英语四级阅读，作为大学英语能力的重要评估指标，不仅检验了学生对词汇、语法的掌握，更考察了其阅读理解和信息筛选的能力。在全球化背景下，提升这一能力对于拓宽视野、增进跨文化交流至关重要。今天，小编将分享2023年6月大学英语四级阅读真题以及答案（卷一），希望能为大家提供帮助！

Section A

Directions: In this section,there is a passage with ten blanks.You are required to select one word foreach blank from a list of choices given in a word bankfollowing the passage.Read the passage through carefully before making your choices.Fach choice in the bankis identified by a letter.Please mark the corresponding letter for each item onAnswerSheet 2 with a single line through the centre.You may not use any ofthe words in the bank more than once.

You probably haven't taken the time to think of all the work that went into creating the shirt on your back.I mean,how hard it could be to create fabric and  26  it into a shirt shape.Don't machines do all that?Well,creating fabric from cotton,which is the most  27  clothing material,is actually a process that involves a lot of water,2,700 liters per shirt to be  28  .Take a look at the video below from National Geographic for some more mind-blowing  29  about cotton clothing production.

Clean water is  30  becoming one ofthe most sought-after resources in the world.Given how large the  31  and cotton industries are,they take up a lot of our fresh water demands across the world,according to The Huffington Post.The video from National Geographic was created to spread  32  of how environmentally harmful cotton is.But the situation can be made better.Through better water management and farming practices,water usage in cotton production can be cut down by  33  40 percent.

Called“Better Cotton”,this environmentally conscious product will save millions of liters of water a year simply from  34  the demands of cotton production.Cotton doesn't have to go,since it is,afterall,one of the mostuseful cash crops across the globe.However,as water supplies  35  ,farmers and consumers need to be moreconscious of the effect that these products have on the environment as a whole.

A)abstracts 

B)abundant 

C)awareness

D)conscience

E)exact

F)increasingly 

G)intense

H)mend

I)nearly

J)reckoning 

K)reducing  

L)sew

M)shrink

N)statistics

O)textile

Section B

Directions: In this section,you are going to read a passage with ten statements attachedto it.Each statement contains information given in one of the parngFaphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

The spoken web

A)We're growing more used to chattingto our computers,phones and stmart speakers through voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa,Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana.Blind and partially sighted people have been using text-to-speech converters for decades.

B)Out of these assistants,Siri is the most well-known.The assistant usesvoice inquiries and a natural- language user interface(界面)to answerquestions.The software adapts to users'individual language usages,searches,and preferences,with continuinguse.

C)Some think voice could soon takeover from typingand clicking as the main way to interact online.But what are the challenges of moving to “the spoken web”?

D)What use is written online content if you can'tread?Thatis the situation facing illiterate(不识字的) African  farmers.They are oftendenied crucial information the web offers many others.With a literacy rate in some parts of Africa at only 22.6%,farmers are often“underpaid for their produce because they might be unaware of the prevailing prices,”says Francis Dittoh,a researcher behind Mr Meteo,a speech-based weather information  service.

E)“The most frequently heard complaint is about rainfall predictions,”says Mr Dittoh,who lives in  Tamale,northern Ghana.“They tell us the methods their forefathers used to predict the weather don't seem  towork aswell these days.”This is down toclimate change,he believes.Yet knowing when it's going to rain is vital for farmers wanting to sow seeds,irigate crops or take their animals out to the fields to feed ongrass.

F)Mr Ditoh says the idea of converting online weather reports into speech came from the farmers themselves,after aworkshop in thevillage of Guabuligah.“They came up with this,”he says.Mr Meteotakes the online weather forecast,converts it to a short recording in the appropriate language and makes it available on a basic phone.Farmers ring up to receive the information.The local language Dagbani is spoken by 1.2 million people but is not served by any online translation applications.The service was designed to be cheap and easy to run,says Mr Dittoh.He plans to begin field tests this month,working with Tamale's Savanna Agricultural Research Institute.

G)The spoken web could alsohelp theone-in-fiveadults inEurope and theU.S.with poor reading skills.But building the spoken web—web-to-voice and voice-to-web—isn't straightforward.For software to understand pizza is served at Italian restaurants is easy.To cover multiple domains and to be able to have a conversation with users on  every single topic is still a long way off.

H)So alhough many computer assistants can answer simple questionsabout the weather and play music for us,anything resembling a wide-ranging human conversation isdecades away.Artificial intelligence just isn't smart enough yet.Even turningyour voice into text—automatic speech recognition—is one of the hardest problems to  solve,as there are as many ways to pronounce things as there are people on the planet.

I)Siri has often been praised for itsability to interpret our casual language and deliver very specificand accurate results,sometimes even providing additional information.But it is still somewhat restricted, particularly when the language moves away from stiffer commands into more human interactions.In one example,the phrase“Send a text to Jason,Clint,Sam,and Lee saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud restaurant"was  interpreted as sending a message to Jason only,containing thetext “Clint Sam and Lee saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud restaurant”.It has also been noted that Siri lacks a proper editingfunction,as saying“Edit message to say:we're at Silver Cloud restaurant and you should come find us”generates “Clint Sam and Lee  saying we're having dinner at Silver Cloud restaurant to say we're at SilverCloud restaurant and you should come find us"。

J)Using voice interaction feels far more intimate than surfing the net the old-fashioned way.This is intentional as the informal tone of the assistant helps create an emotional attachment.But if something speaks,it must  also listen.Our phonesarealways near us and they are collecting data about us all the time.This has already raised privacy concerns.The American Civil Liberties Union has stated that digital assistants create a threat to privacy from hackers.Some people have other concerns.They worry assistants will one day be used to deliver advertising directly to us.

K)But digital voices need more personality to make them popular.Robots are not yet witty,Siri is boring The benefits of using voice instead of tapping fingers obviously depend on the context.Doctors completing online  forms about their patients by speech,for example,can dictate 150 words a minute, three times faster than typing on a keyboard.This enables them to spend less time on administration and more time with patients.

L)Last year,speech recognition company Nuance helped a doctors'surgery in Dukinfield,near Manchester,set up a speech system for the practice's six doctors.Now they can dictate notes on a patient's health condition and treatment and a smart assistant automatically enters the information into the right fields on a webform.Previously,the doctors made voice recordings that were then transcribed by secretaries—a process that was costly and likely to cause delays.The new system means letters to patients now have more detail.

M)Using voicealsomakes sense when you're doing other things with your hands.Think about when you're cooking,and you just want to know what the next step in the recipe is.Your hands are covered with oil;you're not going toget on the iPad,so it's a lot more natural to talk.And speech obviously makes sense when you're driving.In the U.S.,29% of drivers admit they surf behind the wheel, according to insurance firm State Farm.This is up from 13% in 2009.No wonder using mobile phones while driving causes more crashes a year than drink driving,saysthe U.S.National Safety Council.

36.According to Francis Dittoh,their speech-based weather information service was meant to be inexpensive and easy to use.

37.Using voice instead of typing enables doctors to spend more time taking care of patients. 

38.It is extremely difficult to convert voice into text because of different pronunciations.

39.African farmers unable to read often don't have access to important information conveyed online.

40.Some phone users worry advertisers will take advantageof voice assistants to sendads directly to them.

41.The spoken web is helpful when one's hands are occupied.

42.Some peoplebelieve online interaction would soon depend mainly on voice.

43.Setting up aspoken web isby no means an easy task.

44.Weather information is extremely important to farmers.

45.Some peopleare concerned about privacy because their phones are constantly collecting their personal information.

Section C

Directions:There are 2 passages in this section.Fach passage is followed by some questionsor unfinished statements.For each of them there are four choices marked A),B),C)and D).You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passnge.

The United States is facing a housing crisis:Affordable housing is inadequate,while luxury homes abound (充裕) ,and homelessness remains a persistent problem.Despite this,popular culture and the housing industry market happiness as living with both more space and more amenities(便利设施)。Big houses are advertized as a reward  for hard work and diligence,turning housing from abasic necessity into a luxury.

This isreflected in our homes.The average single-family home built in the United States before 1970 was less than 1,500 square fet insize.By 2016,the averagesize of a new,single-family home was 2,422 square feet.What's more,homes built in the 2000s were more likely than earliermodels to have more of all types of spaces:bedrooms,bathrooms,living rooms,dining rooms,recreation rooms and garages.

There are consequences of living big.As middle-class houses have grown larger,two things have happened.First,large houses take time to maintain,so cleaners and other low-wage service workers are required to keep these houses in order.Second,once-public spaces,where people from diverse backgrounds used to come together,have increasingly become privatized,leading to a reduction in the number of public facilities  available to all,and a reduced quality of life for many.Take swimming pools.While in 1950,only 2,500 U.S.families owned pools,by 1999 this number was 4 million.At the same time,public municipal pools were  often closed,leaving low-income people nowhere to swim.

The trend for bigger housing thus poses ethical questions.Should Americans accept a system in which the middle and upper classes enjoy a luxurious lifestyle,using the low-wage labor of others?Are we willing to accept a system in which an increase in amenities purchased by the affluent means a reduction in amenities for thepoor?

I believe neither is acceptable.We must change the way we think:living well does not need to mean havingmore privatespaces;instead,it could mean having more public spaces.A better goal than building bigger houses for some is to create more publicly accessible spaces and amenities for all.

46.Whatare big houses promoted to be in the United States?

A)A luxury for the homeless.

B)A reward for industriousness.

C)An abundant source of comforts.

D)An absolute necessity for happiness.

47.Wha is one of the consequences of living big?

A)Many Americans'quality of life has become lower.

B)People from diverse backgrounds no longer socialize.

C)People no longer have access to public swimming pools.

D)Many Americans'private life has been negatively affected

48.What questions arise from living big?

A)Questions related to moral principles.

B)Questions having to do with labor cost.

C)Questions about what lifestyle to promote.

D)Questions concerning housing development.

49.What kind of social system does the authorthinkis unacceptable?

A)One in which the wealthy exploit the low-wage laborers building their houses.

B)One in which the rich purchase amenities at an increasingly unjustifiable price.   

C)Onein which theupper classes deprive the lower classes of affordable housing.

D)One in which the affluent enjoy a more comfortable life at the expense of the poor. 

50.What does the author advocate for people to live well?

A)Finding ways to turn private spaces into public ones.

B)Building more houses affordable to those less affluent. 

C)More public spaces created for everyone to enjoy.

D)All amenities made accessibleto the rich and the poor alike.

PassageTwo

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

Most of us in the entrepreneurial community are blessed—or cursed—with higher-than-average ambition.Ambitious people strongly desire accomplishments and are willing to take more risks and spend moreeffortto get them.

Overall,this is a positive quality,especially for people trying to build their own businesses.Apparently,if you're more naturally driven to set goals,you are more likely to succeed.

Actually,this isn't always the case.In fact,in some cases,extreme ambition may end up doing more harm than good.

One major side effect of excessive ambition is the tendency to focus too determinedly on one particular vision or end goal.This is problematic because it hinders your ability to adapt to new circumstances,which is vitalif you want to be a successful entrepreneur.If a new competitor emerges to threaten your business,you may need to change direction,even if that means straying from your original vision.If you have toomuch ambition,you'll    find this hard,if not impossible.

Few people are successful when they try to build their first brand.Unfortunately,for the most ambitious  entrepreneurs,a failure is seen as disastrous,and impossible to recover from.

It's a clear departure from the intended plan toward the intended goal.For people with limited ambition,however,failure is viewed as something closcr to reality.Remember,failure is inevitable,and every  failure yousurvive is a learning experience.

Ambitious people tend to be more materialistically successful than their non-ambitious counterparts.However,they're only slightly happier than their less-ambitious counterparts,and tend to live  significantly shorterlives.This implies that even though ambitious peopleare more likely to achieve conventional “success,”such success means nothing for their health and happiness—and if you don't have health and happiness,whatelse could possibly matter?

Clearly,some amount of ambition is good for your motivation.Without any ambition,you wouldn't start your own business,set or achieve goals and get far in life.But an excess of ambition can also be dangerous,putting you at risk of burnout,stubbornness and even a shorter life.

51.What does the author think of most entrepreneurs?

A)They are more willing torisk their own lives.

B)They are more ambitious than ordinary people.

C)They achieve greater nonconventional success.

D)They have more pasitive qualities than most of us.

52.What does the author imply bysaying“this isn't always the case”(Line 1,Para.3)?

A)Ambitious people may not have a greater chance of success. 

B)Ambitious people may not have more positive qualities.

C)Entrepreneurs'ambition does as much good as harm.

D)Entrepreneurs are more naturally driven to success.

53.What does the author say is of extreme importance for one to become a successful entrepreneur?

A)Holding on to one's original vision.

B)Being able to adapt to new situations.

C)Focusing determinedly on one particular goal.

D)Avoiding radicalchange in one's career direction.

54.How do the most ambitious entrepreneurs regard failure in their endeavor?

A)It will awaken them to reality.    

B)It is a lesson they have to learn.  

C)It means the end of their career. 

D)It will result in aslow recovery.

55.What does the author advise us to do concerning ambition?

A)Distinguish between conventional success and our life goal. 

B)Follow the example of the most ambitious entrepreneurs.

C)Avoid taking unnecessary risks when starting a business. 

D)Prioritize health and happiness over material success.