2004年英语专四四级真题详解

2004年真题详解

TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2004)-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.
MONEY
Money is accepted across the world
as payment for goods or services.
People use money to buy food, clothes,
and hundreds of other things.
In the past many different things were used as money.
People on Pacific islands once exchanged shells for goods.
The Chinese used cloth and knives.
In Africa, elephant tusks or salt were used.
Even today some people in Africa are still paid in salt.
Coins were first invented by the Chinese.
Originally they were round pieces of metal
with a hole in the center,
so that a piece of string could keep them together.
This made doing business much easier,
but people still found coins inconvenient to carry
when they wanted to buy something expensive.
To solve this problem the Chinese again came up with a solution.
They began to use paper money for coins.
Now paper notes are used throughout the world.
MONEY
Money is accepted across the world as payment for goods or services.
MONEY
Money is accepted across the world as payment for goods or services.
People use money to buy food, clothes,and hundreds of other things.
People use money to buy food, clothes,and hundreds of other things.
In the past many different things were used as money.
In the past many different things were used as money.
People on Pacific islands once exchanged shells for goods.
People on Pacific islands once exchanged shells for goods.
The Chinese used cloth and knives.
The Chinese used cloth and knives.
In Africa, elephant tusks or salt were used.
In Africa, elephant tusks or salt were used.
Even today some people in Africa are still paid in salt.
Even today some people in Africa are still paid in salt.
Coins were first invented by the Chinese.
Coins were first invented by the Chinese.
Originally they were round pieces of metal with a hole in the center,
Originally they were round pieces of metal with a hole in the center,
so that a piece of string could keep them together.
so that a piece of string could keep them together.
This made doing business much easier,
This made doing business much easier,
but people still found coins inconvenient to carry
but people still found coins inconvenient to carry
when they wanted to buy something expensive.
when they wanted to buy something expensive.
To solve this problem the Chinese again came up with a solution.
To solve this problem the Chinese again came up with a solution.
They began to use paper money for coins.
They began to use paper money for coins.
Now paper notes are used throughout the world.
Now paper notes are used throughout the world.
MONEY
Money is accepted across the world
as payment for goods or services.
People use money to buy food, clothes,
and hundreds of other things.
In the past many different things were used as money.
People on Pacific islands once exchanged shells for goods.
The Chinese used cloth and knives.
In Africa, elephant tusks or salt were used.
Even today some people in Africa are still paid in salt.
Coins were first invented by the Chinese.
Originally they were round pieces of metal
with a hole in the center,
so that a piece of string could keep them together.
This made doing business much easier,
but people still found coins inconvenient to carry
when they wanted to buy something expensive.
To solve this problem the Chinese again came up with a solution.
They began to use paper money for coins.
Now paper notes are used throughout the world.
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.
W: Frank, do you use E-mail?
M: Yes, Chris.
W: Do you like it?
M: I like it for its convenience with which
to communicate with people.
But there's another side to the picture.
W: What's that?
M: For one thing, it creates extra workload.
I mean people are bolder in making requests
in their E-mails.
In a face to face situation,
people don't ask you to do one thing after another.
W: That's surely a problem.
M: Another thing that bothers me
is that I get lots of forwarded messages.
People just want to share something
they believe extremely interesting or valuable.
W: These are not spam or junk mails.
M. No, they are not.
But these people simply don't understand
that you may not have the time to read them.
How about spam?
W: My inbox is flooded with 30 to 50 unwanted messages every day.
M: Well, you have a particularly worse case.
W: What do you think I can do,
since you know more about spam than I?
M: Well, first of all,
use the filters of E-mail providers.
The second solution
is to come up with a few different E-mail addresses.
The last thing I would say
is to get an E-mail address
that isn't provided by one of the big providers
such as Yahoo or Hotmail
because that is who the spammers target.
Questions 4 to 6 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.
W. Good afternoon. Melrose Apartments.
May I help you?
M. Yes. I'm interested in renting a one-bedroom apartment.
Do you have any available?
W. No, I'm sorry. None are available at this time,
but I expect a vacancy in about three weeks.
Could I interest you in a two-bedroom?
M. Well, I'm a student and I have to cut corners.
How much more would a two-bedroom apartment cost me?
W. The one-bedroom rents for $150 a month
and the two-bedroom is only $35 more.
M: Is the two-bedroom a great deal larger
than the one-bed room?
W: Yes, it is. Also, I might tell you
that the one-bedroom doesn't have a dishwasher.
All of our two-bedroom do.
M: What about signing a lease?
W: We do require a 6-month lease,
and there is a deposit of $100
in case any damage is done to the apartment.
M: When could I see the apartment?
W. How about later this afternoon?
M: Let me see. I have an appointment at 3:30
and another one at four.
How about five o'clock this afternoon?
W: That would be fine.
M: I'll pick my wife up from work,
and we'll come right over.
W. I'll be looking forward to seeing you then.
M. Thank you. Good-bye.
W. Good-bye.
Questions 7 to 10 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.
W: Hi, you're just back from New York?
M: Yes.
W: It must be an exciting trip.
M: Well, I've really seen lots of things.
I saw the most spectacular view
when I was crossing a bridge to Manhattan at dusk,
and the skyscrapers were lit up
producing a classic nighttime view of Manhattan.
W: That's really beautiful.
M: But that's not the whole picture.
Some of the streets in New York are very rough.
I saw large piles of garbage cans at the roadside,
and drawings all over garage doors and store shutters.
W: I can't believe it.
M: The garbage are tidily bagged and boxed, though.
W: Did you stay in a hotel?
M: Yes. The hotel we stayed at turned out to be fairly decent,
though the room was small,
with a tiny bathroom
that was only about 3 feet larger than the bed.
As I was inexperienced with tourist-area hotels,
I was startled, I mean,
the room was $129 a night.
But at least the room was clean
and the bed reasonably comfortable.
W: What's your general impression of New York?
M: Well, restaurants pack their tiny tables very tightly;
grocery stores and bookstores have aisles that are narrow;
the sidewalks are stacked with newsstands,
vendors and their carts,
and places that aren't restrictively small,
such as the lawns around the Natural History Museum,
are full of people, so they're no escape.
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.
Food supply is very important
in explaining the behavior of many animals.
In many parts of Africa, for example,
large numbers of different animals move from place to place
looking for the best grass and plants to eat.
Every year large numbers of elephants and other animals move,
at the same time, from one place to another
where food supply is better.
The land they move away from is given a chance to rest
so that the grass and plants
can grow fully again
and will offer a good supply of food
at the same time next year.
In some parts of Africa,
where these migrations
have been taking place naturally for so long,
there is now a new problem.
Men have started cattle farming
and these cattle are killing the grass and plants.
The wild animals have mouths which are shaped
so that they do not pull up all of these grass and plants.
So the grass and plants are not killed
and can grow again.
But the cattle have mouths
which pull up all of the grass and plants
and so kill them.
If this goes on for long all the grass will die
and there will be no food for
either the wild animals or the cattle.
Questions 14 to 16 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.
The family is changing.
In the past, grandparents, parents,
and children used to live together,
and they had an extended family.
Sometimes two or more brothers with their wives and children
were part of this large family group.
But family structure is changing throughout the world.
The nuclear family consists of only one father,
one mother, and children;
it is becoming the main family structure everywhere.
The nuclear family offers married women some advantages:
they have freedom from their relatives,
and the husband does not have all the power of the family.
Studies show that in nuclear families,
men and women usually
make an equal number of decisions about family life.
But wives usually have to "pay"
for the benefits of freedom and power.
When women lived in extended families,
sisters, grandparents and aunts
helped one another with housework and childcare.
Wives in nuclear families do not often enjoy this benefit.
Studies show that women are generally
less satisfied with marriage than men are.
In the past,
men worked outside the home and women worked inside.
Housework and childcare were a full time job,
and there was no time for anything else.
Now women work outside
and have more freedom than they did in the past,
but they still have to do most of the housework.
The women actually have two full-time jobs,
and they have not much free time.
Questions 17 to 20 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.
There are three types of noise that can block communication.
If you notice these ways,
you may make full use of them
to avoid the disadvantages
and achieve your goals in communication.
The first, external noise,
includes those obvious things
that make it difficult to hear,
as well as many other kinds of distractions.
For instance, too much cigarette smoke in a crowed room
might make it hard for you to pay attention to another person,
and sitting in the rear of an auditorium
might make a speaker's remarks unclear.
External noise can disrupt communication
almost anywhere in our model-
in the sender, channel, message, or receiver.
The second type of noise is physiological.
A hearing disorder is probably the most obvious type
of physiological barrier,
although many more exist.
Consider the difficulty you experience as a listener
when you are suffering from a cold
or are very tired.
In the same way you might speak less
when you have a sore throat or a headache.
Psychological noise
refers to forces within the sender or receiver
that make these people less able to express
or understand the message clearly.
An outdoorsman might exaggerate the size and number of fish
caught in order to convince himself and others of his talents.
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.
A court in Zimbabwe
is due to deliver its verdict today
in a trial of a journalist
who works for the British newspaper The Guardian.
The trial is seen as a test case
for the country's strict new media laws.
Andrew Meldrom, an American,
who's lived in Zimbabwe for over 20 years,
is accused of publishing an untrue story
and faces up to two years in prison if found guilty.
A dozen other journalists
have also been charged with offenses relating to the new laws.
In court, Mr. Meldrom's defense
argued that his story was published in Britain.
It was beyond the jurisdiction of Zimbabwean laws.
Questions 23 and 24 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.
Kuala Lumpur-Afghanistan will play soccer at the Asian Games.
Mongolia's withdrawal
has given the war-torn nation a confidence boost.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
announced in a statement yesterday
that Afghanistan would play in the under-23 tournament
at the Games in Busan.
Afghanistan's first match
will be against Iran on September 28.
The group's other teams are Qatar and Lebanon.
Afghanistan was a founding member of the confederation in the 1950s
before entering long periods of war and factional fighting.
The country's chaos was largely ended
after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban regime last year
in response to the September 11th terrorist attacks,
in the United States.
During the Soccer World Cup in June
the president of Afghanistan Football Association (AFA),
Abdul Alim Kohistaniy,
said he hoped his country
would be able to take part in the Asian Games.
Questions 25 and 26 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 expected life span of Beijing residents
has gone up to 75.5 years old,
compared with 74.4 years old a decade earlier,
while the death rate of middle-aged residents
increased dramatically,
according to a recent official report.
The report, made public
by the Beijing Disease Control and Prevention Center,
said the past mortality of people aged between 35 to 54 years old
had gone up 58.5 percent during the past ten years,
from 158 people per 100,000 in 1991
to 251 people per 100,000 last year.
Infant and maternal mortality rates
went down 132 percent and 147 percent respectively.
Health experts said chronic non-infectious diseases
were the main causes of death,
covering 60 percent of the total number of deaths.
The male mortality rate is higher than that of females,
and the death rate among rural residents
is higher than that of the urban ones.
Questions 27 and 28 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.
Islamabad-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
said yesterday there was no danger
of the country going to war with neighboring India
but the Pakistani forces
would be ready to repel any aggression.
"There's no danger of war,"
Musharraf told reporters in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
"We should have confidence in ourselves.
We are not sitting idle.
We are prepared for everything.
There should not be any misunderstanding."
Tensions were raised this week
as the two accused each other
of links to killings in the two countries.
India says it suspects the two gunmen
who killed 28 people at an Indian temple on Tuesday
had links to Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the temple massacre
and police in Karachi
said there were indications of India's intelligence agents
behind the murder of 7 Christian charity workers in the city.
But India rejected the charges yesterday.
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.
A new survey shows family-owned businesses
are flourishing despite a declining U.S. economy.
Their flourish is a part ingenuity, part hard work,
and all in the family.
A family business can be
anything from a corner kiosk selling newspapers and phone cards
to a giant corporation,
like Mars, the candy bar maker, or Marriott, the hotel chain.
A new survey looks at the middle ground,
a cross section of 1,000 family businesses
that are at least l0-years-old,
and do at least $1 million a year in business.
The survey was conducted by Mass Mutual Financial Group,
a group of affiliated financial services firms.
This is the end of Listening Comprehension.