2025 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 2 套）

A)The gaming industry is larger than films and music combined, yet few of us are likely to list our achievements in playing computer games as work experience in our resume. But why not? Businesses are waking up to the skills gamers can bring to the workplace.

B)One start-up is convinced that the skills learned by playing games — hard-won through years of training and battle — can be applied to real-life work situations. And Game Academy reckons its belief is backed up by hard data. Do you enjoy unusual puzzle games like Portal, or tower defence games like Defense Grid? The team has found that IT workers play those more than average. But if you prefer Civilization, Total War, or X-Com, where strategy and resource management are key, then you might have more in common with managers.

C)Game Academy's idea is simple: analyse gamers' habits from their online gaming profile, and offer courses in valuable skills that reflect their aptitudes — skills they can practise and refine in-game. And there is already a growing acceptance that gaming skills are transferable.

D)Even the military is hiring gamers. "The ability to absorb information, react swiftly and coordinate actions whilst remaining calm under pressure are often attributes of people that are good at gaming," according to a Royal Air Force spokesperson. Those skills are part of what the Royal Air Force is looking for "in a variety of roles". "Skills acquired through gaming can be very relevant to certain areas."

E)"There are plenty of soft skills that gamers can utilise in a professional setting, such as teamwork, problem solving and strategic planning," says Ryan Gardner, a regional director with Hays recruitment. But does that really mean your top 100 ranking in Overwatch should go in your resume? "It's about how you either make it relevant to the job you are applying for, or how it makes you more interesting as a potential employee," Mr. Gardner says.

F)Two years ago, a Glasgow University study made headlines for suggesting gaming could make students more successful. But "the research hasn't really changed minds, at least not yet," says one of the authors of the study, Dr. Matthew Barr. He's now writing a book on the topic. "For now, I think the negative reputation around games means that telling someone you're a determined gamer is more likely to harm your chances of getting a job. But if someone can explain how they've led a team in an online game, for example, they may be able to persuade an employer that this is useful," says Dr. Barr.

G)Playing games casually is unlikely to help your career prospects. But part of Game Academy's suggestion is to transform casual gamers into "conscious" ones, applying critical thinking to developing their skills. "We set gaming as a resource of talent," says co-founder David Barrie. "Why can't we put in our resume our gaming victories and achievements?" he asks. "If they say they want leadership — why can't I point to my years of leading World of Warcraft raids?"

H)There are already plenty of gamers out there who know that their hobby has made them who they are. Earlier this year, Matthew Ricci told gaming site Kotaku: "If you're playing EVE Online you basically already have an MBA." Often made fun of in gaming circles as a 'spreadsheet simulator' (电子表格模拟器), the economy of the fictional EVE universe is driven by real market principles. If you want to build a new spaceship, the raw material has to be mined by another player. Manufacturing costs come into effect, and commodities fluctuate in price based on demand and the distance to haul the commodity.

I)M.R. Ricci, who had always dreamed of being the boss of his own company, ran an in-game corporation comprising hundreds of players. Eventually, he realised he could transfer his skills to real-life business — instead of doing it for free. He restructured Zentch, once a taxation vehicle for his father's business, and it is now in its fourth year helping international brands enter the Canadian market. EVE teaches skills like creativity, leadership, organisation, and conflict resolution, he maintains. He credits his success to his family, his strong desire to run his own business- and 'a damn good company in Iceland that made a damn good game'.

J)Digital entrepreneur and business consultant Mia Bennett says: "In more traditional settings, gaming is still imagined to be the pursuit of teenage boys — a waste of time." But there are some links to skills like 'decision-making, the ability to anticipate and future planning," she says. "It also helps with meta-skills — learning how to learn, experimentation, and creative thinking."

K)Twelve years into his career, Mark Long, a radiotherapy physicist with the NHS in Surrey, doesn't get as much gaming time as he used to. "I would love to say that my gaming skills allow me to destroy cancer using linear accelerators like photon (光子) blasters, but that's not quite the reality." Instead, he credits old-school games like Palace of Magic with exposing him to computers. Every new gaming upgrade improved his knowledge of how they worked. Gaming also encouraged a competitive spirit — and that, he believes, translates. "When creating treatment plans, the aim is to optimise the radiation dose to the tumour and restrict it as much as possible to healthy surrounding tissues and organs," he says. It's about "repeating the process, but each time doing something slightly different to improve the result". Not unlike achieving a high score or a perfect run. "Most videogames are essentially puzzles to solve," he says. "And problem-solving is a big part of my job."

L)Over at Game Academy, Mr. Barrie is aware they still have a mountain to climb. "The employer community will need the science," he says, but confesses he only became a true believer when he started asking players about their biggest in-game achievements. "The scale and scope of their answers were amazing," he says. "But ask them the same about their work, and they don't know." "The engagement and powerful skills that people get playing a game — why can't work be like that?" he asks.

Junk food is now a staple of many Americans' diets. Advertising campaigns from the snack food companies, often featuring sports stars, send the message that we can neutralize any negative effects of consuming their products simply by getting more physical exercise. But recent studies show a lack of exercise is not to blame for rising obesity rates. Bad diets are. Interventions (干预) to help reduce junk food consumption are especially important for children and teenagers. Prevention is better than cure because obesity is so difficult to treat. Unfortunately, while health education has shown some success among young children, teens have been harder to reach. Now a large-scale study has tried an innovative approach to change teenagers' attitudes towards healthy eating, and the results are promising. The researchers argued that previous interventions have probably been unsuccessful because of a major flaw: they focused on a future, healthier you and assumed that this would be enough motivation for teenagers. In contrast, the new intervention cleverly exploits teenagers' instinct for rebelliousness and autonomy, and the value they place on social justice. To do this, researchers had students read an article on the food industry. It revealed a secret about the manipulative and deceptive strategies used to make junk food more addictive and characterize the products as healthy. The article also explained how advertising campaigns specifically target very young and poor people, causing harm for these vulnerable groups. Afterwards, the participants read a fictional survey of teens who wanted to 'fight back against the companies by buying and eating less processed food'. After the intervention, participants associated healthy eating with autonomy and social justice. The teenagers also rated healthy eating as being more appealing. Importantly, there were also some promising effects of the new intervention on actual behavior. A day later the students were offered a choice of snacks and drinks in a seemingly unrelated context. The teens chose healthy snacks and drinks (such as fruit or water) more often over unhealthy options (like biscuits and soda). Apparently associating a healthy diet with teenagers' own values seems to be a promising avenue to prevent obesity.

Adults dream during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and infants have loads of REM. So, it might be fair to assume that babies have tons of dreams. But scientists believe REM serves a completely different purpose for newborns and infants than dreaming. When babies are in REM, it allows their brain to develop pathways, connections, and eventually, learn languages. Since your baby doesn't dream at this stage of brain development, it's safe to assume babies do not have nightmares, either. Nightmares stem from exposure to trauma (创伤), an overactive imagination, and the normal stresses of everyday life. Are you wondering, what do babies dream about? Good question, but the answer is nothing! So, when do babies start dreaming? The general consensus is that they start dreaming around the age of two. Psychologist David Foulkes studies children (from very small kids to teens) to bring the secrets of their dreams to the light of day. In his lab, he lets kids fall asleep and then wakes them 3 times a night and asks them to describe what they recall. Foulkes' findings are unsurprising. Basically, little kids have little dreams. But exactly what kids see while dreaming depends on their age. As children develop and grow, their dreams do too. Dreams of very small kids are usually just snapshots (快照), looking much more like a slideshow than a movie, when compared to the dreams of adults. They heavily feature animals and other familiar sights, like images of people eating. According to Foulkes, 'Children's dream life...seems to be similar to their waking imagination and narration.' Kids ages 5 — 9 begin seeing moving images and characters in action. Dreams now include multiple events strung together, one after the other. They also start developing greater ability to remember dreams. Still, that's not always the case: When roused during REM sleep, 25% of the kids in Foulkes' studies had no recollection of dreaming, a trend that continues through age 9. So, if your baby seems to be in a stressful state while sleeping or is upset upon waking, there may be other factors at play.