2014年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案(第三套)

2014

年

12

月大学 英语六级考试真题三

Writing (30 minutes)

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the picture below. You

should

start

your

essay

with

a

brief

description

of

the

picture

and

then

discuss

whether

technology

is indispensable in education. You should give sound arguments to support your views and write

at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

Listening Comprehension (30 minutes)

Section A

1 A) In a parking lot.

B) At a grocery.

C) At a fast food restaurant.

D) In a car showroom.

2. A) Change her position now and then.

B) Stretch her legs before standing up.

C) Have a little nap after lunch.

D) Get up and take a short walk.

3. A) The students should practice long-distance running.

B) The students

’

physical condition is not desirable.

C) He doesn

’

t quite believe what the woman says.

D) He thinks the race is too hard for the students.

4. A) They will get their degrees in two years.

B They are both pursuing graduate studies.

C) They cannot afford to get married right now.

D) They do not want to have a baby at present.

5. A) He must have been mistaken for Jack.

B) Twins usually have a lot in common.

C) Jack is certainly not as healthy as he is.

D) He has not seen Jack for quite a few days.

6. A) The woman will attend the opening of the museum.

B) The woman is asking the way at the crossroads.

C) The man knows where the museum is located.

D) The man will take the woman to the museum.

7. A) They cannot ask the guy to leave.

B) The guy has been coming in for years.

C) The guy must be feeling extremely lonely.

D) They should not look down upon the guy.

8. A) Collect timepieces. B) Become time-conscious.

C) Learn to mend clocks. D) Keep track of his daily activities.

9. A) It is eating into its banks.

B) It wind its way to the sea.

C) It is wide and deep.

D) It is quickly rising.

10. A) Try to speed up the operation by any means.

B) Take the equipment apart before being ferried.

C) Reduce the transport cost as much as possible.

D) Get the trucks over to the other side of the river.

11. A) Find as many boats as possible.

B) Cut trees and build rowing boats.

C) Halt the operation until further orders.

D) Ask the commander to send a helicopter.

12. A) Talk about his climbing experiences. B) Help him join an Indian expedition.

C) Give up mountain climbing altogether. D) Save money to buy climbing equipment.

13.

A)

He

was

the

first

to

conquer

Mt.

Qomolangma.

B)

He

had

an

unusual

religious

background.

C) He climbed mountains to earn a living. D) He was very strict with his children.

14. A) They are to be conquered. B) They are to be protected.

C) They are sacred places. D) They are like humans.

15. A) It was his father

’

s training that pulled him through.

B) It was a milestone in his mountain climbing career.

C) It helped him understand the Sherpa view of mountains.

D) It was his father who gave him the strength to succeed.

Section B

Passage One

16. A) By showing a memorandum

’

s structure. B) By analyzing the organization of a letter.

C) By comparing memorandums with letters. D) By reviewing what he has said previously.

17. A) They ignored many of the memorandums they received.

B) They placed emphasis on the format of memorandums.

C) They seldom read a memorandum through to the end.

D) They spent a lot of time writing memorandums.

18. A) Style and wording. B) Directness and clarity.

C) Structure and length. D) Simplicity and accuracy.

19. A) Inclusion of appropriate humor. B) Direct statement of purpose.

C) Professional look. D) Accurate dating.

Passage Two

20. A) They give top priority to their work efficiency.

B) They make an effort to lighten their workload.

C) They try hard to make the best use of their time.

D) They never change work habits unless forced to.

21. A) Sense of duty.

B) Self-confidence.

C) Work efficiency.

D) Passion for work.

22. A) They find no pleasure in the work they do.

B) They try to avoid work whenever possible.

C) They are addicted to playing online games.

D) They simply have no sense of responsibility.

Passage Three

23. A) He lost all his property. B) He was sold to a circus.

C) He ran away from his family. D) He was forced into slavery.

24. A) A carpenter. B) A master of his.

C) A businessman. D) A black drummer.

25. A) It named its town hall after Solomon Northup. B) It freed all blacks in the town from

slavery.

C) It declared July 24 Solomon Northup Day. D) It hosted a reunion for the Northup family.

Section C

Intolerance

is

the

art

of

ignoring

any

views

that

differ

from

your

own.

It

(26)

________

itself

in

hatred,

stereotypes,

prejudice,

and

(27)________

.

Once

it

intensifies

in

people,

intolerance

is nearly impossible to overcome. But why would anyone want to be labeled intolerant? Why would

people want to be (28) ________ about the world around them? Why would one want be part of the

problem in America, instead of the solution?

There are many explanations for intolerant attitudes, some (29) ________ childhood. It is

likely that intolerant

forks grew

up (30) ________ intolerant

parents and the

cycle of

prejudice

has simply continued for (31) ________ . Perhaps intolerant people are so set in their ways that

they find it easier to ignore anything that might not (32) ________ their limited view of life.

Or maybe intolerant students have simply never been (33) ________ to anyone different from

themselves. But none of these reasons is an excuse for allowing the intolerance to continue.

Intolerance

should

not

be

confused

with

disagreement.

It

is,

of

course,

possible

to

disagree

with

an

opinion

without

being

intolerant

of

it.

If

you

understand

a

belief

but

still

don

’

t

believe

in that specific belief, that

’

s fine. You are (34) ________your opinion. As a matter of fact,

(35) ________ dissenters

（持异议者）

are important for any belief. If we all believed the same

things,

we

would

never

grow,

and

we

would

never

learn

about

the

world

around

us.

Intolerance

does

not stem from disagreement. It stems from fear. And fear stems from ignorance.

Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section A

His future subjects have not always treated the Prince of Wales with the respect one might

expect. They laughed aloud in 1986 when the heir to the British 36 told a TV reporter that he

talked to his plants at his country house, Highgrove, to stimulate their growth. The Prince was

being humorous

—“

My sense of humor will get me into trouble one day,

”

he said to his aides

（随从）—

but listening to Charles Windsor can indeed prove stimulating. The royal 37 has been

promoting

radical

ideas

for

most

of

his

adult

life.

Some

of

his

38,

which

once

sounded

a

bit

weird,

were simply ahead of their time. Now, finally, the world seems to be catching up with him.

Take his views on fanning. Prince Charles' Duchy Home Farm went 39 back in 1986, when most

shoppers cared only about the low price tag on suspiciously blemish-free

（无瑕疵的）

vegetables

and 40 large chickens piled high in supermarkets.

His warnings on climate change proved farsighted, too. Charles began 41 action on global

warming in 1990 and says he has been worried about the 42 of man on the environment since he was

a teenager.

Although he has gradually gained international 43 as one of the world

’

s leading

conservationists, many British people still think of him as an 44 person who talks to plants.

This year, as it happens, South Korean scientists proved that plants really do 45 to sound. So

Charles was ahead of the game there, too.

A) conform

B) eccentric

C) environmentalist

D) expeditions

E) impact

F) notions

G) organic

H) originally

I) recognition

J) respond

K) subordinate

L) suppressing

M) throne

N) unnaturally

O) urging

参考答案：

36-40 MCFNH 41-45 OEIBJ

Section B

High School Sports Aren

’

t Killing Academics

[A] In this month's Atlantic cover article,

Ripley argues that school-sponsored sports programs should be seriously cut. She writes that,

unlike most countries that outperform the United States on international assessments, American

schools put too much of an emphasis on athletics.

“

Sports are embedded in American schools in

a way they are not almost anywhere else,

“

Yet this difference hardly ever comes

up in domestic debates about America' international mediocrity

（平庸）

in education.

”

[B]

American

student-athletes

reap

many

benefits

from

participating

in

sports,

but

the

costs

to the schools could outweigh their benefits, she argues. In particular, Ripley contends that

sports

crowd

out

the

academic

missions

of

schools:

America

should

learn

from

South

Korea

and

Finland

and every other country at the top level of international test scores, all of whom emphasize

athletics far less in school.

“

Even in eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the

time

Korean

kids

spend

playing

sports,

”

she

writes,

citing

a

2010

study

published

in

the

Journal

of Advanced Academics.

[C] It might well be true that sports are far more rooted in American high schools than in

other countries. But our reading of international test scores finds no support for the argument

against

school

athletics.

Indeed,

our

own

research

and

that

of

others

lead

us

to

make

the

opposite

case. School-sponsored sports appear to provide benefits that seem to increase, not detract

（减

少）

from, academic success.

[D] Ripley indulges a popular obsession

（痴迷）

with international test score comparisons,

which

show wide and frightening gaps between the United States and

other countries. She ignores,

however, the fact that states vary at least as much in test scores as do developed countries.

A 2011 report from Harvard University shows that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable

to South Korea and

Finland, while

Mississippi scores are closer to

Trinidad and Tobago. Ripley

’

s thesis about sports falls apart in light of this fact. Schools in Massachusetts provide sports

programs

while

schools

in

Finland

do

not.

Schools

in

Mississippi

may

love

football

while

in

Tobago

interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent. Sports cannot explain these similarities

in performance. They can

’

t explain international differences either.

[E] If it is true that sports undermine the academic mission of American schools, we would

expect

to

see

a

negative

relationship

between

the

commitment

to

athletics

and

academic

achievement.

However, the University of Arkansas

’

s Daniel Bowen and Jay Greene actually find the opposite.

They examine this relationship by analyzing schools

’

sports winning percentages as well as

student- athletic participation rates compared to graduation rates and standardized test score

achievement over a five-year period for all public high schools in

Ohio. Controlling for student

poverty levels, demographics

（人口统计状况）

, and district financial resources, both measures

of a school's commitment to athletics are significantly and positively related to lower dropout

rates as well as higher test scores.

[F] On-the-field success and high participation in sports is not random

—

it requires focus

and dedication to athletics. One might think this would lead schools obsessed with winning to

deemphasize academics. Bowen and Greened results contradict that argument. A likely explanation

for this seemingly c ounterintuitive

（与直觉相反的）

resul t is that success in sports programs

actually facilitates or reflects greater social capital within a school's community.

[G] Ripley cites the writings of renowned sociologist James Coleman, whose research in

education

was

groundbreaking.

Coleman

in

his

early

work

held

athletics

in

contempt,

arguing

that

they

crowded

out

schools

’

academic

missions.

Ripley

quotes

his

1961

study,

The

Adolescent

Society,

where

Coleman

writes,

“

Altogether,

the

trophy

（奖品）

case

would

suggest

to

the

innocent

visitor

that he was entering an athletic club, not an educational institution.

”

[H] However, in later research Coleman would show how the success of schools is highly

dependent

on

what

he

termed

social

capital,

“

the

norms,

the

social

networks,

and

the

relationships

between adults and children that are of value for the child

’

s growing up.

”

[I] According to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago,

a

program

called

Becoming

a

Man

—

Sports

Edition

creates

lasting

improvements

in

the

boys

’

study

habits and grade point averages. During the first year of the program, students were found to

be less likely to transfer schools or be engaged in violent crime. A year after the program,

participants were less likely to have had an encounter with the juvenile justice system.

[J] If school-sponsored sports were completely eliminated tomorrow, many American students

would still have opportunities to participate in organized athletics elsewhere, much like they

do in countries such as Finland, Germany, and South Korea. The same is not certain when it comes

to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. In an overview of the research on non-school

based after- school programs, researchers find that disadvantaged children participate in these

programs at significantly lower rates. They find that low-income students have less access due

to

challenges

with

regard

to

transportation,

non-nominal

fees,

and

off- campus

safety.

Therefore,

reducing or eliminating these opportunities would most likely deprive disadvantaged students of