2008年12月英语六级真题及答案

　　Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer sheet 2.

　　Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

　　One of the major producers of athletic footwear, with 2002 sales of over $10 billion, is a company called Nike, with corporate headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Forbes magazine identified Nike’s president, Philip Knight, as the 53rd-richestman in the world in 2004. But Nike has not always been a large multimillion-dollar organization. In fact, Knight started the company by selling shoes from the back of his car at track meets.

　　In the late1950s Philip Knight was a middle-distance runner on the University of Oregon track team, coached by Bill Bowerman. One of the top track coaches in the U.S., Bowerman was also known for experimenting with the design of running shoes in an attempt to make them lighter and more shock-absorbent. After attending Oregon, Knight moved on to do graduate work at Stanford University; his MBA thesis was on marketing athletic shoes. Once he received his degree, Knight traveled to Japan to contact the Onitsuka Tiger Company, a manufacturer of athletic shoes. Knight convinced the company’s officials of the potential for its product in the U.S. In 1963 he received his first shipment of Tiger shoes, 200 pairs in total.

　　In 1964, Knight and Bowerman contributed $500 each to from Blue Ribbon Sports, the predecessor of Nike. In the first few years, Knight distributed shoes out of his car at local track meets. The first employees hired by Knight were former college athletes. The company did not have the money to hire “experts”, and there was no established athletic footwear industry in North America from which to recruit those knowledgeable in the field. In its early years the organization operated in an unconventional manner that characterized its innovative and entrepreneurial approach to the industry. Communication was informal; people discussed ideas and issues in the hallways, on a run, or over a beer. There was little task differentiation. There were no job descriptions, rigid reporting systems, or detailed rules and regulations. The team spirit and shared values of the athletes on Bowerman’s teams carried over and provided the basis for the collegial style of management that characterized the early years of Nikes.

　　47. While serving as a track coach, Bowerman tried to design running shoes that were _____________________.

　　48. During his visit to Japan, Knight convinced the officials of the Onitsuka Tiger Company that its product would have____________________________________.

　　49. Blue Ribbon Sports as unable to hire experts due to the absence of____________________ in North America.

　　50. In the early years of Nike, communication within the company was usually carried out____________.

　　51. What qualities of Bowerman’s teams formed the basis of Nike’s early management style?

　　_______________________________________________________________.

　　Section B

　　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 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

　　Sustainable development is applied to just about everything 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 use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical 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 sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients(营养成分)captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.

　　Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safe and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat(栖息地)loss and to diminishing biodiversity.

　　What’s more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050.yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions.

　　All this means that agriculture in the 21stcentury will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th.thiswill require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We 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 damage.

　　Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons(正反两方面)of all the various way land is used. There 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 lighting. But 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.

　　52. How do people often measure progress in agriculture?

　　A) By its productivity　 C) By its impact on the environment

　　B) By its sustainability　D) By its contribution to economic growth

　　53. Specialisation and the effort to increase yields have resulted in________.

　　A) Localised pollution　　　C) competition from overseas

　　B) the shrinking of farmland　D) the decrease of biodiversity

　　54. What 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

　　55. What 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

　　56 What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

　　A) To remind people of the need of sustainable development

　　B) To suggest ways of ensuring sustainable food production

　　C) To advance new criteria for measuring farming progress

　　D) To urge people to rethink what sustainable agriculture is

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

　　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 since the mid1920s.

　　We are not about to go back to the days when Congress openly worried about inferior races polluting America’s bloodstream. But once again we are wondering whether we have too many of the wrong sort newcomers. Their loudest critics 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 wrong. In 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 their parents UCLA sociologist Edward Telles has found that the gains don’t continue. Indeed, the fouth generation is marginally worse off than the third James Jackson, of the University of Michigan, has found a similar trend among black Caribbean immigrants, Tells fears that Mexican-Americans may be fated to follow in the footsteps of American blacks-that large parts of the community may become mired(陷入)in a seemingly　permanent state of poverty and Underachievement. Like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans are increasingly relegated to (降入)segregated, substandard schools, and their dropout rate is the highest for any　ethnic 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 American ways; those things happen pretty much on their own, but as arguments about immigration hear up the campaign trail, we also ought to ask some broader question about assimilation, about how to ensure that people , once outsiders , don’t forever remain marginalized within these shores.

　　That is a much larger question than what should happen with undocumented workers, or how best to secure the border, and it is one that affects not only newcomers but groups that have been here for generations. It will have more impact on our future than where we decide to set the admissions bar for the latest ware of would-be Americans. And it would be nice if we finally got the answer right.

　　57. How were immigrants viewed by U.S. Congress in early days?

　　A) They were of inferior races.

　　B) They were a Source of political corruption.

　　C) They were a threat to the nation’s security.

　　D) They were part of the nation’s bloodstream.

　　58. What does the author think of the new immigrants?

　　A) They will be a dynamic work force in the U.S.

　　B) They can do just as well as their predecessors.

　　C) They will be very disappointed on the new land.

　　D) They may find it hard to fit into the mainstream.

　　59. What does Edward Telles’ research say about Mexican-Americans?

　　A) They may slowly improve from generation to generation.

　　B) They will do better in terms of educational attainment.

　　C) They will melt into the African-American community.

　　D) They may forever remain poor and underachieving.

　　60. What should be done to help the new immigrants?

　　A) Rid them of their inferiority complex.

　　B) Urge them to adopt American customs.

　　C) Prevent them from being marginalized.

　　D) Teach them standard American English.

　　61. According to the author, the burning issue concerning immigration is_______.

　　A) How to deal with people entering the U.S. without documents

　　B) How to help immigrants to better fit into American society

　　C) How to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border

　　D) How to limit the number of immigrants to enter the U.S.