2021年12月英语四级听力真题：听力篇章1
Passage 1
Homework is an important part of schooling, but the purposes of giving children homework will change as they grow older. Q16: At the primary level, the main aim is to cultivate good habits, like learning to plan and exercising self discipline. During the secondary school years, extending what is learned at school is positively related to academic achievement. So the content of homework becomes more important. So how can you help your child do their best? Q17: Creating an ideal working environment will make it easier for them to get down to their assignments quickly. Make sure it’s free of distractions. And for primary school children at least somewhere near you. So you can answer questions and offer encouragement. You probably have to help younger children plan their session. But it’s important that by the end of primary school, it’s second nature get them to tell you everything they have to do, then encourage them to establish an order in which they do work. Q18: When there are several different assignments, make sure they begin with one they enjoy. So it seems easy to get started. It’s best to take on the most difficult task second. Once they’re settled, but before they get tired, if older children have more than an hour of homework, encourage them to schedule a short break to stretch. If you encourage them to tell you what they’ve learned, they’ll absorb the information more deeply and remember it more readily.
Question 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 16. What is the main aim of homework for primary school kids?
Question 17. What does the passage suggest parents do to help their children?
Question 18. What should children do to deal with multiple assignments?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：听力篇章2
Passage 2
Workers at Mexican Oil Company will receive a health incentive of almost $300 a year if they meet certain body weight standards. To qualify for the bonus, Q19: they must maintain a healthy weight. For those who are overweight or obese, they can receive the bonus if they reduce their weight by 10 % during the year. Some applaud the policy as fair, because it rewards both individuals who maintain a healthy weight and those who are working towards achieving it.
Q20: But critics say the policy contradicts recommendations by many health experts who warned that a person’s weight is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. That means weight can be hard for individuals to control, which makes the bonus unfair. Some experts say the policy is inconsistent with the science of what we know about body weight regulation. These experts argue that focusing on wage is the wrong approach. Q21: A more productive method of encouraging health among employees is to promote healthy behaviors. For example, companies can give workers gym memberships, or encourage participation in lectures on healthy eating and living. They can also reduce sweets and provide healthier snacks in the office and healthier meals at the company canteen. Or they can give employees more time during their lunch break to exercise. These are much better and much more productive ways for companies to move forward on their employees’ well being.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 19. Who will qualify for the bonus in Mexican Oil Company?
Question 20. What do critics think of Mexican Oil Company’s bonus policy?
Question 21. What do experts propose companies do about workers’ well being?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：听力篇章3
Passage 3
Campaigners have warned that the Q22: British government is not doing enough to prevent left-handed pupils from falling behind their peers. They claim that thousands of children are still being penalized for being left-handed. This is due to a lack of action from ministers who failed to take any meaningful action for years. It is feared that a failure to address early year challenges such as poor handwriting is too much more serious problems down the line with these pupils facing reduced career prospects. Q23: Studies in recent years show that left-handed children are more likely to suffer with learning difficulties, and their scores are lower on IQ tests. Campaigners feel it’s strange that children and British schools are penalized because they happen to be left-handed. They don’t understand why successive governments have failed to act on this. Q24: They want the Department of Education to record which children are left-handed and what their educational attainments are since they make up some 10 % of the population. In early year education, left-handed children are struggling and making a mess of their handwriting. Educators don’t know how to deal with this. In many cases, there’s no active help and a lack of teacher training. Q25: Campaigners point out that a high percentage of the prison population is left-handed. They say that these prison numbers are unusually high and ask why it is the case.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 22. Why are some people criticizing the British government?
Question 23. What do studies in recent years show about left-handed children?
Question 24. What do the campaigners demand the Department of Education do?
Question 25. What do the campaigners want to know about left-handed prisoners?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：长对话1
Conversation one.
W: I can’t believe that duck hunting is still legal in so many parts of the world [8]. The scientific evidence from countries like Australia, Canada, and the USA clearly indicates a decline in the birds’ numbers.
M: But can anyone be sure if the decline is really caused by the hunting or by climate change [9]?
W: It’s caused by both in fact [9]. We see more droughts in countries like Australia. Ducks are birds that feed and breed in areas where there is a lot of water, but their habitats have been shrinking in recent decades because of the droughts.
M: And I guess with fewer places to inhabit, they concentrate in greater numbers in few areas, which surely makes them easier targets for the hunters.
W: It does. My grandfather was a duck hunter. He told me hunting ducks and geese began in the 19th century. They were easily found and plentifully available food source in farming areas, especially for poor immigrants.
M: What do they use for hunting during that period?
W: They use new types of guns, and birds could easily be shot down in flight, and in such great numbers that commercial hunting of ducks and geese became an industry. Yet, there’s no commercial farming of these birds nowadays. Their meat is hardly eaten in western countries [10].
M: No, duck hunting seemingly exists as the continuation of a tradition.
W: Well, ducks have never been popular with farmers like my grandfather anyway because they sometimes destroy crops. In fact, farmers used to poison them in large numbers [11].
M: That somehow doesn’t surprise me. Nobody places much value on the lives of these poor birds or on their meat.
8. What does the woman find unbelievable?
9. What does the woman say has caused the shrinking of ducks’ habitats in Australia?
10. Why is there no commercial farming of ducks and geese in western countries?
11. What does the woman say about farmers in her grandfather’s time?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：长对话2
Conversation two
M: Okay, Miss Bright. I finished calculating. I estimate you have between 210 and 240 square meters of walls and ceiling.
W: So how much would the pain job cost?
M: That would depend on the quality of paint you choose. We carry two brands -one cost 60 cents every square meter, and the other 90 cents. The second is guaranteed to look great for about 10 years, whereas the cheaper one will start to dull after around 6 or 7 years.
W: In that case, we would prefer the more expensive option.
M: All right, then. So including labor costs, taxes, and everything, this job would come to $3,000.
W: Emm, to be perfectly honest, that’s more than I expected.
M: Please bear in mind that the price includes moving all the furniture, and the whole task would take 2 days.
W: Really? Why?
M: Well, we can’t paint the walls without clearing all the furniture first. So every time we paint a room, we first have to move the furniture to another room. So that takes more time. Plus, it requires two people, which works out more expensive.
W: I see. But does that mean I could not live here in my own house during those 2 days [13]?
M: That is correct.
W: Oh well, that changes everything I’m afraid. I would have to stay with a friend or check into a hotel [14]. I hadn’t considered any of that. I’m starting to realize that painting my house [12] is far more troublesome than I had anticipated [15].
M: This is usually the case. Most of our clients go through the same realization.
W: I see.
M: You have my number. Please feel free to call me for any further questions.
W: Thank you.
12. What is the woman planning to do?
13. What is the woman’s chief concern?
14. What does the woman have to do while the paint job is being done?
15, What has the woman come to realize at the end of the conversation?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：短篇新闻1
新闻
News report 1
United Airlines has apologized for mistakenly shipping an American family’s pet dog in the wrong direction to Japan. The dog owner’s beloved 10-year-old dog named Buddy, took an unexpected 16-hour flight to Tokyo following a mix-up by the airline. The dog owner’s family are currently in the process of moving. They were meant to be reunited with the pet in their new home city in Texas. But, when they arrived at the United Airlines cargo facility in the southern US state, they found a stranger’s dog waiting in Buddy’s place. Both of the dogs had been sent to the wrong destinations on connecting flights from Denver, with Buddy mistakenly being sent to Japan instead. Buddy was given a physical check-up when he arrived at Tokyo’s International Airport. The dog was then sent back to the US on a private chartered jet. “I’m so glad he’s alive and coming home soon,” said the relieved dog owner. “An error occurred during the connections in Denver. We have notified our customers that their pets arrived safely. We will arrange to return the pens to them as soon as possible,” a spokesperson of United Airlines said.
Q1 What does the news before say about United Airlines?
Q2 what did the spokesperson for United Airlines say they would do after the incident?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：短篇新闻2
四级
News Report 2
Officials at Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona, are celebrating the birth of a baby elephant. Zoo officials say the baby was born on Monday. It is a female, and she weighs nearly 130 kilograms. Q3: Samba, her mother is a 30-year-old African elephant. The pregnancy lasted 22 months. Officials describe the baby elephant as healthy, standing and nursing. The baby hasn’t been given a name yet. Samba has given birth before. Zoo officials said during this pregnancy, she was closely monitored through physical exams and blood tests. Doctor Sue Tagalsky is the zoo’s director of the zoological operations. Q4: She said the elephant’s birth went smoothly and, that there were no complications. The new baby expands the zoo’s elephant herd to six. That includes the baby’s parents, a sister, a brother, and an adult female.
Question three and four are based on the news report you have just heard.
Question three: What do we learn about the mother elephant Samba?
Question four: What does the report say about the birth of the new baby elephant?
2021年12月英语四级听力真题：短篇新闻3
News report 3
Three years ago, a couple was enjoying a meal at a beach restaurant. The restaurant was built on a wooden structure above the sea water. During the meal, the man’s wedding ring slipped off his finger. It fell through the wooden floorboards apparently lost forever.
Recently, the restaurant manager Ron Krivoy decided to replace the wooden deck, and he found an old gold coin, some $100 bills and a silver wedding ring while replacing the deck. The restaurant’s waitress, Sasha F Mecca posted a picture of the ring on Facebook. The post was shared about 5,000 times. 3 days later, the happy wife called to claim the ring. She even tested pictures of her and her husband eating there in 2017 as proof. The restaurant mailed the ring back to the happy couple. Meanwhile, Krivoy discovered that the gold coin was very rare. It was from 1855 and worth as much as $2,000.
Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report, you have just heard.
Question 5: What do we learn about the restaurant?
Question 6: What did the restaurant manager decide to do recently?
Question 7: What did the waitress do about the recovered ring?
