以下为昨天听力模考preventative的答案:
1.B 2.C 3.A 4.D 5.D 6.A 7.C 8.D 9.B 10.A 11.C 12.A 13.B 14.D 15.D 16.B 17.D 18.A 19.C 20.A 21.A 22.C 23.C 24.A 25.B
以下为2016年12月四六级模考阅读和翻译部分:
Section A:选词填空
Last week there was a new study showing that overweight people have less risk of dying than people of normal weight. Lovers of butter cookies 36 delighted in the news. But at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association over the weekend in San Diego, health economists expressed 37 over the study’s fiscal implications.
“The study looked at quantity of life, not quality of life, and that’s a very important 38 ,” noted Dana Goldman, director of the University of Southern California’s Lenard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
A higher body mass index — a standard measure for 39 whether people are overweight or obese — is 40 with a number of chronic illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. These chronic illnesses are expensive to 41 . If, as it now turns out, overweight people are living longer in 42 to suffering from more chronic illness, which means Medicare is on the hook for paying for more expensive people for more years. In other words, your overweight might help you live longer, but it is also 43 the country’s debt problems.
Professor Goldman said the study underscored the fiscal urgency to get more Americans to a 44 weight. Right now, he said, the incentive system for medical practitioners does not 45 treatment of obesity as a disease itself — only the complications that later result from obesity.
A) accelerating I) normal
B) addition J) reference
C) anxiety K) routine
D) associated L) scarcely
E) concerned M) surely
F) determining N) treat
G) distinction O) uncover
H) encourage
Section B:段落信息配对
Will We Run Out of Water?
A) Picture a “ghost ship” sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry land by a receding sea. Then imagine dust storms sweeping up toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers from the dry seabed and spewing them across towns and villages.
B) Seem like a scene from a movie about the end of the world? For people living near the Aral Sea in Central Asia, it’s all too real. Thirty years ago, government planners diverted the rivers that flow into the sea in order to irrigate farmland. As a result, the sea has shrunk to half its original size, stranding ships on dry land. The seawater has tripled in salt content and become polluted, killing all 24 native species of fish.
C) Similar large scale efforts to redirect water in other parts of the world have also ended in ecological crisis, according to numerous environmental groups. But many countries continue to build massive dams and irrigation systems, even though such projects can created more problems than they fix. Why? People in many parts of the world are desperate for water, and more people will need more water in the next century.
D) “Growing populations will worsen problems with water,” says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one third of the world’s projected 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.
E) Where do water goes? Only 2.5 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater, water suitable for drinking and growing food, says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Mass. Two thirds of this freshwater is locked in glaciers and ice caps. In fact, only a tiny percentage of freshwater is part of the water cycle, in which water evaporates and rises into the atmosphere, then condenses and falls back to Earth as precipitation (rain or snow).
F) Some precipitations runs off land to lakes and oceans, and some becomes groundwater, water that seeps into the earth. Much of this renewable freshwater ends up in remote places like the Amazon river basin in Brazil, where few people live. In fact, the world’s population has access to only 12500 cubic kilometers of freshwater — about the amount of water in Lake Superior. And people use half of this amount already. “If water demand continues to climb rapidly,” say Postel, “there will be severe shortages and damage to the aquatic environment.”
G) Water goes may seem remote to people living in rich countries like United States. But Americans could face serious water shortages, too, especially in areas that rely on groundwater. Groundwater accumulates in aquifers, layers of sand and gravel that lie between soil and bedrock. (For every liter of surface water, more than 90 liters are hidden underground). Although the United States has large aquifers, farmers, ranchers, and cities are tapping many of them for water faster than nature can replenish it. In northwest Texas, for example, over pumping has shrunk groundwater supplies by 25 percent, according to Postel.
H) American may face even more urgent problems from pollution. Drinking water in the United States is generally safe and meets high standards. Nevertheless, once in five Americans every day unknowingly drinks tap water contaminated with bacteria and chemical wastes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Milwaukee, 400,000 people fell ill in 1993 after drinking tap water with cryptosporidium, a microbe that causes fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
I) Where do contaminants come from? In developing countries, people dump raw sewage into the same streams and rivers from which they draw water for drinking and cooking; about 250 million people a year get sick from water borne diseases. In developed countries, manufacturers use 100,000 chemical compounds to make a wide range of products. Toxic chemicals pollute water when released untreated into rivers and lakes. (Certain compounds, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have been banned in the United States.)
J) But almost everyone contributes to water pollution. People often pour household cleaners, car antifreeze, and paint thinners down the drain; all of these contain hazardous chemicals. Scientists studying water in the San Francisco Bay reported in 1996 that 70 percent of the pollutants could be traced to household waste. Farmers have been criticized for overusing herbicides and pesticides, chemicals that kill weeds and insects but that can wreak havoc on the environment. Nitrates are swept away by surface runoff to lakes and seas. Too many nitrates “over enrich” these bodies of water, encouraging the buildup of algae, or microscopic plants that live on the surface of the water. Algae deprive the water of oxygen that fish need to survive, at times choking off life in an entire body of water.
K) What’s the solution? Water expert Gleick advocates conservation and local solutions to water related problems; governments, for instance, would be better off building small-scale dams rather than huge and disruptive projects like the one that ruined the Aral Sea. “More than1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to basic clean drinking water,” says Gleick. “There has to be a strong push on the part of everyone — governments and ordinary people — to make sure we have a resource so fundamental to life.”
46. Peter’s fear is that water shortages will affect as many as one third of the world’s projected 8.3 billion people by 2025.
47. Serious water shortages could also happen to Americans, and those who live in places using groundwater could face more serious conditions.
48. The water of Aral Sea has been polluted, with its salt content tripled, leading to the extinction of 24 native species of fish.
49. According to a report in 1996 given by scientists who study water there, household waste was the source of 70 percent of the pollutants in the San Francisco Bay.
50. Postel says we will face serious water shortages and the aquatic environment will also be harmed if water demand continues to rise at a high speed.
51. Tap water contaminated with bacteria and chemical wastes is endangering Americans’ health.
52. Everyone should take the responsibility to solve water problems to ensure that we all have access to water resource.
53. Freshwater sewage is dumped into streams and rivers and people use the water to drink and cook, which causes many people to get ill each year.
54. Raw sewage is dumped into streams and rivers and people use the water to drink and cook, which causes many people to get ill each year.
55. Massive dams and irrigation systems can cause more problem than they fix.
Section C 阅读理解
Passage One
Is debt bad? A.P. Giannini, who popularized the home mortgage a century ago and later founded the Bank of America, didn’t think so. Neither have the countless working-class borrowers who over 100 years have been able to get ahead faster and live better because of Giannini’s breakthrough product: the consumer loan.
Yet in today’s economy it seems more folks have gotten behind, not ahead, through easy access to credit. In a recent poll, 40 million Americans said they were feeling serious stress over the money they owe on their credit cards, house, or car. Now many young people have become not merely respectful of debt, as we would wish, but fearful of it, which could hurt them in the long run.
Certainly, fear of debt encourages sound practices like paying with cash, paying off credit card balances every month, living within your means and keeping borrowing to a minimum. Part of managing debt is eliminating it in due course. But should you avoid debt at all costs? That might be going too far. There is nothing wrong with the smart use of credit to reach a goal like home ownership or a college education.
Patricia Seaman, director of marketing and communications for the National Endowment for Financial Education, worries that recent experience has left many young people with a partial understanding.” The main message is that borrowing gets you in trouble,” she told Fox Business. “It’s not a complete picture, but that’s what teens have picked up.” So, for example, at a time when young adults with careers probably should be eager to set up new households, they are instead renting or living with Mom and Dad.
There’s been no shortfall in borrowing for college; student loan balances are pushing towards $1 trillion. Still, fearful of the indebtedness that often comes with higher education, some now argue that college should be avoided. Yes, it’s high time to bring sanity to the student debt explosion, as President Obama has pledged. Students need to be smarter about how much they borrow and what degree they pursue with borrowed money.
56. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A) Home mortgage has helped people make faster progress
B) Working-class borrowers have considered debt bad.
C) Home mortgage has been popular for about a century.
D) The consumer loan was invented by the Bank of America.
57. Why are young people fearful of debt now?
A) Debt has made them fall behind.
B) They can get access to debt easily.
C) Debt has put too much stress on them.
D) They have been hurt by too much debt.
58. What does the author say about managing debt?
A) Any form of debt should be avoided.
B) It is not necessary to eliminate all debt.
C) People should be encouraged to pay off debt.
D) Paying with cash is the best way to avoid debt.
59. What does Patricia Seaman’s remark mean?
A) Young people should not be in debt.
B) Debt can put people in great trouble.
C) Young people have misunderstandings about debt.
D) Debt has misled young people into over-spending.
60. The author suggests in the last paragraph that ________.
A) college education should be avoided.
B) parents should not lend money to their children.
C) president should call on students to avoid debt.
D) students should be taught how to manage debt.
Passage Two
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the Affordable Care Act(ACA), our country’s most expansive healthcare legislation since Medicare with purpose to provide health insurance to nearly 32 million uninsured Americans, thus moving us to a nearly universal health coverage model.
There are very sound moral, ethical, humanitarian, and even financial arguments in favor of universality. But the main driver for the ACA has been the notion that health insurance makes people healthier.
It seems logical that when we have insurance, we are more likely to access and utilize healthcare resources, and so we will be healthier. But there’s increasing evidence showing that much of the care we receive probably provides marginal clinical benefit, and that more care isn’t always better.
Two robust studies have attempted to answer this question in more depth. The first was the RAND Corporation’s Health Insurance Experiment that ran from 1971 to 1982. People were randomized to varying levels of cost-sharing insurance plans ranging from free care up to 95% shared cost. The only positive correlation between health coverage and health was that free care to the poorest and sickest 6% of the sample population improved a few select problems. The subtle difference here is it actually improved only 4 of 30 measures that were studied. So in 87% of the outcomes that were studied—such as overall physical and mental health, cholesterol levels, weight or smoking—free care made no difference.
The most recent study to tackle the question was the Oregon Health Study. In 2008, researchers compared poor people who had been randomly assigned to Medicaid or no insurance and found no mortality difference. There was a difference between the two groups in “self-reported” health status — those on Medicaid said that they felt healthier — but it’s difficult to know, however, whether these patients were truly healthier.
The mere act of providing health insurance probably doesn’t correlate with better health because we are actually more in control of our health, and longevity for that matter, than we realize. Good health is mostly determined by our personal choices and environments — rather than our insurances, hospitals, procedures, doctors and drugs.
If the Affordable Care Act makes a big difference, it will be because of the preventative services provisions, which have gotten the least attention. These provisions will help all of us prioritize higher on our agendas things like losing weight, eating healthfully, treating depression, and reducing excessive alcohol use. Perhaps herein lies the greatest gift of the ACA — a reminder that we still rule supreme over our bodies and our health. And that the basics — exercise, vegetables, a healthy weight, a community to belong to, a loving partner, friends that care — can take us a very long way.
61. What motivates the design of the Affordable Care Act?
A) The belief that people will become healthier if they have health insurance.
B) The aim that the poor people will get health insurance without paying for it.
C) The hope that all the people can benefit from the healthcare legislation.
D) The plan that the country can move to a nearly universal health cover age model.
62. We can infer from the passage that when we have health insurance, ________.
A) we are sure to receive great clinical benefit
B) we can take advantage of more healthcare resources
C) we are not necessarily to enjoy better health
D) we may hear a light economic burden when we are ill
63. What was the finding of the Health Insurance Experiment carried out by RAND Corporation?
A) There is no health difference between people who get free care and those who do not.
B) Only the poorest and sickest people improved their health in some aspects.
C) Health insurance was needed by the poorest and sickest people to stay health.
D) All the people in the experiment showed better health after getting health insurance.
64. What is the limitation of the Oregon Health Study?
A) Poor people cannot represent all those who do not have health insurance.
B) People conceal their health problems when reporting the health status.
C) Mortality difference is not a proper standard to judge a person’s health status.
D) The data from “self-report” is too subjective to reflect people’s actual health condition.
65. According to the author, the greatest contribution of ACA is that _______.
A) it guarantees the poor people access to the medical resources
B) it makes health care affordable for people of all social classes
C) it reminds people of their responsibility for their own health
D) it enhances the health status of the whole nation.
Part IV Translation (30 minutes)
围棋(go)是一种非常有趣的棋盘游戏(board game)。在人们今天依旧玩的棋盘游戏中preventative,围棋是最古老的。围棋起源于中国古代。后来被传到日本和朝鲜,并在贵族中流行开来。围棋规则非常简单,但是策略却很微妙。围棋使我们懂得如何变得有耐心,集中精力,在恭敬的同时还要有竞争力。如今,围棋不仅受到亚洲人的欢迎,许多西方人也很喜欢。
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