1998年英语专四四级真题详解

1998年真题详解

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1998)-GRADE FOUR-
PART I DICTATION
Listen to the following passage．
Altogether the passage will be read to you four times．
During the first reading,
which will be done at normal speed,
listen and try to understand the meaning．
For the second and third readings，
the passage will be read sentence by sentence，
or phrase by phrase，with intervals of 15 seconds．
The last reading will be done at normal speed again
and during this time you should check your work．
You will then be given 2 minutes
to check through your work once more.
Please write the whole passage on ANSWER SHEET ONE．
Now listen to the passage.
THE RAILWAYS IN BRITAIN
The success of early railways,
such as the lines between big cities,
led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times.
Between 1835 and 1865,
about twenty-five thousand kilometers of track were built,
and over one hundred railway companies were created.
Railway travel transformed people's lives.
Trains were first designed to carry goods.
However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies
to run one cheap train a day,
which stopped at every station
and cost only a penny a mile.
Soon working class passengers found
they could afford to travel by the rail.
Cheap day excursion trains became popular,
and seaside resorts grew rapidly.
The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:
building carriages, running the railways,
and repairing the tracks.
Railways even changed the time.
The need to run the railways on time
meant that local time was abolished.
And clocks showed the same time all over the country.
THE RAILWAYS IN BRITAIN
The success of early railways,such as the lines between big cities,
THE RAILWAYS IN BRITAIN
The success of early railways,such as the lines between big cities,
led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times.
led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times.
Between 1835 and 1865,about twenty-five thousand kilometers of track were built,
Between 1835 and 1865,about twenty-five thousand kilometers of track were built,
and over one hundred railway companies were created.
and over one hundred railway companies were created.
Railway travel transformed people's lives.
Railway travel transformed people's lives.
Trains were first designed to carry goods.
Trains were first designed to carry goods.
However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies to run one cheap train a day,
However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies to run one cheap train a day,
which stopped at every station and cost only a penny a mile.
which stopped at every station and cost only a penny a mile.
Soon working class passengers found they could afford to travel by the rail.
Soon working class passengers found they could afford to travel by the rail.
Cheap day excursion trains became popular, and seaside resorts grew rapidly.
Cheap day excursion trains became popular, and seaside resorts grew rapidly.
The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:
The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:
building carriages, running the railways, and repairing the tracks.
building carriages, running the railways, and repairing the tracks.
Railways even changed the time.
Railways even changed the time.
The need to run the railways on time meant that local time was abolished.
The need to run the railways on time meant that local time was abolished.
And clocks showed the same time all over the country.
And clocks showed the same time all over the country.
THE RAILWAYS IN BRITAIN
The success of early railways,
such as the lines between big cities,
led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times.
Between 1835 and 1865,
about twenty-five thousand kilometers of track were built,
and over one hundred railway companies were created.
Railway travel transformed people's lives.
Trains were first designed to carry goods.
However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies
to run one cheap train a day,
which stopped at every station
and cost only a penny a mile.
Soon working class passengers found
they could afford to travel by the rail.
Cheap day excursion trains became popular,
and seaside resorts grew rapidly.
The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:
building carriages, running the railways,
and repairing the tracks.
Railways even changed the time.
The need to run the railways on time
meant that local time was abolished.
And clocks showed the same time all over the country.
Now you have 2 minutes to check through your work.
That is the end of the Part I Dictation.
PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION
In Sections A，B and C you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.
Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow．
Mark the correct answer to each question on your answer sheet．
SECTION A CONVERSATIONS
In this section you will hear several conversations．
Listen to the conversations carefully
and then answer the questions that follow．
Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation.
At the end of the conversation，you will be given
15 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the conversation.
M: Peter Ford speaking.
W: Good morning, Mr. Ford. My name is Jane Harris.
I'm ringing about the cashier's job you advertised.
M: Ah yes. Have you been a cashier before?
W: Well, I have worked in a newsagent's, and handled cash there.
M: Could you give me a number I could ring for a reference?
W: The owner is Mr. Lovell. His number is 46978.
M: Right. Thank you. I'll get in touch with him later.
W: Could you tell me-what are the hours?
M: Well, we work a basic 38-hour working week: the store is open
from 8:30 to 4:30, Monday to Thursday;
Friday is a late-night shopping-
we close at 8:00; on Saturdays we close at 5:30.
W: Thank you. And what is the pay for the basic working week?
M: 69.50 pounds. Now, could you come in and see me?
What about tomorrow at 9:30?
W: 9:30 tomorrow morning. That will be fine.
M: Do you know where the shop is? It's 442 High Road,
on the corner of Brent Street.
W: The corner of Brent Street. 442 High Road.
M: Okay, Mrs. Harris. I'll see you tomorrow morning then.
W: Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Questions 4 to 7 are based on the following conversation．
At the end of the conversation, you will be given
20 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the conversation.
M: Hi, Sherrill.
W: Hello, Fill, how are you?
M: I'm fine, where are you headed?
W: Oh, I' m on my way home from work.
M: I didn't know you had a job.
W: Ya, I work part-time at the supermarket.
M: What do you do there?
W: I work in the produce section,
trimming and wrapping fresh fruit and vegetables.
I also stock shelves.
Sometimes when it gets really busy,
I work at the check-out counter.
Have you got a job, Fill?
M: Ya, I do yard work for people. You know, cutting grass,
cleaning leaves and falling weeds, things like that.
W: I' d like doing that. It must be nice to work outdoors.
M: Sometimes it is, except when it rains, or snows
or gets too hot or too cold.
W: I guess every job has its drawbacks. There are times
when I get pretty tired of carrying things around at my job.
But a job is a job. Got to earn money for school.
M: Me too, tuition sure is high, isn't it?
Well, I'd better get going.
I have to plant some trees for my neighbors this afternoon.
W: Well, don't work too hard. Holding down a job,
going to class, studying,
sometimes can become too much for one person.
Take it easy.
M: You too, it was great seeing you, Sherrill.
Questions 8 to 10 are based on the following conversation．
At the end of the conversation, you will be given
15 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the conversation.
M: Good morning, Doctor.
W: Good morning, Mr. Smith.
What can I do for you?
M: I feel there's something wrong with me,
but I'm not sure.
W: Could you explain more?
M: I usually get a runny nose, watery eyes,
sore throat and other symptoms on Monday.
It will last for the following five days.
And since I'm terribly busy with my work,
I won't have time to see the doctor.
But when I do have time to see the doctor on weekends,
the symptoms will disappear all of a sudden.
W: And you will get same symptoms again next Monday?
M: Exactly.
W: How long have you been like this?
M: About one month.
W: Did anything special happen during the past four weeks?
M: Nothing special. Oh, wait!
My company has moved from the old address to the present Mount Plaza.
W: Do your colleagues have the same trouble with you?
M: Well, some of them.
W: I see. You must be suffering from
so-called sick building syndrome.
Some of them can even lead to cancer.
M: That's terrible! Is there anything I can do
to the "sick" building?
W: Don't worry. I will write you a prescription
to ease your symptoms.
SECTION B PASSAGES
In this section，you will hear several passages．
Listen to the passages carefully
and then answer the questions that follow．
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following passage．
At the end of the passage, you will be given
15 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the passage.
Canals are watercourses constructed to improve
and extend natural waterways.
They are generally built to facilitate transportation,
but from the beginning
they have been used for many additional purposes
including draining swamps, irrigating land for cultivation,
and promoting economic development.
Canals are often classified
by the size of vessel they can accommodate.
Some small local canals,
which are able to float only 100 to 300 ton boats,
may be only 3 feet deep.
Major barge canals generally range from 6 to 9 feet in depth,
and some are as much as 10 or 12 feet deep.
These canals can carry 1,350 to 2,000 ton craft.
Ship canals are 25 feet or more deep
and are capable ofaccommodating large vessels in the seagoing class.
Canals may also be classified as either water level or lock canals.
Water level canals do not vary
in height along their courses.
The best known of these is
the Suez Canal, which is at sea level.
Lock canals, which include most modern waterways,
contain locks, or special devices for raising
and lowering boats along their courses
by changing the depth of the water.
Each lock is a stretch of water enclosed by gates
at each end.
After a boat enters the lock,
water is let or drained out until it reaches approximately
the same level as the water ahead.
Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following passage．
At the end of the passage, you will be given
20 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the passage.
Grandma Moses is among the most celebrated twentieth-century painters
of the United States, yet she had barely started painting
before she was in her late seventies.
As she once said of herself:
I would never sit back in a rocking chair,
waiting for someone to help me.
She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm
in New York State, one of five boys and five girls.
At twelve she left home and was in domestic service
until, at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Noses.
They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia
and then in New York State.
She had ten children,
of whom five survived.
Grandma Moses painted a little as a child
and made embroidery pictures as a hobby,
but only switched to oils in old age
because her hands had become too stiff to sew
and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time.
Her pictures were first sold at the local drugstore
and at a fair, and were soon discovered by a dealer
who bought everything she painted.
Three of the pictures were exhibited
in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940
she had her first exhibition in New York.
Between the 1930's and her death,
she produced some 2,000 pictures:
detailed and lively paintings of the rural life
she had known for so long,
with a marvelous sense of color and form.
Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following passage．
At the end of the passage, you will be given
15 seconds to answer the questions．
Now, listen to the passage.
Around the year 1000 A.D., some people from northwest India
began to travel westward.
Nobody knows why.
After leaving their homes,
they did not settle down again,
but spent their lives moving from one place to another,
their later generations are called
the Romany people, or Gypsies.
There're Gypsies all over the world,
many of them are still traveling with no fixed homes.
There are about 8 million of them,
including 3 million in Eastern Europe.
Gypsies sometimes have a hard time
in the countries where they travel, because they are different.
People may be afraid of them, look down on them,
or think that they are criminals.
The Nazis treated the Gypsies cruelly, like the Jews,
and nobody knows how many of them died in Hitler's death camps.
Gypsies have their own language Romany.
They like music and dancing.
And they often work in fairs and traveling shows.
Traveling is very important to them,
and many Gypsies are unhappy
if they have to stay in one place.
Because of this, it is difficult for Gypsy children
to go to school, and Gypsies are often unable to read and write.
In some places, the education authorities try
to arrange special traveling schools for Gypsy children,
so that they can get the same education as other children.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
In this section, you will hear several news items.
Listen to them carefully
and then answer the questions that follow.
Questions 21 and 22 are based on the following news
At the end of the news item，you will be given
10 seconds to answer the questions．
Now listen to the news.
Heavy rains and overflowing rivers
have caused extensive flooding in some parts of
the US mid-west and in eastern regions of the US as well.
Melting snow and new snowfall in the mid-west states of Iowa,
Michigan and Indiana have driven rivers over their banks,
and have cut off electricity to thousands of customers.
In the eastern states of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey and West Virginia, flooding has damaged homes
and forced evacuations in several counties.
Questions 23 is based on the following news．
At the end of the news item，you will be given
5 seconds to answer the question．
Now listen to the news.
Official Iranian news agency
quoting a senior Foreign Ministry official has said
preparations were being made
for the Foreign Minister Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati to visit Iraq.
No specific date was given.
The news was carried the day after a preparatory team
led by his senior advisor, Ali Carrune,
ended a four-day visit to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
In an interview carried on Tehran radio,
Ali Carrune said an Iraqi delegation
will be travelling to Teheran shortly
to follow up on the talks.
Questions 24 and 25 are based on the following news．
At the end of the news item，you will be given
10 seconds to answer the questions．
Now listen to the news.
The US Senate has passed a landmark bill
aimed at ending the country huge budget deficits
within the next seven years.
It would cut government spending
by more than 900 billion dollars.
Health, education, and hundreds of other programs will be hit.
The bill was passed last week by the House of Representatives.
And congressional leaders now have to work out a compromise.
A BBC Washington correspondent says the stage is now
set for a confrontation with the White House.
President Clinton has threatened to veto the Republican plans.
Questions 26 and 27 are based on the following news．
At the end of the news item，you will be given
10 seconds to answer the questions．
Now listen to the news.
France has carried out the first of a planned series of nuclear tests
in the south Pacific despite strong international opposition.
The French Defense Ministry said the device exploded
at an underground site beneath Mururoa Attol yielded
less than twenty kilo tons.
Australian scientists described it
as fairly small compared with previous tests.
There's been swift reactions from several countries.
New Zealand and Chile have recalled their ambassadors
to Paris in protest.
Australia condemned the test,
and the US expressed its regret.
Before the nuclear device was exploded,
the French President, Jacques Chirac said
his country might carry out fewer
than the eight tests originally planned.
Questions 28 is based on the following news．
At the end of the news item，you will be given
5 seconds to answer the question．
Now listen to the news.
Indian police have found a large cache of plastic explosives
in Bombay, the type used in last month's serial bombings
that killed more than 300 people.
Police say they seized nearly 2000 kilograms of explosives
from a marshy region north of Bombay.
About 1,300 kilograms of similar explosives
were discovered in the area last week.
Police also arrested 14 more people
in connection with the bombings.
Questions 29 and 30 are based on the following news．
At the end of the news item，you will be given
10 seconds to answer the questions．
Now listen to the news.
Israel and the PLO, after six days of intensive negotiations,
meet again later today for what they say
their hope will be the final initialing of an agreement
on extending Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank.
The two sides had been optimistic
about reaching an agreement yesterday,
but last minute hitches arose over the timetable
for releasing thousands of prisoners,
and arrangements for the redeployment of Israeli troops.
The BBC Jerusalem correspondent says it appears
the two sides have made progress on one of the most difficult issues
of all-the future of Hebron, the only town in the West Bank
where there's a community of Jewish settlers.
This is the end of Listening Comprehension.