2013年6月大学英语四级考试真题（第1套）Part IWriting(30 minutes)Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay.Youshould start your essay with a brief description of the picture and thenexpress your views on the importance of reading literature.You shouldwrite at least 120 words but no more than 180 words."Just think of it as if you're readinga【ong text-message.”Part II Reading Comprehension(Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly andanswer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7,choose the best answerfrom the four choices marked A),B),C)and D).For questions 8-10,complete thesentences with the information given in the passage.Surviving the RecessionAmerica's recession began quietly at the end of 2007.Since then it has evolvedinto a global crisis.Reasonable people may disagree about whom to blame.Financierswho were not as clever as they thought they were?Regulators falling asleep at work?Consumers who borrowed too much?Politicians who thoughtlessly promotedhome-ownership for those who could not afford it?All are guilty;and what a messthey have created.Since 2007 America has shed 5 million jobs.More than 15%of the workforceare jobless or underemployed-roughly 25 million workers.The only industriesswelling their payrolls are health care,utilities and the federal government.The valueof listed shares in American firms collapsed by 57%from its peak in October 2007 toa low in March this year,though it has since bounced back somewhat.Industrialproduction fell by 12.8%in the year to March,the worst slide since the Second WorldWar.Mark Zandi,an economist at Moody's Economy.com,predicts that the recessionwill shrink America's economy by 3.5%in total.For most executives,this is theworst business environment they've ever seen.Times are so tough that even bosses are taking pay cuts..Median(中位数的)payfor chief executives of S&P 500 companies fell 6.8%in 2008.The overthrownbusiness giants of Wall Street took the biggest knock,with average pay cuts of 38%2013年6月大学英语四级考试真趣与精析（第1套）第1页and median bonuses of zero.But there was some pain for everyone:median pay forchief executives of non-financial firms in the S&P 500 fell by 2.7%.Nearly every business has a sad tale to tell.For example,Arne Sorenson,thepresident of Marriott hotels,likens the crisis to the downturn that hit his business afterSeptember 11th,2001.When the twin towers fell,Americans stopped travelling.Marriott had its worst quarter ever,with revenues per room falling by 25%.This year,without a terrorist attack,the hotel industry is "putting the same numbers on theboard",says Mr Sorenson.The hotel bust(不景气)，like most busts,was preceded by a breathtaking boom.Although many other big firms resisted the temptation to over-borrow,developersborrowed heavily and built bigger and fancier hotels as if the whole world wereplanning a holiday in Las Vegas.When the bubble burst,demand collapsed.Hotelowners found themselves with a huge number of empty rooms even as a lot ofunnecessary new hotels were ready to open.Other industries have suffered even more.Large numbers of builders,propertyfirms and retailers have gone bankrupt.And a disaster has hit Detroit.Last year theAmerican car industry had the capacity to make 17 million vehicles.Sales in 2009could be barely half of that.The Big Three American carmakers-General Motors,Ford and Chrysler-accumulated ruinous costs over the post-war years,such asgold-plated health plans and pensions for workers who retired as young as 48.Allthree are desperately restructuring.Only Ford may survive in its current form.Hard times breed hard feelings.Few Americans understand what caused therecession..Some are seeking scapegoats(替罪羊)，Politicians are happy to takeadvantage.Bosses have been summoned to Washington to be scolded on livetelevision.The president condemns their greed.Extravagance(奢侈)is outBusinessfolk are bending over backwards to avoid seeming extravagant.Meetings at resorts are suddenly unacceptable.Goldman Sachs,an investment bank,cancelled a conference in Las Vegas at the last minute and rebooked it in SanFrancisco,which cost more but sounded less fun.Anyway,the pain will eventually end.American business will regain its shine.Many firms will die,but the survivors will emerge leaner and stronger than before.The financial sector's share of the economy will shrink,and stay shrunk for years tocome.The importance of non-financial firms will accordingly rise,along with theirability to attract the best talent.America will remain the best place on earth to dobusiness,so long as Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress resist thetemptation to interfere too much,and so long as organised labour does not overplayits hand.The crisis will prove hugely disruptive(破坏性的)，however.Bad managementtechniques will be exposed.Necessity will force the swift adoption of more efficientones.At the same time,technological innovation will barely pause for breath,and two big political changes seem likely.2013年6月大学英语四级考试真题与精析（第1套）第2页Mr Obama's plan to curb carbon dioxide(COz)emissions(排放)，thoughnecessary,will be far from cost-free,whatever his sunny speeches on the subjectmight suggest.The shift to a low-carbon economy will help some firms,hurt othersand require every organisation that uses much energy to rethink how it operates.It isharder to predict how Mr Obama's proposed reforms to the failing health-care systemwill turn out.If he succeeds in curbing costs-a big ifit would be a huge gain forAmerica.Some businesses will benefit but the vast bulk of the savings will becaptured by workers,not their employers.In the next couple of years the businesses that thrive will be those that are tightwith costs,careful of debt,cautious with cash flow and extremely attentive to whatcustomers want.They will include plenty of names no one has yet heard of.Times change,and corporations change with them.In 1955 Time's Man of theYear was Harlow Curtice,the boss of GM.His firm was leading America towards"anew economic order",the magazine wrote.Thanks to men like Curtice,"the bonds ofscarcity"had been broken and America was rolling"in an all-time high of prosperity"Soon,Americans would need to spend"comparatively little time earning a living".Half a century later GM is a typical example of poor management.In March itschief executive was fired by Time's current Man of the Year,Mr Obama.Thegovernment now backs up the domestic car industry,lending it money and overseeingits turnaround plans.With luck,this will be short-lived.But there is a danger thatWashington will end up micromanaging not only Detroit but also other parts of theeconomy.And clever as Mr Obama's advisers are,history suggests they will be bad atthis.注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。1.From the first paragraph,we learn that America's recession is the result ofA)a messy real estate marketC)unregulated competitionB)a combination of causesD)financiers'mismanagement2.At the worst time,the total value of listed shares in American firms shrank byA)57%C)12.8%B)15%D)3.5%3.According to Arne Sorenson,the president of Marriott hotels,the currentrecessionA)was the worst he had ever seen since World War IIB)reduced his revenues to a quarter of normal yearsC)hit his business as hard as the 9/11 terrorist attackD)spoiled his plans to build more hotels in Las Vegas4.The Big Three American carmakers need restructuring to survive becauseA)their production capacity has shrunk to less than half of the previous yearB)their technology has fallen behind their competitors'elsewhere in the worldC)they have borrowed too heavily and accumulated too large amounts of debtD)they cannot cope with the ruinous costs accumulated over the post-war years5.Goldman Sachs,an investment bank,cancelled a conference in Las Vegas in orderto2013年6月大学英语四级考试真题与精析（第1套）第3页