1、2012年6月英语四级真题及答案详解Part Writing (30minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Excessive Packaging following the outline given below. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.1.目前许多商品存在过度包装的现象2.出现这一现象的原因3.我对这一现象的看法和建议On Excessive
2、 PackagingPart Reading Comprehension(Skimming and Scanning)(15minutes)Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer sheet 1. For questions 1-7,choose the best answer from the four choices marked A)，B)，C）and D). For questions 8-10
3、,complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Small Schools RisingThis years list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, those with fewer students are flourishing.Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern, suburban high schools with stu
4、dents counted in the thousands. As baby boomers(二战后婴儿潮时期出生的人) came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency. A greater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessive bureaucracie
5、s(官僚机构)，the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers and students.SAT scores began dropping in 1963;today,on average,30% of students do not complete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50% in poor urban neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-dr
6、iven standards as set in No Child Left Behind resulted in significantly better performance in elementary(and some middle)schools, high schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress.Size isnt everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable countertrend
7、 toward smaller schools. This has been due ,in part ,to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools-most of them with about 400 kids each with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade, About 500 more ar
8、e on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independent public charter schools, such as No.1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high-schoolers and 18 graduates this year. It embraces dis
9、trict-sanctioned magnet schools, such as the Talented and Gifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engineering Magnet,with383,which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors School in Buffalo, N.Y., which grew out of volunteer evening seminars for students. And it includes
10、alternative schools with students selected by lottery(抽签)，such as H-B Woodlawn in Arlington, Va. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred, generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted
11、 thousands of students all marching to the same band.Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif, is one of those, ranking No.423-among the top 2% in the country-on Newsweeks annual ranking of Americas top high schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years ago, when the
12、first Newsweek list based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating Classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full ,Newsweek list of the top 5% of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2
13、007.Although many of Hillsdales students came from wealthy households, by the late 1990 average test scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate nickname (绰号) Hillsjail. Jeff Gilbert. A Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, remembers sitting with other teachers watching stud
14、ents file out of a graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment, How did that student graduate?So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three houses, romantically named Florence, Marrakech and Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly(随机地) assigned to one of the houses.
15、 Where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. The closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of advisory classes Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended d
16、iscussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents, so they are deeply invested in the students success.Were constantly talking about one anothers advisers, says English teacher Chris Crockett. If
17、 you hear that yours isnt doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the deans office, its like a personal failure. Along with the new structure came a more demanding academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95.It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-
18、thirds have moved up to physics, says Gilbert Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them.But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.The Newsweek l
19、ist of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years past, according to a single metric, the proportion of students taking college-level exams. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its simplicity. But that is also its strength: its easy for readers to underst
20、and, and to do the arithmetic for their own schools if theyd like.Ranking schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superintendents(地区教育主管)from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from the calculation.It is impossible to know which high schools are the best in
21、the nation, their letter read. in part. Determining whether different schools do or dont offer a high quality of education requires a look at man different measures, including students overall academic accomplishments and their subsequent performance in college. And taking into consideration the uni
22、que needs of their communities.In the end, the superintendents agreed to provide the data we sought, which is, after all, public information. There is, in our view, no real dispute here, we are all seeking the same thing, which is schools that better serve our children and our nation by encouraging
23、students to tackle tough subjects under the guidance of gifted teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps a list wont be necessary.注意：此部分试题请在答卡1上作答.1 Fifty years ago. big. Modern. Suburban high schools were established in the hope of _.A) ensuring no child is left behindB) i
24、ncreasing economic efficiencyC) improving students performance on SATD)providing good education for baby boomers2. What happened as a result of setting up big schools?A)Teachers workload increased.B)Students performance declined.C)Administration became centralized.D)Students focused more on test sco
25、res.3.What is said about the schools forded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation?A)They are usually magnet schools.B)They are often located in poor neighborhoods.C)They are popular with high-achieving students.D)They are mostly small in size.4.What is most noticeable about the current trend in h
26、igh school education?A)Some large schools have split up into smaller ones.B)A great variety of schools have sprung up in urban and suburban areas.C)Many schools compete for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds.D)Students have to meet higher academic standards.5.Newsweek ranked high schools ac
27、cording to .A)their students academic achievementB)the number of their students admitted to collegeC)the size and number of their graduating classesD)their college-level test participation6.What can we learn about Hillsdales students in the late 1990s?A)They were made to study hard like prisoners.B)
28、They called each other by unaffectionate nicknames.C)Most of them did not have any sense of discipline,D)Their school performance was getting worse.7.According to Jeff Gilbert, the advisory classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could .A)tell their teachers what they did on weekendsB)expe
29、rience a great deal of pleasure in learningC)maintain closer relationships with their teachersD)tackle the demanding biology and physics courses8._is still considered a strength of Newsweeks school ranking system in spite of the criticism it receives.9.According to the 38 superintendents, to rank sc
30、hools scientifically, it is necessary to use_. 10.To better serve the children and our nation, schools students to take_.Part Reading Comprehension(Reading in depth)(25minntes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank
31、 from a list of choices given in a ward bank 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 them on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words i
32、n the bank more than once.Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage,One in six. Believe it or not, thats the number of Americans who struggle with hanger To make tomorrow a little better, Feeding Action Month. As part of its 30 Ways in 30 Days program, Its asking 48 across the country to
33、 help the more than 200 food banks and 61,000 agencies in its network provide low-income individuals and families with the fuel they need to 49 .Its the kind of work thats done every day at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in San Antonio, People who 50 at its front door on the first and third Thursdays
34、of each month arent looking for God-theyre there for something to eat, St. Andrews runs a food pantry(食品堂)that 51 the city and several of the 52 towns. Janet Drane is its manager.In the wake of the 53 .the number of families in need of food assistance began to grow. It is 54 that 49 million American
35、s are unsure of where they will find their next meal Whats most surprising is that 36% of them live in 55 where at least one adult is working.It used to be that one job was all you needed. says St. Andrews Drane.The people we see now have three or four part-time jobs and theyre still right on the ed
36、ge 56 .注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。A）survive I)formallyB) surrounding J)financiallyC)serves K)domesticD)reviewed L)competitionE)reported M)communitiesF)recession N)circlingG)households O)accumulateH)gatherSection BDirections: there are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or
37、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 onAnswer Sheer 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.In times of economic cri
38、sis. Americans turn to their families for support. If the Great Depression is any guide, we may see a drop in our skyhigh divorce rate. But this wont necessarily represent. an increase in happy marriages. In the long run, the Depression weakened American families, and the current crisis will probabl
39、y do the same.We tend to think of the Depression as a time when families pulled together to survive huge job losses, By 1932. when nearly one-quarter of the workforce was unemployed, the divorce rate had declined by around 25% from 1929 But this doesnt mean people were suddenly happier with their ma
40、rriages. Rather, with incomes decreasing and insecure jobs, unhappy couples often couldnt afford to divorce. They feared neither spouse could manage alone.Today, given the job losses of the past year, fewer unhappy couples will risk starting separate households, Furthermore, the housing market meltd
41、own will make it more difficult for them to finance their separations by selling their homes.After financial disasters family members also tend to do whatever they can to help each other and their communities, A 1940 book. The Unemployed Man and His Family, described a family in which the husband in
42、itially reacted to losing his job with tireless search for work.He was always active, looking for odd jobs to do.The problem is that such an impulse is hard to sustain Across the country, many similar families were unable to maintain the initial boost in morale(士气). For some, the hardships of life w
43、ithout steady work eventually overwhelmed their attempts to keep their families together. The divorce rate rose again during the rest of the decade as the recovery took hold.Millions of American families may now be in the initial stage of their responses to the current crisis, working together and s
44、upporting one another through the early months of unemployment.Todays economic crisis could well generate a similar number of couples whose relationships have been irreparably(无法弥补地)ruined. So its only when the economy is healthy again that well begin to see just how many broken families have been c
45、reated.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。57In the initial stage, the current economic crisis is likely to _.A)tear many troubled families apartB)contribute to enduring family tiesC)bring about a drop in the divorce rateD)cause a lot of conflicts in the family58.In the Great Depression many unhappy couples close to
46、stick together becauseA)starting a new family would be hardB)they expected things would turn betterC)they wanted to better protect their kidsD)living separately would be too costly59.In addition to job losses. What stands in the way of unhappy couples getting a divorce?A)Mounting family debtsB)A sen
47、se of insecurityC)Difficulty in getting a loanD)Falling housing prices60.What will the current economic crisis eventually do to some married couples?A)It will force them to pull their efforts togetherB)It will undermine their mutual understandingC)It will help strengthen their emotional bondsD)It will irreparably damage their relationship61.What can be inferred
