2018年英语专四听力真题

一、试题：

PART ⅠDICTATION[10 MIN]

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 reading, 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.Youwill then be given ONE minute to check through your work once more.

Please write the whole passage on ANSWER SHEET ONE.

PART ⅡLISTENING COMPERHESION[20 MIN] SECTION A TALK

In this section you will hear a talk.Youwill hear the talk ONCEONLY.While listening, you may look at  the task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure what you fill in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.Youmay each gap. Make sure what you fill  in is both grammatically and semantically acceptable.Youmay use the blank sheet for note-taking.

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.

Now listen to the talk. When it is over, you will be given TWO minutes to check your work.

SECTION BCONVERSATINS

In this section you will hear two conversations. At the end of each conversation, five questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversations and the questions will be spoken ONCEONLY.After each question there will be a ten-second pause. During the pause, you should read the four choices of [A], [B], [C] and [D],  and mark the best answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.

You have THIRTY seconds to preview the choices. Now, listen to the conversations.

Conversation One

Questions 1 to 5 are based on Conversation One.

1. [A] Many foreign languages are spoken in Britain.

[B] Everyone in Britain can speak a foreign language.

[C] The British are unable to speak a foreign language.

[D] The British can survive on their mother tongue.

2. [A] Chinese.[B] Polish.[C] Punjabi.[D] Urdu.

3. [A] To help improve international trade.[B] To allow a speaker to hold a simple talk.

[C] To improve the education system.[D] To encourage learning another language.

4. [A] It gives you self-satisfaction.[B] It makes you more confident.

[C] It you an advantage.[D] It makes you work hard.

5. [A] Workmates.[B] Schoolmates.

[C] Teacher and student.[D] Brother and sister.

Conversation Two

Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two.

6. [A] An unreasonable fear.[B] A dangerous event.

[C] A small probability.[D] A risk-assessing ability.

7. [A] One in one million.[B] One in four million.

[C] One in fourteen million.[D] One in forty million.

8. [A] Future events.[B] Catastrophic events.

[C] Small-scale disasters.[D] Smoking hazards.

9. [A] Traveling by air.[B] Riding a bicycle.

[C] Catching bird flu.[D] Smoking cigarettes.

10. [A] They get pleasure from risks.[B] They can control potential risks.

[C] They can assess danger from risks.[D] They have strong needs for risks.

二、听力原文：

PART I DICTATION

Emotional Reaction to Music

No matter who you are, where you live, / or what your cultural         background is, / people get some pleasure from listening to their favorite music. / However, some people are simply not capable of enjoying music. / This is not because they can’t experience pleasure at all. / They don’t have trouble hearing music properly, either. / Instead, they’re just indifferent to music. / Researchers have conducted studies to find out / why some people have no emotional reaction to music. / However, despite their efforts, the mystery remains.

The Linguistic Gift of Babies

Good morning, everyone. In today's lecture, I'm going to talk about something you can't see. That is, what's going on in the little brain of a baby.

For example, how babies learn a language.

It is always a question people show great interest in.

Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there's a systematic decline.

Work in my lab is focused on the first critical period in development, and that is the period in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language.

We think, by studying how the sounds are learned, we'll have a model for the rest of language, and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development.

So we've been studying the babies by conducting an experiment.

During our experiment, the baby, usually a six-monther, sits on a parent's lap, and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes—like from "ah" to "ee".

If they do so at the appropriate time, the black box lights up and a panda bear pounds a drum. What have we learned?

Well, babies all over the world are what I like to describe as "citizens of the world".

They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using, and that's remarkable because you know, I can't do that.

We're culture-bound listeners.

We can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages.

So the question arises: When do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are?

And the answer: before their first birthdays.

What you see here is performance on that head-turn task for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States, here in Seattle, as they listened to the "ra" and "la" — sounds important to English, but not to Japanese.

So at six to eight months, the babies are totally equivalent.

Two months later, something, something incredible occurs.

The babies in the United States are getting a lot better while babies in Japan are getting a lot worse.

So the question is: What's happening during this critical two-month period?

We know this is the critical period for sound development, but what's going on up there?

Maybe there are two things going on.

The first is that the babies are listening intently to us, and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk—they're taking statistics.

That is to say, the two babies listen to their own mother speaking motherese—the universal language we use when we talk to kids.

During the production of speech, when babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics, that is, sound distribution on the language that they hear.

And those sound distributions grow and babies absorb more.

And what we've learned is that babies are sensitive to the statistics, and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different.

I mean, the sound distribution of both languages is different.

So babies absorb the statistics of the language and it changes their brains;

it changes them from the citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners that we are because we as adults are no longer absorbing those statistics.

In this case, of course, we're arguing that the learning of language material may slow down when our distribution stabilizes.

OK. Today, we just talked about a recent project on babies' language development.

In our next lecture, we will concentrate on bilingual people, how bilinguals keep two sets of statistics in mind at once.

对话原文1：

Conversation One

Questions 1 to 5 are based on Conversation One.

W: Hi, Bob. You speak very good Chinese.

M: Not really, Mary. I just know a little. Actually, not being able to speak a foreign language is a bit of a British trait or a particularly British characteristic.

The British are generally considered to be lazy linguists. We just don't bother to learn another language.

W: I guess the main reason is that when you travel around the world, you find that English is spoken almost everywhere.

M: Yes, yes. We get by. We survive on just using our mother language.

W: But you seem to love learning languages a lot. How many foreign languages can you speak?

M: Not that many. A bit of German, some French, Polish a little, Chinese of course, a bit of Japanese. That's about it.

W: I'm impressed. Well, what is the second most-spoken language in England? Is it Chinese?

M: No, I don't think so.

W: Then, that must be French.

M: No. According to the recent census, 104 different languages are spoken in the UK and Polish is the second most spoken language, followed by Punjabi and Urdu.

W: Then, do you have to learn a foreign language in school?

M: No, it's not compulsory. But recently a campaign was launched to encourage everyone in the UK to learn at least 1,000 words of another language. It hopes to help Britain increase international trade.

W: 1,000 words?

M: Yes. It's called the 1,000 Words Campaign because it says a vocabulary of 1,000 words would allow a speaker to hold a simple conversation.

W: That sounds like a good idea.

M: Yes. It gives you self-satisfaction and self-esteem if you can speak another language when you're travelling. And I think it also gives you an edge in a lot of different areas in the workplace.

You feel good about learning a new skill and you feel good about yourself, and it boosts your confidence. Imagine going on a holiday to Spain and being able to speak to the locals.

W: Of course it does make one feel good.

M: And there are also the economic benefits of speaking another language. It gives you an advantage, especially if you are dealing with foreign companies.

W: Yes. It also shows politeness and respect for other people by showing you have made an effort.

M: You're right. Mm, I'm afraid I must get going now. I'll have my Chinese class at 10 o'clock.

W: Oh, I have a class at 10 as well. OK, see you later.

M: See you.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on Conversation One.

1. According to the man, what is a British characteristic?

2. What is the second most-spoken language in the UK?

3. Why was the 1,000 Words Campaign launched?

4. According to the man, which is not considered an advantage of learning a foreign language?

5. What's the most probable relationship between the man and the woman?

Conversation Two

Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two.

W: Hello, and welcome to today's program. I'm Alice.

M: And I'm Jack. Hello.

W: Hello, Jack. You're off on holiday tomorrow, aren't you?

M: I am and you know, and I'm dreading it. I hate flying!

W: Do you? I didn't know you had a phobia— and that means a strong and unreasonable fear of something.

M: Well, I don't think this is a phobia because it isn't unreasonable. Flying thousands of feet up in the sky, you know, that's not safe!

W: Flying is safer than you think, Jack. It's much riskier to drive or cycle to work. And, actually, risk taking is the subject of today's show!

Risk means the chances of something bad happening. For example, did you know that your chance of being knocked off your bicycle and killed during a one-mile journey is the same as your chances of winning the lottery?

M: I didn't know that.

W: Can you guess what are the chances of either of these two things happening?

M: I have no idea. One in a million?

W: No, it's one in 14 million. You are as likely to win the national lottery from a single ticket as you are to be knocked off your bicycle and killed during a one-mile journey.

M: But why are we bad at assessing risk?

W: People typically fear anything which is small probability but it's extremely catastrophic if it were to happen…

Recently we have another increase in these birds' virus outbreaks. People read about that.

And they may pay a lot of attention to that in the news but they may forget to get their flu shot.

M: That's right. We tend to worry about big or catastrophic events such as catching bird flu or dying in a plane crash because we react emotionally to them.

W: Yeah. Catastrophic events feel like very real threats, while we tend to forget about the small but chronic risks that become more likely over time.

M: We do. So for example, what if there was a cigarette that killed you as soon as you smoked it?

Nobody would do that, would they?

W: No, they wouldn't.

M: But plenty of people are happy to smoke for years, and put off worrying about the health risks for the future.

W: Yes, that's a good point, Jack! People feel they are in control of risks that stretch over time. You know, they think, "I could stop tomorrow" or "I could smoke less".

But what about people who really enjoy taking big risks—those thrill seekers out there?

M: People who enjoy extreme sports actually seek out danger—it gives them extreme pleasure!

If the risk is really high, it means that the pleasure needs to be equally high, or hopefully even higher—

W: You're right.

Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two.

6. According to Alice, what is a phobia?

7. What are the chances of getting knocked off one's bicycle and killed in a one-mile journey?

8. What kind of event do people tend to worry about?

9. Which may involve a chronic risk?

10. Why do some people enjoy risks?

三、答案：

SECTION A TALK

       1. seven

　　2. sounds

　　3. cognitive

　　4. a sound changes

　　5. six-month-old

　　6. discriminate the

　　7. their first birthda

　　8. totally equivalen

　　9. incredible differe

　　10. taking statistics

SECTION B CONVERSATIONS

　　Conversation One

　　1. According to the man, what is a British characteristic?

　　答案：C. The British are unable to speak a foreign language.

　　2. What is the second most-spoken language in the UK?

　　答案：B. Polish.

　　3. Why was the 1,000 Words Campaign launched?

　　答案：A. To help improve international trade.

　　4.According to the man, which is not considered an advantage of    learning a foreign language?

　　答案：D. It makes you work hard.

　　5. What’s the most probable relationship between the man and     the woman?

　　答案：B. Schoolmates.

      Conversation Two

　　6. According to Alice, what is a phobia?

　　答案：A. An unreasonable fear.

　　7. What are the chances of getting knocked off one’s bicycle and killed in a one-mile journey?

　　答案：C. One in fourteen million.

　　8. What kind of event do people tend to worry about?

　　答案：B. Catastrophic events.

　　9. Which may involve a chronic risk?

　　答案：D. Smoking cigarettes.

　　10. Why do some people enjoy risks?

　　答案：A. They get pleasure from risks.