大学英语四级考试2016年6月真题（第三套）

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 least120 words but no more than180 words.

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Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)

特别说明：由于多题多卷，官方第三套真题的听力试题与第二套真题的一致，只是选项顺序不同，因此，本套试卷不再提供听力部分。

Part III 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.

Contrary to popular belief, older people generally do not want to live with their children.Moreover, most adult children26 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 feel27 .

About 80% of people 65 years and older have living children, and about 90% of them have28 contact with their children.About 75% of elderly parents who don't 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 be30 ，however, as ill health often makes older people more31 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 religious33 ，they are likely to enjoy each other's company.Disagreements on such matters can34 cause problems.If parents are angered by their daughter's 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.

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 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, the 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 year's U.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 U.S.

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 be 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.

36.The more recent steep climb in grain prices partly results from the fact that more and more people want to consume meat products.

37.Social order is breaking down in many countries because of food shortages.

38.Rather than superpower conflict, countries unable to cope with food shortages now constitute the main threat to world security.

39.Some parts of the world have seen successful implementation of family planning.

40.The author has come to agree that food shortages could ultimately lead to the collapse of world civilization.

41.Increasing water shortages prove to be the biggest obstacle to boosting the world's grain production.

42.The cost for saving our civilization would be considerably less than the world's current military spending.

43.To lower domestic food prices, some countries limited or stopped their grain exports.

44.Environmental problems must be solved to ease the current global food shortage.

45.A quarter of this year's American grain harvest will be used to produce bio-fuel for cars.

Section C

Directions:There are 2 passages in this section.Each passage 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 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Declining mental function is often seen as a problem of old age, but certain aspects of brain function actually begin their decline in young adulthood, a new study suggests.

The study, which followed more than 2,000 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60, found that certain mental functions—including measures of abstract reasoning, mental speed and puzzle-solving—started to dull as early as age 27.

Dips in memory, meanwhile, generally became apparent around age 37.

On the other hand, indicators of a person's accumulated knowledge—like performance on tests of vocabulary and general knowledge—kept improving with age, according to findings published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

The results do not mean that young adults need to start worrying about their memories.Most people's minds function at a high level even in their later years, according to researcher Timothy Salthouse.

“These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that the amount of knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no diseases,”Salthouse said in a news release.

The study included healthy, educated adults who took standard tests of memory, reasoning and perception at the outset and at some point over the next seven years.

The tests are designed to detect subtle（细微的）changes in mental function, and involve solving puzzles, recalling words and details from stories, and identifying patterns in collections of letters and symbols.

In general, Salthouse and his colleagues found, certain aspects of cognition（认知能力）generally started to decline in the late 20s to 30s.

The findings shed light on normal age-related changes in mental function, which could aid in understanding the process of dementia（痴呆），according to the researchers.

“By following individuals over time,”Salthouse said,“we gain insight in cognition changes, and may possibly discover ways to slow the rate of decline.”

The researchers are currently analyzing the study participants' health and lifestyle to see which factors might influence age-related cognitive changes.

46.What is the common view of mental function?

A) It varies from person to person.

B) It weakens in one's later years.

C) It gradually expands with age.

D) It indicates one's health condition.

47.What does the new study find about mental functions?

A) Some diseases inevitably lead to their decline.

B) They reach a peak at the age of 20 for most people.

C) They are closely related to physical and mental exercise.

D) Some of them begin to decline when people are still young.

48.What does Timothy Salthouse say about people's minds in most cases?

A) They tend to decline in people's later years.

B) Their flexibility determines one's abilities.

C) They function quite well even in old age.

D) Their functioning is still a puzzle to be solved.

49.Although people's minds may function less flexibly as they age, they _____.

A) may be better at solving puzzles

B) can memorize things with more ease

C) may have greater facility in abstract reasoning

D) can put what they have learnt into more effective use

50.According to Salthouse, their study may help us _____.

A) find ways to slow down our mental decline

B) find ways to boost our memories

C) understand the complex process of mental functioning

D) understand the relation between physical and mental health

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

The most important thing in the news last week was the rising discussion in Nashville about the educational needs of children.The shorthand（简写）educators use for this is“pre-K”—meaning instruction before kindergarten—and the big idea is to prepare 4-year-olds and even younger kids to be ready to succeed on their K-12 journey.

But it gets complicated.The concept has multiple forms, and scholars and policymakers argue about the shape, scope and cost of the ideal program.

The federal Head Start program, launched 50 years ago, has served more than 30 million children.It was based on concepts developed at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College by Susan Gray, the legendary pioneer in early childhood education research.

A new Peabody study of the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K program reports that pre-K works, but the gains are not sustained through the third grade.It seems to me this highlights quality issues in elementary schools more than pre-K, and indicates longer-term success must connect pre-K with all the other issues related to educating a child.

Pre-K is controversial.Some critics say it is a luxury and shouldn't be free to families able to pay.Pre-K advocates insist it is proven and will succeed if integrated with the rest of the child's schooling.I lean toward the latter view.

This is, in any case, the right conversation to be having now as Mayor Megan Barry takes office.She was the first candidate to speak out for strong pre-K programming.The important thing is for all of us to keep in mind the real goal and the longer, bigger picture.

The weight of the evidence is on the side of pre-K that early intervention（干预）works.What government has not yet found is the political will to put that understanding into full practice with a sequence of smart schooling that provides the early foundation.

For this purpose, our schools need both the talent and the organization to educate each child who arrives at the schoolhouse door.Some show up ready, but many do not at this critical time when young brains are developing rapidly.

51.What does the author say about pre-kindergarten education?

A) It should cater to the needs of individual children.

B) It is essential to a person's future academic success.

C) Scholars and policymakers have different opinions about it.

D) Parents regard it as the first phase of children's development.

52.What does the new Peabody study find?

A) Pre-K achievements usually do not last long.

B) The third grade marks a new phase of learning.

C) The third grade is critical to children's development.

D) Quality has not been the top concern of pre-K programs.

53.When does the author think pre-K works the best?

A) When it is accessible to kids of all families.

B) When it is made part of kids' education.

C) When it is no longer considered a luxury.

D) When it is made fun and enjoyable to kids.

54.What do we learn about Mayor Megan Barry?

A) She knows the real goal of education.

B) She is a mayor of insight and vision.

C) She has once run a pre-K program.

D) She is a firm supporter of pre-K.

55.What does the author think is critical to kids' education?

A) Teaching method.

B) Kids' interest.

C) Early intervention.

D) Parents' involvement.

Part IV Translation (30 minutes)

Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

在山东省潍坊市，风筝不仅仅是玩具，而且还是这座城市文化的标志。潍坊以“风筝之都”而闻名，已有将近2,400年放飞风筝的历史。传说中国古代哲学家墨子用了三年时间在潍坊制作了世界上首个风筝，但放飞的第一天风筝就坠落并摔坏了。也有人相信风筝是中国古代木匠鲁班发明的。据说他的风筝用木头和竹子制作，飞了三天后才落地。