大学英语6级考试预测试题 3
Total score: 710 Total time allowed: 125 minutes
Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic: A Letter to the Head of a Local Supermarket. You should write at least 150 words, and ba your composition on the instruction given in Chine below:
假设你是李明，请你给当地超市的经理写一封信，建议超市停止提供免费塑料袋，以防止白色污染。给出你的理由。
Uful words and expressions:
环保的：environmental-friendly
白色污染：white pollution
可降解的：degradable (adj.)
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
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 question 1-7, choo the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the ntences with the information given in the passage.
W al-Mart
北京到河南
Wal-Mart is more than just the world’s largest retailer. It is an economic force, a cultural phenomenon and a lightning rod for controversy. It all started with a simple philosophy from the founder Sam Walton: offer shoppers lower prices than they get anywhere el. That basic strategy has shaped Wal-Mart’s culture and driven the company’s growth.
Now that Wal-Mart is so huge, it has unprecedented power to shape labor markets globally and change the way entire industries operate.
History of W al-Mart
Sam Walton opened his first five-and-dime in 1950．His vision was to keep prices as low as possibl
e. Even if his margins weren’t as fat as competitors, he figured he could make up for that in volume. He was right.
In the early 1960s, Walton opened his first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas. The company continued to grow, going public in 1970 and adding more stores every year. In 1990, Wal-Mart surpasd key rival Kmart in size. Two years later, it surpasd Sears.
Walton continued to drive an old pickup truck and share budget-hotel rooms with colleagues on business trips, even after Wal-Mart made him very rich. He demanded that his employees also keep expens to a bare minimum---a mentality that is still at the heart of Wal-Mart culture more than a decade after Walton’s death. The company has continued to grow rapidly after his death in 1992 and now operates four retail divisions---Wal-Mart Super centers, War-Mart discount stores, Neighborhood Market stores and Wal-Mart Strategy.
W al-Mart Strategy
Let’s start with technology. Wal-Mart pushed the retail industry to establish the
universal bar code, which forced manufacturers to adopt common labeling. The bar code allowed ret
ailers to generate all kinds of information---creating a subtle shift of power from manufacturers to retailers. Wal-Mart became especially good at exploiting the information behind the bar code. And thus it is considered a pioneer in developing sophisticated technology to track its stock and cut the fat out of its supply chain.
Recently, Wal-Mart became the first major retailer to demand manufacturers u radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The technology us radio frequencies to transmit data stored on small tags attached to pullets（货盘）or individual products. RFID tags hold significantly more data than bar codes.
The frugal culture, established by Walton, also plays into Wal-Mart’s success. The company has been criticized for the relatively poor wages and health care plans that it offers to rank-and-file employees. It has also been accud of demanding that hourly workers put in overtime without pay. Store managers often work more than 70 hours per week.
This culture is also prent at the company’s headquarters. Wal-Mart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, instead of an expensive city like New Y ork. The building is unattractive and dull. Y ou won’t catch executives in quality cars and you won’t e them dragging into work at 9:30 a.
m. Executives fly coach and often share hotel rooms with colleagues. They work long hours, typically arriving at work before 6: and working half-days on Saturdays.
The central goal of Wal-Mart is to keep retail prices low---and the company has been very successful at this. Experts estimate that Wal-Mart saves shoppers at least 15 percent on a typical cart of groceries. Everything including the technology and corporate culture feeds into that ultimate goal of delivering the lowest prices possible. Wal-Mart also pushes its suppliers, some say cruelly, to cut prices. In The Wal-Mart Effect, author Charles Fishman discuss how the price of a four-pack of GE light bulbs decread from $2.19 to 88 cents during a five-year period.
The Power
Becau of Wal-Mart’s massive size, it has incredible power. It has driven smaller retailers out of business; forced manufacturers to be more efficient, often leading the suppliers to move manufacturing jobs overas; and changed the way that even large and established industries do business.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that a new Wal-Mart in town spells doom for local pharmacies, grocery stores, sporting goods stores, etc. Economist Emek Basker, Ph.D., attempted to quantify the
impact. Her study found that in a typical United States county, when a Wal-Mart opens, three other retailers clo within two years and four clo within five years. While the Wal-Mart might employ 300 people, another 250 people working in retail lo their jobs within five years in that county.
Wal-Mart has life or death decisions over (almost) all the consumer goods industries that exist in the United States, becau it is the number-one supplier-retailer of most of our consumer goods---not just clothes, shoes, toys, but home appliances, electronic products, sporting goods, bicycles, groceries, food.
The stories of how Wal-Mart pushes manufacturers into lling the same product at lower and lower prices are legendary. One example is Lakewood Engineering & Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, a fan manufacturer. In the early 1990s, a 20-inch box fan cost $20. Wal-Mart pushed the manufacturer to lower the price, and Lakewood responded by
automating the production process, which meant layoffs. Lakewood also forced its own suppliers to knock down the prices of parts. Then, in 2000, Lakewood opened a factory in China, where workers earn 25 cents an hour. By 2003, the price on the fan in a Wal-Mart store had dropped to about $10.
Wal-Mart's impact extends beyond just small suppliers. It also affects how even major, established c
ompanies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo do business. At Wal-Mart's request, Coke and its largest bottler Coca-Cola Enterpris announced that they are changing the way they deliver PowerAde in the United States, altering a basic distribution method for drinks that has been in place for more than a century. Coke also now allows Wal-Mart in on the rearch-and-development process. In 2005, Coke planned to launch one new diet cola called Coke Zero. At Wal-Mart's request, it changed the name to Diet Coke with Splenda and launched a parate product called Coke Zero. This kind of retailer involvement was unheard of at Coke a decade ago. Pepsi also came up with a line of diet drinks, called Slice One, to initially be sold exclusively in Wal-Mart.
The Controversy
Wal-Mart is a polarizing force. The controversies have involved a broad range of topics from Wal-Mart lling guns, to the company’s environmental policies, to the kind of health care Wal-Mart offers employees, to outsourcing of jobs. In this ction, we will explore two of the biggest areas of controversies---labor practices at the company and Wal-Mart’s impact on the American economy.
抄手的做法
Wal-Mart has come under fire on a number of labor issues. There may be a dark side to the frugal culture. At the end of 2005, the company faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for allegedly n
ot paying workers overtime. Women have also accud Wal-Mart of discrimination, and employees have said that it squashes efforts to unio nize and doesn’t provide decent healthcare.
Not everyone is down on Wal-Mart. Andrew Y oung, a former United Nations ambassador and former mayor of Atlanta, heads up a group backed by Wal-Mart that is suppod to spread a positive message about the company. “You need to look at who’s complaining about Wal-Mart,”Y oung told USA Today in March 2006. “If it’s not 100 million people shopping there every week and it’s not 8,000 people competing for 500 jobs (at a new Atlanta store), who is it? They’re complaining becau they’re wrong and they don’t understand that ending poverty means generating wealth and not just fighting to redistribute the existing wealth.”
There is heated debate about whether Wal-Mart is good for the American economy, and well-respected economists come down firmly on both sides of this debate. Some experts say it is good for the economy becau keeps prices low, both at its stores and at other retailers. Other experts argue that Wal-Mart is bad for the economy becau it drives competing retailers out of business and forces manufacturers to move jobs overas to keep expens down.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。
1. At the very beginning, Sam Walton believed that _________.
A) Wal-Mart would become the world’s largest retailer
B) he would not earn much money if he sold products at lower prices than his opponents
C) he would earn much money ev en if he sold products at lower prices than his oppon ents
D) the strategy of offering products at lower prices would make Wal-Mart outdo his competitors
2. After Wal-Mart made Sam Walton extremely wealthy, he _________.
A) purchad a smaller shopping mall from his rival
B) sold half of his share to his business partner
C) asked his employees not to forget the hard time they had had
D) still led a very thrifty life and asked his employees to follow suit
3. After Sam Walton died in _______, the company has continued to extend at a rapid rate.
白领男A) 1990 B) 1999 C) 1992 D) 1997
4. By using bar codes developed by Wal-Mart, _______________.
A) The retailers enjoyed more power than the manufacturers
B) The manufacturers enjoyed more power than the retailers
C) The manufacturers generated all the information about the goods
D) The profits of the products were largely cut down
5. In order to gather much more data, Wal-Mart preferred ______ to bar codes recently.
A) radio B) RFID C) satellite signal D) video
6. Wal-Mart’ s frugal culture finds full expression in __________.
A) the relatively poor wages and health care plans that it offers to rank-and-file employees
B) demanding that hourly workers put in overtime without pay
C) store managers’ often working more than 70 hours per week
D) all of the above
7. Both the technology Wal-Mart adopted and its frugal culture rve the company’s central
goal of _________.全国名牌大学排名
夏季的诗句
A) keeping retail prices as low as possible
B) keeping its cost as low as possible
C) benefiting its customers as much as possible
D) driving its competitors out of market as many as possible
8. Compelled by Wal-Mart to lower the price, Lakewood had to _______, which caud
many workers to be unemployed.
9. In 2005, Wal-Mart was accud of offering no overtime pay, forbidding employees to
止的组词
unionize, providing indecent healthcare, and women __________.
10. Some experts believe that Wal-Mart does harm to the economy becau manufacturers
had to cut down on expens by __________.
Part III Listening Comprehension (35minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this ction, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pau. During the pau, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
11. A) She’s happy that the Student Center is getting more computers.
B) She’ll let the man u her computer.
C) She hopes to take a statistics cour soon.
D) She’d like to buy a computer.
12. A) Some psychological problems.
B) Some methods to cure her of the flu.
C) Some assignments for next week.
D) Some plans for future job.
13. A) Lend the man some money.鸡蛋变质
B) Take the man to the bank.
C) Ask the man when he’ll be paid.
D) Ask the man to write her a check.
14. A) He’s going to visit a photo studio.
B) He’s just had his picture taken.
C) He’s on the way to the theater.
D) He’s just returned f rom a job interview.
15. A) It is more direct. B) It isn’t faster.
C) There is less traffic. D) It is less expensive.
16. A) Relatives. B) Roommates. C) Colleagues. D) Neighbors.
17. A) She moved to other cities. B) She fell ill.
C) She went to the laboratory. D) She was knocked by a car.
18. A) Becau she is so young.
B) Becau the man didn’t understand it either.
C) Becau she doesn’t have a good knowledge of English.
D) Becau the novel is too difficult to understand.
Questions 19 to 21 are bad on the conversation you have just heard.
19. A) The size of the cafeteria.
B) The food rved in the cafeteria.
C) The cost of meals in the cafeteria.
D) Career opportunities in the cafeteria.
20. A) Inform students of the disadvantages of fried food.
B) Find other students who will work in the cafeteria.
C) Ask students to try a new dish he has made．
D) Collect students’ opinions about meals.
21. A) V ery doubtful B) Quite annoyed.
C) Somewhat curious. D) Indifferent.
Questions 22 to 25 are bad on the conversation you have just heard.
22. A) It’s too noisy. B) It’s not convenient to the university.
C) The heating system is defective. D) The owner is unpleasant.
23. A) Tell the owner two months in advance that she’s moving.
B) Alert the housing authorities to her problem.
C) Move to another apartment in the same building.
D) Leave by the end of this month.
24. A) It must be on a higher floor.
B) It must have quiet surroundings.
C) It must be within driving distance of the university.
D) It must be in a new building.
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