2020年12月英语四级听力原文(第二套)

College English Test Band 4.（二）

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.

A waiter has returned a check worth nearly $ 424,000 to a retired social

worker who lost it. The waiter found a bank envelope while cleaning off

a table last Saturday at restaurant. He ran outside but the customer was

gone. He opened the envelop and got a shock. After an unsuccessful

search, the restaurant's owner called the Daily News for help. The

"relieved" customer was reunited with her check on Wednesday. It

contained money from her apartment sale, already planned for a down

payment on a new home. The customer did not tip the waiter after her

meal. She tried to give him money later on, but he graciously declined.

The waiter, who's working his way through school, did accept the

customer's apology and gratitude and said it was happy to have helped

her.

Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.

Question 1: What does the news report say about the waiter?

Question 2: What did the customer try to do when she got her check

back?

News Report Two.

The village of Maref in Alaska voted on Tuesday to move to the state's

mainland. The move is due to global warming and rising sea levels. Most

of the village's 169 registered voters took part in the town hall meeting.

They decided in a vote of 89-78 to move from their land on Sarichef

Island, near the Arctic Circle. Maref Council Secretary Donna Barr said the

vote was largely symbolic. It will be costly financially to the community.

"About 15 years ago, they estimated the cost at $180 million. I would figure it's much higher now," Barr said. "We don't see the move happening

in our lifetime because of the funding". The village's roughly 650

residents have seen warming temperatures melt sea ice and permanently

frozen land. This has resulted in houses falling into the water. At least 31

villages in Alaska face "immediate threats" due to climate change, the

Government Accountability Office reported in 2009.

Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.

Question 3: What is Maref's vote on Tuesday about?

Question 4: Why did Donna Barr say they wouldn't see the plan carried

out any time soon?

News report 3.

A man in Halifax, Canada wanted to find out if people were thankful for

someone holding the door open for them. The social experiment showed

that 99 out of 100 people expressed gratitude. "I didn't think we were

going to get 99. I don't know why, but I was pleasantly surprised because

it went beyond just 'thank you'— people got into conversations with us,"

said Steve Foran, CEO of Gratitude At Work. "What we know from

research is that from grateful people come good things," he said. "A

simple way to induce gratitude in people is opening doors and so we

went to six places and open the doors for people". For the experiment,

Foran's team went to a shopping center, a mall, two office buildings and a

coffee shop. The door was held for 15 to 20 people at a time at each

location. "We did have one that didn't say thank you. We're not here to

judge them, because on any given day, that could be me or you. I suspect

out of the 100 people, there were probably a bunch of them having a bad

day, but grateful people make people grateful," said Foran.

Questions 5~7 are based on the news report you have just heard.

Question 5: What is the purpose of the social experiment?

Question 6: What did Steve Foran and his team do in the experiment?

Question 7: What do we learn from the news report?

Section B.

Directions: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the

end of each conversation, you will hear some 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 1with a single line through the centre.

Conversation One.

W: Raise Solar. Lisa's speaking. How can I help? Hi. My name is Winston.

I wish to enquire about solar panel installations.

W: Yes. What would you like to know?

M: Well, my neighbor installed panels on his roof about a year ago, in

order to power his hot water. He tells me it has saved him over $500 thus

far. Does that sound about right to you?

W: Well, I'm not familiar with your neighbor or his particular setup. But

that amount is definitely possible. I can tell you that the average

four-bedroom house may typically have a roof with 50 square metres of

surface area. Four panels on one side of that roof could save a family of

four around $300 a year.

M: OK. That sounds about right, then. My house is about the size you

described, but my neighbor's is bigger. I'm not sure how many panels he

has up there, but he does have a large family of six.

W: Are you interested in installing some solar panels on your roof, sir?

M: Yes. I'm considering it.

W: If you wish to come into our office, we could show you the different

solutions we offer.

M: OK. I might do that. But just quickly if you don't mind, could you tell

me approximately how much a typical installation costs, like, say, four

panels?

W: Prices do vary depending on different factors, but as a rough

estimate, it's around $2,000. But you know, a typical household will make

back that initial investment in about five years.

M: OK. I see. Thank you.

Questions 8~11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Question 8: What is the man's purpose for calling the woman?

Question 9: What do we learn about the man's neighbor from the

conversation?

Question 10: What is one of the man's chief concerns?

Question 11: How long will it take a typical household to make back the

initial investment?

Conversation Two.

M: Good afternoon. Sory to have kept you waiting. How can I help

you?

W: Oh, no problem. I'm interested in booking a holiday to Australia

and wonder if you could tell me what deals you have.

M: Sure. Are you only looking for flights or a package holiday with

everything included?

W: When you say "everything", what do you mean?

M: Well, a package holiday would include your flights, hotels, meals,

day trips to different places of interest and transport to and from the

airport.

W: Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

I'm going with my family, so it would be nice to have everything taken

care of. So what sort of deals do you have for package holidays, then?

M: All sorts, really. How long do you want to go for? And on what

dates?

Two weeks around Christmas time would be great.

M: OK, let me check that for you. Here's one, 14 nights in southeastern

Australia, 5 nights in Sydney and 5 nights in Melbourne. And then for the

other 4 nights, you can choose from a list of trips to other places nearby.

You could visit Canberra, for example, or the Blue Mountains. Or you

could go for a drive down the Great Ocean Road. Also, if you're

interested in wine, you could go on a tour of the places where they grow

grapes and make wine.

W: That sounds great. It's good we can choose some activities

ourselves.

Questions 12~15 are based on the conversation you have just

heard.

Question 12: Where is the conversation taking place?

Question 13: Why is the woman interested in package holidays?

Question 14: How long does the woman want to go for the holiday?

Question 15: What does the woman say she likes about the holiday

package?

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.

Tourists taking a holiday in the Indonesian island of Bali are facing a

new $14- per-person tax when they arrive on the holiday island from

next year. But this is a green tax which Bali Governor Wayan Koster has

been working on for months and which is designed to help clean up the

island's natural environment and with good reason, too. Indonesia is

drowning in plastics. Recycling is not one of the country's strong points.

It's not uncommon to be offered many more plastic bags than one could

ever need when visiting supermarkets and shopping malls, but slowly

things are starting to change for the better. Back in 2016, the medium

sized city of Banjarmasin banned single-use plastic bags. The city of

Bogor followed suit in 2018. A few months ago, Koster announced a plan

that would not only ban single-use plastic bags from supermarkets and

convenience stores but plastic bags and straws across the island. The

regulation will come into full effect next month. "We received a fast and

quick response from the Balinese people. Not only positive responses

from the Balinese, we received good responses from the central

government, other local governments, and even from overseas," Koster

told the Sydney Morning Herald this week during an interview. The

governor is a determined environmentalist and he has more laws

planned to protect the island's water ways in particular, and to support

the introduction of electric vehicles, too.

Questions 16~18 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 16: What would tourists have to do when they visit Indonesia's

Bali Island?

Question 17: What does the passage say about Indonesia?

Question 18: What is the new plan Governor Koster recently announced?

Passage Two.

An endangered species of whale is experiencing a small baby boom off

the coast of America. The North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest

species of whale on the planet numbering only about 411. But the Center

for Coastal Studies said Friday that its aerial survey team spotted a mom

with two babies in Cape Cod Bay a day earlier. That brings the number

seen in nearby waters alone this year to 3. That's big news because the

whale population has been falling and no baby whales were seen last

year. In all, seven baby whales have been spotted so far this year. The

whale population has become endangered due to commercial whaling

activities in recent years. This is because they are sometimes hunted for

their meat or their skin. Over-hunting could lead to the disappearance of

the whale population, possibly causing major problems to the global

food chain. The whales give birth off the southeast coast of America in

the winter and travel to feeding grounds off the northeast coast in the

early spring. Northeast coast is a critically important source of food.

The animals often feed close to shore. This provides watchers on land

with unbeatable views of one of the rarest of marine mammals. It's illegal

to get within 1,500 feet of the animals without a federal research permit,

so whale watchers are discouraged from attempting to get close to the

whales.

Questions 19~21 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 19: What do we learn from the passage about the North

Atlantic right whale、

Question 20: What has caused the decline of the whale population in

recent years?

Question 21: Why do whales travel to the northeast coast of America in

the early spring?

Passage Three.

An average person consumes 144 pints of milk a year, but 40% of that is

poured onto cereal and 60% of those people are children. But what was

once advertised as nutritious is becoming unpopular. Americans drink 37%

less milk than they did in the 1970s. And in the UK, dairy consumption

overall has fallen by a third in the past 20 years. Milk is increasingly being

described in a negative light. A recent blog suggested:" Maybe people

are drinking less milk because it is poisonous to many of us". Lactose is

the sugar found in milk and dairy products.

It needs a series of complex proteins to break it down. Without enough

of these proteins, the lactose is broken down by bacteria in the human

body. This can cause physical pain and produce gas in the stomach.

However, after we have finished breast or formula feeding, most of us

don't continue producing the complex proteins in our body, which are

necessary to break down the lactose. Despite the problems in digesting

milk, it does provide many benefits. Milk is nutritious, it contains

vitamins A and D as well as protein and isn't full of calories. You can test

yourself by drinking a large glass of milk. If you get sick in your stomach

within the next 24 hours, you are lacking the proteins to digest milk.

Questions 22~25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 22: What does the passage say about Americans?

Question 23: How do Americans and British people think of milk

nowadays?

Question 24: Why does drinking milk cause pain in some people?

Question 25: What does the passage say is a benefit of milk?

That's the end of Listening Comprehension.