G) There are two ways to interpret Plutarch when he suggests that a critic should be able to produce“a better in its place.”In a straightforward sense, he could mean that a critic must be more talented than the artist she critiques（评论）.My mother was well covered on this count. But perhaps Plutarch is suggesting something slightly different, something a bit closer to Marcus Cicero’s claim that one should“criticize by creation, not by finding fault.”Genuine criticism creates a precious opening for an author to become better on his own terms—a process that is often extremely painful, but also almost always meaningful.
H) My mother said she would help me with my writing, but first I had to help myself. For each assignment, I was to write the best essay I could. Real criticism is not meant to find obvious mistakes, so if she found any—the type I could have found on my own—I had to start from scratch. From scratch. Once the essay was“flawless,” she would take an evening to walk me through my errors. That was when true criticism, the type that changed me as a person, began.
I) She criticized me when I included little-known references and professional jargon（行话）. She had no patience for brilliant but irrelevant figures of speech.“Writers can’t bluff（虚张声势）their way through ignorance.” That was news to me—I would need to find another way to structure my daily existence.
J) She trimmed back my flowery language, drew lines through my exclamation marks and argued for the value of restraint in expression.“John,” she almost whispered. I leaned in to hear her: “I can’t hear you when you shout at me.” So I stopped shouting and bluffing, and slowly my writing improved.
K) Somewhere along the way I set aside my hopes of writing that flawless essay. But perhaps I missed something important in my mother’s lessons about creativity and perfection. Perhaps the point of writhing the flawless essay was not to give up, but to never willingly finish. Whitman repeatedly reworked“song of Myself” between 1855 and 1891. Repeatedly. We do our absolute best with a piece of writing, and come as close as we can to the ideal. And, for the time being, we settle. In critique, however, we are forced to depart, to give up the perfection we thought we had achieved for the chance of being even a little bit better. This is the lesson I took from my mother: If perfection were possible, it would not be motivating.
46. The author was advised against the improper use of figures of speech.
47. The author’s mother taught him a valuable lesson by pointing out lots of flaws in his seemingly perfect essay.
48. A writer should polish his writing repeatedly so as to get closer to perfection.
49. Writers may experience periods of time in their life when they just can’t produce anything. 50. The author was not much surprised when his school teacher marked his essay as“flawless”. 51. Criticizing someone’s speech is said to be easier than coming up with a better one. 52. The author looks upon his mother as his most demanding and caring instructor. 53. The criticism the author received from his mother changed his as a person.
54. The author gradually improved his writing by avoiding fancy language. 55. Constructive criticism gives an author a good start to improve his writing. Section C Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
The wallet is heading for extinction. As a day-to-day essential, it will die off with the generation who read print newspapers. The kind of shopping－where you hand over notes and count out change in return—now happens only in the most minor of our retail encounters，like buying a bar of chocolate or a pint of milk from a comer shop. At the shops where you spend any real money, that money is increasingly abstracted. And this is more and more true, the higher up the scale you go. At the most cutting-edge retail stores—Victoria Beckham on Dover Street, for instance—you don’t go and stand at any kind of cash register when you decide to pay. The staff are equipped with iPads to take your payment while you relax on a sofa.
Which is nothing more or less than excellent service, if you have the money. But across society, the abstraction of the idea of cash makes me uneasy. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. But earning money isn’t quick or easy for most of us. Isn’t it a bit weird that spending it should happen in half a blink (眨眼) of an eye? Doesn’t a wallet—that time-honoured Friday-night feeling of pleasing, promising fatness—represent something that matters?
But I’ll leave the economics to the experts. What bothers me about the death of the wallet is the change it represents in our physical environment. Everything about the look and feel of a wallet—the way the fastenings and materials wear and tear and loosen with age, the plastic and paper and gold and silver, and handwritten phone numbers and printed cinema tickets—is the very opposite of what our world is becoming. The opposite of a wallet is a smartphone of an iPad. The rounded edges, cool glass, smooth and unknowable as pebble (鹅卵石). Instead of digging through pieces of paper and peering into corners, we move our fingers left and right. No more counting out coins. Show your wallet, if you still have one. It may not be here much longer. 56. What is happening to the wallet?
A) It is disappearing. C) it is becoming costly. B) It is being fattened. D) It is changing in style. 57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores? A) Individually. C) In the abstract. B) Electronically. D) Via a cash register. 58. What makes the author feel uncomfortable nowadays? A) Saving money is becoming a thing of the past.
B) The pleasing Friday-night feeling is fading. C) Earning money is getting more difficult. D) Spending money is so fast and easy.
59. Why does the author choose to write about what’s happening to the wallet? A) It represents a change in the modern world. B) It has something to do with everybody’s life. C) It marks the end of a time-honoured tradition. D) It is the concern of contemporary economists. 60.What can we infer from the passage about the author? A)He is resistant to social changes. B)He is against technological progress.
C)He feels reluctant to part with the traditional wallet. D)He fells insecure in the ever-changing modern world. Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Everybody sleeps,but what people stay up late to catch—or wake up early in order not to miss—varies by culture.From data collected,it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep,on average,are sporting events,time changes,and holidays.
Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to “winter time”starting on October 26. Russia’s other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year’s Eve, Russians have the world’s latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 am. Russians also get up an hour later on International Women’s Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.
Similarly, Americans’ late nights late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day weekends. Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey(冰球）final. The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation(剥夺）, The worst night for sleep in the U.K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour
later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.
It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns, in some of these nations, it’s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that’s the case, though, the above findings are still striking, If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing? 61. What does the author say about people’s sleeping habits?
A) They are culture-related C)They change with the seasons.
B) They affect people’s health. D)They vary from person to person. 62.What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep? A) They don’t fall asleep until very late. B) They don’t sleep much on weekends. C) They get less sleep on public holidays. D) They sleep longer than people elsewhere.
63.What is the major cause for Europeans’ loss of sleep? A) The daylight savings time. B) The colorful night life. C) The World Cup. D) The summertime.
64.What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their patterns? A) They have trouble falling asleep. B) They want to get sufficient sleep. C) They are involved in a sleep research. D) They want to go to bed on regular hours.
65. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A) Sleeplessness does harm to people’s health. B) Few people really know the importance of sleep. C) It is important to study our sleep patterns. D) Average people probably sleep less than the rich.
选词填空：
36. N. saw 第一空显然缺少谓语，优先考虑动词，结合语义并根据Late November and December可以推出应选择过去式动词，故
答案锁定saw.
37. F. decades 根据two，首选复数名词，结合语义，\二十年来头一次。
38. H. globally 句子为主系表结构，不缺主要成分，所以首选副词和形容词，根据语义，ever表示“一直以来地、向来地”，“十一
月向来是全球范围内最温暖的一个月。”
39. D. chances 缺少主语，并且谓语是are，所以首选复数形式的名词，结合前文Enjoy the snow now, “享受现在的雪吧”，因为“时
机是好的”。
40. J. occurs 空格前方有主语，且是单数形式，而后面由when引导的时间状语从句的时态是一般现在时，所以主句谓语锁定第三
人称单数形式的动词，只能选择occurs.
41. A. specific空格左为定冠词the，空格右为名词，中间只能选形容词，选择“特定的”符合语义。
42. B. associated 空格左为be动词，右边为介词with，中间只能是形容词或动词的过去分词形式，be associated with表示“与…有
联系”，符合原意。
43. G. experiences 空格左为主语southern Africa，空格内应该为动词的第三人称单词形式，结合语义，选G，“南非经历着干燥的
天气。
44. M. reduce 空格左为情态动词，空格内必须为动词原形，填reduce“减少”符合原题。
45. K. populations 空格与左边的large fish 共同构成动词support的宾语，只能选一个名词来作为名词词组，故选K，“大量的鱼
群”。
长篇阅读
46.D.Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another. 47.B.Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV. 48.F.Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days. 49.O.Cooking skills can be improved with practice.
50.G.In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.
51.E.Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and their family 52.J.Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.
53.M.To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it themselves. 54.C.We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks. 55.H.The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food. 56-65：ABDAC ACCBB
61题，定位到第一段最后一句\，所以答案选A——They are culture-related.
62题，由题干的大写名词Russian定位到第二段和第三段。第二段的\
each day\这一句是干扰句，起得晚不一定睡得早，所以答案推不出“他们比其他地方的人睡得更久”。然后看到第三段\nights and early mornings generally coincided with public holidays\，所以答案为C——They don't sleep much on holidays.
63题，题干问的是欧洲人缺乏睡眠的major cause主要原因是什么，由题干的大写名词Europeans? loss定位到倒数第二段的
\Cup\，原文的Germans，Italians，and the French就是题干中\的同义改写，而他们stayed up就是为了to watch the Cup，所以说他们缺乏睡眠的原因便是C选项——The World Cup.
64题，问的是富有的人使用设备来记录他们的睡眠模式的原因。由rich people以及device定位到最后一段第一句，定位句只说
到了记录的事实，而非其原因。按照四级阅读金三句原则看到定位句的下一句\sleep than the average person\，记录睡眠的人是想要得到比普通人更多的睡眠，所以答案是B——They want to get sufficient sleep. 65题，问的是作者在最后一段所表达的观点，定位到最后一句If the most healthconscious among us have such deep swings in our
shuteye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?作者提到了health-conscious，人们对健康的意识是缺乏的，对健康是视而不见的，所以答案选B——Few people really know the importance of sleep.
翻译：
今年在长沙举行了一年一度的外国人汉语演讲比赛。这项比赛证明是促进中国和世界其他地区文化交流的好方法。它为世界各
地的年轻人提供了更好地了解中国的机会。来自87个国家共计126位选手聚集在湖南省省会参加了从7月6日到8月5日进行的半决赛和决赛。比赛并不是唯一的活动。选手们还有机会参观了中国其他地区的著名景点和历史名胜。
The annual Chinese language speech competition was held in Changsha this year. This contest has been proved to be a good way to
promote cultural communication between China and the rest of the world. It provided a better chance to understand China for young people around the world. A total of 126 contestants from 87 countries gathered in the capital of Hunan Province and participated in the semi-final and final from July 6th to August 5th. The competition was not the only activity. Contestants also had the opportunity to visit well-known scenic spots and historical sites in other parts of China.
2016年英语专四考试题答案
