2016年6月英语六级考试真题试卷附答案和解析(第2套)

2016

年

6

月英语六 级考试真题试卷附答案和解析

(

第

2< /p>

套

)

Directions:

For this part, you are allowed 30

minutes

to write a short essay

on living in thevirtual world. Try to imagine what will happen when people spe

nd more and more time in thevirtual world instead of interacting in the real w

orld. You are required to write at least 150 wordsbut no more than 200 words

Section A

Directions:

In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of

each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation 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.

注意：

此部分试题请在答题卡

1

上作答。

Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

1. A) The project the man managed at CucinTech.

B) The updating of technology at CucinTech.

C)The man's switch to a new career

.

D) The restructuring of her company.

2. A) Talented personnel.

B) Strategic innovation.

C) Competitive products.

D) Effective promotion.

3. A) Expand the market.

B) Recruit more talents.

C) Innovate constantly.

D) Watch out for his competitors.

4. A) Possible bankruptcy.

B) Unforeseen difficulties.

C) Conflicts within the company.

D) Imitation by one's competitors.

Questions 5 to 8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

5. A) The job of an interpreter

.

B) The stress felt by professionals.

C) The importance of language proficiency.

D) The best way to effective communication.

6. A) Promising.

B) Admirable.

C) Rewarding.

D) Meaningful.

7. A) They all have a strong interest in language.

B) They all have professional qualifications.

C) They have all passed language proficiency tests.

D) They have all studied cross-cultural differences.

8. A) It requires a much larger vocabulary.

B) It attaches more importance to accuracy.

C) It is more stressful than simultaneous interpreting.

D) It puts one's long-term memory under more stress.

.

Section B

Directions:

In this section, you will hear two passages. At the end of each pa

ssage, you willhear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questio

ns will be spoken only you hear a question, you must choose the b

est answer from the four choices marked A),B), C) and D). Then mark the cor

responding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line throughthe centre.

Passage One

Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.

9. A) It might

affect

mothers' health.

B) It might

disturb

infants' sleep.

C) It might increase the risk of infants, death.

D) It might increase mothers'

mental

distress

.

10. A) Mothers who breast-feed their babies have a harder time falling asleep.

B) Mothers who sleep with their babies need a little more sleep each night.

C) Sleeping patterns of mothers greatly

affect

their newborn babies' health.

D) Sleeping with infants in the same room has a

negative

impact

on mother

s.

11. A) Change their sleep patterns to

adapt

to their newborn babies'.

B) Sleep in the same room but not in the same bed as their babies.

C) Sleep in the same house but not in the same room as their babies.

D) T

ake precautions to reduce the risk of sudden infant death

syndrome

.

Passage Two

Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.

12. A) A lot of native languages have already died out in the US.

B) The US ranks first in the number of endangered languages.

C) The efforts to

preserve

Indian languages have proved fruitless.

D) More money is needed to record the native languages in the US.

13. A) To set up more language schools.

B) To

document

endangered languages.

C) To educate native American children.

D) To revitalise America's native languages.

14. A) The US govemment's policy of Americanising Indian children.

B) The failure of American Indian languages to gain an official

status

.

C) The US government's

unwillingness

to spend money educating Indians.

D) The long-time isolation of American Indians from the outside world.

15. A) It is being utilised to teach native languages.

B) It tells

traditional

stories during family time.

C) It speeds up the

extinction

of native languages.

D) It is widely used in language

immersion

schools.

Section C

Directions:

In this section, you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks

followed by threeor four questions. The recordings will be played only once. A

fter you hear a question, you mustchoose the best answer from the four choic

es marked A),B),C) and D). Then mark thecorresponding letter on Answer Sh

eet 1 with a single line through the centre.

Recording One

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the

recording

you have just heard.

16. A) It pays them up to half of their

previous

wages while they look for wo

rk.

B) It covers their

mortgage

payments and medical expenses for 99 weeks.

C) It pays their living expenses until they find employment again.

D) It provides them with the basic necessities of everyday life.

17. A) Creating jobs for the huge army of unemployed workers.

B) Providing training and

guidance

for unemployed workers.

C) Convincing local lawmakers to

extend

unemployment

benefits.

D) Raising

funds

to help those having no

unemployment

insurance

.

18. A) To offer them loans they need to start their own businesses.

B) To allow them to

postpone

their monthly

mortgage

payments.

C) To create more jobs by encouraging private investments in local companies.

D) To

encourage

big businesses to hire back workers with government subsi

dies.

Recording Two

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the

recording

you have just heard.

19. A) They

measured

the depths of sea water

.

B) They analyzed the water content.

C) They explored the ocean floor

.

D) They investigated the ice.

20. A) Eighty percent of the ice disappears in summer time.

B) Most of the ice was accumulated over the past centuries.

C) The ice ensures the

survival

of many endangered

species

.

D) The ice decrease is more evident than

previously

thought.

21. A) Arctic ice is a major

source

of the world's fresh water

.

B) The melting Arctic ice has drowned many coastal cities.

C) The

decline

of Arctic ice is irreversible.

D) Arctic ice is

essential

to human

survival

.

22. A) It will do a lot of harm to mankind.

B) There is no easy way to

understand

it.

C) It will advance nuclear technology.

D) There is no easy technological

solution

to it.

Recording Three

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the

recording

you have just heard.

23. A) The reason why New Zealand children seem to have better self-

contro

l

.

B) The relation between children's self-

control

and their future success.

C) The health problems of children raised by a single parent.

D) The deciding

factor

in children's

academic

performance

.

24. A) Children raised by single parents will have a hard time in their thirties.

B) Those with a

criminal

record mostly come from single parent families.

C) Parents must learn to exercise self-

control

in front of their children.

D) Lack of self-

control

in parents is a

disadvantage

for their children.

25. A) Self-

control

can be improved through education.

B) Self-

control

can improve one's financial situation.

C) Self-

control

problems may be detected early in children.

D) Self-

control

problems will

diminish

as one grows up.

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 Street 2 with a single line through

the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.

The

robotics

revolution

is

set

to

bring

humans

face

to

face

with

an

old

fear

—

man-made creations as smart and capable as we are but without a moral

compass. As robots take on ever more complex roles, the question naturally

26__________

:

Who

will

be

responsible

when

they

do

something

wrong?

Manufacturers?Users?Software writers? The answer depends on the robot.

Robots already save us time, money and energy. In the future, they will improve

our health care, social welfare and standard of living. The 27__________ of

computational

power

and

engineering

advances

will

28__________

enable

lower-cost in-home care for the disabled, 29__________ use of driverless cars

that may reduce drunk- and distracted-driving accidents and countless home

and service-industry uses for robots, from street cleaning to food preparation.

But there are 30__________ to be problems. Robot cars will crash. A drone (

遥

控飞行器

) operator will 31__________ someone's privacy. A robotic lawn mower

will

run

over

a

neighbor's

cat.

Juries

sympathetic

to

the

32__________

of

machines will punish entrepreneurs with company-crushing 33__________ and

damages. What should governments do to protect people while 34__________

space for innovation?

Big, complicated systems on which much public safety depends, like driverless

cars,

should

be

built,

35__________

and

sold

by

manufacturers

who

take

responsibility

for

ensuring

safety

and

are

liable

for

accidents.

Governments

should set safety requirements and then let insurers price the risk of the robots

based on the manufacturer's driving record, not the passenger's.

A. arises

B. ascends

C. bound

D. combination

E. definite

F

. eventually

G. interfere

H. invade

I. manifesting

J. penalties

K. preserving

L. programmed

M. proximately

N. victims

O. widespread

Section B

Directions:

In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten stateme

nts attached to

statement

contains information given in one of the pa

ragraphs. Identify the paragraphfrom which the information is derived. You m

ay choose a paragraph more than once. Eachparagraph is marked with a lette

r

. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter onAnswer Sheet

2.

Reform and Medical Costs

[A] Americans are deeply

concerned

about the

relentless

rise in health care

costs and health

insurance

premiums. They need to know if

reform

will help

solve

the problem. The answer isthat no one has an easy fix for rising medic

al costs. The

fundamental

fix

—

reshaping how careis delivered and how doct

ors are paid in a wasteful,

abnormal

system

—

is likely to be achievedonly thr

ough

trial

and error and incremental (

渐进的）

gains.

[B] The good news is that a bill just approved by the House and a bill approve

d by the SenateFinance Committee would

implement

or test many reforms t

hat should help slow the rise inmedical costs over the long term. As a report i

n The New England Journal of Medicine concluded,

innovation

found in the health policy literature

these days is

contained

in these measures.

[C] Medical spending, which typically rises faster than wages and the

overall

economy, ispropelled by two things: the high prices charged for medical servi

ces in this country and thevolume of

unnecessary

care delivered by doctors

and hospitals, which often

perform

a lotmore tests and treatments than a pa

tient really needs.

[D] Here are some of the important proposals in the House and Senate bills t

o try to

address

those problems, and why it is hard to know how well they wil

l work.

[E] Both bills would reduce the rate of growth in annual Medicare payments to

hospitals,nursing homes and other providers by amounts

comparable

to the

productivity

savingsroutinely made in other industries with the help of new

technologies and new ways to

organize

work. This

proposal

could save Medi

care more than $$100 billion over the next

decade

. Ifprivate plans demanded

similar

productivity

savings from providers, and refused to letproviders

shift

additional

costs to them, the savings could be much larger

. Critics sayCongr

ess will give in to lobbyists and let

inefficient

providers off the

hook

That is f

ar less likelyto happen if Congress also adopts strong upaygo

”

rules requiring

that any increase inpayments to providers be

offset

by new taxes or

budget

cuts.

[F] The Senate Finance bill would

impose

an

excise

tax(

消

税

）

on health

insurance

plans thatcost more than $$8,000 for an individual or $$2

1,000 for a family. It would most likely causeinsurers to redesign plans to fall

beneath the threshold. Enrollees would have to pay moremoney for many ser

vices out of their own pockets, and that would

encourage

them to thinktwice

about whether an expensive or

redundant

test was worth it. Economists pro

ject thatmost employers would

shift

money from expensive health benefits in

to wages. The House billhas no similar tax. The final

legislation

should.

[G] Any doctor who has wrestled with

multiple

forms from different insurers,

or patients whohave tried to

understand

their own parade of statements, kn

ow that simplification ought tosave money. When the health

insurance

indus

try was still cooperating in

reform

efforts, itstrade group offered to provide st

andardized forms for automated processing. It estimated thatstep would save

hundreds of billions of dollars over the next

decade

. The bills would lock that

pledge

into law.

[H] The stimulus package provided money to

convert

the

inefficient

, paper-

driven medicalsystem to electronic records that can be easily viewed and tran

smitted. This requires openinvestments to help doctors

convert

. In time it sh

ould help

restrain

costs by eliminating

redundant

tests, preventing drug inte

ractions, and helping doctors find the best treatments.

[I] Virtually all experts agree that the fee-for-service system

—

doctors are rew

arded for the

quantity

of care rather than its

quality

or effectiveness

—

is a

pr

imary

reason that the cost ofcare is so high. Most agree that the

solution

is

to push doctors to accept fixed payments tocare for a

particular

illness or for

a patient's needs over a year

. No one knows how to makethat happen quickly

. The bills in both houses would start

pilot

projects within Medicare. Theyincl

ude such measures as accountable care organizations to take charge of a pati

ent's needswith an eye on both cost and

quality

, and

chronic

disease manag

ement to make sure theseriously ill, who are responsible for the

bulk

of all he

alth care costs, are treated properly. Forthe most part, these experiments rely

on

incentive

payments to get doctors to try them.

[J] Testing innovations do no good unless the good experiments are

identifie

d

and expandedand the bad ones are dropped. The Senate bill would create a

n

independent

commission

tomonitor the

pilot

programs and

recommend

changes in Medicare's

payment

policies to

urge

providers to

adopt

reforms t

hat work. The changes would have to be approved or rejected as awhole by C

ongress, making it hard for narrow- interest lobbies to

bend

lawmakers to the

ir will.

[K] The bills in both chambers would create health

insurance

exchanges on

which smallbusinesses and individuals could choose from an

array

of private

plans and possibly a public

option

. All the plans would have to provide standa

rd

benefit

packages that would be easy tocompare. To get access to millions

of new customers, insurers would have a strong

incentive

to sell on the

exch

ange

. And the head-to-head

competition

might give them a strong

incentiv

e

to lower their prices, perhaps by accepting slimmer profit margins or

dema

nding

better deals from providers.

[L] The final

legislation

might throw a public plan into the

competition

, but

thanks to thefierce

opposition

of the

insurance

industry and Republican criti

cs, it might not save muchmoney. The one in the House bill would have to ne

gotiate rates with providers, rather thanusing Medicare rates, as many reform

ers wanted.

[M] The president's stimulus package is pumping money into research to com

pare how wellvarious treatments work. Is

surgery

,

radiation

or careful moni

toring best for prostate (

前

列

腺

)cancer? Is the latest and most expensive cholesterol-lowering drug any bet

ter than its commoncompetitors? The pending bills would spend

additional

m

oney to

accelerate

this effort.

[N] Critics have charged that this

sensible

idea would lead to rationing of car

e.

(That would betrue only if you believed that patients should have an

unrestr

ained

right to treatments provento be

inferior

.) As a result, the bills do not r

equire, as they should, that the results of thesestudies be used to set

payme

nt

rates in Medicare.

[O] Congress needs to find the courage to allow Medicare to pay preferentially

for treatmentsproven to be

superior

. Sometimes the best treatment might b

e the most expensive. But

overall

, we

suspect

that spending would come do

wn through

elimination

of a lot of

unnecessary

or even dangerous tests and

treatments.

[P] The House bill would

authorize

the secretary of health and human servic

es to negotiatedrug prices in Medicare and Medicaid. Some

authoritative

an

alysts doubt that the secretarywould get better deals than private insurers alr

eady get. We believe

negotiation

could work. Itdoes in other countries.

[Q] Missing from these bills is any serious attempt to rein in

malpractice

cos

ts. Malpracticeawards do drive up

insurance

premiums for doctors in high-ris

k specialties, and there is some

evidence

that doctors

engage

in

medicine

negligent

should they get sued.

注意：此部 分试题请在答题卡

2

上作答。

36. With a tax imposed on expensive health

insurance

plans, most employer

s will likely

transfer

money from health expenses into wages.

37. Changes in policy would be approved or rejected as a whole so that lobbyi

sts would find ithard to influence lawmakers.

38. It is not easy to

curb

the rising medical costs in America.

39. Standardization of forms for automatic processing will save a lot of medic

al expenses.

40. Republicans and the

insurance

industry are strongly

opposed

to the cre

ation of a public

insurance

plan.

41. Conversion of paper to electronic medical records will help

eliminate

red

undant

tests and

prevent

drug interactions.

42. The high cost of medical services and

unnecessary

tests and treatments

have driven upmedical expenses.

43. One main

factor

that has driven up medical expenses is that doctors are

compensated forthe amount of care rather than its effect.

44. Contrary to analysts' doubts, the author believes drug prices may be lowe

red through

negotiation

.

45. Fair

competition

might create a strong

incentive

for insurers to charge l

ess.

Section C

Directions:

There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by

some questionsor

unfinished

statements. For each of them there are four c

hoices marked A.

, B.

, C. and D..You should decide on the best choice and m

ark the corresponding letter on Answer sheet with asingle line through the ce

ntre.

Passage One

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

Facing water shortages and escalating

fertilizer

costs, fanners in developing

countries are usingraw sewage (

下

水

道

污

水

）

to

irrigate

and

fertilize

nearly 49 million acres of cropland, accordingto a ne

w report

—

and it may not be a bad thing.

While the practice carries serious health risks for many, those dangers are out

weighed by the

social

and economic gains for poor

urban

farmers and consu

mers who need

affordable

food.

potential

for wastewater agriculture to both help and hurt g

reat numbers of

urban

consumers,

The report focused on poor

urban

areas, where farms in or near cities

suppl

y

relatively

inexpensive

food. Most of these operations draw irrigation water f

rom local rivers or developed cities, however

, these areas lack

ad

vanced

water- treatment facilities, andrivers

effectively

become sewers (

下

水道

).

When this water is used for agricultural irrigation, farmers risk absorbing dise

ase- causing

bacteria

, as do consumers who eat the

produce

raw and unwash

ed. Nearly 2.2 million peopledie each year because of diarrhea-

related

(

与

腹

泻

相

关

的

) diseases, according to WHO than 80% of those cases can b

e attributed to contact with

contaminated

water and alack of proper

sanitat

ion

. But Pay Drechsel, an environmental scientist, argues that the

social

and

economic benefits of using

untreated

human waste to grow food outweigh th

e healthrisks.

Those dangers can be addressed with farmer and consumer education, he sai

d, while the freewater and nutrients from human waste can help

urban

farme

rs in developing countries to

escape

poverty

.

Agriculture is a water-intensive business, accounting for nearly 70% of

global

fresh waterconsumption.

In poor

, dry regions,

untreated

wastewater is the only

viable

irrigation

sour

ce

to keep fannersin business. In some cases, water is so

scarce

that farmer

s break open sewage pipestransporting waste to local rivers.

Irrigation is the

primary

agricultural use of human waste in the developing w

orld. Butfrequently

untreated

human waste harvested from lavatories is deliv

ered to farms and

spread

as

fertilizer

.

In most cases, the human waste is used on grain crops, which are

eventuall

y

cooked,minimizing the risk of transmitting water- borne diseases. With

fertil

izer

prices jumping nearly50% per metric ton over the last year in some plac

es, human waste is an

attractive

, and oftennecessary,

alternative

.

In cases where sewage mud is used, expensive chemical

fertilizer

use can b

e avoided. The mudcontains the same

critical

nutrients.

strict

standards often fail,

rt, said.

planet

, so waste with little or

no treatment will be usedin agriculture for good reason.

46. What does the author say about the use of raw sewage for farming?

A. Its risks cannot be overestimated.

B. It should be

forbidden

altogether

.

C. Its benefits outweigh the hazards involved.

D. It is polluting millions of acres of cropland.

47. What is the main problem caused by the use of wastewater for irrigation?

A. Rivers and lakes nearby will gradually become

contaminated

.

B. It will drive producers of chemical fertilizers out of business.

C. Farmers and consumers may be

affected

by harmful

bacteria

.

D. It will make the farm

produce

less

competitive

on the market.

48. What is environmental scientist Pay Drechsel's attitude towards the use of

untreated

human waste in agriculture?

A. Favorable.

B. Skeptical.

C. Indifferent.

D. Responsible.

49. What does Pay Drechsel think of the risks involved in using

untreated

hu

man waste forfarming?

A. They have been somewhat

exaggerated

.

B. They can be dealt with through education.

C. They will be minimized with new technology.

D. They can be addressed by improved

sanitation

.

50. What do we learn about James Bartram's position on the use of human w

aste for farming?

A. He echoes Pay Drechsel's opinion on the

issue

.

B. He challenges Liqa Raschid-Sally's

conclusion

.

C. He thinks it the only way out of the

current

food crisis.

D. He deems it

indispensable

for combating

global

poverty

.

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.

These days, nobody needs to cook. Families graze on high-cholesterol take-a

ways andmicrowaved ready-meals. Cooking is an occasional hobby and a

veh

icle

for

celebrity

makes it odd that the

kitchen

has become the

heart of the modem house: what thegreat hall was to the

medieval

castle

,

the

kitchen

is to the 21st- century home.

The money spent on kitchens has risen with their

status

. In America the

kitc

hen

market is nowworth $$170 billion, five times the country's film industry. I

n the year to August 2007, IKEA, aSwedish furniture chain, sold over one milli

on kitchens worldwide. The average

budget

for a

kitchen

overhaul

i

n 2006, calculates Remodeling magazine, was a staggering $$54,000;even a

minor

< br>improvement

cost on average $$18,000.

Exclusivity, more familiar in the world of high fashion, has reached the

kitche

n

: Robinson& Cornish, a British manufacturer of custom-made kitchens,

offers a Georgian-style onewhich would cost

￡

145,000-155,000

—

excl uding b

uilding,

plumbing

and electrical work. Its bigselling point is that nobody else

will have it:

kitchen

anywhere else in theworld.

The

elevation

of the room that once belonged only to the servants to that of

design showcasefor the modem family tells the story of a century of

social

ch

ange. Right into the early 20thcentury, kitchens were smoky, noisy places, ge

nerally located underground, or to the back ofthe house, and as far from livin

g space as possible. That was as it should be: kitchens were forservants, and

the aspiring middle classes wanted nothing to do with them.

But as the working classes prospered and the servant shortage set in, housek

eeping became amatter of interest to the educated classes. One of the pionee

rs of a

radical

new way of thinkingabout the

kitchen

was Catharine Esther B

eecher

, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. In AmericanWoman's Home, publishe

d in 1869, the Beecher sisters recommended a scientific

approach

tohouseho

ld management, designed to

enhance

the

efficiency

of a woman's work and

promote

order

.

Many

contemporary

ideas about

kitchen

design can be traced back to anot

her American,Christine Frederick, who set about enhancing the

efficiency

of

the housewife. Her 1919 work,Household Engineering: Scientific Management

in the Home, was based on

detailedobservation

of a housewife's daily

rout

ine

. She borrowed the

principle

of

efficiency

on thefactory floor and applied

it to

domestic

tasks on the

kitchen

floor

.

Frederick's central idea, that

stove

,

sink

and

kitchen

table must be placed i

n such a relationthat useless steps are avoided entirely

inspired

the first ful

ly fitted

kitchen

, designed in the1920s by Margarete Schü

tter- Lihotsky. It wa

s a

modernist

triumph

, and many elementsremain central features of today'