-
2010
年
12
月英语
六级听力原文
--SectionC
Psychologists
are
finding
that
hope
plays
a
surprisingly
vital
role
in
giving
people
a
measurable
advantage
in
rounds
as
diverse as academic achievement,
bearing up in tough jobs, and
coping
with tragic illness. And, by contrast, the loss of
hope, is
turning
out
to
be
a
stronger
sign
that
a
person
may
commit
suicide than other factors long thought
to be more likely risks.
‘Hope
has
proven
a
powerful
predictor
of
outcome
in
every
study
we've
done
so
far,’
said
Doctor
Charles
R.
Sn
yder,
a
psychologist, who has devised a scale
to assess how much hope
a
person
has.
For
example,
in
research
with
3920
college
students, Doctor Snyder and his
colleagues found that the level
of hope
among freshmen at the beginning of their first
semester
was a more accurate predictor
of their college grades, than were
their SAT scores or their grade point
averages in high school, the
two
measures
most
commonly
used
to
predict
college
performance.
‘Students
with
high
hope
set
themselves
higher
goals and know how to
work to attain them,
’
Doctor Snyder
said. ‘When
you compare students of equivalent intelligence
and
past
academic
achievements,
what
sets
them
apart
is
hope.’
In
devising a way to assess hope
scientifically, Doctor Snyder went
beyond
the
simple
notion
that
hope
is
merely
the
sense
that
everything
will
turn
out
all
right.
‘That
notion
is
not
concrete
enough
and
it
blurs
two
key
components
of
hope,’
Doctor
Snyder
said,
‘Having
hope
means
believing
you
have
both
the
will and the way to
accomplish your goals, whatever they may
be.
’
2010
年
12
月英语六级听力考试试题
Section A
短对话（
11~18
）
11
W:
This
is
one
of
our
best
and
least
expensive
two-bedroom
listings. It’s located in a quiet
building and it’s close to bus lines.
M:
That
maybe
true.
But
look
at
it,
it’s
awful,
the
paint
has
peeled
off and carpet is worn and the stove is ancient.
Q: What can we infer from
the conversation?
12
M: The pictures we took at
the botanical garden should be ready
tomorrow.
W: I
can’t wait to see them, I’m wondering if the shots
I took are
as good as I thought.
Q: What is the woman eager
to know?
13
W: The handle of the suitcase is
broken. Can you have it fixed by
next
Tuesday?
M:
Let
me
see,
I
need
to
find
a
handle
that
matches
but
that
shouldn’t take too long.
Q: What does the man mean?
14
M:
This
truck
look
s
like
what
I
need
but
I’m
worried
about
maintenance. For us
it’ll have to operate for long periods of time
in very cold temperatures.
W:
We
have
several
models
that
are
especially
adaptive
for
extreme conditions.
Would you like to see them?
Q: What do we learn about the man from
the conversation?
15
M:
I
think
your
boss
would
be
very
upset
when
he
gets
your
letter
of resignation.
W:
That
may
be
so.
But
in
the
letter,
I
just
told
him
frankly
I
could
no
longer
live
with
his
poor
management
and
stupid
decisions.
Q: What do we learn about
the woman?
16
W
I’d
like
to
exchange
the
shirt.
I’ve
learned
that
the
person
bought it for
allergic to wool.
M Maybe
we can find something in cotton or silk. Please
come
this way.
Q
；
What does the
women want to do
？
17
M:
Excuse
me,
Miss
？
Did
anyone
happen
to
turn
in
a
new
handbag? You know,
it
’
s a birthday gift for my
wife.
W: Let me see. Oh,
we’ve got quite a lot of women’s bags here.
Can
you
give
me
more
detailed
information,
such
as
the
color,
the size and the trademark?
Q: Where does this conversation most
probably take place?
18
M
What
are
you
going
to
do
with
the
old
house
you
are
in
heritage from your grandfather?
W I once intended to sell
it, but now, I’m thinking of turning it
into a guest house, because it's still
a solid structure.
Q: What
does the man plan to do with his old house?
长对话（
19~25
）
W: When
you write a novel, do you know where you’re going,
Dr.
James?
M:
Yes, you must, really, if you’re writing the
classical detective
story,
because
it
must
be
so
carefully
plotted
and
so
carefully
clued. I have
schemes. I have charts. I h
ave
diagrams. It doesn’t
mean
to
say
that
I
always
get
it
right,
but
I
do
plan
before
I
begin writing. But what is
so fascinating is how a book changes
during
the
process
of
writing.
It
seems
to
me
that
creative
writing is a
process of revelation, really, rather than of
creativity
in the ordinary sense.
W: When you’re planning the
basic structure, do you like to go
away
to be sure that you’re by yourself?
M: I need to be by myself
certainly, absolutely. I can’t even bare
anybody else in the house. I
don’t
mind much where I am as long
as
I’ve
got
enough
space
to
write,
but
I
need
to
be
completely
alone.
W: Is that very important
to you?
M: Oh, yes. I’ve
never been lonely in all my life.
W: How extraordinary!
Never?
M: No, never.
W: You’re very lucky.
Someone once said that there’s a bit of ice
at the heart of every writer.
M:
Yes.
I
think
this
is
true.
The
writer
can
stand
aside
from
experience
and
look
at
it,
watch
it
happening.
There
is
this
‘detachment’ and I realize that
there are obviously
experie
nces
which would
overwhelm everyone. But very often, a writer can
appear
to
stand
aside,
and
this
detachment
makes
people
feel
there’s a bit of ice in the
heart.
Questions
19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have
just
heard.
19.
What
is
the
key
to
write
a
good
classical
detective
story
according to the man?
20. What does the man mainly need when
working on a book?
21. What
does the man say about writers?
W: There is an element there about
competition then, isn’t there?
Because
British
railways
a
re
a
nationalized
industry.
There’s
only
one
railway
system
in
the
country.
If
you
don’t
like
a
particular kind of big
beans, you can go and buy another. But if
you don't like a particular railway,
you can’t go and use another.
M: Some people who write to
me say this. They say that if you
didn’t have monopoly, you wouldn’t be
able to do the things you
do. Well, I
don’t think we do anything deliberately to upset
our
customers.
We
have
particular
problems.
Since
1946, when
the
Transport Act came in, we were
nationalized.
W: Do you
think that’s a good thing? Has it been a good
thing
for the railways, do you think,
to be nationalized?
M: Oh I
think so, yes. Because in general, modes of
transport are
all around. Let’s face
the fact. The car arrived. The car is
here to
stay. There is no question
about that.
W:
So
what
are
you
saying
then?
Is
it
if
the
railways
happen
being nationalized,
they would simply have disappeared?
M:
Oh,
I
think
they
would
have.
They’re
disappearing
fast
in
America. Er, the French
railways lose 1 billion ponds a year. The
German
railways,
2
billion
ponds
a
year.
But
you
see,
those
governments
are
preparing
to
pour
money
into
the
transport
system to keep it
going.
W:
So
in
a
sense,
you
cope
between
two
extremes.
On
the
one
hand,
you’re
trying
not
to
lose
too
much
money.
And
on
the
other
hand, you’ve got to provide the best
service.
M: Yes,
you are right.
Questions 22
to 25 are based on the conversation you have just
heard.
22. What
does the woman say about British railways?
23. What do some people who
write to the man complain about?
24. What does the man say threatens the
existence of railways?
25.
What does the man say about railways in other
countries?
Section B
Passage One
Among
global
warming’s
most
frightening
threats
is
th
e
prediction is that the polar ice-caps
will melt, raising sea level so
much
that
coastal
cities
from
New
York
to
Los
Angles
to
Shanghai will be flooded. Scientists
agree that key player in this
scenario
is
the
West
Antarctic
ice
sheet,
a
Brazil-
size
mass
of
frozen water that is much as 7000 feet
thick. Unlike floating ice
shelves
which have little impact on sea level when they
break up,
the
ice
sheet
is
anchored
to
bedrock
will
blow
the
sea
surface.
Surrounded
by
open
ocean,
it
is
also
vulnerable,
but
Antarctic
experts
disagree
strongly
on
just
how
unstable
it
is.
Now,
new
evidence
reveals
that
all
or
most
of
the
Antarctic
ice
sheet
collapsed at least
once during the past 1.3 million years, a period
when global temperatures probably were
not significantly higher
than they are
today. And the ice sheet was assumed to have been
stable. In geological time, a
million years is recent
history. The
proof, which
was published last week in Science,
comes from a
team
of
scientists
from
Uppsala
University
in
Sweden
and
California Institute of Technology who
drew deep holes near the
edge
of
ice
sheet.
Within
samples
collected
from
the
solid
substances
lying
beneath
the
ice.
They
found
fossils
of
microscopic
marine
plants
which
suggest
that
the
region
was
once
open
ocean
not
solid
ice.
As
Herman
Engleheart,
a
co-
author from
the California Institute of Technology says, ‘the
West
Antarctic
ice
sheet
disappear
once
and
can
disappear
again.’
26.
What
is
one
of
the
most
frightening
threats
of
global
warming according to the passage?
27. What did scientists
disagree on?
28.
What
is
the
latest
information
revealed
about
the
West
Antarctic ice sheet?
29. What the scientists’ latest
findings suggest?
Passage Two
It's
always fun to write about research that you can
actually try
out for yourself.
Try this:
Take a
photo and upload it to Facebook, then after a
day
or
so,
note
what
the
URL
link
to
the
picture
is
and
then
delete
it.
Come
back
a
month
later
and
see
if
the
link
works.
Chances are: It will.
Facebook isn't alone here. Researchers
at Cambridge University
have found that
nearly half of the social networking sites don't
immediately
delete
pictures
when
a
user
requests
they
be
removed.
In
general,
photo-centric
websites
like
Flickr
were
found
to
be
better
at
quickly
removing
deleted
photos
upon
request.
Why
do
photos
stick
around
so
long?
The
problem
relates
to the way
data
is
stored
on large websites:
While
your
personal
computer
only
keeps
one
copy
of
a
file,
large-scale
services
like
Facebook
rely
on what
are
called
content
delivery
networks to manage
data and distribution. It's a complex system
wherein data is copied to multiple
intermediate devices, usually
to speed
up access to files when millions of people are
trying to
access the service at the
same time. But because changes aren't
reflected
across
the
content
delivery
networks
immediately,
ghost copies of
files tend to linger for days or weeks.
In
the
case
of
Facebook,
the
company
says
data
may
hang
around
until
the
URL
in
question
is
reused,
which
is
usually
a
short
period
of
time
though
obviously
that
time
can
vary
considerably.
30. What does
the speaker ask us to try out?
31.
What
accounts
for
the
failure
of
some
websites
to
remove
photos
immediately?
32.
When
will
the
unwanted
data
eventually
disappear
from
Facebook according to
the company?
Passage Three
Enjoying
an
iced
coffee?
Better
skip
dinner
or
hit
the
gym
afterwards, with a cancer charity
warning that some iced coffees
contain
as many calories as a hot dinner.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)
conducted a survey
of iced coffees sold
by some popular chains in Britain including
Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Costa Coffee
to gauge the calories as
studies
increasingly link obesity with cancer.
The worst offender - a coffee from
Starbucks -- had 561 calories.