2008年12月大学英语六级考试真题试卷 - 阅读52 - 61

Passage one
questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage

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 use.this 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 today.it had minimal effect on biodiversity,and any pollution it caused was typically localized.in termsof energy use and the nutrients captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.
Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution.competion from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields.throughout this period food became cheaper,safe and more reliable.however,these changes have alsoled to habitat loss and to cet6w.com

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What’smore,demand for animal products in developing countrics 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 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 20th.this will 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 of all the various way land is used.there are many different cet6w.com

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 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

53. 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

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 adance 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 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 necomers.Their 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 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 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 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 ho wto ensure that people , once outsiders , don’t fovever 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 lasest 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 slowlu improve from generation to generation.
B)They will do better in terms of deucationl 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 immigrationg 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 corder
D)how to limit the number of immigrants to enter the U.S.

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