大学英语六级阅读历年真题训练unit10(A)
大学英语六级阅读理解套题训练含答案
大学英语六级阅读理解套题训练含答案大学英语六级阅读理解套题训练含答案May I be strenuous, energetic and persevering !May I be patient! May I be able to bear and forbear the wrongs of others! May I ever keep a promise given!以下是店铺为大家搜索整理的大学英语六级阅读理解套题训练含答案，希望能给大家带来帮助!You stare at waterfall for a minute or two, and then shift your gaze to its surroundings. What you now see appears to drift upward.These optical illusions occur because the brain is constantly matching its model of reality to signals from the body’s sensors and interpreting what must be happening—that your brain must have moved, not the other; that downward motions is now normal, so a change from it must now be perceived as upward motion.The sensors that make this magic are of two kinds. Each eye contains about 120 million rods, which provide somewhat blurry black and white vision. These are the windows of night vision; once adapted to the dark, they can detect a candle burning ten miles away.Color vision in each eye comes from six to seven million structures called cones. Under ideal conditions, every cone can “see” the entire rainbow spectrum of visible colors, but one type of cone is most sensitive to red, another to green, a third to blue.Rods and cones send their messages pulsing an average 20 to 25 times per second along the optic nerve. We see an image for a fraction of a second longer than it actually appears. In movies, reels of still photographs are projected onto screens at24 frames per second, tricking our eyes into seeing a continuous moving picture.Like apparent motion, color vision is also subject to unusual effects. When day gives way to night, twilight brings what the poet T.S. Eliot called “the violet hour.” A light levels fall, the rods become progressively less responsive. Rods are most sensitive to the shorter wavelengths of blue and green, and they impart a strange vividness to the garden’s blue flowers.However, look at a white shirt during the reddish light of sunset, and you’ll still see it in its “true” color—white, not red. Our eyes are constantly comparing an object against its surroundings. They therefore observe the effect of a shift in the color of illuminating on both, and adjust accordingly.The eyes can distinguish several million graduations of light and shade of color. Each waking second they flash tens of millions of pieces of information to the brain, which weaves them incessantly into a picture of the world around us.Yet all this is done at the back of each eye by a fabric of sensors, called the retina, about as wide and as thick as a postage stamp. As the Renaissance inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci wrote in wonder, “Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of all the universe?”1.Visual illusions often take place when the image of reality is ___.A.matched to six to seven million structures called cones.B.confused in the body’s sensors of both rods and cones.C.interpreted in the brain as what must be the case.D.signaled by about 120 million rods in the eye.2.The visual sensor that is capable of distinguishing shades of color is called ___.A.conesB.color visionC.rodsD.spectrum3.The retina send pulses to the brain ___.A.in short wavelengthsB.as color picturesC.by a ganglion cellD.along the optic nerve.4.Twenty-four still photographs are made into a continuous moving picture just because ___.A.the image we see usually stays longer than it actually appears.B.we see an object in comparison with its surroundings.C.the eyes catch million pieces of information continuously.D.rods and cones send messages 20 to 25 times a second.5.The author’s purpose in writing the passage lies in ___.A.showing that we sometimes are deceived by our own eyes.rming us about the different functions of the eye organs.C.regretting that we are too slow in the study of eyes.D.marveling at the great work done by the retina.答案：CADAB27Art is considered by many people to be little more than a decorative means of giving pleasure. This is not always the case, however; at times, art may be seen to have a purely functional side as well. Such could be said of the sandpaintings of the Navaho Indians of the American Southwest; these have a medicinal as well as an artistic purpose.According to Navaho traditions, one who suffers from either a mental or a physical illness has in come way disturbed or come in contact with the supernatural—perhaps a certain animal, a ghost, or the dead. To counteract this evil contact, the ill person or one of his relatives will employ a medicine man called a “singer” to perform a healing ceremony which will attract a powerful supernatural being.During the ceremony, which may last from 2 to 9 days, the “singer” will produce a sandpainting on the floor of the Navaho hogan. On the last day of the ceremony, the patient will sit on this sandpainting and the “singer” will rub the ailing parts of the patient’s body with sand from a specific figure in the sandpainting. In this way the patient absorbs the power of that particular supernatural being and becomes strong like it. After the ceremony, the sandpainting is then destroyed and disposed of so its power will not harm anyone.The art of sandpainting is handed down from old “singer” to their students. The material used are easily found in the areas the Navaho inhabit; brown, red, yellow, and white sandstone, which is pulverized by being crushed between 2 stones much as corns is ground into flour. The “singer” holds a small amount of this sand in his hand and lets it flow between his thumb and fore-finger onto a clean, flat surface on the floor. With a steady hand and great patience, he is thus able to create designs of stylized people, snakes and other creatures that have power in the Navaho belief system. The traditional Navaho does not allow reproduction of sandpaintings, since he believes the supernatural powers that taught him the craft have forbidden this; however, such reproductions can in fact be purchased today in tourist shops in Arizona and New Mexico. These are done by eitherNavaho Indians or by other people who wish to preserve this craft.1.The purpose of the passage is to ___.A.discuss the medical uses of sandpaintings in medieval Europe.B.study the ways Navaho Indians handed down their painting art.C.consider how Navaho “singer” treat their ailments with sandpaintings.D.tell how Navaho Indians apply sandpainting for medical purposes.2.The purpose of a healing ceremony lies in ___.A.pleasing the ghostsB.attracting supernatural powersC.attracting the ghostsD.creating a sandpainting3.The “singer” rubs sand on the patient because ___.A.the patient receives strength from the sandB.it has pharmaceutical valueC.it decorates the patientD.none of the above4.What is used to produce a sandpainting?A.PaintB.Beach sandC.Crushed sandstoneD.Flour5.Which of the following titles will be best suit the passage?A.A New Direction for Medical ResearchB.The Navaho Indians’ SandpaintingC.The Process of Sandpainting CreationD.The Navaho Indians’ Medical History 答案：DBACB。
大学英语六级阅读理解题目及答案
大学英语六级阅读理解题目及答案Part Ⅰ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section ADirections: 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 1 to 10 are based on the following passage.Music and LanguageMusic and language are two different ---1--- that are often linked together. For example, they both involve a type of communication and have a ---2--- impact on our emotions. However, music and language are fundamentally different in a number of ways.Unlike language, which is composed of words and grammar, music is a ---3--- art form. It uses tones, melodies, rhythms, and harmonies to create emotional ---4---. Language, on the other hand, mainly conveys meaning through the use of words and sentences.Another difference between music and language is their development in humans. ---5--- learn language through exposure to conversations and practice, while music seems to be ---6---. We all have the ability torecognize and appreciate music, even without any formal training. This suggests that our musical abilities may be innate.Furthermore, music and language are processed in different areas of the brain. Language is mainly processed in the left hemisphere, whereas music is ---7--- in both the left and right hemispheres. Evidence has shown that certain ---8--- patients who have lost their ability to speak can still sing, indicating that music may be connected to different neural pathways (神经通路) than language.Despite their differences, music and language are closely related in some ways. Studies have shown that music can assist with language ---9---. For example, listening to music can help ESL students improve their pronunciation and intonation. Similarly, playing a musical instrument can enhance the linguistic abilities of children.In conclusion, while music and language share certain similarities in terms of communication and emotional impact, they also have distinct characteristics. Understanding the differences and connections between music and language can help us appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of each art form.1. [A] skills [B] forms [C] techniques [D] systems2. [A] significant [B] flexible [C] optional [D] limited3. [A] controversial [B] visual [C] sensory [D] practical4. [A] reactions [B] viewpoints [C] expectations [D] contributions5. [A] Babies [B] Adults [C] Animals [D] Artists6. [A] inherited [B] acquired [C] displayed [D] distributed7. [A] analyzed [B] noted [C] localized [D] bypassed8. [A] music-loving [B] language-deficient [C] brain-damaged [D] memory-impaired9. [A] practice [B] revision [C] acquisition [D] retentionSection BDirections: 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.Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.Do You Prefer to Stay Single?A. It’s often said that a woman who puts a high priority on her career ends up lying alone on a Saturday night. However, my research on this subject shows that it is basically a myth. In fact, in my surveys I found that highly educated career women are just as likely to form successful marriages as other women, and actually more likely to make a good choice the second time around. By contrast, women who don’t care quite so much about their career and are more willing to settle for less than Mr. Right are more likely to end up single.B. Is marrying for love a good or bad thing? Most of us, it seems, would say, “Good, of course!” But are we really thinking? In reality, marrying purely for love may be less likely to lead to a satisfying marriage. Many psychologists now believe that people who expect marriage to provide happiness are often disappointed. Marrying who we fall in love with is a romantic idea. But psychologists have found it often means falling in love with someone like ourselves and who is familiar to us. Love and passion are often considered separate from friendship and companionship (交往、友谊).C. According to the latest research, newlyweds who feel good abouttheir marriage are healthier than those who don’t. The work is one of thefirst of its kind to show how much influence someone’s thoughts can haveon their health. Researchers measured the heart rate, blood pressure, and cholesterol (胆固醇) levels of 28 married women as they argued with their husbands and measured the levels of a chemical (化学物质) linked to heart disease. The women were asked before having a disagreement if they were happy in their marriages. When the researchers reviewed the results, they discovered that the women who said they had happier marriages also had lower levels of the chemical than those who said their marriages weren’t going well.D. It is a cultural stereotype that young women like to date older men. In a study of 18 to 24-year-old college students, researchers found that about 80% of men were interested in dating women who were significantly younger, while 85% of women were keen on dating older men. Many participants explained this interest in terms of desire for maturity, not money.E. In the past, people routinely built relationships with neighbors, families, and communities. Now, however, only two in 10 Americans indicate that they regularly spend time with their neighbors, and only one-third of Americans report regularly spending time with their families. Loneliness, experts now suggest, is twice as deadly as obesity (肥胖) and is as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Additionally, loneliness can have a long-term impact on both physical and emotional health, increasing the risk for heart disease, depression, and premature death.F. In a research team studying married couples, researchers asked couples whether they felt close to their partners and if they had thought about separating from them. When the researchers reviewed the magnetic resonance imaging (磁共振成像) scans of the participants’ brains, they found that those who had thought about leaving their partners showed activity in the brain regions associated with a variety of negative emotions, such as anger and sadness. On the other hand, couples who felt close and secure with their partners showed greater activation in areas of the brain associated with reward and attachment.11. Couples who feel happy about their marriage have better health.12. Men tend to be interested in dating younger women, while women prefer older men.13. Good family relationships are becoming less common nowadays.14. Love marriages may not always lead to satisfactory marriages.15. People who put a high priority on their careers are less likely to end up single.答案1. B2. A3. C4. A5. D6. B7. C8. C9. A10. B11. C12. D13. E14. B15. A以上是关于大学英语六级阅读理解题目及答案的内容。
练习6级 六级阅读真题答案详细解析10篇
It may p lace a great stra in on the state budget.
4.考霸解析：正确答案为[D]。在那些外来移民数量多、社会福利优厚的州，高技术、受到较好教育的雇员的反对最 为强烈。他们最大的担心是外来移民带来的财政负担。故D项正确。
[D] The goals most people set are un realistic.
2.What does Maurice Schweitzer want to show by cit ing the exa mple of Enron?
[A]Sett ing realistic goals can turn a faili ng bus in ess into success.
20XX
At the heart of the debate over illegal immigratio n lies one key questio n: are immigra nts good or bad for the economy? The America n p ublic overwhel min gly thi nks they're bad. Yet the consen sus among most econo mists is that immigrati on, both legal and illegal, p rovides a small net boost to the economy. Immigra nts p rovide chea p labor, lower the p rices of
英语六级阅读真题训练及答案
英语六级阅读真题训练及答案英语六级阅读真题训练及答案英语六级考试中的阅读题是考试中的'重点题型，需要考生多做阅读练习提高阅读能力，下面店铺为大家带来英语六级阅读真题训练及答案，供各位考生模拟练习。
英语六级阅读真题训练1Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge (剧增) of women in the workforce mayportend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would ratherwork than marry. The converse (反面) of this concern is that the prospects of becoming amulti-paycheck household could encourage marriages. In the past, only the earnings andfinancial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earningability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show thateconomic downturns tend to postpone marriage because the parties cannot afford to establisha family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy rebounds, the number ofmarriages also rises.Coincident with the increase in women working outside the home is the increase in divorcerates. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact ofa wife’s work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realizationthat she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choosedivorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible. Tensionsgrounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. Given highunemployment, inflationary problems, and slow growth in real earnings, aworking wife canincrease household income and relieve some of these pressing financial burdens. By raising afamily’s standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family’s financial andemotional stability.Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a careeroutside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking adivorce.On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work andmarriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.Also, a major part of women’s inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in mostcases, men have remained the main breadwinners. With higher earning capacity and statusoccupations outside of the home comes the capacity to exercise power within the family. Aworking wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how thecouple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it couldcreate new insecurities.英语六级阅读真题训练26. The word “portend” (Line 2, Para. 1) is closest in meaning to “________”.A) defyB) signalC) suffer fromD) result from(B)27. It is said in the passage that when the economy slides, ________.A) men would choose working women as their marriage partnersB) more women would get married to seek financial securityC) even working women would worry about their marriagesD) more people would prefer to remain single for the time being(D)28. If women find fulfillment through work outside the home, ________.A) they are more likely to dominate their marriage partnersB) their husbands are expected to do more houseworkC) their marriage ties can be strengthenedD) they tend to put their career before marriage(C)29. One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that ________.A) they feel that they have been robbed of their freedomB) they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbandsC) they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectationsD) they tend to suspect their husb ands’ loyalty to their marriage(A)30. Which of the following statements can best summarize the author’s view in thepassage?A) The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of thecountry.B) Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality inmarriage.C) In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remainindependent.D) The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.英语六级阅读真题训练答案26. B 27. D 28. C 29. A 30. D英语六级阅读真题训练2For most thinkers since the Greek philosophers, it was self-evident that the re is somethingcalled human nature, something that constitutes the essence of man. There were various viewsabout what constitutes it, but there was agreement that such an essence exists—that is to say,that there is something by virtue of which man is man. Thus man was defined as a rationalbeing, as a social animal, an animal that can make tools, or a symbol-making animal.More recently, this traditional view has begun to be questioned. One reason for this changewas the increasing emphasis given to the historical approach to man. An examination of thehistory of humanity suggested that man in our epoch is so different from man in previoustimes that it seemed unrealistic to assume that men in every age have had in commonsomething that can be called “human nature.” The historical approach was reinforced,particularly in the United States, by studies in the field of cultural anthropology (人类学). Thestudy of primitive peoples has discovered such a diversity of customs, values, feelings, andthoughts that many anthropologists arrived at the concept that man is born as a blank sheet ofpaper on which each culture writes its text. Another factor contributing to the tendency todeny the assumption of a fixed human nature was that the concept has so often been abusedas a shield behind which the most inhuman acts are committed. In the name of humannature, for example, Aristotle and most thinkers up to the eighteenth century defendedslavery. Or in order to prove the rationality and necessity of the capitalist form of society,scholars have tried to make a case for acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and selfishness asinnate (天生的) human traits. Popularly, one refer s cynically to “humannature” in accepting theinevitability of such undesirable human behavior as greed, murder, cheating and lying.Another reason for skepticism about the concept of human nature probably lies in theinfluence of evolutionary thinking. Once man came to be seen as developing in the process ofevolution, the idea of a substance which is contained in his essence seemed untenable.Yet I believe it is precisely from an evolutionary standpoint that we can expect new insightinto the problem of the nature of man.英语六级阅读真题训练31. The traditional view of “human nature” was strongly challenged by ________.A) the emergence of the evolutionary theoryB) the historical approach to manC) new insight into human behaviorD) the philosophical analysis of slavery(A)32. According to the passage, anthropologists believe that human beings ________.A) have some traits in commonB) are born with diverse culturesC) are born without a fixed natureD) change their characters as they grow up(C)33. The author mentioned Aristotle, a great ancient thinker, in order to ________.A) emphasize that he contributed a lot to defining the concept of “human nature”B) show that the concept of “human nature” was used to justify social evilsC) prove that he had a profound influence on the concept of “human nature”D) support the idea that some human traits are acquired(D)34. The word “untenable” (Line 3) in the last paragraph of the passage most probablymeans ________.A) invaluableB) imaginableC) changeableD) indefensible(D)35. Most philosophers believed that human nature ________.A) is the quality distinguishing man from other animalsB) consists of competitiveness and selfishnessC) is something partly innate and partly acquiredD) consists of rationality and undesirable behavior英语六级阅读真题训练答案31. A 32. C 33. D 34. D 35. A【英语六级阅读真题训练及答案】。
2021年6月大学英语六级阅读理解真题及答案_10
2021年6月大学英语六级阅读理解真题及答案Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage. When global warming finally came, it stuck with a vengeance (异乎寻常地). In some regions, temperatures rose several degrees in less than a century. Sea levels shot up nearly 400 feet, flooding coastal settlements and forcing people to migrate inland. Deserts spread throughout the world as vegetation shifted drastically in North America, Europe and Asia. After driving many of the animals around them to near extinction, people were forced to abandon their old way of life for a radically new survival strategy that resulted in widespread starvation and disease. The adaptation was farming: the global-warming crisis that gave rise to it happened more than 10,000 years ago.As environmentalists convene in Rio de Janeiro this week to ponder the global climate of the future, earth scientists are in the midst of a revolution in understanding how climate has changed in the past—and how those changes have transformed human existence. Researchers have begun to piece together anilluminating picture of the powerful geological and astronomical forces that have combined to change the planet’s environment from hot to cold, wet to dry and back again over a time period stretching back hundreds of millions of years. Most importantly, scientists are beginning to realize that the climatic changes have had a major impact on the evolution of the human species. New research now suggests that climate shifts have played a key role in nearly every significant turning point in human evolution: from the dawn of primates (灵长目动物) some 65 million years ago to human ancestors rising up to walk on two legs, from the huge expansion of the human brain to the rise of agriculture. Indeed, the human history has not been merely touched by global climate change, some scientists argue, it has in some instances been driven by it. The new research has profound implications for the environmental summit in Rio. Among other things, the findings demonstrate that dramatic climate change is nothing new for planet Earth. The benign (宜人的) global environment that has existed over the past 10,000 years—during which agriculture, writing, cities and most other features of civilization appeared—is a mere bright spot in a much larger pattern of widely varying climate over the ages. In fact, the pattern ofclimate change in the past reveals that Earth’s climate will almost certainly go through dramatic changes in the future —even without the influence of human activity.21. Farming emerged as a survival strategy because man had been obliged ________.A) to give up his former way of lifeB) to leave the coastal areasC) to follow the ever-shifting vegetationD) to abandon his original settlement（A）22. Earth scientists have come to understand that climate ________.A) is going through a fundamental changeB) has been getting warmer for 10,000 yearsC) will eventually change from hot to coldD) has gone through periodical changes（D）23. Scientists believe that human evolution ________.A) has seldom been accompanied by climatic changesB) has exerted little influence on climatic changesC) has largely been effected by climatic changesD) has had a major impact on climatic changes（C）24. Evidence of past climatic changes indicates that ________.A) human activities have accelerated changes of Earth’senvironmentB) Earth’s environment will remain mild despite human interferenceC) Earth’s climate is bound to change significantly in the futureD) Earth’s climate is unlikely to undergo substantial changes in the future（C）25. The message the author wishes to convey in the passage is that ________.A) human civilization remains glorious though it is affected by climatic changesB) mankind is virtually helpless in the face of the dramatic changes of climateC) man has to limit his activities to slow down the global warming processD) human civilization will continue to develop in spite of the changes of natureQuestions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.Now woman can be too rich or too thin. This saying often attributed to the late Duchess (公爵夫人) of Windsor embodies much of the odd spirit of our times. Being thin is deemed assuch a virtue.The problem with such a view is that some people actually attempt to live by it. I myself have fantasies of slipping into narrow designer clothes. Consequently, I have been on a diet for the better—or worse—part of my life. Being rich wouldn’t be bad either, but that won’t happen unless an unknown relative dies suddenly in some distant land, leaving me millions of dollars.Where did we go off the track? When did eating butter become a sin, and a little bit of extra flesh unappealing, if not repellent? All religions have certain days when people refrain from eating, and excessive eating is one of Christianity’s seven deadly sins. However, until quite recently, most people had a problem getting enough to eat. In some religious groups, wealth was a symbol of probable salvation and high morals, and fatness a sign of wealth and well-being.Today the opposite is true. We have shifted to thinness as our new mark of virtue. The result is that being fat—or even only somewhat overweight—is bad because it implies a lack of moral strength.Our obsession (迷恋) with thinness is also fueled by health concerns. It is true that in this country we have moreoverweight people than ever before, and that, in many cases, being overweight correlates with an increased risk of heart and blood vessel disease. These diseases, however, may have as much to do with our way of life and our high-fat diets as with excess weight. And the associated risk of cancer in the digestive system may be more of a dietary problem—too much fat and a lack of fiber—than a weight problem.The real concern, then, is not that we weigh too much, but that we neither exercise enough nor eat well. Exercise is necessary for strong bones and both heart and lung health. A balanced diet without a lot of fat can also help the body avoid many diseases. We should surely stop paying so much attention to weight. Simply being thin is not enough. It is actually hazardous if those who get (or already are) thin think they are automatically healthy and thus free from paying attention to their overall life-style. Thinness can be pure vainglory (虚荣).26. In the eyes of the author, an odd phenomenon nowadays is that ________.A) the Duchess of Windsor is regarded as a woman of virtueB) looking slim is a symbol of having a large fortuneC) being thin is viewed as a much desired qualityD) religious people are not necessarily virtuous（C）27. Swept by the prevailing trend, the author ________.A) had to go on a diet for the greater part of her lifeB) could still prevent herself from going off the trackC) had to seek help from rich distant relativesD) had to wear highly fashionable clothes（A）28. In human history, people’s views on body weight ________.A) were closely related to their religious beliefsB) changed from time to timeC) varied between the poor and the richD) led to different moral standards（B）29. The author criticizes women’s obsession with thinness ________.A) from an economic and educational perspectiveB) from sociological and medical points of viewC) from a historical and religious standpointD) in the light of moral principles（B）30. What’s the author’s advice to women who are absorbed in the idea of thinness?A) They should be more concerned with their overall lifestyle.B) They should be more watchful for fatal diseases.C) They should gain weight to look healthy.D) They should rid themselves of fantasies about designerclothes.Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.War may be a natural expression of biological instincts and drives toward aggression in the human species. Natural impulses of anger, hostility, and territoriality (守卫地盘的天性) are expressed through acts of violence. These are all qualities that humans share with animals. Aggression is a kind of innate (天生的) survival mechanism, an instinct for self-preservation that allows animals to defend themselves from threats to their existences of human violence are always conditioned by social conventions that give shape to aggressive behavior. In human societies violence has a social function. It is a strategy for creating or destroying forms of social order. Religious traditions have taken a leading role in directing the powers of violence. We will look at the ritual and ethical (道德上的) patterns within which human violence has been directed. The violence within a society is controlled through institutions of law. The more developed a legal system becomes, the more society takes responsibility for the discovery, control, and punishment of violent acts. In most tribal societies the only means to deal with an act of violence isrevenge. Each family group may have the responsibility for personally carrying out judgment and punishment upon the person who committed the offense. But in legal systems, the responsibility for revenge becomes depersonalized and diffused. The society assumes the responsibility for protecting individuals from violence. In cases where they cannot be protected, the society is responsible for imposing punishment. In a state controlled legal system, individuals are removed from the cycle of revenge motivated by acts of violence, and the state assumes responsibility for their protection.The other side of a state legal apparatus is a state military apparatus. While the one protects the individual from violence, the other sacrifices the individual to violence in the interests of the state. In war the state affirms its supreme power over the individuals within its own borders. War is not simply a trial by combating to settle disputes between states; it is the moment when the state makes its most powerful demands upon its people for their commitment allegiance, and supreme sacrifice. Times of war test a community’s deepest religious and ethical commitments.31. Human violence shows evidence of being a learned behavior in that ________.A) it threatens the existing social systemsB) it is influenced by societyC) it has roots in religious conflictsD) it is directed against institutions of law（B）32. The function of legal systems, according to the passage, is ________.A) to control violence within a societyB) to protect the world from chaosC) to free society from the idea of revengeD) to give the government absolute power（A）33. What does the author mean by saying “... in legal systems, the responsibility for revenge becomes depersonalized and diffused” (Lines 4-5, Para. 2)?A) Legal systems greatly reduce the possibilities of physical violence.B) Offenses against individuals are no longer judged on a personal basis.C) Victims of violence find it more difficult to take revenge.D) Punishment is not carried out directly by the individuals involved.（D）34. The word “allegiance” (Line 4, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to ________.A) loyaltyB) objectiveC) survivalD) motive（A）35. What can we learn from the last paragraph?A) Governments tend to abuse their supreme power in times of war.B) In times of war governments may extend their power across national borders.C) In times of war governments impose high religious and ethical standards on their people.D) Governments may sacrifice individuals in the interests of the state in times of war.Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage. Researchers who are unfamiliar with the cultural and ethnic groups they are studying must take extra precautions to shed any biases they bring with them from their own culture. For example, they must make sure they construct measures that are meaningful for each of the cultural or ethnic minority groups being studied.In conducting research on cultural and ethnic minority issues,investigators distinguish between the emic approach and the etic approach. In the emic approach, the goal is to describe behavior in one culture or ethnic group in terms that are meaningful and important to the people in that culture or ethnic group, without regard to other cultures or ethnic groups. In the etic approach, the goal is to describe behavior so that generalizations can be made across cultures. If researchers construct a questionnaire in anemic fashion, the concern is only that the questions are meaningful to the particular culture or ethnic group being studied. If, however, the researchers construct a questionnaire in an etic fashion, they want to include questions that reflect concepts familiar to all cultures involved.How might the emic and etic approaches be reflected in the study of family processes? In the emic approach, the researchers might choose to focus only on middle-class White families, without regard for whether the information obtained in the study can be generalized or is appropriate for ethnic minority groups. In a subsequent study, the researchers may decide to adopt an etic approach by studying not only middle-class White families, but also lower-income White families, Black American families, Spanish American families, and Asian Americanfamilies. In studying ethnic minority families, the researchers would likely discover that the extended family is more frequently a support system in ethnic minority families than in White American families. If so, the emic approach would reveal a different pattern of family interaction than would the etic approach, documenting that research with middle-class White families cannot always be generalized to all ethnic groups.36. According to the first paragraph, researchers unfamiliar with the target cultures are inclined to ________.A) be overcautious in constructing meaningful measuresB) view them from their own cultural perspectiveC) guard against interference from their own cultureD) accept readily what is alien to their own culture（B）37. What does the author say about the emic approach and the etic approach?A) They have different research focuses in the study of ethnic issues.B) The former is biased while the latter is objective.C) The former concentrates on the study of culture while the latter on family issues.D) They are both heavily dependent on questionnaires inconducting surveys.（A）38. Compared with the etic approach, the emic approach is apparently more ________.A) culturally interactiveB) culturally biasedC) culture-orientedD) culture-specific（D）39. The etic approach is concerned with ________.A) the general characteristics of minority familiesB) culture-related concepts of individual ethnic groupsC) features shared by various cultures or ethnic groupsD) the economic conditions of different types of families（C）40. Which of the following is true of the ethnic minority families in the ________ U.S. according to the passage?A) Their cultural patterns are usually more adaptable.B) Their cultural concepts are difficult to comprehend.C) They don’t interact with each other so much as White families.D) They have closer family ties than White families.21. A 22. D 23. C 24. C 25. B26. C 27. A 28. B 29. B 30. A31. B 32. A 33. D 34. A 35. D36. B 37. A 38. D 39. C 40. D。
(完整版)历年6级阅读真题(整理版)
历年英语六级阅读真题(2012,6---2006,12)2012 年12 月英语六级阅读真题(1) Passage OneAmid all the job losses of the Great Recession, there is one category of worker that the economic disruption has been good for: nonhumans.From self-service checkout lines at the supermarket to industrial robots armed with saws and taught to carve up animal carcasses in slaughter-houses, these ever-more-intelligent machines are now not just assisting workers but actually kicking them out of their jobs.Automation isn’t just affecti ng factory workers, either. Some law firms now use artificial intelligence software to scan and read mountains of legal documents, work that previously was performed by highly paid human lawyers.“Robots continue to have an impact on blue-collar jobs, and white-collar jobs are under attack by microprocessors,” says Edward Leamer, an economics professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, a survey of the U.S. and California economies. Leamer says the recession permanently wiped out 2.5 million jobs. U.S. gross domestic product has climbedback to pre-recession levels, meaning we’re producing as much as before, only with 6 percent fewer workers. To be sure, robotics are not the only job killers out there, with outsourcing stealing far more gigs than automation.Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotics Industry Association, a trade group in Ann Arbor, Mich., argues that robots actually save U.S. jobs. His logic: companies that embrace automation might use fewe r workers, but that’s still better than firing everyone and moving the work overseas.It’s not that robots are cheaper than humans, though often they are. It’s that they are better. “In some cases the quality requirements are so stringent that even if you wanted to have a human do the job, you couldn’t,” Burnstein says.Same goes for surgeons, who are using robotic systems to perform an ever-growing list of operations—not because the machines save money but because, thanks to the greater precision of robots, the patients recover in less time and have fewer complications, says Dr. Myriam Curet.Surgeons may survive the robot invasion, but others at the hospital might not be so lucky, as iRobot, maker of the Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner, has been showing off Ava, a three-foot-tall droid on wheels that carries a tablet computer. iRobot reckons Ava could be used as a courier in a hospital.And once you’re home, recovering, Ava could let you talk to your doctor, so there’s no need to send someone to your h ouse. That “mobile telepresence” could be useful at the office. If you’re away on a trip, you can still attend a meeting. Just connect via videoconferencing software, so your face appears on Ava’s screen.Is any job safe? I was hoping to say “journalist,” but researchers are already developing algorithms that can gather facts and write a news story. Which means that a few years from now, a robot could be writing this column. And who will read it? Well, there might be a lot of us hanging around with lots of free time on our hands.(2) Passage TwoYou've now heard it so many times, you can probably repeat it in your sleep. President Obama will no doubt make the point publicly when he gets to Beijing: the Chinese need to spend more; they need to consume more; they need —believe it or not — to become more like Americans, for the sake of the global economy.And it's all true. But the other side of that equation is that the U.S. needs to save more. For the moment, American households actually are doing so. After the personal-savingsrate dipped to zero in 2005, the shock of the economic crisis last year prompted people to snap shut their wallets.In China, the household-savings rate exceeds 20%. It is partly for policy reasons. As we've seen, wage earners are expected to care for not only their children but also their aging parents. And there is, to date, only the flimsiest（脆弱的）of publicly-funded health care and pension systems, which increases incentives for individuals to save while they are working. But China is a society that has long esteemed personal financial prudence（谨慎）for centuries. There is no chance that will change anytime soon, even if the government creates a better social safety net and successfully encourages greater consumer spending.Why does the U.S. need to learn a little frugality(节俭). Because healthy savings rates are one of the surest indicators of a country's long-term financial health. High savings lead, over time, to increased investment, which in turn generates productivity gains, innovation and job growth. In short, savings are the seed corn of a good economic harvest.The U.S. government thus needs to act as well. By running constant deficits, it is dis-saving, even as households save more. Peter Orszag, Obama's Budget Director, recently called the U.S. budget deficits unsustainable and he's right. Todate, the U.S. has seemed unable to have what Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has called an "adult conversation" about the consequences of spending so much more than is taken in. That needs to change. And though Hu Jintao and the rest of the Chinese leadership aren't inclined to lecture visiting Presidents, he might gently hint that Beijing is getting a little nervous about the value of the dollar —which has fallen 15% since March, in large part because of increasing fears that America's debt load is becoming unmanageable.That's what happens when you're the world's biggest creditor: you get to drop hints like that, which would be enough by themselves to create international economic chaos if they were ever leaked. (Every time any official in Beijing deliberately publicly about seeking an alternative to the U.S. dollar for the $2.1 trillion China holds in reserve, currency traders have a heart attack.) If Americans saved more and spent less, consistently over time, they wouldn't have to worry about all that.2012 年6 月英语六级阅读真题(3)Passage OneAs anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, realisticgoal-setting generally produces the best results. That's partially because it appears people who set realistic goals actually work more efficiently, and exert more effort, to achieve those goals.What's far less understood by scientists, however, are the potentially harmful effects of goal-setting.Newspapers relay daily accounts of goal-setting prevalent in industries and businesses up and down both Wall Street and Main Street , yet there has been surprisingly little research on how the long-trumpeted practice of setting goals may have contributed to the current economic crisis , and unethical （不道德的）behavior in general.“Goals are widely used and promoted as having really beneficial effects. And yet, the same motivation that can push people to exert more effort in a constructive way could also motivate people to be more likely to engage in unethical behaviors,” says Maurice Schweitzer, an associate professor at Penn’s WhartonSchool.“It turns out there’s no economic benefit to just having a goal---you just get a psychological benefit” Schweitzer says.“But in many cases, go als have economic rewards that make them more powerful.”A prime example Schweitzer and his colleagues cite is the 2004 collapse of energy-trading giant Enron, where managers used financial incentives to motivate salesmen to meet specific revenue goals. The problem, Schweitzer says, is the actual trades were not profitable.Other studies have shown that saddling employees with unrealistic goals can compel them to lie, cheat or steal. Such was the case in the early 1990s when Sears imposed a sales quota on its auto repair staff. It prompted employees to overcharge for work and to complete unnecessary repairs on a companywide basis.Schweitzer concedes his research runs counter to a very large body of literature that commends the many benefits ofgoal-setting. Advocates of the practice have taken issue with his team’s use of such evidence as news accounts to support his conclusion that goal-setting is widely over-prescribedIn a rebuttal (反驳) paper, Dr. Edwin Lockewrites:“Goal-setting is not going away. Organizations cannot thrive without being focused on their desired end results anymore than an individual can thrive without goals to provide a sense of purpose.”But Schweitzer contends the “mounting causal evidence” linking goal-setting and harmful behavior should be studied to help spotlight issues that merit caution and further investigation. “Even a few negative effects could be so large that they outweigh many positive effects,” he says.“Goal-setting does help coordinate and motivate people. My idea would be to combine that with careful oversight, a strong organizational culture, and make sure the goals that you use are going to be constructive and not significantly harm the organization,” Schweitzer says.(4) Passage twoFor 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 stagnati ng(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 rapidgrowth. 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 over-board 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 Regan’s idea that “government is not the solution to o ur problem; governmentis 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 the 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 freeAmerica 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.2011 年12 月英语六级阅读真题(5) Passage OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.What's the one word of advice a well-meaning professional would give to a recent college graduate? China"} India! Brazil! How about trade!When the Commerce Department reported last week that the trade deficit in June approached $50 billion, it set off a new round of economic doomsaying. Imports, which soared to $200.3 billion in the month, are subtracted in the calculation of gross domestic product. The larger the trade deficit, the smaller the GDP. Should such imbalances continue, pessimists say, they could contribute to slower growth.But there's another way of looking at the trade data. Over the past two years, the figures on imports and exports seem not to signal a double-dip recession – a renewed decline in the broad level of economic activity in the United States – but an economic expansion.The rising volume of trade – more goods and services shuttling in and out of the United States – is good news for many sectors. Companies engaged in shipping, trucking, rail freight, delivery,and logistics (物流) have all been reporting better than expected results. The rising numbers signify growing vitality in foreign markets – when we import more stuff, it puts more cash in the hands of people around the world, and U.S. exports are rising because more foreigners have the ability to buy the things we produce and market. The rising tide of trade is also good news for people who work in trade-sensitive businesses, especially those that produce commodities for which global demand sets the price – agricultural goods, mining, metals, oil.And while exports always seem to lag, U.S. companies are becoming more involved in the global economy with each passing month. General Motors sells as many cars in China as in America each month. While that may not do much for imports, it does help GM's balance sheet – and hence makes the jobs of U.S.-based executives more stable.One great challenge for the U.S. economy is slack domestic consumer demand. Americans arepaying down debt, saving more, and spending more carefully. That's to be expected, given what we've been through. But there's a bigger challenge. Can U.S.-based businesses, large and small, figure out how to get a piece of growing global demand? Unless you want to pick up and move to India, orBrazil, or China, the best way to do that is through trade. It may seem obvious, but it's no longer enough simply to do business with our friends and neighbors here at home.Companies and individuals who don't have a strategy to export more, or to get more involved in foreign markets, or to play a role in global trade, are shutting themselves out of the lion's share of economic opportunity in our world.(6) Passage TwoA recurring criticism of the UK's university sector is its perceived weakness in translating new knowledge into new products and services.Recently, the UK National Stem Cell Network warned the UK could lose its place among the world leaders in stem cell research unless adequate funding and legislation could be assured. We should take this concern seriously as universities are key in the national innovation system.However, we do have to challenge the unthinking complaint that the sector does not do enough in taking ideas to market. The most recent comparative data on the performance of universities and research institutions in Australia, Canada, USA and UKshows that, from a relatively weak starting position, the UK now leads on many indicators of commercialisation activity.When viewed at the national level, the policy interventions of the past decade have helped trans form the performance of UK universities. Evidence suggests the UK's position is much stronger than in the recent past and is still showing improvement. But national data masks the very large variation in the performance of individual universities. The evidence shows that a large number of universities have fallen off the back of the pack, a few perform strongly and the rest chase the leaders.This type of uneven distribution is not peculiar to the UK and is mirrored across other economies. In the UK, research is concentrated: less than 25% of universities receive 75% of the research funding. These same universities are also the institutions producing the greatest share of PhD graduates, science citations, patents and licence income. The effect of policies generating long-term resource concentration has also created a distinctive set of universities which areresearch-led and commercially active. It seems clear that the concentration of research and commercialisation work creates differences between universities.The core objective for universities which are research-led must be to maximise the impact oftheir research efforts. These universities should be generating the widest range of social, economic and environmental benefits. In return for the scale of investment, they should share their expertise in order to build greater confidence in the sector.Part of the economic recovery of the UK will be driven by the next generation of research commercialisation spilling out of our universities. There are three dozen universities in the UKwhich are actively engaged in advanced research training and commercialisation work.If there was a greater coordination of technology transfer offices within regions and a simultaneous investment in the scale and functions of our graduate schools, universities could, and should, play a key role in positioning the UK for the next growth cycle.2011 年6 月英语六级阅读真题(7) Passage OneQuestions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage.At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they're bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants' impact on the economy and the reality?There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation's fears and insecurities. There's some truth to all these explanations, but they aren't quite sufficient.To get a better understanding of what's going on, consider the way immigration's impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notesthat the ones who profit most directly from immigrants'low-cost labor are businesses and employers – meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers' savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter? As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between 1980-2000.Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the fiscal (财政的)burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when that fiscal burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants' access to certain benefits.The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affected – say, low-skilled workers, or California residents –the impact isn't all that dramatic. "The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions," says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. "But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one." Too bad most people don't realize it.(8) Passage TwoPicture a typical MBA lecture theatre twenty years ago. In it the majority of students will have conformed to the standard model of the time: male, middle class and Western. Walk into a class today, however, and you'll get a completely different impression. For a start, you will now see plenty more women – the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, for example, boasts that 40% of its new enrolment is female. You will also see a wide range of ethnic groups and nationals of practically every country.It might be tempting, therefore, to think that the old barriers have been broken down and equal opportunity achieved. But,increasingly, this apparent diversity is becoming a mask for a new type of conformity. Behind the differences in sex, skin tones and mother tongues, there are common attitudes, expectations and ambitions which risk creating a set of clones among the business leaders of the future.Diversity, it seems, has not helped to address fundamental weaknesses in business leadership. So what can be done to create more effective managers of the commercial world? According to Valerie Gauthier, associate dean at HEC Paris, the key lies in the process by which MBA programmes recruit their students. At the moment candidates are selected on a fairly narrow set of criteria such as prior academic and career performance, and analytical and problem solving abilities. This is then coupled to a school's picture of what a diverse class should look like, with the result that passport, ethnic origin and sex can all become influencing factors. But schools rarely dig down to find out what really makes an applicant succeed, to create a class which also contains diversity of attitude and approach – arguably the only diversity that, in a business context, really matters.Professor Gauthier believes schools should not just be selecting candidates from traditional sectors such as banking,consultancy and industry. They should also be seeking individuals who have backgrounds in areas such as political science, the creative arts, history or philosophy, which will allow them to put business decisions into a wider context.Indeed, there does seem to be a demand for the more rounded leaders such diversity might create. A study by Mannaz, a leadership development company, suggests that, while the bully-boy chief executive of old may not have been eradicated completely, there is a definite shift in emphasis towards less tough styles of management – at least in America and Europe. Perhaps most significant, according to Mannaz, is the increasing interest large companies have in more collaborative management models, such as those prevalent in Scandinavia, which seek to integrate the hard and soft aspects of leadership and encourage delegated responsibility and accountability.2010 年12 月英语六级阅读真题(9) Passage OneIn the early 20th century, few things were more appealing than the promise of scientific knowledge. In aworld struggling with rapid industrialization, science and technology seemed to offer solutions to almost every problem. Newly created state colleges and universities devoted themselves almost entirely to scientific, technological, and engineering fields. Many Americans came to believe that scientific certainty could not only solve scientific problems, but also reform politics, government, and business. Two world wars and a Great Depression rocked the confidence of many people that scientific expertise alone could create a prosperous and ordered world. After World War Ⅱ, the academic world turned with new enthusiasm to humanistic studies, which seemed to many scholars the best way to ensure the survival of democracy. American scholars fanned out across much of the world—with support from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright program, etc.—to promote the teaching of literature and the arts in an effort to make the case for democratic freedoms.In the America of our own time, the great educational challenge has become an effort to strengthen the teaching of what is now known as the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and math). There isconsiderable and justified concern that the United States is falling behind much of the rest of the developed world in these essential disciplines. India, China, Japan, and other regions seem to be seizing technological leadership.At the same time, perhaps inevitably, the humanities—while still popular in elite colleges and universities—have experienced a significant decline. Humanistic disciplines are seriously underfunded, not just by the government and the foundations but by academic institutions themselves. Humanists are usually among the lowest-paid faculty members at most institutions and are often lightly regarded because they do not generate grant income and because they provide no obvious credentials (资质) for most nonacademic careers.Undoubtedly American education should train more scientists and engineers. Much of the concern among politicians about the state of American universities today is focused on the absence of “real world” education—which means preparation for professional and scientific careers. But the idea that institutions ortheir students must decide between humanities and science is false. Our society could not survive without scientific and technological knowledge. But we would be equally impoverished (贫困的) without humanistic knowledge as well. Science and technology teach us what we can do. Humanistic thinking helps us understand what we should do.It is almost impossible to imagine our society without thinking of the extraordinary achievements of scientists and engineers in building our complicated world. But try to imagine our world as well without the remarkable works that have defined our culture and values. We have always needed, and we still need, both.(10) Passage TwoWill there ever be another Einstein? This is the undercurrent of conversation at Einstein memorial meetings throughout the year. A new Einstein will emerge, scientists say. But it may take a long time. After all, more than 200 years separated Einstein from his nearest rival, Isaac Newton.Many physicists say the next Einstein hasn’t been born yet, or is a baby now. That’s because the quest for a unified theory that would account for all the forces of nature has pushed current mathematics to its limits. New math must be created before the problem can be solved.But researchers say there are many other factors working against another Einstein emerging anytime soon.For one thing, physics is a much different field today. In Einstein’s day, there were only a few thousand physicists worldwide, and the theoreticians who could intellectually rival Einstein probably would fit into a streetcar with seats to spare.Education is different, too. One crucial aspect of Einstein’s training that is overlooked is the years of philosophy he read as a teenager—Kant, Schopenhauer and Spinoza, among others. It taught him how to think independently and abstractly about space and time, and it wasn’t long before he became a philosopher himself.“The independence created by philosophical insight is—in my opinion—the mark of distinction between a mere artisan (工匠) or specialist and a real seeker after。
大学英语六级(阅读)模拟试卷10(题后含答案及解析)
大学英语六级（阅读）模拟试卷10(题后含答案及解析) 题型有： 4. Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words.Over a century ago, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote that “we live in a zoologically poor world, from which all the hugest, fiercest and strangest forms have recently disappeared. “Researchers seeking to explain this “marvelous fact”, as Wallace called it, fall into two camps, one invoking global climatic change and the other human hunting as the cause. Over the past few decades, the debate has become deadlocked, in part because most researchers have focused their attention on the Americas and northern Eurasia, where the extinction of the huge, fierce, and strange creatures, such as mammoths, and giant sloths(大树懒), occurred between 12, 500 and about 11, 000 years ago. This was a time of rapid climatic change, but it was also when humans first arrived in these regions, making it difficult to discern causality. Australia provides the only separate, continent-sized natural laboratory in which dramatic Quaternary extinctions occurred. It is thus of exceptional importance as a testing ground for extinction theories, but until now problems with dating have limited its potential. Miller and some people have now documented the extinction of the gigantic Australian bird and so have broken new ground in dating huge creatures extinction in Australia. At the same time, these authors have broken the current deadlock in the great huge creature extinction debate. It has long been appreciated that the intensity of Quaternary extinctions varied greatly around the world. In the oceans, Africa, and Southeast Asia, they were nonexistent or mild. Europe experienced moderate extinction rates, whereas the Americas, Australia, Madagascar, and many Oceanic islands suffered dramatic extinctions. North America lost 73% of all forms weighing more than 44 kg, but Australia suffered the most severely of all the continents, losing every terrestrial vertebrate(脊椎动物)species larger than a human, as well as many smaller mammals, reptiles, and flightless birds, the latter down to about a kilogram in weight. In all, about 60 vertebrate species were lost, including bizarre marsupials(有袋类动物)that resembled giant sloths, kangaroos, and a terrestrial horned tortoise that approached the size of a V olkswagen Beetle car. Establishing just when this bizarre array of creatures last trod Australia’s outback has been an intricate business, with many false leads and sites that are difficult to interpret. For decades, it was believed that the huge creatures survived until close to the time of the glacial maximum, some 20, 000 years ago, when temperatures were up to 9t cooler than at present and the continent was extremely arid. Conditions were so extreme that trees virtually disappeared from the inland, and 40% of Australia wastransformed into a vast active dune field.1．Alfred Russell Wallace thought our world is zoologically poor because of______.正确答案：the disappearing of the hugest, fiercest and strangest forms解析：根据线索词zoologically poor定位在第一段第一句话上，文中说我们生活在一个物种数量减少的时代，所有那些最大、最凶猛、最奇怪的物种近来都从世界上消失了…，本题将原文中的from which…非限制性定语从句转化成一个原因状语，需用disappear的动名词形式。
历年6级阅读真题及翻译
历年英语六级阅读真题及翻译（2009.06-1999.01 ）2009 年6 月英语六级阅读真题Passage One：For hundreds of millions of years, turtles (海龟) have struggled out of the sea to lay their eggs on sandy beaches, long before there were nature documentaries to celebrate them, or GPS satellites and marine biologists to track them, or volunteers to hand-carry the hatchlings (幼龟) down to the water’s edge lest they become disoriented by headlights and crawl towards a motel parking lot instead. A formidable wall of bureaucracy has been erected to protect their prime nesting on the Atlantic coastlines. With all that attention paid to them, you’d think these creatures would at least have the gratitude not to go extinct. But Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness, and a report by the Fish and Wildlife Service showed a worrisome drop in the populations of several species of North Atlantic turtles, notably loggerheads, which can grow to as much as 400 pounds. The South Florida nesting population, the largest, has declined by 50% in the last decade, according to Elizabeth Griffin, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. The figures prompted Oceana to petition the government to upgrade the level of protection for the North Atlantic loggerheads from “threatened”to “endangered”—meaning they are in danger of disappearing without additional help. Which raises the obvious question: what else do these turtles want from us, anyway? It turns out, according to Griffin, that while we have done a good job of protecting the turtles for the weeks they spend on land (as egg-laying females, as eggs and as hatchlings), we have neglected the years spend in the ocean. “The threat is from commercial fishing,”says Griffin. Trawlers (which drag large nets through the water and along the ocean floor) and longline fishers (which can deploy thousands of hooks on lines that can stretch for miles) take a heavy toll on turtles. Of course, like every other environmental issue today, this is playing out against the background of global warming and human interference with natural ecosystems. The narrow strips of beach on which the turtles lay their eggs are being squeezed on one side by development and on the other by the threat of rising sea levels as the oceans warm. Ultimately we must get a handle on those issues as well, or a creature that outlived the dinosaurs (恐龙) will meet its end at the hands of humans, leaving our descendants to wonder how creature so ugly could have won so much affection.在数亿年前的时间里，海龟一直在挣扎着离开大海道海滩上产卵，时间远远遭遇自然纪录片的赞扬，或全球定位通讯卫星和海洋生物学家的追踪，又或者志愿者们用手把幼龟放在海边以避免它们受到光线的影响迷失方向，爬向汽车旅馆的停车场。
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最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程：/ielts/xd.html（报名网址）Unit 10Part ⅡReading Comprehension(35 minutes)Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. 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 the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centreQuestions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:More and more, the operations of our businesses, governments, and financial institutions are controlled by information that exists only inside computer memories. Anyone clever enough to modify this information for his own purposes can reap substantial rewards. Even worse, a number of people who have done this and been caught at it have managed to get away without punishment.It's easy for computer crimes to go undetected if no one checks up on what the computer is doing. But even if the crime is detected, the criminal may walk away not only unpunished but with a glowing recommendation from his former employers.Of course, we have no statistics on crimes that go undetected. But it's disturbing to note how many of the crimes we do know about were detected by accident, not by systematic inspections or other security procedures. The computer criminals who have been caught may be the victims of uncommonly bad luck.For example, a certain keypunch (键盘打孔) operator complained of having to stay overtime to punch extra cards. Investigation revealed that the extra cards she was being asked to punch were for dishonest transactions. In another case, dissatisfied employees of the thief tipped off (向……透露) the company that was being robbed.Unlike other lawbreakers, who must leave the country, commit suicide, or go to jail, computer criminals sometimes escape punishment, demanding not only that they not be charged but that they be given good recommendations and perhaps other benefits. All too often, their demands have been met.Why? Because company executives are afraid of the bad publicity that would result if the public found out that their computer had been misused. They hesitate at the thought of a criminal boasting in open court of how he juggled (耍弄) the most confidential records right under the noses of the company's executives, accountants,and security staff. And so another computer criminal departs with just the recommendations he needs to continue his crimes elsewhere.21. It can be concluded from the passage that .A) it is still impossible to detect computer crimes todayB) computer crimes are the most serious problem in the operation of financial institutionsC) computer criminals can escape punishment because they can't be detectedD) people commit computer crimes at the request of their company22. It is implied in the third paragraph that .A) many more computer crimes go undetected than are discoveredB) the rapid increase of computer crimes is a troublesome problemC) most computer criminals are smart enough to cover up their crimesD) most computer criminals who are caught blame their bad luck23. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?A) A strict law against computer crimes must be enforced.B) Companies need to impose restrictions on confidential information.C) Companies will guard against computer crimes to protect their reputation.D) Companies usually hesitate to uncover computer crimes.24. What may happen to computer criminals once they are caught?A) With a bad reputation they can hardly find another job.B) They will be denied access to confidential records.C) They may walk away and easily find another job.D) They must leave the country or go to jail.25. The passage is mainly about .A) why computer crimes are difficult to detect by systematic inspectionsB) why computer criminals are often able to escape punishmentC) how computer criminals manage to get good recommendation from their former employersD) why computer crimes can't be eliminatedQuestions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:It is often claimed that nuclear energy is something we cannot do without. We live in a consumer society where there is an enormous demand for commercial products of all kinds. Moreover, an increase in industrial production is considered to be one solution to the problem of mass unemployment. Such an increase presumes an abundant and cheap energy supply. Many people believe that nuclear energy provides an inexhaustible and economical source of power and that it is therefore essential for an industrially developing society. There are a number of other advantages in the use of nuclear energy.Firstly, nuclear power, except for accidents, is clean. A further advantage is that a nuclear power station can be run and maintained by relatively few technical and administrative staff. The nuclear reactor represents an enormous step in our scientific evolution and, whatever the anti-nuclear group says, it is wrong to expect a return to more primitive sources of fuel. However, opponents of nuclear energy point out that nuclear power stations bring a direct threat not only to the environment but also to civil liberties.Furthermore, it is questionable whether ultimately nuclear power is a cheap source of energy. There have, for example, been very costly accidents in America, in Britain and, of course, in Russia. The possibility of increases in the cost of uranium(铀) in addition to the cost of greater safety provisions could price nuclear power out of the market. In the long run, environmentalists argue, nuclear energy wastes valuable resources and disturbs the ecology to an extent which could bring about the destruction of the human race. Thus if we wish to survive, we cannot afford nuclear energy. In spite of the case against nuclear energy outlined above, nuclear energy programmes are expanding. Such an expansion assumes a continual growth in industrial production and consumer demands. However,it is doubtful whether this growth will or can continue. Having weighed up the arguments on both sides, it seems there are good economic and ecological reasons for sources of energy other than nuclear power.26. The writer's attitude toward nuclear energy is .A) indifferent C) favorableB) tolerant D) negative27. According to the opponents of nuclear energy, which of the following is TRUE of nuclear energy?A) Primitive. C) Exhaustible.B) Cheap. D) Unsafe.28. Some people claim that nuclear energy is essential because .A) it provides a perfect solution to mass unemploymentB) it represents an enormous step forward in our scientific evolutionC) it can meet the growing demand of an industrially developing societyD) nuclear power stations can be run and maintained by relatively few technical and administrative staff29. Which of the following statements does the writer support?A) The demand for commercial products will not necessarily keep increasing.B) Nuclear energy is something we cannot do without.C) Uranium is a good source of energy for economic and ecological reasons.D) Greater safety provisions can bring about the expansion of nuclear energyprogrammes.30. The function of the last sentence is to .A) advance the final argumentB) reflect the writer's attitudeC) reverse previously expressed thoughtsD) show the disadvantages of nuclear power“成千上万人疯狂下载。