2013年6月大学英语四级真题试卷（第2套）

School Lunch

Ryan moved silently through the lunch line. The cook put a cheeseburger(奶酪汉堡)and an applesauce cup on his tray. He grabbed a bottle of milk from the cooler at the end of the line and found a seat in the cafeteria(食堂). Ryan saw that his friend Tyler had brought lunch from home.

“What did you bring today, Tyler?” he asked.

Tyler pulled his meal out of its brown paper sack. “ I’ve got a ham sandwich, chips, two cupcakes, and a can of soda. “

Ryan’s mouth started to water. “ Uh, Tyler,” he said. “ If you don’t want one of those cupcakes, I’ll take it. They sure look good. “

Tyler handed Ryan his cupcake. “ Sure,” he said. “ I won’t eat all this. “

Lunch Requirements

Is Ryan eating a healthy meal if he eats the school lunch? School lunch supporters say “ Yes. ” Recent studies show that a government-approved school lunch has more variety and is more nutritious(有营养的)than most lunches brought from home. It’s also lower in fat.

The National School Lunch Act requires that school lunches go along with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans developed by the government. Meals must contain a variety of foods with plenty of grains and at least one fruit or vegetables each day. Foods must not contain too much sugar or salt.

A hot lunch can contain up to 30% fat, but not more than 10% of its calories(卡路里)should come from saturated(饱和的)fat. In an average week, you should get one-third of the daily Recommended Dietary Allowances for protein, iron, calcium(钙), and vitamins A and C from your school lunch.

Dare to Compare

Let’s compare Ryan’s and Tyler’s meals to see which is healthier. Ryan’s hot lunch(without the cupcake from his friend)has 577 calories, 25 grams of total fat, and 12 grams of saturated fat. He had one serving of fruit, 26 grams of protein, and 483 milligrams of calcium. Ryan ate more total fat(39%)and saturated fat(19%)than the dietary guidelines recommend. However, schools can still meet the guidelines by having the numbers average out over a week of lunches.

Tyler’s lunch from home(this includes both cupcakes)had 1,014 calories, 45 grams(40%)of total fat, and 10 grams(9%)of saturated fat. He ate 21 grams of protein and 155 milligrams of calcium, but no fruits or vegetables. Tyler’s meal met the saturated fat guidelines, but had too much total fat.

Tyler ate more calories and total fat than Ryan did, Ryan ate more protein, calcium, and fruit than Tyler did. Which meal would you say is the healthier choice?

A la Carte Options

Federal standards and most school districts forbid selling food in the cafeteria that competes with the school lunch. Many programs do, however, offer a la carte choices for students who don’t want the hot meal. Foods sold a la carte are separate from the main meal and are priced individually. These foods do not have to meet the same nutritional standards as the foods on the hot lunch menu. Neither do the foods sold at a snack-bar or those foods available elsewhere in the school.

A study in one Texas school district compared the lunches of fourth graders who did not have food choices with those of fifth graders who could choose either a standard lunch or select from a snackbar. The fourth graders ate 25% more fruits and vegetables than the fifth graders.

Food sold as fund-raisers can also have an impact on school lunch. The money raised is important to provide needed funds for many after-class activities. But the meal’s overall nutritional quality usually goes down. Many of these foods are high in fat, sugar, or both, and often come in extralarge portions. Fund-raisers rarely sell fruits and vegetables.

Choosing Wisely

School food-service programs are trying to please students, and still offer quality, nutritious meals at low cost. That task isn’t easy. One school district in New York decided to do something about it. A student advisory board kept the food-service director up-to-date on what the kids wanted. They also worked with school snack-bars to sell smaller servings of chips and candy.

You can make healthy meal choices at school even when not-so-healthy choices are available. You can be sure to get a nutritious meal when you pick foods from the Food Guide Pyramid. For example, always drink milk or a calcium-rich juice for lunch. Even chocolate milk is more nutritious than soda or a sports drink. Stay away from snack foods offered a la carte. They may fill you up now, but the ones that contain a lot of fat and sugar will slow you down later. Always eat the fruits and vegetables offered at the meal. They help give you the energy and vitamins you need to get you through the rest of your school day.

Some people like to make fun of school lunches, but good nutrition is no laughing matter. Your school’s hot lunch is based on the Food Guide Pyramid, so it’s full of nutrition. Give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

It’s a Team Effort

Team Nutrition is a program that gets schools excited about healthy eating. Schools across the nation pick a team leader who develops fun nutrition activities. The leader works with students, teachers, parents, food-service workers, and people from the community. Activities can range from running a school health fair to planting a garden.

At the Jordan Community School in Chicago, Illinois, one group of fifth graders showed off their “pizza(比萨饼)garden” in a big, colorful poster showing vegetarian pizzas. The students and food-service staff planted and took care of the vegetables that they would later use as ingredients on their pizzas. The group started growing the plants in the school’s cafeteria. Then they moved them outdoors to the students’ demonstration garden.

This is just one way to get everyone involved in making school lunch healthy and fun. Team up with your own group and see how creative you can get.

There was a time when any personal information that was gathered about us was typed on a piece of paper and【B1】___away in a file cabinet. It could remain there for years and, often【B2】___ , never reach the outside world.

Things have done a complete about-face since then.【B3】______ for the change has been the astonishingly【B4】______ development in recent years of the computer. Today, any data that is 【B5】______ about us in one place or another—and for one reason or another—can be stored in a computer bank. It can then be easily passed to other computer banks. They are owned by 【B6】______ and by private businesses and corporations, leading【B7】______ , direct mailing and telemarketing firms, credit bureaus, credit card companies, and government【B8】______ at the local, state, and federal level.

A growing number of Americans are seeing the accumulation and distribution of computerized data as a frightening invasion of their privacy.【B9】______ as the computer becomes increasingly efficient, easier to operate, and less costly to purchase and maintain. In 1970, a national survey showed that【B10】______ . Seven years later, 47percent expressed the same worry.【B11】______ .

It’s the first question parents ask when their child is diagnosed with autism(自闭症). Will his future brothers or sisters have a higher risk of【S1】______ it, too?

According to the largest study of siblings(兄弟姐妹)in families with autism, the answer is yes. Among 664 children who had at least one older sibling with the developmental disorder, the【S2】______ risk of autism was nearly 19% ,【S3】______ higher than previous sibling-recurrence estimates that were anywhere from 3% to 10% . Kids with more than one older autistic sibling had an even higher risk of the disorder: 32% .

The【S4】______ suggest that genes play a key role in autism risk. But they also hint that other environmental factors【S5】______ by siblings, like influences in the womb(子宫), may be important as well.

On the【S6】______ of the findings, the researchers recommend that doctors closely【S7】______ younger siblings of autistic children to pick up any early signs of the disorder, 【S8】______ an unusually large head or delayed language development and communication skills. Evidence suggests that early【S9】______ and diagnosis of autism can help children take advantage of therapies that can treat some of its【S10】______ .

A)average I)including

B)basis J)monitor

C)common K)reason

D)consequently L)results

E)detection M)shared

F)developing N)symbols

G)distributed O)symptoms

H)dramatically

Libraries are my world. I’ve been a patron(老主顾)all ray life, and for the past nine years I’ve worked at multiple libraries and archives in and around Detroit. The library as an institution has many roles, but as our country struggles through an economic crisis, I have watched the library where I work evolve into a career and business center, a community gathering place and a bastion(堡垒)of hope.

In the spring of 2007 I got a library internship(实习生的位置)at the Southfield Public Library(SPL), just north of Detroit. Summers at SPL were usually slow, but that year, we experienced a library that was as busy as science-fair project week, midterms or tax season. Yet patrons weren’t looking for Mosby’s Nursing Drug Reference or tax return forms. They were coming for information on growing their small business.

I interpreted people’s interest in our business collection as the first step to pursuing their dreams, but these patrons were not motivated by dreams. They were responding to reality, and they were looking for Plan B.

Things worsened in 2008, and in 2009 the economic crisis continues to plague Michigan. Last year, we put up a display with a variety of job resources that we restocked every hour. Each night the library closed, the display was bare. While we normally keep displays up for a week, we kept the job resources display up for months.

Then there’s the tightening credit market. People see the writing on the wall and they want to get educated. They can’t afford a financial adviser, but checking books out is free. Some of the most popular titles now are Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, and Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan.

The economic downturn affects us all. I have had to work long hours and don’t get to see much of my boyfriend or experience any kind of social life lately, but I am thankful to be in a position where I can help people overcome this struggle. In Michigan, we haven’t lost hope. As long as there are libraries here, there will always be hope.

More than three dozen billionaires, including well-known philanthropist(慈善家)David Rockefeller, have promised at least half of their fortunes to charity, joining a programme that Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett started in June to encourage other wealthy people to give.

The pledge is currently worth about $ 150 billion, but the programme predicts it will eventually be worth $ 600 billion.

“During even the Depression’s worst years, my parents gave money—about 8% of their annual income of $ 2,200,” said Lorry Lokey, one of the donors, on the website of the programme, the Giving Pledge, “ I remember saying to my mother that we can’t afford that. But she said we have to share with others. “

The pledge has been a matter of some debate in philanthropic and non-profit circles, with some experts dismissing it as mere publicity and others predicting that it would produce a flood of new money to support non-profit groups.

Buffett said the real value of the pledge was found in the example it set and in the sentiments(情感)expressed in the letters posted on the website.

Buffett and Gates will hold several dinners later this year to recruit more billionaires, and members of the Giving Pledge will meet annually to discuss their philanthropy.

The pair are due to meet some wealthiest people in China next month and India in March.

” We hope this catches fire in some other countries,” Buffett said. “ If they want to take what we think is a good idea and run with it, we will be cheering. “

Buffett said the number of people who had agreed to sign on was at the high end of his expectations. He said some people who declined to sign the pledge were planning to give away most of their wealth but did not want to draw attention to those plans.

Energy tycoon(大亨)Pickens, who is worth about $ 1 billion, said in his Giving Pledge letter: “I’ve long stated that I enjoy making money, and I enjoy giving it away. I’m not a big fan of inherited wealth. It generally does more harm than good. “

The work for which Thomas Malthus is still most widely known is his Essay on the Principle of Population, which first appeared in 1798. This book introduced Malthus’s【C1】______ that population inescapably outgrows subsistence(生活资料), and that this difference【C2】______ population size and the ability to adequately meet the【C3】______ subsistence needs of all the members of that population “ naturally ” produces a fundamental struggle for【C4】______ , in which some flourish at the【C5】______ of others.

Charles Darwin’s most important contribution【C6】______ the field of biology, described in his work, On the Origin of Species, was to【C7】___Malthus’s observation that plants and animals multiply faster than nature can provide for them to his own【C8】___ of the process of “evolution”—the notion that different forms of life develop【C9】______ from a common ancestry(祖先). Combining these elements, Darwin【C10】___that the factors of “ the struggle for existence” and “the survival of the fittest” are the central mechanisms【C11】___ which evolution is based. In this sense, then, Darwin introduced the possibility【C12】______ conflict and struggle are biological phenomena, which are【C13】______central to human social existence.

A number of more contemporary social thinkers were【C14】______ by Darwin and continued this particular version of the conflict perspective, commonly referred to【C15】______ social Darwinism, into the twentieth century. Thus, for example, Herbert Spencer, a【C16】______ English social theorist, applied these ideas of the natural【C17】___of conflict and survival of the fittest to his notion of social evolution,【C18】___ William Graham Sumner, an American sociologist, saw the【C19】______ for survival among individual actors as operating to bring about fundamental【C20】______ in the quality of human social life overall.