1、大学英语六级考试真题2008年12月大学英语六级考试真题Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled How To Improve Students Mental Health?. You should write at least 150 words following the outline given below.1.大学生的心理健康十分重要2.因此,学校可以3.我们自己应当Part II Reading Co
2、mprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)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, complete the sentenc
3、es with the information given in the passage. Supersize SurpriseAsk anyone why there is an obesity epidemic and they will tell you that its al down to eating too much and burning too few calories. That explanation appeals to common sense and has dominated efforts to get to the root of the obesity ep
4、idemic and reverse it. Yet obesity researchers are increasingly dissatisfied with it. Many now believe that something else must have changed in our environment to precipitate(促成) such dramatic rises in obesity over the past 40 years or so. Nobody is saying that the “big two” reduced physical activit
5、y and increased availability of food are not important contributors to the epidemic, but they cannot explain it all.Earlier this year a review paper by 20obesity experts set out the 7 most plausible alternative explanations for the epidemic. Here they are.1.Not enough sleep It is widely believed tha
6、t sleep is for the brain, not the body. Could a shortage of shut-eye also be helping to make us fat?Several large-scale studies suggest there may be a link. People who sleep less than 7 hours a night tend to have a higher body mass index than people who sleep more, according to data gathered by the
7、US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Similarly, the US Nurses Health Study, which tracked 68,000 women for 16 years, found that those who slept an average of 5 hours a night gained more weight during the study period than women who slept 6 hours, who in turn gained more than whose wh
8、o slept 7.Its well known that obesity impairs sleep, so perhaps people get fat first and sleep less afterwards. But the nurses study suggests that it can work in the other direction too: sleep loss may precipitate weight gain.Although getting figures is difficult, it appears that we really are sleep
9、ing less. In 1960 people in the US slept an average of 8.5 hours per night. A 2002 poll by the National Sleep Foundation suggests that the average has fallen to under 7 hours, and the decline is mirrored by the increase in obesity.2. Climate controlWe humans, like all warm-blooded animals, can keep
10、our core body temperatures pretty much constant regardless of whats going on in the world around us. We do this by altering our metabolic(新陈代谢的) rate, shivering or sweating. Keeping warm and staying cool take energy unless we are in the “thermo-neutral zone”, which is increasingly where we choose to
11、 live and work. There is no denying that ambient temperatures(环境温度) have changed in the past few decades. Between 1970 and 2000, the average British home warmed from a chilly 13C to 18C. In the US, the changes have been at the other end of the thermometer as the proportion of homes with air conditio
12、ning rose from 23% to 47% between 1978 and 1997. In the southern states where obesity rates tend to be highest the number of houses with air conditioning has shot up to 71% from 37% in 1978.Could air conditioning in summer and heating in winter really make a difference to our weight?Sadly,there is s
13、ome evidence that it does-at least with regard to heating. Studies show that in comfortable temperatures we use less energy.3. Less smoking Bad news: smokers really do tend to be thinner than the rest of us, and quitting really does pack on the pounds, though no one is sure why. It probably has some
14、thing to do with the fact that nicotine is an appetite suppressant and appears to up your metabolic rate. Katherine Flegal and colleagues at the US National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, have calculated that people kicking the habit have been responsible for a small but sign
15、ificant portion of the US epidemic of fatness. From data collected around 1991 by the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, they worked out that people who had quit in the previous decade were much more likely to be overweight than smokers and people who had never smoked .Among men, f
16、or example, nearly half of quitters were overweight compared with 37% of non-smokers and only 28%of smokers.4. Genetic effects Yours chances of becoming fat may be set, at least in part, before you were even born. Children of obese mothers are much more likely to become obese themselves later in lif
17、e. Offspring of mice fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy are much more likely to become fat than the offspring of identical mice fed a normal diet. Intriguingly, the effect persists for two or three generations. Grandchildren of mice fed a high-fat diet grow up fat even if their own mother is fed n
18、ormally-so you fate may have been sealed even before you were conceived.5. A little olderSome groups of people just happen to be fatter than others. Surveys carried out by the US national center for health statistics found that adults aged 40 to 79 were around three times as likely to be obese as yo
19、unger people. Non-white females also tend to fall at the fatter end of the spectrum: Mexican-American women are 30% more likely than white women to be obsess, and black women have twice the risk. In the US, these groups account for an increasing percentage of the population. Between 1970 and 2000 th
20、e US population aged 35 to 44 grew by43%.the proportion of Hispanic-Americans also grew, from under 5% to 12.5% of the population, while the proportion of black Americans increased from 11% to12.3%.these changes may account in part for the increased prevalence of obesity.6. Mature mums Mothers aroun
21、d the world are getting older. in the UK, the mean age for having a first child is 27.3,compared with 23.7 in 1970 .mean age at first birth in the US has also increased, rising from 21.4 in 1970 to 24.9 in 2000. This would be neither here nor there if it werent for the observation that having an old
22、er mother seems to be an independent risk factor for obesity. Results from the US national heart, lung and blood institutes study found that the odds of a child being obese increase 14% for every five extra years of their mothers age, though why this should be so is not entirely clear.Michael Symond
23、s at the University of Nottingham, UK, found that first-born children have more fat than younger ones. As family size decreases, firstborns account for a greater share of the population. In 1964, British women gave birth to an average of 2.95 children; by 2005 that figure had fallen to 1.79. In the
24、US in1976, 9.6% of woman in their 40s had only one child; in 2004 it was 17.4%. this combination of older mothers and more single children could be contributing to the obesity epidemic.7. Like marrying like Just as people pair off according to looks, so they do for size. Lean people are more likely
25、to marry lean and fat more likely to marry fat. On its own, like marrying like cannot account for any increase in obesity. But combined with othersparticularly the fact that obesity is partly genetic, and that heavier people have more childrenit amplifies the increase form other causes.1. What is th
26、e passage mainly about?A) Effects of obesity on peoples health B) The link between lifestyle and obesity C) New explanations for the obesity epidemic D) Possible ways to combat the obesity epidemic2. In the US Nurse Health Study, women who slept an average of 7 hours a night_. A) gained the least we
27、ight B) were inclined to eat less C) found their vigor enhanced D) were less susceptible to illness3. The popular belief about obesity is that_.A) it makes us sleepy B) it causes sleep loss C) it increases our appetite D) it results from lack of sleep4. How does indoor heating affect our life?A) it
28、makes us stay indoors more B) it accelerates our metabolic rate C) it makes us feel more energetic D) it contributes to our weight gain5. What does the author say about the effect of nicotine on smokers?A) it threatens their health B) it heightens their spirits C) it suppresses their appetite D) it
29、slows down their metabolism 6. Who are most likely to be overweight according to Katherine Fergals study? A) heavy smokers B) passive smokers C) those who never smoke D) those who quit smoking7. According to the US National Center for Health Statistics, the increased obesity in the US is a result of
30、_.A) the growing number of smokers among young people B) the rising proportion of minorities in its population C) the increasing consumption of high-calorie foods D) the improving living standards of the poor people8. According to the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the reason why older
31、 mothers children tend to be obese remains _. 9. According to Michael Symonds, one factor contributing to the obesity epidemic is decrease of _. 10. When two heavy people get married, chances of their children getting fat increase, because obesity is _. Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes)S
32、ection A Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter
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