2008年12月大学英语六级(CET-6)真题试卷Part IWriting(30 minutes)注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上。Directions:Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitledHow To Improve Student's Mental Health?.You should write at least 150 wordsfollowing 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…How To Improve Student's Mental Health?Part IIReading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)(15minutes)Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer thequestions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7,choose the best answer from the fourchoices marked [A],[B],[C]and [D].For questions 8-10,complete the sentences withthe information given in the passage.Directions:In this part,you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer thequestions on Answer Sheet 1.For questions 1-7,choose the best answer from the four choicesmarked [A],[B].[C]and [D].For questions 8-10,complete the sentences with the informationgiven in the passage.Supersize SurpriseAsk anyone why there is an obesity epidemic and they will tell you that it's al down to eatingtoo much and burning too few calories.That explanation appeals to common sense and hasdominated efforts to get to the root of the obesity epidemic and reverse it.Yet obesity researchersare increasingly dissatisfied with it.Many now believe that something else must have changed inour environment to precipitate()such dramatic rises in obesity over the past 40 years or so.1/24Nobody is saying that the "big two"-reduced physical activity 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 alternativeexplanations for the epidemic.Here they are.1.Not enough sleepIt is widely believed that sleep is for the brain,not the body.Could a shortage of shut-eye alsobe helping to make us fat?Several large-scale studies suggest there may be a link.People who sleep less than 7 hours anight tend to have a higher body mass index than people who sleep more,according to datagathered by the 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 5hours a night gained more weight during the study period than women who slept 6 hours,who inturn gained more than whose who slept 7.It's well known that obesity impairs sleep,so perhaps people get fat first and sleep lessafterwards.But the nurses'study suggests that it can work in the other direction too:sleep loss mayprecipitate weight gain.Although getting figures is difficult,it appears that we really are sleeping less.In 1960 peoplein the US slept an average of 8.5 hours per night.A 2002 poll by the National Sleep Foundationsuggests that the average has fallen to under 7 hours,and the decline is mirrored by the increase inobesity.2.Climate controlWe humans,like all warm-blooded animals,can keep our core body temperatures pretty muchconstant regardless of what's going on in the world around us.We do this by altering ourmetabolic(新陈代谢的)rate,shivering or sweating.Keeping warm and staying cool take energyunless we are in the "thermo-neutral zone",which is increasingly where we choose to live andwork.There is no denying that ambient temperatures(环境温度)have changed in the past fewdecades.Between 1970 and 2000,the average British home warmed from a chilly 13C to 18C.Inthe US,the changes have been at the other end of the thermometer as the proportion of homes withair conditioning rose from 23%to 47%between 1978 and 1997.In the southern states -whereobesity 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 ourweight?Sadly,there is some evidence that it does-at least with regard to heating.Studies show that incomfortable temperatures we use less energy.3.Less smokingBad news:smokers really do tend to be thinner than the rest of us,and quitting really doespack on the pounds,though no one is sure why.It probably has something to do with the fact thatnicotine 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 butsignificant portion of the US epidemic of fatness.From data collected around 1991 by the USNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,they worked out that people who had quit in the2/24previous decade were much more likely to be overweight than smokers and people who had neversmoked.Among men,for example,nearly half of quitters were overweight compared with 37%ofnon-smokers and only 28%of smokers.4.Genetic effectsYours 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 life.Offspringof mice fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy are much more likely to become fat than the offspringof 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 normally-soyou fate may have been sealed even before you were conceived.5.A little older...Some groups of people just happen to be fatter than others.Surveys carried out by the USnational center for health statistics found that adults aged 40 to 79 were around three times as likelyto be obese as younger 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 womenhave twice the risk.In the US,these groups account for an increasing percentage of the population.Between 1970and 2000 the US population aged 35 to 44 grew by43%.the proportion of Hispanic-Americans alsogrew,from under 5%to 12.5%of the population,while the proportion of black Americans increasedfrom 11%to12.3%.these changes may account in part for the increased prevalence of obesity.6.Mature mumsMothers around the world are getting older.in the UK,the mean age for having a first child is27.3,compared with 23.7 in 1970.mean age at first birth in the US has also increased,rising from21.4in1970to24.9in2000.This would be neither here nor there if it weren't for the observation that having an oldermother seems to be an independent risk factor for obesity.Results from the US national heart,lungand blood institute's study found that the odds of a child being obese increase 14%for every fiveextra years of their mother's age,though why this should be so is not entirely clear.Michael Symonds at the University of Nottingham,UK,found that first-born children havemore fat than younger ones.As family size decreases,firstborns account for a greater share of thepopulation.In 1964,British women gave birth to an average of 2.95 children;by 2005 that figurehad fallen to 1.79.In the US in1976,9.6%of woman in their 40s had only one child;in 2004 it was17.4%.this combination of older mothers and more single children could be contributing to theobesity epidemic.7.Like marrying likeJust as people pair off according to looks,so they do for size.Lean people are more likely tomarry lean and fat more likely to marry fat.On its own,like marrying like cannot account for anyincrease in obesity.But combined with others-particularly the fact that obesity is partly genetic,and that heavier people have more children-it amplifies the increase form other causes.1.What is the passage mainly about?A)Effects of obesity on people's healthB)The link between lifestyle and obesityC)New explanations for the obesity epidemicD)Possible ways to combat the obesity epidemic3/24