2018年英語專四真題答案解析（含聽力原文）
2018年英語專四真題答案解析（含聽力原文）
PART I DICTATION
Emotional Reaction to Music
No matter who you are, where you live, / or what your cultural background is, / people get some pleasure from listening to their favorite music. / However, some people are simply not capable of enjoying music. / This is not because they can’t experience pleasure at all. / They don’t have trouble hearing music properly, either. / Instead, they’re just indifferent to music. / Researchers have conducted studies to find out / why some people have no emotional reaction to music. / However, despite their efforts, the mystery remains.
PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A TALK
1. seven
2. sounds
3. cognitive
4. a sound changes
5. six-month-old
6. discriminate the
7. their first birthda
8. totally equivalen
9. incredible differe
10. taking statistics
SECTION B CONVERSATIONS
Conversation One
1. According to the man, what is a British characteristic?
答案：C. The British are unable to speak a foreign language.
2. What is the second most-spoken language in the UK?
答案：B. Polish.
3. Why was the 1,000 Words Campaign launched?
答案：A. To help improve international trade.
4.According to the man, which is not considered an advantage of learning a foreign language?
答案：D. It makes you work hard.
5. What’s the most probable relationship between the man and the woman?
答案：B. Schoolmates.
Conversation Two
6. According to Alice, what is a phobia?
答案：A. An unreasonable fear.
7. What are the chances of getting knocked off one’s bicycle and killed in a one-mile journey?
答案：C. One in fourteen million.
8. What kind of event do people tend to worry about?
答案：B. Catastrophic events.
9. Which may involve a chronic risk?
答案：D. Smoking cigarettes.
10. Why do some people enjoy risks?
答案：A. They get pleasure from risks.
嬰兒的語言天賦
The Linguistic Gift of Babies
大家早上好。在今天的課上，我要講一些你們看不到的東西。也就是：嬰兒的大腦裏是如何運轉的。
Good morning, everyone. In today's lecture, I'm going to talk about something you can't see. That is, what's going on in the little brain of a baby.
例如，嬰兒如何學習一門語言。
For example, how babies learn a language.
這是一個大家很感興趣的問題。
It is always a question people show great interest in.
嬰兒和七歲之前的兒童都是天才，七歲後就會出現系統性的衰退。
Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there's a systematic decline.
我的實驗室裏工作的重點就是發育的第一個關鍵時期，在這個關鍵時期，嬰兒試圖掌握在他們的語言中用到的音。
Work in my lab is focused on the first critical period in development, and that is the period in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language.
我們認爲，通過研究聲音是如何習得的，我們將建立一個適用於語言其他方面的模型，也可能適用於兒童時期可能存在的社交、情感和認知發展關鍵時期的模型。
We think, by studying how the sounds are learned, we'll have a model for the rest of language, and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development.
所以我們一直在通過實驗來研究這些嬰兒。
So we've been studying the babies by conducting an experiment.
在我們的實驗中，嬰兒，通常是6個月大的嬰兒，坐在父母的膝蓋上，我們訓練他們當音變化的時候轉過頭去，比如從“啊”變成“咿”的時候。
During our experiment, the baby, usually a six-monther, sits on a parent's lap, and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes—like from "ah" to "ee".
如果他們在正確的時候這樣做，黑盒子就會亮起來，熊貓就會敲鼓。我們學到了什麼?
If they do so at the appropriate time, the black box lights up and a panda bear pounds a drum. What have we learned?
全世界的嬰兒就是我所說的“世界公民”。
Well, babies all over the world are what I like to describe as "citizens of the world".
他們可以區分所有語言的所有音，不管我們測試的是哪個國家，用的是什麼語言，這很了不起，因爲你知道，我做不到。
They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using, and that's remarkable because you know, I can't do that.
我們的聽力受到了文化限制。
We're culture-bound listeners.
我們能分辨出自己語言的音，卻分辨不出外語的音。
We can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages.
所以問題就來了：這些世界公民什麼時候會變成我們這樣只能聽懂某一種語言的人?
So the question arises: When do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are?
答案是：在他們一週歲之前。
And the answer: before their first birthdays.
這裏是東京和美國西雅圖參加測試的嬰兒在轉頭實驗中的表現，此時他們聽到了“ra”和“la”，這是英語中很重要的發音，日語中卻不重要。
What you see here is performance on that head-turn task for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States, here in Seattle, as they listened to the "ra" and "la" — sounds important to English, but not to Japanese.
所以在6到8個月大的時候，嬰兒們的表現是完全一樣的。
So at six to eight months, the babies are totally equivalent.
兩個月後，一些不可思議的事情發生了。
Two months later, something, something incredible occurs.
美國的嬰兒表現越來越好，而日本的嬰兒表現越來越差。
The babies in the United States are getting a lot better while babies in Japan are getting a lot worse.
問題是，在這兩個月的關鍵時期發生了什麼?
So the question is: What's happening during this critical two-month period?
我們知道這是辯聲能力發展的關鍵時期，但是究竟發生了什麼?
We know this is the critical period for sound development, but what's going on up there?
也許發生了兩件事。
Maybe there are two things going on.
首先，嬰兒們全神貫注地聽我們說話，他們一邊聽我們說話一邊做統計——他們在做統計。
The first is that the babies are listening intently to us, and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk—they're taking statistics.
也就是說，兩個嬰兒聽他們自己的母親說媽媽語——我們和孩子說話時使用的通用語。
That is to say, the two babies listen to their own mother speaking motherese—the universal language we use when we talk to kids.
在產生語言的過程中，當嬰兒聽的時候，他們所做的就是做統計，也就是說，他們聽到的語言的聲音分佈。
During the production of speech, when babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics, that is, sound distribution on the language that they hear.
這些聲音分佈不斷完善，嬰兒就吸收更多。
And those sound distributions grow and babies absorb more.
我們發現，嬰兒對統計數據很敏感，而且日語和英語的統計數據非常非常不同。
And what we've learned is that babies are sensitive to the statistics, and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different.
我的意思是，兩種語言的聲音分佈是不同的。
I mean, the sound distribution of both languages is different.
所以嬰兒會吸收語言的統計數據，這會改變他們的大腦;
So babies absorb the statistics of the language and it changes their brains;
這使他們從世界公民變成了我們這些受到文化限制只能聽懂某一種語言的人，因爲我們成年後就不再吸收這些數據。
it changes them from the citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners that we are because we as adults are no longer absorbing those statistics.
當然，在這種情況下，我們認爲聲音分佈趨於穩定時，語言的學習可能會減慢。
In this case, of course, we're arguing that the learning of language material may slow down when our distribution stabilizes.
好的。今天，我們剛剛討論了最近的一個關於嬰兒語言能力發展的項目。
OK. Today, we just talked about a recent project on babies' language development.
在下一講中，我們將集中討論雙語者，雙語者如何同時記住兩組數據。
In our next lecture, we will concentrate on bilingual people, how bilinguals keep two sets of statistics in mind at once.
PART I DICTATION
Emotional Reaction to Music
No matter who you are, where you live, / or what your cultural background is, / people get some pleasure from listening to their favorite music. / However, some people are simply not capable of enjoying music. / This is not because they can’t experience pleasure at all. / They don’t have trouble hearing music properly, either. / Instead, they’re just indifferent to music. / Researchers have conducted studies to find out / why some people have no emotional reaction to music. / However, despite their efforts, the mystery remains.
PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A TALK
1. seven
2. sounds
3. cognitive
4. a sound changes
5. six-month-old
6. discriminate the
7. their first birthda
8. totally equivalen
9. incredible differe
10. taking statistics
SECTION B CONVERSATIONS
Conversation One
1. According to the man, what is a British characteristic?
答案：C. The British are unable to speak a foreign language.
2. What is the second most-spoken language in the UK?
答案：B. Polish.
3. Why was the 1,000 Words Campaign launched?
答案：A. To help improve international trade.
4.According to the man, which is not considered an advantage of learning a foreign language?
答案：D. It makes you work hard.
5. What’s the most probable relationship between the man and the woman?
答案：B. Schoolmates.
Conversation Two
6. According to Alice, what is a phobia?
答案：A. An unreasonable fear.
7. What are the chances of getting knocked off one’s bicycle and killed in a one-mile journey?
答案：C. One in fourteen million.
8. What kind of event do people tend to worry about?
答案：B. Catastrophic events.
9. Which may involve a chronic risk?
答案：D. Smoking cigarettes.
10. Why do some people enjoy risks?
答案：A. They get pleasure from risks.
嬰兒的語言天賦
The Linguistic Gift of Babies
大家早上好。在今天的課上，我要講一些你們看不到的東西。也就是：嬰兒的大腦裏是如何運轉的。
Good morning, everyone. In today's lecture, I'm going to talk about something you can't see. That is, what's going on in the little brain of a baby.
例如，嬰兒如何學習一門語言。
For example, how babies learn a language.
這是一個大家很感興趣的問題。
It is always a question people show great interest in.
嬰兒和七歲之前的兒童都是天才，七歲後就會出現系統性的衰退。
Babies and children are geniuses until they turn seven, and then there's a systematic decline.
我的實驗室裏工作的重點就是發育的第一個關鍵時期，在這個關鍵時期，嬰兒試圖掌握在他們的語言中用到的音。
Work in my lab is focused on the first critical period in development, and that is the period in which babies try to master which sounds are used in their language.
我們認爲，通過研究聲音是如何習得的，我們將建立一個適用於語言其他方面的模型，也可能適用於兒童時期可能存在的社交、情感和認知發展關鍵時期的模型。
We think, by studying how the sounds are learned, we'll have a model for the rest of language, and perhaps for critical periods that may exist in childhood for social, emotional and cognitive development.
所以我們一直在通過實驗來研究這些嬰兒。
So we've been studying the babies by conducting an experiment.
在我們的實驗中，嬰兒，通常是6個月大的嬰兒，坐在父母的膝蓋上，我們訓練他們當音變化的時候轉過頭去，比如從“啊”變成“咿”的時候。
During our experiment, the baby, usually a six-monther, sits on a parent's lap, and we train them to turn their heads when a sound changes—like from "ah" to "ee".
如果他們在正確的時候這樣做，黑盒子就會亮起來，熊貓就會敲鼓。我們學到了什麼?
If they do so at the appropriate time, the black box lights up and a panda bear pounds a drum. What have we learned?
全世界的嬰兒就是我所說的“世界公民”。
Well, babies all over the world are what I like to describe as "citizens of the world".
他們可以區分所有語言的所有音，不管我們測試的是哪個國家，用的是什麼語言，這很了不起，因爲你知道，我做不到。
They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country we're testing and what language we're using, and that's remarkable because you know, I can't do that.
我們的聽力受到了文化限制。
We're culture-bound listeners.
我們能分辨出自己語言的音，卻分辨不出外語的音。
We can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages.
所以問題就來了：這些世界公民什麼時候會變成我們這樣只能聽懂某一種語言的人?
So the question arises: When do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are?
答案是：在他們一週歲之前。
And the answer: before their first birthdays.
這裏是東京和美國西雅圖參加測試的嬰兒在轉頭實驗中的表現，此時他們聽到了“ra”和“la”，這是英語中很重要的發音，日語中卻不重要。
What you see here is performance on that head-turn task for babies tested in Tokyo and the United States, here in Seattle, as they listened to the "ra" and "la" — sounds important to English, but not to Japanese.
所以在6到8個月大的時候，嬰兒們的表現是完全一樣的。
So at six to eight months, the babies are totally equivalent.
兩個月後，一些不可思議的事情發生了。
Two months later, something, something incredible occurs.
美國的嬰兒表現越來越好，而日本的嬰兒表現越來越差。
The babies in the United States are getting a lot better while babies in Japan are getting a lot worse.
問題是，在這兩個月的關鍵時期發生了什麼?
So the question is: What's happening during this critical two-month period?
我們知道這是辯聲能力發展的關鍵時期，但是究竟發生了什麼?
We know this is the critical period for sound development, but what's going on up there?
也許發生了兩件事。
Maybe there are two things going on.
首先，嬰兒們全神貫注地聽我們說話，他們一邊聽我們說話一邊做統計——他們在做統計。
The first is that the babies are listening intently to us, and they're taking statistics as they listen to us talk—they're taking statistics.
也就是說，兩個嬰兒聽他們自己的母親說媽媽語——我們和孩子說話時使用的通用語。
That is to say, the two babies listen to their own mother speaking motherese—the universal language we use when we talk to kids.
在產生語言的過程中，當嬰兒聽的時候，他們所做的就是做統計，也就是說，他們聽到的語言的聲音分佈。
During the production of speech, when babies listen, what they're doing is taking statistics, that is, sound distribution on the language that they hear.
這些聲音分佈不斷完善，嬰兒就吸收更多。
And those sound distributions grow and babies absorb more.
我們發現，嬰兒對統計數據很敏感，而且日語和英語的統計數據非常非常不同。
And what we've learned is that babies are sensitive to the statistics, and the statistics of Japanese and English are very, very different.
我的意思是，兩種語言的聲音分佈是不同的。
I mean, the sound distribution of both languages is different.
所以嬰兒會吸收語言的統計數據，這會改變他們的大腦;
So babies absorb the statistics of the language and it changes their brains;
這使他們從世界公民變成了我們這些受到文化限制只能聽懂某一種語言的人，因爲我們成年後就不再吸收這些數據。
it changes them from the citizens of the world to the culture-bound listeners that we are because we as adults are no longer absorbing those statistics.
當然，在這種情況下，我們認爲聲音分佈趨於穩定時，語言的學習可能會減慢。
In this case, of course, we're arguing that the learning of language material may slow down when our distribution stabilizes.
好的。今天，我們剛剛討論了最近的一個關於嬰兒語言能力發展的項目。
OK. Today, we just talked about a recent project on babies' language development.
在下一講中，我們將集中討論雙語者，雙語者如何同時記住兩組數據。
In our next lecture, we will concentrate on bilingual people, how bilinguals keep two sets of statistics in mind at once.
Conversation Two
對話2
Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two.
根據對話2回答第6題到第10題
W: Hello, and welcome to today's program. I'm Alice.
女：大家好，歡迎來到今天的節目。我是愛麗絲。
M: And I'm Jack. Hello.
男：我是傑克。大家好。
W: Hello, Jack. You're off on holiday
tomorrow, aren't you?
女：你好，傑克。你明天休假，是嗎?
M: I am and you know, and I'm dreading it. I hate flying!
男：是的，你知道，我很害怕。我討厭坐飛機!
W: Do you? I didn't know you had a phobia— and that means a strong and
unreasonable fearof something.
女：是嗎?我不知道你有恐懼症——就是對某種事物強烈而不合理的恐懼。
M: Well, I don't think this is a phobia
because it isn't unreasonable. Flying
thousands of feet upin the sky, you know,
that's not safe!
男：嗯，我不認爲這是恐懼症，因爲它並非沒有道理。你知道，在幾千英尺的高空飛行很不安全!
W: Flying is safer than you think, Jack. It's much riskier to drive or cycle to work. And, actually, risk taking is the subject of today's show!
女：乘飛機比你想象得要安全，傑克。開車或騎車上班風險更大。冒險!就是今天節目的主題!
Risk means the chances of something bad happening. For example, did you know that your chance of being knocked off your bicycle and killed during a onemile journey is the
same as your chances of winning the lottery?
風險是指發生壞事的可能性。例如，你知道一英里之內你騎自行車被撞倒撞死的機率和你中彩票的機率是一樣大的嗎?
M: I didn't know that.
男：我不知道。
W: Can you guess what are the chances of either of these two things happening?
女：你能猜到這兩種情況發生的概率是多少嗎?
M: I have no idea. One in a million?
男：我不知道。一百萬分之一嗎?
W: No, it's one in 14 million. You are as likely to win the national lottery from a single ticket asyou are to be knocked off your bicycle and killed during a one-mile journey.
女：不，是1千4百萬分之一。你中全國彩票頭獎的可能性就像一英里之內你騎自行車被撞倒撞死的可能性一樣大。
M: But why are we bad at assessing risk?
男：但是爲什麼我們不善於評估風險呢?
W: People typically fear anything which is small probability but it's extremely
catastrophicifit were to happen…
女：通常人們害怕的都是發生的可能性很小，但如果發生的話，將會是一場災難的事情……
Recently we have another increase in these birds' virus outbreaks. People read about that.
最近這些鳥類病毒爆發事件又增加了。大家都知道這些。
And they may pay a lot of attention to that in the news but they may forget to get their flu shot.
他們可能會在新聞中注意到這一點，但他們可能會忘記注射流感疫苗。
M: That's right. We tend to worry about big or catastrophic events such as catching bird flu ordying in a plane crash because we reacte
motionally to them.
男：對。我們傾向於擔心重大或災難性的事件，如感染禽流感或飛機失事傷亡，因爲我們情緒上會對它們產生反應。
W: Yeah. Catastrophic events feel like very real threats, while we tend to forget about thesmall but chronic risks that become more likely over time.
女：是的。災難性的事件感覺起來是非常真實的威脅，而我們往往會忘記那些隨着時間的推移變得更有可能發生的，小而長期的風險。
M: We do. So for example, what if there was a cigarette that killed you as soon as you smokedit?
男：是的。舉個例子，如果有一根菸，你一抽完就會死，會出現什麼樣的情況?
Nobody would do that, would they?
沒有人會那樣做，對不對?
W: No, they wouldn't.
女：對，沒有人會那樣做。
M: But plenty of people are happy to smoke for years, and put off worrying about the healthrisksfor the future.
男：但是很多人很樂意吸菸很多年，並沒有擔心未來可能出現的健康風險。
W: Yes, that's a good point, Jack! People feel they are in control of risks that stretch overtime. You know, they think,"I could stop tomorrow" or "I could smoke less".
女：是的，說得好，傑克!隨着時間的推移，人們覺得他們能夠控制住風險。你知道，他們會想，“我明天可以停下來”或者“我可以少抽菸”。
But what about people who really enjoy
taking big risks— those thrill seekers out there?
但是那些真正喜歡冒險的人——那些尋求刺激的人呢?
M: People who enjoy extreme sports actually seek out danger— it gives them extremepleasure!
男：喜歡極限運動的人實際上是在尋找危險，那給了他們極大的樂趣!
If the risk is really high, it means that the pleasure needs to be equally high, or hopefully evenhigher...
如果風險真的很高，那就意味着其中樂趣需要同樣高，甚至更高……
W: You're right.
女：你說的對。
PART III LANGUAGE USAGE
11. C. is believed to have been
12. D. has been maintaining
13. B. otherwise
14. C. hazy blue Virginia
15. A. the evil
16. D. are of war
17. A. its most basic
18. C. to reveal an undesirable consequence
19. B. Jim turned to speak to the person standing behind him.
20. A. a hypothesis
21. C. trial
22. B. Arguably
23. C. offset
24. D. recollection
25. B. constitutes
26. D. extra
27. A. filed
28. D. wreck
29. C. countless
30. D. maritime
PART IV CLOZE
31. M. unknown
32. B. automatically
33. F. kind
34. I. one
35. C. couple
36. N. virtue
37. E. indebtedness
38. D. goes
39. O. widespread
40. L. subscribe
PART V READING COMPREHENSION
SECTION A MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
41. D. successful competition is essential in American society
42. B. Cause and effect.
43. C. Sarcastic.
44. A. They would enjoy a much larger readership.
45. D. Awards ceremonies are held for all sorts of reasons.
46. C. source of funding
47. B. promote market rather than achievements
48. C. Her sister Josephine told her.
49. B. sat in an armchair all the time
50. A. She was indifferent now.
SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
51. Individual freedom.
52. Some awards aren’t rewards for real achievements.
53. Some awards for sports fail to achieve positive social effects.
54. Her mood changed from distress to excitement and joy.
55. The real cause was her extreme disappointment.
