2021年06月英语四级第2套听力原文及题目

2021年06月英语四级第2套听力原文及题目

Section A
Direction: 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 1
An 81-year-old man ended up in Germany by accident after trying to get from Newcastle, Great Britain, to Rome, Italy. The old age pensioner was on a mission to see the Pope, who is head of the Catholic Church, and decided to make his way there by car. He was surprised when his GPS system told him he had arrived, although there were no signs of any of the famous buildings or architecture. The man parked but didn’t put on the handbrake of his car properly. His car rolled backwards, and in a striking display of irony, hit a sign saying “Rom” — the small town in North Germany he had mistakenly plugged into the GPS system. Police said that the car had come to a halt after hitting the sign, but did not appear to be seriously damaged, although an ambulance was called to check on the pensioner. The man, who lives in the UK and is originally Italian, might have been confused by the fact that Rome is written “Roma” in Italian and “Rom” in German.
Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.
Question 1: What did the old age pensioner plan to do?
Question 2: What finally happened to the old man?

1.
A) See the Pope.
B) Go to Newcastle.
C) Travel to Germany.
D) Tour an Italian city.

2.
A) He was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
B) His car hit a sign and was badly damaged.
C) His GPS system went out of order.
D) He ended up in the wrong place.

News Report 2
Glasgow has pledged to become the first carbon neutral city in the UK. The city’s council and ScottishPower have announced a range of strategies in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions ahead of the new national target of 2045. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the pledge and said, “Today’s announcement between ScottishPower and Glasgow City Council — to make Glasgow the UK’s first net-zero city — is a very welcome step. Reaching our goals will need exactly this kind of partnership approach — with government, business, local authorities and citizens all playing their part.” Speaking ahead of the All Energy Conference being held in Glasgow, ScottishPower chief executive Keith Anderson said: “We have a large supply of renewable energy on our doorstep and one of the only two low emission zones in action across the UK. Now, we need to invest in the technologies and programmes that transform the rest of Glasgow’s economy and make us net zero before anyone else.”
Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.
Question 3: What do we learn from the news report?
Question 4: What did ScottishPower’s chief executive say ahead of the All Energy Conference?

3.
A) Scotland will reach the national target in carbon emissions reduction ahead of schedule.
B) Glasgow City Council has made a deal with ScottishPower on carbon emissions.
C) Glasgow has pledged to take the lead in reducing carbon emissions in the UK.
D) First Minister Nicola Sturgeon urged ScottishPower to reduce carbon emissions.

4.
A) Glasgow needs to invest in new technologies to reach its goal.
B) Glasgow is going to explore new sources of renewable energy.
C) Stricter regulation is needed in transforming Glasgow’s economy.
D) It’s necessary to create more low-emission zones as soon as possible.

News Report 3
A Japanese IT firm has officially introduced an “office cat” policy to combat the stressful environment of the workplace. A total of nine furry friends freely wander around in the office and do whatever their little hearts desire. Hidenobu Fukuda, who heads the firm, introduced the pet policy, upon request from one of his employees, allowing staff to bring their own cats to work. Employee Eri Ito is grateful for their animals’ comforting ways. “Cats are sleeping just beside us. It’s healing.” She said. Not only does Fukuda encourage bringing cats to the job, but he also encourages his employees to rescue cats from overpopulated shelters or streets. He gives 5,000 yen, about 45 US dollars a month to those who rescue a cat. While the positives are many, there are still some obstacles. “Sometimes a cat will walk on a phone and cut off the call, or they shut down the computers by walking onto the off switch.” Ito says. Still, cats in the workplace have been a tremendous success for the company. The policy has led to various other companies doing the same.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.
Question 5: What do we learn from the news report about the Japanese IT firm?
Question 6: What does Fukuda encourage his employees to do?
Question 7: What does the news report say about the firm’s policy?

5.
A) It donates money to overpopulated animal shelters.
B) It permits employees to bring cats into their office.
C) It gives 5,000 yen to employees who keep pet cats.
D) It allows workers to do whatever their hearts desire.

6.
A) Keep cats off the street.
B) Rescue homeless cats.
C) Volunteer to help in animal shelters.
D) Contribute to a fund for cat protection.

7.
A) It has contributed tremendously to the firm’s fame.
B) It has helped a lot to improve animals’ well-being.
C) It has led some other companies to follow suit.
D) It has resulted in damage to office equipment.

Section B
Direction: 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 1
M: Has Jimmy been coming in lately?
W: No, I haven’t seen him around. Why? Has he been causing any trouble?
M: Not that I know of. But I need to see him, because my friends and I lent him some money last month. We haven’t heard from him since. I heard he comes here a lot, so I thought I’d come in and check with you.
W: Well, that’s funny. Some other fellow came in asking for Jimmy just yesterday, a real nervous, pushy type of fellow, saying he needed Jimmy for some study project they were working on. But I can’t quite remember what it was all about. Is this a lot of money we’re talking about here?
M: No, just 60 pounds between the three of us, but still a bit too much to just let go. He told us he’d got into an accident. Nothing serious, mind you, but he damaged someone’s car and wanted to get some money together to make up for the damage he’d caused.
W: Hmm, isn’t that sort of thing usually,covered by insurance? And then, if you still wanted to give money as some sort of apology or something, he probably shouldn’t have to go around borrowing it from people.
M: You think Jimmy’s just making it all up? See, I did think it was a bit weird for him to be asking for money for that sort of thing. And his story was a bit vague to begin with. But I thought maybe he doesn’t want his parents to know about what happened. So he’d rather come to us and keep things quiet. Anyway, Jimmy is a good guy. So we didn’t make a fuss about it.
Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 8: What does the man want to do?
Question 9: What do we learn about the man who came to see the woman yesterday?
Question 10: What did Jimmy say happen to him one day?
Question 11: Why did Jimmy borrow money according to the man?

8.
A) Find out where Jimmy is.
B) Borrow money from Jimmy.
C) Make friends with Jimmy.
D) Ask Jimmy what is to be done.

9.
A) He was unsure what kind of fellow Jimmy was.
B) He was working on a study project with Jimmy.
C) He wanted to make a sincere apology to Jimmy.
D) He wanted to invite her to join in a study project.

10.
A) He got a ticket for speeding.
B) He got his car badly damaged.
C) He was involved in a traffic accident.
D) He had an operation for his injury.

11.
A) He needed to make some donation to charity.
B) He found the 60 pounds in his pocket missing.
C) He wanted to buy a gift for his mother’s birthday.
D) He wanted to conceal something from his parents.

Conversation 2
W: Hi, Max. How are you? Listen. I wanted to ask you about ordering shopping online. I’ve never done it before and I know that you’ve been doing it for ages.
M: Sure. I love getting my shopping delivered. It makes life so much simpler — no carrying heavy shopping bags in the rain, or trying to park the car on those huge supermarket car parks then not being able to find it again after you come out of the shops.
W: But there must be some problems. I mean, how do you know that you won’t get bad fruit, or that the eggs won’t be broken?
M: Oh, come on. The food is exactly the same as the stuff you buy in a conventional shop. They aren’t going to deliver you food that is out of date. And if you get a broken egg, well,that could happen in a conventional shop, too. If anything is really wrong, you can just take photographs of the damage, and they will give you the money back or replace the item.
W: How about delivery fees? Is it not more expensive to get everything delivered?
M: I actually found that it was cheaper for me, as I live quite far away from my local supermarket. So with the deliveries, I’m actually saving on petrol.
W: I’ve never thought of that. If you aren’t driving your own car, then you are saving on fuel. Right, you’ve convinced me. I’m going to go on the computer now and give it a try. So, which supermarket do you think is the best to order from?
M: Oh, no. That’s definitely up to you. Otherwise, we’ll be here all day.
Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 12: What did the woman want to ask Max about?
Question 13: What does the man think is a problem with shopping in supermarkets?
Question 14: What is the woman’s concern about shopping online?
Question 15: What does the man find about shopping online?

12.
A) Shopping delivery.
B) Shopping online.
C) Where he goes shopping.
D) How often he does shopping.

13.
A) Searching in the aisles.
B) Dealing with the traffic.
C) Driving too long a distance.
D) Getting one’s car parked.

14.
A) The after-sales service.
B) The replacement policy.
C) The quality of food products.
D) The damage to the packaging.

15.
A) It saves money.
B) It offers more choice.
C) It increases the joy of shopping.
D) It is less time-consuming.

Section C
Direction: 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 1
A recent study found that 10 percent of British children suffer from math anxiety. This means they have overwhelming negative emotions towards the subject, ranging from rage to despair. Other emotions triggered by math include feelings of tension and frustration. Physical symptoms include a racing heart or struggling to catch breath. The phenomenon of math anxiety is characterized as a general sense of feeling that the subject is hard compared with other subjects leading to a subsequent lack or loss of confidence. Researchers said they investigated individuals’ attitudes towards mathematics because of what could be referred to as a mathematics crisis in the UK. There’s a widespread misunderstanding that only low performing children suffer from math anxiety. People automatically assume children are anxious about math because they are poor achievers. In fact, more than three quarters of children with high levels of math anxiety are normal to high achievers. Probably their math anxiety will go unnoticed because their performance is good. But in the long term their performance is negatively affected. So the real danger here is that children who will completely able to do math at a normal level may keep away from it because they feel anxious. Math anxiety can severely disrupt students’ performance in the subject in both primary and secondary school. But importantly — and surprisingly — this new study suggests that the majority of students experiencing math anxiety have normal to high math ability.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 16: What did a recent study find about some British children?
Question 17: What is the widespread misunderstanding about math anxiety?
Question 18: What does the passage say about British students with math anxiety?

16.
A) They have little talent for learning math.
B) They need medical help for math anxiety.
C) They need extra help to catch up in the math class.
D) They have strong negative emotions towards math.

17.
A) It will gradually pass away without teachers’ help.
B) It affects low performing children only.
C) It is related to a child’s low intelligence.
D) It exists mostly among children from poor families.

18.
A) Most of them have average to strong math ability.
B) Most of them get timely help from their teachers.
C) They will regain confidence with counselling.
D) They are mostly secondary school students.

Passage 2
People spend a lot of time using phones and computers. Much of that time is devoted to text messages and social media. But many people choose to spend their time playing computer games. For years, parents and teachers have worried that these games might be addictive. And now, the World Health Organization has recognized addiction to computer games as a disease. The organization explains that this decision reflects general agreement among experts around the world that some people have a problem with these games. They show a pattern of behavior characterized by a lack of control. Such people make computer games a priority over their responsibilities. They may play games instead of attending school, or work, or socializing. According to the World Health Organization experts, people’s use of computer games is different from their use of the Internet, social media and online shopping. These experts claim there is not sufficient data to indicate that people’s reliance on those other activities is an addiction. But they argue that playing computer games to access is different. This behavior can become a disorder. To meet the new definition for addiction, the behavior must damage a person’s relationships or performance at school or work, and this must last for at least a year. Still not all behavior experts agree. Some argue that there’s not enough research on the subject. Thus, they claim it is too early to call computer game addiction a disorder.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 19: What conclusion has the World Health Organization come to recently?
Question 20: What is said of people with addictive behavior?
Question 21: What do some behavior experts think of addiction to computer games?

19.
A) Social media addiction is a threat to our health.
B) Too many people are addicted to smartphones.
C) Addiction to computer games is a disease.
D) Computer games can be rather addictive.

20.
A) They prioritize their favored activity over what they should do.
B) They do their favored activity whenever and wherever possible.
C) They are unaware of the damage their behavior is doing to them.
D) They are unable to get rid of their addiction without professional help.

21.
A) It may be less damaging than previously believed.
B) There will never be agreement on its harm to people.
C) It may prove to be beneficial to developing creativity.
D) There is not enough evidence to classify it as a disease.

Passage 3
Maybe you carry the most powerful passport in the world, or perhaps the rarest passport. Whatever the case, your passport will likely be one of four colors: red, blue, green or black, although there are slight variations. Switzerland’s passport is dark red, for example, while most European countries prefer a shade of red. That’s almost brown. There are no official rules regarding passport colors, but countries follow a certain set of norms when designing them. The International Civil Aviation Organization, which works to define the principles of air travel, suggests that countries use a suitable type, size and style for official documents like passports. There are also a few compulsory aspects of passports. They must be made from a material that bends. They should be able to be read by a machine at temperatures ranging from 10 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius, under the conditions where the air can be extremely dry or moist. Despite these existing recommendations, there is nothing regarding the cover color. Why? Simply put, countries stick to darker and more conservative colors because they appear more official. And they can also hide dirt and wear. While there’s little innovation when it comes to passport cover color, the same cannot be said for the pages. The passports of many countries can take images of their well-known geographical features and wildlife, which also function as security features as some are only visible under a special light.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 22: What do we learn about most European passports?
Question 23: What does the passage say about the design of passports?
Question 24: Why are dark colors chosen for passport covers?
Question 25: What is one special function of the images inside many passports?

22.
A) They are relatively uniform in color and design.
B) They appear more formal than other passports.
C) They are a shade of red bordering on brown.
D) They vary in color from country to country.

23.
A) They must endure wear and tear.
B) They must be of the same size.
C) They must be made from a rare material.
D) They must follow some common standards.

24.
A) They look more traditional.
B) They look more official.
C) They are favored by-airlines.
D) They are easily identifiable.

25.
A) For beauty.
B) For variety.
C) For visibility.
D) For security.

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