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 base your composition on the instruction given in Chinese below:
Useful words and expressions:
环保的：environmental-friendly
白污染：white pollution
可降解的：degradable (adj.)
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, 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.
W al-Mart
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 else. 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 possible.
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 surpassed key rival Kmart in size. Two years later, it surpassed 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 expenses 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 retail
ers 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 use radio frequency identification technology (RFID). The technology uses 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 accused of demanding that hourly workers put in overtime without pay. Store managers often work more than 70 hours per week.
This culture is also present 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 see them dragging into work at 9: 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 discusses how the price of a four-pack of GE light bulbs decreased from $2.19 to 88 cents during a five-year period.
The Power
Because 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 these suppliers to move manufacturing jobs overseas; 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 i
mpact. Her study found that in a typical United States county, when a Wal-Mart opens, three other retailers close within two years and four close within five years. While the Wal-Mart might employ 300 people, another 250 people working in retail lose 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, because 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 selling 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 co
mpanies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo do business. At Wal-Mart's request, Coke and its largest bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises 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 research-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 separate 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 selling guns, to the company’s environmental policies, to the kind of health care Wal-Mart offers employees, to outsourcing of jobs. In this section, we will explore two of the biggest areas of controversies---labor practices at the company and Wal-Mart’s impact on the American economy.
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 not
paying workers overtime. Women have also accused 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 supposed 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 because 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 because keeps prices low, both at its stores and at other retailers. Other experts argue that Wal-Mart is bad for the economy because it drives competing retailers out of business and forces manufacturers to move jobs overseas to keep expenses 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) purchased 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.
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
cet考试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 serve the company’s central
goal of _________.
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 caused
many workers to be unemployed.
9. In 2005, Wal-Mart was accused of offering no overtime pay, forbidding employees to
unionize, providing indecent healthcare, and women __________.
10. Some experts believe that Wal-Mart does harm to the economy because manufacturers
had to cut down on expenses by __________.
Part III Listening Comprehension (35minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, 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 pause. During the pause, 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 use her computer.
C) She hopes to take a statistics course 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.
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) Because she is so young.
B) Because the man didn’t understand it either.
C) Because she doesn’t have a good knowledge of English.
D) Because the novel is too difficult to understand.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. A) The size of the cafeteria.
B) The food served 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 based 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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