2012年6月大学英语六级考试真题及答案

　　Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

　　Section A

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

　　Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

　　In face of global warming, much effort has been ___36___ on reducing greenhouse gas emissions through a variety of strategies. But while much of the research and innovation has concentrated on finding less-polluting energy ___37___, it may be decades before clean technologies like wind and solar meet a ___38___ portion of our energy needs.

　　In the meantime, the amount of CO2 in the air is rapidly approaching the limits proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC). “As long as we’re consuming fossil fuels, we’re putting out CO2,” says Klaus Lackner, a geophysicist at Columbia University. “We cannot let the CO2 in the atmosphere rise ___39___.”

　　That ___40___ of urgency has increased interest in ___41___ and storing CO2, which the IPCC says could provide the more than 50% reduction in emissions thought needed to reduce global warming. “We see the potential for capture and storage to play an integral role in reducing emissions,” says Kim Corley, Shell’s senior advisor of CO2 and ___42___ affairs. That forward thinking strategy is gaining support.

　　But what do you do with the gas once you’ve captured it? One option is to put it to new uses. Dakota Gasification of North Dakota captures CO2 at a plant that ___43___ coal into synthetic natural gas. It then ships the gas 200 miles by pipeline to Canada, where it is pumped ___44___ in oil recovery operations.

　　However, scientists say that the scale of CO2 emissions will require vast amounts of long-term storage. Some ___45___ storing the CO2 in coal mines or liquid storage in the ocean.

　　A) converts I) understanding

　　B) alternatives J) takes

　　C) played K) capturing

　　D) significant L) environmental

　　E) sense M) important

　　F) focused N) regularly

　　G) indefinitely O) propose

　　H) underground

　　Section B

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

　　Teens’ Secret Lives Online

　　A) Celina McPhail’s mom wouldn’t let her have a Facebook account. The 12-year-old is on Instagram instead. Her mother, Maria McPhail, agreed to let her download the app(应用软件) onto her iPod Touch, because she thought she was fostering an interest in photography. But Ms. McPhail, of Austin, Texas, has learned that Celina and her friends mostly use the service to post Photoshopped photo-jokes and text messages they create on another free app called Versagram. When kids can’t get on Facebook, “they’re good at finding ways around that,” she says.

　　B) It’s harder than ever to keep an eye on the children. Many parents limit their preteens’ access to well-known sites like Facebook and monitor what their children do online. But with kids constantly seeking new places to connect—preferably, unsupervised by their families—most parents are learning how difficult it is to prevent their kids from interacting with social media.

　　C) Children are using technology at ever-younger ages. About 15% of kids under the age of 11 have their own mobile phone, according to eMarketer. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported last summer that 16% of kids aged from 12 to 17 who are online used Twitter, double the number from two years earlier.

　　D) Parents worry about the risks of online predators and bullying, and there are other concerns. Kids are creating permanent public records, and they may encounter excessive or inappropriate advertising. Yet many parents also believe it is in their kids’ interest to be expert in technology.

　　E) As families grapple with how to use social media safely, many marketers are working to create social networks and other interactive applications for kids that parents will approve. Some go even further, seeing themselves as providing a crucial education in online literacy—“training wheels for social media”, as Rebecca Levey, founder of social media site KidzVuz puts it.

　　F) Last week, 20 companies pitched online and mobile products for kids in Pasadena, Calif., at the 6th annual Digital Kids Conference. This summer, Microsoft and Scholastic will help sponsor the first Digital Family Summit in Philadelphia. Scholastic will preview a new version of Storia, an interactive e-reading application aimed at kids ages 3 to 14. “As kids migrate more to devices, we don’t want to be left out,” says Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Media.

　　G) “Digital media is a great thing for kids; even a 12-year-old can have a personal brand,” says Stephanie Schwab, the founder of the Digital Family convention. Her 3-year-old uses an iPad every day. When Ms. Schwab recently wondered out loud what the weather was like, her son responded, “Ask Siri.”

　　H) KidzVuz is a social media start-up aimed at teaching kids how to create content at an early age. Kids create a profile with a handle (say, “GossipGirl”) but no name, and parents have to approve the account. Kids then create video reviews of books, films, food and clothes. There is no private messaging, and comments are actively monitored for nastiness. The site was launched by two technologically active mothers in New York City. One co-founder, Ms. Levey, says the idea is to create a safe place for children to learn how to communicate effectively and politely on a medium that will be key to their social, academic and economic lives.

　　I) Faith King, a 9-year-old third grader in RedBank, N.J., says since she started posting video reviews to KidzVuz, she has learned important lessons of film production. “You need to make sure the lights are on so people can see you,” she says. She also has learned to focus on interesting contents. “Don’t review a dictionary,” she advises. Her mother, Cristie Ritz-King, says her daughter’s love of the site has prompted many conversations about the importance of being skeptical about strangers online and questioning the accuracy of information. She wants her daughter to learn early on to be agile(机敏的)with social media. “It’s never going away,” she says.

　　J) The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab has created Playground, a social platform for school-age students. The idea is for kids to learn how to create Internet content—and to consider the implications of privacy, the permanence of a Web footprint, the basics of brand building and a little about online manners. Educators need to teach Internet literacy at an early age, says Erin Reilly, Playground’s creator. “Kids are always going to find a back door for communication and collaboration,” she says.

　　K) Along with established social sites for kids, such as Walt Disney Co.’s Club Penguin, kids are flocking to newer sites such as FashionPlaytes.com, a meeting place aimed at girls’ ages 5 to 12 who are interested in designing clothes, and Everloop, a social network for kids under the age of 13. Viddy, a video-sharing site which functions similarly to Instagram, is becoming more popular with kids and teenagers as well.

　　L) Some kids do join YouTube, Google, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, despite policies meant to bar kids under 13. These sites require that users enter their date of birth upon signing up, and they must be at least 13 years old. Apple—which requires an account to download apps like Instagram to an iPhone—has the same requirement. But there is little to bar kids from entering a false date of birth or getting an adult to set up an account. Instagram declined to comment.

　　M) “If we learn that someone is not old enough to have a Google account, or we receive a report, we will investigate and take the appropriate action,” says Google spokesman Jay Nancarrow. He adds that users first have a chance to demonstrate that they meet our age requirements. If they don’t, we will close the account. Facebook and most other sites have similar policies.

　　N) Still, some children establish public identities on social media networks like YouTube and Facebook with their parents’ permission. Autumn Miller, a 10-year-old from Southern California, has nearly 6,000 people following her Facebook fan-page postings(博文), which include links to videos of her in makeup and costumes, dancing Laker-Girl style. Autie’s Freestyle Friday Dance Channel on YouTube has nearly 13,000 subscribers and hosts 39 videos that have logged in excess of 3.5 million views.

　　O) Facebook’s “fan pages”—in which brands can establish a Facebook presence and those who “like” the brand can see its postings—are supposed to be managed by someone of appropriate age to have a profile page, according to Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager of public policy communications. Autie’s father Mr. Miller confirmed that his daughter mostly succeeds in overseeing her own fan page with parental supervision.

　　P) But many parents and children find themselves in an evasive(躲躲闪闪的) dance online. Alexa Ashley’s mother, Lisa, allowed her on Facebook at 13—then took the account away. When she learned that her daughter, now 14, had an Instagram account and wanted to check it out, Alexa bristled at her mother’s interest. Alexa says she doesn’t mind being barred from Facebook—where her grandmother’s comments embarrassed her. She is sticking with Instagram for now.

　　46. In spite of different kinds of concerns, many parents still think it is good for their kids to be skilled in internet technology.

　　47. The more electronic devices are being used by children, the more markets the internet companies are longing to occupy.

　　48. Maria McPhail allowed her 12-year-old daughter to download the app of Instagram because she believed her daughter was interested in photography.

　　49. Parents’ watch and control can help children manage their own fan pages.

　　50. Despite the age limitations, some kids fake their birthdates to open an online account.

　　51. Being skeptical about strangers online and questioning the accuracy of information are very important.

　　52. No kids can send or receive private messages on KidzVuz and their reviews are under severe control.

　　53. Proper measures will be adopted by Google if its users are not old enough to have Google accounts.

　　54. When Ms. Schwab asked about the weather conditions, her son advised her to seek help from Siri.

　　55. Under the permission of parents, some children create public accounts on social media networks such as YouTube and Facebook.

　　Section C

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

　　Passage One

　　Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

　　As anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, realistic goal-setting generally produces the best results. That’s partially because it appears people who set realistic goals actually work more efficiently, and exert more effort, to achieve those goals.

　　What’s far less understood by scientists, however, are the potentially harmful effects of goal-setting.

　　Newspapers relay daily accounts of goal-setting prevalent in industries and businesses up and down both Wall Street and Main Street, yet there has been surprisingly little research on how the long-trumpeted practice of setting goals may have contributed to the current economic crisis, and unethical (不道德的) behavior in general.

　　“Goals are widely used and promoted as having really beneficial effects. And yet, the same motivation that can push people to exert more effort in a constructive way could also motivate people to be more likely to engage in unethical behaviors,” says Maurice Schweitzer, an associate professor at Penn’s Wharton School.

　　“It turns out there’s no economic benefit to just having a goal—you just get a psychological benefit.” Schweitzer says, “But in many cases, goals have economic rewards that make them more powerful.”

　　A prime example Schweitzer and his colleagues cite is the 2004 collapse of energy-trading giant Enron, where managers used financial incentives to motivate salesmen to meet specific revenue goals. The problem, Schweitzer says, is the actual trades were not profitable.

　　Other studies have shown that saddling employees with unrealistic goals can compel them to lie, cheat or steal. Such was the case in the early 1990s when Sears imposed a sales quota on its auto repair staff. It prompted employees to overcharge for work and to complete unnecessary repairs on a companywide basis.

　　Schweitzer concedes his research runs counter to a very large body of literature that commends the many benefits of goal-setting. Advocates of the practice have taken issue with his team’s use of such evidence as news accounts to support his conclusion that goal-setting is widely over-prescribed.

　　In a rebuttal (反驳) paper, Dr. Edwin Locke writes: “Goal-setting is not going away. Organizations cannot thrive without being focused on their desired end results any more than an individual can thrive without goals to provide a sense of purpose.”

　　But Schweitzer contends the “mounting causal evidence” linking goal-setting and harmful behavior should be studied to help spotlight issues that merit caution and further investigation. “Even a few negative effects could be so large that they outweigh many positive effects,” he says.

　　“Goal-setting does help coordinate and motivate people. My idea would be to combine that with careful oversight, a strong organizational culture, and make sure the goals that you use are going to be constructive and not significantly harm the organization,” Schweitzer says.

　　56. What message does the author try to convey about goal-setting?

　　[A] Its role has been largely underestimated.

　　[B] The goals most people set are unrealistic.

　　[C] The goals increase people’s work efficiency.

　　[D] Its negative effects have long been neglected.

　　57. What does Maurice Schweitzer want to show by citing the example of Enron?

　　[A] Financial incentives ensure companies meet specific revenue goals.

　　[B] Setting realistic goals can turn a failing business into success.

　　[C] Goals with financial rewards have strong motivational power.

　　[D] Businesses are less likely to succeed without setting realistic goals.

　　58. How did Sears’ goal-setting affect its employees?

　　[A] They resorted to unethical practice to meet their sales quota.

　　[B] They improved their customer service on a companywide basis.

　　[C] They were obliged to work more hours to increase their sales.

　　[D] They competed with one another to attract more customers.

　　59. What do advocates of goal-setting think of Schweitzer’s research?

　　[A] It exaggerates the side effects of goal-setting.

　　[B] Its conclusion is not based on solid scientific evidence.

　　[C] It runs counter to the existing literature on the subject.

　　[D] Its findings are not of much practical value.

　　60. What is Schweitzer’s contention against Edwin Locke?

　　[A] Goal-setting has become too deep-rooted in corporate culture.

　　[B] Studying goal-setting can throw more light on successful business practices.

　　[C] The link between goal-setting and harmful behavior deserves further study.

　　[D] The positive effects of goal-setting outweigh its negative effects.