2013年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案(第二套)

　　2013年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案(第二套)

　　Part I Writing (30 minutes)

　　Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay about the impact of the information explosion by referring to the saying “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” You can give examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you can do to avoid being distracted by irrelevant information. 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) Weather conditions. C) An error in the order.

　　B) Labor problems. D) Misplacing of goods.

　　2. A) What the woman says makes a lot of sense.

　　B) The rich are opposed to social welfare.

　　C) He agrees with Mr. Johnson’s views.

　　D) He is sympathetic with poor people.

　　3. A) He has work to finish in time. C) He has a tough problem to solve.

　　B) He will be practicing soccer. D) He will be attending a meeting.

　　4. A) Mary will not be able to keep a dog in the building.

　　B) Mary should get rid of her pet as soon as possible.

　　C) Mary might as well send her dog to her relative.

　　D) Mary is not happy with the ban on pet animals.

　　5. A) He does not believe they are twin sisters. C) Lisa and Gale are not very much alike.

　　B) The woman seems a bit hard of hearing. D) The twins’ voices are quite different.

　　6. A) The serious economic crisis in Britain.

　　B) A message from their business associates.

　　C) A package deal to be signed in November.

　　D) Their ability to deal with financial problems.

　　7. A) Cleaning the pants will take longer than usual.

　　B) The man will be charged extra for the service.

　　C) The man has to go to the main cleaning facility.

　　D) It is impossible to remove the stain completely.

　　8. A) European markets. C) Luxury goods.

　　B) Imported products. D) A protest rally.

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

　　9. A) He talked to her on the phone. C) He made a business trip.

　　B) He had a quarrel with Marsha. D) He resolved a budget problem.

　　10. A) She has developed some serious mental problem.

　　B) She may have to be fired for poor performance.

　　C) She supervises a number of important projects.

　　D) She is in charge of the firm’s budget planning.

　　11. A) Something unexpected happened at her home.

　　B) David promised to go on the trip in her place.

　　C) She failed to arrive at the airport on time.

　　D) She was not feeling herself on that day.

　　12. A) He often fails to follow through on his projects.

　　B) He has been trying hard to cover for Marsha.

　　C) He is always finding fault with Marsha.

　　D) He frequently gets things mixed up.

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

　　13. A) They are better sheltered from all the outside temptations.

　　B) They take an active part in more extracurricular activities.

　　C) They are usually more motivated to compete with their peers.

　　D) They have more opportunities to develop their leadership skills.

　　14. A) Its students aim at managerial posts.

　　B) Its students are role models of women.

　　C) Its chief positions are held by women.

　　D) Its teaching staff consists of women only.

　　15. A) They have ample opportunities to meet the opposite sex.

　　B) They are more or less isolated from the outside world.

　　C) It is traditional but colourful.

　　D) It is under adequate control.

　　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 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　16. A) By speaking with the local accent. C) By making gestures at strategic points.

　　B) By speaking in a deep, loud voice. D) By invading the personal space of listeners.

　　17. A) To promote sportsmanship among business owners.

　　B) To raise money for a forthcoming local sports event.

　　C) To encourage people to support local sports groups.

　　D) To show his family’s contribution to the community.

　　18. A) They would certainly appeal to his audience.

　　B) They are known to be the style of the sports world.

　　C) They are believed to communicate power and influence.

　　D) They represent the latest fashion in the business circles.

　　19. A) To create a warm personal atmosphere.

　　B) To cover up his own nervousness.

　　C) To allow the audience to better enjoy his slides.

　　D) To enhance the effect of background music.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　20. A) She was the first African-American slave to publish a book.

　　B) She was born about the time of the War of Independence.

　　C) She was the greatest female poet in Colonial America.

　　D) She was the first educated slave of John Wheatley’s.

　　21. A) Turn to the colonial governor for help. C) Obtain consent from her owner.

　　B) Go through a scholarly examination. D) Revise it a number of times.

　　22. A) Religious scripts popular among slaves in America.

　　B) Literary works calling for the abolition of slavery.

　　C) A rich stock of manuscripts left by historical figures.

　　D) Lots of lost works written by African-American women.

　　Passage Three

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

　　23. A) It is a trait of generous character. C) It is a sign of happiness and confidence.

　　B) It is a reflection of self-esteem. D) It is an indicator of high intelligence.

　　24. A) It was the essence of comedy. C) It was self-defeating.

　　B) It was something admirable. D) It was aggressive.

　　25. A) It is a feature of a given culture. C) It is a result of both nature and nurture.

　　B) It is a double-edged sword. D) It is a unique gift of human beings.

　　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.

　　It is important that we be mindful of the earth, the planet out of which we are born and by which we are nourished, guided, healed—the planet, however, which we have (26)__________ to a considerable degree in these past two centuries of (27)__________ exploitation. This exploitation has reached such (28)__________ that presently it appears that some hundreds of thousands of species will be (29)__________ before the end of the century.

　　In our times, human shrewdness has mastered the deep (30)__________ of the earth at a level far beyond the capacities of earlier peoples. We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throwaway paper products. We can (31)__________ the great grass cover of the western plains and pour (32)__________ chemicals into the soil until the soil is dead and blows away in the wind. We can pollute the air with acids, the rivers with sewage (污水), the seas with oil. We can invent computers (33)__________ processing ten million calculations per second. And why? To increase the volume and the speed with which we move natural resources through the consumer economy to the junk pile or the waste heap. Our managerial skills are measured by the competence (34)__________ in accelerating this process. If in these activities the physical features of the planet are damaged, if the environment is made inhospitable for (35)__________ living species, then so be it. We are, supposedly, creating a technological wonderworld.

　　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.

　　Some performance evaluations require supervisors to take action. Employees who receive a very favorable evaluation may deserve some type of recognition or even a promotion. If supervisors do not acknowledge such outstanding performance, employees may either lose their ___36___ and reduce their effort or search for a new job at a firm that will ___37___ them for high performance. Supervisors should acknowledge high performance so that the employee will continue to perform well in the future.

　　Employees who receive unfavorable evaluations must also be given attention. Supervisors must ___38___ the reasons for poor performance. Some reasons, such as a family illness, may have a temporary adverse ___39___ on performance and can be corrected. Other reasons, such as a bad attitude, may not be temporary. When supervisors give employees an unfavorable evaluation, they must decide whether to take any ___40___ actions. If the employees were unaware of their own deficiencies, the unfavorable evaluation can pinpoint (指出) the deficiencies that employees must correct. In this case, the supervisor may simply need to monitor the employees ___41___ and ensure that the deficiencies are corrected.

　　If the employees were already aware of their deficiencies before the evaluation period, however, they may be unable or unwilling to correct them. This situation is more serious, and the supervisor may need to take action. The action should be ___42___ with the firm’s guidelines and may include reassigning the employees to new jobs, ___43___ them temporarily, or firing them. A supervisor’s action toward a poorly performing worker can ___44___ the attitudes of other employees. If no ___45___ is imposed on an employee for poor performance, other employees may react by reducing their productivity as well.

　　A) additional I) identify

　　B) affect J) impact

　　C) aptly K) penalty

　　D) assimilate L) reward

　　E) circulation M) simplifying

　　F) closely N) suspending

　　G) consistent O) vulnerable

　　H) enthusiasm

　　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.

　　The College Essay: Why Those 500 Words Drive Us Crazy

　　A) Meg is a lawyer-mom in suburban Washington, D.C., where lawyer-moms are thick on the ground. Her son Doug is one of several hundred thousand high-school seniors who had a painful fall. The deadline for applying to his favorite college was Nov. 1, and by early October he had yet to fill out the application. More to the point, he had yet to settle on a subject for the personal essay accompanying the application. According to college folklore, a well-turned essay has the power to seduce (诱惑) an admissions committee. “He wanted to do one thing at a time,” Meg says, explaining her son’s delay. “But really, my son is a huge procrastinator (拖延者). The essay is the hardest thing to do, so he’s put it off the longest.” Friends and other veterans of the process have warned Meg that the back and forth between editing parent and writing student can be traumatic (痛苦的).

　　B) Back in the good old days—say, two years ago, when the last of my children suffered the ordeal (折磨)—a high-school student applying to college could procrastinate all the way to New Year’s Day of their senior year, assuming they could withstand the parental pestering (烦扰). But things change fast in the nail-biting world of college admissions. The recent trend toward early decision and early action among selective colleges and universities has pushed the traditional deadline of January up to Nov. 1 or early December for many students.

　　C) If the time for heel-dragging has been shortened, the true source of the anxiety and panic remains what it has always been. And it’s not the application itself. A college application is a relatively straightforward questionnaire asking for the basics: name, address, family history, employment history. It would all be innocent enough—20 minutes of busy work—except it comes attached to a personal essay.

　　D) “There are good reasons it causes such anxiety,” says Lisa Sohmer, director of college counseling at the Garden School in Jackson Heights, N.Y. “It’s not just the actual writing. By now everything else is already set. Your course load is set, your grades are set, your test scores are set. But the essay is something you can still control, and it’s open-ended. So the temptation is to write and rewrite and rewrite.” Or stall and stall and stall.

　　E) The application essay, along with its mythical importance, is a recent invention. In the 1930s, when only one in 10 Americans had a degree from a four-year college, an admissions committee was content to ask for a sample of applicants’ school papers to assess their writing ability. By the 1950s, most schools required a brief personal statement of why the student had chosen to apply to one school over another.

　　F) Today nearly 70 percent of graduating seniors go off to college, including two-year and four-year institutions. Even apart from the increased competition, the kids enter a process that has been utterly transformed from the one baby boomers knew. Nearly all application materials are submitted online, and the Common Application provides a one-size-fits form accepted by more than 400 schools, including the nation’s most selective.

　　G) Those schools usually require essays of their own, but the longest essay, 500 words maximum, is generally attached to the Common Application. Students choose one of six questions. Applicants are asked to describe an ethical dilemma they’ve faced and its impact on them, or discuss a public issue of special concern to them, or tell of a fictional character or creative work that has profoundly influenced them. Another question invites them to write about the importance (to them, again) of diversity—a word that has assumed magic power in American higher education. The most popular option: write on a topic of your choice.

　　H) “Boys in particular look at the other questions and say, ‘Oh, that’s too much work,’” says John Boshoven, a counselor in the Ann Arbor, Mich., public schools.“They think if they do a topic of their choice, ‘I’ll just go get that history paper I did last year on the Roman Empire and turn it into a first-person application essay!’ And they end up producing something utterly ridiculous.”

　　I) Talking to admissions professionals like Boshoven, you realize that the list of “don’ts” in essay writing is much longer than the “dos.”“No book reports, no history papers, no character studies,” says Sohmer.

　　J) “It drives you crazy, how easily kids slip into clichés (老生常谈)，” says Boshoven. “They don’t realize how typical their experiences are. ‘I scored the winning goal in soccer against our arch-rival.’‘My grandfather served in World War II, and I hope to be just like him someday.’ That may mean a lot to that particular kid. But in the world of the application essay, it’s nothing. You’ll lose the reader in the first paragraph.”

　　K) “The greatest strength you bring to this essay,” says the College Board’s how-to book, “is 17 years or so of familiarity with the topic: YOU. The form and style are very familiar, and best of all, you are the world-class expert on the subject of YOU... It has been the subject of your close scrutiny every morning since you were tall enough to see into the bathroom mirror.” The key word in the Common Application prompts is “you.”

　　L) The college admission essay contains the grandest American themes—status anxiety, parental piety (孝顺), intellectual standards—and so it is only a matter of time before it becomes infected by the country’s culture of excessive concern with self-esteem. Even if the question is ostensibly (表面上) about something outside the self (describe a fictional character or solve a problem of geopolitics), the essay invariably returns to the favorite topic: what is its impact on YOU?

　　M) “For all the anxiety the essay causes,” says Bill McClintick of Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, “it’s a very small piece of the puzzle. I was in college admissions for 10 years. I saw kids and parents beat themselves up over this. And at the vast majority of places, it is simply not a big variable in the college’s decision-making process.”

　　N) Many admissions officers say they spend less than a couple of minutes on each application, including the essay. According to a recent survey of admissions officers, only one in four private colleges say the essay is of “considerable importance” in judging an application. Among public colleges and universities, the number drops to roughly one in 10. By contrast, 86 percent place “considerable importance” on an applicant’s grades, 70 percent on “strength of curriculum.”

　　O) Still, at the most selective schools, where thousands of candidates may submit identically high grades and test scores, a marginal item like the essay may serve as a tie-breaker between two equally qualified candidates. The thought is certainly enough to keep the pot boiling under parents like Meg, the lawyer-mom, as she tries to help her son choose an essay topic. For a moment the other day, she thought she might have hit on a good one. “His father’s from France,” she says. “I said maybe you could write about that, as something that makes you different. You know: half French, half American. I said, ‘You could write about your identity issues.’ He said, ‘I don’t have any identity issues!’ And he’s right. He’s a well-adjusted, normal kid. But that doesn’t make for a good essay, does it?”

　　46. Today many universities require their applicants to write an essay of up to five hundred words.

　　47. One recent change in college admissions is that selective colleges and universities have moved the traditional deadline to earlier dates.

　　48. Applicants and their parents are said to believe that the personal essay can sway the admissions committee.

　　49. Applicants are usually better off if they can write an essay that distinguishes them from the rest.

　　50. Not only is the competition getting more intense, the application process today is also totally different from what baby boomers knew.

　　51. In writing about their own experiences many applicants slip into clichés, thus failing to engage the reader.

　　52. According to a recent survey, most public colleges and universities consider an applicant’s grades highly important.

　　53. Although the application essay causes lots of anxiety, it does not play so important a role in the college’s decision-making process.

　　54. The question you are supposed to write about may seem outside the self, but the theme of the essay should center around its impact on you.

　　55. In the old days, applicants only had to submit a sample of their school papers to show their writing ability.

　　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.

　　Among the government’s most interesting reports is one that estimates what parents spend on their children. Not surprisingly, the costs are steep. For a middle-class, husband-and-wife family (average pretax income in 2009:$76,250), spending per child is about $12,000 a year. With inflation the family’s spending on a child will total $286,050 by age 17.

　　The dry statistics ought to inform the ongoing deficit debate, because a budget is not just a catalog of programs and taxes. It reflects a society’s priorities and values. Our society does not—despite rhetoric (说辞) to the contrary—put much value on raising children. Present budget policies tax parents heavily to support the elderly. Meanwhile, tax breaks for children are modest. If deficit reduction aggravates these biases, more Americans may choose not to have children or to have fewer children. Down that path lies economic decline.

　　Societies that cannot replace their populations discourage investment and innovation. They have stagnant (萧条的) or shrinking markets for goods and services. With older populations, they resist change. To stabilize its population—discounting immigration—women must have an average of two children. That’s a fertility rate of 2.0. Many countries with struggling economies are well below that.

　　Though having a child is a deeply personal decision, it’s shaped by culture, religion, economics, and government policy. “No one has a good answer” as to why fertility varies among countries, says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of The Johns Hopkins University. Eroding religious belief in Europe may partly explain lowered birthrates. In Japan young women may be rebelling against their mothers’ isolated lives of child rearing. General optimism and pessimism count. Hopefulness fueled America’s baby boom. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, says Cherlin, “anxiety for the future” depressed birthrates in Russia and Eastern Europe.

　　In poor societies, people have children to improve their economic well-being by increasing the number of family workers and providing support for parents in their old age. In wealthy societies, the logic often reverses. Government now supports the elderly, diminishing the need for children. By some studies, the safety nets for retirees have reduced fertility rates by 0.5 children in the United States and almost 1.0 in Western Europe, reports economist Robert Stein in the journal National Affairs. Similarly, some couples don’t have children because they don’t want to sacrifice their own lifestyles to the time and expense of a family.

　　Young Americans already face a bleak labor market that cannot instill (注入) confidence about having children. Piling on higher taxes won’t help. “If higher taxes make it more expensive to raise children,” says Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, “people will think twice about having another child.” That seems like common sense, despite the multiple influences on becoming parents.

　　56. What do we learn from the government report?

　　A) Inflation increases families’ expenses. C) Budget reduction is around the corner.

　　B) Raising children is getting expensive. D) Average family expenditure is increasing.

　　57. What is said to be the consequence of a shrinking population?

　　A) Weakened national strength. C) Economic downturn.

　　B) Increased immigration. D) Social instability.

　　58. What accounted for America’s baby boom?

　　A) Optimism for the future. C) Religious beliefs.

　　B) Improved living conditions. D) Economic prosperity.

　　59. Why do people in wealthy countries prefer to have fewer children?

　　A) They want to further improve their economic well-being.

　　B) They cannot afford the time and expenses of rearing children.

　　C) They are concerned about the future of the coming generation.

　　D) They don’t rely on their children to support them in old age.

　　60. What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

　　A) To instill confidence in the young about raising children.

　　B) To advise couples to think twice before having children.

　　C) To encourage the young to take care of the elderly.

　　D) To appeal for tax reduction for raising children.

　　Passage Two

　　Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

　　Space exploration has always been the province of dreamers: The human imagination readily soars where human ingenuity (创造力) struggles to follow. A Voyage to the Moon, often cited as the first science fiction story, was written by Cyrano de Bergerac in 1649. Cyrano was dead and buried for a good three centuries before the first manned rockets started to fly.

　　In 1961, when President Kennedy declared that America would send a man to the moon by the decade’s end, those words, too, had a dreamlike quality. They resonated (共鸣) with optimism and ambition in much the same way as the most famous dream speech of all, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. two years later. By the end of the decade, both visions had yielded concrete results and transformed American society. And yet in many ways the two dreams ended up at odds with each other. The fight for racial and economic equality is intensely pragmatic (讲求实用的) and immediate in its impact. The urge to explore space is just the opposite. It is figuratively and literally otherworldly in its aims.

　　When the dust settled, the space dreamers lost out. There was no grand follow-up to the Apollo missions. The technologically compromised space shuttle program has just come to an end, with no successor. The perpetual argument is that funds are tight, that we have more pressing problems here on Earth. Amid the current concerns about the federal deficit, reaching toward the stars seems a dispensable luxury—as if saving one-thousandth of a single year’s budget would solve our problems.

　　But human ingenuity struggles on. NASA is developing a series of robotic probes that will get the most bang from a buck. They will serve as modern Magellans, mapping out the solar system for whatever explorers follow, whether man or machine. On the flip side, companies like Virgin Galactic are plotting a bottom-up assault on the space dream by making it a reality to the public. Private spaceflight could lie within reach of rich civilians in a few years. Another decade or two and it could go mainstream.

　　The space dreamers end up benefiting all of us—not just because of the way they expand human knowledge, or because of the spin-off technologies they produce, but because the two types of dreams feed off each other. Both Martin Luther King and John Kennedy appealed to the idea that humans can transcend what were once considered inherent limitations. Today we face seeming challenges in energy, the environment, health care. Tomorrow we will transcend these as well, and the dreamers will deserve a lot of the credit. The more evidence we collect that our species is capable of greatness, the more we will actually achieve it.

　　61. The author mentions Cyrano de Bergerac in order to show that ______.

　　A) imagination is the mother of invention

　　B) ingenuity is essential for science fiction writers

　　C) it takes patience for humans to realize their dreams

　　D) dreamers have always been interested in science fiction

　　62. How did the general public view Kennedy’s space exploration plan?

　　A) It symbolized the American spirit. C) It sounded very much like a dream.

　　B) It was as urgent as racial equality. D) It made an ancient dream come true.

　　63. What does the author say about America’s aim to explore space?

　　A) It may not bring about immediate economic gains.

　　B) It cannot be realized without technological innovation.

　　C) It will not help the realization of racial and economic equality.

　　D) It cannot be achieved without a good knowledge of the other worlds.

　　64. What is the author’s attitude toward space programs?

　　A) Critical. C) Unbiased.

　　B) Reserved. D) Supportive.

　　65. What does the author think of the problems facing human beings?

　　A) They pose a serious challenge to future human existence.

　　B) They can be solved sooner or later with human ingenuity.

　　C) Their solutions need joint efforts of the public and private sectors.

　　D) They can only be solved by people with optimism and ambition.

　　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.

　　中国园林(the Chinese garden)是经过三千多年演变而成的独具一格的园林景观(landscape)。它既包括为皇室成员享乐而建造的大型花园，也包括学者、商人和卸任的政府官员为摆脱嘈杂的外部世界而建造的私家花园。这些花园构成了一种意在表达人与自然之间应有的和谐关系的微缩景观。典型的中国园林四周有围墙，园内有池塘、假山(rockwork)、树木、花草以及各种各样由蜿蜒的小路和走廊连接的建筑。漫步在花园中，人们可以看到一系列精心设计的景观犹如山水画卷(scroll)一般展现在面前。