Part I Writing
1、【题干】Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the importance of mutual understanding and respect in interpersonal relationships. You can cite examples to illustrate your views. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
【答案】Everyone in the world cannot live without interacting with other people. I argue that mutual understanding and respect are indispensable to maintain genuine interpersonal relationship.
As competition in all fields grows increasingly fierce, nobody can achieve success in his life without the assistance of his partners. Take basketball hero Jordan for an instance, he can slam the dunk smartly because of contribution and assistance of his teammates. If people work separately, they will only suffer from frail minds and limited resources. It is a happy thing to understand and respect others in interpersonal relationships. Mutual understanding and respect can make people popular among others; mutual understanding and respect can bring hearts full of love; mutual understanding and respect can make people wise and benevolent. Without mutual understanding or respect, people cannot get along well with others.
Let us try our best to be people who can understand and respect others for understanding and respecting others is making ourselves understood and respected.
Section A
Conversation 1
Cathy: Hi, my name's Cathy, nice to meet you.
John: Nice to meet you too Kathy, my name's John. I'm a university friend of the bride. What about you? Who do you know at this party?
Cathy: I am a colleague of Brenda. I was a little surprised to be invited to be honest. We've only been working together the last six months, but we quickly became good friends. (1) We just wrapped up a project with a difficult client last week. I bet Brenda is glad it's done with, and she can focus on wedding preparations.
John: Oh, yes. So you are Cathy from the office. Actually I've heard a lot about you in that project, the client sounded like a real nightmare.
Cathy: Oh, he was, I mean we deal with all kinds of people on a regular basis, it's part of the job, but he was especially particular. Enough about that, what line of work are you in?
John: Well, right out of college I worked in advertising for a while. Recently though, I turn my photography hobby into a small business. (2) I'll actually be taking photos during the big event as a wedding gift.
Cathy: That sounds wonderful and very thoughtful of you. I bake, just as a hobby. (3) But Brenda has asked me to do the cake for the wedding. I was a bit nervous saying yes because I'm far from a professional.
John: Did you bake the cookies here at the party tonight?
Cathy: Yes, I got the idea from a magazine.
John: They're delicious! You've got nothing to worry about. You are a natural.
Cathy: You really think so?
John: If you hadn’t told me that. I would have guessed they were baked by the restaurant. (4) You know, with your event planning experience you could very well open your own shop.
Cathy: (laughing) One step at a time. First, I'll see how baking the wedding cake goes. If it's not a disaster, maybe I'll give it some more thought.
1. What did Cathy and Brenda finished doing last week?
C) A project with a troublesome client.
2. What is John going to do for Brenda?
A) Take wedding photos.
3. How did Kathy feel when asked to bake the cake?
B) Nervous.
4. What does the man suggest the woman do?
A) Start her own bakery.
解析：
本篇长对话的两人在婚礼上刚认识，主要谈论的是各自在忙的工作，以及他们为本次婚礼所做的贡献。4道问题的答案在对话全文均匀分布在男女两人说的话中，利用答案提示词but可以定位到第3题的答案，其他3题需要借助关键词来进行定位和选择。
Conversation 2
M: You are heading for a completely different world, now that you are about to graduate from high school.
W: I know it’s the end of high school, but many of classmates are going on to the same university, and we are still required to study hard. So what’s the difference?
M: (5) Many aspects are different here at the university. The most important one is that you have to take more individual responsibility for your actions. It’s up to your own self-discipline—how much efforts you put into study. Living in college dormitories, there are no parents to tell you that study harder or stop wasting time. Lectures have hundreds of students and they are not going to follow you up or question you if you miss the lectures.
W: Nobody cares you mean?
M: It’s not that nobody concerned about you, (6) it’s just that suddenly at the university you are expected to behave like an adult. That means concentrating on the direction of your life in general and your own academic performance specifically.
W: For example…?
M: Well, like you need to manage daily, weekly and monthly schedules, so that you study regularly. Be sure to attend all classes and leave enough time to finish your assignments and prepare well for examinations.
W: Ok, and what else is different?
M: Well, in college there are lots of distractions, and you need to control yourself. You will make interesting friends, (7) but you need only keep the friends who respect your students’ commitments. Also, there are a lot of wonderful clubs, but you shouldn’t allocate too much time to club activities, unless (8) they are directly related to your study. It’s also your choice if you want to go out at night, but you will be foolish to let that affect class performance during the day.
W: Well, I’m determined to do well at the university and I guess I’m going to have to grow up fast.
5. What does the man say about college students as compared with high schoolers?
C) They have to be more responsible for what they do.
6. What are college students expected to do according to the man?
D) Behave like adults.
7. What kind of friends does the man suggest the woman make as a college student?
B) Those who respect her student commitments.
8. What kind of club activities should college students engaging according to the man?
D) Those conductive to their academic studies.
解析：
本篇长对话主要是男士给女士建议，告诉她大学和高中有什么区别，并在与人交往以及社团活动方面给出相关建议。做长对话的题目需要利用好问答原则，本篇长对话基本是女士提问，男士回答，所以主要去关注男士说的话。利用表强调的短语，the most important，可以定位到第5题的答案;利用答案提示词but可以解出第7题;利用答案提示词also和but可以定位到第8题的答案。
Section B
Passage 1
(9) Most successful people are unorthodox persons whose minds wonder outside traditional ways of thinking. Instead of trying to refine old formulas, they invent new ones. When Jean-Claude Killy made the French national ski team in the early 1960s, he was prepared to work harder than anyone else to be the best. At the crack of dawn, he would run up the slopes with his skis on, an unbelievably backbreaking activity. In the evening, he would do weightlifting and running. But the other team members were working as hard and long as he was. He realized instinctively that simply training harder would never be enough. Killy then began challenging the basic theories of racing technique.
Each week, he would try something different to see if he could find a better, faster way down the mountain. (10) His experiments resulted in a new style that was almost exactly opposite the exact technique of the time. It involved skiing with his legs apart for better balance and sitting back on the skis when he came to a turn. He also used ski poles in an unorthodox way--to propel himself as he skied. The explosive new style helped cut Killy's racing time dramatically. (11) In 1966 and 1967, he captured virtually every major skiing trophy. The next year, he won three gold medals in the Winter Olympics, a record in ski racing that has never been topped. Killy learned an important secret shared by many creative people: innovations don't require genius, just a willingness to question the way things have always been done.
9. What does the speaker say about most successful people?
A) They break away from traditional ways of thinking.
10. What does the speaker say about Killy's experiments?
B) They resulted in a brand-new style of skiing technique.
11. What is said to be Killy's biggest honor in his skiing career?
C) He won three gold medals in one Winter Olympics.
解析：
本篇短文主要讲的是，法国著名滑雪运动员Jean-Claude Killy发挥创新精神，创造了新的滑雪技巧，取得多场滑雪赛事的金牌，获得了成功。出题点都是本文的关键内容。做首题第9题需要关注好开头;做第10题需要关注研究结果(短文常考点)，并利用答案提示词also来帮助定位。
Passage 2
Scientific experiments have demonstrated incredible ways to kill a guinea pig, a small furry animal. Emotional upsets generate powerful and deadly toxic substances. (12) Blood samples taken from persons experiencing intense fear or anger when injected into guinea pigs have killed them in less than two minutes. Imagine what these poisonous substances can do to your own body.
(13) Every thought that you have affects your body chemistry within a split second. Remember how you feel when you are speeding down the highway and a big truck suddenly brakes twenty meters in front of you. A shock wave shoots through your whole system. Your mind produces instant reactions in your body.
The toxic substances that fear, anger, frustration and stress produce not only kill guinea pigs but kill us off in a similar manner. (14) It is impossible to be fearful, anxious, irritated and healthy at the same time. It is not just difficult, it is impossible. Simply put, your body’s health is a reflection of your mental health. Sickness will often then be a result of unresolved inner conflicts which in time show up in the body.
(15) It is also fascinating how our subconscious mind shapes our health. Do you recall falling sick on a day when you didn’t want to go to school? Headaches brought on by fear? (15) The mind-body connection is such that if, for example, we want to avoid something, very often our subconscious mind will arrange it. Once we recognize that these things happen to us, we are half way to doing something about them.
12. What happens to guinea pigs when blood samples of angry people are injected into them?
D) They die almost instantly.
13. What does the speaker say about every thought you have?
A) It has an instant effect on your body chemistry.
14. What does the speaker say is impossible?
D) To enjoy good health while in dark moods.
15. What does the passage say about our mind and body?
A) They are closely connected.
解析：
本篇短文主要讲的是对豚鼠做实验，研究结果表明，无论情绪还是潜意识，都对身体健康有很大的影响。尤其是消极情绪，对身体健康会产生极强的破坏作用。做首题12题需要关注开头;做短文题，利用好答案提示词also和for example可以定位到第15题的答案。
Section C
Recording 1
(16) Teachers and students alike have experienced the curious paradox that beginners, as a rule, tend to think too little about what they are doing because they think too much about what they are doing. Take for example people who are learning to play basketball or the piano. They have to give so much thought and attention to the low-level mechanics of handling the ball or fingering the keys or reading the music, that they are unable to give any thought to the thing that matters – the game, or the music, respectively. With experts, it’s just the other way around. They are open to the tactical possibilities and the musical challenges precisely because they are freed, through skill, from the need to pay attention to the low-level details of how to play. Indeed, when the expert pays attention to the mechanics, this is liable to disrupt performance.
This has led some to say that the expert operates in a zone ‘beyond thought’, in a state of flow. But this is misleading. Expert performance is not beyond thought. (17)Smart basketball players or skilled musicians need to pay close attention to the demands of high performance, to the challenges to be overcome. What they don’t need to do – what would be a distraction – is to have to think about where their fingers are, or how to control the ball while running. It’s not mechanics, but the play itself, that absorbs the experts’ intelligence. A nice video published online last month sheds light on (18) expertise and the conscious mind. The video reports a new study using an eye-tracking device. It turns out that the less-skilled pianist spends more time looking at her fingers than does the expert who, in contrast, is more likely to be looking at the sheet music, or looking ahead at keys he’s not yet playing. In general, the expert’s gaze was calmer and more stable.
This is not a surprising finding. It supports what we might almost think of as conventional wisdom. But it’s remarkable for all that, nonetheless. The eye tracker gives expert and learning performers a glimpse into what they do without thinking about it. The topic of the nature of skill – and the differences between beginners and experts – has been one of considerable discussion in cognitive science and philosophy.
16. What does the speaker say about beginners and expert pianists?
B) They focus their attention on different things.
17. What do smart basketball players do according to the speaker?
D) They attach great importance to high performance.
18. What do we learn about the new study published in an online video?
C) It supports a piece of conventional wisdom.
解析：
本篇讲座主要讲的是高手和新手之间的区别，新手更专注具体的、细节的基础操作方法，而高手致力于优化宏观的表现。做首题需要关注开头;做第17题，需要利用好答案提示词but进行定位;做第18题，需要关注研究的结果，通过it turns out that引出(短文和讲座，研究的目的和结果都是常考点，需要尤其关注)。
Recording 2
Every summer when I top up my selection of summer outfits from the department stores, my eyes would nearly pop out of my head.(19)I’m overwhelmed with the wide range of different slimming products each year. And more shockingly, these products are often advocated by very slim models. Having lived in Asia for almost ten years now, I’ve seen various dieting tips come and go. I remember in Japan people heading directly to the food section in the supermarket when the banana diet was at its peak. Then, there was the black tea and oolong tea diet followed by the soybean diet and the tomato juice diet. The list goes on and on.
Apart from what people eat, I’ve also seen many interesting slimming products. In Hongkong, I’ve seen girls wrapping their whole body or both legs up with a special type of slimming tape which is supposed to help make them thinner.(20)But it just reminded me of the roasted ham my mother usually puts on the dinner table of Christmas. Then there were the face slimming rollers that were said to improve your blood circulation and make your face smaller. Personally,(20)I do not believe in any of these slimming gadgets. And I think I have a very different perspective when it comes to the definition of what is beautiful. Asian women prefer to avoid the sun because being pale or white is considered beautiful, whereas a tanned complexion is considered much more beautiful and sexy in the west.(21)It is most certainly shaped by a person’s culture as well as how they were raised in their childhood. As each summer season approaches, there’s no escape from it.
But it’s not only women who are affected by this pressure to look good. Men aspire to be able to show off their six packs or their V-shape backs and there’s a growing market of slimming pills aimed at men too. I think no matter what diets we follow or what slimming products we obsess ourselves with, at the end of the day there’s no magic trick to shape up for the summer. Eat in a balance way and incorporate the right level of physical activity. For me, this still seems to be the best plan.
Questions 19-21
19. What overwhelms the speaker when she buys her summer outfits each year?
D) The great variety of slimming products.
20. What does the speaker think of girls wrapping their legs up with slimming tape?
B) They appear strange.
21. What does the speaker think affects people’s interpretation of beauty?
A) Culture and upbringing.
解析：
本篇讲座讲话主要讲的亚洲人追求身材苗条，并且也崇尚皮肤白皙，这和欧美完全相反，这种现象是由文化差异导致的。做第19题，需要关注开头;做第21题，需要关注现象的原因(原因和目的都是常考点，需注意)。
Section C
Recording 3
Skin may seem like a superficial human attribute, but it is the first thing we notice about anyone we meet. As a zoologist focusing on the studies of apes and monkeys,(22) I’ve been studying why humans evolved to become the naked ape, and why skin comes in so many different shades around the world.
We can make a very good estimate from the fossil record that humans probably evolved naked skin around a million and a half years ago. And meanwhile, they mostly lost their coat of fur. Today, we have a few patches of hair remaining on various parts of our bodies. But compared with apes and monkeys, we have very little. Basically, we turned our skin darker to serve as a natural sun-protector in the place of the hair we lost. (23) We think we lost this hair because of the need to keep ourselves cool, when we were moving around vigorously in a hot environment. We can’t really lose heat by breathing quickly and loudly like dogs. We have to do it by sweating. So we evolved the ability to sweat plentifully, and lost most of our fur.
Most animals protect themselves from the sun with fur. (24) What we did in our ancestry was to produce more permanent natural coloring in our skin cells. This was really an important revolution in human history, because it allowed us to continue to evolve in equatorial environments. It really made it possible for us to continue along the path toward modern humans in Africa.
For most of the human history, we all had dark skin. What we see today is the product of evolutionary events, resulting from the dispersal of a few human populations out of Africa around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Our species originated around 200,000 years ago, and underwent tremendous diversification, culturally, technologically, linguistically, artistically, for 130,000 years. After that, a few small populations left Africa to populate the rest of the world. These early ancestors of modern Eurasians disperse into parts of the world that had more seasonal sunshine and much lower levels of sun radiation. (25) It’s in these populations that we begin to see real changes in the genetic makeup of natural coloring.
Today, skin color is evolving via new mixtures of people coming together and having children with new mixtures of skin color genes. We can see this in almost every large city worldwide. Not only the coloring genes, but lots of other genes are getting mixed up, too.
Questions 22 – 25:
22. What does the speaker mainly talk about?
A) The relation between hair and skin.
23. What had probably caused humans to lose most of their hair one and a half million years ago?
B) Adaptation to the hot environment.
24. What does the speaker say protected early humans from the sun?
C) The skin coloring.
25. What happened after humans migrated from Africa to other parts of the world?
A) The genetic makeup began to change.
Part Ⅲ Reading Section A
The dream of personalised flight is still vivid in the minds of many inventors, some developing cycle-powered craft, others _____(27)money into jetpacks(喷气飞行背包). However, the flying car has always remained the _____(28)symbol of personal transport freedom.
Several companies around the world have produced _____(29)that can drive on roads and fly. Airbus has a futuristic modular(组件式的)concept involving a passenger capsule that can be
_____(30)from the road-going chassis(底盘)and picked up by a helicopter-type machine.
But all these concepts are massively expensive, require safety certification standards for road and air, need _____(31)controls, involve complex folding wings and propellers, and have to be flown from air-strips. So they are likely to remain rich people's playthings rather than practical transport solutions for the masses.
"A car that takes off from some London street and lands in another _____(32)street is unlikely to happen," says Prof. Gray, a leading aeronautical engineer. "Sky taxis are much more likely." But that won't stop inventors from dreaming up new ways to fly and trying to persuade investors to back their sometimes _____(33)schemes.
Civilian aviation is being disrupted, not by the age-old desires for speed, romanticism and _____(34), but by the pressing need to respond to a changing climate. New electric engines coupled with artificial intelligence and _____(35)systems will contribute to a more efficient, integrated transport system that is less polluting and less noisy. That may sound simple, but as Prof. Gray says, "When I travel somewhere I like this notion that when I finish my journey I feel better than when I started it. That's completely at _____(36)with how I feel today." Now that would be progress.
27、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】I
28、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】O
29、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】J
30、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】M
31、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】C
32、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】K
33、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】H
34、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】D
35、、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】A
36、【题干】_____.
【选项】
A.autonomous
B.detached
C.dual
D.glamour
E.imminent
F.odds
G.opposites
H.outrageous
I.pouring
J.prototypes
K.random
L.repressing
M.segmented
N.spectrum
O.ultimate
【答案】F
Part Ⅲ Reading Section B
Companies Are Working with Consumers to Reduce Waste
[A] As consumers, we are very wasteful. Annually, the world generates 1.3 billion tons of solid waste. This is expected to go up to 2.2 billion by 2025. The developed countries are responsible for 44% of waste, and in the U.S. alone, the average person throws away their body weight in rubbish every month.
[B] Conventional wisdom would seem to suggest that companies have no incentive to lengthen the life cycle of their products and reduce the revenue they would get from selling new goods. Yet, more and more businesses are thinking about how to reduce consumer waste. This is partly driven by the rising price of raw materials and metals. It is also partly due to both consumers and companies becoming more aware of the need to protect our environment.
[C] When choosing what products to buy and which brands to buy from, more and more consumers are looking into sustainability. This is opposed to just price and performance they were concerned about in the past. In a survey of 54 of the world's leading brands, almost all of them reported that consumers are showing increasing care about sustainable lifestyles. At the same time, surveys on consumers in the U.S. and the U.K. show that they also care about minimizing energy use and reducing waste.
[D] For the most part, consumers control what happens to a product. But some companies are realizing that placing the burden of recycling entirely on the consumer is not an effective strategy, especially when tossing something away seems like the easiest and most convenient option.
[E] Some retailers and manufacturers in the clothing, footwear, and electronics industries have launched environmental programs. They want to make their customers interested in preserving their products and preventing things that still have value from going to the garbage dump. By offering services to help expand the longevity of their products, they're promising quality and durability to consumers, and receiving the reputational gains for being environmentally friendly.
[F] For example, the Swedish jeans company Nudie Jeans offers free repair at twenty of their shops. Instead of discarding their old worn-out jeans, customers bring them in to be renewed. The company even provides mail-order repair kits and online videos, so that customers can learn how to fix a pair of jeans at home. Their philosophy is that extending the life of a pair of jeans is not only great for the environment, but allows the consumer to get more value out of their product. When customers do want to toss their pair, they can give them back to the store, which will repurpose and resell them. Another clothing company, Patagonia, a high-end outdoor clothing store, follows the same principle. It has partnered with DIY website iFixit to teach consumers how to repair their clothing, such as waterproof outerwear, at home. The company also offers a repair program for their customers for a modest fee. Currently, Patagonia repairs about 40,000 garments a year in their Reno, Nevada, service center. According to the company's CEO, Rose Marcario, this is about building a company that cares about the environment. At the same time, offering repair supports the perceived quality of its products.
[G] In Brazil, the multinational corporation Adidas has been running a shoe-recycling program called "Sustainable Footprint" since 2012. Customers can bring shoes of any brand into an Adidas store to be shredded and turned into alternative fuels for energy creation instead of being burned as trash. They are used to fuel cement ovens. To motivate visitors to bring in more old shoes, Adidas Brazil promotes the program in stores by showing videos to educate customers, and it even offers a discount each time a customer brings in an old pair of shoes. This boosts the reputation and image of Adidas by making people more aware of the company's values.
[H] Enormous opportunities also lie with e-waste. It is estimated that in 2014 the world produced some 42 million metric tons of e-waste (discarded electrical and electronic equipment and its parts) with North America and Europe accounting for 8 and 12 million metric tons respectively. The materials from e-waste include iron, copper, gold, silver, and aluminum materials that could be reused, resold, salvaged, or recycled. Together, the value of these metals is estimated to be about $52 billion. Electronics giants like Best Buy and Samsung have provided e-waste take-back programs over the past few years, which aim to refurbish(翻新)old electronic components and parts into new products.
[I] For other companies interested in reducing waste, helping the environment, and providing the sustainable lifestyles that consumers seek, here are some first steps for building a relationship with customers that focuses on recycling and restoring value to products:
[J] Find partners. If you are a manufacturer who relies on outside distributors, then retailers are the ideal partner for collecting old products. Power tool maker DeWalt partners with companies, such as Lowes and Napa Auto Parts, to collect old tools at their stores for recycling. The partnership benefits both sides by allowing unconventional partners (for example, two companies from two different industries) to work together on a specific aspect of the value chain, like, in this example, an engine firm with an accessory one.
[K] Create incentives. Environmental conscientiousness isn't always enough to make customers recycle old goods. For instance, DeWalt discovered that many contractors were holding on to their old tools, even if they no longer worked, because they were expensive purchases and it was hard to justify bringing them in to recycle. By offering instant discounts worth as much as $100, DeWalt launched a trade-in program to encourage people to bring back tools. As a result, DeWalt now reuses those materials to create new products.
[L] Start with a trial program, and expect to change the details as you go. Any take-back program will likely change over time, depending on what works for your customers and company goals. Maybe you see low customer participation at first, or conversely, so much success that the cost of recycling becomes too high. Best Buy, for instance, has been bearing the lion's share of e-waste volume since two of its largest competitors, Amazon and Wal-mart, do not have their own recycling programs. Since the launch of its program, Best Buy changed its policy to add a $25 fee for recycling old televisions in order to keep the program going.
[M] Build a culture of collective values with customers. A stronger relationship between the retailer/producer and the consumer isn't just about financial incentives. By creating more awareness around your efforts to reduce waste, and by developing a culture of responsibility, repair, and reuse, you can build customer loyalty based on shared values and responsibilities.
[N] These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but they demonstrate how helping customers get more use of their materials can transform value chains and operations. Reducing waste by incorporating used materials into production can cut costs and decrease the price of procurement(采购): less to be procured from the outside and more to be re-utilized from the inside.
[O] Companies play a big role in creating a circular economy, in which value is generating less from extracting new resources and more from getting better use out of the resources we already have-but they must also get customers engaged in the process.
37.【题干】Some companies believe that products' prolonged lifespan benefits both the environment and customers.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】F
38.【题干】A survey shows shoppers today are getting more concerned about energy conservation and environmental protection when deciding what to buy.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】C
39.【题干】Companies can build customer loyalty by creating a positive culture of environmental awareness.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】M
40.【题干】When companies launch environmental programs, they will have their brand reputation enhanced.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】G
41.【题干】One multinational company offers discounts to customers who bring in old foot wear to be used as fuel.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】G
42.【题干】Recycling used products can help manufacturers reduce production costs.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】N
43.【题干】Electronic products contain valuable metals that could be recovered.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】H
44.【题干】It seems commonly believed that companies are not motivated to prolong their products' lifespan.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】B
45.【题干】It is advisable for companies to partner with each other in product recycling.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】J
46.【题干】Some businesses have begun to realize it may not be effective to let consumers take full responsibility for recycling.
【选项】
A.A
B.B
C.C
D.D
E.E
F.F
G.G
H.H
I.I
J.J
K.K
L.L
M.M
N.N
O.O
【答案】D
Part Ⅲ Reading Section C
Passage One
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage
Effective Friday, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists(SAG-AFTRA.has declared a strike against 11 video game publishers over games that went into production after Feb. 17, 2015. The companies include some of the heavyweights of the industry, like Electronic Arts Productions, Insomniac Games, Activision and Disney.
The strike comes in light of an unsuccessful 19 months of negotiations after the existing labor contract known as the Interactive Media Agreement expired in late 2014. overall, the strike is an effort to provide more secondary compensation along with other concerns, such as transparency upon hiring talent and on-set(制作中)safety precautions.
The video gaming industry has ballooned in recent years. The Los Angeles Times reports that the industry is in the midst of an intense increase in cash flow. In 2015, gaming produced $23.5 billion in domestic revenue.
But SAG-AFTRA says voice actors don't receive residuals(追加酬金)for their gaming work. Instead, they receive a fixed rate, which is typically about $825 for a standard four-hour vocal session. So the voice actors are pushing for the idea of secondary compensation—a performance bonus every time a game sells 2 million copies or downloads, or reaches 2 million subscribers, with a cap at 8 million.
"It's a very small number of games that would trigger this secondary compensation issue," said voice actor Crispin Freeman, who's a member of the union's negotiating committee. "This is an important aspect of what it means to be a freelance(从事自由职业的)performer, who isn't regularly employed every single day working on projects."
Another major complaint from the actors is the secrecy of the industry. "I can't imagine if there's any other acting job in the world where you don't know what show you're in, when you're hired,"says voice actor Keythe Farley, who chairs the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee.
"And yet that happens every day in the video game world," Farley told reporters during a press conference Friday. "I was a main character in Fallout 4, a character by the name of Kellogg, and I never knew that I was doing vocal recording for that game throughout the year and a half."
Scott Witlin, the lawyer representing the video game companies, says voice actors "represent less than one tenth of 1 percent of the work that goes into making a video game." So "even though they're the top craftsmen in their field,"Witlin says, "if we pay them under a vastly different system than the people who do the 99.9 percent of the work, that's going to create far more problems for the video game companies."
47.【题干】Why did SAG-AFTRA declare a strike against some video game publishers?
【选项】
A.The labor contract between them had been violated.
B.Its appeal to renegotiate the contract had been rejected.
C.It had been cheated repeatedly in the 19 months of talks.
D.The negotiations between them had broken down.
【答案】D
48.【题干】What do we learn from the passage about the video gaming industry?
【选项】
A.It has reaped huge profits in recent years.
B.It has become more open and transparent.
C.It has attracted many famous voice actors.
D.It has invested a lot in its domestic market.
【答案】A
49.【题干】What are the voice actors demanding?
【选项】
A.More regular employment.
B.A non-discriminatory contract.
C.Extra pay based on sales revenues.
D.A limit on the maximum work hours.
【答案】C
50.【题干】What does Keythe Farley say about voice actors?
【选项】
A.They are kept in the dark about many details of their job.
B.They are discriminated against in the gaming industry.
C.They are not paid on a regular basis.
D.They are not employed full-time.
【答案】A
51.【题干】What is the argument of lawyer Scott Witlin?
【选项】
A.Voice actors should have a pay raise if they prove to be top craftsmen.
B.Changing the pay system would cause the industry more problems.
C.Voice actors are mere craftsmen, not professional performers.
D.Paying voice actors on an hourly basis is in line with the law.
【答案】B
Passage Two
Question 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.
Officials at the White House announced a new space policy focused on managing the increasing number of satellites that companies and governments are launching into space. Space Policy Directive-3 lays out general guidelines for the United States to mitigate(缓解)the effects of space debris and track and manage traffic in space.
This policy sets the stage for the Department of Commerce to take over the management of traffic in space. The department will make sure that newly launched satellites don't use radio frequencies that would interfere with existing satellites, and schedule when such new satellites can be launched. This only applies to American space activities, but the hope is that it will help standardize a set of norms in the dawning commercial spaceflight industry throughout the world.
Space, especially the space directly around our planet, is getting more crowded as more governments and companies launch satellites. One impetus for the policy is that companies are already starting to build massive constellations(星座), comprising hundreds or thousands of satellites with many moving parts among them. With so much stuff in space, and a limited area around our planet, the government wants to reduce the chances of a collision. Two or more satellites slamming into each other could create many more out-of-control bits that would pose even more hazards to the growing collection of satellites in space.
And it's not like this hasn't happened before. In 2009 an old Russian craft slammed into a communications satellite, creating a cloud of hundreds of pieces of debris and putting other hardware at risk. Journalist Sarah Scoles reports that NASA currently tracks about 24,000 objects in space, and in 2016 the Air Force had to issue 3,995,874 warnings to satellite owners alerting them to a potential nearby threat from another satellite or bit of debris.
That's why this new policy also includes directions to update the current U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices, which already require any entity that launches a satellite or spacecraft to vigorously analyze the likelihood that any of their actions, from an unexpected failure or normal operations, will create more space debris. It includes accounting for any piece of debris they plan to release over 5mm that might stay in orbit for 25 years or more. It might seem surprising to think about an item staying in space for that long, but the oldest satellite still in orbit-Vanguard 1-turned 60 in 2018.
Agencies and companies throughout the world are working on developing technology that would dispose of or capture space debris before it causes serious damage. But for now, the U.S. government is more focused on preventing new debris from forming than taking the trash out of orbit.
52.【题干】What is the purpose of the new U.S. space policy?
【选项】
A.To lay out general guidelines for space exploration.
B.To encourage companies to join in space programs.
C.To make the best use of satellites in space.
D.To improve traffic conditions in space.
【答案】D
53.【题干】What is the Department of Commerce expected to do under the new policy?
【选项】
A.Reduce debris in space.
B.Monitor satellite operations.
C.Regulate the launching of new satellites.
D.Update satellite communications technology.
【答案】C
54.【题干】What does the U.S. government hope to do with the new space policy?
【选项】
A.Set international standards for the space flight industry.
B.Monopolize space industry by developing a set of norms.
C.Facilitate commercial space flights throughout the world.
D.Promote international collaboration in space exploration.
【答案】A
55.【题干】What is a space vehicle launching entity required to do according to the current U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices?
【选项】
A.Give an estimate of how long its debris will stay in space.
B.Account for the debris it has released into space at any time.
C.Provide a detailed plan for managing the space debris it creates.
D.Make a thorough analysis of any possible addition to space debris.
【答案】D
56.【题干】What are space agencies and companies aiming to do at present?
【选项】
A.Recycle used space vehicles before they turn into debris.
B.Develop technology to address the space debris problem.
C.Limit the amount of debris entering space.
D.Cooperate closely to retrieve space debris.
【答案】B
Part IV Translation
57、【题干】中国幅员辽阔，人口众多，很多地方人们都说自己的方言。方言在发音上差别最大，词汇和语法差别较小。有些方言，特别是北方和南方的方言，差异很大，以至于说不同方言的人常常很难听懂彼此的讲话。方言被认为是当地文化的一个组成部分，但近年来能说方言的人数不断减少。为了鼓励人们更多说本地方言，一些地方政府已经采取措施，如在学校开设方言课，在广播和电视上播放方言节目，以期保存本地的文化遗产。
【答案】China is a vast country with a large population, and in many places people speak their own dialects. Dialects differ most in pronunciation, but less in vocabulary and grammar. Some dialects, especially those from the north and south, are so different that speakers of different dialects often have trouble understanding each other. Dialects are considered an integral part of local culture, but the number of people who can speak them has been decreasing in recent years. In order to encourage people to speak more local dialects, some local governments have adopted approaches, such as opening dialect classes in schools and broadcasting dialect programs on radio and television in order to preserve local cultural heritage.
英语四级