2019年12月四級真題及答案-第一套

1、 年 (第一套)(30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to a foreignfriend who wants to teach English in China. Please recommend a city to him. Youshould writeat least 120 wordsbut no more than180 words.Listening Comprehension(25minutes)Directions：In this section,

2、 you will hear three news reports. At the end of each newsreport, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questionswill be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answerfrom the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the correspondin

3、g letteron Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.B) It isgoing to beexpanded.Questions 5 to7 are based onthenews report youhave just heard.6. A)They are especially intelligent.B) Theyare childrens favorite.C) Theyare quite easy to tame.D)They are clean andpretty.Directions：In this sec

4、tion, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of eachconversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questionswill be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answerfrom the four choices marked A), B), C)and D). Then mark the correspond

5、ing letteron Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.B) Heloses heart when faced with setbacks.C) Heis too ambitious in achieving goals.D)He takeson projects beyondhis ability.15. A)Try tobe optimistic whatever happens.B) Comparehis present with hispast only.C) Alwayslearn from othersac

6、hievements.D)Treat others the way hewould betreated.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 bespoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer fromt

7、he four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.D)They have greaterpotential to beleaders.17. A)Praise girlswho like tospeak up frequently.B) Encouragegirls to solve problems on their own.C) Insist thatboys and girls

8、work together more.D)Respond more positively to boyscomments.21. A)It has alot ofplaces for entertainment.B) It hasnever seen thunder andlightning.C) It hasfewer cloudy daysthan anyothercoastal city.D)It has mild weather bothin summer and in winter.Questions 22 to25 are based onthepassage you have j

9、ust heard.22.A)It occurs when peopleare doing a repetitive activity.B) It results fromexerting onesmuscles continuously.23.A)Blood flowandbody heat increase inthe affectedarea.B) Body movementsin the affected areabecome difficult.C) Theybegin to make repairs immediately.B) Drinkplenty ofwater.D)Take

10、 pain-killers.When travelling overseas, do you buy water in plastic bottles or take yourchances with tap water? Imagine you are wandering about on a Thai island or 26 theruins of Angkor. Its hot so you grab a bottle of water from a local vendor. Its thesafe thing to do, right? The bottle is 27 , and

11、 the label says “pure water”. But maybewhats inside is not so 28 . Would you still be drinking it if you knew that more than90 percent ofall bottled water sold around the world 29 microplastics ?Thats the conclusion of a recently 30 study, which analysed 259 bottles from 11brands sold in nine countr

12、ies, 31 an average of 325 plastic particles per litre ofwater. These microplastics included a 32 commonly known as PET and widelyused in the manufacture of clothing and food and 33 containers. The study wasconducted at the State University of New York on behalf of Orb Media, a journalismorganisation

13、. About a million bottles are bought every minute, not only by thirstytourists but also by many of the 2.1 billion worldwide who live with unsafe drinkingwater.Confronted with this 34 , several bottled-water manufacturers includingNestle and Coca-Cola undertook their own studies using the same metho

14、dology.These studies showed that their water did contain microplastics, but far less than theOrb study suggested. Regardless, the World Health Organisation has launched areview intothe 35 health risks ofdrinking water from plasticbottles.O)substanceB Even the United States Postal Service (USPS) susp

15、ended mail delivery. “ Due tothis arctic outbreak and concerns for the safety of USPS employees,” USPSannounced Wednesday morning, “the Postal Service is suspending delivery Jan. 30 insome 3-digit ZIP Code locations.” Twelve regions were listed as unsafe onWednesday; on Thursday, eight remained.C As

16、 global surface temperatures increase, so does the likelihood of extremeweather. In 2018 alone, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, mudslides, and othernatural disasters cost at least $49 billion in the United States. As my colleague VannNewkirk reported, Puerto Rico is still confronting econ

17、omic and structural destructionand resource scarcity from 2017s Hurricane Maria. Natural disasters can wreck acommunitys infrastructure, disrupting systems for months or years. Some services,however, remind us that life willeventually return,in some form, tonormal.D Days after the deadly 2017 wildfi

18、res in Santa Rosa, California, a drone (無人機)caught footage (連續(xù)鏡頭) of a USPS worker, Trevor Smith, driving throughburned homes in that familiar white van, collecting mail in an affected area.The videois striking: The operation is familiar, but the scene looks like the end of the world.According to Ra

19、e Aim Haight, the program manager for the national-preparednessoffice at USPS, Smith was fulfilling a request made by some of the home owners topick up any mail that was left untouched. For Smith, this was just another day on thejob. “ I followed my route like I normally do,” Smith told a reporter.

20、“As I cameacross a box that was up but with no house, I checked, and there was mailoutgoingmailin it. Andso we pickedthose up and carriedon.”E USPS has sophisticated emergency plans for natural disasters. Across the country,285 emergencymanagement teams are devoted to crisis control.These teams aret

21、rained annually using a framework known as the three Ps: people, property, product.After mail service stops due to weather, the agencys top priority is ensuring thatemployees are safe.Then it evaluates the health of infrastructure, such as the roadsthat mail carriers drive on. Finally, it decides wh

22、en and how to re-open operations. Ifthe destruction is extreme, mail addressed to the area will get sent elsewhere. Inresponse to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, USPS redirected incoming New Orleans mailto existing mail facilities in Houston. Mail that was already processed in New Orleansfacilities was m

23、oved to anupper floorso itwould be protected fromwater damage.G Every day, USPS processes, on average, 493.4 million pieces of mailanythingfrom postcards to Social Security checks to medicine. Spokespeople from both USPSand UPS told me all mail is important. But some mail can be extremely sensitive

24、andtimely. According to data released in January 2017, 56 percent of bills are paid online,which means that just under half of payments still rely on delivery services to becompleted.H It can be hard to identify which parcels are carrying crucial items such as SocialSecurity checks, but USPS and UPS

25、 try their best to prioritize sensitive material. Theywill coordinate with the Social Security Administration to make sure that SocialSecurity checks reach the right people in a timely fashion. After Hurricane Florenceand Hurricane Michael last fall, USPS worked with state and local election boards

26、tomakesure that absentee ballots wereavailable andreceived on time.I Mail companies are logistics (物流) companies, which puts them in a specialposition to help when disaster strikes. In a 2011 USPS case study, the agencyemphasized its massive infrastructure as a “unique federal asset” to be called up

27、on ina disaster or terrorist attack. “ I think were unique as a federal agency,” USPS officialMike Swigart told me, “ because were in literally every community in this country.Were obligated to deliverto that pointon a daily basis.”J Private courier companies, which have more dollars to spend, use t

28、heir expertise inlogistics to help revitalize damaged areas after a disaster. For more than a decade,FedEx has supported the American Red Cross in its effort to get emergency suppliesto areas affected by disasters, both domestically and internationally. In 2012, thecompany distributed more than 1,20

29、0 MedPacks to Medical Reserve Corps groups inCalifornia. They also donated space for 3.1 million pounds of charitable shippingglobally. Last October, the company pledged $1 million in cash and transportationsupport for Hurricanes Florence and Michael. UPSs charitable arm, the UPSFoundation, uses the

30、 companys logistics to help disaster-struck areas rebuild. “Werealize that as a company with people, trucks, warehouses, we needed to play a largerrole,” said Eduardo Martinez, the president of the UPS Foundation. The companyemploys its trucks and planes to deliver food, medicine, and water. The day

31、 before Ispoke to Martinez in November, he had been touring the damage from HurricaneMichael in Florida with the American Red Cross. “We have an obligation to makesureour communities are thriving,” hesaid.39. Mail delivery service is still responsible for the completion of almost half ofpayments.40.

32、 The sight of a mailman on the street is a reassuring sign of life becoming normalagain.41. After Hurricane Katrina interrupted routine delivery, temporary mail servicepointswere set up.42. Postal service in some regions in the U.S. was suspended due to extreme coldweather.43. Private postal compani

33、es also support disaster relief efforts by distributing urgentsupplies.44. A dedicated USPS employee was on the job carrying out duties in spite ofextreme conditions.45. Postalservices work hard toidentify items that require priority treatment.PassageOneQuestions 46 to50 are based onthefollowing pas

34、sage.Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing herto the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasnt too great. But Goel and histeam sourced the online discussion forum to find all 40,000 questions that had everbeen asked since the class was launched. Then

35、 they began to feed Jill with thequestions and answers. After some adjustments, and sufficient time, Jill was able toanswer the students, questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant becameso advanced and realistic that the students didnt know she was a computer. Thestudents, who were

36、studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtualassistant and couldnt tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didnt inform themabout Jills true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive aboutthe experience.The goal of Professor Goels virtual assistant n

37、ext year is to take over answering40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watsonwill, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a muchrosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, StephenHawking,Bill Ga

38、tes orSteve Wozniak.B) It isa course designedfor students tolearn online.C) It isa high-tech devicethat revolutionizes teaching.D)It is acomputer program that aids student learning.Questions 51 to55 are based onthefollowing passage.Thinking small, being engaging, and having a sense of humor dont hur

39、t. Thoseare a few of the traits of successful science crowdfunding efforts that emerge from arecent study that examined nearly 400 campaigns. But having a large network andsome promotional skills may bemore crucial.Crowdfunding, raising money for a project through online appeals, has taken offin rec

40、ent years for everything from making movies to producing water-saving gadgets.Scientists have tried to tap Internet donors, too, with mixed success. Some raisedmore than twice their goals, but others have fallen short of reaching even modesttargets.To determine what separates science crowdfunding tr

41、iumphs from failures, ateam led by science communications scholar Mike Schafer of the University of Zurichexaminedthe content ofthe webpages for371 recent campaigns.Four traits stood out for those that achieved their goals, the researchers report inPublic Understanding of Science. For one, they use

42、a crowdfunding platform thatspecializes in raising money for science, and not just any kind of project. Althoughsites like Kickstarter take all comers, platforms such as E andP only present scientific projects. For another, they present the projectwith a funny video because good visuals and a sense

43、of humor improved success.Most of them engage with potential donors, since projects that answered questionsfrom interested donors fared better. And they target a small amount of money. Theprojects included in the study raised $4000 on average, with 30% receiving less than$1000. The more money a project sought, the lower the chance it reached its goal, theresearchers found.52.What is the purpose of Mike Schafers research of recent crowdfundingcampaigns?54.Whatdid the researchers think ofthe financial targetsof crowdfundingprojects?A)They shouldbe smallto be successful.B) Theyshould bebase