2016年6月四级真题第2套.doc

2016年6月大学英语四级考试真题（第二套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to express your thanks to one of your school teachers upon entering college. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A) How college students can handle their psychological problems.B) Why college students are more likely to have stress problems.C) Why sufficient sleep is important for college students.D) How college students can improve their sleep habits.2. A) It is not easy to improve ones sleep habits.B) It is not good for students to play video games.C) Making last-minute preparations for tests may be less effective than sleeping.D) Students who are better prepared generally get higher scores in examinations.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A) Whether adequate investment is being made to improve airport facilities.B) Whether the British Airports Authority should sell off some of its assets.C) Whether the Spanish company could offer better service.D) Whether more airports should be built around London.4. A) Poor ownership structure.B) Inefficient management.C) Lack of innovation and competition.D) Lack of runway and terminal capacity.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A) Study the effects of nicotine on young smokers.B) Set a limit to the production of their cigarettes.C) Take steps to reduce nicotine in their products.D) Report the nicotine content of their cigarettes.6. A) The biggest increase in nicotine content tended to be in brands young smokers like.B) Brands which contain higher nicotine content were found to be much more popular.C) Tobacco companies refused to discuss the detailed nicotine content of their products.D) Big tobacco companies were frank with their customers about the hazards of smoking.7. A) They will pay more attention to the quality of their products.B) They were not prepared to comment on the cigarette study.C) They promised to reduce the nicotine content in cigarettes.D) They have not fully realized the harmful effect of nicotine.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) Holland. B) Indonesia. C) England. D) Sweden. 9. A) Talking with her boyfriend in Dutch.B) Getting a coach who can offer real help.C) Acquiring the necessary ability to socialize.D) Learning a language where it is not spoken.10. A) Practicing reading aloud as often as possible.B) Listening to language programs on the radio.C) Trying to speak it as much as one can.D) Making friends with native speakers.11. A) It provides opportunities for language practice.B) It trains young peoples leadership abilities.C) It offers various courses with credit points.D) It creates an environment for socializing.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) A sense of freedom driving gives.B) Rules and regulations for driving.C) The role policemen play in traffic safety.D) The impact of engine design on road safety.13. A) Make cars with automatic control.B) Make cars with higher standards.C) Make cars that are less powerful.D) Make cars that have better brakes.14. A) They follow traffic rules closely.B) They keep within speed limits.C) They like to go at high speed.D) They tend to drive responsibly.15. A) It is a bad idea.B) It is as effective as speed bumps.C) It is not useful.D) It should be combined with education.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) The card got damaged.B) The card was found invalid.C) The card reader broke down unexpectedly.D) The card reader failed to do the scanning.17. A) By seeking help from the card reader maker Verifone.B) By covering the credit card with a layer of plastic.C) By calling the credit card company for confirmation.D) By typing the credit card number into the cash register.18. A) Produce many low-tech fixes for high-tech failures.B) Give birth to many new technological inventions.C) Change the lifestyle of many Americans.D) Affect the sales of high-tech appliances.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) They vary among different departments.B) They leave much room for improvement.C) They are determined by the advising board.D) They are set by the dean of the graduate school.20. A) By consulting the examining committee.B) By reading the Bulletin of Information.C) By visiting the universitys website.D) By contacting the departmental office.21. A) They are harder to meet than those for undergraduates.B) They specify the number of credits students must earn.C) They have to be approved by the examining committee.D) They are the same among various divisions of the university.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) Ph.D. candidates in dieting.B) Students majoring in nutrition.C) Students in health classes.D) Middle and high school teachers.23. A) Its overemphasis on thinness.B) Its changing criteria for beauty.C) Its mistaken conception of nutrition.D) Its overestimate of the effect of dieting.24. A) To demonstrate the magic effect of dieting on women.B) To explain how computer images can be misleading.C) To prove that technology has impacted our culture.D) To illustrate her point that beauty is but skin deep.25. A) To help students rid themselves of bad living habits.B) To establish an emotional connection with students.C) To promote her own concept of beauty.D) To persuade girls to stop dieting.Part Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section ADirections: 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 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Contrary to popular belief, older people generally do not want to live with their children. Moreover, most adult children 26 every bit as much care and support to their aging parents as was the case in the “good old days”, and most older people do not feel 27 .About 80% of people 65 years and older have living children, and about 90% of them have 28 contact with their children. About 75% of elderly parents who dont go to nursing homes live within 30 minutes of at least one of their children.However, 29 having contact with children does not guarantee happiness in old age. In fact, some research has found that people who are most involved with their families have the lowest spirits. This research may be 30 , however, as ill health often makes older people more 31 and thereby increases contact with family members. So it is more likely that poor health, not just family involvement, 32 spirits.Increasingly, researchers have begun to look at the quality of relationships, rather than at the frequency of contact, between the elderly and their children. If parents and children share interests and values and agree on childrearing practices and religious 33 , they are likely to enjoy each others company. Disagreements on such matters can 34 cause problems. If parents are angered by their daughters divorce, dislike her new husband, and disapprove of how she is raising their grandchildren, 35 are that they are not going to enjoy her visits.A) abandonedB) advancedC) biasedD) chancesE) commitmentF) dampensG) dependentH) distantI) frequentJ) fulfillmentK) grantL) merelyM) provideN) understandablyO) unrealisticallySection BDirections: 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 2008and the threat they pose to food securityhas a different, more troubling quality than the increases of the past. During the second half of the 20th century, grain prices rose dramatically several times. In 1972, for instance, the Soviets, recognizing their poor harvest early, quietly cornered the world wheat market. As a result, wheat prices elsewhere more than doubled, pulling rice and corn prices up with them. But this and other price shocks were event-driven drought in the Soviet Union, crop-shrinking heat in the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 years U.S. grain harvest will go to fuel cars.H What about supply? The three environmental trendsthe shortage of fresh water, the loss of topsoil and the rising temperaturesare making it increasingly hard to expand the worlds 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 worlds 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 worlds people, including the three big grain producersChina, India and the U.S.I As water tables have fallen and irrigation wells have gone dry, Chinas wheat crop, the worlds 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 worlds 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 c