2020 年 12 月英语四级第 1 套

Part I Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to write on the topic Changes in the Way of Education.You

should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

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 center.

Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.
1. A) Many people have been attacked by Devil Firefish.
B) The Mediterranean is a natural habitat of Devil Firefish.
C) Invasive species are driving away certain native species.
D) A deadly fish has been spotted in the Mediterranean waters.

2. A) It could badly pollute the surrounding waters.

B) It could pose a threat to other marine species.
C) It could disrupt the food chains there.
D) It could add to greenhouse emissions.

Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.
3. A) Cars will not be allowed to enter the city.
B) Pedestrians will have free access to the city.
C) About half of its city center will be closed to cars.
D) Buses will be the only vehicles allowed on its streets.

4. A) The unbearable traffic noise.

B) The worsening global warming.

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C) The ever-growing cost of petrol.
D) The rising air pollution in Paris.

Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.

5. A) His house was burnt down in a fire.

B) Many of his possessions were stolen.
C) His good luck charm sank into the sea.
D) His fishing boat got wrecked on a rock.

6. A) Change his fishing locations.

B) Find a job in a travel agency.
C) Sell the pearl he had kept for years.
D) Spend a few nights on a small island.

7. A) His pearl could be displayed in a museum.

B) His monstrous pearl was extremely valuable.
C) The largest pearl in the world weighs 14 pounds.
D) A New York museum has the world’s biggest pearl.

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 conversations 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 center.

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

8. A) It boasts a fairly long history. C) It has 75 offices around the world.

B) It has over 50 business partners. D) It produces construction materials.

9. A) It was started by his father. C) It is over 100 years old.

B) It has about 50 employees. D) It is a family business.

10. A) Outdated product design. C) Shortage of raw material supply.

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B) Loss of competitive edge. D) Legal disputes in many countries.

11. A) Introducing innovative marketing strategies.

B) Seeking new ways to increase its exports.
C) Providing training for its staff members.
D) Conducting a financial analysis for it.

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

12. A) She is a real expert at house decorations.

B) She is really impressed by the man’s house.
C) She is well informed about the design business.
D) She is attracted by the color of the sitting room.

13. A) From a construction businessman.

B) From his younger brother Greg.
C) From home design magazines.
D) From a professional interior designer.

14. A) The cost was affordable.

B) The style was fashionable.
C) The effort was worthwhile.
D) The effect was unexpected.

15. A) She’d like him to talk with Jonathan about a new project.
B) She’d like to show him around her newly-renovated house.
C) She wants to discuss the house decoration budget with him.
D) She wants him to share his renovation experience with her.

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 passages 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 center.

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

16. A) Paying hospital bills for emergency cases.

B) Doing research on ear, nose and throat diseases.
C) Removing objects from patients’ noses and ears.
D) Providing routine care for small children.

17. A) Children aged one to four are often more curious than older children.
B) Five-to nine-year-olds are the most likely to put things in their ears.
C) Many children like to put foreign objects in their mouths.
D) Many children like to smell things they find or play with.

18. A) They want to attract attention.

B) They tend to act out of impulse.
C) They are unaware of the potential risks.
D) They are curious about these body parts.

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

19. A) It gave her a used bicycle.
B) It paid for her English lessons.
C) It delivered her daily necessities.
D) It provided her with physical therapy.

20. A) Expanding bike-riding lessons.

B) Providing free public transport.
C) Offering walking tours to visitors.
D) Asking local people for donations.

21. A) It is a sports club.

B) It is a language school.
C) It is a counseling center.
D) It is a charity organization.

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

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22. A) How animals deal with lack of gravity.
B) How mice interact in a new environment.
C) How low gravity affects the human body.
D) How mice imitate human behavior in space.

23. A) They found the space in the cage too small to stay in.
B) They found it difficult to figure out where they were.
C) They were not used to the low-gravity environment.
D) They were not sensitive to the changed environment.

24. A) They continued to behave as they did in the beginning.

B) They already felt at home in the new environment.
C) They had found a lot more activities to engage in.
D) They tried everything possible to escape from the cage.

25. A) They changed their routines in space.

B) They began to eat less after some time.
C) They behaved as if they were on Earth.
D) They repeated their activities every day.

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.

Trust is fundamental to life.If you can't trust anything,life becomes intolerable. You can't have relationships

without trust, let alone good ones.

In the workplace, too, trust is _ 26 _. An organization without trust will be full of fear and 27_. If you work

for a boss who doesn't trust their employees to do things right,you’ll have a 28 time.They'll be checking up on you

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all the time,correcting”mistakes”and 29 reminding you to do this or that. Colleagues who don't trust one another

will need to spend more time 30 their backs than doing any useful work.

Organizations are always trying to cut costs. Think of all the additional tasks caused by lack of trust. Audit

（审计）departments only exist because of it. Companies keep large volumes of 31 because they don’t trust

their suppliers, their contractors or their customers. Probably more than half of all administrative work is only

there because of an ever-existing sense that “you can’t trust anyone these days.” If even a small part of such

valueless work could be_32__, the savings would run into millions of dollars.

All this is extra work we 33 onto ourselves because we don't trust people—the checking, following

through,doing things ourselves because we don't believe others will do them 34 —or at all. If we took all that

away, how much extra time would we suddenly find in our life? How much of our work_35__ would disappear?

A) constantly I) proprely
B) credible J) records
C)essential K) removed

D)exploring L) stacks

E) gather M) suspicion

F) load N) tracked
G) miserable O) watching

H)pressure

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 making the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

The Place Where the Poor Once Thrived

A) This is the land of opportunity. If that weren’t already implied by the landscape—rolling green hills, palm

trees,sun-kissed flowers—then it’s evident in the many stories of people who grew up poor in these sleepy

neighborhoods and rose to enormous success. People like Tri Tran,who fled Vietnam on a boat in

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1986,showed up in San Jose with nothing,made it to MIT,and then founded the food-delivery start-up

Munchery, which is valued at $ 300 million.

B) Indeed, data suggests that this is one of the best places to grow up poor in America. A child born in the

early 1980s into a low-income family in San Jose had a 12.9 percent chance of becoming a high earner as an

adult,according to a landmark study released in 2014 by the economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues from

Harvard and Berkeley. That number—12.9 percent—may not seem remarkable, but it was：Kids in San Jose

whose families fell in the bottom quintile（五分位数）of income nationally had the best shot in the country

at reaching the top quintile.

C) By contrast, just 4.4 percent of poor kids in Charlotte moved up to the top; in Detroit the figure was 5.5

percent.San Jose had social mobility comparable to Denmark’s and Canada's and higher than other

progressive cities such as Boston and Minneapolis.

D) The reasons kids in San Jose performed so well might seem obvious. Some of the world’s most

innovative companies are located here, providing opportunities such as the one seized by a 12-year-old

Mountain View resident named Steve Jobs when he called William Hewlett to ask for spare parts and

subsequently received a summer job. This is a city of immigrants—38 percent of the city's population today

is foreign-born—and immigrants and their children have historically experienced significant upward

mobility in America. The city has long had a large foreign-born population (26.5 percent in 1990), leading to

broader diversity,,which,the Harvard and Berkeley economists say,is a good predictor of mobility.
E) Indeed,the streets of San Jose seem,in some ways,to embody the best of America. It's possible to drive in

a matter of minutes from sleek （ 光 亮 的 ） office towers near the airport where people pitch ideas to

investors,to single-family homes with orange trees in their yards,or to a Vietnamese mall. The libraries here

offer programs in 17 languages,and there are areas filled with small businesses owned by Vietnamese

immigrants,Mexican immigrants,Korean immigrants,and Filipino immigrants, to name a few.

F) But researchers aren’t sure exactly why poor kids in San Jose did so well. The city has a low prevalence of

children growing up in single-parent families,and a low level of concentrated poverty, both factors that

usually mean a city allows for good intergenerational mobility. But San Jose also performs poorly on some of

the measures correlated with good mobility.It is one of the most unequal places out of the 741 that the

researchers measured ， and it has high degrees of racial and economic segregation （ 隔 离 ） . Its schools

underperform based on how much money there is in the area,said Ben Scuderi,a predoctoral fellow at the

Equality of Opportunity Project at Harvard,which uses big data to study how to improve economic

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opportunities for low-income children. “There’s a lot going on here which we don't totally understand,” he

said. “ It’s interesting, because it kind of defies our expectations.”

G) The Chetty data shows that neighborhoods and places mattered for children born in the San Jose area of

the 1980s.Whether the city still allows for upward mobility of poor kids today, though, is up for debate.

Some of the indicators such as income inequality,measured by the Equality of Opportunity Project for the

year 2000, have only worsened in the past 16 years.

H) Some San Jose residents say that as inequality has grown in recent years,upward mobility has become

much more difficult to achieve. As Silicon Valley has become home to more successful companies, the flood

of people to the area has caused housing prices to skyrocket.By most measures,San Jose is no longer a place

where low-income,or even middle-income families,can afford to live.Rents in San Jose grew 42.6 percent

between 2006 and 2014,which was the largest increase in the country during that time period. The city has a

growing homelessness problem,which it tried.to address by shutting down “The Jungle,” one of the largest

homeless encampments （ 临 时 住 地 ） in the nation, in 2014. Inequality is extreme. The Human

Development Index—a measure of life expectancy,education and per capita（人均的）income—gives East

San Jose a score of 4.85 out of 10 ， while nearby Cupertino, where Apple’s headquarters sits, receives a

9.26. San Jose used to have a happy mix of factors—cheap housing,closeness to a rapidly developing

industry,tightly-knit immigrant communities—that together opened up the possibility of prosperity for even

its poorest residents. But in recent years,housing prices have skyrocketed, the region's rich and poor have

segregated,and middle-class jobs have disappeared. Given this, the future for the region's poor doesn't look

nearly as bright as it once did.

I) Leaders in San Jose are determined to make sure that the city regains its status as a place where even poor

kids can access the resources to succeed. With Silicon Valley in its backyard, it certainly has the chance to do

so. “ I think there is a broad consciousness in the Valley that we can do better than to leave thousands of our

neighbors behind through a period of extraordinary success,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.

J) But in today’s America—a land of rising inequality ，increasing segregation，and stagnating（不增长

的）middle-class wages—can the San Jose region really once again become a place of opportunity?
K) The idea that those at the bottom can rise to the top is central to America's ideas about itself. That such

mobility has become more difficult in San Jose raises questions about the endurance of that foundational

belief. After all, if the one-time land of opportunity can't be fixed,what does that say for the rest of America?

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36. According to some people living in San Jose,it has become much harder for the poor to get ahead due to

the increased inequality.

37. In American history,immigrants used to have a good chance to move upward in society.
38. If the problems of San Jose can’t be solved, one of America’s fundamental beliefs about itself can be

shaken.
39. San Jose was among the best cities in America for poor kids to move up the social ladder.
40. Whether poor kids in San Jose today still have the chance to move upward is questionable.
41. San Jose’s officials are resolved to give poor kids access to the resources necessary for success in life.
42. San Jose appears to manifest some of the best features of America.
43. As far as social mobility is concerned,San Jose beat many other progressive cities in America.
44. Due to some changes like increases in housing prices in San Jose, the prospects for its poor people have

dimmed.
45. Researchers do not have a clear idea why poor children in San Jose achieved such great success several

decades ago.

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.

Three children in every classroom have a diagnosable mental health condition. Half of these are

behavioural disorders,while one third are emotional disorders such as stress,anxiety and depression, which

often become outwardly apparent through self-harm. There was an astonishing 52 per cent jump in hospital

admissions for children and young people who had harmed themselves between 2009 and 2015.
Schools and teachers have consistently reported the scale of the problem since 2009.Last year, over half

of teachers reported that more of their pupils experience mental health problems than in the past. But

teachers also consistently report how ill-equipped they feel to meet pupils’ mental health needs,and often cite

a lack of training，expertise and support from the National Health Service（英国国家医疗服务体系）.

Part of the reason for the increased pressure on.schools is that there are now fewer ‘early intervention

（干预）’and low-level mental health services based in the community. Cuts to local authority budgets

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since 2010 have resulted in a significant decline of these services, despite strong evidence of their

effectiveness in preventing crises further down the line.

The only way to break the pressures on both mental health services and schools is to reinvest in early

intervention services inside schools.

There are strong arguments for why schools are best placed to provide mental health services. Schools

see young people more than any other service,which gives them a unique ability to get to hard-to-reach

children and young people and build meaningful relationships with them over time. Recent studies have

shown that children and young people largely prefer to see a counsellor in school rather than in an.outside

environment. Young people have reported that for low-level conditions such as stress and anxiety,a clinical

setting can sometimes be daunting（令人却步的）.

There are already examples of innovative schools which combine mental health and wellbeing provision

with a strong academic curriculum. This will,though,require a huge cultural shift. Politicians,

policymakers,commissioners and school leaders must be brave enough to make the leap towards reimagining

schools as providers of health as well as education services.

46. What are teachers complaining about?

A) There are too many students requiring special attention.
B) They are under too much stress counselling needy students.
C) Schools are inadequately equipped to implement any intervention.
D) They lack the necessary resources to address pupils’ mental problems.

47. What do we learn from the passage about community health services in Britain?
A) ) They have deteriorated due to budget cuts.
B) They facilitate local residents’ everyday lives.
C) They prove ineffective in helping mental patients.
D) They cover preventative care for the local resident.

48. Where does the author suggest mental health services be placed?
A) At home. B)At school. C) In hospitals. D) In communities.

49. What do we learn from the recent studies?

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A) Students prefer to rely on peers to relieve stress and anxiety.
B) Young people are keen on building meaningful relationships.
C) Students are more comfortable seeking counselling in school.
D) Young people benefit from various kinds of outdoor activities.

50. What does the author mean by a cultural shift (Line 2, Para. 6)?
A) Simplification of schools’ academic curriculums.
B) Parents’ involvement in schools’ policy-making.
C) A change in teachers’ attitudes to mental health.
D)A change in the conception of what schools are.

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

Picture this: You’re at a movie theater food stand loading up on snacks. You have a choice of a small,

medium or large soda. The small is $3.50 and the large is $5.50. It’s a tough decision: The small size may not

last you through the whole movie,but $5.50 for some sugary drink seems ridiculous. But there’s a third

option,a medium soda for $5.25. Medium may be the perfect amount of soda for you, but the large is only a

quarter more.If you’re like most people, you end up buying the large(and taking a bathroom break midshow).
If you’re wondering who would buy the medium soda, the answer is almost.no one.In fact, there’s a

good chance the marketing department purposely priced the medium soda as a decoy（诱饵），making you

more likely to buy the large soda rather than the small.
I have written about this peculiarity in human nature before with my friend Dan Ariely, who studied this

phenomenon extensively after noticing pricing for subscriptions （ 订 阅 ） to The Economist. The digital

subscription was $59, the print subscription was $125, and the print plus digital subscription was also $125.

No one in their right mind would buy the print subscription when you could get digital as well for the same

price,so why was it even an option? Ariely ran an experiment and found that when only the two"real"choices

were offered,more people chose the less-expensive digital subscription. But the addition of the bad option

made people much more likely to choose the more expensive print plus digital option.
Brain scientists call this effect “asymmetric dominance” and it means that people gravitate toward the

choice nearest a clearly inferior option. Marketing professors call it the decoy effect,which is certainly easier

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to remember. Lucky for consumers,almost no one in the business community understands it.
The decoy effect works because of the way our brains.assign value when making choices. Value is

almost never absolute; rather,we decide an object's value relative to our other choices. If more options are

introduced, the value equation changes.

51. Why does the author ask us to imagine buying food in the movie theater?
A) To illustrate people's peculiar shopping behavior.
B) To illustrate the increasing variety of snacks there.
C) To show how hard it can be to choose a drink there.
D) To show how popular snacks are among movie fans.

52. Why is the medium soda priced the way it is?

A) To attract more customers to buy it.
B) To show the price matches the amount.
C) To ensure customers drink the right amount of soda.
D) To make customers believe they are getting a bargain.

53. What do we learn from Dan Ariely’s experiment?

A) Lower-priced goods attract more customers.
B) The Economist’s promotional strategy works.
C) The Economist’s print edition turns out to sell the best.
D) More readers choose the digital over the print edition.

54. For what purpose is “the bad option” (Line 7, Para.3)added?

A) To cater to the peculiar needs of some customers.
B) To help customers to make more rational choices.
C) To trap customers into buying the more pricey item.
D) To provide customers with a greater variety of goods.

55. How do we assess the value of a commodity, acording to the passage?

A) By considering its usefulness.
B) By comparing it with other choices.

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C) By taking its quality into account.
D) By examining its value equation.

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.

生活在中国不同地区的人们饮食多种多样。北方人主要吃面食，南方人大多吃来饭。在沿海地区，

海鲜和淡水水产品在人们饮食中占有相当大的比例，而在其他地区人们的饮食中，肉类和奶制品更为常

见。四川、湖南等省份的居民普遍爱吃辛辣食物，而江苏和浙江人更喜欢甜食。然而，因为烹任方式各

异，同类食物的味道可能会有所不同。

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