subjects2014年12月大学英语六级考试样题及答案

2021年1月8日发(作者：蒙铎)
2014年12月大学英语六级考试样题及答案



Part I Writing (30 minutes)
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting
on the remark “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but
not every man’s greed.” You can cite examples to illustrate your point.
You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. Write
your essay on
Answer Sheet 1
.





Part II
Section A
Listening Comprehension
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(30 minutes)
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) The man happened to see Anna fall on her back.
B) The serious accident may leave Anna paralyzed.
C) The doctor’s therapy has been very successful.
D) The injury will confine Anna to bed for quite a while.


2. A) Give his contribution some time later.
B) Borrow some money from the woman.
C) Buy an expensive gift for Gemma.
D) Take up a collection next week.


3. A) Add more fruits and vegetables to her diet.
B) Ask Tony to convey thanks to his mother.
C) Tell Tony’s mother that she eats no meat.
D) Decline the invitation as early as possible.


4. A) She phoned Fred about the book.
B) She was late for the appointment.
C) She ran into Fred on her way here.
D) She often keeps other people waiting.
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5. A) Simply raise the issue in their presentation.
B) Find more relevant information for their work.
C) Put more effort into preparing for the presentation.
D) Just make use of whatever information is available.


6. A) He needs a vehicle to be used in harsh weather.
B) He has a fairly large collection of quality trucks.
C) He has had his truck adapted for cold temperatures.
D) He does routine truck maintenance for the woman.


7. A) Visit a different store for a silk or cotton shirt.
B) Get a discount on the shirt she is going to buy.
C) Look for a shirt of a more suitable color and size.
D) Replace the shirt with one of some other material.


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



Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
9. A) To test how responsive dolphins are to various signals.
B) To examine how long it takes dolphins to acquire a skill.
C) To see if dolphins can learn to communicate with each other.
D) To find out if the female dolphin is cleverer than the male one.



10. A) Press the right-hand lever first.
B) Produce the appropriate sound.

C) Raise their heads above the water.
D) Swim straight into the same tank.

11. A) Both dolphins were put in the same tank.
B) The male dolphin received more rewards.
C) The lever was beyond the dolphins’ reach.
D) Only one dolphin was able to see the light.



Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
12. A) Good or bad, they are there to stay.
B) Believe it or not, they have survived.
C) Like it or not, you have to use them.
D) Gain or lose, they should be modernised.



13. A) The frequent train delays.
B) The monopoly of British Railways.
C) The food sold on the trains.
D) The high train ticket fares.
14. A) Competition from other modes of transport.
B) The low efficiency of their operation.
C) Constant complaints from passengers.
D) The passing of the new transport act.



15. A) They will be de-nationalised.
B) They lose a lot of money.
C) They are fast disappearing.
D) They provide worse service.
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.
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1 上作答。

Passage One
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. A) Iced coffees sold by some popular chains are contaminated.
B) Some iced coffees have as many calories as a hot dinner.
C) Some brand-name coffees contain harmful substances.
D) Drinking coffee after a meal is more likely to cause obesity.



17. A) Have some fresh fruit.
B) Take a hot shower.

C) Exercise at the gym.
D) Eat a hot dinner.

18. A) They could enjoy a happier family life.
B) They could greatly improve their work efficiency.
C) Many embarrassing situations could be avoided.
D) Many cancer cases could be prevented.



Passage Two
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.
19. A) It has attracted worldwide attention.
B) It will change the concept of food.
C) It can help solve global food crises.
D) It will become popular gradually.



20. A) It comes regularly from its donors.
B) It has been drastically cut by NASA.
C) It has been increased over the years.
D) It is still far from being sufficient.

21. A) They are less healthy than we expected.
B) They are not as natural as we believed.
C) They are not as expensive as before.
D) They are more nutritious and delicious.



Passage Three
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
22. A) Writing articles on family violence.
B) Hunting news for the daily headlines.
C) Reporting criminal offenses in Greenville.
D) Covering major events of the day in the city.



23. A) It has fewer violent crimes than big cities.
B) It is a much safer place than it used to be.
C) Assaults often happen on school campuses.
D) Rapes rarely occur in the downtown areas.


24. A) They are very destructive.
B) There are a wide range of cases.
C) There has been a rise in such crimes.
D) They have aroused fear among the residents.



25. A) Offer help to crime victims.
B) Work as a newspaper editor.
C) Write about something pleasant.
D) Do some research on local politics.
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.



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. ―You’re 26 .‖ ―You’re so strong.‖ We first
see ourselves through the eyes of others, so their messages form important 27 of
our self-concepts. Later we interact with teachers, friends, 28 partners, and co-
workers who communicate their views of us. Thus, how we see ourselves reflects
the views of us that others communicate.
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The 29 connection between identity and communication is dramatically
evident in children who 30 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 hindered by lack of language.
Communication with others not only affects our sense of identity but also directly
influences our physical and emotional 31 . Consistently, research shows that
communicating with others promotes health, whereas social isolation 32 stress,
disease, and early death. People who lack close friends have greater levels of anxiety
and depression than people who are close to others. A group of researchers reviewed
33 studies that traced the relationship between health and interaction with others.
The conclusion was that social isolation is 34 as dangerous as high blood
pressure, smoking and obesity. Many doctors and researchers believe that loneliness
harms the immune system, making us more 35 to a range of minor and major
illnesses.




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.
To understand why we should be concerned about how young people read, it
helps to know something about the way the ability to read evolved. Unlike the ability
to understand and produce spoken language, the ability to read must be painstakingly
36 by each individual. The ―reading circuits‖ we construct in the brain can be
37 or they can be robust, depending on how often and how 38 we use them.
The deep reader enters a state of hypnotic trance (心醉神迷的状态
)
. When
readers are enjoying the experience the most, the pace of their reading 39 slows.
The combination of fast, fluent decoding of words and slow, unhurried progress on
the page gives deep readers time to enrich their reading with reflection and analysis. It
gives them time to establish an 40 relationship with the author, the two of them
41 in a long and warm conversation like people falling in love.
This is not reading as many young people know it. Their reading is instrumental:
the difference between what literary critic Frank Kermode calls ―carnal (肉体的
)
reading‖ and ―spiritual reading.‖ If we allow our offspring to believe carnal reading is
all there is — if we don’t open the door to spiritual reading, through an early 42
on discipline and practice — we will have 43 them of an enjoyable experience
they would not otherwise encounter. Observing young people’s 44 to digital


devices, some progressive educators talk about ―meeting kids where they are,‖
molding instruction around their onscreen habits. This is mistaken. We need,
45 , to show them someplace they’ve never been, a place only deep reading can
take them.


A) acquired
B) actually
C) attachment
D) cheated
E) engaged
F) feeble
G) illicit
H) insistence
I) intimate
J) notwithstanding
K) petition
L) rather
M) scarcely
N) swayed
O) vigorously

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 world has never seen population ageing before. Can it cope?

[A] Until the early 1990s nobody much thought about whole populations getting older.
The UN had the foresight to convene a ―world assembly on ageing‖ back in 1982,
but that came and went. By 1994 the World Bank had noticed that something big
was happening. In a report entitled ―Averting the Old Age Crisis‖, it argued that
pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.

[B] For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, sounded the
alarm. They had titles like Young vs Old, Gray Dawn and The Coming
Generational Storm, and their message was blunt: health-care systems were
heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and
soon there would be intergenerational warfare.

[C] Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is
known about the subject. Books, conferences and research papers have multiplied.
International organisations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports.
Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO
summits. The World Economic Forum plans to consider the future of pensions
and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media,
including this newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.
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Into the Unknown
[D] Whether all that attention has translated into sufficient action is another question.
Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care
promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on
reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on
the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not
bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.
[E] The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal (财政的) meltdown,
public pensions and health-care provision will have to be reined back severely and
taxes may have to go up. By far the most effective method to restrain pension
spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax
revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may even keep
them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP’s head of policy and strategy, points to
studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have
lower death rates than their retired peers.

[F] Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and
that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that
older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty
of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and
partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the
labour force, increasing employers’ choice. But the reservoir of women able and
willing to take up paid work is running low, and the baby-boomers are going grey.

[G] In many countries immigrants have been filling such gaps in the labour force as
have already emerged (and remember that the real shortage is still around ten
years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and
it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for
about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing western Europe for
about 90%.

[H] On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have
lots of young people in need of jobs; many rich countries need helping hands that
will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few
decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of
immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice
their current size in western Europe’s most youthful countries, and three times in
the older ones. Japan would need a large multiple of the few immigrants it has at
present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think
that immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.

[I] To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, ―old‖ countries would
have to rejuvenate (使年轻) themselves by having more of their own children. A
number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a
simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care.
Modern urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women
find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just
one child.
[J] And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the
world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will slowly become a
different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more strongly
disinclined to take risks than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the
voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over
50—and older people turn out to vote in much greater numbers than younger ones.
Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their
power at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though
if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.

[K] Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After
all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and
grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Mannheim
University found that 85% of them lived within 25km of each other and the
majority of them were in touch at least once a week.

[L] Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a
profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts
of other ways too. Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of America’s CSIS, in a
thoughtful book called The Graying of the Great Powers, argue that, among other
things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious
security implications.


[M] For example, the shortage of young adults is likely to make countries more
reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050,
America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world’s
defence effort. Because America’s population will still be growing when that of
most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed
country that still matters geopolitically (地缘政治上).
Ask me in 2020
[N] There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to
live with it. But some of the consequences can be alleviated. Many experts now
believe that given the right policies, the effects, though grave, need not be
catastrophic. Most countries have recognised the need to do something and are
beginning to act.


[O] But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening
now is historically unprecedented. Ronald Lee, director of the Centre on the
Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California, Berkeley,
puts it briefly and clearly: ―We don’t really know what population ageing will be
like, because nobody has done it yet.‖



46. Employers should realise it is important to keep older workers in the workforce.
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47. A recent study found that most old people in some European countries had
regular weekly contact with their adult children.

48. Few governments in rich countries have launched bold reforms to tackle the
problem of population ageing.

49. In a report published some 20 years ago, the sustainability of old-age pension
systems in most countries was called into doubt.

50. Countries that have a shortage of young adults will be less willing to send them to
war.

51. One- child families are more common in ageing societies due to the stress of
urban life and the difficulties of balancing family and career.

52. A series of books, mostly authored by Americans, warned of conflicts between
the older and younger generations.

53. Compared with younger ones, older societies tend to be less innovative and take
fewer risks.

54. The best solution to the pension crisis is to postpone the retirement age.

55. Immigration as a means to boost the shrinking labour force may meet with
resistance in some rich countries.

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.

For most of the 20th century, Asia asked itself what it could learn from the
modern, innovating West. Now the question must be reversed: what can the West’s
overly indebted and sluggish (经济滞长的) nations learn from a flourishing Asia?
Just a few decades ago, Asia’s two giants were stagnating (停滞不前) under
faulty economic ideologies. However, once China began embracing free-market
reforms in the 1980s, followed by India in the 1990s, both countries achieved rapid
growth. Crucially, as they opened up their markets, they balanced market economy
with sensible government direction. As the Indian economist Amartya Sen has wisely
said, ―The invisible hand of the market has often relied heavily on the visible hand of
government.‖

Contrast this middle path with America and Europe, which have each gone
ideologically overboard in their own ways. Since the 1980s, America has been
increasingly clinging to the ideology of uncontrolled free markets and dismissing the
role of government—following Ronald Reagan’s idea that ―government is not the
solution to our problem; government is the problem.‖ Of course, when the markets
came crashing down in 2007, it was decisive government intervention that saved the
day. Despite this fact, many Americans are still strongly opposed to ―big
government.‖
If Americans could only free themselves from their antigovernment doctrine,
they would begin to see that America’s problems are not insoluble. A few sensible
federal measures could put the country back on the right path. A simple consumption
tax of, say, 5% would significantly reduce the country’s huge government deficit
without damaging productivity. A small gasoline tax would help free America from
its dependence on oil imports and create incentives for green energy development. In
the same way, a significant reduction of wasteful agricultural subsidies could also
lower the deficit. But in order to take advantage of these common-sense solutions,
Americans will have to put aside their own attachment to the idea of smaller
government and less regulation. American politicians will have to develop the
courage to follow what is taught in all American public- policy schools: that there are
good taxes and bad taxes. Asian countries have embraced this wisdom, and have built
sound long-term fiscal (财政的) policies as a result.
Meanwhile, Europe has fallen prey to a different ideological trap: the belief that
European governments would always have infinite resources and could continue
borrowing as if there were no tomorrow. Unlike the Americans, who felt that the
markets knew best, the Europeans failed to anticipate how the markets would react to
their endless borrowing. Today, the European Union is creating a $$580 billion fund to
ward off sovereign collapse. This will buy the EU time, but it will not solve the bloc’s
larger problem.


56. What has contributed to the rapid economic growth in China and India?
A) Free market plus government intervention.
B) Heavy reliance on the hand of government.
C) Copying western-style economic behavior.
D) Timely reform of government at all levels.

57. What does Ronald Reagan mean by saying ―government is the problem‖ (Line 5,
Para. 3)?
A) Government action is key to solving economic problems.
B) Many social problems arise from government inefficiency.
C) Many social ills are caused by wrong government policies.
D) Government regulation hinders economic development.
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