2015年12月英语四级考试真题试卷及答案【三套全】

2015年12月英语四级考试真题及答案【三套全】

Part I Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Listening is more important than talking?" You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of paying attention to others' opinions. You should write at least 120

words but no more than 180

words.

注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上

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1.

A) They admire the courage of space explorers.

B) They were going to watch a wonderful movie.

C) They enjoyed the movie on space exploration.

D) They like doing scientific exploration very much.

2.

A) In a school library.

B) At a gift shop.

C) In the office of a travel agency.

D) At a graduation ceremony.

3.

A) He used to work in the art gallery.

B) He does not have a good memoiy.

C) He is not interested in any part-time jobs.

D) He declined a job offer from the art gallery.

4.

A) He will be unable to attend the birthday party.

B) The woman should have informed him earlier.

C) He will go to the birthday party after the lecture.

D) Susan has been invited to give a lecture tomorrow.

5.

A) Set a deadline for the staff to meet.

B) Assign more workers to the project.

C) Reward those having made good progress.

D) Encourage the staff to work in small groups.

6.

A) Where she can leave her car.

B) The rate for parking in Lot C.

C) How far away the parking lot is.

D) The way to the visitor's parking.

7.

A) He regrets missing the classes.

B) He has benefited from exercise.

C) He plans to take the fitness classes.

D) He is looking forward to a better life.

8.

A) How to select secretaries.

B) How to raise work efficiency.

C) The responsibilities of secretaries.

D) The secretaries in the man's company.

Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

9.

A) It is used by more people than English.

B) It is more difficult to learn than English.

C) It will be as commonly used as English.

D) It will eventually become a world language.

10.

A) Its popularity with the common people.

B) The effect of the Industrial Revolution.

C) The influence of the British Empire.

D) Its loan words from many languages.

11.

A) It has a growing number of newly coined words.

B) It includes a lot of words from other languages.

C) It is the largest among all languages in the world.

D) It can be easily picked up by overseas travellers.

Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

12.

A) To place an order.

B) To apply for a job.

C) To return some goods.

D) To make a complaint.

13.

A) He works on a part-time basis for the company.

B) He has not worked in the sales department for long.

C) He is not familiar with the exact details of the goods.

D) He has become somewhat impatient with the woman.

14.

A) It is not his responsibility.

B) It win be free for large orders.

C) It depends on a number of factors.

D) It costs ￡15 more for express delivery.

15.

A) Make inquiries with some other companies.

B) Report the information to her superior.

C) Pay a visit to the saleswoman in charge.

D) Ring back when she comes to a decision.

Passage One

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

16.

A) No one knows for sure when they came into being.

B) No one knows exactly where they were first made.

C) No one knows for what purpose they were invented.

D) No one knows what they will look like in the future.

17.

A) Measure the speed of wind.

B) Give warnings of danger.

C) Pass on secret messages.

D) Carry ropes across rivers.

18.

A) To find out the strength of silk for kites.

B) To test the effects of the lightning rod.

C) To prove that lightning is electricity.

D) To protect houses against lightning.

Passage Two

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.

19.

A) She was born with a talent for languages.

B) She was trained to be an interpreter.

C) She can speak several languages.

D) She enjoys teaching languages.

20.

A) They want to learn as many foreign languages as possible.

B) They have an intense interest in cross-cultural interactions.

C) They acquire an immunity to culture shock.

D) They would like to live abroad permanently.

21.

A) She became an expert in horse racing.

B) She learned to appreciate classical music.

C) She was able to translate for a German sports judge.

D) She got a chance to visit several European countries.

22.

A) Take part in a cooking competition.

B) Taste the beef and give her comment.

C) Teach vocabulary for food in English.

D) Give cooking lessons on Western food.

Passage Three

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

23.

A) He had only a third-grade education.

B) He once threatened to kill his teacher.

C) He often helped his mother do housework.

D) He grew up in a poor single-parent family.

24.

A) Stupid.

B) Active.

C) Brave.

D) Careless.

25.

A) Watch educational TV programs only.

B) Write two book reports a week.

C) Help with housework.

D) Keep a diary.

When you look up at the night sky, what do you see? There are other __26__ bodies out there besides the moon and stars. One of the most __27__ of these is a comet (彗星).

Comets were formed around the same time the Earth was formed. They are __28__ ice and other frozen liquids and gases. __29__ these "dirty snowballs" begin to orbit the sun, just as the planets do.

As a comet gets closer to the sun, some gases in it begin to unfreeze. They __30__ dust particles from the comet to form a huge cloud. As the comet gets even nearer to the sun, a solar wind blows the cloud behind the comet, thus forming its tail. The tail and the __31__ fuzzy (模糊的) atmosphere around a comet are __32__ that can help identify this __33__ in the night sky.

In any given year, about a dozen known comets come close to the sun in their orbits. The average person can't see them all, of course. Usually there is only one or two a year bright enough to be seen with the __34__ eye. Comet Hale-Bopp, discovered in 1995, was an unusually bright comet. Its orbit brought it __35__ close to the Earth, within 122 million miles of it. But Hale-Bopp came a long way on its earthly visit. It won't be back for another four .

【参考答案】

26. heavenly

27. fascinating

28. made up of

29. Now and then

30. combine with

31. generally

32. characteristics

33. phenomenon

34. naked

35. relatively

PartIII 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

Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

Scholars of the information society are divided over whether social inequality decreases or increases in an information-based society. However, they generally agree with the idea that inequality in the information society is __36__ different from that of an industrial society. As informatization progresses in society, the cause and structural nature of social inequality changes as well.

It seems that the information society __37__ the quantity of information available to the members of a society by revolutionizing the ways of using and exchanging information. But such a view is a __38__ analysis based on the quantity of information supplied by various forms of the mass media.

A different __39__ is possible when the actual amount of information __40__ by the user is taken into account. In fact, the more information __41__ throughout the entire society, the wider the gap becomes between "information haves" and "information have-nots" , leading to digital divide.

According to recent studies, digital divide has been caused by three major __42__: class, sex, and generation. In terms of class, digital divide exists among different types of workers and between the upper and middle classes and the lower class. With __43__ to sex, digital divide exists between men and women. The greatest gap, however, is between the Net-generation, __44__ with personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation, __45__ to an industrial society.

A) accustomed

B) acquired

C) assembly

D) attribute

E) champions

F) elements

G) expands

H) familiar

I) flows

J) fundamentally

K) interpretation

L) passive

M) regard

N) respectively

O) superficial

Joy: A Subject Schools Lack

Becoming educated should not require giving up pleasure.

A) When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Even as a satire (讽刺), it seems disgusting and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think.

B) If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, you'll hear a lot of the following words: "standards," "results," "skills," "self-control," "accountability," and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly "effective" schools, where children shout slogans in order to leam self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can't sit still.

C) A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.

D) I'm a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So I've watched a lot of children—talking, playing, arguing, eating, studying, and being young. Here's what I've come to

understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It's their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of putting together strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A child's ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is something adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to.

E) A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching (蹲伏) down to peer at something on the sidewalk. His face went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he called out, "Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug I've ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. Look at this. It's amazing. " He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with energy and delight. "Can't we stay here for just a minute? I want to find out what he does with all those legs. This is the coolest ever. "

F) The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth—something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance (坚持不懈), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the kind of intense absoiption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking. Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead of playing with small figures, conducting

experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than stringing together nonsense words, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, making friends, making decisions.

G) Building on a child's ability to feel joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn't be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education world's mindset (思维模式). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in meaningful, productive activity, like making things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems? These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight.

H) Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success.

I) Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldn't chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work; instead, they should leain to delay gratification (快乐) so that they can pursue abstract goals, like going to

college.

J) Not only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally. Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can't force the child to think carefully, er\joy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in

learning—to see school as a source of joy.

K) Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine; unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food—something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure?

L) Joy should not be trained out of children or left for after-school programs. The more difficult a child's life circumstances, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom. "Pleasure" is not a dirty word. And it doesn't run counter to the goals of public education. It is, in fact, the precondition.

46. It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way of thinking.

47. What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing.

48. Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty.

49. It is human nature to seek joy in life.

50. Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medicine is to patients.

51. Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience.

52. Adults do not consider children's feelings when it comes to education.

53. Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals.

54. In the so-called "effective" schools, children are taught self-control under a set of strict rules.

55. To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children want to leam.

Passage One

Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

When it's five o'clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they're done.

These days, the time is everywhere-, not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing, particularly at work. New research shows that clock-based work schedules hinder morale (士气) and creativity.

Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 a. m. to 10 a. m. , research from 10 a. m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task-timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.

What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities—from project planning, holiday shopping, to yoga—by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time. " They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control Over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening, and seize opportunities that come up.

The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in business culture. Smart companies, they believe, will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies.

This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.

56. What does the author think of time displayed everywhere?

A) It makes everybody time-conscious.

B) It is a convenience for work and life.

C) It may have a negative effect on creative work.

D) It clearly indicates the fast pace of modem life.

57. How do people usually go about their work according to the author?

A) They combine clock-based and task-based planning.

B) They give priority to the most urgent task on hand.

C) They set a time limit for each specific task.

D) They accomplish their tasks one by one.

58. What did Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier find in their experiments about clock-timers?

A) They seize opportunities as they come up.

B) They always get their work done in time.

C) They have more control over their lives.

D) They tend to be more productive.

59. What do the researchers say about today's business culture?

A) It does not support the strategies adopted by smart companies.

B) It does not attach enough importance to task-based practice.

C) It places more emphasis on work efficiency than on workers' lives.

D) It aims to bring employees' potential and creativity into full play.

60. What do the researchers suggest?

A) Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work.

B) It is important to keep a balance between work and life.

C) Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier.

D) A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.

Passage Two

Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2004. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was " paying her dues," and that " there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew. "

Surely, the American ideal of second chances should not be reserved only for the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented from ever fully paying their debt to

society.

At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties that continue long after punishment is completed.

Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person's individual circumstances. Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. They can affect a person's ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.

In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life.

Some laws make sense. No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia(恋童癖) work in a school. But too often collateral (附随的) consequences bear no relation to public safety. Should a woman who possessed a small amount of drugs years ago be permanently unable to be licensed as a nurse?

These laws are also counterproductive, since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding.

A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety. Where the penalties are not a must, they should be imposed only if the facts of a case support it.

The point is not to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America's vast criminal justice system, second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

61. What does the well-known columnist's remark about Martha Stewart suggest?

A) Her past record might stand in her way to a new life.

B) Her business went bankrupt while she was in prison.

C) Her release from prison has drawn little attention.

D) Her prison sentence might have been extended.

62. What do we learn from the second paragraph about many criminals in America?

A) They backslide after serving their terms in prison.

B) They are deprived of chances to turn over a new leaf.

C) They receive severe penalties for committing minor offenses.

D) They are convicted regardless of their individual circumstances.

63. What are the consequences for many Americans with a criminal record?

A) They remain poor for the rest of their lives.

B) They are deprived of all social benefits.

C) They are marginalized in society.

D) They are deserted by their family.

64. What does the author think of the post-conviction laws and rules?

A) They help to maintain social stability.

B) Some of them have long been outdated.

C) They are hardly understood by the public.

D) A lot of them have negative effects on society.

65. What is the author's main purpose in writing the passage?

A) To create opportunities for criminals to reform themselves.

B) To appeal for changes in America's criminal justice system.

C) To ensure that people with a criminal record live a decent life.

D) To call people's attention to prisoners' .

中国父母往往过于关注孩子的学习，以至于不要他们帮忙做家务。他们对孩子的首要要求就

是努力学习，考得好，能上名牌大学。他们相信这是为孩子好，因为在中国这样竞争激烈的社会里，只有成绩好才能保证前途光明。中国父母还认为，如果孩子能在社会上取得大的成就，父母就会受到尊敬。因此，他们愿意牺牲自己的时间、爱好和兴趣，为孩子提供更好的条件。

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

【参考答案】

Chinese parents tend to pay too much attention to their children's study to such an extent that they even don't require their children to help them do the chores. Their primary requirement for their children is to study hard, get good grades and go to famous universities. They believe this does good to their children because in Chinese society which is full of intense competition, only perfect academic performance can ensure a bright future. Chinese parents also believe if their children can make great achievements in the society, they will receive respect accordingly. Therefore, they are willing to sacrifice their own time, hobbies and interests to provide better conditions for their children

2015年12月英语四级考试真题试卷（第二套）

Part I Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. " You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of lifelong learning. You should write at least 120

words but no more than 180

words.

注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上

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.PartIII 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

Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. Late November and December __36__ early snow arid bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two __37__ , record-cold days will likely turn out to have outnumbered record-warm ones. But the U. S. was the exception; November was the warmest ever __38__ , and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth hottest year on record.

Enjoy the snow now, because __39__ are good that 2014 will be even hotter, perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept. That's because, scientists are predicting, 2014 will be an El Nino year.

El Nino, Spanish for "the child" , __40__ when surface ocean waters in the southern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, covering 30% of the planet's surface, that the __41__ energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. El Ninos are __42__ with abnormally dry conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia. They can lead to extreme rain in parts of North and South America, even as southern Africa __43__ dry weather. Marine life may be affected too: El Ninos can __44__ the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich (营养丰富的) water that supports large fish __45__ , and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral (珊瑚).

A) additional

B) associated

C) bore

D) chances

E) communicated

F) decades

G) experiences

H) globally

I) logically

J) occurs

K) populations

L) realize

M) reduce

N) saw

O) specific

How to Eat Well

A) Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk (垃圾) 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 U. S. 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 invented in the '40s, their popularity didn't boom 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 regularly.

Isn'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 their 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 sugar. Ask 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 dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more; every time you cook, you advance your level of skills. Someday 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.

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.

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

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

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

49. Cooking skills can be improved with practice.

50. In the mid-20th century, most families ate dinner at home instead of eating out.

51. Even those short of time or money should be encouraged to cook for themselves and their family.

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

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

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

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

Passage One

Questions 56 to 60 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'll 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 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 comers, 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.

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