2010年12月英语四级考试真题与答案

Section A

短对话 (11~18)

11.

M: Oh my god! The heat is simply unbearable 1 here. I wish we’ve gone to the beach instead.

W: Well, with the museums and restaurants in Washington I’ll be happy here no matter what the temperature.

Q：What does the woman mean?

12.

M: How’s the new job going?

W: Well, I’m learning 2 a lot of new things, but I wish the director would give me some feedback 3.

Q：What does the woman want to know?

13.

M: Can you help me work out a physical training program John?

W: Sure, but whatever you do be careful not to overdo 4 it. Last time I had two weeks’ worth of weight-lifting in three days and I hurt myself.

Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?

14.

M: I have an elderly mother and I’m worried about her going on a plane. Is there any risk?

W: Not if her heart is all right. If she has a heart condition, I’d recommend against it.

Q: What does the man want to know about his mother?

15.

M: Why didn’t you stop when we first signaled you at the crossroads?

W: Sorry, I was just a bit absent-minded 5. Anyway, do I have to pay a fine?

Q: what do we learn from the conversation?

16.

M: I’m no expert, but that noise in your refrigerator doesn’t sound right. Maybe you should have it fixed 6.

W: You’re right. And I suppose I’ve put it off long enough.

Q: What will the woman probably do?

17.

M: I did extremely well on the sale of my downtown apartment. Now, I have enough money to buy that piece of land I’ve had my eye on and build a house on it.

W: Congratulations！Does that mean you’ll be moving soon?

Q: What do we learn about the man from the conversation?

18.

W: My hand still hurts from the fall on the ice yesterday. I wonder if I broke something.

M: I’m no doctor, but it’s not black and blue or anything. Maybe you just need to rest it for a few days.

Q: what do we learn about the woman from the conversation?

长对话 （19~21）

M: Mrs. Dawson, thanks very much for coming down to the station. I just like to go over some of the things that you told police officer Parmer at the bank.

W: All right.

M: Well, could you describe the man who robbed the bank for this report that we’re filling out here? Now, anything at all that you can remember would be extremely helpful to us.

W: Well, just, I can only remember basically 7 what I said before.

M: That’s all right.

W: The man was tall, six foot, and he had dark hair, and he had moustache.

M: Very good. All right, did he have any other distinguishing 8 marks?

W: Um, no, none that I can remember.

M: Do you remember how old he was by any chance?

W: Well, I guess around 30, maybe younger, give or take a few years.

M: Mm, all right. Do you remember anything about what he was wearing?

W: Yes, yes, he had on a dark sweater, a solid color.

M: OK. Um, anything else that strikes you at the moment?

W: I remember he was wearing a light shirt under the sweater. Yes, yes.

M: All right. Mrs. Dawson, I really appreciate what you’ve been through today. I’m just going to ask you to look at some photographs before you leave if you don’t mind. It won’t take very long. Can you do that for me?

W: Oh, of course.

M: Would you like to step this way with me, please?

W: OK, sure.

M: Thank you.

Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

19. What do we learn about the woman?

20. What did the suspect look like?

21. What did the man finally asked the woman to do?

长对话 （22~25）

W: Good morning, I’m calling about the job that was in the paper last night.

M: Well, could you tell me your name?

W: Candider Forsett.

M: Oh yes. What exactly is it that interests you about the job?

W: Well, I thought it was just right for me.

M: Really? Um… Could you tell me a little about yourself?

W: Yes. I’m 23. I’ve been working abroad.

M: Where exactly have you been working?

W: In Geneva.

M: Oh, Geneva. And what were you doing there?

W: Secretarial work. Previous to that, I was at university.

M: Which university was that?

W: The University of Manchester. I’ve got a degree in English.

M: You said you’ve been working in Geneva. Do you have any special reason for wanting to come back?

W: I thought it would be nice to be near to the family.

M: I see, and how do you see yourself developing in this job?

W: Well, I’m ambitious 9. I do hope that my career as a secretary will lead me eventually into management.

M: I see. You have foreign languages?

W: French and Italian.

M: Well, I think the best thing for you to do is do reply a writing to the advertisement.

W: Can’t I arrange for an interview now?

M: Well, I’m afraid we must wait until all the applications are in, in writing, and we’ll then decide on the short list. If you are on the short list, of course we should see you.

W: Oh, I see.

M: I look forward to receiving your application in writing in a day or two.

W: Oh, yes, yes, certainly.

M: Ok, thank you very much. Goodbye.

W: Thank you. Goodbye.

Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

22. How did the woman get to know about the job vacancy 10?

23. Why did the woman find the job appealing?

24. What had the woman been doing in Geneva?

25. What was the woman asked to do in the end?

Section B

Passage One

One of the greatest heartbreaks for fire fighters occurs when they fail to rescue a child from a burning building because the child, frightened by smoke and noise, hides under a bed or in a closet and is later found dead. Saddest of all is when children catch a glimpse 11 of the masked fire fighter but hide because they think they have seen a monster. To prevent such tragedies, fire fighter Eric Velez gives talks to children in his community, explaining that they should never hide during a fire. He displays fire fighters’ equipment, including the oxygen mask, which he encourages his listeners to play with and put on. “If you see us,” Velez tells them, “don’t hide! We are not monsters. We have come to rescue you.” Velez gives his presentations in English and Spanish. Growing up in San Francisco, he learnt Spanish from his immigrant 12 parents. Velez and other fire fighters throughout North America, who give similar presentations, will never know how many lives they save through their talks. But it’s a fact that informative 13 speaking saves lives. For example, several months after listening to an informative speech, Pete Gentry 14 in North Carolina rescued his brother who is choking on food, by using the method taught by student speaker, Julie Paris. In addition to saving 15 lives, informative speakers help people learn new skills, solve problems and acquire fascinating facts about the exciting world in which they live.

26 Why do some children trapped in a burning building hide from masked fire fighters?

27 What does the passage tell us about fire fighter Eric Velez?

28 What do we learn about Pete Gentry?

29 What message is the speaker trying to convey 16?

Passage Two

Some people want to make and save a lot of money in order to retire early. I see people pursuing 17 higher paying and increasingly 18 demanding careers to accomplish this goal. They make many personal sacrifices in exchange for income today. The problem is that tomorrow might not come. Even if it all goes according to plan, will you know how to be happy when you are not working if you spend your entire life making money? More importantly, who will be around for you to share your leisure 19 time with? At the other extreme are people who live only for today. Why bother saving when I might not be here tomorrow, they argue. The danger of this approach is that tomorrow may come after all. And most people don't want to spend all their tomorrows working for a living. The earlier neglect 20 of saving, however, makes it difficult not to work when you are older. You maybe surprise to hear me say that if you must pick an extreme I think it's better to pick the spend-all approach. As long as you don't mind continuing to work, assuming 21 your health allows, you should be OK. At least, you are making use of your money, and hopefully deriving 22 value and pleasure from it. Postponing 23 doing what you love and being with people you love until retirement 24 can be a mistake. It may never come. Retirement can be a great time for some people. For others, it is a time of boredom 25, loneliness and poor health.

30 Why do some people pursue 26 higher paying but demanding careers?

31 What is the danger facing people who live only for today?

32 What does the speaker seem to advocate?

Passage Three

Imagine that someone in your neighborhood broke the law, and the judge put the whole neighborhood under suspicion 27. How fair will that be? Well, it happens everyday to high schoolers. Just because some students have stolen things in shops, all of us are treated like thieves. Even though I’d never steal.

Store employees looked at me like I’m some kind of hardened 28 criminal. For example, during one lunch period, my friend Denny and I went to the Graben Gore 29 Restaurant to have a hot dog. We arrived to find a line of students waiting outside. A new sign in the window told the story. “No more than two students at a time”. After 15 minutes, we finally got in. But the store manger laid the evil 30 eye on us. I asked him about the new sign, and he said, “You kids are stealing too much stuff 31.” You kids? Too much stuff? We were not only assumed 32 to be thieves, but brilliant, greedy thieves. The most annoying thing though, is the way employees watched my friends and me. It’s horrible.

Once, at a drug store, I was looking around and found a guy standing 33 on a large box, stocking the shelves. He was watching my hands, more than he was watching his own. I showed him that my hands were empty. He got down off his box and rushed off, as if he was going to get the store manger. How crazy is that!

33. What does the speaker find to be unfair?

34. What measure did the Graben Gore Restaurant take to stop stealing?

35. What happened in a drug store that greatly annoyed the speaker?

Section C

Writing keeps us in touch with other people. We write to communicate with relatives and friends. We write to preserve our family histories so our children and grandchildren can learn and appreciate their heritage 34. With computers and Internet connections in so many households, colleges, and businesses, people are e-mailing friends and relatives all the time -- or talking to them in writing in online chat rooms. It is cheaper than calling long distance, and a lot more convenient than waiting until Sunday for the telephone rates to drop. Students are e-mailing their professors to receive and discuss their classroom assignments and to submit 35 them. They are e-mailing classmates to discuss and collaborate 36 on homework. They are also sharing information about concerts and sports events, as well as jokes and their philosophies of life.

Despite the growing importance of computers, however, there will always be a place and need for the personal letter. A hand-written note to a friend or a family member is the best way to communicate important thoughts. No matter what the content of the message, its real point is, "I want you to know that I care about you." This writing practice brings rewards that can’t be seen in bank accounts, but only in the success of human relationships.

Section A短对话答案

11. A) The man should visit the museums. B) She can’t stand the hot weather.

C) The beach resort 37 is a good choice. D) She enjoys staying in Washington.

答案：D

解析：Woman最后说到I’ll be happy here no matter what the temperature. 这表明了她待在这里很愉快，很享受待在华盛顿，故选D。

12. A) Her new responsibilities in the company.

B) What her job prospects 38 are.

C) What the customers’ feedback is.

D) The director’s opinion of her work.

答案：D

解析：Woman说到but I wish the director would give me some feedback. 这表明了她希望得到director的意见（即反馈），故选D。

13. A) Combine her training with dieting.

B) Repeat the training every three days.

C) Avoid excessive 39 physical training.

D) Include weightlifting in the program.

答案：C

解析：Man以自己上次因运动（举重）过量而受伤为例，建议女士应该量力而行，避免过量运动，故选C。

14. A) When she will return home. B) Whether she can go by herself.

C) Whether she can travel by air. D) Whether she will completely recover.

答案：C

解析：Man开头就说到I’m worried about her going on a plane. 从中可知，他担心的是年老的母亲能不能乘飞机，故选C。

15. A) The woman knows how to deal with the police.

B) The woman had been fined many times before.

C) The woman had violated 40 traffic regulations.

D) The woman is good at finding 41 excuses.

答案：C

解析：警察开头问到 Why didn’t you stop when we first signaled you at the crossroads? 通过这句话就可以知道女士没有遵守交通规则，故选C。

16. A) Switch off the refrigerator for a while.

B) Have someone repair the refrigerator.

C) Ask the man to fix the refrigerator.

D) Buy a refrigerator of better quality.

答案：B

解析：Man说到 Maybe you should have it fixed，女士回答到You’re right.

这说明女士也同意男士的看法，但并未提到让这个男士来修，故选B。

17. A) He owns a piece of land in the hometown area.

B) He has got enough money to buy a house.

C) He can finally do what he has dreamed of..

D) He is moving into a bigger apartment.

答案：C

解析：Man第二句话说到Now, I have enough money to buy that piece of land I’ve had my eye on and build a house on it. 表明他能实现买地建房的理想了，故选C。

18. A) She is black and blue all over.

B) She has to go to see a doctor.

C) She stayed away from work for a few days.

D) She got hurt in an accident yesterday.

答案：D

解析：Woman说的第一句话是My hands still hurts from the fall on the ice yesterday.从中可知这位女士昨天在冰上滑倒受伤了，但是男士认为伤势并不严重，只建议她休养几天就可以了，不必去看医生。C是较强的干扰项，应该是女士现在需要休息而不是过去已经休息了几天，故选D。

Section A长对话答案

19. What do we learn about the woman?

【答案】D She was a witness to the crime.

【解析】文中男士需要女士描述一下抢劫银行的人（describe the man who robbed the bank）。选项中B提到了robbery，但是对话中没有说明女士是受害者（victim）；D选项提到了她目击了某个犯罪经过，robbery显然是crime的一种。

20. What did the suspect look like?

【答案】A A tall man with dark hair and a moustache.

【解析】原文中提到The man was tall, six foot, and he had dark hair, and he had moustache.，对应选项A。

21. What did the man finally asked the woman to do?

【答案】A Identify the suspect from pictures.

【解析】对话结尾处，男士要求女士look at some photographs，很显然，他的目的是让女士通过照片来辨别嫌疑人。因此选择A。

22. How did the woman get to know about the job vacancy?

【答案】A By reading a newspaper ad.

【解析】 job vacancy指空缺的职位。在对话一开始，女士就说到她的目的：I’m calling about the job that was in the paper last night.从这句话中可以看出她得知职位信息的来源是the paper last night，对应A选项。

23. Why did the woman find the job appealing?

【答案】B She could work close to her family.

【解析】本题关键词是appealing，意为引起兴趣的。女士提到她喜欢这份工作的原因是be near to the family.，close是near的同义替换词，因此选择B选项。

24. What had the woman been doing in Geneva?

【答案】C Working as a secretary.

【解析】女士提到她在日内瓦做了一些secretarial work，也就是选项C中的secretary。虽然她也提到之前在大学学习，但是她取得的学位是a degree in English，而非选项D中的a degree in French.

25. What was the woman asked to do in the end?

【答案】C Send in a written application as soon as possible.

【解析】对话中女士希望得到面试机会，但是男士要求先要递交书面申请（reply a writing to the advertisement），并不是所有人都能得到面试机会，因此选择答案C。

Section B第一篇答案

26 Why do some children trapped in a burning building hide from masked fire fighters?

【解析】D) They mistake the firefighters for monsters.

细节题，从开始when children catch a glimpse of the masked fire fighter but hide because they think they have seen a monster一句中便可得出因为不熟悉消防人员戴面具的形象，孩子们以为来救援的消防人员是怪兽，所以躲起来。所以选D。其他选项文中都没有涉及到。 

27 What does the passage tell us about fire fighter Eric Velez?

【解析】B) He often teaches children what to do during a fire.

本篇文章大篇幅讲的是Eric Velez给社区里的孩子讲解消防知识，让他们熟悉消防人员及消防工具的过程。选项A，put out fire虽然是Eric Velez的工作，但是本文重点不是在其消防员救活这个工作上，C、D选项很容易就可以排除。所以选B。

28 What do we learn about Pete Gentry?

【解析】A) He saved the life of his brother choking on food.

细节题，从Pete Gentry in North Carolina rescued his brother who is choking on food一句便可得出答案，文章中关于Pete Gentry的主要信息就是他救了噎着食物的弟弟。所以选A。做题时一定要把人名及其所做的事准确对应起来。

29 What message is the speaker trying to convey?

【解析】D) Informative speeches can save lives.

主旨题，本文举了一个大例子，一下小例子来证明教育性的演说有救人性命的好处。虽然在文章最后也列举了下其他好处，但是主旨还是拯救生命。所以选D。其他几个选项都主要讲细节处，很容易就可以排除。

听力答案及解析（SecB 第二篇）

听力文章分析：

本篇听力讲述的是截然不同的两种生活态度，一种是“make and save a lot of money in order to retire early”，另一种则是“live only for today”，作者在陈述两种不同态度之后，针对两种态度给出了自己的看法“it's better to pick the spend-all approach”。本篇听力不是太难，没有较难的词汇，虽然有几个需要注意的句式，如：“At the other extreme are people who live only for today. Why bother saving… ”等，但是通过上下文也是不难理解的，而且结构也比较清楚，基本上可以分为三部分：两种不同的态度和作者的观点，所考察的三道题也上针对了这三个主要的点。由此可见，听听力的时候依然首先要从全文来把握，把握文章的要点，在把握要点的基础上，有重点的去听一些细节，如与要点相关的原因和后果，以及作者本人对这些事情的看法，遇到与此相关的信号词或者关键词时就一定要注意重点记忆。

答案及解析：

30 C) To make money for early retirement.

本题考察原因，问为什么人们喜欢比较苛求但收入较高的工作，其实听力一开始就用in order to 给出了原因，即：retire early，所以选C项。

31 A) They may have to continue to work in old age.

本题考察后果，问只为当下而活的人面临着什么危险，从“The earlier neglect of saving, however, makes it difficult not to work when you are older.”中可以看出A是正确选项，及在年老时有可能不得不继续工作。

32 B) Enjoying yourself while you can.

本课考察文章作者的态度，从 “Postponing doing what you love and being with people you love until retirement can be a mistake.”中可以看出，作者认为想等到退休后再做自己想做的事情以及和自己喜欢的人在一起可能是一种错误，所以选B，即趁着自己还可以的时候要懂得享受生活。

英语四级听力篇章解析

2010年12月四级听力篇章难度与以往持平，没有太大的提高或降低，文字长度依旧是250字左右，题材是记叙文和说明文，介绍人物故事和社会生活。解题方法可以采用取头取尾地方法，运用这个技巧我们可以成功解决多道题目。

第一篇记叙文介绍了一位消防员的故事，他为社区的儿童做了一个讲座，告诉他们在大火中看到消防员一定要出来，而不要找角落里躲避起来。这篇文章的大意可以再开头第一句“One of the greatest heartbreaks for firefighters occurs when they fail to rescue a child from a burning building because the child, frightened by the smoke and noise, hides under a bed over a closet, and is later found dead”. 再结合最后一句话: “In addition to saving lives, informative speakers help people learn new skills, solve problems and acquire fascinating facts about the exciting world in which they live. 从这两句话我们可以顺利地得出第26题为什么有些儿童看到消防员会躲起来的答案，也可以得出第29题的答案作者想通过这篇文章的出什么结论。

第二篇说明文介绍社会生活，主题是我们是否应该在年轻的时候拼命工作准备好养老金。开头第一句话Some people may want to make and save a lot of money in order to retire early.就可以告诉我们这篇文章的话题了。结尾一句话告诉了我们作者提倡的生活态度，Postponing doing what you love and being with people you love until retirement can be a mistake. 在这篇文章中作者提出了两种生活态度，一种是拼命工作积攒养老金，为老年生活做准备。另一种则是活在当下的态度。

第三篇还是记叙文，夹叙夹议。开头第一句话说Imagine that someone in your neighborhood broke the law and the judge put the whole neighborhood under suspicion, how fair would that be? Well! It happens everyday to high-schoolers. 一些高中生犯了错所有的高中生都会受到惩罚。作者开门见山的提出了一个非常不公平的待遇，这句话即是第33题的答案。结尾作者讲述了一个故事，一些高中生偷东西被抓，导致作者自己去商店明明没有偷东西却当做做小偷。这个故事即是第35题的答案。