-
之
2008
年
12
月大学英语
六级
真题试题及答案
(A
卷
)
2008
年
12
月大学英语六级真题试题及答案
(A
卷
)
一、阅读理解
第
1
题：
sustainable
development
is
applied
to
just
about
eberything
from
energy
to
clean
water
and
economic growth,and as a result it has
become difficult to question either the basic
assumptions
behind it or the way the
concept is put to is especially true in
agriculture,where sustainable
development
is
often
taken
as
the
sole
measure
of
progress
without
a
proper
appreciation
of
histrorcal and cultural perspectives.
To start
with,it is important to remember that the nature
of agriculture has changed markedly
throughout history,and will continue to
do so .medieval agriculture in northern Europe
fed,clothed
and shelered a
predominantly rural society with a much lower
population density than it is
had
minimal effect on biodiversity,and any pollution
it caused was typically termsof
energy
use and the nutrients captured in the product it
was relatively inefficient.
Contrast
this
with
farming
since
the
start
of
the
industrial
ion
from
overseas
led
farmers
to
specialize
and
increase
hout
this
period
food
became
cheaper,safe
and
more
r,these
changes
have
alsoled
to
habitat
loss
and
to
diminishing biodiversity.
What’smore,demand
for
animal
products
in
d
eveloping
countrics
is
growing
so
fast
that
meeting it will require
an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by the
growth of cities
and in dustry is
reducing the amount of water available for
agriculture in many regions.
All this means that
agriculture in the 21st century will have to be
very different from how it
was in the
will require radical example,we need to move away
from the idea
that traditional
practices are inevitably more sustainable than new
also need to abandon
the notion that
agriculture can be “zero impact”. The key will be
to abandon the rather simple and
static
measures
of
sustainability,which
centre
on
the
need
to
maintain
production
without
increasing d we need a more dynamic
interpretation,one that looks at the pros and
cons
of
all
the
various
way
land
is
are
many
different
ways
to
measure
agricultural
performance besides food yield:energy
use, environmental costs,water purity,carbon
footprint and
biodiversity. It is
clear, for example,that the carbon of transporting
tomatoes from spain to the UK
Is less than that of
producing them in the UK with additional heating
and we do
not know whether lower
carbon footprints will always be better for
biodiversity.
What is crucial is recognizing that
sustainable agriculture is not just about
sustainable food
production.
1. How do people ofen measure progress
in agriculture?
A) By its productivity C) By its impact
on the environmet
B) By its sustainability D) By its
contribution to economic growth
2. Specialisation and the
effort to incease yields have esulted in________.
A) Localised
pollution C) competition from overseas
B) the shrinking of
farmland D) the decrease of biodiversity
does the
author think of traditional farming practices?
A)They have
remained the same over the centuries
B)They have not kept pace
with population growth
C)They are not necessarily sustainable
D)They are
environmentally friendly
will agriculture be like in the 21st
century
A) It
will go through radical changes
B) It will supply more
animal products
C) It will abandon traditional farming
practices
D) It
will cause zero damage to the environment
5 What is the
author’s purpose in writing this
pass
age?
A) To remind people of the need of
sustainable development
B) To suggest ways of ensuring
sustainable food production
C) To adance new criteria
for measuring farming progress
D) To urge people to
rethink what sustainable agriculture is
1
小题
>
、
【正确答
案】
：
B
2
小题
>
、
【正确答案】
：
D
3
小题
>
、
【正确答案】
：
C
4
小题
>
、
【正确答案】
：
A
5
小题
>
、<
/p>
【正确答案】
：
D
【参考解析】
：无
第
2
题：
The percentage of immigrants(including
those unlawfully present) in the United states has
been
creeping upward for years. At 12.6
percent, it is now higher than at any point ince
the mid1920s
We
are not about to go back to the days when Congress
openly worried about inferior races
polluing America’s bloodstream. But
once again we are wondering whether we have too
many of
the wrong sort fo loudest
citecs argue that the new wave of immigrants
cannot,and
indeed do not want to, fit
in as previous generations did.
We now know that these
racist views were time, Italians, Romanians and
members
of other so-called inferior
races became exemplary Americans and contributed
greatly, in ways too
numerous to detail
, to the building of this magnificent nation.
There is no reason why these new
immigrants should not have the same
success.
Although children of Mexican immigrants
do better, in terms of educational and
professional
attainment,
than
thir
parents
UCLA
sociologist
Edward
Telles
has
found
that
the
gains
don’t
continme. Indeed, the fouth generation
is marginally worse off than the third James
Jackson,of the
University of
Michigan,has foud a simila rend among black
Caribbean immigrants,Tells fears that
Mexican-Americans may be fated to
follow in the footsteps of American blacks-that
largeparts of
the community may become
mired in a seemingly state of poverty and
Underachievement . Like
African-
Americans,
Mexican-americans
are
increasingly
relegated
to
(
降
入
)segregated,
substandyrd schools, and their dropout
rate is the highest for any
儿童会
nic group in the country.
We have learned
much about the foolish idea of excluding people on
the presumption of the
ethnic/racial
inferiority.
But
what
we
have
not
yet
learned
is
how
to
make
the
process
of
Americanization work for
all. I am not talking about requiring people to
learn English or to adopt