考试吧：2011年12月英语四级真题答案解析

　　Listening Comprehension短文

　　答案及解析

　　Section B

　　Passage One

　　While Gail Obcamp, an American artist was giving a speech on the art of Japanese brush painting to an audience that included visitors from Japan, she was confused to see that many of her Japanese listeners have their eyes closed. Were they tuned off because an American had the nerve to instruct Japanese in their own art form? Were they deliberately tried to signal their rejection of her? Obcamp later found out that her listeners were not being disrespectful. Japanese listeners sometimes close their eyes to enhance concentration. Her listeners were showing their respect for her by chewing on her words. Some day you may be either a speaker or a listener in a situation involving people from other countries or members of a minority group in North America. Learning how different cultures signal respect can help you avoid misunderstandings. Here are some examples. In the deaf culture of North America, Many listeners show applause not by clapping their hands but by waving them in the air. In some cultures, both overseas and in some minority groups in North America, listeners are considered disrespectful if they look directly at the speaker. Respect is shown by looking in the general direction but avoiding direct eye contact. In some countries, whistling by listeners is a sign of approval while in other courtiers it is a form of insult.

　　听力点睛：

　　本文主要介绍不同文化中都是如何表示尊重的，以及如何利用这点来避免跨文化交流中的误会产生。一开始先用一位美国艺术家Gail Obcamp做演讲的故事来举例子，引出对闭上眼睛这样一种动作不同的理解;继而发表了作者的看法：在和不同文化的人交流的时候，如果你懂得其他文化中是如何表达尊重的，可以避免误会;接着又是例子，是关于北美洲聋哑人是如何用动作来交流的。还有一些国家，对同样的手势会有截然不同的理解，进一步验证了作者的观点。

　　做这篇题目的重点在于能够迅速拎出来作者的观点。

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. What did Obcamp’s speech focus on?

　　A) Characteristics of Japanese artists

　　B) Some features of Japanese culture

　　C) The art of Japanese brush painting

　　D) The uniqueness of Japanese art

　　答案：C) The art of Japanese brush painting

　　27. Why do Japanese listeners sometimes close their eyes while listening to a speech?

　　A) To calm themselves down

　　B) To enhance concentration

　　C) To show their impatience

　　D) To signal their lack of interest

　　答案：B) To enhance concentration.

　　28. What does the speaker try to explain?

　　A) How listeners in different cultures show respect

　　B) How speakers can win approval from the audience

　　C) How speakers can misunderstand the audience

　　D) How different Western and Eastern art forms are

　　答案：A) How listeners in different cultures show respect.

　　Passage Two

　　Chris is in charge of purchasing and maintaining equipment in his Division at Taxlong Company. He is soon going to have an evaluation interview with his supervisor and the personnel director to discuss the work he has done in the past year. Salary, promotion and plans for the coming year will also be discussed at the meeting. Chris has made several changes for his Division in the past year. First, he bought new equipment for one of the departments. He has been particularly happy about the new equipment because many of the employees have told him how much it has helped them. Along with improving the equipment, Chris began a program to train employees to use equipment better and do simple maintenance themselves. The training saved time for the employees and money for the company. Unfortunately, one serious problem developed during the year. Two employees that Chris hired were stealing, and he had to fire them. Chris knows that a new job for a purchasing and maintenance manager for the whole company will be open in a few months, and he would like to be promoted to the job. Chris knows, however, that someone else wants that new job, too. Kim is in charge of purchasing and maintenance in another Division of the company. She has also made several changes over the year. Chris knows that his boss likes Kim’s work, and he expects that his work will be compared with hers.

　　听力点睛：

　　这篇文章讲述了Chris在职场上的一次经历。

　　Chris在Taxlong公司负责采购和维修设备。他即将要和领导针对过去一年的工作进行一个回顾总结，他心里希望可以得到晋升。在过去这一年里，他也做了不少贡献，买了许多能够提高效率的设备，但是他手下有两个职员因为偷窃而被开除了。除此以外，公司里面还有一个女同事Kim，是他这次晋级的竞争对手，她也一样很优秀。

　　这篇文章没有什么生词，难度较低。题目中考察细节问题比较多，需要同学们可以准确地在看到题目之后locate文章中对应题目的是哪一部分。

　　Questions 29 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. What is Chris’s main responsibility at Taxlong Company?

　　A) Directing personnel evaluation.

　　B) Buying and maintain equipment.

　　C) Drawing up plans for in-service training.

　　D) Interviewing and recruiting employees.

　　答案： B) Buying and maintain equipment.

　　30. What problem did Chris encounter in his Division?

　　A) Some of his equipment was damaged in a fire.

　　B) The training program he ran was failure.

　　C) Two of his workers were injured at work.

　　D) Two of his employees committed theft.

　　答案：D)Two of his employees committed theft.

　　31. What does Chris hope for in the near future?

　　A) A better relationship with his boss.

　　B) Advancement to a higher position

　　C) A better-paying job in another company

　　D) Improvement in the company’s management

　　答案：B)Advancement to a higher position.

　　32 What do we learn about Kim from the passage?

　　A)She has more self-confidence than Chris.

　　B)She works with Chris in the same division.

　　C)She has more management experience than Chris.

　　D) She is competing with Chris for the new job.

　　答案：D) She is competing with Chris for the new job.

　　Passage Three

　　Proverbs, sometimes called sayings, are examples of folk wisdom. They are little lessons which older people of a culture pass down to the younger people to teach them about life. Many proverbs remind people of the values that are important in the culture. Values teach people how to act, what is right, and what is wrong. Because the values of each culture are different, understanding the values of another culture helps explain how people think and act. Understanding your own culture values is important too. If you can accept that people from other cultures act according to their values, not yours, getting along with them will be much easier. Many proverbs are very old. So some of the values they teach may not be as important in the culture as they once were. For example, Americans today do not pay much attention to the proverb “Haste makes waste”, because patience is not important to them. But if you know about past values, it helps you to understand the present and many of the older values are still strong today. Benjamin Franklin, a famous American diplomat, writer and scientist, died in 1790, but his proverb “Time is money” is taken more seriously by Americans of today than ever before. A study of proverbs from around the world shows that some values are shared by many cultures. In many cases though, the same idea is expressed differently.

　　听力点睛：

　　这篇文章是一篇说明文。

　　从科学客观的角度讲述了Proverb谚语的一些知识。包括它的定义-----是老一辈人传给后代的生活经验，生活价值观。不同国家，不同文化中的谚语往往可以揭示不同的价值观。如果能够理解其他文化的谚语，价值观，那么会在跨文化交际中避免很多麻烦。

　　作者又提到，一些谚语年代久远。其中包含的价值观随着时代的变迁可能重要性也发生了改变。并且举了Haste makes waste. 和Time is money. 这样两个例子。

　　作者最后再次表明，通过学习不同国家的谚语，会发现一些国家会有相同或者相似的价值观，只是有可能表达的方式有所不同而已。

　　这篇说明文对考生的要求在于快速划分出作者想说明的几个点。一般通常写说明文章的顺序都是先说明要点，然后用一些事实来进一步说明。

　　Questions 32- 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　33 Why are proverbs so important?

　　A) They help us see the important values of a culture.

　　B)They guide us in handling human relationships.

　　C)They help us express ourselves more effectively.

　　D)They are an infinite source of human knowledge.

　　答案：A)They help us see the important values of a culture.

　　34 According to the speaker what happens to some proverbs with the passage of time?

　　A)Their wordings may become different.

　　B) The values they reflect may change.

　　C)Their origins can no longer be traced.

　　D) They may be misinterpreted.

　　答案：B) The values they reflect may change.

　　35 What do we learn from the study of proverbs from around the world?

　　A)

　　B)

　　C)

　　D)

　　答案：

　　Section C

　　Compound Dictation

　　Our lives are woven together. As much as I enjoy my own（36）company, I no longer imagine I can get through a （37）single day much less all my life，（38）completely on my own. Even if I am on（39） vacation in the mountains, I am eating food someone else has grown, living in a house someone else has built, wearing clothes someone else has（40） sewn from cloth woven by others, using （41）electricity someone else is distributing to my house. （42）Evidence of interdependence is everywhere; we are on this （43）journey together.

　　As I was growing up,（44） I remember being carefully taught that independence not interdependence was everything. “Make your own way”,” Stand on your own two feet” or my mother’s favorite remark when I was face-to-face with consequences of some action: Now that you’ve made your bed, lie on it.

　　Total independence is a dominant thing in our culture. I imagine that （45）what my parents were trying to teach me was to take responsibilities for my actions and my choices. But the teaching was shaped by our cultural imagines. And instead, I grew up believing that I was supposed to be totally independent and consequently became very reluctant to ask for help.

　　（47）I would do almost anything not to be a burden, and not require any help from anybody.