2. Examination Papers
  3. 大学英语四级 第一套

英语四级2017年12月考试 试卷

Part I Writing 30 minutes

（请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听力考试）

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short easy on how to best handle the relationship between doctors and patients. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

  • On the Relationship between Doctors and Patients

    In the present age, it is generally acknowledged that the relationship between doctors and patients is playing indispensable roles in our lives. As far as I am concerned, we should balance this kind of relationship from two aspects, doctors and patients.

    The causes of this perspective are multiple. In the first place, the reason has been cited as a major reason that doctors cannot be understood, for patients always maintain doctors can curse all kinds of disease. This is mainly due to the fact that although medical technology and science are advanced at an amazing rate, there exists a multitude of various kinds of diseases we cannot cure. Furthermore, the reason can contribute this perspective that patients are believed to be lack of the fundamental medical knowlege, which results in this relationship are worried. Plenty of evidence has shown that an increasing number of patients often go to extremes if their diseases cannot be cure instantly.

    when it comes to our modern society, it is universally acknowledge that dealing with the relationship between doctors and patients in a reasonable way plays a vitally important role in our live. Undoubtedly, if we spare no efforts to do so, our future will be hopeful and promising.

请用黑色签字笔在答题卡 1 指定区域内作答作文题，在试题册上的作答无效！

Part II Listening Comprehension 25 minutes

Section A

Directions: 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) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

  • 1. Questions 1 and 2 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 2.

  • 3. Questions 3 and 4 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 4.

  • 5. Questions 5 to 7 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 6.

  • 7.

Section B

Directions: 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 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.

  • 8. Questions 8 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 9.

  • 10.

  • 11.

  • 12. Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 13.

  • 14.

  • 15.

Section C

Directions: 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.

  • 16. Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 17.

  • 18.

  • 19. Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 20.

  • 21.

  • 22. Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

  • 23.

  • 24.

  • 25.

Part III Reading Comprehension 40 minutes

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word 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.

A rat or pigeon might not be the obvious choice to tend to someone who is sick, but these creatures have some ____26____ skills that could help the treatment of human diseases.

Pigeons are often seen as dirty birds and an urban ____27____, but they are just the latest in a long line of animals that have been found to have abilities to help humans. Despite having a brain no bigger than the ____28____ of your index finger, pigeons have a very impressive ____29____ memory. Recently it was shown that they could be trained to be as accurate as humans at detecting breast cancer in images.

Rats are often ____30____ with spreading disease rather than ____31____ it, but this long-tailed animal is highly ____32____. Inside a rat's nose are up to 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors(嗅觉感受器), whereas human only have 100 to 200 types. This gives rats the ability to detect ____33____ smells. As a result, some rats are being put to work to detect TB(肺结核). When the rats detect the smell, they stop and rub their legs to ____34____ a sample is infected.

Traditionally, a hundred samples would take lab technicians more than two days to ____35____, but for a rat it takes less than 20 minutes. This rat detection method doesn't rely on specialist equipment. It is also more accurate — the rats are able to find more TV infections and, therefore, save more lives.

  • A) associated
  • B) examine
  • C) indicate
  • D) nuisance
  • E) peak
  • F) preventing
  • G) prohibiting
  • H) sensitive
  • I) slight
  • J) specify
  • K) superior
  • L) suspicious
  • M) tip
  • N) treated
  • O) visual

  • 26.
    K

  • 27.
    D

  • 28.
    M

  • 29.
    O

  • 30.
    A

  • 31.
    F

  • 32.
    H

  • 33.
    I

  • 34.
    C

  • 35.
    B

Section B

Directions: 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 from 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 the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

Do In-Class Exam Make Students Study Harder?

Research suggests they may study more broadly fro the unexpected rather than search for answers.

[A]I have always been a poor test-taker. So it may seem rather strange that I have returned to college to finish the degree I left undone some four decades ago. I am making my way through Columbia University, surrounded by students who quickly supply the verbal answer while I am still processing the question.

[B]Since there is no way for me to avoid exams, I am currently questioning what kind are the most taxing and ultimately beneficial. I have already sweated through numerous in-class midterms and finals, and now I have a professor who issues take-home ones. I was excited when I learned this, figuring I had a full week to do the research, read the texts, and write it all up. In fact, I was still rewriting my midterm the morning it was due. To say I had lost the thread is putting is mildly.

[C]As I was suffering through my week of anxiety, overthinking the material and guessing my grasp of it, I did some of my own polling among students and professors. David Eisenbach, who teaches a popular class on U.S. presidents at Columbia, prefers the in-class variety. He believes students ultimately learn more and encourages them to form study groups. "That way they socialize over history outside the class, which wouldn't happen without the pressure of an in-class exam," he explained. "Furthermore, in-class exams force students to learn how to perform under pressure, an essential work skill."

[D]He also says there is less chance of cheating with the in-class variety. In 2012, 125 students at Harvard were caught up in scandal when it was discovered they had cheated on a take-home exam for a class entitled "Introduction To Congress." Some colleges have what they call an "honor code." though if you are smart enough to get into these schools, you are either smart enough to get around any codes or hopefully, too ethical to consider doing so. As I sat blocked and clueless for two solid days, I momentarily if I couldn't just call an expert on the subject matter which I was tacking, or someone who took the class previously, to get me going.

[E]Following the Harvard scandal, Mary Miller, the former dean of students at Yale, made an impassioned appeal to her school's professors to refrain from take-home exams. "Students risk health and well being, as well as performance in other end-of-term work, when faculty offers take-home exams without clear, time-limited boundaries," she told me. "Research now shows that regular quizzes, short essays, and other assignments over the course of a term better enhance learning and retention."

[F]Most college professors agree the king of exam they choose largely depends on the subject. A quantitative-based one, for example, is unlikely to be sent home, where one could ask their older brothers and sisters to help. Vocational-type classes, such as computer science or journalism, on the other hand, are often more research-oriented and lend themselves to take-home testing. Chris Koch, who teaches "History of Broadcast Journalism" at Montgomery Community College in Rockville, Maryland, points out that reporting is about investigation rather than the memorization of minute details. "In my field, it's not what you know——it's what you know how to find out," says Koch. "There is way too much information, and more coming all the time, for anyone to remember. I want my student to search out the answers to questions bu using all the resources available to them."

[G]Students' test-form preferences vary, too, often depending on the subject and course difficulty. "I prefer take-home essays because it is then really about the writing, so you have time to edit and do more research," says Elizabeth Dresser, a junior at Barnard. Then there is the stress factor. Francesca Haass, a senior at Middlebury, says, "I find the in-class ones are more stressful in the short term, but there is immediate relief as you swallow information like mad, and then you get to forget it all. Take-homes require thoughtful engagement which can lead to longer term stress as there is never a moment when the time is up." Meanwhile, Olivia Rubin, a sophomore at Emory, says she hardly even considers take-homes true exams. "If you understand the material and have the ability to articulate(说出) your thoughts, they should be a breeze."

[H]How students ultimately handle tests may depend on their personal test-taking ability. There are people who always wait until the last minute, and make it much harder than it need to be. And then there are those who, not knowing what questions are coming at them, and having no resources to refer to, can freeze. And then there are we rare folks who fit both those descriptions.

[I]Yes, my advanced age must factor into the equation(等式), in part because of my inability to access the information as quickly. As another returning student at Columbia, Kate Marber, told me, "We are learning not only all this information, but essentially how to learn again. Our fellow students have just come out of high school. A lot has changed since we were last in school."

[J]If nothing else, the situation has given my college son and me something to share. When I asked him opinion on this matter, he responded, "I like in-class exams because the time is already reserved, as opposed to using my free time at home to work on a test," he responded. It seems to me that a compromise would be receiving the exam questions a day or two in advance, and then doing the actual test in class with the ticking clock overhead.

[K]Better yet, how about what one Hunter College professor reportedly did recently for her final exam: She encouraged the class not to stress or even study, promising that, "It is going to be a piece of cake." When the students came in, sharpened pencils in hand, there was not a blue book in sight. Rather, they saw a large chocolate cake and they each were given a slice.

  • 36. Elderly students find it hard to keep up with rapid changes in education.
    I

  • 37. Some believe take-home exams may affect students' performance in other courses.
    E

  • 38. Certain professors believe in-class exams are ultimately more helpful to students.
    C

  • 39. In-class exams are believed to discourage cheating in exams.
    D

  • 40. The author was happy to learn she could do some exams at home.
    B

  • 41. Students who put off their work until the last moment often find the exams more difficult than they actually are.
    H

  • 42. Different students may prefer different types of exams.
    G

  • 43. Most professors agree whether to give an in-class or a take-home exam depends on the type of course being taught.
    F

  • 44. The author dropped out of college forty years ago.
    A

  • 45. Some students think take-home exams will eat up their free time.
    J

Section C

Directions: 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 marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

That people often experience trouble sleeping in a different bed in unfamiliar surroundings is a phenomenon known as the "first-night" effect. If a person stays in the same room the following night they tend to sleep more soundly. Yuka Sasaki and her colleagues at Brown University set out to investigate the origins of this effect.

Dr. Sasaki knew the first-night effect probably has something to do with how humans evolved. The puzzle was what benefit would be gained from it when performance might be affected the following day. She also knew from previous work conducted on birds and dolphins that these animals put half of their brains to sleep at a time so that they can rest while remaining alert enough to avoid predators(捕食者). This led her to wonder if people might be doing the same thing. To take a closer look, her team studied 35 healthy people as they slept in the unfamiliar environment of the university's Department of Psychological Sciences. The participants each slept in the department for two nights and were carefully monitored with techniques that looked at the activity of their brains. Dr. Sasaki found, as expected, the participants slept less well on their first night than they did on their second, taking more than twice as long to fall asleep and sleeping less overall. During deep sleep, the participants' brains behaved in a similar manner seen in birds and dolphins. On the first night only, the left hemispheres(半球) of their brains did not sleep nearly as deeply as their right hemispheres did.

Curious if the left hemispheres were indeed remaining awake to process information detected in the surrounding environment, Dr. Sasaki re-ran the experiment while presenting the sleeping participants with a mix of regularly timed beeps(蜂鸣声) of the same tone and irregular beeps of a different tone during the night. She worked out that, if the left hemispheres was staying alert to keep guard in a strange environment, then it would react to the irregular beeps by stirring people from sleep and would ignore the regularly timed ones. This is precisely what the found.

  • 46. What did researchers find puzzling about the first-night effect?

  • 47. What do we learn about Dr. Yuka Sasaki doing her research?

  • 48. What did Dr. Sasaki do when she first did her experiment?

  • 49. What did Dr. Sasaki do when re-running her experiment?

  • 50. What did Dr. Sasaki find about the participants in her experiment?

Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

It's time to reevaluate how woman handle conflict at work. Being overworked or over-committed at home and on the job will not get you where you want to be in life. It will only show you down and hinder your career goals.

Did you know women are more likely than men to feel exhausted? Nearly twice as many women than men ages 18-44 reported feeling "very tired" or "exhausted", according to a recent study.

This may not be surprising given that this is the age range when women have children. It's also the age range when many women are trying to balance careers and home. One reason women may feel exhausted is that they have a hard time saying "no". Women want to be able to do it all——volunteer for school parties or cook delicious meals——and so their answer to any request is often "Yes, I can."

Women struggle to say "no" in the workplace for similar reasons, including the desire to be liked by their colleagues. Unfortunately, this inability to say "no" may be hurting women's health as well as their career.

At the workplace, men use conflict as a way to position themselves, while women often avoid conflict or strive to be the peacemaker, because they don't want to be viewed as aggressive or disruptive at work. For example, there's a problem that needs to be addressed immediately, resulting in a dispute over who should be the one to fix it. Men are more likely to face that dispute from the perspective of what benefits them most, whereas women may approach the same dispute from the perspective of what's the easiest and quickest way to resolve the problem——even if that means doing the boring work themselves.

This difference in handing conflict could be the deciding factor on who gets promoted to a leadership position and who does not. Leaders have to be able to delegate and manage resources wisely——including staff expertise. Shouldering more of the workload may not earn you that promotion. Instead, it may highlight your inability to delegate effectively.

  • 51. What does the author say is the problem with women?

  • 52. Why do working women of child-bearing age tend to feel drained of energy?

  • 53. What may hinder the future prospects of career women?

  • 54. Men and women differ in their approach to resolving workplace conflicts in that ________.

  • 55. What is important to a good leader?

Part IV Translation 30 minutes

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

  • 华山位于华阴市，距西安 120 公里。华山是秦岭的一部分，秦岭不仅分隔陕南与陕北，也分隔华南与华北。与从前人们常去朝拜的泰山不同，华山过去很少有人光临，因为上山的道路极其危险。然而，希望长寿的人却经常上山，因为山上生长这许多药草，特别是一些稀有的药草。自上世纪 90 年代安装缆车以来，参观人数大大增加。

    Huashan (Mount Hua) is situated in Huayin City, 120 kilometers away from Xi'an. It is part of the Qinling Mountains, which divides not only Southern and Northern Shaanxi, but also South and North China. Unlike Taishan, which became a popular place of pilgrimage, Huashan was not well visited in the past because it is dangerous for the climbers to reach its summit. Huashan was also an important place frequented by immortality seekers, as many herbs grow there especially some rare ones. Since the installation of the cable cars in the 1990s, the number of visitors has increased significantly.