2016年6月英语四级考试长篇阅读答案(卷二) Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
[A] For many years I have studied global agricultural, population, environmental and economic trends and their interactions. The combined effects of those trends and the political tensions they generate point to the breakdown of governments and societies. Yet I, too, have resisted the idea that food shortages could bring down not only individual governments but also our global civilization.
[B] I can no longer ignore that risk. Our continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible.
[C] As demand for food rises faster than supplies are growing, the resulting food-price inflation puts severe stress on the governments of many countries. Unable to buy grain or grow their own, hungry people take to the streets. Indeed, even before the steep climb in grain prices in 2008, the number of failing states was expanding. If the food situation continues to worsen, entire nations will break down at an ever increasing rate. In the 20th century the main threat to international security was superpower conflict; today it is failing states.
[D] States fail when national governments can no longer provide personal security, food security and basic social services such as education and health care. When governments lose their control on power, law and order begin to disintegrate. After a point, countries can become so dangerous that food relief workers are no longer safe and their programs are halted. Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees(难民), threatening political stability everywhere.
[E] The surge in world grain prices in 2007 and 2008—and the threat they pose to food security——has a different, more troubling quality than the increases of the past. During the second of the 20th century, grain prices rose dramatically several times. In 1972,
for instance, the Soviets. I recognizing their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result, wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and com prices up with them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven——drought in the Soviet Union, crop-shrinking heat in the . Corn Belt. And the rises were short-lived: prices typically returned to normal with the next harvest.
[F]In contrast, recent surge in world grain prices is
trend-driven, making it unlikely to reverse without a reversal in the trends themselves. On the demand side, those trends include the ongoing addition of more than 70 million people a year, a growing number of people wanting to move up the food chain to consume highly grain-intensive meat products, and the massive diversion(转向)of . grain to the production of bio-fuel.
[G]As incomes rise among low-income consumers, the potential for further grain consumption is huge. But that potential pales beside the never-ending demand for crop-based fuels. A fourth of this year's . grain harvest will go to fuel cars.
[H]What about supply? The three environmental trends——the shortage of fresh water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperatures——are making it increasingly hard to expand the
world's grain supply fast enough to keep up with demand. Of all those trends, however, the spread of water shortages poses the most immediate threat. The biggest challenge here is irrigation, which consumes 70% the world's fresh water. Millions of irrigation wells in many countries are now pumping water out of underground sources faster than rainfall can refill them. The result is falling water tables(地下水位)in countries with half the world's people, including the three big grain producers——China, India and the .
[I]As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, China's wheat crop, the world's largest, has declined by 8% since it peaked at 123 million tons in 1997. But water shortages are even more worrying in India. Millions of irrigation wells have significantly lowered water tables in almost every state.
[J]As the world's food security falls to pieces, individual countries acting in their own self-interest are actually worsening the troubles of many. The trend began in 2007, when leading wheat-exporting countries such as Russia and Argentina limited or banned their exports, in hopes of increasing local food supplies and thereby bringing down domestic food prices. Vietnam banned its exports for several months for the same reason. Such moves may eliminate the fears of those living in the exporting countries, but
they are creating panic in importing countries that must rely on what is then left for export.
[K]In response to those restrictions, grain-importing countries are trying to nail down long-term trade agreements that would lock up future grain supplies. Food-import anxiety is even leading to new efforts by food-importing countries to buy or lease farmland in other countries. In spite of such temporary measures, soaring food prices and spreading hunger in many other countries are beginning to break down the social order.
[L]Since the current world food shortage is trend-driven, the environmental trends that cause it must be reversed. We must cut carbon emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2020, stabilize the world's population at eight billion by 2040, completely remove poverty, and restore forests and soils. There is nothing new about the four objectives. Indeed, we have made substantial progress in some parts of the world on at least one of these——the distribution of family-planning services and the associated shift to smaller families.
[M]For many in the development community, the four objectives were seen as positive, promoting development as long as they did not cost too much. Others saw them as politically correct and morally
appropriate. Now a third and far more significant motivation presents itself: meeting these goals may necessary to prevent the collapse of our civilization. Yet the cost we project for saving civilization would amount to less than $200 billion a year, 1/6 of current global military spending. In effect, our plan is the new security budget.
37.【题干】The more recent steep climb in grain prices partly results from the fact that more and more people want to consume meat products.
【答案】F
38.【题干】Social order is breaking down in many countries because of food shortages.
【答案】A
39.【题干】Rather than superpower conflict, countries unable to cope with food shortages now constitute the main threat to world security.
【答案】C
40.【题干】Some parts of the world have seen successful implementation(实施) of family planning.
【答案】L
41.【题干】The author has come to agree that food shortages could ultimately lead to the collapse of world civilization.
【答案】B
42.【题干】Increasing water shortages prove to be the biggest obstante to boosting the world's grain production.
【答案】H
43.【题干】The cost for saving our civilization would be considerably less than the world's current military spending.
【答案】M
44.【题干】To lower domestic food prices, some countries limited or stopped their grain exports.
【答案】J
45.【题干】Environmental problems must be solved to case the current global food shortage.
【答案】D
46.【题干】A quarter of this year's American grain harvest will be used to produce bio-fuel for cars.
【答案】G
Passage1 Reading leadership literature, you’d sometimes think that everyone has the potential to be an effective leader. 读领导文学，你有时会认为每个人都有可能成为一个有效的领导者。 I don’t believe that to be true. In fact, I see way fewer truly effective leaders than I see people stuck in positions of leadership who arc sadly incompetent and seriously misguided about their own abilities. 我不相信这是真的。事实上，我认为真正有效的领导者的方式比我看到的人都陷在领导的职位上，遗憾的是他们自己的能力不称职，严重误导了他们。 Part of the reason this happens is a lack of honest self-assessment by those who aspire to（追求）leadership in the first place. 对产生这种现象的原因一部分是由那些渴望缺乏诚实的自我评估（追求）放在首位的领导 We've all met the type of individual who simply must take charge. Whether it's a decision-making session, a basketball game, or a family outing, they can't help grabbing the lead dog position and clinging on to it for dear life. They believe they're natural born leaders. 我们都遇到了个人的类型，他们必须负责。无论是决策会议，篮球比赛，还是家庭外出，他们都不能不抓住领导的狗的地位，并紧紧抓住它，因为亲爱的生命。他们相信他们是天生的领袖。 Truth is, they're nothing of the sort. True leaders don't assume that it's their divine（神圣的）right to take charge every time two or more people get together. Quite the opposite. A great leader will assess each situation on its merits, and will only take charge when their position, the situation, and/or the needs of the moment demand it. 事实是，他们没有什么样的。真正的领导者不认为这是他们的神圣（神圣的）负责每次两个或两个以上的人在一起吧。恰恰相反。一个伟大的领导者会对每一个情况进行评估，并在他们的位置、情况和/或需要的情况下，只会负责。 Many business executives confuse leadership with action. They believe that constant motion somehow generates leadership as a byproduct. Faced with any situation that can’t be solved by the sheer force of activity, they generate a dust cloud of impatience. Their one leadership tool is
2015年英语四级阅读模拟试题及答案 （精品试卷一） Section C Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A ),B．, C．and D ). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage. People's tastes in recreation differ widely. At a recent festival of pop-music in the Isle of Wight, crowds of teenagers flocked to listen to their favorite singers and musicians. They went with single railway tickets and slept in the open, a very risky thing to do in the climate of Britain, even in August. They were packed together like sardines for four days. There were innumerable thieves, a gang of roughs tried several times to break things up, and police were everywhere. At the end of the festival many young fans found themselves broke, with no money left,and they had difficulty in getting back home. Most people would consider these conditions a nightmare of discomfort; the fans appeared to enjoy it all enormously. Even in the overcrowded United Kingdom there are large tracts of open un-spoilt country, where people with more traditional tastes can go for quiet, and for the sense of freedom they derive from contact with nature. In the national parks especially, modern development of housing and industry is strictly controlled. Visitors may walk for miles through landscape of the greatest beauty and wildness, and often of considerable historic or scientific interest. Along the coasts of some of the maritime counties, public pathways have been created; these paths stretch for many miles along cliffs that look out on the Atlantic Ocean or the English Channel. Another path,lying inland, goes along the range of mountains in the north of England. It is called the Pennine Way. Here, the long-distance waller and the nature-lover can find much to enjoy, without feeling disturbed by large numbers of their fellows.
大学英语四级阅读理解（1）We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming(把......按能力分班) pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade! Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning. In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher. Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every
大学英语四级阅读40篇(1) 2/40 The economy of the United states after 1952 was the econnomy of a well-fed,almost fully employed people. Despit occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. A n economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950’s, may be typical as illustrating the rapid economic growth of the decade. The national output was value at 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The production of manufacturers was about 40 percent more than it had averaged in the years immediately following World War 2. The country’s business spent about 30billion dollars for new factories and machinery. National income available for spending was almost a third greater than it had been it had been in 1950. Consumers spent about 256 billion dollars; that is about 700 million dollars a day ,or about twenty-five million dollars every hour , all round the clock. Sixty-five million people held jobs and only a little more than two million wanted jobs but could not find them . Only agriculture
2016 年 12 月大学英语四级考试真题（第一套） Part I Writing (30 minutes)( 请于正式开考后半小时内完成该部分，之后将进行听 力考试 ) Directions:For this part,you are allowed30 minutes to write an essay.Suppose you have two options upon graduation:one is to take a job in a company and the other to go to a graduate school.You are to make a choice between the two.Write an essay to explain the reasons for your choice. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Much controversy has been aroused about whether the students should find a job or start their own business after graduation.Taking a look around,we can find that some graduates bustle around job markets,while others choose to run a shop on TMall. However, I prefer the former choice. From my perspective, there are good reasons to find a job in the first several years after their graduation.First and foremost, if a graduate intends to accumulate working experience and learn from the seniors, it is advisable for him to find a job. It is an undeniable fact that the theoretical knowledge will provide the graduates with the ability to consider things comprehensively,however,only under the integration with practice can the rigid knowledge be useful for their future development. Inevitably, doing something small is the premise of undertaking something great. Take Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and taobao, for example. He also finds some jobs before establishing his own career,laying a solid foundation for his later success. Consequently,it is of great necessity to find a job after graduation.I firmly believe that it will continue to bring about more returns to our life and future. Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes) Section A
大学英语四级考试阅读理解No1 一、原选择题型的篇章阅读理解 新四级的仔细阅读增加了文章的长度和段落数量，题型向细节性方向发展。仔细阅读要求做到“三精读一略读”。 一是精读文章首段和每段第一次出现的结论句，了解文章的主题和结构。 二是精读关键词定位的地方，请注意，细节题题干都是相应原文的变形（如同义改写、词性转换等）。 因此要找到答案一定要找到题干在原文中的出处，再把原文和选项相比较，正确选项应该是对原文的精确改写，应该符合两点特征：形式对应和含义对应，比如原文中出现比较，那么正确选项中也应该对应出现相应形式，同时含义应该是原文的同义替换，相同的意思换了一种表达方式。 三是精读重要考点，比如：转折、比较、因果、结论或总结。略读就是略读甚至不读其他细节性信息，因为干扰选项往往来自于这些地方，精读后反而会增加干扰选项的迷惑度，避免被迷惑信息干扰的最好方法就是不去面对诱惑。需要注意的是与原文极其相似的选项一定要慎选。 四级阅读考查的题型主要是细节题，另外还会涉及态度题，主旨题，推理题，结论观点题，词汇题等。各类题型表现形式不同，考查重点各异，解题方法有别。 1.细节题 (1)、细节题表现形式 这类题在四级考试中题量较大，占到60%——70%的题量，可以说是四级考试成败的关键这类题特点是题干的信息比较具体，考查文章中的重要细节。 “Free play has been introduced in someJapanese 如2005年1月份考题：
kindergartens in order to”， 本题通过“free play”，“some Japanese kindergartens”反映了原文考查对象，题干内容比较具体，属于细节分析。又如2005年6月份出现的题目：“What did the handball player do when he was not allowed a time out to change his gloves? ” 本题handball player 是中心话题，when引导状语从句，这两部分明确指定了考查的细节内容，在原文中找答案十分方便。 (2)、细节题解题方法 细节题考查信息查找能力和句子的理解能力。由于考试时间非常紧张，对于考生来说，做好细节题，首先是要在原文找到相关信息。正是由于这点，我们看文章需要目的。 有同学先看文章再做题，导致做题时还得回去在文章中寻找相关内容，或者干脆凭着对文章的主观印象匆忙求解，结果是浪费时间或者错误较多。 建议考生先看题干再看文章，这样就会有方向感，目的感。所以，细节题的重要做题方法就是：先看题干，再看原文，带着题干个别的特有信息或者带着题干的中心话题在原文定位。如“What did the handball player do when he was not allowed a time out to change his gloves? ”就可以结合handball player这个中心话题在原文找答案。 四级细节题干有时会有比较明显的信息，如时间数字，专有名词，中心名词。如2005年 月考题：What was confirmed by the Boston University Medical Center’s study?题干中Boston University Medical Center这个专有名词可以让考生迅速找到考到的原文内容。如果用题干信息在原文找答案没有结果，
大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案.
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3 大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案（四） 十六 Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly. 1.Pruning should be done to ______. a.make the tree grow taller
大学英语四级2017年6月阅读理解汇总 17.6.1 The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花)，for example, which give many a modem beer its bitter flavor, are a (26)_______ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_______ingredient in residue (残留物）from 5,000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While digging two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_______ they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,”and the earliest (29_______ evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_______ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_______ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦),and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_______lily,which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists
There are three kinds of goals: short-term,medium-range and long-term goals. Short-range goals are those that usually deal with current activities,which we can apply on a daily goals can be achieved in a week or less,or two weeks,or possible should be remembered that just as a building is no stronger than its foundation ,out long-term goals cannot amount to very munch without the achievement of solid short-term completing our short-term goals,we should date the occasion and then add new short-term goals that will build on those that have been completed. The intermediate goals bukld on the foundation of the short-range might deal with just one term of school or the entire school year,or they could even extend for several time you move a step at a time,you should never allow yourself to become discouraged or overwhelmed. As you complete each step,you will enforce the belief in your ability to grow adn as your list of completion dates grow,your motivation and desire will increase. Long-range goals may be related to our dreams of the future. They might cover five years or more. Life is not a static should never allow a long-term goal to limit us or our course of action. long-term goals mean a lot______. we complete our short-range goals we cannot reach solid short-term goals we write down the dates we put forward some plans short-term goals are bulid upon______. years goals activities goals that have been completed we complete each step of our goals ,______. will win final success are overwhelmed should build up confidence of success should strong desire for setting new goals our goals are drawn up,_______. should stick to them until we complete them may change our goals as we have new ideas and opportunities had better wait for the exciting news of success have made great decision is implied but not stated in the passage that ______. who habe long-term goals will succeed down the dates may discourage you goal is only a guide for us to reach our desination should have a goal 答案：adcbc 大学英语四级阅读理解试题40篇之二（含答案） The economy of the United states after 1952 was the econnomy of a well-fed,almost fully employed people. Despit occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. A n economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950’s, may be typical as illustrating the rapid economic growth of the decade. The national output was value at 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The
英语四级考试阅读练习试题及答案 导读：我根据大家的需要整理了一份关于《英语四级考试阅读练习试题及答案》的内容，具体内容：提高英语四级阅读能力，是各位考生提高四级考试成绩的关键。下面我为大家带来英语四级考试阅读练习试题，供考生阅读练习。英语四级考试阅读练习试题(一)Baekeland an... 提高英语四级阅读能力，是各位考生提高四级考试成绩的关键。下面我为大家带来英语四级考试阅读练习试题，供考生阅读练习。 英语四级考试阅读练习试题(一) Baekeland and Hartmann report that the "short sleepers" had been more or less average in their sleep needs until the men were in their teens. But at about age 15 or so, the men voluntarily began cutting down their nightly sleep time because of pressures from school, work, and other activities. These men tended to view their nightly periods of unconsciousness as bothersome interruptions in their daily routines. In general, these "short sleeps" appeared ambitious, active, energetic, cheerful, conformist(不动摇) in their opinions, and very sure about their career choices. They often held several jobs at once, or workers full-or part-time while going to school. And many of them had a strong urge to appear "normal" or
大学英语四级阅读理解试题 Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindnenss. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes,and even snowblindness,when exposed to several hours of "snow light" . The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow- covered , a man's eyes frequently find nothing to foucs on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of tsomething to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never sotp searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid coversthe eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obsured,and the result is total, even though temporary,snowblindness. Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are
As the pace of life continues to increase ,we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through lift,being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body. Stress is an natural part of everyday lift and there is no way to avoid it. In fact ,it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be .A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation adn give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health. The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress,and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress,in whatever form,we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "fight" or "flight" and in more primitive days the choice made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme,but however little the stress,it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long,through continued exposure to stress,that health becomes endangered.Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established links with stress.Since we cannot remove stress from our lives(it would be unwise to do so even if we could),we need to find ways to deal with it. 1.People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because_____. a.they do not know how to enjoy themselves b.they do not believe that relaxation is important for health c.they are travelling fast all the time d.they are becoming busier with their work 2.According to the writer ,the most important character for a good manager is his ________. a.not fearing stress b.knowing the art of relaxation c.high sense of responsibility d.having control over performance 3.Which of the follwing statements is ture? a.We can find some ways to avoid stress b.Stress is always harmful to people