2016年12月大学英语四级真题及答案第一套

2016年12月大学英语四级考试真题(第1套)

PartⅠ Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay. Suppose you have twooptions upon graduation: one is to find a job somewhere and the other to start abusiness of your own. You are to make a decision. Write an essay to explain the reasonsfor your decision. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. 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 wordfor each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read thepassage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank isidentified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in thebank more than once. Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage. When someone commits a criminal act, we always hope the punishment will match the offense.But when it comes to one of the cruelest crimes--animal fighting--things26 work out that way.Dog-fighting victims are 27 and killed for profit and \yet their criminal abusers oftenreceive a28 sentence for causing a lifetime of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animalfighters only get probation (缓刑). Some progress has been made in the prosecution (起诉) of animal fighters. But federal judgesoften rely heavily on the U. S. Sentencing GuideLines when they29 penalties, and in the case ofanimal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and extremely30 The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which31 these sentencing guidelines, is revisiting them,proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6 - 12 to 21 - 27 months. This is a step in the right32, but we'd like to see the U. S. Sentencing Commission make further changes to the guidelines. Along with this effort, we're working with animal advocates and state and federal lawmakers to33 anti-cruelty laws across the country, as well as supporting laws and policies that assistoverburdened animal 34 that care for animal fighting victims. This help is 35 importantbecause the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major factor that prevents people from gettinginvolved in cruelty cases in the first place.

A. convenient B. creates C. critically D. determine E. direction

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F. hesitate G. inadequate H. inspired I. method J. minimal K. rarely L. shelters M. strengthen N. sufferings O. tortured Section B

Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Eachstatement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraphfrom 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 thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. When Work Becomes a Game A) What motivates employees to do their jobs well? Competition with coworkers, for some. Thepromise of rewards, for others. Pure enjoyment of problem-solving, for a lucky few.

B) Increasingly, companies are tapping into these desires directly through what has come to be knownas \\game designers do to create a great experience ingames, and taking those learnings and applying them to other contexts such as the workplace andeducation,\Kevin Werbach, a gamification expert who teaches at the Wharton School ofBusiness at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. C) It might mean monitoring employee productivity on a digital leaderboard and offering prizes to thewinner, or giving employees digital badges or stars for completing certain activities. It could alsomean training employees how to do their jobs through video game platforms. Companies fromGoogle to L'Oréalto IBM to Wells Fargo are known to use some degree of gamification in theirworkplaces. And more and more companies are joining them. A recent report suggests that theglobal gamification market will grow from $1.65 billion in 2015 to $11.1 billion by 2020. D) The concept of gamification is not entirely new, Werbach says. Companies, marketers and teachershave long looked for fun ways to engage people's reward-seeking or competitive spirits. Cracker Jackshas been \its snack food by putting a small prize inside for more than 100 years, headds, and the turn-of-the-century steel magnate (巨头) Charles Schwab is said to have often comeinto his factory and written the number of tons of steel produced on the past shift on the factoryfloor, thus motivating the next shift of workers to beat the previous one.

E) But the word \concept only beganin earnest about five years ago, Werbach says. Thanks in part

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to video games, the generation nowentering the workforce is especially open to the idea of having their work gamified. \are at apoint where in much of the developed world the vast majority of young people grew up playingvideo games, and an increasingly high percentage of adults play these video games too,\F) A number of companies have sprung up--GamEffective, Bunchbail and Badgeville, to name a few--in recent years offering gamification platforms for businesses. The platforms that are most effectiveturn employees' ordinary job tasks into part of a rich adventure narrative. \makes a gamegame-like is that the player actually cares about the outcome,\Werbach says. \principle isabout understanding what is motivating to this group of players, which requires some understandingof psychology. \

G) Some people, Werbach says, are motivated by competition.Sales people often fall into thiscategory. For them, the right kind of gamification might be turning their saies pitches into acompetition with other team members, complete with a digital leaderboard showing who is winningat all times. Others are more motivated by collaboration and social experiences. One companyWerbach has studied uses gamification to create a sense of community and boost employees' morale(士气). When employees log in to their computers, they're shown a picture of one of theircoworkers and asked to guess that person's name. H) Gamification does not have to be digital. Monica Cornetti runs a company that gamifies employeetrainings. Sometimes this involves technology, but often it does not. She recently designed agamification strategy for a saies training company with a storm-chasing theme. Employees formed\chaser teams\and competed in storm-themed educational exercises to earn variousrewards. \to be stuff,\training, this one for pay roll law, used a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfstheme. \copyright,so Cornetti invented sound-alike characters (Grumpy Gus, Dopey Dan) to illustrate specific pay rolllaw principles. I) Some people do not take naturaily to gamified work environments, Cornetti says.In herexperience, people in positions of power or people in finance or engineering do not tend to like thesound of the word. \not talking about a ' game' at all,\says. \talking about a ' simulation' (模拟), I'm talking about ' being able to solvethis problem. '\J) Gamification is \that is notsufficiently thought through or well tailored to its players may engage people for a little while, but itwill not motivate people in the long term. It can also be exploitative, especially when used withvulnerable populations. For workers, especially low-paid workers, who desperately need their jobsyet know they can be easily replaced, gamification may feel more like the Hunger Games. Werbachgives the example of several Disneyland hotels in Anaheim, Caiifornia, which used large digital leaderboards to display how efficiently laundry workers were working compared to one another.Some employees found the board motivating. To others, it was the opposite of fun. Some began tostop taking bathroom breaks, worried that

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if their productivity fell they would be fired. Pregnantemployees struggled to keep up. In a Los Angeles Times article, one employee referred to the boardas a \whip. \actually had a very negative effect on morale and performance,\Werbachsays.

K) Still, gamification only stands to become more popular, he says, \more people comeinto the workforce who are familiar with the structures and expressions of digitai games. \arefar from reaching the peak,\Cornetti agrees. \

36. Some famous companies are already using gamification and more are trying to do the same.

37. Gamification is not a miracle cure for all workplaces as it may have negative results.

38. To enhance morale, one company asks its employees to identify their fellow workers when startingtheir computers.

39. The idea of gamification was practiced by some businesses more than a century ago.

40. There is reason to believe that gamification will be here to stay. 41. Video games contributed in some ways to the wide application of gamification. 42. When turning work into a game, it is necessary to understand what makes games interesting.

43. Gamification in employee training does not always need technology. 44. The most successful gamification platforms transform daily work assignments into fun experiences.

45. It is necessary to use terms other than \Section C

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions orunfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C andD . You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on AnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage. Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain students and keepyounger faculty members from going elsewhere. It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task it is to \or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three different colleges, the actualproblems in educating our young people and older students have deepened, while the number of peoplehired--not to teach but to hold meetings--has increased significantly. Every new problem creates anew job for an administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title, thecenter is a clearing house (信息交流中心) for using technology in classrooms and in online courses.It's an administrative sham (欺诈) of the kind that has multiplied over the last 30 years.

I offer a simple proposition in response: Many of our problems--class attendance, educationalsuccess, student happiness and well-being--might be improved by cutting

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down the bureaucratic ( 官僚的) mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army of good teachers. If we replaced half of ouradministrative staff with classroom teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20or fewer students per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actuallyknew each other.

The teachers must be free to teach in their own way--the curriculum should be flexible enough sothat they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the course. Additionally, they should beallowed to teach, and be rewarded for doing it well. Teachers are not people who are great at andconsumed by research and happen to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are notexclusive, but they are also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft, talent andpractice; it is not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that peopledo not recognize this, despite the fact that pretty much anyone who has been a student can tell thedifference between their best and worst teachers.

46. What does the author say about present-day universities? A. They are effectively tackling real or imagined problems. B. They often fail to combine teaching with research. C. They are over-burdened with admires\D. They lack talent to fix their deepening problems. 47. According to the author, what kind of people do universities lack most? A. Good classroom teachers. B. Efficient administrators. C. Talented researchers. D. Motivated students. 48. What does the author imply about the classes at present? A. They facilitate students' independent learning. B. They help students form closer relationships. C. They have more older students than before. D. They are much bigger than is desirable. 49. What does the author think of teaching ability? A. It requires talent and practice. B. It is closely related to research. C. It is a chief factor affecting students' learning. D. It can be acquired through persistent practice. 50. What is the author's suggestion for improving university teaching?

A. Creating an environment for teachers to share their teaching experiences. B. Hiring more classroom teachers and allowing them to teach in their own way. C. Using high technology in classrooms and promoting exchange of information. D. Cutting down meetings and encouraging administrative staff to go to classrooms. Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

The secret to eating less and being happy about it may have been cracked years ago--byMcDonald's. According to a new study from Cornell University's Food and Brand

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