效果好-heaton
2015
年
6
月四级第
一套
Part
II??????????????????? Listening Comprehension
Section A
1. A)
He is pleased to sit on the committee.?
B) He is willing to offer
the woman a hand.
C) He will tell the
woman his decision later.
D
)
He would like to become a club member.
2. A) Their planned trip to Vancouver
is obviously overpriced.
B) They should borrow a guide book
instead of buying one.
C) The guide books in the library have
the latest information.
D) The library can help order guide
books about Vancouver.
3. A) He regrets
having taken the history course.
B) He finds little interest in the
history books.
C) He has trouble finishing his reading
assignments.
D)
He has difficulty writing the weekly book report.
4. A) The man had better choose another
restaurant.
B) The new restaurant is a
perfect place for dating.
C) The new
restaurant caught her fancy immediately.
D) The man has good taste in choosing
the restaurant.
5. A) He has been
looking forward to spring.
6. A) At a
tailor’s
B) He has been waiting for
the winter sale.
B) At Bob’s
home.
D) In a theatre.
D) Plain water will serve the purpose.
B) Raise some environmental issues.
D) Revise an environmental report.
C) He
w
ill clean the woman’s boots for
spring.
D) He will help the woman put
things away.
C)
In a clothes store.
7. A) His guests
favor Tibetan drinks.
C) Mineral water is good for health.
8. A) Report the result of a
discussion.
C)
Submit an important document.?
B) His
water is quite extraordinary.
Questions
9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have
just heard.
9. A) They
pollute the soil used to cover them.
B)
They are harmful to nearby neighborhoods.
C) The rubbish
in them takes long to dissolve.
10. A)
Growing population.
C) Changed
eating habits.
11. A) By saving
energy.?
D) The gas they emit is extremely
poisonous.
B) Packaging materials.
D) Lower production cost.
B) By using less aluminum.
D) By making the most of materials.
C)
By reducing poisonous wastes.
12.A) We are running out of natural
resources soon.
B) Only combined efforts
can make a difference.
C) The waste problem will
eventually hurt all of us.
D) All of us can actually
benefit from recycling.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the
conversation you have just heard.
13. A) Miami.
B) Vancouver.
C) Bellingham.
D) Boston.
14. A) To get
information on one-way tickets to Canada.
B)
To inquire about the price of “Super Saver”
seats.
C) To get advice on how to
fly as cheaply as possible.
D) To inquire
about the shortest route to drive home.
15. A) Join a tourist group.
B) Choose a major airline.
C) Avoid trips
in public holidays.
Section
B
Passage One?
D) Book tickets as early as
possible.
Questions 16 to 18 are based
on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) There are mysterious stories
behind his works.
B) There are many
misunderstandings about him.
C) His works
have no match worldwide.?
D) His personal history is
little known.
17. A) He moved to
Stratford-on-Avon in his childhood.
B) He failed to
go beyond grammar school.
C) He was a member of the
town council.
D) He once worked in a well-known
acting company.
18. A) Writers of his
time had no means to protect their works.
B)
Possible sources of clues about him were lost in a
fire.
C) His works were adapted beyond
recognition.
D) People of his time had little
interest in him.
Passage Two
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the
passage you have just heard.?
19. A) It shows you have been ignoring
you health.
B) It can seriously affect your
thinking process.
C) It is an early warning
of some illness.
D) It is a symptom of too
much pressure.
20. A) Reduce our
workload.
B) Control our
temper.
D) Avoid masking symptoms.
B) Rubbing and pressing one’s
back.
D) Listening to light
music.
C) Use painkillers for relief.
C) Going out for a walk.
Passage Three
Questions 22
to 25 are based on the passage you have just
heard.
22. A) Depending
heavily on loans.
23. A) Many of them
can be cut.
B)
Having no budget plans at all.
D)
Leaving no room for large bills.
B) Alt
of them have to be covered.
B) Discuss
the problem in the family.
D) Move to a
cheaper place.
B) Difficulty in making
both ends meet.
C) Spending beyond one’s
means.
C) Their
payment cannot be delayed.
24. A) Rent a house instead of buying
one.
C) Make a conservation plan.
25. A)
Financial issues plaguing a family.
Section C
Perhaps
because
going
to
college
is
so
much
a
part
of
the
American
dream,
many
people
go
for
no(26)_____reason. Some go because
their parents expect it, others because
it
’
s what their friends are
doing. Then,
there
’
s the
belief that a college degree will(27)____ensure a
good job and high pay.
Some
students
(28)____
through
for
years
,attending
classes,
or
skipping(
逃课
)
them
as
the
case
may
be,
reading only what
can
’
t be avoided, looking
for less(29)_____courses, and never being touched
or changed in any
important way. For a
few of these people, college provides no (30)____,
yet because of parental or peer pressure,
they cannot voluntarily leave. They
stop trying in the hope that their teachers will
make the decision for them by
21. A) Lying down and having some
sleep.
D) The eat up most of the family
income.
C) Family budget problems and
solutions. D) New ways to boost family income.
(31)____ them.
To
put
it
bluntly(
直截了当地
)
，
unless
you
’
re
willing
to
make
your
college
years
count,
you
might
be
(32)_____ doing something else. Not
everyone should attend college, nor should
everyone who does attend begin
right
after high school. Many college students (33)_____
taking a
year or so off.
A
year out in the world helps
some people to (34)_____their
priorities and goals. If
you
’
re really going to get
something out of going to college,
you
have to make it mean something, and to do that you
must have some idea why
you
’
re there, what you hope
to
get out of it, and (35)_____even
what you hope to become.
Part III
Reading Comprehension
Section A
Questions 36 to 45
are based on the following passage.
It’s our guilty pl
easure:
Watching TV is the most common everyday activity,
after work and sleep, in many
parts of
the world. Americans view five hours of TV each
day, and while we know that spending so much time
sitting
36
can lead to
obesity
(
肥胖症
) and other diseases,
researchers have now quantified just how
37
being a couch potato can
be.
In an analysis of data from
eight large
38
published
studies, a Harvard-led group reported in the
Journal
of
the
American
Medical
Association
that
for
every
two
hours
per
day
spent
channel
39
,
the
risk
of
developing
Type
2
diabetes
(
糖尿病
)
rose
20%
over
8.5
years,
the
risk
of
heart
disease
increased
15%
over
a
40
, and the odds of dying prematurely
41
13% during a seven-year
follow-up. All of these
42
are
linked to a lack of
physical exercise. But compared with other
sedentary
(
久坐的
) activities, like
knitting, viewing
TV
may
be
especially
43
at
promoting
unhealthy
habits.
For
one,
the
sheer
number
of
hours
we
pass
watching TV dwarfs the time we spend on
anything else. And other studies have found that
watching ads for beer
and popcorn may
make you more likely to
44
them.
Even
so,
the
authors
admit
that
they
didn’t
compare
different
sedentary
activities
to
45
whether
TV
watching was linked to a greater risk
of diabetes, heart disease or early death compared
with, say, reading.
A) climbed
B)
consume
C)
decade
D) determine
E) effective
Section B
Essay-Grading Software Offers
Professors a Break
[A] Imagine taking a
college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue
book and getting a grade from a professor a
few weeks later, clicking the “send”
button when you are clone and receiving
a
grade back instantly, your essay
scored by a software program. And then,
instead of being clone with that exam, imagine
that the system would
immediately let
you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.
[B]
EdX,
the
nonprofit
enterprise
founded
by
Harvard
and
the
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology
(MIT)
to
offer
courses on the Internet, has just introduced such
a system and will make its
automated
(
自动的
) software
available
free
on
the
Web
to
any
institution
that
wants
to
use
it.
The
software
uses
artificial
intelligence
to
grade student essays and
short written answers, fleeing professors for
other tasks.
[C]
The
new
service
will
bring
the
educational
consortium
(
联盟
)
into
a
growing
conflict
over
the
role
of
automation in education. Although
automated grading systems for multiple-choice and
true-false tests are now
widespread,
the use of artificial intelligence technology to
grade essay answers has not yet received
widespread
acceptance by educators and
has many critics.
[D] Anant Agarwal, an
electrical engineer who is president of EdX,
predicted that the instant-
grading
software
F) harmful
K) suffered
L) surfing
M) term
N) terminals
O)
twisting
G) outcomes
H)
passively
I) previously
J)
resume
would be a useful teaching
tool, enabling students to take tests and write
essays over and over and improve the
quality of their answers. He said the
technology would offer distinct advantages over
the traditional classroom
system,
where students often wait days
or weeks for grades. “There is a huge
value in learning with instant
feedb
ack,” Dr.
Agarwal
said. “Students are
telling us they learn much better with instant
feedback.”
[E]
But
skeptics
(
怀疑者
)
say
the
automated
system
is
no
match
for
live
teachers.
One
longtime
critic,
Les
Perelman,
has
drawn
national
attention
several
times
for
putting
together
nonsense
essays
that
have
fooled
software grading
programs into giving high marks. He has also been
highly critical of studies claiming that the
software compares well to human
graders.
[F]
He
is
among
a
group
of
educators
who
last
month
began
circulating
a
petition
(
呼吁
)
opposing
automated
assessment software. The group, which
calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring
of Student Essays in
High-Stakes
Assessment, has collected nearly 2,000 signatures,
including some from famous people like Noam
Chomsky.
[G] “Let’s face the
realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s
statement reads in part. “Computers cannot
‘read.’ They cannot measure the
essentials of effective written
communication:
accuracy, reasoning,
adequacy
of evidence, good sense,
ethical
(
伦理的
) position, convincing
argument, meaningful organization, and clarity,
among others.”
[H] But EdX expects its software to be
adopted widely by schools and universities. It
offers
free online classes
from
Harvard,
MIT
and
the
University
of
California-Berkeley;
this
fall,
it
will
add
classes
from
Wellesley,
Georgetown and
the University of Texas. In all, 12 universities
participate in EdX, which offers certificates for
course
completion
and
has
said
that
it plans
to
continue
to
expand
next
year,
including
adding
international
schools.
[I] The EdX assessment tool requires
human teachers, or graders, to first grade 100
essays or essay questions. The
system
then
uses
a
variety
of
machine-learning
techniques
to
train
itself
to
be
able
to
grade
any
number
of
essays
or
answers
automatically
and
almost
instantly.
The
software
will
assign
a
grade
depending
on
the
scoring system created by the teacher,
whether it is a letter grade or
numerical
(
数字的
) rank.
[J]
EdX is not the first to use the automated
assessment technology, which dates to early
computers in the 1960s.
There
is
now
a
range
of
companies
offering
commercial
programs
to
grade
written
test
answers,
and
four
states
—
Louisiana,
North
Dakota,
Utah
and
West
Virginia
—
are
using
some
form
of
the
technology
in
secondary schools. A
fifth, Indiana, has experimented
with
it. In some cases the software is used as a
“second
reader,” to check the
reliability of the
human graders.
[K] But the growing influence of the
EdX consortium to set standards is likely to give
the technology a boost. On
Tuesday,
Stanford announced that it would work with EdX to
develop a joint educational system that will make
use of the automated assessment
technology.
[L] Two start-ups, Coursera
and Udacity, recently founded by Stanford faculty
members to create
“massive open
online
courses,”
or
MOOCs,
are
also
committed
to
automated
assessment
systems
because
of
the
value
of
instant
feedback.
“It
allows
students
to
get
immediate
feedback
on
their
work,
so
that
learning
turns
into
a
game,
with
students
naturally
gravitating
(
吸引
)
to
ward
resubmitting
the
work
until
they
get
it
right,”
said
Daphne Koller, a
computer scientist and a founder of Coursera.
[M]Last year the Hewlett Foundation, a
grant-making organization set up by one of the
Hewlett-Packard founders
and his wife,
sponsored two $$100,000 prizes aimed at improving
software that grades essays and short answers.
More than 150 teams entered each
category. A winner of one of the Hewlett contests,
Vik Paruchuri, was hired
by EdX to help
design its assessment software.
[N]
“One of our focuses is to help kids learn how to
think critically,” said Victor Vuchic, a
program
officer at the
Hewlett Foundation. “It’s probably
impossible to do that with
multiple
-choice tests. The challenge is
that this
requires human graders, and
so they cost a lot more and they
take a
lot more time.”
[O] Mark D.
Shermis, a professor at the University of Akron in
Ohio, supervised the Hewlett
Foundation’s contest
on
automated
essay
scoring
and
wrote
a
paper
about
the
experiment.
In
his
view,
the
technology
—
though
imperfect
—
has a
place in educational settings.
[P]
With
increasingly
large
classes,
it
is
impossible
for
most
teachers
to
give
students
meaningful
feedback
on
writing assignments, he
said. Plus, he noted, critics of the technology
have tended
to come from the nation’s
best universities, where the level of
teaching is much better than at most schools.
[Q]
“Often
they
come
from
very
famous
institutions
where,
in
fact,
they
do
a
much
better
job
of
providing
feedback than a machine ever could,”
Dr. Shermis said. “There seems to be a lack
of
appreciation of what is
actually going on in the real
world.”
46. Some
professionals in education are collecting
signatures to voice their opposition to automated
essay grading.
47. Using software to
grade students’ essays saves teachers time for
other work.
48. The Hewlett
contests aim at improving essay grading software.
49. Though the automated grading System
is widely used in multiple-choice tests, automated
essay grading is still
criticized by
many educators.
50. Some people don’t
believe the software grading system can do as good
a job as human graders.
51.
Critics of automated essay scoring do not seem to
know the true realities in less famous
universities.
52. Critics argue many
important aspects of effective writing cannot be
measured by computer rating programs.
53. As class size grows, most teachers
are unable to give students valuable comments as
to how to improve their
writing.
54. The automated assessment technology
is sometimes used to double check the work of
human graders.
Section C
Passage One
Questions 56 to
60 are based on the following passage.
Some
of
the
world’s
most
significant
problems never
hit
headlines.
One
example
comes
from
agriculture.
Food
riots
and
hunger
make
news.
But
the
trend
lying
behind
these
matters
is
rarely
talked
about.
This
is
the
decline in the growth in
yields of some of the world’s major crops. A
new
study by the University of
Minnesota
and McGill University in
Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline
is occurring.
The
authors
take
a
vast
number
of
data
points
for
the
four
most
important
crops:
rice,
wheat,
corn
and
soyabeans
(
大豆
). They find that on
between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the
improvement in yields that
took place
before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and
2000s.
There are two worrying features
of the slowdown. One is that it has been
particularly sharp in the
world
’
s
most
populous
(
人口多的
)
countries,
India
and
China.
Their
ability
to
feed
themselves
has
been
an
important
source of relative stability both
within the countries and on world food markets.
That self-sufficiency cannot be
taken
for granted if yields continue to slow down or
reverse.
Second,
yield
growth
has
been
lower
in
wheat
and
rice
than
in
corn
and
soyabeans.
This
is
problematic
because wheat and rice are more
important as foods, accounting for around half of
all calories consumed. Com and
soyabeans
are
more
important
as
feed
grains.
The
authors
note
that
“we
have
preferen
tially
focused
our
crop
improvement efforts on feeding animals
and cars rather than on crops that feed people and
are the basis of food
security in much
of the world.”
The report
qualifies the more optimistic findings of another
new paper which suggests that the world will not
have to dig up a lot more land for
farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050,
as the Food and Agriculture
Organisation has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing
population growth, land currently ploughed up for
crops might be able to
revert
(
回返
)
to
forest
or
wilderness.
This
could
happen.
The
trouble
is
that
the
forecast
assumes
continued
improvements in yields, which may not
actually happen.
56. What does the
author try to draw attention to
A) Food
riots and hunger in the world.
B) News headlines in the leading
media.
C) The decline of the grain
yield growth.
D) The food supply in populous
countries.
57. Why does the author
mention India and China in particular
A) Their self-sufficiency is vital to
the stability of world food markets.
B)
Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply
in recent years.
C) Their big
populations are causing worldwide concerns.
D) Their food self-sufficiency has been
taken for granted.
58. What does the
new study by the two universities say about recent
crop improvement efforts
A) They fail
to produce the same remarkable results as before
the 1980s.
B) They contribute a lot to
the improvement of human food production.
C) They play a major role in
guaranteeing the food security of the world.
D) They focus more on the increase of
animal feed than human food grains.
59.
What does the Food and Agriculture Organisation
say about world food production in the coming
decades
A) The growing population will
greatly increase the pressure on world food
supplies.
B) The optimistic prediction
about food production should be viewed with
caution.
C) The slowdown of the growth
in yields of major food crops will be reversed.
D) The world will be able to feed its
population without increasing farmland.
60. How does the author view the
argument of the Food and Agriculture Organisation
A) It is built on the findings of a new
study.
B) It is based on a doubtful
assumption.
C) It is backed by strong
evidence.
D) It is open to further
discussion.
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the
following passage.
The endless debate
about “work
-
life balance”
often contains a hopeful footnote about
stay
-at-home dads. If
American society and business won’t
make it easier on future female leaders
who
choose to have children, there is
still the ray of hope that increasing
numbers of full-time fathers
will. But
based on today’s socioeconomic trends,
this hope is, unfortunately, misguided.
It’s true that the number of men who
have left work to do their thing as
full-time parents has doubled in a
decade, but it’s still very small: only
0.8% of married couples where the
stay
-at-home father was out of the
labor
force for a year. Even that
percentage is likely inflated by men thrust into
their caretaker role by a downsizing. This
is simply not a large enough group to
reduce the social
stigma
(
污名
) and force
other adjustments necessary to
supporting men in this decision, even
if only for a relatively short time.
Even shorter times away from work for
working fathers are already difficult. A study
found that 85% of new
fathers take some
time off after the birth of a child
—but
for all but a few, it’s a
week or two
at most. Meanwhile,
the average for
women who take leave is more than 10 weeks.
Such choices impact who moves
u
p in the organization. While you’re
away, someone else is
doing your work,
making your sales, taking care of your
customers. That can’t help you at work.
It
can only hurt you. Women, of
course, face the same issues of
returning after a long absence. But with many more
women than men choosing to
leave
the
workforce
entirely
to
raise
families,
returning
from
an
extended
parental
leave
doesn’t
raise
as
many
eyebrows as it does for
men.
Women would make more if they
didn
’
t break their earning
trajectory
(
轨迹
) by leaving the
workforce, or if
higher-paying
professions were more family-friendly. In the
foreseeable future, stay-at-home fathers may make
all
the difference for individual
families, but their presence won’t
reduce the numbers of high-potential women who
are forced to choose between family and
career.
61. What gives women a ray of
hope to achieve work-life balance
A)
More men taking an extended parental leave.
B) People’s changing attitudes towards
family.
C) More women
entering business management.
D) The
improvement of their socioeconomic status.
62. Why does the author say the hope
for more full-time fathers is misguided
A) Women are better at taking care of
children.
B) Many men value work more
than their family.
C) Their number is
too small to make a difference.
D) Not
many men have the chance to stay at home.
63. Why do few men take a long parental
leave
A) A long leave will have a
negative impact on their career.
B)
They just have too many responsibilities to
fulfill at work.
C) The economic loss
will be too much for their family to bear.
D) They are likely to get fired if
absent from work for too long.
64. What
is the most likely reaction to men returning from
an extended parental leave
A) Jealousy.
B) Surprise.
C) Admiration.
D) Sympathy.
65. What does
the author say about high-potential women in the
not-too-distant future
A) They will
benefit from the trend of more fathers staying at
home.
B) They will find high-paying
professions a bit more family-friendly.
C) They are unlikely to break their
career trajectory to raise a family.
D)
They will still face the difficult choice between
career and children.
Part IV
Translation (30 minutes)
据报道，今年中国快递服务
(courier
service)
将递送大约
120
< br>亿包裹。这将使中国有可能超越美国成为
世界上最大的快递市场。大多数包裹里装
着网上订购的物品。中国给数百万在线零售商以极具竞争力的价
格销售商品的机会。仅在
11
月
11
日
，中国消费者就从国内最大的购物平台购买了价值
90
亿美元的
商品。
中国有不少这样的特殊购物日。因此，快递业在中国扩展就不足为奇了。
2015
年
6
月四级第二套
Part II
Listening Comprehension
Section A
1.
A) The woman should go on playing
chess.
B) He is willing to play chess
with the woman.
C) The woman has good
reason to quit the game.
D) He will
give the woman some tips on the game.
2.
A) She would
like to resume contact with Sally.
B)
The man can forward the mail to Mary.
C) She can call Mary to take care of
the mail.
D) Mary probably knows
Sally’s new
address.
3.
A) He did not attend
today’s class.
B
)
His notes are not easy to read.
C) His
handwriting has a unique style.
D) He is very pleased to be able to
help.
4.
A) The
new restaurant is a perfect place for dating.
B) The new restaurant caught her fancy
immediately.
C) The man has good taste
in choosing the restaurant.
D) The man
had better choose another restaurant.
5.
A) He will
help the woman put things away.
B) He
has been waiting for the winter sale.
C) He has been looking forward to
spring.
D) He will clean the woman’s
boots
.
6.
A) The woman often works overtime at
weekends.
B) The man often lends books
to the woman.
C) The man appreciates
the woman’s help.
D) The
woman is rather forgetful.
7.
A) Take a sightseeing trip.
B) Go to work
on foot.
C) Start work earlier than
usual.
D)
Take a walk when the weather is nice.
8.
A) Temporary closing has disturbed the
airport’s operation.
B) The
plane is going to land at another airport.
C) All flights have been delayed due to
bad weather.
D) The airport’s
management is in real need of
improvement.
Questions 9 to
12 are based oh the conversation you have just
heard.
9.
A) It
specializes in safety from leaks.
B) It is headquartered in
London.
C) It has a chemical processing
plant.
10.
A) He is a safety inspector.
C)
He is a chemist.
11.
A) The public relations officer.
D) It has a partnership
with LCP.
B
) He is Mr.
Grand’s friend.
D) He is a
salesman.
B) Head of the personnel
department.
D) Director of
the safety department.
C) Mr. Grand’s
personal assistant.
12.
A) Send a comprehensive
description of their work.
B) Provide
details of their products and services.
C) Leave a message for Mr. Grand.
D) Wait for Mr. Grand to call back.
Questions 13 to 15 are based on the
conversation you have just heard.
13.
A) She listened to
recordings of many European orchestras.
B) She read a lot about European
musicians and their music.
C) She
dreamed of working and living in a European
country.
D) She learned playing the
violin from a famous French musician.
14.
A) She was a
pupil of a famous European violinist.
B) She gave her first performance with
her father.
C) She became a
professional violinist at fifteen.
D)
She began taking violin lessons as a small child.
15.
A) It was
the chance of a lifetime.
B) It was a
great challenge to her.
C) It gave her
a chance to explore the city.
D) It
helped her learn classical French music.
Section B
Passage One
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the
passage you have just heard.
16.
A) There are mysterious
stories behind his works.
B) His
personal history is little known.
C)
His works have no match worldwide.
D)
There are many misunderstandings about him.
17.
A) He once
worked in a well-known acting company.
B) He moved to Stratfor
d-
on
-
Avon in his
childhood.
C) He failed to go beyond
grammar school.
D) He was a member of
the town council.
18.
A) People of his time had little
interest in him.
B) His works were
adapted beyond recognition.
C) Possible
sources of clues about him were lost in a fire.
D) Writers of his time had no means to
protect their works.
Passage Two
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the
passage you have just heard.
19.
A) Theft.
B) Air crash.
C) Cheating.
D) Road
accidents.
D) Make hotel reservations.
D) Have a friend meet you.
20.
A) Learn the
local customs.
B
) Have the right documents.
C) Book tickets well in advance.
C) Get a lift if possible.
Passage Three
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the
passage you have just heard.
22.
A) Cut down production
cost.
B) Refine the taste of his
goods.
C) Sell inexpensive products.
23.
A) At a meeting of top British
businesspeople.
B) During a local sales
promotion campaign.
C) During a
live television interview.
D) At a
national press conference.
24.
A) Discouraged.
B) Distressed.
C) Puzzled.
D)
Insulted.
25.
A)
He is not laughed at, that laughs at himself
first.
B) There should be a limit to
one’s sense of humor.
C) He
who never learns from the past is bound to fail.
D) The words of some businesspeople are
just rubbish.
Section C
Looking at the basic biological
systems, the world is not doing very well. Yet
economic indicators show the
world is
(26) ______. Despite a slow start at the beginning
of the eighties, global economic output increased
by
more
than
a
fifth
during
the
(27)
______.
The
economy
grew,
trade
increased,
and
millions
of
new
jobs
were
created. How can biological indicators
show the (28) ______ of economic indicators
The answer is that the economic
indicators have a basic fault: they show no
difference between resource uses
that
(29) ______ progress and those uses that will hurt
it. The main measure of economic progress is the
gross
national product (GNP). (30)
______, this totals the value of all goods and
services produced and subtracts loss in
value of factories and equipment.
Developed a half-century ago, GNP helped (31)
______ a common way among
countries
of
measuring
change
in
economic
output.
For
some
time,
this
seemed
to
work
(32)
______
well,
but
serious
weaknesses are now appearing. As indicated
earlier, GNP includes loss in value of factories
and equipment,
D) Specialize in gold
ornaments.
21.
A) Contact your agent.
B) Use official transport.
but
it
does
not
(33)
______
the
loss
of
natural
resources,
including
nonrenewable
resources
such
as
oil
or
renewable resources such
as forests.
This
basic
fault
can
produce
a
(34)
______
sense
of
national
economic
health.
According
to
GNP,
for
example, countries that
overcut forests actually do better than those that
preserve their forests. The trees cut down
are counted as income but no
subtraction is made for (35) ______ the forests.
Part III
Reading
Comprehension
Section A
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the
following passage.
The U.S. Department
of Education is making efforts to ensure that all
students have equal access to a quality
education. Today it is __36___the
launch of the Excellent Educators for All
Initiative. The initiative will help states
and school districts support great
educators for the students who need them most.
“All children are
37
to a high-quality education regardless
of their race, zip code or family income. It is
38
important
that
we
provide
teachers
and
principals
the
support
they
need
to
help
students
reach
their
full
39
,” U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “Despite
the excellent work and deep
40
of our
nation's
teachers and principals,
students in high-poverty, high-minority schools
are unfairly treated across our country.
We
have to
do
better. Local leaders
and
educators will
41
their own
creative solutions,
but we
must work
together to
42
our focus on how to better recruit,
support and
43
effective teachers and principals for
all
students, especially the kids who
need them most.”
Today’s
announcement
is
another
important
step
forward
in
improving
access
to
quality
education,
a
44
of
President
Obama’s
year
of
acti
on.
Later
today,
Secretary
Duncan
will
lead
a
roundtable
discussion
with
principals and school teachers from
across the country about the
45
of working in
high-need schools and how
to adapt
promising practices for supporting great educators
in these schools.
A) announcing
F) contests
K) entitled
B) beneficial
G) critically
L) potential
C)
challenges
H) develop
M) properly
D) commitment
I) distributing
N)
qualified
E) component
J) enhance
O) retain
Section B
The Changes Facing
Fast Food
[A] Fast-food firms have to
be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly
criticize them severely for selling
food that makes people fat. Critics
even complain that
McDonald
’
s, whose logo
symbolizes calorie excess, should
not
have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These
are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope
with. But not
perhaps
for
much
longer.
The
burger
business
faces
more
pressure
from
regulators
at
a
time
when
it
is
already
adapting strategies in response to
shifts in the global economy.
[B] Fat
food was once thought to be recession-proof. When
consumers need to cut spending, the logic goes,
cheap
meals like Big Macs and Whoppers
become even more attractive. Such “trading
down”
proved true for much of
the latest recession, when fast-food
companies picked up customers who could no longer
afford to eat
at casual
restaurants.
Traffic
was
boosted
in
America,
the
home
of
fast
food,
with
discounts
and
promotions,
such
as
$$1
menus and cheap combination meals.
[C]
As
a
result,
fast-food
chains
have
weathered
the
recession
better
than
their
more
expensive
competitors.
In
2009 sales at full-
service restaurants in America fell by more than
6%, bur total sales remained about the same at
fast-food
chains.
In
some
markets,
such
as
Japan,
France
and
Britain,
total
spending
on
fast
food
increased.
Same-store sales in A
merica
at McDonald’s, the world’s largest
fast
-food company, did not decline
throughout the
downturn,
Panera
Bread,
an
American
fast-food
chain
known
for
its
fresh
ingredients,
performed
well,
too,
because it offers higher-quality food
at lower prices than restaurants.
[D]
But not all fast-food companies have been as
fortunate. Many, such as Burger King, have seen
sales fall. In a
severe
recession,
while
some
people trade
down
to
fast
food,
many
others
eat
at
home
more
frequently
to
save
money. David Palmer, an
analyst at UBS, a bank, says smaller fast-food
chains in America, such as Jack in the Box
and Carl’s Jr., have been hit
particularly hard in this downturn because they
are competing with the global giant
McDonald’s, which increased spending on
adverti
sing by more than 7% last year
as others cut back.
[E] Some fast-food
companies also sacrificed their own profits by
trying to give customers better value. During the
recession companies set prices low,
hoping that once they had tempted customers
through the door they would be
persuaded to order more expensive
items. But in many cases that strategy did not
work. Last
year Burger King
franchisees
(
特许经营人
)
sued
(
起诉
)
the
company
over
its
double-cheeseburger
promotion,
claiming
it
was
unfair for
them to be required to sell these for $$1 when they
cost $$1.10 to make. In May a judge ruled in favor
of
Burger
King.
Nevertheless,
the
company
may
still
be
cursing
its
decision
to
promote
cheap
choices
over
more
expensive ones because items on its
“value menu”; mow accou
nt for around
20% of all sales, up from 12% last
October.
[F]
Analysts
expect
the
fast-food
industry
to
grow
modestly
this
year.
But
the
downturn
is
making
companies
rethink their strategies. Many are now
introducing higher-priced items to entice
(
引诱
) consumers away from $$1
specials.
KFC,
a
division
of
Yum!
Brands,
which
also
owns
Taco
Bell
and
Pizza
Hut,
has
launched
a
chicken
sandwich that costs around $$5. And in
May Burger King introduced barbecue
(
烧烤
)pork ribs at $$7 for
eight.
[G] Companies are also
try
ing to get customers to buy new and
more items, including drinks, McDonald’s started
selling better coffee as a challenge to
Starbucks. Its “McCafe” line now accounts for an
estimated 6% of sales in
America.
Starbucks has sold rights to its Seattle’s Best
coffee brand to Burger King, which will
start selling it later
this year.
[H]
As
fast-food
companies
shift
from
“super
size”
to
“more
buys”,
they
need
to
keep
customer
traffic
high
throughout the day.
Many see breakfast as a big opportunity, and just
for f
atty food. McDonald’s will start
selling
porridge
(
粥
)in
America
next
year.
Breakfast
has
the
potential
to
be
very
profitable,
says
Sara
Senatore
of
Bernstein,
a
research
firm,
because
the
margins
can
be
high.
Fast-food
companies
are
also
adding
midday
and
late-
night snacks, such as blended drinks and wraps.
The idea is that by having a greater range of
things on the
menu,
“we can
sell to consumers products they want all
day
,
”; says Rick Carucci,
the chief financial offers of Yun!
Brands.
[I] But when about
those growing waistlines So far, fast-food firms
have cleverly avoided government regulation.
By providing healthy options, like
salads and low-calorie sandwiches, they have at
least given the impression of
doing
something about helping to fight obesity
(
肥胖症
). These offerings are
not necessarily loss-leaders, as they
broaden the appeal of outlets to groups
of diners that include some people who
don
’
t want to eat a burger.
But
customers cannot be forced to order
salads instead of fries.
[J] In the
future, si
mply offering a healthy
option may not be good enough. “Every
packaged
-food and restaurant
company I know is concerned about
regulation right now,” says Mr. Palmer of UBS.
America’s health
-reform bill,
which Congress passed this year,
requires restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets
to put the calorie-content of
items
they serve to the menu. A study by the National
Bureau of Economic Research, which tracked the
effects on
Starbucks of a similar
calorie-posting law in New York City in 2007,
found that the average calorie-amount per
transaction fell 6% and revenue
increased 3% at Starbucks stores where a Dunkin
Donuts outlet was nearby
—
a
sign, it is said, that menu-labeling
could favor chains that have more healthy
offerings.
[K]In
order
to
avoid
other
legislation
in
America
and
elsewhere,
fast-food
companies
will
have
to
continue
innovating
(
创新
),
Wait
Riker
of
McDonald
’
s
claims
the
change
it
has
made
in
its
menu
means
it
offers
more
healthy items than it
did a few years ago
, “We probably sell
more vegetables
, more milk, more
salads, some apples
than
any
restaurant
business
in
the
world,”
he
says.
But
the
recent
proposal
by
a
county
in
California
to
ban
McDonald’s from
including toys in its
high
-
calorie “Happy Meals”,
because legislators believe it attracts
ch
ildren