2025 年 06 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 1 套）

A)Recently, a leading design federation in the UK warned that the UK could face a creative skills shortage, after the latest figures revealed a drop of almost 10 percent in students studying Design and Technology. These figures showed that the number of pupils that sat exams in Design and Technology fell 10 percent from 204,788 to 185,279 last year.

B)Chief executive John Kampfner of the Creative Industries Federation thinks that this drop in figures has worrying implications for the skills pipeline in Britain's hugely successful arts and creative industries. He said, "We already have skills shortages in many jobs such as animation (动画制作) and special effects." He added: "Engineering, which requires a similar mix of creative and technical skills, also has recruitment problems."

C)Many other designers and architects have expressed concern over the future supply of home-grown talent for UK firms, and industry bodies have pointed out that there has been a lack of roots-level support. However, if these designers had visited the Design Museum shop in London earlier this year their fears may have been eased. With £10 to spend, they could have bought a fascinating children's toy called "Dazzle Racer". An automotive cylinder (圆柱体), it included a wind-up, elastic (有弹性的)-band-powered mechanism, minimal parts, all 100 percent recyclable, and lots of stickers. It was good fun, simple, eye-catching and very original.

D)Well, you'd expect the Design Museum to commission and make some interesting items, but this one was different. Designed by a group of six Year 9 and Year 10 boys from Finchley Catholic High School, the toy was the winning entry in the museum's 2015 Design Ventura competition, which brings the business of design to life for students aged 13 to 16 by challenging them to develop a new creative, sustainable and commercially feasible product for the Design Museum shop and attracts hundreds of entries nationwide.

E)"We did Design Ventura in my previous school," says Liam Hourican, Finchley Catholic High School's design technology curriculum leader. "Then when I changed schools four years ago, I introduced it here because it helps to develop so many skills."

F)The theme for last year's competition was "Move", and Hourican began with three groups working in lunch breaks and after school before selecting the group with the most innovative idea. Each participating school may submit just one proposal. "It's taking part and doing the work which is important," he says. "And I never dreamt we'd win."

G)Catherine Ritman Smith, head of learning at the Design Museum, is expecting around 10,000 participants aged 13 to 16 to take part this year and says that the project funded by Deutsche Bank as part of its youth engagement programme Born To Be—is the biggest event in the museum's calendar. "We started Design Ventura with around 800 young people in 2010 and it has grown steadily since," she says. "Teachers like it because the skills are all transferable and it helps to validate the value of design as a subject," she explains, telling me that nearly 600 schools have taken part so far.

H)So how does the competition work? A single word theme is announced in the summer. This year it is "Change". Schools work with groups to produce imaginative design ideas for a product in simple materials that could sell for £10 in the Design Museum shop. Participating schools then register by November and eventually submit their design ideas. Along the way there is training and support for teachers and tutoring for students from designers. An additional bonus is when the winners see their design on sale in the spring of the following year.

I)Hourican and his pupils have happy memories of spending a whole day at the museum, having been selected as one of 10 shortlisted schools to present their idea to a panel of judges, including designer Jasper Conran. Then they worked with the Kin Design Studio in Shoreditch, met designers at their school and attended a lunch with Deutsche Bank employees. The students helped to make decisions and there were plenty of discussions—they changed the product's name, for example.

J)"One of the really useful things about this competition," says Hourican, "is that there's a commercial element because the product is going on sale for real and the boys had to learn about budgeting and marketing, as well as designing their game." Profits go to charity. "The winning team chooses where it wants the profits to go," says Ritman Smith. "The Finchley Catholic High School product raised about £1,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital." Winning entries in past years have included a make-your-own cloth kit called Dove Bunting and a three-tool, wallet-sized travel game with goals at each end, called Badoiing.

K)It costs the schools nothing to participate in Design Ventura; the professional designers provide their services for free. Among them are architect Asif Khan, a Design Museum trustee who has worked as designer-in-residence at the museum, helping emerging architects. He has recently been commissioned to design the new Museum of London building in Smithfield.

L)Another is television presenter and interior designer Naomi Cleaver, who is one of the competition's judges. "I'm very keen to encourage young people," she says, observing that design brings together other subjects such as literature, art, history, geography and science. "Now that design education is limited in the curriculum, I'm all in favour of competitions such as Design Ventura, which helps to bring the standard curriculum to life," says Cleaver. "And the judging day is terrific fun. Some of these students are very imaginative. One group presented their idea in the form of a puppet show and we saw some marvelous demonstration models. I'm always impressed by the levels of confidence and the support the students get from their teachers."

M)Ritman Smith adds: "Design technology has become a tricky subject to make a case for, and we've heard of departments closing in some schools. We find that if pupils take part in Design Ventura in Year Nine it can be the trigger which leads them to opt for it at General Certificate of Secondary Education, so we are helping to keep alive something which is crucial to industry and entrepreneurship."

New research suggests that pandas may be at risk of dying out because they are too comfortable. Experts say too much happiness can stop the bears from searching for new mates. Environmentalists have long believed that building roads or homes near the bears may threaten their survival by reducing or fragmenting their natural habitat, The Times reported. But the new research suggests that a "modest degree of discomfort and fragmentation" may actually help preserve panda populations. The research was conducted by scientists from Michigan State University. It concluded that pandas fail to wander off in search of new mates if they find their habitat too comfortable, resulting in a lack of vital genetic diversity. For their study—outlined in a paper in the journal Conservation Biology—the team looked at genetic diversity and spread among a Chinese panda population. The ideal level of perfectly livable habitat was found to be only 80% of an area, with the remainder either too harsh or too affected by human activity. The experts concluded that pandas should ideally "be happy enough to thrive, but not so content that they don't want to move around and find new mates". Their conclusions about what The Guardian described as this "sweet spot" are in line with the so-called Goldilocks principle: that there can be just the right amount of something. The concept has been applied to a wide range of disciplines, from developmental psychology to economics and engineering. Claudio Sillero, a professor of conservation biology at Oxford University, told the newspaper that the new findings could have implications beyond panda conservation. "Most large animals that eat meat live in increasingly fragmented landscapes," said Sillero, who was not involved in the research. "It may well be that the messy nature of their relationship with human efforts induce more animals to scatter or travel further, and might result in greater genetic connectivity and enhanced population persistence." The most recent count of pandas found that there were more than 1,800 left in the wild, putting them on the list of vulnerable, but not endangered, species.

With those born with natural talents, it feels as if they excel without really trying. But what about those of us who don't have a natural talent? We've been told all our lives that if you work hard, you too can succeed. But with the release of Angela Duckworth's Grit, we are given a new key to success. "As much as talent counts, effort counts twice," says Duckworth in Grit. She introduces a new concept that talent may be overrated, and if you want real success, what you need is grit, the perfect combination of passion and persistence. Even if you have natural talent, it's nothing without grit. Duckworth says grit is the difference between success and failure. A person who has grit is more likely to succeed than a person who does not. When we think about attaining success—whether it's landing that job or learning that new skill—our thoughts are immediately burdened by all the things we must first learn. If you want that new job, you have to learn the job skills, then the interview skills, then the dress part and you must be perfect at all of them. Grit is different because it tells us that perfection isn't the goal. Grit lifts the unreasonable expectations off our shoulders. Grit tells us that the door is open wider than we first thought possible. Grit allows us to redefine our goals. Think about it: what's something you've always wanted to do, but gave up because you "don't have the skills for it"? What's something you love but aren't good at? The real workings of grit are to have sustainable passion and continue to try. Effort means more than your natural ability. Even if you haven't mastered a skill, grit tells you that you are still a success if you turn your passion into action. In a way, Duckworth is giving new hope to people who have shut the doors on their dreams. She is saying it is possible that you can accomplish anything. If at first you fail, then try one more time with grit.