2013年6月大学英语六级考试真题及答案

　　2013年6月大学英语六级考试真题及答案

　　Part I Writing (30 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the remark “A smile is the shortest distance between two people.” You can cite some examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

　　Part II Listening Comprehension (30 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 1 with a single line through the centre.

　　1. A) She has completely recovered.

　　B) She went into shock after an operation.

　　C) She is still in a critical condition.

　　D) She is getting much better.

　　2. A) Ordering a breakfast. C) Buying a train ticket.

　　B) Booking a hotel room. D) Fixing a compartment.

　　3. A) Most borrowers never returned the books to her.

　　B) The man is the only one who brought her book back.

　　C) She never expected anyone to return the books to her.

　　D) Most of the books she lent out came back without jackets.

　　4. A) She left her work early to get some bargains last Saturday.

　　B) She attended the supermarket’s grand opening ceremony.

　　C) She drove a full hour before finding a parking space.

　　D) She failed to get into the supermarket last Saturday.

　　5. A) He is bothered by the pain in his neck.

　　B) He cannot do his report without a computer.

　　C) He cannot afford to have a coffee break.

　　D) He feels sorry to have missed the report.

　　6. A) Only top art students can show their works in the gallery.

　　B) The gallery space is big enough for the man’s paintings.

　　C) The woman would like to help with the exhibition layout.

　　D) The man is uncertain how his art works will be received.

　　7. A) The woman needs a temporary replacement for her assistant.

　　B) The man works in the same department as the woman does.

　　C) The woman will have to stay in hospital for a few days.

　　D) The man is capable of dealing with difficult people.

　　8. A) It was better than the previous one.

　　B) It distorted the mayor’s speech.

　　C) It exaggerated the city’s economic problems.

　　D) It reflected the opinions of most economists.

　　Questions 9 to 12 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　9. A) To inform him of a problem they face.

　　B) To request him to purchase control desks.

　　C) To discuss the content of a project report.

　　D) To ask him to fix the dictating machine.

　　10. A) They quote the best price in the market.

　　B) They manufacture and sell office furniture.

　　C) They cannot deliver the steel sheets on time.

　　D) They cannot produce the steel sheets needed.

　　11. A) By marking down the unit price.

　　B) By accepting the penalty clauses.

　　C) By allowing more time for delivery.

　　D) By promising better after-sales service.

　　12. A) Give the customer a ten percent discount.

　　B) Claim compensation from the steel suppliers.

　　C) Ask the Buying Department to change suppliers.

　　D) Cancel the contract with the customer.

　　Questions 13 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　13. A) Stockbroker. C) Mathematician.

　　B) Physicist. D) Economist.

　　14. A) Improve computer programming. C) Predict global population growth.

　　B) Explain certain natural phenomena. D) Promote national financial health.

　　15. A) Their different educational backgrounds. C) Chaos theory and its applications.

　　B) Changing attitudes toward nature. D) The current global economic crisis.

　　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 1 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage One

　　Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　16. A) They lay great emphasis on hard work. C) They require high academic degrees.

　　B) They name 150 star engineers each year. D) They have people with a very high IQ.

　　17. A) Long years of job training. C) Distinctive academic qualifications.

　　B) High emotional intelligence. D) Devotion to the advance of science.

　　18. A) Good interpersonal relationships. C) Sophisticated equipment.

　　B) Rich working experience. D) High motivation.

　　Passage Two

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

　　19. A) A diary. C) A history textbook.

　　B) A fairy tale. D) A biography.

　　20. A) He was a sports fan. C) He disliked school.

　　B) He loved adventures. D) He liked hair-raising stories.

　　21. A) Encourage people to undertake adventures.

　　B) Publicize his colorful and unique life stories.

　　C) Raise people’s environmental awareness.

　　D) Attract people to America’s national parks.

　　Passage Three

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

　　22. A) The first infected victim. C) The doctor who first identified it.

　　B) A coastal village in Africa. D) A river running through the Congo.

　　23. A) They exhibit similar symptoms.

　　B) They can be treated with the same drug.

　　C) They have almost the same mortality rate.

　　D) They have both disappeared for good.

　　24. A) By inhaling air polluted with the virus.

　　B) By contacting contaminated body fluids.

　　C) By drinking water from the Congo River.

　　D) By eating food grown in Sudan and Zaire.

　　25. A) More strains will evolve from the Ebola virus.

　　B) Scientists will eventually find cures for Ebola.

　　C) Another Ebola epidemic may erupt sooner or later.

　　D) Once infected, one will become immune to Ebola.

　　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 with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

　　The ideal companion machine would not only look, feel, and sound friendly but would also be programmed to behave in an agreeable manner. Those (26) __________ that make interaction with other people enjoyable would be simulated as closely as possible, and the machine would appear to be (27)__________, stimulating, and easygoing. Its informal conversational style would make interaction comfortable, and yet the machine would remain slightly (28) __________ and therefore interesting. In its first (29)__________ it might be somewhat hesitant and unassuming, but as it came to know the user it would progress to a more (30)__________ style. The machine would not be a passive (31)__________ but would add its own suggestions, information, and opinions; it would sometimes take the (32)__________ in developing or changing the topic and would have a (33)__________ of its own.

　　The machine would convey presence. We have all seen how a computer’s use of personal names often fascinates people and leads them to treat the machine as if it were almost human. Such features are easily written into the software. By introducing (34) __________ forcefulness and humor, the machine could be presented as a vivid and unique character.

　　Friendships are not made in a day, and the computer would be more acceptable as a friend if it simulated the (35) __________ that occur when one person is getting to know another. At an appropriate time it might also express the kind of affection that stimulates attachment and intimacy.

　　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.

　　The central notion of social learning theories is that people learn attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through social ___36___. The learning is a result of reinforcement, imitation, and modeling.

　　Reinforcement occurs when we receive direct or indirect rewards or punishments for particular ___37___ role behaviors. For example, a little girl who puts on her mother’s makeup may be told that she is cute, but her brother who does the same thing will be ___38___. Children also learn gender roles through ___39___reinforcement. For example, if a little boy’s male friends are punished for crying, he will learn that “boys don’t cry.”

　　Children also learn to ___40___ as boys or girls through observation and imitation. Even when children are not directly rewarded or punished for “behaving like boys” or “behaving like girls,” they learn about gender by ___41___ who does what in their families. A father who is ___42___ at home because he’s always working sends the message that men are supposed to earn money. A mother who is always complaining about being overweight or old sends the message that women are supposed to be thin and young.

　　Because parents are emotionally important to their children, they are typically a child’s most ___43___ role models. Other role models include caregivers, teachers, friends, and celebrities. According to a multiethnic study of Los Angeles adolescents, teenagers who said that their role model was someone they knew, e.g. a parent, relative, friend, or doctor outside the family, had higher self-esteem, higher grades, and lower ___44___ use than peers whose role models were sports figures, singers, or other media characters. The researchers concluded that role model selection can have a positive or negative outcome on a teenager’s ___45___ development.

　　A) psychosocial I) scolded

　　B) gender J) watching

　　C) praised K) substance

　　D) indirect L) connection

　　E) display M) usually

　　F) rarely N) behave

　　G) simulating O) powerful

　　H) interaction

　　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.

　　High-intensity Weight Training

　　A) Once a week, Maurice Hank Greenberg, the former chief executive of insurer AIG, leaves his Park Avenue office and travels across New York’s Central Park to a basement crowded with Rube Goldberg-esque machines in a brownstone building on the trendy Upper West Side. While Mr. Greenberg is renowned for his strong views on business, this crowded room is where the 87-year-old builds his remarkable physical strength.

　　B) Greenberg is among a small group of busy New York executives who make a pilgrimage(朝圣之旅) to a place called Serious Strength, a gym that specializes in a technique called high-intensity resistance training, to get a complete body workout in just 30 minutes a week. Unlike spending hours jogging on treadmills or pedaling exercise bikes, high-intensity weight training promises all the benefits of aerobics(有氧运动) plus more strength in just a fraction of the time of conventional workouts.

　　C) “The amount of weight I can push or pull is multiples of my own strength,” boasts Greenberg, who is now chairman and CEO of CV Star & Co, a financial services firm. “I’m exercising more strenuously than I ever have in my life. In just 30 minutes a week you can see progress in what you’re doing and how good you feel.”

　　D) While high-intensity weight training has been practiced since the 1980s, when an entrepreneur named Arthur Jones began making gym equipment under the Nautilus brand, the technique has only recently garnered sufficient scientific support to back up its superiority as a workout.

　　E) Books such as Body By Science, by a South Carolina-based emergency room physician named Doug McGuff, and The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution, by Fred Hahn, who owns Mr. Greenberg’s gym in New York, describe the scientific basis for exercising compound groups of muscles to total exhaustion using very slow movements. In practice, that means five or six exercises done for just five to six super slow repetitions, or just 15 minutes of actual lifting. Some adherents, such as McGuff, believe that just one workout a week is sufficient, while Hahn and others prefer two workouts.

　　F) Hahn points out that high-intensity resistance improves blood pressure, increases the level of good cholesterol(胆固醇) in your blood, lowers triglyceride(甘油三酸酯) levels, maintains blood sugar, helps with insulin sensitivity and builds not only muscular strength but muscular endurance. McGuff, meanwhile, flags up the medical benefits of the high-intensity workout, which he says can help eliminate “diabetes, hypertension, gout, hypercholesterolemia, and all the consequences of being sedentary and eating a diet of fast food.”

　　G) Although exercise fads come and go, high-intensity is in the unusual position of advocating that people actually practice it less. Hardcore bodybuilders have raised doubts about whether the system is really superior to their many hours spent in the gym, but proponents such as Hahn say that while you can build muscle in long workouts, why bother when less time spent in the gym can produce such good results. Proponents also point out that everyone has a genetic limit to how strong they can get or how big their muscles will grow, no matter how much exercise they do.

　　H) Perhaps counter-intuitively(与直观感受相反地), the high-intensity method seems to have gained more popularity in Europe than in the fitness-crazed US, where it faded from the cover of magazines after a brief surge in popularity about 10 years ago. McGuff thinks this is partly explained by the fact that recent scientific support for the method comes largely from European and Canadian universities. Another reason consists in Europe people’s lack of the culture of “more is better” that North Americans have. This work ethic where the answer is always to do more and do it harder makes people a lot more skeptical about an exercise system that restricts volume and frequency as a way to get results.

　　I) While it is possible to do a high-intensity workout with barbells or even body weight, most gyms that specialize in high-intensity use machines originally designed by Jones such as Nautilus and Med-X. This is because it can be dangerous to lift a heavy free weight to exhaustion. These machines involve rotation around several joints, working a large group of muscles at one time, reducing the overall time in the gym.

　　J) At least initially, the workout consists of what is termed “the big five”—a seated row, chest press, pull-down, overhead press and leg press, each done for about 90 seconds. McGuff says he even gets good results doing just three exercises, provided they are done extremely slowly and to complete exhaustion, followed by several days of recuperative (恢复性的) rest.

　　K) One company that has capitalized on the workout’s appeal to businesspeople is Kieser Training, a Zurich-based group that has set up many high-intensity gyms in Europe and Asia. “We target the professional, middle-aged executive who wants to exercise in a serious manner,” says Marcel Haasters, a German who runs the Kieser Training gym in London’s Camden Town. “There is no music, no mirrors on the wall and no juice bar. It’s not for typical gym users but people who don’t like typical gyms.”

　　L) Kieser appeals especially to mobile executives because for a￡580 annual fee, travelling businessmen can use any gym in the Kieser Training system from Zurich to Australia. The gym uses special machines licensed from the late Arthur Jones’s estate and features rehabilitative (使复原的) training as well as pure exercise.

　　M) Steven Bailey, a video games analyst for Screen Digest who lives near the City of London, says he has been doing the Kieser Training for three years and that it has changed his life. Bailey feels it’s great for people like him who has a sedentary lifestyle and sit at a desk all day. Before Kieser he used to collapse around 3pm but now he has a lot more energy.

　　N) A particularly impressive piece of equipment offered by Kieser Training looks like something out of the Spanish Inquisition (宗教法庭). Once you are strapped down and screwed into the machine, your lower body and hips are immobilized, which allows it to measure accurately the strength of your lower back muscles— which are often the bane of desk-bound executives. The Kieser machine has a computer database that compares your back strength to other individuals of your age group, and is then capable of training your back to make the muscles stronger.

　　O) Alastair McLellan, who uses the gym in Camden Town, started the workout about six years ago to help with his bad back. According to the 48-year-old editor of the Health Service Journal, the fact that he can build the strength in just one short session a week and solve his back problem makes it very good use of his time. It’s also allowed him to do a lot more exercise. He now cycles to work most days.

　　P) However, the workout’s proponents admit that while the method has many benefits, a high-intensity workout or any gym programme is unlikely to help executives completely lose those unsightly guts gained from years of eating expense-account lunches. For that, dietary changes are the most important ingredient.

　　46. Some books on health give a scientific account of how slow movements are used to practice muscles.

　　47. By exercising with machines devised by Jones, fitness lovers can train a large group of their muscles at one time and shorten the total exercise time.

　　48. High-intensity training has recently received enough scientific support to prove its effectiveness of keeping good health.

　　49. At first, high-intensity training includes five kinds of exercises and each lasts for around one and a half minute.

　　50. A video games analyst thinks it’s suitable for people sitting at a desk all day to do high-intensity exercises in the gym of Kieser Training.

　　51. A few business managers spend time on high-intensity resistance training regularly.

　　52. Exercising in a highly intense way cannot only make strong and enduring muscles, but also has some other benefits.

　　53. For senior managerial staff, the key to keeping good health is improving the food structure.

　　54. Some exercisers believe that genes decide one’s physical strength or muscular power regardless of the amount of exercise.

　　55. People who attach importance to traditional training are not the target customers of Kieser Training.

　　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.

　　The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was just as gloomy as anticipated. Unemployment in January jumped to a 16-year high of 7.6 percent, as 598,000 jobs were slashed from U.S. payrolls in the worst single-month decline since December, 1974. With 1.8 million jobs lost in the last three months, there is urgent desire to boost the economy as quickly as possible. But Washington would do well to take a deep breath before reacting to the grim numbers.

　　Collectively, we rely on the unemployment figures and other statistics to frame our sense of reality. They are a vital part of an array of data that we use to assess if we’re doing well or doing badly, and that in turn shapes government policies and corporate budgets and personal spending decisions. The problem is that the statistics aren’t an objective measure of reality; they are simply a best approximation. Directionally, they capture the trends, but the idea that we know precisely how many are unemployed is a myth. That makes finding a solution all the more difficult.

　　First, there is the way the data is assembled. The official unemployment rate is the product of a telephone survey of about 60,000 homes. There is another survey, sometimes referred to as the “payroll survey,” that assesses 400,000 businesses based on their reported payrolls. Both surveys have problems. The payroll survey can easily double-count someone: if you are one person with two jobs, you show up as two workers. The payroll survey also doesn’t capture the number of self-employed, and so says little about how many people are generating an independent income.

　　The household survey has a larger problem. When asked straightforwardly, people tend to lie or shade the truth when the subject is sex, money or employment. If you get a call and are asked if you’re employed, and you say yes, you’re employed. If you say no, however, it may surprise you to learn that you are only unemployed if you’ve been actively looking for work in the past four weeks; otherwise, you are “marginally attached to the labor force” and not actually unemployed.

　　The urge to quantify is embedded in our society. But the idea that statisticians can then capture an objective reality isn’t just impossible. It also leads to serious misjudgments. Democrats and Republicans can and will take sides on a number of issues, but a more crucial concern is that both are basing major policy decisions on guesstimates rather than looking at the vast wealth of raw data with a critical eye and an open mind.

　　56. What do we learn from the first paragraph?

　　A) The U.S. economic situation is going from bad to worse.

　　B) Washington is taking drastic measures to provide more jobs.

　　C) The U.S. government is slashing more jobs from its payrolls.

　　D) The recent economic crisis has taken the U.S. by surprise.

　　57. What does the author think of the unemployment figures and other statistics?

　　A) They form a solid basis for policy making.

　　B) They represent the current situation.

　　C) They signal future economic trends.

　　D) They do not fully reflect the reality.

　　58. One problem with the payroll survey is that ______.

　　A) it does not include all the businesses C) it magnifies the number of the jobless

　　B) it fails to count in the self-employed D) it does not treat all companies equally

　　59. The household survey can be faulty in that ______.

　　A) people tend to lie when talking on the phone

　　B) not everybody is willing or ready to respond

　　C) some people won’t provide truthful information

　　D) the definition of unemployment is too broad

　　60. At the end of the passage, the author suggests that ______.

　　A) statisticians improve their data assembling methods

　　B) decision makers view the statistics with a critical eye

　　C) politicians listen more before making policy decisions

　　D) Democrats and Republicans cooperate on crucial issues

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　At some point in 2008, someone, probably in either Asia or Africa, made the decision to move from the countryside to the city. This nameless person pushed the human race over a historic threshold, for it was in that year that mankind became, for the first time in its history, a predominantly urban species.

　　It is a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Demographers (人口统计学家) reckon that three-quarters of humanity could be city-dwelling by 2050, with most of the increase coming in the fast-growing towns of Asia and Africa. Migrants to cities are attracted by plentiful jobs, access to hospitals and education, and the ability to escape the boredom of a farmer’s agricultural life. Those factors are more than enough to make up for the squalor (肮脏), disease and spectacular poverty that those same migrants must often at first endure when they become urban dwellers.

　　It is the city that inspires the latest book from Peter Smith. His main thesis is that the buzz of urban life, and the opportunities it offers for co-operation and collaboration, is what attracts people to the city, which in turn makes cities into the engines of art, commerce, science and progress. This is hardly revolutionary, but it is presented in a charming format. Mr Smith has written a breezy guidebook, with a series of short chapters dedicated to specific aspects of urbanity—parks, say, or the various schemes that have been put forward over the years for building the perfect city. The result is a sort of high-quality, unusually rigorous coffee-table book, designed to be dipped into rather than read from beginning to end.

　　In the chapter on skyscrapers, for example, Mr Smith touches on construction methods, the revolutionary invention of the automatic lift, the practicalities of living in the sky and the likelihood that, as cities become more crowded, apartment living will become the norm. But there is also time for brief diversions onto bizarre ground, such as a discussion of the skyscraper index (which holds that a boom in skyscraper construction is a foolproof sign of an imminent recession).

　　One obvious criticism is that the price of breadth is depth; many of Mr Smith’s essays raise as many questions as they answer. Although that can indeed be frustrating, this is probably the only way to treat so grand a topic. The city is the building block of civilisation and of almost everything people do; a guidebook to the city is really, therefore, a guidebook to how a large and ever-growing chunk of humanity chooses to live. Mr Smith’s book serves as an excellent introduction to a vast subject, and will suggest plenty of further lines of inquiry.

　　61. In what way is the year 2008 historic?

　　A) For the first time in history, urban people outnumbered rural people.

　　B) An influential figure decided to move from the countryside to the city.

　　C) It is in this year that urbanisation made a start in Asia and Africa.

　　D) The population increase in cities reached a new peak in Asia and Africa.

　　62. What does the author say about urbanisation?

　　A) Its impact is not easy to predict. C) It is a milestone in human progress.

　　B) Its process will not slow down. D) It aggravates the squalor of cities.

　　63. How does the author comment on Peter Smith’s new book?

　　A) It is but an ordinary coffee-table book.

　　B) It is flavoured with humourous stories.

　　C) It serves as a guide to arts and commerce.

　　D) It is written in a lively and interesting style.

　　64. What does the author say in the chapter on skyscrapers?

　　A) The automatic lift is indispensable in skyscrapers.

　　B) People enjoy living in skyscrapers with a view.

　　C) Skyscrapers are a sure sign of a city’s prosperity.

　　D) Recession closely follows a skyscraper boom.

　　65. What may be one criticism of Mr Smith’s book?

　　A) It does not really touch on anything serious.

　　B) It is too long for people to read from cover to cover.

　　C) It does not deal with any aspect of city life in depth.

　　D) It fails to provide sound advice to city dwellers.

　　Part IV Translation (30 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.

　　中国卫生监督部门决定在未来三到五年之内建立一个全国性的网络，用以监测空气污染对人类健康的影响。这一目标于国家卫生和计划生育委员会(National Health and Family Planning Commission)针对空气污染的一份工作文件中披露。根据这份文件，该网络将收集不同地区空气中的PM2.5数据和主要空气污染物浓度变化的数据。这将为分析和评估空气污染对健康的影响提供数据支持。这一文件提到，缺乏长期而系统的监测使国家无法揭示空气污染和人类健康之间的联系。

　　2013年6月大学英语六级考试真题答案