大学英语六级考试快速阅读专项训练5篇

2021年1月16日发(作者：柏妍安)
Passage One
Reading Baby's Mind
The helpless, seemingly awkward infant staring up at you from his little bed, has a lot more going on inside his head than
you ever imagined. A wealth of new research is leading child psychologists to rethink their long-held beliefs about the emotional
and intellectual abilities of even very young babies. Science is now giving us a much different picture of what goes on inside their
hearts and heads. Long before they form their first words or attempt the feat of sitting up, they are already mastering complex
emotions-jealousy, empathy (移情), frustration- that were once thought to be learned much later.
A New Baby Research
Little Victoria Bateman is blue-eyed and as cute a baby as there ever was. At 6 months, she is also trusting and unsuspecting,
which is a good thing, because otherwise she'd never go along with what's about to happen. It's a sunny June afternoon in Lubbock,
Texas, and inside the Human Sciences lab at Texas Tech University, Victoria's mother is settling her daughter into a high chair,
where she is the latest subject in an ongoing experiment aimed at understanding the way babies think. Sybil Hart, an associate
professor of human development and leader of the study, trains video cameras on mother and daughter. Everything is set. Hart
hands the mother, Cheryl Bateman, a children's book, Elmo Pops In, and instructs her to engross herself in its pages.
a conversation with me about the book,
chat, Victoria looks around the room, feeling a little bored.
After a few minutes, Hart leaves the room and returns cradling a lifelike baby doll. Dramatically, Hart places it in Cheryl
Bateman's arms, and tells her to embrace the doll while continuing to ignore Victoria. Bateman coos,
hugging and rocking the doll. Victoria is not bored anymore. At first, she cracks her best smile. When that doesn't work, she
begins kicking. But her mom pays her no mind. That's when Victoria loses it. Soon she's crying so hard it looks like she might spit
up. Hart rushes in.
seen her react like that to anything,
in nearly every case: tiny babies, overwhelmed with jealousy. Even Hart was stunned to find that infants could experience an
emotion, which, until recently, was thought to be way beyond their grasp.
Findings of Baby Research
The new research is sure to confuse new parents-see, Junior is a genius-but it's more than just an academic exercise. Armed
with the new information, pediatricians (儿科医生) are starting to change the way they evaluate their youngest patients. In
addition to tracking physical development, they are now focusing much more deeply on emotional advancement. The research
shows how powerful emotional well-being is to a child's future health. A baby who fails to meet certain key
milestonesmay have trouble learning to speak, read and, later, do well in school. By reading emotional responses, doctors have
begun to discover ways to tell if a baby as young as 3 months is showing early signs of possible psychological disorders, including
depression, anxiety, learning disabilities and perhaps autism.
One of the earliest emotions that even tiny babies display is, admirably enough, empathy. In fact, concern for others may be
hard-wired into babies' brains. Place a newborn down next to another crying infant, and chances are, both babies will soon be
wailing (悲 叹) away.
psychology professor at New York University who did the first studies on infant empathy in the 1970s.
are they crying?Does it mean that the baby is truly concerned for his fellow human, or just annoyed by the racket? A recent
study conducted in Italy, which built on Hoffman's own work, has largely settled the question. Researchers played for infants tapes
of other babies' crying. As predicted, that was enough to start the tears flowing. But when researchers played babies, recordings
of their own cries, they rarely began crying themselves. The verdict:
says. The intensity of the emotion tends to fade over time. Babies older than 6 months no longer cry but grimace (作苦相) at the
discomfort of others. By 13 to 15 months, babies tend to take matters into their own hands. They'll try to comfort a crying
playmate. present, they'll bring their own mother over to help,
Hoffman says.
Part of that empathy may come from another early-baby skill, the ability to discern emotions from the facial expressions of
the people around them.
Montague, assistant professor of psychology at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. To put that belief to the test, Montague came
up with a twist on every infant's favorite game, and recruited dozens of 4-month-olds to play along. She began by peeking around
a cloth with a big smile on her face. Predictably, the babies were delighted, and stared at her intently-the time- tested way to tell if a
baby is interested. On the fourth peek, though, Montague emerged with a sad look on her face. This time, the response was much
different.
eye contact is a classic baby sign of distress. An angry face got their attention once again, but their faces showed no pleasure.

that babies younger than 6 months find meaning in expressions.
They are also far more sophisticated intellectually than we once believed. Babies, as young as 4 months, have advanced
powers of deduction and an ability to understand the intricate patterns. They have a surprisingly visual palette(燃料，调色板),
which enables them to notice small differences, especially in faces, that adults and older children lose the ability to see. Until a
baby is 3 months old, he can recognize a photograph of his mother just as quickly as a photo in which everything is in the right
place.
Challenges and Dangers of Baby Research
This might be a good place to pause for a word about the challenges and dangers of baby research. Since the subjects can't
speak for themselves, figuring out what's going on inside their heads is often a matter of reading their faces and body language. If
this seems speculative, it's not. Over decades of trial and error, researchers have fine-tuned their observation skills and zeroed in
on numerous consistent baby responses to various stimuli: how long they stare at an object, what they reach out for and what
makes them recoil in fear or disgust can often tell experienced researchers everything they need to know. More recently, scientists
have added EEGs and laser eye tracking, which allow more precise readings.
1. The passage is mainly about those researches that focus on the emotional and intellectual abilities of those very young babies.
2. The purpose of the experiment on Victoria Bateman is to find out how important the mother's love is to her baby.
3. In the experiment, Victoria Bateman cried because she thought that her mother didn't love her any more.
4. Only through reading emotional responses can doctors tell whether a 3-month baby will get possible psychological disorders.
5. Pediatricians are now paying less attention to physical development of their baby patients but more to _________________.
6. Hoffman's study revealed that babies are born to show other crying babies _________________.
7. The findings of Diane's test demonstrated the baby's ability to recognize_________________.
8. It is amazing to find that the visual palette of a baby helps him to notice _________________.
9. As for the challenges, those researchers have to obtain those findings about babies' mind by reading _________________.
10. In order to gain more precise readings about babies' mind, scientists have adopted the skills of EEGs and
_________________.

Passage Two
The Power of Personal Attitudes
Each of us is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts. There is our physical body and its organs, muscles, etc;
the vital being with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the mental part with its thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs,
etc. Somewhere between our emotions and our thought processing lie our attitudes -- our emotional perceptions about life, about
others, even towards our own selves. Attitudes generally express positively and negatively. E.g. when I have good feelings towards
my work or towards others, the attitude is positive. When I feel reluctant to do certain things that are necessary, or show hostility
towards certain individuals, then my attitude is negative.
Attitudes About Ourselves, Others, Life
Though we have many attitudes about all aspects of life, if we look a little closer we can identify three basic types—those that
have to do with ourselves, those we have about others and the objects around us, and those we have towards life itself. An example
of a negative attitude about ourselves is having low self-esteem, or low self-confidence. An example of a wanting attitudes about
others is a feeling ill will towards another person, or being mistrustful of others. An example of a negative attitude towards life is
being pessimistic that things will never turn out well. The good news however is that if we change any negative attitude to the
positive, life tends to quickly respond. Consider this true story, where a person changed her attitude about certain people:
A woman was working as a temporary employee for a large medical organization. For months, she complained about certain
coworkers at her job. At the time, she had decided to develop a 30-day plan to secure a full-time position. One part of her plan was
to change her attitude toward these particular individuals. In the days that followed, she persisted in following her plan, especially
focusing on her wanting attitude toward others. She was shocked however when a month into her plan, she was suddenly asked to
work for the organization full time -- her first non- temporary job in nearly a decade!
That is the power of changing a negative attitude toward others.
Negative Expressions Attracts Negative Response
So far we have indicated that changing a negative attitude can attract sudden instances of good fortune. Inversely, if we take
to a negative attitude, we can attract instances of bad fortune. For example, if we speak negatively about another person, it is likely
that problematic circumstances will arise.
A man “A” met a fellow instructor “B” before a class he was to perform that day. One of the things they discussed were
problems they had experienced in earlier classes. In particular, A kept talking about how the students at a certain client were
particularly difficult to work with. He persisted in expressing his feelings. Though that instructor rarely had problems with his
students, later on that day, as well as in the next two classes, he had a series of difficulties with his students!
As we see, when we express negative sentiment in life—whether it is ill will towards certain individuals or complaining about
situations—we tend to elicit ill fortune. The best approach then is to avoid all negative expressions or complaining about others. In
our moment-to-moment activities, we need to be mindful of our thoughts and feelings, and catch any negative
expression—whether it us a flawed attitudes, a limited opinions, or a hasty, reflexive reaction. This is indeed serious business,
because such expressions can literally destroy a work.


The Power of an Overall Positive Attitude
In addition to having the right attitudes towards others and life around us, it is always best to have an overall positive attitude.
Here’s another real-life incident to show you what I mean:
A management consultant was hoping to have a key meeting with the principle officers of a company with over $$100 billion in
assets. For days, he fretted about the deal as the potential client failed to contact him. He developed greater and greater doubts that
the meeting would ever take place. Finally, he remembered that it was important to have a positive attitude in these situations. He
decided to change his attitude about the potential meeting from worry and concern to being positive. A very short time later, he
was contacted by the client that the meeting could in fact take place. He was thrilled. In addition, years of high-level consulting
work followed with the client!
That is the power of having a generally positive attitude.
“I have a meeting with G, an important audio salesperson. We work through a system to get him committed and productive.
We discuss the fact that he must commit. During the meeting, I am conscious of my attitude that is negative about our chances of
success. I struggle to reverse them. We are then interrupted as the store is then filled with customers, and a good one for that
salesperson to boot!”
An overall positive attitude has the power to attract sudden good fortune from the world around us. We have also seen that
when difficult circumstances come in your way, and you do not get overwrought by them, maintaining a positive calm attitude, life
can suddenly reverse and cancel the problem or otherwise bring sudden instances of good fortune.

1. The main purpose of this article is to introduce the main parts of our physical body.
2. Our attitudes are our emotional perceptions about life and about others.
3. One’s low self-esteem shows a negative attitude about himself.
4. Even if we change any negative attitude to the positive, life will not change at all.
5. The story of the woman who finds a job by changing her attitude towards others shows us the power of changing a positive
attitude toward others.
6. If we speak positively about another person, good things will happen.
7. The story about the man “A” and the man “B” shows us if we speak negatively about another person, it is likely that
problematic circumstances will arise.
8. When we express negative sentiment in life, the best approach is to avoid _________ about others.
9. Besides having the right attitudes towards others and life around us, we should _________.
10. When difficult circumstances come in your way, __________ can help you to reverse life and cancel the problem.

Passage Three
Guide Dogs
For most dog owners, the expression “work like a dog” doesn’t make much sense. But some dogs happily perform very
demanding jobs for much of their life, putting in a full day’s work just like the rest of us. Guide dogs, one of the most familiar
sorts of working dog, provide an invaluable service to humans. Every day, they help their masters get from place to place more
safely.
What Guide Dogs Do
Guide dogs help blind or visually impaired people get around in the world. In most countries, they are allowed to anyplace
where the public is allowed, so they can help their handlers be in any place they might want to go to. To do this, a guide dog must
know how to:
· Keep on a direct route, ignoring distractions such as smells, other animals and people
· Maintain a steady pace, to the left and just ahead of the handler
· Stop at all curbs until told to proceed
· Turn left and right, move forward and stop on command
· Recognize and avoid obstacles that the handler won’t be able to fit through (narrow passages and low overheads)
· Stop at the bottom and top of stairs until told to proceed
· Bring the handler to elevator buttons
· Lie quietly when the handler is sitting down
· Help the handler to board and move around buses, subways and other forms of public Vehicles
· Obey a number of verbal commands
Additionally, a guide dog must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger. This ability, called
selective disobedience, is perhaps the most amazing thing about guide dogs that they can balance obedience with their own
assessment of the situation.
This capacity is extremely important at crosswalks, where the handler and dog must work very closely together to navigate
the situation safely. Dogs cannot distinguish the color of traffic lights, so the handler must make the decision of when it is safe to
proceed across the road. The handler listens to the flow of traffic to figure out when the light has changed and then gives the
command “forward”. If there is no danger, the dog proceeds across the road in a straight line. If there are cars approaching, the dog
waits until the danger is gone and then follows the forward command.
On the Job and After Hours
Guide dogs enjoy their work immensely, and they get a lot of satisfaction from a job well done, but there is no room for
typical dog fun during the work day. Games, treats and praise cannot distract the dog from helping its handler navigate the course.
Even when the handler doesn’t need assistance, a guide dog on the job is trained to ignore distractions and keep still. This is
because a guide dog must be able to come to the handler’s workplace or be in public places without creating a disturbance.
When you see a guide dog on the job, it is extremely important that you recognize that it is at work. Petting or talking to the
dog breaks its concentration, which impairs the handler’s ability to get around in his or her surroundings. People are very
impressed with guide dogs and so we have a natural inclination to praise them, but the best thing you can do to help a guide dog is
to leave it alone so that it can pay attention to its surroundings and maintain its focus on its handler. Guiding is very complicated,
and it requires a dog’s undivided attention.
When a guide dog gets home at the end of the day, however, it will play and soak up praise just like an ordinary pet. Guide
dogs make the distinction between work and play based on their lead harness: When the harness is on, they must stay completely
focused; when it comes off, it’s play time. Guide dogs work very hard every day, but they lead extremely happy lives, full of lots
of attention and stimulation. Dogs only end up working as guide dogs if they absolutely love the work. In fact, many handlers
report that their dogs leap enthusiastically into the harness every morning!
Training
People often raise Golden Retrievers(猎犬),German shepherds or Labradors(拉布拉多猎狗) as candidates of guide dogs.
Once a dog is grown up, socialized and well trained, it goes to the guide dog school for evaluation.
In some schools, if a dog is suited for training but not quite ready, it may go back to the puppy(幼犬) raiser for a month or so
to mature. If a dog is simply not suited for training, the school will work to place the dog in another line of work, such as tracking,
or find it a permanent home, usually offering it to the puppy raiser first. At Guiding Eyes for the Blind, only the top 50 percent of
the puppies will stay with the school. So the school places a little over 400 puppies with raisers each year, needing only 200 dogs
for the training program. Of that 200,a small percentage will become breeding stock, for Guiding Eyes or another school, and the
rest will be considered for the training program.
Training is a rigorous process for both the instructors and the dogs, but it’s also a lot of fun. To make sure the dogs are up to
the challenge, most schools test them extensively before beginning the training. The tests are designed to assess the dogs’
self- confidence level, since only extremely confident dogs will be able to deal with the pressure of guiding instruction. If a dog
passes the tests, it begins the training program right away.
Different schools have different programs, but typically, training will last four to five months. To make sure the dogs master
all the complex guide skills, the instructors have to introduce them to each idea gradually. Once they have introduced what is
expected of the dog, training is essentially a matter of rewarding correct performance and punishing incorrect performance. This
works with dogs because they are pack animals and have a natural need to please an authority figure. The instructor, or later the
handler, is simply stepping into the place of the alpha dog, the leader of the pack.