2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇31

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2019英语六级阅读模拟试卷试题包括答案.doc

2019英语六级阅读模拟试卷试题包括答案.doc

2019 英语六级阅读模拟试题及答案( 3 )Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.Caught in a squeeze between the health needs of aging populations on one hand and the financial crisis on the other, governments everywhere are looking for ways to slow the growth in health-care spending. Increasingly, they arelooking to the generic-drugs ( 普通药物 ) industry as a savior. In November Japan's finance ministry issued a report complaining that the country's use of generics was less thana third of that in America or Britain. In the same monthCanada's competition watchdog criticized the country's pharmacies for failing to pass on the savings made possibleby the use of generic drugs. That greed, it reckoned, costs taxpayers nearly C$1 billion a year.Then on November 28th the European Commission issued the preliminary results of its year-long probe into drug giantsin the European Union. The report reached a damning~, though provisional, conclusion:the drugs firms use a variety of unfair strategies to protect their expensive drugs bydelaying the entry of cheaper generic opponents. Though this initial report does not carry the force of law (a finalreport is due early next year), it has caused much controversy. Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, says she is ready to take legal action if the evidence allows.One strategy the investigators criticize is the use ofthe "patent duster( 专利群 )". A firm keen to defend its drug due to go off-patent may file dozens or hundreds of newpatents, often of dubious merit, to confuse and terrifypotential copycats and maintain its monopoly. An unnamed drugs firm once took out 1,300 patents across the EU on a single drug. The report also suggests that out-of-court settlements between makers of patented drags and generics firms may be a strategy used by the former to delay market entry by the latter.According to EU officials, such misdeeds -have delayed the arrival of generic competition and the accompanying savings. On average, rite report estimates, generics arrived seven months after a patented drug lost its protection, though where the drug was a big seller the lag was four months. The report says taxpayers paid about q 3 billion more than they would have-had the generics gone on sale immediately.But hang on a minute, Though many of the charges of bad behavior leveled at the patented-drugs industry by EU investigators may well be true, the report seems to let the generics industry off the hook( 钩子 ) too lightly. After all, if the drugs giants stand accused, in effect, of bribing opponents to delay the launch of cheap generics, shouldn't the companies that accepted those "bribes" also share the blame?56.Why are governments around the world seeking ways to reduce their health-care spending?A)They consider the generic-drugs industry as a savior.B)They are under the double pressure of aging group and financial crisis.C)Health-care spending has accounted too large proportion.D)Health-care spending has cost taxpayers too much income.57.What can we learn from the report issued by the European Commission?A)Drug firm will use just ways to protect their drags.B)Cheaper generic drugs are easy to enter market,C)The report has come to an ultimate conclusion.D)The final report may lead to commissioner's legal action.58.The investigators seriously condemned the drugfirms for__________.A)they do not let their opponents to resort to the cometB)they use clusters of patents to protect their productsC)they bribe the cheaper generic opponentsD)trey do not pass on the savings made by use of generic drugs59.On average, the genetics will be delayed to enterthe market by __________.A)seven monthsB)three monthsC)four monthsD)eleven months60.Which of the following accords with the author's view?A)Charges on patented-drug industry are anything but true.B)Generics industry is a sheer victim in the competition.C)Only drug giants are to blame.D)Exclusion of generics industry from taking responsibilityis questionable.56.B)。

英语六级冲刺阅读训练及答案(20篇)

英语六级冲刺阅读训练及答案(20篇)

一The Earth comprises three principal layers: the dense, iron-rich core, the mantle made of silicate (硅酸盐) that are semi-molten at depth, and the thin,solid-surface crust There are two kinds of crust, a lower and denser oceanic crust and an upper,lighter continental crust found over only about 40 percent of the Earth's surface. The rocks of the crust are of very different ages. Some continental rocks are over 3,000 million years old, while those of the ocean floor are less than 200 million years old. The crusts and the top, solid part of the mantle, totaling about 70 to 100 kilometers in thickness, at present appear to consist of about 15 rigid plates, 7 of which are very large. These plates move over the semi-molten lower mantleto produce all of the major topographical(地形学的)features of the Earth. Active zones where intense deformation occur are confined to the narrow,GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFinterconnecting boundaries of contact of the plates.There are three main types of zones of contact: spreading contacts where plates move apart, converging contacts where plates move towards each other, and transform contacts where plates slide past each other. Newoceanic crust is formed along one or more margins of each plate by material issuing from deeper layers of the Earth' s crust, for example, by volcanic eruptions (爆发) of lava (火山熔岩) at mid-ocean ridges. If at such a spreading contact the two plates support continents,a rift(裂缝) is formed that will gradually widen and become flooded by the tea. The Atlantic Ocean formed like this as the American and Afro-European plates moved in opposite directions. When two plates carrying continents collide, the continentalblocks,too light to be drawn down, continue to float and therefore buckle (起褶皱) to form a mountain chainalong the length of the margin of the plates.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAF練習題:Choose correct answers to the question:1.The Earth’s crust______.A.can be classified into two typesB.is formed along the margins of the platesC.consists of semi-molten rocksD.is about 70 to 100 kilometers thick2.The 15 plates of the Earth are formed from ___.A.the oceanic crusts and continental crustsB.the crusts and the mantleC.the crusts and the top and solid part of the mantleD.the continental crusts and the solid part of the mantle3.Seriously-deformed zones appear _______A.whenever the crusts move over mantleB.when the plates move towards each otherC.in the narrow boundaries where two plates meetGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFD.to be the major topographical feature of theEarth4.According to the second paragraph, the formation of the Atlantic Ocean is the example of_______.A.spreading contactsB.the influence of volcanic eruptionsC.converging contactsD.transform contacts5.This passage is probably_______.A.a newspaper advertisementB.a chapter of a novelC.an excerpt from a textbookD.a scientific report of new findings二A remarkable variety of insects live in this planet More species of insects exist than all other animal species together. Insects have survived on earth formore than 300 million years, and may possess the abilityGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFto survive for millions more.Insects can be found almost everywhere -- on the highest mountains and on the bottom of rushing streams, in the cold South Pole and in bubbling hot springs. They dig through the ground, jump and sing in the trees,and run and dance in the air. They come in many different colors and various shapes. Insects are extremely useful to humans, pollinating (授粉)our crops as well as flowers in meadows, forests, deserts and other areas. But licks and some insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas, can transmit disease.There are many reasons why insects are so successful at surviving. Their amazing ability to adapt permits them to live in extreme ranges of temperatures and environments. The one place they have not yet been found to any major extent is in the open oceans. Insects can survive on a wide range, of natural and artificialfoods—paint, pepper, glue, books, grain, cotton,otherGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFinsects, plants and animals Because they are small theycan hide in tiny spaces.A strong, hard but flexible shell covers their soft organs and is resistant to chemicals, water and physical impact. Their wings give them the option of flying away from dangerous situations or toward food or males. Also, insects have an enormous reproductive capacity: An African ant queen can lay as many as 43,000 eggs a day.Another reason for their success is the strategy of protective color. An insect may be right before our eyes, but nearly invisible because it is cleverly disguised like a green leaf, lump of brown soil, gray lichen (青苔),a seed or some other natural object Some insects use bright, bold colors to send warning signals that they taste bad,sting or are poison.Others have wing patterns that look like the eyes of a huge predator,bitter-tasting insects; hungry enemies are fooled intoGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFavoiding them.練習題:Choose correct answers to the question:1.Insects can be found in large amounts in the following places EXCEPT _____.A.on the mountains with little airB.in the cold polar areasC.in the hot desert areasD.in the open oceans2.Insects protect themselves from chemicals by _______A.hiding in tiny spacesB.having a strong shellC.flying away when necessaryD.changing colors or shapes3.Some insects disguise like natural objects so as to ______A.frighten away their enemiesGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFB.avoid being discoveredC.send warning signalsD.look bitter-tasting4.The passage mentions that insects ______.A.can be found in any extreme environmentsB.have survived longer than any other creaturesC.can be fed on any natural or man-made foodsD.are important for the growth of crops and flowers5.The passage is mainly about ______A.how insects survive in different placesB.why insects can survive so successfullyC.what insects can do to the environmentD.where insects can be found in quantity三The fridge is considered necessary. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food list appeared withthe label: "Store in the refrigerator."GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFIn my fridge less Fifties childhood, 1 was fedwell and healthy. The milkman came every day, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times each week. The Sunday meat would last until Wednesday and surplus(剩余的) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country.The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food preservation. Many well-tried techniques already existed -- natural cooling, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, bottling...What refrigeration did promote was marketing --- marketing hardware and electricity, marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around theworld in search of a good price.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFConsequently, most of the world's fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the rich countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside anartificially-heated house -- while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge.The fridge's effect upon the environment has been evident, while its contribution to human happiness has been not important. If you don't believe me, try it yourself, invest in a food cabinet and mm off your fridge next winter. You may not eat the hamburgers(汉堡包), but at least you'll get rid of that terrible hum.練習題:Choose correct answers to the question:1.The statement "In my fridgeless fiftiesGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFchildhood, I was fed well and healthily." suggeststhat______.A.the author was well-fed and healthy even without a fridge in his fifties.B.the author was not accustomed to fridges even in his fifties.C.there was no fridge in the author's home in the 1950s.D.the fridge was in its early stage of development in the 1950s.2.Why does the author say that nothing was wasted before the invention of fridges?A.People would not buy more food than was necessary.B.Food was delivered to people two or three times a week.C.Food was sold fresh and did not get rotteneasily.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFD.People had effective ways to preserve their food.3.Who benefited the least from fridges according to the author?A. Inventors.B. Consumers.C. Manufacturers.D. Travelling salesmen.4.Which of the following phrases in the fifth paragraph indicates the fridge's negative effect on the environment?A.“Hum away continuously”.B.“Climatically almost unnecessary”.C.“Artificially-cooled space”.D.“With mild temperatures”.5.What is the author's overall attitude toward fridges?A. Neutral.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFB. Critical.C. Objective.D. Compromising.四Moreover, insofar as any interpretation of its author can be made from the five or six plays attributed to him, the Wake field Master is uniformly considered to be a man of sharp contemporary observation. He was, formally, perhaps clerically educated, as his Latin and music, his Biblical and patristic lore indicate. He is, still, celebrated mainly for his quick sympathy for the oppressed and forgotten man, his sharp eye for character, a ready ear for colloquial vernacular turns of speech and a humor alternately rude and boisterous, coarse and happy. Hence despite his conscious artistry as manifest in his feeling for intricate metrical and stanza forms, he is looked upon as a kind of medievalSteinbeck, indignantly angry at, uncompromisingly andGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFeven brutally realistic in presenting the plight of theagricultural poor.Thus taking the play and the author together, it is mow fairly conventional to regard the former as a kind of ultimate point in the secularization of the medieval drama. Hence much emphasis on it as depicting realistically humble manners and pastoral life in the bleak hills of the West Riding of Yorkshire on a typically cold bight of December 24th. After what are often regarded as almost “documentaries” given in the three successive monologues of the three shepherds, critics go on to affirm that the realism is then intensified into a burlesque mock-treatment of the Nativity. Finally as a sort of epilogue orafter-thought in deference to the Biblical origins of the materials, the play slides back into an atavistic mood of early innocent reverence. Actually, as we shallsee, the final scene is not only the culminating sceneGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFbut perhaps the raisond’ etre of introductory“realism.”There is much on the surface of the present play to support the conventional view of its mood of secular realism. All the same, the “realism” of the Wake field Master is of a paradoxical turn. His wide knowledge of people, as well as books indicates no cloistered contemplative but one in close relation to his times. Still, that life was after all a predominantly religious one, a time which never neglected the belief that man was a rebellious and sinful creature in need of redemption, So deeply (one can hardly say “naively”of so sophisticated a writer) and implicitly religious is the Master that he is less able (or less willing) to present actual history realistically than is the author of the Brome “Abraham and Isaac”. His historical sense is even less realistic than that of Chaucer whojust a few years before had done for his own time costumeGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFromances, such as The Knight’s Tale, Troilus and Cressida, etc. Moreover Chaucer had the excuse of highly romantic materials for taking liberties with history.1. Which of the following statements about the Wake field Master is NOT True?[A]. He was Chaucer’s contemporary.[B]. He is remembered as the author of five or six realistic plays.[C]. He write like John Steinbeck.[D]. HE was an accomplished artist.2. By “patristic”, the author means[A]. realistic. [B]. patriotic[C]. superstitious. [C]. pertaining to the Christian Fathers.3. The statement about the “secularization of the medieval drama” refers to the[A]. introduction of mundane matters inGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFreligious plays.[B]. presentation of erudite material.[C]. use of contemporary introduction of religious themes in the early days.4. In subsequent paragraphs, we may expect the writer of this passage to[A]. justify his comparison with Steinbeck.[B]. present a point of view which attack the thought of the second paragraph.[C]. point out the anachronisms in the play.[D]. discuss the works of Chaucer.五The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenthcentury, the defence of photography was identical withGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFthe struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against thecharge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art,the more subversive it is of the traditional aims ofGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFart.Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expression ist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demandedby abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is,GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFabstract art as developed indifferent ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.1. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with[A]. defining the Modernist attitude towardGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFart.[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.2. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12—13?[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.3. Why does the author introduce AbstractExpressionist painter?GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAF[A]. He wants to provide an example of artistswho, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.4. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.[B]. It was art for recording the world.[C]. It was a device for observing the worldimpartially.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAF[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.六The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like‘ Palaeolithic Man’, ‘Neolithic Man’, etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label ‘Legless Man’. Histories of the time will go something like this: ‘in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn’t use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cablerailways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every hugeGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFmountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred bythe presence of large car parks. ’The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: ‘I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.’ The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man whoalways says ‘I’ve been there. ’ You mention theGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFremotest, most evocative place-names in the world likeEl Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say ‘I’ve been there’– meaning, ‘I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. ’When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels adelicious physical weariness. He knows that sound.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFSatisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.1、Anthorpologists label nowaday’s men‘Legless’ because________.A people forget how to use his legs.B people prefer cars, buses and trains.C lifts and escalators prevent people from walking.D there are a lot of transportation devices.2、Travelling at high speed means________.A people’s focus on the future.B a pleasure.C satisfying drivers’ great thrill.D a necessity of life.3、Why does the author say ‘we are deprived of the use of our eyes’ ?A People won’t use their eyes.B In traveling at high speed, eyes becomeGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFuseless.C People can’t see anything on his way of travel.D People want to sleep during travelling.4、What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?A Legs become weaker.B Modern means of transportation make the world a small place.C There is no need to use eyes.D The best way to travel is on foot.5. What does ‘a bird’s-eye view’ mean?A See view with bird’s eyes.B A bird looks at a beautiful view.C It is a general view from a high position looking down.D A scenic place.七Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this isGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFwhy they’re always coming in for criticism. Theircritics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. ‘It’s iniquitous,’ they say, ‘that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays…’The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledgewe have about household goods derives largely from theGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFadvertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement.Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye laws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.We must not forget, either, that advertising makesGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFa positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers,commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast program mes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!Another thing we mustn’t forget is the ‘small ads.’which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or‘agony’ column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining readingor offers such a deep insight into human nature. It’GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFs the best advertisement for advertising there is!1. What is main idea of this passage?A. Advertisement.B. The benefits of advertisement.C. Advertisers perform a useful service to communities.D. The costs of advertisement.2. The attitude of the author toward advertisers is______.A. appreciative.B. trustworthy.C. critical.D. dissatisfactory.3. Why do the critics criticize advertisers?A. Because advertisers often brag.B. Because critics think advertisement is a “waste of money”.C. Because customers are encouraged to buy moreGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFthan necessary.D. Because customers pay more.4. Which of the following is Not True?A. Advertisement makes contribution to our pockets and we may know everything.B. We can buy what we want.C. Good quality products don’t need to be advertised.D. Advertisement makes our life colorful.5. The passage is______.A. Narration.B. Description.C. Criticism.D. Argumentation.八Science is a dominant theme in our culture. Since it touches almost every facet of our life, educatedpeople need at least some acquaintance with itsGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFstructure and operation. They should also have anunderstanding of the subculture in which scientists live and the kinds of people they are. An understanding of general characteristics of science as well as specific scientific concepts is easier to attain if one knows something about the things that excite and frustrate the scientist.This book is written for the intelligent student or lay person whose acquaintance with science is superficial; for the person who has been presented with science as a musty storehouse of dried facts; for the person who sees the chief objective of science as the production of gadgets; and for the person who views the scientists as some sort of magician. The book can be used to supplement a course in any science, to accompany any course that attempts to give an understanding of the modern world, or – independently of any course –simply to provide a better understanding of science.GAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFWe hope this book will lead readers to a broaderperspective on scientific attitudes and a more realistic view of what science is, who scientists are, and what they do. It will give them an awareness and understanding of the relationship between science and our culture and an appreciation of the roles science may play in our culture. In addition, readers may learn to appreciate the relationship between scientific views and some of the values and philosophies that are pervasive in our culture.We have tried to present in this book an accurate and up-to-date picture of the scientific community and the people who populate it. That population has in recent years come to comprise more and more women. This increasing role of women in the scientific subculture is not an unique incident but, rather, part of the trend evident in all segments of society as more women entertraditionally male-dominated fields and makeGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAFsignificant contributions. In discussing these changes and contribution, however, we are faced with a language that is implicitly sexist, one that uses male nouns or pronouns in referring to unspecified individuals. To offset this built-in bias, we have adopted the policy of using plural nouns and pronouns whenever possible and, when absolutely necessary, alternating he and she. This policy is far form being ideal, but it is at least an acknowledgment of the inadequacy of our language in treating half of the human race equally.We have also tried to make the book entertaining as well as informative. Our approach is usually informal. We feel, as do many other scientists, that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously. As the reader may observe, we see science as a delightful pastime rather than as a grim and dreary way to earna living.1. According to the passage, ‘scientificGAGGAGAGGAFFFFAFAF。

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇47

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇47

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇47In the early days of nuclear power, the United States make money on it. But today opponents (反对者 ) have so complicated its development that no nuclear plants have been ordered or built here in 12 years.The greatest fear of nuclear power opponents has always been a reactor "meltdown". Today, the chances of a meltdown that would threaten U. S. public health are very little. But to even further reduce the possibility, engineers are testing new reactors that rely not on human judgment to shut them down but on the laws of nature. Now General Electric is already building two advanced reactors in Japan. But don't expect them even on U. S. shores unless things change in Washington.The procedure for licensing nuclear power plants is a bad dream. Any time during, or even after, construction, an objection by any group or individual can bring everything to a halt while the matter is investigated or taken to court. Meanwhile, the builder must add nice-but-not-necessary improvements, some of which force him to knock down walls and start over. In every case when a plant has been opposed, the Nuclear Regulation Commission has ultimately granted a license to construct or operate. But the victory often costs so much that the utility ends up abandoning the plant anyway.A case in point is the Shoreham plant on New York's Long Island. Shoreham was a virtual twin to the Millstone plant in Connecticut, both ordered in the mid-60's. Millstone, completed for $ 101 million, has been generating electricityfor two decades. Shoreham, however, was singled out by antinuclear activists who, by sending in endless protests, drove the cost over $ 5 billion and delayed its use for many years.Shoreham finally won its operation license. But theplant has never produced a watt power. Governor Mario Cuomo, an opponent of a Shoreham start up, used his power to force New York's public-utilities commission to accept thefollowing settlement: the power company could pass the costof Shoreham along to its consumers only if it agreed not to operate the plant. I'oday, a perfectly good facility, capable of servicing hundreds of thousands of homes, sits rusting.21.The author's attitude toward the development ofnuclear power is______.A. negativeB. neutralC. positiveD. questioning22.What has made the procedure for licensing nuclear power plants a bad dream?A. The inefficiency of the Nuclear Regulation Commission.B. The enormous cost of construction and operation.C. The length of time it takes to make investigations.D. The objection of the opponents of nuclear power.23.It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that______.A. there are not enough safety measures in the U. S. for running new nuclear power plants。

2018-2019-英语六级阅读理解临考冲刺训练-精选word文档 (5页)

2018-2019-英语六级阅读理解临考冲刺训练-精选word文档 (5页)

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下面是小编分享的英语六级阅读理解临考冲刺训练,一起来看一下吧。

Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension(35 minutes)Directions: There are 4 reading 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 centre.Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:“There is a senseless notion that children grow up and leave home when they're 18, and the truth is far from that,” says sociologist Larry Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin. Today, unexpected numbers of young adults are living with theirparents.“There is a major shift in the middle class,”declares sociologist Allan Schnaiberg of Northwestern University, whose son, 19, moved back in after an absence of eight months.Analysts cite a variety of reasons for this return to the nest. The marriage age is rising, a condition that makes home and its pleasantness particularly attractive to young people. A high divorce rate and a declining remarriage rate are sending economically pressed and emotionally hurt survivors back to parental shelters. For some, the expense of an away-from-home college education has become so excessively great that many students now attend local schools. Even after graduation, young people find their wings clipped by skyrocketing housing costs.Living at home, says Knighton, a school teacher, continues to give her security and moral support. Her mother agreed,“It's ridiculous for the kids to pay all that money for rent. It makes sense for kids to stay at home.” But sharing the family home requires adjustments for all. There are the hassles over bathrooms, telephones and privacy. Some families, however, manage the delicate balancing act. But for others, it proves too difficult. Michelle Del Turco, 24, has been home three times —and left three times. “What I considered a social drink, my dad considered an alcohol problem,” she explains. “He never liked anyone I dated, so I either had to hide away or meet them at friends' houses.”Just how long should adult children live with their parents before moving on? Most psychologists feel lengthy homecomings are a mistake. Children struggling to establish separate identities, can end up with “a sense of inadequacy, defeat and failure.” And aging parents, who should be enjoying some financial and personal freedom, find themselves stuck with responsibilities. Many agree that brief visits, however, can work beneficially.21. According to the author, there was once a trend in theU.S_______.A) for middle class young adults to stay with their parentsB) for young adults to leave their parents and live independentlyC) for married young adults to move back home after a lengthy absenceD) for young adults to get jobs nearby in order to live withtheir parents22. Which of the following does not account for young adults returning to the nest?A) Young adults find housing costs too high.B) Quite a number of young adults attend local schools.C) Young adults seek parental comfort and moral support.D) Young adults are psychologically and intellectually immature.23. One of the disadvantages of young adults returning to stay with their parents is that_______.。

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇34

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇34

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇34A growing world population and the discoveries of science may 11 this pattern of distribution in the future. As men slowly learn to master diseases, control floods, prevent famines, and stop wars, fewer people die every year; and in 12 the population of the world is 13 increasing. In 1925 there were about 2,000 million people in the world; by the end of the century there may well be over 4,000 million.When numbers rise the 14 mouths must be fed. New lands must be I bought under cultivation, or land already farmed made to 15 larger crops. In some areas the accessible land is largely so intensively 16 that it will be difficult to makeit provide more food. In some areas the population is so dense that the land is parceled out in units too 17 to allow for much improvement in farming methods. Were a larger part of this farming population drawn off into industrial occupations, the land might be farmed much more productively by modern methods.There is now a race for science, technology, andindustry to keep the 18 of food rising faster than the number of people to be fed. New strains of crops are being developed which will thrive in 19 climates; irrigation and dry-farming methods bring poor lands under the plough, dams hold back the waters of great rivers to 20 water for the fields in all seasons and to provide electric power for new industries; industrial chemistry provides fertilizers to suit particular soils; aero planes spray crops to destroy insects and many plant diseases.A. ensureB. violentlyC. alterD. harmfulE. cultivatedF. uniqueG. transplantedH. yieldI. consequenceJ. outputK. extraL. steadilyM. tinyN. unfavorableO. produceII. C 12. I 13. L 14. K 15. H 16. E 17. M 18. J 19. N 20. A。

2019年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案(第三套)

2019年12月大学英语六级考试真题及答案(第三套)

2019年12月大学英语六级考试真题完整版(第三套)Part ⅠWriting (30 minutes)Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on the importance of having a sense of community responsibility. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)暂无Part ⅡI 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 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.The number of devices you can talk to is multiplying—first it was your phone, then your car, and now you can tell your kitchen appliances what to do. But even without gadgets that understand our spoken commands, research suggests that, as bizarre as it sounds, under certain 26 , people regularly ascribe human traits to everyday objects.Sometimes we see things as human because we are 27 . In one experiment, people who reported feeling isolated were more likely than others to attribute 28 to various gadgets. In turn, feeling close to objects can 29 loneliness. When college students were reminded of a time they had been 30 in a social setting, they compensated by exaggerating their number of friends—unless they were first given tasks that caused them to interact with their phone as if it had human qualities. According to the researchers, the participants' phones 31 substituted for real friends.At other times, we personify products in an effort to understand them. One study found that three in four respondents yelled at their computer. Further, the more their computer gave them problems, the more likely the respondents were to re port that it had its own “beliefs and 32 .”So how do people assign traits to an object? In part, we rely on looks. On humans, wide faces are 33 with dominance. Similarly, people rated cars, clocks, and watches with wide faces as more dominant-looking than narrow-faced ones, and preferred them—especially in 34 situations. An analysis of car sales in Germany found that cars with gills (护栅) that were upturned like smiles sold best. The purchasers saw this 35 as increasing a car's friendliness.A) alleviateB) apparentlyC) arrogantD) associatedE) circumstancesF) competitiveG) concededH) consciousnessI) desiresJ) excludedK) featureL) lonelyM) separateN) spectacularlyO) warrantSection 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.[A] Though he didn’t come from a farming family, from a young age Tim Joseph was fascinated by the idea of living off the land. Reading magazines like The Stockman Grass Farmer and Graze, he got hooked on the idea of grass-fed agriculture. The idea that all energy and wealth comes from the sun really intrigued him He thought the shorter the distance between the sun and the end product, the higher the profit to the farmer.[B] Joseph wanted to put this theory to the test. In 2009, he and his wife Laura launched Maple Hill Creamery, an organic, all grass-fed yogurt company in northern New York. He quickly learned what the market has demonstrated: Demand for grass-fed products currently exceeds supply. Grass-fed beef is enjoying a 25-30% annual growth rate. Sales of grass-fed yogurt and kefir (发酵乳饮品) on the other hand, have in the last year increased by over 38%. This is in comparison with a drop of just under 1% in the total yogurt and kefir market according to natural and organic market research company SPINS. Joseph’s top priority became getting his hands on enough grass-fed milk to keep customers satisfied, since his own 64-cow herd wasn’t going to suffic e[C] His first partnership was with Paul and Phyllis Amburgh, owners of the Dharma Lea farm in New York. The Amburghs, too, were true believers in grass-fed. In addition to supplying milk from their own 85-head herd, they began to help other farmers in the area convent from conventional to certified organic and grass-fed in order to enter the Maple Hill supply chain. Since 2010, the couple has helped 125 small dairy farms convert to grass-fed, with more than 80% of those farms coming on board during the last two years.[D] All this conversion has helped Maple Hill grow 40-50% every year since it began with no end in sight. Joseph has learned that a farmer has to have a certain mindset to successfully convert. But convincing open-minded dairy people is actually not that hard, when you look at the economics. Grass-fed milk can fetch up to 2.5 times the price of conventional milk. Another factor is the squeeze that conventional dairy farmers have felt as the price of grain they feed their cows has gone up, tightening their profit margins. By replacing expensive grain feed with regenerative management practices, grass-fed farmers are insulated from jumps in the price of feed. These practices include grazing animals on grasses grown from the pastureland’s natural seed bunk, and fertilized by the cows’ own fertilizer[E] Champions of this type of regenerative grazing also point to its animal welfare, climate and health benefits: Grass-fed animals live longer out of confinement. Grazing herds stimulate microbial (微生物的) activity in the soil, helping to capture water and separate carbon. And grass-fed dairy and meat have been shown to be higher in certain nutrients and healthy fats.[F] In the grass fed system, farmers are also not subject to the wildly fluctuating milk prices of the international commodity market. The unpredictability of global demand and the lag-time it takes to add more cows to a herd to meet demand can result in events like the recent cheese surplus. Going grass-fed is a safe refuge, a way for family-scale farms to stay viable. Usually a farmer will get to the point where financially, what they’re doing is not working. That’s when they call Maple Hill. If the farm is well managed and has enough land, and the desire to convert is sincere, a relationship can begin. Through regular regional educational meetings, a large annual meeting, individual farm visits and thousands of phone calls, the Amburghs pass on the principles of pasture management. Maple Hill signs a contract pledging to buy the farm er’s milk at a guaranteed base price, plus quality premiums and incentives for higher protein, butter fat and other solids.[G] While Maple Hill's conversion program is unusually hands on and comprehensive, it’s just one of a growing number of businesses committed to slowly changing the way America farms. Joseph calls sharing his knowledge network through peer-to-peer learning a core piece of the company’s culture. Last summer, Massachusetts grass-fed beef advocate John Smith launched Big Picture Beef, a network of small grass-fed beef farms in New England and New York that is projected to bring to market 2,500 head of cattle from 125 producers this year. Early indications are that Smith will have no shortage of farm members. Since he began to informally a nnounce the network at farming conferences and on social media, he’s received a steady stream of inquiries from interested farmers.[H] Smith says he’ll provide services ranging from formal seminars to on-farm workshops on holistic (整体的) management, to one-on-one hand-holding and an almost 24/7 phone hotline for farmers who are converting. In exchange, he guarantees an above-market price for each animal and a calf-to-customer electronic ear tag ID system like that used in the European Union.[1] Though advocates portray grass fed products as a win-win situation for all, they do have downsides. Price, for one, is an issue. Joseph says his products are priced 10-20% above organic versions, but depending on the product chosen, compared to non-organic conventional yogurt, consumers could pay a premium of 30-50% or more for grass-fed. As for the meat, Smith says his grass-fed hamburger will be priced 20-25% over the conventional alternative. But a look at the prices on online grocer Fresh Direct suggests a grass-fed premium of anywhere from 35-60%,[J] And not every farmer has the option of going grass-fed. For both beef and dairy production it requires, at least in the beginning, more pastureland. Grass-fed beef production tends to be more labor-intensive as well. But Smith counters that if you factor in the hidden cost of government corn subsidies, environment degradation, and decreased human heath and animal welfare, grass-fed is the more cost-effective model. “The sun provides the lowest cost of production and the cheapest meat,” he says.[K] Another grass-fed booster spurring farmers to convert is EPIC, which makes meat-based protein bars. Founders Taylor Collins and his wife, Katie Forrest, used to be endurance athletes; now they’re advocates of grass-f ed meat. Soon after launching EPIC’S most successful product - the Bison Bacon Cranberry Bar - Collins and Forrest found they’d exhausted their sources for bison (北美野牛) raised exclusively on pasture. When they started researching the supply chain, they learned that only 2-3% of all bison is actually grass-fed. The rest is feed-lot confined and fed grain and corn.[L] But after General Mills bought EPIC in 2016, Collins and Forrest suddenly had the resources they needed to expand their supply chain. So the company teamed up with Wisconsin-based rancher Northstar Bison. EPIC fronted the money for the purchase of $2.5 million worth of young bison that will be raised according to its grass-fed protocols, with a guaranteed purchase price. The message to young people who might not otherwise be able to afford to break into the business is,“You can purchase this $3 million piece of land here, because I’m guaranteeing you today you'll have 1,000 bison on it.’ We’re bringing new blood into the old, conventional farmi ngecosystem, which is really cool to see,” Collins explains.36. Farmers going grass-fed are not affected by the ever-changing milk prices of the global market.37. Over the years, Tim Joseph’s partners have helped many dairy farmers to switch to gras s-fed.38. One advocate believes that many other benefits should be taken into consideration when we assess the cost-effectiveness of grass-fed farming.39. Many dairy farmers were persuaded to switch to grass-fed when they saw its advantage in terms of profits.40. Tim Joseph’s grass-fed program is only one example of how American farming practice is changing.41. Tim Joseph was fascinated by the notion that sunlight brings energy and wealth to mankind.42. One problem with grass-fed products is that they are usually more expensive than conventional ones.43. Grass fed products have proved to be healthier and more nutritious.44. When Tim Joseph started his business, he found grass-fed products fell short of demand.45. A snack bar producer discovered that the supply of purely grass-fed bison met was scarce.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.Schools are not just a microcosm(缩影) of society: they mediate it too. The best seek to alleviate the external pressures on their pupils while equipping them better to understand and handle the world outside-- at once sheltering them and broadening their horizons. This is ambitious in any circumstances. and in a divided and unequal society the two ideals can clash outright(直接地).Trips that many adults would consider the adventure of a lifetime-treks in Borneo, a sports tour toBarbados-appear to have become almost routine at some state schools. Parents are being asked for thousands of pounds. Though schools cannot profit from these trips, the companies that arrange them do. Meanwhile, pupils arrive at school hungry because their families can’t afford breakfast. The Child Poverty Action Group says n ine out of 30 in every classroom fall below the poverty line. The discrepancy is startlingly apparent. Introducing a fundraising requirement for students does not help, as better-off children can tap up richer aunts and neighbours.Probing the rock pools of a local beach or practising French on a language exchange can fire children’s passions, boost their skills and open their eyes to life’s possibilities. Educational outings help bright but disadvantaged students to get better scores in A-level tests. In this globalised age, there is a good case for international travel. and some parents say they can manage the cost of a school trip abroad more easily than afamily holiday. Even in the face of immense and mounting financial pressures. some schools have shown remarkable determination and ingenuity in ensuring that all their pupils are able to take up opportunities that may be truly life-changing. They should be applauded. Methods such as whole-school fundraising. with the proceeds(收益) pooled, can help to extend opportunities and fuel community spirit.But £3,000 trips cannot be justified when the average income for families with children is just over£30,000. Such initiatives close doors for many pupils. Some parents pull their children out of school because of expensive field trips. Even parents who can see that a trip is little more than a party or celebration may well feel guilt that their child is left behind.The Department for Education’s guidance says schools can charge only for board and lodging i f the trip is part of the syllabus, and that students receiving government aid are exempt from these costs. However, many schools seem to ignore the advice; and it does not cover the kind of glamorous, exotic trips. which are becoming increasingly common. Schools cannot be expected to bring together communities single-handed. But the least we should expect is that they do not foster divisions and exclude those who are already disadvantaged.46. What does the author say best schools should do?A) Prepare students to both challenge and change the divided unequal society.B) Protect students from social pressures and enable them to face the world.C) Motivate students to develop their physical as well as intellectual abilities.D) Encourage students to be ambitious and help them to achieve their goals.47. What does the author think about school field trips?A) They enable students from different backgrounds to mix with each other.B)They widen the gap between privileged and disadvantaged students.C) They give the disadvantaged students a chance to see the world.D) They only benefit students with rich relatives and neighbours.48. What does the author suggest can help build community spirit?A) Events aiming to improve community services.B) Activities that help to fuel students’ ingenuity.C) Events that require mutual understanding.D) Activities involving all students on campus.49. What do we learn about low-income parents regarding school field trips?A) They want their chi ldren to participate even though they don’t see much benefit.B) They don’t want their kids to participate but find it hard to keep them from going.C) They don’t want their kids to miss any chance to broaden their horizons despite the cost.D)They w ant their children to experience adventures but they don’t want them to run risks,50. What is the author’s expectation of schools?A) Bringing a community together with ingenuity.B) Resolving the existing discrepancies in society.C) Avoiding creating new gaps among students.D) Giving poor students preferential treatment.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Rising temperatures and overfishing in the pristine(未受污染的) waters around the Antarctic could see king penguin populations pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of the century, according to a new study. The study’s report states that as global warming transforms the environment in the world’s last great wilderness, 70 percent of king penguins could either disappear or be forced to find new breeding grounds.Co-author Céline Le Bohec, from the University of Strasbourg in France, warned:“If there’re no actions aimed at haling or controlling global warming, and the pace of the current human- induced changes such as climatechange and overfishing stays the same, the species may son disappear.” The findings come amid growing concern over the future of the Antarctic. Earlier this month a separate study found that a combination of climate change and industrial fishing is threatening the krill (磷虾) population in Antarctic waters, with a potentially disastrous impact on whales, seals and penguins. But today’s report is the starkest warning yet of the potentially devastating impactof climate change and human e xploitation on the Antarctic’s delicate ecosystems.Le Bohec said: “Unless current greenhouse gas emissions drop, 70 percent of king penguins - 1.1 million breeding pairs - will be forced to relocate their breeding grounds, or face extinction by 2100.” K ing penguins are the second-largest type of penguin and only breed on specific isolated islands in the Southern Ocean where there is no ice cover and easy access to the sea. As the ocean warms, a body of water called the Antarctic Polar Front - an upward movement of nutrient-rich sea that supports a huge abundance of marine life - is being pushed further south, This means that king penguins, which feed on fish and krill in this body of water, have to travel further to their feeding grounds, leaving their hungry chicks for longer. And as the distance between their breeding grounds and their food grows, entire colonies could be wiped out.Le Bohec said:“The plight of the king penguin should serve as a warning about the future of the entire marine environment in the Antarctic. Penguins, like other seabirds and marine mammals, occupy higher levels in the food chain and they are what we call bio-indicators of their ecosystems." Penguins are sensitive indicators of changes in marine ecosystems. As such, they are key species for understanding and predicting impacts of global change on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic marine ecosystems. The report found that although some king penguins may be able to relocate to new breeding grounds closer to their retreating food source, suitable new habitats would be scarce. Onlya handful of islands in the Southern Ocean are suitable for sustaining large breeding colonies.51. What will happen by 2100, according to a new study?A)King penguins in the Antarctic will be on the verge of dying out.B)Sea water will rise to a much higher level around the Antarctic.C) The melting ice cover will destroy the great Antarctic wilderness.D) The pristine waters around the Antarctic will disappear forever.52. What do we learn from the findings of a separate study?A)Shrinking krill population and rising temperatures could force Antarctic whales to migrate.B)Human activities have accelerated climate change in the Antarctic region in recent years.C)Industrial fishing and climate change could be fatal to certain Antarctic species.D)Krill fishing in the Antarctic has worsened the pollution of the pristine waters.53. What does the passage say about king penguins?A) They will turn out to be the second-largest species of birds to become extinct.B) Many of them will have to migrate to isolated islands in the Southern Ocean.C) They feed primarily on only a few kinds of krill in the Antarctic Polar Front.D) The majority of them may have to find new breeding grounds in the future.54. What happens when sea levels rise in the Antarctic?A) Many baby king penguins can’t have food in time.B) Many king penguins could no longer live on krill.C) Whales will invade king penguins’ breeding grounds.D) Whales will have to travel long distances to find food.55. What do we learn about the Southern Ocean?A)The king penguins there are reluctant to leave for new breeding grounds.B)Its conservation is key to the sustainable propagation of Antarctic species.C)It is most likely to become the ultimate retreat for species like the king penguin.D)Only a few of its islands can serve as huge breeding grounds for king penguins.Part Ⅳ Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.荷花是中国的名花之一,深受人们喜爱。

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习题:阅读篇99

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习题:阅读篇99

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习题:阅读篇99Once you're prepared for a situation, you're 50 percent of the way toward overcoming nervousness. The other 50 percent is the physical and mental control of nervousness; adjusting your attitude so you have confidence, and control of yourself and your audience.I was in the theater for many years and always went to work with terrible stage fright—until I was in "The King and I". While waiting offstage one night, I saw Yul Brynner, the show's star, pushing in a lunging position against a wall. It looked as though he wanted to knock it down. "This helps me control my nervousness," he explained.I tried it and, sure enough, freed myself from stage fright. Not only that, but pushing the wall seemed to give me a whole new kind of physical energy. Later I discovered that when you push against a wall you contract the muscles thatlie just below where your ribs begin to splay (展开). I call this area the "vital triangle".To understand how these muscles work, try this: sit in a straight-backed chair and lean slightly forward. Put your palms together in front of you, your elbows pointing out the sides, your fingertips pointing upward, and push so that you feel pressure in the heels of your palms and under your arms.Say ssssssss, like a hiss. As you're exhaling the s, contract those muscles in the vital triangle as though you were rowing a boat, pulling the oars back and up. The vital triangle should tighten. Relax the muscles at the end of your exhalation, then inhale gently.You can also adjust your attitude to prevent nervousness. What you say to yourself sends a message to your audience. If you tell yourself you're afraid, that's the message your listener receives. So select the attitude you want to communicate. Attitude adjusting is your mental suit of armor against nervousness. If you entertain only positive thoughts, you will be giving out these words: joy and ease, enthusiasm, sincerity and concern, and authority.21. To overcome nervousness, one should_______.A. adjust his attitude as well as make preparation for a gatheringB. ask the audience to give him confidenceC. try not to be knocked down by stage frightD. wait offstage22. "The King and I" should be_______.A. a filmB. a novelC. a playD. a song23. The writer cites examples in Paragraphs 4 and 5 to support his statement that_______.A. you will have a positive effect by putting energyinto your voiceB. you're 50 percent of the way towards overcoming nervousness once you are prepared for a situationC. you will have a whole new kind of physical energy by pushing against a wallD. if you master the techniques informed by the author your will never be nervous again24. Yul Brynner pushed the wall in order to_______.A. show the writer how to overcome nervousnessB. pull down the wallC. get physical energyD. overcome his own nervousness25. If you have active thoughts, your audience will detect ______.A. that you are full of fear and depressionB. that you are tightening your vital triangleC. that you are joyful and easy-goingD. that you are relaxing your muscles21. A 22. C 23. C 24. D 25. C。

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇100

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇100

2019英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇100Although credit cards are becoming a more acceptable partof the financial scene, they are still regarded withsuspicion by many as being a major part of the "live now pay later" syndrome(^Jttt). Along with hire-purchase, rental and leasing schemes, they provide encouragement to spend more money. Of course, it is only the foolhardy who yield to the temptation to live, temporarily at least, beyond their means, and such people would no doubt manage to do so even without credit cards.Advertising campaigns have, however, promoted a growing realization of the advantages of these small pieces of plastic. They obviate (避免) need to carry large amounts of cash and are always useful in emergencies.All the credit card organizations charge interest on a monthly basis which may work out as high as 25 per cent a year, yet judicious purchasing using a card can mean that you obtain up to seven weeks, interest-free credit. Using thecard abroad, where items frequently take a long time to be included on your account, can extend this period even further.It is worthwhile shopping around before deciding on a particular credit card. It is necessary to consider the amount of credit granted; interest rates, which may vary slightly; the number and range of outlets, though most cards cover major garages, hotels, restaurants and department stores; and of course, what happens if your card is lost or stolen. A credit card thief may be sitting on a potentialgoldmine particularly if there is a delay in reporting the loss of the card.However, if used wisely, a credit card can cost nothing, or at least help to tide you over a period of financial difficulty.26. Which of the following can not make you spend more money?A. Credit cards.B. Hire-purchase.C. Rental and leasing schemes.D. None of the above is right.27. The foolhardy are people who_______.A. spend more money than they haveB. spend less money than other peopleC. save moneyD. make money28. The disadvantage of credit cards is_______.A. to enable you to buy things without carrying large amount of cashB. to encourage people to spend more moneyC. to be always useful in emergenciesD. to help people tide over a period of financial difficulty29. According to the passage, credit cards are madeof_______.A. paperB. goldC. plasticD. tin30. Deciding on a particular credit, you do not have to consider______.A. the amount of credit grantedB. the number and range of outletsC. the possibility of loss of moneyD. the department stores where you are going to use your credit cards26. D 27. A 28. B。

2019大学英语六级考试阅读冲刺模拟训练(5)

2019大学英语六级考试阅读冲刺模拟训练(5)

2019大学英语六级考试阅读冲刺模拟训练(5)Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, spiders, and even small frogs. What's more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they're found on every continent except Antarctica.You've probably seen a Venus' flytrap. It's often soldin museum gift stores, department stores, and even supermarkets. A small plant, it grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks(茎)are specially modified leaves that act like traps. Inside each trap is a lining of tiny trigger(触发)hairs. When an insect lands on them, the trap suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, theplant feeds on its catch.The Venus' flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter. Note: Despite any science-fiction stories(科幻小说)you might have read, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.Dr. Meyers-Rice says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: "attract, kill, digest, and absorb" some form of insects , including flies, butterflies, and moths. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants—well, most of the time.All green plants make sugar through a process called photosynthesis(光合作用). Plants use the sugar to make food. What makes "meat-eating" plants different is their bug-catching leaves. They need insects for one reason:nitrogen(氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can't obtainany other way. Why Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil"Meat-eating" plants can't. They live in places where nutrients are hard or almost impossible to get from the soil because of its acidity(酸度). So they've come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soil is poisonous to "meat-eating" plants. Never fertilize(施肥)them! But don't worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they'll grow very slowly.Questions 1 to 5 are based on the passage above.1.According to the passage,carnivorous plants_____.A.only grow in wild filedB.are rare to seeC.are as common as fliesD.cannot grow on Antarctica2.Venus'flytrap preys on insects by_____.A.its numerous elongated stalksB.a container where it growsC.its insect-catching leavesD.the lining of tiny trigger hairs3.We can conclude from the third paragraph that_____.A.carnivorous plants are dangerousB.carnivorous plants are fictionalC.carnivorous plants occasionally eat booksD.carnivorous plants are harmless to humans4.Carnivorous plants eat insects in order to_____.A.make sugars through photosynthesisB.obtain a nutrient called nitrogenC.make food and nectarD.develop to a more advanced form5.In the eyes of the author,which of the following statements is TRUE?A.Carnivorous plants cannot grow in acid soil.B.Carnivorous plants can grow in nutrient-poor soil.C.Carnivorous plants will die if they cannot catch any insects.D.Carnivorous plants can get nitrogen from nutrient-rich soilD.Carnivorous plants can get nitrogen from nutrient-rich soil。

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇75

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇75

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇75In the last two hundred years there have been great changes in the method of production of goods. This is now also true of the building industry; for mechanization has been introduced. System building can save both time and money. The principle of system building is that the building is made from a set ofstandard units. These are either made at the building-site or at a factory. Some designers, in fact, are standardizing the dimensions of rooms. They are made in multiples of a single fixed length, usually ten centimeters. This is called a modular (标准件的) system, and it means that manufactures can produce standardized fittings at a lower cost. The most important fact about system building is its speed. A ten-storey flat, for example, can be completed in four months.There are several new methods of system building. One is the panel method. In this case, the construction company sometimes erects a factory on the site. The walls and floors of the building, called panels, are cast in a horizontal or vertical position. Conduits for electrical wires and sleeves for pipes are cast in the panels when they are being made. The moulds for making these castings are situated all around the building.After the concrete panels are cast, they are allowed to set and harden for a week. Next they are lifted by a tower crane on to any section of the building. There the panels arecemented together at their joints and the floor covering is laid.After the panels have been cemented together, the crane lifts a case into the area. It contains all the fittings to be installed, such as wash-basins, radiators and pipes. Finishing tradesmen, such as plumbers, plasterers, painters and electricians, follow behind to complete the work.In some building developments, in some countries, whole flats with internal features like their bathrooms, bedrooms and connecting stairs, and weighing as much as twenty tons, are carried to the building-site ready-made. A giant overhead crane is used to lift them into position. In the future, this method may become more widespread.1. The main difference between panel method and the method discussed in the last paragraph is_______.A. the latter uses ready-made internal featuresB. panels are cast in a level positionC. the former is used to build walls and floors whilethe latter to construct bathrooms or bedroomsD. the former is more expensive than the latter22. Which of these statements is TRUE of system building?A. It employs more men.B. It is difficult and dangerous.C. It can save both time and money.D. It means less mechanization.23. According to the passage, the principle of system building is that_______.A. construction methods are saferB. buildings are made from a set of standardized unitsC. similar buildings can be producedD. all units are produced on the site24. The usual fixed length in the modular systemis_______.A. twenty centimetersB. ten millimetersC. fifty centimetersD. ten centimeters25. What lifts the concrete panels onto the building?A. Cranes.B. Man-power.C. Pulleys.D. Hydraulic jacks.21. A 22. C 23. B 24. D 25. A。

大学英语六级改革适用阅读模拟题2019年(32)_真题-无答案

大学英语六级改革适用阅读模拟题2019年(32)_真题-无答案

大学英语六级改革适用(阅读)模拟题2019年(32)(总分710,考试时间130分钟)Part III Reading ComprehensionSection BHow the CIA Works[A]Despite plenty of Hollywood films about the CIA and its spies, many people still don't know what the agency actually does. The CIA stands for the Central Intelligence Agency. Its primary stated mission is to collect, evaluate and spread foreign intelligence to assist the president and senior United States government policymakers in making decisions about national security. The CIA may also engage in covert(秘密的)action at the president's request. It doesn't make policy. It isn't allowed to spy on the domestic activities of Americans or to participate in assassinations, either— though it has been accused of doing both.[B]The CIA reports both to the executive and legislative branches. During the CIA's history, the amount of oversight has ebbed and flowed. On the executive side, the CIA must answer to three groups—the National Security Council, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the Intelligence Oversight Board.CIA History[C]The United States has always engaged in foreign intelligence activities. Covert action aided the patriots in winning the Revolutionary War. But the first formal, organized agencies didn't exist until the 1880s, when the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Army's Military Intelligence Division were created. Around World War I, the Bureau of Investigation(the forerunner of the FBI)took over intelligence-gathering duties. The intelligence structure continued through several repetitions. For example, the Office of Strategic Services, known as the OSS, was established in 1942 and abolished in 1945.[D]After World War II, U.S. leaders struggled with how to improve national intelligence. The Pearl Harbor bombing, which brought the United States into World War II, was considered a major intelligence failure.[E]In 1947, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which created the CIA. The act also created a director of central intelligence, who had three different roles: the president's principal adviser on security issues, the head of the entire U.S. **munity and the head of the CIA, one of the agencies within that **munity. This structure was revised in 2004, with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which created the position of director of nationalintelligence to oversee the **munity. Now, the director of the CIA reports to the director of national intelligence.[F]Two years later, Congress passed the Central Intelligence Agency Act, which allows the agency to keep its budget and staffing secret. For many years, the agency's primary mission was to protect the United States **munism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. These days, the agency has an even **plex job—to protect the United States from terrorist threats from all over the globe.CIA Structure[G]The CIA is broken down into four different teams, each with its own responsibilities. National Clandestine Service is where the so-called "spies" work. NCS employees go undercover abroad to collect foreign intelligence. They recruit agents to collect what is called "human intelligence." What kinds of people work for the NCS? NCS employees are generally well-educated, know other languages, like to work with people from all over the world and can adapt to any situation, including dangerous ones. Most people, including their friends and family members, will never know exactly what NCS employees do. Later we'll take a look at how the spies stay undercover and check out some of their cool gadgets.[H]The people on Directorate of Science and Technology team collect overt, or open source, intelligence. Overt intelligence consists of information that appears on TV, on the radio, in magazines or in newspapers. They also use electronic and satellite photography. This team usually recruits people who enjoy science and engineering.[I]All of the information gathered by the first two teams is turned over to the Directorate of Intelligence. Members of this team interpret the information and write reports about it. A DI employee must have excellent writing and analytical skills, be comfortable presenting information in front of groups and be able to handle deadline pressure.[J]Directorate of Support team provides support for the rest of the organization and handles things like hiring and training. "The Directorate of Support attracts the person who may be a specialist in a field such as an artist or a finance officer, or a generalist with many different talents," according to the CIA Web site.Spy Stuff[K]About a third of the agency's estimated 20, 000 employees are undercover or have been at some point in their CIA careers, according to a Los Angeles Times story, which explored just how they keep those covers.[L]Most of the agency's overseas officers are under official cover, meaning they pose as employees of another government agency, such as the state department. A much smaller number are under nonofficial cover or NOC(pronounced "knock"). This means they usually pose as employees of real international corporations, employees of **panies or as students. Valerie Plame worked as a NOC, posing as the employee of a **pany in Boston called Brewster-Jennings. NOC is more dangerous than having an official cover, because if NOCs are caught by a foreign intelligence service, they have no diplomatic immunity to protect them from prosecution in that country.[M]In a newspaper interview, an anonymous source said that he posed as a mid-level executive at multinational corporations while collecting intelligence overseas for more than a decade. He worked several years as a business consultant before joining the agency, giving him a great resume for the NOC program. Senior executives at his covert employer's were aware of hisreal job, but his coworkers day-to-day were not. He carried out the normal duties that someone in his cover job would do, once even working on a $2 million deal. However, he also often spent three or four nights a week holding secret meetings.[N]There is plenty of lore(传说)about the cloak-and-dagger lives that spies lead. Some of it is just that-lore. On the other hand, spies through the years really have used a variety of gadgets and technology to do their jobs. Some are now treasured up at the CIA Museum. Highlights of the museum include:(1)The dead drop spike, a concealment device that has been used since the late 1960s to hide money, maps, documents, microfilm and other items. The spike is waterproof and can be shoved into the ground or placed in a shallow stream to be retrieved later.(2)The Mark IV microdot camera was used to pass documents between agents in East and West Berlin during the 1950s and '60s. Agents took photographs that were the size of a pinhead and glued them to typed letters. The agent who received the letter could then view the image under a microscope.(3)The silver dollar hollow container is still being used today. It looks like a silver dollar and can be used to hide messages or film.[O]Though the agency has had its share of failures and scandals, the government still depends heavily on the CIA to provide intelligence and assist with maintaining national security.1. Some of the CIA employees are required to be very good at writing and analyzing.2. The security act signed by the US president in the 1940s led to the establishment of the CIA3. According to an anonymous source, several years of working experience as a business consultant gave him great advantage to join the CIA.4. The CIA also recruits those who are interested in science and engineering.5. The CIA was granted the permission to keep its budget and staffing secret by an act.6. Even friends and families of those spies will never know what they actually do.7. One of the new tasks of the CIA is to protect the United States from terrorist threats.8. Engaging in secret action at the president's request is among the CIA's responsibility.9. At the CIA museum, one can see the silver dollar hollow container, a gadget which is still in use nowadays.10. An overseas officer without an official cover often faces more danger to life because he is not provided with diplomatic immunity.Smother Love[A]Every morning, Leanne Brickland and her sister would bicycle to school with the same words ringing in their ears: "Watch out crossing the road. Don't speak to strangers". "Mum would stand at the top of the steps and call that out," says Brickland, now a primary-school teacher and mother of four from Rotorua, New Zealand. Substitute boxers and thongs for undies(内衣), and the nagging fears that haunt parents haven't really changed. What has altered, dramatically, is the confidence we once had in our children's ability to fling themselves at life without a grown-up holding their hands.[B]By today's standards, the childhood freedoms Brickland took for granted practically verge on parental neglect. Her mother worked, so she and her sister had a key to let themselves in after school and were expected to do their homework and put on the potatoes for dinner. At the family's beach house near Wellington, the two girls, from the age of five or six, would disappear for hours to play in the lakes and sands.[C]A generation later, Brickland's children are growing up in a world more indulged yet more accustomed to peril. The techno-minded generation of PlayStation kids who can conquer entirearmies and rocket through space can't even be trusted to cross the street alone. "I walked or biked to school for years, but my children don't," Brickland admits. "I worry about the road. I worry about strangers. In some ways I think they're missing out, but I like to be able to see them, to know where they are and what they're doing."[D]Call it smother love, indulged-kid syndrome, parental neurosis(神经症). Even though today's chil- dren have the universe at their fingertips thanks to the Internet, their physical boundaries are shrinking at a rapid pace. According to British social scientist Mayer Hillman, a child's play zone has contracted so radically that we're producing the human equivalent of henhouse chickens—plump from lack of exercise and without the flexibility and initiative of free-range kids of the past. The spirit of our times is no longer the resourceful adventurer Tom Sawyer but rather the worry-ridden dad and his stifled only child in Finding Nemo.[E]In short, child rearing has become an exercise in risk minimization, represented by stories such as the father who refused to allow his daughter on a school picnic to the beach for fear she might drown. While it's natural for a parent to want to protect their children from danger, you have to wonder Have we gone too far?[F]A study conducted by Paul Tranter, a lecturer in geography at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, showed that while Australian and New Zealand children had similar amounts of unsupervised freedom, it was far less than German or English kids. For example, only a third of ten-year-olds in Australia and New Zealand were allowed to visit places other than school alone, compared to 80 percent in Germany.[G]Girls were even more restricted than boys, with parents fearing assault or molestation(骚扰), while traffic dangers were seen as the greatest threat to boys. Bike ownership has doubled in a generation, but"independent mobility"—the ability to roam and explore unsupervised—has radically declined. In Auckland, for example, many primary schools have done away with bicycle racks because the streets are considered too unsafe. And in Christchurch, New Zealand's most bike-friendly city, the number of pupils cycling to school has fallen from more than 90 percent in the late 1970s to less than 20 percent. Safely strapped into the family 4x4, children are instead driven from home to the school gate, then off to ballet, soccer or swimming lessons—rarely straying from watchful adult eyes.[H]In the U.S. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, New Jersey assistant principal and hockey coach Bobbie Schultz writes that playing in the street after school with neighborhood kids—creating their own rules, making their own decisions and settling disputes—was where the real learning took place. "The street was one of the greatest sources of my life skills," she says. "I don't see ' on-the-street play' anymore. I see adult-organized activities. Parents don't realize what an integral part of character development their children are missing."[I]Armored with bicycle helmets, car seats, "safe" playgrounds and sunscreen, children are getting the message loud and clear that the world is full of peril—and that they're ill-equipped to handle it alone. Yet research consistently shows young people are much more capable than we think, says professor Anne Smith, director of New Zealand's Children's Issues Centre. "The thing that many adults have difficulty with is that children can't learn to be grown-up if they're excluded and protected all the time." [J]Educational psychologist Paul Prangley reckons it's about time the kid gloves came off. He believes parenting has taken on a paranoid(患妄想狂的)edge that's creating a generation of naive, insecure youngsters who are subconsciously being taught they're incapable of handling things by themselves. "Flexibility and the ability to resist pressure andtemptation are learned skills," Prangley explains. "If you wrap kids up in cotton wool and don't give them the opportunity to take risks, they're less equipped to make responsible decisions later in life."[K]Sadly, high-profile cases of children being kidnapped and murdered—such as ten-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in the United Kingdom; five-year-old Chloe Hoson in Australia, whose body was found just 200 metres from where she lived; and six-year-old Teresa Cormack in New Zealand, who was snatched off the street on her way to school—only serve to reinforce parents' fears. Teresa Cormack's death, for example, was one of the rare New Zealand cases of random child kidnap. In Australia, the odds of someone under the age of 15 being murdered by a stranger have been estimated at one in four million.[L]However, parental fear is contagious. In one British study, far more children feared an attack by a stranger than being hit by a car. "We are losing our sense of perspective," write Jan Parker and Jan Stimpson in their parenting book, Raising Happy Children. "Every parent has to negotiate their own route between equipping children with the skills they need to stay safe and not restricting or terrifying them unnecessarily in the process."[M]Dr. Claire Freeman, a planning expert at the University of Otago, points to the erosion of community responsibility as another casualty of that mutual distrust. Not so long ago, adults knew all the local kids and were the informal guardians of the neighbourhood. "Now, particularly if you are a man, you may hesitate to offer help to a lost child for fear your motives might be questioned."[N]As a planner in the mid-1990s, Freeman became concerned about the loss of green space to development and the erosion of informal places to play. In a study that looked at how children in the British city of Leeds spent their summer holidays, compared with their parents' childhood experiences, she found the freedom to explore had been severely contracted—in some cases, down to the front yard. Freeman says she cannot remember being inside the house as a child, or being alone. Growing up was about being part of a group. Now a mother of four, Freeman believes the "domestication of play" is robbing kids of their sense of belonging within a society.[O]Nevertheless, Freeman says children's needs are starting to get more emphasis. In the Netherlands, child-friendly "home zones" have been created where priority is given to pedestrians, rather than cars. And ponds are being incorporated back into housing estates on the principle that children should learn to be safe around water, rather than be surrounded by a barren landscape. After all, as one of the smarter fish says in Finding Nemo, there's one problem with promising your kids that nothing will ever happen to them—because then nothing ever will.11. To protect children from traffic dangers, parents drive their children to school and other extracurricular activities.12. A study found that fearing an attack Outnumbers fearing being hit by a car among children.13. A social scientist indicates that nowadays children's play zones have shrunk sharply, resulting in their lack of flexibility and initiative which free-range kids had.14. According to a primary-school teacher and mother of four, parents nowadays have changed their confidence in the children's ability.15. A hockey coach points out that real learning takes place in on-the-street play.16. Parents' concern about the safety of children is greatly reinforced by cases of child kidnap and murder.17. Parents almost pay no attention to childhood freedom by today's standards.18. Equipped with bicycle helmets, car seats etc. children are taught that the world is dangerous and they can't cope with it.19. Children's needs get increasing concern and Netherlands has taken some measures accordingly.20. A planning expert thinks that lack of mutual trust results in the erosion of community responsibility.The Frontier HeritageThe Impact of the American Frontier[A]Although American civilization took over and replaced the frontier more than a century ago, the heritage of the frontier is still very much alive in the United States today. The idea of the frontier still stirs the emotions and imaginations of the American people. Americans continue to be fascinated by the frontier because it has been a particularly important force in shaping their national value.[B]The frontier experience began when the first colonists settled on the east coast of the continent in the 1600s. It ended in about 1890 when the last western lands were settled.[C]The American, frontier consisted of the relatively unsettled regions of the United States, usually found in the western part of the country. Here, both land and life were more rugged and primitive than in the more settled eastern part As one frontier area was settled, people began moving farther west into the next unsettled area. By settling one frontier area after another, Americans moved across an entire continent, 2,700 miles wide. How did this movement, which lasted more than two centuries, help to shape American values?[D]Americans have tended to see the frontier, its life, and its people as the purest examples of their basic values. This has been the impact of the frontier on the American mind. For example, the frontier provided many inspiring examples of hard work as forests were turned into towns, and towns into large cities. The race **petitive success was rarely more colorful or adventurous than on the western frontier. The rush for gold in California, for silver in Montana, and for fertile land in all the western territories provided endless stories of high adventure, When it was announced that almost two million acres of good land in Oklahoma would be opened for settlement in April 1889, thousands of settlers gathered on the border waiting for the exact time to be announced. When it was, they literally raced into the territory in wagons and on horseback to claim the best land they could find for themselves.[E]Individualism, self-reliance, and equality of opportunity have perhaps been the values most closely associated with the frontier heritage of America Throughout their history, Americans have tended to view the frontiersman as the model of the free individual. This is probably because there was less control over the individual on the frontier than anywhere else in the United States. There were few laws and few established social or political institutions to confine people living on the frontiers. In the United States, where freedom from outside social controls is so highly valued, the frontier has been idealized, and it still serves as a basis for a nostalgic(怀旧的)view of the purity of the early United States, which was lost when the country became urbanized and **plex. Self-Reliance and the Rugged Individualist[F]Closely associated with the frontier ideal of the free individual is the ideal of self-reliance. If the people living on the frontier were free of many of society's rules, they were also denied many of society's comforts and conveniences. They had to be self-reliant. They often constructed their own houses, hunted, tended their own gardens, and made their own clothing and householditems.[G]The self-reliant frontiersman has been idealized by Americans who have made him the model of the classic American hero with "rugged individualism". This hero is a man who has been made physically tough and rugged by the conditions of frontier life. He is skilled with guns and other weapons. He needs no help from others. He usually has no strong tie or obligations to women and children. He is kind and polite to them, but he prefers "to go his own way" and not be tied down by them. Standing alone, he can meet all the dangers which life on the frontier brings. He is strong enough to extend his protection beyond himself to others.[H]There are two types of this heroic rugged individualist drawn from two different stages of life on the frontier. In the early frontier, which existed before the Civil War of the 1860s, the main struggle was one of man against the wilderness. Daniel Boone is probably the best-known hero of this era. Boone explored the wilderness country of Kentucky in the 1760s and 1770s. On one trip he stayed in the wilderness for two years, successfully matching his strength and skills against the dangers of untamed nature and hostile Indians. In 1778 Boone was captured by Indians, who were so impressed with his physical strength and skills that they made him a member of their tribe. Later he succeeded in making a daring escape. Boone's heroic strength is seen primarily in his ability to master the harsh challenges of the wilderness. Although he had to fight against Indians from time to time, he is admired mainly as a survivor and conqueror of the wilderness, not as a fighter.[I]The second type of heroic rugged individualist is drawn from the last phase of the western frontier, which lasted from the 1860s until the 1890s. By this time the wilderness was largely conquered. The struggle now was no longer man against nature, but man against man. Cattlemen and cowboys fought against farmers, outlaws, Indians, and each other for control of the remaining western lands. The traditions of law and order were not yet well established, and physical violence was frequent. The frontier became known as "the Wild West".Equality of Opportunity[J]In addition to viewing the frontier as an expression of individual freedom and self-reliance in their purest forms, Americans have also seen the frontier as a pure expression of the ideal of equality of opportunity. On the western frontier there was more of a tendency for people to treat each other as social equals than in the more settled eastern regions of the country. On the frontier, the highest importance was placed on what a person could do in the present, and hardly any notice was taken of who his dead ancestors were. Frontiersmen were fond of saying, "what's above the ground is more important than what's beneath the ground."[K]Because so little attention was paid to a person's family background, the frontier offered the chance of a new beginning for many Americans who were seeking new opportunities to advance themselves. One English visitor to the United States in the early 1800s observed that if Americans experienced disappointment or failure in business, in politics, or even in love, they moved west to the frontier to make a new beginning. The frontier offered millions of Americans a source of hope for a fresh start in **petitive race for success and for a better life. On the frontier there was a continuing need for new farmers, new skilled laborers, new merchants, new lawyers, and new political leaders.[L]The differences in wealth between rich and poor on the frontier were generally smaller than those found in the more settled regions of the nation. People lived, dressed, and acted more alike on the frontier than in other parts of the United States. The feeling of equality was shared byhired helpers who refused to be called "servants" or to be treated as such. One European visitor observed: "The clumsy gait(步态)and bent body of our peasant is hardly ever seen here... Everyone walks erect and easy." Wealthy travelers to the frontier were warned not to show off their wealth or to act superior to others if they wished to be treated politely.[M]The American frontier may not be "the key" to American development, as Frederick Jackson Turner said, but it is certainly one major factor. The frontier provided the space and conditions which helped to strengthen the American ideals of individual freedom, self-reliance, and equality of opportunity. On the frontier, these ideals were enlarged and made workable. Frontier ideas and customs were continuously passed along to the more settled parts of the United States as newer frontier regions took the place of older ones during a westward march of settlers which lasted more than two centuries. In this way, many of the frontier values became national values.21. The Americans explored the last western lands in about 1890.22. The frontier was once called the Wild West for law and order were not set up then and there were frequent breakout of violence.23. Hired helpers' refusal to be called "servants" embodies their feeling of equality.24. The frontiersmen had to be self-reliant because their life was isolated and inconvenient.25. Rugged individualism is the typical characteristic of the idealized self-reliant frontiersman.26. The purity of the early America was lost with the urbanization of the country.27. Before the 1860s, the main challenge confronted with frontiersmen was the wilderness.28. Americans are inclined to regard the frontier, its life, and its people as examples of their basic values.29. In the last phase of the western frontier, people fought against each other in order to control the remaining western lands.30. During the westward march of settlers, frontier ideas were spread from the newer frontier regions to the more settled parts of the U.S.。

2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(31)

2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(31)

2019年12月英语四六级考试阅读专项练习题及答案(31)Passage 1What Will Space People Look Like?Once we are in space, the question arises—will we be the only ones? Will we find other intelligent beings plying (往返于) the space ways, and if so, what will they be like? We cannot predict everything, of course, but we do have a good idea of what space people might look like.Suppose that this evening a spaceship from somewhere outside the solar system landed unnoticed in your neighborhood. Suppose you saw three beings from that ship walk down the road in front of your house at dusk. Would you run screaming to the telephone to call the police? No, the chances are that you wouldn't even give them a second look.来源:考试大的美女编辑们We can be almost certain that our visitors from spacewill not have three eyes, webbed (有蹼的) feet, or television antennae growing out of their foreheads. Instead, scientists theorize, they will probably bear a strong resemblance to the man next door.The reason we can make this assumption is that science has shown that the shape of a living body is not accidental.There are rules of "biological construction" that help us picture presumed visitors before they actually step out of their spaceship.In applying the rules, we have to make just two assumptions. The first is that the bodies of spacemen consist of protoplasm (原生质) like ours. The second is that they are intelligent, which is an inescapable fact once we accept the idea that they are capable of building a spaceship.With those assumptions in mind, we can paint thisportrait of the man from Planet X. :He breathes air. Water breathers might develop some intelligence, but they could not smelt (熔炼) metals under water. This means that any development above the level of our own Stone Age is the accomplishment of air breathers.He eats both plants and meat. A strict plant-eater spends too much time stuffing himself with food to build the kind of civilization which is necessary to produce a spaceship. Animals which can digest meat only would not be likely to survive the occasional adverse periods which very likely occur on all planets and wipe out the less adaptable forms of life.He's probably not much larger than the largest human being. The limiting factor here is something called thespare-cube law. If you double the height of a, person without changing his proportions, you have a being with weight times the weight. This means that a person 12 feet tall, for example, must be clumsy and cannot perform precision work. And precision work will be essential, of course, in building the spaceship.He weighs at least 40 pounds, and probably more. A brain of a certain size and complexity would be required for thebuilding of a spaceship. The brain of our spacemen would weigh at least 2 pounds. And from our studies of animals on earth, we know that a body weighing at least 40 pounds is required to support a2-pound brain.He has a skull of some kind. The most valuable organ of an intelligent being is his brain, and his brain must be protected in some manner against injury.He has two eyes and ears. The "three-eyed man from space" is not a very likely creation. Two eyes are better than one for the purpose of judging distance and shape, but three would not be better than two. The same goes for ears. More eyes and ears would be useful as spares in case of accidents but earth organisms, at least, do not run to spares. We do not know the reason for this but it is logical to assume that life on other planets would not have developedalong different lines.The eyes and ears are near the brain. Information gathered by eyes and ears must reach the brain quickly in order to be useful. This transmission by the nerves is slow. Therefore the sense organs must be close to the brain to shorten the time lag between information and reaction.He has "hands" and "feet". We know that our spacemen will walk erect. In order to survive, any being must be able to move around. But in order to build he would need something resembling our hands. Somewhere along the line of his development he would have had to free one pair of legs toallow them to become hands. The only way to do this is tolearn to stand.Also, it is almost certain that once on his back legs he would develop bending fingers and a thumb. To produce a high state of development he would need to pick up things, to be able to grasp, hold, push and pull. Why not tentacles (触须) , such as on an octopus? Because tentacles can pull but cannotpush effectively.Now that we've drawn a rough portrait of the Man from Planet X, is thereanything we can guess about Planet X itself? 108Here again the answer is a familiar one; his planet is probably very much like ours. We would probably be able tolive on it.First of all, Planet X can't be much larger or muchsmaller than the earth. If it were much bigger, the gravity would be so crushingly great that life would never even get started. If it were too small, it would not have sufficient gravitational pull to hang on to its gases and there would be no "air" to breathe.The planet's atmosphere would be much like ours. Thereare only two chemical combinations that are complex enough to support life: the carbon-oxygen-hydrogen cycle we live on, and the chlorine-fluoride (氟化氯) , methane cycle. Thelatter is a highly explosive mixture and though it is conceivable that somewhere there could be a life-form living on it, it is not likely. This cycle is so complex that thechances are heavily in favor of oxygen-based life developing long before the chlorine-based form of got a chance.Planet X would have land and sea masses and a climate with drastic changes like ours. If the climate were static there would be no incentive for our visitor's race to build anything. Variable hot and cold, wet and dry seasons are needed to push him around. And, of course, there would have to be land for our spaceman to live on and water for him to drink.来源:考试大All this tells that our visitor is from outside our solar system, since none of our sun's planets, besides the earth,is capable of supporting intelligent life. It also tells us something else: our space visitor is a good bit more advanced than we are.Whether it is because his race is more intelligent, or just because Planet X is older than the earth and he has had more time to develop, we cannot tell. But the fact is that he has come from outer space. The nearest star system to us is Alpha Centauri, four light-years away. So our visitor has come a minimum of four light-years. Our science, just on the edge of interplanetary flight, couldn't even begin to tackle such an interstellar voyage. We would have a lot to learn from such a visitor.。

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇92

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇92

2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇92Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experiences? Strangely enough, the answer to both these questions is yes. To some extent our intelligence is given us at birth, and no amount of special education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child wholives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of a person's intelligence are fixed at birth, but whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.It is easy to show that intelligence is to some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus if we take two unrelated people atrandom(任意的) from the population,it is likely that their degrees of intelligence will be completely different. If on the other hand we take twoidentical (完全相同的) twins they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers andsisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.Imagine now that we take two identical twins and putthem in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where thework is boring. We would soon find differences inintelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth playsa part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all, are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.26. Which of these sentences best describes the writer's point in Paragraph 1?A. To some extent, intelligence is given at birth.B. Intelligence is developed by the environment.C. Some people are born clever and others born stupid.D. Intelligence is fixed at birth, but is developed by the environment.27. It is suggested in this passage that_______.A. unrelated people are not likely to have different intelligenceB. close relations usually have similar intelligenceC. the closer the blood relationship between people, the more different they are likely to be in intelligenceD. people who live in close contact with each other are not likely to have similar degrees of intelligence28. Brothers and sisters are likely to_______.A. have similar intelligenceB. have different intelligenceC. go to the same universityD. go to the same factory29. In Paragraph 1, the word "surroundings" means_______.A. intelligenceB. lifeC. environmentsD. housing30. The best title for this article would be_______.A. On IntelligenceB. What Intelligence MeansC. We Are Born with IntelligenceD. Environment Plays a Part in Developing Intelligence26. D 27. B 28. A 29. C 30. A。

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇37

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇37

2019大学英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇37Three Kinds of FatigueFatigue is one of the most common complaints brought to doctors, friends, and relatives. You'd think in this era of labor-saving devices and convenient transportation that few people would have reason to be so tired. But probably more people complain of fatigue today than in the days when haywas baled by hand and laundry scrubbed on a washboard.The causes of modern-day fatigue are diverse and only rarely related to excessive physical exertion. The relatively few people who do heavy labor all day long almost never complain about being tired, perhaps because they expect to be. Today, physicians report, tiredness is more likely a consequence of under-exertion than of wearing yourself down with over-activity. In fact, increased physical activity is often prescribed as a cure for lowering energy.Physical. This is the well-known result of overworking your muscles to the point where metabolic (新成代谢的) waste products—carbon dioxide and lactic acid (乳酸)—accumulatein our blood and reduce your strength. Your muscles can't continue to work efficiently in a bath of these chemicals. Physical fatigue is usually a pleasant tiredness, such asthat which you might experience after playing a hard set of tennis, chopping wood, or climbing a mountain. The cure is simple and fast: You rest, giving your body a chance to get rid of accumulated wastes and restore muscle fuel.Pathological (病理的). Here fatigue is a warning sign or consequence of some underlying physical disorder, perhaps thecommon cold or flu or something more serious like diabetes or cancer. Usually other symptoms besides fatigue are present that suggest the true cause.Even after an illness has passed, you're likely to feel dragged out for a week or more. Take your fatigue as a signal to go slow while your body has a chance to recover fully even if all you had was a cold. Pushing yourself to resume full activity too soon could lead to a relapse (旧病复发) and almost certainly will prolong our period of fatigue.Even though illness is not frequent cause of prolonged fatigue, it's very important that it not be overlooked. Therefore, anyone who feels drained of energy for weeks on end should have a thorough physical check-up. But even if nothing shows up as a result of the various medical tests, that doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with you.Psychological. Emotional problems and conflicts, especially depression and anxiety, are by far the most common causes of prolonged fatigue. Fatigue may represent a defence mechanism that prevents you from having to face the true cause of your depression, such as the fact that you hate your job. It is also your body's safety mechanism for expressing repressed emotional conflicts, such as feeling trapped in an ungrateful role or an unhappy marriage. When such feelings are not expressed openly, they often come out as physical symptoms, with fatigue as one of the most common manifestations. "Many people who are extremely fatigued don't even know they're depressed," Dr. Bulette says. "They're so busy distracting themselves or just worrying about beingtired that they don't recognize their depression. "There is a great deal you can do on your own to dealwith both severe prolonged fatigue and those periodic washed-out feelings. Vitamins and tranquilizers (镇静剂 ) are almost never the right answer, sleeping pills and alcohol are counterproductive, and caffeine is at best a temporarysolution that can backfire with abuse and cause life-disrupting symptoms of anxiety. Instead, you might try: DietIf you eat a small breakfast or none at all, you'relikely to experience mid-morning fatigue, the result of adrop in blood sugar, which your body and brain depend on for energy. For peak energy in the morning, be sure to eat aproper breakfast, low in sugar and fairly high in protein, which will provide a steady supply of blood sugar throughout the morning. Coffee and a doughnut are almost worse than nothing, providing a brief boost and then letting you downwith a thud. ExerciseContrary to what you may think, exercise enhances,rather than saps, energy. Regular conditioning exercises,such as jogging, cycling, or swimming, help you to resist fatigue by increasing your body's ability to handle more of a work load. You get tired less quickly because your capability is greater.Exercise also has a well-recognized tranquilizing effect, which helps you work in a more relaxed fashion and be less dragged down by the tensions of your day. At the end of a day exercise can relieve accumulated tensions, give you more energy in the evening, and help you sleep more restfully.SleepIf you know you're tired because you haven't beengetting enough sleep, the solution is simple: Get to bed earlier. There's no right amount of sleep for everyone, and generally sleep requirements decline with age. Find the amount that suits you best, and aim for it. Insomnia(失眠) and other sleep disorders should not be treated with sleeping pills, alcohol, or tranquilizers, which can actually make the problem worse. Know yourselfTry to schedule your most difficult jobs for the time of day when you're at your peak. Some are "morning people" who tire by mid-afternoon; others do their best work in the evening. Don't overextend yourself, trying to climb the ladder of success at a record pace or to meet everyone's demands or expectations. Decide what you want to do and what you can handle comfortably, and learn to say no to additional requests. Recognize your energy cycles and plan accordingly. Many women have a low point premenstrually, during which time extra sleep may be needed and demanding activities are particularly exhausting. , Take breaks。

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2019年英语六级考试冲刺练习:阅读篇31
Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways. The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society. There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance in mixed societies. All these factors tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision. In a society where people are quite similar in many ways, there are fewer occasions for people to see the need or the opportunity for change because everything seems to be the same. And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and undisputed.
Within a society, social changes is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; in the less basic and less emotional aspects of society than in their opposites; in the simple elements rather than in the complex ones; in form rather than in substance; and in elements that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange elements.
Furthermore, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale rather than one with sharp difference. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black
Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white counterparts.
21.
The passage is mainly discussing .
A. the necessity of social change
B. certain factors that determine the ease with which social changes occur
C. two different societies
22.
D. certain factors that promote social change
One of the factors that tend to promote social change
is .
A. joint interest
B. different points of view
C. less emotional people
D. advanced technology
23.
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true? A. Social change tends to meet with more difficulty in basic and emotional aspects of society.
B. Disagreement with and argument about conditions tend to slow down social change.
C. Social change is more likely to occur in the material aspect of society.
D. Social change is less likely to occur in what people learned when they were young.
24. The expression "greater tolerance "(Para. 1) refers to_______.
A. greater willingness to accept social change
B. quicker adaptation to changing circumstances
C. more respect for different beliefs and behavior
D. greater readiness to agree to different opinions and ideas
25. Social change is less likely to occur in a society where people are quite similar in many ways because_______. v
A. people there have got so accustomed to their conditions that they seldom think it necessary to change
B. people there have identical needs that can be satisfied without much difficulty
C. people there are easy to please
D. people there are less disputed
21. B 22. B 23. B 24. C 25. A。

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