如有需要下载第2套或3套的，请输入2012年12月四级真题（2）或（3）下载

2012年12月大学英语四级真题(1)

PartⅠ Writing (30 minutes)

注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上，请在答题卡1上作答。

Direction: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition entitled Education Pays based on the statistics provided in the chart below (Weekly earnings of 2010). Please write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Education: A Worthy Investment Weekly earnings in 2010($)

Doctoral degree Master’s degree Bachelor’s degree Some college, no degree High school diploma

Less than high school degree

444

712 626

1,550 1,272 1,038

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Education Pays

Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (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 sentences with the information given in the passage.

Should Sugar Be Regulated like Alcohol and Tobacco?

Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like

alcohol and tobacco, argue a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

In an opinion piece called “The Toxic (毒性的) Truth About Sugar” published Feb.1 in Nature, Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis argue that it’s wrong to consider sugar just “empty calories.” They write: “There is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose (果糖) can trigger processes that lead to liver

如有需要下载第2套或3套的，请输入2012年12月四级真题（2）或（3）下载 toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills — slowly.”

Almost everyone’s heard of — or personally experienced — the well-known sugar high, so perhaps the comparison between sugar and alcohol or tobacco shouldn’t come as a surprise. But it’s doubtful that Americans will look favorably upon regulating their favorite vice. We’re a nation that’s sweet on sugar: the average U.S. adult downs 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, according to the American Heart Association, and surveys have found that teens swallow 34 teaspoons.

To counter our consumption, the authors advocate taxing sugary foods and controlling sales to kids under 17. Already, 17% of U.S. children and teens are obese (肥胖), and across the world the sugar intake (摄入) has increased three times in the past 50 years. The increase has helped create a global obesity plague that contributes to 35 million annual deaths worldwide from noninfectious diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Linda Matzigkeit, a senior vice president at Children’s Healthcare, said “We have to do something about this or our country is in danger. It’s not good if your state has the second-highest obesity rate. Obese children turn into obese adults.”

“There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids (氨基酸) and bad amino acids,” Lustig, director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health program at UCSF, said in a statement. “But sugar is toxic beyond its calories.”

The food industry tries to imply that “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie,” says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. “But this and other research suggests there is something different about sugar,” says Brownell.

The UCSF report emphasizes the metabolic (新陈代谢) effects of sugar. Excess sugar can alter metabolism, raise blood pressure, affect the signaling of hormones and damage the liver — outcomes that sound suspiciously similar to what can happen after a person drinks too much alcohol. Schmidt, co-chair of UCSF’s Community Engagement and Health Policy program, noted on CNN: “When you think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. Alcohol, after all, is simply made from sugar. Where does vodka come from? Sugar.”

But there are also other areas of impact that researchers have investigated: the effect of sugar on the brain and how liquid calories are interpreted differently by the body than solids. Research has suggested that sugar activates the same reward pathways in the brain as traditional drugs of abuse like morphine or heroin. No one is claiming the effect of sugar is quite that strong, but, says Brownell, “it helps confirm what people tell you sometimes, that they hunger for sugar and have withdrawal symptoms when they stop eating it.”

There’s also something particularly tricky about sugary drinks. “When calories come in liquids, the body doesn’t feel as full,” says Brownell. “People are getting more of their calories than ever before from sugared drinks.”

Other countries, including France, Greece and Denmark, impose soda taxes, and the concept is being considered in at least 20 U.S. cities and states. Last summer, Philadelphia came close to passing a 2-cents-per-ounce soda tax. The Rudd Center has been a strong advocate of a more modest 1-cent-per-punce tax. But at least one study, from 2010, has raised doubts that soda taxes would result in significant weight loss: apparently people who are determined to eat — and drink — unhealthily will find ways to do it. Teens — no surprise — are good at finding ways to get the things they can’t have, so state policies banning all sugar-sweetened drinks from public schools and providing only water, milk or 100% fruit juices haven’t had the intended effect of steering kids away from drinking sugared drinks: the average teen consumes about 300 calories per day —

如有需要下载第2套或3套的，请输入2012年12月四级真题（2）或（3）下载 that’s nearly 15% of his daily calories — in sweetened drinks, and the food and drink industry is only too happy to feed this need.

Ultimately, regulating sugar will prove particularly tricky because it goes beyond health concerns; sugar, for so many people, is love. A plate of cut-up vegetables just doesn’t pack the same emotional a cupcake and not an apple as an after-school treat today. We don’t do that regularly — it’s the first time this school year, actually — and that’s what made it special. As a society, could we ever reach the point where we’d think apples — not a cupcake — are something to get excited over? Says Brindis, one of the report’s authors and director of UCSF’s Philip R.Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies: “We recognize that there are cultural and celebratory aspects of sugar. Changing these patterns is very complicated.”

For inroads (进展) to be made, say the authors in their statement, people have to be better educated about the hazards of sugar and agree that something’s got to change:

Many of the interventions (干预) that have reduced alcohol and tobacco consumption can be models for addressing the sugar problem, such as imposing special sales taxes, controlling access, and tightening licensing requirements on vending machines (自动售货机) and snack-bars sell high sugar products in schools and workplaces.

“We’re not talking prohibition,” Schmidt said. “We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated does. What we want is to actually increase people’s choices by making foods that aren’t loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get.”

注意: 此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1. Why do some researchers think sugar should be considered “a controlled substance”? [A] It contains nothing but empty calories. [B] It is as harmful as morphine and heroin.

[C] It works the same way as alcohol and tobacco in the human body. [D] Excessive intake of sugar results in liver toxicity and various diseases.

2. What might be Americans’ attitude towards government regulation of sugar consumption? [A] Enthusiastic. [B] Indifferent. [C] Disapproving. [D] Supportive.

3. What is a consequence of excessive sugar intake worldwide?

[A] It contributes to35 million noninfectious disease-related deaths a year. [B] It has increased the death toll nearly three times in the past 50 years. [C] It contributes to the rise of prices of sugar and sugary foods. [D] It has increased the global obesity rate to some 17 percent.

4. The food industry tries to relieve the public worry about sugar intake by suggesting that . [A] sugar is no more than a source of energy [B] sugar is not harmful like alcohol or tobacco [C] the hazard of sugar to the body is exaggerated [D] the consumption of sugar is easily controllable