2020年7月大学英语四级考试真题及参考答案

2020年7月大学英语四级考试真题

PartⅠ Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the use

of translation can start your essay with the sentence “The use of

translation apps is becoming increasingly popular”. You should write at least

120 words but no more than 180 words.

Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension ( 25 minutes)

(略）

Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required

to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following

the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each

choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter

for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not

use any of the words in the bank more than once.

“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. ”Those were

the words uttered by Pioneering British scientist Rosalind Franklin, who firmly

believed that the pursuit of science should be 26 to all.

As a woman working in the first half of the 20th century, Franklin’s

contributions to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time including

the structure of DNA— were sadly 27 in her lifetime.

More than 60 years after Franklin’s death, we are 28 living in a different

world, where women play an important part in every echelon (阶层) of our society

— not least in science, innovation ,higher education and research. UK universities

are world leaders when it comes to advancing and 29 gender equality.

In the past decade, we have seen a 30 increase in England in the number of

women accepted on to full-time undergraduate degrees in science, technology,

engineering and maths(Stem subjects). And in the last academic year, women 31 for

more than half of all Stem postgraduates at UK universities.

Data shows us the 32 to success gets harder for women to climb the further

up they gh women make up the majority of undergraduates in our universities,

just under half of academic staff are female. At 33 levels, only a quarter of

professors are women, and black women make up less than 2% of all female academic

staff.

There are also stark differences in pay across grades. The gender pay gap based

on median salaries across the sector in 2016-2017 was 13.7%, 34 there is still

some way to go to ensure women are rising through the ranks to higher grade positions

and being paid 35 .

A) accessible F) effective K) promoting

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B) Accounted G) ladder L) senior

C) Adaptation H) misread M) submission

D) Appropriately I) nomination N) suggesting

E) Considerable J) overlooked O) thankfully

Section B

Directions: In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements

attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.

Identify the paragraph from which the information is may choose a

paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a the questions

by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

How to Eat Well

A) Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food,the stuff that is correctly

called junk (垃圾)and should really carry warning labels？

B) It's not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer more

variety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers'markets in the US

as there were 20 years ago. Nor is it for lack of available information. There are

plenty of recipes (食谱), how—to videos and cooking classes available to anyone

who has a computer, smartphone or television. If anything, the information is

overwhelming.

C) And yet we aren't cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like most

Americans, you probably get at least a third of your daily calories(卡路里) outside

the home. Nearly two-thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25%

of our daily calories from snacks, So we’re eating out or taking in.，and we

don ’t sit down— or we do, but we hurry。

D) Shouldn't preparing — and consuming - food be a source of comfort, pride, health，

well-being, relaxation,sociability?？Something that connects us to other humans?

Why would we want to outsource （外包）this basic task, especially when outsourcing

it is so harmful

E) When I talk about cooking, I'm not talking about creating elaborate dinner parties

or three-day science projects.I’m talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My

mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed themselves.

That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach people to

cook food that's good enough to share with family and friends.

F) Perhaps a return to real cooking needn't be far off. A recent Harris poll revealed

that 79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30%“love it”: 14% admit to not

enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won't go near the stove at all. But this doesn’t

necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn't

surprise anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week

only a third of young people do.

G) Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Mom cooked virtually

every night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much

universal. Most people couldn't afford to do otherwise.

H) Although frozen dinners were in the ’40s. their popularity didn’t boom

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until televisions became popular a decade or so later Since then, packaged, pre

-prepared meals have been what's for dinner, The microwave and fast- food chains

were the biggest catalysts (催化剂), but the big food companies-which want to sell

anything except the raw ingredients that go into cooking- made the home cook an

Endangered species.

I) Still,I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals

at home ’t this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and

champions craft cooking? And isn't this the generation who say they’re concerned

about their health and the well-being of the planet? If these are truly the values

of many young people ,then there behavior doesn’t match their beliefs.

J) There have been half-hearted but well- publicized efforts by some food companies

to reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still

the polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant-based diet that just about every

expert says we should be eating. Considering that the government's standards are

not nearly ambitious enough, the picture is clear:by not cooking at home.,we're not

Eating the right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate.

K) To help quantify (量化) the costs of a poor diet. I recently tried to estimate

this impact in terms of a most famous food, the burger(汉堡包), I concluded that

the profit from burgers is more than offset(抵消)by the damage they cause in health

problems and environmental harm.

L) Cooking real food is the best defense- not to mention that any meal you’re likely

to eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a

restaurant.

M) To those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what

you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop

the grocery store. since that's where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy

are. And to save money and still eat well you don't need local,organic ingredients;

all you need is real food. I'm not saying local food isn't better; it is. But there

is plenty of decent food in the grocery stores.

N) The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned

goods. Frozen produce is still produce; canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just

make sure you're getting real food without tons of added salt or yourself,

would Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in

nature? It’s pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable

foodlike objects.

O) You don’t have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance

of skill. Since fewer than half of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level

and only 20% describe their cooking skills as advanced,the crisis is one of

confidence. And the only remedy for that is practice. There's nothing mysterious

about cooking the evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and

redefine what qualifies as any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it

more; every time you cook, you advance your level of y you won't even

need recipes. My advice is that you not pay attention to the number of steps and

ingredients, because they can be deceiving.

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P) Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must

adjust your priorities to find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the

kitchen and watch your favorite shows while you're standing at the sink. No one is

asking you to give up activities you like, but if you're watching food shows on TV,

try cooking instead.

36. Cooking benefits people in many ways and enables them to connect with one another.

37. Abundant information about cooking is available either online or on TV.

38. Young people do less cooking at home than the elderly these days.

39. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.

40. In the mid—20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating

out.

41. Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves

and their family.

42. Eating food not cooked by ourselves can cause serious consequences.

43. To eat well and still save money, people should buy fresh food and cook it

themselves.

44. We get a fairly large portion of calories from fast food and snacks.

45. The popularity of TV led to the popularity of frozen food.

Section C

Directions:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some

questions or unfinished each of them there are four choices marked

A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding

letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 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

corner 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'lI 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

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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 or an iPad. The rounded edges,

cool glass, smooth and unknowable as a 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.

46. 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.

47. How are business transactions done in big modern stores?

A) Individually. C) In the abstract.

B) Electronically. D) Via a cash register

48. 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 casy.

49. 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.

50. 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 feels in the ever-changing modern world.

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

It's late in the evening: time to close the book and turn off the computer.

You ’re done for the you may not realize, however,is that the learning

process actually continues-in your dreams.

It might sound like science fiction, but researchers are increasingly focusing

on the relationship between the knowledge and skills our brains absorb during the

day and the fragmented,often bizarre imaginings they generate at night. Scientists

have found that dreaming about a task we've learned is associated with improved

performance in that activity (suggesting that there's some truth to the popular

notion that we're “getting” a foreign language once we begin dreaming in it).

What's more,researchers are coming to recognize that dreaming is an essential part

of understanding, organizing and retaining what we learn.

While we sleep, research indicates, the brain replays the patterns of activity

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it experienced during waking hours, allowing us to enter what one psychologist calls

a neural (神经的) virtual reality. A vivid example of such replay can be seen in

a video researchers made recently about sleep disorders. They taught a series of

dance moves to a group of patients with conditions like sleepwalking, in which the

sleeper engages in the kind physical movement that does not normally occur during

sleep. They then videotaped the subjects as they slept. Lying in bed, eyes closed,

one female patient on the tape performs the dance moves she learned earlier.

This shows that while our bodies are at rest, our brains are drawing what's

important from the information and events we've recently encountered, then

integrating that data into the vast store of what we already know. In a 2010 study,

researchers at Harvard Medical School reported that college students who dreamed

about a computer maze (迷宫) task they had learned showed a 10-fold improvement in

their ability to find their way through the maze compared with participants who did

not dream about the task.

Robert Stickgold, one of the Harvard researchers, suggests that studying right

before bedtime or taking a nap following a study session in the afternoon might

increase the odds of dreaming about the material. Think about that as your head hits

the pillow tonight.

51. What is scientists' finding about dreaming?

A) It involves disconnected, weird images.

B) It resembles fragments of science fiction.

C) Dreaming about a learned task betters its performance.

D) Dreaming about things being learned disturbs one's sleep.

52. What happens when one enters a dream state?

A) The body continues to act as if the sleeper were awake.

B) The neural activity of the brain will become intensified.

C) The brain behaves as if it were playing a virtual reality video game.

D) The brain once again experiences the learning activities of the day.

53. What does the brain do while we are sleeping?

A)It systematizes all the data collected during the day.

B)It substitutes old information with new data.

C)It processes and absorbs newly acquired data.

D)It classifies information and places it in different files.

54. What does Robert Stickgold suggest about enhancing learning?

A) Having a little sleep after studying in the day.

B) Staying up late before going to bed.

C) Having a dream about anything.

D) Thinking about the odds of dreaming about the material.

can be inferred about dreaming from the passage?

A)We may enhance our learning through dreaming.

B)Dreaming improves your language ability.

C)All sleepwalkers perform dance moves when they are sleeping.

D)Taking a nap after learning can help you find the way through the maze.

Part Ⅳ Translation (30 minutes)

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Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from

Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

在中国,火锅已有2,000多年的历史,最早流行于最寒冷的地区,然后在很多地区盛行，

出现了具有地方特色的种类。吃火锅时,家人和朋友围坐在桌边,桌于中间放着热腾腾的火锅。

吃火锅时人们可根据自己的口味放肉、海鲜、蔬菜和其他配料,自己烹饪。人们可以一边尽

情地聊天,一边享受美餐。

参考答案：

PartⅠ Writing

第1段开篇明义，指出翻译应用程序越来越受欢迎，这些应用

第1段

程序有其他优点和缺点。

第2段从正反两方面具体分析翻译应用程序的优缺点，一方面，

My View on the

它们使语言学习和人际交流变得更加方便；另一方面，它们使人

Popularity of

们放弃提高自己的语言能力，并且它们给出的翻译有很多语法错

Translation Apps

误。

第3段总结文章观点，用提出建议法和预测展望法结束全文。

参考范文

My View on the Popularity of Translation Apps

[1]The use of translation apps is becoming increasingly popular。Translation

apps have become an essential part of people’s life, especially among people who

are learning English and other foreign languages. [2] Just as a coin has two sides,

translation apps also have their advantages and disadvantages.

[3] On the one hand, they have made language learning much more convenient and

can help people who do not speak the same language communicate smoothly. [4] On the

other hand, many people are not willing to learn to improve their language ability

because the apps are easy to use. [5] Besides, the translation given by many

translation apps is full of grammatical errors, which is bound to seriously mislead

People’s learning and communication.

[6]Translation apps have changed people’s life in many ways, but they also

lead to some negative consequences. [7] People should discern good from bad when

using translation apps and use them reasonably and flexibly. [8] Only in this way

can translation apps better serve people and not the other way around.

点评：

【1】严格按照题目要求，开篇指出文章主旨：翻译应用程序越来越受欢迎。

【2】用明喻法指出翻译应用程序有其优点和缺点。

【3】【4】用 On the one hand和On the other hand指出翻译应用程序的优缺点，文章层

次分明，论证有理有据。

【5】用 Besides补充说明翻译应用程序存在的另一缺点：许多译文充满了语法错误，这势

必会严重误导人们的学习和交流。

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【6】末段首句总结观点，回扣主题。

【7】【8】提出建议并展望未来，是四级作文的经典结尾方式。

Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension

（略）

Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension

Section A

【文章来源】本文选自2019年3月8日发表在www. 上的一篇标题为

“ Universities need to promote more women to professor”(《大学需要提拔更多女性

成为教授》)的文章。

【结构框图】

第1、2段以女性科学家罗莎琳∙富兰克林为例，说明

女性的贡献被忽略了。

本文主要讲述女性在科学等

领域发挥着越来越重要的作

第3、4段对比前文,指出当今世界的女性在科学等领

用，但仍存在性别不平等，

域发挥若重要作用，如Stem学科的女性人数显著增

呼吁社会给予女性更高的职

加。

位和合适的薪酬。

第5、6段转折指出女性在高级职位和薪酬上仍受到

不平等待遇，呼吁社会给子女性给予女性更高的职位

更高的职位和合适的薪酬。

【词性分析】

名词：C) adaptation改编版；适应；G) ladder(在机构、专业或社会中晋升的)阶梯,途径；

梯子；I） nomination 提名； L) senior最高年级的学生；长者；M) submission屈服,

屈从

动词：B) accounted(for)占(一定数量或比例);H) misread对……判断错误;读错;J)

overlooked忽视,忽略;K) promoting促进,增进;N) suggesting显示,表明

形容词:A) accessible易进入的;易使用的; E) considerable相当大的: F) effective有

效的,产生预期效果的;L) senior资深的,高级的

副词:D) appropriately合适地,恰当地;O) thankfully庆幸地,满怀感激地

答案详解

26. 【考点】语义推断题

A）【语法判断】空格位于that引导的宾语从句中,从句的主语是 the pursuit of science,

谓语是 should be ,因此应填入动词的过去分词构成被动语态或者填入形容词.

【语义判断】文章首句是富兰克林的观点:科学和日常生活不能也不应该被分开。空格所在

宾语从句表达的是富兰克林坚信的观点。,accessible to all表示“所有人都可以

使用/获得某物”,将 accessible填入空格符合语义,故为答案.

27. 【考点】语义推断题。

J) 【语法判断】空格所在句的主语为 Franklin’s contributions,主语后面的 to some of

the greatest scientific discoveries of our time F和including the structure of DNA

均为后置定语,修饰主语。空格位于谓语 were sadly 中,因此应填入动词的过去分词构

成被动语态或者填人形容词。

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【语义判断】空格所在句的主干指出,说来遗憾,富兰克林的贡献在她的一生中都被 了。

空格前的sadly表示“不幸地,遗憾地”,有负面含义.备选项中的 overlooked填入空格,表

示她的贡献被忽视了,符合句意,故为答案。

28. 【考点】副词辨析题。

O) 【语法判断】空格位于be动词are之后,现在分词living之前,且句子基本成分完整,

因此空格处需要填入一个副词来修饰 living.

【语义判断】由上一段可知,富兰克林生活在她的贡献被忽视的年代,而空格所在句指出我们

生活在不同的世界,女性在各个阶层发挥着重要作用,由此可知空格处应填入正向的词。结合

备选副词可知, thankfully“庆幸地,满怀感激地”符合文义.

29. 【考点】动词辨析题。

K) 【语法判断】and连接 advancing“推进”和空格所填单词,表示并列,因此推断空格处

应填入动词的—ing形式。

【语义判断】本句中的 advancing.…gender equality表示“推进……性别平等”,因此空

格处应填入一个与“推进”意思相关的词,表达英国大学为推进性别平等所做的努力。结合

备选项可知,promoting“促进,增进”符合句意。

30. 【考点】形容词辨析题

E）【语法判断】空格位于不定冠词a和名词 increase之间,应填入形容词性的词来修饰

increase。

【语义判断】上一段提到英国大学在推进和促进性别平等方面处于世界领先地位,并列举了

其取得的成就。此处提到,在过去的十年里,我们看到英国攻读科学、技术、工程和数学(Stem

学科)全日制本科学位的女性人数 增加。结合所给形容词性选项, considerable“相

当大的”符合语义,故为答案。

31. 【考点】动词辨析题

B)【语法判断】空格所在句缺少谓语动词,故判断应填入动词。由句首的时间状语 in the last

academic year可推断本句时态是一般过去时,故此处应填入动词的过去式.

【语义判断】句首And说明本句句意与上句是并列或顺承的关系。上一句提到,在过去的十

年里,英国攻读Stem学科的女性人数增加。由此可推断本句顺承上一句指出Stem学科女性

研究生在英国大学中的占比。空格填入accounted与空后的for搭配, account for“占(一

定数量或比例)”符合句意,故为答案。

32. 【考点】名词辨析题

G)【语法判断】由空格前的定冠词the可推断空格处应填入名词。

【语义判断】分析句子结构可知,空格处作climb的宾语,即 to climb harder。结合

备选名词选项可知, ladder既可以作“梯子”讲,又可以意为“(在机构、专业或社会中晋

升的)阶梯,途径”代入原文符合语境,故为答案。

33. 【考点】形容词辨析题。

L) 【语法判断】空格位于介词At和复数名词 levels之间,应填入形容词性的词修饰

levels。

【语义判断】本段旨在说明越往上,攀登通往成功的阶梯对女性来说就越艰难。空格前一句

指出,女性虽然在本科生中占大多数,但在学术人员占比不到一半。接下来应该是讲在另一个

层面上,女性人数不多,由 professors可知,这个层次是更高的层次,故选 senior。

34. 【考点】语义推断题。

N）【语法判断】空格前后句子基本成分均完整,因此空格处应填入连词或分词形式。

【语义判断】空前句意为：2016年至2017年,基于全行业薪酬中位数的性别薪酬差距为13.7%。

空格后是要说明该数据所表明的问题或意义,结合所给选项, suggesting“显示,表明”符

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