07-14历年大学英语六级真题及答案（完整版）（免费下载） - 图文

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Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)

Seven Steps to a More Fulfilling Job

Many people today find themselves in unfulfilling work situations. In fact, one in four workers is dissatisfied with their current job, according to the recent ―Plans for 2004‖ survey. Their career path may be financially rewarding, but it doesn‘t meet their emotional, social or creative needs. They‘re stuck, unhappy, and have no idea what to do about it, except move to another job.

Mary Lyn Miller, veteran career consultant and founder of the Life and Career Clinic, says that when most

people are unhappy about their work, their first thought is to get a different job. Instead, Miller suggests looking at the possibility of a different life. Through her book, 8 Myths of Making a Living, as well as workshops, seminars and personal coaching and consulting, she has helped thousands of dissatisfied workers reassess life and work.

Like the way of Zen, which includes understanding of oneself as one really is, Miller encourages job seekers and those dissatisfied with work or life to examine their beliefs about work and recognize that ―in many cases your beliefs are what brought you to where you are today.‖ You may have been raised to think that women were best at nurturing and caring and, therefore, should be teachers and nurses. So that‘s what you did. Or, perhaps you were brought up to believe that you should do what your father did, so you have taken over the family business, or become a dentist ―just like dad.‖ If this sounds familiar, it‘s probably time to look at the new possibilities for your future.

Miller developed a 7-step process to help potential job seekers assess their current situation and beliefs, identify their real passion, and start on a journey that allows them to pursue their passion through work. Step 1: Willingness to do something different.

Breaking the cycle of doing what you have always done is one of the most difficult tasks for job seekers. Many find it difficult to steer away from a career path or make a change, even if it doesn‘t feel right. Miller urges job seekers to open their minds to other possibilities beyond what they are currently doing. Step 2: Commitment to being who you are, not who or what someone wants you to be.

Look at the \\gifts and talents you have and make a commitment to pursue those things that you love most. If you love the social aspects of your job, but are stuck inside an office or ―chained to your desk‖ most of the time, vow to follow your instinct and investigate alternative careers and work that allow you more time to interact with others. Dawn worked as a manager for a large retail clothing store for several years. Though she had advanced within the company, she felt frustrated and longed to be involved with nature and the outdoors. She decided to go to school nights and weekends to pursue her true passion by earning her master‘s degree in forestry. She now works in the biotech forestry division of a major paper company. Step 3: Self-definition

Miller suggests that once job seekers know who they are, they need to know how to sell themselves. ―In the job market, you are a product. And just like a product, you most know the features and benefits that you have to offer a potential client, or employer.‖ Examine the skills and knowledge that you have identify how they can apply to your desired occupation. Your qualities will exhibit to employers why they should hire you over other candidates.

Step 4: Attain a level of self-honoring.

Self-honoring or self-love may seem like an odd step for job hunters, but being able to accept yourself, without judgment, helps eliminate insecurities and will make you more self-assured. By accepting who you are – all your emotions, hopes and dreams, your personality, and your unique way of being – you‘ll project more confidence when networking and talking with potential employers. The power of self-honoring can help to break all the falsehoods you were programmed to believe – those that made you feel that you were not good enough, or strong enough, or intelligent enough to do what you truly desire. Step 5: Vision.

Miller suggests that job seekers develop a vision that embraces the answer to ―What do I really want to do?‖ one should create a solid statement in a dozen or so sentences that describe in detail how they see their life related to work. For instance, the secretary who longs to be an actress describes a life that allows her to express her love of Shakespeare on stage. A real estate agent, attracted to his current job because her loves fixing up old homes, describes buying properties that need a little tender loving care to make them more saleable. Step 6: Appropriate risk.

Some philosophers believe that the way to enlightenment comes through facing obstacles and difficulties. Once people discover their passion, many are too scared to do anything about it. Instead, they do nothing. With this step, job seekers should assess what they are willing to give up, or risk, in pursuit of their dream. For one working mom, that meant taking night classes to learn new computer-aided design skills, while still earning a salary and keeping her day job. For someone else, it may mean quitting his or her job, taking out loan and going back to school full time. You‘ll move one step closer to your ideal work life if you identify how much risk you are willing to take and the sacrifices you are willing to make. Step 7: Action.

Some teachers of philosophy describe action in this way, ―If one wants to get to the top of a mountain, just sitting at the foot thinking about it will not bring one there. It is by making the effort of climbing up the mountain, step by step, that eventually the summit is reached.‖ All too often, it is the lack of action that

2007年6月23日大学英语六级(CET-6)真题试卷(A卷)

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ultimately holds people back from attaining their ideals. Creating a plan and taking it one step at a time can lead to new and different job opportunities. Job-hunting tasks gain added meaning as you sense their importance in your quest for a more meaningful work life. The plan can include researching industries and occupations, talking to people who are in your desired area of work, taking classes, or accepting volunteer work in your targeted field.

Each of these steps will lead you on a journey to a happier and more rewarding work life. After all, it is the journey, not the destination, that is most important. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1. According to the recent ―Plans for 2004‖ survey, most people are unhappy with their current jobs. 2. Mary Lyn Miller‘s job is to advise people on their life and career.

3. Mary Lyn Miller herself was once quite dissatisfied with her own work.

4. Many people find it difficult to make up their minds whether to change their career path.

5. According to Mary Lyn Miller, people considering changing their careers should commit themselves to the pursuit of ________.

6. In the job market, job seekers need to know how to sell themselves like ________.

7. During an interview with potential employers, self-honoring or self-love may help a job seeker to show ________.

8. Mary Lyn Miller suggests that a job seeker develop a vision that answers the question ―________‖ 9. Many people are too scared to pursue their dreams because they are unwilling to ________. 10. What ultimately holds people back from attaining their ideals is ________. Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A

Google is a world-famous company, with its headquarters in Mountain View, California. It was set up in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998, and inflated (膨胀) with the Internet bubble. Even when everything around it collapsed the company kept on inflating. Google‘s search engine is so widespread across the world that search became Google, and google became a verb. The world fell in love with the effective, fascinatingly fast technology.

Google owes much of its success to the brilliance of S. Brin and L. Page, but also to a series of fortunate events. It was Page who, at Stanford in 1996, initiated the academic project that eventually became Google‘s search engine. Brin, who had met Page at a student orientation a year earlier, joined the project early on. They were both Ph.D. candidates when they devised the search engine which was better than the rest and, without any marketing, spread by word of mouth from early adopters to, eventually, your grandmother.

Their breakthrough, simply put, was that when their search engine crawled the Web, it did more than just look for word matches, it also tallied (统计) and ranked a host of other critical factors like how websites link to one another. That delivered far better results than anything else. Brin and Page meant to name their creation Googol (the mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes), but someone misspelled the word so it stuck as Google. They raised money from prescient (有先见之明的) professors and venture capitalists, and moved off campus to turn Google into business. Perhaps their biggest stroke of luck came early on when they tried to sell their technology to other search engines, but no one met their price, and they built it up on their own.

The next breakthrough came in 2000, when Google figured out how to make money with its invention. It had lots of users, but almost no one was paying. The solution turned out to be advertising, and it‘s not an

exaggeration to say that Google is now essentially an advertising company, given that that‘s the source of nearly all its revenue. Today it is a giant advertising company, worth $100 billion.

47. Apart from a series of fortunate events, what is it that has made Google so successful? 48. Google‘s search engine originated from ________ started by L. Page. 49. How did Google‘s search engine spread all over the world?

50. Brin and Page decided to set up their own business because no one would ________. 51. The revenue of the Google company is largely generated from ________.

Section B Passage One

You hear the refrain all the time: the U.S. economy looks good statistically, but it doesn‘t feel good. Why doesn‘t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Affluent (富裕的) Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.

The Affluent Society is a modern classic because it helped define a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, ―hunger, sickness, and cold‖ threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. ―Poverty was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.‖ After World War II, the dread of another Great Depression gave way to an economic boom. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.

To Galbraith, materialism had gone mad and would breed discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn‘t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unfulfilling. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut

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down because people instinctively—and wrongly—labeled government only as ―a necessary evil.‖ It‘s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich—overpaid chief executives, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people‘s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, inflation-adjusted average family income rose 14.3 percent, to $43,200. people feel ―squeezed‖ because their rising incomes often don‘t satisfy their rising wants—for bigger homes, more health care, more education, faster Internet connections.

The other great frustration is that it has not eliminated insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As corporate layoffs increased, that part has eroded. More workers fear they‘ve become ―the disposable American,‖ as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.

Because so much previous suffering and social conflict stemmed from poverty, the arrival of widespread affluence suggested utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, affluence succeeds. There is much les physical misery than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, affluence also creates new complaints and contradictions.

Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the quest for growth lets loose new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Affluence liberates the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-fulfillment. But the promise is so extravagant that it predestines many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown and obesity (肥胖症). Statistical indicators of happiness have not risen with incomes.

Should we be surprised? Not really. We‘ve simply reaffirmed an old truth: the pursuit of affluence does not always end with happiness.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

52. What question does John Kenneth Galbraith raise in his book The Affluent Society? A) Why statistics don‘t tell the truth about the economy. B) Why affluence doesn‘t guarantee happiness. C) How happiness can be promoted today. D) What lies behind an economic boom.

53. According to Galbraith, people feel discontented because ________. A) public spending hasn‘t been cut down as expected B) the government has proved to be a necessary evil C) they are in fear of another Great Depression D) materialism has run wild in modern society

54. Why do people feel squeezed when their average income rises considerably? A) Their material pursuits have gone far ahead of their earnings. B) Their purchasing power has dropped markedly with inflation.

C) The distribution of wealth is uneven between the r5ich and the poor. D) Health care and educational cost have somehow gone out of control.

55. What does Louis Uchitelle mean by ―the disposable American‖ (Line 3, Para. 5)? A) Those who see job stability as part of their living standard. B) People full of utopian ideas resulting from affluence. C) People who have little say in American politics. D) Workers who no longer have secure jobs.

56. What has affluence brought to American society? A) Renewed economic security. B) A sense of self-fulfillment. C) New conflicts and complaints. D) Misery and anti-social behavior.

Passage Two

Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

The use of deferential (敬重的) language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy; she ―treads softly (谨言慎行)in the world,‖ elevating feminine beauty and grace to an art form.

Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the feminine linguistic (语言的) ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential ―women‘s‖ forms, and even using the few strong forms that are know as ―men‘s.‖ This, of course, attracts considerable attention and has led to an outcry in the Japanese media against the defeminization of women‘s language. Indeed, we didn‘t hear about ―men‘s language‖ until people began to respond to girls‘ appropriation of forms normally reserved for boys and men. There is

considerable sentiment about the ―corruption‖ of women‘s language—which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and morality—and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are regularly carried out by the media.

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Yoshiko Matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of the highly deferential forms as older women. This highly polite style is no doubt something that young women have been expected to ―grow into‖—after all, it is assign not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to indicate a change in the nature of one‘s social relations as well. One might well imagine little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older women—in a fashion analogous to little girls‘ use of a high-pitched voice to do ―teacher talk‖ or ―mother talk‖ in role play.

The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change—of social change and of linguistic change. But it is most certainly not a sign of the ―masculization‖ of girls. In some instances, it may be a sign that girls are making the same claim to authority as boys and men, but that is very different from saying that they are trying to be ―masculine.‖ Katsue Reynolds has argued that girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out. Social change also brings not simply different positions for women and girls, but different relations to life stages, and adolescent girls are participating in new subcultural forms. Thus what may, to an older speaker, seem like ―masculine‖ speech may seem to an adolescent like ―liberated‖ or ―hip‖ speech. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

57. The first paragraph describes in detail ________. A) the standards set for contemporary Japanese women B) the Confucian influence on gender norms in Japan C) the stereotyped role of women in Japanese families D) the norms for traditional Japanese women to follow

58. What change has been observed in today‘s young Japanese women? A) They pay less attention to their linguistic behavior. B) The use fewer of the deferential linguistic forms. C) They confuse male and female forms of language. D) They employ very strong linguistic expressions.

59. How do some people react to women‘s appropriation of men‘s language forms as reported in the Japanese media?

A) They call for a campaign to stop the defeminization. B) The see it as an expression of women‘s sentiment. C) They accept it as a modern trend. D) They express strong disapproval.

60. According to Yoshiko Matsumoto, the linguistic behavior observed in today‘s young women ________. A) may lead to changes in social relations B) has been true of all past generations C) is viewed as a sign of their maturity D) is a result of rapid social progress

61. The author believes that the use of assertive language by young Japanese women is ________. A) a sure sign of their defeminization and maturation B) an indication of their defiance against social change

C) one of their strategies to compete in a male-dominated society D) an inevitable trend of linguistic development in Japan today Part V Cloze (15 minutes)

Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D) on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Part V CLOZE

Historically, humans get serious about avoiding disasters only after one has just struck them. __62__ that logic, 2006 should have been a breakthrough year for rational behavior. With the memory of 9/11 still __63__ in their minds, Americans watched hurricane Katrina, the most expensive disaster in U.S. history, on __64__ TV. Anyone who didn‘t know it before should have learned that bad things can happen. And they are made __65__ worse by our willful blindness to risk as much as our __66__ to work together before everything goes to hell. Granted, some amount of delusion (错觉) is probably part of the __67__ condition. In A.D. 63, Pompeii was seriously damaged by an earthquake, and the locals immediately went to work __68__, in the same spot—until they were buried altogether by a volcano eruption 16 years later. But a __69__ of the past year in disaster

history suggests that modern Americans are particularly bad at __70__ themselves from guaranteed threats. We know more than we __71__ did about the dangers we face. But it turns __72__ that in times of crisis, our greatest enemy is __73__ the storm, the quake or the __74__ itself. More often, it is ourselves.

So what has happened in the year that __75__ the disaster on the Gulf Coast? In New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers has worked day and night to rebuild the flood walls. They have got the walls to __76__ they were before Katrina, more or less. That‘s not __77__, we can now say with confidence. But it may be all __78__ can be expected from one year of hustle (忙碌).

Meanwhile, New Orleans officials have crafted a plan to use buses and trains to __79__ the sick and the disabled. The city estimates that 15,000 people will need a __80__ out. However, state officials have not yet

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determined where these people will be taken. The __81__ with neighboring communities are ongoing and difficult.

62. A) To B) By C) On D) For

63. A) fresh B) obvious C) apparent D) evident 64. A) visual B) vivid C) live D) lively 65. A) little B) less C) more D) much

66. A) reluctance B) rejection C) denial D) decline 67. A) natural B) world C) social D) human

68. A) revising B) refining C) rebuilding D) retrieving 69. A) review B) reminder C) concept D) prospect

70. A) preparing B) protesting C) protecting D) prevailing 71. A) never B) ever C) then D) before 72. A) up B) down C) over D) out

73. A) merely B) rarely C) incidentally D) accidentally 74. A) surge B) spur C) surf D) splash

75. A) ensued B) traced C) followed D) occurred 76. A) which B) where C) what D) when

77. A) enough B) certain C) conclusive D) final 78. A) but B) as C) that D) those

79. A) exile B) evacuate C) dismiss D) displace 80. A) ride B) trail C) path D) track

81. A) conventions B) notifications C) communications D) negotiations Part VI Translation (5 minutes)

Directions: Complete the sentences by translating into English the Chinese given in brackets. Please write your translation on Answer Sheet 2.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答，只需写出译文部分。

82. The auto manufacturers found themselves ________________________ (正在同外国公司竞争市场的份额).

83. Only in the small town ________________________ (他才感到安全和放松).

84. It is absolutely unfair that these children ________________________ (被剥夺了受教育的权利).

85. Our years of hard work are all in vain, ________________________ (更别提我们花费的大量金钱了). 86. The problems of blacks and women ________________________ (最近几十年受到公众相当大的关注).

Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15 minutes)Seven way to Save the World Forget the old idea that conserving energy is a form of self-denial—riding bicycles, dimming the lights, and taking fewer showers. These days conservation is all about efficiency: getting the same—or better—results from just a fraction of the energy. When a slump in business travel forced Ulrich Ramer to cut costs at his family—owned hotel in Germany, he replaced hundreds of the hotel‘s wasteful light bulbs, getting the same light for 80 percent less power. He bought a new water boiler with a digitally controlled pump, and wrapped insulation around the pipes. Spending about ￡100,000 on these and other improvements, he slashed his

￡90,000 fuel and power bill by ￡60,000. As a bonus, the hotel‘s lower energy needs have reduced its annual carbon emissions by more than 200 metric tons. ―For us, saving energy has been very, very profitable,‖ he says. ―And most importantly, we‘re not giving up a single comfort for our guests.‖

Efficiency is also a great way to lower carbon emissions and help slow global warming. But the best

argument for efficiency is its cost—or, more precisely, its profitability. That‘s because quickly growing energy demand requires immense investment in new supply, not to mention the drain of rising energy prices. No wonder efficiency has moved to the top of the political agenda. On Jan. 10, the European Union

unveiled a plan to cut energy use across the continent by 20 percent by 2020. Last March, China imposed a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency by 2020. Even George W. Bush, the Texas oilman, is expected to talk about energy conservation in his State of the Union speech this week.

The good news is that the world is full of proven, cheap ways to save energy. Here are the seven that could have the biggest impact. Insulate

Space heating and cooling eats up 36 percent of all the world‘s energy. There‘s virtually no limit to how much of that can be saved, as prototype ―zero-energy homes‖ in Switzerland and Germany have shown. There‘s been

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a surge in new ways of keeping heat in and cold out (or vice versa). The most advanced insulation follows the law of increasing returns: if you add enough you can scale down or even eliminate heating and air-conditioning equipment, lowering costs even before you start saving on utility bills. Studies have shown that green

workplaces (ones that don‘t constantly need to have the heat or air-conditioner running) have higher worker productivity and lower sick rates. Change Bulbs

Lighting eats up 20 percent of the world‘s electricity, or the equivalent of roughly 600,000 tons of coal a day. Forty percent of that powers old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs—a 19th-century technology that wastes most of the power it consumes on unwanted heat.

Compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLS, not only use 75 to 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs to generate the same amount of light, but they also last 10 times longer. Phasing old bulbs out by 2030 would save the output of 650 power plants and avoid the release of 700 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year. Comfort Zone

Water boilers, space heaters and air conditioners have been notoriously inefficient. The heat pump has altered that equation. It removes heat from the air outside or the ground below and uses it to supply heat to a building or its water supply. In the summer, the system can be reversed to cool buildings as well.

Most new residential buildings in Sweden are already heated with ground-source heat pumps. Such systems consume almost no conventional fuel at all. Several countries have used subsidies to jump-start the market, including Japan, where almost I million heat pumps have been installed in the past two years to heat water for showers and hot tubs. Remake Factories

From steel mills to paper factories, industry eats up about a third of the world‘s energy. The opportunities to save are vast. In Ludwigshafen, German chemicals giant BASF runs an interconnected complex of more than 200 chemical factories, where heat produced by one chemical process is used to power the next. At the

Ludwigshafen site site alone, such recycling of heat and energy saves the company ￡200 million a year and almost half its CO2 emissions. Now BASF is doing the same for new plants in China. ―Optimizing (优化) energy efficiency is a decisive competitive advantage,‖ says BASF CEO Jurgen Hambrecht. Green Driving

A quarter of the world‘s energy---including two thirds of the annual production of oil—is used for

transportation. Some savings come free of charge: you can boost fuel efficiency by 6 percent simply by keeping your car‘s tires properly inflated (充气). Gasoline-electric hybrid(混合型的) models like the Toyota Prius improve mileage by a further 20 percent over conventional models. A Better Fridge

More than half of all residential power goes into running household appliances, producing a fifth of the world‘s carbon emissions. And that‘s true even though manufacturers have already hiked the efficiency of refrigerators and other white goods by as much as 70 percent since the 1980s. According to an International Energy Agency study, if consumers chose those models that would save them the most money over the life of the appliance, they‘d cut global residential power consumption (and their utility bills) by 43 percent. Flexible Payment

Who says you have to pay for all your conservation investments? ―Energy service contractors‖ will pay for retrofitting（翻新改造）in return for a share of the client‘s annual utility-bill savings. In Beijing. Shenwu Thermal Energy Technology Co. specializes in retrofitting China‘s steel furnaces. Shenwu puts up the initial investment to install a heat exchanger that preheats the air going into the furnace, slashing the client‘s fuel costs. Shenwu pockets a cut of those savings, so both Shenwu and the client profit.

If saving energy is so easy and profitable, why isn‘t everyone doing it? It has do with psychology and a lack of information. Most of us tend to look at today‘s price tag more than tomorrow‘s potential saving. That holds double for the landlord or developer, who won‘t actually see a penny of the savings his investment in better insulation or a better heating system might generate. In many people‘s minds, conservation is still associated with self-denial. Many environmentalists still push that view.

Smart governments can help push the market in the right direction. The EU‘s 1994 law on labeling was such a success that it extended the same idea to entire buildings last year. To boost the market value of efficiency, all new buildings are required to have an ―energy pass‖ detailing power and heating consumption. Countries like Japan and Germany have successively tightened building codes, requiring an increase in insulation levels but leaving it up to builders to decide how to meet them.

The most powerful incentives, of course, will come from the market itself. Over the past year, sky-high fuel prices have focused minds on efficiency like never before. Ever-increasing pressure to cut costs has finally forced more companies to do some math on their energy use.

Will it be enough? With global demand and emissions rising so fast, we may not have any choice but to try. Efficient technology is here now, proven and cheap. Compared with all other options, it‘s the biggest, easiest and most profitable bang for the buck.

1. What is said to be best way to conserve energy nowadays?

A) Raising efficiency. B) Cutting unnecessary costs..

C) Finding alternative resources. D) Sacrificing some personal comforts.

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2. What does the European Union plan to do? A) Diversify energy supply. B) Cut energy consumption.

C) Reduce carbon emissions. D) Raise production Raise production efficiency. 3. If you add enough insulation to your house, you may be able to _____________. A) improve your work environment B) cut your utility bills by half C) get rid of air-conditioners D) enjoy much better health 4. How much of the power consumed by incandescent bulbs is converted into light?

A) A small portion. B) Some 40 percent. C) Almost half. D) 75 to 80 percent. 5. Some countries have tried to jump-start the market of heat pumps by __________.

A)upgrading the equipment B)encouraging investments C) implementing high-tech D)providing subsidies

6. German chemicals giant BASF saves ￡200 million a year by ___________.

A) recycling heat and energy B) setting up factories in China

C) using the newest technology D) reducing the CO2 emissions of its plants 7. Global residential power consumption can be cut by 43 percent if ___________. A) we increase the insulation of walls and water pipes B) We choose simpler models of electrical appliances

C) We cut down on the use of refrigerators and other white goods

D) We choose the most efficient models of refrigerators and other white goods 8. Energy service contractors profit by taking a part of clients____________.

9. Many environmentalists maintain the view that conservation has much to do with _____. 10. The strongest incentives for energy conservation will derive from __________. Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

Men, these days, are embracing fatherhood with the round-the-clock involvement their partners have always dreamed of –handling night feedings, packing lunches and bandaging knees. But unlike women, many find they‘re negotiating their new roles with little support or information. ―Men in my generation (aged 25-40) have a fear of becoming dads because we have no role models,‖ says Jon Smith, a writer. They often find themselves excluded from mothers‘ support networks, and are eyed warily (警觉地) on the playground.

The challenge is particularly evident in the work—place. There, men are still expected to be breadwinners climbing the corporate ladder; traditionally-minded bosses are often unsympathetic to family needs. In Denmark most new fathers only take two weeks of paternity leave (父亲的陪产假)—even though they are allowed 34 days. As much as if not more so than women, fathers struggle to be taken seriously when they request flexible arrangements.

Though Wilfried-Fritz Maring, 54, a data-bank and Internet specialist with German firm FIZ Karlsruhe, feels that the time he spends with his daughter outweighs any disadvantages, he admits, ―With my decision to work from home I dismissed any opportunity for promotion.‖

Mind-sets (思维定势) are changing gradually. When Maring had a daughter, the company equipped him with a home office and allowed him to choose a job that could be performed from there. Danish telecom company TDC initiated an internal campaign last year to encourage dads to take paternity leave: 97 percent now do. ―When an employee goes on paternity leave and is with his kids, he gets a new kind of training: in how to keep cool under stress,‖ says spokesperson Christine Elberg Holm. For a new generation of dads, kids may come before the company –but it‘s a shift that benefits both.

47. Unlike women, men often get little support or information from ______________. 48. Besides supporting the family, men were also expected to ________.

49. Like women, men hope that their desire for a flexible schedule will be _____________.

50. When Maring was on paternity leave, he was allowed by his company to work___________.

51. Christine Holm believes paternity leave provides a new kind of training for men in that it can help them cope with _____________. Section B Passage One

Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

Like most people, I‘ve long understood that I will be judged by my occupation, that my profession is a gauge people use to see how smart or talented I am. Recently, however, I was disappointed to see that it also decides how I‘m treated as a person.

Last year I left a professional position as a small-town reporter and took a job waiting tables. As someone paid to serve food to people. I had customers say and do things to me I suspect they‘d never say or do to their most casual acquaintances. One night a man talking on his cell phone waved me away, then beckoned (示意) me back with his finger a minute later, complaining he was ready to order and asking where I‘d been.

I had waited tables during summers in college and was treated like a peon(勤杂工) by plenty of people. But at 19 years old. I believed I deserved inferior treatment from professional adults. Besides, people responded to me differently after I told them I was in college. Customers would joke that one day I‘d be sitting at their table,

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waiting to be served. Once I graduated I took a job at a community newspaper. From my first day, I heard a respectful tone from everyone who called me. I assumed this was the way the professional world worked-cordially.

I soon found out differently, I sat several feet away from an advertising sales representative with a similar name. Our calls would often get mixed up and someone asking for Kristen would be transferred to Christie. The mistake was immediately evident. Perhaps it was because money was involved, but people used a tone with Kristen that they never used with me.

My job title made people treat me with courtesy. So it was a shock to return to the restaurant industry. It‘s no secret that there‘s a lot to put up with when waiting tables, and fortunately, much of it can be easily forgotten when you pocket the tips. The service industry, by definition, exists to cater to others‘ needs. Still, it seemed that many of my customers didn‘t get the difference between server and servant.

I‘m now applying to graduate school, which means someday I‘ll return to a profession where people need to be nice to me in order to get what they want. I think I‘ll take them to dinner first, and see how they treat someone whose only job is to serve them.

52. The author was disappointed to find that ___________________. A) one‘s position is used as a gauge to measure one‘s intelligence. B) talented people like her should fail to get a respectable job C) one‘s occupation affects the way one is treated as a person D) professionals tend to look down upon manual workers

53. What does the author intend to say by the example in the second paragraph? A) Some customers simply show no respect to those who serve them. B) People absorbed in a phone conversation tend to be absent-minded. C) Waitresses are often treated by customers as casual acquaintances. D) Some customers like to make loud complaints for no reason at all. 54. How did the author feel when waiting tables at the age of 19? A) She felt it unfair to be treated as a mere servant by professionals. B) She felt badly hurt when her customers regarded her as a peon. C) She was embarrassed each time her customers joked with her. D) She found it natural for professionals to treat her as inferior.

55. What does the author imply by saying ―…many of my customers didn‘t get the difference between server and servant‖ (Lines 3-4, Para.7)?

A) Those who cater to others‘ needs are destined to be looked down upon. B) Those working in the service industry shouldn‘t be treated as servants. C) Those serving others have to put up with rough treatment to earn a living. D) The majority of customers tend to look on a servant as a server nowadays. 56. The author says she‘ll one day take her clients to dinner in order to _______.

A) see what kind of person they are B) experience the feeling of being served C）show her generosity towards people inferior to her D）arouse their sympathy for people living a humble life Passage Two

Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

What‘s hot for 2007 among the very rich? A S7.3 million diamond ring. A trip to Tanzania to hunt wild animals. Oh. and income inequality.

Sure, some leftish billionaires like George Soros have been railing against income inequality for years. But increasingly, centrist and right-wing billionaires are starting to worry about income inequality and the fate of the middle class.

In December. Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a column in U.S News & World Report, which he owns. ―Our

nation‘s core bargain with the middle class is disintegrating,‖ lamented (哀叹) the 117th-richest man in America. ―Most of our economic gains have gone to people at the very top of the income ladder. Average income for a household of people of working age, by contrast, has fallen five years in a row.‖ He noted that ―Tens of millions of Americans live in fear that a major health problem can reduce them to bankruptcy.‖

Wilbur Ross Jr. has echoed Zuckerman‘s anger over the bitter struggles faced by middle-class

Americans. ―It‘s an outrage that any American‘s life expectancy should be shortened simply because the company they worked for went bankrupt and ended health-care coverage,‖ said the former chairman of the International Steel Group.

What‘s happening? The very rich are just as trendy as you and I, and can be so when it comes to politics and policy. Given the recent change of control in Congress, popularity of measures like increasing the minimum wage, and efforts by California‘ governor to offer universal health care, these guys don‘t need their own personal weathermen to know which way the wind blows.

It‘s possible that plutocrats(有钱有势的人) are expressing solidarity with the struggling middle class as part of an effort to insulate themselves from confiscatory (没收性的) tax policies. But the prospect that income

inequality will lead to higher taxes on the wealthy doesn‘t keep plutocrats up at night. They can live with that. No, what they fear was that the political challenges of sustaining support for global economic integration will be more difficult in the United States because of what has happened to the distribution of income and economic

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insecurity. In other words, if middle-class Americans continue to struggle financially as the ultrawealthy grow ever

wealthier, it will be increasingly difficult to maintain political support for the free flow of goods, services, and capital across borders. And when the United States places obstacles in the way of foreign investors and foreign goods, it‘s likely to encourage reciprocal action abroad. For people who buy and sell companies, or who allocate capital to markets all around the world, that‘s the real nightmare.

57. What is the current topic of common interest among the very rich in America?

A) The fate of the ultrawealthy people. B) The disintegration of the middle class.

C) The inequality in the distribution of wealth. D) The conflict between the left and the right wing. 58. What do we learn from Mortimer Zuckerman‘s lamentation?

A) Many middle-income families have failed to make a bargain for better welfare. B) The American economic system has caused many companies to go bankrupt. C) The American nation is becoming more and more divided despite its wealth. D) The majority of Americans benefit little from the nation‘s growing wealth. 59. From the fifth paragraph we can learn that ____________. A) the very rich are fashion-conscious B) the very rich are politically sensitive

C) universal health care is to be implemented throughout America D) Congress has gained popularity by increasing the minimum wage

60. What is the real reason for plutocrats to express solidarity with the middle class? A) They want to protect themselves from confiscatory taxation. B) They know that the middle class contributes most to society. C) They want to gain support for global economic integration. D) They feel increasingly threatened by economic insecurity.

61. What may happen if the United States places obstacles in the way of foreign investors and foreign goods? A) The prices of imported goods will inevitably soar beyond control. B) The investors will have to make great efforts to re-allocate capital. C) The wealthy will attempt to buy foreign companies across borders. D) Foreign countries will place the same economic barriers in return.

Part V Cloze (15 minutes)

In 1915 Einstein made a trip to Gattingen to give some lectures at the invitation of the mathematical

physicist David Hilbert. He was particularly eager—too eager, it would turn 62 --to explain all the intricacies of relativity to him. The visit was a triumph, and he said to a friend excitedly. ―I was able to 63 Hilbert of the general theory of relativity.‖

64 all of Einstein‘s personal turmoil (焦躁) at the time, a new scientific anxiety was about to 65 . He was struggling to find the right equations that would 66 his new concept of gravity, 67

that would define how objects move 68 space and how space is curved by objects. By the end of the summer, he 69 the mathematical approach he had been 70 for almost three years was flawed. And now there was a 71 pressure. Einstein discovered to his 72 that Hilbert had taken what he had lectures and was racing to come up 73 the correct equations first.

It was an enormously complex task. Although Einstein was the better physicist. Hilbert was the better mathematician. So in October 1915 Einstein 74 himself into a month-long-frantic endeavor in 75 he

returned to an earlier mathematical strategy and wrestled with equations, proofs, corrections and updates that he 76 to give as lectures to Berlin‘s Prussian Academy of Sciences on four 77 Thursdays.

His first lecture was delivered on Nov.4.1915, and it explained his new approach, 78 he admitted he did not yet have the precise mathematical formulation of it. Einstein also took time off from 79 revising his equations to engage in an awkward fandango (方丹戈双人舞) with his competitor Hilbert. Worried 80 being scooped (抢先), he sent Hilbert a copy of his Nov.4 lecture. ―I am 81 to know whether you will take kindly to this new solution,‖ Einstein noted with a touch of defensiveness.

62. A) up B) over C) out D) off

63. A) convince B) counsel C) persuade D) preach 64. A) Above B) Around C) Amid D) Along 65. A) emit B) emerge C) submit D) submerge 66. A) imitate B) ignite C) describe D) ascribe 67. A) ones B) those C) all D) none 68. A) into B) beyond C) among D) through 69. A) resolved B) realized C) accepted D) assured

70. A) pursuing B) protecting C) contesting D) contending 71. A) complex B) compatible C) comparative D) competitive 72. A) humor B) horror C) excitement D) extinction 73. A) to B) for C) with D) against 74. A) threw B) thrust C) huddled D) hopped 75. A) how B) that C) what D) which

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76. A) dashed B) darted C) rushed D) reeled 77. A) successive B) progressive C) extensive D) repetitive 78. A) so B) since C) though D) because 79. A) casually B) coarsely C) violently D) furiously 80. A) after B) about C) on D) in

81. A) curious B) conscious C) ambitious D) ambiguous

Part VI Translation (5 minutes)

82. But for mobile phone, ___________________(我们的通信就不可能如此迅速和方便)。 83. In handling an embarrassing situation, _____________(没有什么比幽默感更有帮助的了).

84. The Foreign Minister said he was resigning , ______________(但他拒绝进一步解释这样做的原因). 85. Human behavior is mostly a product of learning, _________________(而动物的行为主要依靠本能). 86. The witness was told that under no circumstances _____________________(他都不应该对法庭说慌).

2008年6月21日英语六级真题

Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension(Skimming and Scanning)(15 minutes)

What will the world be like in fifty years?

This week some top scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, gave their vision of how the world will look in 2056,fron gas-powered cars to extraordinary health advances, John Ingham reports on what the world‘s finest minds believe our futures will be.

For those of us lucky enough to live that long,2056 will be a world of almost perpetual youth, where obesity is a remote memory and robots become our companions.

We will be rubbing shoulders with aliens and colonizing outer space. Better still, our descendants might at last live in a world at peace with itself.

The prediction is that we will have found a source of inexbaustible, safe, green energy, and that science will have killed off religion. If they are right we will have removed two of the main causes of war-our dependence on oil and religious prejudice.

Will we really, as today‘s scientists claim, be able to live for ever or at least cheat the ageing process so that the average person lives to 150?

Of course, all these predictions come with a scientific health warning. Harvard professor Steven Pinker says: ―This is an invitation to look foolish, as with the predictions of domed cities and nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners that were made 50 year ago.‖

Living longer

Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute in North Carolina, belives failing organs will be repaired by injecting cells into the body. They will naturally to straight to the injury and help heal it. A system of injections without needles could also slow the ageing process by using the same process to ―tune‖ cells. Bruce Lahn, professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, anticipates the ability to

produce―unlimited supplies‖ of transplantable human organs without the needed a new organ, such as kidney, the surgeon would contact a commercial organ producer, give him the patient‘s immuno-logical profile and would then be sent a kidney with the correct tissue type.

These organs would be entirely composed of human cells, grown by introducing them into animal hosts, and alloweing them to deveoop into and organ in place of the animal‘s own. But Prof. Lahn believes that farmed brains would be ―off limits‖.He says: ―Very few people would want to have their brains replaced by someone else‘s and we probably don‘t want to put a human brain ing an animal body.‖

Richard Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan, thinks scientist could develop―an thentic

anti-ageing drugs‖ by working out how cells in larger animals such as whales and human resist many forms of injuries. He says:―It‘s is now routine, in laboratory mammals, to extend lifespan by about 40%. Turning on the same protective systems in people should, by 2056, create the first class of 100-year-olds who are as vigorous and productive as today‘s people in their 60s‖

Aliens

Conlin Pillinger ,professor of planerary sciences at the Open University,says:‖I fancy that at least we will be able to show that life didi start to evolve on Mars well as Earth.‖Within 50years he hopes scientists will prove that alien life came here in Martian meteorites(陨石).

Chris McKay,a planetary scientist at NASA‘s Ames Research Center.believes that in 50 years we may find evidence of alien life in ancient permanent forst of Mars or on other planers.

He adds:‖There is even a chance we will find alien life forms here on Earth.It mightbe as different as English

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is to Chinese. Priceton professor Freeman Dyson thinks it ―likely‖ that life form outer space will be discovered defore 2056 because the tools for finding it, such as optical and radio detection and data processing,are improving.

He ays:‖As soon as the first evidence is found,we will know what to look for and additional discoveries are likely to follow quickly.Such discoveries are likely to have revolutionary consequences for biology, astronomy and philosophy. They may change the way we look at ourselves and our place in the universe.

Colonies in space

Richard Gottprofessor of astrophysics at Princeton,hopes man will set up a self-sufficient colony on

Mars,which would be a ―life insurance policy against whatever catastrophes,natural or otherwise,might occur on Earth.

―The real space race is whether we will colonise off Earth on to other worlds before money for the space programme runs out.‖

Spinal injuries

Ellen Heber-Katz,a professor at the Wistar Institude in Philadelphia,foresees cures for inijuries causing paralysis such as the one that afflicated Superman star Christopher Reeve.

She says:‖I believe that the day is not far off when we will be able to profescribe drugs that cause severes(断裂的) spinal cords to heal,hearts to regenerate and lost limbs to regrow.

―People will come to expect that injured or diseased organs are meant to be repaired from within,inmuch the same way that we fix an appliance or automobile:by replancing the damaged part with a manufacturer-certified new part.‖She predict that within 5 to 10 years fingers and toes will be regrown and limbs will start to be regrown a few years later. Reparies to the nervous system will start with optic nerves and,in time,the spinal cord.‖Within 50years whole body replacement will be routine,‖Prof.Heber-Katz adds.

Obesity

Sydney Brenner,senior distinguished fellow of the Crick-Jacobs Center in California,won the 2002 Noblel Prize for Medicine and says that if there is a global disaster some humans will survive-and evolition will favour small people with bodies large enough to support the required amount of brain power.‖Obesity,‖he says.‖will have been solved.‖

Robots

Rodney Brooks,professor of robotice at MIT,says the problems of developing artificial intelligence for robots will be at least partly overcome.As a result,‖the possibilities for robots working with people will open up immensely‖

Energy

Bill Joy,green technology expert in Califomia,says:‖The most significant breakthrought would be to have an inexhaustible source of safe,green energy that is substantially cheaper than any existing energy source.‖

Ideally,such a source would be safe in that it could not be made into weapons and would not make hazardous or toxic waste or carbon dioxide,the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Society

Geoffrey Miller,evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico,says:‖The US will follow the UKin realizing that religion is nor a prerequisite (前提)for ordinary human decency.

― Thus, science will kill religion-not by reason challenging faith but by offering a more practical,uniwersal and rewarding moral frameworkfor human interaction.‖

He also predicts that ―ahsurdly wasteful‖displays of wealth will become umfashionable while the importance of close-knit communities and families will become clearer.

These there changer,he says,will help make us all‖brighe\\ter,wiser,happier and kinder‖.

1.What is john lngham‘s report about? A)A solution to the global energy crisis B)Extraordinary advances in technology.

C)The latest developments of medical science D)Scientists‘vision of the world in halfa century

2. According to Harvard professor Steven Pinker,predictions about the future_____. A)may invite trouble B)may not come true

C)will fool the public D)do more harm than good

3. Professor Bruce Lahn of the University of Chicago predicts that____. A)humans won‘t have to donate organs for transplantation B)more people will donate their organs for transplantation

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C)animal organs could be transplanted into human bodies D)organ transplantation won‘t be as scary as it is today

4. According to professor Richard Miller of the University of Michigarr, prople will____. A)life for as long as they wish B)be relieved from all sufferings C) life to 100 and more with vitality D)be able to live longer than whales

5.Priceton professor Freeman Syson thinks that____. A)scientists will find alien life similar to ours B)humans will be able to settle on Mars C)alien life will likely be discovered D)life will start to evolve on Mars

6.According to Princeton professor Richard Gott,by setting up a self-sufficient colony on Mars, Humans_____.

A)Might survie allcatastrophes on earth B)Might acquire ample natural resources C)Will be able to travel to Mars freely D)Will mo\\ve there to live a better life

7.Ellen Heber-Katz, professor at the Wistar Institue in Philadelpia,predicts that_____. A)human organs can bu manufactured like appliances B)people will be as strong and dymamic as supermen C) human nerves can be replanced by optic fibers D)lost fingers and limbs will be able to regrow

8.rodney Brooks says that it will be possible for robots to work with humans as a result or the development of_ _____

9. The most significant breakthrough predicted by Bill joy will be an inexhaustible green energy source that can‘t be used to make__ ___________

10 According to Geoffrey Miller, science will offer a more practical, universal and rewarding moral framework in place of ________________

Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A

if movie trailers(预告片)are supposed to cause a reaction, the preview for \Featuring no famous actors, it begins with images of a beautiful morning and passengers boarding an airplane. It takes you a minute to realize what the movie's even about. That‘s when a plane hits the World Trade Center. the effect is visceral(震撼心灵的). When the trailer played before \theater, audience members began calling out, \

dramatic. The Loews theater in Manhattan took the rare step of pulling the trailer from its screens after several complaints.

\to ignite an emotional debate. Is it too soon? Should the film have been made at all? More to the point, will anyone want to see it? Other 9/11 projects are on the way as the fifth anniversary of the attacks approaches, most notably Oliver Stone's \whether it deserves it or not.

The real United 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field after 40 passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists. Writer-director Paul Greengrass has gone to great lengths to be respectful in his depiction of what occurred, proceeding with the film only after securing the approval of every victim's family. \the agreement? Yes. Very. Usually there‘re one or two families who're more reluctant,\s writes in an e-mail. \shared their experiences with us.\with us, and they made us a part of this whole project.\10% of its opening weekend gross to the Flight 93 National Memorial Fund. That hasn't stopped criticism that the studio is exploiting a national tragedy. O'Hare thinks that's unfair. \passengers and crew for what they did,\secure. Our borders aren't secure. Our airlines still aren't secure, and this is what happens when you're not secure. That‘s the message I want people to hear.\

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47. The trailer for \New York City.

48. The movie \

49. What did writer-director Paul Greengrass obtain before he proceeded with the movie? the approval of every victim‘s family

50. Universal, which is releasing \

51. Carole O‘Hare thinks that besides honoring the passengers and crew for what they did, the purpose of telling the story is to ________________ about security.

Section B Passage One

Imagine waking up and finding the value of your assets has been halved. No, you‘re not an investor in one of those hedge funds that failed completely. With the dollar slumping to a 26-year low against the pound, already-expensive London has become quite unaffordable. A coffee at Starbucks, just as unavoidable in England as it is in the United States, runs about $8.

The once all-powerful dollar isn‘t doing a Titanic against just the pound. It is sitting at a record low against the euro and at a 30-year low against the Canadian dollar. Even the Argentine peso and Brazilian real are thriving against the dollar.

The weak dollar is a source of humiliation, for a nation‘s self-esteem rests in part on the strength of its currency. It‘s also a potential economic problem, since a declining dollar makes imported food more expensive and exerts upward pressure on interest rates. And yet there are substantial sectors of the vast U.S.

economy-from giant companies like Coca-Cola to mom-and-pop restaurant operators in Miami-for which the weak dollar is most excellent news.

Many Europeans may view the U.S. as an arrogant superpower that has become hostile to foreigners. But nothing makes people think more warmly of the U.S. than a weak dollar. Through April, the total number of visitors from abroad was up 6.8 percent from last year. Should the trend continue, the number of tourists this year will finally top the 2000 peak? Many Europeans now apparently view the U.S. the way many Americans view Mexico-as a cheap place to vacation, shop and party, all while ignoring the fact that the poorer locals can‘t afford to join the merrymaking.

The money tourists spend helps decrease our chronic trade deficit. So do exports, which thanks in part to the weak dollar, soared 11 percent between May 2006 and May 2007. For first five months of 2007, the trade deficit actually fell 7 percent from 2006.

If you own shares in large American corporations, you‘re a winner in the weak-dollar gamble. Last week

Coca-Cola‘s stick bubbled to a five-year high after it reported a fantastic quarter. Foreign sales accounted for 65 percent of Coke‘s beverage business. Other American companies profiting from this trend include McDonald‘s and IBM.

American tourists, however, shouldn‘t expect any relief soon. The dollar lost strength the way many marriages break up- slowly, and then all at once. And currencies don‘t turn on a dime. So if you want to avoid the pain inflicted by the increasingly pathetic dollar, cancel that summer vacation to England and look to New England. There, the dollar is still treated with a little respect.

52. Why do Americans feel humiliated?

A) Their economy is plunging B) They can‘t afford trips to Europe C) Their currency has slumped D) They have lost half of their assets.

53.How does the current dollar affect the life of ordinary Americans? A)They have to cancel their vacations in New England.

B)They find it unaffordable to dine in mom-and-pop restaurants. C)They have to spend more money when buying imported goods. D)They might lose their jobs due to potential economic problems.

54 How do many Europeans feel about the U.S with the devalued dollar? A)They feel contemptuous of it B)They are sympathetic with it.

C)They regard it as a superpower on the decline. D)They think of it as a good tourist destination.

55 what is the author‘s advice to Americans? A)They treat the dollar with a little respect B)They try to win in the weak-dollar gamble C)They vacation at home rather than abroad D)They treasure their marriages all the more.

56 What does the author imply by saying ―currencies don‘t turn on a dime‖ (Line 2,Para 7)?

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A)The dollar‘s value will not increase in the short term. B.The value of a dollar will not be reduced to a dime C.The dollar‘s value will drop, but within a small margin. D.Few Americans will change dollars into other currencies.

Passage Two

In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fights. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I‘ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids‘ college background as e prize demonstrating how well we‘ve raised them. But we can‘t acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we‘ve contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn‘t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford. We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won‘t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible——and mostly wrong. We haven‘t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don‘t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures——professors‘ feedback and the number of essay exams——selective schools do slightly worse.

By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates‘ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-poinnt increase in a school‘s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.

Kids count more than their colleges.Getting into yale may signify intellgence,talent and Ambition. But it‘s not the only indicator and,paradoxically,its significance is declining.The reason:so many similar people go elsewhere.Getting into college is not life only competiton.Old-boy networks are breaking down.princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D.program.High scores on the GRE helpd explain who got in;degrees of prestigious universities didn‘t.

So,parents,lighten up.the stakes have been vastly exaggerated.up to a point,we can rationalize our

pushiness.America is a competitive society;our kids need to adjust to that.but too much pushiness can be

destructive.the very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment.one study found that,other things being equal,graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction.They may have been so conditioned to deing on top that anything less disappoints.

57.Why dose the author say that parengs are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars? A.They have the final say in which university their children are to attend. B.They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.

C.they have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application. D.they care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves. 58.Why do parents urge their children to apply to more school than ever?

A.they want to increase their children chances of entering a prestigious college. B.they hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships. C.Their children eill have have a wider choice of which college to go to. D.Elite universities now enroll fewer syudent than they used to.

59.What does the author mean by kids count more than their college(Line1,para.4? A.Continuing education is more important to a person success. B.A person happiness should be valued more than their education.

C.Kids actual abilities are more importang than their college background. D.What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements. 60.What does Krueger study tell us?

A.GETting into Ph.d.programs may be more competitive than getting into college. B.Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs. C.Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores. D.Connections built in prestigious universities may be sustained long after graduation. 61.One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______ A.they earb less than their peers from other institutions B.they turn out to be less competitive in the job market C.they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation D.they overemphasize their qualifications in job application

Part V Cloze

Directions: there are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A),B),C), and D) on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the

15

corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Seven years ago, when I was visiting Germany, I Met with an official who explained to me that the country had a perfect solution to its economic problems. Watching the U.S. economy ___62___ during the ?90s, the

Germans had decided that they, too, needed to go the high-technology ___63___. But how? In the late ?90s, the answer schemed obvious. Indians. ___64___ all, Indian entrepreneurs accounted for one of every three Silicon Valley start-ups. So the German government decided that it would ___65___ Indians to Term any just as America does by ___66___ green cards. Officials created something called the German Green Card and

___67___ that they would issue 20,000 in the first year. ___68___, the Germans expected that tens of thousands more Indians would soon be begging to come, and perhaps the ___69___ would have to be increased. But the program was a failure. A year later ___70___ half of the 20,000 cards had been issued. After a few extensions, the program was ___71___.

I told the German official at the time that I was sure the ___72___ would fail. It‘s not that I had any particular expertise in immigration policy, ___73___ I understood something about green cards, because I had one (the American ___74___). The German Green

Card was mismand,I argued,__75__it never,under any circumtances,translated into German citizenship.The U.S.green card,by contrast,is an almost__76__path to becoming American (after five years and a clean record).The official__77__my objection,saying that there was no way Germany was going to offer these

peoplecitizenship.‖we need young tach workers,‖he said.‖that‘s what this pro-gram is all __78__.‖so Germany was asking bright young__79__to leavetheir country,culture and families,move thousands of miles away,learn a new language and work in a strange land—but without any__80__of ever being part of their new

home.Germany was senging a signal, one that was ___81___ received in India and other countries, and also by Germany‘s own immigrant community.

62. A) soar C) amplify B) hover D) intensify 63. A) circuit C) trait B) strategy D) route 64. A) Of C) In B) After D) At

65. A) import C) convey B) kidnap D) lure

66. A) offering C) evacuating B) installing D) formulating 67. A) conferred C) announced B) inferred D) verified

68. A) Specially C) Particularly B) Naturally D) Consistently 69. A) quotas C) measures B) digits D) scales 70. A) invariably C) barely B) literally D) solely 71. A) repelled C) combated B) deleted D) abolished 72. A) adventure C) initiative B) response D) impulse 73. A) and C) so B) but D) or

74. A) heritage C) notion B) revision D) version 75 A)because B)unless C)if D)while

76 A)aggressive B)automatic C)vulnerable D)voluntary 77 A)overtook B)fascinated C)submitted D)dismissed 78 A)towards B)round C)about D)over

79 A)dwellers B)citizens C)professionals D)amateurs 80 A)prospect B)suspicion C)outcome D)destination 81 A)partially B)clearly C)brightly D)vividly Part VI Translation

82. We can say a lot of things about those who have spent their whole lives on poems (毕生致力于诗歌的人): they are passionate, impulsive, and unique.

83. Mary couldn‘t have received my letter, or she should have replied to me last week (否则她上周就该回信了).

84. Nancy is supposed to have finished her chemistry experiments (做完化学实验) at least two weeks ago. 85. Never once has the old couple quarreled with each other (老两口互相争吵) since they were married 40 years ago.

86. The prosperity of a nation is largely dependent upon (一个国家未来的繁荣在很大程度上有赖于) the quality of education of its people

2009年6月英语六级考试真题与答案

真题：

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Part I Writing (30 minutes)

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled On the Importance of a Name. you should write at least 150 words following the outline given below. 1. 有人说名字或名称很重要

2. 也有人觉得名字或名称无关紧要 3. 我认为

On the Importance of a Name

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 questions 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.

Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range KidsWould you let your fourth-grader ride public transportation without an adult? Probably not. Still, when Lenore Skenazy, a columnist for the New York Sun, wrote about letting her son take the subway alone to get back to \Upper East Side, she didn‘t expect to get hit with a wave of criticism from readers.

―Long story short: My son got home, overjoyed with independence,‖ Skenazy wrote on April 4 in the New York Sun. ―Long story longer: Half the people I‘ve told this episode to now want to turn on in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and cell phone and careful watch is the right way to rear kids. It‘s not. It‘s debilitating (使虚弱)—for us and for them.‖

Online message boards were soon full of people both applauding and condemning Skenazy‘s decision to let her son go it alone. She wound up defending herself on CNN (accompanied by her son) and on popular blogs like the buffing ton post, where her follow-up piece was ironically headlined ―More From America‘s Worst Mom.‖

The episode has ignited another one of those debates that divides parents into vocal opposing camps. Are Modern parents needlessly overprotective, or is the world a more complicated and dangerous place than it was when previous generations were allowed to wander about unsupervised?

From the ―she‘s an irresponsible mother‖ camp came: ―Shame on you for being so careless about his safety,‖ in Comments on the buffing ton post. And there was this from a mother of four: ―How would you have felt if he didn‘t come home?‖ But Skenazy got a lot of support, too, with women and men writing in with stories about how they were allowed to take trips all by them selves at seven or eight. She also got heaps of praise for bucking the ―helicopter parent‖ trend: ―Good for this Mom,‖ one commenter wrote on the buffing ton post. ―This is a much-needed reality check.‖

Last week, encouraged by all the attention, Skenazy started her own blog—Free Range, kids—promoting the idea that modern children need some of the same independence that her generation had. In the good old days nine-year-old baby boomers rode their bikes to school, walked to the store, took buses—and even subways—all by themselves. Her blog, she says, is dedicated to sensible parenting. ―At Free Range Kids, we believe in safe kids. We believe in car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school-age children go outside, they need a security guard.‖

So why are some parents so nervous about letting their children out of their sight? Are cities and towns less safe and kids more vulnerable to crimes like child kidnap and sexual abuse than they were in previous generations?

Not exactly. New York City, for instance, is safer than it‘s ever been; it‘s ranked 36th in crime among all American cities. Nationwide, stringer kidnaps are extremely rare; there‘s a one-in-a-million chance a child will be taken by a stranger, according to the Justice Department. And 90 percent of sexual abuse cases are committed by someone the child knows. Mortality rates from all causes, including disease and accidents, for American children are lower now than they were 25 years‘ ago. According to Child Trends, a nonprofit research group, between 1980 and 2003 death rates dropped by 44 percent for children aged 5 to 14 and 32 percent for teens aged 15 to 19.

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Then there‘s the whole question of whether modern parents are more watchful and nervous about safety

than previous generations. Yes, some are. Part of the problem is that with wall to wall Internet and cable news, every missing child case gets so much airtime that it‘s not surprising even normal parental anxiety can be amplified. And many middle-class parents have gotten used to managing their children‘s time and shuttling them to various enriching activities, so the idea of letting them out on their own can seem like a risk. Back in 1972, when many of today‘s parents were kids, 87 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked or biked every day. But today, the Centers for Disease Control report that only 13 percent of children bike, walk or otherwise t themselves to school.

The extra supervision is both a city and a suburb phenomenon. Parents are worried about crime, and they are worried about kids getting caught in traffic in a city that‘s not used to pedestrians. On the other hand, there are still plenty of kids whose parents give them a lot of independence, by choice or by necessity. The After School Alliance finds that more than 14 million kids aged 5 to 17 are responsible for taking care of themselves after school. Only 6.5 million kids participate in organized programs. ―Many children who have working parents have to take the subway or bus to get to school. Many do this by themselves because they have no other way to get to the schools,‖ says Dr. Richard Gallagher, director of the Parenting Institute at the New York University Child Study Center.

For those parents who wonder how and when they should start allowing their kids more freedom, there‘s no clear-cut answer. Child experts discourage a one-size-fits-all approach to parenting. What‘s right for Skenazy‘s nine-year-old could be inappropriate for another one. It all depends on developmental issue, maturity, and the psychological and emotional makeup of that child. Several factors must be taken into account, says Gallagher. ―The ability to follow parent guidelines, the child‘s level of comfort in handling such situations, and a child‘s general judgment should be weighed.‖

Gallagher agrees with Skenazy that many nine-year-olds are ready for independence like taking public transportation alone. ―At certain times of the day, on certain routes, the subways are generally safe for these children, especially if they have grown up in the city and have been taught how to be safe, how to obtain help if they are concerned for their safety, and how to avoid unsafe situations by being watchful and on their toes.‖ But even with more traffic and fewer sidewalks, modern parents do have one advantage their parents didn‘t: the cell phone. Being able to check in with a child anytime goes a long way toward relieving parental anxiety and may help parents loosen their control a little sooner. Skenazy got a lot of criticism because she didn‘t give her kid her cell phone because she thought he‘d lose it and wanted him to learn to go it alone without depending on mom—a major principle of free-range parenting. But most parents are more than happy to use cell phones to keep track of their kids.

And for those who like the idea of free-range kids but still struggle with their inner helicopter parent, there may be a middle way. A new generation of GPS cell phones with tracking software make it easier than ever to follow a child‘s every movement via the Internet—without seeming to interfere or hover. Of course, when they go to college, they might start objecting to being monitored as they‘re on parole (假释). 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1. When Lenore Skenazy‘s son was allowed to take the subway alone, he ________. A．was afraid that he might get lost B．enjoyed having the independence C．was only too pleased to take the risk D．thought he was an exceptional child

2. Lenore Skenazy believes that keeping kids under careful watch A．hinders their healthy growth

B．adds too much to parents‘ expenses C．shows traditional parental caution D．bucks the latest parenting trend

3. Skenazy‘s decision to let her son take the Subway alone has net with________.

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A．opposition from her own family

B．share parenting experience C．fight against child abuse D．protect children‘s rights

4. Skenazy started her own blog to ________. A．promote sensible parenting B．share parenting experience C．fight against child abuse D．protect children‘s rights

5. According to the author, New York City ________. A．ranks high in road accidents B．is much safe than before

C．ranks low in child mortality rates D．is less dangerous than small cities

6. Parents today are more nervous about their kids‘ safety than previous generations because________. A．there are now fewer children in the family

B．the number of traffic accidents has been increasing C．their fear is amplified by media exposure of crime D．crime rates have been on the rise over the years

7. According to child experts, how and when kids may be allowed more freedom depends on ________. A．the traditions and customs of the community B．the safety conditions of their neighborhood C．their parents‘ psychological makeup D．their maturity and personal qualities

8. According to Gallagher and Skenazy, children who are watchful will be better able to stay away from Unsafe situations.

9. Being able to find out where a child is anytime helps lessen parents‘ Their anxiety and control.

10. Nowadays with the help of GPS cell phones, parents can, from a distance, track their children‘s Movements.

Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes) Section A

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

11. A．Fred forgot to call him last night about the camping trip. B．He is not going to lend his sleeping bag to Fred. C．He has not seen Fred at the gym for sometime.

D．Fred may have borrowed a sleeping bag from someone else. 12. A．Summer has become hotter in recent years. B．It will cool down a bit over the weekend. C．Swimming in a pool has a relaxing effect. D．He hopes the weather forecast is accurate. 13. A．Taking a picture of Prof. Brown. B．Commenting on an oil-painting. C．Hosting a TV program. D．Staging a performance.

14. A．She can help the man take care of the plants. B．Most plants grow better in direct sunlight. C．The plants need to be watered frequently.

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D．The plants should be placed in a shady spot. 15. A．Change to a more exciting channel. B．See the movie some other time. C．Go to bed early. D．Stay up till eleven.

16. A．Both of them are laymen of modern art.

B．She has beamed to appreciate modem sculptures. C．Italian artists‘ works are difficult to understand. D．Modern artists are generally considered weird. 17. A．They seem satisfied with what they have done. B．They have called all club members to contribute. C．They think the day can be called a memorable one. D．They find it hard to raise money for the hospital. 18. A．The man shouldn‘t hesitate to take the course. B．The man should talk with the professor first. C．The course isn‘t open to undergraduates. D．The course will require a lot of reading.

Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 19. A．Current trends in economic development. B．Domestic issues of general social concern.

C．Stories about Britain‘s relations with other nations. D．Conflicts and compromises among political parties. 20. A．Based on the poll of public opinions. B．By interviewing people who file complaints.

C．By analyzing the domestic and international situation. D．Based on public expectations and editors‘ judgment. 21. A．Underlying rules of editing. B．Practical experience. C．Audience‘s feedback.

D．Professional qualifications.

Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 22. A．The average life span was less than 50 years. B．It was very common for them to have 12 children. C．They retired from work much earlier than today. D．They were quite optimistic about their future. 23. A．Get ready for ecological changes. B．Adapt to the new environment. C．Learn to use new technology. D．Explore ways to stay young.

24. A．When all women go out to work. B．When family planning is enforced.. C．When a world government is set up. D．When all people become wealthier. 25. A．Eliminate poverty and injustice. B．Migrate to other planets. C．Control the environment. D．Find inexhaustible resources.

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Section B

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。 Passage One

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard. 26. A．To help young people improve their driving skills. B．To alert teenagers to the dangers of reckless driving. C．To teach young people road manners through videotapes. D．To show teens the penalties imposed on careless drivers. 27. A．Road accidents. B．Street violence. C．Drug abuse. D．Lung cancer.

28. A．It has changed teens‘ way of life. B．It has made teens feel like adults. C．It has accomplished its objective. D．It has been supported by parents. Passage Two

Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard. 29. A．Customers may get addicted to the smells. B．Customers may be misled by the smells. C．It hides the defects of certain goods. D．It gives rise to unfair competition. 30. A．Flexible. B．Critical. C．Supportive. D．Cautious.

31. A．The flower scent stimulated people‘s desire to buy. B．Stronger smells had greater effects on consumers. C．Most shoppers hated the small the shoe store.

D．84% of the customers were unaware of the smells. Passage Three

Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard. 32. A．A goods train hit a bus carrying many passengers. B．Two passenger trains crashed into each other. C．A passenger train collided with a goods train.

D．An express train was derailed when hit by a bomb. 33. A．The rescue operations have not been very effective. B．More than 300 injured passengers were hospitalized. C．The cause of the tragic accident remains unknown. D．The exact casualty figures are not yet available. 34. A．There was a bomb scare. B．There was a terrorist attack.

C．A fire alarm was set off by mistake. D．50 pounds of explosives were found. 35. A．Follow policemen‘s directions. B．Keep an eye weather.

C．Avoid snow-covered roads. D．Drive with special care.

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Section C

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

English is the leading international language. In different countries around the globe, English is acquired as the mother (36) ________, in others it‘s used as a second language. Some nations use English as their (37) ________ language, performing the function of (38) ________; in others it‘s used as an international language for business, (39) ________ and industry.

What factors and forces have led to the (40) ________ of English? Why is English now considered to be so prestigious that, across the globe, individuals and societies feel (41) ________ if they do not have (42) ________ in this language? How has English changed through 1,500 Years? These are some of the questions that you (43) ________ when you study English.

You also examine the immense variability of English and (44) ________. You develop in-depth knowledge of the intricate structure of the language. Why do some non-native speakers of English claim that it‘s a difficult language to learn, while (45) ________? At the University of Sussex, you are introduced to the nature and grammar of English in all aspects. This involves the study of sound structures, the formation of words, the sequencing words and the construction of meaning, as well as examination of the theories explaining the aspects of English usage. (46) ________, which are raised by studying how speakers and writers employ English for a wide variety of purposes.

Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes) Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

There is nothing new about TV and fashion magazines giving girls unhealthy ideas about how thin they need to be in order to be considered beautiful. What is surprising is the method psychologists at the University of Texas have come up with to keep girls from developing eating disorders. Their main weapon against super skinny (role) models: a brand of civil disobedience dubbed ―body activism.‖

Since 2001, more than 1,000 high school and college students in the U.S. have participated in the Body Project, which works by getting girls to understand how they have been buying into the notion that you have to be thin to be happy or successful. After critiquing (评论) the so-called thin ideal by writing essays and role-playing with their peers, participants are directed to come up with and execute small, nonviolent acts. They include slipping notes saying ―Love your body the way it is‖ into dieting books at stores like Borders and writing letters to Mattel, makers of the impossibly proportioned Barbie doll.

According to a study in the latest issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the risk of developing eating disorders was reduced 61% among Body Project participants. And they continued to exhibit positive body-image attitudes as long as three years after completing the program, which consists, of four one-hour sessions. Such lasting effects may be due to girls‘ realizing not only how they were being influenced but also who was benefiting from the societal pressure to be thin. ―These people who promote the perfect body really don‘t care about you at all,‖ says Kelsey Hertel, a high school junior and Body Project veteran in Eugene, Oregon. ―They purposefully make you feel like less of a person so you‘ll buy their stuff and they‘ll make money.‖

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

47. Were do girls get the notion that they need to be thin in order to be considered beautiful? 48. By promoting ―body activism,‖ University of Texas psychologists aim to prevent ________. 49. According to the author, Mattel‘s Barbie dolls are ________.

50. The positive effects of the Body Project may last up to ________.

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51. One Body Project participant says that the real motive of those who promote the perfect body is to

________.

Section B Passage One

Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

For hundreds of millions of years, turtles (海龟) have struggled out of the sea to lay their eggs on sandy beaches, long before there were nature documentaries to celebrate them, or GPS satellites and marine biologists to track them, or volunteers to hand-carry the hatchlings (幼龟) down to the water‘s edge lest they become disoriented by headlights and crawl towards a motel parking lot instead. A formidable wall of bureaucracy has been erected to protect their prime nesting on the Atlantic coastlines. With all that attention paid to them, you‘d think these creatures would at least have the gratitude not to go extinct.

But Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness, and a report by the Fish and Wildlife Service showed a worrisome drop in the populations of several species of North Atlantic turtles, notably loggerheads, which can grow to as much as 400 pounds. The South Florida nesting population, the largest, has declined by 50% in the last decade, according to Elizabeth Griffin, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. The figures prompted Oceana to petition the government to upgrade the level of protection for the North Atlantic loggerheads from ―threatened‖ to ―endangered‖—meaning they are in danger of disappearing without additional help.

Which raises the obvious question: what else do these turtles want from us, anyway? It turns out, according to Griffin, that while we have done a good job of protecting the turtles for the weeks they spend on land (as egg-laying females, as eggs and as hatchlings), we have neglected the years spend in the ocean. ―The threat is from commercial fishing,‖ says Griffin. Trawlers (which drag large nets through the water and along the ocean floor) and long line fishers (which can deploy thousands of hooks on lines that can stretch for miles) take a heavy toll on turtles.

Of course, like every other environmental issue today, this is playing out against the background of global warming and human interference with natural ecosystems. The narrow strips of beach on which the turtles lay their eggs are being squeezed on one side by development and on the other by the threat of rising sea levels as the oceans warm. Ultimately we must get a handle on those issues as well, or a creature that outlived the dinosaurs (恐龙) will meet its end at the hands of humans, leaving our descendants to wonder how creature so ugly could have won so much affection.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

52. We can learn from the first paragraph that ________. A．human activities have changed the way turtles survive B．efforts have been made to protect turtles from dying out

C．government bureaucracy has contributed to turtles‘ extinction

D．marine biologists are looking for the secret of turtles‘ reproduction

53. What does the author mean by ―Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness‖ (Line 1, Para. 2)? A．Nature is quite fair regarding the survival of turtles. B．Turtles are by nature indifferent to human activities.

C．The course of nature will not be changed by human interference. D．The turtle population has decreased in spite of human protection.

54. What constitutes a major threat to the survival of turtles according to Elizabeth Griffin? A．Their inadequate food supply. B．Unregulated commercial fishing. C．Their lower reproductively ability. D．Contamination of sea water

55. How does global warming affect the survival of turtles?

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A．It threatens the sandy beaches on which they lay eggs.

B．The changing climate makes it difficult for their eggs to hatch. C．The rising sea levels make it harder for their hatchlings to grow. D．It takes them longer to adapt to the high beach temperature. 56. The last sentence of the passage is meant to ________. A．persuade human beings to show more affection for turtles B．stress that even the most ugly species should be protected C．call for effective measures to ensure sea turtles‘ survival D．warn our descendants about the extinction of species

Passage Two Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

There are few more sobering online activities than entering data into college-tuition calculators and gasping as the Web spits back a six-figure sum. But economists say families about to go into debt to fund four years of partying, as well as studying, can console themselves with the knowledge that college is an investment that, unlike many bank stocks, should yield huge dividends.

A 2008 study by two Harvard economists notes that the ―labor-market premium to skill‖—or the amount college graduates earned that‘s greater than what high-school graduate earned—decreased for much of the 20th century, but has come back with a vengeance (报复性地) since the 1980s. In 2005, The typical full-time year-round U.S. worker with a four-year college degree earned $50,900, 62% more than the $31,500 earned by a worker with only a high-school diploma.

There‘s no question that going to college is a smart economic choice. But a look at the strange variations in tuition reveals that the choice about which college to attend doesn‘t come down merely to dollars and cents. Does going to Columbia University (tuition, room and board $49,260 in 2007-08) yield a 40% greater return than attending the University of Colorado at Boulder as an out-of-state student ($35,542)? Probably not. Does being an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado at Boulder yield twice the amount of income as being an in-state student ($17,380) there? Not likely.

No, in this consumerist age, most buyers aren‘t evaluating college as an investment, but rather as a consumer product—like a car or clothes or a house. And with such purchases, price is only one of many crucial factors to consider.

As with automobiles, consumers in today‘s college marketplace have vast choices, and people search for the one that gives them the most comfort and satisfaction in line with their budgets. This accounts for the willingness of people to pay more for different types of experiences (such as attending a private liberal-arts college or going to an out-of-state public school that has a great marine-biology program). And just as two auto purchasers might spend an equal amount of money on very different cars, college students (or, more accurately, their parents) often show a willingness to pay essentially the same price for vastly different products. So which is it? Is college an investment product like a stock or a consumer product like a car? In keeping with the automotive world‘s hottest consumer trend, maybe it‘s best to characterize it as a hybrid (混合动力汽车); an expensive consumer product that, over time, will pay rich dividends. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

57. What‘s the opinion of economists about going to college?

A．Huge amounts of money is being wasted on campus socializing. B．It doesn‘t pay to run into debt to receive a college education. C．College education is rewarding in spite of the startling costs. D．Going to college doesn‘t necessarily bring the expected returns.

58. The two Harvard economists note in their study that, for much of the 20th century, ________. A．enrollment kept decreasing in virtually all American colleges and universities B．the labor market preferred high-school to college graduates

C．competition for university admissions was far more fierce than today

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D．the gap between the earnings of college and high-school graduates narrowed

59. Students who attend an in-state college or university can ________. A．save more on tuition B．receive a better education C．take more liberal-arts courses D．avoid traveling long distances

60. In this consumerist age, most parents ________. A．regard college education as a wise investment B．place a premium on the prestige of the College C．think it crucial to send their children to college D．consider college education a consumer product

61. What is the chief consideration when students choose a college today? A．Their employment prospects after graduation. B．A satisfying experience within their budgets. C．Its facilities and learning environment. D．Its ranking among similar institutions.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。cloze

Some historian say that the most important contribution of Dwight Eisenhower‘s presidency (总统任期) in the 1950s was the U.S. interstate highway system. It was a __62__ project, easily surpassing the scale of such previous human __63__ as the Panama Canal. Eisenhower‘s interstate highways __64__ the nation together in new ways and __65__ major economic growth by making commerce less __66__. Today, an information superhighway has been built—an electronic network that __67__ libraries, corporations, government agencies and __68__. This electronic superhighway is called the Internet, __69__ it is the backbone (主干) of the World Wide Web.

The Internet had its __70__ in a 1969 U.S. Defense Department computer network called ARPAnet, which __71__ Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The Pentagon built the network for military contractors and universities doing military research to __72__ information. In 1983 the National Science Foundation (NSF), __73__ mission is to promote science, took over.

This new NSF network __74__ more and more institutional users, may of __75__ had their own internal networks. For example, most universities that __76__ the NSF network had intracampus computer networks. The NSF network __77__ became a connector for thousands of other networks. __78__ a backbone system that interconnects networks, internet was a name that fit.

So we can see that the Internet is the wired infrastructure (基础设施) on which web __79__ move. It began as a military communication system, which expanded into a government-funded __80__ research network.

Today, the Internet is a user-financed system tying intuitions of many sorts together __81__ an ―information superhighway.‖

62. A．concise C．massive B．radical D．trivial

63. A．behaviors C．inventions B．endeavors D．elements 64. A．packed C．suppressed B．stuck D．bound

65. A．facilitated C．mobilized B．modified D．terminated 66. A．competitive C．exclusive B．comparative D．expensive 67. A．merges C．relays B．connects D．unifies

68. A．figures C．individuals B．personalities D．humans 69. A．and C．or B．yet D．while

70. A．samples C．origins B．sources D．precedents

71. A．stood by C．stood against B．stood for D．stood over

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72. A．exchange C．switch B．bypass D．interact

73. A．their C．when B．that D．whose

74. A．expanded C．attracted B．contracted D．extended 75. A．what C．these B．which D．them

76. A．joined C．participated B．attached D．involved 77. A．moreover C．likewise B．however D．then 78. A．With C．In B．By D．As

79. A．contexts C．messages B．signs D．leaflets 80. A．citizen C．amateur B．civilian D．resident 81. A．into C．over B．amid D．toward Part VI Translation (5 minutes)

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答，只需写出译文部分。

82. With the oil prices ever rising, she tried to talk ________ (说服他不买车).

83. ________ (保持幽默有助于) reduce stress and promote creative thinking in today‘s competitive society..

84. When confronted with the evidence, ________ (他不得不坦白自己的罪行).

85. When people say, ―I can feel my ears burning,‖ it means they think ________ (一定有人在说他们坏话).

86. She has decided to go on a diet, but finds ________ (很难抵制冰淇淋的诱惑).

2009年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案

Part ⅡReading 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 questions 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. Bosses Say ―Yes‖ to Home Work

Rising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the office—all are strong arguments for letting staff work from home.

For the small business, there are additional benefits too—staff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts (员工数) and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide

competitive advantage, especially when small businesses want to attract new staff but don‘t have the budget to offer huge salaries.

While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about the additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.

Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small-and-medium-sized UK businesses in April this year, it found that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.

The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.

Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.

―If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resources they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,‖ says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. ―There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.‖

One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost all of the country (BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges). ―This is the enabler,‖ Poulton says.

Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market warn against consumer services masquerading (伪装) as business-friendly broadband.

―Broadband is available for as little as ￡15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,‖ says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service

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provider based in the north-east of England. ―Providers offering broadband for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested (拥堵的) networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business-only provider that can offer more reliability, with good support.‖ Such services don‘t cost too much—quality services can be found for upwards of ￡30 a month.

The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based backup or even internet-based phone services.

Internet-based telecoms, or VoIP (Voice over IP) to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls (which experts point out is misleading for the average business), but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote worker—facilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.

By law, companies must ―consider seriously‖ requests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young

children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT infrastructure (基础设施) to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.

Marketing director Jack O‘Hern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: ―One of the triggers was when one of our tax managers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacity—now she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for her, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.‖

For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum

productivity when away from the offices (whether that‘s from home, or while on the road), this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cutting them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life.

O‘Hern says: ―Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we can‘t see any reason why a parent can‘t be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the ability to complete a project later in the day.‖

Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would enable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources.

Although Wright Vigar hasn‘t yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of ―dead‖ time in their working days.

That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. ―With Wi-Fi (fast, wireless internet connections) popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, instead of having to kill time at the shops,‖ he adds.

The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.

Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her firm has saved by

adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her company‘s data management over to a remote hosting company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the company‘s consultants over broadband internet connections.

It has enabled the company to dispense with its business premises altogether, following the realisation that it just didn‘t need them any more. ―The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old,‖ says Hargreaves. ―But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, email and at off-site meetings, we didn‘t need our offices at all. We‘re now saving ￡16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.‖

1. What is the main topic of this passage?

A) How business managers view hi-tech.

B) Relations between employers and employees. C) How to cut down the costs of small businesses. D) Benefits of the practice of teleworking.

2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel, we learn that .

A) more employees work to full capacity at home

B) employees show a growing interest in small businesses C) more businesses have adopted remote working solutions D) attitudes toward IT technology have changed

3. What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton?

A) Reduced cost of telecommunications. B) Improved reliability of internet service.

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C) Availability of the VoIP service. D) Access to broadband everywhere.

4. What is Neil Stephenson‘s advice to firms contracting internet services?

A) They look for reliable business-only providers. B) They contact providers located nearest to them. C) They carefully examine the contract. D) They contract the cheapest provider.

5. Internet-based telecoms facilitates remote working by __________.

A) offering sophisticated voice services B) giving access to emailing in real time C) helping clients discuss business at home D) providing calls completely free of charge

6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to __________.

A) present a positive image to prospective customers B) support its employees with children to take care of C) attract young people with IT expertise to work for it D) reduce operational expenses of a second office

7. According to marketing director Jack O‘Hern, teleworking enabled the company to __________.

A) enhance its market image B) reduce recruitment costs C) keep highly qualified staff D) minimise its office space

8. Wright Vigar‘s practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits the company but

helps improve employees‘ .

9. With fast, wireless internet connections, employees can still be __________ while traveling. 10. Single mother Lynne Hargreaves decided to work at home mainly to __________. PartⅣ Reading Comprehension(Reading in Depth)(25 minutes) Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

Many countries have made it illegal to chat into a hand-held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research further confirms that the danger lies less in what a motorist‘s hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a ―hands-free‖ device can divert a driver‘s attention to an alarming extent.

Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick, and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a

computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation using a speakerphone. As Kunar and Horowitz report, those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 metres to the braking distance of a car travelling at 100kph. They also found that the group using the hands-free kit made 83% more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking.

To try to understand more about why this was, they tried two further tests. In one, members of a group were asked simply to repeat words spoken by the caller. In the other, they had to think of a word that began with the last letter of the word they had just heard. Those only repeating words performed the same as those with no distraction, but those with the more complicated task showed even worse reaction times—an average of 480 milliseconds extra delay. This shows that when people have to consider the information they hear carefully, it can impair their driving ability significantly.

Punishing people for using hand-held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls.

47. Carrying on a mobile phone conversation while one is driving is considered dangerous because it seriously

distracts .

48. In the experiments, the two groups of volunteers were asked to handle a series of moving tasks which were

considered .

49. Results of the experiments show that those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call took to

react than those who were not.

50. Further experiments reveal that participants tend to respond with extra delay if they are required to do . 51. The author believes persuasion, rather than , might be the only way to stop people from using mobile

phones while driving. Section B

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Passage One

Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.

There is nothing like the suggestion of a cancer risk to scare a parent, especially one of the over-educated, eco-conscious type. So you can imagine the reaction when a recent USA Today investigation of air quality

around the nation‘s schools singled out those in the smugly（自鸣得意的）green village of Berkeley, Calif., as being among the worst in the country. The city‘s public high school, as well as a number of daycare centers, preschools, elementary and middle schools, fell in the lowest 10%. Industrial pollution in our town had

supposedly turned students into living science experiments breathing in a laboratory‘s worth of heavy metals like manganese, chromium and nickel each day. This in a city that requires school cafeterias to serve organic meals. Great, I thought, organic lunch, toxic campus.

Since December, when the report came out, the mayor, neighborhood activists（活跃分子）and various parent-teacher associations have engaged in a fierce battle over its validity: over the guilt of the steel-casting factory on the western edge of town, over union jobs versus children‘s health and over what, if anything, ought to be done. With all sides presenting their own experts armed with conflicting scientific studies, whom should parents believe? Is there truly a threat here, we asked one another as we dropped off our kids, and if so, how great is it? And how does it compare with the other, seemingly perpetual health scares we confront, like panic over lead in synthetic athletic fields? Rather than just another weird episode in the town that brought you protesting environmentalists, this latest drama is a trial for how today‘s parents perceive risk, how we try to keep our kids safe—whether it‘s possible to keep them safe—in what feels like an increasingly threatening world. It raises the question of what, in our time, ―safe‖ could even mean.

―There‘s no way around the uncertainty,‖ says Kimberly Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit group that studies children‘s health. ―That means your choices can matter, but it also means you aren‘t going to know if they do.‖ A 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics explained that nervous parents have more to fear from fire, car accidents and drowning than from toxic chemical exposure. To which I say: Well, obviously. But such concrete hazards are beside the point. It‘s the dangers parents can‘t—and may never—quantify that occur all of sudden. That‘s why I‘ve rid my cupboard of microwave food packed in bags coated with a potential

cancer-causing substance, but although I‘ve lived blocks from a major fault line(地质断层) for more than 12 years, I still haven‘t bolted our bookcases to the living room wall. 52. What does a recent investigation by USA Today reveal?

A) Heavy metals in lab tests threaten children‘s health in Berkeley. B) Berkeley residents are quite contented with their surroundings. C) The air quality around Berkeley‘s school campuses is poor.

D) Parents in Berkeley are over-sensitive to cancer risks their kids face. 53. What response did USA Today‘s report draw?

A) A heated debate. B) Popular support. C) Widespread panic. D) Strong criticism.

54. How did parents feel in the face of the experts‘ studies?

A) They felt very much relieved.

B) They were frightened by the evidence. C) They didn‘t know who to believe. D) They weren‘t convinced of the results.

55. What is the view of the 2004 report in the journal Pediatrics?

A) It is important to quantify various concrete hazards. B) Daily accidents pose a more serious threat to children. C) Parents should be aware of children‘s health hazards. D) Attention should be paid to toxic chemical exposure.

56. Of the dangers in everyday life, the author thinks that people have most to fear from __________.

A) the uncertain B) the quantifiable C) an earthquake D) unhealthy food Passage Two

Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.

Crippling health care bills, long emergency-room waits and the inability to find a primary care physician just scratch the surface of the problems that patients face daily.

Primary care should be the backbone of any health care system. Countries with appropriate primary care resources score highly when it comes to health outcomes and cost. The U.S. takes the opposite approach by emphasizing the specialist rather than the primary care physician.

A recent study analyzed the providers who treat Medicare beneficiaries（老年医保受惠人）. The startling finding was that the average Medicare patient saw a total of seven doctors—two primary care physicians and five specialists—in a given year. Contrary to popular belief, the more physicians taking care of you don‘t guarantee better care. Actually, increasing fragmentation of care results in a corresponding rise in cost and

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medical errors. How did we let primary care slip so far? The key is how doctors are paid. Most physicians are paid whenever they perform a medical service. The more a physician does, regardless of quality or outcome, the better he‘s reimbursed (返还费用). Moreover, the amount a physician receives leans heavily toward medical or surgical procedures. A specialist who performs a procedure in a 30-minute visit can be paid three times more than a primary care physician using that same 30 minutes to discuss a patient‘s disease. Combine this fact with annual government threats to indiscriminately cut reimbursements, physicians are faced with no choice but to increase quantity to boost income.

Primary care physicians who refuse to compromise quality are either driven out of business or to cash-only practices, further contributing to the decline of primary care.

Medical students are not blind to this scenario. They see how heavily the reimbursement deck is stacked against primary care. The recent numbers show that since 1997, newly graduated U.S. medical students who choose primary care as a career have declined by 50%. This trend results in emergency rooms being overwhelmed with patients without regular doctors.

How do we fix this problem?

It starts with reforming the physician reimbursement system. Remove the pressure for primary care physicians to squeeze in more patients per hour, and reward them for optimally (最佳地) managing their diseases and practicing evidence-based medicine. Make primary care more attractive to medical students by forgiving student loans for those who choose primary care as a career and reconciling the marked difference between specialist and primary care physician salaries.

We‘re at a point where primary care is needed more than ever. Within a few years, the first wave of the 76 million Baby Boomers will become eligible for Medicare. Patients older than 85, who need chronic care most, will rise by 50% this decade.

Who will be there to treat them?

57. The author‘s chief concern about the current U.S. health care system is __________.

A) the inadequate training of physicians B) the declining number of doctors C) the shrinking primary care resources D) the ever-rising health care costs

58. We learn from the passage that people tend to believe that __________.

A) the more costly the medicine, the more effective the cure B) seeing more doctors may result in more diagnostic errors C) visiting doctors on a regular basis ensures good health D) the more doctors taking care of a patient, the better

59. Faced with the government threats to cut reimbursements indiscriminately, primary care physicians have to

__________ .

A) increase their income by working overtime B) improve their expertise and service C) make various deals with specialists

D) see more patients at the expense of quality

60. Why do many new medical graduates refuse to choose primary care as their career?

A) They find the need for primary care declining. B) The current system works against primary care. C) Primary care physicians command less respect. D) They think working in emergency rooms tedious.

61. What suggestion does the author give in order to provide better health care?

A) Bridge the salary gap between specialists and primary care physicians. B) Extend primary care to patients with chronic diseases. C) Recruit more medical students by offering them loans.

D) Reduce the tuition of students who choose primary care as their major. Part V Cloze (5 minutes)

McDonald‘s, Greggs, KFC and Subway are today named as the most littered brands in England as Keep Britain Tidy called on fast-food companies to do more to tackle customers who drop their wrappers and drinks cartons (盒子) in the streets.

Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, 大62家 its new Dirty Pig campaign, said it was the first time it had investigated which 大63家 made up ―littered England‖ and the same names appeared again and again.

―We 大64家 litterers for dropping this fast food litter 大65家 the first place but also believe the results have pertinent (相关的) messages for the fast food 大66家. Mc-Donald‘s, Greggs, KFC and Subway need to do more to 大67家 littering by their customers.‖

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He recognised efforts made by McDonald‘s, 大68家 placing litter bins and increasing litter patrols, but its litter remained ―all too prevalent‖. All fast food chains should reduce 大69家 packaging, he added. Companies could also reduce prices 大70家 those who stayed to eat food on their premises, offer money-off vouchers (代金券) or other 大71家 for those who returned packaging and put more bins at 大72家 points in local streets, not just outside their premises. A 大73家 for McDonald‘s said: ―We do our best. Obviously

we ask all our customers to dispose of litter responsibly.‖ Trials of more extensive, all-day litter patrols were 大74家 in Manchester and Birmingham.

KFC said it took its 大75家 on litter management ―very seriously‖, and would introduce a programme to reduce packaging 大76家 many products. Subway said that it worked hard to 大77家 the impact of litter on communities，大78家 it was ―still down to the 大79家 customer to dispose of their litter responsibly‖. Greggs said it recognised the ―continuing challenge for us all‖, 大80家 having already taken measures to help 大81家 the issue.

62. A) elevating B) convening C) launching D) projecting 63. A) signals B) signs C) commercials D) brands 64. A) condemn B) refute C) uncover D) disregard 65. A) around B) toward C) in D) off

66. A) industry B) career C) profession D) vocation 67. A) exclude B) discourage C) suppress D) retreat

68. A) incorporating B) including C) comprising D) containing 69. A) unreliable B) unrelated C) unimportant D) unnecessary 70. A) for B) about C) with D) to

71. A) accessories B) merits C) incentives D) dividends 72. A) curious B) mysterious C) strange D) strategic 73. A) narrator B) spokesman C) mediator D) broker 74. A) in season B) at risk C) off hand D) under way

75. A) responsibility B) liability C) commission D) administration 76. A) around B) by C) on D) above

77. A) divert B) minimize C) degrade D) suspend 78. A) if B) whether C) so D) but

79. A) individual B) concrete C) unique D) respective 80. A) except B) without C) despite D) via 81. A) deal B) tackle C) cope D) dispose PartⅥ Translation (5 minutes)

82. How long does a jacket like this last me? — (这要看你多长时间穿一次). 83. The theory he advanced has proved (对许多传统概念的一种挑战).

84. The manager (本可以亲自参加会议), but he was called away for some urgent business abroad. 85. Both research and practical experience have shown that a (均衡的饮食对健康是必不可少的). 86. Much (我感到遗憾), I was unable to finish the work on time.

Part Ⅲ Listening Comprehension (35 minutes) 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.

11. A) They would rather travel around than stay at home. B) They prefer to carry cash when traveling abroad.

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C) They usually carry many things around with them.

D) They don‘t like to spend much money on traveling. 12. A) The selection process was a little unfair. B) He had long dreamed of the dean‘s position. C) Rod was eliminated in the selection process. D) Rod was in charge of the admissions office. 13. A) Applause encourages the singer. B) She regrets paying for the concert. C) Almost everyone loves pop music. D) The concert is very impressive.

14. A) They have known each other since their schooldays. B) They were both chairpersons of the Students‘ Union. C) They have been in close touch by email. D) They are going to hold a reunion party. 15. A) Cook their dinner. B) Rest for a while. C) Get their car fixed. D) Stop for the night.

16. A) Newly-launched products. B) Consumer preferences. C) Survey results. D) Survey methods.

17. A) He would rather the woman didn‘t buy the blouse. B) The woman needs blouses in the colors of a rainbow. C) The information in the catalog is not always reliable. D) He thinks the blue blouse is better than the red one. 18. A) The course is open to all next semester. B) The notice may not be reliable. C) The woman has not told the truth. D) He will drop his course in marketing.

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 19. A) A director of a sales department. B) A manager at a computer store. C) A sales clerk at a shopping center. D) An accountant of a computer firm. 20. A) Handling customer complaints. B) Recruiting and training new staff. C) Dispatching ordered goods on time. D) Developing computer programs.

21. A) She likes something more challenging. B) She likes to be nearer to her parents. C) She wants to have a better-paid job. D) She wants to be with her husband. 22. A) Right away. B) In two months. C) Early next month. D) In a couple of days.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

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23. A) It will face challenges unprecedented in its history.

B) It is a resolute advocate of the anti-global movement. C) It is bound to regain its full glory of a hundred years ago. D) It will be a major economic power by the mid-21st century. 24. A) The lack of overall urban planning.

B) The huge gap between the haves and have-nots. C) The inadequate supply of water and electricity. D) The shortage of hi-tech personnel.

25. A) They attach great importance to education. B) They are able to grasp growth opportunities. C) They are good at learning from other nations. D) They have made use of advanced technologies. Section B

Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. Passage One

Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard. 26. A) She taught chemistry and microbiology courses in a college. B) She gave lectures on how to become a public speaker. C) She helped families move away from industrial polluters. D) She engaged in field research on environmental pollution. 27. A) The job restricted her from revealing her findings. B) The job posed a potential threat to her health. C) She found the working conditions frustrating.

D) She was offered a better job in a minority community.

28. A) Some giant industrial polluters have gone out of business. B) More environmental organizations have appeared. C) Many toxic sites in America have been cleaned up. D) More branches of her company have been set up.

29. A) Her widespread influence among members of Congress. B) Her ability to communicate through public speaking. C) Her rigorous training in delivering eloquent speeches. D) Her lifelong commitment to domestic and global issues. Passage Two

Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard. 30. A) The fierce competition in the market. B) The growing necessity of staff training. C) The accelerated pace of globalisation. D) The urgent need of a diverse workforce.

31. A) Gain a deep understanding of their own culture. B) Take courses of foreign languages and cultures. C) Share the experiences of people from other cultures. D) Participate in international exchange programmes. 32. A) Reflective thinking is becoming critical. B) Labor market is getting globalised.

C) Knowing a foreign language is essential.

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D) Globalisation will eliminate many jobs.

Passage Three

Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard. 33. A) Red-haired women were regarded as more reliable. B) Brown-haired women were rated as more capable. C) Golden-haired women were considered attractive. D) Black-haired women were judged to be intelligent. 34. A) They are smart and eloquent. B) They are ambitious and arrogant. C) They are shrewd and dishonest. D) They are wealthy and industrious.

35. A) They force people to follow the cultural mainstream. B) They exaggerate the roles of certain groups of people. C) They emphasize diversity at the expense of uniformity. D) They hinder our perception of individual differences. Section C

Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

The ancient Greeks developed basic memory systems called mnemonics. The name is 大36家 from their Goddess of memory ―Mnemosyne‖. In the ancient world, a trained memory was an 大37家 asset, particularly in public life. There were no 大38家 devices for taking notes, and early Greek orators(演说家) delivered long speeches with great 大39家 because they learned the speeches using mnemonic systems. The Greeks discovered that human memory is 大40家 an associative process—that it works by linking things together. For example, think of an apple. The 大41家 your brain registers the word ―apple‖, it 大42家 the shape, color, taste, smell and 大43家 of that fruit. All these things are associated in your memory with the word ―apple‖.

大44家. An example could be when you think about a lecture you have had. This could trigger a memory about what you‘re talking about through that lecture, which can then trigger another memory.

大45家. An example given on a website I was looking at follows: Do you remember the shape of Austria, Canada, Belgium, or Germany? Probably not. What about Italy, though? 大46家. You made an association with something already known, the shape of a boot, and Italy‘s shape could not be forgotten once you had made the association.

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2010年6月英语六级真题

Part I Writing (30 minutes)

注意：此部分试题在答题卡1上。

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the topic of Due Attention Should Be Given to the Study of Chinese. You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below: 1.近年来在学生中出现了忽视中文学习的现象； 2.出现这种现象的原因和后果； 3.我认为…

Due Attention Should Be Given to the Study of Chinese

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 questions 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.

Obama's success isn't all good news for black Americans

As Erin White watched the election results head towards victory for Barack Obama, she felt a burden lifting from her shoulders. \

\always been an achiever,\says White, who is studying for an MBA at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. \really can be who I want. It was like a shadow, following me around saying you can only go so far. Now it's like a barrier has been let down.\

White's experience is what many psychologists had expected - that Obama would prove to be a powerful role model for African Americans. Some hoped his rise to prominence would have a big impact on white Americans, too, challenging those who still harbour racist sentiments. \contradictory to the racial stereotypes that black people are aggressive and uneducated,\Florida State University. \Sting in the tail

Ashby Plant is one of a number of psychologists who seized on Obama's candidacy to test hypotheses about the power of role models. Their work is already starting to reveal how the \views and behaviour. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not all good news: there is a sting in the tail of the Obama effect. But first the good news. Barack Obama really is a positive role model for African Americans, and he was making an impact even before he got to the White House. Indeed, the Obama effect can be surprisingly

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immediate and powerful, as Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University and his colleagues discovered.

They tested four separate groups at four key stages of Obama's presidential campaign. Each group consisted of around 120 adults of similar age and education, and the test assessed their language skills. At two of these stages, when Obama's success was less than certain, the tests showed a clear difference between the scores of the white and black participants—an average of 12.1 out of 20, compared to 8.8, for example. When the Obama fever was at its height, however, the black participants performed much better. Those who had watched Obama's acceptance speech as the Democrats' presidential candidate performed just as well, on average, as the white subjects.After his election victory, this was true of all the black participants. Dramatic shift

What can explain this dramatic shift? At the start of the test, the participants had to declare their race and were told their results would be used to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This should have primed the subjects with \threat\– an anxiety that their results will confirm negative stereotypes, which has been shown to damage the performance of African Americans.

Obama's successes seemed to act as a shield against this. \victory, so the stereotype threat wouldn't prove a distraction,\Lingering racism

If the Obama effect is positive for African Americans, how is it affecting their white compatriots (同胞)? Is the experience of having a charismatic (有魅力的) black president modifying lingering racist attitudes? There is no easy way to measure racism directly; instead psychologists assess what is known as \a computer-based test that measures how quickly people associate positive and negative words—such as \or \—with photos of black or white faces. A similar test can also measure how quickly subjects associate stereotypical traits—such as athletic skills or mental ability—with a particular group.

In a study that will appear in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Plant's team tested 229 students during the height of the Obama fever. They found that implicit bias has fallen by as much as 90% compared with the level found in a similar study in 2006. \

While the team can't be sure their results are due solely to Obama, they also showed that those with the lowest bias were likely to subconsciously associate black skin colour with political words such as \or \Drop in bias

Brian Nosek of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who runs a website that measures implicit bias using similar test, has also observed a small drop in bias in the 700,000 visitors to the site since January 2007, which might be explained by Obama's rise to popularity. However, his preliminary results suggest that change will be much slower coming than Plant's results suggest. Talking honestly

\now have the opportunity of expressing support for Obama every day,\says Daniel Effron at Stanford University in California. \raise negative views of African Americans.\more honestly about their feelings regarding race issues, which may not be such a bad thing.

Another part of the study suggests far more is at stake than the mere expression of views. The Obama effect may have a negative side. Just one week after Obama was elected president, participants were less ready to support policies designed to address racial inequality than they had been two weeks before the election. Huge obstacles

It could, of course, also be that Obama's success helps people to forget that a disproportionate number of black Americans still live in poverty and face huge obstacles when trying to overcome these circumstances. \Obama's family is such a salient (出色的) image, we generalise it and fail to see the larger picture—that there's injustice in every aspect of American life,\says Cheryl Kaiser of the University of Washington in Seattle. Those trying to address issues of racial inequality need to constantly remind people of the inequalities that still exist to counteract the Obama's effect, she says.

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Though Plant's findings were more positive, she too warns against thinking that racism and racial

inequalities are no longer a problem. \

These findings do not only apply to Obama, or even just to race. They should hold for any role model in any country. \Sarah Palin had been elected,\women. Beyond race

We also don't yet know how long the Obama effect—both its good side and its bad—will last.Political sentiment is notoriously changeable: What if things begin to go wrong for Obama, and his popularity slumps? And what if Americans become so familiar with having Obama as their president that they stop considering his race altogether? \defeat for racism, but ignoring the race of certain select individuals—a phenomenon that psychologists call subtyping—also has an insidious (隐伏的) side. \they can still hold on to the previous stereotypes.\Obama effect.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡1上作答。

1. How did Erin White feel upon seeing Barack Obama's victory in the election? A) Excited. B) Victorious. C) Anxious. D) Relieved.

2. Before the election, Erin White has been haunted by the question of whether _____. A) she could obtain her MBA degree

B) she could go as far as she wanted in life C) she was overshadowed by her white peers D) she was really an achiever as a student 3. What is the focus of Ashby Plant's study? A) Racist sentiments in America. B) The power of role models.

C) Personality traits of successful blacks. D) The dual character of African Americans.

4. In their experiments, Ray Friedman and his colleagues found that ______. A) blacks and whites behaved differently during the election B) whites' attitude towards blacks has dramatically changed C) Obama's election has eliminated the prejudice against blacks D) Obama's success impacted blacks' performance in language tests 5. What do Brian Nosek's preliminary results suggest? A) The change in bias against blacks is slow in coming. B) Bias against blacks has experienced an unusual drop. C) Website visitor's opinions are far from being reliable. D) Obama's popularity may decline as time passes by. 6. A negative side of the Obama effect is that ______.

A) more people have started to criticise President Obama's racial policies B) relations between whites and African Americans may become tense again C) people are now less ready to support policies addressing racial inequality D) white people are likely to become more critical of African Americans 7. Cheryl Kaiser holds that people should be constantly reminded that ______. A) Obama's success is sound proof of black's potential B) Obama is but a rare example of black's excellence C) racial inequality still persists in American society D) blacks still face obstacles in political participation

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8. According to Effron, if Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin had been elected, there would also have been a

negative effect on ______.

9. It is possible that the Obama effect will be short-lived if there is a change in people's ______.

10. The worst possible aspect of the Obama effect is that people could ignore his race altogether and continue to hold on to their old racial ______.

Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes) 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) The man failed to keep his promise. B) The woman has a poor memory.

C) The man borrowed the book from the library. D) The woman does not need the book any more. 12.

A) The woman is making too big a fuss about her condition. B) Fatigue is a typical symptom of lack of exercise. C) The woman should spend more time outdoors.

D) People tend to work longer hours with artificial lighting. 13.

A) The printing on her T-shirt has faded.

B) It is not in fashion to have a logo on a T-shirt. C) She regrets having bought one of the T-shirts. D) It is not a good idea to buy the T-shirt. 14.

A) He regrets having published the article. B) Most readers do not share his viewpoints. C) Not many people have read his article. D) The woman is only trying to console him. 15.

A) Leave Daisy alone for the time being. B) Go see Daisy immediately.

C) Apologize to Daisy again by phone. D) Buy Daisy a new notebook. 16.

A) Batteries. B) Garden tools. C) Cameras. D) Light bulbs. 17.

A) The speakers will watch the game together. B) The woman feels lucky to have got a ticket. C) The man plays center on the basketball team.

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D) The man can get the ticket at its original price.

18.

A) The speakers will dress formally for the concert.

B) The man will return home before going to the concert. C) It is the first time the speakers are attending a concert. D) The woman is going to buy a new dress for the concert.

Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 19.

A) He wants to sign a long-term contract. B) He is good at both language and literature. C) He prefers teaching to administrative work. D) He is undecided as to which job to go for. 20.

A) They hate exams.

B) The all plan to study in Cambridge. C) They are all adults.

D) They are going to work in companies. 21.

A) Difficult but rewarding. B) Varied and interesting.

C) Time-consuming and tiring. D) Demanding and frustrating.

Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 22.

A) Interviewing a moving star. B) Discussing teenage role models. C) Hosting a television show. D) Reviewing a new biography. 23.

A) He lost his mother.

B) He was unhappy in California. C) He missed his aunt.

D) He had to attend school there. 24.

A) He delivered public speeches. B) He got seriously into acting. C) He hosted talk shows on TV. D) He played a role in East of Eden. 25.

A) He made numerous popular movies. B) He has long been a legendary figure.

C) He was best at acting in Hollywood tragedies. D) He was the most successful actor of his time. Section B

Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

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注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

Passage One

Questions 26 to 29 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 26.

A) It carried passengers leaving an island. B) A terrorist forced it to land on Tenerife. C) It crashed when it was circling to land. D) 18 of its passengers survived the crash. 27.

A) He was kidnapped eight months ago.

B) He failed in his negotiations with the Africans. C) He was assassinated in Central Africa.

D) He lost lots of money in his African business. 28.

A) The management and union representatives reached an agreement. B) The workers' pay was raised and their working hours were shortened. C) The trade union gave up its demand. D) The workers on strike were all fired. 29.

A) Sunny. B) Rainy. C) Windy. D) Cloudy. Passage Two

Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard. 30.

A) Some of them had once experienced an earthquake. B) Most of them lacked interest in the subject. C) Very few of them knew much about geology.

D) A couple of them had listened to a similar speech before. 31.

A) By reflecting on Americans' previous failures in predicting earthquakes. B) By noting where the most severe earthquake in U. S. history occurred. C) By describing the destructive power of earthquakes. D) By explaining some essential geological principles. 32.

A) Interrupt him whenever he detected a mistake. B) Focus on the accuracy of the language he used. C) Stop him when he had difficulty understanding. D) Write down any points where he could improve. Passage Three

Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard. 33.

A) It was invented by a group of language experts in the year of 1887. B) It is a language that has its origin in ancient Polish. C) It was created to promote economic globalization.

D) It is a tool of communication among speakers of different languages. 34.

A) It aims to make Esperanto a working language in the U. N. B) It has increased its popularity with the help of the media. C) It has encountered increasingly tougher challenges.

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D) It has supporters from many countries in the world.

35.

A) It is used by a number of influential science journals. B) It is widely taught at schools and in universities. C) It has aroused the interest of many young learners. D) It has had a greater impact than in any other country. Section C

Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

George Herbert Mead said that humans are talked into humanity. He meant that we gain personal identity as we communicate with others. In the earliest years of our lives, our parents tell us who we are. \(36) ______.\(37) ______ of our self-concepts. Later we interact with teachers, friends, (38) ______ partners, and co-workers who communicate their views of us.Thus, how we see ourselves (39) ______ the views of us that others communicate.

The (40) ______ connection between identity and communication is (41) ______ evident in children who are (42) ______ of human contact. Case studies of children who were isolated from others reveal that they lack a firm self-concept, and their mental and psychological development is severely (43) ______ by lack of language.

Communication with others not only affects our sense of identity but also directly influences our physical and emotional well-being. Consistently, (44) ________________________________________________. People who lack close friends have greater levels of anxiety and depression than people who are close to others. (45) ________________________________________________. The conclusion was that social isolation is statistically as dangerous as high blood pressure, smoking and obesity. Many doctors and researchers believe that (46) ___________________________ ____________________________________.

Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)

Section A

Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet 2.

Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.

Question: My ninth-grade art teacher doesn't give any grade above 94% because, she says, \room for improvement.\reflect the hard work that I put into this course. Because of her \deserve. Is her grading philosophy ethical (符合职业道德规范的)?

Answer: Your teacher's grading system may be unwise, but it is not unethical. A teacher deserves wide latitude in selecting the method of grading that best promotes learning in her classroom; that is, after all, the prime function of grades. It is she who has the training and experience to make this decision. Assuming that your teacher is neither biased nor corrupt and that her system conforms to school rules, you can't fault her ethics. You can criticize her methodology. A 100 need not imply that there is no possibility of improvement, only

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