belts, they will feel safer and thus will drive a littl
19、e 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 invariably falls there but rises to a compensating level elsewhere along the same stretch of road.
20、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 previously thought. It now appears that if you wish to live a long life, it isnt simply a m
21、atter 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 500 persons personalities and found, somewhat to their surprise, that people with a suspici
22、ous 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 puzzled about is why .A) the mortality rate can not be predictedB) the death toll remained st
23、able year after yearC) a quota for each type of death has not come into 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ D) people lost their lives every year for this or that reason12. In his research, Gerald Wilde finds that technological advances and increases in safety standards .A) have he
24、lped 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 theory of “risk homeostasis”, some traffic
25、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 author means .A) wearing seat belts does
26、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 deaths from traffic accidents15. Which of
27、 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 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ C) Cultivating an optimistic personality and never losing heartD) Looking on the brig
28、ht side 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 outra
29、geous prices. 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 wo
30、rld.”As 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
31、 along with 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
32、-term contracts 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 ena
33、ble the 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.” 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ Some energy experts believe that, without temporary price caps, the crisis will
34、 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,“Hes dead wrong about that.
35、 The federal regulators understand far better than any individual state that, though it might be painful and it certainly is painful in California, price caps dont work. They never work.”16. The battle between Californians and federal regulators is about .A) control over the price of powerB) necessi
36、ty of removing price capsC) hiking the energy prices in CaliforniaD) a regulation concerning power supply17. Governor Gray Davis was dissatisfied with the Federal Regulatory Commission because .A) they did not know what the real problem wasB) they were living an easy life in an ivory towerC) they co
37、uld not experience the life in San DiegoD) they turned a blind eye to the situation in California18. The Federal Commission uncapped the energy price with the intention to .A) help Californias economy booming steadilyB) prevent power price from going up any furtherC) enable the market to deal with s
38、upply and demand problemsD) have contracts signed between power producers and the 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ 19. To help keep prices from going higher, people and groups in California .A) imposed reasonable price capsB) beat down the door of federal regulatorsC) urged the
39、federal authorities to take actionD) struggled against federal policy to hike prices20. Energy experts against price caps believe that .A) the present situation in California will continue unless there is price controlB) the current crisis is partly attributed to previous command and control policyC
40、) price caps can temporarily solve energy problems an individual state meets withD) they do understand what is going on in California and will take proper measuresPassage ThreeQuestions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.Another cultural aspect of nonverbal communication is one that you mig
41、ht not think about: space. Every person perceives himself to have a sort of invisible shield surrounding his physical body. When someone comes too close, he feels uncomfortable. When he bumps onto someone, he feels obligated to apologize. But the size of a persons “comfort zone” depends on his cultu
42、ral ethnic origin. For example, in casual conversation, many Americans stand about four feet apart. In other words, they like to keep each other “at arm?s length”,people in Latin or Arab cultures, in contrast, stand very close to each other, and touch each other often. If someone from one of those c
43、ultures stands too close to an American while in conversation, the American may feel uncomfortable and back 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ When Americans are talking, they expect others to respond to what they are saying. To Americans, polite conversationalists empathize by di
44、splaying expressions of excitement or disgust, shock or sadness. People with a “poker face”, whose emotions are hidden by a deadpan expression, are looked upon with suspicion. Americans also indicate their attentiveness in a conversation by raising their eyebrows, nodding, smiling politely and maint
45、aining good eye contact. Whereas some cultures view direct eye contact as impolite or threatening, Americans see it as a sign of genuineness and honesty. If a person doesnt look you in the eye, American might say, you should question his motivesor assume that he doesnt like you. Yet with all the con
46、cern for eye contact, Americans still consider staringespecially at strangersto be rude.21. What the author discussed in the previous section is most probably about .A) classification of nonverbal communicationB) the reasons why people should think about spaceC) the relationship between communicatio
47、n and spaceD) some other cultural aspects of nonverbal communication22. How far people keep to each other while talking is closely associated with their .A) origin B) culture C) custom D) nationality23. When an Italian talks to an Arabian on informal occasions,.A) he stands about four feet awayB) “c
48、omfort zone” does not existC) keeping close enough is preferredD) communication barriers may emerge24. A “poker face” (Line 3,Para. 2) refers to a face which is .A) attentive B) emotional C) suspicious D) 专硕网-专硕考研社区 合理利用 切勿成为资料下载狂 ！考研同学-专业硕士社区 不定期更新复习资料、真题！ 25. In a conversation between friends, Americans regard i
