College English Test Band Four（2017年6月四级听力真题文本第2套）
Part II Listening Comprehension
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 centre.
News Report One
Automakers and tech companies
are working hard
to offer the first true self-driving car.
But 75% of drivers say
they wouldn't feel safe in such a vehicle.
Still, 60% of drivers would like to
get some kind of self-driving feature,
such as automatic braking or self-parking,
the next time they buy a new car.
The attitudes are published
in a new AAA survey of 1,800 drivers.
Advocates of self-driving cars argue
they would be safer
than in cars driven by humans
because they wouldn't get distracted
or drive when tired.
But those surveyed by AAA say
they trust their own driving skills.
Many feel the technology is
too new and unproven.
John Nielsen,
AAA's managing director of
automotive engineering and repair,
said tests suggest drivers
may be overestimating their own abilities.
He also believes they will be more likely
to trust self-driving cars
as they become more familiar with features
such as automatic braking or parking.
He estimated that the "comfort level"
will increase considerably in five to ten years.
Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report
you have just heard.
1. What is the finding of the AAA survey?
2. What does John Nielsen say
about self-driving cars?
News Report Two
One dog has been killed and multiple dogs
have been injured by a snowmobile driver
in what appears to be an intentional attack
on competitors in the Iditarod Race in Alaska.
Aliy Zirkle was the first to report an attack.
A snowmobile driver had repeatedly
attempted to harm her and her team,
and one of Zirkle's dogs
had received a non-life-threatening injury.
Zirkle reported the attack
when she arrived in Nulato, Alaska,
in the early hours of the morning.
Then Jeff King, a four-time champion,
reported a similar attack.
His team was hit by a snowmobile driver,
injuring several dogs
and killing a 3-year-old male dog.
Reporter Zachariah Hughes says that
neither King nor Zirkle was injured.
Although this incident very much alters
the race of the two participants
competing for a win,
both are going to continue on their way
toward the finishing line.
Alaska State Troopers released a statement saying
they've arrested Arnold Demoski, 26.
He faces trial on several charges.
Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report
you have just heard.
3. What is the news report mainly about?
4. What do we learn about Jeff King?
News Report Three
A tour boat turned over
off the coast of Nicaragua,
killing at least 13 people
and leaving more passengers missing,
official said.
The boat was carrying 32 people—
25 Costa Ricans, four Americans
and three Nicaraguans.
The 13 dead were all Costa Rican,
the Foreign Ministry said.
The boat,
traveling between Nicaragua's Big Corn Island
and Little Corn Island,
turned over Saturday near the larger island.
Some passengers remain missing,
the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry said,
but did not specify how many.
A local radio said
an unspecified number of people were rescued,
including the tour boat's owner,
Hilario Blandon.
Nicaraguan naval authorities
had banned sea travel in the area
because of bad weather and strong winds,
but the tour boat proceeded anyway.
Blandon, the boat's owner,
has been arrested by Nicaraguan authorities,
the state-run news agency said.
Both he and a crew member are being investigated
for unintentional murder
and exposing people to danger,
according to police.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report
you have just heard.
5. What happened to the tour boat
sailing off the Nicaraguan coast?
6. How many people was the boat carrying?
7. What do we know
about the owner of the boat?
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 conversation 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 centre.
Conversation One
M: Hi, Susan,
you're looking very smart today.
W: I always look smart, James.
Actually, I'm on my way to a job interview.
M: What job? Oh, you mean,
for the summer holidays?
W: Yeah. There's only two weeks to go.
I've got a second interview
with that big foreign accountancy firm
in the city center.
You know the one.
M: That's fantastic.
W: The work is just
helping out with data input, you know,
but the pay isn't too bad.
It might suit you too.
I know they have at least
two temporary positions available.
And I don't think they have anyone else yet.
M: Hmm...If they take you on,
tell them you know a friend
who'd be really good too.
I really need the money
and the experience would look good
on my resume.
Maybe we'll be working together.
The dream team.
W: OK. We'll do.
If the boss likes me, I'll mention it.
It'll be good to have someone around
who I know.
I'll phone you afterwards.
But perhaps you should
put in an application anyway.
M: Thanks, Susan. That's great.
Listen, do you want a lift to the city?
I have my dad's car today,
and nothing else to do this morning.
W: Sure. Thanks, James.
M: Let's go then. The car's over there.
W: By the way,
how's your knowledge of accountancy?
The interviewer may ask you about it.
M: No problem. I think I can survive.
I might just have to review
a few accountancy terms.
Maybe you can give me
a practice interview first.
W: Of course. Let's go then.
Don't want to be late.
Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation
you have just heard.
8. Where will Susan probably get a job?
9. What will Susan's future job involve?
10. Why does James want the job
in that company?
11. What does James say he will have to do
to prepare for the interview?
Conversation Two
W: There's new data out today
that confirms that many Americans
are not good at math,
and when it comes to
everyday technology skills,
we are dead last
when compared to other developed countries.
Here's Gabrielle Emanuel
of National Public Radio.
M: Let's start with the bad news
that Americans are terrible at technology skills,
using email, naming a file on a computer,
using a link on a webpage,
or just texting someone.
W: No country scored below the U.S.?
M: Only one country.
Poland performed as poorly as we did.
Who came out the first?
Japan did the best and then Finland.
If you look at data
about reading and math,
you'll notice something interesting.
Younger adults who went to college
or graduate school were doing pretty well.
In literacy, they were actually doing better
than their peers in other countries.
W: So that's a bit of good news.
M: But when you look at Americans
who have a high school diploma,
they look a lot like
other countries' high school dropouts.
We have a lot of work to do.
That is especially true when it comes to math.
You go to the store and there's a sale.
Buy one, get the second one half off.
You decide to buy two.
How much do you pay?
W: You mean high school graduates
can't do this task in general?
M: You're right.
What does that tell us
about our education system?
Well, it tells us that we need to
think about the preparedness of our students
as they are leaving high school.
W: Right. And schools, employers,
in fact we all need to do something about it.
Thank you, Gabrielle.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation
you have just heard.
12. What does the man say about Americans?
13. Who performed the best in technology skills
according to the man?
14. In what aspect
did American college students perform well?
15. What do we learn from the conversation
about American high school education?
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 passage 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 centre.
Passage One
Wild carrots probably evolved with
the other flowering plants
about 360 million years ago.
Like apples, carrots are native to Central Asia.
That's why horses,
which also come from Central Asia,
like both apples and carrots so much.
With wild carrots,
the roots are white, small and skinny,
so you'd have to pick a lot of wild carrots
to get enough to eat.
Doctors used carrot seeds and roots as medicine,
on the theory that foods that taste bad
must be good for you.
Around 800 AD, people in Central Asia
managed to develop a new kind of carrot—
a purple carrot—that attracted more interest
from international traders.
Then, in the late 1500s,
food scientists in the Netherlands
cultivated large, straight, sweet, red carrots
like the ones we eat today.
But people still mostly fed carrots to horses,
donkeys and pigs, and didn't eat them themselves.
In the 1600s,
people in China used carrots as medicine,
but they also ate carrots boiled in soup.
The red color was popular for
Chinese New Year celebrations.
But carrots got their biggest boost
during the two world wars,
when food shortages forced people to eat them,
and governments told everyone
how healthy carrots were.
Today, cooler countries
grow most of the world's carrots.
Machines do most of the planting and picking,
and carrots are easy to store and ship,
so they are cheap almost everywhere.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
16. What do we learn from the talk
about wild carrots?
17. What does the speaker say
about carrots in the late 1500s?
18. Why did people turn to carrots for food
during the two world wars?
Passage Two
Katherine loved Facebook.
With Facebook,
she could stay connected with her family
no matter how far away they were.
She could see their photos
and read their status updates.
With Facebook,
she could keep her relatives up-to-date
on what she was doing.
Another thing Katherine loved about Facebook
was that she didn't have to think about time zones
when updating family.
Whenever she called her parents or other relatives,
she always had to think about the time difference
so that she wouldn't wake someone up or call
when she knew they were at church.
Facebook was so convenient.
When Katherine joined Facebook,
some of her classmates at high school
started to add her as a friend.
At first, this didn't bother her.
She loved learning about the success of people
she knew when she was just a teenager.
She loved finding out people were getting married,
having babies, and traveling.
Soon, however, Katherine found herself
comparing herself with the people
she was reading about on Facebook.
It began to make her feel bad
that some people seemed to be doing
so much better than she was.
She was also spending a lot of time on Facebook.
It took a lot of time and energy
to keep up with everyone's status updates.
Katherine started to think.
She looked at the list of over 500 friends
she had on Facebook and realized
some of them were not really friends at all.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
19. What was one particular convenience
Katherine loved about Facebook?
20. How did Katherine feel
when her classmates added her
as a Facebook friend?
21. What made Katherine feel bad
about herself later on?
Passage Three
Do you know where a mule comes from?
It is the child of a donkey and a horse.
Mules have strong muscles like horses,
but they eat less, can work longer,
and are gentler, like donkeys.
George Washington was the first person
in the United States to own mules.
He had heard that mules made good farm animals
and he contacted the U.S. ambassador in Spain
to ask about them.
In 1785, King Charles Ⅲ of Spain
sent Washington a male donkey as a gift.
That male donkey became
the father of the mule industry in the U.S.
Every April,
Maury County holds a Mule Day celebration.
Held in Columbia, Tennessee,
Mule Day had its beginnings as "Breeder's Day"
in the 1840s.
Farmers and farm animal breeders
would bring their animals to market every April
to show, buy, and trade.
This was an important business
before the days of tractors,
when many families made a living from farming
and mules were used as work animals.
Eventually, tractors began to replace mules,
making them less in demand.
A parade was added to Mule Day in 1934
to attract more people.
Over the years other activities have been added,
and today more than 200,000 people show up
each year to watch and participate.
If you visit during Mule Day celebrations,
you might see mule-driving contests,
square dances, horse shows
or even tree-cutting competitions.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
22. What does the speaker say about mules?
23. What do we learn about the donkey
which is said to be
the father of the U.S. mule industry?
24. What did farmers usually do on Mule Day
in the 1840s?
25. What made mules less in demand in America?
This is the end of listening comprehension.
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