56. What is happening to the wallet? A) It is disappearing. B) It is being fattened. C) It is becoming costly. D) It is changing in style.
57. How are business transactions done in big modern stores? A) Individually. B) Electronically. C) In the abstract. D) Via a cash register.
58. 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 easy.
59. 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.
60. 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 insecure in the ever-changing modern world.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Everybody sleeps, but what people stay up late to catch-or wake up early in order not to miss?varies by culture.
From data collected, it seems the things that cause us to lose the most sleep, on average, are sporting events, time changes, and holidays.
Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the start or end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began to wake up about a half-hour later each day after President Vladimir Putin shifted the country permanently to \
Russia's other late nights and early mornings generally correspond to public holidays. On New Year's Eve, Russians have the world's latest bedtime, hitting the hay at around 3:30 a. m.
Russians also get up an hour later on International Women's Day, the day for treating and celebrating female relatives.Similarly, Americans' late nights, late mornings, and longest sleeps fall on three-day weekends. Canada got the least sleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockey (冰球) final.
The World Cup is also chiefly responsible for sleep deprivation (剥夺). The worst night for sleep in the U. K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14. Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it, and then they woke up earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, the phenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries in the summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch the Cup.
It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns; in some of these nations, it's likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that's the case, though, the above findings are still striking. If the most health-conscious among us have such deep swings in our shut-eye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing? 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
61. What does the author say about people's sleeping habits? A) They are culture-related. B) They affect people's health. C) They change with the seasons. D) They vary from person to person.
62. What do we learn about the Russians regarding sleep? A) They don't fall asleep until very late. B) They don't sleep much on weekends. C) They get less sleep on public holidays. D) They sleep longer than people elsewhere.
63. What is the major cause for Europeans' loss of sleep? A) The daylight savings time. B) The colorful night life. C) The World Cup. D) The summertime.
64. What is the most probable reason for some rich people to use a device to record their sleep patterns?
A) They have trouble falling asleep. B) They want to get sufficient sleep. C) They are involved in a sleep research. D) They want to go to bed on regular hours.
65. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A) Sleeplessness does harm to people's health. B) Few people really know the importance of sleep. C) It is important to study our sleep patterns. D) Average people probably sleep .
云南省的丽江古镇是中国著名的旅游目的地之一。那里的生活节奏比大多数中国城市都要缓慢。丽江到处都是美丽的自然风光，众多的少数民族同胞提供了各式各样、丰富多彩的文化让游客体验。历史上，丽江还以“爱之城”而闻名。当地人中流传着许多关于因爱而生、为爱而死的故事。如今，在中外游客眼中，这个古镇被视为爱情和浪漫的天堂(paradise)。
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
2015年12月英语四级考试真题试卷（第三套）
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying \
examples to illustrate the importance of being participants rather than mere onlookers in life. 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
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
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.
Children do not think the way adults do. For most of the first year of life, if something is out of sight, it's out of mind. If you cover a baby's __36__ toy with a piece of cloth, the baby thinks the toy has disappeared and stops looking for it. A 4-year-old may __37__ that a sister has more fruit juice when it is only the shapes of the glasses that differ, not the __38__ of juice.
Yet children are smart in their own way. Like good little scientists, children are always testing their child-sized __39__ about how things work. When your child throws her spoon on the floor for the sixth time as you try to feed her, and you say, \again!\if she throws the spoon again? She is not doing this to drive you __41__ ; rather, she is learning that her desires and yours can differ, and that sometimes those __42__ are important and sometimes they are not.
How and why does children's thinking change? In the 1920s, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget
proposed that children's cognitive(认知的) abilities unfold __43__ , like the blooming of a flower, almost independent of what else is __44__ in their lives. Although many of his specific
conclusions have been __45__ or modified over the years, his ideas inspired thousands of studies by investigators all over the world.
A) advocate B) amount C) confirmed D) crazy E) definite F) differences G) favorite H) happening I) immediately J) naturally K) obtaining L) primarily M) protest N) rejected O) theories