2006年6月大学英语四级真题试卷（710分制）

Highways

Early in the 20th century, most of the streets and roads in the U. S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks. Built for horse, carriage, and foot traffic, they were usually poorly cared for and too narrow to accommodate(容纳) automobiles.

With the increase in auto production, private turnpike(收费公路) companies under local authorities began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387,000 miles of paved roads. Many were built using specifications of 19th century Scottish engineers Thomas Telford and John MacAdam(for whom the macadam surface is named), whose specifications stressed the importance of adequate drainage. Beyond that, there were no national standards for size, weight restrictions, or commercial signs. During World War Ⅰ, roads throughout the country were nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. When General Eisenhower returned from Germany in 1919, after serving in the U.S. Army’s first transcontinental motor convoy(车队), he noted: “The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany’s Autobahn or motorway had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land.”

It would take another war before the federal government would act on a national highway system. During World War Ⅱ,a tremendous increase in trucks and new roads were required. The war demonstrated how critical highways were to the defense effort. Thirteen per cent of defense plants received all their supplies by truck, and almost all other plants shipped more than half of their products by vehicle. The war also revealed that local control of highways had led to a confusing variety of design standards. Even federal and state highways did not follow basic standards. Some states allowed trucks up to 36,000 pounds, while others restricted anything over 7,000 pounds. A government study recommended a national highway system of 33, 920 miles, and Congress soon passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, which called for strict, centrally controlled design criteria.

The interstate highway system was finally launched in 1956 and has been hailed as one of the greatest engineering public works projects of the century. To build its 44,000-mile web of highways, bridges, and tunnels, hundreds of unique engineering designs and solutions had to be worked out. Consider the many geographic features of the country: mountains, steep grades, wetland, rivers, deserts and plains. Variables included the slope of the land, the ability of the pavement to support the load, the intensity of road use, and the nature of the underlying soil. Urban areas were another problem． Innovative designs of roadways, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, and interchanges that could run through or bypass urban areas soon began to weave their way across the country, forever altering the face of America.

Long-span, segmented-concrete, cable-stayed bridges such as Hale Boggs in Louisiana and the Sunshine Skyway in Florida, and remarkable tunnels like Fort McHenry in Maryland and Mt. Baker in Washington, met many of the nation’s physical challenges. Traffic control systems and methods of construction developed under the interstate program soon influenced highway construction around the world, and were invaluable in improving the condition of urban streets and traffic patterns.

Today the interstate system links every major city in the U. S., and the U. S. with Canada and Mexico. Built with safety in mind, the highways have wide lanes and shoulders, dividing medians or barriers, long entry and exit lanes, curves engineered for safe turns, and limited access. The death rate on highways is half that of all other U.S. roads (0.86 deaths per 100 million passenger miles compared to 1.99 deaths per 100 million on all other roads).

By opening the North American continent, highways have enabled consumer goods and services to reach people in remote and rural areas of the country, spurred the growth of suburbs, and provided people with greater options in terms of jobs, access to cultural programs, health care, and other benefits. Above all, the interstate system provides individuals with what they cherish most, personal freedom of mobility.

The interstate system has been an essential element of the nation’s economic growth in terms of shipping and job creation: more than 75 per cent of the nation’s freight deliveries arrive by truck; and most products that arrive by rail or air use interstates for the last leg of the journey by vehicle. Not only has the highway system affected the American economy by providing shipping routes, it has led to the growth of spin-off industries like service stations, motels, restaurants, and shopping centers. It has allowed the relocation of manufacturing plants and other industries from urban areas to rural.

By the end of the century there was an immense network of paved roads, residential streets, expressways, and freeways built to support millions of vehicles. The highway system was officially renamed for Eisenhower to honor his vision and leadership. The year construction began he said: “Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear–United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.

For Americans, time is money. They say, “you only get so much time in this life; you’d better use it wisely.” The 【B1】______ will not be better than the past or present, as Americans are 【B2】______ to see things, unless people use their time for constructive activities .Thus, Americans 【B3】______ a “well-organized” person, one who has a written list of things to do and a 【B4】______ for doing them. The ideal person is punctual and is 【B5】______ of other people’s time. They do not 【B6】______ people’s time with conversation or other activity that has not 【B7】______ beneficial outcome.

The American attitude toward time is not 【B8】______ shared by others, especially non-Europeans. They are more likely to regard time as 【B9】______ . One of the more difficult things many students must adjust to in the United States is the notion that time must be saved whenever possible and used wisely every day.

In this context 【B10】______ . McDonald’s, KFC, and other fast food establishments are successful in a country where many people want to spend the least amount of time preparing and eating meals. As Mcdonald’s restaurants 【B11】______ bringing not just hamburgers but an emphasis on speed, efficiency, and shiny cleanliness.

El Nino is the name given to the mysterious and often unpredictable change in the climate of the world. This strange 【S1】______ happens every five to eight years. It starts in the Pacific Ocean and is thought to be caused by a failure in the trade winds, which affects the ocean currents driven by these winds. As the trade winds lessen in 【S2】______ , the ocean temperatures rise, causing the Peru current flowing in from the east to warm up by as much as 5℃.

The warming of the ocean has far-reaching effects .The hot, humid air over the ocean causes severe 【S3】______ thunderstorms. The rainfall is increased across South America, 【S4】______ floods to Peru. In the West Pacific, there are droughts affecting Australia and Indonesia. So while some parts of the world prepare for heavy rains and floods, other parts face drought, poor crops and 【S5】______ .

El Nino usually lasts for about 18 months .The 1982-83 El Nino brought the most 【S6】______ weather in modern history. Its effect was worldwide and it left more than 2,000 people dead and caused over eight billion pounds 【S7】______ of damage. The 1990 El Nino lasted until June 1995.Scientists 【S8】______ this to be the longest El Nino for 2,000 years.

Nowadays, weather experts are able to forecast when an El Nino will 【S9】______ , but they are still not 【S10】______ sure what leads to it or what affects how strong it will be.

WORD BANK

A) estimate I) completely B) strength J) destructive

C) deliberately K) starvation D) notify L) bringing

E) tropical M) exhaustion F) phenomenon N) worth

G) stable O) strike H) attraction

Communications technologies are far from equal when it comes to conveying the truth. The first study to compare honesty across a range of communications media has found that people are twice as likely to tell lies in phone conversations as they are in emails. The fact that emails are automatically recorded–and can come back to haunt(困扰) you–appears to be the key to the finding.

Jeff Hancock of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, asked 30 students to keep a communications diary for a week. In it they noted the number of conversations or email exchanges they had lasting more than 10 minutes, and confessed to how many lies they told. Hancock then worked out the number of lies per conversation for each medium. He found that lies made up 14 per cent of emails, 21 per cent of instant messages, 27 per cent of face-to-face interactions and an astonishing 37 per cent of phone calls.

His results, to be presented at the conference on human-computer interaction in Vienna, Austria, in April have surprised psychologists. Some expected mailers to be the biggest liars, reasoning that because deception makes people uncomfortable, the detachment(非直接接触) of emailing would make it easier to lie. Others expected people to lie more in face-to-face exchanges because we are most practised at that form of communication.

But Hancock says it is also crucial whether a conversation is being recorded and could be reread, and whether it occurs in real time. People appear to be afraid to lie when they know the communication could later be used to hold them to account, he says. This is why fewer lies appear in email than on the phone.

People are also more likely to lie in real time–in an instant message or phone call, say–than if they have time to think of a response, says Hancock. He found many lies are spontaneous(脱口而出的) responses to an unexpected demand, such as: “Do you like my dress?”

Hancock hopes his research will help companies work out the best ways for their employees to communicate. For instance, the phone might be the best medium for sales where employees are encouraged to stretch the truth. But given his results, work assessment, where honesty is a priority, might be best done using email.

In a country that defines itself by ideals, not by shared blood, who should be allowed to come, work and live here? In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks these questions have never seemed more pressing.

On Dec. 11, 2001, as part of the effort to increase homeland security, federal and local authorities in 14 states staged “Operation Safe Travel”–raids on airports to arrest employees with false identification (身份证明). In Salt Lake City there were 69 arrests. But those captured were anything but terrorists, most of them illegal immigrants from Central or South America. Authorities said the undocumented workers’ illegal status made them open to blackmail(讹诈) by terrorists.

Many immigrants in Salt Lake City were angered by the arrests and said they felt as if they were being treated like disposable goods.

Mayor Anderson said those feelings were justified to a certain extent. “We’re saying we want you to work in these places, we’re going to look the other way in terms of what our laws are, and then when it’s convenient for us, or when we can try to make a point in terms of national security, especially after Sept. 11, then you’re disposable. There are whole families being uprooted for all of the wrong reasons,” Anderson said.

If Sept. 11 had never happened, the airport workers would not have been arrested and could have gone on quietly living in America, probably indefinitely. And Castro, a manager at a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop at the airport, had been working 10 years with the same false Social Security card when she was arrested in the December airport raid. Now she and her family are living under the threat of deportation(驱逐出境). Castro’s case is currently waiting to be settled. While she awaits the outcome, the government has granted her permission to work here and she has returned to her job at Ben & Jerry’s.

Do you wake up every day feeling too tired, or even upset? If so, then a new alarm clock could be just for you.

The clock, called Sleep Smart, measures your sleep cycle, and wait 【B1】______ you to be in your lightest phase of sleep 【B2】______ rousing you. Its makers say that should 【B3】______ you wake up feeling refreshed every morning.

As you sleep you pass 【B4】______ a sequence of sleep states–light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep–that 【B5】______ approximately every 90 minutes .The point in that cycle at which you wake up can 【B6】______ how you feel later, and many 【B7】______ have a greater impact than how much or little you have slept .Being roused during a light phase 【B8】______ you are more likely to wake up energetic.

Sleep Smart 【B9】______ the distinct pattern of brain waves 【B10】______ during each phase of sleep, via a headband equipped 【B11】______ electrodes (电极) and a microprocessor. This measures electrical activity of the wearer’s brain, in much the 【B12】______ way as some machines used for medical and research 【B13】______ , and communicates wirelessly with a clock unit near the bed. You 【B14】______ the clock with the latest time at 【B15】______ you want to be wakened, and it 【B16】______ duly(适当地) wakes you during the last light sleep phase before that. The 【B17】______ was invented by a group of students at Brown University in Rhode Island 【B18】______ a friend complained of waking up tired and performing poorly on a test.” 【B19】______ sleep-deprived people ourselves, we started thinking of 【B20】______ to do about it, “says Eric Shashoua”, a recent college graduate and now chief executive officer of Axon Sleep Research Laboratories, a company created by the students to develop their idea.